December 16, 1905 



HORTICULTURE 



AFTER ADJOURNMENT. 



Tho plant decorations in tlie con- 

 servatory of Mrs. B. P. Cheney, Sr., 

 which formed the subject of our 

 frontispiece in issue of December 10, 

 were furnished and arranged by John 



Our New York contempoi'ary. editori- 

 ally commenting upon the proposed 

 S. A. F. exhibition at Boston, states 

 that "the Boston people have expressed 

 themselves as being averse to the pro- 

 ject, so far as the selection of that 

 city was concerned and have suggested 

 New York as the proper place for a 

 beginning to be made along this line." 

 We would respectfully ask our es- 

 teemed contemporary to whom it refers 

 as "the Boston people." 



OUT OF THE BEAN POD. 



I forget who it was that said that it 

 would take a surgical operation to get 

 a joke into a Scotchman's head. Prob- 

 ably he had in mind the stale jokes. 

 But give that same canny Scot a good 

 thing and it don't take him long to 

 take it in. I always have been rather 

 skeptical of new things, but an invita- 

 tion last week to the place presided 

 over by Mr. Matthews at Harrison 

 Square, to see something new-, acted 

 as a magnet and drew me thither to 

 see the workings of the Holly-Castle 

 Circulator. I give Mr. Matthews credit 

 for having some of the best and clean- 

 est stocks of carnations and mig- 

 nonette I have seen for sonie time, but 

 I was all attention when shown the 

 circulator, and when told what it 

 would accomplish, I had my doubts. 



Sir Isaac Newton saw the apple fall 

 from the tree and gave us the theory 

 and fact about the laws of gravity; but 

 when hot water heating can be accom- 

 plished with the best results without 

 the aid of gravity, then it is an inter- 

 esting thing. I will try to explain 

 what it really is: 



An ocean steamship is governed by 

 a propeller; driven one way, that ship 

 moves forward, driven the opposite, 

 she goes backward. That is the prin- 

 ciple of this machine. It is a propeller 

 principle drawing the water from the 

 return pipe, forcing it into the boiler, 

 and keeping the water circulating 

 without being obliged to wait till the 

 water gets hot and expands in the nat- 

 ural way. It is placed at the lowest 

 point a few feet distant from the boil- 

 er, direct-connected to a 1-6 horse- 

 power electric motor, costing in this 

 case, 1 1-2 cents per hour to run. The 

 cheaper electricity can be bought, the 

 less it will cost to run the machine. 

 To understand it better: The cost of 

 running two 16-candle power incan- 

 descent lamps would be the same as 

 running the machine. Simplicity of 

 construction is a very potent feature- 

 there is nothing to get out of order. 

 A No. .3 is used here, making 3000 

 revolutions per minute, delivering 150 

 gallons in the same time to the boiler. 



While I was getting this information, 

 Mr. Matthews was starting the fires up 

 to heat the water, so as to show it 



started the thermometer on the flow 

 pipe in the boiler room showed 17n 

 degrees. On the return, just below 

 that of flow, it registered 85 degrees. 

 At the furthest point distant to the 

 end of the house— 200 feet — the water 

 was 100 degrees, and at the end of 

 eight minutes' running, by watch, 

 there was just six degrees difference 

 in the temperature of the water in the 

 How and that of llic ictiini in the 

 boiler room. The cii-rnhii i<jii liad Ijeen 

 so swift that it had Iuwi.mI ilir tem- 

 perature in the flow, and rai.SL'd it in 

 the return, with a slight variation of 

 temperature — six degrees — which is a 

 very small loss for radiation, when one 

 takes into consideration the size of 

 house. 50 feet wide. I was told that 

 with two boilers running and drafts 

 wide open, the house could barely be 

 kept up to the desired temperature, 

 but with drafts all closed and the cir- 

 culator running, it can be kept higher, 

 with less consumption of coal, and 

 when little heat is wanted the circu- 

 lator can be kept running so as not to 

 bring back the whole volume of water, 

 but just enough to circulate slowly. 

 There is a controlling device for this 

 purpose. 



I should advise all florists to make 

 it a point to go and see this machine. 

 I am sure Mr. Matthews will be pleased 

 to show it to any one interested. 

 Those using steam as well as hot water 

 will find something to their advantage 

 and will feel well repaid for their visit, 

 as it can be connected to steam re- 

 turns, thus saving dollars at present 

 wasted. I don't think the gentleman 

 who got up this patent need lay awake 

 nights, if all his machines work as well 

 as the one I saw. Both he, the florists 

 and others who may use them will 

 reap rich benefits. 



R. T. McGORUM. 



OUR FRONTISPIECE. 



Our frontispiece shows a fine bed of 

 forty species and varieties of ficus as 

 planted at the Botanic Garden at 

 Washington during the past season. 

 On reading the list appended hereto, 

 one is impressed with the fact that 

 only one or two of tliese are at all 

 familiar to the public, although it is 

 reasonable to assume that many others 

 named possess the qualifications need- 

 ed to make them popular as house 

 plants. One of the practical uses of 

 such a group as we illustrate is the 

 opportunity it affords to commercial 

 plant growers for noting the compara- 

 tive value of the different species and 

 selecting from among them such as 

 show characteristics liable to win 

 popularity, and are also of sufficient 

 rapidity of growth and ease of propa- 

 gation to make their multiplication 

 and dissemination easy and inex- 

 pensive. The bed contained the fol- 

 lowing named sorts: 



Ficus lanceolata, stipulata arborea, 

 elastica, elastica variegata, Cunning- 

 hamii. lucida, oppositifolius. Cooperii, 

 pyrifera. Parcellii, aurea, macrophylla, 

 quercifolius. scandens, fuscata, nitida, 

 sycamorus, venosa, carica, nympha-fo- 

 lius. religiosa, indica, racemosa, ferru- 

 ginea. altissima, macrocarpa, dealbata. 

 infectoria, lutescens, radicans major 

 variegata. radicans variegata, cerasi- 

 formis. pandurata, brasiliensis, Chau- 

 vrieri. Afzellii, repens, acuminata, bar- 

 bat a and comosa. 



ELLEN WEISS: AN APPRECIA- 

 TION. 



All old lady gatlicriMl to her fathers! 

 Tliat's all, so say the unthinking. 

 Ellen Weiss, widow of Thomas Weiss, 

 passed away at her home in German- 

 town, Phila., Dec. 11th, and was buried 

 in Ivy Hill cemetery on Dec* 13th. 

 Such is the commonplace announce- 

 ment we read in the obituary, but no 

 commonplace identity is referred to. 

 101 len Weiss was ihe type of woman 

 that is all too rare in these degenerate 

 days: a mother and a manager! 

 President Roosevelt would have de- 

 lighted in such a personality. Moses 

 Rice, who knew her for twenty-five 

 years, tells me of her wonderful abil- 

 ity to set up the finest kind of house- 

 K. piiiu 1,11 li.r husband and children 



V I : :■ nine time conducting a 



11 i; 1 I 1)11 III. s at the old railroad de- 

 |mi III tic 1 niaiitown. I suspect a dim- 

 ming of the eyes and think I detected 

 a tremor in the voice of the narrator 

 as he told me this, and I also caught 

 the gleam of enjoyment as he told me 

 of her old-fashioned German distrust 

 of banks and how she stored the 

 money away in the center of carpet 

 rag-balls. Of her shrewdness in buy- 

 ing, one instance in particular, having 

 to do with Edwin Lonsdale, when he 

 first began growing fuchias 25 years 

 ago, <s suflScient to indicate her mana- 

 gerial quality. She would haggle and 

 iiargain with the young greenhorn un- 

 til a quarter seemed a shameful price 

 to him! But her conscience never 

 troubled her a mite when $1.00 and 

 $1 50 was raked in for the same thing 

 later in the day. When Eugene and 

 Harry Weiss, her sons, got established 

 in business on 8th street, Philadelphia, 

 and Hatboro, she retired from the 

 commercial arena, so that few of the 

 \ounger generation knew much of her 

 redoubtable and admirable character. 

 Personally, I agree with the President 

 that the proper place for the woman 

 is the home. But there are a few 

 exceptional characters that can keep 

 their homes and at the same time con- 

 duct a business too, and to such an 

 one — God bless her! — we must all take 

 off our hats and acknowledge her 

 worth. Ellen Weiss has left an honor- 

 able record of duty well done and a 

 fine example for her posterity to emu- 

 late; than which no finer thing can 

 be said of anv one when the final story 

 is told. GEORGE C. WATSON. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM SCRAPS. 



Golden Chadwick is a better sort 

 than Yellow Chadwick and stands 

 among the finest of the late varieties. 



Mme. Jean Roset is a splendid in- 

 curved flower, nearly same color as 

 Wm. Duckham but carries about three 

 times as many petals. 



Montreal reports an increased popu- 

 larity for chrysanthemums this season. 

 The supply has not been equal to thf 

 demand, and good flowers have brought 

 big prices. 



The Country Calendar has been 

 consolidated with Country Life in 

 America, and all editorial and ex- 

 change correspondence should be sent 

 to Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 



