590 [Dec. 
THE HOT-HOUSE. 
The frost generally sets in very severe in this month, and the 
winds are keen and cutting; therefore it will be necessary to keep 
up your fire heat in proportion to the severity of the weather, which 
must be regulated by a thermometer; never letting the air of the 
house be colder than 52 degrees of Fahrenheit, nor warmer, at this 
season, by fire heat, than 62 or thereabouts; for it is very injudicious 
to force the plants now into a fresh state of vegetation; all that they 
want at present is to be kept comfortably warm and rather in an inac- 
tive state; consequently as the heat of the day in sunny weather in- 
creases, you must slacken your fires or put them totally out, as the 
case may be, always renewing them in the afternoon or whenever 
you find the due warmth on the decline. 
It will be generally necessary to attend the fh'es till eleven or 
twelve o'clock at night, when, if wanted, a sufficiency of fuel must be 
added to support a proper degree of heat till morning; and in ex- 
tremely severe weather it may sometimes be necessary to sit up all 
night to guard against untoward consequences: at all events you 
must be up very early in the morning to renew the fires. 
If the Hot-House is furnished with shutters or covering of any 
kind, as noticed in page 98, they will now be of considerable use, 
both for the preservation of the plants and the saving of fuel. It 
will, however, be very proper to hang thick mats every severe night 
in front of the upright sashes, which will prevent the wind from 
rushing in immediately on the plants, through any deficiencies that 
may be in the work. 
If the bark-bed was properly made or renewed in October, or iri 
the beginning of November, it will yet be in a proper state of warmth, 
which is now essentially necessary; if however, towards the end of 
the month it is found to be much declined in heat, it should be fork- 
ed up, to revive it, as directed in January, but more particularly so, 
if it contains pines for fruiting next season; which must be now 
kept rather in a slow state of vegetation, than dormant. 
Succession pines, or other plants in pits or in the succession-house, 
require the same care as above; observing not to force them by too 
much heat, lest the pines start to a fruiting state at an untimely 
period. They are never fit to produce handsome sized fruit until 
they are two years old, at which age they, in October, should be 
placed in the fruiting-house, for the ensuing years bearing. 
The pines and other plants in the Hot-house, Sec. will still re- 
quire to be watered occasionally; the former not oftener than 
once a week, the shrubby kinds in small pots perhaps twice a week, 
but the succulent sorts should, at this season, have but very little, 
and that only when you are able to perceive that they are in absolute 
want of it; and then let it be given round the edges of the pots, 
and not to the plants themselves, for if it should stagnate about 
the stems it would infallibly rot them. The varieties of Cactus 
