218 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 20. 
or straight. On this inclined plane a little litter may [ 
be laid in winter easily, and he retained there without 1 
trouble, when it would be always falling away from the i 
sides of an upright brick wall. Very little ot this litter j 
will keep a sharp frost from getting into the ground so j 
as to freeze the wall. The drier that wall is, the better j 
it will answer every way; and to keep it dry, nothing ! 
will be more effectual than covering the outside all j 
over with coal tar from the gas-works, which may be | 
procured at from one penny to twopence per gallon. If ■ 
this coating of tar is well smothered with hard road | 
drift, or sharp, sandy gravel, you will have an outside as 
hard and more impenetrable to water than a brick wall. 
The upright face inside might be covered in a similar 
way; but if so, no plants must bo put in for a number 
of months, when the fumes of the tar are all gone. If j 
the sashes are put in early in the autumn, to prevent the | 
pit getting wet, there would be no necessity for tarring j 
the inside of the pit; and if the inside is done a month 
or two before being used, there is no danger of any 
fumes affecting any plants injuriously. Though the 
smell is not extra pleasant about a garden, it soon goes 
off, and while it remains has a tendency to set much 
vermin, as mice and rats, a Hitting. The damp 
complained of would be so far prevented, if, instead of 
being sunk, the most of the pit stood above the level of 
the ground. If the ground all round, for a couple of 
yards or so, were made to slope from it, and that too had 
a thin coating of tar covered with a sufficiency of fine 
gravel, the rains would thus at once be removed for a 
considerable distance from the pit. If the bottom of 
the pit was concreted, much moisture would not rise 
from below; nud if great care was exercised, in watering 
in winter, not to spill a drop, nor yet give a drop too 
much, there would be little danger of damping, and a 
useful and very economical pit may thus easily be 
formed. Where such uicety is not required, aud it is 
desirable to make the pit as little conspicuous as 
possible, a wall of earth a little sloping would answer 
well, and that could be covered with turf to resemble 
the lawn iu its neighbourhood. Such arc more calcu¬ 
lated for spring, summer, and autumn, than for winter 
use, and are just the thing for placing plants iu that arc 
removed from other houses, or where sufficient pro¬ 
tection can be given to the pots whilst the tops of the 
plants are exposed to sun and air. The reflection of 
light, and radiation of heat from the back wall, will also 
accelerate the ripening of the wood of all plants so 
situated in summer. 
WOODEN PITS. 
“1 am anxious to winter a number of hardy greenhouse 
and bedding plants. Brick and stone are difficult to be 
got in my locality. Wood 1 can get very reasonable. 
Would not hoards nailed to posts answer the purpose?” 
Undoubtedly. Strong boards, from one-aud-a-lialf to 
two inches thick, closely joined together, would keep out 
as much frost as a common brick wall, as wood conducts 
heat so slowly. The wood ought, however, to be well- 
seasoned, or you will soon have cracks and openings at 
the joints. The seasoning of the wood, by drying and 
keeping, will increase its value; and, therefore, make the 
pit more expensive. To escape this contingency, and he 
free from the openings and swellings of green wood, aud 
yet to bo able to use it, thin pieces of board, three inches 
wide, may be tacked on each side of the joints, and then 
the shrinking and swelling alternately will be attended 
with no inconvenience.. Such a pit, made with green 
wood, will last longer from being rough planed; but if ever 
painted at all, it should only be when thoroughly dried 
and seasoned by exposure. A great deal of painting is 
worse than labour lost, being more than money thrown 
away; because accelerating the very decay it is intended 
to prevent. Perhaps a better pit still might be made of 
one-inch boards, placed on each side of the post, leaving 
a vacancy of some four or five inches between them, and 
filling the vacancy with dry saw-dust. It would require au 
extraordinary frost to penetrate this; and with common 
care, such a pit would last a long time, and look very neat. 
If intended for low plants, it would not, as respects 
utility alouc, bo more valuable than a turf or earth-pit; 
but it would be more easily got about If sunk partly 
iu the ground it would be more warm, but more subject 
to dampings than if it stood upon the surface. 
“I have difficulty in getting bricks; wood is expensive, 
chieliy owing to sawing and carpentering. I can shortly 
get plenty of Larch poles, peeled, some two or three 
inches in diameter. Would not these, cut into requi¬ 
site lengths, do for shallow pits; the one end being driven 
into the ground, and the upper ends left in a level line, 
so as to suit for spring protecting, aud keeping some 
hardier things in winter?” I have seen ranges of such 
pits used chiefly for Lettuces, Cauliflower, &c., iu winter, 
aud for bedding plauts in spring, when the houses be¬ 
came too crowded, and they answered well, covered 
merely with wooden shutters, straw hurdles, mats, &c. 
If such pits were to be honoured with glass, so as to 
protect aud grow plants in winter, the rows of stakes 
would require to he double, aud saw-dust placed 
between. A very lasting pit might thus be formed in 
out-of-the-way places, where young trees were the chief 
articles in extra abundance. If the lower part of these 
stakes, thus placed close together, were slightly charred 
before placing them in the ground, aud when the upper 
part was well dried, it was painted with Stockholm tar, 
1 have no doubt such pits would last a long time, and 
look very neat. 
STRAW-WALLED PITS. 
“I have been struck with the apparent simplicity and 
economy of straw-walled pits for bedding plants, &c. 
Being a farmer, such pits would cost me nothing be¬ 
yond the posts, the rail, and hazel rods; aud even these 
could be mostly got on the farm. Would it be possible 
to keep Geraniums, Calceolarias, &c., iu such pits, 
covered with glass in winter? and what thickness should 
the walls of straw be ? ” There can he little question as 
to the possibility of keeping plants; but 1 cannot, from 
observation nor experience, speak definitively of the 
thickness of such a straw-wall; hut should consider that 
a wall of straw firmly pressed together, and standing 
upright of from six to eight inches in width, aud kept 
as dry as possible, from the top being covered with a 
frame a little wider than the straw, would keep out more 
frost than a nine or a fourteen-inch wall. All these pits 
would he more effectual if there were contrivances, by 
openings, for giving air quite level with the bottoms of 
the pits. R. Fish. 
(To be continued .) 
Aerolite in a Tree’s Trunk. — An Aerolite has 
been found in the heart of a tree recently felled at 
Battersea, and it is now deposited iu the Museum of 
Practical Geology. At the next Meeting of the Royal 
Society some observations upon this meteoric stone- 
will be read by Sir Roderick Murchison. 
British Association eor the Advancement of 
Science. —The twenty-fifth meeting of this Society will 
be held at Glasgow on the 12th of September. The 
Duke of Argyle is to preside. 
