86 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



For the purpose of vegetable forcing, the pipes are laid all 

 above ground, as shown at E and B page ^-i^. If wanted for 

 starting seedlings, and for general propagating purposes, how- 

 ever, the pipe had better be placed from lo to 12 inches under the 

 surface, encased in an ordinary 3-inch drain tile, as shown at D, 

 or perhaps still better in the manner employed in Mr. Bingham's 

 house, and shown on this page. Mr. Baker tells me that he has 

 been most successful in growing lettuce, radishes and such vege- 

 tables by tunning the pipes above the benches, fastened to the 

 outside posts, and in the centre the same way, thus heating the 

 air and letting it warm up the soil in Nature's own way, rather 

 than drive out the moisture by bottom heat, which he thinks is 

 the chief cause of " damping off" and of mildew, 



Mr. Bingham's Method of Heating. — The house here 

 shown is constructed exactly like the one shown and described 

 on page 83, but 124 feet in length. The paths or alleys A A are 



Mr. Bingham's Method of Heating. 



somewhat narrower so that the outside benches are 5 feet 

 8 inches in width. The boiler is second-handed, with upright 

 flues and 19-inch grate, rated four-horse power. The direct heat 

 from the furnace is perfectly utilized by means of an under 

 ground terra-cotta flue C, 10 inch diameter, which runs from the 

 boiler room to the smoke stack B at the north end. The steam 

 pipes are placed from 18 inches to 6 inches under the centre 

 of each bench, as shown \x\D D D D, resting on a concrete and 

 covered with a 5-inch horse-shoe tile. The concrete is made 

 of one part Portland cement and 5 parts gravel, laid two feet 

 wide and two inches in thickness. Two lines of i- or i)^-inch 

 pipe under each bench would be an improvement, but the heat 

 radiation is good, and the surface of the benches warmed pretty 

 uniformly, certainly much more so than by Mr. Baker's plan of 

 simply encasing the 2-inch pipe with a 3-inch tile. With the 

 hot-water system the distance of underground pipes from the 

 surface should be more uniform, but a double line of pipes in 

 this case is still more desirable. 



