96 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



value and importance of this part of the business will be duly estimated, 

 when it is known that the pulp from each acre of beet root will fatten a 

 bullock, and that the farmer will have as much manure for his other crops, 

 as if he had grown turnips on the same land ; and, of course, the same rota- 

 tion of crops may be continued as is now found most beneficial. During the 

 time of Bonaparte, the produce of sugar was about three per cent, on the 

 root; now, as much as five per cent, is generally obtained; and as the beet 

 root actually contains eight per cent. I think I have good ground for saying 

 that the process admits of further improvement." A paper on the same 

 subject, and to the same effect, will be found in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Agriculture for May, in which the writer concludes " it is difficult to conceive 

 that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all Europe, will 

 not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar."— Gardener'* Magazine, 

 No. 20. 



To preserve Apples till late in the year.— After the apples have been kept 

 for a week, and the superabundant moisture cleared away, wipe them with 

 a dry cloth, and pack them into glazed jars in layers of sand dried in an 

 oven. Fit a piece of wood into the mouth of the jar, and tie a bladder over 

 it. Let the jars stand on a shelf in a room not subject to much change of 

 atmosphere. Or lay a dry layer of pebbles in the hollow of a glazed jar; 

 rill the jar with apples rubbed dry; fit a piece of wood into the mouth of 

 the jar, cover it with mortar, and place it on a shelf in a dry room.— Gar- 

 dener's Magazine, No. 20. 



Vegetable Salt. — In Ashantee (Bowdich's Mission, p. 175.) there is a 

 cedar, the leaves of which exude a considerable quantity of liquid salt, 

 which crystallises during the day. There is, also, in Chili, a species of wild 

 basil, which is every morning covered with saline globules, resembling dew, 

 which the natives use as salt.— Bvcke's Beauties of Nature. 



Hedges. — The best plan of producing a whin hedge is to throw up an 

 embankment 3 ft. above the surface of the ground. Having fixed the line of 

 the embankment, mark off a ditch outside of that line, 6 ft. wide at top, to 

 be dug out 18 in. deep, and sloping, from the outside of the ditch, to 1 ft. 

 wide at the bottom of the embankment. 1 ought to have ebserved, that the 

 fence I am describing is used as a boundary to plantations. The line of the 

 fence and the width of the ditch being marked off, begin to form the face of 

 the embankment on the surface, either of sod or of stone, but sod is mostly 

 used when the situation is on pasture land, and the top spit from the ditch 

 comes iu for that use. As the face of the embankment advances in height, 

 keep it well backed up with soil from the ditch, until it be 3 ft. above 

 ground, and the ditch 18 in. deep. Then finish off the top of the embank- 

 ment 12 or 15 in. broad, and give the back of the fence a slope of 4 or 5 ft. 

 At about tne middle of the slope, and on the top of the embankment, a drill 

 is drawn about 1 in. deep, in which the seeds are sown moderately thin, and 

 then covered. The seeds are generally sown about the latter end of April 

 cr beginning of May. The trouble and expense further required are in 

 keeping it clear from weeds the first two years, and well cut, in order to 

 Jiave it thick and close at the bottom. 



This treatment being continued for four or five years, on a tolerable soil, 

 an impenetrable fence will be reared, which will remain an effectual protec- 

 tion against cattle for many years. The whin is very hardy, and will grow 

 in the most exposed situatious, even on the sea beach. 



Instead of the whin being a plague in the wilds of Wales, I can assure 

 your correspondent, T. H., that it is not considered as such by the farmers iu 

 most of the counties in North Wales. The young whin of two or three 

 years' growth is cut by them, and chopped up on blocks and benches with 

 •ross-hatchets, made for the purpose; and many have been at the expend 

 if erecting mills for grinding the shoots to pieces. In this state it is given to 

 rheir horses throughout the winter months. It is sown in large quantities 

 mr this purpose; and, 1 believe, there are few who have been in the habit of 

 feeding their horses with the whin, who would not estimate an acre of this 

 plant of much more value than an acre of hay. In the days of Evelyn it 

 seems to have been a favourite plant, not only for hedges, but for the foddei 

 of cattle; indeed, in North Wales, it constitutes the principal provendei I 

 the horses, from November to April.— Gardener's Magazine, No.W. 





