6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 2, 1860. 
WEEDS ON GARDEN WALKS DESTEOYED 
BY ETHER RESIDUUM. 
In reply to an editorial query as to whether the acid would 
not injure the shoes, I beg to say that it is better that ladies with 
thin shoes should not for a few hours frequent the path : it is, 
therefore, better to apply the remedy in an evening. I should 
have mentioned that the acid emits a rather strong spirituous 
smell for a short time ; but it passes readily away, and after all 
is not very disagreeable. I can vouch for the perfect success of 
the remedy. A friend, who was in the habit of constantly em¬ 
ploying two women during the whole of the spring and summer 
months to remove the weeds with knives, now only requires the 
aid of a man and boy one day in spring and autumn, and his 
walks are entirely freed from the nuisance. I have myself only 
used it this autumn, but the success was complete.— The Cot¬ 
tage Gardener's Friend. 
THE SCIENCE OE GARDENING. 
{Continued from page 374, Vol. XXIV.) 
Lastly, in this section of our. researches we have to consider 
the ripening of seeds. This final operation of the plant’s annual 
round of growth requires changes the exact reverse of those 
which have to be effected when the plant first commences existence 
— that is, when the seed germinates. 
During a seed’s germination, the usual chief operation is the 
conversion of starch into sugar ; But during the seed’s ripening 
the usual change is the conversion of sugar and gum into starch. 
During germination the necessary changes required carbon to be 
got rid of, and, consequently, as we showed whilst considering 
the phenomena, carbonic acid is emitted by the seed. 
But during the ripening of seed—that is, during the con¬ 
version of its sugar into starch, no carbon need to be got rid 
of, for they are relatively composed as follows :— 
Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. 
Grape sugar . 24 ... 22 ... 22 
Starch. 24 ... 20 ... 20 
So, as the seed approaches to ripeness, we gradually find more 
oxygen and water emitted by a plant in proportion to the 
carbonic acid and water absorbed than during the period of 
growth and flowering. This coincides also with Liebig’s state¬ 
ment, who, on the supposition that starch is formed by the 
plant from carbouic acid and water, says that there would be 
required thirty equivalents of carbonic acid, and thirty equivalents 
of hydrogen derived from thirty equivalents of water, with the 
separation of seventy-two equivalents of oxygen. Of the vital 
process by which this is effected we know nothing, and can only 
compare it to the action of chlorine gas, which when mixed with 
water combines with its hydrogon and sets its oxygen free. 
We have said much relative to the seeds of plants when con¬ 
sidering the phenomena of germination in our first chapter, and 
we will only add here some of the results of experience recorded 
by Mr. Knight; premising that, although his observations were 
made upon the seeds of fruit trees, yet they are equally applicable 
to the seeds of all cultivated plants. 
New varieties of every species of fruit will generally be better 
obtained by introducing the farina of one variety into the 
blossom of another than by propagating from any single kind. 
When an experiment of this kind is made between varieties of 
different size and character the farina of the smaller kind should 
be introduced into the blossoms of the larger; for, under these 
circumstances, Mr. Knight generally (but with some exceptions), 
observed in the new fruit a prevalence of the character of the 
female parent; probably owing to the following causes. The 
seed-coats are generated wholly by the female parent, and these 
regulate the bulk of the lobes and plantule : and he observed, in 
raising new varieties of the Peach, that when one stone contained 
two seeds, the plants these afforded were inferior to others. The 
largest seeds obtained from the finest fruit, and from that which 
ripens most perfectly and most early, should always be selected. 
The trees, from blossoms and seeds of which it is proposed to 
propagate, should have grown at least two years in mould of the 
best quality. During that period they ought not to be suffered 
to exhaust themselves, by bearing any considerable crop of fruit; 
and the wood of the preceding year should be thoroughly ripened 
(by artificial heat when necessary), at an early period in the 
autumn : and if early maturity in the fruit of the new seedling 
plant is required, the fruit within which the seed grows should 
be made to acquire maturity within as short a period as is con¬ 
sistent with its attaining its full size and perfect flavour : those 
qualities ought also to be sought in the parent fruits which are 
desired in the offspring ; and the most perfect and vigorous 
offspring will be obtained, of plants as of animals, when the male 
and female parent are not closely related to each other.— ( Ror- 
ticultural Society's Transactions , i., 38, 165.)—J. 
{To be continued ) 
NEW BOOKS. 
Scientific Farming.* —This little volume may be read ad¬ 
vantageously, and with amusement as well as profit, by every 
one who has an acre of ground either under the spade or plough. 
Not that there is anything new in its pages, but truths too much 
neglected are stated ably and forcibly, and much useful infor¬ 
mation is collected and condensed in a small space. 
For example :—‘‘There is no good reason why the farms of 
England should yield crops so greatly inferior in comparison 
with what our market-gardeners produce. Professor Playfair, a 
reliable authority, lias stated that the value of £250 has been pro¬ 
duced from a single acre of market-garden ground in one year. 
Why, then, should not our farms be made comparatively profit¬ 
able P That they are not so we all knowq and the reason is ob¬ 
vious. The market-gardener is generally content to cultivate no 
more ground than his capital is equal to ; while the farmer, on 
the other hand, is continually grasping at more land, when he has 
barely capital sufficient to farm properly what he already occupies. 
It cannot be too strongly urged as a truth, that no tenant farmer 
straitened for capital can ever farm well or profitably; and for 
parties in this predicament thei’e is but one mode of extrication, 
which they ought not to lose a moment in adopting—viz., to 
restrict themselves to half the number of acres. By so doing, 
they would not only double their acreage capital, but lessen their 
expenditure, and be able to concentrate their energies with greater 
advantage. Moreover, by decreasing the competition for land, 
rents would necessarily become more moderate, and. they would 
be thereby placed in a better position to secure the value of their 
permanent improvements than they are now. By resolutely 
adopting this prudent course, we should hear no more of such 
idle excuses as * Can’t afford it,’ when improvements were 
suggested. We should then no longer look with pity on a solitary 
individual undertaking the labour of a twenty-acre field ; but we 
should see some half-dozen hands employed upon it, in the 
various duties of draining, fencing, scouring, cleaning, and other 
operations, all essential to a good crop. True, the small farmer 
would have to pay more for labour; but, on the other hand, he 
would have to pay less for poor, police, and county rates; he 
would obtain larger crops, and thus be enabled to produce a 
larger quantity of beef and mutton, besides procuring thereby 
an extra quantity of manure, and consequently the saving of 
many pounds annually in the purchase of artificial fertilizers. In 
short, he would gain on all sides, to a much larger extent than 
would counterbalance the cost of extra labour employed. 
“ Mr. Mechi observes—and upon such a subject as this he is 
no mean authority—that ‘ the quantity of meat made on a farm 
per acre determines the quantity of corn grown.' And he adds : 
‘ By putting a few questions to a farmer, I can almost imme¬ 
diately arrive at a conclusion as to his position, without visiting 
his furrn. The first question would be, ‘ How much meat do 
you make per acre over the whole acreage of your farm ? ’ 
“ This question has been solved by Mr. Thomas Dyke Acland, 
in the ‘Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal,’ vol. xi. p. 666. 
He there shows that the largest corn-growing farmer in Norfolk, 
a most successful man, produces 4£ score of meat on every acre 
of his land. Compare this with the general average of the farms 
of this kingdom, which certainly do not produce one score 
pounds of meat per acre. The more meat you make, the more 
manure you produce, and the more corn you grow. The common 
labourer is the best evidence on this point. With his patch of 
ground, about one-eighth of an acre, he know that unless he 
keeps a pig to make manure, he cannot expect a crop. Therefore, 
he fattens one pig, which consumes three sacks, or twelve bushels, 
of barleymeal, which at 7 lbs. of meal to 1 lb. of meat, would be 
S4 lbs. of meat, or four score on the one-eighth of an acre, or 
over thirty-two Scofo per acre.— {Row to Farm Profitably , p. 6.) 
W hile, with respect to corn produce, let us take a lesson from 
* Scientific Farming made Easy, or the Science of Agriculture re¬ 
duced to Practice. By T. C. Fletcher. London : Routledge & Co. 
