August 15.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
297 
1 
M W 
D D 
AUGUST 15—21, 1850. 
Weather near London 
in 1849- 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
15!Th 
Assumption B.V.M. Large Black Staphyline 
T. 
72°— 52°. 
S.W. 
Rain. 
47 a. 4 
22 a. 7 
11 a .17 
8 
4 
1 / 
22 7 
16 p 
Greenfinch’s song ceases. [seen. 
T. 
64°—42°. 
s.w. 
Rain. j 
48 
20 
11 52 
9 
4 
5 
228 
17 s 
iDuchess op Kent born, 1/81. Barley cut. 
T. 
73°— 42°. 
w. 
Rain. 1 
50 
18 
morn. 
10 
3 
53 
229 
18 Sun 
jl 2 Sun. aft.Trin. Devil’s bit Scabious ilowers. 
T. 
69 °—40°. 
w. 
Fine, j 
51 
16 
0 32 
11 
3 
40 
230 
19 M 
Common Tansy flowers. 
T. 
72°— 50°. 
N. 
Fine. 
53 
14 
1 19 
12 
3 
26 
231 
20 To 
Small Copper Butterfly seen. 
T. 
72 °— 62 °. 
w. 
Fine. ’ 
55 
12 
2 13 
13 
3 
13 
232 
21 W 
Sun’s declin. 12° 10' n. 
T. 
78°—58°. 
S.W. 
Fine. 
56 
10 
3 10 
14 
2 
58 
233 
Sir Benjamin Thompson, better known as Count Rumford, does 
not merit our notice for his taste in landscape gardening, which we are 
told was great, and much less for his knowledge of plants, for even the 
common names of the commonest plants were to him for the most part 
unknown,—but he deserves our especial regard for the great benefits he 
achieved for us by improving our furnaces, fire-places, ventilation, and 
cookery, and for ever bearing in mind that man should not live for him¬ 
self alone. America has cause for being proud of giving him birth ; and 
it was fortunate, perhaps, that his birth and childhood passed away in one 
of the least known of her village towns—Woburn, in Massachuscts. 
Descended from parents not above the middle class of villagers, without 
the temptations that fly to the wealthy and gather round the citizen, he 
had to seek for in-door recreation in the society of books, those best and 
most unobtrusive of friends. His was not above such an education as 
could be acquired in his birth-place ; but he had that within him which 
is better than the best of tutors, and without which tuition is little more 
than sinking inscriptions into stone—he had a love for the labour of 
acquiring information ; and to his own industry and to his thirst for 
knowledge, more than to any instructions derived from masters, was 
owing the richly stored mind which guided him to the affluence and 
honours he attained even in early manhood. Passing over that portion of 
his life in which he supported the Royalist cause in the American war, 
and for which George III. conferred upon him in 1784 the honour of 
knighthood, we then find him active in the Bavarian sendee, in the more 
successful struggle to improve the social condition of the people. It is 
startling to us, who have so long been conversant with the merits of the 
potato, to find that he was the first to overcome the prejudices of the 
Bavarians, and to win them to its general use as a food. To aid him in 
this, as well as to improve the habits of the soldiers, he devised the 
system of military gardens—that is, “pieces of ground in or adjoining to 
the garrison towns, which were regularly laid out, and exclusively appro¬ 
priated to the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers belonging 
to the regiments in garrison.” In these gardens every private soldier 
was assigned a piece of ground, about three hundred and sixty-five square 
feet in extent. This piece of ground was to remain the sole property of 
that soldier so long as he served in the regiment; he was to be at liberty 
to cultivate it in any way, and to dispose of the produce in any way, he 
chose ; if, however, he did not choose to work in it, but wished rather to 
spend his pay in idleness, he might do so ; but in that case the piece of 
ground was to be taken from him, and so also if he neglected it. Every 
means were used to attach the soldiers to their garden labour : seeds and 
manure were furnished them at a cheap rate ; whatever instruction was 
necessary was given them ; and little huts or summer-houses were erected 
in the gardens, to afford them shelter when it rained. “ The effect of the 
plan,” says Rumford, “ was much greater and more important than I 
could have expected. The soldiers, from being the most indolent of 
mortals, and from having very little knowledge of gardening, became 
industrious and skilful cultivators, and grew so fond of vegetables, par¬ 
ticularly of potatoes, that these useful and wholesome productions began 
to constitute a very essential part of their daily food. These improve¬ 
ments began also to spread among the farmers and peasants throughout 
the w r hole country. There was hardly a soldier that went on furlough 
that did not carry with him a few potatoes for planting, and a little col¬ 
lection of garden seeds ; and I have already had the satisfaction to see 
little gardens here and there making their appearance in different parts 
RANGE OF BAROMETER—RAIN IN INCHES. 
of the country.’* He made its productiveness one of his assistants in 
abolishing that organised system of mendicancy which until then had 
been like a nightmare upon their social prosperity. Not only did 
Munich, but the whole country, swarm with beggars, who followed men¬ 
dicity as a trade, and claimed for it prescriptive rights and privileges. 
The military had proudly declined all interference with these parasites ; 
but Sir Benjamin, having provided workhouses, sallied forth on the New 
Year’s day of 1/90, decorated with all his Bavarian orders, and at the 
head of a military and civil staff seized with his own hands the first 
mendicant. His example was promptly followed, but with the most per¬ 
fect good humour; and before nightfall every beggar of Munich was 
lodged in its workhouses. Sustenance and labour were supplied to all; 
new manufactures—as we have seen new food—were introduced; and 
gradually there was established in Bavaria that preference of industry to 
idleness, and of decency to filth and rags, which still characterise its 
people—the most prominent symptoms of lingering vagrancy being those 
broom girls, who can scarcely be classed among our street nuisances. 
For such services the sovereign of Bavaria bestowed upon him many 
rewards, but none more prominent than creating him Count of Rumford, 
the name of his title being taken from the place where he had spent some 
of his happiest days in his native land. In 1799 he returned to England, 
and here with renewed energy addressed himself to various efforts 
whereby to diffuse economy and comfort. For years he engaged inces¬ 
santly in experiments for improving the construction of our chimnies 
and fireplaces, all aiming at a decreased consumption of fuel, and the 
memory of which is preserved in that fireplace still known as the Rum¬ 
ford Stove. It is impossible for us to compress into our space even an 
outline of the Count’s improvements. It must be sufficient for us to 
say, that the suggestion of all our modern system of prominent grates 
near the floor, and of backs contrived to act as reflectors of heat, are to 
be found in his “ Essays, Political, Economical, and Physical.” The 
first grate in conformity with his suggestions was erected at Lord Pal¬ 
merston’s, in Hanover-square; and so popular became his fireside im¬ 
provements, that even Pindar sings amid much ridicule undeserved— 
Lo ! every parlour, drawing-room, I see 
Boasts of thy stoves, and talks of nought but thee. 
Yet not alone my lady and young misses— 
The cooks themselves could smother you with kisses. 
The Count, however, was above the reach of ridicule, and pursued his 
course—his admirable course—applying science to the arts, and using his 
influence and his wealth to enlist others in the same beneficial object. 
He invested -s^lOOO, the interest of which is to be devoted for ever as a 
premium every second year to the discoverer of such improvements 
relative to the application of heat or light as the Council of the Royal 
Society may consider most beneficial to mankind. A still more striking 
monument of his useful career is ,the Royal Institution in Albermarle- 
street—that institution whose laboratory gave birth to the splendid dis¬ 
coveries of Faraday and Davy ; and well might it be a source of pleasure- 
able reflection, that to himself the latter owed his appointment of 
lecturer on chemistry. When the results of Count Rumford’s efforts arc 
considered—his published works, his contributions to the Philosophical 
Transactions, and his ever progressing experiments—we are not surprised 
at the query, “ How did he find time for all this ? ” and the satisfactory 
answer seems to be, “ No man in all his habits had more the spirit of 
order : everything around him was 
Aug. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
15 
B. 
r 29-746 
30.204 
29-923 
29.744 
29.800 
29.740 
30.222 
29.896 
29-9)0 | 
\ 29.687 
30.153 
29.894 
29.552 
29.728 
29.716 
30.163 
29.846 
29.865 I 
R. 
— 
— 
0.6l 
00.3 
— 
0.07 
0.32 
— 
0.0! 
16 
B. 
/ 29.92! 
30.162 
30.040 
29.919 
29.911 
29.863 
30.088 
29.896 
29.793 
\29.S51 
30.130 
29.979 
29.863 
29-837 
29.792 
30.040 
29.759 
29.763 
R. 
— 
— 
0.16 
0.01 
— 
— 
0.05 
0.12 
0.15 
B. 
f 30.056 
30.112 
30.100 
29.880 
29-901 
29.855 
30.044 
29.956 
29.945 
l 29.909 
30.092 
30.097 
29.768 
29.727 
29.746 
30.040 
29.881 
29-872 
R. 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.27 
0.34 
0.02 
0.01 
18 
B. 
r 30.173 
29.939 
29.084 
30.092 
29.762 
29.570 
30.101 
30.046 
30.046 
130.140 
29.830 
29-958 
30.060 
29.594 
29.539 
.30.082 
29.884 
29.993 
R. 
— 
0.01 
— 
— 
0.28 
0.07 
0.10 
— 
— 
19 
B. 
; 30.197 
29.910 
29-820 
30.119 
29.371 
29.648 
30.119 
29.844 
30.2/2 
l 30.006 
29-879 
29.670 
30.041 
29 .Hl 
29.578 
30.016 
29.718 
30.145 
R. 
— 
0.01 
0.01 
0.01 
0.42 
0.01 
0.05 
0.06 
— 
20 
B. 
729.734 
30.038 
30.171 
29.901 
29.765 
29.829 
29.971 
29.960 
30.337 
129.628 
29.9S1 
29.647 
29.774 
29.524 
29.720 
29.895 
29.882 
30.325 
R, 
— 
— 
— 
— 
— 
0.33 
— 
0.26 
— 
21 
B. 
1-29.903 
29.981 
29-977 
29.747 
30.060 
29.954 
29.911 
29718 
30.323 
l 29.797 
29.943 
29.885 
29.727 
29.894 
29744 
29-749 
29.478 
30.230 
R. 
0.04 
0.03 
" 
0.17 
classed. No object was allowed to 
remain an instant out of its place 
when he had done with it; and he 
was never behind his time to an 
appointment a single minute.” 
Next to the power of concentrating 
attention to a subject under con¬ 
sideration, this regard to order is 
the best aid to facility of progress. 
We must conclude, and by merely 
recording that he died near Paris 
on the 21st of August, 1814, and 
that he was born in 1 752. He had 
been twice married—the second 
union being with the widow of 
M. Lavoisier, noticed in our last 
number. 
Meteorology of the Week. 
At Chiswick, observations during 
the last twenty-three years show 
that the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 
73. 1 ° and 51.8°, respectively. The 
greatest heat, 02 °, occurred on the 
18th in 1842 ; and the greatest 
cold, 37°, on the 20th in 1839. 
Eighty-nine days were fine, and 
during seventy-two days rain fell. 
No. XCVIII., Vol. IV. 
