Queries and Answers. ^JiO 



any of the same age, he must recollect that verj- few gardeners have the 

 good fortune to have so fine a wall under their care : but I beg to inform 

 him that, should he or any of his friends ever come to Carlton, my father 

 and myself would be glad to see them ; and perhaps we should be able to 

 show them trees from five to thirty years old, and all of them well sup- 

 plied with good bearing wood of proper strength (see >Ir. Craig, Vol. VI. 

 p. 431.) in every part of the tree, and some of them producing annually 

 500 good fi-uit fit for any nobleman's table. I remain, &c. — William 

 Sei/mour. Carlton, nearSnaifh, Feb. 22. 1831. 



Why Peas boil hard. — Sir, Your correspondent J. M. (p. 125.) wishes 

 to know the cause why peas boil hard. I suppose he means, when dr\-, 

 for soup. The cause is, I believe, their being too old; I mean, more than 

 one year old ; as all sorts of peas which I have tried for that purpose 

 boiled tolerably well until they were one year old. After that age they 

 do not break well, not even the best boilers; and I have seen Knight's 

 crumpled marrow and the blue Prussian, at three years old, boiled for 

 twelve hours in soft water, and in an iron pot (which one would suppose 

 is iron enough, if that metal would affect them), and they would not 

 break nor bruise kindly when beaten in a marble mortar wnth a wooden 

 pestle. From this I consider the cause of hard boiling peas to be age, 

 even if thev are split. So far probation est. — W. Hurst. Wandsworth 

 Road, Feb.'\S3\. 



The Pink-eye Potato of Wales. — -Sir, Can any of your correspondents 

 inform me if the potato, cultivated almost universally in North Wales, 

 called pink-eye, be rightly designated ? There is, I believe, both the 

 early and late pink-eye. It is a most excellent potato, and I understand 

 a good bearer. I am about to plant, in the south of England, a few given 

 to me in my rambles last summer by the reverend host of the inn at Capel 

 Cerrig ; shoidd they prove as excellent at the table in the south as I found 

 them almost universally in the mountains, I will communicate the parti- 

 culars of the culture, &c. Yours, Szc. — ./. 5. Feb. 1831. 



The Surinam Yam, or large Cattle Potato. — ^Vhere can it be procured? 

 I have souirht the same in London, but in vain. — A Constqnt Subscriber. 

 Durham, Jan. 31. 1831. 



Of any Edinburgh seedsman, say Lawson, seedsman to the Highland 

 Society. — Cond. 



Prussian Asparagus, and preserving green Kidney Beans. — The Cale- 

 donian Horticultural Society, among the articles for which they offer 

 prizes, have the two following : — For an account of the mode of dressing 

 for the table Prussian grass, or the unexpanded flower-buds of Ornithogalum 

 p}Tenaicum, as practised in the neighbourhood of Bath. For an account, 

 founded on experience, of the mode of keeping haricots verts, or kidne}- 

 beans, green in the pod all the winter, as practised in Germany. We 

 request our valued correspondent Mr. Capper to throw some light on 

 the first subject ; and M. Hertz of Stuttgard will, we have no doubt, 

 attend to the second. — Cond. 



Distillation of Spirit from Grasses. — " The excellent spirit procurable in 

 great quantities from the various kinds of grass is singularly overlooked ; 

 while considerably more valuable materials are sacrificed in abundance for 

 the same end. In Kamtschatka, the value of grass for this purpose is 

 didy appreciated. It is a peculiar kind, which, when allowed to heat by 

 lying in heaps, evolves sugar just as barley would do, although by a ven,^ 

 dillerent process. It is then mashed with hot water, fermented, and 

 distilled. A spirit is thus produced which is highly prized by the natives." 

 (^Lardner's Cycl., Domestic Economy, vol. i. p. 251.) What is the kind of 

 grass here mentioned V The roots of the couch, and the stolones of the 

 fiorin, have also, according to this account, been tried with success by 

 two eminent chemists. Miaht not the runners of the strawberrv or the 



