134 
ON FORCING CUCUMBERS WITHOUT DUNG. 
is to the observations of men as extensively and practically engaged in 
horticulture as Mr. Harrison, that we must mainly look for practical 
improvement. I am, Sir your obedient Servant, A. Z. 
Sir, — I beg to trouble you with a description of a pit for cucumbers 
and melons, heated by hot water, which I have had in use for nearly 
four years with success ; and, as I rather think of erecting another, I 
should be obliged to you, or any of your readers, if they can suggest 
any improvements. The only objection to the plan which has sug¬ 
gested itself to me is the expense of the heating apparatus in the first 
instance. 
The pit is about twenty feet long by six feet and a half wide, and 
has six lights. It is built of brick, nine inches thick below the ground, 
and four inches thick above it. 
At one end of the pit, within the wall, is fixed a small boiler; and 
from the surface of the water a four-inch pipe is carried just long 
enough to go through the back Hue and brickwork ; and to this is 
attached a wrought-iron triangular pan or trough, three feet wide and 
one foot deep in the centre, and without any covering. From the 
opposite end of this pan (which extends nearly to the other end of the 
pit) a pipe is fixed, which returns along the bottom of the pit to the 
bottom of the boiler; so that, in fact, the apparatus is nothing more 
than the common hot-water apparatus, with the pan I have described 
substituted for the upper pipe. 
About six inches above the top of the pan, cast-iron rafters are laid 
across the pit, about one foot from each other; upon these, small 
faggots are placed about one foot thick ; and on the faggots, grass sods 
with the turf downwards; and upon these, the earth for the melons or 
cucumbers. 
The quantity of water in the boiler and pan being very large in 
proportion to the heat required, of course it need not be raised to 
near the boiling point; and it has the additional advantage of retain¬ 
ing its heat a long time. 
When the earth in the bed is once sufficiently warmed, I generally 
have the fire lighted about five o'clock in the afternoon, and it requires 
no further attention after six, so that the consumption of fuel is 
very little indeed; and I have several times watched the heat in the 
bed for three weeks together, and have ascertained by one of the self¬ 
regulating thermometers that, without trouble, the variation may be 
confined to about four or five degrees. 
I am. Sir, your obedient servant, R. G. 
P S. If any of your readers wish for any further particulars, I shall 
be happy to communicate them. 
