92 Domestic Notices : — England. 



Chester, Jan. 15. 1839. — It carried the spray of the sea as far as Leeds, a 

 distance of eighty miles, covering the trees and plants, in Mr. Major's garden 

 at Knostrop, with a white incrustation, quite salt to the taste. (J. Major, in 

 Leeds Intelligencer, Jan. 12. 1839.) 



Rose Stock Impostors. — The nurserymen about London are supplied with 

 stocks for budding standard roses by country labourers, who grub them up in 

 hedge-rows and coppices. When this is carelessly done, a sufficient length of 

 main root is not taken up to be furnished with fibres ; and, as the plant is not 

 so likely to grow, and of course not so saleable without them, these fibres are 

 sometimes artificially supplied by the hawkers. This is done by boring, or 

 piercing, with a bradawl, a hole in the under side of that part of the root 

 which generally forms an angle with the upright stem ; and in that hole in- 

 serting a small piece of fibrous root. The nurseryman who is unaware of 

 this practice never thinks of looking at the under side of the root ; but, seeing 

 the fibres hanging down, is satisfied that the stock will grow, and makes his 

 purchase. We could not have believed that it would have been worth while 

 in this country, where labour is so dear, to take so much trouble to 

 falsify an article, which seldoms brings more than a shilling a dozen, had not 

 our neighbour, Mr. Hopgood, shown us some scores of fabricated roots that 

 he had inadvertently purchased. Storch, in his Picture of St. Petersburg, 

 mentions, that the forced asparagus heads, after they have been boiled, and 

 the head or point of the shoot eaten off at the tables of the wealthy who are 

 able to purchase such a luxury, are sold by the house servants to the peasants 

 who frequent the streets ; and that these persons find it answers their purpose 

 to carve a new bud on the point of the shoot, and even to colour it, and in that 

 state to sell it in bundles, disguised by a few real heads on the outside. This, 

 however, is not so surprising in St. Petersburg, where the labourer lives on 

 rye bread and quass, and does not require even a bed to sleep on, as the rose 

 stock impostor is in London. — Cond. 



Glazenwood Nursery. — I lately visited this nursery for the first time, 

 and never was more surprised than to see the manner in which American 

 shrubs thrive there without bog earth. The soil of the nursery is a yellow 

 loam ; and in it all sorts of rhododendrons, azaleas, and magnolias appear to 

 thrive, I will not say, as well as if they were in peat, but I will say, sufficiently 

 well for every useful and ornamental purpose. The foliage was most healthy, 

 the wood ripened, and the flower-buds, formed for expansion next season, 

 numerous and large. I can easily conceive that it must be a great advantage 

 for gentlemen who have no peat earth on their estates, and who will not go 

 to the expense of purchasing any, to procure their American plants from 

 Glazenwood ; because these plants having been brought up, so to speak, in 

 common soil, they cannot suffer anything like the check, when moved from 

 common soil to common soil, that they would do if moved to common soil 

 from peat earth. I was confirmed in this opinion by Mr. Curtis, who is justly 

 proud of the appearance of his plants, and of the satisfaction which they 

 give to his customers in districts where peat is unknown. — T. B. Dec. 18. 

 1838. 



Specimens of Wheat. — The wheat you were kind enough to give me has 

 been carefully kept separate, and sown, for the third time, in the middle of 

 last October : I mean such of it as I considered worth preserving. Out of 

 the fifty and odd parcels, I have only retained twenty-three, and these occupy 

 two and a half acres. I and the gardener have hitherto attended to the main 

 operations ; viz. harvesting, threshing, and dressing. I had it very carefully 

 dibbled and dropped, and have made a correct plan of the ground, and mea- 

 surement of the several divisions. One half of the land has been subsoil 

 ploughed ; the substratum is a rubbly chalk. You will smile at my farming, 

 when I tell you I do not occupy a single acre of land; but I live among good 

 neighbours, one of whom has given me up as much as I want this year. In 

 future, 1 must go upon a different plan, as my crop will increase far beyond 

 the borrowing system. I ought to have near upon ten quarters next harvest. 



