108 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 10,1887. 
instances it has been attributed to too much water in their early stages 
of growth, by others to imperfect maturation the previous season, and by 
others to disease. All of these causes are capable of bringing about un¬ 
satisfactory results ; but it seems to be overlooked that these plants are 
as liable to degenerate as any others. It may be argued that they renew 
themselves annually like Potatoes, and that a degenerate state is impos¬ 
sible ; but the latter under certain conditions will most assuredly 
decrease in both size and vigour, and the same remarks apply with equal 
force to Calanthes. In the culture of Calanthes, as well as many other 
plants, we often overlook the main issue in our attempt to outrival 
other practitioners in the development of large pseudo-bulbs and long 
spikes of bloom. For the time being we seem to forget — in fact, 
scarcely ever realise what the result may be, until failure overtakes the 
plants and they refuse to grow with the same vigour as formerly. 
Stimulants are very useful in their place as long as the plant can utilise 
them ; but they become dangerous when they are supplied too strong or 
in too large quantities. Weak stimulants supplied every time the plant 
needs water may result for the time being in rapid development, but 
such treatment frequently ends in upsetting the energies of the plant, 
and decay, and in some instances death, follow. We have observed, that 
large pseudo-bulbs produced by such express systems of culture are very 
bad to keep in good condition during the resting season. 
Another certain cause of degeneration in these plants is failure to 
thoroughly ripen and mature them. They may be grown practically 
without stimulants, but if they are overshaded during the season of 
growth they lack that solidity essential to health and vigour the follow¬ 
ing season. In their latter stages of growth especially they must have 
abundance of light if firm well ripened pseudo-bulbs are required. This 
can be accomplished without subjecting them to the strong rays of the 
sun. That these plants will gradually decrease in size if they are not 
well ripened can be proved by anyone that will go to the trouble of re¬ 
tarding a batch as long as possible, so that they will flower late in the 
season after most of the plants are over. Grown for such a purpose most 
•of the ripening process has to be done after or from the beginning of 
November. These plants will flower through January and well into the 
month of February, but they show in a very marked manner that they 
not only degenerate in size and vigour, but the colours of their flowers 
are very pale in comparison to those grown and ripened earlier in the 
.season. The colour of the flowers betoken that they are a poor variety, 
which alone is the result of imperfect maturation. 
Too much water in their early stages will result disastrously, and I 
am inclined to believe that a similar state of things may be brought 
about by too much in their later stages of growth. Degeneration may 
•also be brought about by keeping the pseudo-bulbs in too low a 
temperature after they have flowered. Rather than run the risk of 
failure by injudicious methods of culture, it is wiser to be content with 
smaller but more solid well-matured pseudo-bulbs, which often result as 
satisfactorily, if not more so as regards -flowers, than is the case with 
those whose energies have been destroyed by an unnatural system of 
forcing.—C. V. R. 
WATERTIGHT ASHPITS. 
I AM not in possession of the copies of the Journal in which the dis¬ 
cussion of the above first takes place, but in reading Mr. Bardney’s 
article, page 45, he appears to ignore the system of having water under 
the bars of a furnace for the preservation of the bars. I thought it was 
generally understood that where a furnace was subjected to a very 
strong heat that the water system was adopted principally for the pre¬ 
servation of the bars and to prevent them twisting, which they will 
often do when getting heated to a very high degree. If Mr. Bardney 
requires ocular proof of the system he can obtain it at the nearest gas 
works, and I have no doubt will be convinced of the practical import¬ 
ance of a water pit under the bars of a furnace. In gas furnaces the 
heat that the bars are subjected to is far stronger than is required in a 
horticultural boiler, and the water under the bars are considered to be 
necessary for their preservation, but I have no knowledge of its being 
there to aid combustion. If I remember rightly it is one of the printed 
rules for the guidance of the men in charge for the ashpits to be kept 
supplied with water. It is generally known that heated iron is put 
into water to harden it, after it has been subjected to the influence of a 
strong heat for the purpose of working it into the shape required, and 
in a similar manner does the vapour arising from the water in the 
ashpit help to keep the bars hardened. 
With regard to tubular bars, I quite agree with Mr. Bardney that 
they are in all ways the most suitable for boilers that are used for the 
circulation of hot water. Scientific men tell us that combustion is more 
pei feet when solid bars are in use. Yes ; but we want something more 
than perfect combustion, we want something to convey in the most econo¬ 
mical manner the effect of combustion to the places it is required, and I 
maintain that tubular bars are a great auxiliary to a boiler in the assist¬ 
ance of absorbing the heat given off from the fuel. We are told by 
some hot-water engineers that the tubular bars being so cold deaden the 
hxe ; that I admit, but the cause of this is that the bars have absorbed 
all the heat in contact with them, coi sequently the fire becomes dull 
until more live fuel is supplied. Solid bars are no doubt the best for 
steam boilers which are regularly attended and have only a small quantity 
ot water to heat, but I am not quite confident on that point. I agree 
with Mr. Bardney and Mr. Stephen Castle in having the solid bars placed 
wider apart than is usually the practice. Since having charge of heating 
apparatuses I have, when a change of boiler has been necessary, always 
had (with one exeption) tubular bars attached, and when the boiler with 
solid bars was put down I had one of the bars kept out. I well remember 
once having charge of a fire that was detestable. To get the necessary 
amount of heat in the one structure that it was attached to was an im¬ 
possibility, and my bothy companions informed me in very frosty 
weather it was necessary to sit up half the night to attend this fire and 
keep the frost out of the house. When I was so informed I replied, 
“Nonsense,” as the boiler (a plain saddle) was quite large enough to do 
the work that was allotted to it ; but when frost set in I found it was no 
nonsense, and I was not long in seeking a remedy. I made a close 
inspection of how the boiler was set, and found that seemed all right; 
but the bars were very thin and placed very close together. This I 
thought was the fault, and proceeded to the head gardener. Knowing 
that he was in great anxiety about this fire in bad weather, I thought 
he would not object in making some alterations. I suggested a new set 
of thicker bars placed further apart, a suggestion he at once agreed to. 
They were put in the next day, and he was delighted the same night 
when entering the conservatory to find the temperature at 55°, while it 
was 10 Q of frost outside. The first night after the new bars were in the 
fire was made up at ten o’clock, and at seven the next morning there 
was clear fire and the temperature of the conservatory nearly 50°, while 
the thermometer had registered 14° of frost outside. The gardener was 
highly pleased with the change, but not more than myself and others 
who had to take a share in the stoking. I may add that less fuel was 
consumed and a great deal less labour was necessary in the management 
of the fire when more air was admitted through the bars. I consider it 
a great mistake in having the bars toe close, for the draught can easily 
be regulated by the means of a good fitting ashpit door and damper in 
the flue. 
When a boiler is set (especially the saddle form), if the bars do not 
extend pretty close to the door of the furnace there should be a space of 
an inch or more between the dead plate and the furnace door, which will 
admit (when the ashpit door is opened) a current of air to pass over the 
fuel as well as through it, which will materially aid combustion and 
lessen the escape of smoke. When the furnace door is opened it admits 
the cold air directly on the boiler in too great a volume, which would 
lower the temperature too much for combustion properly. We have an 
illustration with oil lamps when the chimneys are off and the flame is 
surrounded with air how it will give off smoke, but when the chimney 
is placed on and admits of a small portion of air around the flame how 
much more clear it burns.—W. Simpson, Knomsley Cottage. 
Mr. Bardney was good enough (page 46) to refer to my remarks on 
the above subject, and maintains that had more air been admitted to the 
furnace the same end would have been accomplished, as the requisite 
quantity of oxygen would have been supplied. This I cannot agree to. 
Our usual practice has been to have ashpits that could not hold water, 
without intention on our part, but as we found them. Since having 
watertight ashpits we can now have more heat, the fire burns brightly 
with less trouble on our part, and the temperature is more easily main¬ 
tained than before. We have also had no trouble with burnt and twisted 
bars since we applied water in the ashpits. I am not chemist enough to 
understand in what way vapour will affect hot iron. I know when cold 
it condenses moisture and rust forms that would soon destroy it. But 
what effect the oxygen has on the hot bars I am not competent to say. 
Our bars are as sound to all appearance as when put in, and without 
water in the ashpit we should have had them removed possibly two or 
three times. At the gashouse here, water under the bars has long been 
understood to be a great saving to the bars, and to insure better combus¬ 
tion of the fuel. Iron troughs to hold water are fitted into the ashpit. 
Over two years ago I had to supply bars for one of the furnaces. It 
seems the man in charge had allowed his ashpit to get dry and neglected 
to fill it with water. The results were the bars got burnt and twisted 
in all shapes ; from inquiries made at the time they could not say when 
new bars had been put in, those already there had been for years. 
Elsewhere I inquired into the subject, and now we adopt the system 
with most satisfactory results. 
With reference to anthracite coal, if permissible here, I concur with 
Mr. Bardney that it breaks up into small pieces when getting heated, 
and also rather slow in the early part of the day when temperatures are 
wanted to be raised quickly. A little mixture of coke reduces this fault 
to a minimum, and the advantages are no clinkering on the bars, a long 
lasting steady heat, less attention to adding fuel. We can now have 10° 
higher temperature in our Palm house towards morning in sharp weather 
than we could have, with no further call upon the man on duty than his 
usual hour (ten o’clock) to make up, and oftentimes was twelve to one 
o’clock before it was safe to do so.— Albion. 
BUCKLAND SWEETWATER GRAPE. 
Mr. Barker, page 62, asks why good dishes of this Grape are passed 
over for dull-looking Foster’s Seedling or little lumps of Duke of 
Buccleuch. My answer is that Buckland Sweetwater at its best is only 
very poor in flavour and begins to lose what little it has immediately it 
is ripe. One of our oldest exhibitors and best growers remarked that 
last year at one of our shows what a poor-flavoured Grape it was, and 
that it was scarcely worth growing. Some of the finest bunches of this 
variety I ever saw I had the opportunity of tasting at different times 
last season, and I can only say that they were very moderate indeed. 
On the other hand, as I have previously said, although Foster’s is smaller 
