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XXIII. An Account of a Plan of Heating Stoves by means 

 of Hot Water, employed in the Garden of Anthony 

 Bacon, Esq. F. H. S. In a Letter to the Secretary. By 

 Mr. William Whale, Gardener to Mr. Bacon. 



Read December 19, 1826. 



Sir, 



H aving been informed by my employer, Anthony Bacon, 

 Esq., that you wished for a description of the mode of heating 

 Forcing-houses with hot water, as practiced in his gardens, 

 of which I have the management at this place, I beg leave to 

 inform you, that, from the experience I have had for the last 

 twenty years in forcing, both with brick-flues and steam, I 

 certainly give the preference to the method Mr. Bacon has 

 adopted of heating his houses with hot water. 



Brick-flues are subject from their numerous joints, and the 

 mortar cracking, to give out at times a sulphureous gas which 

 is injurious to plants ; and even with two fire-places in a 

 house forty or fifty feet long, it is impossible to keep up an 

 equal temperature in the whole length. The houses get 

 over heated in the neighbourhood of the fire-place, and it is 

 difficult to maintain a proper warmth at the extremities of the 

 flues. 



Steam may do very well on a large scale, and when there 

 is constant attention to the fire both day and night ; but the 



