March 25, 1889. I 



JOURNAL OP HOllTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



20^ 



80° under a hand-glass, careful shading to prevent flagging, 

 and uniform moisture, are the essentials to success. 



A stock havin;; been obtained, the after-management is easy. 

 Stopping diminishes in size the discs of bloom, and if not 

 stopped they attain an ungainly height when started into growth 

 early in spring. To obviate as far as possible these disad- 

 vantages, the most simple and effectual plan is not to start 

 the plants so soon as usual. For instsnce, my plants are in a 

 dormant state, as dry as dust; were they potted at once they 

 would require much valuable room to grow them — room which 

 at this time is much in request for preparing seeds and cuttings 

 for flower-gardening purposes. IJjrmant then the plants will 

 remain until I am relieved from this pressure. In the first or 

 second week in May they will be shaken out and repotted in clean 

 pots. I put them at once in the pots in which they are to bloom, 

 but in the first instance lilling the pots not much more than 

 half full of soil, and top-dressing as required ; the roots come 

 freely upwards to feed. Every disturbance of the roots causes 

 certain injury to the foliage. It is on this account that top- 

 dressing is preferable to shifting and repotting. 



By late starting three advantages are gained : first, utilising 

 useful space at a pressing time ; second, a reduction in length 

 of stem ; and third, the arrival of warm genial weather end 

 increased sunlight render the plants less liable to receive any 

 check by cold draughts, and they break more strongly and grow 

 naturally more sturdy and short jointed than in the closer 

 atmosphere which is necessary six weeks or two months earlier 

 in the season. 



I should have said that the plants are cut down to the pot 

 previous to starting, except when specially required to produce 

 cuttings for increase of stock. 



They are placed in a Cucumber or Melon frame, and allowed 

 to remain as long as they and everything else have breathing 

 room. By the time tliey are becoming too crowded the early 

 crop of Melons are off. The soil is taken out of the frame, 

 the heating material forked up, and a little fresh mixed with 

 it to set it heating, a few ashes put in, and the plants 

 placed thinly in the frame and quite close to the glass. The 

 frame is slightly raised weekly as the plants advance in height, 

 keeping them at all times as close to the glass as possible. 

 Here they remain through the summer until the nights become 

 too cold. Air is carefully admitted, and watering regularly 

 attended to. If they once become too dry the foliage is spoiled, 

 and, on the other hand, if the soil become sour by too much 

 wet, the same results ensue. Water must always be given in 

 a tepid state. 



The soil used is composed of two-thirds rather light turfy 

 loam, and one-third peat and well-decayed cow dung, sharpened 

 with sand and kept open by plenty of broken charcoal. Top- 

 dressings may be of a richer compost. Good drainage is of 

 paramount importance, and must not be neglected. When 

 showing for bloom, very weak and perfectly clear manure water 

 from soot and sheep dung, will be sufficiently stimulating and 

 beneficial. 



For very dwarf plants, cuttings, as before mentioned, maybe 

 put in all through the season up to September, and bloomed 

 in the same small pots. They will be tiny plants, with but 

 small heads of bloom, but still valuable for cutting from, and 

 for filling jardinets, hanging baskets, and other modes of 

 decoration. Last year I started some in June, which did well. 

 I am not so particular as to time as to seeing clearly before 

 me circumstances permitting a continuous season of growth 

 without crowding or check from any cause. — J. W. 



STOPPING BLEEDING OF VINES. 

 I SEND you a simple and effective mode. After pruning, if 

 there are any signs of bleeding, I take whole Potatoes, into which 

 I insert the ends of the laterals of the Vines, and allow them 

 to remain on till all danger of bleeding is past. I am aware 

 there is nothing new in this method, as I have practised it, 

 and my father before me, for many years, and have found it 

 answer well. Being so simple it may be a useful hint to 

 amateurs. — Wirkswokih Hall. 



FRUIT PROSPECTS. 

 After a week of bitter weather of snow and piercing winds, 

 and on three mornings the thermometer down to 20', I have 

 this morning (March Kith) made a careful examination of the 

 fmit blossoms. Peaches and Apricots unprotected are mostly 

 destroyed ; under CMswick netting partially killed, but abun- 



danoe left to insure a orop. Pears are apparently mnch in- 

 jured, being very forward, but a microscopical examination 

 nhows the organs of fructification fresh and sound, so that up 

 to the present time I apprehend no serious injury to this frnit. 

 Apples, Plums, Cherries, and small fruits, are uninjured, being 

 not sufficiently advanced. If the weather be favourable, 1869 

 will bo prolific in fruit in this locality. — J. WnioHT, QardencT 

 to Hull. A. Leslie Melville, Lincoln, 



HOTHOUSE BOIJ.EUS. 



TuF, readers of " our Journal " will, many of them, remem- 

 ber I have long held the opinion that there is not a really good 

 boiler yet invented for the heating of glass houses, and visiteis 

 to Chilwell have often known me point out what to me appeared 

 their defects. It would seem that the makers of boilers have 

 ignored the fact that Hame is the hottest part of a fire ; that to 

 heat water with the best effect, heat should bo applied from 

 below ; that to secure a good draught a sufficient body of air 

 must bo admitted into the flue ; that to insure a quick circula- 

 tion the return pipes must bo colder than the flow pipes. 



Take the first point. Can it be right that the flame of a 

 lire intended to heat a large body of water should strike 

 against a brick wall, as is the case in almost all boilers, or be 

 made to pass between three or four upright tubes directly into 

 the flue, as is the case with tubular boilers? Surely heat 

 might be better employed than in the gradual destruction oi 

 fire bricks ? 



Again, might we not as well toast our kettles before the fire^ 

 in place of putting them on the fire, as expect to get much 

 effect from the side flues of a saddle boiler '.' When a fine is 

 taken over a boiler, what possible efl'cct can it have '; With 

 narrow side flues admitting a small body of air, the chimney 

 must be close to the fire, and thus much heat is wasted, ^he 

 saddle boilers are always set with narrow side flues to increase 

 their heating powers, and the proportion of heat utilised to 

 that wasted always reminds me of the water ram, where the 

 minimum of effect is produced by the maximum of power. I 

 believe if many perrons were to put a thermometer into the 

 tops of their chimneys, or even to hold their hands over the top 

 of one, they would be astonished at the loss of heat. 



A quick circulation is essential to the economical employ- 

 ment of water as a carrier of heat. As soon as water is ex- 

 panded by heat it ought lo rise gradually to the farthest point, 

 and as gradually descend from that point into the boiler. The 

 rapidily of the circulation will depend on the heat of the fire, 

 the amount of boiler surface exposed to its action, and the 

 difference between the temperature of the flow pipe as it leaves 

 the boiler, and that of the return pipe as it enters the boiler. 

 For the return pipes to have to pass through a mass of red-hot 

 bricks, as is generally the case, must tend to check the circula- 

 tion of the water. This was, I think, first pointed out by Mr. 

 McNab, of Edinburgh, and his boiler was intended to remedy 

 this evil, but it has the very grave defect of requiring five or 

 six courses of brickwork between the boiler and the fire bars, 

 being in this respect inferior to a common saddle boiler. 



I have at present at work the common saddle boiler, Appleby's 

 improved saddle boiler with check draught, McNab's boiler, 

 Stephenson's conical boiler, Thomson's retort boiler, and 

 Meiklejohn's's X boiler, and none of them is satisfactory to me. 

 As a proof how defective they are, the x boiler, which I think 

 with all its faults is the best of the lot, has been more than 

 doubled in power by a few additions, and I can now absolntely 

 boil the water in 1500 feet of 4-ineh pipes. 



If it be objected, " You say nothing about tubular boilers," 

 my answer is, I would not have one for a gift. There is no 

 doubt if you have one large enough to hold a great amount of fire, 

 it will heat a great body of water, and so it ought. A boiler 

 costing from £aO to £G0, and costing as much to fix it, ought 

 to do something, particularly when fed with coke. I heard the 

 other day that the Royal Horticultural Society received one as 

 a present, and had to pay £30 for fixing it. The deep holes 

 required by these boilers are in many places a most serions 

 objection. The expensive fuel is another great objection with 

 those who can get cobble and slack at a low price. The large 

 number of joints, all liable to give way, render them very un- 

 safe ; but besides all this, I never could see what were their 

 advantages, except being large enough to hold an immense 

 body of fire. There is really very little surface exposed to the 

 action of the fire, and still less to the flame. 



What, then, do we require in a boiler ? That it eball not be 



