THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
[Nov. 14, 
not be less than two-thirds the combined area of the 
feeder); these and the main are laid on a level, till the 
latter approaches the hot chamber, but before passing 
into it, it rises, and of course the cold air (for it cannot 
yet have felt the warmth) lies stagnant in the bottom ; 
for why should it ascend? The drains of my own house 
are perfectly level till they enter the chamber. I doubt 
not the circulation, good as it is, would be greatly 
accelerated by a gradual descent towards the chamber, 
so that the heaviest air should flow down-hill. The 
other case of failure arises partly from the same cause, 
and paytly from the area of the main being very dis- 
proportionate in size to the branches, or having a very 
long flat passage to the chamber. 
«J trust these remarks will not be lost on those who 
are now erecting apparatus of the kind, and I trust that 
especial care will be taken to secure the stove from any 
gaseous leakage, especially at the plating, and that those 
who have applied the principle, or are about to apply 
it, will communicate the result of their own individual 
experience. Few now question the principle ; practical 
knowledge can only come with time, and by the expe- 
rience of many.—D. B. Meek, Holmesdale House, 
Wednesday Evening.” 
Ar last the new Boranrc GARDEN at CAMBRIDGE 
has been commenced. The Vice-Chancellor planted 
the first tree last Monday, and 20 men are hard at 
work trenching seven acres for the reception of 
trees for the Arboretum. Now that the good work 
has begun, we look with no apprehension to the 
result, We understand that the Curator is quite 
ready to receive assistance in plants, and we have 
no doubt that they will be furnished in abundance. 
We extract the following from the Freeman’s 
Journal; it serves to complete the contradiction 
already given in our columns of Oct. 31. 
THE POTATO COMMISSION. 
“ Dublin, November 3, 1846. 
hi unded statements regarding the cost of the 
i i inquire into the nature and extent of 
the Potat ease, on which I was associated with Professors 
LiNDLEY and PLAYFAIR, which statements you put forwardin the 
Freemans Journal, a afterwards forgot to contradict, although 
ad ex i 
* Those st: 
lately furnishe 
Times, and also have been spoken of at the meeting of the Bri- 
tish Association ; and my colleagues, as we myself, have 
felt that we have bean treated with gross injustice by such 
statements being published without foundation. 
“It is stated that the Potato commission cost 18,4007. Now, 
the fact is, that the commission did not, as far as I or either of 
the other commissioners are aware, cost so much as the odd 
ratuitously. My colleagues, as they 
and other business, were paid three guineas (51.) a 
day, and their travelling expenses. There were some incidental 
expenses for our secretary, Mr. BULLEN, and materials for our 
experiments ; but the entire outlay on the inquiry was between 
3001. and 4007. 
idi der th 
o. circumstances the deliberate charge made in 
so respecta a journal as yours, and purporting to be ex- 
tracted from a Parliamentary paper, that the scientific men 
employed on the Potato commission had pocketed 18,4001. of 
the publie money, will, T am sure, be at once corrected and 
ithdrawn, and I shall feel personally obliged if you will have 
the goodness to insert this letter. 
** Believe me to ear Gray, truly yours, —RoBERT KANE. 
“Dr. Gray, Freeman’s Journal." 
“ [We hasten to 1 efore the public Sir RosERT KANE'S con- 
tradiction of a m ement which, owing to the prominence 
i into our journal, he se 
letter without waiting to refer to the files of the London jour- 
nals to ascertain from which of the London morning journals 
we took the statement. e remember, however, with the ut- 
istinetness, that a table purporting to be a reprint of a 
Parliamentary paper was printed in a London journal, and 
that from that table we copied the erroneous figures.]"—7rec- 
man’s Journal, 
CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 
SECOND NOTICE, 
Some of the unskilful practitioners of this branch of 
gardening will, by this time, have found out their de- 
ficiency—their want of system. But they are not the 
only class that may have made such a discovery. The 
boasters, who have come out with their wisdom on 
the strength of a 5 or 6 Ib. Queen, ill-grown, and badly 
coloured, will find they must stretch their tape consi- 
derably before they can take the circumference of the 
Meudon Pines. No doubt they will attribute the suc- 
cess of Mr, Gabriel Pelvilain to the discovery of 
some wonderful stimulant; or they will conjecture 
that he must have hit upon loam with hidden virtues, 
and as much superior to the famous Norwood or Wormi 
wood Scrubs material, as his fruit unquestionably excel 
all others in cultivation ; for it will readily be believed, 
had he rested his reputation upon his soil, and set about 
importing it in casks to this country, he might shortly 
have driven the excrementitious dust of the South Sea 
Islands out of the market. There are other and equally 
important iderati in the production of these 
fruit besides the compost, although this also is 
important, if such a thing as compost is at all used 
at Meudon, and has produced the astonishing Pine- 
apples formerly described. 
Mr. Pelvilain’s system is, as I before said, altogether 
a model of simplicity ; and it would be wonderful 
indeed, had he to ransack one of the French provinces 
to find a compost fit for his Pines, I dare say some of 
the knowing in these matters will stare when I tell 
them that it is all dug from one spot, and that spot near 
the garden ; neither is it enriched with deer's dung, 
sheep’s dung, or the emptyings of pigeons’ cotes, nor 
any other cotes; nor does it require, in order that the 
air may circulate freely through it, to be stuffed 
with Heath, Furze, or long Grass. ‘hose wonderful 
gases, too, of which we have heard so much, must be 
totally excluded, although these, in conjunction with the 
brown stout, have been called into requisition to pro- 
duce the p-pointed din l d i o 
which we have heard enough. How these mysterious 
gases get at the roots of the Meudon Pines, I will leave 
others to guess ; for the soil used by Mr. Pelvilain is 
precisely such as an English propagator would desire to 
pot into thumb-pots of rooted cuttings of New Holland 
plants. It is, in fact, nothing other than a fine 
peat with a considerable portion of silver sand in it. 
This is dug and carted into the garden and thrown into 
a heap under a hedge near the Pine pits, and used 
without any turning or preparation whatever. It is in 
this kind of soil the Queen Pine reaches 114 inches 
high and 22 inches in cireumference. There is no 
trickery in the affair, for I thrust my hand actually 
into the bed amongst the roots to confirm what appeared 
almost incredible, and what will appear quite so to 
many of our modern Abererombies, who maintain the 
old code of instructions with almost religious fidelity. 
Having satisfied myself that here the soil was a very 
simple affair, of course I naturally enough inferred that 
some potent beverage, brewed with much care, from 
materials containing marrow and fatness, and clarified 
with isinglass, was not only abundantly supplied to the 
roots, but in fact dashed all over them, I looked in 
vain for the brewhouse, until Mr. Pelvilain satisfied me 
that his Pines had taken the pledge, and drank nothing 
ere was indeed a great fact ; Pine- 
tion of fruit, not, like many of ours, to be mistaken 
for the production of mere offsets, when we have 
the result of the Meudon practice before us. Surely, 
a lesson is to be learned here, if it can be learned any- 
where; upon an expensive branch of horticulture, a 
great deal of labour is dispensed with, besides pro- 
curing manures and bringing soils from distant locali- 
ties, which always involves considerations of a very 
serious nature. Now, it struck me very forcibly that, 
where peat cannot be had without alarmingly running 
against the old rock—expense, leaf-mould, which is 
abundant in many places where peat-soil is not, unless 
at much outlay, may be judiciously, and, I may add, 
advantageously resorted to, Indeed, in all gentlemen’s 
grounds, whether great or small, this material is less or 
more plentiful ; add to it some silver sand, and the sub- 
stitute will approximate pretty closely the principle at 
Meudon ; and I can see no reason why success will not 
attend the use of such material, provided all other ap- 
pliances are in conformity with the mode of culture 
under notice. 
I am quite certain that a different soil from this 
was expected to have been employed in the growth 
of such fruit, because our habits and prejudices 
are decidedly opposed to pure peat and pure water. 
Such, of course, cannot go down with the quacks 
in gardening ; those who rummage for recipes, and 
who reckon the value of their compounds by the 
number of ingredients of which it is composed, The 
Meudon compost is too eheap and too simple ; it does 
not imply mystery enough to be swallowed by those who 
delight to deal in the hidden virtues of patent medicines. 
It wants four ounces of this or four barrowsful of that 
to make it palatable to those who hate plain things, and 
they are a goodly number, who value such only as are 
wrapt up in mystery and obseurity, forgetting that all 
good gardening is done by means and appliances the 
most easy in their acquisition, and the most simple in 
their application, as we shall presently show, and as is 
exemplified in the culture of the Pine-apple at Meudon. 
— Mirabile dictu. 
UTILITY OF THE FRENCH BEAN. 
(See p. 109). 
On the subject of the utility of the French Kidney 
Bean, and its fitness for increased cultivation and use, 
I described it as prolific, easy of culture, and highly 
nutritious, qualities it must be admitted which render 
its successful culture a consideration of great import- 
ance, To procure the proper development of its first- 
named recommendation, good soil and situation are 
indispensably requisite. The land intended for this 
erop should be well dug and manured, a light loamy 
soil is the best; the drills should be from 2 feet to 23 
distant, and the seed dropped 2 inches apart, or perhaps 
thicker, to supply failures. April is the best month 
for sowing, though in some seasons it is necessary to 
defer this operation until May. ‘he kinds most com- 
monly cultivated in this country, are the Dun-coloured, 
the White-seeded, the Battersea, and Canterbury 
White Dwarfs, but for employing in the usual French 
manner, some of the common French sorts are to be 
preferred, as they yield a smaller and more delicate 
Bean. t 
I am informed that the French Agricultural Society 
has obtained a new variety from Riga, which they call 
Haricot Beurre, the Butter Bean, which is greatly 
esteemed, and which I hope to obtain. In gathering 
in the Bean crop a quantity of green pods is often found; 
these should on no account be wasted, they may be 
preserved for winter consumption by simply placing 
them in layers in a large jar, adding a little x inkling 
of salt to each layer ; the jar should then be filled with 
water, which must be boiled and cooled before use. 
It might almost be supposed that the English 
cherished the same superstitious fear of Beans, as, it is 
said, the Egyptian priests and ancient Romans did. 
think we might with more reason place our suspicions 
on the Potatoes ! 
The Kidney Bean has long had advocates in this 
country. Gerard speaks of it and says, “ The fruit and 
pods of Kidney Beans boyled together before they are 
ripe, and buttered, and so eaten with their pods, are 
exceeding delicate meate, and do not engender winde as 
the other pulse doe.” This medical herbalist adds, 
* they are gently laxative, and engender goode bloode.” 
—W. J., Windsor, October 29. 
THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE A SUBSTITUTE 
FOR THE POTATO. 
Earty in the season I furnished an article on the 
value of Helianthus tuberosus as an article of food to 
supply the place of the Potato, and it is with satisfac- 
tion that I now bring under notice the character of the 
substitute, which Iam happy to state is found to be 
superior to the principal. 
I forward a few roots, just as they were dug, with the 
tubers still attached to the stem, so that it may be seen 
what cultivation can accomplish with this much ne- 
lected plant ; and, as an instance, of a plant actually 
grown in Britain by labouring men on poor soil far 
surpassing the Potato, for the following reasons :—The 
haulm of the Potato has always appeared to me to be 
an immense drawback from its importance as a profit- 
able crop ; not so with the Helianthus, tor if it pro- 
duced no tuber at all, it would still be the most valuable 
fodder-plant grown in this country, far surpassing, in 
weight of green food, Bokhara Clover or the like. 
Now, this is no hasty saying ; for I have carefully 
weighed one square yard of the stems of the Helian- 
thus and found them to be 32 lbs. weight, and this 
square yard was a fair average of the crop, and taken 
out of the middle of a piece not richly manured or 
highly cultivated, but that had come up from the small 
sets left in the land after the last year’s erop had been 
gathered in. This circumstance is of con iderable 
value, as showing to the iculturist the imp 
fact, that this plant wants no scientific tillage to pro- 
duce a crop, and requires no small pains to prevent it 
from growing, and that most luxuriantly, in any reason- 
able locality. 
Now, only consider the following simple fact, and 
compare the amount with other fodder :—30} yards, 
or one pole, yield 968 lbs. of green food ; that is, nearly 
half a ton from one pole of land, and gives in clear 
weights 69 tons to the acre, or about three times the 
weight of a good crop of Swede Turnips ; and this, be 
it remembered, is altogether free of the tubers or main 
crop, and is merely the haulm, which, in the Potato, 
would be offal. I have given the leaves of the Helian- 
thus to the goat, the pig, and the ass, and these three 
agree that it is good, and eat it with avidity. When 
the cottager kept a pig, and grew Potatoes, he was 
obliged to give the pig the tubers, which tubers were 
the only eatable part for man or pig; but in the Heli- 
anthus there is a line drawn of distinction, at the sur- 
face of the ground; the upper part is food for the brute, 
while the under-ground stem contains flour (inuline) 
for man. 
As regards the various modes by which the stems of 
this plant may be prepared and preserved for the food 
of animals, that is not in my department, although E 
could point out chaff-cutt ór Turni tters that 
would slice them into sections as thin as wafers, and 
steaming apparatus that would reduce them to a jelly. 
I prefer leaving that, however, to the proper parties, 
as I have neither the means nor the leisure to carry the 
subject beyond my own line, namely the line of cultiva- 
tion. Ihave picked out the sample sent from those 
that were most compact, and would beg to state that 
the rich, deeply-trenched land, eaused the Helianthus 
to run fo strong stems, thick and branching, and the 
tubers from such stems were placed deep aud wide in 
the earth, and by no means equalled in weight of crop: 
of tubers the less luxuriant plants. The piants on the 
very poorest soil grew just the reverse, and the tubers 
were nearly globular in form and grew close to the 
stem, whereas the rank stems produced elongated 
tubers on very long stolons. The sample is from 
neither of these, but from the medium quality of land, 
or what would be called good light Potato land, one spit 
deep on the new red sand-stone. The piants were 
grown on demidykes or raised beds, as recommended 
and shown by an engraving in * Forsyth's Brochure,” 
and stood in proportion to the land thus :—T wo rows 10 
every 6 feet, and the plants stood about 10 inches apart 
in the row, and supposing the whole field 10 be equal to 
the medium soil which produced the sample, there 
would be about 15 tons to the acre of good ble food 
for men ; and when we compare the analysis given by 
chemists of the Helianthus and the Potato, we shall 
find a heavy balance in favour of Helianthus, as being 
more nutritious in proportion to its bulk than Potatoes. 
And lest the taste or the cookery should prove a stumb- 
ling-block to the introduction of this auxiliary to the 
Potato in the eye of the household matron, I must 
remark in passing that Helianthus is second to none in 
making an “Irish stew,” and this auxiliary to the 
Potato (for I have not so far given up the Potato as to 
speak of its successor as its substitute) will not only 
yield the tuber to make the Irish stew as the Potato 
does, but it will yield fodder to fatten the mutton or 
a 
