1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
371 
Now ready, price 4s. 6¢., 
RU RAL (Co i Oa ein aa ome SIS SNS 
By Epwarp Sotty, Esq., Jun., F.R.S 
Experimental Chemist to the Hor' 
cultural Society of London, 
on. Mem. of the Royal Agricultural Society, and Lecturer 
on Chemistry, at the Royal Institution. 
London: 3, Charles-street, Covent Garden. 
Che Garveners’ Chronicle, 
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Monday, June 5 + 
Tuesday, June'6 . 6. 17 
Wednesday, June 7 
Saturday, June 10 
ie. 
Tuesday, June 13, South London Floricultnral, Surrey Zoolo- 
e 
WE are happy to announce to the Fellows of the 
Horticultural Society, that the Council have directed 
the Garden at Chiswick to be kept open till 8 o’clock 
in the evening during the months of June and J uly, 
which it is hoped will be agreeable to those whose 
business keeps them in London during the afternoon. 
Ye would also direct the attention of visitors to some 
highly in teresting experiments on manures which are 
Now in progress in this establishment. Wheat, Pota- 
toes, Turnips, and Peas, are the subject of examination 
im the Stove and Hothouse Department, under the 
direction of Mr. Edward Solly ; and the influences of 
Phosphate of ammonia, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate 
of soda, chloride of sodium, and other saline sub- 
Stances, are already becoming manifest in a highly 
Mstructive manner. ; 
Wer would advise all who love flowers to visit the 
exhibition of American plants now on view at Messrs. 
aterers, in the Kings-road ; they will find them 
ves amply rewarded for their trouble. Under a 
8€ canvas roof is formed a temporary garden, with 
8ravel walks, turf, and some thousands of American 
plants, as fresh as if they were still growing in the 
Pure air of Bagshot. 
walks 
endrons one can imagine s 
4 many colours, and the broad-leaved Kalmia, Of 
e former, we measured one specimen 18 ft. in cir- 
bamterence, about 9 ft. high, and loaded with about 
re clusters of beautiful pale violet blossoms. Others 
Nave stems from 4 ft. to 5 ft. high, and heads bending 
down with the weight of bloom. A broad:leaved 
almia, 7 ft. high, and 6 ft. in diameter, will in a 
€w days be a sheet of waxy blossoms. 
Although these are perhaps the largest and finest 
Plants in the collection, there are many others that 
approach them nearly, in all shades, of pik, rose- 
Colour, white, blush, and lilac. 
to en 
fou 
E 
sel 
lar; 
1 with Azaleas 
f © collection itself, which, we may add, is now in all 
S beauty, 
Siagtt following letter appeared in the Church and 
of our 42 ete, to which we would draw the attention 
ur clerical readers 
Th DUcATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL Poor. 
a? the Editor of the Church and State Gazette. 
county One of the greatest difficulties the clergy of 
their 4) Parishes have to contend with in the education of 
Gite parishioners, is the want of funds ; and this 
it seems to me) is hardly to be overcome by 
an i 
iter aie hitherto proposed schemes, There is no doubt 
whieh lat the improvement in the standard of education 
a Rc Supplied by our Diocesan Training Schools, will 
a > Dut it will not do all that is n ary to relieve 
Country 
Ore offi, 
dete 
o! 
Which “proatiilly tried in this neighbourhood, and 
1 *Perienced itfowc supply the almost universal 
2 A 
eultora Prietor has established what are termed “ agri 
ti 
Schools, 
5 and ag: 
faking the 1h 
Hon in the 
Pensate 
tion 4 the Master, 
Urpose d 
Bray oes not 
“ster pays a rent 
beyond that of the adjoinin, 
In the case of the Willingdon school, there is an appro- 
priate house for which the master pays an additional rent. 
The only payment in money to the master is the usual 
penny a week from each scholar. 
‘ Professor Daubeny lately visited these schools, and 
has approvingly noticed them in his article upon the 
A 8 of Agricultural 
* Public Institutions for the 
cience,’ in the last volume of the journals of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England: saying, among other 
things, ‘ So far as the scholars are concerned, it would 
appear that a sufficient number of hours is allotted to 
impart to them an adequate knowledge of reading, writing, 
and arithmetic.’ Dr. Mackenzie, of Kinellen, Dingwall, 
has also examined them, and noticed them in a little tract, 
called ‘ Britain’s Danger and Safety.’ 
“Now surely, Sir, the clergy of small agricultural 
parishes would do well to consider whether they may not 
here find a means whereby a difficulty in the way of their 
educating the children of their poorer parishioners, at 
present apparently insuperable, may not be overcome. 
They have, for the most part, glebes at their disposal, 
and which if let on this understanding would produce to 
them quite as much rent as they could otherwise obtain, and 
provide at the same time their poorer neighbours with the 
means of a suitable education for their ch 
extensive tithe-barns, now rendered unnecessary 
Tithe Commutation Act, would give tl every facility, 
with but trifling alterations, for the establishment of a 
school-house, Nor can any reasonable objection be made 
to this plan on the ground of so employing the boys in 
the afternoon. The girls in our national schools are 
taught, and for the same number of hours, to work with 
the needle, the use of which, however, is not more im 
portant to them than is that of the spade and the hoe to 
the boys, 
“‘ But Thave already occupied more space than I pur- 
posed in your columns, and therefore I will not at this 
time do more than add my earnest desire that the country 
clergy, whose parishes are otherwise without the means of 
supporting schools, will give my kind neighbour’s sugges- 
tions a fair and sufficient trial. 
 T remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
* Dec. 26, 1842. « CiERicus.’? 
“ P.S.—Any particulars respecting these schools may 
be obtained, by application to Mr. G. Cruttenden, Agri- 
cultural School, Willingdon, East Bourne.” 
Where schools are already established, and funds 
raised to maintain them, it would still be an improve- 
ment if the children were taught to work as well as to 
read and write. A national school was established at 
Winkfield, near Windsor, in 1835, patronised by the 
Royal family and the wealthy inhabitants of the Forest. 
Ample funds were raised to build a neat house for a 
master and mistress, and two school-rooms, one for 
boys and another for girls, with a workshop and sheds 
for tools. The garden was only two acres in extent 
until lately, when two acres more adjoining were 
purchased. The produce sold from two acres in 1842, 
amounted to upwards of 20/., besides the vegetables 
used in the master’s family, whose wife teaches the 
girls. The children learn to read, write, and cypher, 
four hours in the day, and work four hours (two hours 
in the morning and two in the afternoon). In wet 
A 
8 
| weather the boys are employed making mats and 
baskets; in fine weather they work in the garden. 
The girls sow and knit stockings. 'The children pay 
twopence each per week, half of which, together with 
half the produce of the garden, is given in rewards 
once a year, chiefly in articles of clothing, in propor- 
tion to their attention and progress. The vicar of the 
parish, the Rey. W. L. Rham, directs the operations 
in the garden, and has the general superintendence. 
The plan has been found completely successful, and 
there are, or were lately, 45 boys and 37 girls taught 
in the school. The girls’ work produces but little; 
but there is no doubt, that, with proper management, 
the 45 boys, paying 2d. a week and working on 5 or 6 
acres of land, would indemnify a master who knew 
how to employ them to the best advantage. 
Many improvements might be introduced in the 
mode of teaching the boys to work. The more 
advanced might be made to direct the work of the 
younger, and each having a responsibility, the work 
would be more systematically and profitably done. 
There are other schools where hours of working have 
been introduced ; but in none besides that at Willing- 
don and another at East Dean has the system of entire 
self-support been tried, as far as we know. If this 
example could be followed successfully in various 
parts of the country, there would no longer be any 
obstacle to the education of every individual amongst 
the labouring population ; uniting as much of letters 
as is useful to men in their station with those habits 
of industry which are so essential to their happiness 
and prosperity in life—az, 
TE Seatac eev ee 
Postic opinion as to the manner of heating horti- 
cultural buildings has within the last 20 or 30 years 
undergone a remarkable change, which has by no 
means reached its end. When the application of hot 
water to this purpose was first proposed by the late 
Mr. Bacon, the flue-system was in almost exclusive 
use. The innovation of that gentleman was either 
Pp > ani 
looked upon coldly, or altogether opposed ; it was | 
1 costly, ineftici and inapplicabl 
land occupied by farmers. ) the owners of flues clung to them with tenacity, pre- 
ferring the evils they were accustomed to, tc adyan- 
tages they knew nothing of. However, in this, as in 
other things, intelligence and common sense have at 
last triumphed over ignorance and prejudice ; and we 
do not imagine there is a Gardener in the country 
who would think of heating any place with smoke 
flues if he could possibly get hot-water pipes. 
Then came contrivances for moistening the atmo- 
sphere, and these too were opposed ; syringing and 
watering being asserted to be all that a Gardener 
could want. However, some who were wiser than 
their neighbours adopted evaporating-pans: their 
crops were visibly improved, and evaporating-pans 
are rapidly coming into use. 
Just now attention is directed to the possibility of 
expelling tan and fermenting stable-litter from a 
garden, and obtaining bottom-heat also by hot water. 
Mr. Rendle, of Plymouth, seems to have been the first 
to direct attention very strongly to the advantage of 
a method of doing this without the assistance of hot- 
water pipes ; and in a pamphlet lately published by 
him* he has fully explained his manner of proceeding. 
While, however, we state this, we must add that the 
idea of causing water to circulate in troughs is by no 
means new ; on the contrary, it is almost as old as the 
application of it to horticultural buildings, and even 
within this last few years has been much employed by 
Messrs. Corbett, Beaton, Davidson of Stackpole, 
we think Green, and others. What is most original 
in Mr. Rendle’s plan is the establishment of a double 
current of water in the same tank, which also forms 
the foundation of the bed to be heated ; but even this 
is not so new as we at one time supposed, as the fel- 
lowing section and plans of a house at Oakley Park, 
the seat of the Hon. R. Clive, will abundantly prove: 
1 Lower Chamber 8 Path inside the house 
2 Inside the house 9 Pit full of leaves, to place the 
3 Endview ots on 
4 Boiler 10 Brick supports for flagging 
5 Troughs, 14 in. wide, and3 | 11 Evaporating tubes from the 
inches deep lower chamber 
Flue | 12 Cistern over the boiler 
a 
7 Path in lower chamber san Se 
This house was erected about 12 years ago; it is 
42 feet long, 9 feet high at the back, 3 feet high at the 
front, 11 feet wide. The lower chamber is 5 feet 
deep, and is covered by a flagging 3 feet square. It 
is heated by slack coals at 8s. per ton: one ton of 
coals is sufficient for 12 days in the severest frost, and 
keeps the thermometer at from 70 to 75 deg. In mild 
weather, about half the quantity of coals is sufficient 
to keep the thermometer to that degree. Making an 
average calculation, 6d. in the 24 hours would be the 
outside experise for coals. 
We do not see that Mr. Rendle’s plan differs from 
this in any essential particular, the trough (fig. 5) 
being in fact exactly the same as his tank, except that 
the flag-stones do not rest upon it. ‘ 
We find, however, that, as usual, all sorts of objec- 
tions are taken to this substitution of a steady, simple, 
manageable source of bottom-heat for the variable, 
troublesome, and often very expensive materials now in 
use. For the present, however, we shall merely 
refer to the success which has attended jt for 12 years 
at Oakley, at Mr Lee’s of Hammersmith, and 
at other plac On a future occasion, we shall endea- 
e Tank System o! 
Communicating Heat 
d |, * Treatise on th 
| to Horticultural Structures. London. Longmans. 
