76 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



foundation that will not sink, for the joints must be properly cemented 

 to prevent smoke escaping ; and if they are allowed to sink with a loose 

 sinking border, the cement will crack and the smoke escape. Pillars 

 of a single brick on bed, at each joint of the pipes, will prove suflScient 

 support. Of course, if your border is to be wholly outside, you may 

 save yourself this trouble. 



The fireplace should be at one end, seeing that another person occu- 

 pies the ground at the back of the house ; otherwise the back would 

 have been the best place for it. Never mind ; just build your fireplace 

 12 or IS inches below the level of the flue, and the same as you 

 would a fireplace for a boiler. You may put it pretty well under 

 the house, for economy's sake, and cover it over with a fire-brick 

 cover, and lead your flue along within 2 feet of the front wall, and 

 right out through the wall at the other end ; and then lead it up, by 

 means of a metal or other pipe, a foot or two higher than your house, 

 and your heating apparatus is complete. 



And now we will return to the border when you have laid down the 

 drainage with a turf upside-down over it. The next thing to do is to 

 fill in the soil ; but of course the soil must be prepared beforehand. 

 The best soil you can possibly get is turf from an old pasture ; and if 

 you dared, or could get liberty, to take a few cartloads from off the 

 park just over the wall, you would be all right. I daresay you cannot. 

 But you need not put on a rueful face ; for we only said that such was 

 the best kind of soil. But you have a good heap of soil which you 

 wheeled from off the site of the house, and that will do very well for 

 mixing along with the best you can get. The turfy material which is 

 to be had along the sides of the turnpike roads will do capitally : we 

 have seen it used with good results before now. As much of this as 

 you have soil in your heap, when mixed with it, will make enough 

 of soil to fill up 4 feet of your border ; and that will be a good be- 

 ginning for this year. Then you have a fine heap of horse-droppings, 

 which your boys collected off the roads, — and for manure nothing bet- 

 ter could be desired. You should also get some bones — a couple of 

 barrow-loads, if possible — to furnish phosphates to the plants ; for the 

 bunches of Grapes need phosphates. Further, some gritty matter, such 

 as burnt rubbish, or lime -rubbish, or broken stones, is necessary to 

 keep the whole mass open, so that the roots may run freely, and the 

 water may not stagnate in it. 



Having got these materials together, they will need some mixing 

 before putting into the border. The turfy stuff must be chopped up 

 into pieces, but not too finely. Having done so, put a layer of it 

 down 6 inches thick ; then a layer of the gritty material ; then an inch 

 of the manure and a sprinkling of bones ; then a layer of common 

 soil, gritty matter, manure and bones, as before, and over all a sprink- 

 ling of hot lime. Repeat this until all your material is worked up. 

 If any urine is to be had, a good soaking should be given to the heap, 



