1879.J ROUND LONDON. 379 



J. H. has tried the old system, and also what we may call the new system, and 

 given each a fair trial. Has Mr Inglis done as much ? 



"What I use for a boiler is six of Cannel's flues. The space for the fire is 

 rather large, and surrounded by fire-brick. This may appear wasteful ; but on 

 trial it was found to evaporate 6.8 lb. water per lb. of coke consumed. Not 

 very bad, compared with steam-boilers. I name this, as some may be disposed 

 to doubt what I stated above — viz., that there is to the touch scarcely a per- 

 ceptible difference of temperature between the bottom and top of boiler when 

 heated to 200° Fahr., and disconnected from the houses by closing the valves. 



J. HlSCOCKS. 



The Mills, Swallowclife, Salisbury. 



[We think the points at issue are very important, or we would not have 

 devoted so much space to their discussion; and we hope that all irrelevant 

 matter will be as much as possible avoided by our correspondents. A few 

 facts as to the practical working of the different s-ystems are worth volumes of 

 speculative argument. — Ed.] 



ROUND LONDON. 



A friend who went up to London with me to "do" the show at Kilburn, 

 declared, after a day's wading amongst the acres of mud, that the mud of itself 

 was worth going four hundred miles to see. For myself, after looking at the 

 collections of manures from various firms, the collections of seeds, which were 

 extremely interesting, and the horticultural buildings and other appliances, I 

 thought I had had about enough of it, and left the glories of Kilburn for more 

 congenial fields. The wretched weather of the present year has made it one of 

 the very worst for inspecting gardens, for, despite the utmost care and energy of 

 the gardener, the continued rain and cold have defeated even his most determined 

 efforts. Kitchen-gardens as a rule were very weedy, crops backward and poor 

 in quality ; flower-gardens obviously failures, more especially so where many 

 of the more tender subjects, as Coleus and Alternanthera, are used. In many 

 instances these latter were either entirely stripped of their leaves, or at the 

 very least badly damaged, the Coleus in some cases dying off entirely. Sub- 

 tropical plants were peculiarly wretched looking, tattered with winds and spotted 

 by hail. In many kitchen-gardens the Potato crop will never be worth lifting : 

 where the plants are strong, disease had commenced its work on the shavvs. 

 Turning to fruits, bush and soft fruits are plentiful, but the Strawberries must 

 rot unless a decided change to warm sunny weather supervenes directly. Plums 

 are a failure, Apples and Pears the same, except in the case of the never-failing 

 sorts which it is folly to ignore so much. Amongst indoor crops, mildew is 

 somewhat common on Strawberries, Peaches, and Grape- Vines, a damp stagnant 

 atmosphere being wonderfully productive of that pest in a season like this. In 

 passing through some score or more of gardens, I was forcibly impressed with 

 the healthy, robust, and clean appearance of the stove-plants in those gardens, 

 where a cooler temperature was the rule, as against those where a hot steaming 

 atmosphere obtained. It might have been that in the one case the plants could 

 be inspected with enjoyment, whilst in the other a few minutes' steaming was 

 certain to produce a headache, and a consequent hurried run through the houses, 

 leaving thereby quite a different impression from the leisurely inspection in the 

 former. Leaving out any reference to the London Parks, notes are made of some 

 of the more interesting gardens visited. One of the first of these inspected was 



