Gardener^ s Hememhranccr . 35 



fruit trees; but, of course, the fact is most obvious in the case of annuals or 

 biennials, such as corns or clovers. Mr. Sinclair does not pretend to 

 account for this antipathy of plants to continue in the same soil ; because, 

 in analysing a soil immediately before and after producing an impoverishing' 

 crop, he found no diminution in the weight or proportion of its consti*^ 

 tuents, and because M. Braconnot grew plants in substances free from any 

 kind of soil, to a perfect state of maturity. All that can be done, he says, 

 is to draw information from experiment, and he has given a list of what 

 are called green crops, and shown the proportionate quantity of nutritive 

 matter of each to the gross produce. 



Experience, he says, proves that " the effects of some plants are only to 

 impoverish the soil for an immediate succession of the same plant, while 

 others have the property of exhausting the land, not only for an im- 

 mediate succession of themselves, but likewise for every other kind of 

 vegetable." Mr Sinclair has, therefore, given the following lists of general 

 impoverishers and partial impoverishers : — 



General Impoverkhers. — Oats, rye, potatoes, carrots, mangold wurtzel, 

 cabbages, kohl-rabi, ^unias orientalis. 



Partial Impoverishers. — Wheat, peas, beans, turnips, clovers, sainfoin, 

 lucerne, grasses when mown. 



Mr. Sinclair we believe to be better acquainted with chemistry than any 

 gardener, and in vegetable physiology to be superior to most; indeed, he is 

 altogether one of the most scientific cultivators we ever knew. His valuable 

 work, the Hortus Gramineus Wobiirnmsis, much as it has been approved of, 

 has never been fully appreciated by practical men, being, in fact, rather in 

 advance of their present state of preparatory knowledge; it will be better 

 understood, and more highly valued, twenty years hence. We would 

 recommend every young gardener to study carefully the valuable papers 

 on horticultural chemistry which Mr. Johnson is now laying before them 

 (Vol. III. p. 129. et seq.); and, if they cannot purchase, to borrow from their 

 emploj er Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, and Mr. Sinclair's work, and, by 

 study, to make them their own. 



Mr. Alton's papers, and those of W. M., are on subjects purely agricul- 

 cural, and on planting; that by Mr. Main is an extract from a paper by 

 him in Brande's Quarterly Journal, on the history of British fruits. 



We have no doubt this will be a successful work, and do much good ; 

 we shall from time to time notice in it what we think interesting to 

 gardeners, and shall be happy to contribute to it any spare paper that we 

 may think suitable, or, now and then, to recommend a correspondent to 

 it, as we have already done, and shall continue to do, to Fleming's British 

 Farmer's Magazine. 



The Gardener'' s Remembrancer, and Apiarian's Monthly Calendar. In One 

 Sheet, 2 ft. 6. in. by 2 ft. 2 in. Printed on both sides, by the Typo-Litho- 

 graphic process, 7*. 



One side of this table contains a calendar within a circle, each month in 

 a division, radiating from the centre to the circumference, and a " poor 

 man's weather-glass,^' printed across the bottom of the page. The other 

 side contains the vegetable seed calendar, and the fruit calendar, with 

 directions for grafting, and for the culture of the mushroom. A good deal 

 of useful information"is comprised in these divisions ; but more might have 

 been introduced by printing the calendar in parallel columns, and printing 

 both sides of the sheet from the one side to the other, instead of from the 

 top to the bottom. Too much, in our opinion, is sacrificed to show; and, 

 in short, we regret, and rather wonder, considering the present state_ of 

 horticultural knowledge and book-making in this country, that something 

 better was not produced. 



D 4- 



