Chips and Slips. 30 1 



Easy Method of finding the Nature of Soils. — A good method for tlie 

 planter who is interested in knowing what sort of soil he is planting in, is to 

 mix an ounce of soil with a pint of water till it is perfectly softened and diffused, 

 to shake it well and allow the heavy parts to settle for a few minutes ; the 

 sand will subside and the clay will remain floating, in finer particles. Pour 

 the water out with these finer particles, leaving each in separate vessels ; get 

 it dried and then weigh separately. If 100 grains of soil, not peaty or unusu- 

 ally rich in vegetable matter, leave 



10 grains of clay, it is sandy soil. 



10 to 40 . . . „ sandy loam. 



40 to 70 . . . „ loamy soil. 



70 to 83 . . . „ clay loam. 



85 to 95 . . . ,, strong clay soil. 



If there is no sand it is pure clay. It often occurs that people who are said 

 to know a great deal about soils will term them, by a single look, as sandy 

 loam ; try and see if it is not anything but sandy loam ! An impoi'tant matter 

 is to discover whether lime in quantity is present in the soil. This can be 

 easily done by heating the sample of soil in the air until the organic matter 

 is burned away. Take 200 to 300 grains, which diff'use well through half a 

 pint of cold water, mixed with half a wine-glass of muriatic acid, and allow it 

 to stand a few hours with an occasional stirring, when the bubbles of gas 

 will cease to rise, the water can be poured off, the soil well dried as before, 

 heated to redness, and weighed. The loss will be nearly all lime. 



The Phormiuji Tenax, or New Zealand Flax, is, it is said, being largely 

 planted in St. Helena on behalf of a fibre company, who propose so to plant all 

 the Government waste lands in the island. The leaves contain a large amount 

 of strong fibre, hitherto rather difficult to manufacture ; but recent experiments 

 are likely to render it very useful in paper-making. 



The Value OF Timber in the Highlands. — An illustration of the value of 

 timber on waste lands in the Highlands is afforded by a sale of wood which 

 took place recently on the estate of the Earl of Cawdor, in Nairnshire. In 

 1820, two hills on the Cawdor property, of about 800 acres in extent, and of 

 almost no agricultural value, were planted with fir and other trees, and after 

 successive thinnings, the sale of which realized large sums, the remainder of 

 the wood has just been sold off for the sum of £16,000. The sums realized for 

 the wood on this waste land during the fifty years is stated to be eqiial per 

 acre to the return for the best arable land in the country. 



The Nettle Tree {Geltis australis), although of moderate dimensions, fur- 

 nishes a timber of great commercial value, and the slender, flexible branches 

 are in great request in many parts of Europe for whip stocks. In the neigh- 

 Ijourhood of Udine, according to the German papers, large plantations are now 

 cultivated, actually tilled, and manured. The trees are planted about six feef; 

 apart, the lower branches being trained off, and in ten years the trunks attain 

 a diameter of six to eight inches. The wood from these plantations is fine- 

 grained, is easily cleft, and, being of a beautiful yellow colour, fetches a 

 higher price than the ordinary quality. In Istria this tree is commonly 

 planted in the squares and near churches. In I\Ioschenizza there is a tree with 

 a trunk five feet in diameter at the base ; and in Germino there is one six feet 

 in diameter, supposed to be a thousand years old. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



