92 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 15, 1859. 
m midwinter would require an average temperature of from 45° 
to 50°, and fully the latter if the Stephanotis were to be kept 
healthy. In the first ease, in a winter like the last, little firing 
would be required, except when absolutely frosty, or the weather 
was dull and foggy. In the latter case, a fire, however small, 
would be wanted almost every twenty-four hours from the end 
of October to April, and more, of course, if the weather were 
severe. 
I should have liked, also, to know the mode of heating adopted 
by our correspondent; as, after much consideration, I have come 
to the conclusion that a flue of brick, or strong earthenware, or 
cement pipes, is the most efficient, economical, and least trouble¬ 
some for small detached greenhouses, where plants are only to be 
saved over the winter; and, but. for the extra expense, I should 
prefer hot water where more regular and continued heat was to 
be maintained. I know that some will look upon the old flue 
as something barbarous in these days of heating by water, steam, 
and gas; but in the case of small, separate houses I have a strong 
impression that the heat that goes up the chimney from some 
heated by hot water would be sufficient to heat as many more, 
could it only be caught and made available. With or without a 
right use of a damper there is little waste of heat from a flue, as 
the heat must traverse its length before it can get to the external 
air; and, provided the flue is kept clean, most of the heat will 
be absorbed before getting to the external air. In houses heated 
by hot water, whatever the construction of the boiler, unless the 
damper is used with judgment, much of the heating power is 
lost. Simple though the matter is, it is difficult to get firemen 
to attend to it. Many a poor fellow gets smothered and choked 
with smoke on lighting a fire, because he cannot think of drawing 
out the damper to give the smoke free egress. 
To attain a little definiteness I will suppose a sort of medium 
case, in which plants are not only to be grown slowly and kept 
securely, but such things as Camellias, Epacrises, Cinerarias, 
Primulas, may open and keep open their blossoms without fall¬ 
ing or fading prematurely. Eor such a house the temperature at 
night should not, except rarely, be under 40°, and as seldom by 
fire-heat above 45°. In sunshine a temperature of from 50° to 
60° will do good rather than harm, provided a little air was 
given early. Though, however, much fire-heat is to be avoided, 
as tending to draw the plants by subjecting them to a dry at¬ 
mosphere, it will be safer to raise the temperature a few degrees 
above 40°, rather than let it sink below 35°. It may reach down 
close to 32° without injury; but a very little at that point may 
destroy, so far as appearances are concerned, the whole cares and 
tx’oubles of the season. 
When to make a fire, and how much to use, must depend, 
therefore, on external circumstances. Supposing that you shut 
up your house early in the afternoon, and before dark the outside 
thermometer is above 40°, and the sky is overcast, and no ap¬ 
pearance of a change, the wind being from the south and west, 
and the barometer rather low, it is not likely any firing will be 
required, especially if the moon is growing rather than waning. 
If the thermometer should be below 40° in the evening, if the 
sky is getting clear, so as to permit of free radiation of heat, if 
the wind is veering to the east or north, and the moon rises from 
near midnight and onwards, then if you do not like getting up 
early in the morning, you had better put on a fire to make all 
sure. The fact does not always hold true; but it still amounts 
to a general rule, with exceptions, that with a young and growing 
moon in winter, our evenings are the coldest; and in a waning 
moon our mornings are the coldest. Often when the evenings are 
dull and overcast, and no likelihood of frost, the moon will rise 
at two or three o’clock in the morning, the clouds will melt away, 
the stars shine forth, and before we get up the ground will be 
crisp, and the plants in our houses, but for the early shutting up 
the previous afternoon, as near as may be injured. Under such 
circumstances, if we wish to sleep soundly, it would be wise policy 
to put on a small, bright fire in the evening, so as gently to heat 
the flue or the pipes. This will make all secure in such sudden 
emergencies, will keep up more movement in the confined ah’ 
all night, and, if frost has come, will enable you to admit fresh 
ah* sooner, and more of it. In a continued frost the fire must 
be continued, but so regulated as not to waste or give too much 
heat at a time. 
Thus much as to the when, now as to this how of lighting, &e. 
Every stoke-hole, and more especially one to which a lady like 
our correspondent goes, ought to be dry, comfortable, and as 
clean as a kitchen. The furnace-door and the ash-pit door should 
be made to shut close and open easily. If there is a moveable 
valve in the centre of each, so as to admit air at pleasure, it will 
be an advantage. In the furnace-door, the admission of a very 
little will prevent great clouds of smoke issuing from the chimney, 
the fresh air passing over it causing much of it to come into 
contact with the flame, and thus be burned. The moving of the 
valve in the ash-pit door will enable you to regulate the draught 
to a nicety. When a fire is once lighted, has burned, and wants 
to be replenished, the live fuel should be shoved more to the 
end of the furnace, and the fresh placed at the end next you. 
The smoke from the new’ fuel will thus pass over the bright 
embers, and be burned in the process. But we are getting on 
too fast, the fire is not lighted yet. To manage this nicely, a 
basket of dry straw, shavings, or the refuse of the paper-basket, 
should be kept in a corner on purpose. Also, a basket of dry 
wood, chips, or otherwise, and a heap of dry coals, not dusty nor 
yet large,—say of the size of from Walnuts to hen’s eggs. Light 
a small handle of the paper or straw, place it far enough in to be 
over the open bars, clap a handful of wood over it, and then a 
small shovelful of the nice coals, shut the furnace-door, and leave 
the valve of the ash-pit door open. 
I have supposed that the furnace has been cleaned out, and 
that if there are ashes in the ash-pit, there are not enough to in¬ 
terfere with a draught. Of course, also, the damper is out. In 
a few minutes the wood and coal will be in active combustion. 
Then other fuel, such as is used generally, should be added. Coal 
will do well, but be smoky. Coke is very nice and clean, but if 
large should be broken. House cinders and ashes are also very 
good, if the earthiest ashes are removed by sifting. These cinder- 
ashes, however, should be always kept wet, and then they make 
splendid fires, and give little smoke. In twenty minutes or half 
an hour’, the fire will be getting bright, aud the flue or pipes w ill be 
getting heated quite as much as we want, if w r e anticipate only a 
little frost. Then break down the fire a little with the poker, to 
prevent the fuel rising from the bars and caking ; then shut the 
ash-pit door and the furnace-door close, and a few minutes after¬ 
wards put in the damper, so as to leave half an inch or so of 
space, or less, to continue a slow combustion. The heated air is 
thus kept in the flue or sent again and again round the boiler, 
instead of getting out of the chimney-pot. This small, single 
fire will be sufficient if only a few degrees of frost are anticipated. 
If the frost should be severe and continuous,—-say ranging from 
10° to 25° below the freezing point, then such a fire will want re¬ 
plenishing during a long winter evening and making up at bed¬ 
time, beating down the fuel at the latter operation, and covering 
with a sprinkling of ashes. If the heat then in the house is suffi¬ 
cient, take out the damper for a fexv minutes, and then leave 
all close again as before, so that the fuel thus added may burn 
slowly, and just prevent the house temperature sinking much. 
Where economy is strictly carried out, little should be removed 
from such a furnace but hard clinkers. By thus rrsing the damper 
judiciously, the fuel will be sometimes caked and coked, and not 
thoroughly burned; but provided enough of heat was obtained, 
the caked fuel is ready for further service. 
I am particular in thus speaking of using the damper—not 
merely on the score of economising fuel, but because I have fre¬ 
quently known plants injured in severe frosty weather by the fire 
burning fast and furiously after theTast fuel was put op ; so 
that a house that stood at 40° at seven in the morning would have 
stood at 50° and higher, as I have seen it do, at two in the 
morning. The extra heat under such circumstances was injurious 
enough, but nothing to the clry air that kept sucking moisture 
from every part of the plants. Even with careful management—- 
so dry is the air generally in severe frost—that when much firing 
in such a house is needed, it would be advisable to place evapo¬ 
rating pans on the heating medium, and eveir to sprinkle the 
floor and the stages, in order that the dry air may get moisture 
without drying up the plants’ roots and tops. 
This dry air is so injurious, that in very severe weather, pro¬ 
vided frost is excluded by a few degrees, the plants will be more 
safe from 35° upwards than at 45°. 
Sometimes the weather continues equally severe during the 
day, and no sun to modify it. In all such cases it is better to 
put on a fire in the morning, if needed, than have too much on 
at night. Before doing so, however, the sky should be closely 
scanned; and if the atmosphere is bright, and every chance of 
the sun getting out, and you feel certain that the house will not 
get too low before the sun tells upon it, then it would be wise to 
add no more firing. To settle this in your mind you must also 
examine the heat in your pipes or flue, not forgetting that half 
an hour before and after sunrise is generally the most severe in 
