Vl)'^. XXII. XO. 35. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



277 



an upper room till dry, and tlien put them in a 

 r bin in a cellar, not too warm or too moist, so 

 to witlier a little. In that state, they will lo'Cp 

 ons time and improve in llavor. But if put in 

 lainp cellar with dirt adlioring to tliein, (lie tops 

 I siion be^in to stnrt ; a new set of fibres will 

 thrown out, and then their sweet flavor will be 

 in^ed to a strong and bitter taste. Take a pars. 

 1 that has been out of the grround sometime, kept 

 ' BO as to shrivel ; and another just du;;, or that 

 I been kept in a damp cellar until it has he^un 



iber, and it will 



1st. 1 plnnted a youn^r. thrifiy plant of Daphne 

 odora in this charcoal ailop;ether: in 13 months it 

 was alive, the leaves quite yellow. On examininj; 

 the roots, they hud not in the least increased or al- 

 tered. I then repotted it in loam, with one quarter 

 charcoal, and watered with a very weak solution 

 of nitrate of soda : in four weeks the leaves had 

 become of a dark blackish green, and the plant 

 was beginning to push vipjoroualy. 



•3d. I planted a fine root of Fuchsiii fulgens, 

 with a stem, in charcoal alone. It immediately 

 began to vegetate ; the leaves were, however, ex 



grow again, anil cook them tu„ , . „ „ . ■ i fp ti> 



. require an epicure to distinguish the diflerenco I tremely diminutive, and soon dropped ott; tne 



their flavor. 



When I took up my pen, it was my intention to 

 3Cribe my manner of cultivating the parsnip, and 

 point out the soil best adapted to its growth ; 

 t discovering that it will spin my thread too 

 ig, shall conclude by saying that the parsnip, 

 e the beet, requires a deep, rich, moist soil, with 

 earlier planting than the latter, and about the 

 DC after culture. It is not so great an exhauster 

 the beet, and may he grown several years in 

 icession on the same spot without degenerating. 

 Wickford, R. I, Feb. 1844. C. 



We are glad to receive the above communica- 

 n on the parsnip. The value of this root for 

 ick has not been appreciated by our farmers gen- 

 lUy, as Its merits deserve. It may be raised 

 th ease. Wo have no doubt that the result 

 our correspondent's experiment is correct, viz : 

 It it^ value in comparison with carrots, is about 

 e-third more, as food for milch cows. We shall 

 pleased to hear from him again on other mat- 

 's connected with his husbandry. — Ed. 



From Hovey's Horticultural Magazine. 



SXPERIMENTS ON THE CULTIVATION 



OF PLANTS IN CHARCOAL. 

 I perceive in the horticultural papers received 

 ' the last steamship, that there is an animated 

 scussion on the value of charcoal in horticulture, 

 id tliat Mr Robert Ri^'g, an excellent chemist, 

 18 proceeded so far as to publish a book, with the 

 ctraordinary assertion that carbon is a compound 

 )dy made of plants. Assent to this propo.'ilion 

 iniiot of course be expected from chemistry, in 

 3 present state : but we do not know to what 

 Tan^e discoveries the searching inquisitiveness 

 ito the laws of nature, of the present age, may 

 !ad. 



Having made various experiments on the action 

 'charcoal, lor the last two years, I have conclud- 

 ■] to add my share to the dincussion. 



The first view I took of the value of charcoal in 

 orticulture, arose from the arguments on the dif- 

 •rent powers of well rotted and of fresh manure ; 

 ly prejudice, from constant practice, being rather 

 I favor of the former. And one of my tmnginnnj 

 3asoiis for this prejudice, (for proof was not to be 

 ocpected,) was, that the carbon of the vegetable 

 art ijf the old manure was reduced by fermenta- 

 lon and complete decomposition (combuslion, Lie- 

 lig,) to the finest possible stale of comminution, 

 luch as is totally impossible to imitate by the most 

 iborious mechanical pulveriiation. In this finest 

 r all states, carbon, if used nt all by the living 

 cgctable, could be most easily appropriated. My 

 xperiinents were, therefore, all made with the 

 ine.si pulverized wood charcoal I could procure, 

 uch as is used in making gunpowder. 



flowers appeared also diminutive, and finally dropp- 

 ed ofl'likewi.se just after opening. It then, with 

 the olher.5, went to rest; but to my surprise, in 

 August it began to vegetate and went precisely 

 through the same process us in spring — others 

 which were by its side, remaining dormant: after 

 this it went again to rest. 



3d. I potted several seedling camellias in one 

 quarter charcoal, one quarter old manure, one half 

 loam; these grew with great luxuriance, and the 

 color of the foliage was dark, healthy green. 



4th. I potted several young pelargoniums with 

 various quantities of charcoal, never exceeding 

 one quarter, often very much less. In these the 

 eflect was the same, both coming very near to the 

 luxuriance and size of foliage of those treated with 

 guano. 



In August last, I made up my mind to re-pot 

 and top-dress a large number of exotic plants, of 

 various kinds, many of which were in a bad state 

 from neglect ; of these the chief number were ca- 

 mellias. I made up a compost, consisting of about 

 two-thirds Roxbury fresh loam, and one-third a 

 compost, chiefly consisting of old manure : to this 

 I added about one-fortieth part of charcoal, and 

 had the whole very carefully and intimately mixed: 

 with this I operated. In September, when I thought 

 the earth had got well settled round the roots, I 

 began to water, every Saturday, with water in 

 which guano had been mixed, in the quantity of 

 about one ounce to ten gallons. 



I was perfectly astonished at the alteration 

 which appeared in about four weeks, in the general 

 health of all the plants— it seemed to me like mag- 

 ic ; and many who visited the Public Conservatory 

 previous to the late calamitous firo, can bear testi- 

 mony to their beauty and luxuriance. The earth 

 of one large camellia, (double white,) with about 

 y.50 blooms, was nearly altogether changed, the 

 tub having fallen off with much of the earth. I 

 hardly expected to save the blossoms, but they 

 opened in as great splendor as the others. It 

 seems to me that tho period of the openiiig of the 

 flowers was aUo generally accelerated. We had 

 20 or 30 out the first week in November, and the 

 first week in December, just previous to the fire, I 

 counted above ."iOO in full beauty ; this was cer- 

 tainly earlier than we had them in previous years. 

 Passiflora Loudonii, which, under the best of 

 common cultivation, has always yellow and un- 

 healthy looking leaves, was placed in this mixture, 

 with the addition of charcoal drainage. The rapid 

 change in its appearance was surprising, and al- 

 though, from unavoidable circumstances, it was re- 

 moved into this soil just previous to flowering, yet 

 instead of being "checked, fresh flower racemes 

 shot forth, and, with the others, opened their beau- 

 tiful blossoms in the greatest splendor; the foli- 

 age becoming of a fine healthy green, and spread ''^^^gJ^JgJ^ p„p 

 open, not curled in at the edges. i 



I had several other experiments in progress on 

 the use of charcoal, some of which I hod hoped 

 would have thrown light on its immediate action 

 on the roots of plants — a subject on which we are 

 at present in the dark; unfortunately, these with 

 many others were destroyed by accidental fire. 



My impression from those trials is, that although 

 charcoal alone is nearly useless, yet when mixed 

 in due proportion with the earths and salts, usually 

 found in soils and manures, its presence is highly 

 beneficial, and greatly promotes the luxuriance of 

 vegetation, as far as regards stems and leaves. Of 

 its valuo in the production of flowers and seeds, I 

 am not, for the reasons before stated, able to give 

 an opinion of any worth. 



It may be thought, and probably is in part true, 

 that much of the luxuriance of the last named ex- 

 periments arose from the use of guano water; but 

 from other experiments with charcoal, instituted 

 for the purpose of making comparisons with guano, 

 and in which of course none was used, I cannot 

 hesitate to believe that some portion of this luxuri- 

 ance was also due to the charcoal. 1 trust, there- 

 fore, that other horticnhurists, who have the means, 

 will undertake farther experiments on this subject, 

 so that we may not in this country be behind the 

 rest of the world, in the astonishing advances which 

 are every year being made in that most delightful 

 of all pursuits — Horticulture. 



Yours, J. E. TESCHEMACHER. 



Boston, Jan. 2i, 1844. 



How to Make an Unproductive Tree Bear — .\ 

 lady of our acquaintance, took us into her garden 

 a few days ago, where we were shown an apple 

 tree which she informed us had been planted for 

 ten or more years, but had never until last year 

 borne any fruit. In looking over an old volume, 

 she accidentally met with what purported to be a 

 remedy for this unproductiveness, which was sim- 

 ply to cut from each limb, close to where it diver- 

 ges from the trunk, a piece of bark about four in- 

 ches round the limb, one inch in width, and imme- 

 diately replace it by tying it on with a rag until 

 it adhered again. Early last spring, she tried this 

 experiment upon the tree we speak of, leaving, 

 however, iwo or three limbs untouched. The re- 

 sult was, that in the autumn it was filled with ap- 

 ples ; but it is worthy of remark that those limbs 

 only which had been cut, bore fruit. The opera- 

 tion is very simple, and as it has proved successful 

 in this instance, we have no hesitation in recom- 

 mending its trial in similar cases. — Reading Gaz. 



Ivjlammntion of the Throat cured 6.V ■'ilnm. — 

 Powdered alum applied by the finger to the part 

 afi'ected, very seldom fails to cure inflammation of 

 the throat in a few days. The eflicacy of this 

 remedy, says tho author, M. Valpeau, is as mar- 

 vellous as it is rapid. Employed the first, second, 

 third, or fourth day, while there is yet no abscess 

 in the tonsils, it arrests all symptoms as it were 

 by enchantment ; the fever abates, the swelling 

 diminishes, the appetite returns, and the convales- 

 cence is quickly decided and completed. Ily 

 showing that this remedy is as powerful in simple 

 inflammation as in inflammation of the tonsils, M. 

 Valpeau hopes that practitioners will no longer 

 hesitate to make proof of its efficacy, and rescue 

 thereby hundreds of human beings from the grave. 



