CHAPTER XIV. 



FORCING HOUSES OR PITS. 



SIMPLE, SENSIBLE STRUCTURES, SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED. 



COST, CONSTRUCTION, ETC. 



" What you do, do with your might.'' 



'OW that I have told the reader in one of the 

 preceding chapters how to construct and manage 

 hot-beds, I go a step further, and advise him not 

 to build them. When any one wants hot-beds for 

 use in commercial plant and vegetable growing, 

 let him build the more convenient, more econom- 

 ically managed, and more controllable hot-houses 

 or rather forcing pits, which in reality are some- 

 what intermediate between hot-bed and hot-house, and now in 

 use by some of our leading market gardeners. Of elaborate, 

 fancy, and therefore expensive structures, I shall not speak. 

 Cheapness in construction of his buildings and in'their operation 

 must always be a leading consideration with the average market 

 gardener, but he can combine quite a large element of conven- 

 ience and comfort with it. If he values convenience sufficiently 

 to forego for its sake slight advantages of economy, the cold 

 house, which I have previously described as " a model of cheap- 

 ness and convenience," can easily be arranged for a forcing 

 house as already suggested. When run as a regular hot-house, 

 for forcing lettuce, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc., 

 during the winter, more heat and consequently more piping or 

 greater boiler capacity will be required than if used merely as 

 related for the cold house, but for the purposes of propagating 

 and plant growing, it will certainly be preferable to have the 

 whole system of heating pipes underground, in order to warm 

 the soil somewhat in the congenial fashion of the manure hot- 

 bed. In growing plants for sale, we consider the root the chief 

 part, and for root development bottom heat is essential. With 

 lettuce and spinach, and all the other forcing crops except rad- 

 ishes, the grower wants top, and is not in the least concerned 

 about the root, and in that case he will prefer to let the heat 

 come upon his plants from above, in the natural way. It is a 

 general principle that bottom heat favors root growth, heat from 

 above top growth, and we must make our arrangements in accor- 

 dance with the intended use of the forcing house, . 



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