iro 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 28. 
sponged the remainder well with the liquor. Will you 
please to tell me i£ I have acted right towards them, and 
I what further can be done?” 
[Sponging, even with clean water, would have been good ; 
tobacco-water, if not too strong, would be better ; taking the 
pot and reversing it, and dusting the lower side of the leaves 
with flowers of sulphur would be better still. If you could 
! place all the plants in a close box, and then introduce among 
them a tin saucepan, with water near the boiling-point, and 
; smear the outside of the lid with flowers of sulphur made 
! into a paint with water, that would be best of all; keeping 
1 the saucepan a little distance from the pots.] 
I 
HEATING A PIT AND GREENHOUSE.— GRAFTING 
CONIFERS. 
“ I have a pit twenty-four feet by six feet, the back seven, 
and the front five feet high, with three feet below the 
surface. Now, I want to turn this to a useful account, and 
my idea is this, to make a solid bed three feet six inches 
wide, enclosed in four-inch brickwork (which leaves two- 
and-a-half feet for path), the path to run at the back of the pit, 
say two feet high; on this solid bed to place some rubble for 
the return pipe to lay in, three inches for the pipe, and three 
inches for rubble, making two feet six inches to the bottom 
of bed; then, over the rubble to put a layer of turf and soil 
for bed, say eighteen inches, having one foot from the 
surface of bed to the glass. (But, before going any further, 
I must presume, that I have a three-inch pipe running the 
length of the pit, at one foot from the glass, and returning 
under the bed; the flow-pipe for surface-heat, and the 
return for bottom-heat). 
‘•Now, I want to divide this pit; the one part to force some 
early flowers, with Cucumbers to succeed them ; the other, 
to keep some greenhouse plants, and grow some Mushrooms; 
that is a puzzler, you will say, perhaps. But my idea is 
this, I have my return-pipe two feet six inches from the 
bottom, and if I put, say nine inches of Mushroom-bed 
over the pipes, I have nine inches left to put a platform over 
the bed, with glass to fasten next the path, thereby making 
the bed dark; then, over the platform to stand the green¬ 
house plants, as I think the surface-pipe will be sufficient for 
the plants, and the return for the Mushrooms; but how, if the 
bottom-heat is too much for the Agarics ? My idea is, to 
have a plug to open from the return-pipe, thereby letting 
part of the heat into the house, if wanted; and should the 
bed be too hot, and the surface too cold, by inserting three 
flower pots, with the bottoms out, in the bed, it will bring 
some heat from the bottom to the surface of the bed. 
“Now, if you will kindly give me your opinion, I shall 
feel obliged. 
And now to the question of boiler. I was thinking of 
having a square boiler, with one flow and one return pipe, 
with lid to fit; but on inquiry for such an article, in the large 
town of Liverpool (I might as well have remained at home, 
as I should have saved time), I was informed I could 
get one made for £5 10s., and nuts, screws, &c., and cost of 
mould, extra. I stepped a little farther, and I learned that 
a very respectable firm would put me up a saddle boiler, with 
pipes complete, for the low charge of .£25, with no extra 
shillings or pence ; but, as I have no inclination to see my 
employer taken in and done for, I wish you to give me a 
helping voice, by pointing out where such an article could 
i be got. Now, my idea for a square boiler is this—my em¬ 
ployer is desirous to use gas as a heating medium. I have 
no experience in the use of gas ; but as he wishes to try it, I 
should like to give it a fair chance as an experiment; and I 
think a square bottom would present a better surface to the 
jet of gas than one with a concave bottom, as I do not think 
a saddle boiler could be heated with gas. In my last situa¬ 
tion, I had a square boiler for a Pine-pit, twenty-four feet 
long by five feet wide, fixed midway of the pit, so that there 
was a flow and return pipe on each side, and one pit could 
be worked at a time, if necessary ; and that boiler worked 
well; and as that is as simple as need be, I should like 
something of the same sort, without going to the needless 
expense of a costly apparatus.— Peter Simple.” 
“P.S. In Mr. Appleby’s list of Rockets, in the last monthly 
part, he makes no mention of the Yellow Rochet. I used to 
hear my father speak of it some twenty years ago. Is it ex¬ 
tinct, or become rare ? Could you inform me of the various 
modes of striking the rare kinds of Conifers, or other 
modes of propagation, such as Thuja lycopodiensis, Thinop- 
sis borealis, Libocedrus Chilensis, Cephalotazus Fort uni , and 
other choice sorts. Will they graft or inarch? ” 
[1. You may be confirmed, as to the idea of making your 
pit or house, by observing what Mr. Fish has said and done 
on such a subject, in Vol. XI., p. 502, and onwards, or, if 
you possess not that volume, in No. 287, which you may as ' 
well consult before commencing operations. 
2. One three-inch pipe for surface-heat, and one return for 
bottom-heat, will not do much for you either in forcing early 
flowers, or in procuring early Cucumbers. With such 
assistance alone, unless you kept your pipes very hot, you j 
would have to wait for Cucumbers until June or July. You 
will see, in a space not much larger, that Mr. Fish uses two 
pipes for surface-heat, and two for bottom-heat. This we 
direct your attention to more particularly, as according to 
your proposed plan you will have no heat inside, except 
what the pipes will supply; and you say nothing of external 
heat in the way of linings. 
3. One foot from the surface of the soil will not be 
sufficient for Cucumbers, unless you mean to shade and 
give air very freely in summer; from three to six inches 
more would be better. 
4. To force plants early into bloom, to grow Cucumbers 
moderately early, will require more heat than will be agree¬ 
able for Mushrooms and greenhouse plants ; and, therefore, 
though you can counteract the heat in the latter place, by 
abundance of air, it will yet be so much heating power lost. 
To save this, you would require the first compartment to be 
perfect in itself, with suitable valves, or stop-cocks, as lately 
referred to ; but this will increase the expense of heating, 
and you will have to decide on incurring a first additional 
cost, or a waste of fuel afterwards. 
5. There is nothing puzzling to us in combining Mush¬ 
rooms with greenhouse plants. We have grown Mushrooms 
in almost every conceivable quarter, below greenhouse 
stages, on vinery floors, and we never failed, where we could 
get a suitable temperature, and not too much of it—about 
55° being the most genial atmospheric temperature for 
them, with 10° or 15° higher in the mass of the bed, before 
the spawn has traversed it freely. There is some ingenuity 
in your proposed mode of getting rid of extra bottom-heat, 
for which we give you every praise; but if you use the same 
heat in this department, as in the forcing, or Cucumber- 
house, the neglect of these precautions might be fatal; and, 
in addition, there would require to be the means for sending 
moisture, at times, along the under pipe, or, rather, pipes ; 
and then, if you, by means of stop-cocks, or valves, heat 
each division separately, these precautions would be unneces¬ 
sary. Your proposed plan would give you no more than 
some nine or ten inches head room for plants and pots to¬ 
gether ; and, therefore, beyond cuttings and small plants, 
you could do little with greenhouse plants. Besides, you 
say nothing of the watering; but for the sake of the Mush¬ 
rooms, the drip from the pots above must be prevented, 
either by placing every pot in a saucer, or having a water¬ 
proofed covering over the Mushroom-bed. The flap is of 
no consequence; as Mushrooms grow in the dark and in the 
light equally well. 
6. Now for our idea on the matter. If twelve feet of 
these twenty-four were to be rigidly set aside for forcing ! 
purposes, we would have two three inch pipes for surface- 
heat, and two for bottom-heat; and it would be as well to 
have the means of top-heat, or of bottom-heat separately, at 
will, by tailing the flow pipe of each from a cistern furnished 
with plugs. If the other twelve feet have to be rigidly con¬ 
fined to greenhouse plants and Mushrooms, a flow and 
return would be sufficient. If at all likely that, ultimately, 
both divisions would be used for forcing, or growing Cucum¬ 
bers or Melons, we would heat the whole twenty-four feet 
alike—two pipes for surface-heat, and two for bottom-heat, 
with socket joints at the divisions, with means of letting the 
heat off and on the second division at will, which, as already 
remarked, will increase the cost, and swallow up altogether 
above 100 feet in pipes. Were all to be used for a similar 
purpose, there would be no necessity for these sockets and 
stop cocks. Meanwhile, keeping your proposed object in 
view, and throwing aside the consideration of how you heat 
the second division, we should manage the first much as you 
