308 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ AprU 28, 1868. 



till it is required to protect tlie ripe fruit from waspa, Sea. The 

 foliage is closely watched, and is at once freed from any 

 noxious blight or insect by which it may be assailed. To this 

 careful attention to the health of the foliage, together with a 

 vigorous root action, may be attributed in a great measure the 

 robust health and noble proportions of the tree. 



The soil of the garden is a heavy loam of an average depth 

 of 3 feet, resting on a subsoil, or rather a substratum, of shat- 

 tery rock. 



Although the borders are not of uniform width, neither are 

 they all treated aUke, some being cropped heavily, and, I may 

 also add, manured heavily, yet it may prove interesting if I 

 give the dimensions and treatment of the border in which the 

 tree referred to is planted. The border is 8 feet wide, it is 

 well manured every autumn with good rotten two-year-old 

 dung, and is slightly forked over ; in fact, this operation may 

 be rightly termed a shallow surface-dressing, as the soil is 

 only stirred sufficiently to cover the manure, with which a 

 little charcoal is occasionally introduced. Liquid manure is 

 also freely administered as the fruit is sweUing. Some winter 

 Lettuces are usually planted close to the wall, and occasionally 

 a few flowers may be seen on the front part of the border, but 

 nothing approaching to a crop is ever attempted. The border 

 is the reverse of porous, being stirred as little as possible, 

 and also having a narrow pathway at about 18 inches from the 

 wall, which is trodden hard, and is never dug up. In front of 

 the border, and running parallel with it, is a coal-ash walk 

 G feet wide, and into the firm loamy soil under this walk the 

 roots of the fruit trees have, doubtless, penetrated. 



After having written the foregoing remarks I need hardly 

 say that 1 fully endorse the views advanced by Mr. NichoUs in 

 page 271, and I will only add, that could " Observer " but see 

 these trees, it would materially alter his views as to any debility 

 of constitution arising from that exposure to our changeable 

 climate which trees may be said to undergo that have no other 

 protection than an open wall and a simple coping board. — 

 Edward Luckhdest, Egerton Uonse Gardens, Kent. 



HOTHOUSE BOILERS. 



The discussions which have lately appeared in the horticul- 

 tural papers on the subject of boilers is a proof that opinion is 

 much divided as to the merits of those in use, and also, I think, 

 that there is much dissatisfaction with the working of many 

 of them. I have for years contended that no one boiler yet 

 offered for sale as a good one, is anything like as good as it 

 might be. 



A perfect boiler ought to bum any kind of fuel — coal, slack, 

 or cinders. It ought to have wide-enough side flues to cause a 

 good draught, even if the chimney be 100 feet or more from 

 the fire. It ought to sit down to the firebars, so as to require 

 no bricks under it. The return pipes ought to enter the boiler 

 without passing through brickwork. Is it necessary to prove 

 these propositions ? The diii'erence of from Is. to 10s. a-ton 

 in fuel is surely a great consideration. I find it so with thir- 

 teen houses heated with hot water, some of them 100 feet long. 

 Using nothing but cobbles and slack the cost is considerable, 

 but it would be more than doubled if coal were used. A boiler 

 with narrow side flues will bum well if the chimney be close 

 to the fire, but what a waste of heat there is in such a case ! 

 Why should not the flue run the length of the house ? If the 

 draught is good and no damper is used there is no danger. 

 No wonder flues are dreaded if dampers are employed ; to im- 

 prison explosive gases in a flue is to invite an accident. There 

 are two flues here 100 feet long, and one nearly 200 feet ; it is 

 wonderful what economisers of heat they are. 



That a boiler ought to enclose a fire is self-evident ; when 

 set on bricks, heat is wasted and bricks burnt away ; this is 

 more particularly the case where the flame impinges on bricks 

 in place of strikmg part of the boiler. If the return pipes 

 pass through a mass of hot bricks return currents are set up, 

 and the flow of water into the boiler is much impeded. 



Now, what boiler fulfils all these conditions ? The tubular 

 boilers so often crack, that if no other objection could be raised 

 against them, I should decline to use them ; but they require 

 coke — an expensive fuel, are surrounded by bricks through 

 which the return pipes must pass, and necessitate a very deep 

 stokehole, which in wet situations entails a great expense in 

 drainage, or, if not drained, it must be so constructed and 

 covered as to keep out water. The saddle boiler presents a 

 good concave surface to the action of the fire in the first in- 



stance, and its sides come well down to the firebars ; it will 

 also bum any kind of fuel, but the flame wastes its power on 

 a mass of brickwork, through which the return pipes are 

 obliged to pass, and the side flues add little to its efficiency. 

 To obtain as much heat from the side flues as possible, they 

 are constructed very narrow to make the flame lap the boiler, 

 as the bricklayers say ; thus, unless the chimney is close to 

 the fire there is a deficiency of draught. 



McNab's presents a surface of iron, backed by water, to the 

 action of the flame, and the pipes go direct into the boiler 

 without passing through bricks — two great advantages, but it 

 requires several courses of bricks on each side, and is too far 

 from the bars. 



The X boiler, made at Dalkeith, is, in my opinion, the best 

 boiler out ; the under surface is nearly as good as the dome of 

 the saddle, and the side flues present a good surface above the 

 flame, whilst from their size they will admit air enough for a 

 long flue ; in other respects it is as faulty as others, as it must 

 be surrounded and raised on brickwork. I have for years 

 urged Mr. Foster, who builds my houses, to bring out a boiler 

 of his own invention, which is intended to remedy all these 

 defects ; but he has preferred to improve the X boiler, as being 

 the least trouble to himself. In this I do not think he has 

 consulted his own interests, but he has made the X boiler as 

 nearly perfect as possible. Two castings containing water, and 

 of course connected with the boiler, come down to the firebars, 

 and a box of water is also provided for the flames to play upon, 

 and into which the pipes bring the return water direct, at a 

 lower level than the boiler ; the fire is thus surrounded entirely 

 by water, and no bricks are exposed to its action. This im- 

 proved boiler is now at work in my new Orange house, 100 feet 

 by 30, containing about 1300 feet of -l-inch pipes, and I could 

 almost cook a chop on them. I am satisfied it is twice as 

 powerful as any boiler I have, whilst it bums much less fuel 

 in proportion to its work. I should be happy to show it to any 

 one interested. — J. R. Pearson, Chilwell. 



PLANTS INHALING NOXIOUS GASES. 



While I fully appreciate the able comment of the Editors 

 on my article, in page 276, there is a portion of it on which I 

 cannot remain totally silent, inasmuch as it gives the direct 

 negative to the very foundation of my argument— viz., that 

 suffocation is in reality poisoning. The words which I take 

 exception to are these, "He assumed and still assumes that 

 suffocation is the same as poisoning. If so, the man who is 

 hung is poisoned ! Now, unquestionably this similarity is not 

 admitted." In reply I will merely give two extracts, which will 

 certainly show that the similarity is admitted in language 

 most unequivocal. Gregory, in his " Practice of Medicine," 

 says — " Death by pure asphyxia is attributable to venous 

 blood acting as a poison. The sort of death described as be- 

 ginnipg at the lungs takes place not only in hanging and 

 drowning, but by cutting the spinal cord in the upper part of 

 the neck, whereby the muscles of respiration are paralysed." 

 The date of the work from which this extract is taken, is 1846. 

 It was then in the sixth edition. The next extract is from 

 "Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence." It is dated 1861, and up 

 to that time there had been issued from the press 15,750 copies. 

 On page 797 it thus reads — "In following common language, 

 the medical jurist is compelled to apply the term suffocation to 

 another variety of death — viz., that of poisoning by gases. 

 Thus, if a person die from the effect of carbonic acid, of confined 

 air, of sulphuretted hydrogen, or other noxious gases, he is 

 commonly said to die suffocated. Strictly speaking he dies 

 poisoned, as much so as if he had taken oxalic or hydrocyanic 

 acid." 



Under death by hanging in the same work asphyxia is given 

 as the cause of death. I conclude, then, that asphyxia is 

 suffocation, and suffocation is poisoning, and, consequently, 

 tha man who is hung is in reality poisoned.— J. W. 



[We admit as fully correct the extracts which our corre- 

 spondent has made, and as fully admit that some of the effects 

 caused by suffocation are the same in certain instances as those 

 produced by some poisons ; but that is different from the 

 dictum that suffocation and poisoning are identical.— Eds.] 



The National Tulip SoaETY. — The next Exhibition of this 

 Society will be held at the Manchester Botanical Gardens on 

 May 29th, in conjunction with the Great National Horticnl- 



