88 — How to Make the Garden Pay. 



Drainage for Boiler Pit. — Sunken houses, like Baker's 

 and Bingham's, are out of the question where an outlet lor 

 drainage water cannot be secured at least six or eight feet below 

 the ground surface. The boiler pit has to be dug deep enough 

 for the top of boiler to be below the point where the flow pipe 

 enters the greenhouse. On porous subsoil nothing need be 

 feared, but if the soil does not allow the speedy absorption of 

 surface water, either some sort of artificial drainage, below 

 bottom of furnace or boiler pit, has to be provided, or the house 

 must be elevated, and the walks put on top or above the ground 

 rather than sunk into it. 



Beginner's Greenhouse. — The little greenhouse here illus- 

 trated in perspective was intended solely for amateur purposes, 

 and in this respect I consider it nearly perfect. But I find it 

 fully large enough for a modest start in market gardening, and if 

 a somewhat larger house should be preferred, a few feet might 

 easily be added to its length, at little additional cost. It stands 



Small Double-Span Greenhouse. 



on the ground level, with furnace pit dug about four feet deep 

 and good chances of drainage just below this. The building is 

 heated by means of one of Hitchings & Co.'s base-burning 

 water heaters (No. 22), and four lines of two-inch gas pipe, 

 requiring a moderate amount of coal, and but little attention. 

 The whole building, heating apparatus and all, was put up at a cost 

 of about ;^250, and a little of my own work and supervision. 

 Each span is ten feet wide and sixteen feet long. The wood- 

 work, posts and boards excepted, consists of southern cypress, 

 and was purchased, ready for putting together, from one of the 

 firms advertising such lumber in the columns of horticultural 

 journals. The structure is attached to permanent posts reaching 

 below the frost line. The sides are double-board walls, with 

 sawdust packing. The three thicknesses of board, two thick- 

 nesses of building paper, and a four-inch layer of dry sawdust 

 allow very little waste of heat. The walls are as high as the 

 benches, and the side posts extend eighteen inches above the 



