labourer's cottage would be much preferable, with a sign over the door of "small beer at a penny per pint sold here:" next mile, good porter at 2d. per pint; and a third, British wine at 4d. per pint, &c. Further on there might be fruit and other eatables sold. Each house might also have the picture of some famous wine-bibber, gluttonous man, or friend of publicans, porter swiller, or small beer drinker, over the door. And, dear Sir, I should have liked much to have been with you at Tôtes; but how could you be so wicked as to encourage the monkey to break the Sabbath day? I almost think I see the hearty old dame in the midst of her half-year's wash. If such were the custom in England, we could submit to the miseries of the washing day better than we do generally. And the garden-oh Sir, the garden is beautiful. I wonder what he of the Bear and Spear would have thought or said about it.

And now, Sir, for Miss Variegata: she hits my opinion to nothing. A museum should be kept in a room in the parish workhouse, and the garden attached to the house, and kept in repair by the paupers and invalids, under a scientific and amateur governor. I think a public orangery would be no great speculation in England: there are plenty of club-rooms, smokingrooms, reading-rooms, &c., established in large towns, which may be decked out with oranges, myrtles, or geraniums, &c., at the pleasure of the landlord. Mr. Joseph Thompson's observations are very good, and I hope will lead to some further enquiries respecting the physiology of plants; but he is evidently on the wrong side of the question. There is clearly an ascending as well as a descending sap in every vegetable, not to speak of the bleeding of late cut vines. How comes it that a plant that is dying for want of water, immediately pricks up its leaves as soon as water is applied to its roots. If the branches, fronds, buds, and leaves are caterers for the roots, instead of the roots being caterers for the branches, how come some oaks, at seven years old, with a head like a besom and a root like a carrot, to be only a yard high, and an inch in diameter in the stem? Such oaks I always cut off by the surface. Mr. Mitchel may have his caterers and mne mine, and see whether he will cater roots as soon as I will cater branches. Mr. Thompson is like a young surgeon; he has observed veins in the human body, but his pocket microscope has not been sufficient to detect the arteries. Robert Byers, Esq., may heat his houses with hot water, or hot steam, or hot air, if he chooses; but I shall never like any thing so well as hot bricks. I wish I had a hot-house adjoining his, with only a wall betwixt us; should he build his furnace and boiler on my side, I venture to say that I could grow as many pines and grapes with his waste or overplus heat as he could with his hot water; and the cost of his apparatus would build me an excellent Dutch pit. A friend of mine has a range of houses built to be heated by steam, at a vast expense. The family are gone abroad for a few years, and he rents the gardens till their return. He tells me that he could not be troubled with the steam, but built a fire flue in it. His houses this moment are full of pines well swelled off, most of them from 4 to 7 lbs. weight (not Providences). I think it would do T. A. Knight, Esq., good to see them; and the gardener would be as glad to show them, and sell them too, if Mr. Knight wished to treat his friends with good pines. The gardener wants customers, as

"He dwells unnoticed and alone,

Beside the springs of Dove;

A lad whom there are none to praise,

And very few to love."

He need not be ashamed of his name; it is Mr. George Lennox, gardener to Jesse Watts Russell, Esq., Ilum Hall, near Ashborne, Derbyshire. Mr. Lennox has grown the Providence pine to above 15 lbs. avoirdupois. It is a pity that Mr. Knight should think that such pines are not worth growing

Mr. Anderson's number tally is all very well, but there is nothing new in it, and you have figured and described far better long ago. A. Z., the Landscape-Gardener, is excellent; I could not have written a better article myself. The Oswestry conservatory looks very well on paper, but it will not grow plants very well, and it is evidently a bold speculation, and catchpenny advertisement. Mr. Spinosa's gorse fences are truly an abomination; they take up too much good land, for the land must be very good where gorse will grow sufficiently strong for a fence against large cattle. None of your gorse-fed horses for me. I do not approve even of thorn fences on some lands. In the dividing of pastures, where there are cattle on each side, I am always obliged to make two good fences to guard a bad one. I have many miles of such fences under my care, most of which have already cost above a shilling per yard, and are not good fences yet; whereas a row of strong, say poplars, planted a foot apart, will, in the course of a few years, become a wooden wall, so close that a hare shall not creep through, and so high that a partridge or pheasant cannot fly over. The Calceolaria, the Hydrangea, and even the flower-stand of Mrs. Fox, are all quite old to me. The sweet potato culture is new to me: I think it a valuable communication, as well as a very valuable vegetable. The process of destroying wasps at Sweeney Hall is too complicated: a horseman's pistol, charged and wadded with squib materials, and fired into the hole, which must be closed up immediately, is quite sufficient; or they may be dug up and puddled with water. Such nests as hang in sheds or on trees are readily taken in a bucket of water. For such as hang in thick hedges, and cannot be well got at, the pistol should be charged and filled to the muzzle with peas; stand at a proper distance (three yards), fire straight, and you will blow them all to Mr. Parkes should not wait till his fruit is eaten before he kills the wasps, nor even till the fruit is ripe. He should hang the phial glasses on the wall in good time, half filled with sugar and vinegar; the outside of the glass should be well anointed, particularly about the mouth, with honey, sugar, and water; they should be regularly emptied and renewed, as they get full of blue flies, as well as wasps. The ground wasps are a smaller species than the hanging ones.

It is very pleasant to see how many fine fruits are cultivated at Sydney, but, as I never intend going there, the catalogue is not very interesting. The Transactions of the Horticultural Society are rather insipid, except the management of the vine at Thomery, which is very good indeed. I cannot think why Mr. Knight calls a bark-bed an "irregular and ungovernable heat." I can regulate and govern a bark-bed at a twentieth part of the trouble attending a coal fire, but I suppose it is his hobby. I am not at all disposed to profit by his suggestions; yet I must thank him for the invitation, and he may look at my pines in return. The new publications on gardening and botany are all out of my line. I like Mr. Robinson's designs of cottages, &c., better than you seem to do, but am not such a good judge as you. The literary notices are generally good, but I am sick of polyanthus and auricula shows. I have no objection to the gardener's newspaper proposed by Mr. Burnard, if it comes in a parcel once a month, unstamped. Yours, &c.- Agronome. June, 1829.

Plan for a New Garden. - Your correspondent, Mr. Green, jun. Stepney, (Vol. III. p. 493.) has satisfactorily pointed out that my plan for a new garden was not a good one, and I feel convinced of it in the soil I tried. I have since relinquished the idea of forming a garden on the spot. The plan, I think, is more likely to be useful in drier soils, and still more so in drier climates, than the West Highlands, and such as are of no great depth. · W. M. Argyleshire, Nov. 6. 1829.

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The Flower-Garden at Dropmore (Vol. III. p. 258.) I think on a good principle, so as to have the gardens in beauty by the succession of summer and winter flowers intermixed, at the same time that each set reigns in its

season; but the plan of the flower-garden itself is somewhat objectionable, more particularly the centre (1), and its appendages (15 15 15 15). Your own remarks on the plan of the Welford Hall grounds, I think in some degree applicable here (Vol. IV. p. 91.). It is very difficult to judge correctly from ground plans, of the effects produced by the different modes of laying out and disposing the patches and dug borders of a flower parterre. The more frequent introduction of such plans, I doubt not, will be of great advantage to the profession of practical gardeners, who may be enabled to pick up something from even the worst plan, if it should only be to correct one of his own blunders. From the exposed situation of my grounds, I have been obliged to introduce a greater number of hedges than is, perhaps, justifiable in good practice, and over these have raised high banks, on which I plant shrubbery, and in front of them also; so that it will have the effect of giving depth to a narrow belt. I had another object also; by increasing the quantity of fine soil, I expect the shrubs will come away more freely. Walls of compressed earth, as noticed in your First Volume. p. 355., might probably have been easier and more quickly substituted. I should like to know what sort of soil or mixture is best for such walls, and the proportions. I shall be obliged if any information on this head can be given in an early Number; and also of the cost of the Bramah press recommended? W. M. Argyleshire, Nov. 6. 1828.

Prize Gooseberries for 1828.- In your Magazine (Vol. IV.) J. C. informs us, that, by consulting the gooseberry records, it will be found that the heaviest berries, at the commencement, seldom exceeded 10 dwts.; and, as he has not informed your readers what the heaviest are called, I shall select a few from each class of the heaviest this year: - Roaring Lion, 29 dwts.; Sir Jolin, 25 dwts. 2 grs.; Huntsman, 24 dwts.; Squire Hammond, 25 dwts. 20 grs.; Statesman, 22 dwts. ; Top Sawyer, 22 dwts. 17 grs. All the above are red. Yellow: Gunner, 24 dwts. 5 grs.; Sovereign, 22 dwts. 17 grs. ; Nelson's Waves, 22 dwts. 8 grs.; Hawk, 21 dwts. 8 grs.; Husbandman, 21 dwts. 6 grs.; Rockwood, 21 dwts. 5 grs. Green: Lord Crew, 25 dwts.; Providence, 20 dwts. 7 grs.; Angler, 20 dwts. 1 gr.; Green Willow, 19 dwts 20 grs.; Elijah, 18 dwts. 21 grs.; Peover's Pecker, 19 dwts. 10 grs.; Bonny Lass, 21 dwts. 10 grs.; Thrasher, 20 dwts. 12 grs.; Lady of the Manor, 20 dwts. 9 grs. The heaviest berry now on record is the Roaring Lion, grown in the year 1826, by J. Bratherton; it was 31 dwts. 16 grs. There are twenty-four new seedlings sold out this year.-M. Saul. Sullyard Street, Lancaster, Dec. 6. 1828.

Agrec

CORRECTIONS and Additions for the Encyclopædia of Gardening. ably to your invitation (p. 238.), I send you the following, and remain, Sir, &c.-B. April, 1829.

Berkeley Castle, near Berkeley, Colonel Berkeley. The kitchen-garden and forcing department are well managed by Mr. M'Intosh.

Spring Park, near Nailsworth, Lord Ducie. Beautifully-disposed pleasure-grounds, and a good kitchen-garden, kept with great neatness by Mr. Napier.

Kingscote Park, near Horsley, Colonel Kingscote. A fine place; the pleasure-grounds extensive, and within the last five years, greatly improved under the direction of Mr. Page, nurseryman and landscape-gardener, of Southampton. The whole kept in the neatest order by Mr. Boyce, author of several articles in the Gardener's Magazine.

Number of Men requisite to keep a Kitchen-Garden and Pleasure-Ground, &c. Sir, I see that some of your correspondents (p. 108.) have been so

kind as to make some observations on the queries I asked (Vol. IV. p. 447.), respecting the number of men requisite to keep a gentleman's kitchen and pleasure garden, &c., in good order. They complain that I have given no regular data, therefore, I have taken the pains to explain every circumstance attending my present case and circumstances. As to situation I should think this a very bad one. The garden is nearly sixty years old, and the soil is from 3 in. to 6 ft. deep. It is a nasty sour soil, very bad to work in during very wet or very dry weather; a better soil in appearance for vegetables could not be, but it is so very late. I am taking away both trees and soil from time to time, adding all new in the wall borders, and am double-digging the remaining part of the garden. I have had two men and a boy for a month working hard on about a chain's length of ground before it was fit for tillage, clearing away stones, &c., from old buildings which had been thrown down and covered over. We found some stones so very large, about 6 in. deep under some asparagus beds, that I was obliged to get a horse to draw them out. Bad as this may appear, the garden has passed through the hands of several professional English and Scotch gardeners..

My garden is on the side of a hill, declining so much that it falls 1 in. at every foot, and leads down to a wood of immensely high timber. The garden is about 150 yards from the top to the bottom. We have to wash all the vegetables and salading, and to carry them into the house; and I have also the care of 3 acres of orcharding to plant, prune, and graft, &c. I have to gather and store up all the fruit for kitchen and parlour use, and to take in desserts and flowers for table, &c. I have to clean the snow from the top of the house when any falls, and it takes all hands from the garden to store ice and snow for summer use which requires a week; and you must be aware that it takes a great deal of time to get it up for the use of the house, as they use a great quantity: and then the cook must have one from the garden to assist in getting up the ice creams, &c., and she must have one man three hours every day for other house work; and the butler or footman or some one will come and say, "My employer says one of your men is to go and take this letter somewhere or other." At the same time they were deceiving me. Then there is hay time and harvest, when all hands must go to assist the bailiff, with many other jobs too tedious to mention. I have no glass at all, but my trees are infested with canker, mildew, insects, &c.; for my employer wishes me to grow all the seeds I can, which are taken up to the top of the garden and then up nineteen perpendicular stairs into a fifteen feet room which is all the place I have fit for that use. Then I and all my assistants have to go a mile and a half every night and morning, and leave the garden exposed to every thing.

With respect to the pleasure-gardens there is as much mowing as two men can do in one day every fortnight with cleaning away the grass. There are also the rolling, and clipping round the flower knots which are cut in the turf, including all the turf clipping 530 yards, 200 yards of edgings of various flowers, 200 yards of dwarf box edging, 250 yards of thrift edging, 460 yards of gravel walks (gravel is a very scarce article here), and 780 yards of sand walks. All the walks are 5 ft. in width, and there are flower borders to the principal, and all is expected to be kept clean.

I hope some of your most practical correspondents will handle this to the best of their knowledge for the advantage of gardeners and their employers. I forgot to mention the shrubberies also, besides a vast quantity of plantation, and fishing waters, though there are a bailiff and gamekeeper kept. The walls are from 6 to 30 ft. high.. A Shipston Correspondent. March 21. 1829.

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The Poor Widows, and a Proposal for a Gardeners' Fund. Sir, I have taken the liberty to enclose one shilling, sixpence of which I wish to be

given to each of the widows of the poor gardeners you have mentioned, Mr. Davidson and Mr. M'Leish. I am sorry I cannot afford to send more; but having a large family, and being in narrow circumstances, I must, Sir, beg your acceptance of this trifle for them. I should be happy to see a fund established for the relief of gardeners' widows and sick and infirm and superannuated gardeners. I am persuaded that the thing might be practicable. Perhaps, Sir, you will give it your consideration. I am, Sir, yours, &c.-D. French. Harlow, Essex, March 30. 1829.

Hedges made of Whins. I was much interested by a short paper in one of the late Numbers of your very valuable Gardener's Magazine, on the subject of fences made of whins (furze). Having frequently observed on commons, the impenetrable face this plant presents where it is cropped by sheep, I have thought it might be made useful in forming hedges, provided it was kept cropped by shears or some other instrument. Without this process furze would soon become naked, and would be extremely mischievous by scattering its seeds on the adjacent lands. Having expended much in raising thorn hedges, I should be obliged if your correspondent would inform me through your publication, what is the best plan of raising and preserving in fences the common whin. I am sure any particulars you can present to the public on the subject of hedges, must be highly valuable to the land-owner, and will always add to the interest with which your work is read by your obedient servant, - E. D. April 14. 1829.

Ants on Peach Trees, in answer to G. M. of Atherstone. (p. 239.) — Ants in this case are not the cause but the effect of injury. Before the ants become troublesome the trees are infested with the Aphis, puceron, which produce what is commonly called honey-dew, and which is their excrement, to which the ants resort for food. To destroy the A`phis I frequently syringe the trees with water mixed with a strong decoction of potato haulm and elder leaves, which I have found to be most effectual. I have often used, as a bait for the ants, the refuse part of melons, sent from the table of the family; when this is not to be had, turnips cut and rubbed over with honey; by which I have taken thousands. I am, Sir, &c.— W. Boyce. April 15. 1829.

it.

Effect of the Sea Air on Peach and Nectarine Trees planted contiguous to Sir, The effect prevails to a greater distance than any one would imagine, particularly when the trees are not sheltered from the south-west wind. An east aspect answers well, but a south one is invariably hurtful. In the year 1812, I was at a garden in the east part of Sussex, from which the sea was visible at the distance of sixteen miles. A south-west wind prevailed during the May of that season which killed the young wood; the trees, however, made fresh wood, but the season was too far advanced to mature it, and the trees all died away. I was, also, last year in an extensive garden ten miles from the sea where a part of a south wall planted with peach trees was exposed to the south-west wind then prevailing, which entirely destroyed the trees; those on the east aspect, however, were preserved in a good state. I have seen no other kind of fruit tree injured by it.

I have had a peach-house for two years, in which the trees have thrown off their buds instead of expanding them: I conjectured it was occasioned by the wood being over ripe and too hard. The subsequent season I shortened none of the wood, intending all the greenest wood to remain ; but, although in both seasons I took care to keep a good degree of humidity in the house, I have not been able to obviate the same occurrence.

I have three other peach-houses, two heated by steam, and the other merely covered with glass.

The first-mentioned house is heated by fire; but I cannot attribute it to that, as I have been careful to keep the air moist. This house being found earlier than the others, I uncovered it earlier, as I always do when the