466 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 15, 1370. 



almost as a ship-mast, is 10 feet. The height I could not 

 ascertain, but it equalled that of some neighbouring Limes and 

 other trees, and, standing in front of them, the fine green 

 foliage offered a strong contrast to the autumn tints these 

 trees had assumed. 



While on this subject I may mention that at the same place, 

 Mr. Ewing, the able gardener, pointed out to me a Willow- 

 leaved Oak of the deciduous kind that seemed to be growing 

 as quickly as the common one generally does. I did not as- 

 certain how long it had been planted, but its fine straight stem 

 surmounted by a vigorous head, having a sort of elliptical 

 outline, indicated that at a period not long distant it would be 

 a fine tree. As it was, the girth of the bole at about 5 feet from 

 the ground was 5 feet 8 inches— a good size for a tree that, I 

 believe, has not been so very long known to cultivators. The 

 soil, I may add, was good, overlying the Kentish rag and its 

 accompaniments — a soil in general favourable to the growth of 

 trees of most kinds, and Ehrubs also, the Rhododendron and its 

 congeners alone excepted. — J. Roeson. 



GOOD AND BAD STOKING. 



It is curious, but none the less true, that the influence of 

 the stoker on the economy of fuel is systematically neglected 

 by engineers. In estimating the relative merits of different 

 engines, it is always assumed that the fuel is burned under 

 conditions with which the men who supply coal to the furnaces 

 have nothing whatever to do — in short, that any man who can 

 throw coals on a fire and keep his bars clean must be as good 

 as any other man who can do, apparently, the same thing, 

 and, apparently, nothing more. But it is certain that this 

 conclusion is totally erroneous. The steam engine has been 

 so far improved that it is only by the utmost refinement of 

 skill that small economies can be effected in the consumption 

 of fuel ; and the brains of the best men of the day are taxed to 

 the utmost to design these refinements, and apply them pro- 

 perly to their intended purpose. But all the while the in- 

 fluence of the skill of the stoker is overlooked, and, at the 

 same time that we are moving heaven and earth to save an 

 ounce of coal per horse per hour, we employ men without 

 question who may waste through ignorance ten times as much 

 Fuel as we try to save, or neglect men who might save ten times 

 as much by their skill as the engineer can hope to save by his. 

 This matter was never brought into a clear light until the 

 recent engine trials at Oxford, when for the first time the 

 judges measured the water evaporated. The results were start- 

 ling in the extreme. Frederick Moody, one of the best fire- 

 men in England, succeeded in obtaining an evaporation of 

 9.37 lbs. of water per pound of coal from the society's boiler,- 

 the Reading Ironworks Company's engine running for three 

 hours nineteen minutes. Messrs. Marshall's man got from 

 the same boiler, and with the same coal, an evaporation of 

 only 8 lbs. of water per pound of coal. Messrs. Marshall's 

 engine ran but two hours forty-four minutes, and consumed 

 5. IS lbs. of coal per horse per hour. If Moody had fired for 

 Messrs. Marshall with as much skill as he fired for the Reading 

 Iron Company, the consumption of fuel would have been but 

 4.22 lbs. We thus find that a difference in the skill of two 

 stokers, both very good — Messrs. Marshall's man was far above 

 the average of stokers — may cause a difference of nearly a 

 pound of coal per horse per hour in the relative consumption 

 of two very good engines. Surely it is time to think of the 

 stoker when we find that he can save or waste 20 per cent, of 

 the whole weight of fuel required to do a given amount of work. 

 We have gone on improving boilers and engines for years — 

 suppose that, just for a change, we try to improve the stoker. 



In conclusion, we may point out that the anomalous results 

 obtained from boilers of the same type under different circum- 

 stances are probably due to varying 3kill on the part of the 

 stokers. No trial can in future be considered satisfactory which 

 <loes not take this consideration into account. — (Engineer.) 



[We fear that if the word gardener were substituted for 

 engineer it would be easy to find more fault with the mode in 

 which gardening stoking of furnaces is too generally conduoted. 

 Even the most simple considerations are frequently negleoted, 

 and what ought to be a matter of thought becomes too often a 

 inere matter of course. 



The following precautions will H6ver be neglected by a good 

 furnace man. Before a fire is put on or mended for a hot- 

 house the sky will be scanned, so as to form an idea whether 

 the air is likely to remain as it is, or to become warmer or 

 colder. The outside thermometer is then to be consulted, and 



note taken as to whether the mercury is rising or falling. The 

 inside thermometer should next be examined, and its rise or 

 fall noted ; and then where a fire has been burning the heating 

 medium, be it stove, flue, or hot-water pipe, should be felt by 

 the bare hand, so as to be sure of the heat there, and thence, 

 from practice, the stoker forms an idea of how that heat is 

 likely to influence the confined air in the house. All these 

 little matters will be attended to, as a mere necessity, by 

 every good fireman before he goes to the furnace. Are they 

 attended to as they ought to be ? Is it not too common for a 

 man to jump down into the stokehole and pile on the fuel ? 

 And if these little matters are attended to at all, it is after the 

 fire is all right and blazing away with a vengeance, and send- 

 ing the greater part of the heat, in the case of a boiler, up the 

 chimney. Need we wonder that houses become too cold at 

 night, or too warm in a morning, or the contrary ? that when 

 there is too much heat the furnace doors are left open, with the 

 attendant waste ? that dampers might as well be a thing un- 

 known for the use that is made of them ? or that in a cold 

 morning fuel is piled on quite regardless of the fact that the 

 keen air is accompanied with a clear fky, and in a few hours 

 there will be such a meeting of sun heat and fire heat as to try 

 severely everything at all tender, and where the very free ad- 

 mission of cold air will act almost as prejudicially as the extra 

 dry heat ? A very small fire in a cold morning, or no fire at 

 all when the sun may be expected to act in a couple of hours, 

 would often be much better than putting on much fuel ; at 

 least all the above little matters should be noted before doing so. 



Much economy may also be effected by so managing the fire 

 that the brightest part is always farthest from the furnace 

 door, so that the smoke and steam may be burned by passing 

 over the live coal. The more these matters are insisted on 

 the greater will be the economy in heating. 



In this respect there is no comparison, as to the tact and 

 observation required from the best stoker to a steam engine, 

 and the best stoker to the furnace of a tropical or forcing 

 house, or a house where frost is merely excluded. The first 

 has chiefly so to husband the heat from the fuel as to get the 

 greatest amount of steam from the water. The gardening 

 stoker, if he would excel, has not only to study and practise 

 how to get the most heat, but he has to Btudy all the attendant 

 circumstances of atmospheiic changes, as too much heat in 

 his case is often more dangerous than too little heat. Except 

 where the frost iB allowed to enter, we have no hesitation in 

 saying that more harm is done by overheating at times than 

 by frequent underheaiing. 



Where much furnace work has to be attended to, a good 

 thoughtful stoker will be one of the most valuable men about 

 a place. The fuel he saves by consideration will tell largely in 

 an economical point of view. So much have we felt this, that 

 without calling in question the wonders that the boilers ad- 

 vertised in our columns are to accomplish with such an 

 economy of fuel — and no doubt the inventors and patentees 

 honestly believe all that is said of any particular boiler — we 

 have little doubt that such a stoker would make one, or other, 

 or each of them, the most wondeiful for doing so much with so 

 little fuel. How is it, then, that stoking the furnaces in a gar- 

 den has frequently received so little attention ? First, because 

 the matter ha3 not been deemed sufficiently important; second, 

 because good stoking has not been sufficiently appreciated ; 

 and thirdly, because many proprietors of gardens, from some 

 short-sighted considerations, make economical firing impossible. 

 We do not so much allude to such a case as that referred to 

 the other week, where a gentleman would prefer the joints of 

 his pipes to be injured rather than insert an air-pipe, and care 

 nothing about the heat round a boiler getting freely up the 

 chimney, provided the damper was always drawn out; we 

 allude more particularly to those gardens where, though there 

 are several glass houses, no one lives near them to attend to 

 them ; and to keep them Eafe large fires must be put on before 

 the men leave, and these must act whatever the change of 

 the weather. In such a case economy in fuel is out of the 

 question. — F.] 



PASSIFLORA QUADKANGULAPJS AS A 



CONSERVATORY CLIMBER. 



Thebe is a growing inclination among gardeners to plant 

 some of the hardier kinds of stove climbers as permanent 

 decorative plants in the conservatory, and one of their first 

 favourites is the above-named Passion-flower. I do not object 

 to their choice, for, as far as the building goes, I consider a 



