Domestic Notices. — England. 235 



granadillas, guavas, mangoes, &c. ; if possible, plants of the best varieties 

 should be imported from the countries where they are cultivated. The 

 Loquat is said to be already a garden fruit in Malta. 



Absorption of Heat in Hot-houses. — " Captain Wight, R. N., it is said, 

 proposes to introduce in hot-houses certain dark metallic substances for 

 the purpose of absorbing heat from the rays of the sun, and returning it to 

 the atmosphere of the house." {Newsp.) 



The Seeds of the Laburnam, have poisoned eight cows in the neighbour- 

 hood of Oswestry. Mr. Beckett, the veterinary surgeon of that town, is 

 of opinion that this poison belongs to the class of narcotics. {County Chron.) 



Mulberry Plantation at Slough. — "Dear Sir, I have collected every 

 information I could, and have been to see the grounds. I found the'plant- 

 ation quite in an infant state, situated in a field contiguous to Slough, 

 bounded on the north by the Bath road, about a mile from Salt Hill, and 

 in the parish of Upton-cum-Chalvey. The field contains eighteen acres, 

 fifteen of which are already planted ; and, considering the extreme dryness 

 of last season, the trees have made astonishing progress. The soil is a deep 

 hazelly loam, the subsoil chiefly brick earth. Previous to planting, it was 

 trenched from eighteen inches to two feet deep, and manured when 

 planted. The principal trees are standards, in rows fifteen feet by eighteen 

 apart, with dwarfs between, to remain only as long as may be deemed neces- 

 sary ; the space between is at present occupied as a nursery for young trees, 

 principally from Italy, and chiefly from seed. They appear to be from three 

 to four years old, and were cut down to within an eye or two of the ground 

 last spring. They have since made shoots from eighteen inches to four 

 feet high. Those intended for standards will again be cut down this spring, 

 which will cause them to shoot vigorously and produce fine stems. After- 

 wards, they will be treated as other standard fruit-trees. Amongst those 

 from seed, there is a great diversity in the leaves ; this part of the plant 

 being the grand object, the plants producing the largest leaves are selected, 

 and marked in the summer ; the others are used for stocks on which to 

 graft the larger leaved sorts in the spring. 



Should the company succeed according to expectation, they intend 

 building a manufactory on the spot, and by their stock of young trees, I 

 think their views must extend beyond this very limited spot of ground. 



Windsor, Jan. 16. 1827. A Correspondent. 



Some curious and interesting Experiments on the Smut in Wheat, have been 

 made during the last two years by Dr. Pew, a highly respectable physician 

 of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. In a glass of rain water were put fifty smut 

 balls, which, on the tenth day, exhibited an immense multitude of minute 

 animalcula, which, on examination with a microscope, proved to be of two 

 kinds ; eel-like insects, and very minute creatures destined to be the food 

 of the former. The eel-like insects amounted to about thirty, the minute 

 animalcula to several millions. In the course of a month, Dr. P. witnessed 

 three or four generations of the eel-like insects, and the others were con- 

 tinually regenerating ; but some cold nights about the middle of October, 

 induced torpor, and finally death, to both kinds. " From this last circum- 

 stance, the Doctor concludes, that severe winters, attended with much frost 

 and much snow lying long on the ground, must be the most effectual pre- 

 ventive of smut for a time, sensible as these creatures appear to be of cold. 

 It seems also, that if old wheat be sown, even though infected with smut 

 balls, little or no smut may be produced ; which is accounted for on the 

 same principle that the eggs of hens and other birds become addled by long 

 keeping, so those of the smut animalcula fail to hatch. The Doctor finds 

 that the very soil, at length, becomes infected with the smut balls, and that 

 though pure and clean wheat be sown, smut on these lands will be produced. 



