March 30, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
503 
wish—a sunny day gives you plenty of atmospheric 
heat—put in the plugs, and the heat of the chamber is 
tin-own into the slate and soil. 
6. Walls. —T. suspect there is an intention to have 
| nine-inch walls as far as tho flooring, and five-inch 
j walls above that; but this economy in bricks will be 
! attended with no economy in fuel. I should prefer, for 
an early pit, a nine-inch wall throughout; better still, 
; a nine-inch hollow wall; and best of all, a fourteen-inch 
t hollow wall. I need not now repeat what was said of 
conllned air as a non-conducting medium. I have a 
pit used for similar purposes with a nine-inch solid wall, 
four feet six inches at back, and above tho ground level, 
and one foot eight inches in front. Notwithstanding 
protecting the glass with straw covers, the loss of heat, 
j by tho back walls especially, was a serious affair, where 
the carriage of coals adds from a full third to a fourth 
of that for which coals may be had by those near a rail- 
: way or wharf depot. I covered that wall with a couple 
| of inches of wheat-straw tied firmly and neatly on; 
i and if any one wishes to know how much heat is thus 
j saved, he has only to insert his cold fingers beneath the 
straw, in a cold day, and tho warmth of tho wall will 
give him an idea of the loss that would otherwise have 
escaped by radiation. That loss would bo greatly ob- 
8. Some years ago, I had several pits heated by 
fermenting matter, inside and out. I hardly know 
how deep tho walls were, for never having enough 
of matter to fill them they were never thoroughly 
emptied. The banks of manure, in the shape of 
linings, kept me ever on tho move for fermenting 
material. An idea of the unsightliness of these 
mounds, coupled, very likely, with tho intention 
of shutting me out from access to fermenting 
matter, led to these pits being heated by hot- 
water, and as they were also increased, I had no 
reason to grumble, though visions of poverty- 
struck vegetables began to flit before my mind’s 
eye even thon. Well, the pit I have already 
referred to, four-and a-half feet at back, and 
twenty inches in front, above tho ground level, fmam 
! is the highest of three ranges, each rather more 
than fifty feet in length, heated by one furnace, 
I and to which three ranges, I hope-some day to 
| have a fourth, with a pipe to keep out frost. The 
I pit, originally, was even flatter than the one of 
I our Correspondents; but, as a new wall-plate and 
j new sashes were needed, we gradually lowered 
the front wall, so that everything inside is very 
easily examined, and a fair amount of sunshine 
is thrown in. Now, I would have wished to have 
sunk the pit considerably back as well as front, 
j but it so happens, that though we have a deep a 
[ well in the chalk, we are liable to be flooded-up in 
j thunder rains; and as I knew that every foot I n. 
J sunk the pipes for bottom-heat, f must also sink 
! the stock-hole, I did what I considered the best in °- 
- the circumstances, and fixed the floor, No. 1, so 
high as would enable mo to grow Cucumbers, &c., 
and fair-sized pot plants of anything. The pit, 
therefore, was filled-up with clay and any earth handy, 
well-rammed, and then covered with two or three inches of 
i concrete, well-smoothed on the surface, and then covered 
, with a little fresh lime and sharp sand, so that when 
i dry it was quite hard and smooth, and, as I expected, 
next to thoroughly impassable by water. This was 
| fixed a couple of inches or so below the pipes ; and as 
the stones, brick-bats, &c., are placed as open as pos¬ 
sible, and then terminated by finer gravel at the top, 
the pouring-in of water at the front of the pit, either 
through a funnel, or else to the wall, inundates this 
floor, and supplies, at will, a moist bottom-heat. Fine 
evaporating pans are placed on the front pipes for top- 
heat. I used a trellis for this pit last season. For tho 
viated in the case of our Correspondent, and the pit in 
every way, bo more manageable if instead of standing 
above the grouud-lovel, fully one-half, at least, of the 
walls wero sunk in the ground. The only difficulty in 
this case would arise from water, as the bottom of the 
stock-hole would require to be at least two feet deeper 
than the bottom of tho flue. The air openings at e 
might just be the same, a pipe being brought up above 
the surface-level. 
7. Now, though the flue system will secure, perhaps, 
the most of the heat from the fuel, still, it can neither 
be so equally nor so safely diffused as by hot-water, 
either in pipes or tanks. By either of these modes, J 
Melons and Cucumbers may be grown in pits some 
three feet deep in front. A great depth of walls, and 
consequent brickwork to secure a chamber, would thus 
be avoided. And, therefore, though I have offered the 
above remarks on the plan of our Correspondent, yet, 1 
knowing that nothing suffers so much from the escape 
of gas lrom a fluo as Cucumbers and Melons, I would | 
strongly adviso, before building such a pit, to compare 1 
the expense of flue and iron pans, with extra brickwalls 
and the hot-water system. To enable him to do so, I 
will mention some modes adopted here, and wliat has 
been done elsewhere. 
rammed clay, f. 
three-incli water-pipes for bottom-heat, surrounded by 
clinkers, old brickbats, &c., with fine clean gravel on 
soil for Cucumbers and Melons, 
trellis. 
three-inch pipes for top-heat, with zinc evaporating- 
pans. 
second pit, as the walls are not so high, the Vines were 
generally trained on the ground; but Cucumbers or 
Melons are only one or two of the numberless purposes 
to which these pits arc applied. It will, at once, bo seen 
that there would be no occasion to have a wall any 
deeper thau the clay or concrete bottom, and fully half 
of that might be sunk. The pit is almost six feet in 
tho clear. 
it. No. 2, is the same pit which I modified this last j 
winter. I used to grow winter Cucumbers in the Pine- 
stove, and when, somo time ago, Pines were discon¬ 
tinued, it was desirable to have Cucumbers in a lesser 
place, so ns not to use much fire in winter. I grew 
them, therefore, in No. 1, but I found that they often j 
