PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURE. 
PEOGEESS OF EOETICULTTJEE, &c. 
Hie Formation of Foads and Walks. — This has been a vexed question for a number of years past, 
and we are now indebted to Mr. Beaton for having put us in the right, not only as respects sound 
walks, but also for economical ones, in the first formation and management afterwards, as Mr. B. 
states, some of the walks at Shrublands have not been weeded since 1843 : — " Upon a careful considera- 
tion of all kinds of land on which this style of road or walk is to be made, and allowing for the old 
prejudice of deep-made roads, I have fixed upon six inches as the maximum depth of a carriage-road 
on the worst kind of bottom, and four inches for a walk over such bottom, and from two to three inches 
for the best kitchen-garden walks. It is only in a kitchen garden that I would consent to drain under 
or near the bed of a walk, but every walk in a kitchen-garden ought to have a bed under it as deep 
as the ground in the borders or quarters is ever likely to be stirred. After the drain is formed and 
filled in, we have four inches to fill in with the walk, one of which should just be filled with small or 
sifted coal-ashes, or chalk in powder ; this is intended to intercept, to some extent, the damp from 
below, and to prevent the roots of the frees clinging to the bottom of the walk and getting scorched in 
hot weather. In all places out of a kitchen-garden I would take as much precaution to keep dampness 
from the bottom of a good walk as I would do for my bed-room, by drawing away from it — not to it — ■ 
and then the remaining three inches I would make in such a way that no water could pass through to 
the bottom, but should ship sideways ; and for such a walk one inch rise in a ten feet walk will do 
that ; and last of all, the walk is to be one body of solid concrete, made with anything, except gravel, 
that will concrete, from an oyster shell to granite." " A model road," as Mr. B. terms it, was thus 
made : — " A thin layer of small chalk was placed at the bottom, not more than an inch or so, then a 
layer of rough stones, and a heavy roller drawn by two horses passed three or four times over them, 
which compressed the stones to three inches, the stones being firmly imbedded in the chalk, and the 
chalk squeezed and oozing through them. After that, a good watering with a water-cart to soften the 
chalk to the consistency of glazier's putty, then a very thin layer of fine chalk was added, and another 
layer of stones of a smaller size, or broken with a hammer to the size of a duck's egg, and over that a 
mixed layer of the roughest of the old gravel and the smallest chalk. This was watered a second time 
to wash the last layer in among the stones, and next day, when it had drained down and the surface 
was dry enough, the heavy roller went over the road again several times. The last layer was now 
carefully prepared by mixing six quantities of the rough gravel with one quantity of the finest chalk, 
and nearly an inch of this was spread over the whole surface, except at the sides, where lime was used 
instead of chalk, in order to have a firmer hold to resist the rain-water. The last coat was slightly 
watered, and when it dried sufficiently to let the roller pass without clinging to it, the final rolling 
was given, and thus a body of stones were so compressed together that when the road was dry it would 
have been no easy matter to have undone the road again." " After this description, a garden-walk is a 
simple process : one stout layer of stones, or, if broken, anything from shells to rough coal-ashes or 
clinkers will do for a dry bottom ; chalk, or chalk-lime, or stone-lime, in the proportion of one of chalk 
to ten of the other materials, well watered, and rolled to the thickness of three inches, and a rise in the 
centre of two inches ; then cover with half-an-ineh of gravel and lime or small chalk mixed, and then 
finish by one eighth of the best coloured gravel, and roll till all is quite firm. Whatever the width of 
your walk may be, make up the composition from the bottom four inches wider, and thus you will have 
two inches on each side, to prevent a raw surface being seen when the edges are cut, and also to prevent 
worms from working. — [Cottage Gardener, p. 191 and 213.) 
The Degeneracy of Fruits. — Mr. Marshall, in the American Horticulturist, (vi, 120), states the 
prevalent theory on this subject to the effect: — That propagation by grafting or budding is a continua- 
tion of the original free of the variety thus propagated : that is, all the Baldwin Apple trees now 
growing in the world, are parts of the original tree grown in Massachussetts (U. S.) ; and their age is 
to be counted from the time the seed germinated which produced the parent tree, and not from the 
time when they were grafted. That at some future period (not well ascertained) this variety will 
produce degenerate fruit ; and that its quality can never be brought back to its primitive character, 
because of the age of the parent tree. Yet a seed of this degenerate fruit will produce a new variety 
possessing distinct characteristics, which it will retain until it reaches a certain age, when its 
degeneracy will commence also. Mr. Marshall thinks the evidence on these points inconclusive, and 
maintains that the degeneracy is rather in the soil and cultivation, than in the tree or its fruit. • The 
virgin soil is cropped and exhausted, and then manured to meet the exhaustion ; but the trees do not 
£ get the same or a congenial kind of food. As pomologists complain that certain varieties of fruit are 
■EK not so good now as when they were boys, he suggests that the difference may be between the taste and 
