284 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



gardener might pooh-pooh as a make-shift, but the 

 enthusiastic amateur would regard as his sheet- 

 anchor — a cheap apparatus that will enable him to 

 drive out damp, which is often as fatal as frost itself, 

 and keep the temperature above the freezing point 

 when the silent enemy is approaching his treasures. 

 This may be found in the circular ware flue, which 

 any handy man can construct for himseK. 



Heating by Hot-air Stoves.— Although the 

 name of these is legion, they are not now much used for 

 heating green-houses, as it is generally admitted that 

 cold air drawn from the outside, and alloM'ed to pass 

 over a surface heated above 212°, has an injurious 

 effect on vegetation. Heating or forcing, however, 

 is one thing, and keeping out frost is another ; and 

 in many small structures, corridors, &c., in which a 

 slow combustion stove 

 would best answer all 

 that is required, one or 

 other of these may 

 safely be used. All act, 

 more or less, upon the 

 same principle, slow com- 

 bustion, induced by the 

 exclusion of air. Some, 

 however, are more simple 

 and less costly than 

 others, and as we are 

 now trying to find an 

 economical substitute for hot water, the old and well- 

 tried Arnott's stove must not be overlooked. Like 

 the tubular flue, it is specially the thrifty man's ap- 

 paratus, as he can construct it himself, and sleep in 

 security when it is at work. The late Mr. Rivers, 

 who used it extensively in his orchard-houses, said : 

 For a house twenty to thirty feet long, by twelve 

 wide, a stove two feet four inches square, and three 

 feet ten inches high, and the fire-box eight inches 

 over, and eight inches in depth, will be amply suffi- 

 cient. It should be placed in the centre of the house, 

 within a foot or eighteen inches of the back wall, 

 and the smoke-pipe go at once iuto the chimney out- 

 side. If it be thought necessary to have the feeding 

 and di^aught-door outside, the draught-pipe must be 

 reversed. The stoves should be built with foui^-inch 

 brickwork, and good ground mortar; all the fire- 

 boxes with fire-brick and fire-clay. A large fire- 

 lump will make a suitable cover or top, and on this a 

 shallow pan, two inches deep, and two feet square, 

 filled with water, will always prevent the air from 

 burning, and keep a genial moisture in the house. 

 Gas-coke is the most suitable fuel." 



Closed Radiating Stoves.— When a portable 

 iron stove, which can be removed in summer, takes 



precedence of the less sightly Arnott's apparatus, a 

 good representative will be found in the well-known 

 " Tortoise " stove. In these stoves the admission 

 and exit of air are always under control, and the fire 

 is, consequently, not visible. They are generally in- 

 dependent, the only connection between the stove 

 and the chimney being an iron pipe for conveying 

 away the j^roducts of combustion, and promoting a 

 draught. This system, like the preceding, is best 

 adapted to structures from which all that is required' 

 is the exclusion of frost, and the prevention of 

 stagnant moisture in damp, foggy weather. When 

 properly managed these stoves give out a large 

 amount of heat in proportion to the quantity 

 of fuel consumed, and, being ornamental, they 

 are suitable for situations where plant -life is 

 not the only consideration, 



G-as Stoves. — The 



preceding modes of 

 warming are specially 

 adapted to amateui's' 

 green-houses in the coun- 

 try, or where gas is not 

 within reach. But where 

 this product can be ob- 

 tained, heating by gas 

 is a convenient and 

 cleanly mode of prevent- 

 ing injury from frost in 

 gTeen-houses attached to 

 subui'ban residences ; and if the products of combus- 

 tion be prevented from escaping into the house, 

 the plants growing in it are in no more danger than 

 where any other mode of heating is employed. 

 Numerous methods of heating by gas have been 

 devised, in the best of them water being gener- 

 ally the medium of convepng the heat ; but with the 

 necessary precautions the heat of the stove may be 

 used direct, as in the preceding forms of apparatus. 



Mineral-oil Stoves. — These also may be used 

 where it is desired to avoid the use of coal, and gas 

 cannot be had ; but a flue or pipe should always be 

 provided to carry off the products of combustion. 

 Mr. Rippingille has patented a very neat and, for its 

 size, effective arrangement, in which an upright cylin- 

 drical boiler supplies a small and portable series of 

 flow and return pipes, about six feet long. The 

 whole can easily be removed or changed in position, 

 and is capable of doing very efficient and valuable 

 work in a small house. The whole arrangement 

 is shown in Fig. 73. 



Mr. Deard and others place a small boiler behind 

 one of the grates in the dwelling-house, and lead an 

 inch or two-inch pipe fi-om it for the heating of small 

 green-houses, &c. 



Fig. 73 — Eippiugille's Oil Stove System. 



