120 ANNUAL REPORT 



warming the upper air, we ruu our main heating pipe the whole length 

 of the house, hung to the ridge pole, then back in smaller pipes, 

 either hung to the wall or under the benches. 



Those of 3^ou who have read Peter Henderson's plan of building 

 these houses with straw roofs, with no space between, if you will 

 take my advice will not follow his example. 



We have four houses running north and south, from 10 to 12 feet 

 wide, with a space of 3 feet between the walls, and one 20-foot wide 

 house, with 6-foot space. 



After a snow storiu we scrape the snow off the roofs into the alleys; 

 in the narrow alleys we remove the snow and ice by hand; the 6-foot 

 alleys we clean out with a horse and scraper. 



The cost of such buildings is about 15 per running foot for the 10- 

 foot houses, and $8 per foot for the 20foot wide house, the capacity 

 of the wide house being just double the narrow ones. 



MANAGEMENT. 



On the benches we place about six inches of soil well manured, 

 finely raked and marked off in rows with a stick, through which we 

 drive nails at the required distance apart, so that the lettuce plants 

 will stand six inches apart from each other; in four or five weeks the 

 crop will be ready for market; the ground is then dug over and two 

 quarts of Minnesota Fertilizer Company blood and bones raked in on 

 two hundred and forty square feet ef ground, and another crop plant- 

 ed. Under the benches the ground can be used for growing rhubarb 

 and beets and turnips for greens. 



The growing of cucumbers in early spring will require a warmer 

 "ouse than for growing lettuce, and the vines should be hung to the 

 rafters eight or ten inches from the glass, and will require to be kept 

 fertilized by hand. 



The modes of heating, viz: by brick flue, hot water, or steam, each 

 have their advocates. A neighbor of mine, Mr. C. A. Smith, exten- 

 sively engagf d in floriculture, has tried all, and is firmly convinced 

 that steam is the most economical. 



Peter Henderson has tried all, and says he would not tear out hot 

 water apparatus, but in all new buildings puts in steam. My opinion 

 is that a combination of the two will prove best, using steam for 

 winter, and for spring and fall, hot water. 



The fuel needed for heating our six houses ran about two tons per 

 week of coal during December, and as high as three tons per week 

 during the late cold spell, or say an average of two and one-half tons 



