208 



HEATING AS APPLIED IN HORTICULTURE. 



water sweet and healthy. The boiler used 

 is of copper, with a supply-cistern and 

 ball-cock to keep the boiler always full. 

 Over the covering of the tanks 2| feet of 

 tan is placed as plunging material, which 

 of itself gives out a considerable supply 

 of heat ; when that declines the fire is 

 employed for a day or two, which brings 

 up the necessary temperature in the tan, 

 and which will last, he asserts, for two or 

 three weeks or more. A secondary boiler 

 is employed for top heat, as he finds it 

 much cheaper not to give one boiler too 

 much to do. 



Reference to figs. — a gutter boiler ; b 

 flow-pipes ; e return-pipes under the floor ; 

 d tanks — the tanks at the end are level 

 with and attached to the flow-pipe ; c 

 spaces between and at sides of gutter ; / 

 bearers and slates ; g bark bed ; h space 

 to prevent cold and damp from acting on 

 the bed ; i small iron rods to support the 

 roof; j glass lights hung to admit air, 

 the top ones also movable ; k open gutter 

 attached to front iron flow-pipe at each 

 end — may be used or stopped off by two 

 small plugs, when necessary ; I gutter 

 covered with blue slate, for the bottom 

 of cucumber-trough, which is kept in its 

 place by bolts through the wall — this 

 trough is kept 1 inch off the wall, to allow 

 the warm air to circulate round it; m 

 trellis for cucumbers, which cover the 

 whole length of the back path — a vine 

 is introduced at each end; o boiler for top 

 heat, the flue of which runs into the back 

 of an adjoining house, which is worked 

 by it also with pipes in front. 



Mr Lyons of Mullingar has, in a com- 

 munication in " The Gardeners' Chroni- 

 cle," proposed the following system of 

 heating a considerable extent of pits upon 

 the tank principle. His system has cer- 

 tain advantages, and at the same time is 

 no doubt capable of considerable improve- 

 ment. " I propose," he says, " to con- 

 struct twelve pits, each 7 feet in length, 

 and 4- feet in width, separate from each 

 other, but all worked by the same ap- 

 paratus, in such number as may be re- 

 quired. This enables the gardener to 

 have a succession of either melons or 

 cucumbers, or both ; and, from each pit 

 containing a distinct species of fruit, he 

 will find no difficulty in preventing the 

 seed from becoming hybridised. Some 

 of the pits intended for a succession, may 



in the interim be used for forcing straw- 

 berries, French beans," &c. Mr Lyons 

 prefers Burbidge and Healy's ribbed 

 boiler, and proposes "to set it in the 

 centre, with a flow and return pipe right 

 and left from it, extending to the required 

 length of the range— each pit to be sup- 

 plied with a tank connected by means of 

 a stopcock, with the main flow-pipe, and 

 a return-pipe from that tank to the main 

 return-pipe. The stopcocks admit or 

 turn off the flow of hot water, to or from 

 whatever number of pits it is intended 

 should be heated, the boiler being of 

 sufficient capacity to work the entire pits 

 at once. The quantum of heat to be 

 admitted can be regulated by means of 

 the stopcock of each pit. I would," he 

 continues, " insert ventilators in the front 

 and rear walls, under the stone coping, 

 covered with perforated zinc, for the two- 

 fold purpose of keeping out bees and 

 preventing a too sudden rush of cold air." 

 The references to the figs. 276, 277, and 

 278, here given, will show the working of 

 the whole : a a parti- 

 " ; tion walls; bb bear- 



ers; c tank; d return- 

 pipe ; e stopcock ; / 

 main flow-pipe ; g 

 return-pipe; h venti- 

 lators. " The main 

 flow and return pipes 

 are shown in the ground-plan fig. 278, 



Fig. 277. 



