80 MEMOKANDA. 



stakes from decaying under ground, the following experiment was tried. 

 Stakes thoroughly dry, and consisting of birch, elm, ash, hazel, &c., were 

 coated with boiling asphalte suificiently high up to allow for one foot being 

 above the surface of the ground. The portion of the stakes just above the 

 ground soon began to decay, and by the end of the season all were quite 

 rotten. This application proves injurious. Some of the stakes treated as 

 above mentioned, and not driven into the ground, rotted iu the same manner. 

 That portion of the stake which is under ground and covered with tlie asphalte 

 decays faster than when driven into the ground without any such prepara- 

 tion. — Geo. Gordon. 



BURNETTIZED LiNEN. 



Some coarse canvas which had been Burnettized, so as to be guarded from 

 injury by damp, had been prepared as a shading of a hot-house ; but in con- 

 sequence of the heating apparatus in the house being insufficient, the shading 

 was used as a covering in winter as well as a shading in summer. Other shad- 

 ings which had not been Burnettized were used at the same time for the same 

 purpose. In twelve months the Burnettized canvas became so rotten as 

 scarcely to bear its own weight when drawn up. As to durability, no differ- 

 ence in this case could be perceived between canvas which had been Burnet- 

 tized and that which had not. — Jas. Donald. 



Mb. Hoare's Vine Columns. 



Growing vines, according to Mr. Hoare's plan, as published in his work 

 on the cultivation of the Vine in the open air, is there stated to be a mode 

 which, from its simplicity and economy, and its easy practical adoption, re- 

 commends itself most especially to the notice of a vast class of persons who 

 are not in possession of any of the usual methods of culture. The mode is 

 further said to be based on two important principles connected with the 

 growth of the vine. The first of which is, that a body of substances or 

 materials, enclosed in hollow brickwork erected on the surface of the ground, 

 will nourish and support the roots of a vine inserted therein, as eifectually as 

 it would do were the materials placed heloiv the surface of the ground. The 

 second principle is, that the roots so enclosed will strike upwards and grow 

 as freely in that direction as they will doivnwards or horizontally in mate- 

 rials beneath the surface of the earth. Numerous inquiries with regard to 

 this mode having been made by visitors to the Garden, it was ordered by 

 the Garden Committee that it should be properly tried. Accordingly, two 

 hollow circular columns were ei'ected on a square base of brickwork, above 

 which the columns were raised 5 feet high ; their diameters being each 3 feet. 

 These columns were for holding materials for the roots, and for circularly 

 training the vines. They were filled with Ume-ruhhisli, broken bricks, char- 

 coal, and bones of half-iuch description : these four substances were in equal 

 proportions, well mixed, and then soaked with the drainings of a cow-house. 

 In March two healthy vines, one the Black Prince, the other the Koyal 

 Muscadine, were taken out of pots and planted with the stem pi'otruding 

 through a circular opening iu the second course of bricks from the base. A 

 piece of old woollen-cloth steeped in soap-suds was placed under and over 

 the roots ; a portion of the materials was then filled in, and the remainder 

 when the full height of the columns was attained. In short the whole pro- 

 ceeding was in strict accordance with the letter of Mr. Hoare's instructions. 

 The result was, neither of the plants pushed into leaf, and both died in the 

 course of the summer. — Kobert Thompson. 



