504 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



them to commit errors and absurdities that would make them hide their heads 

 in confusion, could they only "see themselves as others see them." Some 

 writers presume upon their age and experience on some particular line, that has 

 rendered them oblivious to everything else, to scold everybody who differs 

 from them, no matter on what ; while others are quite as presumptuous and 

 dogmatic upon even less experience and very slender abilities, either as teachers 

 or practitioners. The miserable sophistry and worse logic displayed in nu- 

 merous instances is truly pitiable. Very accurate reasoning and clearness of 

 expression is not to be expected from men who have not been trained to think 

 logically and methodically; but it would be more to the credit of those to whom 

 these remarks apply if they would but concentrate their attention in an 

 attempt to tell in an intelligible manner what they do know, and are sure 

 about, instead of dealing in vague generalities and platitudes which serve no 

 purpose and only bring the writer into contempt. 



I am pleased to see, Mr Editor, that you have at last got out of 

 hot water. You should really make allowance for the capacities of your 

 readers, and not tax them too severely. In attempting to gather up the 

 threads of the discourse in a sequent manner, our mind was fast approaching 

 a chaotic condition, and we have, perforce, been compelled to discontinue the 

 study. Before we begin again we mean to follow the example of Descartes, 

 and get all former ideas and impressions effaced from our mind, and begin with 

 a clean state. How we have commiserated the Editor over the ' ' copy " ! There 

 was a rumour abroad that he had to fly to the solitudes of the Lake district 

 about the most acute period of the discussion, in order to restore his mental equi- 

 librium. If we have been wrongly informed, Mr Editor, we beg your pardon. 

 Now let us see how far on we have got now. For the last twenty years or 

 more these periodical hot-water storms have occurred with the utmost regular- 

 ity, and scourged every horticultural paper in the land, until the subject now 

 frightens editors about as much as the " Peronospora infesteus," and the 

 " Resting Spore," pace W. G. S. Some twenty years ago, or rather more — for 

 we speak from memory — Mr Thomson of Dalkeith wrote, in the ' Scottish Gar- 

 dener,' that he could heat something like 500 or 600 feet of 4-inch piping in 

 about an hour and forty minutes, by a moderate-sized retort boiler. In other 

 words, from the time the fire was lit till the heat could be felt in the return- 

 pipe close to the holier, 100 minutes elapsed. The pipes were arranged on 

 various levels in the usual way, and heated numerous divisions. Ye senior 

 and junior hot-water wranglers, have ye accomplished more than this? What 

 is the practical outcome of your hair-splitting disquisitions on hot- water cir- 

 culation?— a question that has been settled long ago by eminent engineers and 

 others, who at least understand the matter. Discussions on this subject, as in 

 the present instance, have generally been based on the question of sunken 

 stoke-holes, which, it seems taken for granted, must be avoided if possible. 

 But are sunken stoke-holes such an unmixed evil ? We know gardens where all 

 the stoke-holes have been kept under ground by special desire. Nor did they 

 cost more than above-ground structures would have done ; and what would 

 have been an obnoxious eyesore was abolished. 



While on this subject it may be mentioned that means have been discovered 

 whereby petroleum can be burnt effectively under boilers at a cost about equal 

 to coal, but in a way that presents important advantages over the latter. More 

 will likely be heard of the discovery by-and-by, if it accomplishes all that is 

 claimed for it ; but as yet we believe it has only been tried under steam-boilers. 



This has been a most unfortunate year, so far, for the weather prophets. It 



