The consumption of soap is smaller, and no necessity for boiling is necessary, excepting in 

 the case of extreme foulness. The hands of the operator, whicli may bo a cliild, are never 

 immersed in the water, and, consequently, tliere is no fear of tliat blistering, chapping, and 

 bleeding of the fingers attendant upon the poor washerwoman's j)ursuits. It seoms to us 

 an excellent labor-saving machine, and one the permanent character of which is alono to 

 be estimated by the wear of the wood with which it is made." — Mechanics' Magazine. 



Horace Walpole on Gardens. — Dear Sir : I have just been reading over Horace Walpolo's 

 History of Taste in Modern Gardening, an essay written about one hundred years ago; I 

 think it migbt be worthy of reprinting ; it would make about four articles, of about three 



pages each. 



It is rather quaint and amusing. Speaking of the Garden of Eden, be says, "it contained 

 two trees of which not a sucker or slip remains." 



" A cottage and a slip of ground for a cabbage and gooseberry bush, were, in all proba- 

 bilitVjthe earliest seats and gardens ; a well and bucket succeeded to the Pison and Euj^hra- 

 tes." " As late as Homer's age, an inclosure of four acres, comprehending orchard, vineyard, 

 and kitchen-garden, was a stretch of luxury the world at that time had never beheld." Of 

 a later period, he says : " Trees were headed, and their sides pared away ; many groves seem 

 green chests set upon poles." " ' Leisure,' as Milton expressed it, ' in trim gardens took his 

 pleasure.' In the garden of Marshal de Biron, at Paris, consisting of fourteen acres, every 

 walk is buttoned on each side by lines of flower-pots, which succeed in their seasons. When 

 I saw it, there were nine thousand pots of Asters." 



Speaking of terraced gardens, with long flights of steps, he remarks : " Fortunately, Kent 

 and others were not quite so timid, or we might still be going up and down stairs in the 

 open air." 



" But the ornament whose merit soonest fades, is the hermitage or scene adapted to con- 

 templation. It is almost comic to set aside a quarter of one's garden to be melancholy in." 



" Borromini twisted and curled architecture as if it was subject to the change of fashions 

 like a head of hair." 



Such are some of his remarks. He traces the rise and progress of gardening very judi- 

 ciously and concisely. 



Yours, W. S. 



The Guano Island. — An officer of the U. S. ship Independence, gives us a poor account of 

 the Guano Island they have been in search of. It proved of no value whatever, had no 

 landing-place, is in a rainy district, and the waves wash it, in high winds ! The information 

 which led to the search was an imposition, and its author deserves punishment ; he appears 

 to have done it wilfully and knowingly, in order to get up a Guano Company. 



A Subscriber asks what he shall do with an old quarry which is in view from his house, 

 and is very unpicturesque ? Follow nature. When the rawness is softened, and in part 

 concealed and ornamented by the effects of time and the progress of vegetation, deformity, 

 by this iisual process, is converted into picturesqueness. Hasten the process by the judi- 

 cious planting of trees, shrubs, and creeping and climbing plants, and a delightfully retired 

 wilderness of sweets may be created immediately. Mosses piled into shady, damp places, ivy 

 made to cling to the sides, possibly a spring in the centre, with aquatic plants in perfection, 

 will often add greatly to the wild charms of even an old gravel pit. To fill up such places 

 is expensive ; to dress and adorn them costs little trouble or money, and they may be often 

 masked by plantations, and so united with the general scenery at a distance, as to produce 

 great novelty and variety when approached. 



