J26 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



that it is going to be a bright, warm 

 day and no steam heat will be need- 

 ed. This I consider one of its very 

 best features, for we all know how we 

 have suffered with over heated houses 

 when the water in the pipes would not 

 cool. 



With a number of pipes and a valve 

 at each, a house with steam and prop- 

 er attention can be kept at almost 

 the desired degree. It is cheaper to 

 put in a steam plant. The piping is 

 much cheaper, sufficiently less to off- 

 set the larger cost of boiler. 



Steam is undoubtedly the best sys- 

 tem when a block of houses is devoted 

 to one purpose, but where two rose 

 houses and two carnation houses are 

 heated by one boiler it would not be 

 so economical, because a month or 

 more after no heat was needed in the 

 carnation houses you would have to 

 still make steam for the rose houses. 



Where a dozen houses are used for 

 many different plants water is to be 

 preferred. Water can be heated to a 

 temperature of say 140 degrees, just 

 sufficient to take the chill off the 

 house; a very slow burning fire will 

 do this. With steam you must have 

 sufficient fire to make steam or you 

 may as well have no fire at all. If 

 you wish only to fill one 1-inch pipe 

 the boiler must be full of steam or 

 none will pass into the pipe. Steam 

 is most convenient for evaporating to- 

 bacco. Altogether steam is the plan 

 for large establishments, where four 

 or five houses will want heat at the 

 same time, and water is the best for 

 houses where less quantities but great- 

 er variety is grown. 



Cast iron boilers of several makes 

 are used by greenhouse men to gener- 

 ate steam, but wherever there is much 

 work to be done a steel tubular boiler 

 is the best. If for locomotives, steam- 

 ships and factories the tubular boiler 

 is the best, why is it not the best for 

 the greenhouse with some modifica- 

 tion of the way the fire is applied. 



I have seen some greenhouse boilers 

 where the fire or heat from it first 

 passed under the whole length of the 

 boiler, then returned to the front by 

 half of the flues and again returned 

 to the rear by the other half of the 

 flues. We believe that was overdoing 

 it. On returning the third time the 

 smoke would be so cool that it could 

 not help in making steam, therefore 

 it was no help. If the draught is 

 carried through one set of tubes and 

 back by another you will have all out 

 of the fuel that can be got towards 

 making steam. 



Many prefer to use old marine boil- 

 ers that have been condemned for use 

 where high pressure was needed. They 

 may last a long time, but as in every- 

 thing else a new boiler made for you 

 is the cheapest in the end. 



It is of the greatest importance that 

 the boiler should be well down under 

 its work. The working of a steam 

 boiler when well down will be so much 

 more satisfactory over one that has to 

 return the condensed steam by an au- 

 tomatie pump or trap, that any ex- 

 pense in the way of excavation or 



sewer is warranted. Keep the boiler 

 down so that there is a perfect and 

 unobstructed return to the boiler. If 

 the top of the boiler is two feet lower 

 than your return pipes in the house 

 you are all right, but if convenient 

 lower still is better. 



The size of pipe that you lead out of 

 the boiler and the branches attached 

 leading to the different houses will 

 depend on the number and size of the 

 houses. To illustrate. If you were 

 heating six rose houses from one boil- 

 ery, or battery of boilers, you would 

 start with a 6-inch; the first two hous- 

 es would be tapped from the 6-inch, 

 after which the main could be reduced 

 to a 4-inch and from it feed two more 

 houses. Then the main pipe could be 

 reduced to a 3-inch and supply one 

 more house; and reducing the main to 

 a 2-inch would be enough for the sixth 

 house. But be on the safe side and 

 have good sized pipes for supply. I 

 may have given even a smaller sized 

 pipe for the supply than is judicious. 



The arrangement of steam pipes is 

 very like the modern way of arrang- 

 ing pipes for hot water. They are us- 

 ually carried up in the shed above the 

 doorways for convenience sake. Just 

 here let me say that all the steam 

 pipes should be well covered with 

 asbestos, mineral wool, or some such 

 material; if exposed much condensa- 

 tion would occur. 



When steam was first used in green- 

 houses, and maybe in some places yet, 

 the main pipe or flow, a 2% or 3-inch, 

 was carried along a foot or two from 

 the roof, and at the end dropped into 

 manifolds and returned in a number 

 o 1-inch pipes, either on the side or 

 under the benches. That is a very 

 poor way to heat. Your hottest pipe 

 was where it was of little benefit and 

 if it had a long way to travel and a 

 low pressure the steam would be con- 

 densed before it reached the small 

 pipes on which you depended mostly 

 for your heat. , 



On entering the house run your 2- 

 inch pipe into a manifold and from 

 that carry along your small pipes; 1- 

 inch is considered the most economi- 

 cal for steam. The pipes can be on 

 the side wall, the best place of all, or 

 under the benches. From the shed or 

 boiler end drop the pipes slightly (two 

 inches in a hundred feet is enough) 

 and return the same way. ' Drop 

 enough back to the boiler to empty 

 the pipes is enough. For a return a 

 1-inch will do for five flows. On reach- 

 ing the shed let all the returns enter 

 one 2-inch pipe and when convenient 

 drop into the bottom of the boiler. 

 The arrangement of steam pipes is 

 more simple than hot water. You can 

 drive steam but water will only flow 

 by a natural law. 



I cannot give any quantities of pipe 

 for a given house better than one I 

 saw working last winter. It was at 

 Mr. John H. Dunlop's, of Toronto, 

 Canada, remember. The house (a 

 rose house, short-span-to-the-south), 

 was 22 ft. wide and 200 ft. long. The 

 pipes were 1-inch on the side wall, and 

 two 1%-inch about eight inches from 



the roof, several feet apart. All these 

 pipes were filled direct from the main 

 supply (not running 200 feet and used 

 as returns). On the two side walls 

 there were five 1-inch on each only. 

 There was a 1-inch return for each 

 side, and that for the five 1-inch flows 

 was ample. 



This Deemed to me remarkably little 

 pipe, and Mr. Dunlop assured me that 

 at JO below zero they could keep 56 

 degrees with ease with about 10 Ibs. 

 of steam, and very seldom used the 

 entire five pipes. He attached great, 

 importance to the lV4-inch pipes near 

 the roof in extremely cold weather, al- 

 though in ordinary times they were 

 not used. The pipes near the glass 

 seemed to prevent that cold wave 

 which in the best of houses seems to 

 strike you on very cold nights and 

 which is of course the air when sud- 

 denly cooled dropping rapidly to the 

 lowest point in the house. This is 

 about half the surface of pipe that 

 would be required with hot water, 

 however well heated. Near the man- 

 ifold, where the supply enters the 

 house, every pipe should have a valve, 

 so that you can use just as many or 

 as few as weather compels. 



It is usual where a large amount of 

 steam is used that two or more boilers 

 are required. Perhaps you will us<> 

 only one a great part of the season, 

 and in several months your whole 

 power, but one boiler should never be 

 depended on. In case of a breakdown 

 you may lose more in one night than 

 two or three boilers would cost, and 

 it is both in hot water and steam poor 

 economy to have boilers that are just 

 able to keep your houses comfortable 

 in ordinary cold weather, for when ex- 

 tremes come, having no reserve power, 

 you will suffer. 



If your boiler is not big enough or 

 you are deficient in pipes on these oc- 

 casions you will be sending fuel up 

 the chimney in vain, besides the in- 

 jury to your crops. Put up your boil- 

 er and pipes with the understanding 

 that you want a certain heat in your 

 houses when the wind is blowing forty 

 miles an hour and zero outside. Then 

 when it is 20 degrees of frost and a 

 clear, still night you will be in clover. 

 In fact you will have "coal to burn." 

 Not only on the small heating pipes 

 should you have valves, but on all 

 the main pipes leading to each house. 

 I have found repeatedly that in hot 

 water heating with small pipes it is 

 wise economy to put in a valve where- 

 ever there is a possibility of your 

 wanting to make an alteration or ad- 

 dition, or shut off one house while 

 using others. Don't spare the valves, 

 you can hardly tell when their need 

 will occur. 



Steam boilers with a good draught 

 will burn a much inferior grade of 

 coal than a cast iron hot water heat- 

 er, and seldom that anthracite coal is 

 used. The cheaper the fuel, however, 

 the more of it, and more attention 

 is needed. 



Where steam is used a night fire- 

 man is a necessity, and one should be 

 on the place at all hours of the night. 



