REV. W. KINGSLEY — ON EOEDEE-HEATTNG. 



143 



I first began the system of bottom heat by plunging stawberry- 

 plants in an open hotbed and planting them out after giving them 

 a rest in the autumn ; and the result induced me to try the plan 

 on a larger scale with very various kinds of fruit. One very use- 

 ful application of the hot border is for grafting young trees : the 

 stocks potted early in the autumn and treated like the other trees 

 during the autumn and winter and early spring are quite vigorous 

 enough then for grafting, and they push strongly and get no 

 checks, and so there is no trouble in keeping back the scions till 

 the stocks are ready. 



Last year I put a row of potatoes just over one of the hot-water 

 pipes, at the same time that the ordinary crop was planted. Some 

 time afterwards my man (who is not learned in gardening though 

 thoroughly trustworthy and interested in his work) came to me 

 and said, " The taties on the hot pipes are not thriving like those 

 in the grund." I asked him what made him think so ; and then it 

 came out that he was judging by the tops. However, in a few days 

 more the ground over those in heat swelled and broke up like 

 mole-hills, and we had in the beginning of June the best potatoes 

 I have had at any time since I came here six years ago. 



I am now making preparations for giving bottom heat with 

 glass over head, and I shall be very glad to work out any 

 systematic experiments on the use of heat without glass, glass 

 without heat, and heat and glass united ; but I am sure that unless 

 our experiments are based upon some principle to begin with, 

 they will never be of value for making correct inductions : and so 

 I shall be glad to give some time to experiments of a scientific 

 kind in order to obtain results that, as an individual, I should 

 never live long enough to see, but which by the united efforts of 

 many may be arrived at in a very few seasons. So please do not 

 think that in the account I am giving you, I suppose my system 

 to be anything more than an experiment, or that I should consider 

 it otherwise than a hasty induction to declare from it that the 

 principles which for the sake of clearness I have stated, are in any- 

 wise proved to be correct. 



South Kilvington, 

 Thirsk. 



