492 Domestic Notices : — England. 



bean-stalks is placed in the trees, as a lure for them to resort to during 

 the day, as they are chiefly migratory during the night ; but, though bean- 

 stalks answer the purpose, they are of too fragile a substance to last long, or 

 be so convenient in use as traps made of a more durable material. The 

 inventor (a person well acquainted with the subject) has, therefore, proposed 

 them to be made of tin, which will add durability to their efficacy as a trap. 

 They are composed of a limited number of small tubes, soldered together ; 

 which, being first dipped in honeyed or sugared water, will at once attract 

 the insects to feed, and invite them to remain in the tubes, from which they 

 may be shaken out into a pail of hot water, as often as necessary. Such 

 traps, kept in the trees during the ripening season, will preserve, unda- 

 maged, much fine fruit. — J. M. Sept. 1828. 



A Broccoli Plant which has stood Six Years, and produced good Heads every 

 Year. — Sir, Permit me to record, in your valuable Magazine, a rather sin- 

 gular instance of six years' growth of a spring white or cauliflower broccoli, 

 from the same plant, in the garden of Lee Priory, the seat of Colonel 

 Brydges Barrett. In the month of April, 1824, I sowed our broccolis, but 

 when I cut them in the following spring, by accident I happened to leave a 

 solitary plant, which stood rather aloof from the rest. The next year this 

 plant produced, to my astonishment, as fine and beautiful a head as any of 

 those which I had freshly planted. This excited my wonder and curiosity ; 

 I left it again and again, and now it is the sixth year, and it was but a very 

 few days since that 1 cut from it a superb head ! I enquired of several 

 intelligent and well-informed gardeners of the surrounding neighbourhood, 

 whether they had ever known such a thing, and, to my satisfaction, they-, 

 one and all, answered in the negative. I am perfectly well aware that there 

 are many instances known and upon record of a second sprout, but it has 

 never come within my practical knowledge, and I have been a gardener for 

 more than five and twenty years, that the same root will produce for six 

 successive years. Perhaps you might be induced to give me some inform- 

 ation upon this curious and, as it appears to me, no less important point. 

 In referring to several works upon gardening, I do not find a single instance 

 mentioned that broccoli has been ever known to produce more than one 

 (or, at most, a second) sprout from the same plant. I am, Sir, &c. — Sol-e- 

 mon Philips. Lee Priory, Ajml 16. 1830. 



In answer to some questions respecting his plants, Mr. Philips sent us 

 the following additional observations : — 



The sprouts or shoots come from near the bottom of the stem in the 

 second (but, to write more precisely, rather the first) year, almost in the 

 same manner as in the Woburn Kale. They produced four heads of a 

 middling size. In the third (or rather the second) year, the shoots came 

 from the middle of the stem, and produced two remarkably fine heads. In 

 the fourth (or rather the third) year, the shoots came from about the same 

 place in the stem, or they might have been perhaps a little higher up, as in 

 the last year, and brought forth three very fair heads. In the fifth (or rather 

 the fourth) year, the shoots came as usual from the middle of the stem, 

 and produced two very fine heads and a small one. In the sixth (or 

 rather the fifth) year, the shoot, (for there was only one), came from near 

 the top of the stem, and produced, as I have formely stated to you, a large 

 and beautiful head. The first year it was about 1 ft. ; the second year about 

 li ft. ; the third year about 2 ft. ; the fourth nearly 2J ft. ; the fifth 2| ft. ; 

 the sixth about 3 ft., more or less ; and the seventh, or present year, about 

 the same. The stem is larger at the top than at bottom, which is not the 

 case with the generality of broccoli plants. If it should be my good for- 

 tune to have this plant shoot in the following year, I shall certainly permit 

 it to run to flower, and save some of the seed, which I now much lament 

 that I did not do in this and the preceding years. 



The soil is a deep, rich, and loamy one : without wishing to boast, I will 

 add, that perhaps there is not richer and more productive land than this in 



