Tour in England, 
as 
ash; and especially by seizing - on and fixing 
the ammonia, brought into contact with it by 
the dews and rains from the atmosphere. These 
multifarious operations of nature in her secret 
laboratory, with all the elements and under all 
the varied circumstances in which she works, 
are not so clearly detected, as to develop her 
modus operandi with sufficient certainty, to 
establish well defined and accurate theories. 
We therefore leave the subject for the practical 
farmer to experiment upon, with what little 
light we have thrown together on the subject 
above. And with all the theory in the world, 
expedience as to its value to certain crops, under 
certain circumstances, and on certain soils, rvould 
be of more value to the farmer; and to him we 
must look for such experiments, as can alone 
afford any reasonable or correct foundation of 
the theoretic action of this important mineral. 
We will add, that another reason for the want 
of effect on clay soils, may be found, in the 
abundance of the sulphates of ammonia, potash 
soda, magnesia, alumina, &c. which they con¬ 
tain. 
Our own use of gypsum has been limited, as 
the land we have cultivated for a few years 
past, has been a tenacious clay. On a field con¬ 
taining twenty acres, which was occupied with 
oats, sown on a freshly turned and unma¬ 
nured soil; oats sown on a well manured 
piece, occupied for several preceding seasons 
with roots; and a large clover patch; we sowed 
in the latter part of May last year, about seven 
acres in different patches, at the rate of five or 
six pecks to the acre. The ground had become 
quite dry, and we had but slight rains after¬ 
wards, and though the whole season was re¬ 
markably dry, we had a large crop from each 
part of the field, (thus showing the superiority 
of a clay soil in drought); yet so far as we could 
discover, there was no apparent difference in 
the plastered or unplastered portions of the field. 
There may have been some advantage in the 
weight or nutritive character of the crop af¬ 
forded by the plaster, but of this we could not 
judge, as our experiment did not go far enough 
to settle this point. r. 
A NEW METHOD OF PRODUCING CHOICE 
Trees. —We have seen the experiment success¬ 
fully made, of producing young trees by bind¬ 
ing around the stalk of a thrifty shoot, fine rich 
mould, which is kept firmly in its place by cloth 
or other bandages. This should be sufficiently 
moist, and applied soon after the buds begin to 
expand in spring. The bark in contact with 
the earth, ought to be punctured in several pla¬ 
ces, which gives facility to the protrusion of the 
new roots. When these are sufficiently devel- 
opedj the stalk may be cut off below the earth. 
and-set out in a place congenial to its growth. 
D. J. Browne, Esq., informs us he procured a 
choice orange plant in this way, in the short 
space of six weeks, binding the earth around the 
stem by a single plaintain leaf, and at the expi¬ 
ration of this time it was transferred into a box 
of finely prepared mould, and brought from 
Brazil to this country, with the foliage and fruit 
upon it. 
We are not certain this plan would answer 
for the production of all fruits, but the simplicity 
and ease with which the experiment can be 
made, entitle it to a thorough trial. Shall we 
hear from some of our correspondents the re¬ 
sults of this suggestion next fall % 
Toni' isi Englnml. No. 2. 
The country in and about Berkshire, is rather 
a grain, than stock producing distiict. It is in 
a high state of cultivation, and one of the most 
beautiful of the rural counties of England. It 
is a pleasant variety of hill and dale, and bound¬ 
ed on the north by the Thames, and crossed by 
the Loddon, the Embona, the Kennet, the Ocks, 
and other branching rivulets. Its soil is vari¬ 
ous, with a greater or less admixture of clay, 
resting occasionally on limestone, but more 
generally on chalk, interspersed with flint. 
The vales are mostly alluvial, and quite fertile, 
especially that of the White Horse up the Ocks, 
and along the Thames, or rather the Isis, for 
the names are synonimous here. A few miles 
below the city of Oxford, the meadows have a 
width of two to three miles, with a good soil, 
reminding us strongly of the Sciota bottoms in 
the neighborhood of Chillicothe, though the 
latter are by far the most fertile. Lower down 
the meadows are much narrower, and so liable 
to overflowing that they are rarely plowed, but 
kept almost exclusively in grass. The herbage 
produced here, seemed often watery and coarse, 
and consequently afforded an ordinary quality 
of hay, and quite disappointed the expectation 
we had formed of it, from reading English 
books. 
The Thames, England’s mighty river, is 
here, some thirty to sixty miles above London, 
from forty to eighty yards wide, half filled with 
rushes and cat tails, and its water muddy and 
almost stagnant; and as for its tributaries, the 
Loddon, &c., we should dignify them in 
America, with the name of brooks or rivulets. 
We quite amused a fellow pedestrian, with 
showing off some of our school boy feats, with 
a long pole in hand, jumping them back and 
forth in their narrowest places at a running 
leap. Osier beds are occasionally planted along 
the streams, which prove a valuable crop, from 
the annual cuttings afforded for the basket 
makers. 
