106 MARKET GARDENING. 



upon the surface near the glass, at a convenient distance 

 for working, and all within an .arms length. 



The mechanical work, except boiler-setting and 

 pipe-fitting, may all be completed in the sash factory, 

 and* readily set up or taken down by any farmer. The 

 beds are five feet six inches wide. The entire structure 

 map be taken apart in summer and stored away. In the 

 autumn the sills may be laid, the roof-frame erected, 

 the sash put on, and the house used for plants till early 

 spring, when the beds may be set full with cauliflowers, 

 tomato or egg plant, and six weeks earlier than would 

 be safe outside, and after all danger of frost is past, the 

 sash, caps and rafters may be removed, and the crops 

 cultivated and matured far in advance of any in the 

 garden. 



Mr. Bingham has now two houses 26x250 feet which 

 he erected in the middle of January over ground frozen 

 seven inches deep, in which he set many thousands of 

 plants as fast as the ground was thawed. These he has 

 carried through severe weather, ranging down to zero, 

 with less than one-half in cost of coal used in other 

 houses of the same surface. From the 1st to the 9th 

 and from the 13th to the 15th of February, when the 

 thermometer ranged down as low as 20 Fahrenheit at 

 sunrise, he had no fire in the furnace, the warmth in 

 the ground, with the sunlight, being sufficient to keep 

 the plants growing and in healthy condition. Such a 

 house is more simple to work than more expensive struc- 

 tures, and costs 30 per cent, less to build and requires 

 but 50 per cent, of the" heating power. 



Farmers who have ordinary hotled sashes may use 

 them, on the frame of such a house, but, as a rule, such 

 sashes are made of glass far too small, the many bars and 

 joints arresting too much sunlight. The best modern 

 sashes are made with glass not less than 12x16 inches. 

 The sash bars should be narrow, the glass not put in 



