Retrospective Criticism. 727 



Mr, Anderson's number tally is all very well, but there is nothing new in 

 it, and you have figured and described far better long ago. A. Z., the 

 Landscape-Gardener, is excellent ; I could not have written a better article 

 myself. The Oswestry conservatory looks very well on paper, but it will 

 not grow plants very well, and it is evidently a bold speculation, and catch- 

 penny advertisement. Mr. Spinosa's gorse fences are truly an abomination ; 

 they take up too much good land, for the land must be very good where 

 gorse will grow sufficiently strong for a fence against large cattle. None of 

 your gorse-fed horses for me. I do not approve even of thorn fences on 

 some lands. In the dividing of pastures, where there are cattle on each 

 side, I am always obliged to make tv/o good fences to guard a bad one. 

 I have many miles of such fences under my care, most of which have 

 already cost above a shilling per yard, and are not good fences yet ; whereas 

 a row of strong, say poplars, planted a foot apart, will, in the course of a 

 few years, become a ivooden ivall, so close that a hare shall not creep 

 through, and so high that a partridge or pheasant cannot fly over. The 

 Calceolaria, the Hydrangea, and even the flower-stand of Mrs. Fox, are all 

 quite old to me. The sweet potato culture is new to me : I think it a 

 valuable communication, as well as a very valuable vegetable. The process 

 ofdestroying wasps at Sweeney Hall is too complicated : a horseman's pistol, 

 charged and wadded with squib materials, and fired into the hole, which 

 must be closed up immediately, is quite sufficient ; or the}' may be dug up and 

 puddled with water. Such nests as hang in sheds or on trees are readily 

 taken in a bucket of water. For such as hang in thick hedges, and cannot be 

 well got at, the pistol should be charged and filled to the muzzle with peas; 

 stand at a proper distance (three yards), fire straight, and you will blow 



them all to . Mr. Parkes should not wait till his fruit is eaten before 



he kills the wasps, nor even till the fruit is ripe. He should hang the phial 

 glasses on the wall in good time, half filled with sugar and vinegar ; the 

 outside of the glass should be well anointed, particularly about the mouth, 

 with honey, sugar, and water ; they should be regularly emptied and re- 

 newed, as they get full of blue flies, as well as wasps. The ground wasps 

 are a smaller species than the hanging ones. 



It is very pleasant to see how many fine fruits are cultivated at Sydney, 

 but, as I never intend going there, the catalogue is not very interesting. 

 The Transactions of the Horticultural Society are rather insipid, except the 

 ■management of the vine at Thomery, which is very good indeed. I cannot 

 think why Mr. Knight calls a bark-bed an " irregular and ungovernable 

 heat." I can regulate and govern a bark-bed at a twentieth part of the 

 trouble attending a coal fire, but I suppose it is his hobby. I am not at all 

 disposed to profit by his suggestions ; yet I must thank him for the invi- 

 tation, and he may look at my pines in return. The new publications on 

 gardening and botany are all out of my line. I like Mr. Robinson's designs 

 of cottages,&c., better than you seem to do, but am not such a good judge 

 as you. The literai'y notices are generally good, but I am sick of polyan- 

 thus and auricula shows. I have no objection to the gardener's newspaper 

 proposed by Mr. Burnard, if it comes in a parcel once a month, unstamped. 

 Yours, &c. — Agrojiome. June, 1829. 



Plan for a Kew Garden. — Your correspondent, Mr. Green, jun. Stepney, 

 (Vol. III. p. 493.) has satisfactorily pointed out that my plan for a new gar- 

 den was not a good one, and I feel convinced of it in the soil I tried. I 

 have since relinquished the idea of forming a garden on the spot. The plan, 

 I think, is more likely to be useful in drier soils, and still more so in drier 

 climates, than the West Highlands, and such as are of no great depth. — 

 W. M. Argyleshire, Nov. G. 1829. 



The Floiver-Garden at Dropmore (Vol. III. p. 2 58.) I think on a good 

 principle, so as to have the gardens in beauty by the succession of summer 

 and winter flowers intermixed, at the same time that each set reigns in its 



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