IV.] CONSTRUCTION VENTILATION, TEMPERATURE \ 



some of the blooms, and even their peculiar aroma, comes 

 to me like a whiff of spring. 



It is a mistake (to which architects are peculiarly 

 liable) to build your house with a high roof; you should 

 have barely room to stand in it with your hat (a low 

 crowned one) on. Every additional inch makes against 

 the well-being of the plants. Then there should be good 

 ventilation, both overhead and below, if possible at opposite 

 points of the compass, so that some of the ventilators may 

 be open whichever way the wind blows. A tiled floor, or 

 one made of wooden laths, will permit of watering and 

 syringing being carried on without mess, and there should 

 be a water tank inside, if possible, so that the temperature 

 of the water may be not much lower than that of the 

 house, for there is nothing that so effectually checks root 

 growth as the application of icy cold water. 



Under ordinary conditions, the matter of greatest 

 importance is the stove. I have known a very simple 

 device to answer the purpose, but by far the best, and in 

 the end the most economical, is a high-pressure boiler, 

 which supplies hot -water pipes. A judicious mixture 

 of cinders (or coke broken small) and a little breeze (coke 

 slack) mixed with some slack from the coal cellar will 

 keep the boiler fire alive for weeks at a stretch, the great 

 point being to aim at keeping the night temperature to 

 50, and the day not more than 10 higher. 



Unless one can have a satisfactory stove, I can see 

 little benefit in giving oneself the trouble of keeping 

 half-hardy plants at all. What is the advantage of 



