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Mabch 9, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



883 



Stairway Decoration by Ellison Floral G>n St. Louis. 



I found a trap that was guaranteed to 

 be satisfactory. I have used this for the 

 last five years and would not be without 

 it. It has worked for six months at a 

 time without any attention. We return 

 to the boiler without any pump, and 

 without any air cocks: the tjap takes 

 2are of tue whole thing. We use what 

 some would call high pressure, but it is 

 Duly from twenty to thirty pounds. With 

 this pressure we have every pipe in the 

 iouse of equal heat, the returns being as 

 hot as the flow, 900 feet from the boiler. 



We use twelve 1-inch pipes in a house 

 28x300, all flows, and eight 1-inch pipes 

 in a 20-foot house. Each pipe is con- 

 trolled by a valve. We can use all flows, 

 one or twelve. We heat from the center 

 of a 300-foot house, the pipes running 

 each way, returns across each end re- 

 turning to the boiler, these returns across 

 the ends being the only returns. A check 

 valve is used at the end of every 1-inch 

 pipe before it enters the return, so that 

 we do not have to open and close valves 

 in the returns; all we have to do is to 

 open and close the valve in the center 

 walk. 



Some claim that high pressure will not 

 grow good flowers, but we find we can 

 grow as good stock in one end of the 

 house as in the other, and we do not 

 find one end cold and another hot. With 

 low pressure the farther ends of the 

 pipes are always colder than the flows, or 

 those near the boiler, while with high 

 pressure the water comes back to the 

 boiler at nearly boiling heat, requiring 

 but little fire to convert it into steam 

 again. With the trap system you do not 

 have the expense of running a pump and 

 keeping it in repair. Further, we do not 

 require a boiler pit, as the boiler will 

 work just as well on top of the ground 

 as in a cellar. 



"The proof of the pudding is in the 

 eating." The following well known 

 firms, some of the largest in the country, 

 have tried all systems and are now using 

 the traps. Our concern has 250,000 feet 

 of glass, but the system will work just 

 as well on*a small plant if no more than 

 1,000 feet of glass. Peter Eeinberg 

 changed from pumps to traps and was 

 pleased. Bassett & Washburn have let 

 a contract for a new place, all traps. 

 Breitmeyer's Sons, at Mt. Clemens, were 

 twenty-five feet below the surface with 

 their boilers but have changed to traps. 

 The J. D. Thompson Co., Joliet, put in 



a pump system at large expense, used it 

 two years and changed to this system, 

 and would not change back under any 

 consideration. Around Cleveland nearly 

 all the florists are using traps. 



This article is not written to advertise 

 any trap. It is simply to help anyone 

 and everyone to get the best system 

 without a lot of expensive experiments. 



J. M. Gasser. 



GERANIUMS AND CINERARIAS. 



Please inform me how to treat youug 

 geraniums so as to make them grow fast 

 and to make them bloom. Mine look 

 healthy, but do not grow as fast as they 

 should, and do not bloom freely. Also 

 tell me if cinerarias can be had to bloom 

 in summer. If so, when should I 

 plant seed? M. W. 



At this season zonal geraniums should 

 be in 3-inch pots and if you want them 

 to grow fast give them 50 degrees at 

 night and always the fullest light. A 

 dark house or shade is most unsuitable. 

 A rather heavy loam and potted quite 

 firmly is much more conducive to fiower 

 than a light, rich soil and loosely potted. 

 For bedding purposes you do not want 

 them showing flower just now. Ours 

 were either pinched or a cutting taken 

 off about February 1 and are now mak- 

 ing side growths. When we shift from 

 3-inch to 4-inch pots the end of March 



we use bone meal in the soil, rather than 

 any animal manure, the latter making 

 leaf growth. Use a heavy loam, a lib- 

 eral amount of bone meal, pot firmly and 

 give all the light possible and these 

 geraniums must flower. 



Cinerarias are not desirable after the 

 end of May. They are useless out of 

 doors for any purpose. By sowing seeds 

 in November and keeping very cool and 

 light you could have them in bloom in 

 June or perhaps July, but ' ' what 's the 

 uset" For Christmas flowering sow in 

 April or May and summer over in cold 

 frames. For March and April flowering 

 sow in September. W. S. 



A SCOTCH MARINE BOILER. 



Would it be feasible to take an in- 

 ternally fired tubular boiler of the 

 Scotch marine pattern, turn it upside 

 down and set it in brickwork as shown 

 in the Review for February 16? I have 

 a boiler of that character forty-three 

 inches wide and fifty inches long. The 

 grate area is 21x42 inches and on each 

 side are fourteen 2i^-ineh flues. Jf I 

 turned it over I could make the grate 

 the full size of the boiler if necessary, 

 firing underneath instead of internally. 

 I am using the boiler for hot water. 

 Van. 



It will certainly not be practicable to 

 turn the boiler bottom side up and use 

 it for either steam or hot water heating 

 with setting similar to that described in 

 the Eeview of ±'ebruary 16. The pres- 

 ent arrangement is the most economical 

 and most nearly perfect type of construc- 

 tion. It brings a greater amount of 

 lieating surface in contact with highly 

 heated gases than .is the case with the 

 regularly constructed return tube bailer. 

 I doubt if the small flues would be of 

 much value if the boiler were to be set 

 as a return tube boiler with one Cl- 

 inch flue. This would be large onough to 

 carry a great percentage of the gases 

 from the fire-box to the stiuk ami the 

 twenty -eight 2%-incli flues would lose 

 a great percentage of their eflBciency, 

 with the result that the efficiency of the 

 boiler might in reality be diminished, 

 while the actual heating surface had 

 been increased by one-half the surface 

 of the shell of the boiler. 



While it is possible that the heating 

 capacity of the boiler might be slightly 

 increased by this change in setting, the 

 increased heating area would be about 

 twenty-five square feet and if the added 

 area were to be fully efficient the added 



Decoration by T. P. Langhans, Pittsburg, Pa. 



