January 8, 1874, ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



25 



SAVING FUEL. 



PEESUME that the modern eompensating 

 systems of heating, as applied to hothouses, 

 have not been as yet so generally adopted as 

 to have had much effect in modifying the 

 fuel bills. To discard any boiler which has 

 done, and is still capable of doing, good ser- 

 vice, to give place to some of these compa- 

 ratively untested inventions, is a matter 

 which demands consideration, and even the 

 recommendation of liberal compensation may 

 not have the desired effect of introducing them into office. 

 The next question which is likely to prove of interest, 

 and one worthy of being discussed, is, How best to econo- 

 mise with those apphances which are already in general 

 use ? Cheap, and therefore inferior, fuel is often advo- 

 cated and used for the sake of economy. My own expe- 

 rience goes to prove that no saving whatever is effected 

 through the use of such. Good coal or coke always con- 

 tains and gives out the greatest amount of caloric, and 

 in the end is the cheapest. "We some time ago tried the 

 dross, but what with inferior fires and a much larger 

 quantity of refuse, we have resumed and will abide by 

 the good coal. 



I am of opinion that if economy is to be practised, its 

 most effective form will be through the reduction of 

 temperatures. 



Low night temperatures for Vines have lately been 

 much advocated in some of your contemporaries. A 

 night temperature 10° or Vl" above the freezing point for 

 Vines very early in the season, and at a very tender stage 

 of their growth, is said to have a very beneficial effect. 

 Some Muscat Grapes I saw exhibited in September last 

 had been grown under this arctic treatment, and cer- 

 tainly the livid sea-green colour was not salutary. "Where 

 early forcing in the true sense of the word has to be 

 practised it can only be successfully done by some power- 

 ful stimulant, and that with the Vine means heat. No 

 fruit-bearing plant under artificial circumstances is more 

 susceptible of cold than the Vine. Any attempt at starv- 

 ing it is sure to end in failure. I never yet could mature 

 Grapes at a given time, or indeed at any time, in a tem- 

 perature continually below 60^ at an advanced stage of 

 growth ; it is not, therefore, so much with the object of 

 diminishing the heat for Vines that I wish to call attention 

 to low night temperatures, but rather as regards the treat- 

 ment of Pines and other exotics. I beheve the fuel con- 

 sumed for vineries throughout the winter and early spring 

 months is small compared with that requh-ed to keep up 

 the tropical temperatures which are frequently supposed 

 to be absolutely indispensable for the well-being of these 

 plants at all seasons of the year. It may bo said one 

 Pine stovo does not exist for ten vineries ; but for one 

 vinery started in the dead of winter ten remain inactive 

 iintU the advance of genial weather, when fostering care 

 nearly dispenses with fire heat. 



The heating of large plant estabhshments is a serious 

 consideration : some which I know would not only bear 



To, 667.— Vol. XXVI., New Series. 



with impunity but positive advantage a reduction of 10% 

 or even 20", in the temperature at which they are at pre- 

 sent kept. I am able to affirm this from practical obser- ' 

 vation. A boiler which previously did its work most 

 efficiently, heating ranges exclusively devoted to Pines, 

 Orchids, &c., by means of upwards of 2000 feet of 4-inch 

 piping, had an additional range with 1000 feet more 

 piping attached in October, 1872, and the circulation 

 towards the first-mentioned ranges was greatly impau-ed, 

 and the temperature of the interior reduced to a degree 

 seldom, if ever, before attempted for such inmates. In 

 cold weather (the place is much exposed) the night tem- 

 perature of the houses for weeks in succession so.jnetimes 

 did not exceed 4.5°, and that of the day, with a few 

 glimpses of the sun rarely exceeded G0°, that being the 

 minimum and this the maximum from October to the 

 end of March ; yet of Pines there were ntimbers in various 

 stages, principally succession plants of Smooth-leaved 

 Cayenne, and there were, besides, a good number of the 

 same variety in fruit ; also a lot of Queens which showed 

 fruit, as desired, in September. I never recollect seeing 

 successional plants remain so dwarf, rigid, dark green, 

 and healthy during the dull months of winter. Those 

 bearing fruit did not swell it so rapidly or mature it so 

 soon as they would have done in a high temperature ; 

 but how different the finely-developed plump-pipped fruit 

 from those shrivelled or prematurely ripened in a higli 

 stowing temperature ! The Queens, many of which did 

 not ripen until the end of March or the beginning of 

 April (a grand hit for the early season), were double the 

 weight of those subsequently ripened in a high tempera- 

 ture in June. The houses are, as all Pine stoves should 

 be, drip-proof. Moisture was, and required to be, very 

 judiciously applied both at the roots and in the atmo- 

 sphere under cool treatment. Pine-growers would do well 

 to study the giving of water in any form at all seasons of 

 the year. According to experience more rests in watsr- 

 ing than attention to all the other requirements com- 

 bined. Nothing is more injurious to the Pine Apple than 

 supplying the plant with a quantity of water when a 

 corresponding absorption or evaporation is not taking 

 place. 



In ordinary practice, to have Queens ripe by the be- 

 ginning of May, a sharp start is necessary in .January, 

 when much fire heat is needed between those dates. It 

 is now a matter of serious consideration whether it would 

 not be attended with many advantages to start the plants 

 into fruit in autumn, and grow them slowly during tho 

 winter, as above indicated, to meet the demand in May, 

 and so avoid the roasting push which is often resorted to 

 when ripe fruit must be had at that period. 



Amongst the Orchids were many of the finest East 

 Indian kmds, as well as species of nearly every genus. 

 The whole not only retained their formerly healthy con- 

 dition, but actually improved in the low winter tempera- 

 ture, as was evident from the stiff foliage, the still deeper 

 shade of green it assumed, the numerous finger-like fresli 

 roots which the plants emitted, and the profusion of 

 bloom which they have since produced. Other stove 



No. 1819.— Vol. LI., Old Sekibs. 



