96 Cottages and Cottage Gardens. 



impaired or exhausted by the frequent winter feedings, if not repeated 

 beyond the time when it shows a disposition to spindle. When it at length 

 runs, in spring, if the soil is good and well manured, it rises, of the thick- 

 ness of a swan's quill, to the height of 3 ft. or more, and has a very broad 

 and fleshy flag, and a great deal of rich nutritious food, to be cut green for 

 the stable; and it happily supplies the interval, for that purpose, between 

 rye and wheat, or winter vetches. If sown in autumn, its grain ripens 

 early in summer : it possesses this peculiarity, that a large, and apparently 

 well-ripened crop is occasionally found to be destitute of vegetative power 

 (at least, in the south of England), so that any sample grown for seed, or 

 bought for seed, ought to be proved in a hot-bed before sowing, in order to 

 determine whether it is fit for that purpose, or only for the pigs ; and old 

 seed habitually fails. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — Causidicus. Dec. 1831. 



A Machine for preparing Flax and Hemp, by a new and improved Process, 

 for manufacturing into Canvass, Cordage, fyc. — Such a machine is spoken of 

 in a letter signed L., 5. University Street, Fitzroy Square, which appeared 

 in the Times newspaper, June 23. 1831. Can you, or any of your readers, 

 inform me where it is to be had, whether its advantages are really such as 

 that writer describes, and what is the cost of the machine ? The advantages 

 stated by L. to be derivable from its use are as follow : — 1 . A saving of 

 more than one third in manual labour, and in the purchase of the utensils 

 and machines requisite for preparing flax and hemp for the spinner, by 

 the operation of steeping ; 2. An increase of one twentieth in the quantity 

 as well as quality of the long fibrous threads called horle ; 3. A diminution 

 in the quantity of the tow, which is so superior in quality as to be capable 

 of producing the finest cloth ; 4. An increase of one twelfth in the strength 

 of the thread, and, consequently, of all sail-cloth and cordage for the navy 

 made from it : this is proved by the thread prepared by the machine being 

 submitted to the test of the dynamometer ; 5. The fitness of the boon (?) 

 [husky matter] for several purposes, particularly in the manufacture of 

 paper, containing its own size, which yields to none in beauty, texture, 

 durability, and whiteness ; 6. An increase in the value of land wherever 

 hemp or flax are cultivated, by reason of the increased value of the pro- 

 duce ; and, lastly, The cessation of the importation of these articles from 

 abroad, which annually draw such immense sums from this country. 



I have been requested by a correspondent in Jamaica to procure inform- 

 ation respecting this machine for him ; and as general, not partial, utility is 

 my object, it will be best attained by acquiring it through your Magazine. — 

 William Hamilton. Oxford Placed Plymouth, Oct. 20. 1831. 



On enquiring at 5. University Street, we find, that the machine in 

 question was a considerable improvement on that of Bundy {Encyc. of Agr. 

 2d edit. p. 916. fig. 987.). The inventor, r a Mr. Sewicrop, has gone to Paris; 

 but as there is a workman in London who can make the machine, the 

 invention will not be lost ; and our correspondent, or others concerned, may 

 apply at Weir's manufactory, Oxford Street, where such information as has 

 transpired will be obtained. — Cond. 



Art. VIII. Cottages and Cottage Gardens, Workhouse Gardens, 

 and Gardens of Prisons and Lunatic Asylums. 



The notices which we purpose giving under this head, from time to 

 time, will be chiefly confined to recording the progress made in these 

 departments of gardening in different parts of the country. It gives us 

 much pleasure to observe that the great benefits which arise from adding 

 gardens to labourers' cottages are every year more and more felt all over 

 the country. We had many proofs of this in our late tour, both in Eng- 

 land and in Scotland ; and most sincerely do we wish that government 



