THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 12, 1861. 
285 
temperature of about 75° of bottom beat, and tbe sub¬ 
stance of tbe bed, with tbe air enclosed, to be neither 
wet nor dry—not down too low one week and up in beat as 
far above tbe mark tbe next. When tbe right pitch of 
from 55° to 60° in tbe air of tbe bed was got and could 
be maintained with from 70° to 75° in tbe bed, six inches 
below tbe surface, it would be ready to receive tbe finest 
shoots of all your best Roses, just pruned and tied in 
loose bundles of ten, or a dozen, or less shoots, at one 
end—tbe bottom end, in a small ball of moss not wet or 
dry, and tbe tops of them to be spread out a little, then 
to lay down each parcel lengthwise, with the top ends 
pointing to tbe back of tbe frame, and when one row was 
thus placed, to fill in between tbe shoots with sifted leaf 
mould, shaking it in so as to leave no cavities for air or 
steam to hurt the shoots ; to fill up tbe rest of tbe rows 
of bundles in tbe same way, and then to fill up tbe whole 
of the frame from back to front, and from end to end, an 
inch deep or a little deeper with tbe same sifted leaf 
mould, and to consider tbe work then finished, and tbe 
Rose-frame to be afterwards attended to as much as tbe 
Cucumber-frame, as to covering, lining, and giving air. 
But such a bed as is here contemplated would not require 
watering, or but very little of it, for tbe first two months. 
What I would use for tbe surface of such a bed, and for 
placing tbe Rose shoots amongst and over them, would 
be this cocoa-nut refuse, and I should say that a layer of 
fresh moss under them and over them would be nearly as 
good ; but tbe leaf mould, as far as tbe facility of making 
roots in it goes, is the next best thing to tbe cocoa 
stuff, though neither leaf mould nor moss has nearly 
tbe same capacity for bolding moisture for a long 
time; and the success of this method of making Roses, 
or Rose plants, depends a great deal on tbe uniformity 
of a certain degree of moisture for tbe first six weeks, 
or about tbe period tbe roots from tbe bottoms of tbe 
new growths would take to form and be able to consume 
more moisture, and when slight watering would become 
necessary. 
Although this is different from any of our present 
modes of propagation, there is nothing in it with which 
old gardeners are not quite familiar in one way or other. 
I have seen Laurel shoots which were dug into tbe 
borders of shrubberies shoot up and make roots from tbe 
young starts ; also, many other kinds. I have dug up in 
February the prunings of bedding Geraniums dug in in tbe 
autumn previously and some of them alive and shooting 
in tbe same way ; and if I dig in tbe prunings of Vines 
in my present garden, they become troublesome tbe 
following summer, shooting up from buds all over their 
surface. Well, it is merely to concentrate this style of 
haphazard growth, as it were, and to apply it to tbe pro¬ 
pagation of Roses, as tbe cheapest of all modes that tbe 
new system aims at. Let gardeners discover tbe surest 
ways of managing tbe thing under their different circum¬ 
stances, for tbe thing is as sure to succeed in their bands 
in various ways, and we, of The Cottage Gardener, will 
always be ready to suggest such other means as may 
accelerate tbe process. D. Beaton. 
ADMITTING AIR INTO THE ASH-PIT OF 
THE KIDDEAN HEATING SYSTEM. 
Will Mr. Beaton inform your readers why he recommends 
an opening at the farthest end of the ash-pit into the air-chamber 
in the Kiddean system of heating? Will it not admit dust as 
well as air into the hot chamber, and thence into the greenhouse ? 
May not this system be adopted in conjunction with an existing 
flue ?—B. 
[The air let into the bottom of the air-chamber through a 
slight opening at the farthest end of the ash-pit is one of Mr. 
Kidd’s recommendations, and his reasons for it are given in my 
first article on the system. The same objection occurred to 
myself. I thought the dust would be a bar to ash-pit ventila¬ 
tion, but Mr. Kidd does not find it so. Cases will occur when 
a very slow mouldering fire will be needed for days and weeks 
together, and unless the air-registers for admitting draught are 
always on the most exact model, and attended to with clockwork 
precision, the draught will be generally too much for tbe needful 
combustion; but divide the draught into two equal portions, or 
currents, the one up through the fire-bars, the other away from 
the fire into the chamber at once, carrying with it a great and 
unnecessary heat retained or lost in the ash-pit, or causing too 
much heat there for the slow burning of the fire over it; and 
this dividing seems to be just the proper medium, or the easiest 
gauge to regulate fires for greenhouse work. At all events, the 
thing suggested itself to one of those practical minds on whose 
experience I place far greater strength than I would on the 
technical formulse of theoretical science. No science will ever 
exceed the results of the proof of the pudding, no matter how 
humble it may be, or how plainly cooked. Whether the Kid¬ 
dean system is applicable to “existing flues” or not wants the 
proof of the pudding yet.—D. B.] 
SELF-REGULATING VENTILATOR. 
Is there any self-regulating apparatus to control the tem¬ 
perature of a greenhouse at night, or in the absence of the gar¬ 
dener or amateur ? Loudon mentions one invented by a Mr. 
Kewley, which seems to have had less patronage than it merited. 
This was a balance acted on by the expansion of alcohol driving 
the mercury to the other side. There is an apparatus by Dr. 
Ure, called a thermostat, which acts by the bending of a com¬ 
pound metallic bar of metals which expand unequally. I have 
seen it proposed in some old book to connect the air-valve with 
a bladder half full of air (an Indiarubber ball might be sub¬ 
stituted). As the air warms it expands laterally, and, therefore, 
shortens the bladder, and pulls open the valve. If a manu¬ 
factured article on any such principle could be sold at a moderate 
price, it would be a great aid to an amateur; who, when he 
leaves his house at night, is at the mercy of wind or calm, cloud 
or sky, till next morning,— Omega. 
[We think for small houses such contrivance would answer, 
but we have no great faith in anything but care and forethought. 
Supposing that trusted in, and once going wrong, you might 
have your house open when the temperature was very low, a 
close and a bright sun scorching everything up. A house can 
take no great harm at night, if a little thought is exercised ; and 
if high enough in the morning, a little air given at the top 
before the amateur leaves home will make all sure for the day. 
If air is given early, though only a little, the house cannot 
easily be injured.] 
THE LITTLE MARKET-GARDENER; 
OR, 
HOW TO CULTIVATE AN ACRE OF LAND AVHEN PROFIT IS 
THE CHIEF AIM, AND SHOWING HOW A FAMILY MAY 
BE SUPPORTED AND SOMETHING PUT BY FOR A RAINY 
DAY. 
{Continued from page 254.) 
REQUISITES. 
The first thing to look out for is a comfortable house, of a 
size according to your family, pretty near to a market town, and 
if there is a nice little garden attached so much the better ; but 
be sure there is a good pigsty. Never mind about a run out 
for the pig, he will do very well in the sty. 
Most people would like to have their acre of land in an allot¬ 
ment, but I do not care about this. I have mine in six different 
places, and, therefore, have various sorts of soil, and also a better 
chance of growing a few seeds, as I can grow early Turnip seed 
in one place, Cabbage in another, and Cauliflower in a third, 
which I could not do in an allotment, for there those Cabbage- 
worts would contaminate each other; but about this you must 
do as well as you can. It is very seldom that people can do 
entirely as they wish. 
OPERATIONS. 
Now, having taken a house and land, it matters not how soon 
you begin to work ; and as I shall expect you to begin soon 
after Christmas, one of the first things that will want seeing to is 
