New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-02-18
Flowers in Our Dwellings.

COWS OF our dwellings,! IS the QueSClOn
Of many disappointed housekeepers,
having in vain tried year after year the
cultivation of flowers, to impart their
beauty and fragrance to the drawing
room. Sometimes the florist is charged
with improper cultivation; but gener-
ally the fault is ascribed to g abomin-
able gas Indeed, many have discon-
tinued using it on account of its inn
agined injurious effects upon plants,
but have found that they do not thrive
better with other artificial light.
1t may be most convenient to dis
pose Of the gas theory of destruction
here. In impure gas the element
eliminated which might prove injurious
to the growth of plants is sulphurous
acid gas. If this were eliminated in
sufficient quantity to injure plants, it
would also destroy animal life; at least,
it would prove highly injurious. The
burning of few sulphur matches
would produce more injury than the
burning of three bat-wing jets. If our
gas were so impure as to injure plant
or animal life, it is only necessary to
lodge q complaint with the Inspector
of Gas, and it would Immediately be
remedied. There are many green
houses lighted with gas, which is kept
burning for hours. One in New York
has seven hundred and twenty burners,
and yet no injury has been perceived
hitherto. There is no doubt that gas
charged with the noxious sulphurous
acid gas would be injurious to vege-
table and animal life.
What, then is the cause of the wither-
ing of flowers when carefully tended
and watered? To well answer the ques-
! Inn let us consider the condition of the
plant itseir ind llaa its relation to external
atmosphere and the mr. NM ar OF inc
house. The plant-whether r0se;EEMa...
argonium, or heliotrope-is brought
from the moist, warm air of a green
house, and placed in sunny window
Notwithstanding the utmost care, il
soon withers, its leaves decay, and the
plant is destroyed. If we examine the
pot, we find the inner surface lined witt
tibers Of the plant, which bind the earth
firmly in a mass, as if nodded in the pot.
What has effected this change so quick
| ly in the flourishing plant? The house
is heated by a furnace, or by steam, OF
| by hot water, or by a base-burner in the
passage. In either instance, the proc
ess of diflusing heat is the same. The
external air finds entrance by doors OF
cracks or by tlues, and rushes towarG
The heating surface, whether of steam
n stove or furnace. 1t then ascends OF
;liifuses itself in the apartment, where
it impinges on the ceiling and rolls to-
ward the upper part of the cold window,
I Here it cools and passes rapidly down
over the pots Of flowers, drying them
up quicker than could the Sahara sand
wind. The cool air falls upon the floor
and rolls along till it reaches the ascend
ing current, uniting with which it is
again carried to the window, to pass
over the plants again; and so the work
OF drying goes on all day and night.
The effect upon the leaves is to dry
them up and cause rapid evaporation.
to supply which all moisture is drawn
from the earth; hence the fibers seek
the inner surface Of the pot for moisture.
and this they speedily cover. The
porous pot soon withdraws all moisture
from tho fibers, and they become
burned insuring the rapid destruc-
ton of the plant. Another effect is the
drying of the earth, so that the plant
derives no moisture: Such is the con-
dition of the plant. If we examine the
external atmosphere, supposing the
temperature at ten degrees below zero,
we find that all moisture is frozen out
of it, and is deposited as "frost' on all
conductors of heat.
J 10 show the extreme dryness of win
ter air at low temperature, the most
delicately polished metal exposed out
doors remains untarnishcd. The FROST
dried air enters our dwellings, and is
further rendered more capable of al
sorbing moisture by contact with the
heated surfaces, and rushes up to the
flower-windows, sucking every trace of
moisture out of leaves, earth and pots.
Some plants-like the German and En-.
glish ivy, the Madeira vine, geraniums,
cacti-can withstand the fearful trial to
plant-life; but generally plants cannot
live under such circumstances. Before
abiding to the remedy, we will notice
it's effect upon animal life. While the
dry heat is not in itself SO destructive to
animal as to plant life, yet it renders
the condition of the air of dwellings
most unwholesome and injurious to
health, especially that of children.
Man is capable of enduring without
suffering high degree of dry heat, as
is witnessed in the Turkish bath, where
the calidarium, often rises to two hun
dred degrees Fahrenheit; and fire kings
have endured four hundred degrees
Fahrenheit with little Inconvenience.
This dry heat produces an electrical
condition of the atmosphere which is
illustrated in the common experiment
OF lighting the gas with ones fingers
after shutting over carpet. The ef-
fects upon the carpet are to set free to
float in the air the minute wooden fibers
of the carpet, which, though invisible,
may be observed by holding a moist
microscope slide near the floor, and
PLACING in the instrument.
One can easily imagine the effect
upon person with delicate lungs of in
ialing ell day this dust of carpet fiber.
If we could see it, we should find chill
dren playing on the carpet surrounded
with wool dust which they were inhal-
ing. Passing from the drawing-room
we find the passages filled with another
l AAAu u uAs'Vs q Ao14aS AAOA CaALA duSt
sand brought by feet from the street.
This. under the microscope, appears as
silica crystals and organic matter. In
the sleeping apartment the air is filed
with dust resembling feathers or broken
hair. This we breathe in sleeping, and
only some fortunate current of ali pre-
vents us from suffering seriously. '.Dust
thou art can be written upon any
part of the dwelling, notwithstanding
the utmost diligence Of the house,
keeper.
/. Not only IS this frost and heat-drietl
mir laden with dust highly irritable to
the lungs, causing .arieties of pulmon-
ary diseases to adults, and coughs ana
catarrh to children; but it also causes
| irritation to the skin, chapping Of the
hands and face. Men, who for the most
part are frequently out-of- doors, do not
! suffer; but women confined to the house