330 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 5, 1861. 
must be resorted to, to secure fine fruit. If the day is sunny 
and the air rather dry, we find that a slight dewing over the 
plants from a fine syringe helps to swell and disperse the pollen- 
bags. In dull weather the air will generally bo moist enough 
for them. No Grapes yet in bloom, but when in bloom medium 
dryness is desirable ; but if the days are cold, and the nights 
frosty, the air is apt to get so dry that the capsule clings round 
the anther-boxes like a tight-fitting nightcap, and prevents so far 
the processes of fertilisation and setting. Under such circum¬ 
stances extra moisture from evaporating-pans will be desirable ; 
but in dull weather the moisture proceeding from the floor and 
stages of the house will generally be sufficient. We treat Peaches 
much as we would Strawberries when in bloom. When well set 
they both like a skiff from the syringe, especially when shut up 
for the afternoon. Tied down the shoots of third crop of 
Pelargoniums to make them bushy. Potted Fuchsias that had 
been set in a little heat to break, when shoots half an inch in 
length, shaking away a portion of the soil, and placing them in 
rich sandy loam in similar-sized clean pots, to be repotted after¬ 
wards in stiffer loam. Gave a size larger pot also to young 
Fuchsias struck in autumn, watered Potatoes in pots, gave 
plenty of water to Cinerarias in bloom and coming into bloom, 
gave water to Hippeastrums showing bloom, keeping those 
dry that are yet in a state of rest—at least, giving no more 
moisture than they can extract from the pots standing on a 
tile floor, pricked off plants of the first-sown Celery, gave more 
room to Cucumber plants, and threw two or three loads of stable 
dung in a heap, watering a little when necessary in order that 
it might be sweetened, and fitted to mix with tree leaves. This 
is the most economical mode. Leaves alone will not do at this 
season for keeping up a temperature iu beds of from 60° to 65° 
and 70°. If leaves are mixed at once with horse-dung, they get 
too much decomposed before the dung is sw r eet. When the dung 
is nearly sweet the mixture soon makes all nice without w r aste. 
In the second turning of the dung a lot of leaves may be thrown 
oyer it, which will thus absorb the heat thrown off, and yet not 
hinder the sweetening process. Added the small heap of sweet 
oung and leaves set aside the other week to the bed under the 
iramo, which otherwise would not have been hot enough at this 
season, turning the bed for two feet, and incorporating the fresh 
with it, raising it altogether a foot higher, and being so con¬ 
fident of getting heat enough as to place rich light soil on the 
bed, to be planted in as soon as it is warm enough.—R. F. 
NATURAL BOTTOM HEAT, KIDDEAN SYSTEM 
AND GEOTHERMAL CULTIVATION. 
Forasmuch as some of my friends have taken in hand 
to write good, had, and indifferently on the origin, pro¬ 
gress, and present state of the three above headings, it 
seemed good to me also to write upon them from a dif¬ 
ferent point of view, having had perfect understanding of 
all the three from the very first. I shall not travel out of 
the country to prove that some holy fathers had reared 
V ater Cresses and other herbs by means of bottom heat, 
from the hand of Nature, along the margins of the rills 
from hot springs in Scandinavia, at a period far remote 
from the first ideas of the circulation of hot water, nor 
that the King of Bavaria had Pine Apples on his table 
every week in the year 1820 by the Hamiltonian system. 
But I shall go the length to Paris for the last idea of 
geothermal cultivation, and I shall attempt to put the 
saddle on the right horse, the horse in the right stall, 
with a patient companion in the next one ; but instc ad of 
a colt, Ossian, my Scotch terrier, will be just as patient, 
and he will watch. 
About the year 1825, Mr. Hay, a landscape gardener 
and garden architect in Edinburgh, began to introduce 
the cultivation of Pine Apples plunged in beds of soil 
heated from below by steam and other contrivances, to 
get rid of the old tan-beds. Five years later, in 1830, Mr. 
Archibald Gorrie, a well-known gardener iu the Cai se of 
Gowrie and in all the gardening and farming periodicals 
of the time, discovered, by means of a rudely constructed 
hotoedor frame, that the natural heat o! the soil, brought 
up to the surface in spring water, was capable of keeping 
greenhouse plants from frost during the winter; and he 
suggested that a long deep drain might be made from a 
well to carry off the water—the warm water from the 
well as it would be comparatively in winter—and that 
boxes of tender plants might be placed on supports 
across the drain and over the water with a thick covering 
for the top like covering over glass. But the whole plan 
is transcribed below for your use and benefit, also the 
first use which was made of that idea in England, and 
how that use embraced the Kiddean system of heating a 
conservatory—that is to say, by means of warm air with¬ 
out any provision being made for withdrawing the cold air 
from the house, which drawing off of cold air is the basis 
of Pclmaise. But for our readers’ use and benefi t, and for 
us and ours, the particulars of this are here transcribed. 
“ On Preserving Tender Plants in Winter by Means 
of the Temperature of Spring Water. By Mr. A. Gorrie, 
F.H.S., Annat Gardens, Feb. 4, 1830. — ( Gardeners 
Magazine, vol. vi., page 402.) 
“ There is a curious coincidence between the annual 
mean temperature in the open air, and the annual mean 
temperature in a deep spring well at the same place. 
In a spring well of that description at Annat Gardens 
I find the temperature of the water to indicate from 46 Q 
to 47° in the winter months, unaffected in the least by 
atmospheric temperature, however low that may be. * * * 
It occurred to me that by spring water temperature many 
plants might be easily preserved in winter. To ascer¬ 
tain how far this theory was correct, I placed a small 
frame over the well on a floor of boards 2 inches wide 
by 1 inch in thickness, and 1-| inch between the spars 
to admit of the heat rising in the frame from the water. 
Knowing that glass would not be purchased by that class 
of people whose advantage I had in view, I covered the 
sash with cotton at 4t?. per yard, and in the frame I 
placed pots of Cauliflowers, Lettuces, Pelargoniums of 
different sorts, Chrysanthemums, Primula sinensis, &c. 
The air, as might be supposed, is nearly saturated with 
moisture : therefore, fresh air has to be admitted as fre¬ 
quently as possible. The vegetables and plants continue 
fresh, and the Pelargonium odoratissimum— i. e., Prince 
of Orange, has been all along in flower ; and I am fully 
convinced that where such spring or well can be made 
available by means of a cut 2 feet deep, 2 feet wide, with 
two or three-inch offsets (slabs of wood or stone) at each 
side of the running water in the trench, to support the 
ends of a box 9 inches wide and 4 inches or 5 inches deep, 
placed within 2 inches of each other over the rill, into 
which boxes Lettuce and Cauliflower plants, Chicory, 
&c., might be planted, the whole to be covered with 
hoops and loose matting, a winter conservatory might 
be easily constructed over the run of water from one 
spring for the use of a whole village. As the rill brings 
a continual flow of water at the temperature of 46° to 
47°, the earth in the boxes will always be kept consider¬ 
ably above the freezing-point in the coldest night. * * * 
A glass cover over the trench would admit of a greater 
variety of tender plants for preservation.” 
This very idea of using the running water of a spring 
at the depth of 2 feet from the surface of the earth, for 
the use of a village, was put into actual practice by one of 
the most practically scientific amateurs in England after 
Mr. Knight, of Downton Castle—I mean Mr. Williams, 
of Pitmaston, near Worcester. He heated a large orangery 
by means of a “ rill ” from a well at 70 yards distance, 
and you will find the account of it, and the highly- 
approving opinions of it also, by one of our very best 
practical heads in England—Mr. Thomson, of Chiswick 
Gardens, in the third volume of the “Journal” of the 
Society, page 275. That was in 1848, or eighteen years 
after'the suggestion was made by Mr. Gorrie in the 
“Gardener’s Magazine;” but the said orangery was heated 
by the running from the spring some years previous to 
1848, and the following is Mr. Thomson’s report of it:— 
“ In the conservatory the Orange trees exhibited a very 
healthy appearance ; their foliage was a darker green than 
