F.)R :iGS T AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
32 1 
Importation of Seeds , Plants , fyc. —The seeds saved in 
England, in the current year, are generally to be pur¬ 
chased in London in the months of November and 
December; consequently, those months are the best 
for making purchases for exportation. 
If new seeds are not procurable (which is sometimes 
the case), ihe following brief notes of the period for 
which seeds regain, under proper care, their vegetative 
powers, may serve as a general guide :— 
Cabbage tribe ; four years. 
Leguminous culinary vegetables, one year. 
Beet; ten years. Turnip; four years. 
Carrot and parsnip , one year. Radish , two years. 
Scorzonera , two years. Onion tribe , two years. 
Spinage, four years. Celery, ten years 
Lettuce , three years. Mustard , four years. 
Tarragon, four years. Sorrel, seven years. 
Parsley , six years. Dill and fennel, five years. 
Chervil , six years. Hyssop , six years. 
Sweet herbs in general; two years. Rhubarb; 
one year. 
Cucumber, melon, and congeners ; ten years. 
The following instructions will tend to obviate dis¬ 
appointments in the transmission of seeds, trees, &c., 
if strictly attended to:— 
Seeds— for exportation, must be new, perfectly 
ripened, and well dried, and cleared from all impuri¬ 
ties, and to be packed in brown paper or canvass bags, 
and on board ship to be exposed to a current of air. If 
the quantity is so large as to require the outer pack¬ 
age to be a cask or box, these should be perforated for 
the admission of air , but of a size to exclude vermin. 
Those boxes or casks are better for being kept on deck, 
exposed as little to the sun as possible ; or if stowed 
below, it should be as convenient of access to them, as 
possible, in order to give them an occasional airing on 
deck [Seeds have been successfully preserved through 
long voyages in glass bottles hermetically sealed. Ed.] 
In long voyages seeds should never be stowed in 
the hold. 
Bulbs such as onions, or tubers, as in potatoes, 
should be carefully dried, and of rare or desirable spe¬ 
cies, each bulb or tuber should be wrapped up singly, 
in coarse brown paper, each species in packets by 
themselves, and placed in close wooden cases, care¬ 
fully excluding air; these packages require less atten¬ 
tion than those containing seeds, but they must not be 
placed deep in the hold of a ship, for fermentation will 
take place, and a total decay of the bulbs ensue. 
Fruit Trees and other deciduous Trees , are fit for export 
on the fall of the leaf, when they are to be taken up, 
the longer roots shortened, and the heads shortened 
also, for the convenience of package, and the roots 
coated with a tenacious clay puddle, of the thickness 
of cream, and which must be allowed to dry on the 
roots; each tree should be numbered with a leaden 
tally, fixed securely to the stem with copper wire ; the 
trees are then to be closely stowed in strong wooden 
cases, and made tight, to the total exclusion of air. 
Moss is sometimes used to fill up the spaces between 
the trees, but is not necessary. Maiden trees are the 
best for this mode of package, and of forest trees, those 
with stems one inch thick at least. Upon the arrival 
of the trees at their destination, after unpacking, their 
roots must be soaked in water for 24 hours, and after 
planting they will require shade and water to be ap¬ 
plied conformable to the season. On a long passage 
the packages to be treated as those of the bulbs. 
Evergreen Trees and Shrubs to be taken up on the 
immediate periodical maturity of the leaf, and which 
are, before packing as above, to be cut off from the 
stems with a sharp instrument; in evergreens, it is 
better, if possible, to select such as have no leaves on 
the lower and reserved part of the stem. The pine 
and fir tribe must be Introduced by seed. 
N B. Seeds, bulbs, or plants, must be kept in sepa¬ 
rate packages, or the premature decay of either will 
destroy or seriously damage the whole. And the 
smaller the packages of seeds, the greater will be the 
certainty of success, as they can be placed in the ca¬ 
bins of ships with less inconvenience, and are more 
readily carried on deck for occasional airing.— Southern 
African Almanac. 
Durability of the Wood of the Locust-tree. —The fol¬ 
lowing notes relative to the duration of the locust 
wood (Robinia pseud -acacia), have been made by M. 
Pepin, Jardin du Roi, Paris :—A number of trees were 
felled that had been planted from 40 to 45 years; but 
not more than one in five of those wheelwrights who 
came to purchase appreciated sufficiently the locust, 
the others preferring elm. Ultimately the locust was 
sold to the person who knew its value, at one-third 
higher price than the elm. The purchaser found that 
spokes made of the wood in question lasted two sets 
of felloes, and were likely to answer for a third. 
Under equal circumstances of wear and tear, spokes 
made of locust wood were perfectly sound, whilst 
those of oak required to be replaced. M. Pepin fur¬ 
ther states that the ends of locust gate-posts which 
had been in the soil for upwards of 40 years were still 
not decayed. This sort of wood employed as feet, or 
supports, for chests made of oak, proved sound, 
although the oak planks in contact with them had 
been thrice renewed; but oak supports decayed 
simultaneously with the oak planks composing the 
chests. Vine props of locust wood are greatly es 
teemed.— Gard. Chron. 
Plants Diseased in Jamaica .—There has been a dis¬ 
ease among the cocoes for more than two years in this 
island ; to the eye, the leaves and head appear sound, 
yet on breaking they prove rotten and unfit for plant¬ 
ing; of which I hear the negroes complaining, as it 
forms a principal article of their general provisions. 
The yam season has not yet commenced, so little can 
be said of them ; but complaints are made that the 
plantain-trees are beginning to show disease. The 
mangoes are failing generally in this district, which 
may partly be accounted for by the drought as also the 
bad appearance of the bread-fruit. A gentleman 
lately pointed out to me several pimento-trees, which 
have become completely blighted, though I have not 
heard as yet of such being the case elsewhere. The 
potato-murrain has been truly designated mysterious, 
and if such unusual diseases appear in the vegetable 
kingdom throughout various parts of the globe, it may 
rationally create alarm that some malignant age,ncyis 
abroad, probably through the intervention of the atmo 
sphere.— Ibid. 
Potatoes Sprouting Again. —There appears to be an 
excited and unnatural state of vegetation in the early 
growths of the potato this year, which before its arri¬ 
val at maturity forces out its sprouts or buds, upon 
which fresh tubers are formed, and these in turn emit 
their embryo shoots, and exhibit the strange pheno¬ 
menon of a young growing crop keeping pace with its 
parent stock, or, as I may say, three generations of 
tubers growing from the same stem, I have by me 
now a potato nearly full grown, to which are attached 
by strong shoots four lesser ones, the size of large 
green walnuts, and a very great number of young 
ones just formed, no larger than full-grown peas, but 
all in a most healthy condition, and it is curious to 
note that in one instance the bud of the parent tuber, 
before it had perfected its young stem, shot out (so to 
speak) upon the other side, and there formed a fresh 
stem or tuber, giving the appearance of two young po¬ 
tatoes hanging by a chain below each other from the 
parent one. I may add that where this singular fea¬ 
ture exhibits itself, I can trace no symptoms of dis 
ease.— Ibid . 
