1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



869 



vent the wind from blowing it down. Cloth 

 frames answer excellently until we have 

 heavy snows. I never want any thing to do 

 with cloth frames when we have snow 

 even half a foot deep. They may answer in 

 October and November, and perhaps in 

 March and April ; but here we are liable to 

 have snows that make trouble, both in No- 

 vember and March.* 



Now, I have given the above as much 

 with the idea of possibly receiving some 

 hint or suggestion from some of my readers 

 as with the hope that it may prove helpful 

 to those who have been studying along in 

 the same line with myself. I would suggest 

 an easy method of having fiowers and veg- 

 etables, that might need fall protection, and 

 yet have the apparatus at all times present 

 a neat and tidy appearance. 



V 



Let A represent a plant-bed ; but instead 

 of having it 6 feet wide, let us have it only 

 3. The dotted line represents the height of 

 the soil. The sides may be made of boards 

 held in place by sticks. These boards must 

 be 18 inches if the bed is 3 feet wide. B B 

 are cloth frames hinged at C. The hinge 

 may be of leather, or even the edge of the 

 cloth tacked to the board forming the side 

 of the bed. Now, when it is frosty the 

 frames B B are turned over so as to cover 

 the bed, resting on a stake just above the 

 letter A. When they want sunshine or 

 rain, raise them up and let them drop down 

 by the sides of the bed shown at D. The 

 wind can not hurt them in this position ; 

 and if the bed is not very long, you can 

 open or close the frames by standing at the 

 head of the bed and taking one in each hand. 

 Glass, may be manipulated in the same way, 

 only that it would be pretty heavy, requir- 

 ing a man at each end, say for a bed 15 or 20 

 feet long. Another objection to this ar- 

 rangement is, that the soil, being 12 or 15 

 inches above the surface of the ground, 

 would freeze through quicker than if the path 

 were not so far below it. Peter Henderson 

 once said to me that he had got tired of hot- 

 beds or cold-frames where one could not 

 come inside to regulate the temperature, 

 and I think a good deal the same way. I 

 want to be inside, not only to see what is 



* There is one way by which cloth frames may be 

 made to answer all winter. Have shutters to put 

 over them when more than half a foot of snow 

 comes or is expected to come. The air space be- 

 tween the cloth and the shutters is an additional 

 help to keep out the frost. When the snow has 

 ceased falling-, and the sun comes out, or if the tem- 

 perature is mild, even if the sun does not come out, 

 throw up the shutters. This makes additional 

 work, but it will give very good results for a cold- 

 frame. It is not, however, as good as glass, and is 

 considerably more trouble. 



going on, but I like to be where it is warm 

 and comfortable ; and if it is too hot or too 

 cold, turn the aforesaid crank one way or 

 the other. 



I spoke of killing the green flies by a 

 drenching rain. I have tested watering 

 with a fine spray, such as the Nixon nozzle 

 gives, and this seems to answer a good pur- 

 pose. Very likely the dews of night have 

 considerable to do with keeping down the 

 aphide family. Now, if there is no dew in 

 our greenhouses or cold-frames, we are not 

 following nature. Another point comes in 

 here : If we water the plants so profusely as 

 a shower of several hours, there must be some 

 provision not only for rapid drainage, but to 

 have the soil dry out as it does in the open 

 air we must have a movement of the air. 

 Stirring the soil, together with a circulation 

 of warm air, will dry out the ground as it 

 dries outdoors. Now, when the weather is 

 too cold to allow us to open the ventilators 

 for many days, do not our plants suffer from 

 a lack of air? And this suggests the thought 

 that has often come to me — why not warm 

 greenhouses as we often do dwellings and 

 public buildings, by blowing through them 

 a current of warm air? One of our factories 

 is warmed and ventilated in this manner, 

 and it is the most satisfactory warming we 

 have ever had. A very gentle blast of air — 

 perhaps just enough so that the warm air is 

 slowly pushing out through all the crevices, 

 will accomplish the result ; and as this would 

 prevent cold air from pushing in at the 

 crevices, may it not be as cheap a method 

 of heating as any ? I have never succeeded 

 in getting any satisfactory growth of plants 

 unless very profuse watering was followed 

 by the gradual drying-out of the soil until 

 another profuse watering could be admin- 

 istered with safety. Watering, without giv- 

 ing the soil time to dry out, produces damp- 

 ness and mold, which very soon destroys 

 most plants. The great troubles that have 

 come from the rotting of lettuce in green- 

 houses seems to me can be accounted for by 

 a want of dry air to dry out the soil, as well 

 as for want' of sunshine. Running steam- 

 pipes underneath the beds is a pretty good 

 way of accomplishing the result. But steam- 

 pipes will never dry any thing unless a cir- 

 culation of air is also assured. We once 

 built a dry-house, and were surprised to find 

 the lumber would not dry, no matter how 

 hot we made it. When we sent a stream of 

 air over the steam-pipes to warm it, and 

 then passed it through the lumber and out 

 into the open air as fast as it became loaded 

 with moisture, then our lumber dried out 

 promptly. Do we not need something of 

 the sort in our greenhouses, especially dur- 

 ing the winter months when we have many 

 cloudy days and little sunshine? 



Since Peter Henderson's arrangement 

 above alluded to comes the nearest to filling 

 the bill of any thing we have as yet found, 

 I have thought best to submit it oti the next 

 page, with an explanation in Peter Hender- 

 son's own words : 



LOW GREENHOUSES, OR PITS. 



There is nothing new in the plan; it is almost 

 identical with what we and others have had in use 

 for the past thirty years, except it be that, instead 

 of lifting the sashes individually for ventilation 



