182 THE GARDENER. [April 



and no doubt this accounts for my success in having good crops each 

 season. But as I said at first, many of the fruits I leave for a crop 

 drop prematurely. They are to all appearance ripe and good, being 

 soft but sour, and about a third less than those that ripen ten or 

 twelve days later. It is to meet this that I would suggest that food 

 in a consolidated form might be supplied ; for it is clear, when the 

 trees can carry all the fruits through all their stages, and maintain 

 their health and vigour, that if they got the proper assistance at the 

 ripening point, the result would be a great success. I hope to hear 

 from some of your scientific readers what chemical preparation I can 

 procure to produce, not an extra large crop, but a fair one, all in 

 perfection. Paddy in Ulster. 



HEATING BY HOT WATER. 



In 'The Gardener' of last month we have an interesting paper from 

 Mr Hammond on heating by hot water. All who have to do with 

 deep, and in too many cases imperfectly drained, stokeholes will agree 

 with the writer as to the desirability of doing away with those evils. 

 A small boiler may easily be fitted up to heat a single house without 

 taking out a deep stokehole ; but when pipes have to be extended to 

 various houses there are very few instances indeed w r here the heating 

 could be accomplished without some obstacle in the shape of footpaths, 

 &c, coming in the way. After referring to the almost universal cus- 

 tom of giving flow-pipes a continuous ascent from the boiler to their 

 extremity, and the practice of setting boilers below the level of the 

 return-pipe, Mr Hammond says : " Notwithstanding, we do not hesi- 

 tate to say that the circulation of the water in the pipes will be as 

 rapid with the bottom of the boiler one foot below the level of the 

 return-pipes as it would be supposing the boiler was sunk several 

 feet deeper." "With, all due respect for Mr Hammond's opinion, I 

 am not quite prepared to accept this statement. Some time ago 

 I had to see to the fitting of a boiler for the heating of a house 

 at some considerable distance off; and from the nature of the 

 ground, and to avoid excavating deeper than was absolutely re- 

 quired, the boiler was fixed at a level which made it necessary to 

 give the flow-pipe rather less than the usual rise. Otherwise there was 

 nothing different in the fitting from what is the usual mode. The 

 circulation in this boiler, when set to work, was very unsatisfactory, 

 and when hard fired kept blowing out at the air-pipes at their high- 

 est point. To keep the boiler from wasting its energy in this 

 direction I cut the air-pipe and stopped it with a small cork, and 

 when this was done there was a marked improvement in the circula- 



