1843.J< 97 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 659 
Just published, in One Volume 8vo., price 3s. 6d. to Fellows of 
the Society, and 5s, to others, (or postage free, upon receipt of 
a Post-office order, price 5s, to Fellows of the Society, or 6s. 6d. 
to others,) 
CATALOGUE or tue FRUITS CULTIVATED 
in the GARDEN of the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY oF 
LONDON. (Third Edition.) Containing the Names, Synonyms, 
Colour, Size, Form, Quality, Use, Time of Ripening, and many 
other particulars concerning all the most important varieties of 
hardy Fruit cultivated in this country. 
Sold at the House of the Society, 21, Regent-street, and also 
by Loneman and Co., Paternoster-row ; J. Harcnarn, Picca- 
dilly; Ripeway, Piccadilly; RivineTons, Waterloo-place; and 
by the principal Booksellers in all parts of the Empire. 
‘A few Copies of the Second Edition of this Catalogue may be 
had at the reduced price of 1s. 6d. each. a 
The Gardeners’ Chronicte. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1843. ¢ 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Tuesday, September 26. Florivultural . - . + 7 PM 
Tuesday, October 3. . . Horticultural. . «+ 3 Fae 
Friday, — 6... Botanical... 
Tu newspapers have lately contained an incom- 
plete account of an interesting experiment on the 
propagation of Wheat by division of its roots, from 
which it appears that a field may be cropped with 
Wheat without employing more than the 2,400dth of 
the usual quantity of seed-corn. By the kindness of 
Mr. Archdale Palmer we are now enabled to state the 
exact facts, which are explained in the following letter 
from that gentleman :— 
“As my friend Mr. Pownall has anticipated my inten- 
tion to make the following experiment public, which I 
have no doubt has attracted your attention, J cannot 
longer delay transmitting it to you for the readers of the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, agreeably to my original view, as 
soon as I had ascertained the actual result, and that could 
not be before the Corn was threshed, which has been done 
© 1842:—July. One grain of Wheat sown in a pot— 
August. The same divided into 4 plants, which three 
weeks after were again separated and made 12 plants— 
September. The same 12 plants were again separated, and 
made 82 plants—November. The same 32 plants were 
again separated into 48 plants which were then planted in 
the open ground, not particularly prepared for them, 18 
inches from each other, occupying a space of 11 yards by 
1 yard, being the 440th part of an acre; consequently 440 
grains would be found sufficient for one acre, which I find 
weigh 4 of an ounce. 
«1843 :—August. Ten of the 48 plants died, and the 
remaining 38 plants were cut down, anfortunately, before 
the Corn was ripe, as the birds had already taken one-fourth 
away. 1972 stems were counted. It was threshed this 
week, and the weight is 23 lbs., which, according to the 
preceding calculation, consists of 22,000 grains, The 
Wheat sown is known by the name of Eclipse. TI have 
thus stated the simple facts, but there are many observa- 
tions which will naturally arise in an inquiring mind, 
when it is known that the cultivators of the soil in this 
country do not reap, upon the average, above 30 bushels 
for 3 bushels sown. JI am aware that a remark will be 
made ‘of the trouble and some little expense for the 
garden-pots, which were 48s, if the experiment is carried 
on to a larger extent. But let every person interested in 
this account try themselves—they will, as well as myself, 
be astonished at the result— Archdale Palmer, Cheam.”’ 
It appears from this experiment that by a new 
application of manual labour, three quarters of an 
ounce of seed-wheat will plant an acre of land. “The 
quantity now used may be averaged at two bushels 
and a half, weighing about a hundred and fifty pounds. 
Sixty shillings a quarter will not be too high a price 
to take as the average value of seed-wheat, and there- 
fore the saving in corn will be about eighteen and six- 
pence per acre. 
Of course the practical question is whether this 
eighteen and sixpence will cover the cost of manual 
labour required for the operation of setting Wheat 
instead of sowing it. If it does cover the expense it 
would be an enormous gain to the country, because it 
would immediately afford a large amount of employ- 
ment to those labourers who not being able-bodied 
are most in want of it. We doubt whether cighteen 
and sixpence an acre could be possibly expended in 
the operation, if judiciously conducted on a large 
scale; but that is a question which any intelligent 
farmer can answer better than we can. 
We would only observe that if, as we are told, 
3,800,000 acres are annually planted in Wheat in 
England and Wales, the application of so large a sum as 
8,500,0001.,—which would be the amount of saving by 
Mr. Palmer’s operation at the prices above assumed,— 
to the relief of the poor, is something which demands 
a very different notice from that of a passing comment 
in a newspaper. ; 
We shall take an early opportunity of returning to 
this matter. 
Wiru a compact subsoil within 18 inches or less of 
the surface, and which lies nearly parallel to it, there is 
very little difficulty in contriving artificial channels of 
various dimensions, so as to carry off the superfluous 
moisture, or, more properly, to prevent its stagnating 
and accumulating between the soil and subsoil. But 
the case is very different when the subsoil varies con- 
tinually, and is never parallel to the upper surface, but 
undulates, or has various dips, quite unconnected with 
the declivities of the surface. his is very frequently 
the case where there is a change in the geological posi- 
tion of different strata. ‘To take a familiar example, 
which may be met with within a short distance of the 
Metropolis: the London clay—one of thie most uni- 
form—lies in a basin of chalk, which crops out all 
around it; in some places the clay is 300 feet deep, or 
more; and in others, at no great depth, the spade can 
turn up solid lumps of chalk. The pure chalk is 
always pervious to water, and if it lies within reach, 
so that pits may be dug into it, these will often carry 
off all the water which may be conducted to them by 
drains or ditches. It is possible that, in. some: cases, 
the chalk may be saturated with moisture which has 
no outlet; but this case is uncommon, except where 
the chalk itself lies in an impervious basin. We only 
wish to point out the situation of those lands which 
border on the transition from one stratum to another. 
In most cases, especially when the chalk and clay meet, 
the circumstance is pointed out by numerous springs 
coming out of the chalk. It requires good practice and 
some science to drain land which lies in such a situa- 
tion, but by adopting correct principles founded on 
experience, the difficulty is easily overcome. General 
rules and directions, however, are not applicable to 
cases which vary without end. Where the London 
clay has another soil superimposed on it, which is 
generally of a poor gravelly nature, abounding in 
round pebbles and loam impregnated with iron, or, as 
in Suffolk, with a marine crag, there the meeting of 
the light soil and clay subsoil is accompanied with 
endless variations. One would imagine that the upper 
soil had been carried by currents and whirlpools, which 
had mixed it in the greatest confusion ; here producing 
a bed of gravel of great thickness, and there scooping 
out the clay into holes, which were immediately filled 
with this chaotic mixture of every kind of earth and 
stones. In another place, a complete bed of fine sand 
has evidently been deposited over the clay, and this 
again washed away by subsequent currents, leaving 
the clay bare in the valleys. These soils generally 
require draining, wherever the sand meets with -the 
clay. If the clay were level, or had any regular inclina- 
tion, the task would be easy ; the springs being cut off 
at a certain depth by deep-lying drains, the wet ground 
below would immediately become dry and sound: the 
upper soil, being porous, would require no other drains 
than the ditches. But this is scarcely ever the case, and 
the loam, which is formed by a mixture of clay and 
sand, usually called brick-earth, is as impervious to 
water as the clay itself. In good brick-earth, drains 
may be laid as we described before, but where there 
are continual variations in the subsoil, from loose 
running sand to loamy gravel and stiff clay, there 
pipes alone will act effectually, and they must be so 
made as to fit into each other, to prevent their shifting. 
Where the sand is loose and running, a foundation 
of brick-earth or clay must be made first, or of con- 
crete, if that can be done sufficiently cheap, as we are 
assured it can; the pipes may have holes, or what is 
bettér, merely a slit to let in the water, without letting 
in the sand, which must be kept out by a layer of 
straw, or furze or heath, as can be most easily pro- 
cured. Pipes are now made by a machine, w hich 
every brick-maker can have constructed for a very few 
pounds. It is merely an imitation of that by which 
macaroni is made in Italy. A quantity of well- 
tempered clay is put into a wooden or iron cylinder, 
in the bottom of which is an iron plate or disk, in 
which the exact section of the pipe is cut out; a strong 
piston forced down by any simple machinery drives 
out the pipe, which is received on a wooden mould, set 
perpendicularly, of the size of the bore of the pipe, 
having a shoulder and handle at the bottom. When 
the pipe is thirteen inches long, it is cut off with a 
wire, a boy seizes the handle of the mould with the 
pipe on it, and places the pipe on a barrow with a flat 
stage on it, which, when full, is wheeled away. At 
the moment the first boy removes the mould, another 
boy places another vertically, to receive the next pipe. 
One cylinder when filled will squeeze out 12 pipes, 
or more ; it is then removed to be filled again, while 
it is replaced by a full one. With a little practice the 
operations go on most rapidly, and the greatest portion 
of the labour of moulding pipes and bending them is 
saved. We have no doubt, that, with fair compe- 
tition, pipes 2 or 3 inches in interior diameter may be 
thus made and burned, where fuel is moderately 
cheap, for less than 20s. a thousand, and larger in 
proportion. In the machine we saw at work there 
was no contrivance for making one end of the pipes 
wider to receive the smaller end of another ; but it is 
obvious that a slight enlargement near to the handle 
of the mould which receives the pipe, as it is formed, 
would effect the purpose completely. With such 
pipes any soil may be. cheaply drained ; and we hope 
that the very simple machine which makes them may 
be so generally adopted, that the expense of thorough- 
draining with tiles will never be urged as an objection. 
If the draining costs 4¢. per acre, which it seldom will 
come to, we will venture to affirm, that the first Corn 
crop of any kind, grown on the land after it has been 
drained, when the winter and spring have been wet, 
will amply repay the whole outlay; and every succeed- 
ing crop will give a considerable increase of the 
former average of crops on the same land.— MZ, 
One reason why the obtaining heat by hot water 
circulating in earthen flues or gutters has met with 
so favourable a reception is its cheapness. Although 
iron pipes and evaporating-pans may be the best 
materials where durability is important, and there is 
much work to perform, yet there are thousands inter- 
ested in gardens who cannot afford their expense, and 
who therefore have been obliged to dispense with heat- 
ing apparatus altogether until the tank system was again 
prought forward, and means were pointed out of 
applying it economically. There is, however, still a 
difficulty with almost everybody in knowing how the 
apparatus can be best constructed ; and, therefore, we 
think it desirable, without waiting for perfection, to 
state the general result up to the present time 
of experiments on the subject in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society, where it is at this moment 
either used or about to be used in several different 
laces. 
The gutters there were originally constructed of 
old flue-tiles and bricks set in cement, rendered inside 
with the same material, so as to be water-tight, and 
covered with flue-tiles, having moreover common 
chimney-pots adapted to them here and there, so as to 
allow steam to rise out of the gutters into the houses 
upon occasion. An attempt was afterwards made to 
substitute gutters of Stourbridge clay, a very hard 
material, but it was found impossible to prevent the 
fracture of their joints, in consequence of the expan- 
sion and contraction of these gutters ; the attempt was 
therefore discontinued, and the materials of construc- 
tion first employed are still in use. 
It was-also supposed that leaden pipes for the flow 
and return of the water from the boiler to the water- 
gutters could be secured by being passed through 
bricks well coated in cement. ‘This however failed, 
in consequence of the expansion of the metal when 
heated, the joints again breaking and allowing the 
water to run out. ‘This difficulty is now completely 
overcome, by building into the end of the water- 
gutters next the boiler a piece of stone, pierced with 
two holes, to which union screws are secured, To 
these union screws the flow and return-pipes are after- 
wards adjusted. 
As the porous nature of the materials purposely 
employed for gutters, and the unsound joints, cause 
a perpetual leakage to some extent, it was found neces- 
sary to be able to examine the height of the water in 
the gutters at all times; and this was effected by con- 
tinuing them jnto a cistern, built in the wall of the 
stoke-hole, and always uncovered. By this means, 
too, the water can be always replenished, as it wastes 
by evaporation, leakage, or otherwise. 
In Mr. Rendle’s plan, the whole under-surface of 
propagating or other beds has been made to rest on a 
tank of heated water, whence thename of the “ Tank 
system.” But this seems to be a superfluous expense, 
As far as can be at present judged, quite heat enough 
is obtained froma gutter running all round a pit, near 
the external wall without touching it, and by eas 
the cavity next the outer wall to communicate wit! 
the air of the pit, both bottom and top heat are fur- 
nished conveniently, and, as it seems, effectually. 
These preliminary remarks will enable the reader to 
understand the reasons which led to the construction 
of the pit, 54 feet long and 6 feet wide, of which the 
following are the plans and description :— 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 1 represents a section of the water-gutters, &c., 
at the stoke-hole. The boiler is one of Stephenson’s, 
which requires no setting, connected with the gutters 
by means of inch-and-quarter leaden pipes, and the 
cistern A. This cistern is formed by a vertical stone, 
tapped with two holes, and fitted with union screws, 
* *, an 
and resting on a horizontal stone... The flow-pipe_is 
