738 Queries and Answers. 



We shall receive specimens with pleasure, and will endeavour to get 

 their name ascertained. We suspect the creature is Curculio vastator, of 

 whose habits we know something. We request from W. Z. every fact on 

 its habits and history which he can supply. — J. D. 



What Plant is fitter for the Formation of Hedges than Hawthorn? — This 

 shrub has many faults. It is excessively slow of growth, defective in its 

 resistance of cattle, will not grow from layers, and takes many years to 

 form a perfect fence. Doubtless there are many woody American plants 

 that would do better. Which are they ? — Alexander Cheeks. July 24. 

 1832. 



The letter' containing this query has for its postmark, Beaumaris, 

 and this indicates a clue, although not an infallible one, to the district in 

 which the hawthorn thrives so imperfectly. I believe that a character 

 quite the reverse will be ascribed to it in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and 

 in other loamy-soiled counties, where I have seen it make excellent fences ; 

 and this in a few years : in Cambridgeshire, it may be even seen thriving 

 where the fenny soil commences, and where water is always within 24 in. 

 of the surface of the soil. It grows so readily from seeds, and these are 

 produced, in most seasons, so abundantly, that few would think of in- 

 creasing it by layers. It is, however, readily increasable by cuttings of 

 roots derived from hawthorn plants of some age and size. Queries may 

 be here introduced on the practice of feeding turkeys on haws in Norfolk. 

 Is the practice common ? Are the turkeys confined while thus fed ? What 

 are the results to the turkeys ? and do the nuts of the haws, which 

 have passed through the bodies of the turkeys, germinate more quickly 

 than those which have not ? In Cambridgeshire, the practice is to have 

 the haws collected by women and children, at so much a bushel : they, 

 with hooked sticks, pull the branches towards them, and strip off the haws 

 by hand. Quantities of these, from 20 to 40 bushels or more, are buried, 

 about Christmas time, together, in a long narrow pit, where they lie till 

 the beginning of February in the second spring following. They are then 

 taken out to be sown, when it is found that the flesh of the haw has rotted 

 away during its interment, and that the seed is quite ready to rupture the 

 , nut : indeed, if allowed to remain in the pit later than the beginning of 

 February, many seeds will be found to have sprouted. I have heard it 

 asserted that haws which have passed through the bodies of turkeys are 

 thereby prepared for germinating with less loss of time than those which 

 are buried. This is scarcely likely to be the case. Is it the case ? and, if the 

 case, may not an equal acceleration be effected by subjecting the haws to 

 the action of a hot-bed of moderate heat, to decompose their fleshy part ? 

 — J. D. 



A Fungose Disease on the Leaves and Fruit of the Pear Trees at Buscot 

 Park. — Sir, I enclose a few leaves off my pear trees for your inspection, 

 hoping that from yourself or numerous correspondents I may derive some 

 information which may enable me to remedy this growing evil, which 

 affects the fruit as well as the leaves, and, I believe, will, unless checked or 

 prevented, destroy the trees altogether. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — J. Mer- 

 rick. Buscot Park Gardens, Oct. 22. 1832. 



Are the trees declining with age ? Are they on a soil of which there is 

 but a thin layer lying upon gravel or some other arid subsoil, which 

 deprives the top soil of too much of its moisture ? Are they so situated, 

 as to aspect, as to be early excited into leaf in the spring, before the weather 

 has become universally exciting ? In asking these questions, we do not 

 even suggest that, if each of them were answered affirmingly, they could be 

 set down as the causes, although it is just possible they might : so we leave 

 our practical brothers to determine the cause, and prescribe a remedy. 

 The leaves received are hideous objects. Much of their native green 



