698 General Notices. 



their attempt to destroy some of the enemies to the welfare of the objects 

 of our care. I would recommend them to publish their method of 

 preparing the mixture, as much more likel}' to answer their purpose, at 

 least that is my opinion ; and I will, sliould they do so, be a subscriber, if 

 the subscription is not more than 5 or 10 shillings. Perhaps it would be 

 as well if they were to let as many people as they can have some of the 

 mixture, to try it, before they attempt to offer it by subscription, I am. 

 Sir, yours, &c, — George Mills. Gunnersbiiry, August 28. 1833. 



Breathing Places for Towns. — This subject, which we noticed at length 

 in Vol. V, p. 686., and in different other parts of this Magazine, has, to our 

 agreeable surprise, been taken up by Parliament, on the motion of Mr. 

 Slaney. The report on the subject having appeared in all the newspapers, 

 we need only state here, that it points out various modes in which the 

 breathing places in and about London might be extended, and that it enters 

 into similar details with reference to some of the larger country towns. 

 Though we class reports of this sort among attempts at petty legislation, 

 which would never be made under a proper representative system, yet we 

 hail it as a symptom of a better feeling existing towards the poor. Most 

 assuredly the time is not far distant, when the wants of the poor will be 

 attended to as well as those of the rich ; but this must have a beginning, 

 and Mr, Slaney's report may be the entering of the wedge. We hope, 

 when trees and shrubs are planted in these walks, that as manj' different 

 sorts as will grow in the given situation and climate will be employed. 

 It is disgraceful to the taste of the Commissioners of the Woods and 

 Forests that they have employed nothing but the common mixture in the 

 Regent's Park ; which, as we have often said, and shall continue to repeat, 

 might have been one grand arboretum, such as could not be produced in 

 any other country. 



The Apj)lication of Steam to Agricultural Piirposes is said to have lately 

 called forth a powerful and effective engine in France; and it has, at the 

 same time, produced a steam-digging machine in England, This engine, 

 an imperfect model of which we saw three years ago (see Vol. VI., 

 p, 106.), has lately been so far improved, that a patent has been taken 

 out for it, by Mr. Philips, It will be found figured and described in 

 Gordon's Jownal of Locomotion^ for February, 1833. We have lately seen 

 the model of another machine, which may be applied to the same purpose, 

 and, as it appears to us, with much greater chance of success. At one 

 operation, it could be made to plough, pulverise, roll, sow, and harrow 

 a breadth of 10 ft. or 12 ft., at the rate of 5 or 6 miles, and, consequently, 

 between 7 and 8 acres per hour. The machine might, no doubt, be im- 

 pelled at double that rate ; but it is questionable whether at such a velocity 

 the work of sowing could be properly performed. The present, however, 

 is not the time for bringing out such a machine in England, where the 

 farmers, in most districts, are obliged to take down and conceal the wheels 

 of their threshing machines, if these have not been already burned by their 

 labourers. 



Chinese Roses may he propagated from single Buds, as Grape Vines are 

 propagated. — The single bud, with a quarter of an inch of the stem both 

 above and below it, is placed just under the soil, under a bell glass; the 

 leafstalks and leaves standing upright as in a cutting. A single bud of 

 iiosa semperflorens sanguinea was planted on July 26., and on Sept. 8. 

 the bud had grown nearly four inches, and a blossom bud was formed. On 

 Oct. 9. it was six inches high, and side shoots were being produced. — 

 Charles M. Willich. London, Oct. 23. 1833. 



The Melon's Affection for Water, (p. 591.) — The author of the Do- 

 mestic Gardener''s Manual may not be far wrong in deeming the melon 

 partly of an aquatic habit, from its roots having grown into a water cistern. 



