FORCING-PITS OR GREENHOUSES. 63 



CHAPTER IX. 

 FORCING-PITS OR GREENHOUSES. 



In another chapter it will be found that we now rec- 

 ommend using wider greenhouses with fixed roofs for 

 growing vegetables, but as many have loose sashes that 

 they may wish to utilize in constructing greenhouses, we 

 will still retain the description given in the earlier edi- 

 tions of this work. 



Forcing-pits and greenhouses of the style about to be 

 described, whenever the greater expense in their erection 

 is not a consideration, are, in our experience, far supe- 

 rior, and in the course of five or six years more economi- 

 cal for all purposes of forcing or forwarding vegetables 

 than the hot-bed or cold frame. Figure 6 represents 

 the end section and ground plan of the style we have in 

 use, and which may be adapted to any plant that requires 

 artificial heat and protection of glass. The pits repre- 

 sented by this plan are 100 feet in length, and each 

 eleven feet wide inside. The heating is accomplished by 

 one of Hitching's patent boilers, (7, heating about 1,200 

 feet of four-inch pipe. The glass roof, E, is formed of 

 portable sashes, six by three feet. Each alternate sash is 

 screwed down, the others being movable, so as to give 

 adundaiice of air. The movable sash is elevated, to ad- 

 mit air, by a flat iron bar fifteen inches Jong, attached to 

 the sash by a staple. Into this bar is punched three 

 holes, so as to regulate the admission of the air as re- 

 quired. When the sash is shut down the bar is hooked 

 on to a pin which secures it in place, so that the sash can- 

 not be moved by wind. I am thus particular in describ- 

 ing what may seem a simple matter, but this system of 

 airing is not common, and we made some stupid blunders 

 before we hit on our present plan, which is cheap, simple 



