February 23, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
153 
At last a friend suggested trying some old mortar rubbish—that 
from buildings which are being taken down. I obtained two horse 
loads, passed it through a half-inch-mesh riddle, and the lumps 
I placed in a cart rut for a week, and these were soon reduced. I 
then had it placed on the ground about 3 inches thick. It was 
dug over three or four times to mix it, and Cabbages were then 
planted. They quickly grew well and exhibited no signs of club 
roots. I have had several more loads placed on, and I think it 
very valuable and a certain cure for club. If any of your corre¬ 
spondents are troubled with it let them try a small plot of ground 
with Cabbage plants and send you the result.—H. H., Birmingham. 
ECONOMY IN HEATINO HOUSES. 
It is a great pity that more interest is not expressed (if felt at 
all) in such interesting letters as Mr. Iggulden’s at page 65, on 
“ Wasteful Modes of Heating,” and confirmed by Mr. Gilbert at 
page 108. Unfortunately the suspicion which most gardeners 
have of advice from a heating engineer (whose very occupation 
compels him to know many more varieties of boilers than is 
possible with them) prevents their seeing and remedying this 
waste as a rule, because they think his advice must be interested. 
Of course it is interested or it would not be given, for is it not to 
the interest of the engineer to make his appliances 40 per cent, 
more economical (if possible) in their use or work, so that he may 
secure three orders where he would only get two otherwise ? The 
addition of a brick, or, better still, an earthenware flue, for utilis¬ 
ing the waste heat of furnace is good and is frequently carried 
out; it also fails in many cases, and often the cost is not repaid 
by the saving in fuel. If boilers and their flues were properly 
constructed there would not be enough heat left to warm the 
house 2° by means of the flue inside. It must be borne in mind 
that some heat must be carried up the chimney, or you will not 
have sufficient draught to keep the fire alight ; and if the furnace 
is so constructed and the damper regulated that but little heat 
can escape, and you attempt to carry this a distance of 30 feet 
along a flue, what is the result ? Simply this, that you have to 
burn 20 to 30 per cent, more fuel to heat the flue and gain a 
necessary draught. The greatest waste of heat occurs in the 
setting of the boilers with their outside flues, which absorb and 
disperse outwards half- the heat from fuel burnt during the first 
hour or two of lighting, and about one-third the heat afterwards. 
If anyone is having a common saddle fixed and purposes 
having an inside flue as well, let him try it without the flue round 
the boiler. Set the bars and lower part as usual, block up the end 
with bricks and fireclay so as to leave a space of 2 or 3 inches 
only along the inside of arch for smoke and heat to escape by ; 
take the greenhouse flue direct from this small opening, and no 
more fuel will be burnt than with the traditional outer flues. The 
outside of boiler must of course be covered in, but do not let the 
bricks touch it by an inch or two, filling this space in with sand, 
old plaster, or some simple non-conductor of heat. Soot is as good 
and easily obtained as anything else. 
The three boilers named as used by Mr. Iggulden are the most 
wasteful of fuel I know, and I can easily heat another house con¬ 
taining one-third to one-fourth the piping now attached to such 
boilers if large ones, with the heat at present lost from their 
setting, at as little cost a3 a separate boiler would be for the same 
quantity of pipes which would require another fire. What would 
be thought of a boiler and setting as compared with these, near 
which a thermometer is not raised 5° when the boiler is in full 
work, and the whole 12 feet of flue is inside the room 12 feet 
square only ? and yet there are such. 
There is such a thing, too, as being “ pound foolish and penny 
wise,” to reverse the old proverb. Take a house 30 feet long 
heated by a boiler and pipes ; there is a waste of fire heat, and it is 
decided to put a flue in to utilise it. The flue costs £6 to £10 ; fuel 
saved in one year amounts to £1, possibly £2 ; where is the gain in 
seven years ? Before wffiich time the flue has had to be repaired 
several times, and you have lost many plants through the escaping 
fumes. An extra hot-water pipe would have cost no more than— 
not as much sometimes—as the flue, and it would have utilised 
the spare heat by giving the boiler more work to do without in¬ 
creasing its fuel. An underworked boiler is occasionally as 
wasteful as an overworked one. Yery much could be said on the 
latter point, but I have taken up too much of your valuable space 
now, I fear, and leave it together with the question of the pipes 
for a more convenient season, or for others to dilate upon.— 
B. W. Wabhubst. 
T he Fountains at Versailles. —According to the report of the 
architect of the Palace of Versailles, the basins of the famous 
fountains are now in so deplorable a condition of ruin and decay, 
that the periodical displays so familiar to the Parisians and to all 
visitors to their city must ere long, if some effort is not made, 
entirely cease. Many fine effects have for some time disappeared. 
Meanwhile bas-reliefs in marble of high artistic value are stated 
to be lying scattered about the park overgrown with grass ; and alle¬ 
gorical subjects, some of which are masterpieces of the sculptor’s 
work, are in danger of complete destruction. 
NARCISSUS BULBOCODIUM var. CREWEI. 
Nearly two years ago the Rev. H. Harpur-Crewe sent to me a 
portion of his bulb collections in Spain, in the shape of four or 
five varieties of the “Hooped Petticoat Daffodil,” Narcissus 
Bulbocodium. Amongst these N. Graelsii (a whitish-flowered 
var. near N. monophyllus), N. nivalis, N. Bulbocodium (type), 
N. citrina minor, and the present variety have flowered. Of all 
N. Crewei is the most distinct in general port, its marked dwarf- 
Fig. 31.—Narcissus Bulbocodium var. Crewei. 
ness, especially in the shortness of its leaves, and in their being 
decidedly flat rather than subcylindrical in section. In the 
latter particular they more nearly approach those of Mr. G. Maw’s, 
N. rupicola, a distinct form of N. juncifolius. As to the precise 
habitat of this pretty little plant I am indebted to Mr. Crewe for 
courteous information. Speaking of N. nivalis and N. Grmlsii 
Mr. Crewe states that both species grew in the same meadow near 
Naval Peral in abundance, but not intermixed. N. Gnelsii was 
confined to the high dry part of the field, while N. nivalis grew in 
the portion which was almost a bog, the collectors being over 
shoe-tops in water when digging it up. A small form of the type, 
which provisionally has been called N. Bulbocodium minor, was 
also found in quantity by Mr. Crewe in moist meadows near to 
the city of Leon. 
Anent the culture of these yellow “Hooped Petticoat” Daffo¬ 
dils, it is very suggestive to hear of their growing in moist and 
even boggy parts of meadows. In gardens we generally find that 
the driest and most sandy part of a garden suits them best in our 
climate, if so be that they ever are trusted out in the open border. 
