1880. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



233 



man, or even a boy, can make live or six hundred 

 in a day. I dry them on a Hue in the green- 

 house. In two nights they are fit for use. I 

 generally make mine in January, when heat is 

 needed. Any person who wishes to see the pots 

 orplants growing in them can do so at the residence 

 of Mrs. Admiral Dupont, Louviers, near Wil- 

 mington, Delaware Anj' person who wishes to 

 have full information can obtain it at very little 

 cost by applying to Robert Trotter, Dupont box, 

 Wilmington, Del. 



STEAM HEATING OF GREENHOUSES. 



BY E. if. BOCHMAN. PITTSBURG, PA. 



I have frequently been spoken to by friends to 

 give people interested in horticultui'al progress, 

 and especially in the construction and heating 

 of greenhouses, the benefit of the results obtained 

 by my method of heating greenhouses by low- 

 pressure steam. 



As the last two numbers of the Monthly con- 

 tain articles on the subject, or rather against the 

 practicability of that mode of heating, by Mr. 

 Josiah Salter, of Rochester, N. Y , I thought best 

 to take up Mr. Salter's arguments point by point, 

 and prove their entire fallacy by actual results 

 obtained during four continued seasons in one 

 instance, and two seasons in another, on a scale 

 sufficiently extensive to prove what I claim, viz., 

 that a properly constructed heating apparatus 

 by low-pressure s'.eam is: first, absolutely safe; 

 second, far more eflScient than any other ; third, 

 economical of fuel as against any other; fourth, 

 economical of attention, neither requiring an 

 engineer, nor even as much attention as the hot 

 water system ; fifth, in cleanline.ss it will com- 

 pare favorably v/ith any other mode ; sixth, one 

 of the greatest of its merits is the ease of regula- 

 tion to any' desired temperature to a degree 

 which we know no other mode of heating is 

 capable of; so much so, that you may keep any 

 number of houses, each at a diff'erent degree of 

 temperature from any other, though all heated | 

 by one boiler; seventh, that the quality and 

 health of the plants grown by low-pressure steam 

 challenge comparison with those grown by any 

 other method : eighth, that you can heat any 

 quantity of glass, no matter how uneven the 

 levels of your houses, or whether thej' are con- 

 nected or not, from one central point; ninth, 

 that with all the forementioned points in favor 

 of low-pressure steam, the first cost of the appar- 

 atus is considerably less than that of any good 



hot water apparatus able to do the same work, 

 which difference increases '.vith the extent of the 

 space to be heated; or in other words, the greater 

 the amount of heating to be done, the greater 

 the saving in first cost of apparatus as compared 

 to hot-water. 



Before I proceed to substantiate and prove the 

 above-n)entioned points, let me state some actual 

 results obtained. In the fall of 1876 I built the 

 first of my low-pressure steam apparatus for the 

 greenhouses now operated by Messrs. R. C. Pat- 

 terson & Bro., on Ellsworth av., of this city; they 

 contain 9000 feet of glass, all with one exception 

 low span-roof houses, 12 feet wide, 7 feet high at 

 ridge-pole, walls about 3i to 4 feet high, used for 

 general assortment of bedding plants; one house 

 50 feet long, 12 feet wide, about 11 feet high, used 

 for tall plants, smilax, etc. About one-half of 

 the above area is kept in winter at a temperature 

 of 45° to 50°, the balance from 60° upward. This 

 has stood four seasons' use without the expendi- 

 ture of one cent for repairs, excepting the re- 

 placing of a smoke stack by a brick chimney; 

 it has been operated from first to last by ordin- 

 arily intelligent greenhouse hands ; it has from 

 the beginniirg worked like a charm ; the plants 

 sent out from the establishment certainly invite 

 comparison, and the amount of fuel has been so 

 trifling that the Messrs. Patterson have not 

 thought it worth while to use any device for 

 taking the condensed steam back to the boiler, 

 (a sixteen horse power tubular) continually 

 wasting the same into the sewer while taking a 

 steady stream of cold water into the boiler to re- 

 place the condensation. The establishment con- 

 sumed forty-five tons of bituminous coal (prin- 

 cipally nut coal and slack) at a cost of $95.00 

 during the season of '79 and '80 ; in an ordinary 

 severe season they use of course proportionately 

 more, and from 60 to 70 tons of bituminous coal 

 is probably a high average. 



During 1878, I erected the establishment now 

 ONt-ned and operated by Messrs. A. R. Reneman 

 & Bro.. of this city, it contain.^ upward of 30,000 

 feet of glass, constructed as follows : 



Five low span-roof houses 12 x 100, 7;- feet high 

 under ridge-pole; three forcing houses, each 

 24 x 132 feet, built on a side hill, one above the 

 other, about 12 feet high under ridge-pole; one 

 house 24 x 112, built on terraces with the grade 

 of the hill, will average 14 feet high ; one low 

 house 10 x 132 feet; one low house 6 x 132 feet. 

 This concern makes a specialty of growing cut 

 flowers, and devotes large areas to stove plants 



