t 



298 CULINARY GARDENING. BOOK I. 



vacuity; f the earth and the plants; g the inner roofing rolled 

 up; h the damper; i the furnace-hole; k the cover of the same; 

 l the surface of the ground, &c. The advantages that would 

 result from this pit, not only in producing earlier and better 

 crops than those in general use, but also in saving much time, 

 labour, and annual expence, bestowed on forcing-houses and 

 hotbeds of all kinds, while they demand the attention of such 

 gentlemen as indulge in these luxuries, are also of importance 

 to the agriculturist. By substituting them for hotbeds (and 

 one of them, a hundred feet long, would surpass a dozen of 

 these) the disorderly appearance of dung and litter in a garden 

 would be avoided, and much stable manure saved, which could 

 be applied more advantageously to the reproduction of vege- 

 tables, by permitting it only to undergo the proper degree of 

 fermentation; for I may here observe, that after dung has been 

 nearly a twelvemonth in a hotbed, as every chemist knows and 

 many farmers have experienced, it loses a great proportion of 

 its nutritive qualities. But besides this advantage, there is 

 another of no small importance, and that is the formation of 

 composts with peat or other matters, as I have formerly men- 

 tioned under Agriculture. Though the plan given in Plate XL 

 fig. 1. and 2. be chiefly recommended for forcing common ve- 

 getables, and growing young pines, cucumbers, &c. yet by 

 t avoiding the erection of any thing except the smoke and air 

 lues, and by placing a trellis about eighteen inches under the 



