FOREIGN NOTICES. 



525 



free from the remains of the substances used in ig- 

 nition. Gard. Chronicle. 



Burnt Clay. — I can fully confirm the state- 

 ment of Mr. W. Paul, of Cheshunt, which appear- 

 ed in the last week's Gardeners' Chronicle, as to 

 the good ellbcts produced in gardens, where the .soil 

 is stronu, by the use of burnt clay or marl mixed 

 with the ashes of vegetables and the charred 

 branches of trees. I have had for some time past 

 several of these burning heaps in the environs of 

 my garden, which produce us in succession a very 

 valuable manure ; they are easily kept in a state 

 of combustion, and all the care they require is, to 

 cover and surround them occai^ionally with fresh 

 clay or marl, that they may not burst out into an 

 open flame. My gardener sowed two beds of onion 

 seeds of the Globe, James' Keeping, and Strasburg 

 sorts, mixed together, about the 10th of March 

 last, with 1 lb. of seed to each bed. The beds 

 were each of them 18 yards by 12 yards, and one 

 of them was manured with good stable dung ; the 

 other by this mixture of burnt clay and vegetable 

 ashes. The produce of the first did not exceed five 

 bushels of an inferior size, the greater part having 

 been destroyed by the larva of the onion fly ; whilst 

 that of the latter was 20 bushels of onions, as large 

 as those imported from Portugal. Another re- 

 markable circumstunce is, that the former have not 

 ke[)t well ; but the latter are as sound as possible, 

 not a single bulb in the strings showing the least 

 appearance of decay. The same burnt mixture has 

 been applied with equal success in my fruit garden. 

 I had observed a great decrease in my crop of apri- 

 cots for several years past, and upon a careful in- 

 vestigation as to the cause, my gardener and I 

 agreed that it must be owing to the tenacity of the 

 border ; we therefore had the old soil removed, and 

 a quantity of this burnt mixture with a little, fresh 

 loam substituted for ir. My gardener planted the 

 border so renewed with runners of Keen's Seedling, 

 in rows ; they became stronrj plants by June, when 

 they flowered and produced an abundant crop, and 

 all my apricot trees were covered during the sum- 

 mer with well ripened fruit. I am so fully persua- 

 ded of the excellence of this kind of manure, that I 

 intend to adopt it generally on my farm. It will 

 there have a double ativantaffc ; for I shall be ena- 

 bled to save the farm yard dung for composts, and 

 I shall have the gratification of seeing my hedges 

 neatly trimmed and my ditches well cleared out. 

 Our stiflT soils will be also rendered more friable, 

 and will not suffer as they now do from the reten- 

 tion of wet on the surface. Oswald Mosely. Rol- 

 leston Hall, near Burton-on-Trent. Ibid. 



Durability of Oak cut in Winter. — We have 

 a saying in Surry, that the sap of winter fallen oak 

 ia as hard as the heart of that which is thrown in 

 in the spring. There may be a little exaggeration 

 in this saying, but it serves to show the common 

 impression of the comparative durability. ^. C. P. 

 Ibid. 



Budding and Inarching the Vine. — Wishing 

 to increase the number of Muscats of Alexandria 

 and Cannon Hall Grapes, I cut down a few vines ; 

 one-half of thera was budded, and the other was 



inarched. To test the merit of each method fairly, 

 both buddinsj and inarching were done at one peri- 

 od. The result is, that by the former method, 

 bearing wood has been produced nearly double the 

 strength of that by the latter. In budding, the fol- 

 lowing is the method I pursued : — The old vines 

 were cut down in the autumn of 1842. They were 

 laid in March, 1S43 ; as soon as they had made 

 shoots a few inches Ions, two were selected on each 

 vine, and all the others were taken off. These were 

 tied in, and laterals were pinched regularly off 

 them until May. Tiie young shoots were then about 

 two-thirds up the rafters, and nearly full grown in 

 thickness at the base, but not ripened or turned 

 brown. At that period the buds taken from young 

 shoots with leaves not larger than two inches in 

 diameter, were put on ; the wood was left in the 

 buds ; they were inserted in the usual way, and 

 tied firmly with a piece of matting. In the course 

 of ten days or a fortniirht they were united, the 

 mattins was undone, and the shoots were cut down 

 to the buds ; all shoots below the buds were taken 

 off as they made their appearance. After this was 

 done they grew away very strong and rapidly. 

 Some of the buds showed fruit, but this was pinched 

 off. The leaves attached to the buds never flaa- 

 eed. W. G. Ibid. 



Geranium Leaves for Wounds. — The leaves 

 of the pelargonium are, as everybody knows, strong- 

 ly scented ; some smell of rose, others of lemons, 

 apples, etc.; there are also other sorts which, 

 when bruised, have a nauseous and rather disa- 

 greeable odor. All the species and varieties of 

 this genus contain a large quantity of essential oil. 

 which is usually fatty. There are several sorts of 

 geraniums, which are cultivated in the open air in 

 the south of France, and particularly at Nice, for 

 the purpose of extracting the oil, which is sold to 

 the perfumers. The leaves of all pelargoniums 

 have also the property of quickly healing cuts, pla- 

 ces where the skin has been rubbed off, and other 

 sores of that kind. You take a leaf or more of the 

 pelargonium, which you bruise on a piece of linen ; 

 you then apply it to the sore place, and it often 

 happens that one leaf is sufficient to heal the 

 wound. It sticks closely to the surrounding' skin, 

 helps to close the flesh, and heals the wound in a 

 short time. I have often tried this method, and 

 found it quite successful ; and others, to whom I 

 have recommended it, have given an equally favora- 

 ble report. The Pelargonium zonule, [common 

 horse-shoe geranium,] one of the oldest green-house 

 plants, is much more efiicacious than others of the 

 same kind ; its shining fleshy leaves render it far 

 preferable to those which are ribbed and downy. 

 Revue Horticole. .... 



The Ripening of Fruits. — A prize having been 

 offered in the year 1821, by the French Academy 

 of Sciences, for a proper elucidation of this impor- 

 tant and highly interesting subject, three papers 

 were received ; one of which written by M. Berard 

 of Montpelier, gained the prize, and was after- 

 wards published in the ^nnales de Chimie. M. 

 Berard's memoir is exceedingly long and turbid ; 

 the following summary of usefnl facts is, thereiore, 

 presented to the reader. 



