3G8 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



loss is prevented in the manufacture of azotine. The preparation of this new 

 substance is founded upon the fact that all animal fibres, when submitted for 

 some hours to the action of steam at a high tem[)erature, and to a strong pres- 

 sure, by which means a great modification takes place, a species of decomposi- 

 tion analogous to the action of caustic alkali, the material is transformed into 

 a brown mass resembling caramel, which can be dissolved even in cold water. 

 The operation is very simple, as fully described by M. A. Landureau, in an 

 article contributed by him to the ' Journal d'Agriculture Progressive.' He 

 states: We have tried this new manure this year upon one of our experi- 

 mental fields of Beetroot, and find it quite equal to the best guano. The most 

 important circumstance from an industrial point of view is that this new fab- 

 rication being produced from refuse, the expense of making it is covered, and 

 the azotine yields a net profit to the maker. We believe that this discovery 

 is of a nature to render great service to agriculture by the utilisation of refuse 

 hitherto of no use." 



The ' Field ' gives what it calls Dr Lindley's recipe for a Vine-bor- 

 der, and thinks it explains a good deal in Vine-culture. 



"With regard to the composition of the soil of Vine-borders, no cultivator 

 who has written on Vine-growing has, so far as I am aware, quoted the late 

 Dr Lindley on the subject ; but although he was a theorist more than any- 

 thing else, it is admitted by cultivators that his conclusions were wonderfully 

 near the mark, and not a few of them have been completely verified in practice. 

 Speaking of the Hampton Court Vine, which has preserved its health and 

 fertility for such a length of time — being in that respect a marvellous contrast 

 to Vines under modern culture, which in so many cases die or become en- 

 feebled whilst still in their infancy — he observes that it is growing in a finely 

 divided alluvial soil, resting on gravel, the subsoil being dry and compact. 

 It matters little what the material consists of, for a clay bottom may be . 

 equally good with a gravel one, if drained naturally, by fissures or other 

 causes. In such situations the Vine finds all the elements it requires for its 

 growth. The fertilising particles of matter are equally distributed through 

 the soil. There is no disposition in any portion of such soils to run together, 

 or to become sour ; every facility is afforded the roots to permeate the borders, 

 while the finely divided state of the various ingredients composing them (and 

 their perfect admixture) favours the production of those minute fibrous roots 

 which are so essential an element of Grape-growing. Here, then, is all the 

 Vine requires to produce good and abundant crops, and to form for itself a 

 constitution enabling it to supply generations with its generous produce. 

 This, which may be called a recipe for a Vine-border, was published by 

 Lindley nearly thirty years ago, and before so much had been written on the 

 subject by modern authorities on Grape-culture ; and it may be doubted if a 

 more correct and generally applicable one was ever offered, or one which so 

 suggestively explained how it is that the Vine succeeds in soils of such diverse 

 character, and in soils that were never purposely prepared for it." 



We Lave read a good many favourable notices lately of the new- 

 greenhouse Rhododendron, Lady Alice Fitzwilliam, and have also had 

 the opportunity of seeing it at its best in two or three gardens. It is 

 perhaps one of the grandest, if not the finest, variety of its kind yet 



