COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, 
July 8. 
who are troubled with these insects to place the pills in 
every place in the house haunted by them, and to repeat 
the application twice after intervals of ten days; by this 
means, the snccessional crops of young beetles are destroyed. 
—C. W. J., Croydon. 
(This is not a mere puff, but is sent to us by a gentleman 
who has been benefited as be states.) 
HEATING BY ARNOTT’S STOVE. 
I see, in your pages, so many applications for an easy 
mode of beating a greenhouse, and so much abuse of my 
valued friend, tlie stove invented by Dr. Arnott, that I think 
my experience on this subject may be of use to some of your 
readers. 
About fifteen years ago, I built a greenhouse and a vinery, 
of the same size, eighteen feet by fifteen feet, adjoining each 
other. In the greenhouse, I have a stone shelf in front, 
two feet six inches; then the walk three feet six inches; 
and next the stage, commencing from the floor, and with 
nineteen narrow shelves terminating three feet from the 
top of the back wall, in which space the ventilators are 
fixed. They are on the hit-and-miss principle—working on 
rollers, by a cord which hangs below, and having, when 
open, four spaces in the back wall, each measuring twenty 
inches square. The front lights move on pivots with a 
pierced piece of flat iron, to regulate the amount of air. 
The top lights do not move. In the centre of the back- 
wall stands an Arnott stove, eighteen inches square, let into 
a small brick chimney. The access to it is by a back-door, 
thus showing the whole of the front as stage. 
In the vinery, there is a pit in the middle for tan, a walk 
all round it, and an 18-incli Arnott Stove stands in the 
centre of the back wall, with a sheet-iron pipe, without 
footing, carrying the smoke to the top of the house, whore 
it is let into a small chimney. The object of this iron pipe 
was to give greater heat, and it has answered this pur¬ 
pose. The ventilation is the same as in the greenhouse. 
On the top of each stove stands a zinc pan—the same size 
as the top of the stove, and three inches deep, always con¬ 
taining water. Each stove has a door with the regulating 
screw in it; within this stands the ash pan, into which the 
ashes fall, and are raked; much of the dust is thus avoided, 
which would escape into the house if raked to the outside, 
as the dust, from containing the ashes, can be carried out 
and emptied at once. The stoves cost each. I had the 
same gardener from the commencement till the end of last 
March, when my present gardener came to me. Now for 
the result. First, in the greenhouse. 
I am scarcely aware of any plants having been lost through 
frost in the many years that I have had it. During the 
late intense frost, we hung some mats in front, and moved 
some plants from the front shelf; but I do not know of any 
plant having been killed, or having suffered. That we have 
kept something during the winter you will infer, from our 
having bedded out above 150 Scarlet Geraniums, besides 
Calceolarias, &c. These all wintered in the greenhouse, most 
of them in shallow pans. They were all potted in March, by my 
new gardener, and put into a cold frame, and now come out 
very tidy plants, showing plenty of buds. My Pelargoniums 
are now coming into flower, about seventy in number; a few 
early ones for cut flowers, which were in the Vinery, being 
over. Let me mention a few favourites. Their names have 
been culled from your pages, or my own observation; and 
they are now to be had for Is. or Is. 6d. each.— Conspicuum, 
Governor, Magnet, Incomparable, Chieftain, Mochana, Exhi¬ 
bitor, Enchantress, Rubens, Silk Mercer, Peart, Rosamond, 
Tyrian Queen, May Queen, Virgin Queen, Gulielma, Forget- 
me-not, Sylph. 
If Sylph could speak, she would tell how she and her 
ancestors have been protected for many winters under the 
fostering warmth of Dr. Arnott’s Stove. 
Our Azaleas are over; forty Fuchsias coming on. In 
short, instead of losing plants in my greenhouse, I have 
more than I know what to do with. 
The fuel that I use in the stoves is gas-colce. During the 
two last yeai’S they have consumed ten tons. The cost here 
is 16s. per ton, making T4 each year. This has heated the 
243 
vinery, say, for eight months in the year; the greenhouse 
for four months; and another Arnott Stove in the lobby, 
which keeps a largo staircase at a comfortable temperature, 
for foitr months also. In other words, the vinery has cost 
<£2, the greenhouse .£1, and the lobby j£l, during each of 
these severe winters. The stoves seldom go out, burning 
for one or two months together. This is attained by having 
the large size of eighteen inches, and is a great saving in 
trouble. The regulating screw puts them to sleep in a warm 
day, and soon increases the heat in a cold one. A common 
error is to take the door out, and produce a very quick 
draught; this is necessary at first lighting, and occasionally 
to get up a low fire, but a stove should never be left in 
this state. It produces a violent heat, which melts the fire¬ 
bricks ; they run and clog up the bars, and it is then difficult 
to get the fire to burn. The stove has to bear the blame. 
The objections to an Arnott Stove in a greenhouse seem 
to be the following:— 
1. It gives too dry a heat. Here is a letter that I re¬ 
ceived last week. You must have many similar complaints— 
“ The winter makes such havoc with our bedding-out plants, 
that I must have some dry heat for them to overcome frost 
and damp. I am thinking of adopting a frame I already 
have, and heating it by an Arnott’s Stove, conducting the 
smoke-heat round the sides by a flue. What is your 
opinion of its efficiency? You, I know, use them, even for 
forcing.” I doubt this plan answering; for the principle of 
Arnott is to give out the heat—not to carry it off; and the 
escape of smoke is so small, that I doubt its heating the 
proposed flue; but the desideratum is dry heat. I find that 
my zinc pan of water, constantly evaporating, gives sufficient 
moisture for a greenhouse; but if more is required, it is 
very easily obtained, as I shall show, when the vinery is de¬ 
scribed. 
2. That the temperature is unequal; and there is a want 
of heat in the front of the house. This objection is well- 
founded, and applies more to a vinery than a greenhouse ; 
yet the difference is not so great as would be expected ; and 
if, during intense frost, we draw our favourites a little closer 
round the fire, and keep them alive and well, there is not 
much to be complained of. Besides, greenhouse plants re¬ 
quite different degrees of heat. I admired the judgment 
of my new gardener on his arrival, who, with the usual 
dislike to Arnott’s Stoves, is determined to make the best 
he can of his appliances, in placing the Cacti just over the 
stove. 
8. The escape of sulphur and other noxious gases. I read 
much more than I hear or feel of this. My house was 
built whilst there was a duty on glass. The size of the 
panes four-and-three-quarters by three evaded the duty. 
This causes much lap, and gives more ingress and egress 
both for air and water than there is in a well-finished 
modern house. The moist vapour from the zinc pan also 
corrects the other vapours; and a hint which I adopted 
from your pages, and is applicable to all hot-houses and 
pits, of giving a little top air early in the morning, whenever 
the weather will permit, in order to allow the night exha¬ 
lations to escape, has been very useful. 
4. The trouble of keeping up the fire. From this I 
entirely dissent. If a fair amateur wishes to attend to her 
own fire, only fancy the advantage of applying so cleanly 
a material as coke inside her greenhouse, instead of descend- 
to a stock-hole to light a fire and apply coal or dross. 
The necessary attendance in ordinary weather is, to rake 
out and make up the fire in the morning; to replenish it at 
dinner-time; and to leave the stove full of coke about eight 
o’clock, when the garden is left. Of course, in severe 
weather extra attention is required. It is well to see that 
the stove, chimney, &c., are in good order, before commenc¬ 
ing another season. 
I enclose a single Grape from my vinery, not full 
swelled off, or coloured; but it may enable you to say whe¬ 
ther it is the shrivelled wretched thing that gardenei’s would 
expect from a house heated by an Arnott stove.—A. L. M., 
Near Lincoln. 
(There could not be a finer berry of Black Hambro’ 
Grape than that which was enclosed.—E d. C. G.) 
