88 ' Foreign Notices : — France. 



fc>' 



'Ldthi/rus suaveolem ['?]. — I received the seeds of the species of X^thyrus 

 herewith sent from the south of Europe, under the name of L. suaveolens. 

 I am of opinion that it will be a valuable agricultural plant, either as feed 

 or hay. In rich soils I fear it would grow too luxuriant, and perhaps too 

 hard or woody to make a good sample of hay. It is in the poorest soils 

 that I fancy it would prosper most ; and in such soils it would be the more 

 desirable. It appears to contain a very great quantity of sugar ; and horses, 

 cows, and donkeys eat it while green with avidity. The little I dried the 

 latter seem very fond of. Perhaps the best mode of culture vi'ould be to 

 sow the seeds in a small patch ; and when they came up, and the plants were 

 sufficiently strong, they might be planted out in lines in the fields. The 

 first season, under ordinary circumstances, they would afford a crop of hay, 

 if not hay, at least rich pasturage in autumn, the following season they 

 would yield a heavy crop ; and, in addition tojts saccharine properties, it 

 seeds so abundantly that it cannot fail of being rich provender for horses, 

 &c. I have given some of it to Mi'. Atkinson, to plant on the poor soil at 

 Silvermere, where I shall have the opportunity of seeing its progress. 

 Perhaps you may think it worth distributing to some of your agricultural 

 friends, whose observations will either confirm or refute my opinion of it. 

 The result I shall be glad to learn. — Charles Mackintosh. Claremont Gar- 

 dens, Dec. 7. 1830. [Sent to Mr. Charlwood for distribution. — Cond.'\ 



Field Turnips as treated by Agronome. — The first, second, or third week 

 in October pull up every turnip in the farm, whether they have done grow- 

 ing or not : if they have not, all the better. Lay them carefully across the 

 top of the ridges or drills ; let them remain in this state a week or a fort- 

 night before cutting off the tops and tails. The grand advantage of this 

 leaving on the tops is, that the roots become doubly nutritious, as well as 

 doubly durable. A gardener can understand all this from saving his bulbs, 

 from taking up his potatoes while the stems are yet growing, and from 

 gathering his keeping fruit before it is fully ripe. — Agronome. Near 

 Cheadle,- Staffordshire, Oct. 2%. 1830. {Country Times, Nov. 1. 1830.) 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 FRANCE. 



Tours, Jan. 1. 1831. — You will, perhaps, on seeing the date of this, 

 think I have chosen oddly in writing to you on the subject of the gardens 

 of this neighbourhood at this time ; but it is precisely because it is the sea- 

 son of mid-winter that I now employ my pen on that subject : were I to 

 wait till I may have more, and better worth, to send you, I fear I might 

 forget some particulars at a future time which are now constantly under 

 my eye ; and which, at any rate, I may now describe in more faithfiil and 

 more vivid colours than when the present appearances are superseded by 

 others still more interesting in the spring. The situation of this citj', be- 

 tween the rivers Loire and Cher, and the abi'uptness with which " the vine- 

 covered hills " on the right bank of the former river rise close on its faux- 

 bourg Symphorien, nearly confine the gardens, cultivated mainly for the 

 supply of the population of Tours (or the market-gardens, as we should 

 call them), to the east, the south, and the west sides of the city. The land 

 between the Loire and the Cher is alluvion of the first quality, except 

 in places where the erratic wanderings of the latter river, at a period when 

 not so effectually confined within its banks as at present, have made new 

 channels for itself, and deposited sand in those it had left, or spread it over 

 the adjacent levels. Every where close up to the ramparts of the city, in 

 uninterrupted succession, there are either nurserymen's grounds or market- 

 gardens, and the latter extend outward in some places to a very consider- 



