Domestic Notices : — Engla?id. 6 1 5 



The bulbs, and also the herbarium, the insects and Crustacea, and the 

 library of books on natural history, are also to be immediately parted with. 

 These are, severally, very extensive, and treasures indeed ! Our friend 

 Mr. Main, 6. Union Rovi^, Queen's Elm, Chelsea, has the charge of the 

 disposal of them. — Cond. 



Instruction in the Sciences which explain the Processes of Nature in Farm- 

 ing and Gardening, — In p. 610. we have noticed the Cottage Farmer, by 

 Mr. Lance ; and we shall here quote a paragraph from the close of his 

 pamphlet : — " The writer of this essay proposes to instruct young men 

 in the sciences of geology, chemistry, botany, and the elements of all 

 the physical sciences ; which will elucidate points necessary to be known 

 by farmers, and combine these branches with the practical knowledge 

 which now conducts the agriculture of the country j and to use that 

 science as an addition, and in subordination, thereto. In agriculture, the 

 sciences are all conjoined ; they cooperate to produce bread, and open a 

 boundless field to enquiry. The botanist finds himself indebted to the 

 chemist ; the chemist finds problems, in searching into the physiology of 

 plants, which the botanist must solve. The zoologist, the geologist, the 

 mineralogist, the meteorologist, the entomologist, are so linked together, 

 that they cannot proceed far without the assistance of one another ; and 

 whatever tends to cement the sciences, and bring their various branches 

 into contact, will much facilitate the progress of agricultural knowledge." 

 An agricultural college, for the instruction of young men in the theory 

 and practice of farming, is, in consequence of the above opinions, pro- 

 posed to be formed by Mr. Lance, Let it be established; it can do no 

 harm, even if it does no good. We fear, however, that the time is gone 

 by for establishing institutions of this sort. The farmers of this country 

 are, and ever have been, too ignorant to make use of the knowledge which 

 is every day set before them ; and they are too much prejudiced to benefit 

 even from example. We have lately had abundant evidence of this during 

 a seven weeks' tour. There is nothing to be expected from them but by 

 the education of their children in their infancy, and at pai'ochial schools. 

 As we believe Mr. Lance to be ardently desirous of improving the agri- 

 culture of the country, we would entreat of him to consider whether the 

 most effectual mode would not be to direct all his efforts towards inducing 

 the legislature to establish 9, national system of education, such as that 

 proposed by Mr. Roebuck in the last session of parliament, of which he 

 will find an account in the Exaviiner for August 11. — Cond. 



A Rural Temple, intended as an Ornament for Parks and Pleasure- Grounds, 

 has been devised and manufactured by Mr. John Mathews, architect, of 

 Frimley, Surrey. It is stated that " the materials of which it is composed 

 are principally hazel rods, and that the architectural relations of its com- 

 partments are executed with mathematical exactness ; that this temple, 

 and others of a variety of plans, may be made of any dimensions ; and 

 that they are quite portable, and will endure for a century or two." 



Virginia Water, and the adjacent Grounds. — These the king has ordered 

 to be opened to the public in general. We had an opportunity of viewing 

 them during the course of our late tour ; and though, from the extent of 

 the grounds, and the broad expanse of the water, the former afford a 

 healthy rural walk along the margin of the latter, yet, taken in a picturesque 

 point of view, they have nothing to boast of: and, as to gardening or plant- 

 ing, these have the characteristic poverty of all the other grounds belonging 

 to royalty, with the sole exception of the shrubberies at Kew. — Cond. 



Indian and Chinese Plants. — The Directors of the East India Company 

 have presented to the Society of Apothecaries, for their garden at Chelsea, 

 a valuable collection of plants and seeds, natives of India and China. The 

 plants, a few only of which died on the voyage, came over in square boxes, 

 enclosed in frames glazed with the shell of the pearl oyster. 



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