388 THE GARDENER. [Sept. 



arrangements of the Congress could be so made beforehand as to admit 

 of their being announced in the schedule of prizes as a part and parcel 

 of the engagements of the Society, a knowledge of them would be 

 much more widely diffused. 



The unusual productiveness of the Walnut-trees this season is a 

 matter of frequent remark. Is this fructiferous quality in any way 

 traceable to the drought of the previous two years ? A correspondent 

 writes from Northamptonshire : " Never in the memory of man has 

 there been such a crop of Walnuts as there is this year in this neigh- 

 bourhood ; the trees are weighed down with them, and the fact 

 deserves record in your pages. I heard a loud crack the other day, 

 and found a branch of one of my Walnut-trees had broken down with 

 the weight ; and I know another instance of a large arm coming down 

 from the same cause. Bunches of six and eight are common on my 

 trees, and I have gathered one of nine, and believe that I could find 

 others still larger. Can any correspondent cap this from their trees 1 

 I presume this remarkable crop is owing to the wood being well 

 ripened last year, and to the backward spring of the present year, 

 which retarded the trees till the frosts were over. All fruit is here 

 very abundant." 



A French nobleman has just discovered an original manner for 

 forcing Mushrooms — so we learn from the Continent — and by so doing 

 procuring a constant harvest. He places a number of little boxes in 

 his stable, about 3 feet long and 10 inches wide, and arranges them 

 like the shelves of a bookcase, before which a thick curtain slides in 

 order to keep light out. He sows the spawn in a bed composed of 

 horse-dung, or dead leaves and vegetable earth well manured, and the 

 Baron has Mushrooms all the year round. As for the horses, they are 

 none the worse for the forcing, and no unhealthy emanations have 

 been remarked in the stables. 



An announcement has just appeared in the columns of the ' Gar- 

 dener's Magazine ' to the effect that the proprietors and editor of that 

 journal offer a prize of twenty guineas for the best " Essay on Irriga- 

 tion, with especial reference to the Utilisation of Sewage." The fol- 

 lowing are the conditions of the competition : — 



" The essays may be of any length, and may be written on one or both sides 

 of any sized paper ; but the adjudicators will give preference to the one which 

 deals with the subject most comprehensively, practically, and briefly; the object 

 being to obtain useful information on the sources of water-supply for farm and 

 garden purposes, and the best means of storiug, lifting, and distributing, with a 

 view to economical cultural results. The essays are not in any case to have the 

 names of the writers attached to them, but each essay must be marked with 

 monogram or motto, and be accompanied with a sealed envelope bearing a corre- 

 sponding monogram or motto, and enclosing the real name and address of the 



