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PART II. 

 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 

 FRANCE. 



The Central Agricultural Society of Paris held a Meeting on December 1 7, 

 at which a paper was read on cultivating resinous trees, and another on 

 raising potatoes from seed, and a committee appointed to prei)are notes for 

 a new edition of Delamarre's work on the culture of the genus Pinus. An- 

 other Meeting of this Society was held on January 7., at which a paper was 

 read by Sir John Byerley, on Artesian wells, i. e. the system of finding sup- 

 plies of water for domestic purposes, by boring. Sir John and M. Degouse 

 have entered into copartnership for the purpose of forming these wells, and 

 have already been employed in various places in the environs of Paris, and 

 by the city of Chartres. 



The Horticultural Society of Paris held a Meeting on the 17th, which was 

 wholly devoted to discussions relative to printing the Annates of the Society, 

 and the best mode of preparing a monthly calendar for their journal. 

 Another Meeting, on January 7., was chiefly occupied with a proposition 

 made by M. Boursault, for the union of the Societe d'Agronomie Pratique 

 (Vol, IV. p. 488.) with this Society, regarding which, the latter Society, as 

 the elder, declared its willingness to receive propositions from its younger 

 sister. 



Our last notes from France (Vol. IV. p. 489.) left us at Strasburg, Oc- 

 tober 19., on the eve of setting out for Germany. We re-entered France, 

 by crossing the Rhine between Rastadt and Hagenau, on December 2. 



Our object in passing by Hagenau was to examine the pine forest, composed 

 of a very superior variety of Pinus sylv^stris. We inspected it, in company 

 with M. Neunreutter, who supplies the seedsmen of France and Holland 

 with Hagenau pine-seeds ; and we brought away six pounds of seed, two 

 pounds of which we have sent to the Caledonian Horticultural Society ; one 

 pound to Mr. Reid of Aberdeen, and two pounds we retain, to be given to 

 such proprietors as will undertake to sow it very thin, and unmixed with 

 other tree seeds, on sandy soil, and where it is finally to remain. It appears 

 to us a more vigorous variety of Scotch pine than any we have in Britain ; 

 its growth is remarkably rapid, both at Hagenau and on the German side of 

 the Rhine ; and the timber is said, by M. Neunreutter and others, to be 

 equal to that of Riga pine. It has been used both for masts and for ship- 

 building. M. Vilmorin has sown, on his estate to the south of Paris, pieces 

 of several acres of this and other varieties of Scotch pine, with a view to 

 mark their comparative rapidity of growth, and the value of their timber ; 

 an experiment which, conducted by a man of so much science and accuracy 

 as M. Vilmorin, cannot fail to be attended with important results. 



After examining a very remarkable institution at Hagenau, which has 

 suggested to us the idea of a description of working-convents, for single 

 men and women, which we shall afterwards develope, we went to Saverne, 

 where we examined the ruins of the very fine palace and gardens, which 



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