185 
REMARKS ON FUEL. 
We quitted this subject at page 58 of the present volume, by observing that 
some species of ashes are extremely useful as ameliorators of heavy soil ; this is 
true to such an extent, that we have seen a gentleman's garden, not remote from 
us, where the land was naturally so binding, that it could scarcely be worked with 
the spade, effectually cured by it. The gardener has been twenty years with his 
employer, and assured us of the facts which came under his own immediate observa- 
tion. He succeeded in bringing the ground to its present open and fertile condi- 
tion, by the application of sea-coal ashes only ; they were put on the surface of the 
beds and borders freely, and digged in : the practice was persisted in, as the material 
could be obtained from the vinery furnaces, &c, and the soil remains perfectly good. 
The reader will recollect that ashes are not decomposable to any great extent ; they 
contain three or four earths, and particularly much flinty matter, with oxide of iron. 
Decomposable manures meliorate, but their effects are fugacious, because they are, 
for the major part, convertible into water and several gases ; the earthy residua (of 
which there is a certain quantity) being, by the processes of chemical attraction 
under the stimulus of vegetable life, assimilated with the native soil. This is a 
mysterious phenomenon, but it is of every-day occurrence ; and thus it is, that 
manures are finally (as far as concerns these earthy deposits) converted into earth 
of a quality corresponding with that of the ground in which they are deposited. 
By some, the above remarks may be deemed inapplicable ; but it is hoped that 
any philosophical fact, which is connected as a link with other facts under considera- 
tion, must be pertinent, and therefore worthy of being recorded. 
In our last article, we enumerated the various sorts of fuel which would most 
commonly be met with ; it remains to point out the economic use. Gardeners in 
great places will not, it is probable, pay any attention to our observations ; but 
there are amateurs, and young beginners, who may derive some pleasure, as well as 
instruction, from the report of experience. 
By referring to the number for August 1836, p. 157, the reader will find a 
description of the cellular wall. This mode of building will prove economical in 
more ways than one, because it interposes a stratum of air between the bricks ; and 
this, if the furnace or furnaces be properly situated, will be, in a degree, warmed by 
the action of the fire, and thus come in aid of the flue ; for, though the walls may 
not be sensibly warm to the touch, certain it is that if a sheet of air, say thirty feet 
in length and eight feet in height, receive and communicate but three degrees of 
additional temperature from a heated surface, it will retain it for a considerable 
period. Again, the wall on the south side of the house receives the solar ray, and 
thus another warm stratum of air is created. The cellular wall is therefore, we 
maintain, a sine qua non in buildings where economy forms part of the projector's 
plan. But the direct results of the action of fuel must be derived from the proper 
construction of the flues. We believe that in vineries (and these, if worked well, 
are excellent winter flower-houses before the vines are excited) the flue ought to 
VOL. IV. — NO. XLIV. B B 
