AprU 30, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



347 



uncommon in the West Indies find South America, 

 probably imported with merchandise of some kind. — I 



It was 

 0. W. 



ROYAL HOETICULTUBAL SOCIETY. 



At the meeting on Tuesday, 21st, exclusive of the Council, 

 there were not sixty Fellows present out of between three and 

 four thousand, and this after your and the C/ira»ii-?<''.< articles 

 of the week before, and at a meeting at which the Chairman, at 

 first at least, made the vote on proxies one of confidence in 

 the Council. I have strong hopes that before three years are 

 over we shall have a Society the Fellows of which will take an 

 interest in its proceedings. 



It seemed to me, to say the least, impolitic in the Council 

 to prevent Mr. Fish voting. Gardeners hold together more 

 than nurserymen do, and may make common cause. Mr. 

 Fish's exertions were one gre.it cause of the success of the first 

 and therefore most important of the country shows ; the then 

 Council, with a view to the future as well as the past, wished 

 to recognise his services handsomely. The way to do this at 

 least cost to the Society was to make him a forty-guinea life 

 Fellow. The present Council say that doing this was contrary 

 to the Charter. As there are so many legal authorities on the 

 Council its judgment is probably correct. If this be so, the 

 right course would have been to have elected Mr. Fish a Fellow, 

 and to have given him a cheque for forty guineas, which he 

 would have used for his life composition : he would then have 

 been legally as well as morally entitled to vote. — Geoege F. 

 Wii.soN, HeatJierbanI:, ]VeyhrUi(jc Ilcath. 



WHICH IS THE BOILER TO BE PREFERRED 

 FOR GARDEN STRUCTURES? 

 In horticultural publications the query, " What is the best 

 description of boiler ? " has been so often discussed that I was 

 in hopes, when I gave a sort of brief history of my acquaint- 

 ance with such matters, that in complaining of the very best 

 description of boilers that I was acquainted with falling so far 

 short of perfection, I could hardly be accused of being wedded 

 to one particular kind. True, I gave the preference to the 

 saddle, and at the same time admitted a good conical boiler 

 had its advantages — not a small one, be it remembered, but a 

 good-sized one, capable of holding sufficient fuel to keep the 

 fire going a reasonable time. Some other descriptions of 

 boilers I referred to as having had practical experience of ; 

 and I may also say that I had a house heated by the tank 

 system for a dozen years or more at a stretch, but I did not 

 like it sufficiently well to recommend its adoption. Some other 

 modes of heating were casually alluded to ; and now to the 

 comments thereon. 



Mr. Clarke, at page 305, very courteously points out that I 

 have unfairly disparaged the mode of heating which he calls 

 the lime-burning system. I am at all times sorry to differ 

 from anyone whom I respect, and amongst the advocates of 

 this system are one or two of my best friends, but I feel we 

 are none the less so by differing in opinion on this matter ; and 

 as I confess not having had anything to do with the system in 

 question, I can only give an opinion based on what I do know 

 of lime-burning in an ordinary way, both on a large and small 

 scale. I could only come to the conclusion that its advocates 

 would get tired of it when its defects became known, and I 

 added that I expected a year or two would consign it to neglect, 

 if not obUvion. My opinion cannot fairly be called an errone- 

 ous one until the expiration of that time. Nevertheless, I shall 

 be more pleased if I am mistaken, and am much obUged for 

 such courteous correspondents as Mr. Clarke putting me right 

 in the matter. 



I next read a communication from " A Ramelinc, C.E.," at 

 page 32'J, who complains that I appear to have limited my 

 observations to what has practically fallen under my view — the 

 horticultural buildings I have had to deal with. Now, he could 

 not have paid me a higher compliment, for I do as far as 

 possible limit my observations to my own practical experience, 

 excepting in cases where it is explained otherwise, and I put it 

 to him or anyone else whether plain practical experience does 

 not stand before theory ? I wrote my article for a horticultural 

 journal; "A Rambling C.E." all but ignores horticulture al- 

 together, and gives us the oft-told story about boilers adapted 

 for steam-engine purposes, a subject better adapted for a me- 

 chanical or engineering magazine or piiblication ihan a garden- 

 ing paper. I daresay his communication would be more to 

 the point there, for, as he seems to pin his faith to the merits 



of the multitubular boiler, he will there find his pets in full 

 force, and deservedly so. I do not deny the tubular boiler a 

 certain amount of nierit for horticultural purposes, but I place 

 the saddle before it, notwithstanding " the principle which 

 ' A Rambling C.E.' says ho is astonished at being challenged ;" 

 but somehow I back practice against principle, believing that 

 principle as here implied is only another name for theory. 



However, in a matter of this kind there is no occasion for 

 hard words ; for, after all, your correspondent and I have little 

 in common. I simply want a boiler that will heat the greatest 

 possible body of water to a given moderate heat with the 

 smallest amount of fuel and attendance, whilst your corre- 

 spondent wants steam — two objects so widely different that it 

 may reasonably be supposed that the same class of boiler will 

 not do for both. The object of the engine-driver is to get 

 steam up in the least possible time : hence his boiler is so con- 

 structed that every spoonful of water it contains is placed 

 within a few inches of the actual fire, or in contact with the 

 flues through which that fire passes. Now, contrast this with 

 the hothouse-heating apparatus : the portion of water in 

 immediate contact with the fire is only a very small per- 

 centage of the whole that has to be heated, in very few in- 

 stances exceeding one-twentieth ; all the rest is undergoing the 

 process of cooling often hundreds of feet away, and the bulk of 

 the water is seldom lieated above 110 ' Fahr. Certainly it is 

 hotter than that at times, but many very efficient systems of 

 hothouse heating work for weeks together without that heat 

 being exceeded ; and allow me to tell " X Rambling C.E.'' that 

 it is the reverse of economy to increase the temperature of the 

 water so as much to exceed that heat : 160' — nay, even 180° 

 may be attained, and I remember once (when I had personally 

 the fire shovel and poker to handle) heating the water in 

 the pipes of a hothouse so as to exceed 200' at the farthest 

 place from the tire, and that, too, nearly as far back as the 

 period of the Rocket engine he speaks of ; but such extremes 

 are only attained at a cost of fuel far beyond what would be 

 wanted to heat an additional number of pipes to the moderate 

 heat capable of warming the place intended in a more suitable 

 way than by such forcible means. In fact, I am no advocate 

 for extreme firing. I would rather have a greater number of 

 pipes and heat them moderately, than drive the water with 

 express speed through a smaller number of pipes. If I had 

 my way I would rarely heat pipes hotter than that I could 

 bear my hand on them for one or two minutes. A forcing heat 

 of 70' can be maintained with this if all be well otherwise, and 

 that in general is sufficient. 



It is wrong to say that I hold-up the saddle boiler as the 

 pattern of perfection ; on the contrary, the whole of my artiok 

 points to the fact that the best-contrived heating apparatus 

 we have permits an immense waste of heat which I should 

 like to see saved and made use of. We all know that a pound 

 of coal is capable of giving off a certain amount of heat and 

 no more, but if 20 or 30 per cent, or more of that heat be ex- 

 pended on the brickwork or other surroundings not imparting 

 it to the water in the boiler, it is wasted to all intents and 

 purposes, and my principal object in calling attention to such 

 waste was to ask the assistance of those who could devise a 

 means of utilising the wasted heat. To me it makes no 

 difference what kind of Ijoiler is used. I certainly give the 

 preference to the saddle, because it is the easiest worked, least 

 hkely to get out of repair, and, so far as I can judge, uses no 

 more fuel than any other kind ; and from the fact that it is 

 always put forward by inventors or contrivers of new boilers 

 for horticultural purposes as the test by which ihey compare 

 their own, it is easy to see that they all look upon it as the 

 second best, their own being, of course, paramount in their 

 own estimation. 



It has often struck me that the plan aimed at by so many 

 boiler-makers of endeavouring to spread the heat over as wide 

 a surface as possible, was in itself more plausible in theory 

 than beneficial in practice ; for, as the heat we want to deal 

 with is not very great, the question is whether should it be 

 concentrated to act on some 3 or 4 feet of surface, or spread 

 over ten times that amount ? for in the latter case there must 

 be a great waste in imparting heat to the metal containing the 

 water, whereas by the concentrated heat a less extended surface 

 is acted upon ; and although the boiler is a stationary object, 

 the water in it is not, and its heated particles are more or less 

 rapidly propelled upwards and onwards on its course, to be 

 returned again in due time. Concentrated action, instead of 

 diffused, is applied in so many ways now-a-days, that I expect 

 our C. E.3 in future will be finding out that where steam 



