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which young low trees were planted: a net covering only the lower half of the wall completely protected all these, except one; this had reached the top, consequently there was a deltoid-like piece above the net totally uncovered, which, nevertheless, produced more fruit than all the wall besides, the covered part being as bad as the protected trees generally.

Thus I was compelled to own to my observant antagonist that defeat was complete; but I concluded (as half your practical readers must have done) that the disaster was entirely owing to the misapplication of a principle which I now, for the first time, doubted. I freely granted this error in judgement; and, now that attention was directed to the subject, I resolved upon increased vigilance during another season, when the netting, instead of being fastened to the horizontal wires, was furnished with rings to slide upon them, and was, I need not add, carefully removed every day that was the least favourable. The promise was again great, and success seemed certain; but, alas! the result was anything but satisfactory; that is, trees totally exposed bore better. I now began to think the benefit conferred by covering of at least a very negative description; and, in the spring of 1842, the netting was put in its place, and applied in cases of severity only, and again without any perceptible advantage; so that I resolved, be the spring of 1843 what it might, I would leave all to chance. This was strictly adhered to, and the crops are more than doubled. It may be urged, that the present is a season that seems to produce an excess of most kinds of fruit: granted; but, upon the other hand, it has also been a season above all others rendering protec tion, according to established notions, indispensable. March here was fine beyond all precedent; the continued warmth exciting too rapid vegetation, and rendering the check caused by excessive cold during April so keenly felt. So great indeed the change, that a thermometer suspended from a branch of a peach tree while in bloom fell to 28°; potatoes in the border were completely killed; strong ice being formed several nights successively. Here, protection would seem most desirable; yet I have ascertained where it was applied without conferring any benefit.

I mentioned in the beginning of this paper that several persons procured and applied the same sort of protection at the same time; and, being anxious to know how they had succeeded, previously to sending you this, I visited the place where it had been most extensively employed, and found, by a singular coincidence, that this spring there also it had been discontinued; with the exception of a large apricot, which was sheltered when the change in the weather became apparent, and there is not the tenth part of a crop upon it. I do not say protection destroyed that crop; but it proved wholly powerless to save it. Here, then, is the corroboration of a truly practical man, placed where fruit is a first consideration, practically convinced that protection, as usually applied, is totally useless.

I now very much regret that I did not this season, as a conclusive test, cover part of several trees, the only correct method of determining its value; as trees covered, and trees uncovered, however near or similarly situated, are liable to be affected by unseen agents, and their success or failure thus rendered of little weight.

Without entering at all into the theory of the subject, I have contented myself with a statement of facts with the hope of causing an investigation; and have said enough, I think, to effect this. It would be needless to appeal to your readers generally, as what is every body's business is seldom performed by any body: but, could you particularise a few individuals that would be guided by what occurred rather than by preconceived notions, the benefit conferred by their investigations would be useful to vast numbers that are, at vast trouble and expense, destroying half the produce of their trees, in case they are found unnecessary; and lead to something more determinate as to the mode of application, and the material to be employed, if they are really useful.

I have mentioned the cow-hair netting, as the material employed in the cases adverted to, and it is possible that vegetable fibre, similarly employed, might produce a different effect; at least, there is room for enquiry.

The atmosphere being made up of so many, and, after all, of so little understood, elements, it is impossible to say what changes may take place by its passing through such an obstruction as even a suspended net; and considering, also, the incomprehensible agency employed in the fertilisation of plants, this change may be more serious than at first sight would appear credible. If electricity, which so universally pervades space, bears an active hand, the material used becomes momentous, and renders it not improbable that the millions of hirsute points protruding from a hair net exercise an influence, injurious or otherwise. But all this I would leave to abler hands, satisfied with merely naming such points as worthy of being taken into account in the investigation.

Folkstone, May 13, 1842.

ART. V. On Laying out and Planting the Lawn, Shrubbery, and Flower-Garden. By the Conductor.

(Continued from p. 308.)

THE design fig. 89. is for a flower-garden in the Elizabethan style, in a sunk panel; the beds are separated by grass paths 2 ft. wide, and the surrounding gravel walks, a and b, are 6 ft. wide. The walk a is six steps of 6 in. each, or 3 ft., above the level of the border d, and lower walk b. The ground is kept up to the higher level by the parapet wall c, which has piers at regular distances surmounted by vases; and at each of the flights of steps there are two statues; one on each side of the entrance at the upper steps, and a vase at each side of the lower steps. To harmonise with these statues there are in the flower-garden four, in the centre of as many beds, one of which is marked k. There is supposed to be a fountain in the centre of the basin q, which may be either a jet or a drooping fountain, according to the height and abundance of the supply of water. If the supply is direct from a hydraulic ram, a drooping fountain will be preferable, and the effect of the regular pulsations of the ram will be found very interesting. The border within the parapet wall is supposed to be planted with low-flowering shrubs, chiefly rhododendrons, azaleas, and other Ericàceæ, including also mahonias, daphnes, cistus, genista, cytisus, coronilla, &c., selected so as to exhibit a show of flower from April to September. All the beds of the form e may be planted with white flowers; those of the form ƒ with purple flowers, one plant of a species or variety, and so selected and disposed as to have as nearly as practicable an equal number of species in flower throughout the season, and the highest plants in the middle of the bed, sloping gradually to the margins. There ought, however, neither in this bed nor in any other of this design, to be any flowers planted which grow higher than 18 in., and all the smaller beds ought to be planted with flowers which do not exceed 9 in. in height. In all the beds every plant ought to stand distinct, and there ought not to be two of a kind throughout the whole flower-garden. Hence there will be no plants in this garden that want either pegging down or tying up; and if it is planted with perennials, without either bulbs or annuals, it will occasion very little trouble to keep it in order, and will look well all the year. Each bed may have a number, and a list may be kept of the plants contained in it, which will be less formal than numbering or naming each plant separately, and will be a better exercise for persons desirous of knowing the names.

The beds of the form marked g may be planted with yellow flowers simi

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Fig. 89. Elizabethan Flower-Garden in a sunk Panel.

larly arranged to those in the bed f; those marked h, with purple flowers; the bed marked i, and those corresponding with it, may be planted with blue flowers. The flowers in l, and the corresponding beds, may be orange; and the four beds, of which one is marked m, may be yellow. Instead of having the beds / planted with orange flowers, those corresponding with n may have white flowers, and the orange may be limited to those corresponding with o.

On the supposition that no fountain of any kind is to be placed in the central basin, so as to form the main object when descending the steps at both entrances, then the bed e, and the three beds which correspond to it, may be occupied by pedestals and statues, which, with the statues in the centres of the beds k, will give a running architectural foreground to the spectator from the lower walk b, and a middle distance to the spectator from the upper or terrace walk a, whose foreground, looking towards the garden, will be the parapet crowned with vases e.

This design may be varied in the following manner: instead of crowning the supporting wall c with piers and vases, it need not be carried up higher than the surface of the terrace, and may have a hedge of box planted over it, which may be kept clipped so as to exhibit piers, either crowned with vases of box, or with pyramids; or the hedge may be cut so as simply to form a

verdant wall with piers at regular distances; or it may be cut so as to form a low open arcade. But, as to produce any of these results will require the box to grow three or four years, even if it should be 4 ft. high when planted, an effect may be produced the first year by planting giant ivy, and training it on a frame of wirework.

Instead of a hedge of box or of yew, a hedge of common juniper may be planted, and instead of piers or pyramids clipped into shape, Swedish or Irish junipers may be introduced in the hedge at regular distances, or a hedge of green holly may be planted, and the standards may be of variegated holly.

In the sunk panel a grass plot may be substituted for the central basin, and Irish junipers, Irish yews, variegated yews, or cypresses, for the statues in the centres of the beds k, and for the beds e.

The paths between the beds, instead of being of grass, may be paved with brick, tiles, or stone, asphalte or cement, or they may be formed of gravel with box edgings. The centre, in the case of the walks not being of grass, may either be of grass with a gravel or paved walk surrounding it, or it may be an open arcade of trelliswork covered with roses, and there may be a fountain in the centre of this bower of roses, as in the Duchess of Bedford's garden at Camden Hill.

In all sunk gardens of this kind, and indeed in all flower-gardens whatever, great care ought to be taken not to surround them with walls, hedges, shrubbery, arcades of roses or other climbers, or in short any boundary which will exclude the free circulation of air, and the direct rays of the sun, for at least the greater part of every day throughout the growing season.

For the sake of those who would prefer covering the beds with summer flowers so as to exhibit one mass of colour produced by one plant in each bed, we have numbered one half of the beds, which may be planted as below; the other half being a duplicate of this half.

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ART. VI. List of the earliest and freest growing and flowering Chrysanthemums adapted for Cultivation in the colder Parts of the Country, and more particularly in Scotland. By Messrs. CHANDLER AND SONS. [THE following list was kindly sent us by Messrs. Chandler and Sons for a friend in the West of Scotland. The plants are 1s. each, and they were sent by post.]

Adventure, yellow.
Arago, buff and red.

Bicolor, white and yellow.
Beauty, pale lilac.

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ART. I. Catalogue of Works on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, Rural Architecture, &c., lately published, with some Account of those considered the more interesting.

THE Zoologist: an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Natural History, and Journal for recording Facts and Anecdotes relating to Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, Annelides, Insects, Worms, Zoophytes, &c.; their Habits, Retreats, occasional Appearance, Migrations, Nests, and Young. Nos. I. to V. 8vo. London, 1843. Continued monthly.

This is a carefully got up and judiciously conducted periodical, blending scientific with popular description, after the manner of our Magazine of Natural History. Among the contributors are Mr. Waterton and many other field, as well as book, naturalists. The numbers being only a shilling each, a gardener fond of natural history could not meet with a more suitable periodical than the Zoologist.

A History of British Birds. By William Yarrell, F. L. S., V. P. Z. S. Illustrated by a woodcut of each species and numerous vignettes. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1843.

This is by far the best book on birds which has ever been published, and we can therefore strongly recommend it to our readers.

Reports of Special Assistant Poor Law Commissioners on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. 8vo, pp. 378. London, 1843. There are many facts in these Reports in favour of cottage gardens and small cottage allotments, from a few poles up to a quarter of an acre in extent. There are also other facts proving the deplorable state of the cottages in all the districts examined, with the exception of one place in Surrey, in which it is stated that " great pains are taken generally to improve the home of the agricultural family, as well by furnishing opportunities for proper habits in the erection of good cottages, as by the direct encouragement of prizes for neat cottage interiors and gardens. (p. 148.) The general condition of the cottages, however, more frequently resembles those in the neighbourhood of Blandford. "The want of sufficient accommodation seems universal. Cottages generally have only two bed-rooms (with very rare exceptions); a great many have only one. The consequence is, that it is very often extremely

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