14 A MANUAL OF 



season, the importance of having this supply 

 of warm water at hand will readily be appre- 

 ciated. This furnace is covered or enclosed by 

 a small building, which should be shut off by 

 a partition from the plant-beds beyond, as but 

 little heat is developed in the furnace-room. 

 If the steam from the heating water can be 

 conducted into the beds, its presence will be 

 desirable, as the fire heat has a tendency to dry 

 out the beds rapidly, and this tendency is over- 

 come by the moisture from the condensing 

 steam. It is well, also, to keep a small dish of 

 water standing on the heat -pipe, the arising 

 vapors from which serve the same purpose. 



In sections where coal cannot be obtained 

 cheaply enough to enable the gardener to 

 make use of a ton for this purpose, hard wood 

 may, of course, be substituted, with the single 

 disadvantage of the additional time and care 

 thus entailed upon attending the fire. 



One great advantage, of which we have not 

 yet spoken, that the fire-bed has over a ma- 

 nure-bed, is the ease with which the tempera- 

 ture may be regulated to conform to the ever- 

 changing external temperature. 



When a sudden cold snap, with its howling 

 north winds, comes down upon the manager 



