a) 
»Y ~ 
1843.] 
335 
have put Mr. Hodge’s opinions and recommendations into 
practice, and found them verified to the letter; and I am 
glad now, and not for the first time, to testify my thanks 
to that gentleman for the [pains he has taken to benefit 
clay-land farmers, by making known the principles of 
Pearson’s effectual, reasonable, and enduring Drainage 
(beyond calculation as to time); and in so saying, I feel 
it but justice to speak of Mr. Pearson and his invention 
in the highest terms, not forgetting his disinterestedness 
in letting the public have knowledge of it, without any 
patent obstruction. This has induced several liberal gen- 
tlemen of Kent, and some few of other districts, to sub- 
scribe towards making some slight remuneration to the 
inventor (a tenant of Lord Ambherst,) and which, in jus- 
tice, isan example that should not be lost upon other 
landowners, who may put the principle in practice suc- 
cessfully. I shall now add the following proofs, which 
have recently reached me, from an agricultural friend in 
poor substitute for the usual method. Drains, to be of 
service, are recommended to be made three feet deep, in 
order that the ground should not be dried and parched 
during the summer months. In performing this work with 
tiles, we seldom see a layer of stones placed directly upon 
them, for two reasons: first, the great increase of BE 
and secondly, it is not considered to be of sufficient ade 
vantage to justify the outlay. In five cases out of six. 
the tiles are laid on the smooth clay, the joints Being 
Secured with the same substance well préssed all round 
them, which has much the same effect as the clay drain 
relative to its being impervious to water. In making the 
latter, it must be recollected that the trench is jn the 
Shape of a wedge, and that there are only about six inches 
of worked clay over the drain, forming an exceedingly 
Strong arch; the lower part being smaller than the upper 
and the remainder of the excavation being filled in loose. I 
am not surprised that “J. 8. F.” should be slow to be. 
lieve in the benefit to be derived from clay-draining pas- 
‘ures; I was myself rather doubting, (although I was shown 
to allow the superfiuous water to subside ; always 
ee in view the moisture necessary to insure good 
nd healthy crops. 
become 
doubt th 
who have 
discuss; 
preety Cbinion, from observation, on the matter: one 
# s remark is work a dozen theoretical on a ques- 
Be Such importance.—W. W. 
m-planks.—Jn, your leader of May 13, you say 
Im ism Fir.’ 
th, ‘uch less greasy than Fir.” I beg to state 
t ee often seen Elm as well as Fir-planks used at 
time for wheeling upon. The least rain or frost 
aused the Elm to be both greasy and slippery, 
always C 
upon.—G. D, 
Manures.—The inquiry in your Paper respecting 
“ sugar-bakers’ scum” as a manure has brought to my 
recollection that many years ago a neighbour of mine 
who is since dead) tried the “ scrapings of a sugar- 
baker’s floor”? upon some grass-land, the effect of which 
was visible for several years after. The crop the first 
year was a very heavy one, but exceedingly coarse and 
rank, and of a very deep green colour. I should therefore 
advises‘ J. O. U.,” if he tries, it, to do so sparingly.— 
F. H. 8. 
ts Scotch Farming.—For the information of “A Sub- 
Seriber,’’ at page 317, I beg to say that the nine quarters 
and a bushel of Wheat per acre, over a field of thirty 
acres, was realised in 1826, which was decidedly the best 
Wheat year in Scotland for a long period—say thirty or 
forty years. He must remember, also, that our acre is 
equivalent nearly to 14 statute acre. Cambus is 
Situated upon the north side of the Forth, five miles east 
from Stirling, and three west from Alloa. The soil is 
rae Carse-soil, but not better than much hereabout. 
r. Mowbray was a distiller, and fed great numbers of 
cattle, whose urine he collected in a well, made for the 
purpose. He was also an active and intelligent farmer 
who was in the front-rank of his class, aad Soul have 
had good crops though he had not been a distiller, but 
being this, he turned everything to advantage. The num- 
ber of times the field was watered with tlie liquid manure 
was twice ; once about the end of March, and the other 
time before the middle of May. The same may be said 
of the field of Hay. It will be recollected that 1826 was 
a very dry year, so much so as to have obtained the name 
of the dry year ; consequently, the liquid manure told with 
better effect. fter the Ist of May, which was very 
Snowy, followed with hard pinching frost at night, the 
Wheat crop never got a shower. With respect to the 
Proportion, I cannot speak with perfect accuracy, but it 
may be guessed at from the nature of the cart: 1 believe 
it to have been liberal. The cart contained a large barrel, 
which was filled at the well; this barrel emptied itself 
into a long narrow box at the back end of the cart. The 
box, so far as I now remember, stretched across the cart 
as far as the outside of the wheels, and was pierced with 
holes in its bottom for the emission of the liquor. The 
horse went at an ordinary working pace. Mr. Mowbray 
died some years ago, but his son succeeded him, and, for 
anything I know to the contrary, is as enterprising and 
pea a cultivator as his father was.—Wot @ Scoich 
‘armer. 
Bees.—I find that Mr. Wighton has either misread or 
misrepresented the statement of an experiment which was 
in my last communication. He says, ‘‘ The experiment 
of putting a headless swarm into a hive to make the Bees 
create a queen by changing the gender, shows, I think, 
that ‘ Pettigrew’ does not quite understand the subject 
he has taken up.’ I will not retaliate, but merely state 
here—I am constrained to do so—that I did not say any- 
thing about putting a headless swarm into a hive: and I 
dare say that most readers understood me to ‘mean that 
the Bees were not to be left headless till the queen had 
laid eggs; that those eggs are destined to be 21 days in 
the cell; and that the Bees, as soon as they lose their 
queen, put around one, two, or more of them a gelatinous 
substance that metamorphises them into queens in 14 days. 
Nor does this experiment differ from one which I, two 
years ago, asked Mr. W. to try, which he says he did in 
August with success. I shall now rectify two or three of 
Mr. Wighton’s mistakes, that may lead inquirers astray. 
He says, ‘‘ Bees’ eggs are not hatched by incubation; the 
warmth of the hive lone brings the larve forth from the 
eggs.’ The warmth of the hive alone does not hatch 
eggs; nor yet does the warmth of the Bees hatch e. es 
that are not set upon. I shall give proof that will ee 
out my assertion, if Mr. W. desires me to do so. In 
another communication he says that ‘* Queen Bees live 
four or more years, and common Bees one season.’’ 
Queens, generally speaking, live four years, but never 
more: some prolific ones live but three years and two 
months, I say prolific ones, for there are good and bad 
ones, as we call them. No Bee-keeperj ought to keep a 
three-year-old queen. Common Bees live nine months 
only. Hence it is necessary to select in autumn those as 
stock hives that have bred well in July and August. With 
a view to the writing a complete practical concise 
treatise on Bee-management (which Thave not time to do 
at present) for the Gardeners Chronicle, I wrote to the 
person who manages the apiary, in which I, when a lad, 
spent much of my time, for an accurate statement of what 
his Bees did in 1842. He says, in answer, ‘‘ Our Bees 
did well last year. ‘The best top (first) swarms gathered 
fifty pounds in the month of August alone. The produce 
of one swarm was 110 pounds of run-honey.”’ Upon 
perusing these citations, some Bee-keeper may say, ‘* This 
js an enormous quantity—my Bees do not produce So 
much. Wherein lies the secret? ’’ Almost wholly in the 
size of the hives! The hives which are used in the apiary 
alluded to are three-fourths or four-fifths larger than the 
largest that is within 15 miles of London. I hesitate not 
to say that Bee-keeping will never be a profitable concern 
as long as Bees are in those small basin-sized hives. 
Mr. Wighton says, “ Small hives produce early swarms.” 
It wwe were to inquire what is the reason, he would 
answer, ‘ Because they are more easily filled; ” forgetting 
that large hives have Bees in proportion to their size, and 
are, indeed, as soon filled as small ones. Happily he 
neutralises his own assertion at the same place, by saying 
that he has ‘* ample proof that Bees will throw swarms, 
whether their hives be full or not;” which, strange as it 
may appear, is also gratuitous. I shall now point out a 
few advantages that may be derived from a knowledge of 
the transmutability of Bees’ eggs. In doing so, we shall 
find that Mr. Wighton speaks with too much precipita- 
tion in saying that “the practical Bee-keeper may be 
assured that the knowledge of |it will neither add to nor 
diminish the produce of his hives.”’ As soon as the owner 
of the apiary of which I have spoken found that Bees 
could make queens at will when there were eggs in the 
hive, he invented a system of artificial swarming, which 
he practised for the space of 30 years with great success, 
having in one year realised nearly 100 pounds from his 
apiary—working from 6 in the morning till 6 in the even- 
ing elsewhere. The system may be thus stated :—As soon 
as the hive is pretty full, two-thirds of the Bees and the 
queen are taken away and put into an empty hive. The 
Bees that are left in the old hive make queens for them- 
selves. Thus, swarms are prevented from flying away ; 
Bees are prevented from lolling in clusters before swarm- 
ing, which, when allowed, is an absolute loss; and the 
cottager can go to his work throughout the week with an 
easy mind, without hazarding any loss. By this system 
more second swarms are obtained than by the natural 
system ; for after the Bees have lost their queen, they put 
eggs into two or more royal cells at one time. Those who 
keep small hives find it to be unprofitable to take more 
than one swarm in one year. The artificial system has 
many advantages over the natural system. One more I shall 
notice. Twenty-one days after the first swarm is taken 
off there are no brood in the old hives but a few drones, 
drones being 24 days in the cells. The Bees have bred 
queens; but queens are 10 days out of the cells before 
they commence to Jay. Well, then all the Bees are taken 
from those hives that are above 40 pounds’ weight, and 
put into empty hives. The honey is taken from the old 
hives, sent to market at an early season, and sold for a 
high price. In natural swarming the queens are set some 
time before the old ones go away, and are therefore laying 
before all the old brood is out.—A. Pettigrew, Wrotham 
Park. 
Hawthorns.—I should be glad if you or any of your 
correspondents can explain the following circumstance, 
which has occurred in a garden about 2 miles from the 
city of Chester. Several Hawthorn-trees, which have 
hitherto borne most beautiful scarlet blossoms, are this 
year quite white. There are no Whitethorns near them, 
and the soil in which they grow is good black soil, upon a 
bed of sand— A. B. 
Parsley.—Parsley-seed, which generally lies long in 
the ground, is made to grow rapidly by sowing it in the 
following manner :—Dig a patch of ground, turning the 
soil over to the depth of twelve inches, break it well and 
level the top. Strew the seed thinly on the fresh earth 
and sift about half an inch thick of rich compost over the 
whole. In this manner Parsley will appear in the course 
of a fortnight or three weeks at the latest. I find that 
all seeds when treated in this manner vegetate quickly; 
and many of those which are supposed to require a hot- 
bed may be thus raised, with the advantage of not being 
drawn, having a more healthy appearance, and being 
more easily transplanted. It is a great mistake to sow 
any kind of seed too thickly, it is exceedingly injurious 
to the rising family, whose growth is sadly impeded for 
want of nourishment. Scarcity of food at an early period 
is too plainly shown in after life by a long unhealthy stem, 
producing yellowish-green leaves and stunted flowers. 
The effects of over-crowding is beautifully illustrated in 
the Mignonette: observe the difference between plants 
from seed sown in a pot or box and that luxuriating in a 
border; the former is thin, lank, and emaciated, whilst 
a single plant will in the latter case cover more than a 
foot square.—W. W. 
On Boiling Vegetable Marrow.—The proof of the pud- 
ding is said to be in the eating. You recommended last 
week that this vegetable should be cut, cooked, and eaten, 
when not exceeding 3 inches in length. This, 1 submit, 
isa matter of taste. I have tried it 4 years, and prefer 
using it when 8 or 10 inches long, as it is then more 
mealy. « Let your correspondents who are fond of the 
vegetable try my plan as well as yours :—Cut it when 
about the size I mention, peel off the rind, cut it down 
the centre in four pieces, take out all the seeds, boil it in 
the same way as Asparagus, and serve it up on toast, with 
white sauce instead of melted butter. My notion is that, 
at the above size, it is as superior to your ** not exceeding 
3 inches’? as a good mealy Potato is to an early-forced 
soapy-flavoured one.—Chemical Jack. 
On Preserving Apples.—I tasted some Apples on the 
10th inst. as fresh as when picked off the tree ; and found 
from my friend, at whose house I was dining, that he had 
preserved them in sand (not sea-sand) in boxes. They 
were carefully wiped before put in, and the sand was 
perfectly dry.—A Tivy-side Subscriber. 
Clay-burning.—In the Gardeners’ Chronicle, May 6 
page 303, you give an account of the method of burning 
clay for manure, yet you make no comment on the most 
extraordinary part of the process, and one which is well 
worthy the attention of the chemist. I mean the mar- 
vellous appearance of combustion carried.on without fuel. 
The small quantity of coal or brushwood used at first 
kindling of a kiln must of course be completely consumed 
paradox—a fire kept up month after month without fuel. 
How is it possible to account for this?—what can the 
