I04 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April. 



partitions, and quite out of the way. (2) The heat 

 can be graduated to the greatest nicety, distance 

 from the boiler being of no consideration, those 

 farthest distant can be heated, without heating 

 those near at hand, if desired. Should you want 

 to keep a house cold, let the valves remain closed; 

 if not so cool, turn on one pipe ; warmer, two 

 pipes, and so on. (3) As to the dryness of the 

 heat from steam pipes — which some claim as a dis- 

 advantage — I must own that I fail to sec why the 

 heat radiated from iron pipes should be changed 

 at all in character as to moisture, whether the heat- 

 ing medium inside the pipe be steam or water. (4) 

 A most important advantage in steam-heating is 

 the great economy in labor. With five houses last 

 winter we required eight fires in the coldest 

 weather, quite distant from each other in location. 

 Now with more than double the amount of glass, 

 we have but two fires in the same boiler hole, side 

 by side. Then again, no fire can be more easily 

 managed, the automatic dampers work to a charm ; 

 indeed, as far as such a thing is possible, it seems 

 to me the apparatus is almost self-regulatmg. 

 With reference to economy of fuel, I consider it 

 compares very favorably with other means. I 

 should suppose that we burn about three tons of 

 coal per week, and we cover an area of over 

 20,000 square feet. Probably some of my older and 

 more experienced friends can better form a com- 

 parison in this particular than I. 



Much as I favor heating by steam, I do not 

 think that I can too strongly protest against en- 

 trusting the applying of it in greenhouses to the 

 care of those who do not fully comprehend the 

 pecuhar necessities of the case. Many good 

 steam-fitters, with much experience in applying 

 heat by steam to ordinary buildings, would fail 

 probably in giving satisfaction in greenhouses. 

 But properly applied, I think it cannot fail to 

 produce successful results, and the happy florist 

 who introduces it into his houses will doubtless 

 join me in thinking steam heating without a rival. 



MORE ABOUT STEAM HEATING OF 



GREENHOUSES. 



BY E. H. BOCHMAN, PITTSBURGH, PA. 



Two years ago I was prevailed upon to give an 

 account of my practical experience in the use of 

 steam-heating of greenhouses, partly urged by 

 some of my fellow florists, and partly feeling an- 

 noyed, to tell the truth, by noticing so many mis- 

 statements on the subject appearing in horticultural 

 publications in this country, as well as in England 



and Germany, most of which evidently bore the 

 stamp of ignorance and prejudice on the part of 

 their authors, while others, in their own description 

 of the apparatus, gave the key to its failure. Had 

 I known the avalanche of inquiring correspond- 

 ence I was about to precipitate upon myself, I 

 might well have hesitated ; but, on the whole, I 

 suppose the thorough agitation which the subject 

 has received ever since, has been of practical ben- 

 efit to the cause of floriculture. When I can state 

 that at this day every florist's establishment of any 

 considerable size about this city is heated by steam 

 and giving entire satisfaction, and when I am 

 furthermore crediWy informed that several other 

 cities are doing scarcely less, I may be justified in 

 the belief that this agitation has borne some fruit 

 already. It is but a day or two since I met one of 

 our prominent florists, to whom I had given some 

 slight assistance in the shape of advice in regard 

 to steam-heating. It happened to be the day after 

 the most blustering cold night we 'had this winter, 

 and the enthusiastic endorsement he accorded 

 steam was a caution to skeptics. 



The new system (I am only speaking of my own 

 experience with it) has now been on trial seven 

 seasons, and so far it has failed to verify in any 

 one particular the doleful predictions so prevalent 

 at the time when the original bantling began to be 

 talked about. Boilers and pipes have obstinately 

 refused to burst, and the plants grown with aid of 

 steam-heat somehow or other remain distressingly 

 healthy, other treatment being equal, as a matter 

 of course ; and what a difference in the attention 

 required 1 Let me give an illustration from practi- 

 cal experience in a place, the houses of which 

 formerly were heated by eight hot-water boilers in 

 severe weather. It used to keep one man on the 

 go continually to stoke his fires and watch his ther- 

 mometers ; one or more of the fires requiring to be 

 kept at the greatest attainable draft, while some 

 others performed their allotted duty with less fre- 

 quent attention. After a night of such labor the 

 man would be completely worn out with being 

 overheated at one time in front of his furnace, and 

 chilled at another in traveling to the next. Now 

 for the contrast. Instead of eight fires, located 

 perhaps three hundred feet apart, he keeps one ; 

 his valves have been regulated for the different 

 temperatures desired on each house, and a week's 

 practice teaches him what pressure of steam he 

 requires to offset any given outside temperature, 

 while his steam-gauge is right before his eye to tell 

 the tale. He takes an occasional glance at his 

 out-door thermometer, and finds, say an exceptional 



