THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
245 
is favourable, to maintain the atmosphere in a thoroughly 
sweet condition. 
A Forcing Pit adapted for a small garden may he con- 
structed and kept at work with but little outlay considering 
the returns it should make, for in the summer and autumn a 
few nice pines might be grown in it, and by potting a few 
suckers from time to time, they would be kept for succession 
without in any way interrupting the winter work in forcing 
French beans, asparagus, potatoes, &c. The subjoined figures 
represent a pit that has for some years been usefully em- 
ployed in this way : — 
The wood plates that 
rest upon the walls, as 
also the rafters, are “ red 
wood deal,” three inches 
by four inches, with a 
spline upon them to sepa- 
rate the lights exactly as 
in ordinary pits and frames 
where the lights slide up 
and down. The lights used 
are also the ordinary kind, 
only having handles with 
which to slide them up and 
down with, fixed at the lower instead of the upper end. 
These lights are about seven feet long ; the rest of the roof 
is covered with a fixed light, under which the moveable 
lights slide freely for the purpose of giving air, or of car- 
rying on necessary operations in the front part of the pit. 
The pit is sunk below the ground line, the better to admit of 
its being covered up on cold nights — a matter of consider- 
able importance, as by so doing, we not only save a con- 
siderable amount of fuel, but also, by arresting evaporation 
and radiation from the glass, preserve a suitable degree of 
moisture in the atmosphere. 
For heating so small a house, a very small boiler would be 
sufficient, unless other pits or houses are attached to it, or 
a, stokery, five feet deep ; b, back path, two feet wide ; c, chimney, 
but if the flue could be carried into some other it would be better ; n, 
bed of soil for plants to be planted in, six feet wide ; e, chamber in 
which two-inch flow and return pipes are fixed for bottom-heat ; r, flow, 
which is also two-inch pipe as far as s, where the stop valve is fixed ; a, 
1 o JCCl 
SECTION OF FORCING PIT* 
