Queries and A?iswers. 629 



regulating the quantity to be applied to a given field, but also in enabling 

 the farmer to calculate which it would be most worth his while to carry 

 home from market, or to purchase at a distance ; the best of every kind of 

 thing being, as is well known, always the best able to bear the expense of 

 carriage. — A7i Enquirer. 



Lance's Cottage Farmer, which we have noticed in p. 610., contains 

 many remarks on manures, some of which, we think, would interest " An 

 Enquirer;" but do not answer the specific questions here put by " An 

 Enquirer," v/hich we, with himself, hope some of our correspondents will 

 answer. 



Mr. Whiddon solicited to communicate his Mode of taking Impressions of 

 the Leaves of Plants. — Sir, A short time ago, a gardener, whose name is 

 W. Whiddon, visited such gardens at Cheltenham as he could gain ad«. 

 mission to, and took impressions of leaves of plants: he left the method 

 with some persons, who are unwilling to make it known. Should Mr. 

 Whiddon see this, I hope it may induce him to lay before the lovers of 

 botany, through the medium of the Gardener's Magazine, his plan for 

 taking impressions, which, by mj'self, and, I doubt not, by others, will be 

 thankfully received. — J. PollecJc. MarJcet House, Cheltenham, Sept. 3. 

 1833. 



For Mr. Polleck's using, until Mr. Whiddon has communicated his 

 mode, I will strive to describe a mode once taught me by a man who 

 travelled and sustained himself by teaching it to the mistresses of pro- 

 vincial schools, and any others who would pay him for disclosing it : he 

 pretended to have learned it in India. The leaf-printing apparatus is 

 made as follows, and only practice in using it can give expertness and 

 delicacy of execution. Take two pieces of wash-leather, say of about 6 in. 

 square; put upon the central part of the face of each, when laid flat upon 

 a plane surface, a globular lump or tuft of wool, wadding, or what you 

 will that is soft and elastic ; enclose this by gathering the leather, not 

 very tightly, by its corners over it, and tie these inseparably tight together. 

 Your two balls, when made, will have an orbicular outline, and may have 

 what diameter you please, that of mine was about three inches. Upon 

 the bottom of an inverted saucer, &c., place a few pinches of the powder 

 of the colour with which you design to print, and add to it enough of cold- 

 drawn linseed oil to reduce it, with trituration by one of the balls, to 

 the consistence of paint. With the ball so used transfer a thin coating of 

 the prepared paint to the face of the other ball, and give the paint the 

 refinement of a little additional trituration between the faces of the 

 two ; then interpose any leaf you like between them, and suffuse both its 

 faces by pressing both balls together upon it ; the leaf is now ready to 

 communicate, by pressure, a copy of its outline and veining, to any 

 substance, as paper, &c., capable of receiving the paint, and will, if you 

 please to apply paper, &c., to both its faces, give an impression from each 

 at one pressing. If you print in black, you can colour parts, or the whole, 

 according to nature afterwards. The leaf of Baddlea globosa L., that of 

 the common culinary sage (iSalvia officinalis jL.), and other wrinkled (rugose) 

 leaves, are those which supply the most characteristic impressions. After 

 all, no practical advantage seems derivable from this knowledge (the 

 knowledge itself is very well), for dried specimens of leaves, and such 

 other flat objects as one can take profiles of by means of it, are far more 

 useful, and as easily prepared. — J. D. 



What is the Cause, or what are the Causes, of the "Lag" in Timber? — Sir, 

 I happened, a few days ago, to fall into company with a party of gentlemen 

 timber merchants, and, as a matter of course, timber was the pivot of 

 conversation. It turned until it stuck in a lagged stick (as they call it) 

 of timber, when the query arose, what is the cause of the lag V Some 



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