Foreign Notices : — France^ Italy. 39 



of the addition of a tolerably thick stratum of broken granite and other stone; 

 and the whole being impervious to wet from beneath, and so well prepared 

 for surface moisture, I have no doubt, heavy as was the expense in the first 

 instance, it would hardly fail to answer. — S. T. Norfolk, Dec. 13. 1841. 



Rendering Cottages Fire and Water-proof. — You talk of making cottages 

 fire-proof. Were you in this neighbourhood just now, it strikes me you 

 would be more interested in making them water-proof. What a state many 

 of the poor inhabitants are in to be sure ! The dwellers in and about the fens 

 never seem to have thought it worth their while to keep their houses above 

 the ground level, some of them are even below it; the natural and inevitable 

 consequence of which is,°constant damp, and often standing water. A double 

 cottage near me is, and has been for a long time, several inches deep on the 

 lower floor, nor have they the means of avoiding it, seeing that the cottages 

 hereabouts have no fireplaces on the chamber floors. This is what I particu- 

 larly wish to direct your attention to : it is a most important point, and one 

 which, here at least, has been grossly neglected. I pray you consider it. — Id. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



CHATEAU de Talkouet, near L' Orient, France, Nov. 30. 1841. — I have been 

 fortunate in getting a most comfortable and convenient chateau here, beau- 

 tifully situated, and with every thing in the shooting and fishing line any man 

 can desire. Nothing can exceed the barbarous looks, habits, and drunkenness 

 of the people, and even their priests, but they are quite harmless. Their agri- 

 culture, their cattle, pigs, sheep, and houses are all indescribably bad, quite 

 caricatures of all we have in England ; yet the climate and soil are the best, 

 perhaps, in all Europe for agricultural purposes. I have taken a good deal of 

 land, and shall show them how to grow Skirving's Swedes, lucerne, carrots, 

 Belgium parsneps (Guernsey), rape, flax, Madia sativa, hemp, clover, and 

 perhaps not lose my money in giving lessons. Italian rye-grass does wonder- 

 fully well here; and a kind of rye from Poland is just introduced, 8 ft. high, and 

 the ears from 8 in. to 15 in. long, of which I shall send specimens to England, 

 as, when sown here in June, it is cut by the middle of August. Notwith- 

 standing the general gross ignorance, a few of the better classes possess a great 

 degree of intelligence, and I saw one quite a Lincolnshire farm on a small 

 scale, near Rennes. There is a noir animal factory near me, to manufacture 

 dead horses into manure, and a potato flour mill, which had an order for 

 2000/. worth of it from a Mr. Walker of London. I am just getting a capital 

 eight-horse-power steam-engine, in aid of my water thrashing-mill, and to bruise 

 barley and beans, and with linseed oil to form it into cakes for feeding cattle 

 and sheep. To this I have fortunately got in time enough the noir animal 

 and potato flour machinery, which shall be added to the cake machinery, so as 

 to render it the most complete thing of the kind in Europe. — F. A. M'K. 



ITALY. 



Seeds collected in 1840 by Professor Visiani of Pavia. — O'cymum citrio- 

 dorum Vis. from Nubia; Veslingia sp. Vis. ; Viah'a macrophylla Vis. — G. 

 Manetti. Monza, Aug. 21. 1841. 



Monza, Dec. 6. 1841. — I find the Suburban Horticulturist so useful, that 

 I make it serve as a text-book to the lessons in horticulture, which I 

 give to the pupils in the Imperial and Royal Gardens. Being obliged to 

 translate it for this purpose, I shall afterwards print it, certain of doing a 

 great service to my countrymen, as we have no book that can serve so well 



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