1879.] ECONOMY OF FUEL. 429 



who could span the Menai Straits with a tubular or suspension bridge, 

 or who could lay a tunnel under the water from Dover to Calais. It is 

 simply a matter of people confining their sphere of operations to what 

 they thoroughly understand. Now this is not so in gardening, and this 

 is why so many of the misfortunes alluded to by Mr Makenzie occur 

 in horticultural building and heating (for really the two branches are 

 almost inseparably connected). The proper authority, the gardener, 

 is not consulted in the first place ; or if he is, it is when it is too 

 late. Let it be distinctly understood that I recognise, in the fullest 

 degree, the assistance that the experienced horticultural architect or 

 hot-water engineer can render to the gardener, and vice versa; but 

 however full the information of the former may be, he must have the 

 " key-note " from the gardener, otherwise he will signally fail in exe- 

 cuting his work, in nine cases out of ten, in a manner that will give 

 satisfaction afterwards. I know from experience that there are per- 

 sons who are often called upon to advise in horticultural matters 

 who have no practical knowledge of building or heating, and yet have 

 the courage, or rather the assumption, to usurp the gardener's duty, 

 because the gardener does not resent their approaches in that dignified 

 manner which would bring things to their proper level. For the bene- 

 fit of those who may not be acquainted with these gentlemen, I may 

 state that their modus operandi is as follows : — 



They get an introduction to a gentleman, perhaps through a friend, 

 and the wiles of diplomacy are set steadily to work to extract from the 

 gardener a practical base to work upon. I have found, as a rule, that 

 these "quacks" are extravagant in their habiliments, with appendages 

 which need not be described dangling about their raiment, and carry 

 politeness to the extreme during the first interview. Their object is 

 manifest enough, and it is a great strain upon patience even to " play " 

 with or listen to the chatter of these "dressed dolls" — the "toys" of hor- 

 ticulture. Now, if you divest these small gentry of their external para- 

 phernalia, you have nothing left but the skeleton of assumption in its 

 meanest shape. I once heard one of these worthies say that he pur- 

 chased the leading horticultural organ every week as a proof of the 

 intimate knowledge he had acquired in heating and building from a 

 perusal of the drawings contained therein. Half, if not more, of the 

 horticultural buildings of Great Britain are rendered comparatively use- 

 less from the above cause and others of a kindred nature. The very 

 vitals of horticulture are being eaten to the core, and yet there is not 

 a single voice raised in its defence from the experienced builder or 

 gardener. 



Mr Makenzie is quite right when he recommends to a body of prac- 

 tical men that the quantity of piping put in a house should be in pro- 

 portion to its cubical contents ; but surely Mr Makenzie must know 

 that practical gardeners know all this vastly better than he can tell 

 them, and are better able to decide as to the quantity of heat they 



