130 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 15, 1865. 



more than 18 inches sqiiare, in such a short )iouse of 18 feet, 

 and exeu if in cold weather you opened each of these merely a 

 few inches, you would secure at all times a sweet atmosphere, 

 and prevent anything like scorching or burning from accumu- 

 lated vapour. As already stated, they might stand open all the 

 summer, and very little air given early in the day in cold 

 weather, would prevent aUke the erils arising from a stagnant 

 or a moisture-laden atmosphere, and those different evils which 

 come from allowing great draughts of cold air to pass at once 

 among somewhat tender plants, which would he apt to be the 

 case from a free use of the front sashes in winter. 



If not convenient to make this opening at the apex of the 

 north end, the next best plan would be to have .in opening 

 2 feet by 1 foot at the top of the waU and the north-east corner 

 of it, which separates the greenhouse from the potting-shed. 

 If there were any objection to the ventilation in the south end, 

 we would fix just such another near the doorway at the south- 

 east corner. With the door or the window of the potting-room 

 open in summer, and a little open, except in cold nights, in 

 winter, the ventilators at the top of the back wall where the 

 span springs from would be quite enough for ventilation, 

 whether formed of hinged board, or swung on pivots, or of 

 glass in a frame. These, too, we would leave open all the stim- 

 mer, and in winter, though less would be required, more air 

 could be given than if the opening went at once into the open 

 air, as the air in the potting-room in winter will be more mild, 

 though, if the place is kept clean, it may be equally jnire with 

 that of the open atmosphere. Such ventilation into such 

 places has much to recommend it in the case of beginners, as 

 more air may be given and still less danger be incurred fi-om 

 cold di'y draughts in winter. 



Ji2ud, Heathit/. — The ease and propriet}- with which you may 

 manage to heat the house, from a fireplace in the room at the 

 north end of it, will depend on the relative heights of the 

 floor of the greenhouse and the floor of the sitting-room, or 

 rather, more correctly, on the height of the Uttle boiler around 

 the fireplace, and the height of the pipes inside. Sad errors 

 have been made in this respect — no doctoring or management 

 can make the water that is heated in the boiler descend and 

 circulate in pipes below the level of the boiler, unless, indeed, 

 in some peculiar cases, when pipes at some distance rise to a 

 much higher elevation than the boiler. If the boiler has an 

 open Ud, the upper pipes should be on the same level as the 

 top of the water in the boiler ; the pipes must not be higher, 

 or the boiler will overflow. If the boUer is close on the top, 

 and is either fed by an elevated cistern, or by a cistern placed 

 on the highest point of the pipes, then the pipes may run in 

 the house at any reasonable height above the boiler, provided 

 no part is higher than the supply-cistem — in fact the action 

 will be all the better if all the heating pipes, flows and returns, 

 are on a level above the toj) of the boiler, unless at that point 

 where the return joins the bottom of the boiler. 



Vk'e are all the more particular on these simple points, 

 because the neglect of attending to them often results in dis- 

 appointment, and the blame is not always placed on the right 

 person, as we sometimes know to our cost. Not so long ago 

 we were told somewhat bluntly by a gentleman that he got 

 into a scrape through us, when he did not succeed satisfactorily 

 because he totally neglected these simple matters as to levels. 

 A gentleman, partly by our advice, heated his neat conserva- 

 tory adjoining the drawing or sitting-room fi'om his Idtchen 

 boiler. The kitchen floor was at least 12 feet lower than the 

 consei-vatory floor. The Idtchen boiler was close on the top, 

 supplied by a cistern and ball-cock higher than the floor of the 

 cousci-vatory. The connecting pipes from boiler to conservatory 

 were of IJ-inch lead, and packed mostly in sawdust, in a neat 

 wooden trough against the wall. The floor of the consenatorj- 

 (span-roofed) was 4 inches lower than the floor of the drawing- 

 room, and the same depth lower than the sill of the door that 

 opened out on the little garden. We do not advocate this 

 lowering of the floor in general circumstances ; but here it 

 answered by simplifying the heating, which was done by three- 

 inch pipes, three in the front, and two at the back, going all 

 round the house .on the same level, and close together, and a 

 neat piece of iron gi-ating going over the pipes at the doorways, 

 thus forming a step-down of 4 inches in depth. The other 

 gentleman resolved to do the same thing from his kitchen 

 boiler; but then the kitchen boiler was soma 5 J feet above 

 the floor of the consei-vatoi-y, and, after a deal of worry and 

 trouble, they found that all would be unavaiUng unless they 

 fixed the pipes at that height against the walls of the house, 

 where they not only looked ugly, but did the work wanted very 



imperfectly, making the floor of the house too damp and cold, 

 and the toj), near the apex of the lean-to house, far too hot in 

 general. Let the heating mediiun be low enough, and stagna- 

 tion of air in a house is next to impossible. We have not the 

 same faith in the applications of heat where the heating 

 medimn is as high as our heads. The last accounts we heard 

 of this mishap, or next to it, because the owner wanted a pro- 

 pagating-bed from a part of the pipes, was to the effect that 

 the pipes were to be taken down, and to be connected with a 

 small boiler in a lean-to-shed putting-house, where at first we 

 would have advised its being placed. 



This leads us to say that, if, from the position of the Are 

 in the room, there should be the above difliculty as to level, it 

 would be the safest plan, if the floor of the potting-room was 

 all that lower than the conservatory, or if it was easily prac- 

 ticable, to sink a stokehole deep enough ; then pipes could be 

 taken all round the house, stopping at the two doorways, and 

 be placed on the floor, if deemed necessary ; or, what we con- 

 eider woidd be the most economical in such a house, a small 

 five or six-inch shallow flue could be carried round below the 

 tiles of the floor, if such a floor were resorted to. The advantage 

 of having a fire here would be the independence of the lad that 

 Ughted the fire of all house servants, aud theu' systems of man- 

 agement, which, somehow, do not often square well together. 

 This last matter would be got over if the boiler would be suit- 

 able in the room at the north end ; all that will be required 

 will be to keep the boiler supplied with water, and a tap in the 

 greenhouse to let the heat on when desirable. 



Unless you place more than two four-inch pipes at the north 

 end, and for less than a half along each side, we fear you will 

 not have heat enough to keep out much frost at the south end, 

 though, perhaps, quite enough to meet all that is generally 

 prevalent near Cork in winter. 



in such a short house as 18 feet in length, you will, we fear, 

 fail to keep one end as a warm house for tropical and sub- 

 tropical plants, whilst the uuheated end would be devoted to 

 the hardier gi-eenhouse i)lants, requiring more air and a colder 

 atmosphere. In such a space the heat would be apt to become 

 imiform, unless, indeed, you made a ilivision in the house, and 

 theu nothing would be more easy. Without that division you 

 would find it equally difticult to make a propagating-box or pit 

 over the pipes at the heated end, or to grow Gloxinias, etc., 

 unless you shut in part of these places with cases covered with 

 glass. With such contrivances as shallow boxes, covered with a 

 pane or panes of glass, and moveable at jileasure, set on a bed 

 formed over the pipes, the pipes being placed in a chamber, or 

 packed round with stones, brickbats, &c., you might grow in 

 them, and do in them, anything that could be done by 

 more expensive cases. You could likewise readily harden- 

 off gradually by giving more and more air to the cuttings, 

 plants, &c., in these little cases, hand-lights, and theu place 

 them in the colder end of the house. Moreover, by having 

 three pijies instead of two, where j-ou would want most heat, 

 you could have a few openings at the side to let the heat out, 

 and then, whilst securing heat to your more tender favoui'ites, 

 you could also borrow enough from the pipes beneath, by slide 

 or otherwise, to keep frost and extra cold from the unheated 

 part of the house ; but, without such contrivances to keep in 

 the heat about your tender plants, we have no faith in j'our 

 keeping distinct atmospheres in such a small house. A few 

 simple wooden bottomless boxes, with a large square of glass at 

 the top, would enable yoti to do wonders. Were the glass top, 

 whether a simple square or a pane, moveable, you could then 

 turn it in an instant — a matter of moment with yoimg seedhngs 

 and cuttings. 



3rd, As respects your Vines in ]iots, we are of those who 

 believe that there are ladies by whom the word "impossible" 

 is thoroughly xmrecognised. Meanwhile, we would say, " Let 

 well alone ; " and if you would entice your spouse by a cluster 

 of Grapes as he sits under his own Vine, we would advise you 

 to plant two or three at the west front of the house, close to 

 the flower-borders ; they will give you less trouble, on the 

 whole do better, and, if only two or three, will j-ield a nice 

 shade to the house in summer. Too much, of course, would 

 spoil and draw aU plants beneath them. We shall never forget 

 when, in our young days, we had Cucumbers. Melons, stove 

 plants. Vines, Figs, and Peaches in one house, and that a 

 steep lean-to, the late Joseph Knight, Esq., the predecessor of 

 the present Mr. Veitch, looking very comically at us, and saying, 

 "Why, you will beat nurserymen in cramming." We have 

 always had enough of cramming much in little space ; but here 

 we advise no one to follow our example. — K. Fish. 



