works; is bounded on the west by a stream, and enclosed on the east by a fence of planks and stakes.

The soil is of a clayey kind, mixed with sand and light turf earth, in which all the trees and shrubs thrive vigorously.

Some years ago, before this nursery had attained its present size, the object was merely to raise native forest trees and shrubs for planting in the royal gardens. During the last seven years, however, it has arrived at the greatest perfection as to regularity and order. Many beautiful kinds of trees have been raised from North American seeds, and other rare trees and shrubs have been planted. But the cultivation of the different varieties of fruit trees has, in a particular manner, increased. We have thus at present 900 sorts of apples, 400 sorts of pears, 80 sorts of plums, 200 sorts of cherries, 90 sorts of vines, and 60 sorts of peaches and apricots, exclusive of other sorts of fruits cultivated here.

The apples, pears, and plums are chiefly from Dr. Diel on the Lahn; the cherries from M. Truchsess of Bettenburg, who has been a collector of cherries for forty years, and has published an excellent work on them; the vines mostly from France, England, and Italy; and peaches and apricots from Austria and Alsatia.

There is also a collection of fruit trees in pots here, of more than 1500 different sorts, which was formed at the same time as the rest of the collection, and is yearly increasing; it facilitates the study of the sorts, and has the advantage of taking up little room.

This nursery being completely filled, a new one was established by the command of the king, of which I shall now give a short account.

The Royal Central Fruit Tree Nursery at Weyhenstephan, near Freysing, of which I am the director, has a north-east aspect. The soil is of lime and marl, mixed with sand, and the trees reared there are so hardened by the operation of the raw air and cold weather, that they are enabled to bear any other climate with greater ease.

Since the foundation of this nursery, in the year 1827, there have been about 250,000 fruit trees planted there, a great part of which were given away from the nursery at Munich. In the autumn of the same year, also, a seed nursery of 70,000 yards was laid down and sown.

There are at present about 80,000 young stocks of fruit trees, of the most approved kinds, which, by their vigorous growth, fully recompense the planter. This nursery will, in a few years, cover a space of from 40 to 50 acres. Apples,

pears, plums, and cherries, grow in great luxuriance in this I am, Sir, &c.

place.

Royal Nursery, Munich, May 3. 1829.

WM. HINKert.

· ART. IV.

On Practical Cooperative Societies, as a means of ameliorating the Condition of the Laborious Classes, with some Account of the Brighton Cooperative Society. By PHILAN

THROPIST.

Sir,

In the spirit of doing good, which pervades your pages, allow me to introduce to your notice a subject you have never yet handled, and are perhaps entirely ignorant of, but which is also calculated, like the measures you recommend, to promote independence, virtue, and happiness. The ground it stands upon is entirely practical, and all its merits consist in its having been reduced to practice in Brighton: I mean, "Practical Cooperation." A society of workmen was formed in Brighton about July 1827, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the principles of Cooperation, and of reducing them to practice. The principles are simply two: first, to form a common capital, by a weekly subscription, like a benefit society; secondly, to employ that capital, in trade, and in giving work to their own members.

Consistently with these principles, the Society laid out their subscriptions in articles of daily consumption, which were retailed to the members and the public, giving the profits to the Society. The business was first done by a member, gratis. When it increased, so as to take up a person's whole time, one member was appointed agent, with a weekly salary of one pound, which, since the Society has been found to prosper, has been increased to twenty-five shillings. When the common capital became larger than the shop required, they hired about twenty-eight acres of land, about ten miles from Brighton, which is chiefly cultivated as a garden. Here they now employ five of their members and one lad, the son of a member, as an apprentice. As the capital increases, they will employ more, and they will employ them in other trades, as well as that of gardening, accordingly as they appear to be most profitable; the ultimate object being to employ all the members upon their own capital, so as to receive themselves the whole produce of their labour.

Here then if they choose to increase that labour, they will increase the capital in the same proportion.

They are now arrived at that state, when they would be glad to be joined by a first-rate gardener, who would act upon their principles, as the Brighton market would afford a return for the best skill and talents in that line. If such a man would join them with a capital of twenty pounds, they would admit him a member, find him constant employment, and take his 201. as a loan, allowing him interest upon it. An arrangement equally advantageous to both parties. An entrance fee of five pounds would be required, as being the present value of one share of the common capital.

As they have proceeded, they have found the great advantage and even necessity of knowledge; they have therefore a small library, and an evening school, both of which are superintended by a member, who is paid a small salary for his trouble.

A society upon the same principles is established in London, at No. 2. Jerusalem Passage, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, where every information may be obtained, and various publications, among which may be particularly mentioned The Associate and The Cooperator: the former published in London, the latter in Brighton, monthly, at one penny each. They are also to be had of Cowie and Strange, Paternoster Row. The Brighton Society, 37. West Street, was the first established: since which there have been upwards of seventy formed in different places.

I would not have troubled you upon this subject, had I not been firmly convinced, by seeing this Society in operation, that the principle is calculated, and even destined, to raise the working classes, out of a state of degradation and want, into one of comfort and independence.

May 27. 1829.

Yours, &c.

PHILANTHROPIST.

Our readers, we are sure, will join with us in thanking our benevolent correspondent for his very interesting communication. We have procured the Associate and the Cooperator, and have perused them; and, viewing the associations as common partnerships in trade, we do not see why they should not succeed as well as partnerships generally do. If they do succeed, the labourer is, at any rate, laying out his money and his labour to a greater advantage than he could do by any existing mode of investment. At all events, let it be fairly and extensively tried and persevered in, till a result is obtained, satisfactory

both in fact and on general principles. We should wish to see the plan carried into execution in all towns and villages, or wherever people of different trades and pursuits are associated together in numbers of three or four hundred. It seems to have at once the advantage of encouraging industry, frugality, and the desire and love of property. The interest and importance thus excited and produced, in the minds of the poorest and humblest labourers, must be most salutary. A man belonging to one of these societies will feel that he is something, because he has acquired some property, however small; and as this property may be increased by skill and labour, as well as by chance, he, having a greater stake in society, will play a more careful game himself, and will see that the game is fairly played by others. No man in any class of society is much to be depended on who has not some property; who is not connected with his countrymen and his country by some other tie than that of merely belonging to the same species. The natural desire of having something we can call our own, is one reason why the poorest men marry soonest; to have a wife and family, they feel, at once renders them of some importance, because they have something belonging to them and depending on them. They can no longer be esteemed an isolated point, or an unconnected fragment, but a perfect whole; and, as soon as children are produced, a whole complete in all its parts. Where a young man takes a saving turn in early life, he does not marry so soon, partly because his savings are something to set his heart on, and partly because every day he feels more and more the importance attached to property. Marriage he looks forward to at a future day, and he also looks to marrying some one, who, like himself, has saved a little property. The operation of this principle in young men is thus a cause of saving in the other sex, and, should a couple of young persons, who have been saving, produce children, they are likely to educate them, and instill into them the same principles. With a view, therefore, to keeping population within due limits, these Cooperative Societies will not be without their use, and more especially when they are connected, like the Brighton Society, with the education of the rising generation; for any plan for the amelioration of the laborious classes, in which this is not included or supposed, can only be considered of temporary use. We reserve a good deal more which we have to say on this subject, till we review in a succeeding Number the two publications alluded to; in the mean time, we should be glad of further information, and of the opinions of different readers.- Cond.

ART. V. On the Introduction of Botany into the System of Education in Village Schools. By Y.

Sir,

NUMEROUS plans have of late been proposed for the amelioration of the laborious classes, but some from their generalisation affording nothing definite left the subject where they found it, and others will never be effected except in a state of society widely different from the present. It was, perhaps, to be expected, that in the search after perfection many intermediate improvements would be overlooked; yet, still, the instruction of the husbandman in the nature of the objects of his future occupation is one of such obvious utility, and so easy of application, that the wonder is that it has not been adopted long ago.

Botany is a science peculiarly adapted to the countryman; its objects are continually before his eyes; they have been the delight of his childhood, and, if he be made acquainted with their properties, may become the solace of his age. There is no good reason why the system of Linnæus should not be taught in every village school in the kingdom. If it should be asked, where shall we find asters? I would answer, make botanical knowledge essential, and men duly qualified will soon offer themselves; while the present masters will quickly acquire a system, which only needs perseverance and the share of intelligence usually bestowed on mankind. As to books, short catechisms could easily be framed to teach the classes and orders; and the meanings of the technical terms might be taught, as those of other words, by means of spelling-books, and with as much facility. Cheap magnifiers might be awarded to the more advanced; and, on completing their study, a Galpine's Compendium, or some such work, which would serve them for a dictionary of plants all their days. Only set the system a going, and books good and cheap will soon be found.

We are told that the Arcadians were the most savage of all the Greeks, till Pan taught them music. We admire the fable, let us profit by the moral. I would not counsel the erection of schools of music over the country, though these may one day be thought as necessary as grammar-schools are now; but I would have music indirectly encouraged, by rewarding the school exertions of the children with musical instruments, the boys with flutes, the girls with flageolets. All have not a musical ear, but many have possessed it, and died in ignorance of the rich gift which nature had bestowed upon