172 



THE GARDENER. 



[April 



A PLANT-PIT. 



Sir, — In the erection of pits, the conservation of heat by the means of 

 "mother earth" is very often underestimated, if not ignored altogether. 

 I think there is nothing that we can do with more advantage to our 

 plants than endeavour to have them rather under ground than above it. 

 The further a house or pit is raised above ground, the more it catches 

 the bitter blast in winter. The roof we must have exposed ; but why 

 have the walls also exposed, when they can be built for less money, and 

 heated at less cost afterwards, by having nothing exposed to the ele- 

 ments but the glass roof ? And not only is it of advantage in heating 

 in winter, but it is of great advantage in the maintenance of more genial 

 moist atmosphere in hot dry weather in summer, as every one can 

 testify who has had experience of such pits, or given the thing serious 

 consideration. For a range of useful pits, I would suggest something 

 like what is represented in the accompanying section. Supposing a a to 



be the ground-line, mark off and level the soil where the outside walls 

 are to be, and run it hard so that there is no chance of its sinking. On 

 this build your outside walls, placing at intervals of 6 or 8 feet under 

 the wall a right-angle elbow 3-inch sanitary pipe, socket-end up, as 

 shown at b b. By placing three bricks on edge round its end, and 

 breaking off the end of the brick just above this pipe, a connection with 

 the inside of the pit is secured. Another pipe, placed in the socket at 

 h, will rise above the eaves of the pit ; and to prevent wet entering, a tin 

 or zinc cover can be supported 3 inches above the pipe by three pieces 

 of stout wire, to fit inside the sockets. These will form ventilators 

 which may in most cases be left open, except in severe weather ; but 

 when desirable to have them at command, a small shutter to each inside 

 can easily be applied. When the mortar is sufficiently set, the spaces 

 between the walls d d and also e e may be filled up with the soil ex- 



