190 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



the society for 1886 contaiE tw^o articles setting forth the advant- 

 ages of steam and hot wa'ter rcsj)eetively. The statements are 

 based on individual opinion rather than on any comparative 

 results. In the proceedings of the society for 1888 (^'ol. IV, 118), 

 James D. Raynolds gives a good companson of the two methods 

 fix)m theoretical standpoint^s, his opinion being that steam is 

 preferable. 



So far a« can be learned, the first really comparative test was 

 made by I'eter Henderson about 1885 or 188t).§§ The trial was 

 made with two houses of similar dimensions and con>structiou, the 

 one fitte«l with hot water boilei's, the other with steam boilers of the 

 same size. The coal was weighed and it was found that there 

 was a saving of twenty-five per cent in the house heated by steam, 

 while the plants did ecjually well. A. B. Fowler, in a recent 

 pamphlet on greenhoiLse heating, concludes that steam is prefera- 

 ble to hot water. 



In the summer of 1888 two houses were constructed at the 

 ^fassachusetts Experiment Station as nearly alike, as iK>si>ible, 

 with boilers of the same make and pattern, one fitted for steam, 

 the other for hot water. The following winter careful observa- 

 tions were made of temi>eratni'es and the amount of cojil cor 

 sumed. The I'esults showed a saving of nearly twenty per cent ot 

 coal in favor of the hot water heating, while the average temi>er- 

 aturc of the house was slightly higher. The temperatm-e was 

 also more uniform in the house heated by hot water, llie test 

 was repeated the following wintei' and showi'd a still greater 

 advantage in favor of the hot wat<'r, there b<'ing a saving of o^er 

 thiity j)er cent in the coal consumed. 



In the winter of 1889-1890 a similar test was made at the Mich- 

 igan Experiment Station with two houses of the same size and 

 construction, and two boilers of the same mak(\ liaving the same 

 amount of grat<^ and heating sui-faice, and all othei- conditions as 

 nearly alike as ]K)ssible. The results agnn' with those in Masisa- 

 chusetts, sihowing a consum]>tion of a little ovw twenty pw cent 

 more coal by the steam boiler and a slightly higher tem])erature 



§S Proc. Sjc. Am. Florists, vol. 11. 107. 



