233 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. January 11. 1850. 
a time; but, with regard to the exhibiting for prizes against 
cultivated flowers,'I do think it unfair in more than one point, of 
view. For instance, I attend a floral exhibition, and observing 
some very beautiful Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, &c., I note them 
down, colour and name, with any particular remarks. In course 
of time, I order of a first-class nurseryman, and pay a first-rate 
price for these said plants. Well, they arrive, are duly planted, 
and all the care possible given, to bring them to an exhibiting 
trim; but, to my no small disappointment, when the flower 
expands, I find it has no pretensions to be like the flower it was 
ordered from. As a matter of course, the nurseryman is blamed. 
Then the plant is shown to a grower, and he is told the tale of 
woe; when I am met by the reply, “ O yes, the flower is quite 
true to name; but the one you ordered from was a dressed 
flower.” Well, Sir, it was a dressed flower; and I have got what 
u schoolboy would call, “ pretty well dressed, too.” 
I now ask the question, Is it fair to a florist ?—is it fair to a 
nurseryman to be thus taken in? If such a system is to be 
allowed, let the public know which are the dressed and which 
the undressed plants, and let separate prizes be offered for each 
class. For my part, I look upon flower-dressing as a retrograde 
from the high cultivation of flowers. Being myself secretary to 
a country floral society, I can say I have had many remarks made 
on the system of dressing; and I hope at our annual meeting, 
in three weeks time, that our schedule will come out with a dis¬ 
tinct class for the dressed and natural flowers. But I know it 
requires a general determination to carry out a plan of this kind, 
and, I may add, a more able person than myself to bring it before 
the public ; but I feel your widely-circulated periodical has done 
and will do good, and, therefore, I have launched this letter, and 
only have to apologise for making it so long; but, unfortunately, 
I am not able to dress it.—L. R. L., Louth. 
[We have always said, and we say again, that there is no fraud 
in dressing florists’ flowers for exhibition, when it is publicly 
known that such dressing is permitted. Some persons most 
admire dressed flowers, whilst others prefer them in their natural 
form; and our correspondent is quite right in recommending 
separate classes for them.—E ds.] 
QUERIES AND AN SAVERS. 
TROUBLESOME CHIMNEY FUNNEL. 
“ I am sadly troubled with a chimney attached to my boiler. 
It is a small, conical, copper boiler, and the chimney is of cast 
iron, about four inches diameter, and twelve feet high. I light 
my fire with a little coal, and then feed the same with cinders 
and coke mixed. A nasty fluid-like gas tar begins to ooze out of 
the joints in the chimney soon after the fire is lighted, and runs 
down the sides. As the pipe gets hotter, blebs form ancf burst, 
and cover my plants, which are near, all over. I have made the 
joints quite tight, aud so got rid of this nuisance; but now it 
chokes up the pipe, and, consequently, 1 have no draught, and 
my fire will not burn. Can you tell me of anything I can do to 
prevent this ? If I was to make a hole in the bottom bend of 
the chimney, would it have the desired effect ? 1 forgot to say 
that the fire is fed from the top of the boiler, and the cinders 
often come up above the hole of the chimney.”—C. E. Lucas. 
[Has your draught not been stopped by raising your cinders 
higher than the opening for the chimney ? Of course, if that is 
done, the draught must be stopped, and not only so, but even 
when the cinders burn and get lower down, a part of them may 
have trundled into the pipe, and partly stopped it up. The 
smoke-pipe, or funnel, ought to have been at the top, instead of in 
the middle of one side. A four-inch iron pipe makes a very 
bad chimney. Such pipe is frequently rather rough inside, and 
the soot sticks to it like glue. We once had great trouble with 
such pipes : when coal was used, they got clogged almost directly, 
unless fire w'as used so strong as to burn all the soot, and thus 
waste fuel. From our own experience, we have a great objection 
to metal pipes for chimneys, unless considerably larger. We do 
not know the reason, but certainly neither tin nor wrought iron 
fill with soot like cast metal pipes. A hole in the bottom bend 
of the chimney would let the gas tar drop to the ground ; and 
if a cap could be fixed there,—wide enough to enable you to 
insert a small round hoe, with a sufficiently long handle, so 
as frequently to scrape down the sides of the pipe.—there would 
be little chance of want of draught, if the stove was not filled 
too full. Under similar circumstances, we lately advised having 
a small brick flue, two feet and a half long, from the furnace: 
on that a nine-l'eet-six-inch pipe was fixed and elevated; beneath 
it, a six-inch iron door was placed, so as to give ready access to 
the chimney; and a small damper in the flue regulated the draught. 
AVe have been told this has been no trouble since.] 
STRAAVBERRIES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. 
“ Calling, on the 8th of December, at Roby Hall Gardens, the 
seat of T. E. Moss, Esq., I was rather surprised at seeing a 
quantity of ripe Strawberries (of average size), green fruit, and 
flowers, all on the same plants. It looked more like April than 
December, with them. The gardener told me that they would 
have ripe Strawberries every month in the year.” — Joseph 
Pbatt. 
[Where there are means, and fuel is no object, there is not 
much difficulty in having Strawberries every month in the jear. 
The chief difficulty is, to have fruit in such dull w'eather as we 
have lately had, that, tested by the palate, is at all worth the 
trouble and the expense. AVe used to prolong the natural season 
with Bltons, on north borders, assisted by Alpines , succeeded by 
a second crop from the early-forced ones : the latest of those, 
assisted in a pit, ripened in November and beginning of De¬ 
cember. Small pots of Black Prince have fruited about Christmas 
and the new year. If the gardener at Roby Hall adopts any 
new or better plan, we, and many readers, would be obliged for a 
detail of the system followed. It is always creditable to bo 
able to do such tilings, and the recording of it prevents many 
slow coaches settling down comfortably, thinking they are doing 
enough.] 
HEATING BY HOT AVATER IN PIPES. 
“ I propose erecting two houses, to be heated by hot water, 
and shall feel obliged by your advice on the following points :— 
Is it requisite that the cistern should be on a level with the 
piping ? and may the piping be below the boiler ? Shall I want 
a second cistern as a feeder ? Will there be sufficient piping 
to keep up a temperature of 45° in winter, in the greenhouse? ” 
—John Watson. 
[We cannot be sure of your heating two houses, unless we under¬ 
stand their position. They might be heated separately by a T flow 
and return, with valves to permit of heating either house at will. 
We consider that your idea of heating from a common cistern 
is the simplest, and will be the cheapest, if you are satisfied with 
wooden plugs. The cistern might be placed in the house likely 
to want the most heat. You show in your sketch two pipes coming 
into the cistern from the boiler, but one, the flow-pipe, will be suffi¬ 
cient. You also show both flow and return pipes of each division 
connected with the cistern ; but the flows only should be connected 
there. The return from both houses should go at once to the 
boiler, being joined by a small T socket joint, where most con¬ 
venient. We are supposing, that, according to your idea, the 
cistern is elevated, and will now answer the questions proposed. 
1. It matter’s little whether you raise your cistern above the 
boiler eighteen inches, as you propose, or double that amount, or 
more, if it be found necessary or more convenient. If your 
cistern is near the boiler, and that cistern placed in one of the 
houses, it would be advisable not to have it too small, so as to 
allow for the expansion of water. As already noted, it will require 
three holes for the size of pipes used : — one, the flow-pipe, 
always open ; the others fitted with a wooden plug each, to 
allow the water to circulate in one or both houses at plea¬ 
sure. The force of circulation can be easily regulated by these 
plugs. 
2. It is not, therefore, necessary, that the cistern should be 
on the same level as the piping. The latter may be at any inter¬ 
mediate position between the cistern and the top of the boiler. 
It is not desirable that any pipes should be lower than the top of 
the boiler. 
3. No second cistern will be required as a feeder, provided the 
main cistern is kept supplied with water. The pipes and boiler 
must always be full of water, if care is taken to prevent air 
lodging in the pipes, for, in that case, you will sooner burst the 
pipes than get the water to circulate. In such a case of a raised 
cistern, however low you bring your pipedown from it, provided 
