1843.] 
THE GARDENERY 
CHRONICLE. 
315. 
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 Mr. E. SOLLY, 
F.R.S.. &c., Experimental Chemist to the Horticultural Socicty, 
on Trurspay, the 11th, 18th, and 25th 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 
be obtained at the Office of the Society, 21, Regent-street, 
price 10s. 6d. for the Four Lectures, By Order of the Council, 
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 Gardeners’ Chronicie, 
SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Tuesday, May 16. .Floricultural, (Tulips and Heartsease) 
Wednesday, May 17. . M tone 
icroscopical B pat 
Friday, May 19. 6. 6 - Botanical . +). ++ 8 p.m 
Tuesday, May 23 + Zoological. 6 44 2 + 8 Pate 
i Linnwan a 
dnesday, May 24. . 9G P. 
eh dee Ye Me 8 PM 
Saturday, May 27- . . . Ro: 4 pat. 
A corresponpEnT and subscriber in Essex requests 
us to follow up the subject of wood-paving, which was 
introduced some months since by Mr. Ainger, with an 
intimation that he would continue it by describing a 
good method of laying down such paving. Mr. Ainger’s 
reason for not pursuing the matter was the doubt very 
generally felt that the slipperiness would be a fatal 
objection to the use of wood in any shape. Till this 
question is settled the mode of combining the blocks 
is certainly a premature consideration ; yet this is the 
point involved in almost all the numberless patents 
and projects to which the interesting paper of Mr. 
Stead in the Transactions of the Society of Arts 
appears to have given rise. Although somewhat out 
fF our province, we may stop to remark upon the 
nature and probable validity of the shoal of monopolies 
claimed by wood-paving schemers. Judging only by 
common sense, we should doubt whether, when a new 
Material was suggested for a given purpose, it is 
allowable for parties to rush to the patent office and 
Secure the exclusive use of well-known methods of 
combining such and similar materials. The different 
Modes of dowelling, pegging, grooving, tonguing, 
rebating, joggling, dovetailing, and a host of other well- 
nown contrivances, would no doubt be tried in sue- 
ession upon wood-paving, as. they have in other 
matters, and as they would be upon any new material 
which might seem’ better adapted than Fir or granite 
the blocks, which was an entire failure: we allude to 
the invention of Messrs. Esdaile and Margrave for 
capping the Fir-blocks with Elm. Elm appears to 
be much tougher and much less greasy than Fir, 
and if the union between the cap and the block can 
be secured, this contrivance promises better than any- 
thing at present before the public. 
THERr are various means of employing labourersuse- 
fully on a farm when work is scarce, and labour conse- 
quently cheap, which many farmers neglect from a 
mistaken economy, but which, when judiciously done, 
are as useful and profitable as any of the usual opera- 
tions of the farm. In every field there are headlands 
on which the plough turns; and at every ploughing 
some portion of the soil, which is pushed before the 
plough, or adheres to it, accumulates there, and in 
time raises it above the level of the rest of the field. 
If this were not occasionally removed, the headlands 
would gradually be raised, so that the water could not 
run over them into the ditches. In most fields a deep 
water-furrow is dug, at about a pole distant from the 
ditch, and parallel to it, and from this there are dee 
cuts here and there to let the water off. Most good 
farmers periodically dig up these headlands and mix 
them with lime or chalk, and throw into a ridge, 
which is afterwards carted off and spread on the 
land; sometimes stable or yard dung is brought to the 
ridge, and the whole well mixed into a compost. A 
double advantage is thus obtained: the mellow and 
enriched soil improves the spots on which it is laid; 
and by the removal of the superfluous soil a slope 
is produced, over which the water runs readily 
into the ditches without the necessity of grips or 
water-furrows. The surface may, perhaps, after the 
removal of the top soil, require stirring and manuring 
before the headland is restored to its fertility; but 
this again gives employment. It is very useful, as 
well as a sign of neat cultivation, when a field slopes 
all round towards the ditches by which it is bounded, 
and when, instead of unsightly balks full of rank 
weeds along the head of the ditch, where the plough 
cannot work, there are gentle slopes made with the 
spade and shovel, giving a clean rounded appearance 
to the borders of the field. When hedgerows are full 
of old stumps of trees, or of brushwood, which en- 
croach on the Jand, these may often be grubbed up by 
labourers in winter for the value of the wood for fuel, 
leaving a cleared surface, which may generally be 
advantageously planted with Potatoes ; or if the wood 
will not repay the labour, the workmen may be allowed 
to plant Potatoes for their own use, by which means 
to supply those peculiarities which a perfect p 
demands. Mr. Stead’s paper embraces, we think, all 
the essential principles on which the secure laying of 
wood-pavementdepends. We doubt very much whether 
many of the pavement patents are worth a straw: and 
we imagine that, so soon as the expediency of wood- 
paving shall be established, any intelligent workman 
could devise twenty methods of laying it down effec- 
tually. The mode which appears hitherto to have 
been a favourite seems to us decidedly bad ; it does 
not break joint on the upper surface, and consequently 
presents continuous lines of weakness, which, as may 
be seen in all the trying thoroughfares, wear rapidly 
into ruts. In order to give a colour to some of the 
proposed monopolies, the angle to which the wood 
must be cut is estimated within a fraction of a minute: 
a question probably of as much importance as the 
angle at which the sail of the flying ship is to be set. 
esides the patents for combining the blocks, there 
are some for making an anti-slippery surface; but 
these consist principally of large grooves which have 
een used. for the same purpose in other substances 
time out of mind ; and which, in regard to wood, have 
the further defect of impracticability. Fir is too 
soft to maintain a useful groove against such wear as 
Js furnished by the busy streets of London: and the 
eper the groove the more ruinously do its edges 
break down. 
The great desideratum in wood-paving is some 
Mode of obviating that wnctuousness of surface which 
It acquires when abraded in a half wet state. Pounded 
Fir-wood seems essentially slippery in certain states 
of moisture ; and we must, perhaps, look to the che- 
Mists for some method of altering this. We are not 
Without suspicion that the common kinds of Firs are not 
quite hard enough to bear the work of Cheapside ; and 
lastly, we entertain the greatest fear as to their becom- 
ng rotten very much sooner than the projectors 
Tepresent or probably anticipate. But, meantime, the 
slipperiness is the point of attack: there’s the rub; 
nd our Essex friend suggests that the Government 
ee offer a reward for a successful remedy. We 
ee however, with all respect and deference, that 
he pe is already sufficiently large to attract as 
se ac nie and ingenuity towards the problem as 
le excited by a Government grant. 
ita a 1s one attempt to correct the slipperiness 
had 3a; eserves notice, and. which, perhaps, has not 
ths Hs Stice done to it, on account of its having been in 
St instance connected with a scheme for laying 
the imy will cost nothing to the farmer, and 
the Jabourers will have useful and profitable employ- 
ment. Where labourers have no allotments of land 
it may be advantageous to give them headlands to 
cultivate for a crop or two, on condition of their 
clearing them of bushes and narrowing or levelling the 
banks where they are too wide and take up much 
room. Woodlands, from which all the timber and 
underwood have been cut, can often be cleared and 
brought into cultivation at a very small expense, when 
allotted for a time to labourers, who undertake to 
grub up all the roots, to level the surface, and to dig 
or trench the whole, merely for the fuel it affords them 
and the produce of one or two crops. It will always 
be found that men will work harder, and be satisfied 
with less wages, when the speculation is their own, 
than when they work by the day for a master; and a 
yery little experience will teach both employer and 
labourer to make a fair bargain. There is not a farm 
in England on which some useful work may not be 
found by which it would be improved. But the farmers 
complain of a want of capital for this purpose, and 
doubt the benefit which will result from the proposed 
improvements : if they would allow the intelligent 
and industrious labourers to find out jobs for them- 
selves, and let them be remunerated by having a por- 
tion of the benefit of the improvements, they would 
gradually bring their farms into high condition, while 
they kept all the industrious labourers usefully 
employed. 
We will dismiss this subject with the few hints we 
have given, and leave it to the good sense of pro- 
prietors and occupiers of land to devise the means of 
improving the condition of the agricultural labourers, 
by stimulating their industry, and by showing that 
the labourer and the farmer have only one common 
interest, which is, to make the earth produce as much 
as possible by careful and assiduous cultivation —/. 
We haye on several occasions introduced into our 
columns extracts from some letters addressed to the 
Farmers of Suffolk, by the Rey. Professor Henslow. 
It gives us great pleasure now to announce that these 
letters have been collected, revised, and published, in 
the form of a two-shilling pamphlet, the profit upon 
the sale of which is to be applied to charitable pur- 
poses. They form the best preparation we know o: 
for the study of Chemistry and Vegetable physio- 
logy in their relation to Agriculture; so that their 
intrinsic merit should secure for them public favour 
quite independent of the desire which we all must 
feel to co-operate in purposes connected with paro- 
chial charity. May they have, what they well deserve, 
a large and rapid circulation. 
A COMMUNICATION which appeared in the Chronicle 
of the 29th ult., on the culture of the Persian Melon, 
induces me to offer a few remarks corroborative of the 
justness of the writer’s ideas, from some years’ observa« 
tion of the culture of the Melon in India. My obseryva- 
tions are confined to the western side of India, and chiefly 
to that part of the Deccan or Mahratta country between 
the 16th and 21st parallels of latitude. 
The time of sowing the seeds commences in the latter 
part of January, just after the height of the cold season ig 
past, and is continued up to the beginning of March. 
Ripe Melons begin to appear in the latter part of April, 
and are in the greatest abundance and perfection through- 
out May, and even continue well into June, if the rains 
do not set in early, and destroy or wash the Melon-beds 
away. The period I have indicated comprehends the 
driest, and part of the hottest, time of the year. In 
February the days are temperately warm, and the nights 
generally chill. In March the hot season begins to be 
sensibly felt, the nights, however, remaining pleasantly 
cool. Throughout April and May there is a progressive 
accession of temperature, the thermometer ranging from 
90° to 100° and upwards by day, accompanied with adry, 
hot wind, and seldom falling below 80° at night. bs 
The Melons are grown in the beds of rivers from which 
the water has receded, the stream at this period of the 
year being confined to a small part of the channel. The 
Melon-beds are perhaps not more than a foot above the 
surface or level of the stream, and hence there is an ample 
and constant supply of moisture at the roots; for, since 
the beds are composed of nothing but the shingle or 
loose gravel of the bed of the river, the water percolates 
freely beneath their whole extent. 
The natives, as far as I have observed, take very little 
pains in the cultivation of the Melon, and grow all sorts 
promiscuously, apparently without any selection, and 
Melons and Cucumbers indiscriminately mixed together 
in the same beds. Hence, as might be expected from 
such a course of procedure, you meet with great numbers 
of very indifferent quality, more like half Melons half 
Cucumbers than anything else ; others of very fair quality, 
and others again, in the same bed with the worst, of very 
superior excellence, sufficient to show what might be done 
with more attention, and that high temperature, dry air, and 
abundant moisture at the roots, are the conditions most 
fi le to ensure i 
The fault generally observable in frame-produced 
Melons I think is, that the flesh is of too firm or hard a 
quality, and perhaps deficient in sweetness and delicacy of 
flavour. The best Indian Melons I have met with are, 
on the other hand, of a rich, melting quality, abounding 
in saccharine juice, of a very fragrant flavour. I found, 
however, that these qualities became much altered when 
grown at another period of the year; having once made 
some experiments on the cultivation of the Melon in 
common garden-mould in the monsoon, or rainy season, 
in a part of the country where the rains are generally 
light, and that year they were more so than usual. At 
no time was there a continuous fal! of rain for ten hours, 
and there were intervals of three weeks and upwards 
without any rain; but the general state of the air was 
moist, and the direct influence of the sun was often inter- 
cepted by light clouds, or a hazy state of the upper atmo- 
sphere, which, however, did not prevent the transmission 
of considerable heat from the sun to the earth. The 
thermometer averaged from 76" to 800in the day, and 70° 
at night. The seeds had been taken from a very delicious 
Melon, and the change was therefore the more observable. 
The plants grew well, but perfected their fruit with some 
difficulty, some decaying at halfsize. Those which 
ripened possessed much of the original fine flavour of the 
parent fruit, but the sweetness had nearly all disappeared, 
and the flesh had acquired the firm, hard quality which I 
have observed so much in our frame-grown Melons, 
Besidés the Melons grown in the hot season, there is 
also a variety grown in fields and gardens in the monsoon, or 
rainy season, which I take to be merely the former some- 
what altered in its qualities and habits by culture ata very 
different season. These monsoon Melons are very hardy 
and of rapid growth, and their general character is akin 
to what I have stated above as the result of experiment, 
in the fruit being deficient in sweetness, and the flesh 
being either hard or mealy; but they often possess con- 
siderable flavour, which is heightened or brought out by 
the addition of sugar. 
Happening to have some seeds of one of these monsoon 
Melons when I left India, I inclose a few, in case any of 
your correspondents should be curious to try them, for 
which there is abundant time yet, being of rapid growth 
and very hardy. The characters are marked on the 
paper containing them.—J. H., May, 1843, [The seeds 
are sent to the garden of the Horticultural Society, to the 
charge of Mr. Thompson.] 
————_—_ . - 
ON ruz CULTIVATION or CONIFER 1x POTS. 
NotHING can excel the beauty of some of the kinds of 
Pinus and Abies lately introduced from Mexico, when 
cultivated in this manner; particularly Pinus ‘filifolia, 
pseudo-strobus, Devoniana, Russelliana, macrophylla, 
patula, Montezumee, Ayacahuite, &c., and Abies religiosa, © 
&c. ; therefore a few hints on their management may prove 
interesting to some of the readers of the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle. Commencing with the seed, the best time 
