17 



adapted to plants: there can be no doubt but that the 

 heat thus obtained is infinitely preferable to that obtained 

 through the medium of flues, generally speaking ; but its 

 superiority consists rather in its purity, its freeness from 

 noxious gasses, than in its possessing a greater degree of 

 moisture. Heat that is caloric, is the same, whatever 

 may be the medium by which it may be conducted ; and 

 in the case of hot water pipes, they give off that which 

 has been conducted to them by the water, directly from 

 the fire, the water acting as a mere conductor ; it is diffi- 

 cult to conceive any thing more thoroughly devoid of 

 moisture than the heat thus communicated : let any one 

 who doubts this, place a damp cloth on a series of hot 

 water pipes when in action, and the result will soon work 

 conviction. With these general remarks, I will proceed 

 to describe the kind of structure which I regard as being 

 peculiarly adapted to the growth of Cucumbers; and no- 

 tice some of the conditions which it is necessary to keep 

 in view : the engraving on the next page, represents 

 such a structure. 



The aspect of the Cucumber house, should be nearly 

 S. S. E ; or in other words it should be so regulated 

 between the points south and east, that whilst the rays 

 of the sun will be admitted as fully and as early as possi- 

 ble in the morning, there may be no obstruction offered 

 to their more powerful action as that body approaches 

 the meridian. In the growth of all tender plants, light 

 and sun heat are required during the winter months as 

 well as in summer, and there can be no greater error as 

 regards the erection of structures devoted to such pur- 

 poses, than to provide for their admitting the direct rays 

 of the sun in the earlier part of the day, at the expense of 

 refracting and thereby weakening, to a greater degree than 

 is really unavoidable, the power of the noon-tide rays of 

 that invigorating and life-sustaining agent: during the 

 summer months, though plants then require both light 



