12 



The use of the common frame, and the ordinary hotbed 

 of fermenting manure, nevertheless involves these diffi- 

 culties : the fermentation is liable to become excessive, 

 and that in a very rapid manner, and also to decline as 

 rapidly ; the heat, when declining, cannot be speedily 

 restored in unpropitious weather ; it is materially checked 

 in its action, by that particular state of the weather, 

 which renders its efficient action most essential ; it in- 

 volves almost an infinitude of labour ; and after all, it is 

 uncertain in its action : when such difficulties as these, 

 are overcome, Cucumbers can be grown to perfection, on 

 dung beds, assisted by the common garden frame and 

 sash. 



The brick pit, when heated by fermenting manure, 

 presents difficulties of the same nature with the preceed- 

 ing, though in a less powerful degree : but when these 

 structures are heated by means of hot water, in any of its 

 various modes of application, there need be no irregu- 

 larity, nor uncertainty in its action ; because the supply 

 of the elements of vegetable developement, and of the 

 agents by whose aid they are applied, may, to a very 

 great extent, go on uninterruptedly. 



A forcing house, whilst it secures all the advantages 

 which are presented by a pit, combines with these, some 

 important points which are peculiarly its own : by adopt- 

 ing a pit, we provide a structure of which Cucumbers 

 manifest their approval, by thriving equally as well as in 

 their more ancient location on a dung bed ; but further 

 than this, a pit enables us to dispense with much of the 

 labour, and all the filth, and the uncertainty which are 

 consequent on the use of fermenting manure as a means 

 of keeping up the temperature in which they are grown. 

 In a small forcing house, besides these advantages being 

 secured, all the operations of care and culture, can be 

 performed just when they become necessary, without 

 exposing the tender foliage of plants which have been sub- 



