66 MANAGEMENT OF THE FORCING-HOUSE. 
to carry the plants too cool through the night, for the body 
of warm earth is a powerful factor in regulating and con- 
serving the night temperature of the house. While it is 
generally not advisable to thoroughly water the soil from 
a hose in the middle of the day, it is, nevertheless, very 
essential that the most profuse waterings be given on 
sunny days. This is because, as already stated, the sun 
soon warms up the house, and also because the house and 
foliage soon dry off. Houses which have a continually 
damp air breed soft plants and fungous diseases. The 
plants should go into the night dry—never wet. It is 
always best to withhold water on dull days, unless the 
plants are actually suffering for it. Perhaps these remarks 
cannot be better summed up than by saying that glass 
houses should be watered on a rising temperature, not 
on a falling temperature. 
The next most important secondary effect of watering, 
as already indicated, is the modification of the physical 
texture of the soil. The application of water tends to run 
the soil particles together, thus solidifying or compacting 
the earth. In the instance of clay soils, this cementing 
action of the water may proceed so far that the surface of 
the bed may become actually hard and almost non-absor- 
bent of water. When soils arrive at this condition, they 
are incapable of producing good plants, no matter how 
much plant food they may contain. There is greater dan- 
ger of compacting the soil when watering from a hose 
than froma pot. A good forcing-house soil remains open 
and porous to the last. The water quickly settles away 
into it and leaves the surface friable and open. When 
the surface remains wet and sticky, good plants are grown 
only with much difficulty. The physical condition of the 
surface soil may also be greatly improved by fre- 
quent tillage, for stirring the soil (an inch or so deep) as 
often as it becomes hard is quite as necessary in the 
forcing-house as out of doors. 
The entire body of soil should be wetted when water 
