158 
The Garden Magazine, November, 1920 
rows according to their parentage, display their hereditary 
features to a marked degree, in form of growth — open and 
graceful or compact and stocky, and in seasonal coloring, as 
well as in size, flavor, and color of fruit. 
GROWING ON A NON-ACID SOIL 
The necessary directions for preparing the Blueberry bed are 
not complicated. The safest method, if the soil is heavy, is to 
dig a trench four feet wide by one foot deep, lay tile to insure 
perfect drainage, and fill in with one third sand to two thirds 
peat. Use no fertilizer at any time, but keep a heavy mulch of 
hard-wood leaves, such as oak, always around the plants. If the 
soil is naturally light and well-drained, two or three inches of 
partly decayed leaves dug into the ground will probably supply 
the required acidity and be sufficient preparation. Moisture 
should be maintained, by sub-irrigation or overhead. 
For hardiness, ornamental quality, and deliciousness of fruit 
the improved Blueberry is unsurpassed, and by virtue of its 
merits should interest every zealous pomiculturist and lover of 
the beautiful. 
AMERICA'S OLDEST GREENHOUSE 
E. I. FARRINGTON 
Built Nearly a Century and a Half Ago on an Estate Surveyed by George Washington, It Stands To-day 
Still Giving Its Product of Flowers So Much Enjoyed in the Older Time by America’s First President 
F THERE is an older greenhouse an\-where in America 
than the one on the Lyman estate in Waltham, Mass., 
Wtf there is no record of it. Not only is this unique struc- 
ture the most ancient greenhouse known on this con- 
tinent, but what is more, it was so well built that it is in use 
to-day, practically no change having been made in its appear- 
ance or equipment. It was constructed a hundred and thirty 
years ago, and at that time a brick flue extending three quarters 
of the length was put in to supply the necessary heat. No other 
heating apparatus has ever been installed, and this same flue 
does duty now each winter. The only difference is that whereas 
THE HEATING SYSTEM 
Built for wood, but now used for coal, 
this old flue with its chimney at the 
opposite end of the house is still in 
operation after a hundred years. The 
outside “damper” was necessary to 
check the wood fire 
the original fuel was wood, coal has now been substituted. So 
well does this crude heating system do its work that no difficulty 
is experienced in keeping the temperature up to sixty degrees 
throughout the winter. 
Young gardeners who visit this house find the heating system 
its most curious feature, and marvel at the amount of labor 
required by gardeners of Colonial days. It must have been 
necessary to prepare a big pile of wood to keep a continuous fire 
from fall until spring, and as a wood fire burns out rapidly, some- 
one must have practically lived with this flue, because the house 
was built for growing Roses, and the temperature in a rose-house 
needs to be under thorough control. The fire box is in front of 
the door at one end of the house, and the flue extends down the 
middle of the building about two feet above the floor level, to a 
chimney at the opposite end. This chimney has a damper on 
the outside, a damper which apparently had to be used con- 
stantly when wood was burned. The length of the flue is about 
thirty feet, and it is about a foot 
in diameter. Coal gives just as 
good results as wood, and only 
about three hods full are burned 
in twenty-four hours, even in 
cold weather. 
The house itself is forty feet 
long, by ten feet wide, and has 
high raised benches. It is of the 
shed roof type, and at the top 
are solid board ventilators to be 
raised or lowered according to 
the temperature requirements. 
Although the house was built 
for Roses, these flowers have not 
been growing in it for many years. 
During the summer the benches 
are used fo grow crops of Melons 
and Tomatoes, while in the winter 
they are kept stocked with a miscel- 
laneous lot of plants, making the 
house a sort of feeder for the other 
and more modern greenhouses. 
T HIS ancient greenhouse was 
built by Mr. Theodore Lyman 
soon after he established himself 
at Waltham. The estate, which 
