54-8 Foreign Notices: — Sweden, Switzerland. 



Danish ; I shall send you a translation of it, with remarks. I am, Sir, yours, 

 Sec. — Jens Peter Petersen. 



Garden Library. — M. Petersen, C.M.C.H.S., has lately been appointed 

 successor to the celebrated Danish court-gardener, Lindegaard, and has 

 commenced forming a garden library. We have sent him our Encycloj^cedia 

 of Plants, and one or two other volumes ; and if any society or gardener has 

 any duplicates, and feels disposed to assist M. Petersen, they may be ad- 

 dressed to him, to be left at Mr. Bergstrdm's, 10. Tottenham Court Road, 

 London. — Cond. 



SWEDEN. 



Maritime Schools are established in Sweden in all the sea-ports, and a 

 law passed, by which, from the 1st of January, 1829, no captain of a ship 

 shall enjoy the rights of a Swedish citizen who has not previously received 

 from the superintendant of the said schools, or from a naval officer duly 

 authorised, a certificate of his having been examined and found in every 

 respect duly qualified. ( Unit, Serv. Jour.) 



SWITZERLAND. 



Liquid Manure. — The farmers of German Switzerland give the name of 

 gi'dle, in French lizier, to the liquid manure obtained from their stalls and 

 stables, and collected into underground pits or reservoirs, in which it is 

 allowed to ferment in a mucous or slimy state. The manner of collecting 

 it, adopted by the agriculturists of Zurich, is as follows : — The floor on 

 which the cattle are stalled is formed of boards, with an inclination of 4 in. 

 from the head to the hinder part of the animal, whose excrements fall into 

 a gutter behind, in the manner usual in English cow-houses. The depth of 

 this gutter is 15 in., its width 10 in.; it should be so formed as to be capable 

 of receiving at pleasure water to be supplied by a reservoir near it : it com- 

 municates with five pits by holes, which are opened for the passage of the 

 slime, or closed, as occasion requires. The pits, or reservoirs of manure, 

 are 'covered over with a floor of boarding, placed a little below that on 

 which the animals stand. This covering is important, as facilitating the 

 fermentation. The pits, or reservoirs, are made in masonry, well cemented, 

 and should be bottomed in clay, well beaten, in order to avoid infiltration. 

 They should be five, in order that the liquid may not be disturbed during 

 the fermentation, which lasts about four weeks. Their dimensions should 

 be calculated according to the number of animals the stable holds, so that 

 each may be filled in a week : but whether full or not, the pit must be 

 closed at the week's end, in order to maintain the regularity of the system 

 of emptying. The reservoirs are emptied by means of portable pumps. In 

 the evening the keeper of the stables lets a proper quantity of water into 

 the gutter; and on returning to the stable in the morning, he carefully 

 mixes with the water the excrement that has fallen into it, breaking up the 

 more compact parts, so as to form of the whole an equal and flowing liquid. 

 On the perfect manner in which this process is performed, the quality of the 

 manure mainly depends. The liquid ought neither to be thick, for then tlie 

 fermentation would be difficult, nor too thin, for in that case it would not 

 contain sufficient nutritive matter. When the mixture is made, it is allowed 

 to run off" into the pit beneath, and the stable-keeper again lets water into 

 the trench. During the day, wiienevcr he comes into the stable, he sweeps 

 whatever excrement may be found under the cattle into the trench, which 

 may be emptied as often as the liquid it contains is found to be of a due 

 thickness. The best proportion of the mixture is three fourtiis of water to 

 one fourth of excrement, if the cattle be fed on corn : if in a course of 



