352 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, February 24,1857. 
LOOKING AROUND US. 
Air Giving. —Our friend Mr. Beaton, with a mere 
dash of his pen, stating that “ warming the air inside 
! greenhouses and pits by the heat of the sun in winter 
is philosophy derived from the moon,” has stirred a 
hornet’s nest, and sent them humming about my ears. 
Some men advocate a great truth in such a simple, easy 
manner that people pass along and fail to recognise 
anything particular at all about that truth, while 
another man, by a more happy, startling phraseology, 
manages to rivet upon it general attention. A “moon’s 
philosophy” will cause many to inquire whether their 
theories of action are, after all, anything bu't moon¬ 
struck fancies. Our friend’s startler will, therefore, 
be of great benefit, independently of the soundness of 
the conclusions arrived at frd'm certain premises and 
circumstances. In some previous directions upon air 
giving, upon which I cannot now lay my hands, I 
believe that my conclusions, when they seem to differ 
from Mr. Beaton’s, were yet perfectly in unison with the 
premises and circumstances of the case. We should 
perfectly agree where the object was merely to preserve 
plants; we should seem to differ when growing and 
flowering were the object, and that especially when 
economy must occupy a primary consideration, as we 
fear it now does in nine cases out of every ten. In the 
first case I would carry out our friend’s idea to the 
letter, and as much as possible avoid shutting up an 
atmosphere high in temperature and saturated with 
moisture. In the other case I would just he as careful 
to keep out a cold, dry air that would rob the plants of 
their moisture, and therefore take means, by giving 
air at the top of the house in such circumstances, to 
insure the heating and the moistening of the fresh, cold, 
dry air before it got among the plants. There can be no 
question of the extreme propriety of leaving -air on 
continually in cold pits, so that the temperature does 
not get below the point of safety. It would be desirable 
in conservatories and forcing houses to leave air on as 
long as possible, nay, to leave a little on continually, 
provided that lighting fires in an afternoon of keeping 
them burning all day was a mere nothing considered 
economically, and care was taken that such firing did 
not dry the atmosphere too much, and thus send it to 
suck moisture for itself from soil and foliage. My 
observation would lead me to conclude, that in the case 
of growing and flowering plants in conservatories and 
greenhouses, where the average night temperature in 
moderate weather ranges from 45° to 48° and 50®, that 
giving air freely and late in very severe weather, and 
using dry heat in proportion, are more debilitating for 
the plauts than less air and shutting up earlier with 
sunshine. Heated air will have moisture if possible. 
Heat from the sun is the most natural, and costs us 
nothing, while every visit to the furnace adds to the 
garden expenses. If not carried to an extreme, the 
lessening and shutting off most of the air early in the 
afternoon in sunshine in very Severe weather will not 
elongate or weaken the plants. As a sort of guide I 
may mention that the heat of such an inclosed atmo¬ 
sphere in a sunny afternoon may range from 15° to 20° 
above what you wish your night temperature to be, and 
the fire heat should just catch it in time to prevent it 
getting too low. That less fire is needed than when the 
house is shut up much later, and after the house has got 
down to the requisite degree, I have no doubt at all, 
though I am open to conviction to the contrary. The 
heat inclosed, from whatever source derived, will equally 
be liable to decline by radiation. The inquiries made and 
hints given show that it is a matter of importance. Mr. 
Beaton may well, therefore, give us his ideas more 
in full, and our other coadjutors and other gardeners' 
might well do the same, not forgetting the economical 
view of the question. It would be well did we unite in 
giving a certain sound on this subject. Those friends 
who have drawn my attention to the seeming dis- ; 
crepancy between Mr. Beaton and myself will now see 
that, in cold houses for preserving plants, our practice 
would be the same ; that in other houses requiring i 
more heat I would follow his plan to a great extent, 
were there no questions about a heavy coal bill; but 
where economy must be consulted as well as the health j 
of the plants, I would continue to borrow a little extra 1 
heat from the sun in the afternoon, and especially in 
cold, frosty weather. 
Plants near to and at a distance from the Glass j 
in Winter. —Some passing expressions on this subject \ 
have given rise to some inquiry and reflection. A 
correspondent tells us that, in order to have all advantages, 
he has contrived a small stage in his Melon pit, and that, 
by means of a winch and racket, he can raise this stage 
within fifteen inches of the glass, or sink it so as to be 
between two and a half and three feet from it. He finds 
that plants do best near the glass in dull, mild weather, 
and also in clear, frosty weather if great care is taken 
in protecting them; but that, having had plants nipped 
by a very sudden frost, he generally got them a little 
farther from the glass in frosty weather. Could such 
a plan be easily adopted, many amateurs would get out 
of a difficulty. As heat radiates from the walls, and 
especially from the glass, in straight lines, the farther 
the plants are from the radiating surface, the longer will 
it be before the atmosphere about them gets cooled 
injuriously. Hence plants on shelves nekr the glass 
have frequently been killed, while plants standing on the \ 
floor of the same house have been uninjured. “ A. B.” i 
set his plants near the glass in a pit, on coal ashes, 
and lost many, while his neighbour, “ C. D.,” who had 
his plants on a stage in a similar pit and a good open J 
space beneath the stage, lost none, because that air 
parted with its heat more quickly than the ashes, and 
the stage helped to keep the air in movement. If the 
plants had been placed lower down they would have 
been safer from frost, but more liable to injury from 
damp and a stagnant moisture. It is always safest to 
have plants in pits moderately near the glass, and 
covering in readiness, as, unlike plants grown in a house 
with light on all sides, and where nearness to the glass 
is not such an object, the plants in a pit receive, in 
general, light only from above. I recollect a case in 
point. Plauts set on an earthy platform near the glass 
in a pit hardly escaped a sudden frost, though the glass j 
was protected with double mats. Similar plants standing 
thick on the floor of a large house were not at all I 
touched, though no fire had been used, and the whole 
of the glass was thickly crusted With hoar frost. 
SnOW as A Protector. —Two Correspondents have had 
a discussion on this subject, aud have referred the 
matter for decision, and if I cannot decide, some one 
else may help us. “ C. D.” had the roof of his house 1 
covered with snow, and he swept off what he could, 
and put on an extra fire to melt and get rid of the rest. 
“E. F.” felt situated exactly alike, and he just used ! 
enough heat to keep all right and prevent the snow 
from melting, and thus had the advantage of a snow 
covering for several very frosty nights. Very likely both 
were right. The necessary coolness inside to keep the 
snoW front melting, and the dark shade it would give, 
would be injurious to plants used to an average tern- ! 
perature of from 45° and upwards. Where the object was 
merely to preserve bedding plants, &c., and where the 
temperature might he 10° lower with safety, then, in point 
of economy, the keeping the snow on was a wise measure. 
There is no cheaper protector than snow. I have seen 
a man at his wits’ end for litter in a sudden frost, and 
resolutely sweeping off every bit of snow from the glass, j 
and from all around his cold pits, when he would have j 
