Queries and Answers to Qiieries. 191; 



horizontal or pendulous direction, &c. &c. ; dry warm weather, at a particular 

 stage of the formation of the buds in the preceding summer, has, it is be- 

 lieved, also the same effect. It may be attributed to the diminution of the 

 ascending, or preponderance of the descending, sap ; but, granting this, it is 

 only the remote, not the proximate, cause, and we advance but one step 

 towards the solution of the question. How is it that sap of one descrip- 

 tion produces flower buds, and that of another leaf buds ? Do these saps 

 respectively contain the germs of either; or have they the faculty of 

 changing germs that previously exist, and are neutral, into one or the 

 other ? Querist having hitherto met with no satisfactory reasoning on the 

 subject, and not subscribing to either of the above explanations, hesitates 

 in forming an opinion, in hopes that some person who has made vegetable 

 physiology more peculiarly his study, may throw sufficient light upon a 

 subject of no mean interest in horticultural practice. — A.P. H. March 24. 



Saltpetre. — A correspondent solicits attention to the properties of 

 saltpetre, as a stimulant or manure of vegetables. He gives an account of 

 an experiment, or trial of it rather, on 5 square poles of a crop of barley, 

 which had been sown after a crop of cabbage. 30 lbs. was the quantity 

 used ; and it had a most astonishing effect in rendering the barley much 

 more luxuriant than the rest of the field. Our correspondent acknow- 

 ledges himself unable to account for the circumstance, though one of 

 his admissions sufficiently does, viz., the salted crop " would have been 

 actually too great, had not the summer been so dry." Thus showing, that 

 the powerful attraction of moisture by the salt, was the immediate cause 

 of the luxuriance. Had it been a wet summer, little or no difference in 

 the crop would have been observable. We advise our friend H. C. W. to 

 continue his projected experiments, and shall be happy to hear of the re- 

 sults.— J. Af. /or Cowrf. 



Treatment of Gold and Silver Fish, in answer to several querists. — These 

 beautiful objects of the animal kingdom, though long ago introduced into 

 Europe^from China, their native country, seldom breed in such numbers as 

 they might be expected to do. It has been lately discovered that in ponds 

 heated by the waste water discharged from steam factories, the gold and 

 silver fish breed abundantly. From this circumstance, it has been suggested, 

 that, as heating hot-houses by warm water is now so generally adopted, a 

 portion of this, led occasionally into a garden basin, would keep the water 

 in such a temperament as would not only always be agreeable to the fish, 

 but promote their breeding. — J. H. 



To destroy Grubs and Wire-worms. — Sir, Observing in the Gardener's 

 Magazine for January last (Vol. III. p. 381.), that A Surrey Reader com- 

 plains that grubs and wire-worms trouble him much, by " destroying from 

 60 to 100 cabbage plants every night," I am induced (as no one else steps 

 forward to assist him) to communicate to you the following, published by 

 the Highland Society, which I some time ago copied from. a newspaper : — 



" The following preparation is humbly recommended as a valuable 

 remedy to vanquish, if not entirely to exterminate, all the tribe of vermin 

 that prove so injurious to the industry of those who cultivate the soil. 



" Take tobacco leaves, cut them small, and make a strong infusion of 

 them, by pouring hot water upon them in a tub. The infusion must not 

 be boiled, as that would carry off" by steam a great part of the most valuable 

 principle, the essential oil of the tobacco. When this infusion is cold, dis- 

 solve in it one or two pounds of common gum arable ; and, when the latter 

 is dissolved, a pound or more of flower of sulphur may be added, par- 

 ticularly if it is intended to give a smart washing to wall fruit trees. It is 

 conceived that from January to March (if the weather be mild) is the best 

 time for the application of the above infusion to wall fruit trees, and to all 

 kinds of gooseberry and currant bushes, previously pruning them, and weed- 

 ing clean round their stems. Some days after the first washing, which may 



