December 4, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
213 
mealy, and, consequently, deficient of flavour, and he 
attributes the cause to delay in gathering. There is no 
question but that gathering at the nick of time has a 
marked influence upon the quality of some varieties. 
We had a fine lot of Flemish Beauty upon a young tree 
last year; the fruits were very large and highly 
coloured, yet proved to be flavourless and of no service. 
No doubt, the defect was in consequence of their being 
allowed to hang too long upon the tree, as this season 
we gathered earlier, having seen somewhere such 
practice recommended to insure success with this noble¬ 
looking fruit; and by adopting this treatment we 
secured good flavour. Pitmaston Duchess—with us, 
this autumn, grown in pots—was acid, so much so that 
its value was greatly lessened thereby.— Mon. 
-*>$«-- 
GAWTHORPE HALL. 
This ancient hall is situated about two miles from 
Burnley, and is the residence of Sir U. J. Kay Shuttle- 
worth, Bart., M.P., the present member for this division 
of Lancashire. This generous proprietor affords the 
public of the district the pleasure of walking through 
his grounds during the summer season, and right well 
they appreciate the boon bestowed upon them, as 
witness the numbers who flock there to see the beautiful 
gardens. At the present time he allows the public to 
enter his grounds and conservatory to see, perhaps, one 
of the finest displays of Chrysanthemums ever seen in 
this district. The Queen of Autumn was to be seen in all 
her glory at the time of my visit, and Mr. McMasters 
is to be congratulated upon the success he has achieved 
in bringing his 800 plants to such a high state of 
cultivation. The tall conservatory in which these 
plants were packed was a complete blaze of colour, 
every available inch being occupied ; the blooms being 
almost a mass from floor to roof. Mr. McMasters 
grows the majority of his plants on the tali system, 
and, of course, goes in for large flowers. The cream of 
the exhibition varieties are grown, and if he would but 
come out and stage some of his flowers I think he would 
be difficult to beat. 
There were splendid flowers of Jean d’Arc, Mrs. G. 
Bundle, Empress of India, Mr. Bunn, Jardin des 
Plantes, Hero of Stoke Newington, Lord Wolseley, 
Barbara, Alfred Salter, White Globe and many others ; 
also a good collection of Japanese varieties. A lot of 
plants of Soeur Melaiiie and Mdme. C. Desgrange 
are grown for cutting purposes ; this allows the exhi¬ 
bition in the conservatory to remain intact till their 
season is past. A Fernery and stove at the back of 
this house are well packed with useful decorative 
and flowering plants, the Fernery being a mass of 
rockwork, and planted about it are a few very good 
tree Ferns, such as Cyathea dealbata, Alsophila excelsa, 
Cibotiums, &c. ; the remaining portion being filled 
with a miscellaneous collection, dotted here and there 
with a few ornamental-leaved Begonias. 
There is no great amount of glass here for the quantity 
of plants that have to be annually produced, some thou¬ 
sands of bedding-out plants having to be cared for and 
got to perfection fit to plant out in the spring time. 
Two Vineries, a Cucumber and Melon-house are the 
only available places to rear and keep this stock, and 
it speaks well for the gardener that he can bring his 
plants to such perfection, as the bedding-out witnessed 
here last summer was good proof, the carpet portion 
in front of the hall being admired by all who saw it. 
The grounds are well wooded, and Rhododendrons seem 
to thrive amazingly, there being a large quantity of 
very fine plants. The kitchen garden is a large one, 
and good crops are annually got from if, as well as 
good fruit from the walls which enclose it. — IF. G. 
Sugar Cultivation in Mauritius.— The Sugar 
crop for 1885-6 is estimated to amount to 120,000 tons, 
which is 10,000 tons less than had been anticipated, 
and 12,000 tons less than the yield of last season. 
This deficit can, for the most part, be attributed to 
climatic influences. At the commencement of the year, 
when the young plants needed water, the colony suffered 
from a very severe drought, which was followed by 
continuous rains, the growth of vegetation being thereby 
promoted with exceptional vigour ; but these rains also 
prevented the Sugar Cane from arriving at maturity 
before passing to the manufactory, the result being a 
lack of juice in the Canes. The economy which several 
or the planters have been obliged to practice in the 
plantations, as well as in the manuring and draining 
ot the fields, has also been a cause of loss. 
HEATING AND VENTILATING. 
The systematic cultivation of exotics under glass 
dates front about the year 1723, or about 165 years ; 
and the buildings utilised for the purpose present a 
striking contrast to the light airy structures with which 
we are now familiar. Some of us can remember seeing 
in our boyhood so-called Orangeries, which were the 
pride and boast of our ancestors, the fronts being some 
12 ft. to 15 ft. in height, with solid opaque roofs, made 
of slate or tiles, as the case might be. The front lights 
were heavy cumbrous affairs, made to move up and 
down like the window-sashes of a dwelling-house. 
These, from about the early part of the eighteenth 
century, were gradually superseded by glass roofs. It 
is quite possible that a few samples of this style of 
garden architecture may yet be in existence in some 
ont-of-the-way places. 
The most general plan of heating them was by flues, 
and of these many of the present generation of gar¬ 
deners have had some experience. The next step in the 
upward path was heating by steam ; this had a com¬ 
paratively short-lived career, the plan of heating by 
hot water being very soon brought into competition 
with it, and being found less troublesome and more 
reliable, soon displaced it. The plan of heating, 
generally followed out now, was first introduced into 
public notice about the year 1821. The Polmaise 
system of heating by hot air caused a considerable 
amount of discussion between 1845 and 1855 ; but 
since then little has been heard of it as applied to 
heating garden structures. The hot water system has 
had the field almost to itself since, and unless we 
except the plan known as the one-boiler system, and 
Mr. Cannell’s mode of heating from the top, that of 
heating by hot water is essentially the same as it was 
Suggested Plan for Heating and Ventilating. 
from almost the first, notwithstanding that gardeners 
have had offered to them boilers in an almost infinite 
variety of forms and capacity—valves valuable and 
valueless, various forms of expansion-joints, &c. 
Now, although we have better arranged pipes, and 
more efficient valves, our system of heating remains 
virtually the same as it was fifty years ago. Will 
this always be so ? Have we reached the climax in 
our plans of heating and ventilating our plant houses ? 
Will the plan of heating from the top lead to a yet 
farther development, which, though entailing a larger 
expenditure at the outset, may, by a diminished con¬ 
sumption of fuel—the ensuring of more equable con¬ 
ditions of temperature and moisture, rendering our plant 
houses more healthy homes for their occupants—recoup 
the extra cost incurred ? At present, as is well known, 
the heat from the pipes, and the condensation of the 
vapoury particles of the air on the glass during cold 
weather, drys the air to a very injurious extent, demand¬ 
ing the utmost attention to damping of walls and 
passages, and the frequent use of the syringe to correct 
the aridity of the atmosphere within, which is so favour¬ 
able to the development of red-spider and other insect 
pests. 
Our present system of heating is based upon the 
assumption of the necessity of directly warming the 
whole number of cubit feet of air contained in the 
structure, as it loses its heat by radiation through 
the glass. Would it not be worth while to try double 
glazing, and heat the thin layer of air enclosed between 
the two glass roofs by means of hot water in gas-piping 1 
This, I think, would lead to a diminished consumption 
of fuel, and an almost absolute absence of drip. There 
are two objections against this plan which will readily 
present themselves. The first is the increased cost of 
the building ; the other, obstruction of light through 
the accumulation of dirt between the two layers of 
glass. The first objection, will, I think, only be dis¬ 
posed of by some one putting it to a practical test; the 
other, now that we have so many plans of glazing in 
vogue which admit of the glass being readily removed 
and replaced, is easily disposed of. 
The idea underlaying this proposal, is to prevent the 
cooling of the inside air by the intervention of a heated 
strata of air enclosed by the two glass roofs ; to better 
illustrate it the enclosed sketch is sent showing the 
proposed methods of ventilation in cold and warm 
weather. The letters A represent the hot-water pipes ; 
B, B, B, are ventilators to be used in cold weather to 
promote a circulation of air, and have no direct com¬ 
munication with the outside unless the outside ones, 
D, are opened at the same time ; if the bottom B 
ventilators are closed and the D ones opened in warm 
weather, the top B ones being open, the air will rush in 
between the two layers of glass; thus the sudden changes 
in the atmospheric conditions, often found when venti¬ 
lating our glass-houses under our present system, would 
be greatly modified. For houses of moderate dimensions 
it is probable that an opening in the angle of the roof 
at each end would be sufficient to allow of the escape 
of the over-heated air during the hot sunny weather ; 
for large structures better provision would most likely 
be requisite. -— IF. B. G. 
-->-!<-- 
RYELANDS, LANCASTER. 
Ryelands is situated about one mile north of 
Lancaster, and is the seat of J. Williamson, Esq., M.P., 
a gentleman well known in this part of Lancaster for 
his liberality and philanthropy. As an instance 
of his munificence, I may say that he defrays the 
whole expense of maintaining the public park at 
Lancaster, which was, I believe, presented to the town 
by his late father, already laid out and opened by him 
without much ostentatious ceremony. The mansion is 
approached by an entrance lodge on the east side, in 
the main road leading from Lancaster to the north, 
and is a plain substantial white-stone structure—as are 
most of the buildings in the town. The kitchen garden 
is on the south side of the mansion and pleasure ground, 
and separated from them by the Heysham Road, leading 
to a village of that name on the coast. The oblong 
piece of ground devoted to the growth of vegetables— 
which is only small at present—is protected by a high 
wall on the north, east and west, and open to a meadow 
—also the property of Mr. Williamson—on the south. 
The fruit and plant houses are located in the kitchen 
garden, except the conservatory, which is attached to 
the mansion. Excepting one or, may be, two, the 
whole of the houses have been erected within the past 
eighteen months, the principal part of the work being 
done by Mr. Williamson’s own workmen. 
The main range is span-roofed, with ends east and 
west, 100 ft. long and 12 ft. wide, in four divisions, 
with open wood stages on either side in some, and beds 
in the others, which, of course, can be furnished with 
temporary staging, as circumstances require. The path 
is a comfortable width, and relieves us of the fear and 
anxiety of knocking the plants over by our movements 
in examining them. The first compartment was chiefly 
occupied with Primulas and small Chrysanthemums. 
From here, on the north side, another span-roofed 
house is entered—ends north and south —filled, on one 
side, with Cinerarias in good health, and on the other 
with Yallotas and Amaryllis, the latter resting or going 
to rest. Returning, we proceed to examine the contents 
of the other compartments, and find in No. 2, Tomatos 
of sorts, which have to submit to the treatment accorded 
to Pelargoniums on the opposite side. In the next 
division there is an excellent batch of Poinsettias in a 
forward stage. The last compartment contained the 
usual plants seen in a mixed stove, and I noticed several 
species of Orchids, such as Dendrobiums, Cypripediums 
Calanthes and Coelogyne cristata. On the right, and 
entered from this house, is another span-roofed struc¬ 
ture, with ends to the opposite points of the compass, 
and—as it will be seen—on the contrary side to the one 
noticed when we first entered. At present it is filled 
with a choice collection of Azaleas in 8-in. pots ; but 
during summer it is occupied with Cucumbers. A 
lean-to, facing the west, shelters some hundreds of 
bedding plants, of which some thousands are requisite. 
In the same line is the boiler-shed, Mushroom-house, 
and other offices usually connected with an establish¬ 
ment of this kind. 
