I am just a beginner in the florist's work and have many things to learn yet. I may stumble on something that may be of use to others and it is no more than right I should make it known.

During the last ten days we have had cold, damp, disagreeable weather. At the commencement of this kind of weather, my furnace refused to draw, and consequently the pipes used to heat the greenhouse remained cold. I asked every one whom I thought ought to know what the matter was, and for a remedy I got plenty of solutions with remedies, most of which I tried with no success. At last I thought of the manner of starting up a sluggish fire we used to practice in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania, viz., to throw cold water on the burning coals. This I did by putting about a quart of water in a manilla paper sack and tying it, then tossing it into the fire, closing the furnace door quick, and in an instant it exploded, clearing the furnace and pipes of the accumulated gas, and in twenty-five minutes the pipes, which had been cold for thirty-six hours, ! were hot, and the furnace stopped smoking at once. I have tried this four times during the past ten days with the same effect each time, and while the wind was in different directions, so now my pipes, which are cement drain tiles, heat as well or better than they did the first day I made a fire.

Should any one who uses soft coal experience like difficulties with myself, I am sure a trial of my experiment will prove satisfactory.

[This appears to be one of the many valuable discoveries which, after being made, one wonders was never thought of before. Every one knows by this time light air ascends because a heavier column of cold air forces it upwards. Light air goes upwards in the same manner as a stick in water is forced to the surface. Gravitation draws down the heavier water and the lighter stick has to go up. When we light a fire for the first time in a damp or cold chimney, all the heat the little fire makes is absorbed by the neighboring bricks, and there is very little warm air left for the heavy column of cold air in the chimney to force up. In fact it presses down on the fire and rather forces the draft out of the furnace door than upward. The expansive power of a little steam would therefore most likely force the column of cold air onward and the weak amount of heat from the fire would naturally follow. - Ed. G. M.]

Under date of December 18th, a correspondent from Sarnia, Ontario, furnishes the following excellent hint: " About this time many a poor florist will be grumbling if he has smoke flues - how they smoke. Stop it by making a small hole in the chimney, say for seven-inch thimble at the base. Put a few handfulls of shavings in the chimney. Light them. Then start the fire in the furnace, and everything will work like a charm. No smoke and good draft."

Besides this it may be of service to remind the reader of the admirable plan of Mr. Harris, of Philadelphia, as described in our magazine by Mr. Peter Henderson, in which the flues after going the round of the house, takes its upright position right above the furnace. This is practically a perpetual bunch of burning shavings at the outlet of the flue.