Domestic Notices : ■^— Scotland. 337 



To the nurseryman or other person in Scothind, who shall, between the 

 30th of October, 1826, and oOth oF October, 1829, have raised, and sold for 

 planting, the greatest number of plants, not being fewer than one million, of 

 the Pinus Larix, or larch fir, from seeds imported from the Tyrol, or other 

 regions of the Alps to which it is indigenous, and taken off healthy trees in 

 that country, — thirty sovereigns, or a piece of plate of that value. (^Scots- 

 man, March 4. 1829.) 



Practical Schools of Agriculture. — We observe, in the Farmer^s Journal 

 (May 4.), an advertisement from a farmer in Strathmore, for youna; gentle- 

 men as apprentices in farming; and another from our much-valued friend 

 and scientific correspondent, Mr. ShirrefFof Mangos-wells, near Hadding- 

 ton, for a few young gentlemen as boarders, to whom he will impart the 

 scientific principles, as well as pi'actice, of East Lothian farming. Few 

 English proprietors are aware of the good they might do their families by 

 sending such of their sons as are destined to possess land to study the 

 agriculture of the northern counties, and especially of East Lothian. It is 

 difficult to give credit to the fact, that there is such a superiority in the 

 practice of an art, every v/here followed, within such a short distance; but 

 such is still the fact, nolVv-ithstanding all the endeavours by societies, pre- 

 miums, books, and northern bailiffs, to difllise a knowledge of Scottish agri- 

 culture in the centre and south of England. How w5nderfully a proprietor 

 in Normandy, and, still more, one in the neighbourhood of Saverne and 

 Metz, where clover is scarcely known, and the soil as good as between 

 Dunbar and Haddington, would profit by adopting the East Lothian hus- 

 't)andry ! — Cond. 



Crinum amdbile and Nep€7itkes distill atbria. — Sir, There is at present in 

 full flower, in the stove of Professor Dunbar of Rose Park, a beautiful 

 plant of the Crinum amabile. The same plant has now flowered with the 

 Professor either fiva or six times, last jear three times. I am not sure 

 whether it has flowered oftener than once or twice in England, and cer- 

 tainly never has it flowered so continually as now in Mr. Dunbar's stove. 

 The flowers are of the most beautiful description, consisting of a number 

 of florets, which succeed one another; so that when one dies, another 

 comes out. These florets are supported on a long, thick, fleshy, round, 

 smooth stem, which shoots up from the body of the plant with amazing 

 rapidity. 



Professor Dunbar had also very lately, in the same stove, the iVep^nthes 

 distillatoria in full blow, the flowers of which were female ; and as it for- 

 tunately happened that there was in the botanic garden, at the same time, a 

 similar plant in flower, whose flowers were male, impregnation was effected, 

 and the result has been a large supply of seeds, which the Professor and Mr. 

 Macnab have already sown. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time 

 impregnation between these plants has been performed in this country. 

 I am. Sir, &c. — W. D. March 19. 1829. : 



Retarding Gooseberries. — A gentleman who has a garden in a high and 

 rather late part of this district, sowed a crop of a tall kind of pea imme- 

 diately bordering on some gooseberry bushes. From deficiency in the 

 length of the stakes, the peas, after they had attained a certain height, fell 

 over and completely co; red one gooseberry bush, which was thus buried 

 and lost sight of at the time the fruit of the others was ripe. The haulm 

 of the peas was not removed till the beginning of December, when the 

 gooseberries were discovered hanging on the bush in the greatest per- 

 fection. Perhaps this is too inartificial a method to be recommended to 

 be followed, but it may afford a hint for improvement in the mode of pro- 

 longing the season of this excellent and popular fruit. — John Ferme. 

 Haddington, Sept. 23. 1828. 



Vol. V, — No. 20. z 



