THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Djscembee 28, 1858. 
they, and the ends to that height, might he all wood. If 
much above that height,—say, from five to six feet in 
height,—nearly, or fully, half ought to be glass. This 
could be made in pieces, in a similar way, and screwed to 
the studs. Where neatness, inside and outside, were 
great objects, and a little extra expense no great con¬ 
sideration, stout, neat studs might be placed at from four 
to six feet apart, and so many pieces of wood, or of glass 
and wood, made of the right size to fit in between them. 
To avoid openings in these, for air, the board, from the sill 
to the ground, might be hinged, and thus permit of air 
entering there all round when desired, or some of the 
spaces between the Studs might be hinged. These, how¬ 
ever, all refer to mere minutiae; and now I look forward 
with interest to the description of the plan by which 
ventilation is to be thoroughly secured, without fixing in 
the soil, and without bracing, or posts, or stays of any 
kind, inside the house. In small houses, instead of the 
wood ventilators at the ridge, the cowl coping might be 
made to fit over the opening, and the coping itself be 
raised by a lever, as in some excellent small span-houses 
at the nursery of the Messrs. Lee, at Hammersmith. 
AVhere no great heating was required, boilers might be 
obtained, all of one piece, so as to contain the fire and 
draught, need little or no setting, or anything else, 
but a small funnel to take off the smoke; but even in 
such a case, unless our friend, and others, should procure 
good legal authority, I should not advise doing any¬ 
thing in the way of heating, without the consent, and 
in writing, of the landlord; as I recolleet a case, in 
which a tenant was so much annoyed because he took a 
metal pipe through the end of a small greenhouse, con¬ 
nected with a moveable stove which ho had placed in it, 
the landlord alleging that he was risking the burning of 
the whole of his property, that, to escape annoyance, he 
gave up the use of the stove, and terminated, as soon as 
possible, his tenancy. 
Wood-sided Houses and Pits. — Several inquiries 
have been made, as to the suitableness of these, by cor¬ 
respondents who have wood at hand, and cheap, but 
would have to go a good distance for either stone or 
brick. The above remarks, as to Mr. Beaton’s idea of a 
moveable house, as well as many most efficient houses, 
whose sides are all wood, will show that there is no ob¬ 
jection, in such circumstances, to the use of wood. Unless 
the foundation sill is very large, it will be better to keep 
it off the ground by means of cross blocks. A brick, or 
stone, wall would just be better, rising a few inches above 
the surface. The idea of a house, thus formed of wood 
all round the sides, being very cold, is quite erroneous. 
Wood is a bad conductor of heat or cold, and, therefore, 
so far as the sides are concerned, such a house will have 
a more equal temperature than one formed of brick or 
stone. Provided the wood sides are perfectly close, I con¬ 
sider that a board two inches thick will keep out as much 
frost as a solid nine-inch brick wall. It would not be so 
secure, even when well painted, as a hollow nine-inch 
wall, because, though the tie bricks go from side to side, 
the air shut up in the hollows neutralises, to a great 
extent, the conducting powers of the bricks. Very cheap 
sides are formed with feather-edged boards, tarred well 
outside, and whilst wet daubed with as much as would 
stick of dry sawdust; or the boards are covered with 
asphalt felt, and that is tarred, and dusted with sawdust, 
or road drift. A very secure board wall is formed by 
placing one-inch thick, or thicker, boards, close together, 
without jointing them, and then tacking a thin piece of 
bevelled wood one inch and a half wide over the joints. 
This not only secures against all shrinking, but takes off 
the smooth sameness of the outline. Where the wood is 
no great object, and a great heat is required, both sides 
of the studs might be close boarded, aud then the wall 
plate would enclose such a body of still air as no frost 
would easily penetrate. This would be especially bene¬ 
ficial in pits with rather high walls, and where a strong 
heat was wanted within for Cucumbers, Melons, Pines, 
&c. Such wooden walls, in such circumstances, would be 
more economical for fuel, than w'alls of brick of a similar 
height. Little or no heat would be conducted through 
such double boarding from the inside, to the outside 
general atmosphere. If such wooden Walls are painted, 
it ought only to be done when the wood is thoroughly 
seasoned and dried. Then painting with anti-corrosive,&c., 
will preserve the wood; but, if done previously, it Will only 
hasten its decay. Some correspondents ask if they should 
not fill such a hollow between two walls with sawdust, as 
a non-conductor. I have no objection, especially if, by 
feather-edging, the boards are likely to have holes in the 
sides. If all is close, I should prefer leaving the space 
open, having found confined air a better non-conductor 
than anything that could be put in its place. Besides, if 
the sawdust, &c., should become damp, it would hasten 
the decay of the boards. If left free, a few small spaces 
should be made to open now and then, to prevent the 
air confined becoming too damp, if means are not taken 
to prevent the damp rising. 
An “ Inquirer ” wishes to know, “If Larch boards 
from fair-sized trees would do for such walls ? and if 
the base ends of young trees some three inches and- 
a half in diameter at six feet from the root end, would 
do for such studs, or stakes, to support them ? and 
if the posts should be driven, or fixed, by making 
holes?” Yes, to the two first, if nothing better can be 
got; but the boards should be cut directly, and not 
used until the end of next spring, at soonest; and 
most, if not all, of the white wood should be removed. 
The posts, after being cut to the requisite length, should 
have all the bark removed, and be allowed to dry well. 
A chip on each side should be removed, to allow the 
boards to be straight. Suppose that from fifteen to 
eighteen inches of the stump end is to bo fixed in the 
ground, then that should be either charred for two feet, 
or covered with tar, to keep it from rotting ; but, if not 
pretty well dried previously, this preventive will only 
prove a promoter of decay. The stump end put in the 
ground, and well rammed, will be more secure than it 
could be made by driving. A wall plate, wide enough to 
throw the water off at the back and front, completes the 
whole. 
Such a double wall, however, is chiefly for keeping heat 
in. If you attempted to throw heat inside, by placing a 
strong lining against the outside, you would find, as some 
did, that your success would be small. In such circum¬ 
stances, you would wish you had a four, or a nine inch 
solid brick wall to work upon, for there you would find 
the heat from the outside would soon be conducted to 
the inside. One of the easiest pits to heat with hot 
water I ever met with, was one bounded by hollow' brick 
walls, fourteen inches thick. It was sunk below' the 
ground about as much as it stood above it; but the hollow 
walls prevented even the cold earth round it carrying 
away the heat. In some pits, the back w alls of which 
are about four feet above the surface, and nine inches 
thick, and in which, at times, a high temperature is main¬ 
tained inside by fire heat, I could scarcely have credited 
the heat lost by a radiation from the walls, if I had not 
covered them w ith two or three inches of straw, and then 
noted how warm the wall became beneath the straw, 
when the radiation of heat was thus prevented. _ 
Although saying a w r ord for wood, as versus brick and 
stone, seems heterodoxical in these go-a-head times, and 
though I woidd not wish to sec wood-houses in our 
large princely establishments, I cannot forget, that The 
Cottage Gaedenee is intended not so much for those 
with next to unlimited means, as for those wdio wish to 
make the most of the simplest conveniences. The height 
of the ambition of many readers, is to have a little pit, 
where they could store their bedding plants, and, peihaps, 
have a little stove in it, or a pipe running through it, to 
be used in the worst weather. But, though they could 
