WE 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 299 
ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY of LONDON.— 
Four Lectures on CHEMISTRY, in its applications to 
Vegetable Physiology and the Arts of Cultivation, will be deli- 
veredin the Meeting-Room of the Society by . E, SOLLY, 
F.R.S., &c., Experimental Chemist to the Horticultural Society, 
on THurspAy, the 11th, 18th, and 24th of May, and Ist of June, 
at Three o’Clock precisely. Fellows of the Society are admitted 
upon signing their names; all other persons by Tickets, which 
may be obtained at the Office of the Society, 21, Regent-street, 
price 10s. 6d. for the Four Lectures. By Order of the Council. 
FA ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.— 
-- Notice is hereby given, that no meeting of this Society 
will take place in Regent-street on Tuesday the 16th inst. 
The Garbenees’ Chronicle, 
SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1848. 
“MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Tuesday, May . « . Zoological. ah F. 
Wednesday, May 10 
80 
Horticultn 
+ {Royal Botani 
Saturday, May 13. . 
Wednesday,$May 17 
+ Microscopical . + +. 8 rae 
Friday, May 19 + Botanical 
Courray Snows, Tuesday, May 9, Heartsease, Hammersmith. 
is Thursday; May 11, . Cucumber, Ipswich. 
Ye 
f « Havine read,” says a correspondent, signing him- 
self ‘ Lexicon, ‘the remarks 0 geger,’ ina late 
Number of the Chronicle, on the pronunciation of the 
names of flowers, together with the complications of 
a most extravagant character of the Greek and Latin 
languages used in naming them, I am tempted to 
offer my protest against the introduction of these 
complications into the English language, as is now 
attempted in the charming gardens of St. James's 
Park, where there is an arboretum of almost all spe- 
cimens of native and foreign trees ‘and shrubs that 
will exist in our climate, but which I regret to see 
ingering and drooping, in too many cases, from the 
smoky atmosphere they are doomed to breathe: there 
I find the Birch-tree called a Betulineous tree, the 
Chesnut a Castanaceous tree, and a Ribes a Grossula- 
vious shrub, &c.; thus endeavouring to engraft a 
series of villanous gardeners’ compounds on our Jan- 
guage. How our lexicographers may deal with them 
in their future dictionaries I know not, but I am sure 
they are calenlated to puzzle the rising generation, 
with the tribes of governesses and nursemaids who 
frequent that delightful locality.” 
Upon this point we entirely differ from our corres- 
pondent, for the following reasons. It will, we con- 
ceive, be admitted that the object which the Commis- 
sioners of Woods and Forests have proposed in 
attaching names to the specimens of trees in the 
parks—namely, that of giving information concerning 
them to ignorant people, is highly deserving of com- 
mendation. It will also be conceded that the more 
information which is thus conveyed, the better. Now 
the mere name of a plant carries but little interest 
with it; the idlers in the parks will scarcely stop to 
observe whether a tree is called Abies excelsa or Pinus 
ponderosa; and if they do, they will care but little 
for the result of their investigation: but if they 
find other matters connected with it, their curiosity is 
gratified. For example: they see Robinia pseuda- 
cacia on a label; they find that it is also called the 
Locust-tree, that it is a pative of North America—a 
fact which they would not have suspected, considering 
how common it now is in this country—and, finally, 
that it is a Leguminous plant. All these things put 
together form a little history which cannot fail to excite 
the interest of those who will use their powers of 
observation. Indeed, we do not suppose that « Lexi- 
con” objects to anything in the system of marking 
plants we have just described, except so far as the ter; 
Leguminous is concerned. But what does Legumt. 
Nous really mean? 
The idler in the Park in a 
Probability does not know ; inquiry is made of others, 
or books are consulted, and then it is ascertained that 
it is a technical collective term, indicating a particular 
kind of structure in the flowers and leaves, a certain 
manner of growth, a seed-vessel like the Pea-pod, and 
80 on, circumstances which are also common to many 
Other plants, called the Leguminous order. It further 
appears, that to that order belongs the Liquorice- 
plant, the Judas-tree, the Pea, the Clover, the Labur- 
hum, and quantities of other familiar forms, all of 
which are members of the same large family. This 
We apprehend is a sort of information very far from 
Useless, 
“Lexicon,” however, probably does not object 
to the knowledge thus conveyed—it is the word 
Leguminous that offends him. But how is such 
information to be put into a concise form except by 
Some such term? We have no word in Johnson's 
Ictionary that will answer the purpose, and a new 
one must be invented. Leguminous may be passable, 
ut what can be urged in favour of Betulineous? We 
answer, the necessity of the term, the utility of it, 
and custom. It is an expression having a definite 
Meaning, signifying that the plant so named has 
certain peculiarities, and so on, as before explained. 
Granted that “ Lexicon” could coin a better, would it 
be desirable to do so, now that Betulineous has a 
recognised meaning, which is distinctly stated in 
books, and that it is in common use, although not 
among “ Lexicon’s” friends? We submit that it would 
not be desirable. 
We think that the Commissioners of Woods and 
Forests deserve the greatest credit for the attempts 
they are making to render the Parks a source of 
information as well as recreation; and we are of 
opinion that the method of doing so which they have 
put in execution is well considered and judicious. 
The hideous stone candlestick, called a fountain, is 
the only offence against good taste that we can dis- 
cover. But while we fully recognise the excellent 
intentions which have dictated the present mode of 
marking the trees in the Parks, we cannot conceal the 
fact that the utility of the plan is diminished by the 
negligence of the people entrusted with the execution 
of it. Information that is false does more harm than 
no information at all; and it is little creditable to those 
who were charged with the care of directing the pre- 
paration of the labels that such errors as calling 
Populus a. Betulineous tree, instead of Salicaceous, or 
stating Pyrus Michauxi to be a North American 
instead of a Persian plant, should have occurred. It 
would, however, be unfair to object to the system 
because of such blemishes ;. and, for our own parts, 
we trust that the Commissioners will extend the 
plan to every place of public resort over which their 
authority reaches. 
& 
In endeavouring to find useful and profitable em- 
ployment for Agricultural labourers, it shoul always 
be recollected, that, whenever there is a portion of 
them without employ, and consequently without pay, 
their resources will soon be exhausted ; and that, in 
the end, they must be fed by the community, whe- 
ther it be by voluntary charity, or a poor-law, or, what 
is much worse, by depredations on property. The 
public, and especially the owners and occupiers of 
land, suffer loss in consequence—with this additional 
disadvantage, that the moral condition of the la- 
bourer is deteriorated ; that, when labour is abundant, 
habits-of idleness prevent his doing his work with 
diligence; and dishonesty, the child of indigence, 
renders him less trustworthy. All this a very small 
comparative outlay might have prevented ; and the 
loss which might have been incurred by giving work 
which did not fully repay the employer should be 
cheerfully submitted to, when the great advantage of 
industry and honesty in the labouring population, as 
it affects the employers, is taken into consideration. 
If a committee of proprietors and occupiers of 
land, and of all those who employ labourers in a dis- 
trict, would meet occasionally to consider how the sur- 
plus population could be employed usefully, there is 
no doubt but the union-houses might become, what 
they should only be, refuges for destitute old age, 
helpless infancy, or bodily infirmity and mental inca- 
pacity. The sums now collected for the maintenance 
of men and women who are still capable of work 
would be far more usefully expended in paying them 
to keep roads and paths in repair, in clearing hedges 
and ditches of noxious weeds, collecting and mixing 
materials into composts for manuring the land, and 
many other useful employments suited to their 
strength or capacity, which are now seldom thought 
of. By such means as these, the rates of a parish 
with which we Were connected were, even under the 
old and impexfectly-administered poor-laws, reduced 
more than@ne-half, so that we speak from expe- 
rience.“4t is grievous to the farmer to pay a heavy 
| tax trom which he derives no advantage whatever ; 
Awhile at the same time he is surrounded by distress, 
caused by want of employment, and his charity is 
Sehilled by the thoughts of the heavy contributions he 
js calléd upon to pay for the support of the poor. 
“Ffowever useful it may be to the regularly- 
employed labourer to have a garden or allotment to 
cultivate in his spare hours, this is no remedy for total 
want of employment. We would not introduce the 
cottar system, with all its privations and waste of 
time; but we would show the proprietors and occu- 
piers of land how they may find work for many more 
hands than are usually employed on a farm, without 
loss to themselves, and, sometimes with considerable 
profit. There are many operations on a farm which 
cannot be so perfectly done by the usual implements 
of cultivation as by manual labour ; and although 
this last is more tedious, it is not more expensive in 
the end, Without superseding the plough by dig- 
ging or forking the land, a much better tilth may 
be given by the spade, fork, and hoe, after the land 
has been ploughed. In heavy and wet clays, where 
the treading of the horses does much harm, a man 
working in the intervals between the stitches usually 
formed by the plough on such lands can readily pul- 
yerise the surface on each side by breaking clods 
with a hoe or rake, either before the seed is sown or 
afterwards. We suppose that all the essential im- 
provements in levelling, draining, and deepening 
ditches and watercourses have been completed ; for 
these employ many hands, and are sufficiently profit- 
able not to require any strong inducement to under- 
take them. What we wish to suggest is, addi- 
tional manual labour in the minute operations of 
tillage, by which crops may be increased or secured, 
s0 as fully to repay the additional expense ; while the 
great object of giving employment to all industrious 
labourers is thereby fully accomplished. A little 
reflection will soon lead to innumerable operations, 
which may be extremely useful, without causing a 
very great outlay of capital. A few hints is all that 
we pretend to give. 
If farmers would not disdain to take a lesson from 
the gardens and allotments of their labourers, the lat- 
ter being generally on poor land, often taken out of 
wastes, and allowed to be inclosed because they were 
of little use to the cattle turned out, they would see 
the advantage of the spade, rake, and hoe after the 
ground bas been dug. When the land is laid in re- 
gular beds of about a perch or pole in width, slightly 
sloping from the centre to the intervals, which are 
deepened by the spade, the crops are invariably better 
and more certain, even with less manure. ‘The ex- 
pense of doing this, after the land has been ploughed 
deep or subsoil-ploughed, is much less than would 
appear at first sight: there will be 160 
perches in length to deepen after the plough 
has gone twice over it, and less than 160 square 
perches to rake and lay in a proper form. Be- 
fore the labourers are accustomed to the work, they 
may ask much more per perch than will give them 
fair wages ; but this is very soon brought to a proper 
adjustment. Suppose a farmer begins by allowing 
1d. per perch for the work, well done, including both 
operations, this will be only an additional expense of 
13s. 4d. per acre ; but we maintain that, if the land 
be not very heavy,.a labourer will earn excellent 
wages at 10s. per acre, and, where there is competi- 
tion, perhaps for much less. Those who have expe- 
rience in task-labour will be better able to fix the fair 
price at once ; but any man, by giving a good price at 
starting, will soon find competitors for the work, who 
will lower the price to a minimum, according to 
the greater or less abundance of labourers and the 
usual wages of the neighbourhood. When the far- 
mer walks over his field to look at his growing crop, 
and finds deep surface-drains at a perch apart all over 
it, besides the under-drains, which, if they were ne- 
ry, we suppose to have been made, he will not 
regret the 10s. or 12s. it may have cost him; and if 
he does, let him examine fields of similar soils which 
have been laid, as it is usual to find them, after the 
common operations of ploughing, harrowing, and 
rolling, and observe the difference. The greatest ad- 
vantage will be found in cold heavy soils; but even 
in the lightest it will be evident that the mould dug 
out of the intervals, and spread evenly over the sur- 
face, will prevent too great evaporation and greatly 
strengthen the growing crop. As it is usual for the 
ploughman to begin by filling up the interval between 
two stitches or lands, as they are called, with two 
furrow-slices laid over one another, and so alternate 
the crown and furrow, it may appear that the furrow 
dug out to the depth of fourteen or more inches will 
leave a hollow in the crown of the stitch now form- 
ing. his is avoided by causing the sides of the fur- 
row to be drawn in by means of a heavy hoe before 
the plough begins its work; that is, ifonly one plough- 
ing is intended to be given ; but if it is to be ploughed 
oftener, the new stitch can easily be brought to a 
proper form by the process called gathering, which 
every ploughman well knows. Thus a great depth 
of soil is deposited under the crown of the stitch, and 
cannot fail to improve the Corn which grows there. 
At the first opportunity, when the land is cleaned 
for roots, or whatever is the substitute for the fallow, 
if the soil canbe kept clean without it, and when 
& cross ploughing is introduced, as it is in all im- 
proved husbandry, the stitches are so set out, that 
what was the crown before shall be shifted a foot or 
two to either side. The new furrow between the 
stitches will now be dug out, and some of the lower 
portion of the soil brought up and spread evenly over 
the new stitch: After a few such operations, the 
whole of the field will have its soil deepened several 
inches, without at once bringing too great. a portion 
of the subsoil to the surface. If a spit of 8 inches 
below where the plough reached be spread overa perch, 
there will be only half an inch of the subsoil laid 
over thesurface ; and however tenacious or barren this 
subsoil may be, it will be mellowed by the effect of 
the atmosphere, rains, and frost, and entirely amalga- 
mated with the soil. It stands to reason that the sub- 
soil must not contain substances injurious to vegeta- 
tion, or else it cannot be safely mixed with the soil. 
This is not a fancy or new scheme inyented at the 
moment, for it has been the practice in Flanders from 
time immemorial. (See ‘‘ Outlines of Flemish Hus- 
° 
bandry,” published by the Society for Diffusing Use- 
ful Knowledge.”)—M. 
