HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 207 



tion of other things such as string beans, cauliflowers, melons, 

 tomatoes, etc. Tomatoes, I believe, would be a profitable thing to 

 grow in wintertime. They may, if properly handled, be had ripe 

 during the whole winter. For such purposes I would advise 

 propagating by cuttings; a method which I believe would also be 

 profitable for early field culture, as such plants will set fruit when 

 only a few inches high. 1 have had plants in 6 inch pots only 18 

 inches high with half a dozen nice fruit on. 



It might be a little early yet to start, on an extensive scale, grow- 

 ing such things; but the time will surely come when a ready sale 

 will be found. Also for forcing strawberries, greenhouses will be 

 useful for the market gardener. It may be claimed that strawber- 

 ries are imported so early from the Southern States that it would 

 not pay to force them here; but I am sure we will soon have the 

 time here, when people will be found willing to pay even ten times 

 more for good home grown berries, than for the imported tasteless 

 stuff. 



The cold frames are also useful for many purposes, as wintering 

 over half-hardy plants, such as carnations, violets, pansies, etc., 

 and for vegetable plants during spring. 



A frame planted with early strawberries and covered with sashes 

 in March, will, with little trouble give ripe fruit at least two weeks 

 earlier than field grown plants. 



After the two foregoing papers were read, there was considerable 

 discussion as to the relative merits of the different methods of 

 greenhouse heating. Prof. Green was then called upon to sum up 

 the matter, and spoke substantially as follows: 



GREENHOUSE HEATING. 



By Samuel B. Green, of St. Anthony Park 



Eor some years now, the advocates of steam heating and the ad- 

 vocates of hot water heating have been fighting each other like 

 cats and dogs. 



There is much need of careful experimenting in order to settle 

 the comparative merits of the two systems. 



As yet I know of only one exact experiment, having in view the 

 settlement of this much mooted question. That was carried on 

 last winter in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the following way: Two 

 houses each fifty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and as nearly 

 alike as could be made, were built running north and south, on 

 the west side of a hill. One house was piped for steam, and the 

 other was piped for hot water heating, each heating plant being 

 put in after the most approved manner. The boilers were alike in 

 both houses. The records of temperatures in the houses, and of 

 coal consumed by each boiler, during January and February, were 

 carefully kept, and at the end of the period it was found that the 

 house heated by steam averaged two degrees colder than the house 

 heated by water, and it had burned out 500 pounds more of coal in 

 two months. This, together with other experience, confirms me 



