





. 



* 



THE G V R 



i 



TTs 



u 



Vj 



ooT 



w 



ho 



reason 



bless 



W ^Mlffaev ,#1 ^ a ^ Kr,fih * home for them- 



* 



J^jfcl passage 

 [^ or mutton, 



■* of • 



And 



^ their cnuarca. Now all the people I speak of 



men and a very large number have come 



KMtafld across the broad sea. Within the last 



- great manv have come from the large manu- 



ns where thev were sickly, and weak, and 



irfth the lowest wages, and now they are strong 



w ith as much food as they can eat. And a 



we had, my friends. Weekly rations — 



1 lbs. ; flour, 1 lbs. ; sugar, 2 lbs. ; 



pound; and 167. for the first 12 



Ind II taken once a quarter. I am at Mr. 



> c 6, Rocky Point, George's River, within 12 



B*"} gydaey, and a good master we have got. 



I i ntf* conclude with my kind Iovb to my dear 

 Jf and my best wishes to all our friends ; and I 

 ST m r dear father, I shall get 20/. the next year, and 

 \m i yoa w«re with me. /. Ling, Sydney, April 26, 



9*& DUeose.— In your leading article at p. 531, you 

 ^to attribute our partial exemption this year from 

 rot solely to improved cultivation. No one will 



a that by selecting proper soil and proper 

 and by early planting in land not much 

 the disorder may be to a certain degree 

 -a&l. But the absence of warm wet weather in June 

 3lthe beginning of July must also be taken into 



(ion. Although the primary cause of the rot 

 fc* mystery, yet there is little doubt that the agent of 

 fctroction is a fungus. Now, it has been observed that 

 ■taever we have been exempted from Potato rot there 

 been a scarcity of Mushrooms, and that when the 

 lalady has been severe there has been in the fields an 

 ibapdaDce of these fungi. I conclude, therefore, that by 

 tmtition of careful culture we are not to calculate for 

 ttrtaro on crops as sound as they have been the last and 



year. A warm muggy Mushroom-growing 

 Job** July may, and probably would, defeat all our 



and skill. L. Stephenson, Soiddem, Oxon. In 



pur laudable wish to discourage dependence on the 

 Potato crop, you have, I think, rather overstated the 



disease. You say that we are " saddled with 

 1 for ever"— for ever is a long day. Can you point 

 Ml any vegetable that, after being established in a 



has become permanently diseased ? Is it not 



)bable that the Potato has become liable to a 



disease, but may be often free from it, just as this 



is now liable to cholera, but hopes to be 



I ds), tke We*li»g?«m (l>rumm«u j), Mr. Seldou 



(Turner). Princes* liudzivi !<■ [Gain ). liu-V d Cobden (Set ), 



Queen of the Isles (Skjnner), Yelluw Standard Keyn •, 



Elizabeth (Procter), Empereur de Mir c (Haidoux), aud Mist 



j Compton (LiddiardS Ac. 



ftottcesi oi Books* 



Central America; dacribing each of the States of 

 Guatemala, Ho *"s, Salvador, Nicaragua, and 

 Costa Rica. By John Baily, Esq., R.M. Saunders, 

 8vo, pp. 164. 



Bail y f s Map of Central America. Ditto. 



Although a work of no pretension, the book which 



stands at the head of this notice is one of the most 



important that has appeared in England for many years. 

 The group of States now called Central America isamoni: 

 the least known portions of the globe, so far as English 

 readers are concerned ; if it were not indeed for our own 

 Belize, whence mahogany ships come, for Hartweg 

 and Warczewitz's Guatemala plants, and for the 

 Mosquito shore, the source of political squabbles and 

 Stock Exchange operations, duly reported in newspapers, 

 we should hear as seldom of Central America, as of 

 Golconda or New Guinea. Nevertheless, it is a country 

 within easy reach of our own shores, yielding in fertilit 

 to no part of the earth, with hundreds of thousands of 

 acres, awaiting the arrival of emigrants, towards whom 

 the various governments are well disposed. Moreover, 

 it is there that the union of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans is to be effected, if it be effected at all. Cochi- 

 neal, tobacco, Cacao, Vanilla, magnificent timber, sugar, 

 indigo, coffee, cotton, silk, dye-stuff, and all the other 

 products of tropical agriculture, are cultivable lit re with 

 the greatest ease. 



Lieut. Baily states with clearness and fairness all th 

 material facts which the traveller can need to know. 



Mxmtrv 



lerally free from it ? D. C. L., Aug. 25. 



The 



Potato crop here (the west of Donegal) is much black- 

 ened, tut the tubers little affected as yet. — Turnips have 



much from the attack of the small green cater- 

 yfflar. It seems now to have recovered, the insect 

 Wing in the pupa state, on the back of the leaf. Grain 

 crops look well, but late. W. Sinclair, Drumbey, Mount- 



Awfa, Aug. 19. Disease has shown itself in the 



kinhn generally about here for some time past. All 

 w tops of the early sorts are completely dead ; late 

 kMs a?e more vigorous, but nevertheless seriously 

 hjnred. The tubers are not extensively damaged, 

 owing, I imagine, to the dryness of the season. I 

 •ktarve that where Potatoes have been planted amongst 

 Gooseberries, Currants, &c, they are not so bad. The 

 »il is various, some very sandy, others of a retentive 

 *toire ; ail have the disease, but it is evidently worst 

 » low and damp situations. E. Sanders, Fgham, Aug. 19. 



Coma. — If an attempt is made towards cultivating 

 toy of the genus in ponds, I should think it would best 

 ■•ffiade with such as flower in the summer — not with 

 ■we which form their blossoms in December and 

 ■wnary. Loudon mentions Canna speciosa (a very 



tty sort) as blooming in August. A . IT. 

 th **** farts.— I believe it is generally well known 

 *w a mixture of Apple in Damson tart destroys the 

 feasant roughness of the latter fruit ; but I do not 

 *mk it is so well known what an excellent tart is to be 

 ■** of Morella Cherries and Apple ; I lately met with 

 » at a friend's house, and can recommend it. M. D. 



If, on the one hand, he points to the manifold advantr. & 

 which a settler would find, he by no means conceals the 

 difficulties with which he has to contend ; but exhibits 

 both sides of the picture for examination. Take, for 

 instance, the following general view of the productions 

 and agriculture of the region : 



* Productions and Agriculture — A soil of very 

 groat fertility, with varieties of temperature suitable to 

 the growth of almost every vegetable product peculiar 

 to the tropics, and of many that are natives of the 

 temperate zones, may be expected to abound in, or to 

 be made capable of bringing forth, whatever is useful 

 or advantageous to mankind in any way. Different 

 cereal grains and alimentary pulse, fruiisand culinary 

 vegetables and roots, wild and tame animals of most 

 descriptions used as food, cattle, horses, and mules, are 

 in great plenty ; so that as far as sustenance is con- 

 cerned, few countries are more highly favoured with 

 the means of providing an immense population with all 

 the necessaries, and many of the luxuries of life. For 

 the purposes of commerce the catalogue is not less 

 comprehensive ; and as principal articles may be enu- 

 merated indigo, cochineal, sugar, coffee, cocoa, rice, 

 tobacco, cotton, wool, hides, many dye woods, drugs, 

 balsam and various gums, timber, minerals, and precious 

 metals, with a multitude of less important items, which 

 taken altogether would be a never-failing source of 

 competence and even wealth to manv millions of 

 inhabitants. 



tilGHGATE FLORICULTURAL, AuqilSt 25. 



■ the chair. Mr. Cra»<r 

 Hollyhocks, 



•Mr. Edwards 

 produced several seedling 



•SSb ' Mr ' Back Antirrhinums, Mr. Edwards a 



pnur-coloured Antirrhinum, possessing considerable 

 Jjnj, and Mr. Smith two of Mr. Banks' pretty light 

 nsias Several new members were elected, and 



^Jiptions received. The Chrysanthemum schedule 



i>mo! ,SCUS " ed and deci <kd on, some important extra 

 ™ contributed, and censors chosen. 



^\^ ^l™ Q * hT "***^' lh * (hl,d and final exhibition for 

 frnz&M. of n 1 . 8 _ ? c l et y was held on the 27th instant, in the 



#*ati" fi° f C,Iunel Bake., „ „ J9 ..„ . r .^ _ 



« mmi^t A < i We l! ,s, *J n< ? fruits rewarded the exertions of a zealous 

 th^^L beaded b * G. Br 



many 

 This is not a picture too highly coloured, 

 yet it must not hence be inferred that the country 

 actually is in a position to reap so great a harvest of 

 opulence, or to enjoy all the benefits which its advan- 

 tageous position and numerous capabilities would confer. 

 " It is clear that a soil, howsoever fertile it may be, 

 without a population adequate to its cultivation, will 

 remain, at least the major part of it, a beautiful wil- 

 derness inviting to industry, but nearly useless without 

 it. Nor can a scanty population, having little agri- 

 cultural knowledge beyond that of committing a seed to 

 the ground at a certain season, and gathering the fruit 

 which nature has ripened to perfection, derive, even 

 remotely, that amount of profit which the luxuriance of 

 the land, if better treated, would offer to its acceptance. 

 The fruits of the earth become abundant to man in 

 proportion as he applies his knowledge and labour to 

 the tillage of the ground ; but if his efforts be not 

 guided by some acquired skill in this most important of 

 all sciences, he will continue in the routine of his 

 forefathers, which will ever keep him from improve, 

 ment, and low in the scale of civilisation, although he 

 seldom fails to get a reward for his toil more than 

 commensurate with the labour expended, lhis per- 

 tinaceous adherence to antiquated practices, and the 

 want of a moderate degree of science m rural pursuits, 

 prove serious checks in the advance to a better state 

 of things. Indolence, with which the people has been 

 reproached, and it may be not altogether undeserved, 

 causes less injury in this particular than the want of 



for habituated to methods which take date 



* If during a long series oi years the pmct a oi agri- 

 culture has r i\' I no improvement, it may be safely 

 erted that the sti y of this n itial art has not 



ei leen introduced into the country ; nor does it seem 

 to be thought possible that a gi mm of ground 



can, by having recourse to a judu us system of 



c.ilture, widely differing from the one hitherto practised, 



be made to produce double or treble the amennt it has 

 done by the method heretofore adopted. Experience 

 has proved in other countries that this can be done, 

 and unquestionably similar procedures in this country 

 would not be attended with different results. Such an 

 amelioration can never take place by adhering to old 

 habits, nor can progress in a better direction be looked 

 for, until some men with reformed ideas, with comr 

 petent means for trying experiments, and repeating 

 processes which have* been suet 4ul in other negions, 

 shall have acquired practically knowledge for them- 

 selves, and be willing to impart it, by example and 

 instruction, to the humble and less favoured classes of 

 heir fellow-countrymen. 



" Combinations of knowledge with economy in wfeot 

 relates to predial occupations^ have not yet in rated to 

 Central America ; and propi >rs have been cont *ted 

 to accept what the unaided fertility of the boil annually 

 bestows upon them, — which being bountiful, little de»ro 

 of increasing it is manifested. I lei e arises the 

 anomaly that where many staple commodities <M|Id be 

 abundantly raised, only tlir r four make up the 

 general export of the country; while others which 



uld always find an equally ready mart||sre grown 

 but in sufficient quantity to supply home consul u, tion." 



All thoteconsideratior have acquired infinitely more 

 importance than heretofore, on account of the n« w Cali- 

 fornian market, for the supj ly of which with articles of 

 tropical production Central America must e\tr be, 

 rom its geographical position, the best suited. Soger 

 and rum are already in rapid demand ; and those can 

 be no doubt thai the tobacco of Ystepeque nd Gualan, 

 not inferior to that of Cuba, will speedily acquire 

 exclusive possession of the Galifornian market. 



Lieut Baily discusses with skill the question oi a 

 water communication bet en the two oceans ; and hi 

 map, which is one of the finest ever executed, illustrates 

 his views upon this great modern question. That ie, 

 however, a subject which does not come within the scop- 

 of this Journal, and we can only thus point out a source 

 where the most ample and trustworthy information can 



be had respecting it. 



Since this was written we see it announced in the 

 Times that the passage by Nicaragua has been el ted. 

 It appears that the paescn rers by the Pacific steamer 

 from California landed the other day at a place called 

 the port of San Juan del Sur, on the west side, crossed 

 in 32 hours the 90*900 or o<>,000 yards of isthmus, which 

 separate it from the lake of Nicaragua, by way of which 

 the passengers readily reached the Atlantic, and thus 

 proceeded to New York. 



Marl-el Gardening round London. By James Cuthill, 

 of Camberwell. Hamilton and Adams, and Ridgway, 



London. 

 This is a republication, in the shape of a small pamphlet 

 of 40 pages, of the excellent articles which appeared 

 under the above heading, from week to week, in our 

 columns, in the beginning of this year. The few tnflina 

 errors which, in course of publication, they were pointed 

 out to have contained, have been corrected, and an 

 entirely new article, on Filbert plantations in Kent, has 

 been added. The value of these papers, which, in the 

 first instance, was acknowledged to be great, is enhanced 

 by their assuming a connected form, by which they are 

 more convenient for reference. We heartily recom- 



profitably. 



perusal 



Miscellaneous 



-The (i ial . Journal 



Grape-Bl<ght.— Lt\e ujtuxa 

 of the 2d publishes some observations taken from a 

 report read on the 24th ult., to the Institute d'lncor- 

 ragiamento of Naples on the Grape blight, which has 

 created as much alarm in the kingdom of Naples as in 

 any other parts of Italy. We subjoin a few particulars 

 which have not been mentioned by the agronomists of 

 Turin and Florence, whose opinions on the subject wc 

 have already stated. The fungus, which attacks the 

 Vine, is a cryptogamous plant of the family of Torulacete 

 —the microscope shows that it consists of articulated 

 filaments, branching out in every direction, spreading 

 upon the epidermis of the fruit without penetrating into 

 it, and representing the root, otherwise called mycelium, 

 in plants of that kind. Other filaments, articulated also, 

 but simple, shoot out vertically from the former, and 

 end in a whitish spore, by which the species is propagated. 



, of Salisbury, when a tin, display of instruction ; lor nanituaieu wvmmmm *~^ ~T^r: This "man t acts mmriouslv upon the Grape, by intercept- 



Occasionally the working classes are capable of great 



own, Esq., mayor of t\ e town. 



*P«n to all v i annual West of England Dahlia Exhibition, 



In connexion with the Society's 

 3*° to all p„ i — """"«* " est of Engl an 

 ^Dahli. 8 n r« under the stewardship of Mr. J. Keynes. 



a awards were a* 



1. Mr R, >»■>:.,„ t-»- 



fo lows :— Amateurs— 12 distinct 

 5 *r D<y«H:T\ l . tobinson ' P*i"Hco ; 2, Mr. Alien, ShacUlewell ; 

 °«<*." Nafti^ t l M bury "' 4 » Mr - J - Edwards, Holloway ; 5, Mr. 

 T »rietiea • \*ll ^ ; 6 ' Ur - Rowden, Newbury. 12 Fancy 

 Anatoli. * m 1,{MW *. Salisbury; 2, Mr. James, Stoke 

 Holowav a • RowdeD » Newbury; 4, Mr J. Edwards, 

 ^•Mii-i m lu S letW8 »*nt oat at any time by Mr. J. 

 Ur.jA'g, ": **>bin«on; 2, Mr. Edwards; 3, Mr. Dudds ; 

 * Ke\ nJT.*V if Cook - Kwaerymen— 24 varieties : 1, Mr. 



*>*»• KevnA.' * Ir xr Dra «*ttwnd, Bath. 24 Fancy varieties: 

 ••^sd a« ulL- ' , r ; Dru mmond ; S, Mr. Bragg. Slough. W 

 ** KUmJIfu U i? r , ygood,n»«c!n.ensoi' Summit of Perfec- 

 ^Vp' r * Herbert (l»odd»-), Nil Desperandu'u (Turner), 



exertions, are persevering and patient of fatigue, but 

 those good qualities are not seconded by a judicious 

 application of their physical powers. But the hus- 

 bandman labouring under disadvantages still more 

 serious, in the want of implements suitable to the 

 prompt and easy performance of his work, is con- 

 sequently but rude in his operations. The plough, the 

 harrow, the scythe, the sickle, are not found on the 



-the hoe and the machete are the only substitutes 



of the epidermis and parenchyma, which manifests itself 

 by black spots on the surface. In its earlier stage of 

 exialtnce the Grape drops from the stalk ; if attacked 

 at a more advanced j« iod its growth is stopped, and 

 putrefaction soon commences. The blight attacks all 

 kinds of Vines, but more particularly those which produce 

 white Grap . It also attacks the Vitis Labrusca, the 

 fruit of which is much used in Italy to give colour to 

 wine. The appearance of this Torula was first noticed 

 in France last year, as may be seen by a paper on the 



published by M. Lev He in the Imtiiutt It 



forth,,,,; ^^^u^^f^argSTbSn i Hs'to'owe its oi-igin to the genomt state of the 

 3«« (W,7*? BSSSS-(Bdw.-iJ3rBS f'nV"^ 5n"i, "n™tb^F^.^^e-'atn 1< ,pl ie re whi,h S been prevalent tin* year, and 

 (K«LW n { l Ittl8) ' Ladi ' Catbca " I"**™**. *«S- .' am! ? ' !Ue , ? r :, L PP might, it is believed, with wme fouudati 



laejnea), Sir P. Jiathurst (Keynes), 3now FtaUe lore they arc not sought lor. i & "> 



• » ■ ■ • 



Prince 



disappear 



