10 HOT-HOUSEFUEL. [JANUARY. 



Attention to the following observations will obviate 

 every difficulty. About this season of the year, frost 

 generally sets in very severe in the middle states. Sup- 

 pose the day may have all the clemency of spring, the 

 night may be directly the reverse. Every precaution 

 is necessary to guard against extremes. According to 

 what w#s. said last month, it is understood that the 

 /shutters -are 'put on every night at sundown, and in 

 rsevet^; feather,, they must be put on as soon as the sun 

 'goes off tHe glass. If the shutters are omitted till late 

 in severe frost, it will so reduce the heat of the house, 

 that you cannot overcome it by fire until near mid- 

 night; and when done, the fire or fires have been made 

 more powerful than they ought to be, proving uncon- 

 genial to the plants that are near the flues. The air, 

 as above directed, having -been taken off the house at 

 one o'clock, as soon as the mercury begins to fall in 

 the thermometer, kindle the fire, and supposing it is 

 anthracite coal, in twenty minutes, with a good draw- 

 ing furnace, the heat will operate in the house. If a 

 coal fire, kindled about four o'clock, it will require an 

 addition about six, and then may be made up again 

 about nine or ten, which will suffice until morning. 

 The quantity must be regulated by the weather. If 

 the fuel is wood, it must be attended to three or four 

 times during the evening ; and when the mornings are 

 intensely cold, one fire in the morning is requisite. 

 When there are bad drawing furnaces the fires must 

 be made much earlier, perhaps by two or three o'clock, 

 which will be easily observed by the time the fire takes 

 effect upon the air of the house. The temperature 

 ought never to be under 55 of Fahrenheit. 



