117 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 22, 1800. 
from an aunt of Improved Frogmore; anti both Punch and the 
Crystal Palace Scarlet will give seventy-five per cent, of seedlings 
quite true to kind. About 18,000 of that race passed through 
our hands, and we could tell the best of them by the leaf; and 
there was always a slight ditference in the self seedlings ; but 
that could not be detected in a bed. Our correspondent, who 
has had the Improved Frogmore fourteen years, received it when 
six kinds claimed the palm of honour to be that improvement, 
but their differences were not much to speak of. As other 
“respectable firms” may be as far out in their registers of best 
bedders, it behoves the public to look before they buy, and make 
sure of a shop which can be depended on for the true Crystal 
Palace Scarlet. —D. B. 
EDGING FOE A CIRCULAR BED OF SCARLET 
GERANIUMS. 
What would be the most appropriate edging (annuals pre¬ 
ferred) for a circular bed, the middle of which to be filled with 
Tom Thumbs (scarlet) ?—A Subscribe. 
\_Lobelia speciosa in an edging nine inches in width, and from 
seeds, as an annual, is the best for a Tom Thumb bed, as 
you might have seen last year at the Crystal Palace round the 
Araucarias on the centre of the upper terrace ; only that instead 
of Tom Thumb, the kinds there were the Crystal Palace Scarlet, 
which is far superior to Tom, and Cottage Maid alternately. There 
is no treatise, of much use, on growing Melons.] 
DIG DEEP: OR PROFIT NOT. 
It is well known that a very essential difference exists between 
uncropped, or what are termed “maiden” soils, and hand-tilled, 
or, in gardening language, hard-cropped soils. In what does this 
difference consist ? The chemist cannot thoroughly explain it so 
as to make it tangible ; and the practical,—who, in general, by a 
kind of rule, derived, however crookedly, from a long course of 
observations,—is also at a loss for a reason. He can tell you 
about the various results that have occurred as years rolled on ; 
and, like other men, has taken the liberty of drawing his in¬ 
ferences, whether correct or not; and this, in the main, forms 
the foundation of what is called practical knowledge. 
A long course of practical observation is not to be despised in 
this question. As to the results of deep digging I may speak 
freely, having been a practitioner somewhat extensively for many 
years. I have before strongly urged this practice in the pages of 
The Cottage Gardener ; but, as the Scotch say, “ a gude tale 
is nane the waur for being twice told,” I must beg to rewarm the 
subject. 
In the first place, what is the history of what are termed hard- 
worn soils ? Generally speaking, unless they contain much of 
the clayey principle, they become soft to the touch, powdery and 
deficient in coherency. They may possess abundance of what is 
called liumus, or the black residue of many manurings ; but all 
this will not compensate for the loss of texture in the soil. I 
have been in the habit for years of using considerable quantities 
of tree leaves, the park producing immense quantities. These 
leaves also generally contain a little dung, having been used about 
hotbeds. I have also used them from the leaf depot, after lying 
there for some eight or ten months. After this, they adhere 
together in masses only half decomposed; but they never 
answered so well as the former, unless for the purpose of trench¬ 
ing down to a low level, where they form a capital pasturage for 
all deep-rooting crops, especially in the heat of summer. 
The other, or those fermented with a portion of dung, always 
produced different effects ; these in the process of trenching ore 
kept much nearer the surface. 
Thus much for the introduction of organic matters in digging 
processes. What most surprises me is, that the market gardeners 
continue to crop hard with vegetables for years, and yet we do 
not hear of their soils wearing out. I believe it to depend on 
the immense quantities of fresh dung they introduce in their 
digging processes, and which is tolerably fresh organic matter, 
while it iu ft considerable degree represents the organic texture of 
turfy materials. I therefore imagine that we should take a lesson 
from them; and oven in trenching, to introduce this material 
during the pioecss. The organic texture of turf differs exceed¬ 
ingly from mere soil and from humus. I suppose thin is owing 
to two or three things. First : Finn crops, grasses, Ac., ore so 
very different from the produce of the old kitchen garden, that it 
is at least a distinct change. Talk of rotations as a change, have 
we not instances amongst timbers, trees in native forests, where 
Nature, we are told, has established this principle? or else we 
have been wrongly informed, how that a generation of one kind, 
which has held possession of a site for centuries, on being cut down 
and cleared, a crop of another kind sprung up spontaneously. 
In the next place, turfy soil is a more ready transmitter of 
moisture than mere worn soil, or even humus. The latter, on 
receiving rain, just suffers it to pass by mere gravitation ; the 
humus simply absorbs what it wants. Turfy soils not only quickly 
absorb, but they transmit to other bodies, possibly up as well as 
down, and this, I suppose, by capillary attraction. Well, then, 
we come to another point—they preserve a peculiar texture, as 
compared with anything else, and the steady and constant supply 
of food they afford for nutrition to vegetables, &e. These I con¬ 
sider points wherein the peculiar character of turfy soil consists. 
But we all know by experience, that the ordinary practice in 
farming operations is, to occasionally lay down the land to 
grass, for thin soils get. tired of the plough,, as ours do of the 
spade. 
But I protest against trenching turf down deep in kitchen 
gardens. Where deep trenching takes places, vegetable rubbish, 
weeds, waste strawy material, and raw leaves, should be in¬ 
troduced in the bottom of the trench. I trench every plot once 
in about three years, and have for years adopted this practice 
with the very best success. After this raw material lies at the 
bottom, attracting a deep rooting in vegetables, and forming a 
pasturage in summer. In three years by the trenching process 
it is brought up into fresh company, and is then only half decom¬ 
posed. In all trenching processes, I make it a point to bring up 
a little of the subsoil if at all workable. Indeed, this and deep 
digging have completely renovated Oulton Park gardens, which 
had become almost worn out, as it is termed. 
There is yet another point which I consider of great conse¬ 
quence in deep trenching—it is a certain destroyer of myriads of 
vermin; of this I am thoroughly assured. Twenty years since 
these gardens were infested so with slugs and other things, that 
it was with the utmost difficulty I could secure many crops. The 
Lettuce and Strawberry plants were injured below ground by 
grubs ; tile young Carrots were slug-devoured ; the Cabbage and 
Broccoli family clubbed seriously, and were finally forced out of 
existence by the wire-worm. There can be no doubt that the 
surface of the soil for about five or six inches in depth is full of 
the eggs of these depredators; and that themselves, iu many 
cases, crawl down into cavities. But transfer this surface soil 
to the bottom—say thirty inches, and few will ever find their 
way to the surface again. R. Eerington. 
DERIVATION OF SEQUOIA. 
Your readers have all heard of the great trees of California ; 
those remarkable productions which for size and magnificence 
are unequalled by any others known. One of these monsters 
measures 03 feet in circumference and 300 feet in height. 
Another, prostrated, measured 40 feet in circumference, 300 
feet from the butt, and must have been between 400 and 500 
feet long. 
For the great tree, “big” tree, many call it incorrectly, the 
names of Wasliingtonia and Wellingtonia have been proposed ; 
but it lias been found ts belong to the genus Sequoia, which 
contains the celebrated Redwood of California. Much has been 
written concerning the age of these giants—one writer making 
them of considerable size at the time of Moses. A section of 
the trunk of a tree first noted above, which was bored down 
with pump augurs and upset with battering rams and wedges, 
was carefully examined by Professor Toney, who counted rdl 
the rings, and could discover but about eleven hundred. Still, 
they are sufficiently old to command respect; and should they 
be preserved to future ages will continue most wonderful re¬ 
presentatives of the vegetable kingdom. 
Whence is the name Sequoia derived ? Has it been intention- 
ally applied, or is it an accident that this American wee com¬ 
memorates the name of an American, of whom, perhaps, few 
white men have ever heard ? Awnv with the misnomers 
Wasliingtonia and Wellingtonia, and all honour to See-quah- 
yah, the American Cadmus, the inventor of the Cherokee 
alphabet. Surely if the genus were not named in his honour, 
it should be so now. History does not furnish forth a parallel 
to this untaught, this self-taught Indian, who struck out, as it 
