HEATING COLD FRAMES, ETC. 155 



1871, some of which are four inches in diameter at the surface of 

 the ground and they cannot be bent down without injury. 



Mr. Philbrick said that the necessity for warming the earth in 

 frames depends on what plants are to be grown. Lettuce and 

 cucumbers must have bottom heat ; dandelions, parsley, and 

 radishes are more hardy and do not require it : in fact they do 

 better without it. 



William H. Badlam thought that warming frames, as proposed 

 by the essaj'ist, would be liable to make plants more delicate. 

 He thought steam would not give heat so quickly as hot water 

 nor retain it as long. The water begins to warm the house as soon 

 as it gets into circulation and does not lose its heat until the fire 

 goes out. He also thought steam less economical than hot water. 



Mr. Philbrick's experience did not agree with Mr. Badlam's. 

 He built a large house which he heated at first with hot water and 

 afterwards with steam, and since then another, and he had found 

 it decidedly more economical of labor than hot water. You can 

 get up heat with steam more quickh', because the quantity of 

 water to be heated is much less. At this time of the year you do 

 not want heat during the day, and the pipes are much more 

 quickly cooled when steam is used than with hot water. As to 

 the danger of the fire going out, it does not amount to anj-thing ; 

 he leaves his fire for ten hours. In a small house he would prefer 

 hot water. 



Mr. Wood gave an account of an experiment, made at the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, to determine the 

 comparative advantages of steam and hot water. A house eighty 

 feet long and forty feet wide was built with a partition in the 

 centre, one-half being heated with steam and the other with hot 

 water, and two boilers exactly alike were put in. The only 

 diflference was that the side heated by steam was protected by a 

 bank from the east winds, while the other side was exposed to the 

 west. The coal was weighed every day, and it was found at the 

 end of the season that, notwithstanding its exposure, a ton of coal 

 had been saved in the part warmed by hot water, and the heat 

 kept higher. This experiment was made by persons who were 

 impartial and unbiassed. There may be conditions and circum- 

 stances where steam can be used advantageouslj'. The Messrs. 

 Hittinger Brothers, at Belmont, have a house 600 feet long, one- 

 half 25 feet wide, and the other half 30 feet, and four houses 150 



