476 Foreign Notices : — North America. 



his turnips also beginning to fail, he employed several women and children to 

 dig round the affected plants, and collect the worms. In this manner no less 

 than 23,900 were collected, which he paid for at \d. and \\d. per hundred. 

 By this means he saved considerably more than half his turnips, and had an 

 excellent crop of barley afterwards. In an adjoining field a crop of wheat and 

 another of barley were similarly destroyed. From this field he collected 

 30,000 wire-worms. He calculates that land may thus be freed from the 

 wire-worms at from 5^. to 75. per acre. This mode of wire-worm-collecting 

 has long been practised in the best cultivated Kentish hop-grounds. {Cam- 

 bridge Chronicle and Journal, July 31. ]841.) 



Lime in AgriciiHure.' — A very interesting paper was lately read before the 

 members of the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, by William Pat- 

 ridge, Esq., on the proper application of lime to agricultural purposes. Mr. 

 Patridge maintains that the common practice of burning lime before using it 

 on land is founded in error, and that the limestone ought to be ground instead 

 of burned. Mr. Patridge says that in burning the stone two materials essen- 

 tial to agricultural productiveness are driven off, namely, its water and carbonic 

 gas ; and he ascribes to this circumstance the fact, that during the first year 

 the good effects of lime are not observable. He adds that, as the lime returns 

 gradually to its former state of carbonated hydrate, its fertihsing properties 

 are evolved. Mr. Patridge adduces some facts which seem strongly to favour 

 his theory. An experimental trial of the plan would be desirable in this 

 country, {Ibid,) 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



Sweet and Sour Apple. — In addition to my notice of such fruit, in the 

 Gard. Mag., vol. vi. p. 596., I can state, on the authority of " the Bay State 

 (Mass.) Democrat Newspaper," that the editor had received, last autumn, a fine 

 apple from the orchard of Mrs. Byrant, of Marshfield, Massachusetts, one half 

 of which was sweet, and the other sour, and both very juicy and of fine flavour. 

 The flavour of each was distinctly marked, as was also the appearance of the 

 fruit, a ridge running directly over the apple ; the sour side is somewhat larger 

 than the sweet, and of a different colour. The editor of one of the news- 

 papers in Trenton, New Jersey, on the Delaware, a few years since, mentioned 

 that a tree bearing sweet and sour apples grew in its vicinity, but did not give 

 the name of the owner — J. M. Philadelphia, June 18. 1841. 



To secure good Fruit. — Two of the best farmers within our knowledge, one 

 resident in Caos county, and the other in Orange county, have communicated 

 to the editor the manner in which they secure good fruit. It is this. They 

 dig at some distance from the body of a favourite tree, until they find a root, 

 which they cut off. The part disjoined is then turned up, so as to appear 

 above ground, and sends forth shoots the first season ; and bears in a few years 

 fruit precisely like that upon the parent tree. (Xeiv Hampshire Whig.) — J. M. 

 Philadelphia, March 184.1. 



Live Oak. — Having heard of a very large live oak (Quercus virens) upon 

 the Island of St. Simon's, on the coast of Georgia, I wrote to my ancient friend 

 John Cowper, Esq., P. M., long resident there, to procure its dimensions. They 

 were taken by his son, who is manager of the estate upon which it grows, and 

 are as follows : circumference, at 2 ft. from the ground, 25 ft. 2 in. ; at 5 ft., 

 21 ft. ; at 10 ft., 22 ft. : length of trunk to first branch, 10 ft. ; circumference 

 of the' first branch, 10 ft.; of the second, 12 ft. 5 in. ; of the third, 1 1 ft. 7 in. : 

 height of the tree, 70 ft. 



Dimensions of a live oak tree at Cannon's Point, St. Simon's, the acorn of 

 which was planted by Mr. Cowper in the year 1803, and transplanted in 1805. 

 Circumference, at 2 ft. from the ground, 8 ft. 4 in. ; at 6 ft., 7 ft. 3 in. It then 



