January 11, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Royal Society at 4.30 p.m. 
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2nd Sunday after Epiphany. 
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Society of Arts at 8 p.m. 
HEATING AND PROTECTING. 
surprise. 
INTER lias come, to London at least, in a 
manner tliat cannot be mistaken. The earth 
at the time of writing is shrouded in snow, and 
no one knows how low the mercury will fall in 
the thermometer in twenty-four hours; and 
if it rises, as it may do suddenly, it would be 
^rvery unwise to assume that the winter is over. 
So proverbially changeable is our climate 
that gardeners ought never to be taken by 
They should always be prepared for a variation 
of 50° in the daily range of temperature. If there is no such 
difference all the better, but the fact that the range is often 
considerably greater proves the possibility of its re-occurrence. 
The direction of the wind, the character of the clouds, the 
movements of the barometer and thermometer, should ail be 
observed thoughtfully ; then generally, but not always, the 
nature of the weather can be anticipated during the coming 
eight or ten hours, and in this case no great extent of 
mischief need be done when means are afforded for its pre¬ 
vention. It is when the means are at hand and not applied 
that there is so much cause for regret not only for injury 
that may be done, but for the disquietude of mind that either 
is or ought to be endured on the part of a delinquent, as 
there cannot be a doubt of its existence in the minds of those 
who have in a great measure to trust to others for the execu¬ 
tion of important duties. 
Young men especially should be on the alert against 
weather surprises, and should never leave their post of duty 
so long as a doubt remains as to a safe method of procedure. 
By an hour’s indulgence he had no right to claim, the 
character of a man for trustworthiness may bo lost, and 
will assuredly be hard to regain. Indeed, the prospects of 
many a steady, industrious, but somewhat indolent and 
unobservant youth have been destroyed in a night or an 
hour. He may have retired too soon or rested too long, and 
the mistake has influenced prejudicially his whole career. 
It is not in times of peace that soldiers win honours and 
promotion. It is in troublous times that their qualities of 
watchfulness and endurance are tested. It is precisely the 
same with gardeners—young men who are entrusted to a 
great extent with the success or failure of the “ coming cam¬ 
paign.” Early forcing and bad weather are the opportunities 
for gardening students to distinguish themselves, and the 
earnest, attentive, and thoughtful do not fail to turn them to 
account. Keeping out frost in one case, and keeping up 
the requisite heat in another, are matters in which no man 
should permit himself to fail if they are within the bounds of 
possibility. 
A great secret of success is in taking pride in the work 
in which it may be a person’s duty to engage—not in that 
part only that can be most agreeably performed, for in this 
neither effort nor sacrifice is required, but in the less fasci¬ 
nating but not less important portion of his duties. It is 
perhaps quite natural that many young men should delight 
in furnishing artistically and satisfactorily a drawing-room 
jardinet, and if this is part of their work they ought to deter- 
No. 290. —Vol. XII., Third Series. 
mine to excel in it; but unless such men take equal pride in 
the orderly and thoroughly workable condition of a subter¬ 
ranean stokehole they are very seriously at fault, and their 
shortcomings will sooner or later tell seriously against their 
advancement. If a person make himself trusted for doing 
well the work that is out of sight he will not be very likely to 
neglect that constantly under inspection. “ Once upon a 
time ’’ I was told on good authority that when a gardening 
appointment was made which many coveted, an individual 
was selected mainly because the stokehole in his charge was 
found to be in such perfect order. It was considered that a 
person so careful and systematic underground not only per¬ 
mitted no waste there, but was not likely to fail on the 
surface. Experience justified the soundness of the reasoning. 
A well-managed stokehole should be always “fit for 
company.” A clean floor, clear ashpit, free bars, with doors, 
dampers, valves, clean also, and in perfect working order ; and 
another matter, not sufficiently attended to, should never be 
overlooked—a clean boiler. Not only should no obstruction 
be permitted in the flues, but not the slightest incrustation 
of soot should be allowed on the boiler. Even an eighth of 
an inch of carbonised matter there will involve the con¬ 
sumption of as much fuel for its penetration as would heat 
all the water in the apparatus. These are not the days for 
wasting fuel. Boilers well set and the connections good act 
well or the reverse according to the way the former are 
managed, and many au apparatus, good in itself, has been 
unjustly condemned. 
The competent man—he who maintains the requisite 
amount of heat with apparently little trouble, uses as a rule 
much less fuel than one less successful with the tempera¬ 
tures and who rushes about and blazes away as if he were doing 
the work of two or three men. When the work of such an 
one is examined it is certain to be faulty in some of the 
points indicated ; and in another thing he fails, and it is a 
a far too common occurrence—he starts too late in the 
afternoon and not soon enough in the morning. A thousand 
head gardeners who will read these notes know that to be 
true. 
A house of winter Cucumbers maybe taken as illustrative. 
The temperature at ten o’clock at night ought we will say to 
be 65°, falling a few degrees, but not below 60° at daybreak. 
The day proves bright, and the sun, with heat in the pipes, 
raises the temperature before midday to 80° or 85°. In the 
afternoon it commences falling, and the thermometer registers 
75° at three o’clock or a little after, and in half an hour it falls 
to 70°. By that time the pipes are cold, or nearly so, and the 
fire is started ; but before the water is appreciably heated the 
mercury falls to 65°, and is still descending, reaching 60° by 
6 p.m., if not sooner. In the meantime an almost frantic 
endeavour is made to arrest the fall, fuel is thrown on, stirred 
to consume it as rapidly as possible in producing fierce flames ; 
if half a pound of candles are handy in they go, or half a pint 
of petroleum—anything to raise the temperature. And all 
this excitement and attendant waste is caused by not starting 
the fire soon enough. The moment the temperature from the 
sun decreases that of the pipes should commence, and increase 
steadily to check any sudden fall—in fact, the fire should be 
the master half an hour before sunset, then the fall to the ten 
o’clock minimum can be regulated to a nicety, with much 
less than half the consumption of fuel that is required to 
“raise” the heat that ought never to have fallen so low. 
This mistake of not starting fires early and gently is not only 
wasteful but often dangerous, because very frequently it ends 
in overheating at midnight, and the air of the house becomes 
so parched as to be inimical to the well-being of the plants. 
Starting the fires too late in the morning is a practice 
equally to be reprehended because equally wasteful and in¬ 
jurious. If the attendant is at his post at six o’olock.or sooner 
if needed, to stir the fire and prevent the temperature falling 
below the daybreak minimum, he is master of the position, 
for if the day promises to be dull he can easily raise the tem- 
No. 1946.— You LXX1V., Old Series. 
