1879.] HEATING BY HOT WATER. 209 



fruits may be clearly traced to the system of cultivation above referred 

 to, whilst small fruits of inferior quality are as clearly traceable to star- 

 vation and an inferior system of cultivation generally. 



W. Hinds. 



HEATING BY HOT WATER. 



Having for the last few years spent considerable time in experiment- 

 ing on the circulation of hot water (as an amateur), I was pleased to 

 read Mr Hammond's remarks in the February number of ' The Gar- 

 dener,' and I unhesitatingly endorse the same, as they agree with the 

 results of my experience. His remarks are so lucid, that it would be 

 impossible for me to render them more intelligible had I felt inclined. 



This season I have made an alteration from the old system to that 

 described by Mr Hammond — viz., the water, immediately it leaves 

 the boiler, runs down an incline to the houses to be heated, and the 

 pipes round the houses are on a level, and drop about 13 inches on 

 entering the boiler. The valves (Messenger's) are fixed to the returns 

 about a foot distant from the boiler. Any person interested would be 

 pleased at the rapid circulation denoted by the thermometrical read- 

 ings during its circuit, and the slight variation of temperature between 

 the water in the flow and return as it enters the boiler, compared with 

 others where the flow rises above the level of the boiler and then 

 drops as a return. 



Any persons who doubt this statement are welcome to give me a 

 call and judge for themselves. 



J. H. 



The Mills, Swallowscliffe, 

 Salisbury, "Wilts. 



In last month's ' Gardener ' two of your correspondents question the 

 correctness of my statements in ' The Gardener ' for February in refer- 

 ence to the above subject ; but after reading carefully what they say, I 

 fail to see that they prove any of my statements wrong. Mr Inglis is 

 of opinion that I " make too much of the inclination of the water to 

 form a returnrcurrent in the Jloiv-ipipe, and too little of the fact that the 

 water in the return-pipes is very much heavier, — that this heavy column 

 is pulling, as it were, a lighter one, and at the same time is pushing it 

 from below." Now, as regards this sentence, I may say that I consider 

 both columns are equally concerned in the process of circulation ; but 

 I object to the water in the lighter becoming colder than it was at the 

 time of leaving the boiler until the highest point of the apparatus is 

 reached. As by it doing so before reaching, this point, the relative 

 difference in the weight of the water in the two columns is lessened, 

 and, consequently, circulation is retarded. Mr Inglis next says, " that 



