182 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 10, 1863. 



be few this season. Thus, even where coals are dear, the ex- 

 pense of a hot-water apparatus may be saved in a house of 

 this kind. I grant the ca6e is widely different, when a minimum 

 of 55° is wanted, instead of one of 38° or 40° being maintained. 

 In the former case a continual fire is wanted, and the most 

 economical one is, no doubt, the best, and in such cases hot 

 water stands pre-eminent. 



To make the matter of absolute cost appear more plain to 

 those not having had much experience in heating a garden struc- 

 ture, I will give a very common example. Supposing that an 

 amateur wishes to erect a lean-to glass house against a wall that 

 already exists, and at the back of which there is convenience for 

 a fireplace ; and assuming the house to be 40 feet long by 15 feet 

 wide, and of a proportionate height at back, the question is how 

 to heat it. Most likely hot water will be recommended. Now, 

 to heat a single house like this, which we suppose to be a plain 

 substantial structure, the hot-water apparatus will cost very little 

 short of one-half the amount which sufficed to erect the building, 

 and, possibly, more than that. This is a large item, and the 

 saving of coais in the heating of one house only is not so much 

 as where there are several all heated from one source ; besides, a 

 hot-water apparatus on a large, or moderately large, scale is not 

 half so tedious to manage as a very small one. 



Now, this is by no means a solitary case. Many amateurs have 

 the means and wish to erect a house like the one alluded to, with 

 a 6helf for plants and other internal fittings, but they feel they 

 have committed an error when, after the house is ereotcd, they 

 find the heating apparatus so costly. To such I would say, 

 Inquire at what expense a flue could be put up, and if that be 

 one-third the cost of the more fashionable mode, it is for you to 

 decide which plan ycu would like to adopt. The attention and 

 management of both are much alike in regard to trouble — easy 

 enough in both cases, and both liable to go wrong through 

 carelessness. 



It would be easy to multiply instances where the flue answers 

 all the purposes of a heating medium ; but, be it remembered, I 

 by no means oppose it to hot water in places where many houses 

 are connected, or where they all want warming to something like 

 stove heat. In such cases to use the flue, unless in the coal 

 country, would be imprudent ; but this subject as well as that 

 of the comparative cost of a flue with that of hot water, I have 

 gone into more fully in another article, on the "Heating of 

 Horticultural Buildings," so that it is needless inserting it here. 

 I cannot, however, omit repeating that in which I am pleased to 

 find Mr. Craw coincides with me, that the blacks from a smoke- 

 flue are not half so bad as those from the fire of a boiler heated 

 by coal. With regard to the maintenance of a steady heat by 

 flues, a little practice will enable the knight of the stokehole to 

 do that with greater nicety than he ever can with hot water. I 

 speak this from experience, having many times in early life had 

 upwards of twenty flue-fires to manage, and with due attention 

 to the appearances of the weather at ten o'clock at night, so 

 regulated the quantity of fuel put on, that the thermometers in 

 the morning seldom showed more than two or three degrees 

 difference from the point aimed at, and very often that point was 

 exactly maintained; and this without any attention after the 

 hours I have mentioned until six the next morning. Practice 

 alone can insure this, and in the case of a fire put on at bedtime 

 on the sudden appearance of frost setting in, there was, of 

 course, some delay and uncertainty ; but generally the night 

 attention required by flues is not greater than that necessary for 

 hot water, and I have never known a flue half so tedious as some 

 hot-water contrivances are. 



Of the relative merits of the heat emitted by the new system 

 there is a diversity of opinion, some asserting that that given off 

 by hot-water pipes is more moist and genial to vegetation. That 

 it may be more genial is not unlikely, but in what way it can 

 communicate moisture I am at a loss to know, unless the mode 

 of heating be the open-gutter plan. Certainly, however, the heat 

 is an agreeable one, and unless the pipes be newly painted there 

 is never any unpleasant smell or vapour arising from them. This 

 is, unfortunately, not the case with the flue, ior when the fire is 

 first lighted after the flue has been out of use some time there is 

 a very disagreeable odour given off, and now and then there are 

 absolutely escapes of smoke. It is, therefore, best to put on 

 the fire in the daytime and allow the ventilators to be open, 

 and after the flue is dry the smell ceases. When flues are in 

 regular work, there are many who aflirm that the heat emitted 

 is less sluggish than that of hot water, the current of air being 

 greater. Whether this be so is more than I can affirm, but it is 



certain that in many old-fashioned houses the plants do remark- 

 ably well under the old flue system. 



I will conclude by again recommending the intending builders 

 of a greenhouse or late grapery, to inquire the respective costs 

 of hot water and a flue. If he fiud the cost of a hot-water con- 

 trivance for heating two small houses will exceed what would 

 build a third, and put flues into them all, and if he happened 

 to live in a neighbourhood where fuel is cheap, I leave it for him 

 to decide whether be would rather have three houses than two. 

 This plain way of placing the matter is no vague theory, and is 

 easily understood by any one inquiring what the heating con- 

 trivance for single houses costs. J. Robson. 



THE EOYAL HOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY'S 

 SCHEDULES EOK, 1863. 



Eoe what purpose, we may ask, was the Royal Horticultural 

 Society resuscitated ? Did not the late Prince Consort imagine 

 that when he fanned into life, that languid spark which bad 

 management had pretty well extinguished, it was for the encou- 

 ragement of floriculture and horticulture ? We have now had 

 some little experience of the results, and we may well aBk, Was 

 it not for these purposes re-established ? 



I could say much on many points showing that those objects 

 have not been regarded ; but I must confine my notes to my 

 avowed object, and will turn to the schedules. 



The times for which the shows are fixed first demand a word. 

 I do not enter into the question of fixing the great shows on 

 the same dayB as those at the Royal Botanic Society, for this 

 might be laid to the charge of one Society as well as the other, 

 But there were two shows which were eminently successful last 

 year— the Hyacinth Show in March and the Rose Show in July ; 

 and what have the Exhibition Committee done this jear ? They 

 put tlie Hyacinth Show into February — three weeks too soon ; 

 and paid the penalty in having about the tithe of the attendance, 

 and in having several of the most popular flowers wholly un- 

 represented. 



But of all insane things their treatment of the Rose Show is 

 the most mad. Last year they took, 1 believe, £800, and cleared 

 £400 by it. One would have thought that so good a source of 

 income would have been fostered to the fullest extent : but no ! 

 They have killed the goose, and no more golden eggs are to be 

 had — having actually done away with the Rose Show and added 

 it on to their July Exhibition! One knows pretty well what 

 a favourite the Rose is ; and how is it possible for persons 

 thoroughly to enjoy it when they have another exhibition to 

 see at the same time ? It will be like poor Mrs. Harris trying 

 to see the International Exhibition and the Soane Museum iu 

 one day, and coming away with a confused notion that it was 

 very surprising how people could wear such old-fashioned 

 watches now-a-days, and how kind it was of the Queen to send 

 such a large piece of gold as the Victoria trophy when so many 

 thieves were about. 



Passing by the spring schedules, only remarking that they 

 seem to be peculiarly shabby, and that there was not much 

 wisdom in requiring Auricula-growers to exhibit six varieties of 

 alpines and ouly eight of the ordinary kinds, when, as I believe, 

 thore are not more than a dozen kinds of the former and about 

 150 of the latter, I pass on to the large shows ; and one cannot 

 but be at once taken aback at the very large sum given for 

 Orchids — indeed out of the £452 offered in prizes, £113 are 

 offered at the May Show for them, and £124 for stove and green- 

 house plants, or more than half for those two classes alone. 



I may be told that Orchids are such very expensive plants 

 to grow that it is necessary that large sums be offered for 

 them. Very true, but so are .Azaleas. I do not think I am far 

 wrong in Baying that a house in which a dozen such Azaleas as 

 are exhibited by the principal growers could be well managed, 

 would grow a collection of Orchids of Borne five hundred plants ; 

 and when the expense of taking them to and from the Show is 

 considered, the balance is all against the Azaleas — not more 

 than three or four plants can be placed in a van capable of con- 

 taining the whole twenty Orchids. 



Again : Is it not time that something be done in restricting 

 the size of greenhouse plants ? It is not, as it is with Azaleas, 

 that you obtain a mountain of bloom, for the Boronias, Cho- 

 rozemas, Aphelexes, &c, which one is now sick and tired of 

 seeing, never make that display ; and Ericas, hardwooded and 

 difficult plants as they are, are restricted. Why should not 



