Queries and Answers. 125 



a few days this began to heat, and retained a good heat for six months. On 

 this bed I preserved, during the winter, a number of pelargoniums and 

 other green-house plants, giving them all the air I could by day, and cover- 

 ing up at night ; and the plants, in general, looked better than those in my 

 green-house. In the March following I renewed my bed again. On this 

 I struck mygeorginas, raised two crops of melons, struck my pelargoniums 

 and other plants, and, in September last, I renewed it again for winter use. 

 My plan has been, to sift at least one third of the old tan, and mix the 

 undecayed parts with the new tan, until the pit was three parts full, and 

 then add fresh tan to complete it. Since I have adopted this method I 

 have had very little of the grey mould, the bed has retained the heat better, 

 and, on the whole, it has succeeded very well. Some of my neighbours 

 have a well at the back of their beds, in which they put a quantity of dung, 

 to obtain a great heat. They have their pits about 4 ft. wider than their 

 frames, and place a paling partition in the pit at the back of their frames, 

 and have two wooden doors to cover it. The part of the pit under the 

 frame they fill with bark, and, when they want extra heat, they fill the 

 other part with dung, and enclose it with the doors, to keep in the heat, 

 and prevent any unsightly appearance. It may be proper to add, that 

 none of the beds I have referred to are in a hot-house, but are placed in 

 a convenient part of the flower-garden. I have had my beds trodden down 

 in the making, to prevent so much sinking. I keep a stick inserted into 

 the tan, through a hole in the brickwork, to ascertain the heat of the bed ; 

 and I have observed that it begins to heat, near the top, in four or five 

 days : in three weeks it is fit for use ; and it retains a good heat for six 

 months, when I renew it. — Joseph Tz/so. WaUingford, Nov. 1832. 



On obtaining improved Varieties of Corn by the Cross Impregnation of 

 e^cisting Kinds. — Sir, I would suggest the advantage which probably might 

 be derived from sowing, in the same field, the seed not of one sort of 

 wheat only, but the seed of various sorts; so that, when the wheats 

 come to be in blossom, the pollen from each may be diffused among 

 the intermixed wheats, and thus give rise to a new and better seed 

 or grain. 



It is a well-known fact, that numberless varieties are produced among 

 flowers, take the poppy for instance, by sowing in the same bed the seeds 

 not of one kind of poppy only, but the seeds of different kinds. And 

 Mr. Knight has shown what may be done by fertilising one sort of pea 

 with the pollen of another. Yet, so far as I know, agriculturists have 

 never yet availed themselves of these facts, in regard to the cultivation of 

 that staff of life, wheat corn. 



It is obvious that, for the success of this experiment, all, or the greater 

 part, of the different sorts of wheat should come into blossom at the same 

 time. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — Varvicensis, January, 1833. 



On this very subject Varvicensis will find a useful communication, 

 written by a man possessing both practical and scientific knowledge, in 

 No. XXV. of the British Farmer's Magazijie^ published Nov. 1. 1832. 

 The article is entitled " On the Practicability of improving Corn by manual 

 Impregnation." 



Those who wish to adopt practically the suggestion of Varvicensis, 

 may do it, even this season, very conveniently, by transplanting, as soon as 

 the frosts of spring are past, plants of different kinds of wheat into each 

 other's immediate society. — J. D. 



