112 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, November 18, 185G. 
other everything can be cleared off quicker than I write 
one of these lines. But to return to these earthenware 
pipes: they may he fastened together with soft, thickish 
mortar, or even with soft, well-wrought, thick clay. If 
the heat should make cracks in them for a short time 
just daub the cracks up as they appear. I have no 
doubt you will succeed with the precautions spoken of, 
and I shall be glad to know the result. 
Tanks versus Pipes eor Hot- Water Heating.— 
“ G. H.” wishes for advice as to which he should adopt 
for Cucumber-house, stove-house, and structures gene¬ 
rally.—I would refer him to previous articles on this 
subject in our other volumes. I have nothing new to 
advance. I am rather in favour of pipes, as a whole, 
for bottom-heat, and top-heat likewise. I should, how¬ 
ever, just make it, to a great extent, a question of con¬ 
venience and economy, and the ease with which materials 
could be obtained, in the second volume of this work, 
No. 52, Sept. 27, 1849, will be found a section of a 
double house, namely, a greenhouse at the back, 
separated in front by a wall and glass partition from a 
house in front, sunk below the ground level, and used 
as forcing house, plant-stove, and Fernery, and heated 
by a wooden tank covered with stout slate, the tank 
being heated'by a small conical boiler; and, with the 
exception of iron flow-aud-return pipes eighteen inches 
or so from the boiler, the connection between the rest of 
the distance from boiler and tank being kept up by lead 
pipes. Where a wooden tank could be cheaply formed 
lew modes could be more economical. I think the tank 
is nine or ten inches deep; but four inches, or even three, 
would be deep enough, as the heat must come from the 
slate covering. The tank referred to must have been 
in use about fifteen years, and it is just as good now as 
the day when it was put up. Even the wood boxes 
placed over it for holding soil for Cucumbers, Vines, &c., 
were perfectly sound. I attribute this soundness greatly 
to the fact that tank and boxes are guiltless of being 
touched with a paint-brush. These boxes are a stand¬ 
ing joke between some painters and your humble 
servant. Of course, with our friends the painters there 
is nothing like paint, whatever the state or character of 
the wood. From moist vapour, syringings, and a dry 
heat at times, these boards have been subject to almost 
all possible changes of wetness and dryness, and yet 
they are perfectly souud. I believe they would have 
been next to gone, if. when made, the tanks and boxes 
had been well painted. They who refer to the section 
will find that the earth does not touch the boxes, and 
the thin slip of wood which acts as a dividing medium 
is beginning to decay. Nothing can be more simple 
and effectual than the heating of these houses. When 
more heat is required in the greenhouse a sash between 
the houses is opened, and the desired object is gained. 
Arnott’s Brick Stoves for Houses and Pits.— 
“An Old Subscriber” asks ever so many questions 
about them. I have had little or no experience with 
them myself. I introduce it here, that one of our co¬ 
adjutors, or Messrs. Elvers and Lane, may give us a help¬ 
ing hand. I have no doubt that for many things they will 
be exceedingly useful. I mentioned last year how Mr. 
Lane heated a very long pit, or rather, low house, with a 
brick stove placed inside at one end. This house, however, 
hangs upon an incline, the farther end from the stove 
being higher by three or more feet than the end at which 
the stove is placed. The heat rises aud goes along near 
the glass to the extreme end, aud a deep pathway in the 
middle acts as a drain or a return-pipe, for bringing the 
cold air back again to the stove. Mr. Lane thoroughly 
understands the Polmaise theory of the circulating of 
air; and this house, from its hanging level, presents many 
advantages in this respect. With this brick stove, and 
a short iron pipe that conveys the smoke through the 
back wall, Mr. Lane commands as regular aud high a 
temperature, when requisite, as if he had a boiler and 
some hundred feet of piping. Such stoves are, there¬ 
fore, no doubt, useful to those who do not choose to go 
to the expense of boiler and pipes. I should prefer, 
however, that Mr. Rivers, or Mr. Lane, or some other 
friend who has managed such stoves, should give our 
inquirer minute details. Were he near Saw bridge worth 
or Berkhampstead he had better make an inspection 
himself. 
Small Flue beneath the Paved Floor of a Green¬ 
house. —I have had many inquiries if one described by 
me some time ago answered well last year, and have to 
reply in the affirmative. I got the hint from Mr. Snow, 
of Wrest Park. The floor of the houses referred to is 
of brick, and the bricks cover the top of his narrow flue, 
and you see and know nothing of it, except the agreeable 
warmth it yields on a frosty day. I forgot the exact 
dimensions of one in a small house here ; but it is about 
five inches wide; bottom, a house-slate; sides, two 
bricks on bed; top, slate; mortar on that to receive a 
tile on the same level as the floor, which is tiled over. 
In very severe nights the frost has just been kept out, 
and very little fire does. Were I to raise the temperature 
high when the frost is intense, I should crack the slates, 
aud pieces coming off them would stop the flue partly. 
Thin, soft tiles would, therefore, be better than slates, 
and, if the house was large, the flue would require to be 
wider. By leaving the space by the side of the flue as 
hollow as possible more radiating surfaces are secured. 
This was why I preferred brick on bed to brick on edge, 
as the sides of the flue not ouly carry its tile cover, 
but the tile on each side rests, also, upon it, being hollow 
for about half its width. Such a small flue is heated 
in a few minutes, and is never seen. A correspondent 
that joked us the other week about “ gardeners differ¬ 
ing ” will see that there are many simple modes of 
gaining a similar result. Now, were the look of a thing 
no object, and despatch and economy at first the consi¬ 
derations, I should build a little furnace, and use drain¬ 
pipes as advised above, or try a brick Arnott’s stove, 
with merely a smoke-pipe. But, though either of these 
modes would do, I would not prefer them by any 
means, except for mere economy at first, to hot water 
from a small or large boiler, in accordance with the place 
to be heated. Where economy in first outlay and fuel 
must he great considerations, some adaptation of the 
furnace and flue will be best for very small houses, until 
we get, which I believe we shall before long, a very 
serviceable, small, portable boiler for these places, except 
such cases where a small house may be easily heated 
from the kitchen-boiler; and even here the house must 
be chiefly a greenhouse, as otherwise it would be better 
to have a boiler for itself. 
Heating Cucumber-house, &c., by Furnace and Iron 
Pipes. —“ W. X. W.” has constructed a house for 
Cucumbers, Strawberries, Kidney Beans, &c.; it is seven¬ 
teen feet long by thirteen feet wide ; has a hipped roof; 
height not given. About half the width in front is shut 
off by a wall the length of the house, aud sufficiently 
high to ipclude a chamber three feet in height, and 
four and a half inch pipes close to the platform that 
supports the soil for the Cucumbers, and allowing 
sufficient space for the vines of the Cucumber to be 
confined there, or to go over the roof of the house. There 
is a border at the back, and a shelf near the base of the 
hip roof for Strawberries, &e. The singularities are 
chiefly two—the door is at one end, and just inside of 
it is the furnace door, the furnace being placed in the 
chamber, aud communicating with three iron pipes four 
and a half inches in diameter, passing along the top of 
the chamber, and acting as a flue, to give bottom and 
top-heat, there being small doorways in the curb wall, 
to let heat out of the chamber, I presume, when neces¬ 
sary or desirable. Our correspondent says the house 
