THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. [Nov. 4, 
covered with wood, on which the Pine-bed lies. B is & 
smoke-flue, passing along the front from the fire-place at 
one end of the pit and discharging itself at the other end 
into an upright chimney. The shaded line right and left 
of the section shows the ground line ; so that a large part 
of this pit is sunk in the ground. The otherparts of the 
plan, which is drawn to a scale, speak for themselves. 
772 
heat for the growth of tropical and many other tender 
plants, artificial means have been resorted to in order to 
a make up this deficiency. With the more early gardeners, 
the production of a sufficient heat in forcing seemed their 
Alpha and Omega, for they were then unacquainted with 
vegetable physiology, and the conditions requisite for the 
q proper development of plants: hence the heat and smoke 
1 of an ordinary fire, conducted through” thin walled brick 
flues around the interior of the building, gave the heat 
i required. This source of heat, however, has been found 
both unstable and impure: the plants in a house thus 
heated are liable to be scorched at one time and chilled at 
i another, and subjected at all times to the influence of 
| pernicious vapours, which escape from the flue at the join- 
i ings of its brickwork. The most obvious means to 
steady moderate bettom-heat is required, there can be 
little dispute about the utility and docility (if I may use 
the phrase) of the tank system.—J. ZL, Newhurst. 
(To be continued.) 
PLAN OF A PINE-PIT ERECTED AT HEWELL, 
FOR THE HON. R. H. CLIVE, M.P. 
By permission of Mr. Clive we are enabled to publish 
the following plan of a Pine-Pit, whose bottom-heat is 
supplied by hot water, and the air-heat by a common flue, 
as it has been constructed by Mr. J. Jones, of Birmingham. 
When we saw it, a month ago, the plants were in the best ? 
possible health ; and Mr. Markham informed us that it ] 
worked so well, that he hoped it would soon be lengthened. A 
Its length is 40ft. Gin., its width inside 12ft. 9in., its 
height in front above the ground lft. Gin., and at the back 
remedy the defects of the ordinary flue was to increase 
the thickness of its walls, and this practice has been 
adopted and given to the public by several of your corre- 
spondents. The body of material heated being consider- 
able, a house so warmed is not liable to the sudden altera- 
tions of temperature of one with the common thin flue ; 
neither can hurtful vapours escape readily into the interior. 
i myself have tried this plan to a small extent and find it 
much superior to the old flue; and in small houses of a 
cheap construction I believe it is the cheapest and best 
which can be adopted. One of your correspondents, if I 
recollect right, recommended a nine-inch flue surrounded 
with two feet of brickwork to run through the house. I 
would prefer and have used a flue of larger’calibre, arched 
over the surface or upper side: this should run through 
the house longitudinally, and get gradually larger as it 
recedes from the fire: in this way a pure and equable 
supply of heat may be obtained at little cost and trouble. 
As this is a method of heating suitable for amateurs, who 
however fond of plants, require to husband their means 
well in following out their fancy, you will pardon me in 
being a little more particular, even although I should to 
some extent anticipate my fourth general head in pointing 
out the method of ventilation. In building the house, 
small openings like pigeon-holes should be left along the 
back wall, about the level of the ground, and two feet 
asunder; from each of these openings, on the inside, a 
canal, formed of two bricks on edge for the sides, with 
bricks on flat for soles and covers, should lead across the 
house, under the flue, to its farther side: the bottom of 
these canals (which will be about four inches and a half 
Square on the inside) are not to be on a “dead level, 
but to rise inwards, so that by the time they reach the 
middle of the bottom of the flue their base may be rather 
higher than their tops are on the outside of the wall. Along 
the bottom of the flue, (ere it is built, of course,) build 
another canal of like size with the cross ones, on the same 
Jevel, and uniting with them at right angles: Tie heating 
flue having been now built, and the outlets of the cross 
canals carried up a few inches on its front side, you 
possess an apparatus for ventilation which will supply 
your house at all times with pure and warm air. The 
reason of the cross canals being made to rise a little in 
their course, is to insure the escape of the warm air of the 
longitudinal one under the flue, into the interior of the 
house, instead of finding its way outwards into the ex- 
ternal air. The port-holes may be allowed to remain open 
at all times, for more cold air cannot enter them than is 
permitted to escape through the roof and other openings 
of the house; when a stronger ventilation is required, 
pull down the sashes more or less, as you wish this to be. 
If you wish a good draft, the flue should rise a little in 
its course above the level next the fire. To obtain mois- 
ture a ledge of brick can be attached to the upper surface 
of the fiue to confine a few inches of sand, by wetting 
which, moisture is given off to the air of the house. For 
an amateur with limited means, a house suitable for the 
growth of almost any sort of plant may thus be cheaply 
obtained; and it is on their account I have furnished these 
remarks. Water and steam are the two means, however, 
now getting into general use for heating Horticultural and 
other buildings. For large establishments we believe 
steam to be the preferable material, as one furnace and 
boiler will supply the whole. The temperature too of any 
building is perfectly under command, for with a few extra 
metal pipes or boxes, communicating with the steam-pipe 
by stop-cocks, a greater or less extent of heating surface 
can at any time be obtained, and the heat thus modified 
according to inclination or the rigour of the weather, 
Water-tanks for bottom-heat can also be readily put in 
operation by steam ; and any state of dryness or moisture 
kept up in the atmosphere by suffering more or less of it 
to escape through properly-distributed minute openings, 
But while steam is quite suitable for extensive establish- 
ments, andin the neighbourhood of machinery where a 
steam-engine is at work, heated water is a more manage- 
5ft. 5in. A is an air-pipe, whose orifice is at the ground 
level, and which passes underground into a hot chamber, 
which it entersat D. A plug at 4 being removed, cold- 
air rushes down into the chamber, passes through a 
pigeon-holed wall at F, rises through a cavity to FE, 
whence, loaded with vapour, it is admitted into the house 
when occasion requires. C C are two zinc open troughs, 
12x din., filled with water, communicating with a saddle- 
backed boiler, and passing along the house in a chamber 
WHEAT ON THE SAME LAND, YEAR AFTER 
YEAR. 
Tur accompanying letter from the Manchester 
Guardian appears to me to be of sufficient importance to 
deserve a place in your columns, I could wish to stimulate 
other parties to experiment in the same way, and doubt 
not if the plan is followed up perseveringly in various 
soils and by different persons very important results will 
be obtained. 
“I was led into these experiments by reading Licbig’s book on 
the Chemistry of Agricultare ; for, assuming his theory to be 
true, it appeared to me to be quite possible to grow Wheat on the 
same land, year after year; as, according to that theory, the 
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen which constitute the great bulk of 
all cereal crops (both grain and straw), are supplied in abund- 
ance from the soil and atmosphere (or perhaps, to speak more 
correctly, from the latter), and we have only to supply those in- 
organic substances, which, however numerous, form but a small 
part of the whole weight of the crop. With the view of testing 
this theory, and hoping that I might be able to find out what 
were the elements which built up and cemented the carbon, 
oxygen, and hydrogen together; or, in other words, which con- 
stituted fertility, I began in the autumn of 1841, to experiment on 
field in preference to any other, as the only one in which I could 
test the truth cf the theory ; it was very foul, being full of Couch- 
ass and weeds of all kinds ; it was ploughed up and hastily 
picked over, for the season was so unfavourable for cleaning the 
land (from the great quantity of rain tlat fell), that I was almos' 
induced to abandon the experiment. Previously to sowing the 
seed, one-fourth of the field was manured wit! compost of 
Cc) 
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night-soil and coal-ashes, at the rate of 40 tons to the customary 
same weight of nitrate of soda over another fourth, leaving: one- 
fourth entirely without manure. The Wheat manured with the 
uano and nitrate of soda e ears, more 
particularly in the part manured with guano, were the finest I 
had ever seen, but when it ¢: i i i i: 
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be the best in the ni 
caused it to 
prevent them, they continued feeding upon it until it was re 
ty hat 
suffered most. There were patches of seyeral square yal 
where there did not appear to bea single grain left; and wherev@! 
the birds took a grain from the middle of the ear, when in fe 
milky state, the grains on each side of it appeared 
more, but shrivelled up in the ear. Ihave little doubt that tt 
this portion of the field one-third of the crop was destroyed. i 
this seems to reduce the experiment to little more than gues 
work; and it will probably be very difficult to persuade tho® 
who did not see the field when it was cut, to credit this report ee 
the devastation made by the birds, even when they are told tha! 
Clitheroe is a town of 7,000 inhabitants, and probably as man 
sparrows, and that apparently they were all assembled to feed 12 
this field; and they became so accustomed to the good living 
they found there, that even when our neighbour’s Wheat was 
to eat, they continued to favour this field with their visits in i 
ference to going elsewhere. 
one-third; No. 
later than the othe: 
yards manured Wl f 
1,042 Ibs, of Wheat, or 273 bushels, 
atute acre ; this, 
From 2 
e acre. Frot 6: 1 
Manured with No. 3, there were 1,067 Ibs. of Wheat, and 21% 
stone 7lbs. of straw, or 33 bushels to the statute acre; to whichy.1 
we add one-fourth, according to the estimate of damage, it Veal 
be eqnal to 413 bushels per acre. will be observed that. oe 
portion yielded a far greater weight of straw per acre than eithe! 
the others, and, from the sort of manure applied, it was €%- 
pected that this would be the case, 
No. 1 yielded straw at the rate of 297% stone per acre. 
No, 2 do. do. 2462 do, do. 
No.3 do. do. 39) do. do. 
Many people may feel inclined to say, all these apparent data are 
mere guesses, and that a crop may be made into anything one 
| able medium, ar uch r d for i . iti 
7 and much more employec meee likes, if they assume so much for damage; but, fortunately, it i8 
cating heat. For this purpose it is made to circulate 
i either through close pipes of cast-iron, or open and 
covered gutters and tanks. The principle on which this 
circulation depends is the different densities of warm and 
have stated previously that I covered & 
Guano .. on 
Nitrate of soda 
Unmannred part ditto. . 
I give these details to show that the land was in an exhausted 
with guano were not kept separate from those which were 
state previously to the commencement of the experiment I am 
without ; but the third, being later, and therefore not so mu! 
n el 5 , yd e 
with these two principles can at any time plan and modify | now about to detail. After the crop of 1842 was reaped, the land gaged pe Gas, Gea eer ore et of ascerinn hd 
siete Site of: il-tem- | 2S immcdiately ploughed up, and the season being very favour- Tan casured off a land which had been so manurets™ (9 
=e ihe apparatus at his will. Asa suitable soil-tem able it was tolerably well cleaned, and the seed was sown (with- reaped and threshed it out separately. From this land of a | 
© Js as necessary for the luxuriant growth of |-out any manure) about the first weck in October, After yards long and 10 fect wide (3,000 square feet) tate fl 
pany plants as a suitably warm atmosphere, tanks of | Wheat came up it was manured with a dusting of lewt.of guano | Obtained 20 Ibs. of Wheat, or 53 bushels of 60 Ibs. per Stield. 
over the entire field (about one acre three roods), to keep the | ®¢re; and this was far from being the best portion of the 
soya OE Was re ing i f 
in Ws rs. getting into general use for the purpose of 
ms commanding the requisite heat to sojl or sind placed 
ae EN ke ance the plants ale rooted or the 
= ~ e el 
brethren se dente gardeners and many of the 
mean that the soilis by no means so good the! 
parts of the field ; but, as I have before stated, in the best par! 
the field the crop was spoiled by being lodged by the rain, brs 
subsequently attacked by rust. is the duty of everyone 1 
promote the advancement of agriculture; and this is my cons 
bution towards it. I have not yet done, for I have sown 
same field with Wheat again, and hope, with a favourable seas” 
to reap a still more abundant crop next year.—T. @. ’ 
You will observe that no notice is taken of De Candolle’s 
material for r 
ottom-heate jal for the purpose of 
and, i i to Ne 
adva ie as I will attempt to prone cots With | of each division 
x = mpt to prove und 2 cwt. 
ical Constitution, iP Beer Ue, a cha tosthe 
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