83 



PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



Gardening Improvements it would appear are very popular in this coun- 

 try. Mr. Blaikie, the landscape gardener, writes, " If I could go to twenty 

 places at once, I could hardly answer all the demands that are made upon 

 my time. Every proprietor here, whether he does any thing or not, is 

 anxious to know what his place is capable of being made, by planting, and 

 new arrangements of roads, fences, and buildings. 



" As for planting, I have adopted a system by which I can remove trees 

 at all seasons. As soon as they are taken up, I dip their roots in a puddle 

 of cow clung and loam, which preserves their fibres from the influence of 

 the air. When this practice is adopted in the winter season, the plants 

 ma}' be sent to any distance, or kept out of the ground for weeks without 

 the slightest injury ; and I have frequently transplanted trees in the heat of 

 summer by this precaution, and with perfect success. 



" We have a kind of cherry in this country which they never graft, but in- 

 crease by suckers: the trees are rather dwarfish, but the fruit is tolerably large 

 and good. I do not find this sort mentioned in English authors : pray, is it 

 known in England ? (We think not. — Cond.) 



" I am, dear Sir, &c. 



" Thomas Blaikie. 

 " Paris, Rue du Colisee, 25. Nov. 20th 1826." 



Jean-Frideric Oberlin, protestant pastor at Waldbach, in the territory of 

 Ban de la Roche, between the Lower Rhine and the Vosges, died in June 

 last, in his eighty-sixth year. .The dreary territory of Ban de la Roche, it is 

 said, is chiefly indebted for its civilization to this excellent pastor and his 

 predecessor. The pastor Oberlin finding the country without roads, sup- 

 plied the inhabitants with instruments and gunpowder, and taught them to 

 blow up the rocks, and form highways. He instructed them also in the use 

 of manures, and introduced seeds and plants suitable to the soil and 

 climate ; so that the steep sides of hills, which were formerly arid and 

 sterile, are now covered with pasture and wood, and the lowlands with 

 gardens, orchards, and corn. He taught some of the inhabitants surgery. 

 others midwifery, and he composed a tract, (as our benevolent correspondent 

 Mr. Collyns has done for this Magazine,) on the medical uses of native 

 plants, and directed their preparation and employment personally. His 

 solicitude for the physical wants of his flock did not lessen his zeal for 

 their moral and intellectual improvement : he established schools for dif- 

 ferent ages, in which were taught manners, rural and domestic occupations, 

 and intellectual instruction. From his pulpit he "inculcated a rational 

 morality, founded on its utility in society ; and on the impossibility of being 

 happy without the approbation of the wise and good, and of conscience. 

 He was the friend and counsellor of the humblest and highest of his flock ; 



G 2 



