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stint 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERY 
CHRONICLE, 3 
._ HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ‘ 
This Day is published, Price 3s. 6d. to Fellows of the Society, and 
5s. to Others, rs i 
A CATALOGUE OF THE FRUITS Cultivated in 
‘A the Garden of the HorricunruraL Socinty or Lonnon. 
Third Edition, Sold at the House of the Society, 21, Regent- 
Street; and also by Longman and Co., Paternoster-Row ; 
J. Hatchard, Piceadilly ; Ridgway, Piccadilly ; Rivingtons, Water. 
loo-place ; and by the principal Booksell ini all parts of the 
Empire,—N.B. A few Copies of the 2nd Edition may be had at 
the reduced Price of 1s. 6d. each. 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1848. 
s FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEE 
LOr 6 trots Sin + 8 
oolopi 
+ Medico-Botanival, 
jotanic . 1 ee 
{Borticnitural 
. Linnean ze rae: 
UPlorienttural’ . 2 J} 6g 
1 
tai 
+ Botanic 
WE some time since mentioned Mr, George Craw- 
shay’s late Grapes, produced without fire, at Colne 
Hatch (1842, p. 603). At the meetings of the Horti- 
cultural Society in November arid December they 
were exhibited, and were allowed by all the Grape. 
Stowers present to be as good as Black Hamburghs 
can be, and much better than they often are. We 
had the good fortiine to receive bunches of these 
Grapes again on the 1st of the present month, and 
they were still as fresh, as plump, as sweet, and in all 
Fespects as excellent, as they were two months before ; 
not shrivelled, not decaying ; but, firm, covered with 
bloom, their fruit-stalks green, and in quality all that 
a Grape can be. 
My. Crawshay says, that, to preserve Grapes thus 
long on the Vines, and in such perfection, nothing 
More is required than a dry, well-exposed house, 
and plenty of fresh air. To excess of heat during the 
Spring and summer, particularly duting the month of 
May, when the shoots are tender, and to an insuffi- 
Clency of air, if the weather is damp or cold during 
the months of October, November, and December, he 
attributes the general failure of the late Grape crop. 
T! ese are important facts for the Grape-grower to 
ear in mind. 4 
Ler us tettirn to the all-important subject of em- 
ploying the poor in the work of drainage ; for every 
week is adding to the inmates of the Unions. 
Draining, whether considered as a means of profit, 
or as a national benefit; is of the highest interest and 
of the most urgent necessity, It is in actual evidence 
that by the mere removal of stagnant water, without 
further outlay, land which had grown two or two- 
and-a-half quartets of Wheat per acre, has at once 
produced three-and-a-half and four quarters. This 
well-ascertained fact renders all reasoning a8 to causes 
Superfluous in a practical point of view. The neces- 
Sity of doing something is, in fact, admitted ; the dif- 
ficulty consists in setting about it. It is plain that if 
“ny one takes to drainage independent of his neigh- 
ours, the acts of one man, or his inaction, may ren- 
er other proceedings ineffectual. What we trust will be 
done is the passing of some general Drainage Act, which 
shall give consistency and union to one general opera- 
ea all through the country. Upon this point, Mr. 
ailey Denton’s views appear to us extremely well 
Worth the consideration of Govertiment, which, we 
Most earnestly hope, will take the initiative in the en- 
Suing session of Parliament, 
\ et us; however, not be misunderstood » we do hot 
“este a measure which shall compel everybody to 
drain their felds and gardens, whether they choose to 
- Look 
1840, which en 
; Oro’ 
ita this. any of our readers know a single case in 
Santage of 2. 
ihe are compelled to infer that there is wanting some 
this 9, which shall induce, net compel, 
8tadual and complete draitiage of our heavy lands. 
View to con ooestions that have been offered with a 
0 secure a general system of drainage without 
8 00 private rights, that of Mr. Denton 
ren pee practicable. ‘This gentlemati recom- 
Provide ie gens should be immediately taken to 
Which aay. and complete outlets for all the waters 
in-wet gow. Stagnate on the surface, during floods, and 
once fe 4sons; and he is of opinion, that if this were 
“ected, under-draining of neighbouring lands 
watercourses would become so many 
public mains, and would form over all the country a 
general network of ready-formed outlets for the use 
of the cultivators of the lands through which they 
pass at any time when the price of labour and pecu- 
niary means may induce them to undertake such 
work. This would be a prodigious advantage, and 
might be economically obtained. ‘There would then be 
no cases in which a want of outfall, or the ill-feeling of 
a neighbour, would stand in the way of draining. 
It could not happen that ove person’s Iand would be 
deliiged by the refuse waters of his néighbours. 
An enterprising, sensible, tharket-gardener could not 
then be inundated by the unwillinghess of a man 
on a different land, who refuses to join in the work of 
drainage. But in this undulating country such instances 
must continually occur, if nature, unassisted by art, is 
to guide descending waters to their natural outlet. 
Our readers have only to turn to Mr. Chadwick's 
Sanatory Report, p. 805, (where he relates a case that 
may be taken as the type of many) to find evidence 
of these evils: They are however so common, that 
few will read these remarks without feeling their ap- 
plication to some instances. with which they are per- 
pa acquainted. 
Difficulties like these would cease if the principle, 
that every landowner, large and small, should have out- 
fall for injurious water, were made the basis of an Act 
of Parliament. The amount of compulsion involved 
in such a measure would be merely the authorized 
entry of scientific officers to direct, and of labourers to 
construct, the main drains, which, with few excep- 
tions, would be confined to the valleys; those excep- 
tions being dlong the junction of the out-cropping of 
particular strata. For instance, in districts where the 
clay overlies the chalk, a drain along the junction would 
intercept the water running off the clay, which water 
would otherwise drop down into the chalk until it 
reached the subterranean level of the water in that 
formation ; and, vice versa, where the alluvium of the 
valleys outcrops along’ hillsides upon .porous strata, 
the springs which exude at the junction would be 
caught in a receiving drain for after application. 
The present state of the country bears ample testi- 
mony to the necessity of a preliminary public mea- 
sure for the improvement and preservation of outfalls 
and watercourses tpon the three fundamental prin- 
ciples of drainage laid down by Sir John Rennie 
in his vindication of the plans of his father, of 
Smeaton, Telford, Milne, and others in the Mid- 
dlefen drainage, viz., “The improvement of the 
outfalls and channels of rivers; the judicious con- 
struction of inferior drains for low-land waters; and 
catch-water drains for high-land waters.” When 
this great engineer used these expressions, he 
was alluding, indeed, to the great work of fen-drain: 
age, which, as requiring great engineering talent to 
carry out effectually, has ever been considered as a 
distinct matter from the drainage of heavy uplands ; 
but we think the present season, and indeed all pre- 
Vious winters, must have convinced the most sceptical 
that there exists some analogy with the two works ; 
and that with all the under-draining in the world, the 
valley lands will not. become.as profitable as they are 
capable of becoming, so dong as the waters of the 
higher lands may stagnate on the lower land: 
The worst pastures are the lowest lands; and since 
allevidence goes to prove that there is not an acre of 
land in this country which has not, or may not, com- 
mand a steady outfall for its superfluous water, and 
which consequently is not susceptible of thorough 
draining, a fresh field for the employment of the poor 
opens itself to the view of agriculturists. 
Let us suppose that by a general measure for the 
improvement of outfalls the landlords and tenants 
became united in an earnest wish to make the most 
of an advantage which would then be readily attain- 
able, and that they set about underdraining in goo 
eatnést: the immediate effect would be to convert into 
arable land all those low, inferior pastures which are 
how overflowed ; the tillace of these would create a 
large instant demand for labour, and a wide extent of 
land peculiarly fitted for the srowth of Wheat would be 
gained to the nation. These are points in theinselves 
of no small magnitude. In addition, we may with 
certainty anticipate that, as, in the case of parish and 
turnpike roads, employment for some few surplus 
hands is found, so would the parish drains, if under 
skilful management, create 4 like detnand. : 
We cannot-but think that, with such security atid 
assistance as advocate 
Y companies would be formed to find 
capital, and to superintend great works of under- 
draining; and t € Unions would be relieved of the 
present excess of inmates; while the cost to the coun- 
try would be repaid by the profits on the uses to 
which the waters thus obtained might be applied, if 
made the vehicle of carriage for the refuse of towns for 
irrigation, and as a moving power ; thus turning a pre- 
sent evil into a future benefit. To these points we 
shall again advert. 
Wuen, about a twelvemonth ago, we noticed an 
account by Mr: Potter of his Artificial Guano, we 
expressed an opinion that it ought to be @ very power- 
ful manure, and recotiimended otir readets to try it. 
We have now before us some returns which show 
that our expectations were not tinfotinded. Mr. 
Cotton, of Hildersham Hall, near Cambridgé, used it 
for Barley, and obtained 6 quarters per acre; on 
Grass land the ordinary produce of Hay was doubled. 
On Orange Mangel Wurzel the result was still more 
striking : a square yard dressed with common farm- 
yard manure produced 27 Ibs. another, dressed with 
Potter's Guano, 40 lbs.; the heaviest root of the latter 
weighed 15$Ibs., others 12 lbs. and 13 Ibs. The soil 
was light, with, chalk close to the surface. The 
following was also the result of an experiment on rich 
old meadow land, resting on limestone-rock, at Aske, 
the property of the Earl of Zetland :— 
“Five separate plots of land, a quarter of an acfe each, were 
staked out in the same field; adjoining these plots another piece 
was staked off, containing 150 square yards. They were treated 
as under :— 
Ist plot, ¢ of an acre, No manure, 
2d Oe 10 bushels soot, and 6 stones salt. 
8d Do. 40 gallons Am. liquor, & 120 gallons water. 
4th’ Do. e soil. 
4 stones Guano mixed wit 
0. 12 stones Am. phosphate mixed with do. 
6th 150 sq. yards 7 lbs, Potter’s Manure mixed with char- 
coal ashes. 
“The following was the'weight of the Hay on each separate plot, 
v Rate pet acre. Increases 
ewt.qr.1b. ton cwt.qr. cwt.qr. 
No Manure eee: TQ: 
Soot and Salt 9 1 17 0 7 2 
Ammoniatal Liquor 8 3 0 115 0 5 2 
tuano 920 118 0 8 2 
Am. Phosphate 8 0 0 ate f) 2.2 
Potter’s Manure 120 2 8 Of bs Bue ad 
These are very remarkable results, At the rate of 
weight obtained by Mr. Cotton, 87 tons an acre of 
Mangel Wurzel were produced; which is more than 
double the usual maximum. And the quantity of 
Hay in Lord Zetland’s experiment was sufficiently 
great to show that this substance may be eiiployed 
on Grass lands with very decided advantage: 
~ Pn 
ON MANURING WITH GREEN CROPS.—No. IV. 
(By Proressor CHAKLES SprENGEL. Translated from 
the German). 
(Continued from page 868 of 1842.) 
3. The Vetch (Vicia sativa). —This plant is also sown for 
green manure, especially in the south-west of Germany. 
But, considering that this is best accomplished by plants 
yielding an abundant herbage, it is advisable to select 
that sort which is a hybrid between the Pea and the Vetch, 
and which yields a far more abundant herbage than the 
common Vetch, especially if the land has been maturéd 
with gypsum. 
If the common Veteh is not sown too late, the Magde- 
burg acre will yield, om an ayerage, 6500 or 700016. 
whilst the hybrid Vetch will yield 8006Ib. and more, 
herbage and roots taken together. 
10001b. of green Vetch consist of 
750-0 water in fluid state. 
43 x nitrogen (contained in the vegetable sub- 
3-4 ,, potash [stance. 
03 ,, soda 
4:0 ,, linie. 
0°8 3, magnesia. 
1:0 5, sulphuric acid. 
3:0 ,, phosphoric acid. 
0-5 4, chlorine. 
26" carbon. ss ‘ 
106-7 Jn ue oxygen, silica, magnesia, alu. 
—— [mina, manganese, and oxide of iron, 
1000,01b. 
If then green Vetches, ploughed 30 on one acre of 
and, will weigh 70001b., the fu rowrslice will obtain about 
301b. nitrogen, 23ib. potash, 141d. soda, 281b. lime, 511b. 
magnesia, 7b. sulphuric acid, 2ilb. a hosphorus, 2lb. 
chlorine, and 875ib. carbon, _That this manure is not 
equal to that of the Lupine is seen at once from the 
above, and is confirmed by exy 5 
If Vetches are to yield any considerable quantity of 
fodder, the soil must be pre y fertile.. In the Rhenish 
Pfalz (where agriculture most flourishes) the farmers sow 
it for green manure in autumn amongst the stubble of 
Wheat, Rye, and Spelt, and it is not ploughed in till late 
in autumn, when bitten by frost, because in this case it 
decomposes better and quicker. In the following spring 
Barley is sown, and this green manure is considered equal 
to a small dressing of dung. The soil of this province 
consists of a fine humous loam. fore plougl n, the 
field is harrowed lengthways, so that the plant may be 
wel buried, Jt will not be advisable in northem coun- 
