•December n, 1800. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
507 
M AINTAINING the requisite amount of heat for the well-being 
of plants, also of such fruits and vegetables that need it, is 
•one of the most important duties of gardeners, as well as of 
amateurs who derive pleasure from indulging in gardening under 
glass. These are increasing every year, and scarcely any villa is 
now regarded as complete without a conservatory. The public 
^appreciation of glazed structures is so decided that speculative 
builders find it advantageous to invest in these adjuncts to homes 
for rendering them more tempting to tenants and purchasers, and 
it is well known that the trade in portable greenhouses for 
amateurs has increased enormously during recent years. It is 
gratifying to know that this is so, because homes are made plea¬ 
santer and families happier through a real interest being taken in 
the cultivation of plants and flowers under glass in winter, and 
{drapes, Tomatoes, or Cucumbers in summer. No doubt, difficul¬ 
ties are encountered in the pursuit in question ; but these more 
often than not have given zest to endeavour, and first failures have 
mot infrequently pointed the way to future success. 
A chief difficulty that many have to contend with is that of 
heating ; and these are not amateurs alone, but several gardeners. 
Much more is often expected from the provision afforded than can 
possibly be accomplished. The heating arrangements in many 
gardens are seriously defective. Perhaps the most apparent faults 
are those arising from motives of economy in unduly limiting, not 
•so much the power of boilers, as the piping by and from which 
the heat is to be diffused. It is not in the least uncommon to find 
boilers capable cf heating twice the extent of piping provided, 
and which is necessary for heating the structures satisfactorily and 
economically. When the requisite heat cannot be afforded without 
‘ keeping the water boiling,” the piping is inadequate. Not only 
are very highly heated surfaces inimical to plants, but involve a 
much greater expenditure in fuel than suffices to heat a greater 
length of pipes moderately ; or, in other words, a small outlay in 
providing additional piping where it is needed would reduce the 
consumption of fuel to a material extent, and thus in the end a 
ffiistinct saving would be effected. For maintaining the requisite 
temperatures in glass structures in a manner the most beneficial 
to vegetation the pipes ought not to be hotter than can be borne 
by the hand for a few minutes, as a rule. Occasions may arise 
when it may be necessary to have them hotter for a short time, but 
undoubtedly the greater the overheating as a system the less 
healthy will be the plants, and the greater their liability to be 
attacked by insects. It is, therefore, decidedly false economy to 
unduly limit the extent of pipes for the purpose for which they 
•are provided. 
The most effectively heated houses are those in which the 
required temperature is maintained the most easily, or by an 
apparatus that is well master of its work when properly attended to. 
A gentle fire that can do what is wanted without being disturbed 
for ten or twelve hours will not consume half so much fuel as will 
a “ roaring” fire in half the time, and which cannot be safely left 
for more than two or three hours in severe weather without the 
temperature falling below the safe minimum. There cannot be 
two opinions as to the former method being the easier, while it is 
decidedly the cheaper, as well as indisputably the more reliable. 
In the one case the owmer or manager can rest comfortably after he 
No. 516 — Yol. XXI., Third Series 
has done his duty, and in the assurance that all will be right ; but 
in the other he cannot divest himself of anxiety, for he is conscious 
that, with practically no margin for contingencies, something may 
happen when he is helpless to prevent, and which may have serious 
results. 
Some heating arrangements are faulty through the ill-setting of 
boilers and arrangement of pipes. The fire cannot act too directly 
for heating the water, nor can this flow out of the boiler too freely 
and along the pipes too smoothly. In not a few instances the water 
is obstructed in its very first movement by the infinitely too small 
connecting pipe from the boiler and through masonry to the larger 
pipes in the house. Even if those connections are clear they are 
insufficient, but in scores of cases they are half choked with fu-# 
What is referred to as the “ sluggish action of boilers ” has been 
traced over and over again to the defect in question, and there are 
no doubt numbers of boilers at this moment “ throttled ” in the 
manner indicated, while the cause of the difficulty in heating is not 
suspected. 
Not a few boilers that are good in themselves, and with little or 
nothing the matter with the connections or arrangements, do not 
perform their work as they ought, because the parts exposed to 
the fire, also the bars and flues thereto pertaining, are not kept 
clean. This work is usually entrusted to young men, and these vary 
in the management of fires and stokeholes. Some are careless and 
slovenly in their work, others tho reverse ; and further, it may be 
said that some men who have been long out of their teens do 
not appear to fully comprehend the importance of removing every 
obstruction of the nature suggested, and neither do the requisite 
work themselves nor see that others do it. Discoveries of 
delinquences in these matters have often been made which have 
led to savings and doings not of a pleasant nature. The truth 
of this is known to dozens of gardeners, old and young, who will 
read these lines, and if their publication will induce all who are 
responsible for heating to look closely into the conditions of stoke¬ 
holes and boiler surroundings it is almost certain that something 
will be found open to improvement, unless (which is better) the 
stokers are on the alert, have the first inspection, and promptly 
make good any defects in past management. A disorderly stoke¬ 
hole is generally the index to something worse—namely, the general 
careless habits of the man in charge. A person who conscientiously 
does work well that is out of sight soon gains, as he deserves, a 
character for trustworthiness that is bound to stand him in good 
stead in after life. 
A great deal depends in the management of fires on maintain¬ 
ing a suitable temperature in garden structures. A thoughtful 
man, who looks ahead and forms a reasonably good forecast of the 
weather a few hours in advance, and who commences action in 
good time, will accomplish the object in view far more easily, and 
with less fuel, than will another who allows himself to be taken by 
surprise by a (to him) unexpected fall in temperature, and then 
makes violent attempts to “ raise the glass,” that ought not to have 
fallen so low. Amateurs, especially the comparatively inexperienced, 
are prone to err in not starting the fires soon enough in the after¬ 
noons of bright days. The temperature in the house may register 
50° or more, therefore all is thought to be right though the pipes 
are cold and the sky cloudless. They, therefore, wait for a little 
while, and perhaps in half an hour the cold has increased by from 
5° to 10°. They then rush to wood, coals, and petroleum, but do 
all they will they cannot arrest the downward movement as indi¬ 
cated by the thermometer, and the danger point is reached in spite 
of all their efforts. They simply allow the cold to steal a march 
on them and prove the master, whereas by earlier action they 
might easily have kept it in subjection, and without difficulty 
prevented the temperature falling below the prescribed minimum, 
always provided the heating medium was equal to its work. And 
not only is early action in the daytime, in anticipation of a cold 
night, necessary to bo master of the position, but early attention 
No. 2202.— Yol. LXXXIII, Old Serib*.. 
