334 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



If burnt they may be paid for by the insurance 

 companies ; but there is no means of preventing 

 their destruction when fired. No engines can be 

 had ; or no water can be found in sufficient quan- 

 tity. 



Every day brings examples of this. We find 

 the following, for instance, in this morning's daily 

 paper: On Tuesday morning, about 10 o'clock, a 

 fire was discovered in a stack-yard, containing 

 above 12 ricks of corn, in a village six miles from 

 Nottingham. The Nottingham fire-engines were 

 sent for without delay, but by 2 o'clock eight 

 stacks of Wheat were consumed. The fire had 

 by this time reached a barn filled with corn, 

 which, with various carts and implements, were 

 6peedily consumed. The dwelling house was only 

 saved by the great exertions of villagers and fire- 

 men ; a corner of it was burnt. The fire continued 

 to rage until the evening. Had an annihilator 

 been at hand the fire would have been extinguished 

 while a man was mounting a horse, in order to 

 search for a fire-engine. 



" The immense ratio," says Mr. Phillips, " in 

 which fire is multiplied by time, makes it an im- 

 portant desideratum to have at hand the means of 

 extinguishing a fire as soon as possible after dis- 

 covery. The rapidity of its progress over in- 

 flammable materials is such, that afire extinguish- 

 able by one gallon of water will in five minutes 

 require one hundred gallons, and in ten minutes, 

 one thousand gallons." A supply which it is 

 needless to say there is generally no means of 

 procuring with the necessary promptness. An 

 annihilator of proper dimensions is an effectual 

 and incessant guard against all such contingencies. 



That this contrivance will come into universal 

 nse we entertain no doubt ; for that it will per- 

 form unerringly all that it professes to perform is 

 certain. Of its merits, then, it is impossible to 

 say too much j and we earnestly recommend it 

 to our readers, who will be able to obtain full 

 particulars concerning the details of its applica- 

 tion at the Company's office in Leadenhall street, 

 No. 105. — Gard. Chron. 



Draining warms the Soil. — It is reported 

 that in a garden in Hampshire the temperature 

 of the soil has been raised 15° by draining 

 heavy land 4| feet deep. This if true is a pro- 

 digious gain — beyond anything that we could have 

 anticipated as a permanent result — even in sum- 

 mer. Winter is of course excluded from the 

 statement. Circumstances prevent our examin- 

 ing the statement in the case alluded to; but, al- 

 lowing for some exaggeration, there can be no 

 doubr. that a result sufficiently approaching it to 

 be of the greatest value, is attainable. 



It is not now, for the first time, that the public 

 attention has been drawn in the Gardener's 

 Chronicle to this highly important subject. On 

 the contrary we have on several previous occa- 

 sions pointed out the undoubted fact that an in- 

 creased temperature is one of the most valuable 



results of deep drainage; a more probable cause 

 of the immediate improvement of the health of 

 crops than the mere removal of water, or intro- 

 duction of air into the soil. The nature of deep 

 draining is in fact such as to render additional ac- 

 cess of air to the roots of plants too inconsidera- 

 ble to be appreciable. It is only when deep 

 draining and deep trenching accompany each 

 other that any great access of air to roots beyond 

 what is customary can be anticipated. Where 

 both are secured the effect is certainly magical. 



We have now before us a piece of land which 

 in 1845 was trenched and drained to the utmost 

 depth which the nature of the situation would 

 permit. The trenching was through London clay 

 down to gravel to about 3£ feet; the draining 

 was the same. It could be no deeper. In the 

 winter of 1845-6 it was planted; and the follow- 

 ing is now the height of some of the trees after 

 four seasons growth. Ashes, 13 to 15 feet; Elms, 

 12 to 13 feet; Oaks 12 feet; Alders, 15 feet; 

 Larch, 13 to 15 feet; Mountain Ashes, 11 to 13 

 feet. Yews have made from 11 to 24 inches 

 growth; Douglas Firs, transplanted between Au- 

 gust and October 1848, 15 to 31 inches; Crypto- 

 merias, 21 to 24 inches; and Hollies 18 to 24 

 inches, during the last summer; and what is not 

 a little remarkable, a Fuchsia has lived in this 

 place without any protection, only dying annually 

 down to the ground level. All the plants now 

 measured were common nursery stuff when planted. 

 Of course the whole plantation does not consist of 

 trees that have grown at the same rates as those 

 just mentioned; such a tiling never occurred; but 

 the trees are in general in the highest possible 

 health and vigour in a cold tenacious clay, which 

 before being trenched would hardly bear Grass 

 enough to make it worth cultivation. 



The improved condition of the land has no 

 doubt contributed to this result; but we think it 

 impossible to doubt that a considerable increase of 

 temperature of the soil must have mainly contri- 

 buted to produce such exuberant growth. Unfor- 

 tunately this cannot now be made matter of proof, 

 because no register was kept of the temperature 

 before the trenching and draining were resorted 

 to. 



There exists in Essex, not a hundred miles 

 from Brentwood, an orchard of Apples, Pears, 

 Plums, and Cherries, which was planted about 22 

 years ago in a heavy clay trenched down to an 

 iron pan on which it lies. For a few years the 

 trees grew pretty well, that is to say, as long as 

 their roots were near the surface and received the 

 warmth of the summer's sun ; but as they advanced 

 downwards the growth became " small by degrees 

 and beautifully less," till at last it ceased, and 

 nothing flourished but an abuudance of grey 

 lichens, with which the branches were covered. 

 The owner was advised to drain it 3 feet below 

 the pan. In the first year afterwards vitality was 

 roused so effectually that the lichens began to dis- 

 1 appear, cast of by the swelling bark, and the last 



