128 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. May 27 . 
garden, not large, but the very pattern of neatness, got 
quite disgusted with the expense and the shabbincss of 
littery mats for covering his cucumber and melon pits. 
Such shutters were advised, were made, and painted; 
they cost somewhere about sixpence each, but in two 
years, the gardener said, they more than paid the ex¬ 
pense they used to be at lor mats. With common care, 
there was no risk of breakage. In frosty and stormy 
weather, they were as effectual as three or four mats; 
and unless in very extraordinary weather, no other litter 
was wanted as covering for the tendcrest things. They 
looked as if they would last a life-time, and yet bad been 
constantly at work; the gardener finding them as useful 
for saladiug, &c., in winter, as in protecting his tender 
plants in spring. We slow coaches may be under the 
necessity of still using the ragged mats, but no amateur, 
with an eye to neatness and ultimate economy, could 
ever patronize them to any extent. As now sold, and 
their quality considered, I look upon them as one of the 
most expensive things that find their way into a garden. 
2ndly.—'“ Whether should I build my brick-pit on the 
surface of the ground, or sink it partly in the ground, so 
as to keep utility and economy in view ? ” This is a 
question that has two sides, and much may be said in 
favour of each. What a great man said of governments, 
whether right or wrong, may here be said of pits; the 
administration—the working out—is the thing. I have 
glanced at some of the features of the case previously. 
Where a high temperature is required, the sinking of 
the pit economises heat. The earth is a much slower 
conductor of heat than an exposed brick wall; in fact, 
two or three feet below the surface the earth does not 
become greatly cooled at all. Hence, if we merely wish 
to keep out frost, a sunk pit would be more effectual 
than one raised above the surface; but then disad¬ 
vantage presents itself in the shape of damp, and, with 
all your care in foggy weather, this damp, in the shape 
of various minute fungi, will do the work of destruction 
as effectually as a frost at zero. “As the sunk pit secures 
the advantage of warmth, is there no means of counter¬ 
acting the effects of damp, and that without a heating 
apparatus of any kind ? ” Of course, with a heating 
medium, a more free and rapid circulation of air may at 
all times be given; without it these conditions following 
will act in alleviating the evil of damping. 
1st. The bottom should be rendered dry, and kept so 
by watering in winter, with great care; not spilling a 
drop. The bottom should be covered with dry ashes 
and nodules of quick-lime, which will sweeten the atmo¬ 
sphere, and absorb a portion of its moisture. 2nd. The 
walls should have slate inserted in cement a little above 
the foundation, to check the rising of damp from beneath; 
but often the damp will pass in spite of this, though 
frequently it is effective. Building the walls hollow 
will be another advantage. 3rd. Keeping the surface 
ground outside the pit dry. This ground round a pit 
is generally used as walking ground; it should be 
highest all round next to the pit, with not less of a fall 
than 1 j to 2 inches to the foot. This carried out for 
from three to six feet in width, well hammered down, 
and rolled, covered with a thin coating of tar, and fine 
gravel thrown over, and rolled again, will free you from 
all the danger of water soaking down near the walls. 
4th. With all this care, if the plants are two or three, or 
more feet from the surface, the moving or tilting the sashes 
at every favourable opportunity, while agitating the 
surface air, will often leave a denser stratum motionless 
at the bottom, especially in winter. This is one reason 
why damp will commit its ravages in winter, even with 
sashes tilted back and front; thought of now, when 
building, will save future trouble. In the front wall, 
level with the floor-line of the pit, holes should be left 
from three to six inches in diameter, and each of these 
connected with a tube of some sort, that rises above the 
surface-soil in front of the pit, and furnished with a 
plug that you can open or shut at pleasure. These 
openings should be left opposite the centre of every 
second light; if in the centre of each, it w'ould be still 
more desirable. The opening outside should be furnished 
with a wire guard, to prevent a rat or mouse tumbling 
down. Even with pits built on the surface, openings 
near the base line arc extremely useful. “ But 1 did not 
observe that your pits were so constructed.” Very true. 
But that is no reason why experience should go for 
nothing, and that in piling brick and mortar together, 
you should derive no more advantage from doing so than 
was realised from the same operation many years ago. 
By opening these front base line ventilators, and tilting 
your sashes behind, you will obtain a current of air that 
will prevent most damps from gaining a resting place. 
Besides, the fumes from the quick-lime is not favourable 
to any of the fungus family. These things attended to, 
necessary protection will be reduced to its minimum in 
sunk pits, and danger from damping will be next to 
removed. 
On the other hand, for all small tender plants it is 
best to build shallow piits on the surface of the ground, 
and protect their sides in winter with some dry material. 
In the case of tall pits, constructed so as to hold 
plants from three to five feet in height, it would be a 
great advantage to build the walls hollow. Without this 
precaution, no covering of the glass will prevent the in¬ 
side being unduly cooled by the radiation of heat from 
the sides, whenever it is very cold weather. Tor pits of 
this description, for plants belonging to our province, no 
banking up of the sides with fermenting material ought 
ever to be attempted. There are two evils attending it 
—you are apt to heat the wall, and thus forward vegeta¬ 
tion within, at the very time when it ought to be 
stationary. Again, all such material in winter collects 
and retains damp, and this is absorbed by the walls, and 
thus you may injure your plants by a medium which you 
have built your pit above ground to avoid. Tor protect¬ 
ing such pits at the sides in winter as stand several feet 
above ground, nothing I have tried surpasses clean 
wheat straw, tied firmly along in a layer from half-an- 
inch to one inch in thickness, reaching from the ground 
to the wall-plate. It will require a wonderful rain, and 
a very uncommon frost to penetrate that thickness of 
hollow tubes of straw. In a pit, high above ground, 
heated by hot water, and used for forcing purposes, I 
have found the advantage of resorting to the same plan 
in the early part of the season. Some friends would 
have it that much heat could not be lost through 
a nine-inch brick wall; but getting them to insert 
their fingers through this thin wall of straw in a 
cold morning, and to place them in contact with 
the wall, soon convinced them to the contrary; the 
covered wall being as comfortable as a warming-pan, 
while the uncovered part was cold as—I was going to 
say—charity; and, alas ! many who need, find that cold 
enough. A four-inch wall, with such a covering, is 
superior to a nine-inch.uncovered. A hollow nine-inch, 
or a hollow fourteen-inch, would also be good, and save 
trouble of covering. Tor walls above ground, forming 
parts of pits for plants, the lesson to be learned, there¬ 
fore, is to avoid all damp and fermenting material for 
their sides, when the object is merely to keep them; and 
in frost, for protecting the sides, I know of nothing 
better than straw, put on in the beginning of November, 
and removed in the end of April; anything else, how¬ 
ever, would answer equally well, that would repel wet 
and enclose a body of air. Tor all such low pits, nothing 
would beat banking the walls up with earth, but not so 
steep but that you could walk on the slope, and then 
covering with tar and gravel. 
3rdly. “ These pits, both above and below ground, cost 
a good deal for bricks; I mean to heat a structure I am 
