Retrospective Criticism. 5^73 



and had you been here in the early part of June, I could have shown you 

 thousands of patches of dead turf, caused by their lu-ine, in a park where no 

 other animal is allowed to graze. The fact is, that the recent urine of sheep 

 destroys grass the same as the recent urine of most other animals, more or less, 

 according to the quantity which is dropped on the grass at once ; but, as the 

 sheep lets its urine down in small quantities, the damage done is not per- 

 ceived, except in very dry weather, when the water is absorbed by the soil 

 on the one hand, and evaporated into the atmosphere on the other, almost im- 

 mediately, and the salt left, which destroys the grass in patches about the size 

 of a man's hand. — John Pearson. Kinlet, near Bewdley, Sept. 30. IS^l. 



Propagation of the Dahlia. — In answer to the observations of C. O. on the 

 propagation of the dahha, I think he has misunderstood my meaning; it was 

 not that the buds at the base of the cutting shoot into growth as branches, but 

 that they grow upwards with the piece of the stem left below the buds, as it 

 expands and elongates upwards in growth, till the buds are, consequently, 

 elevated above the crown of the tuber, and are situated on the stem, and not 

 in the tuber at all. When the cutting is taken oiF, the shoots are not, gene- 

 rally, much elongated between the joints, in general about \ in. or 1 or 2 

 inches at the utmost ; but as the stem elongates in growth by the expansion and 

 addition of cellular matter in the summer, the distance between the joints will 

 be expanded from 2 in. to 1 ft. In paring as near to the buds as we can, we 

 must not injure the base of the leaves, in the axils of which the buds are 

 situated, as it is from the bases of these leaves we expect the fibres to issue 

 which are to form the roots ; this necessitates us to leave a space of stem 

 below the buds, of at least from -^gth to ith of an inch, which will elongate in 

 the growing to a good deal more : and as the underground stem, forming the 

 tubers, proceeds from the root, we cannot see that the buds left are to be 

 included in the crown of the tuber, they will be formed on the stem above the 

 tuber. We have frequently been in the habit of cutting the new and rare 

 sorts down for propagation into single joints; thus we had often five or six single 

 joints, or eyes, from a rooted cutting sent down to us from London, and we 

 have always found we could depend more on the pit roots from them in the 

 spring, than from the old roots. From one to seven buds, neither pairs nor 

 multiples of pairs (consequently, neither the pairs of basal buds, nor compa- 

 nions of them), have sprung from them, some of them far down on the tops of 

 the bend of the tuber, as well as below ; while the old roots rotted in the 

 crown from not being ripened, and were useless. Of what use is it whether 

 vegetable points are formed at the edges of the medulla, if the tissue is not 

 sufficiently ripened to form them into buds, and preserve them during the 

 winter ? The crown of the root is the first to fail, when early frosts and high 

 cultivation have kept the root from ripening ; and it is, therefore, fair to infer, 

 that the crown is the last to ripen, and form the points into buds from which 

 the next year's shoots are to spring. We pare our cuttings close to the joints, 

 not for the sake of including the stem buds in the root, but because we expect 

 the fibres to issue at the joint from the base of the leaves : should the cutting be 

 cut farther down by mistake, even midway in the space between the joints, 

 we have generally found that the roots still spring from the joint at the base 

 of the leaves, and the piece below is . left dormant. It matters, therefore, I 

 believe, very little whether the cutting is cut close to the joint or below ; the 

 buds in the axils of the leaves, on the stem of the cutting, will still continue stem- 

 buds ; and the tuber, whatever part of the cutting the roots proceed from, 

 will have its own buds formed within the tuber itself, and will not be indebted 

 to those on the stem of the cutting. For what reason will the tuber from the 

 cutting, said to be improperly made, be prevented from forming buds in its own 

 way as all other tubers do ? and how does it differ from the new tuber formed 

 from a piece of the old root with a bud on it r Of what use are the buds 

 on the stem of the cutting to the new tuber ? — R.L. 



Mr. Mackenzie's Mode of cultivating the Gooseberry and Currant (p. 465.), 

 I have no doubt, answers well with him, as the following mode does in the 



