Us 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAfiDfiliER. t Fei»T:aty 13, 1873. 



ErriQgton. TVs have seen men employed whole days in un- 

 covering cold pits to give them a little light in cold, frosty, dull 

 ■n-eather in midwinter, and then begin to cover up again as soon 

 as they were uncovered. If the plants were safe, and at a low 

 temperature, the daily work of uncovering might have been 

 saved. When there is only a little litter it may be of import- 

 auce to shake it up instead of removing it, as every shaking-up 

 would present a new line of radiation, and as often as that line 

 was broken, frost and heat aUke would have to begin their 

 efforts anew. When we have a covering of snow we have so 

 long regarded it as one of the best we could have, that in the 

 case of cold pits and frames we are always loth to remove it, 

 more especially as it is hardly possible to replace it. But for 

 tills consideration wo might have swept off ours in the middle 

 of the week. A few inches of snow wiU keep out a keen frost. 

 The looser the snow is, the more effectual it will be. When 

 from sun or a shower the sm-face has been solidified, it becomes 

 then a better conductor of heat and cold, and we have often 

 settled that matter and brought it back to its normal state by 

 breaking the firm surface with the teeth of a rake.^ A great 

 many of these homely matters have been lost sight of in garden- 

 ing, because all accelerating is so easily done by hot- water pipes ; 

 but if hot water is to be obtained from coal at from 45s. to 50s. 

 per ton, even proprietors far from poor may come to see the 

 necessity of getting as much as they can without the aid of coal 

 heat at*uch an enormous price. 



Cleaning Htone Pathways.— Besides the matters referred to 

 last week, we have expended much labour in scrubbing and 

 cleaning the stone flooring in plant-corridors and conservatories. 

 The greater the heat, and the more the moisture used, the more 

 likely the stones to be encrusted with green. In small places 

 the cleaning is often left to the housemaids. In many cases 

 the cleaning is not cleaning at all, but a daubing-ovei; with a 

 layer of whiting, made regular with cloth and brush, which does 

 not look so much amiss untQ it is damped, or a lady with a long- 

 skirted black dress passes along and gets the dress encrusted 

 with the whiting. There are two things here we have no faith 

 in. First, the daubing-up of nice stonework with whiting or 

 limewash, so as to resemble the doorsteps of town or villa resi- 

 dences ; and secondly, where there is much of such work, in 

 having housemaids or other women to do it in gardens, or even 

 to attempt to clean the stone and leave it with its natural ap- 

 pearance. This is work which is more suited for, and will be 

 done better by young garden labourers. "We have had even the 

 whitening process done more elegantly and regularly by men 

 than we have ever seen it done by women ; and as to scrubbing- 

 off the gi-een, there is no comparison — in fact, it is such work 

 that we would not care to see a woman at. 



For scrubbing stonework we chiefly use a little sand, hot 

 weak soap water, scrubbing brushes, and house flannel to dry 

 all up, and a very little practice enables the man, if young, to do 

 the work very well indeed. We greatly prefer tlie natural appear- 

 ance of the clean flagstone, tiles, &c., to any daubing that can be 

 given to them. When they are thus cleaned the finest dress wiU 

 not be soiled as when whitestoned or whitening-rubbed. There 

 is no reason why comfort should be lost sight of — the comfort 

 of warm water, and more especially as, after a little soaldng, the 

 warm water will enable the workman to clean the stones better, 

 and the warmer the water after the cloth has passed over them 

 in the di-ying-up process, the sooner will the stones be bright 

 and dry. We have had to wash plant pots with ice in the water ; 

 but wliat was or could be the benefit of it ? The pots could not 

 be made so thoroughly clean, and they were long in drying. In 

 the cleaning of stones, iu addition to the warm water, scrubbing- 

 brush, and flannel to clean all up by wringing in a pail, we 

 would depend on active scrubbing, as, if there is a little soap 

 dissolved in the water, it must be only a little ; and, contrary to 

 general practice, we say, Never rub soap on the brush, as it 

 ouly clogs it up, and prevents its acting on the stone. 



In cleaning stone we have used salt, soda, and other easy vic- 

 tors of the green, and the result is, we would say to our readers, 

 "Don't." Unless the stone is very peculiarly hard, all such 

 BaUne ingredients, though they remove rather easily the green 

 coating, will be apt to leave an eating inflorescence on the stone 

 that will give a flowery appearance on the surface for months 

 afterwards, and continue to wear it out. On this account it is 

 not advisable to use such saline matters for cleaning stone in 

 corridors and conservatories. We would even decline to use 

 such helps for cleaning out-door stonework, where after-results 

 are to be considered. We have known some stones, a little soft, 

 show this wearing-out flowery appearance on the surface for a 

 twelvemonth afterwards. Stone pathways, out of doors and iu 

 corridors and conservatories, look well wheu kept clean ; and, 

 as hinted above, we think they are best every way when of 

 their natural colour, and not daubed over with dirt and filth 

 cover-alls. 



Seating. — Next to stoves in a small house, the cheapest mode 

 of heating is by a flue ; and the neatest mode of doing this, 

 though not getting quite so much heat, is to have the flue not 

 above, but under the floor level, the top of the flue forming 



part of the pathway, no flue or mode of beating thus presenting 

 itself, whilst the warmed pathway is very agreeable in cold 

 weather. In a house of considerable size, or even houses to be 

 heated by hot water, and where in these dear coal days it is de- 

 sirable to make as much of the heat from the fire as possible, 

 then a flue should proceed through the house, or make turns in 

 the back wall, before going directly from the boiler up the chim- 

 ney, with nothing to keep the heat from wasting except a 

 damper. We thus had a large conservatory heated when coals 

 had to be carted fourteen or sixteen miles, and the flue was 

 almost as useful as the hot water. 



In the case of flues alone, it is as well if there be no dips from 

 the furnace to the chimney, as the more and deeper the dips, 

 under paths, itc, the more height will be required for the 

 chimney. But failures in heating, and smoky and too-much- 

 heated stokeholes, do not proceed so much from such a cause 

 as from inattention to two or three simple matters. First, 

 make sure that the iron bars of your furnace are from 18 to 

 24 inches— 30 inches if you can go down conveniently— below the 

 level of the bottom of the flue. Secondly, we have no objection 

 to a fair length of a furnace, but do not have much of a dead 

 rest, say not more than 6 or 8 inches, at the farther end ; the 

 grating bars of the furnace going pretty well up to the extreme 

 end of the fm-nace. Thirdly, what rest you have should be in 

 the shape of a stout iron plate, half an inch thick, and from 8 to 

 12 inches iu length, close to the furnace door. From want of 

 attention to these matters there is often a want of draught, 

 suffocating back smoke in the stokehole, a red burning heat at 

 the furnace door, and a much higher temperature in the stoke- 

 liole than could by any means be got in the house. In a num- 

 ber of cases, of nice though small houses, that have within a few 

 years come ivnder our notice, the evils could chiefly be traced 

 to the desire of saving in these cheap days, so as to dispense 

 with the dumb iron plate inside the furnace door. The cheap- 

 ness was thoroughly neutralised in some of the cases by the 

 framework and furnace door being burned by their closeness 

 to furnace bars. We have seen the furnace doors gleaming 

 red with but little heat in the flue, as the cold fuel on the 

 long rest at the farther end arrested free draught, and sent 

 the heat and smoke back to the stokehole. Let the rest be 

 at the fm-nace door, and the fresh fuel put next the door will 

 be gradually heated; and the hottest fuel, being beneath the 

 bars at the farther end, there will be no back smoke, and little 

 smoke at all, for that wiU be burned up. In many cases where 

 such changes have been made, we are assured that now all goes 

 right, and that more heat is obtained in the house with half 

 the quantity of fuel. People should act as if they wished to heat 

 their house and not the stokehole. The great evU of having 

 many boilers is, that unless the firing and the damper are care- 

 fully applied, much heat goes up the chimney to warm the 

 general atmosphere. 



The same simple principles apply to furnaces under boilers. 

 We happen to know of several cases of boiler-heating where 

 the close-cutting system so ruled that there was no dumb iron 

 plate next the furnace door, but the furnace bars came close up 

 to the door, and there was a large, long, dead rest at the farther 

 end. We say nothing of the discomforts ; we feel sure that, so 

 far as ultimate wear and tear are concerned, the trifling saving 

 will be a penny- wise-and-pound-fooUsh affair. 



One case has come very prominently under our notice — a 

 conservatory, such as we have noticed above, heated by a boiler, 

 and the flue from the boiler having several turns in the back 

 wall. Sometimes on commencing firing in winter it was found 

 necessary to light a small fire at a soot door in the flue to dry it 

 a httle, and then there was no difficulty for the season. It was 

 desirable to make the boiler do more work, and, as it was old, a 

 new one was put in at once. From circumstances we need not 

 mention the work was not superintended as it ought to have 

 been, and the furnace bars were brought close to the furnace 

 feeding-door, consequently a long dead rest was left at the 

 farther end. Pity a chimney-sweeper inured to smoke who 

 should be condemned to stay a few minutes in that stokehole 

 after the fire was lighted ! The finest coke could be made to 

 burn in a certain way, but not so as to heat the water or heat 

 the flue properly, though the furnace door would become pretty 

 well red hot. There was a thought of taking the shaft from the 

 furnace to the chimney at once without going a long length- 

 some 80 feet at least— thi-ough the flue ; but a fire placed in a 

 soot-opening of the flue burned nicely, yet stUl the furnace be- 

 neath the boUer was a perfect abomination and martyrdom to 

 all concerned. Well, what was done ? Neither boiler nor flue 

 was touched, but as much of the boiler-setting was taken down 

 as permitted of some 15 inches of the dead rest being removed 

 at the farther end, the furnace iron grating-bars moved all that 

 closer to the end of the furnace, and a dead plate of the same 

 size, from 12 to 15 inches, placed next the furnace doors; 

 now there is not the least trouble with smoke, itc, and the 

 draught through the long flue is so good that, to prevent the 

 lower range of flue becoming too hot, it is necessary often to 

 use a damper. We feel convinced that many who are iu difii- 



