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I 
SEED-TIME Aim HARVEST, 
How to Make a Green-House. 
Birmingham, Ala., June 24, 1884. 
Mr. I. F. Tillinghast: Dear Sir:—You 
wrote me some time ago, that the only 
alteration that you had made in your fire 
hot-beds was that you now make them so 
as to go inside like a green-house. I want 
to make one for the purpose of growing 
early tomato plants, and would be very 
much obliged if you would give me a de¬ 
scription of your beds. 
Enclosed please find fifty cents for sub¬ 
scription to Seed-Time and Harvest. 
Truly, &c., W. E. Tate, 
Answer: The great objection to the low 
form of Hot-Bed, whether heated by fer¬ 
menting manure or fire, is the constant 
labor of removing and handling the sashes, 
with consequent risk of breaking glasses, 
and the unpleasantness of being obliged to 
work them with no protection to yourself 
from the weather. A green-house can be 
cheaply made which is entirely free from 
these evils, and run with but little expense. 
Perhaps I can best auswer you by giving a 
short description of one built by myself last 
winter. As I had an abundance of the usual 
(3x6) hot-bed sashes, I planned the house 
so as to make use of them instead of buy¬ 
ing new glass. Two of these sashes when 
placed together with a proper pitch, were 
found to span eleven feet, so that was made 
the width of my house. Seventeen sashes 
were used on each side, (thirty-four in all) 
making the glass part 51 feet in length. 
Ten feet additional is required for a fur¬ 
nace room, so the first operation was to 
make an excavation about two feet deep, 
thirteen feet wide and sixty-one feet in 
length. This was made length-ways of the 
of the natural slope of the ground so the 
house would stand level. It is necessary 
that the ten feet to be used for a furnace- 
room be excavated feet deeper than the 
other portion, the bottom of which is to be 
the floor of the green-house, in order to 
properly set the furnace, and this deepest 
portion must have drainage or may fill 
with water. 
Next, proceed to stone up as you would 
a cellar for any other building, leaving it 
about 101 feet in width inside. If stones are 
plenty build the side walls 4^ feet high. 
We got in a hurry and stoned only to the 
surface, two feet, and double planked the 
balance, with hollow walls filled with chaff, 
which answers a good purpose, but will, of 
course, not be so durable as stones. Rafters 
are placed at intervals of three feet and the 
sashes placed on them. Inside, benches are 
built 3| feet from the floor, on either side, 
with a central alley twenty-eight inches 
wide. On one side we placed the soil di¬ 
rectly on the bench to a depth of about 8 
or 10 inches, and on the other we placed 
flat boxes, old soap boxes sawed in two, so 
they could be conveniently handled and 
shifted about. The whole thing is cheap 
and easily constructed by common work¬ 
men. The greatest outlay is for the heating 
aparatus. For this we used the ‘‘Hitchings’* 
Hot Water Aparatus, which is shown in 
the advertising department of this maga¬ 
zine. A double row of four-inch cast-iron 
pipes run around the building from eight 
to twelve inches below the beds, thus tak¬ 
ing about 225 feet in length of pipe. Each 
foot in length presents one square foot of 
heating surface to the air of the room, and 
we found that the above number was suffi¬ 
cient to keep our house warm during the 
coldest weather of last March, with no cov¬ 
ering to the glass, and no getting out 
nights to fix the fire. Three times in each 
twenty-four hours was all the attention the 
fire required, and less than one ton of Pea 
coal, costing about $2.00 delivered, sufficed 
for fuel for the season. The pipes were cut 
and fitted by manufacturer, and a working 
plan supplied, which readily enabled com¬ 
mon workmen to set the aparatus to order. 
We do not believe a better, cheaper, or 
more economical heater is made for com¬ 
mon plant-houses, and freely and cheer¬ 
fully recommend any of our friends who 
think of building such, to correspond with 
Hitchings & Co., whose address may be 
found in our advertising columns. 
^LcLvertisements. 
COR CABINET SPECIMENS, Agates, 
lUn Opals, Fossil Woods and Chinese Curiosities, 
Address Mrs. L. M. Moore, North San Juan, Cal. 9* 
Canvassers Wanted! 
SI 50 
STOP THIEF . 
ONE Ounce to 10 Pound*. Sold at 
hardware, or sent by express for $ 1 . 60 , 
Address, JONES OF BINGHAMTON, 
BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK. 
