2 THE FORCING GARDEN. 
only dangerous, but in some instances fatal. Why so? 
some will ask. The answer is, because if at any time a 
leakage as small even as a pin’s head should occur either 
in the pipes or the stove, enough gas will escape to 
destroy every plant in the house. Gas stoves for plant 
houses are therefore very objectionable. 
For economy, I know of no better system for amateurs 
and for plant work generally, than what is called the 
air-drain plan. The next best method is by means of 
hot-water pipes. The former is not adapted to fruit- 
forcing on a large scale, nor even for plant growing 
beyond forty feet in length ; but for a house thirty feet 
long I believe it to be the most economical plan of all. 
However, for fruit forcing there is nothing so good as hot- 
water pipes; and to be really successful in forcing at all, 
whether with flowers or fruits, the grand point is to 
adapt the house to the subject, and not to make the 
subject subservient to the house: this is where so many 
persons fail. 
It frequently happens that a man who has more 
money than experience in either fruit or plant growing 
(especially forcing), puts up a house or two for a certain 
purpose, say grape growing or the cultivation of the 
peach, which are no more adapted for such a purpose than 
a cow is likely tocateha hare. I always consider that the 
adaptation of the house to the object in view is almost, 
or I might say quite, an essential thing to ensure success. 
Common hot-house builders are generally the architects 
of these structures, men who know nothing whatever 
about eyen ordinary plant growing, much less about 
forcing of any kind: this is why we see such perverse 
kinds of glass structures with which a good gardener is 
often disgusted. I have scen whole sets of houses of 
