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Vines. — I have not yet tried the effect of peat charcoal on 
vines, but judging from analogous cases, I am certain that it 
will prove of much advantage to them, not only as a fertiliser, 
but also as a means of keeping the borders porous, and thereby 
bringing better into action the other materials of which they 
may be composed. Under such an arrangement much finer 
fruit may be expected. 
In flower gardens, peat charcoal will be found invaluable, 
inducing, as it does, quick growth ; but not over luxuriant, 
and consequently plenty of blossoms. Under its influence 
the colours of the latter are well brought out. 
These experiments were all tried last year. This season 
I have found, that, if instead of horse dung being turned for 
a month before it is used for forcing, it is allowed about a 
week's lying, and then put into a four-light pit, and covered 
over with an inch of peat charcoal, all will be well. Under 
this system, by the time my cucumbers came up, all smell 
was removed. Again, gardeners are much annoyed in Jan- 
uary and February by plants damping off. I dusted my 
cucumber plants in the pans every morning with peat, and 
I did not lose six out of six hundred. Those treated in this 
way throve better than the others, and produced a more 
healthy dark green leaf. In short, I consider the use of 
charred peat in a melon-ground indispensable. I have only 
to add, that I never had finer crops of strawberries in pots, 
as well as all sorts of plants before-mentioned, than I have 
had this summer. On frequent examination of the roots I 
have always found the young fibres adhering closely round 
the particles of peat, shewing at once the great benefit they 
derive from it, not only in the shape of nourishment, but also 
in the warmth, air, and moisture the charcoal affords, from its 
being so porous. If this be the case in a light soil, a good 
dressing must be much more beneficial to clayey lands. My 
potatoes have never been better. I have had many weighing 
