May 19, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



359 



for boiler, less of either. My chimnies are built in the back 

 wall of the house. I think "J. E. L." would have some diffi- 

 culty in keeping up a proper heat in a house 40 feet by 15, with 

 only a flow and return pipe of three-inch water-piping. Neither 

 does he state cost of stays for his piping, which are always costly. 

 In further reply to Mr. Thomson, page 330, the above will 

 answer his question of furnace-bars, &c. Dampers are great 

 evils in greenhouses or vineries, causing leakages in flues, &c. 

 From the annexed drawing he will see arches are unnecessary, 



a Flue. 



B Border for Vines inside house. 



o Border outside the house. 



it Three-inch space between flue and 

 border to keep Vine roots from 

 the hot flue. 



as the Vines when they have filled the space inside the house 

 may find nourishment outside. If I were building a house 

 110 feet long, I would build furnace, flue, chimney, and all at 

 £10 less cost than Mr. Thomson estimates.— E., Burton-on- 

 Trent. 



A GOOD BOILER. 



In replying to Mr. Robson's question for particulars of a good 

 boiler, I imagined that I had given sufficient details to enable 

 him to judge of the capabilities of my Truss boiler ; and I am 

 sorry that I did not give a more explicit detail, which I should 

 have done had I properly contemplated the probability of 

 appearing in print. 



I cannot possibly estimate the cost exactly, as the summer 

 work was almost entirely performed by the refuse and cinders 

 from the house. For winter work, as a greater heat and quicker 

 circulation were required, I have been obliged to use coke, and 

 from October the 23rd to the end of April I have consumed 

 eight chaldrons, and the cost has been for twenty-seven weeks 

 about is. id. 



The cubical contents of the different structures are about 

 5600 feet, and it has heated a small stove, greenhouse, conserva- 

 tive-house, and an open-air tank, and with heat to spare. My 

 boiler has to work under many disadvantages, as the main flow 

 and return between the boiler and into the upper house, in- 

 cluding the perpendicular rise of about 12 feet, are only two-inch 

 pipes, and there are so many turns and returns necessitated by 

 my various contrivances that I have no hesitation in saying that 

 three times the amount of work could be done in a range of 

 houses on level ground, and for an amateur no boiler can be 

 more satisfactory. I have often lighted the fire myself— in fact, 

 I think that I can do it even better than my man, and in less 

 than an hour the return-pipe to the boiler shows a rapid cir- 

 culation. 



I observe that the printer made a slight error in calling one of 

 the divisions of the upper house a " coach-house," which will 

 appear curious to some of your readers. It should have been 

 " Cactus-house."— C. M. Majob, Cromwell Souse, Croydon. 



Pbofusion of Stbawbeehy Blooms. — My gardener told me 

 a few days ago, that he had mentioned to some friends that he 

 thought some of my Strawberry plants last year had as many 

 as three hundred fruit- blossoms on each plant, and that his 

 friends had laughed at the assertion. I at once took my 

 gardener to the Strawberry-bed (composed of several kinds), 

 selected a moderately fair-looking plant in full bloom, and on 



counting the blossoms found that there were four hundred and 

 twenty-eight ! I have no doubt that I have plants with five 

 hundred blossoms. I merely mention the above in case you 

 should think it worthy of notice. — J. H., Binstead, Isle of Wight. 



HEATING GREENHOUSES. 

 Thebe is not the least doubt but the hot-water system is the 

 best when there is much glass to be heated ; but for an amateur 

 who has a greenhouse, say 14 feet by 10 or 20 by 12, I certainly 

 think that nothing can be better than the ordinary flue or pipes. 

 I have a house (a lean-to), it is 14 by 9, 10 feet high at back, 

 and 5 feet in front. It is heated by means of a furnace which 

 is entirely inside (the door of the furnace of course being out- 

 side), bo that every bit of heat is in the house. There are 2 feet 

 of brickwork from the furnace, and into the end of this brick- 

 work the first stone glazed pipe is placed ; then follow the other 

 pipes, which run along the back and out into a chimney at the 

 other side of the house. The joints of the pipes are mortared. 

 On the top of the brickwork I place a wooden tray 2 feet square, 

 3 inches deep, filled with coal ashes, on which I forward different 

 things for spring cuttings and also seeds. Calceolaria cuttings 

 will strike very fast in December and January — much better, in 

 fact, than in July or August. 



When the fire is lighted, I always find the pipes are warm in 

 about five minutes, and in half an hour the houBe is quite 

 comfortable. It burns but little fuel — even in the most severe 

 winter a half-cartload of breeze will be quite sufficient, and it 

 will keep in from ten at night till seven in the morning. Cost 

 of bricks and mortar, 2s. ; furnace ironwork, 5s. ; seven glazed 

 six-inch pipes, 4s. ; total, lis. 



The pipes if cleaned well out in September, will go till 

 September again without requiring a second cleaning. 



If you think this heating account worth noticing in your 

 Journal, no doubt Bome of our amateur friends may be induced 

 to try my plan, which will no doubt answer their purposes quite 

 as well as it answers mine. — J. B. 



[Perhaps your estimate is fully low enough ; but you just 

 confirm Mr. Robson, and Mr. Fish in " Doings of the Week," 

 that small solitary houses are cheapest heated by flues. Of 

 course, they too will be expensive if built on raised arches and 

 all the rest of it, with huge tiles for bottoms. For a little 

 greenhouse we should do as you have done; or, if bricks all 

 round, we would have a good concrete bottom on a hard earth 

 bottom, two bricks on edge, and a nine-inch tile on the top. 

 We thus heated a small house by running a Bmall flue 6 inches 

 wide below a floor, the tiles covering forming part of the floor ; 

 and it cost little more in shillings than a gentleman offered to do 

 it for by hot water in pounds. In speaking of the cost of hot 

 water, and also of flues, everything should be stated. For 

 instance : if we go to one of our advertising emporiums, select a 

 boiler, suitable pipes, &c, and put it up with our own men, the 

 expense must be and ought to be different from bringing men 

 from a distance to do the work.] 



THE USES OF AN ORCHARD-HOUSE. 



It may be interesting to some of your readers to know the 

 routine of culture that has been observed in a house erected by 

 me here some twenty years ago, and which may be said to be 

 the prototype of Sir Joseph Paxton's recently patented " Hot- 

 houses for the Million." My house is 50 feet long, 14 broad, 

 7 high, and is span-roofed, facing east and west, the ends of 

 course north and south, and it is properly heated with hot-water 

 pipes. 



The house is planted with Vines and Peaches planted inside 

 close to the wall-plate a foot only from the ground. These are 

 trained in the ordinary way on trellising of wire. But besides 

 these I grow various other descriptions of garden produce. I 

 first plant dwarf Peas, sow Lettuce, Radishes, and OnionB ; plant 

 Asparagus, Sea-kale, and Rhubarb, and introduce Strawberries on 

 shelves, the sorts I grow being Keens' Seedling and British Queen. 

 As all these things grow they begin to occupy a large amount of 

 space ; but as some require to be consumed, and the Strawberries 

 when set require greater heat, and as the foliage of Vines and 

 Peaches becomes too full for the latter, I take out all my Straw- 

 berries, regard being had to their being well set, into the vinery, 

 where they swell and ripen well. As soon as my green Peas are 

 nearly or quite over, my Kidney Beans, first brought forward in 



