262 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
occupying about one-fourth of the whole size, 
is to be used as a store or ordinary warehouse, 
and will be constructed in the usual manner. 
The remainder of the building is to be walled 
entirely with iron, perfectly tight, and divided 
from the front part by similar wails. Within 
this enclosure is another building, also of iron, 
with its walls about 3 feet distant from the 
walls of the outer building. The inner build¬ 
ing is divided by iron walls into several 
smaller rooms, each of them being perfectly 
gas-proof. The ground beneath the building 
was first packed with wet earth, the beams 
laid in coal tar, and the surface of the earth 
will be covered with coal tar. The space 
between the ground and the flooring will then 
be packed tight with sawdust, as will be the 
space between the outer and inner walls, and 
the hollow space in the iron-lined doors. Over¬ 
head will be packed tightly with ice, which 
will be congealed, by a peculiar process, into 
a solid mass of hard ice, 7 feet thick. AVhen 
all is completed, the small rooms will be 
filled with fresh fruits, such as Apples, Grapes, 
&e., the oxygen of the atmosphere withdrawn 
by chemical process, and the room hermeti¬ 
cally sealed. The vivifying element being 
withdrawn, and the temperature kept down 
by the peculiar process to about 33°, the fruit 
remains perfectly fresh until, the season for 
fresh fruit having passed away, a high market 
is open for them, when the chambers are to 
be opened as wanted, and the fruit taken out 
as fresh as when gathered .—(Building News.) 
Pomological Congress. —From circulars 
which have been received, we find that it is 
intended to hold a Congress at Caen from the 
8th to the 13th of the present month, for the 
examination of cider and perry fruits of the 
north-west of France. Specimens of these 
fruits are invited from all parts; and an ex¬ 
hibition of table fruits is to be held at the 
same time. 
Garden Changes. —We understand that 
Mr. Stevens, from Mr. Ve itch’s Nursery, has 
been appointed to the charge of Trentham 
Gardens, lately filled by that excellent culti¬ 
vator and successful exhibitor, Mr. A. Hen¬ 
derson. Mr. Mudd, formerly of Great Ayton 
Hall, Yorkshire, has been elected Curator of 
the Cambridge Botanic Gardens. Mr. Mudd, 
is favourably known by a “Manual of British 
Lichens,” with highly magnified figures, 
drawn and engraved by himself. 
Testimonial to Mr. Thomas Ingram.— 
A Committee of leading horticulturists has 
been organised with the view of presenting 
Mr. Thomas Ingram with a testimonial on 
his completing his fifty-years charge of the 
Royal Gardens at Frogmore—a charge in 
which he has won the esteem of all with 
whom he has been brought in contact, from 
the highest to the lowest; and in the course 
of which he has contributed much to horti¬ 
culture. When the proposal shall have taken 
a definite form, and been made public, we 
have no doubt it will bo heartily responded to 
far and wide. 
Messrs. Lee’s Nursery at Hammersmith, 
which is one of the oldest of the London 
nurseries, after having been twice invaded by 
railways will soon be taken possession of by 
bricks and mortar, the frontage to the Great 
Western Road for a length of 200 yards and 
a depth of from 80 to 100 yards being offered 
to be let for building; and already scaffold- 
poles are appearing. The business, however, 
will be still carried on, Messrs. Lee having 
for many years had a nursery at Feltham, and 
latterly another at Ealing, both of which are 
easily reached from the Kensington Station. 
Ailanthus Silkworm.— In a paper read 
before the Acclimatisation Society of France, 
Dr. Forgemol recommends the Ailanthus 
glandulosa to be planted so as to form low 
thickets, instead of planting the trees at con¬ 
siderable distances apart. In the latter system 
an immense space of ground is taken up, but 
in the former the trees can be closely packed 
and kept low. The worms are then more 
protected from birds, which are very destruc¬ 
tive to them; or the plantation might be 
netted over. We understand that the Ailan¬ 
thus has been extensively planted in the 
neighbourhood of Bagshot, with a view to the 
cultivation of this silkworm, the introduction 
of which into this country we owe to Lady 
Dorothy Nevill. 
Aberdeen Strawberry Trade. — The 
Aberdeen market gardeners have long been 
successful cultivators of the Strawberry, but 
few people are aware of the actual extent to 
which this fruit is grown. “ We usually,” 
says the Aberdeen Free Press, “think of 
Strawberries in pints or quarts, not in 
hundredweights and tons; yet Strawberries 
by the ton have become an actual item of 
export, and during the present season the 
quantity brought into the market and sent 
southward, chiefly to London, to be manu¬ 
factured into preserves, amounted to about 
thirty-five tons. This is independent of con¬ 
siderable quantities used at home for the 
manufacture of ‘preserves’ on the wholesale 
principle, and for ordinary domestic use, &c., 
which must have brought up the total quantity 
to something like fifty tons; and, if we take 
into account that a ton of Strawberries is 
worth £25 to £30 (probably only smaller 
quantities reaching the latter rate), it will be 
seen that this has become no unimportant 
branch of market-gardening. It is a branch, 
moreover, that promises to extend. It is only 
a few years since Strawberries began to bo 
exported southward at all; but the demand 
is, we understand, very keen, and even beyond 
the supply; and contracts to the extent of 
thirty tons have been already entered into 
for next season; while some of the prin¬ 
cipal growers are considerably extending the 
