214 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



always kept free from weeds, aad loose to admit the air and dews. Old 

 light, warm manure is hoed in every three years. 



The superiority of the Thomery culture is attributed to the following 

 peculiarities of practice, to which we would add the spur method of pruning-. 



" 1st. To the judicious choice of cuttings, the vignerons never making 

 use of any but such as have borne the best and finest fruits. 



" 2d. By planting the vines at a distance from the wall, and by frequently 

 laying the shoots until they reach the wall, the vines acquire abundance of 

 roots upon the surface. Also, by the close planting, from which all undue 

 luxuriance is restrained ; by this means the branches complete their growth 

 within the bounds prescribed, and ripen their wood early. 



"3d. By limiting each plant to only one cordon, with two arms, right and 

 left, the entire extent of both not exceeding 8 ft. The energies of the roots, 

 confined to so small a space, nourish the bearing wood more effectually and 

 more equally, and bring the fruit to greater perfection. 



" 4th. To the projecting coping, which protects the vine and fruit from 

 frosts and heavy rains, and intercepts the heat radiating from the surface of 

 the wall and of the soil. 



" 5th. The sloping disposition of the ground also contributes to their suc- 

 cess, as it prevents any accumulation of moisture at the roots of the vines, 

 and preserves them sound and healthy." 



Mr. Robertson judiciously concludes, "we too frequently err, in making 

 our borders for vines or peaches deeper than the influence of the sun and 

 air can reach. Their depth should always be regulated by the temperature 

 of the climate. In such a climate as that of France, where the summer heat 

 is powerful, and penetrates deeply, if 3 or 4 ft. be necessary, in Great 

 Britain or Ireland, where it is comparatively feeble, one half the depth may 

 be sufficient, and a greater would prove pernicious." — Gardeners Maga- 

 zine, June, 1829. 



Beet-root Sugar. — Beet-root sugar is a production which many people in 

 this country never heard of; and which those who may have heard of it, 

 recollect only as one of the ingenious enterprizes of the Emperor Napoleon 

 in 1811 and 1812, when he had deprived the continent of any direct supply 

 of West India sugar. It will awaken an extraordinary interest in the breasts 

 of the people of this country wow— it will steal the smile of ridicule from 

 the cheek of the West India planter, to be told that at present the price of 

 refined sugar at Paris is about 11 J sterling per English avoirdupois pound 

 weight; the manufacture of beet-root is profitable, is rapidly increasing, 

 occupies above five-and-twenty large sugar manufactories in Picardy alone, 

 besides others in the Netherlands, and various parts of the continent; and 

 that it is estimated by well-informed French people, that one-half of all the 

 sugar consumed at present in the city of Pans, and one-eleventh of the total 

 quantity consumed in France, is home-made beet-root sugar ! — Vide an in- 

 teresting article on Beet.root Sugar, in No. 5 of the Quarterly Journal of 

 A griculture. 



Culture of the Sweet Potato.— The sweet potato is cultivated in several 

 gardens in the neighbourhood of Paris with perfect success, and the tubers 

 sold in the market, and in the fruit-shops. The best crops we saw were in 

 Admiral TchitchigofFs garden at Sceaux. The tubers are planted in Febru- 

 ary, or earlier or later at pleasure, in the pine stove, or in a small hot-bed ; 

 and the shoots they produce are taken off, and planted a foot apart every 

 way, on dung beds, covered with 15 in. of earth, and protected by noops and 

 mats in the manner of ridged cucumbers. This may be done any time from 

 April to June, and the shoots are not dibbled in, but laid in only about 3 in. 

 deep, keeping 2 in. of the point of the shoot above the earth In about two 

 months after transplanting, some of the tubers will be fit to take off for use, 

 and the plants will continue producing till they are destroyed by frost. To 

 preserve the tubers through the winter, the greatest care is required. In 

 the king's forcing-gardens at Versailles, they are kept in a prowing state all 

 the winter iu the pine stoves. With the exception of this difficulty of pre- 

 serving the tubers through the winter, the sweet potato is just as easily cul- 

 tivated as the mealy potato. Though the shoots are naturally ascendinp- 

 and twilling: like those of Tatnus communis, the plants are not sticked, and 

 therefore the shoots cover the ground, and form over it a thick matting of 



