FORCING PIT. 



183 



FORCING PIT. 



brick, and therefore immovable and not 

 portable from place to place, like the 

 garden frame, and in being capable of 

 heating by artificial means, as well as by 

 the warmth produced by fermenting dung. 

 In its simplest form, it is constructed by 

 digging a pit in the ground about 6 feet in 

 width and 12 feet long, and then lining the 

 pit with containing walls of 4^-inch brick ; 

 the depth of the pit should not be less than 

 3 feet below the ground level, and it may 

 be more than this with advantage. The 



in which the lights may be moved up and 

 down. 



An ordinary forcing pit thus constructed 

 is managed in precisely the same way as a 

 garden frame and hotbed. The dung must 

 first be turned over and sweetened, and 

 when in a proper condition be thrown into 

 the pit and well trodden or beaten down to 

 consolidate it. The rank steam must then 

 be allowed to escape, and when this has 

 been done the mould may be thrown over 

 I the dung and the lights put on. There is 



FORCING PIT WITH LININGS. 



walls must be brought up to about 2 feet in 

 front and 3 feet behind above the ground 

 level, the sides being gradually sloped from 

 the back wall to the front wall. Upon 

 the wall a kerb of wood is laid, consisting 

 of a timber framework with bars from front 

 to back, in accordance with the number 

 of lights used that is to say, one bar 

 for two lights, two bars for three lights, 

 c. The frames and bars are rebated, 

 or slips are nailed on the upper surface 

 of the frame and bars so as to form rebates 



no means of lining a pit of this description 

 or of increasing the temperature when it is 

 beginning to decline, unless by piling fresh 

 manure and litter round the walls above 

 the ground lev*", which would be attended 

 with a certain degree of inconvenience ; 

 and any steam which may arise from the 

 dung after the lights are on must naturally 

 find its way into the plant chamber within 

 the frame, between the mould and the 

 glass. The portability of the garden frame 

 is useful, and affords a strong argument in 



