76 How to Make the Garden Pay. 



not only saves fuel, but also gives the operator better control of 

 the heat, since there is but very little of it stored up in the cir- 

 culation ; but nearly everybody admits that hot water is prefer- 

 able for small houses, especially on account of safety, the pipes 

 distributing heat just as long as the water in the boiler is hot, 

 whether actually boiling or not. From the standpoint of the 

 average market gardener, who has but a few thousand square 

 feet under glass at most, I have no objection to the heat stored 

 up in circulation by the hot-water system, especially since any 

 objection can be partly if not wholly met by the insertion of a 

 single stop-cock into the pipes at any place. This gives the 

 operator power over the circulation. When the temperature "in 

 the house is getting up higher than it is desired, the circulation 

 can at once be interrupted by turning the stop- cock, and the 

 whole pipe system will cool off, although not as fast as in steam 

 heating, yet fast enough for the purpose. The advocates of 

 steam always talk as if the whole heat supply of the boiler had 

 to be exhausted before the pipes could be cooled off, while the 

 use of the simple expedient spoken of really leaves the differ- 

 ence between the heat stored up in the circulation of the one and 

 that in the other system very inconsiderable. 



My own preference is for hot water; but the use of a large 

 boiler with low pressure will render steam heating also perfectly 

 safe and probably satisfactory ; only be sure to have the boiler 

 low enough, the chimney high enough, and the pipes at such 

 gradual inclination from the boiler upwards, that the condensed 

 water will freely return to the boiler and not accumulate in any 

 part of the pipes. If the latter is the case, the trouble makes 

 itself known by what is generally termed "hammering," which is 

 a sound repeated at regular intervals somewhat like that made by 

 striking a hard article against the pipe. The use of steam 

 also involves a smaller outlay than that of hot water, since one- 

 inch pipes will do, and are often preferred for the one system, 

 while two-inch pipes are usually considered the smallest suitable 

 for the other. 



The boilers used for steam heating are generally bought 

 second-hand, of four or five-horse power, such as have faithfully 

 served for high pressure, and are condemned for that purpose. 

 Hot-water and steam furnaces and boilers of any desired size, 

 from the simple self-feeding, base-burning water heater, to that 

 for heating buildings covering many thousands of square feet, 

 may be bought at reasonable figures from manufacturing firms 

 who make a specialty of them, as Hitchings & Co., of New 

 York City, and others. 



MR. BAKER'S METHOD OF HEATING. Mr. Baker's forcing 

 pit is constructed on the plan given on page 74, 26 feet wide by 



