THE OLD AND THE NEW. 39 



rich by adding great quantities of manure and ashes, the 

 seedlings will grow all right. 



For the future, I shall prefer to grow my plants in the 

 greenhouse, either in flats or in bench beds. Here Feb- 

 ruary is often our coldest month, and hot-bed making at 

 that time not always an easy or pleasant task. In the green- 

 house we can start our plants just at the proper time, no 

 matter how the weather may be. Manure heat, also, is not 

 always reliable, and the grower goes much safer when he 

 trusts in one of Hitchings & Co.'s boilers, and a system of 

 hot-water pipes. 



I believe that most home gardeners could afford to run 

 a simple, cheap, small greenhouse, for the conveniences in 

 table delicacies, in flowers, in plants for spring setting, etc., 

 which it can be made to furnish during the season when 

 out-door gardening is out of the question. Certainly, the 

 '* onion grower for profit " should have a house of this kind, 

 and really I cannot see how he can well afford to get along 

 without it. Its possession practically insures success from 

 the start, while the onion-plant crop in it may be preceded 

 by a crop of forced vegetables, or flowering plants, etc., 

 and followed by a crop of tomato, pepper, ^gg, and other 

 plants. In fact, such a house need not be idle many months 

 of the year. 



In Figs. 8 and 9 the reader will find plans of two simple 

 and cheap greenhouses suited to this purpose. The single 

 span may be 18 feet wide, or the double-span house 20 feet 

 wide. To give bench space sufficient for raising the first- 

 class plants required to plant an acre of ground, make the 

 narrower house 25 feet, and the wider one 22 feet long. 

 This will be about right. Either house, including boiler, 

 heating-pipes, and all other fixings, should not cost much 

 over ^300. Their demands for coal and attendance will be 



