22 i Hints for Experiments 



at any rate, under that form of words he evades the question of perpetu- 

 ating the peculiar qualities of a variety ; say, for instance, of thegolden pippin. 



"In every perfectly ripe apple there will be found one, and sometimes 

 two, round seeds ; the others will have one or more flatted sides. The round 

 ones will produce the improved fruit from which they are taken; and those 

 with flatted sides will produce the fruit of the crab upon which the graft 

 was inserted. It requires not a long time to ascertain the difference; for if 

 a circle is drawn in rich ground, and the flatted-sided seeds planted therein, 

 and the round seeds in the centre, the variation of the quality will be dis- 

 covered in two or three years; the first will throw out the leaves of the 

 crab ; and the latter the leaves of an improved tree, distinguished in shape, 

 fibre, and a lanuginous appearance ; and in due time the fruit of each will 

 put every thing beyond a doubt. 



" It is to be observed, moreover, that the seeds of crabs (being originals) 

 are mostly, if not altogether, round." (Mech. Mag. Jan. 21.) 



We should be happy to hear the result of a few trials. Take a bud from 

 the seedling the first summer, insert it in the extremity of a branch of an old 

 tree, and it will probably blossom the third spring. Thus three or at most 

 four years will suffice to prove this theory true or false. 



Yeast as a Manure. It is not generally known that this is one of the 

 most powerful manures in existence. Some experiments have been tried 

 with grass-plots and different culinary vegetables, from which it appears, 

 that a very small quantity of yeast, after it has become putrid and useless to 

 the brewer or baker, will effect wonders when mixed with water and applied 

 to plants as liquid manure. The only danger seems to be in making it too 

 rich. We would recommend such of our readers as have leisure and oppor- 

 tunity to try it on pines, vines, tjheBrassica family, especially cauliflowers, the 

 potatoe, as a pickle for wheat and other seeds, and for watering new-sown 

 turnips and similar oleaginous seeds. 



Substitute for Ringing. As oil is well known to indurate the bark of 

 trees and prevent its swelling, we would suggest the idea of trying oiling a 

 broad zone of bark, as a substitute for ringing. 



To preserve Broccoli in a growing slate from being injured by the frost. Put 

 the plants in an artificial coppice wood, by laying some bean or pea haulm 

 or other litter on the ground among their stems, to imitate withered grass, 

 and then striking the whole plot as full as it will stick of old pea stakes, to 

 imitate the bushes. 



Coal Ashes. It does not seem to be very generally known among gardeners 

 that cinders, whether large or small, are injurious to the roots of many, if 

 not of most vegetables. A few days ago, in shifting a few roots of chrysan- 

 themums which we had received from , we observed some of the 



plants looking much less healthy than others. On turning the unhealthy 

 plants out of the pots, we found that, instead of potsherds, a large handful of 

 coal cinders had been used for draining them. On turning out the healthy 

 plants, potsherds had been employed as usual, and the roots were matted 

 about them, while no roots had penetrated among the cinders. On direct- 

 ing the attention of a horticultural friend to the circumstance, he related 

 the case of a large garden in Scotland which had been manured or coated over 

 with coal ashes from a neighbouring town for two years in succession ; which 

 ashes, though impregnated with the usual animal and vegetable matters, dis- 

 played their deleterious effects both on fruit trees and culinary vegetables, 

 not less than in the chrysanthemum pots. The gardener, finding his fruit 

 trees not to thrive so well as he expected, but attributing it to a different 

 cause, took up a number of them, and formed a sub-stratum of ashes, in order 

 to lay them, as he said, dry and comfortable. The trees got worse, and were 

 again taken up and the ashes removed ; but such were the deleterious effects 

 of the ashes already worked into the soil, that this garden, which previously 

 was, and now is, one of the most productive in Scotland, was two or three 



