451 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



GARDENING, &C. 



From Loudon's Gardener's Magazine, <$-c. 



Packing Fruit Trees for Exportation.— The following is the plan a- 

 vlopted by Mr. Prince of New York, in packing fruit trees, and I can 

 recommend, from experience, to your readers : — As soon as the tree is taken 

 out of the ground, the roots are dipped in a thick mixture of earth and 

 water. The roots are then tied in bundles, and dipped in all afonce, and a 

 mat is lapped over them, to keep the earth round them together. They are 

 afterwards placed in a box, and a piece of wood is fixed across Ihe box, 

 over the top part of the roots, to prevent them from moving-, as the 

 branches are not lapped up at all. I have had trees packed in this manner, 

 which have remained in the above condition four months; and, when un- 

 packed, the roots were throwing out new fibres. This occurred last spring; 

 and, although the season was so unfavourable, the trees made exceedingly 

 tine strong shoots. The plan adopted by Messrs. Buel and Wilson, of 

 the Albany nursery, in packing their fruit trees, is as follows:— They dip 

 the roots well in a mixture of earth and water; but instead of lapping the 

 roots in a mat, they lay them in the end of the box, and fill in between 

 them with wet moss, so that the lid of the box presses against the moss, and 

 thus prevents the roots from being shaken. I, however, consider the plan of 

 lapping the roots in a mat superior to that of rilling in with wet moss, be- 

 cause a dampness proceeds from the moss, which produces a mildew on the 

 branches of the trees so packed. This has been the case with trees that I 

 have received packed in this way ; but, after they had been unpacked for a 

 short time, the mildew disappeared. 



Mr. Knight's Visit to Haarlem. -Mr. Knight, of the Exotic Nursery 

 King's Road, spent a fortnight in the bulb district, in April last, and was 

 very much delighted with his visit. He had been in Holland and the 

 Netherlands several times before, but never during the blooming of the 

 hyacinths. He saw, he supposes, upwards of 100 acres covered with this 

 plant in bloom, commencing on the road from Leyden to Haarlem, five or 

 six miles from the latter place. It seems the soil in Haarlem is now worn 

 out, and no longer fit to grow hyacinths in sufficient vigour ; and the grow- 

 ers, therefore, send their bulbs to be grown, by contract, on lands in the 

 neighbourhood of Overveen and other places, in the same manner as the 

 London seedsmen send seeds to be grown by country seed-groweis in Essex 

 and Norfolk. Wherever the bulbs do well, he observed the soil to be of thp 

 lightest description of sand, such as can be blown away by the wind; and 

 the water stands under it not nearer the surface than' 15 in., nor farther 

 below it than 2 ft 6 in. This, it seems, , is the level of the water in the ad- 

 joining canals and ditches ; and it is owing mainly to the points of the fibres 

 going down to this water, that the plants are so fresh and vigorous, while 

 the dry sand above prevents their bulbs from being rotted. As a proof of 

 the exceeding lightness of the soil, immediately after putting in a crop in 

 the spring season, the surface is raked, generally thrown into beds, and, from 

 barrels, wheeled along the alleys between, cow-dung- and water are thrown 

 over the surface with a scoop, so as to cover it all with a thin crust, through 

 which the finest seeds vegetate, and without which the entire surface would 

 be blown away: the cow-dung is taken fresh from the cow-house. In these 

 cow-houses no litter is used ; the cattle stand on a level surface paved with 

 brick ; immediately behind the cows is a gutter, from which the liquid part 

 of the manure runs off into tanks to terment, and the remaining part is 

 taken from the gutter for immediate use, in the manner mentioned. Tlie 

 COW is fastened by two ropes, one proceeding from each side through a ring 

 in a post, and with a weight at the end ; the two weights, as in the casi 



