February 20. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 399 
is eight inches wide, and nine-and-a-half inches high. 
How low should the furnace-bars be below the bottom of 
the boiler? 
“ The boiler is set with a Hue round each side towards 
the front, when it turns into a flue over the top of the 
boiler, travels to the back, and then turns back in a slant 
up a chimney, which is perpendicular from the damper. 
“I have used oven coke nuts, coal nuts, mixed and 
separate; gas coke and coal nuts, mixed and separate; 
coarse breeze and coal nuts, mixed; all is the same. Ido 
not get heat enough in the house. The pipes take a very 
long while to become hot, soon cool, and are never so hot 
as they ought to be. In a division of the house—the 
dimensions of which division are, 9 feet wide, 101 feat 
long, 51 feet high in front, and 10 feet back lean-to house— 
I have two rows of four inch pipes round the front, back, 
and end ; yet, with all this pipe, I cannot get the house up to 
more than 70°, but more generally 05°. I am told I ought 
to be able, in so small a space, and such a quantity of four- 
inch pipe, to get 90° or 100°, if I wanted it. 
“ The circulation is perfect, I must suppose. The flow- 
pipe rises one foot from the top of the boiler, then rises 
one inch in every nine feet to the highest point, and the 
return-pipe descends one inch in every nine feet until it 
comes to the boiler, when it drops about two feet, or say 
eighteen inches. The supply cistern is just over where the 
return-pipe drops into the boiler. 
“It seems to me that the brickwork (fire- brick for the 
arch) catches and retains nearly all the heat. 
“ I cannot but think that the saddle-back boilers are very 
far from being perfect. They ought to be double, so that 
the fire, wherever it plays, heats the chamber, and the two 
sides of every chamber it travels through, instead of healing 
one side of the boiler and one side brickwork. Again, 
they ought to be deeper on the sides than they are ; by this, 
I mean that the depth from the bottom of the boiler to 
the crown of the arch (inside) should be some inches 
deeper than they are now made; by this means, instead of 
the fuel heating two sides of brickwork, it would touch 
and heat the boiler itself; in fact, the boiler should 
literally enclose the whole of the fire. In my case, if I 
place the furnace-bars on a level with the bottom of the 
boiler, I have but nine inches or less space for fuel, and 
the consequence is, the draft gets disked at the back of the 
boiler, and much trouble and waste of heat, time, and 
patience and temper, are lost. If I lower the furnace-bars 
two, three, or four inches below the boiler, the sides of the 
heated fuel heat the brickwork on each side of it instead 
of the boiler. 
“ I have long desired to give you a sketch of my efforts 
in floriculture,under the title of ‘Progress of an Amateur, 
his Failures and Successes,’ or some similar title. I 
fancy it would be useful. But I find my time, day and 
night, fully occupied, yet I hope to find leisure to fulfil my 
desire, and submit it to your editorial criticism, and for the 
guidance of others. (We hope you will). 
“ I have learnt much at last, but paid for it at a greater 
rate than many would like to purchase experience and 
efficiency. I can now instruct others, but still want in¬ 
struction myself, and, therefore, I ask for your friendly 
counsel. 
“ Let me now tell you something of general interest to 
the readers of The Cottage Gardener. Late in the 
autumn of last year, I had a large frame too crowded with 
plants ; by one means and another, I soon remedied this. 
I desired the gardener to turn out against a back-wall, 
facing the west, a plant, fifteen inches high, of Abutilon 
striatum , believing that it would stand the winter without 
protection of any kind. I was assured by several friends, 
and in which opinion the gardener coincided, that the plant 
would die. I am happy to say that they were wrong, and I 
am right. The plant is not injured by the frost or weather. 
The leaves it had when plaDted-out were young, and it 
threw many others after it was planted-out; they have been 
nipped, and are shrivelled up to nothing, but the ripened 
wood is firm and untouched, the young green wood is 
scarcely injured. The locality where this shrub has thus 
been tried is Peckham, in Surrey.—G. P.” 
[Boilers, and everything else about gardening, are far, 
far from perfection. Ten to one but some amateur, like 
you, will do more to work out improvements than a whole 
host of gardeners. We do not think there can be any¬ 
thing so very far wrong in your boiler, when you can easily 
keep up 65° and 70°, in weather such as we have lately had. 
As for 80° or 90°, we should rarely think of securing that 
temperature by fire heat alone. We think it very likely that 
the draught of your fire would be mended if the bars were 
twelve or fourteen inches, instead of nine, from the bottom 
of your boiler. Do not be afraid of another row of bricks 
for that purpose. True, they will absorb heat, but they 
must give it out again, and the boiler will never be cold 
whilst they are warm. We presume you have a strong, 
large, fire-damp brick at the extreme end of your furnace, 
for the smaller the contraction there, the stronger will be 
the draught in the flues round your boiler, which, from 
description, seems set well enough in this respect. A good 
damper for the chimney should also be secured, otherwise, 
and even then, much heat will always escape up the 
chimney. No boiler lias yet been obtained, set it how you 
will, that does not cause great waste of fuel, and, therefore, 
where economy is to be practised, the flue should always 
traverse part of the house before rising into the chimney. 
Where that cannot be well done, we have hit upon an ex¬ 
pedient, in a modification of the Polmaise plans. A 
chamber is placed over and around the furnace and boiler, 
and there are two holes into this chamber from the house, 
the one drawing in the cold air at the bottom, and the other 
emitting the hot air at the top. Before we thought of this, 
our back sheds were frequently warmer than our houses. 
From the description of the mode in which the pipes rise, 
and then descend, it will be advisable to have a small air- 
pipe fixed iu each of the pipes at the highest point. A very 
small one, from one-quarter to half-an-inch diameter, or 
even less will do. The end of the pipe should be open, and 
several feet higher than the supply cistern. Enclosed air, 
in such circumstances, becomes almost as dense as a cannon 
ball, so far as circulation is concerned. 
No doubt, it would be an advantage for the saddle-boilers 
to be deeper at the sides, and thus nearly dispense with 
bricks to stand on for the side of the furnace ; but even 
here, especially in small boilers, we have found that the 
heat is so great, that the bars soon get quite clear, and the 
fuel hoves up into a cake, and if you are not frequently 
thumping at it the fire goes out. We do not say this would 
be the case in a large one- 
We shall be extremely glad to hear of all your doings; 
in fact, just as with our best gardeners, their mishaps would 
be extremely interesting, had they the courage to tell us of 
them. Abutilon we have known to spring from the roots, 
but we are not aware of the tops previously passing un¬ 
injured, except against a south wall at Winchester.] 
HOT-WATER TANK FOR VINERY. 
“ 1 have just erected a greenhouse against the side of my 
house; the aspect is south, and open to the east and west, 
having glass ends. The size is twenty-five feet by sixteen 
feet. I have five Vines planted, and wish to grow with these 
a good selection of greenhouse plants. I have a bed in the 
centre of the house, and walks around it of two feet six 
inches wide, a border two feet wide at the back, and stages 
of the same width at each end and at the front. I wish to 
heat it by hot-water, and should prefer the tank-system, on 
account of its economy, if you think it will answer. 
“ I propose to carry the tank round the house, and to 
make the top of that part of the tank which goes under 
the stages of plate-iron, so as to throw out a good heat; 
the tank at the back I would cover with slate, so as to get 
a better bottom-heat. I can carry a part of the chimney- 
flue through the house, if you think the tank will not give 
sufficient surface heat.—A Young Amateur.” 
[We have no doubt the tank will answer well enough ; 
but for mere bottom-heat, we hardly see how you will have 
much of it in a greenhouse, or how slate is to give you more 
of it than iron. Perhaps you have some peculiar mode of 
tanking; and if so, we should be glad to know the kind you 
propose using ; what mode you adopt; and how much more 
economical than four-inch pipes at about one shilling per foot. 
You will see an article on a similar house to-day; and we 
shall be obliged by being informed all about the tanks, and 
