February 17, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



135 



and Rhubarb can be grown if not forced as cheaply as, if not 

 cheaper than, they can be bought. In fact, I have found that they 

 will both grow luxuriantly almost anywhere and with little 

 trouble ; and if they can be bought cheaper than they can be 

 grown it says Tery little either tor the ground or the manage- 

 ment. But stony loam is not the best soil in the world, 

 although, as I said before, any soil may be made productive 

 under proper management. — F. Chitty. 



HEATING HOETICULTUEAL BUILDINGS. 



(Concluded from page 112.) 



Heating bt Flues. — I mentioned some few weeks ago that 

 an extensive range of forcing and other houses at Ravensworth 

 Castle, in the county of Durham, was heated by flues which had 

 been in use more than half a century. Doubtless they have been 

 repaired, and, perhaps, altered during that time ; still they do 

 their work well, and I do not know whether I should like a 

 change to hot water in such a place, although, as I believe, 

 within a circuit of five miles of the Castle, scores of miles of cast- 

 iron pipes are made every year, and there is rarely a day passes 

 but the sound of boiler-building is heard. 



Flues have their advantages, and I am no enemy to flues 

 when well constructed, and when used in such a place as the 

 one I speak of where coals are cheap. The flue is also less liable 

 to accident than hot water, and when a misfortune does happen 

 it is much more easily rectified. Most men could find some- 

 thing to stop a leaky flue, but it requires days and the assistance 

 of practical hands to repair a cracked boiler. I know of no 

 way of renovating a cast-iron boiler but by replacing it with a 

 new one, and this, perhaps, may have to be done at a time when 

 the external thermometer may be 15° or more below the freezing- 

 point. I by no means wish to detract from the merits of hot 

 water — I only desire to give the flue its due ; and if both modes 

 of heating had had an equal amount of attention bestowed on 

 their improvement, it is probable that that by means of flues 

 would have arrived at a higher degree of perfection than it has yet 

 attained. Still some advance has been made, and a plan my 

 worthy employer allowed me to adopt here some five or six 

 years ago having answered so well, I will at once describe it. 



Having built two half-span-roofed houses, each 36 feet long 

 by about 14 feet wide, and of a proportionate height for green- 

 house plants of various kinds not requiring a high temperature, 

 I thought it was needless to incur the expense of a hot-water 

 apparatus, for the houses, being at some distance from the others, 

 could not be heated by the existing means. It was, there- 

 fore, determined to try the old flue. The houses in question 

 contained a broad front shelf or platform of about 3 feet wide, 

 and then a path, the remainder being shelves to the back wall, 

 and the doors entering at the ends opposite the path, which went 

 straight through. The mode of heating has nothing unusual 

 about it, for behind the back wall and in the centre where the 

 partition was the fireplaces were dug, and a flue goes round each 

 house. The two fireplaces are low enough to allow the smoke 

 in the first instance to ascend a little. The flue at its com- 

 mencement is of brickwork with stone covers, and so low that 

 the covers are on a level with the pathway. It gradually rises 

 as it turns under the front shelf, and about 25- feet of this portion 

 is also brick. The remainder of that under the shelf is cement 

 pipe 12 inches in diameter, until near the farther end where a 

 short length of brick flue descends to the level of the pathway, 

 and the flue of cement pipe returns along the back wall again, 

 finally passing upwards in a chimney over the firep'.acee. 



Now, there is nothing new in this, excepting the use of 

 cement pipes, and I may safely say they do their duty well. 

 Like every one who has occasion to put a fire into a flue that 

 has long been out of use and is damp, I find a little escape 

 of smoke is sure to ensue ; yet, strange to say, such escape has 

 always been from the brick flues and not from the cement pipes. 

 I have not had occasion to clean the flues out yet ; but the 

 arrangement of having the slanting covers at the ends to take 

 off readily will render the cleaning-out of the pipe an easy 

 matter. 



A less-sized pipe might have been advised by some, but it 

 must be observed the houses are far from being small, and a 

 less pipe would require cleaning-out much more frequently ; 

 besides the expense is not a serious matter, and the pipes being 

 about an inch thick or a little more, they heat quickly. They 

 will, it is true, also cool quickly, but this is of much less con- 



sequence ; for assuming the atmosphere of the house to be at 45" 

 at four in the morning and the fire then to go out, the heated 

 flue and warm atmosphere in the house would hardly suffer a 

 diminution of temperature likely to be hurtful before morning, 

 unless the frost were very severe indeed, or the house in- 

 differently glazed. I may add, that I have never found any 

 such inconvenience. 



The pipes are 30 inches long and fit into each other, requiring 

 but very little cement to set them. I believe the best kind of 

 pipes for stauding fire to be those made of Portland cement ; 

 but we have some made of Roman cement that stand very well. 

 I have been told by the maker that he has had a Portland 

 cement pipe heated by charcoal and over a blast almost to a 

 white heat without any injury being done to it, and such heats 

 are never wanted in flues. As the readers of The Jottenal or 

 HoETlcuiTtTEE may wish to know all particulars, I will at once 

 state that the cost of Roman cement pipe of the kind used was, 

 at Maidstone where it is made, Is. Id. per foot run. The Port- 

 land cement one was, I believe, Is. <Sd. per foot. Both inside 

 and outside they are round, only a flattened surface is added to 

 the bottom for them to rest on. Ours rest on slender brick pillars 

 at the ends, the other part being all above ground, and the 

 appearance being far from unsightly. 



Heating by Hot "Watee. — Although I have had something 

 to do with hot-water heating for about thirty years, I am far 

 from certain which is the best plan yet. Some systems are 

 certainly bad, and have, consequently, fallen into disuse ; while 

 others, as, for instance, Perkins', are hardly adapted for horti- 

 cultural buildings, besides being very expensive ; and again, 

 Kewley's plan has so many disadvantages that it cannot be 

 recommended. There is, however, one old plan which I think 

 rather hastily fell to the ground, without that fair trial which 

 might have given it popularity. Unfortunately, the inventor 

 patented his contrivance, which was an open gutter pipe with 

 a moveable covering, which could be taken off either wholly or 

 in part. I think this was Corbett's plan ; hut the fear of in- 

 fringing the patent-right prevented, at the time, further im- 

 provement, and I think the plan has fallen into oblivion. The 

 principal object of after-inventors has been to contrive a boiler 

 capable of doing more work than any hitherto in use, and boilers 

 ef all shapes and forms have been brought before the public. 

 Not the least useful among these was Sampson's spiral boiler, 

 which was over the furnace, but continued in a spiral form 

 round the chimney. The setting was an easy affair. I only 

 mention this boiler as one not generally known. 



The other classes of tubular, conical, retort, and saddle boilers 

 have been so often before the reader as to require no explana- 

 tion here ; neither will I undertake to say which is the best, as 

 so much depends on circumstances. I cannot, however, but 

 observe that the old saddle boiler is by no means bad, and of our 

 six boilers two of them are of that kind. Tha conical form may 

 certainly economise fuel a little more ; but it necessitates that fuel 

 being of a particular kind, and is on that account objectionable, 

 but they may be set so as to be heated by a wood fire ; or any 

 kind of rubbish that comes to hand may be burnt underneath. 

 They may also often be left without attendance for a very long 

 time with safety, not but that other boilers have equal advantages 

 in this respect. I have known a coil of pipes to torm the boiler, 

 and it was said to do its work well ; in fact, Perkins' heating 

 apparatus is of this kind ; but the one I allude to was much 

 larger than Perkins'. 



I am also told the retort is a good boiler, but I have neither 

 seen that nor Messenger's at work : therefore, I can only speak 

 by report. There is little doubt but those tubular boilers of 

 Messrs. Weeks and of Mr. Ormson will heat the quickest ; the 

 only fear is, with so much complication of parts some place 

 may give way at some unfortunate time. I would certainly 

 never depend on one boiler alone to work a large space ; for it 

 is certain that some day an accident will take place, which 

 may be attended with serious consequences. Two boilers, each 

 contrived so as to connect itself with the series of pipes, would 

 obviate much of the danger there is no doubt ; but it might 

 even happen that an accident might occur to a connecting-pipe, 

 and derange the whole. This is certainly not so likely as an 

 accident to the boiler, but it has been known to occur ; it is, 

 therefore, better not to have everything depending on one frail 

 connection. One misfortune would do more harm than would 

 pay many times over for the extra fuel used in heating by 

 another apparatus. 



Hot water, however, is so very accommodating that I would 



