PACKING SALT FOR MANURE. 



221 



could, and, with a fair wind, we soon reached our 

 destination. It woulii be unjust and ungratpful not 

 to mention here the kindness and hospitality of 

 Messrs. Mackenzie, Brothers, and Co., merchants 

 in Shanghae, whose house was open to me as my 

 home, and where, by the skill of Dr. Lockhart and 

 Dr. Kirk, the fever gradually left me, and I was 

 enabled to attend to my collections. 



"In addition to the plants iliscovered last year, 

 I obtained about this time some valuable species 

 from Japan. Every means had been used during 

 my early visit to Shanghae, to induce the Chinese 

 nursery-gardeners to import for me Japan plants 

 in the junks which annually trade between Cha- 

 poo and that country. Several collections had 

 been brought me, but none of any value until this 

 autumn, when some Azaleas and other plants of 

 much interest arrived. 



" The whole of my plants from the districts of 

 Foo-choo-foo, Chusan and Ningpo, being now 

 brought together at Shanghae, I got them packed, 

 and left the north of China for the last time on the 

 1 0th of October, on ray way to Hong-Kong and 

 England. When I arrived at Hong Kong, I des- 

 patched eight glazed cases of living plants, the 

 duplicates of which, and many others, I intended 

 to bring home under my own care. I now went 

 up to Canton, and took my passage for England ; 

 and with eighteen glazed cases, filled with the 

 most beautiful plants of Northern China, sailed on 

 the 22nd of December. We arrived in the Thames 

 on the 6th of May, 1846, having been three years 

 and three months absent from home. 



" The plants arrived in excellent order, and the 

 following kinds, amongst many others, may be 

 noticed as having been imported this year for the 

 first time: 



Glycine sinensis, with wliite 

 flowers, 



Azalea obtusa, from Japan, 

 " sp. from Japan, 

 " four species from the 

 north of China, 



Prunus sinensis (flore plcno 

 albo.) 



Dielytra spectabilis, 



Berberis (mahonia) fortuni. 



Scutellaria sp., (a fine herba- 

 ceous plant with blue flow- 

 ers.) 



Rose, the fineHouble climbin? 

 yellow. 



Rose, double white climbin 

 variety, 



Rose, dark red do. 



Pinus sp., from Japan, two va- 

 rieties. 



Oak from Chusan, 



Camellia hexangularis (true,) 



Camellia 'star,' (.') a variety of 

 hexangularis, 



Spireea sp., 



Lycopodmm sp., (' Man neen 

 chun^,' of the Chinese,) 



Kum-quat, a curious small 

 orange, 



130 plants of Tree Poeonies, 

 consisting of twelve or four- 

 teen varieties, having flow- 

 ers of various shades of pur- 

 ple, lilac, dark red and white, 



Seeds of the true Shantung 

 cabbage — a very valuable 

 northern kind. 



Rose, purple garden kind, 



"The number of plant-cases altogether amount- 

 ed to sixty-nine, besides packages of seeds, some 

 of which arrived in better condition than could 

 have been expected, antl others in worse. As all 

 my fine plants were sent several times, I find, upon 

 looking over my lists, that there are only two of 

 value which have really been lost to the country: 

 the one is a Rosaceous slirub, found on the hills of 

 Chtkiang, and the other is a curious Ranuncula- 

 ceous herbaceous plant obtained in a garden near 

 Shanghae; there are dried specimens of both 

 amongst my specimens in the garden of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society, which may one day lead to 

 their being again introduced." 



Notes on "Packing House Salt" for Manure. 



BY WM. B. ODDIE, PIERMONT, N. Y 



I CANNOT recommend too highl.y the advan- 

 tages, for application to gardens and or- 

 chards, of the refuse salt obtained from the 

 packing houses. I have not, as yet, arrived 

 at a positive analysis of this fertilizer ; but 

 as blood, and small particles of bone in a 

 putrescent state, are amono' its component 

 parts, you can form some idea of its value 

 as a manure, added to its utility as a des- 

 troyer of insects in the larva state. 



You recommend common salt, as a top- 

 dressing in fruit orchards, as being "strongly 

 disagreeable to nearly all this class of in- 

 sects," Curculio or Plum-weevil, and an ex- 

 cellent recommendation it is. 



The olfactories of insects in general, ap- 

 pear to be wonderfully acute, therefore the 



compound to which I allude, having an ex- 

 ceedingly powerful and offensive odor, is 

 particularly obnoxious to these troublesome 

 intruders. I put less than a quart round 

 each peach tree, and then gave the field a 

 top-dressing, at the rate of six bushels to 

 the acre, after planting potatoes in the drill. 

 My peaches are in the most healthy and 

 fruitful condition ; and I am now digging 

 the crop of potatoes, and as yet have found 

 no sign of disease, although the very next 

 field is affected. When I have housed the 

 whole, I will send you the result, feeling 

 quite sanguine that a good and sound yield 

 will class me among the fortunate. 



To those of your readers, who may be 

 desirous of getting this manure, and test- 



