i84 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



(June, 



is preferred in this form to real Apples, especially 

 such as grow in the Blue JMountains, or are im- 

 ported from America. I notice the plant is under- 

 cultivation in the South of Europe, but I am not 

 aware to what uses the fruit is there applied. Sir 

 Joseph Hooker informs me that it is now in fruit 

 in the Temperate-house at the Royal Gardens- 

 Kew. As I have lately distributed seed of this 

 Tree Tomato to numerous correspondents at 

 Madeira, India, Ceylon, Hong Kong, the Cape, 

 and the Australian colonies, the above remarks 

 will no doubt prove of interest to them, no less 

 than to other readers of the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 who may desire to secure a hardy perennial 

 Tomato plant of more than ordinary merit. I may 

 add the plant flourishes in Jamaica at elevations 

 of 2000 — 5000 feet ; the mean annual temperature 

 of these districts ranging from 72° — 63° Fahr. — 

 D. Morris, Jamaica, March 25th. [This fruit 

 may occasionally be seen in Covent Garden 

 Market under the erroneous name of Granadilla. 

 It is we believe imported from the Azores. — Ed. 

 Gardeners' Chronicle.\ 



[Some fruit from New Orleans has been sent to 

 us by Mr. M. H. Lester. It is more like a small egg 

 than a Tomato. It is about the size of an egg 

 with the largest end attached to the calyx. — Ed. 

 G. M.] 



Sewage. — A London paper says that the sewage 

 problem has yielded a new notion. Sir J. B. 

 Lawes is of opinion that the most profitable way 

 to dispose of sewage is to send it to the sea ; its 

 phosphates and other constituents being advan- 

 tageous to the fisheries, and therefore as likely to 

 come back to us in the shape of food as if spread 

 upon the land, while the acceptance of the idea 

 for practical purposes will make an end of all ex- 

 periments for the agricultural employment of 

 sewage. Any less capable person would find it 

 difficult to obtain a hearing for the proposals that 

 are based on the idea, but the public will gladly 

 listen to one who has certainly mastered the theory 

 of food production and the utilization of waste 

 material. There is a direct gain, doubtless, to the 

 subject in the fact that it will be regarded from 

 a quite new point of view. We shall not only 

 have to discover the weak points in the new pro- 

 posals, but shall perhaps have to rummage 

 amongst our own prejudices, to determine which 

 are to be got rid of to make room for wiser 

 counsels. Whether sound or unsound, practical 

 or nonsensical, we are certainly put upon a new 

 tack for fresh and unexpected exploration. 



There is much in this of sound sense. Nature 

 generally provides an antidote for every evil ; and 

 she does for polluted sewage. Philadelphia just 

 now is worrying over the water problem. Much 

 sewage naturally drains into the river, as it does 

 into every river in the world that supplies a large 

 city with water. The Water Department is super- 

 intended by a gentleman of admirable character, 

 and superior scientific attainments, and he and 

 the chemists are finding all sorts of terrible things 

 in the water. There is not enough oxygen, and 

 now it is too much albuminoid ammonia, and now 

 too much free ammonia. To-day he would drive 

 away all the population from the banks of the 

 river by making it impossible for them to get rid 

 of the sewage except by wells and sinks ; to-mor" 

 row he would abolish all the pumps because the 

 water wells get the sewage from the sinks. An- 

 other time he would have some thousands of dollars 

 to dredge the mud from the bottom of the river> 

 and again he would have some more thousands to 

 "oxygenate " the water by artificial means. Then 

 he worries them by telling them that there is just 

 one more death in ten thousand than there is in 

 London, which is considered the healthiest city in 

 the world ; so that the average duration of a 

 man's life, supposed to be about 35 years, is 

 shortened five hours by living in Philadelphia 

 rather than in London. To remedy this in the 

 manner he wants would require fifty or sixty 

 piillions of dollars. When a noted health re- 

 former, Mrs. Isabella Hooker, was recently 

 showing how much the modern comforts of life 

 shortened life, and was taxed with inconsistency 

 in not practicing what she preached, she retorted 

 that she was willing to give a few years, for the 

 sake of the comforts. And indeed long life is not 

 the only blessing we desire. Most people would be 

 willing to give a few hours of life rather than groan 

 under a taxation that would require the proceeds 

 I of many hours of labor a week to pay. And it is 

 unnecessary as Sir J. B. Lawes hints. A thick 

 bed of aquatics in the bed of a river will "oxy- 

 genate " the water, and they will feed on all the 

 Ammonia that a moderate amount of sewage 

 yields. Fish will eat all the "albuminoid" 

 material, and it will be pretty foul water that the 

 \ two together will not clean. It makes no differ- 

 ence what goes into river water so that the worst 

 gets out again before people drink it. If Philadel- 

 phia would keep its river stocked with fish, and 

 encourage the water plants, and get a few large 

 subsiding reservoirs to give time to settle the mud, 

 the millions required by scientific superintendence 



