18(5 



THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of its not drawing well. The other flue 

 is close to the furnace door and runs 

 up outside. This one I work occasiouaUj 

 to prevent an excess of heat in the green- 

 house, which would sure to be the case 

 when forcing. Each flue has a damper by 

 which the heat is regulated. 



A small ziuo shoot runs round the 

 house, dips under the walk, and empties 

 itself into a large hole in the garden, ex- 

 cavated on purpose, and filled up with lime 

 rubbish, etc., and tlien covered over with 

 mould to form a bed. But several of the 

 bars in the roof do not project over the 

 edge sufficiently to carry the water into 

 the shoot. This is an inconvenience which 

 now cannot be easily rectilied. The bars 

 and the glass should hang over, not less 



than two inches, to carry the water oil' 

 well. 



I forgot to mention that the fire shed 

 is covered in, and converted into a store- 

 house for Tom Thumbs, etc., during the 

 winter ; and contain slikev/ise a good sized 

 mushroom-bed, for which it seems well 

 adapted. 



Such then, is a faint description of my 

 little ediGcc', where each week I sj^eud some 

 lew happy hours attending to the wants 

 of my pets, and admiring their shining 

 foliage and dazzling flowers, which they 

 yield me in profusion for my " labour of 

 love." 



M. Wesxcott, 

 Wells, Somersetshire. 



HAYTHORN'S PEUIT GATHEEEE. 



Mr. HAYTHOK^% of Nottingham, the well- 

 known manufacturer of the hexagon net- 

 ting, has invented a fruit gatherer which 

 is an improvement on the old foi-m. It 

 consists of a cutting-blade, which slides 



jt^/vm 



over the branch and cuts it in the same 

 way as a knife, and while this cutting- 

 blade performs its office, a pair of nippers 

 comes into action to hold and retain the 

 branch cut. This double a c' ion is very 



ingeniously obtained by a simple combina- 

 tion of a slide and springs with the knife. 

 To use it the lower shaft must be fixed to 

 a pole, the cutter is then raised and the 

 branch selected. By pulling a cord which 

 runs over a pulley, the limit, flower, or 

 shoot is cut clean away and held firmly. 



V.'hen visitors arc admiring your fruit, 

 it is a most easy matter, with this instru- 

 ment, to select a fine apple or pear from 

 the top of the free and at once to cut it 

 and hand it to them, without having to 

 call the gardener or be at the trouble of 

 getting a ladder. It is also admirably 

 adapted for stopping vines over pine-pits, 

 and, indeed, for any kind of pruning or 

 flower gatliering among ti'ces. 



Age 01 THE WiiLLiNGTONiA.^ — The 

 Welliugtonia of the Crystal Palace is said 

 to have been 31 feet in diameter. Taking 

 half the diameter, deducting 18 inches ou 

 account of bark, we have 14 feet of solid 

 timber, in respect of which we have to 

 compute the number of annual layers which 

 the tree had gathered round it from the 

 time it was a sapling. More than two-thirds 

 of its timber would be heart-wood, and 

 less than one-third sap-wood. Suppose, 

 there were 10 feet of heart-wood and 4 feet 

 of snp-wood, then — 



120 inches multiplied by 45=5,400 layers, 

 48 „ „ 21=1,008 do. 



Making the age of the tree=6,408 years. 

 ^Times. 



