1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
37 
produced. The bearing of the quotations from the sacred 
books led me to infer that an article so often chosen to 
indicate sterility and desolation could not be a fertilizer 
of the soil ; this was merely a theoretical inference, having 
never tried it by experiment. Now as Mr. Brewis has 
stated the beneficial effect of salt ona ‘damp soil,’ I 
should feel obliged if he will inform us, through your 
columns, whether his ground is of a clayey, adhesive 
quality—or what is usually understood by a “strong’’ or 
“heavy” soil; what proportion of salt he uses to a given 
breadth, and how frequently applied? Mr. B. says I 
seem ‘‘to plume myself on my acquaintance with Scrip- 
ture.” If such was apparent in my remarks, I am 
sorry for it, forit is not true. He moreover asks me 
the meaning of salt having ‘lost its savour,’’ to which 
I offer the following solution. In Palestine are salt rocks, 
the cliff-like parts or peaks of which, from long exposure 
to a hot sun and atmospheric influence on their exposed 
surfaces, lose that property which, when applied to the 
palate, we call saltness, otherwise ‘ its savour.” It i 
then used for foot-paths, or walks, as we use deérilus or 
gravel; hence it is “trodden under foot of man.’’ These 
saline rocks, their effect, use, &c., were doubtless present 
to the view of Christ, and those whom he taught by so apt 
anallusion. I have heard that our culinary'‘salt may,be de- 
prived of ‘its savour ’’ by a similar process, but I cannot 
vouch for the truth. As to the practice of the Northum- 
brian farmers in manuring with ‘( Wrack’’ (Fuci), as it is 
called, I was not only aware of it, but have been engaged 
in doing it, though not in Northumberland. It is, how- 
ever, worthy of notice, that it consists of a mass of vege- 
table matter besides salt; and that its entire efficacy is 
not derived exclusively from its saline particles. Mr. 
Brewis rather triumphantly inquires, whether a land of 
lime, guano, &c., would not be equally uninhabitable with 
a ‘salt land?’’ J answer, undoubtedly; but we never 
find the articles spoken of symbolically to denote sterility 
and desolation, by the sacred or any other writers with 
whose works I am acquainted. As your correspondent is 
versed in northern practices, he may also be acquainted 
with northern words. ? Suppose, then, he were to relish or 
try to flavour his porridge with the long-exposed deéritus of 
a salt rock 3 on tasting he would probably find it was 
still “‘ Wersh,” (a northern term that has no equivalent in 
English, but the negative saltless) ; it would have “lost 
its savour.’—Quercus.-——At p. 806 of the Chronicle, 
there is an article upon Salt by “ Quercus,” who appears to 
have formed an unfavourable opinion of it as a manure; 
and I think some of his texts have been somewhat 
strained to support his views. If we take a glance at the 
geological history of common Salt, we shall find it occur 
in almost every formation of rocks; so that nearly every 
particle of earth must at one period or another have been 
moistened with brine. According to Mr. Featherstone- 
haugh, salt is found in America in the old transition slate 
rock ; we are also informed that in the English coal-mines, 
there are Salt:springs ; and the rock-salt of Cheshire is 
situated in the new red sandstone. In Wurtemberg, it is 
said to exist in the upper members of the same series, 
called the Muschelkalk. According to Buckland, it is 
found in the lias of Switzerland. Sedgwick and Murchi- 
Son have shown that it occurs in the Oolites in the Aus- 
trian Alps ; and at Wieliczka, near Cracow, it is found in 
the tertiary series. Any-one would be led to suppose that 
such a wide-spread article must have been intended for 
the good of organised beings, whether vegetable or animal. 
OF late, many portions of alluvial soil have been taken 
from the dominion of the sea, which for ages have been 
steeped in salt-water ; but I will only notice one spot, 
which frequently came under my observation. It was 
formerly a small bay, near the town of Kincardine, on the 
Firth of Forth. For an account of its embankment and 
Cultivation, I would refer your readers to the Gth vol. of 
the “ Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland and 
Agricultural Society of Scotland,” where a report of it is 
Siven by Mr. Menzies. It appears from the report that 
the first vegetation which appeared to take possession of 
the mud after the tide was shut out, was the Poa mari- 
tima and Aster tripdlium, with Agrostis stolonifera and 
alba, along the course of the fresh-water runs. The abund- 
ance of salt which the mud contained appears to have 
Prevented Corn-crops from growing well at first; but it is 
Stated in the report, “ Commencing with Grass seems to 
by much the cheapest and best method for extracting 
Salt from lands thus reclaimed from the sea; the over- 
quantity of which seemed to be the cause of barrenness at 
tst, as it hecame productive in proportion as the salt was 
€xtracted from it. Sheep and cattle throve uncommonly 
well on these fields while they were in pasture, and both 
the grass and bestial pastured thereon improved as the 
fields advanced in age.” It is probable that the salt was 
taken from the soil by means of the crop that grew upon 
3 and, when received into the stomachs of the cattle 
Oak Produce the effect lately pointed out by Dr, Play- 
‘ir in his lectares ; namely, “ The Chlorine of the salt 
Roes to form the gastric juice, which is so important an 
agent in digestion, and the Soda forms the bile, which is 
h Compound of soda.” In America, the salt licks which 
herds of buffaloes and deer frequent are commonly re- 
there to, when salt is r ded as a i in 
faa 00d of cattle. To point out the beneficial effect of 
aa ates Vegetation in general, when properly applied, 
uld extend the present article to an undue length ; but 
arenes State, in conclusion, that the quality of grain is 
lad Y Improved, and that Potatoes and Clover-grass have 
ees greatly benefited by its application.— Peder 
ood, wt@ [No doubt salt, judiciously applied, is as 
fente manure as saltpetre or nitrate of soda. There is 
Plenty of evidence of this. 
Destroying Worms on Grass.—Of the many methods 
which have been recommended for destroying worms on 
Grass, Ihave found corrosive sublimate the most effica- 
cious. By means of it I cleared a piece of Grass, from 
which it seemed almost impossible to eradicate the worms, 
the surface being always covered with casts, and presenting 
the most slovenly appearance; but for nearly a year and 
a half after this was applied, there was scarcely a single 
cast to be seen. I mixit at the rate of one ounce of cor- 
rosive sublimate to about 40 gallons of water, the subli- 
mate being first beat quite small, and dissolved in some 
hot water. The requisite proportion of each being pre- 
pared, the whole should be well stirred together, and com- 
mencing at one end of the lawn with a watering-pot without 
arose, let the surface be entirely flooded. If any part of 
the ground is missed, the worm-casts will soon be as bad 
as ever. Directly after the sublimate and water is ap- 
plied, the worms will make their appearance, which I have 
always picked up. The dose may be made sufficiently 
strong to kill them on the surface, or even in the ground ; 
ut this is attended with danger to the grass, parti- 
cularly on light soils, I therefore consider picking them 
up to bethe best. Ifpossible, the ground should be gone 
over a second time after an interval of three or four days. 
Attention should also be paid to the state of the ground, 
which should neither be soaked with rain nor parched with 
drought, but in a medium state. Great care is at all times 
necessary in using this deadly poison. I applied it last 
spring with much greater success than lime for destroying 
slugs on young Peas.—d. Dawson, [No doubt it offers 
one of the readiest and best means of destroying worms. ] 
Pruning Forest Trees.—Allow me to thank Mr. Bil- 
lington for his answer to my request at p. 789, which 
other avocations have hitherto prevented me from notic- 
ing. Mr, B, says I have ‘‘ raised doubts and misconcep- 
tions of his system of Pruning,’’? &c. The latter is 
probable ; but my object in taking up the subject has 
been not to “raise doubts” only, but to bring proprietors 
and managers of plantations, where dimer is the object, 
to a rational consideration of the injury which they com- 
mit by following those pernicious systems which have 
been laid down by theorists; and followed in too many 
instances, with a confiding pertinacity which is truly as- 
tonishing, Mr. B. also tells us, ‘I still maintain what I 
have proved in my former publication, that the increase 
of timber in trees is in proportion to the ‘numberzand 
healthiness of the branches and leaves.” And again, 
“hence the greater°: number of branches with. healthy 
leaves is the true cause of the increase of timber in trees.” 
Now this is precisely my opinion, and what I have con- 
tended for from the first ; so that, after all, we are like the 
two wiseacres that contended about the colour of the 
cameleon—and were reproved by the animal thus :— 
“As things in different lights you see, 
They’il every one resemble me.” 
Mr. B. sees fine timber flourishing through the medium 
of his “‘ system ;” and I see it as good or superior without 
any (pruning) system at all. The intervening sentence 
between those above extracted from Mr. B. is precisely an 
amplification of what I mean by “ reciprocity”—a term 
which he seems to dislike, although he does not furnish 
one more expressive. also wish to say a few words 
upon the seeming discrepancy in my friend’s remarks, and 
I shall put them in the form of a query. How is Pruning 
by any ‘system’’ likely to increase the timber of a tree, 
if that increase depend on, and is produced by, the num- 
ber of branches and leaves? I cannot think of any ‘ sys- 
tem” of Pruning that does not counteract the intention. 
Mr. B. is mistaken in thinking I am an advocate for the 
“ Prune-not-at-all system.’’ Pruning in many cases i 
beneficial; but in pruning forest-trees systematically, 
with the view to an increase of timber, the means will 
certainly retard and not accelerate the end. Iam for 
employing both “ labour, reflection, and expense,” when- 
ever and wherever it can be done with beneficial results ; 
but not in curtailing the heads of trees with a view to 
increase their stems. When Mr. Billington presents his 
proposed Essay to the Royal Agricultural Socicty, 1 hope 
it will correct the crude notions respecting trees which 
were promulgated in one of their late reports, not 
long since reviewed by you. After all Mr, B.’s enlight- 
ened views and long experience, I. fear, however, that 
there is still some latent clinging in his mind to the old 
notion, that what is taken from the head is necessarily 
laid on the stem ; for he remarks, ‘* My system of train- 
ing is simply to regulate those parts according to Science, 
so as to aid those properties in accelerating the elongation 
and regular increase of timber in the stem, and not to 
“expend itself in making useless branches.’ ’? How can 
branches be “useless” if the increase of the stem depend 
on their number and healuhiness? Mr, Falconer, also, at p. 
588, says, that he is no convert to this no-pruning sys- 
tem,—and what are his reasons? Because, on looking 
over the Park or Forest, he sees that trees even of the 
same species do not grow all alike, some producing fine 
timber, and others wasting their energies in producing 
‘spray, faggot, and firewood,”’ ow picturesque our 
parks and forests would look, if the trees were denuded 
of all spray, faggot, and firewood. Mr. F. must learn 
from Mr. Billington that the increase of timber in trees is 
in ‘proportion to the number, &c. of branches and 
leaves.” This is beyond all contradiction. Quercus. 
Summer Pruning Pear-Trees. — In common with 
others, I tried the breaking or rather, half-breaking, the 
luxuriant shoots of my young Pears and Apples, which 
were not sufficiently root-pruned. I do not think that 
the buds below the fracture are larger, fuller, or more 
ripened than on the unbroken branches; but the buds on 
the parts above the fracture appear full and large. This 
would, I conceive, be the natural consequence of the re- 
turning sap being kept in the upper part of the shoot ; 
a 
there being more leaves at the top than on the lower part. 
In many 
are the 
isease in Scotch Firs.—In a late Number of the 
Chronicle, the Rev. R. W. B. requested information res~ 
trees of the same age and having the same 
unhealthy appearance as those mentioned by your corres- 
, xa i m, I have every reason to 
believe that their decay is occasioned by the Hylurgas 
p- 824, to a cor- 
Seemed of which he dogs 
not approve, you advise him to plant another in its stead ; 
but when the ease with which an inferior Vine can be 
grafted with another sort, is considered, I think it a waste 
of time to plant one to supply its place; a far better wa: 
is to select a shoot, as low as possible on the old Vine, an. 
to inarch it with another kind either from a potfor from a 
neighbouring’plant; this however should be done when the 
vines are in full growth. In six weeks they will hava, 
become sufficiently united, so that the engrafted shgot 
may be severed from the parent plant; and if allowed 
plenty of light and air, it will mature its wood sufficiently 
to take the place of the old bearing stem, which may be 
cut away the following season: or if the graft is not 
thought strong enough, it may be cut down and allowed, 
another year’s growth, whilst the original stem may be re~ 
tained ; I have treated several Vines so, and it appears to 
have the effect of hastening or retarding the ripening of 
the same Grape, accordingly as the stock may be of a late 
or early kind. -I had two Vines, the names of which J do not 
know ; one was a very late Grape with bunches and berries 
shaped like a Black Portugal, but of a grizzly colour ; 
the other which is called the Sicilian, was a round early 
white Grape, about the size of a Dutch sweet-water, and 
hollowed at the end like an Orange, very sweet, but having 
a disagreeable thick ekin, These I inarched from 2 
neighbouring Black Hamburgh; the fruit from the early 
stem ripened first, and the leaves dropped off some time 
ago; whereas, on the late stem, the leaves are still green; 
their parent is in an intermediate state.— Vitis. 
Ruston Grapes.—The disease mentioned by ‘W. Brom- 
ley” was evidently caused by insects, and was quite differ- 
ent from what I suppose to be meant by rust; which, in 
my opinion, is an induration of the cuticle of the frui§, at 
an early stage of its growth, and is caused by the house 
being overheated, and by the fruit being afterwards too 
suddenly subjected to a current of cold air. During a 
period of more than twenty years’ experience in Grape 
growing, the only sort I ever found affected was, the 
Black Hamburgh, and that but slightly. Although I am 
certain that the less and the more carefully they are 
handled the better, still 1 think he goes beyond experi- 
ence when he states that, after being touched by the hair 
of the head, they will cease to grow.—A. C. 
Preserving late Grapes.—A correspondent from Cork 
informs us that the method recommended by Mr. Craw- 
shay for preserving late Grapes has been practised with 
great success by Mr, Haycroft, at Lord Doneraile’s, in 
that county. At Christmas, there were in one Vinery 
nearly 200 bunches in good condition. , 
Hardy's Cantaloupe Melon.—I have grown Hardy's 
Cantaloupe Melon, and I find it to be a good and early 
kind. The latter point I tested by growing it with one of 
my earliest sorts. In order to give them both a fair trial, 
I prepared a two-light pit for their reception; and after 
paying to both of them every attention, six fruits were set 
upon the Cantaloupe before my own sort showed any in- 
clination todo so. The result was, that I cut fruit 23 
days earlier from the former, and obtained three crops 
from the same plant. Both the fiavour and size of the 
fruit are good; the first which I cut weighed 43 lbs. I 
intend to grow it this season upon a much larger scale.— 
R. Whitaker, Gardener to Major Savage, Midsummer 
Norton, Bath. fact 
Rhubarb.—If my experience of the superiority of early 
Rhubarb is of any service to a ‘* Young Gardener, be 
to state that I grow the Tobolsk, and another sort called 
Dully’s Scarlet Admirable. Both kinds have been treated 
in the usual way, and I have been using the Scarlet 
Admirable since the middle of Jast month. On uncover- 
ing the Tobolsk, I find it to be only just sprouting. The 
Scarlet Admirable may also now be met with in abundance 
in Covent Garden Market.—S. G., St. John’s Wood. 
Mills’ Improved Cucumber Pit—Last autumn I had a 
but too late in the 
any ki 
and leaves, having been 
i dung added every ten days 
as the old sank. The plants are healthy, and the 
thermometer ranges from 70° to 75°, with one inch 
of air left on at the back all night. I was surprised on 
the 2d of this month, when we had 12° of frost, to find 
the thermometer in the pit standing at 73°; proving the 
Superiority of the improved pit over the old system with 
double mats and hay. The saving of dung is also great ; 
and the cavities in which the linings are made preserve 
them from the changes of the weather, which those more 
exposed are liable to. The pit which I am working has 
hardly had a fair trial, as it is filled up with soil above the 
loose material to the top of the air-flue; much less of the 
