March 31, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



343 



are some seasons in which some kinds are especially good and 

 others inferior — facts which are difficult to account for, but 

 which are nevertheless true. He had told me that the bulbs 

 were not so good this year as usual ; but I am bound to say 

 that I saw no evidence to that effect. 



The collection of Amaryllids exhibited by Mr. Cutbush at the 

 Show at South Kensington on the 18th were likewise in bloom, 

 and finer bulbs I never saw ; but the sorts generally wanted 

 that breadth of petal which we consider necessary to form a 

 first-rate flower, such as Mr. Williams's Amaryllis Unique. 

 The treatment to which the bulbs had been subjected must have 

 suited them very well, for they were of very large size and in 

 full vigour of growth. 



In the other departments of gardening Mr. Cutbush is making 

 also great advances. The prevailing taste for Roses has induced 

 him to erect a span-roofed house (or the purpose of growing 

 them and Vines. The stock looked uncommonly well, and con- 

 tained all the beBt varieties of Roses. One is often tempted to 

 ask what becomes of all the Grape Vines. At every nursery 

 one sees that they are grown in great abundance, and all speak 

 of them as selling well. Roses one can understand, but Vines 

 are a different thing ; and we must suppose that very few are 

 left of the older plants, and that the new ones have taken their 

 place. Bedding plants were also cultivated, and the usual 

 assortment of nursery stock. I also noticed the, to me, inter- 

 esting sight of a small beginning of a collection of Auriculas, 

 grown not for sale, but as a little hobby of Mr. Cutbush. — 

 D., Heal. 



VENTILATING & WARMING HORTICULTURAL 

 STRUCTURES. 



The articles upon this subject which have lately appeared in 

 your Journal, are as highly instructive to the general reader as 

 interesting to those whose knowledge enables them to under- 

 stand the laws of aeration by the power of heat. 



Having had much experience, and devoted much time to ex- 

 periments in heating and ventilating, and having tried most of 

 the systems for heating in general use for mansions, cottages, and 

 horticultural structures, I have arrived at the conviction that 

 the prevailing error is warming too much and ventilating too 

 little. The great secret lies in combining the heating apparatus 

 with a thorough ventilating system, and supplying a sufficient 

 quantity of air, ever changing and circulating through the 

 building at a proper temperature, without at the same time 

 wasting in the chimney-flue more heat than is wanted to carry 

 off the smoke and make the fuel combustible. 



We can arrange a most economical and most useful heating 

 apparatus for large establishments, by combining hot-water 

 pipes with the Polmaise, or air-chambers having ventilating 

 openings to regulate the quantity according to the change and 

 perpetual alteration of temperature in the external air. 



The public generally consider many of the newly-invented air- 

 warming stoves, Polmaise and Arnott's, &c, to be failures. The 

 principal cause why is, because the warm-air-chambers are too 

 small to supply the proper quantity of air required to keep up 

 the temperature, without overheating and destroying its life- 

 sustaining properties. If we allow the air to take up the heat as 

 fast as the fire gives it out, then the warm supply of atmosphere 

 will not he burnt. It is through confining it too long in a small 

 hot chamber that it becomes exhausted, and its properties de- 

 stroyed. When the space required to be warmed is rightly 

 apportioned to the apparatus employed, the air absorbs the heat 

 aB fast as it is generated without destroying the atmosphere. If 

 we understand this rule we can use any system of heating for 

 ventilation. Every living thing requires fresh air, plants as well 

 39 animals. Nature has provided sufficient for UBall, and supplies 

 it abundantly to the doors of the mansion, cottage, or other 

 erection ; hut with doors and windows we try t o keep it out, 

 hecause the air in our climate is cold and dan o, and, rather 

 than admit it in that state, we try to live as long as we can in 

 impure air, for the sake of comfort in our dwellings. To make 

 air life-sustaining and healthy, depends upon ourselves. Cold 

 or warm air has the property of supporting life, if it be good ; 

 but bad air destroys life. Air in circulation promotes health ; 

 but in a state of stagnation breeds disease. 



The exhibitions of plants, from time to time, prove that when 

 care is taken by the cultivator in this country he can imitate 

 the temperature of our climate, and show clearly that heat properly 



combined with air produces exotic plants equal to those of their 

 own native homes, which are warmed by the sun. To be uniform 

 in su cess will depend upon our power of assimilating an artificial 

 atmosphere suitable to the wants of the nurslings in our con- 

 servatories. 



This is a question that now requires more attention than it 

 has hitherto received ; and it is evident that no system of ven- 

 tilation, unless combined with heating, can in this country 

 provide what is wanted — that is, the knowledge how to make 

 a comfortable and healthy artificial clime in our dwellings. A 

 nobleman some years hack, on observing my process of heating 

 conservatories, addressed me thus — " I want you to make the 

 climate of Italy in my own house. I cannot go to that country, 

 but I desire its genial atmosphere." I carried out this order, 

 not by shutting the air out, because had I done so we should 

 have had no substitute for its healthful motion. Heat we could 

 have, it is true ; but heat is not air, and if we stop out the air 

 we have nothing to warm. It was then and there I first adopted 

 my plan. 



We meet with people daily who are fitting-up heating 

 apparatus, but who are not ventilating, without the slightest 

 idea that such is the fact. I met a gentleman in the Inter- 

 national Exhibition, 1862, who, like myself, was studying what 

 was exhibited there as likely to be useful in the way of warming 

 and ventilating. He told me he had been employed upon 

 nothing but heating buildings for the last thirty years. He had 

 fitted up 3000 apparatuses, but never combined ventilation 

 therewith, only because he did not understand it. He could 

 heat a building to any degree of temperature required ; he 

 wanted ventilation, but could not see anything in London worth 

 coming from Leeds to examine. This statement was confirmed 

 after the closing of that Exhibition ; for if we refer to the Jurors' 

 Report of Class X., Section B., Sanatory Improves ents and Con- 

 structions in the International Exhibition, 1862, they say — 



"As a general result it floes not appear that the active thought stirring 

 among men is in sanatory contrivances very great. The amount of educa- 

 tion on the subject is still deficient, and all progress must be slow until the 

 nation is brought up a little farther. There is, in fact, a desire for change, 

 in some instances to the worse, from an ignorance of the past we have left 

 behind. New ideas of a purely sanatory kind we have absolutely none 

 before us. Although since 1851 the subject has grown widely, we know 

 more of the condition of the air, more of the necessity of ventilation, and 

 more of its difficulty ; but the progress of our knowledge has not been seen 

 in the Exhibition. Thus far we see a defect in it ; the whole circle of human 

 invention has not been exposed to view, and room is made for improvement 

 in a future exhibition. Although we have not shown all that has been done, 

 we must not forget that much is still undone. We have not le;irned the best 

 mode of ventilating ; we cannot warm and ventilate a sm:ill room so as to 

 make it healthy and comfortable. The response in the Exhibition has not 

 been so great as the intellect of the country led us naturally to expect. 



"The great demand in this country is for warmth and dryness. Give these, 

 and we are ready to ventilate sufficiently ; deny these, and the whole popula- 

 tion instinctively prefers bad air to cold-giving air : therefore if we ventilate 

 sufficiently, we must warm." 



There cannot be any question about there being room left for 

 improvement, and for producing a better system of ventilating, 

 combined with warmth, if we intend to convert the natural 

 atmosphere into an artificial and healthy climate in-doors. 

 Persons in the habit of attending horticultural exhibitions have 

 frequently the opportunity of seeing prizes of flowers, fruits, and 

 vegetables obtained by oultivators having no better systems of 

 warming than the smoke-flue ; but good gardeners understand 

 how to assist Nature without doing her violence, and avoid 

 going too fast with heat without plenty of air. Nevertheless, 

 experience in horticulture convinces me that more information 

 upon this point might be obtained if our horticulturists would 

 set about ventilating and warming buildings to feed the plants, 

 by supplying air as they have set about other departments of 

 agriculture and horticulture, as, for instance, in manuring, or in 

 thorough drainage. 



To be further useful, and to meet the requirements of the 

 poor, I have fitted-up a room to show how the common house 

 stove can be converted into a fuel-saving, smoke-consuming, 

 heating-and-ventilating apparatus, without costing more in the 

 first construction of the building, but effecting a vast saving of fuel. 

 Since I have shown this system to my friends, several have 

 adopted it with much satisfaction. I have had an apparatus made 

 for J. Walter, Esq., of Bearwood, for a national school he haa 

 just built at Sandhurst, near Wokingham, at his own expense. 

 This plan can be seen in daily operation at my residence upon 

 application. 



What is wanted just now is the combination of practically- 

 informed men to co-operate, to give publicly an account of 

 what may be done ; and this is most essential if we are to 



