Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/46

40 crops were obtained. This, indeed, was one of the roughest and most useful houses we ever had, for many stove-plants throve in it, owing to its retention of sun-heat and its damp situation. In autumn a wooden trellis was laid over the bed



in front, and on this bedding plants were closely packed, and generally got through the winter well with the aid of a Musgrave’s stove that cost &pound;6, and was fitted with a flue consisting of four-inch glazed drain-pipes. The bare space on the back wall, seen in the view of the interior, was occupied during winter with tall geraniums, that were kept for making pyramids in the flower-garden during the summer. The reason for the adoption of the Musgrave stove was, that it was impossible to obtain sufficient depth to make a proper stoke-hole for a furnace, owing to the water in the soil, and the reason the house was built at so low a level was, that it should not be seen above the line of the fence, as that would have spoiled a pretty view. Thus it is that extreme cases occur, and have to be met as best they may.

A nearly similar case occurred with a couple of houses which were so near the winter water level that it was a difficult