Queries and Answers. 



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a, Front oak door. 

 d, 9-inch brick wall. 



b, Second door. c, Sliders, coming out one board at a time. 



e, 4J-inch cavity. /, 14-inch stone wall, g, 3-inch drains, h, Soil on top 



I filled the house with well-broken ice, sprinkling a little common salt ; and 

 it was all melted by the beginning of June. Last year I filled it according 

 to the plan recommended by Mr. James Young (Vol. III. p. 138.) ; but the 

 ice had all disappeared by the middle of August. The passage part is 

 imperfectly finished, it being only covered with oak slabs, with about 3 ft. 

 of clay, so that the wet comes in sometimes. Is the house too small to 

 contain a sufficient body of ice to last all the year? I was compelled to the 

 above dimensions, not from want of room, but from my employer consi- 

 dering it quite large enough. If it is large enough, how is it to be filled so 

 as to insure the ice keeping all the year ? An answer in your December 

 Number will greatly oblige, Sir, &c. — W. P. Vaughan. Archdeaconry, Brecon, 

 September 9. 1830. 



American Potatoes. — What is the reason that American potatoes, when 

 planted in England, canker, produce such large tops, and, when taken up, 

 are found to have produced only two or three potatoes at a root ? — S. 

 September, 1830. 



A Collection of Gooseberries for prolonging to the utmost the Season of that 

 Fruit. — Sir, Intending to make a plantation of gooseberries, I wish for 

 some of each colour, some for size, others for flavour, and also to know 

 at what period they ripen, that, by having some of each size and colour, 

 that will come in succession from a very early to a very late period, I may 

 enjoy the fruit for a much longer time than I now can. I should feel 

 much obliged if you could give me this information, as also any other pecu- 

 liarities of the different sorts of gooseberries, and inform me where I could 

 obtain the plants. — Edmund Vallance. Brighton, October 9. 1830. 



Hybrid Melons. — Sir, In answer t o your correspondent P. Lauder 

 (p. 502.), I send you the following observations : — That my own expe- 

 rience proves the impossibility of any fecundation, either by artificial or na- 

 tural means, taking place between the Cucumis -Melo, C. sativus, and any 

 species of Cucurbita. My experiments have been very numerous,and carefully 



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