Domestic Notices. — Scotland. 



55 



collections from Drum, and from the experimental garden, consisting of 

 sixteen sorts each, were particularly admired. 



Prizes were awarded as follows : — 1 . For best blanched succory, to Mr. 

 James Barnet, as the experimental gardener. 2. For eight finest hya- 

 cinths in flower, two blue, two red, two white, and r.wo yellow, to Mr. Wil- 

 liam Oliver, gardener to the Earl of Rosslyn at Dysart House. No forced 

 strawberries were produced, and no market-gardener produced forced 

 rhubarb stalks. The blanched succory may be regarded as a new salad at 

 Edinburgh. Specimens were, however, sent from the garden of Lord 

 Gray, at Kinfauns, and of Mr. Trotter at Ballenden ; but the carriage had 

 injured them. 



The London medal for 1827 was voted to Mr. Archibald Reid, for his 

 essay on the advantage of shallow planting of fruit trees on indiiFerent 

 subsoils, in preventing canker, &c. 



Mr. Thorburn, of New York, a native of Dalkeith [whose remarkable 

 history we shall give in a succeeding number], presented a fine painting' of 

 the Boston Elm, a tree of very large dimensions. 



Papers of considerable interest, on the keeping of fruit, on training the 

 rose tree, on edible gourds, and on preparing soil for a carrot crop, were 

 read to the meeting. (^Scotsman, March 8.) 



We are glad to see that this Society have taken up the subject of 

 blanched succory. We have little doubt, if the suggestions of our Brussels 

 correspondent (Vol. IL p. 460.) were adopted by either a London or Edin- 

 burgh market-gardener, it would pay him handsomely, and succory stalks 

 would become as common in our markets as rhubarb stalks, not one of 

 which were to be seen there a dozen years ago. We have carefully ob- 

 served Covent Garden market for several winters past, and can assert that, 

 for four months in every year, salad of every kind has not only been scarce 

 and dear there,'but not of good quality. Blanched succory, at whatever 

 period of the year produced, can hardly be otherwise than tender, crisp, 

 and well flavoured. 



Green and Fruit Marliet. — Jan. 26. Common kitchen vegetables abun- 

 dant and cheap. Forced asparagus, 2s. a hundred ; baking apples, 9s. a: 

 bushel; forced sea-kale and rhubarb stalks at moderate prices. — Feb. 25. 

 Apples no longer brought from Clydesdale; Reinettes, Ribston, and Stone 

 Pippins from Dumfries, 10s. per bushel. — March s. Great quantities of 

 cabbage. Savoy, and borecole have been brought to market, to sell for plant- 

 ing for the first time this season. As the day was cold, the wind easterly 

 and inclining to frost, most of the plants remained unsold. — March 15. 

 Cabbage plants for planting, from 2s. to 2s. Qd. per thousand ; sea-kale, from 

 Is. 2d. to 2s. a dish ; broccoli, from 2d. to Ad. a head ; large leeks, \d. -a 

 dozen ; all the common articles in the greatest abundance, and scarcely 

 saleable at any price. (Scotsman.) 



The Shoots from the Stools of Forest Trees, it is well remarked by Mr. 

 Monteith, may either become crooked branches of little use but as fuel, or 

 beautiful and straight timber trees, according as the old tree may be cut 

 over close by the surface [fig. 40. a), or 

 1 ft. above it {b). This important fact 

 ought to be familiar to every forester, and 

 constantly kept in mind by the gardener in 

 pruning fruit trees. The spurring-in sys- 

 tem is, to a certain extent, subject to the 

 same law; long spurs will produce nume- 

 rous blossom buds, and no long leaf shoots; 

 short spurs, in Mr. Harrison's manner, few 

 and large buds, with some leaf shoots ; and 

 the spurs totally removed, as in Lawrence's 

 mode of pruning vines (Vol. IIL p. 245.), 



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