HOT-BEDS CHAP. 



creating, to let the dung from the stable be flung rather 

 widely about ; and not into heaps, in which it woulc" 

 heat, and exhaust itself before-hand. 



56. As to the making of green-houses, I shall think 

 of nothing more than a place to preserve tender plants 

 from the. frost in the winter, and to have hardy flowers 

 during a season of the year when there are no flowers 

 abroad. It is necessary, in order to make a green-house 

 an agreeable thing, that it should be very near to the 

 dwelling-house. It is intended for the pleasure, for the 

 rational amusement and occupation of persons who 

 would otherwise be employed in things irrational j if not 

 in things mischievous. To have it at a distance from the 

 house would be to render it nearly useless ; for, to take 

 a pretty long tramp in the dirt or wet, or snow, to get 

 at a sight of the plants, would be, nine times out of ten, 

 not performed ; and the pain would, in most instances, 

 exceed the pleasure. A green-house should, therefore, 

 be erected against the dwelling-house. The south side of 

 the house would be the best for the green-house j but 

 any aspect, to the south of due east and due west may do 

 tolerably well j and a door into it, and a window, or win- 

 dows looking into it, from any room of the house, in 

 which people frequently sit, makes the thing extremely 

 beautiful and agreeable. It must be glass on the top, at 

 the end most distant from the house, and in the front from 

 about three feet high. There should be an outer door 

 for the ingress and egress of the gardener, and a little 

 flue running round for the purpose of obtaining heat suf- 

 ficient for the keeping of a heat to between forty and fifty 

 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Stages, shelves, 



