Heating Horticultural Buildings. 



99 



aged for fourteen months, and my experience with them 

 fully convinces me, that, as a system of heating, we can 



Fig. 5. Section of a Pine and Melon Pit. 

 a Hot water pipes running' through the tank. 

 b Cast iron standard for supporting the cover to the chamber, 

 c Cast iron bearers. 

 d Stone or slate covers, 

 e Earth for plunging the plants. 

 f Pipe for admitting warm air into the pit. 

 g Pipe for admitting cold air into the chamber. 



Shelves are put up on the back wall for small plants. 

 Scale 1-10 of an inch to the foot. 



wish for little in the way of improvement, either as regards 

 the nature of the heat afforded, or the simplicity and effi- 

 ciency of the apparatus. To describe the superiority of 

 this system over either that of the flue, with its many mod- 

 ifications, or that of hot water, circulating in pipes with its 

 less numerous improvements, would, however, be a hopeless 

 undertaking. The common statement of advertisers, in this 

 country, that " it must be seen and experienced to be fully 

 appreciated," is to nothing more applicable than to the tank 

 system. The progress of the most tender exotic in these 

 structures is truly astonishing, and I would be doing the in- 

 ventors injustice were I to stop here. I have found that, 

 whilst in houses heated upon a very superior plan of hot wa- 

 ter circulating in pipes, the plants have required the greatest 

 care to keep them free from insects, and to keep up a suffi- 

 ciently moist atmosphere, so as to have them in a vigorous 

 and healthy state ; the same species in the house heated 

 upon the tank system required little or no care. The labor 

 of syringing was entirely unnecessary, and that of watering 



