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the projecting live vegetable cope; a cope which can easily be rendered close or open, according to the wish or fancy of the gardener; and which, in point of taste, utility, cheapness, and elegance, can never be matched by the clumsy projections of wood or stone. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Annat Gardens, July 17. 1833.

ARCHIBALD GORRIE.

THE beautiful manner in which the branches of a plant of the Virginian creeper (Ampelópsis hederàcea Mr.), now in sight, are festooning the arms of a pear tree, from which the extremities of some of the creeper's branches depend in verdant garlands to the ground, and thus, in outline, form a tasteful bower, suggest the question, might not this very rapidly and most extensively growing shrub, abundant in ample deep green shading leaves in summer," in scarlet honours bright in autumn," and leafless in winter; and farther, fastening, by its clasping tendrils, its own branches to the trellis over which they may be led, be used, in the absence of the double-flowered Ayrshire rose, or other plants as eligible, to serve the same umbrageous office?-J. D. August 27. 1833.

ART. XIV. On the Advantage of growing Pine-apple Plants in Pots made with Holes in their Sides. By JOHN HAWKINS, Esq.

Sir,

ABOUT forty years ago I was a grower of pine-apple plants, and observing that those plants throve the best whose roots grew out at the bottoms of the pots into the tan, I was led to have a few pots made with eight holes in the sides of each, to let the roots of the plants run out at into the tan. These holes were made at equal distances, about the circumference of my finger, round the pot, and from three to four inches from the top; but by some cause or other my growing of pines was discontinued at that time, and until February last, when I again became a grower of pines for my own table, and again used the pots which had lain by so many years. The advantage of these pots over any other became then very apparent, both by the strength of the plants, and the quickness of their growth. The leaves of some of them were nearly white. I measured the length of a root of the plants when they were moved the other day, and found it above a foot long, although broken off. It appeared to have run many feet into the tan, if it did not reach the bed of leaves under the tan, which I suspect it did.

It appears to me, from this little experiment, that, where leaves are used instead of tan, the pits will not require to be turned more than once a year; for where the roots are grown far into the leaves, the plants will thrive, although there be but little heat in the bed, because they will have all the advantage of it; which is not the case when the roots are confined within the pots. That a pine plant will grow much faster and stronger, and will not require to be shifted into other pots so often as is generally done; that such large pots, namely, 13 in. wide in the clear withinside at the top, and 13 in. deep in the inside, will not be wanted; that more plants may be grown in a row; and that fruit equally large and good-flavoured may be grown in much smaller pots than those which are now generally used; these are no small advantages. All my pots, both little and great, are now made in this manner; and next summer I hope to reap the advantage of it.

I am not aware that this hint has been used by any pinegrowers, although obvious, and so easy to be put in practice; therefore I am induced to take the liberty to submit it to you, that, if it be worth knowing, it may be made public through your Magazine, for the advantage of your many pine-growing friends. I am, Sir, yours, &c. JOHN HAWKINS.

Cosford, Godalming, Surrey, Aug. 27. 1833.

ART. XV. The Results of an Instance of growing the Cucumber and the Melon in [Heath Mould or*] Bog Earth. By Mr. JAMES FIGGANS.

Sir,

I PUT up my frames in February with dung in the usual way; and it occurred to me to try a two-light frame with bog earth [heath mould], which I had never seen done, anticipating, however, but little the result. When the bed was made up, I put nine inches of bog earth, as taken from the field, into it, and when the heat had arisen, I drew the earth into two heaps, one under each light, to receive the plants, and then introduced a little more earth into the frame. I put plants of cucumber under one light, and of melon under

* In Vol. VII. p. 285. I have endeavoured to show that the term bog earth would naturally imply that dense, sodden, coagulate, moorish soil which bogs, morasses, and swamps usually supply; and that the dry, mixedly sandy, easily separable mould met with on heaths, and in which the species of heath (Erica) delight to grow, would be far more appropriately denominated if termed heath mould.-J. D.

the other. The plants, both of cucumber and melon, ran very fast, and were very strong, and both produced a very fine crop; but I did not pay any particular attention to the number of fruit. As I possessed one seed of cucumber, which I had received as a very fine kind, and which I was, in consequence, anxious to propagate, I introduced it into the side of the heap upon which were the other cucumber plants, to which I applied my knife freely when the plant from the one seed began to run. At the same time I planted in the heap under the other light, one seed of the King William melon; and when the plants from these two seeds began to meet, I used the knife to the plant of the melon until I had left but one vine, upon which I had one melon of 9 lbs. weight. Of the produce of the cucumber seed I annex you a list:

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The frame was only once lined with fresh dung, and that previously to these two seeds being put in. I found that the bog earth required more water by about one third. I propose continuing the use of the bog earth this season, and, if agreeable to you, will communicate the result. I ought to mention that the fruit was of a good quality.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Craigie House, Ayr, May 17. 1833.

JAMES FIGGANS.

WE shall be happy to learn the result from our correspondent, and to hear from him on other subjects. — Cond.

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ART. XVI. Short Communications.

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GARDENS for the Use of Pensioners, &c. In a very interesting article on the philosophical history of hypochondriasis and hysteria, in the 23d number of the Foreign Quarterly Review for July, 1833, is the following passage (p. 117.):

"It is some disappointment to a humane person to find, that, of all men who are discontented with their lot, none

exceed in the quantity of their grumbling, and in the habit of looking on the wrong side of things, and in a proclivity [propensity] to hypochondriacal imaginations, the old pensioners of the army and the navy at Chelsea and Greenwich. Placed above the fear of want, but deprived of all motive to exertion; neither moved by hope nor by fear, for they have neither promotion to look to, nor disgrace to apprehend; they are miserable, precisely because they have nothing to do. We have often thought that some gentle duties, analogous to the former habits of the lives of these deserving old men, would be a great blessing to them."

Now, we would suggest that to every hospital there should be attached a garden, sufficiently extensive to occupy in its culture all the inmates. Though this sort of occupation might not be "analogous to the former habits" of these inmates, yet we are persuaded that it is so natural, that they would soon not only become accustomed to it, but fond of it. Why should not the whole of the vacant ground at Chelsea Hospital be turned into a garden; and put under the care of a good gardener, who would direct the labours of such of the pensioners as were able to work in it? Much might be said on this subject, if we had not expatiated so largely on it in former volumes. We trust, however, we shall be excused for keeping it continually before our readers.- Cond.

A Mode of preventing the Ravages of Birds on newly sown Corn. The mode adopted in some parts of Fife, for protecting new-sown fields from rooks, wood-pigeons, and other destructive vermin, is the following. In a large field which has been newly sown, place a certain number of stamps (traps), say a dozen, used for killing rats, &c.; cover them slightly with earth, and avoid, by all means, any thing like a methodical arrangement of the stamps. A few rooks taken by such means serve as so many beacons, and effectually protect the field, for the croaking noise they make is almost incredible. By this simple operation, many pounds sterling will, in the long run be saved to the farmer. (See the Edinburgh Advertiser of the 3rd May last.) The writer can state the success of the above process from actual observation, and he is convinced that, were the method suggested generally known and followed throughout the country, the rooks and other vermin would, in a short time, dread the appearance of a new-sown field as much as they now do the sight of a gun. The proper use of the rook* is to destroy

* "Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain."

POPE'S Essay on Man, ep. iii. — J. D.

the grubs which are always very abundant in meadow ground.

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It is stated in one of the Perthshire newspapers of this month, that not less than 27,000 crows were destroyed this season at Dupplin by the demolition of between 11,000 and 12,000 nests; and all this was performed by contract for the sum of twenty-five pounds sterling. Anon. June 25.1833. In opposition to the spirit of persecution displayed in the above remarks, against the rook, and other birds,-" vermin," as the writer calls them, we present a short extract from a notice, of some length, on the usefulness of the rook, which has been published in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. vi. p. 142, 143.-J. D.

"In the neighbourhood of my native place, in the county of York, is a rookery belonging to Wm. Vavasour, Esq., of Weston, in Wharfdale, in which it is estimated that there are 10,000 rooks, that 1 lb. of food a week is a very moderate allowance for each bird, and that nine tenths of their food consist of worms, insects and their larvæ; for, although they do considerable damage to the fields for a few weeks in seedtime and a few weeks in harvest, particularly in backward seasons, yet a very large proportion of their food, even at these seasons, consists of insects and worms, which (if we except a few acorns and walnuts in autumn) compose at all other times the whole of their subsistence. Here, then, if my data be correct, there is the enormous quantity of 468,000 lbs. or 209 tons of worms, insects, and their larvæ, destroyed by the rooks of a single rookery to every one who knows how very destructive to vegetation are the larvæ of the tribes of insects, as well as worms, fed upon by rooks, some slight idea may be formed of the devastation which rooks are the means of preventing." (T. G. of Clitheroe, Lancashire, in Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vi. p. 142.)

Proofs of the efforts of the rooks to obtain insects for food in early spring may be readily perceived in a stroll, at that time, over the hay meadows about London. -J. D.

On the Ravages of the Tinea padella L. [ Yponomeuta padélla Latr.]; and some Suggestions for preserving Plants from the Ravages of Insects generally. — Sir, No insect makes greater havoc of our whitethorn hedges and apple trees than the little grey moth, Tinea padélla Lin. Wherever the caterpillars of this insect seat themselves, they appear to be congregated in vast numbers: every spray is covered. The leaves vanish before them; so that, by midsummer, not only single trees, but whole orchards, and entire hedges from end

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