381 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 20, 1860. 
DREG AS A MANURE. 
Have you had any experience in using “dreg,” the refuse 
after the distillation of wash made from malt, as a “ liquid 
manure?” It is like clear ale, with merely tli e spirit out of it. 
Having thousands of gallons of it weekly at my disposal, I 
imagine it must be a good manure, and might be applied with 
benefit to all plants. I mean to experiment with it, but before 
doing so I shall wait your reply. It is to be obtained here at 
Is. for as much as a horse can draw. 
Should fruit trees and Vines in pots be annually root-pruned 
and repotted in their orchard-house pots? or, having rested in a 
dry state, will top dressing be enough as recommended by Mr. 
Rivers ?— Langiiolm. 
[We have had no experience with “ dreg ” as a liquid manure 5 
but as it contains all the constituents of malt soluble in water, 
and not convertible into spirit, we have no doubt that it would 
be beneficial. It would be improved by mixing with it stable 
drainage, or house sewage strong in ammoniacal constituents. 
We shall be much obliged by your communicating to us the 
results of your experiments. Vines in pots do not require root- 
pruning, but merely a, removal of some of the old soil, and 
replacing it with very rich compost.] 
DUNN’S SOLID MARKING-INK PENCIL. 
We consider this the most effective invention that has yet 
been offered to the gardener for marking his plant-labels. The 
writing is black and indelible; the labels requiring no other 
preparation than previously rubbing them with a damp finger. 
The label may be either of wood, parchment, bone, or zinc. The 
pencil requires no cutting, but the writing-points are raised or 
lowered in a mode similar to those in Mordan’s lead-pencil cases. 
It is equally efficacious for marking linen, and when our readers 
remember the trouble and difficulty of obtaining clean and 
efficient quill pens for applying marking ink, we think that they 
will not be slow in patronising “Dunn’s Solid Marking-Ink 
Pencil.” The case and point are only eighteenpence. 
We have no doubt Mr. Dunn will advertise this very clever 
and useful invention, and in the meantime we publish the follow¬ 
ing letter wc have received from him :— 
“ At last I have the pleasure to forward you one of my Solid 
Marking-Ink Pencils, which after eighteen months’ hard work 
have been brought to their present form. The Cedar cases in 
which I at first tried them proved a sad mistake j the oil con¬ 
tained in the wood softened the points and caused the pencil to 
block up, and this I did not discover until I came to make them 
in bulk. It is a curious fact, that in the Cedar cases the oil will 
not act on t hem if carried in tho pocket; whereas, if the same 
point is put in a Cedar case and left in a cool place, the oil con¬ 
denses on the point and softens it in the course of two or three 
days. 
“ The white wood case contains no oil, and some I have had 
filled in for three months are as good as ever. I triod an old 
point the other day, one of the first I made fourteen months ago, 
and found it much improved by age. This was very satisfactory, 
as somo of my chemical friends predicted a decomposition of the 
points ; but facts prove the contrary. 
“No preparation is required for marking sticks, &c.; the 
slightest damping is sufficient, and they will mark dry ; and if 
you want to fix the writing at once, hold the stick to the fire 
just below scorching heat. 
“ It will also mark permanently on linen, &c., dry, or slightly 
damped with water or the tongue, but not so black as with the 
tartrate of pptash. I could put them up in white wood as a 
common pencil, but there is a great objection to cutting them— 
they mark the thumb, and the cuttings mark anything they fall 
on. I have also tried to cheapen them, by using a common slide, 
but they do not work so well as with the screw, and as this is a 
patent case, I am obliged to pay a high price for it; but you will 
understand they refill for Is. I send you a specimen written on 
calico, which has been washed several times.” 
THE DANDELION: A SUBSTITUTE EOR 
LETTUCES. 
Scarcity of Lettuces this spring is likely to be felt, from the 
effects of an unusual frosty and wet winter. The loss, however, 
may be fully compensated by substituting tho Dandelion. The 
writer regrets that he has not before recommended its cultivation 
on warm borders for blanching, and for early supplies, as Endive 
is commonly blanched; but now hastens to introduce the free use 
of it as a safe and invaluable medicinal salad, being able to judge 
of, and pronounce, its salutary effects upon his own impaired 
constitution, more particularly in the removal of heartburn, in¬ 
digestion, costiveness, rheumatism, chronic secretions, and in¬ 
dolence of the liver, together with other sad symptoms arising 
from it, such as loss of sleep, despair, or melancholy irritableness, 
and other such like false mental forebodings, all arising from the 
inactivity of the liver. 
As soon as spring dawns, and fresh animation appears in tho 
plant in warm situations, and a similar revival is naturally re¬ 
quired in the human system, free use of the plant may be resorted 
to with perfect success and safety, and happy results will follow. 
Any one may indulge his appetite with a large plateful of the 
plants at a meal, stalks and all, down to their very roots, Bhreaded 
very fine, especially when the masticating powers are impaired. 
Let them be eaten with vinegar and sugar, which take off the bitter ¬ 
ness of the plant. The writer prefers Raspberry vinegar, or some 
other made from home-made wines of any kind of fruit. Many 
hearty meals of it he often enjoys with the accompaniment of 
nothing more than a lump of good wholesome bread and a pint 
of pure water, and thus, thanks be to God, his former good 
health is restored. 
A decoction of the root of Dandelion, either when it is green 
or dried, is admitted an invaluable beverage in dispelling diseases 
of the liver; but this need not be resorted to, except in winter, 
when the plant is dormant.— Abraham Hardy, Seed Grower, <fc\, 
Maldon , Essex. 
A CHAPTER FOR THE COTTAGER. 
STANDARD AND WALL FRUIT TREES. 
Fruit Trees. —In a former chapter, page 259, the subject of 
cottage-garden fences was dwelt upon, and likewise that very 
common accompaniment to the garden the “ cesspool.” That the 
one is a necessary appendage* and the other a sort of necessary evil 
will be generally granted. I now come to another feature in 
the garden of a more pleasing kind—the cultivation of fruits, 
leaving the subject of the piggery and outhouse for another time, 
especially as the season for planting or pruning fruit trees is fast 
passing away; and as fruit trees in some shape generally form a 
part in every garden, and on some occasions a little advice on 
their treatment will be of great service to the cottager, this chapter 
is devoted to that purpose, and I shall suppose the cottager 
to have just entered on his holding, the garden possessing a few 
old worn-out Apple or Pear trees, with Gooseberry or Currant 
bushes mixed with them, but struggling to attain the same 
altitude, while the centres are devoid of leaves or young shoots of 
any kind. Against the cottage-wall, perhaps, are the remains of 
an old Plum tree ; the only branch upon it of any consequence, 
having been allowed to hang dangling lrom the wall, has assumed 
a sort of curved bushy-headed appearance ; the tips lashing 
against the windows on windy days or nights; or, perhaps, if it 
grew higher, its disposition to remove slates or tiles on windy 
occasions creates much annoyance. Most of these remnants of 
bygone days, or of neglect, I would entirely remove; for although 
old Apple and Pear trees will bear cutting down and grafting 
afresh, they so often die three or four years afterwards, that I 
would not advise their being trusted to. Young trees in a general 
way are cheap enough, and there is something more to be hoped 
for in a young tree than in an old one; but when trees have been 
allowed to run into a rather wild condition, judicious cutting will 
be of great service ; or when the kinds are known to be indifferent, 
and the trees healthy and not too old, they may be headed down 
and grafted with more esteemed varieties; taking care in heading 
down not to do so too severely, but to leave plenty of forked 
heads, and if not thicker than the handle of a garden rake so much 
the better. This heading down to be performed early in the 
winter; but the grafting may be deferred until late in the spring, 
of which I will speak hereafter. 
Too great a number of large fruit trees is always objectionable 
where vegetables are also wanted; but a few on the north side of 
a garden is always advisable, and if placed so that their tops 
might overshadow a walk, or it might be a thicker fence, or tho 
piggery, tho spaces occupied by these necessary adjuncts to the 
garden might be rendered as fruitful as any other portion of tho 
ground ; and by having the trees on the north side of the garden 
the sun will have more power to shine on the south side of it. 
