tl2 



JOURNAL OF HO^iTICDLTOBE AND COTTAGE OABDENEB. 



1 SoTMnbrr 25, 1969. 



outside to play directly agiinst the pipes before entering the 

 hoa?e — there are so many nho cannot distingoish between 

 ventilation, or the proper circulation of air. and draughts, and 

 will open lights during cold easterly or northerly winds with 

 hot son, so as to let the aii beat directly on the leaves of the 

 plants. I need hardly say that no ventilation of houses is 

 perfect which does not allow cf a tborongh change of air in a 

 boose without direct dranght?. 



Again, with regard to the position of boilers. One often sees 

 boilers placed 10 or 12 feet below the level of the floor of the 

 houses to be heated, as if this were necessary far the proper 

 circulation of the water, and yet the same persons who go to 

 this expense in excavating for the boiler house will not hesitate 

 to bend the flow pipes down to go under a path, or twist them 

 about in any way to suit their convenience, and will run 

 hundreds of feet of piping oa a dead level. Other persons, 

 again, feed the boiler from a cistern placed several feet higher 

 than the highest flow pipe, on the score of the pressure assist- 

 ing the flow ; forgetting that when the equilibrium is once 

 established, or, in other words, that as soon as water has found 

 its own level, this additional pressure is a positive injury in- 

 stead of good, as it tries all the joints of the pipes. Again, we 

 see these feeding cisterns placed in all manner of positions, 

 some at the tup of the farthest flow, others near the boiler, 

 and so on, without any rule. I have even seen the snpply 

 pipe at the first bend which rises from the boiler top. Now, 

 undoubtedly the best place for the supply pipe is the bottom 

 of the boiler, and, if possible, it should not be connected with 

 the pipes, but with the boiler itself. The feed pipe, too, should 

 be one of large diameter, as the pressure on the boiler is in- 

 versely proportionate to the square of the radius or diameter of 

 the pipe, so that the smaller the pipe the greater the pressure ; 

 and if the supply pipe is of good size, and is connected directly 

 with the boiler, it acts as a great safety-valve, and takes the 

 additional pressure away from the pipes which the beating of 

 the water gives. Where it is practicable, the supply cistern ought 

 itself to be fed from another cistern by meaus of a tap regu- 

 lated by a ball-cock, so as to keep it always at one uniform 

 height and to save the trouble of constant attendance ; and the 

 height of the water ought not to be more than a few inches 

 above the level of the highest point of the flow pipe. One 

 precaction in fixing the pipes can hardly be sufficiently at- 

 tended to, and it is, wherever possible, to make the flow pipe 

 gradually rise from the boiler to the farthest point, and to 

 regulate the return pipe in the same manner. I have a small 

 saddle bailer which beats a sma'.l plant house, a vinery, a 

 stove, and two propagating pits, and the water can be made to 

 boil in three-quarters of an hour ; I attribute its efnciency en- 

 tirely to the proper attention to the position of the pipes. Ti;e 

 vinery and stove are both double-span, and contain more than 

 1000 feet of radiating surface of glass, which gives the boiler 

 much work to do. The top of the boiler is not more than 

 4 feet below the highest point of the flow pipe. 



From these remarks it will be seen I agree with the advice 

 80 often given to correspoudents in your pages, that the best 

 boiler for all practical purposes for small houses, and the 

 cheapest, is a good saddle boiler, if it is properly set. The 

 heat given to the brickwork round the boiler is by no means 

 wasted, as it helps to keep up the heat of the boiler at night 

 long after the fire is out. I agree, too, with those who condemn 

 nearly all forms of tubular boilers, except those that have water 

 jackets round them, and I feel convinced that no boiler is of 

 much use where the flues require constant cleaning-out. or 

 where the boiler is so set that it is not possible to clean them 

 properly. 



I believe Foster's boiler with a little alteration will be oce cf 

 the best ; but I still think, though I have not seen the con- 

 servative boiler, that for heating large quantities of piping an 

 improved form of boiler has yet to be made ; but for anything 

 under 1000 feet a common saddle boiler will answer as well or 

 better than almost any other, and the complex forms of tubular 

 boilers, made on the idea of economising vertical heat only, are 

 a step in the wrong direction. — C. P. Peach, Tin Vicarage, 

 Appleton-U-Street, ilalton. 



C inches ; circumference of branches, 42 feet C inches ; girth of 

 stem, 4 feet 7 inches. All three are perfectly healthy, and 

 have in no way suffered from cold or wind to which they are 

 all exposed, especially No. 1, which is planted in the open 

 park without any shelter. — J. Kii'Owat, Fairlaxcn. Tonhri,lie. 



■WriiixcTOsiA GiGAN-TEA. — I forward yon particulars of my 

 best three Wellrngtonias. No. 1. planted April, 1356, height, 

 30 feet 4 inches : circumference of branches. -54 feet 6 inches ; 

 girth of stem, S feet C inches. No. 2, planted 1S57, heieht, 

 24 fe€t 3 inches ; circumference of branches, 45 feet ; girth of 

 Btem, 4 feet 10 inches. No. 3, p'anted 1S50, height, 22 feet 



FRUIT GROWING IN FR.VNCE AND 

 E5GL.VND.— No. 1. 



When, some time since, I ventured to enter upon a few ob- 

 servations on the vegetable culture of France and England, or 

 rather that carried on in the neighbourhood of Paris and Lon- 

 don, I was not a little doubtful as to their reception. State- 

 ments had been very confidently put forward, and resting on 

 apparently strong grounds, that we were lamentably behind- 

 hand, that we did not make so much out of our ground as our 

 neighbours, and that we were continually importing from them 

 what we ought to grow ourselves. Now, as I did not at all 

 agree with these conclusions, I felt considerable diffidence as 

 to the manner in which my opinions might be received ; I was, 

 therefore, very glad to receive from so many quarters approval 

 of my statements, from persons who were thoroughly capable 

 of forming a sound and unbiassed opinion, and this led me to 

 desire to carry my observations a little farther, and investigate 

 I the equally debated matter of fruit culture. When, therefore, 

 I was about to pay a short visit to Paris in the past summer, I 

 was requested by the Editors to examine the fruit culture in 

 the neighbourhood of that city, and the results of that exami- 

 \ nation will be given in this and some following papers. 

 i The plan that I adopted was this : I first of all made the 

 acquaintance of M. Jamin, the eminent cultivator of Bonrg- 

 la-Keine, near Paris. I may, perhaps, best designate him as 

 the "Rivers "of France; not with so lengthened a personal 

 acquaintance as our veteran pomologist, but succeeding to a 

 very extensive business, which had been founded and greatly 

 increased by his father, one is able to see at his establishment 

 examples in large numbers of the various systems of train- 

 ing adopted throughout France. Under his guidance I visited 

 j the garden of M. Chardcn at Cbatillon, a most ardent amateur 

 j in Pear and Apple culture. I afterwards visited the garden 

 I of il. Nalet, of Brunoy, who likewise carries out the tame 

 I culture to a very large extent. For Peach culture I went to 

 the far-famed Montreuil, visited the garden of M. Lepi-re, and 

 ^ others ; while on the general subject cf snpply I addressed 

 myself, through the kindness of Mr. Solomon, of Covent Gar- 

 den, to M. , P.ue du Marcbu St. Honorf. So far, then, as 



to the French metropolis and its neighbourhood. In England 

 I have availed myself of the kindness of Mr. Rivers, and 

 visited and examined his world-renowned establishment : I 

 also visited the extensive fruit gardens ( f Mr. Francis Dancer, 

 at Chiswick ; the eardens of the P>oyal Horticultural Society ; 

 the grounds of Mr. Myatt, at Deptford, and various private 

 establishments where fruit-growing is carried on. It will, 

 then, I trust, be conceded that if I fail in giring an adequate 

 idea of the subject I have undertaken to write about, it is not 

 because I have not gone to proper sources of information, or 

 been chary about time or trouble ; and if my conclusions be 

 combated, I hope it will not be charged on me that I have 

 drawn them in ignor»nce, or that because I may refer to what 

 others may have said that I have copied from them, for this 

 most amusing charge was, I understand, made in reference to 

 my papers on vegetable culture. I can safely say that whether 

 they be good or bad, the thoughts are my own, and that I have 

 spared no trouble to arrive at correct information. How diffi- 

 cult this is may be inferred from the following simple fact : — 

 Many persons have seen and wondered at the enormous Belle 

 Angevine Pears, exhibited by Mr. Lewis Solomon, and marked 

 eighteen guineas a-dozen. The ordinary idea is that they are 

 grown in Algiers ; but on inquiring at Covent Garden I was 

 told, " Oh 1 no, they come from the south of France." They 

 evidently do. because of their name. Well, when I was going 

 over one of the fmit gardens near Paris, I was told they wtre 

 grown at Belleville, in its neighbourhood ; but lastly, when 

 talking over various fruit matters with the first fruit merchant 

 in Paris, and the correspondent through whom they were for- 

 warded to London. I was assured, " Oh ! no, they are all wrong ; 

 they are grown in Normandy." Like Sir Walter Raleigh, one 

 might say. What folly to write anything wlen a simple fact is 

 so difncult to verify. 



WLat fruits, then, did it become me to inquire about :> Cer- 

 tainly not forced frtiits. On this point the French garJerers 



