m.] 



AND GREEN-HOUSES. 



37 



the beds can be complete : the heat which is absolutely necessary 

 to bring cucumbers to perfection would totally destroy radish 

 plants, or, at least, prevent them from ever producing a radish fit 

 to be eaten ; but, as to the manner of making beds, it is the same 

 in all cases ; and of that manner I think I have here given direc- 

 tions sufficient for any person, even though he had never seen a 

 hot-be. I in his life. I will just add that the quantity of mate- 

 rials may be augmented by using a great plenty of straw as litter, 

 instead of being sparing of straw ; and that, if you have the 

 making of hot-beds in your eye, it is good, during the fall and the 

 early part of the winter, while the materials are creating, to let 

 the duns: from the stable be flunor rather w idely about : and not 

 into heaps, in which it woidd heat, and exhaust itself beforehand. 



55. 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 

 w inter, 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 ; 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, ex- 

 ceed 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 : but any aspect to the south of 

 due east and due west may do tolerably well ; and a door into it, 

 and a window, or windows 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 pur- 

 pose of obtaining heat sufficient for keeping a heat to between 

 forty and fift}' degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer. Stages, 

 shelves, and other things necessary for arranging the plants upon, 

 would be erected according to the taste of the owner, and the 

 purposes in view. Besides the plants usually kept in green-house?, 



