whence the term is derived, and, when the fruit is full-grown, exhibit one of the most interesting scenes to be met with within the confines of a garden.

With regard to pruning, the knife should be used as sparingly as possible; I conceive it to be as injurious to this tribe of fruit-trees, as the lancet is to animal life; it creates those inconveniences which it is employed to remove: whoever indulges in its free use, most certainly defeats his own purpose. Let any man who is inclined to dissent from this opinion, consider the common thorn confined in a hedge, where it annually undergoes the operation of clipping, and the shrub in its primitive growth, and he will want no arguments to convince him of the impropriety of the practice. But my plants require very little assistance from the knife: they make no breast-wood, the energies of the tree being chiefly engaged in forming blossom-buds for the future crop.

It may be justly inferred, from what is here stated, that the bad success which most gardeners have experienced in the cultivation of this valuable fruit, arises principally from the luxuriant state of their trees; the limited space which they occupy on the wall is so disproportionate to their natural growth, that it is almost impossible, with deep and highlymanured borders, to reclaim them from a habit of plethorical sterility. The farina, and the whole fructification, partake of this unhealthy condition; and it may be observed, that fruits fecundated with bad pollen scarcely ever resist the atmospheric changes which they afterwards encounter.

From observations made in vegetable physiology, I am persuaded that the tree is principally the produce of the earth, and the fruit of the atmosphere; a great diminution of vigour may take place in the one, without any perceptible alteration in the other. It is, therefore, the first object of the cultivator to proportion the supply of nutriment to the extent of his tree, and this will be best effected by the shallow border above described.

These are the remarks of a man long devoted to the difficulties of his profession, such as have been suggested by nature, and confirmed by experience; and if they are found to be sufficiently instructive for the pages of your useful miscellany, I shall feel happy in being numbered amongst your many correspondents.

October 24. 1828

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

ROBERT HIVER.

We shall feel particularly obliged to this scientific and experienced writer, if he will communicate as frequently as possible. We consider the above letter as worth half a Magazine. We have always stated it as our opinion, that ringing, and all the unnatural schemes of training and pruning trees, in order to produce blossoms or fruit, were only ingenious expedients of temporary application: that there is only one mode of training, viz. the fan-manner; and one mode of reducing the overluxuriance of a tree, viz. that of operating on the soil. The various ingenious devices of training, pruning, culture, &c., which appear in the Horticultural Transactions of different Societies, and in this Magazine, are all exceedingly useful to young gardeners and amateurs, as physiological exercises; but those points of culture and propagation fit to enter into the general gardening or agriculture of a country are few indeed, and as simple as they are few. - Cond.

ART. XX. On training the Gooseberry. By Mr. WILLIAM WILSON, Merly Gardens, Dorset.

Sir,

AVAILING myself of the privilege afforded by your truly useful Magazine, I beg leave to offer a few remarks on training the gooseberry on trellises in the open garden, as practised by me here for the last six years.

I would recommend it to all who are restricted to a limited space of ground; to the tradesman, mechanic, or cottager, it is by far the most convenient and economical plan: it requires but a small share of the garden, and in the vicinity of towns this is a most material consideration. Even to the nobility and gentry it offers advantages, by furnishing an earlier supply of fruit for culinary purposes; and at the same time, by careful thinning, enough of superior fruit may be left for the table.

To those who may be inclined to try my plan (I mean those not practising gardening, for I neither need, nor would I presume, to teach professional men) I shall describe my process as briefly as possible. About six years ago I planted a considerable number of gooseberry trees on a border in the kitchen-garden. The trees were three years from the cuttings, and had been previously trained to two shoots each. They were planted out finally in the month of February, at a distance of 4 ft. apart; one branch being trained horizontally on each side at about 3 in. from the ground. Being intended to be trained to a trellis, composed of upright stakes,

placed 6 in. apart, shoots were directed from the horizontal branches up each stake. The trees being 4 ft. distant, each consequently had eight upright branches; these were selected in the spring, all others being displaced. With few exceptions, all the stakes were furnished with shoots; and in the second summer many of them reached the top, which was full 5 ft. in height. The third summer after planting, the trellis was completely covered, and the trees yielded a very fair crop of fruit.

For the two last years they have continued to bear plentiful crops: pains are taken to thin the fruit regularly, by which means the greatest number, and those of inferior size, serve for kitchen uses; and the superiors are forwarded to high perfection. The wood trellis has since been replaced by a light one of iron wire, sufficiently substantial to support the trees; the whole having a light and remarkably neat appearance. Besides the orderly look of this trellis in a garden, and the saving of ground for other useful purposes, I am convinced the crop is equally abundant, and certainly of a superior quality. I am, Sir, yours, &c. Merly Gardens, May 15. 1827.

W. WILSON.

ART. XXI. A certain and expeditious Method of raising Mulberry. Trees. By SUPERFICIAL.

Sir,

OBSERVING in your Magazine (Vol. III. p. 217.) an article on the quickest and most certain mode of raising the Mulberry tree, permit me to add a few facts, which I think curious, and to refer those who have doubts of my account, to the specimens actually growing at this time, as sufficient proof.

We are all delighted with the fruit; but we Cockney gardeners, especially, are deterred from planting, for three strong reasons; viz. the expense of the trees, the chance of failure, and the time they take before they get into bearing. I have heard the phrase used," you are going to plant for your grandchildren," when I talked of planting a mulberry; but, so far from this being the case, and from the facts I am about to state to you, no one need be afraid of obtaining a young fruitful tree in a very few years. The history of this new discovery is shortly this:-Walking in the garden of Mr. Keene, maltster, Paradise Street, Lambeth, about three summers ago, I was surprised to see a mulberry tree open in its growth, and

bearing fine and early ripe fruit. Expressing my astonishment, he told me that, about sixteen years previous, he received, from the gardener at Lambeth Palace, a large branch, which had been blown down, and lay on the ground all winter, from a tree that, tradition says, was the first of the kind imported into England by Cardinal Pole (who died in 1558); from which branch he cut off about a foot of the thick end, and planted it. The first year's shoots were luxuriant. In four years it was in partial bearing; in seven, in full bearing, and continuing ever since. On my saying I thought he possessed the greatest curiosity in England, he desired me to look round, and pointed out another, which he had rescued from the fire, to which it had been condemned by a neighbour, by exchanging some of his own fire-wood for the mutilated mulberry stump. This Mr. Keene planted in his paved court, where it still grows, though exhibiting sad marks of the bad treatment it had met with. The fruit of this last, though black, was very inferior to the first mentioned (by the by, I do not recollect any book on gardening which notices two sorts of black mulberries, though I have seen, in a treatise on silk, published in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xliii. p. 221., two sorts mentioned, and that the fruit of one is inferior to the other, which may account for the difference of the trees in question); and it appears, that either may be raised by planting parts of their branches or stems; and that they may succeed, it appears necessary that the branch should lie some time on the ground, in order that the sap may thicken before the truncheon is planted.

As many persons may not like to trouble Mr. Keene on this business, they may look down the gateway, and will see the second-mentioned tree; and should they want good malt, a necessary ingredient in the beverage which makes gardeners work, they will find a truly honest tradesman in the owner.

Since writing the above, I find there is a variety of the black mulberry, having jagged leaves and smaller fruit; but it was too late to ascertain whether the last-mentioned tree was this. Yours, &c.

Brixton Villa, December.

SUPERFICIAL.

ART. XXII. Abridged Communications.

Cow CABBAGE. I received a packet of the seed of this extraordinary cabbage, from a gentleman of Cirencester, who brought it from Jersey, and have sown it. In his garden, I have seen five healthy plants, which weathered last winter, in

the open garden, remarkably well, and seem to be equally hardy with their congeners. I subjoin a sketch (fig. 14.) and description of this curious esculent, as supplied me in a communication from this friend.

"The above is somewhat the appearance of a plot of a variety of cow cabbage that I saw growing in Jersey. It is much cultivated there, and attains the height of from 4 ft. to 10 ft. or 12 ft. The little farmers feed their cows with the leaves, plucking them from the stem as they grow, and leaving a bunch or head at the top. The stems are very strong, and used for roofing small out-buildings; and after this purpose is answered, and they are become dry, they are used for fuel. When the gathering of the leaves is finished at the end of the year, the terminating bud or head is boiled, and said to be particularly sweet." -John Murray.

Correction of Miasmata arising from the decaying Vegetation in a Conservatory, &c. The chloride of lime in solution would certainly correct various gases and vapours arising from this cause. The Hon. Henry Cavendish, by transmitting a successive series of electric sparks through a confined quantity of atmospheric air, soon obtained evident traces of the production of nitrous acid gas, in the red vapour which arose. The chemical constitution of atmospheric air is 21 oxygen, and 79 azote, or nitrogen, independent of the minute proportional of carbonic acid gas, which has been variously estimated. Now, a reversal of these proportionals would form nitrous acid; and there can be no doubt whatever, that a quantity of nitrous acid gas is formed in every thunder-storm, one of the most powerful disinfecting agents in existence; that, in truth, employed VOL. V.-No. 18.

F