1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



ing for it they look over the fence and see a 

 fine chance to gather some of Bangs' nectar, 

 and then they trespass on his crop. Now, Dr. 

 Miller is a very conscientious man, and does not 

 bring up his bees to do so, but somehow they 

 will do it: and the only way Bangs can protect 

 himself is to keep bees on his side of the fence 

 to take some of Dr. M.'s nectar. It is said, 

 " Doctors never take their own medicine:" but 

 Dr. M. will have to do so in this case. 

 Lawrence. 111. J. L. Anderson. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



STOKING UP HEAT, AS WE STOKE UP ELEC- 

 TRICITY IN A STORAGE BATTERY, ETC. 



In our last issue, toward the close of my re- 

 marks about heating the greenhouse by hot 

 water, I used this expression: "I presume like- 

 ly the same hot water might be used over and 

 over again after heating the plants or dwellings 

 by hot water: and this would be quite a saving 

 over taking cold water from the hydrant and 

 letting it go to waste while still hot." Well, 

 friends, the thing I suggested has been done, 

 and the exhaust steam is now simply heating 

 the same body of water over and over again. 

 The apparatus is so cheap compared with most 

 heating arrangements, that I have decided not 

 only to give you a picture on the opposite page, 

 but also a diagram of the manner in which it is 

 done. The cut we give you is a view taken 

 from one of the windows of the factory. While 

 Ernest took the first picture. I stood inside the 

 greenhouse and had just operated the appara- 

 tus that lifts all together the eight sashes 

 fronting the street. This is done by simply 

 turning a crank. The apparatus comes from 

 Hitchings & Co., of New York city. At the low- 

 er right-hand corner is another view of the 

 structure, with the sash all down. On top of 

 the hill is the windmill and tank I have fre- 

 quently spoken of. At the lower left-hand 

 corner you get a little glimpse of the street that 

 runs between the factory and my hot-beds. 

 Besides using the exhaust steam from that lit- 

 tle engine for warming the greenhouse, it was 

 originally used (as it is now,) for warming quite 

 a string of hot-beds. When the factory was 

 first built, a 10-inch sewer- pipe was laid under 

 the street, perhaps three or four feet deep: and 

 this goes down under the basement of our first 

 main building. The engine that works our 

 electric lights happened to be located right over 

 this sewer-pipe; therefore, in order to conduct 

 the steam across the street to my hot-beds, it 

 was only necessary to push a 2-inch iron pipe 

 down through this 10-inch sewer-pipe to the 

 engine. In the diagram, the end of this 2-inch 

 pipe is marked " Exhaust pipe." The steam is 

 liberated as it emerges from under the street 

 into the (5-inch tile. This is common drain 

 tile, such as is worth 4 cts. a foot. The drain 

 tile that goes under the hot-heds is only 4 inches 

 in diameter; but as two branches of this could 

 not take care of nearly all the exhaust steam, 

 I afterward laid the large 6-inch tile that you 

 notice in the diagram. This originally went 

 direct from the hot-beds to a point about 200 

 feet oiH in the lot, up toward the windmill. 

 You will notice it sticking up out of the ground, 

 a little at the right of the windmill, in the large 

 picture. Before the greenhouse was built, the 

 exhaust steam used to go away up in the lot, 

 and come out of this little chimney, as it might 

 be called. Well, when I decided to build the 

 greenhouse I took up a portion of that 6-inch 



tile and changed its course, making it run back 

 and forth under the beds in the greenhouse. It 

 goes into the house just under the window you 

 see in that three-cornered panel. You will no- 

 tice a light streak in the ground, running from 

 that window off toward the east. Since the 

 picture was taken I have had another hot-bed 

 made right over this line of tile. Let us now 

 refer to the diagram. 



Shortly after the steam leaves the exhaust 

 pipe from the engine, it comes to a point where 

 an inch iron pipe comes from the hydrant into 

 the 6-inch tile. At this point it turns at a sharp 

 angle and goes inside the 6-inch tile, up to the 

 greenhouse. Inside of the greenhouse it leaves 

 the tile, in the center of one of the beds, and 

 goes up under the glass. Then it runs back 

 and forth, and clear around the house, under 

 the sashes, until there are about 190 feet all 

 together, inside of the structure. Then it goes 

 down into the beds again, and back under 

 ground nearly to the hydrant. This last is 

 marked "Return pipe." The water comes into 

 the greenhouse so hot that you can not bear 

 your hand on the pipes. By the time it has 

 made a circuit, however, if the weather is cold 

 the water is comparatively cool. Of course, 

 this depends a good deal on the weather. Some- 

 times it goes out scalding hot. The operation 

 is as follows: 



The exhaust steam, when liberated inside of 

 that 6-inch tile, commences at once to condense 

 into water. In doing this it parts with a great 

 amount of latent heat. A part of this is com- 

 municated to the water constantly moving in- 

 side of the iron pipe. The larger part, however, 

 goes into the tiling, and from that into the 

 ground : so that, in the course of time, not only 

 the tile, but the ground for several feet each 

 way, becomes so warm that snow rarely stays 

 over it in the winter. To economize heat, how- 

 ever, we usually have this 6-inch drain tile 

 covered with beds and sashes : or, where the 

 bed is not used, we cover it with boards. Y'ou 

 see, the whole thing is automatic. If the en- 

 gine runs every day, the tiling and the dirt 

 around it accumulate sufficient heat to run the 

 hot-water pipes through the night. Last night, 

 the evening of Dec. 23, the thermometer was 

 very near zero ; but the pipes were quite warm 

 this morning, and plants as tender as some 

 Hubbard squashes were unharmed. Of course, 

 I did not plant squashes at this season of the 

 year. I presume the seeds were in the manure 

 used for the hot- beds. 



Loter.— This morning, Dec. 26, the pipes in the 

 greenhouse are still warm, although it was 4 

 degrees below zero Jast night, with quite a se- 

 vere north wind. Please notice, the engine 

 stopped running at 9 o'clock Saturday night; 

 and before it was started this Monday morning, 

 the pipes were warm enough, as I have said, to 

 ■protect the contents of the greenhouse. Not- 

 withstanding the cold on Christmas day, this^ 

 morning a lot of radishes were found above 

 ground that were not up Saturday. It seems to 

 me almost like some of the stories of enchant- 

 ment, as I go In and sit down in the darkness 

 during a cold winter night, where I can put one 

 hand on the inlet and the other on the outlet 

 pipe. There is no sound to break the stillness 

 —no boiler nor tire, nor any thing. In this per- 

 fect quiet, with only the stars to be seen 

 through the glass overhead (twinkling for 

 company), the hidden foicesof nature are doing 

 their duty. The water keeps cotirsing all night 

 long, bringing up the heat from that under- 

 ground passage, and distributing it where it is 

 needed. Of course, this has not been accom- 

 plished withoutsome hard work and faithful ex- 

 perimenting; and I think it will do no harm to 

 add, even here, some prdyhuj for divine wisdom 



