Lord Vernon's Tillage Hoe. 689 



renewed by fresh dung, and the place must be particularly 

 favourable to the undertaking. There is also great risk of 

 the germ in the eggs being destroyed by the damp effluvia 

 arising from the dung, which causes the success to be very 

 uncertain. Besides, every gentleman's gardener has a tan bed 

 at his command. I am also of opinion that many of your 

 correspondents might connect a hot closet with the stove used 

 for heating their houses, or might allow the pipes for circu- 

 lating hot water, where that system is adopted, to pass through 

 it; by which means it might be kept up to the required heat 

 with very little trouble. With respect to the tan bed, it is 

 reduced to a certainty by the experience of my friend. He 

 has hatched several broods this spring ; and I can assure you 

 that the chickens brought up in this way have thriven and 

 increased in size much more than those hatched and brought 

 up by a hen ; and that this has been proved several times, by 

 a comparison between chickens hatched in the different modes 

 the same day. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — A Constant Reader 

 of the Gardener's Magazine. Chichester, April 17. 1832. 



Lord Vernon's new Tillage Hoe. — This implement, 

 which was lately exhibited to the Horticultural Society, is 

 said, in a printed paper, which was distributed at the same 

 time, to " give an expeditious and deep tillage, in many cases 

 superior to digging or forking." In drilling, preparing land 

 for planting, or in earthing up, its use is said to be equally 

 advantageous. It may be had at Mr. Charlwood's, and in 

 Derby. It is nothing more than the Spanish hoe of our cor- 

 respondent Mentor, figured in our Vol. II. p. 233., but differ- 

 ing from our figure in having a long handle. Similar hoes, 



o o o o # ■ J 



with long handles, have been made, at our request, at Weir's 

 manufactory, Oxford Street, since 1826. — Cond. 



~Flcus stipidata Thunberg, remarkably Jinc in a Stave in the 

 Gardens at Merly House. — Sir, In 1822 I received from my 

 worthy and esteemed friend Mr. Henderson, at Earl Fitz- 

 william's, Milton, near Peterborough, some cuttings of this 

 plant. They were struck in the ordinary way ; and one was 

 put in a 32-sized pot, and by mere chance placed on the 

 front of the stove, at one end, close against the front sash. The 

 end of this house is not glass, but a brick wall plastered over 

 in the common way. After the plant had stood in this position 

 for some months, without any notice further than receiving 

 a supply of water occasionally, it began to push, and to attach 

 itself to the wall very firmly. It soon reached the bottom of 

 the rafter, and turned up the end of the house just before the 

 rafter, covering about a foot in depth down the wall. In 

 about eighteen months after this, it reached the top end of the 



Vol, VIII. — No. 41. yy 



