and of ^ural Improvement generally , during 1838. 567 



uses, such as covering roofs, lining water-cisterns, &c., it has 

 been recommended for forming garden walks. The material is 

 laid down in a hot and semifluid state, and having been brought 

 to the proper form of surface, is next strewed with fine gravel 

 or sand, or broken fragments of stone, which are firmly beaten 

 into it with wooden mallets. It appears to us, that this mas- 

 tic promises well for walks in districts where gravel is scarce, 

 or where the surface is so steep that it is liable to be washed 

 away by rains ; but it has not yet been fairly tried for this 

 or any other purpose in England. Dr. Ure says {Dictionary 

 of Arts, &c., article Bituminous Mastic) that boiled coal tar, with 

 dry chalk, or bricks ground and sifted, will, when well mixed to- 

 gether, and heated in a cast-iron boiler, answer equally well as 

 the asphalte received from Puy de Dome, in France ; but in all 

 artificial compositions of this kind, the smell is most offensive at 

 first, and continues so more or less for a year afterwards, while 

 the true asphalte of Seyssel, whether in the process of prepa- 

 ration, or when complete, has no smell at all disagreeable. (See 

 on the subject of Asphalte, Repository of Arts, vol. x. p. 34. new 

 series.) The preservation of iron and copper from oxidising, by 

 a coating of zinc, is one of the inventions of the year, which pro- 

 mises immense advantages wherever iron is used. In agriculture 

 and gardening, all iron implements, fences, gates, Sec, may be 

 protected by it; the zinc being reduced into powder, and then 

 applied with oil like common paint. The infallibility of this 

 mode of protecting iron and copper has been questioned, and 

 we must, therefore, before finally determining on its value, wait 

 the result of experience. [Ibid., vol. ix. p. 289.) The manufac- 

 ture of a fibrous substance from the leaf of the pine-apple, which 

 can be formed into a cloth of greater fineness and delicacy than 

 any hitherto obtained from flax, silk, or cotton, may be men- 

 tioned as a recent discovery ; though it is one not likely to be of 

 much use to the British gardener. {Ibid., p. 221.) Anew mode 

 of building garden walls, with bricks moulded on purpose, the 

 invention of Mr. Hitch of Ware, promises to be a very great im- 

 provement, by producing a better wall, with a saving of from 20 

 to 40 per cent in expense. There are some walls of this kind in the 

 Royal Garden at Hampton Court, and several have been erected 

 in the neighbourhood of London, under the direction of Mr. 

 George Godwin, jun., architect, who has given some account of 

 them in the Architectural Magazine, vol. v. p. 580. We have 

 examined several garden walls, and also the walls of some dwel- 

 ling-houses, erected of Mr. Hitch's bricks, under Mr. Godwin's 

 directions, and we shall take an early opportunity of furnishino- 

 our readers with farther details. The great advantage which 

 these walls promise is, a saving in the first cost, of from 20 to 

 40 per cent. 



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