Short Communications. 499 



By observing the date of the above communication, it will be 

 seen that Mr. Rutger had recommended the planting of the 

 nurses three years before that of the trees they were intended 

 to protect, prior to the publication of Mr. Bree's article (p. 295.), 

 and that of Mr. James Munro (p. 405.), on the same subject. 

 On the method of establishing trees in situations near the sea, 

 we may refer to the above communications, and to IX. 543. 

 547. 549. and 715. — Cond. 



Art. IX. Short Communications. 



Experiments with Potatoes have been carried on, with great 

 care, in the Horticultural Society's garden, for some years past, 

 and the results given in two papers by Dr. Lindley, the last of 

 which is just published in part vi. of the Hort. Trans., vol. i. 

 second series. From this paper it appears that the opinion 

 entertained by Mr. Knight, and a number of other persons, of 

 the superior production of whole tubers over sets, is unfounded. 

 The same result, it is stated, has also been arrived at by Sir 

 George Mackenzie, from experiments made by him in Ross-^ 

 shire. Other instances will be found in our First Additional 

 Supplement to our Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, just published. 



In planting a Vinery, Mr. Dowding, the celebrated grape- 

 grower at Oakhill, near Barnet, [whose practice will be found 

 registered in an excellent article by Mr. Forsyth, in our next] 

 lays the ball of the plant on its side about 5 ft. from the front of 

 the house, and covers the shoot with not more than 2 in. of soil 

 from the root up to the front wall, where it is introduced into the 

 house. A vinery was planted in this manner in June, 1833, and 

 immediately after planting, three large hand-glasses were placed 

 over each stem, in order, by concentrating and retaining heat and 

 moisture, to cause the stems to root more freely. They grew^ 

 admirably the first year, and they are now making such strong 

 wood, and showing such strong eyes, that a very superior crop 

 is anticipated by the third June after planting. — Adolescentulus. 

 Barnet, May 15. 1834. 



If manure be considered as the food of plants, lime and salts 

 of different kinds may perhaps be considered correctives or con- 

 diments. There seems no other mode of accounting for the 

 productive effect of lime, on soils where dung will do no good, 

 than by supposing that it acts by dissolving or neutralising 

 poisonous matters in the soil. These poisonous matters may, in 

 some cases, be those exudations from the roots of plants, which 

 of late years have given rise to the new theory of the rotation of 

 crops. — A. S. 



