March 8, 1S90. 1 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
189 
A t all seasons of the year when plants or fruits are grown under 
glass it is absolutely essential to success that due attention 
^be paid to the maintenance of suitable temperatures and atmo- 
sspheric conditions for meeting the requirements of whatever may 
be under cultivation. During the summer, or ripening period, 
fluctuations in temperature are far less injurious than in spring, 
yet at no time can the work of regulating the heat and controll¬ 
ing the moisture in plant and fruit houses be ignored with im¬ 
punity. It is true that as summer advances firmess of growth 
increases, and the firmer it is the safer it is against injury by the 
weather changes incident to the season ; but even then errors or 
meglect lead to unfortunate results in the scorching of foliage, the 
premature decay of fruit, or the increase and establishment of a 
scourge of insects. All that will be granted by experienced men. 
A. gardener must be on the alert at all times. He must be quick to 
perceive slight deviations from the routine of safety, and prompt 
"to take action for the prevention of untoward occurences that he 
may foresee to be imminent as the consequence of an accident or 
mistake. Necessary as is the habit of watchfulness on the part of 
the gardener, at no period of the year is it so essential as at the 
present time. Growth now in Vines and plants is forced growth, 
and in proportion to the forcing is the tenderness of that which is 
forced, and therefore its liability to injury by checks and chills that 
are bound to follow errors in judgment or inattentiveness in duty. 
When a wave of winter invades the months of spring, as 
often has been the case, and doubtless will be again, then is the 
time for testing the value of the services of men who are entrusted 
with the charge of forcing operations in gardens. The earnest, 
anxious, watchful man is seldom taken by surprise. He appears 
to sniff danger in the air and prepares to meet it. It may come in 
the form of extreme weather changes more quickly than he expects, 
and with greater destructive power ; but if expected and provided 
for, ill effects if not entirely frustrated will be considerably 
palliated. A period of abnormally mild weather is apt to throw 
men off their guard and engender a feeling of false security, and 
the longer the favourable conditions continue the greater the 
danger of a surprise that may end in disaster. 
The weather for some days past has been of the most “ trying ” 
description for gardeners whose Vines, Cucumbers, Melons, and 
various teuder plants under glass made good progress during the 
milder term preceding. The driving icy winds and storms of sleet 
have sought entrance through every chink and cranny, and lowered 
the temperature in many a structure to a dangerously low point for 
the tender occupants. This may not have been preventible in all 
cases, for in some structures imperfections are apparent, and in 
others the means of heating are obviously deficient to the practised 
eye. In such cases the gardener—who is a zealous man, and does 
all that is in his power with the aid of such coverings as he can 
devise, and sitting up half the . night to save his crops and reputa¬ 
tion—is profoundly to be pitied if he fails ; and when such men 
who make those efforts do fail, as has more than once happened, 
they are the victims of circumstances, and it is neither right nor 
reasonable that they should suffer for failings not their own ; but, 
on the other hand, when all that is needful is provided for the 
satisfactory conduct of operations under sudden and extreme 
weather viscissitudes it is strictly reasonable to expect that advan- 
No. 506.—VOL. XX., Third Series. 
tage be taken of the provisions, and failure in this can only have 
one result—loss of reputation. 
When Vines, for instance, are in fuU growth, either advancing 
to or passing through the flowering stage, a sudden and extreme 
fall in temperature may have unfortunate results, and especially if 
the temperature long remains so low that the leaves are seen to be 
suffering by a tendency to droop. This condition of the foliage 
demonstrates stagnation of the sap. It has for the time, iu 
consequence of the cold, lost its fluidity, and cannot perform its 
health-giving mission. The check thus sustained by Vines at a 
critical time may not be recovered from throughout the season. 
When it arises through defects in the heating arrangements, and 
not inattention, it is clear the Vines were started into growth too 
soon. Many are the mistakes that have been made by attempting 
too early forcing in the absence of adequate means for carrying it 
to a successful issue, and it is far better under such circumstances 
to wait a few weeks and succeed at last, than to commence action 
too soon and fail. 
Almost every spring a time comes when, under the best of 
attention, the requisite temperature in vineries and forcing houses 
can scarcely be maintained, and never without an extravagant, 
not to say outrageous, consumption of fuel. Yet the structures 
are supposed by the owners of them to be “ well heated.” They 
are under a mistake. When the fires in garden furnaces have to 
be kept in full blazing power as if for generating steam for pro¬ 
pelling an ironclad or locomotive at full speed, that fact of itself 
is more powerful than all the arguments which can be advanced 
that either the boiler is too weak for its work, or the pipes are 
insuflicient for the distribution of the heat required. Reducing 
the boiler power and piping in garden structures to the lowest 
possible limit, though a few pounds may be thereby saved at the 
outset, is a costly mistake, for apart from the liability of a break¬ 
down, that is always a contingency not very remote under high 
pressure working, it increases the fuel bill enormously, and the 
imagined gain at the outset involves an immeasurably greater loss 
in the end. Moreover, the heat radiated from pipes in which the 
water is near the boiling point is, comparatively speaking, inimical 
to vegetation, for it deprives the atmosphere of moisture, and 
renders it specially suitable for insects. 
While it is fair to recognise structural imperfections, defective 
arrangements, and initial obstacles to efiflcient working, the very 
important practical question arises—Is the best done that can be 
done with the means provided ? It is clearly the duty of aU men 
to act in accordance with the obligations thus involved, and there 
cannot be a doubt that gardeners, as a body, conscientiously and 
resolutely endeavour to make the best of the means placed at their 
disposal. If they did not they would not merit their positions. 
Most of them, however, are quite alive to the circumstances of 
the case, and know very well that the greater the difficulties they 
have to contend with, the greater is the credit in succeeding in 
spite of them. Hence the strenuous endeavours that men make 
under adverse conditions to show results equal to their fellow 
workers who are more favourably situated. It does not follow they 
succeed in this, but the effort to do so is in the highest degree 
commendable. It is very often a case of making bricks without 
straw, and it is questionable if any better adepts at this are to be 
found than within the gardening ranks. But all are not alike. 
Some are more lethargic than others, more prone to run risks, more 
self-indulgent, slower to discern the full force of small matters and 
what they regard as trivial mistakes ; and it may safely be said 
that these are not men who are likely to attain to very high 
positions in their calling. 
The provision and maintenance of suitable temperatures and 
atmospheric conditions in forcing houses at the present time are 
matters of the highest importance. It is impossible to devote too 
much thought to the work in question. It cannot be successfully 
conducted by clockwork or in a perfunctorily routine way. 
No. 2162.— VoL. LXXXII., Old Series. 
