February 2, 1893.] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
S9 
front, which ought to be heated with three rows of -t-inch piping, 3 feet 
allowed for the path, and a narrow chamber at the back. It will require 
four rows of I-inch pipes to heat such a house, a flow and return along 
the front, a similar arrangement along the back wall. Valves must be 
fitted on both sets of pipes. If a number of such houses are wanted a 
range can be divided by partition. The bottom-heat pipes are usually 
covered with slates, supported by iron bearers at about 18 inches from 
them. For summer culture houses may be constructed span-roofed, 
9 feet high, 11 feet wide, with chambers on each side of the path 3 feet 
wide and 3 feet deep, heated with two rows of l-inch piping, a flow and 
return on each side for top heat. 
Houses for forcing Strawberries are not usually met with, these 
being brought along in such structures as the above, a temporary stage 
being erected, and the heat regulated to suit their requirements. If 
such a house should be contemplated, then it may be a little higher at 
the back, a stage erected with a slope towards the front, where the path 
would be constructed, as being more convenient for reaching the plants, 
and heated with two 1-inch flow pipes along the front, the return taken 
along the back, no bottom heat being required—at least, it is not 
actually necessary. A house 20 to 30 feet long and 10 feet wide would 
answer the purpose well. 
One important structure, which singularly is generally found wanting 
in gardens, ia a good propagating house. The dimensions given pre¬ 
viously for lean-to forcing houses will apply here, the chamber being 
a little wider in front, reducing the other at the back. This should be 
constructed so that the small plants may be kept close up to the light, 
and still benefit by the heat at their roots. Four rows of bottom heat 
pipes would do better here, and anyone having much propagation to do, 
or raising early Melons and the like, will recognise the importance of 
this necessary structure. 
The Management of Fiees, 
Something must be said on tires and their management. The ques¬ 
tion ot fuel greatly depends upon the position of the locality, the best 
being that suitable for the furnaces, combining efficiency with economy. 
Gas coke is probably more employed than any other. This is better for 
upright tubular boilers, coal or large coke not being so suitable, as it is 
liable to bind, and remain in the upper portion of the boiler after com¬ 
bustion has taken place below. Large hard coke is often used for power¬ 
ful saddle boilers, and when there is a good draught this produces a 
great heat, does not clinker much, and there is little waste. This is 
obtained by burning slack and small coal in large ovens specially for 
the purpose. This is the kind of fuel we use, and we find it very satis¬ 
factory. Of late years anthracite coal has become much used. This 
gives more heat than coke. Sometimes coal and coke are mixed together. 
The fire should be spread evenly over the bars so that the whole of the 
surface exposed to the fire may be heated, not heaped up in one place, 
and the fuel added in sufficient quantity to always keep the fires brighf, 
except when they are stopped, not in large quantities at one time. 
The bars and flues must be kept perfectly clean, with sufficient draught 
top and bottom to produce combustion. The dampers should not be 
opened more than is necessary for this purpose, otherwise the heat is 
wasted up the chimney. 
In regulating temperatures judgment must be exercised with respect 
to the weather, this being the chief factor in managing the heat 
satisfactorily. When likely to be bright the heat should be reduced 
early, and the fires stopped, starting them early enough to get the pipes 
warm again by nightfall, or as may be required, executing the work in 
the most economical manner. 
Strong valves should be fitted on the mains where they branch in 
various directions. Also IJ-inch pipes must be brought from the end of 
the boiler into the stokehole to empty the same if required. I omitted 
to mention that midseason houses may be constructed on the hip-roofed 
system if circumstances render it desirable, as affording a great abundance 
of light. When constructed against south walls ventilation is often 
provided for on the north side. The cold winds coming in that direction, 
especially early in the season, cause a great depression in the atmosphere, 
when it is found necessary to open the ventilators to any extent, and I 
am of opinion it should be arranged on the south side. The amount of 
piping necessary under ordinary conditions would be as advised for 
lean-to structures.—J. J. Craven, Allerton Priory Gardens, Liverpool. 
FUNCTIONS OF VINE LEAVES. 
Mr. Bardney, on page 525 (December 15th, 1892) contrived to 
condense the whole controversy into a nutshell, and he could not have 
better expressed my views had he been commissioned to do so. To me 
it was very satisfactory to find that he has modified his views con¬ 
siderably in the matter of allowing Vines to form a superfluity of wood. 
Plenty of men there are who also alter their views on different subjects, 
but have not the courage to confess as much. He rightly makes a dis¬ 
tinction between Vines in good health and those requiring to be 
renovated, and that is what all should do. If the root action is defec¬ 
tive, allowing more leaves to develop is one of the means of restoring 
the balance, but there is no sense whatever in permitting Vines to 
expend their superfluous energies in the formation of foliage or wood 
that only interferes with their other functions. 
Mr. Bardney is evidently of the same opinion as myself regarding the 
value of extra large leaves. I have seen too many instances of the 
comparatively worthlessness of rank foliage and coarse growth to envy 
my friends their achievements in that direction. Give me medium 
sized perfectly healthy leaves and wood to correspond, the latter, 
whether in the snape of young shoots or short spurs, being far more 
durable than any of a grosser character, and will produce the most 
perfect if not exactly the largest bunches. Then, late-formed foliage is 
worse than useless, and all that is needed are enough primary leaves to 
afford a thin canopy for the bunches. Two good leaves beyond the 
latter and other laterals not bearing bunches and of much the same 
length are ample, and if the foliage is kept clean and sound, the roots 
properly supplied with moisture and food, and overcropping avoided, 
there will be no renovating measures needed for very many years.— 
\V. IGGULDEN. 
The National Rose Society’s Fixtures. 
This promises to be as fruitful a source of argufying as I remember 
the word Gladiolus used to be in a certain horticultural society with 
which I was acquainted. Whenever they were at a loss for something 
to talk about someone would mention the word. Then arose the 
question. Was it Gladiolus, Gladiolus, or Gladiolus.!^ The discussion 
used to be prolonged, somewhat classical, and earnest, but I believe the 
result was that everyone held to his own opinion, no way altered by 
what many thought the conclusive arguments put forward ; and I think 
it is likely to be much the same with the fixtures of the National Rose 
Society, more especially the metropolitan one, and I do not suppose that 
anything I may write will have the least effect upon any of the dis¬ 
putants ; but for all that, as one or two letters have appeared lately on 
the subject which seem to require notice, I venture to “ take off my 
coat,” and enter the lists. 
In discussing this subject I think I have some advantages over 
many if not all of those who have taken part in the controversy. In 
the first place as Hon. Secretary of the National Rose Society I know 
all about its position, its requirements and its difficulties, and there 
are many things which many of your correspondents seem to be un¬ 
aware of ; and then in the second place I am not an exhibitor, and this 
is I think a very great advantage. Not one, even officers of the highest 
rank, who were engaged in the strife could have had so clear a view 
of the great fight of Konigratz as Dr. Russell, when from the top of 
the tower he had the whole laid out before him. Those engaged in it 
could only take in the part immediately around them. So it happen.s 
in such discussions as these the writer is evidently influenced by the 
circumstances of his own garden, and hence his judgment is not altogether 
a disinterested one. The non-exhibitor can certainly, like the non- 
combatant, take things more easily, 
There are some things of which many of your correspondents seem to 
be ignorant. It must always be remembered when some write so loftily 
of arrangements, and what should be done and what not, that we are 
not independent, that we are quite dependent on the Crystal Palace 
Company for having any Metropolitan Show at all. It may be a 
humiliating confession, but it is true for alt that. We have made 
attempts to act independently, but failure was the result. Our first 
Exhibition entailed a loss of some £200. We have sought in vain to 
find any place fit to show Roses in, but there is none. Moreover, an 
Exhibition could not be got up in London under at least an expendi¬ 
ture of £400, and our experience at St. James’s Hall was that we did 
not attract half a dozen of the passers by, those who did come were 
persons more or less connected with the exhibitors. Consequently, 
while it answers the C.P. Company to have the Exhibition there it 
unquestionably answers ours, although there are disadvantages. Thus 
the matter of arrangements must depend on them, not on us ; but I am 
bound to say some persons have very short memories. It is only now 
and then that we are interfered with by such a matter as the Electrical 
Exhibition, and very rarely that our exhibitors have to complain of 
want of space ; in most of our Exhibitions both we and Mr. Head have 
had to complain of great gaps being left, because exhibitors have not 
brought their stands, and have given no notice of their withdrawal. 
Again, it strikes one as a very idle matter to compare the arrangements 
of a great Show at the Crystal Palace to any provincial one, however 
good. In the latter you are confined to one tent, and you can get to 
any part of it in a couple of minutes, not so at the C.P., as many know 
to their cost. If an amateur is exhibiting in the amateur and open 
classes he has often a long way to traverse before he gets his plants 
staged, and considerable delay is also made for the same reason in 
uncovering the boxes and getting the blooms ready for the judges. I 
hope that the Committee will see their way to appointing someone who 
will have nothing else to do but to see this part of the day’s work 
carried out, and who will 'have authority to have all lids removed in 
time for the judging. Personally, I cannot do it, there are so many 
things about which I am continually badgered that I cannot undertake 
this. Here is one angry exhibitor who, on being asked to clear out, folds 
his arms and steadily refuses to do to until he gets a place for his t)OX ; 
here is another who wants to know whether he is to put his box in such 
a place as that ; while the mistakes of exhibitors who in their anxiety 
place wrong cards upon them only increases the confusion. 
With regard to the date for the Metropolitan Show I have been 
