ON HEATING A GREENHOUSE. 2*75 



ARTICLE III. 



ON HEATING A GREENHOUSE. 



BY MR. WILLIAM HOLMES, OF SHRUBLANDS, SPRINGFIELD, NEAR CHELMSFORD, 



IN ESSEX. 



Having been a subscriber to your valuable little C\binet from its 

 commencement, and having derived much useful information in pe- 

 rusing its pages, I feel it a duty if that I can contribute my mite, 

 be it ever so little, for the information of others in return for what in- 

 formation I have thus gained. I allude to a system of heating a 

 greenhouse. The question is often put — can you inform me of the 

 best method of heating a greenhouse ? I will not pretend to give the 

 inquirers the best, but, however, I think one of the best, having tried 

 it in a new greenhouse this season, and it answers at present my most 

 sanguine expectations. 



It is, in the first place, one of Arnott's stoves ; which, as it was 

 placed in the old house, was the occasion of the plants burning at one 

 end, and almost freezing at the other, in winter; this is what I have 

 endeavoured to remedy, and I think I have succeeded thus, I have 

 placed the stove against the back wall, between the end face of the 

 stage (the stage has two faces, the one to the front and the other to 

 the end of the house,) and the end wall ; a pipe then runs under the 

 stage the whole length of the house, and then is carried into the flue of 

 one of the house chimnies ; upon this pipe is fixed a copper trough, 

 which is filled with water, and also a cistern placed upon the stove, 

 which is also filled with water, and this water, upon the fire being 

 lighted, very soon boils, this causes a good deal of steam, which 

 counteracts the dry heat off the pipe, and gives a humid atmo- 

 sphere, which I find highly beneficial to the plants ; any degree of 

 heat may be obtained, at least so it appears at present, for the tem- 

 perature of the house rose eight degrees in the space of half an hour; 

 this is a desideratum upon a sharp frosty night. 



Should this brief account be of any service, upon a more lengthened 

 trial, I will forward you the results more in detail. 



[We shall feel additionally obliged by the favour of the remarks.— 

 Conductor.] 



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