THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, November 18, 1856. Ill 
a fine bloomor. These two add to the best I named from 
Clapton, as 1 mean to be on the look-out particularly for 
good plants for the mixed beds and borders. In this 
last, hunt I met with four large masses of another new 
and most excellent Dendrobium, called Macartliice, a 
match kind for the lovely Falconed. D. Beaton. 
American Apples. —Owing to the failure of the Apple 
crop in Europe, there is a large demand here for exporta¬ 
tion, and at least 10,000 barrels of Newton Pippins, em¬ 
bracing the best of the crop, will be sent out this fall. 
One firm here already has contracted for England to the 
amount of 0,000 barrels. This variety of Apples has 
the preference over all others, though Baldwins and 
Russets are exported to some extent. Shipments this 
year have commenced early, and all the first quality 
fruit received in this market up to the 1st of December, 
of the varieties mentioned, will be readily purchased to 
send off.— N. Y. Jour, of Com. 
HOUSES AND HEATING THEM. 
To save room I shall endeavour to throw the pith of 
the queries relative to these into a small compass, with¬ 
out any attempt at, arrangement. 
Making Back Walls of Houses Useful. —“ A Sub¬ 
scriber” in Scotland has a Vinery planted in the usual 
way, but thinks he could also get Vines upon the back 
wall, and wants to know what would answer best.—The 
Royal Muscadine would answer well if it could get 
light enough. 1 have seen fine crops of it, and even of 
the Hamburgh, when the Vines on the rafters were from 
four to five or six feet apart. If the glass of the roof 
is covered with foliage you will get but little in the 
fruiting way from the back wall. If openings are left, 
so that at these openings the sun can get through to the 
wall unobstructed, Vines. Digs, and even Peaches will 
do tolerably well. In such cases the back wall should 
be of a light colour, for the purpose of reflecting back 
the light as well as the bent. In such circumstances I 
have seen fine bunches of Black Hamburgh with a rich 
bloom, though almost concealed by the foliage; in fact, 
even upon rafters it is rare that Grapes colour well 
unless their foliage protects them from the direct rays 
of the sun. In Vineries and Peacheries where the 
glass was too well supplied with foliage to allow much 
light to reach the back wall in summer, 1 have seen 
winter-flowering plants introduced with good effect. In 
Vineries not much forced, but made to act as green¬ 
houses in winter and early spring, you might have a 
green back all the summer from Camellias or Oranges, 
especially the former, and a fine mass of flowers all 
the winter. The increased heat given to the Vines 
would cause the Camellias to grow freely. As soon as 
the Grapes were coloured they could be kept cool, and 
unnecessary foliage removed and abundance of air given, 
which would ripen and perfect the Camellia buds, as well 
as the wood of the Vines. If a fair amount of light 
does not reach the back wall I can hold out no great 
inducement for planting Vines against it, unless for 
bringing them down the rafter near the glass. Here, of 
course, they would obtain the same, if not greater ad¬ 
vantages than those planted in front. 
Heating by Eire Clay Piping, &c. —“ W. B.,” who 
has built a Vinery twenty-seven feet long by ten feet wide, 
wishes to heatit by a system combining efficiency, economy, 
and cheapness — ‘profit, not ornament, being his object; 
fears that hot water would be too great an outlay for his 
circumstances, and asks whether the fire-clay piping 
used for sewers, &c., would not suit his purpose.—I do 
not think I can add one word to what I said last year 
on this subject. It is easy to recommend a cheap mode 
of doing a thing, and that may be efficient too, if 
ordinary care and precautions are used, though we 
might have doubts as to the efficiency and economy of 
that mode, when not the present, but the wear of ten or 
twenty years were taken into consideration. In such 
a course of years I believe that hot water would be 
the most economical and efficient. For the present, 
and for a few years, if due care is used, I believe 
that these drain-tiles, about, eight or nine inches in 
diameter, will be the most economical. Before putting 
them down, however, I would ascertain the difference in 
expense of these pipes, and what you could get a nine- 
inch Hue built for; because, if you have bricks at your 
elbow, and these pipes are to be brought from a great 
distance, the flue may be as cheap as the pipes, and, if 
so, 1 should prefer it. Our friend and coadjutor, Mr. 
Keane, could tell us a good deal of these drain-pipes, 
even the common ones, and what care is required when 
they get old. Our friend Mr. Caie, of Argyle Lodge, 
Kensingtou, to whom the world is s > much indebted for 
the grouping system, and introducing lines of colour, 
has long used the common draining tiles for heating in 
connection with a small furnace; and he told me last year 
that nothing could suit better where the chief thing 
wanted was merely the exclusion of frost. If “ W. B.” 
contemplates forcing much, and the expense is much 
the same, I would recommend a flue in preference to 
pipes. The furnace in either case must be formed of 
bricks. If he resolves on pipes, one row will be suffi¬ 
cient, if he does not purpose commencing to start his 
Vines before March. If earlier, he will require two— 
one to the extreme end from the furnace, and back 
again to the chimney over the furnace. In the first 
case, the chimney may be at the opposite end from the 
furnace; and if the pipes go round the two ends and 
the front of the house, that will be quite sufficient. I 
have had little practice with such pipes, but observation 
tells me that two things are essential to economy and 
success. The first is, that a brick fine should proceed 
for at least four feet from the furnace-bars—two leet 
more would be better. This will lessen, and next to 
altogether prevent, the risk of cracking the pipes with 
heat. The second is, that every twelve or fourteen feet, 
that is, in the middle and the end of such a house as 
“ W. B.’s,” there should be an open brick pier, wide 
enough and deep enough to allow the euds of the pipes 
to rest on the insides of it, and be covered with a flat 
tile on the top, easily removed at pleasure, so that, with 
a broom fixed on a rod long enough, you could clear all 
the soot out of your pipes iu a few minutes without at 
all disturbing them. The cleaner the inside ol the 
pipes is kept the more beat will you get, the more equally 
will it be diffused, and the less will be the danger ol 
back draughts, explosions from a choked-up pipe, and 
crackings and escapes from soot burning. Even in 
flues not cleaued often it is amazing the heat that is 
lost whenever the soot clings to the inside ol them. So 
far as the bricks of the flue are concerned it acts as a 
non conductor of heat, keeping them comparatively cool; 
but so far ns the span-mouth of your chimney is con¬ 
cerned it acts as a conductor for carrying the heat from 
the furnace into the open air. All flues and smoke-pipes, 
therefore, from which it is desirable to radiate all the 
heat possible from the consumption of fuel, should 
have conveniences for cleaning them quickly and often 
without pulling them to pieces. The same principle 
applies to boilers for heating by hot water. Get them 
encrusted with soot, and you lose heating power in pro¬ 
portion. On this accouut alone the upright tubular 
boilers of the Messrs. Weeks, and the reLort boilers ot 
Mr. Thompson, have an advantage. In the one case 
soot can hardly have the chance ol forming, and iu the 
