184 
THE GARDENERS*' 
CHRONICLE. 
[Man. 21, 
stems and branches ; but when the plant is allowed to 
mature its growth, the stem and branches become 
stringy and fibrous, and the leaves and foot-stalks are 
alone capable of being used, in the manner of the 
Chinese, as described by Mr. Fortune. This is mostly 
the case also when this vegetable is grown at other 
Seasons. When the state of the atmosphere is dry, and 
the sun unclouded, the plants speedily become stringy, 
and do not attain the same size as in the rainy season ; 
and unless they are pulled up when they are very young 
and small, the leaves alone are worth using. There is 
another kind by no means so common, whether a variety 
or distinct species I am unable to say, with milk-white 
stem and branches, of which I sent some seeds to the 
Horticultural Society three years ago. I am not aware 
that it is less hardy or less easily cultivated than the 
others ; but, as a vegetable, it is equally succulent and 
more delicate in appearance, and I think in flavour ; 
and I would recommend it to the notice of any one 
disposed to try the cultivation of this plant as a vege- 
table. From the preceding observations it may be in- 
ferred that the moist temperature of a Melon or Cu- 
cumber-frame will be the most suitable climate it can 
have; and I have seen very fine specimens grown in 
this manner.—J. H. H. 
West Kent Garden-pot.—This contrivance, exhibited 
before the Horticultural Society on the 17th February, 
and noticed in a leading article of the same week, may 
be regarded as one of the best aids to cultivation which 
has been brought under the notice of practical men for 
a long time past. A similar plan has been in use 
here for two years past (but I must do Mr. Fry the 
justice of stating that he was not aware of that fact 
until after his plan was made known to several gar- 
deners in this county), and therefore I can speak prac- 
tically of the advantages which are likely to accrue 
rom the invention. To amateurs I consider it will 
be of greater service than to practical men, inas- 
much as the latter, from their daily experience, are 
more expert in the shifting of plants than the former 
can be expected to be, but the amateur will find the pot 
of immense advantage, by enabling him to examine the 
roots of his plants without any risk of doing them in- 
jury, and it will also facilitate very materially the 
shifting of large specimens, as the plants will require no 
capsising, and therefore are not so likely to be broken, 
while the dirt which generally in the old plan of re- 
potting falls so plentifully among the branches and 
foliage, and which frequently is difficult to remove 
without considerable trouble, will in this plan do no 
harm at all. How frequently are valuable plants lost 
from the want of water, because from the surface-soil 
being wet the cultivator imagines that they are all right 
in point of humidity, while in reality, when they come 
to be turned out after they are dead, half of the ball, 
Sometimes the bottom and sometimes the side, is found 
to be as dry as dust; but when the West Kent pot 
comes into use, we have nothing more to do than place 
the ball on the shifting block to make every necessary 
examination, In the shifting of large Pine plants (for 
T imagine that the pot-cultivation of these plants will 
not be abandoned quite so soon as Mr. Hamilton and 
some of his disciples imagine), this pot will be of im- 
mense advantage by facilitating the operation; and it 
will also effect a considerable saving in the number of 
pots which are now obliged to be broken in shifting 
large specimens of all kinds of plants. For my own 
part, I will purchase no other kind of pot after Mr. 
Fry's are in the market.—W. P, Ayres, Brooklands. 
Maize.—Amongst the advantageous uses to which 
Maize may be put, is that of feeding poultry. The 
poultry of Toulouse is remarkable for its delicacy of 
flavour, and of texture of flesh and fat : it is fattened 
on Maize. A person accustomed to fowls so fed can 
immediately distinguish them in the market from any 
that may have been fattened on other kinds of corn. 
So, also, Meize is esteemed, in the south of France, the 
best food for fattening pigs, insomuch that in parts 
where Maize is dearer than Barley, still Maize is pur- 
chased to finish the fattening of a pig.— M. C. 
To keep Trees from Wind-waving.— A. deseription 
appears (p. 101) of a mode of supporting newly trans- 
planted large trees, and where supports are absolutely 
necessary, the mode recommended is possibly as good 
as any. Nevertheless, as all such supports have a 
clumsy and unsightly appearance, it would be a saving 
of labour and expense to dispense with them altogether; 
which, with the exception perhapsof “ Poplars in a marshy 
soil,” might easily be done. I can assure “F, H. S." 
that I have transplanted some hundreds of large trees 
in my time, into park and similar scenery, and have 
never had recourse to artificial support in any instance. 
My mode is this : to take up the tree, with all the roots 
that can possibly be preserved, with great care, com- 
pletely denuding them of all the earth, and when placing 
the tree ina previously prepared pit, carefully packing 
all the larger roots in their natural Position, with the 
strongest turned towards the point most exposed to the 
most prevalent winds ; when the tree is up, I generally 
thin the head a little, by way of preserving the balance 
of reeiproeity with disturbed, and in some degree un- 
avoidably mutilated roots, Following the above natural 
mode, I think my suecess has been equal to most men's 
in that department—as the general luxuriance of the 
trees in question can testify. 
however,that I have had instances of trees getting a 
little on one side in soft soils, when it has happened 
ground got settled ; but I never found it necessary to 
use supports such as are described by “F.H. S.” I 
may mention my mode of preparing the pits or holes : 
we strike a circle 10, 12, or 15 feet wide, as the case 
may be ; remove the turf, and then work the soil well 
over by deep digging or shallow trenching, laying out 
just enough to pack in, and cover the roots to their 
natural depth, and no more ; replace the turf, and the 
work is done.— Quercus. 
Polmaise Heating.—I propose to supply the furnace 
with air from the house, and to replace its loss with 
fresh air, heated in its passage through the stove. It 
will be seen by the woodcut that it is intended the cold 
air shall first come in contact with the flue at some 
distance from the fire ; it will then become warmed in 
its passage towards the fireplace, passing which, it will 
be sufficiently heated to enter the back drain, from 
which I propose to make several openings into the 
house, increasing in dimensions as they recede from the 
entrance. Instead of conducting the air under a wet 
blanket, and allowing it to enter the house at each end, 
I would substitute for the blanket a net made of large 
soft woollen yarn, like that used for mops ; this being 
kept moist by turning some loose ends into the tank of 
water above it; the number of these yarns would regu- 
late the degree of moisture. The heated moist air 
would then enter the house through the meshes of the 
net, and would be so equally diffused that little danger 
might be anticipated of scorching any plant near it. 
It is intended that.the fireplace shall be air-tight, ex- 
cept the opening from the front drain into the Ash pit, 
through which the draft may be accurately regulated by 
a small damper. The fire-place should be of cast iron, the 
casing might be of plate ; but to prevent loss of heat by 
radiation, it should be covered about 2 inches thick with 
a compound of charcoal-dust, mixed with about 1-6th of 
pipe-clay, and kneaded into a paste, this would be 
prevented from falling off by a few studs inserted into 
the iron tube, and further secured by a calico bandage 
moistened with clay, and wrapped round the whole ; 
this will effectually prevent any escape of heat. I 
propose to feed the fire by a hopper closed at top, and 
would recommend as fuel either anthracite alone, or 
mixed with an equal quantity of gas coke. When the 
Ash pit requires emptying, a box placed under it will 
receive the contents on withdrawing the sliding bottom. 
I think that by an arrangement like the above, a 
constant circulation of fresh warm air will be kept up, 
the fire abstracting foul air from the house, and causing 
its replacement by fresh air on the same principle as 
the ventilation is kept up in coal mines.— Lusor. 
sage for warm air from C into the house; @, Woollen net; II, 
Feeding hopper ; I, Bridge; K, Grate ; L, Air-tight fire-door ; 
M, Sliding bottom of ash-pit. 
Draining Ground for Planting.—Can any of your 
pond give me infi ion from their own ex- 
perience of the best mode of underdraining woods, or 
what is;better, land intended to be planted. It is my 
intention to plant $10 acres?ithis spring with Larch, 
Scotch and Spruce Fir, and Oak ; the land is such that 
the three first grow very well in it, but the Larch,when 
about 30 years old, begin to decay at the root, which I 
attribute to a wet subsoil ; I therefore propose to under- 
drain the land before planting as deep as the outfall 
will allow, from 23 to 3 feet. I do not imagine that’ But, 
the roots of any of the Fir tribe will find their way 
down to the drains, and the Oaks will not be planted 
near them. I should be glad to know from anybody 
who has underdrained Larch woods of a certain age, 
whether their trees have derived all the advantage ex- 
pected from it. What forest trees will grow without 
much injury near a brick kiln, the Larch and Scotch 
Fir having been killed by the smoke ; the wood is on 
the west side of the kiln.—Eddiva. [Defer your plant- 
ing till autumn, or 
Natural Razor Strops——I beg to enclose a razor 
strop which, perhaps, may be considered to be a 
curiosity when the facts are explained, as to how, or in 
what way, it was produced. Tt will require to be placed 
on a piece of wood of convenient width and length, and 
a little sweet oil should be occasionally applied to it in 
the same way as is done to others ; then, by a proper 
application of the razor, it will produce as beautiful a 
sweet cutting edge as any body could possibly wish for, 
This production is, in texture and softness, equal to the 
finest velvet, and is as elastic as a piece of leather. It 
was cut from a fungus that grows on our English Oak, 
The trunk of the old hearty fellow from which it was 
taken is, at 4 feet from the ground, 21 feet 6 inches in 
circumference, branching off at 10 feet into several 
large limbs. Four of these Oaks measure respectively 
10 feet 2 inches, 9 feet 3 inches, 12 feet 10 inches, and 
9 feet 5 inches in circumference, the former tree being 
100 feet in height; another, growing within 200 yards 
of the above, measures, at 4 feet from the ground, rather 
more than 21 feet in circumference, and above 110 feet 
in height, branching off into two limbs at the height of 
10 or 11 feet, the cireumference of those limbs being 
13 feet 7 inches, and 14 feet 3 inches. Along with the 
strop I send green leaves and branches, gathered on 
Saturday, the 7th February, from another old fellow of 
the same variety, growing ; yes, I say growing, in Feb- 
ruary. The first appearance of the fungus on the trunk 
of the Oak is similar to the small round Puff-ball which 
grows on pastures. In colour it is of a greenish-white, 
with a smooth surface which feels cold and hard, some- 
thing like that of marble. They grow very slowly, and 
assume different shapes and sizes, some coming round 
and rough, „having a rocky appearance externally ; 
others assume the shape of cocks’-comb and other 
curious forms as they get old, and to kick against them 
when four or five years of age, is something like kicking 
against the old Oak itself. The one out of which the 
inclosed strop was formed was about the size of m: 
head, and possibly about three years old. To obtain 
them you have only to go to the tree, take a fungus off 
with a sharp knife, cut it in slices as a cook would liver 
(which it very much resembles in colour), and you have 
at once so many razor strops. People may talk about 
leather for razor strops, or for the fortification of a 
town, but I contend there is nothing equal to this pro- 
duction of our old English Oak.—James Barnes, Bicton 
Gardens. [The fungus that produces Mr. Barnes’s 
razor strops is the Polyporus fomentarius, the true 
Amadou of commerce. When young the plant smells 
exactly like the common Mushroom. Mr. Berkeley in- 
forms us that Polyporus betulinus is sometimes used for 
razor strops in the north of England, and is said to 
make fine ones. 
Orange Toothpicks.—These are not all made of 
Orange-wood. At Naples the wood of Common Elder 
is split up and pared away for the purpose.—S. 
Retarding Flowers.—In Italy the large scarlet Ra- 
nuneulus (Alep) and the double pink Picotee are suc- 
cessfully kept back for flowering in October. It is said 
no other Ranunculus succeeds under the same treat- 
ment, and even that has not, it is believed, succeeded 
in England when kept back for the purpose. What is 
known to gardeners on this subject 1— S. 
Polmaise Heating.—It was not my intention to have 
interfered further in the discussion of this question, had 
myname not been prominently brought forward by Mr. 
Meeke in a way I cannot pass unnoticed. I stated in 
this Paper, in 1844, that I did not consider the Pol- 
maise mode of heating better than the old flue System. 
From the subsequent discussions which are before the 
publie, and from an example of it which I have fre- 
quently examined, I now pronounce it a great deal 
worse. It is totally inefficient for the great proportion 
of garden purposes where heating apparatuses are re- 
quired, Mr. Meeke states that “ previous study of this 
branch of physics had placed him in a position to aspire 
to this investigation.” I also aspire to such, but on dif- 
ferent grounds. For many years I have been investi- 
gating various modes of heating, and practically carry- 
ing them into effect. At this moment I have more than 
a score of hothouses in course of erection, and if I could. 
heat them more effectually and more ically 
the Polmaise arrangement than by a good system of 
hot water, I should think myself culpable in not recom- 
mending its introduction in preference to the latter. 
It has been stated in a Leading Article that “we cannot 
too often repeat that the importance of the Polmaise 
heating consists in its cheapness.” I have taken the 
trouble to calculate this, but not relying exclusively on 
my own acquaintance with the value of materials, I 
applied to those whose business it is to erect all kinds of 
warming apparatuses, and I find that such a one as that 
given at p. 115 of this volume—which, by the way, is 
materially different from that at Polmaise—would cost 
considerably more than a good and efficient hot-water 
apparatus ; so much for its cheapness. Now for its 
efficiency. Noone has said, as far as I have observed, 
that it has done more than ripen Grapes in September. 
says one correspondent, look at the climate of 
