so 



JOURNAL OF HORTICTJLTTTRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 19, 1364. 



yet I am not a gardener, trat a tailor in a country village in 

 Yorkshire'; and the reason why I ask for your advice, is be- 

 cause I have such bad health with my present trade, that I 

 should lite to become a gardener. If you could inform me 

 how I am to succeed in getting a situation in the gardening 

 line, you will greatly oblige — A Teak and Half Subscriber. 

 [We would willingly aid any one who is in bad health. 

 Tou do not say a word about your age, nor what you have 

 been in the habit of doing beyond your trade, nor whether 

 you have tried gardening much in practice and detail. For 

 a man to change his occupation or trade is always a matter 

 productive of very important consequences. The very best 

 excuse for doing so would be want of health. Where the 

 constitution is not materially injured, a change of, occu- 

 pation will often effect a great measure of benefit, especially 

 where there is a natural bias or aptitude to the peculiar 

 trade that is selected for adoption. We should not be sur- 

 prised if gardening morning and evening would renovate 

 your health, and thus enable you to follow your first calling. 

 We have known village tailors become almost independent 

 gentlemen in their circumstances ; but it is rare, and the 



instances are few and far between, in which working gar- 

 deners can do much more than merely make their way. 

 Recollect all is not gold that glitters. The glittering gold 

 that comes to the gardener, as well as much of his payment, 

 will consist in the belonging to " such a pleasant and de- 

 lightful occupation." Be certain that you can make a little 

 reality out of the poetry and romance of the occupation 

 before you give up making garments. To make sure of 

 this matter, try and get as a labourer into a nursery or gen- 

 tleman's garden for a month or so, and then you will be 

 more fit to judge whether you had better change your occu- 

 pation or not. Tou will have little chance of getting a 

 situation for yourself worth holding, until you have been 

 some time in practice. We have known several cases of 

 hard-studying clergymen who suffered frightfully from that 

 scourge, tic doloreux or neuralgia, and who obtained no 

 relief until they became active gardeners, working hard every 

 morning and evening amongst vegetables and flowers, and 

 from the fresh air and fresh-turned earth getting fresh vigour 

 into their physical system. Try this and a short time as a 

 labourer before you decide.] 



HEATING BY GAS. 



An article on this subject which appeared in your Number 

 of the 7th of June induces me to send you my experience of 

 heating a greenhouse by gas — with what success you can 

 judge. 



I found myself last season with a house extending over an 

 area equal to 30 feet by 11 without any means of heating it. 

 I was in favour of gas from its manifest advantages to an 

 amateur ; and in the face of much dissuasion I decided to 

 set up a slightly formed circulating hot-water apparatus, 

 heated by gas from a Bunsen's burner. I was able easily 

 to keep the temperature in the house up to 40° or 45° in the 

 most severe frost of last season. I had to light the burner 

 about five minutes past four or five o'clock at night ; and 

 I calculate that my ordinary gas bill was not increased £1 

 by the additional consumption, gas being at 4s. 9d. per 

 1000 cubic feet ; and the apparatus never failed or went 

 wrong. I did not lose a single plant, but the foliage of 

 some of my Pelargoniums and Cinerarias was slightly dis- 

 coloured, and they received a severe check. I attributed j 

 this to an escape of the fumes of the gas after combustion 

 into the greenhouse, which I am sure I can prevent for the 

 future, and I am determined to give the gas another trial. 



I will describe the whole apparatus, as I think it probable 

 that some of your readers may, like me, be glad to avoid 

 the trouble of attending to a fire in the middle of a winter 

 night. 



The boiler, made of copper, is cylindrical, set on end. 

 The bottom is 9 inches in diameter, and is slightly concave 

 to collect the heat, and the top convex to an equal degree. 

 It is placed on a skeleton iron stand, which raises it about 

 9 inches above the floor of the house, leaving only sufficient 

 room for the burner underneath. From the boiler are two 

 pipes, one from the middle of the side, the other over it as 

 high as it can be placed (in fact ordinary flow and return 

 pipes), of two-inch gun-barrel tubing; they are 20 feet ia 

 length, and then join a cistern made of 

 galvanised sheet iron to contain about H // -S* 



eight gallons ; they have a rise of 9 inches 

 from the boiler to the cistern. The cover 

 of the cistern is moveable but closely 

 fitted, and there is a small opening in the 

 cover of about 2 inches in diameter fitted 

 with a loose top, through which the gar- 

 dener supplies the cistern with water as 



c, Boiler. 



&, Hansen's burner. 



c, c, Flow-pipe. 

 (/, d, Return-pipe. 



e, Cistern. 



f, Tin cover. 



o, Pipe to carry off hot air. 



n, Cover to prevent a down draught. 



it is exhausted. This top is useful to allow of evaporation 

 in case the air of the house becomes too dry. There is a 

 stopcock at the bottom of the boiler to draw off the water 

 if necessary. The top of the burner is about 3 inches under 

 the bottom of the boiler, and in an hour and a half it will 

 make the water nearly boiling hot. In fifteen minutes it 

 will sensibly affect the temperature of the house. 



Most skilful gas-fitters understand Bunsen's burners. They 

 are constructed to burn atmospheric air and gas together, 

 the result beiDg a clear flame almost free from smoke, giving 

 out great heat but only a little light. Such is the entire 

 heating apparatus, which is certainly capable of keeping 



frost out of an ordinary greenhouse. But an addition to it 

 has yet to be described ; for, judging that the fumes of the 

 gas if allowed to escape through the house would be dele- 

 terious to the plants, I had the boiler and burner all en- 

 closed by a tin case set against the wall, and plastered 

 round where it joined the wall to keep it close. A door in it 

 allowed of the gas being lighted, and I think the escape 

 which damaged the plants was about this door. A two-inch 

 tin tube the entire length of the house, and then passing 

 out, served to carry off the fumes of the gas ; and the hot 

 air passing through it aided materially in warming the 

 house. I intend this 'season to have the door on the tin 



