ART. V. Hints for cultivating Fuchsia gracilis, Erythrina Crista galli, and Salvia splendens. By Mr. Robert Reid, Gardener to Mrs. Farley, at Holm, near Kilmarnock ; with some Remarks on flowering Climbing Plants in Pots. Sir,

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IF you think the following hints on the culture of three of our most showy green-house plants deserving a spare page your valuable Magazine, they are very much at your service.

Fuchsia gracilis. An excellent plan to make this pretty plant flower well, is to train it with one leading stem. In winter, when done flowering, cut all the side branches close in to the stem; early in the spring place it in a gentle heat for the space of six weeks, it will immediately send out fine vigorous shoots from top to bottom, and in the autumn will flower abundantly.

Erythrina Crista galli. Of this truly splendid plant, there ought to be at least half a dozen in every collection, and by the following simple treatment they may be flowered twice or thrice in every year. A cutting struck in the spring, potted in a No. 60. pot, and put in a frame where there is a brisk heat, will in two months require shifting into a No. 48. pot, and in the course of the summer to a No. 32. It will frequently flower the first season, but not strong. When the shoot has attained its full length, and begins to ripen, remove it to a cool place in the green-house, and give less and less water as its leaves drop off; let it remain there till the beginning or middle of February; then cut it down within two eyes of the bottom; place it in a frame or hot-house near the light and_glass; give plenty of water; it will soon shoot up strong. It may safely be shifted when in a growing state, if required. When nearly in flower, it should be removed to the conservatory, greenhouse, or any other cool place. Care should be taken, when in this state, not to suffer it to go dry, otherwise the flowers will immediately drop. When done flowering, it may remain in the green-house, or out of doors, for a month or six weeks, and then be cut down again, and treated as formerly. Should the plant be strong when beginning to grow, many small shoots will appear; take the smallest off with a heel to them for cuttings, and leave two or three of the strongest of them for flowering. They will grow in any good fresh loam, with a little peat and sand added. With this treatment I have frequently flowered stems six feet high, and so strong as to require no stake for their support.

Salvia splendens. As an autumn flowering plant, I know of none more deserving a place in the conservatory than this

scarlet and free flowering shrub. I struck a cutting in February, and it grew to the height of seven feet by September, with numerous branches, and I may say hundreds of spikes all in flower at one time. If kept in the frame two months, it will grow fast, and will require shifting once or twice during this time. I remove it to the green-house about the middle of May, and let it remain there, giving it plenty of air night and day. In June, I shift it into a large pot or tub, according to the size I wish the plant to attain. The red spider must be sharply looked after, otherwise it will ruin the plant in a short time. I have seen it planted in the open ground in summer, and taken up with a ball in the autumn, and potted; but the spikes of flowers are never half as large as when treated in the manner above described. It will grow in any kind of fresh earth, and requires a great deal of water in summer. I put in fresh cuttings every spring, and throw away the old plants.

Most climbing plants, when planted and trained in their proper places under glass, add greatly to the beauty of plant

houses of every description, and fill

up many vacancies which could not otherwise be easily occupied. But at the same time I have often thought, that if a number of them were grown and made to flower in pots, it would be a great addition to the beauty and variety of a collection of plants. It frequently occurs, when trained in the common way, that most of their flowers are so far from the eye as frequently to escape observation altogether; and again, from the situation, they are entirely exposed to the burning rays of the sun, which causes their flowers to drop in a few days. From these and other considerations, I have tried several in pots, and find them to grow and flower as well as I could wish. I have no doubt but most of our hot and green-house climbers might be flowered in this way. One great advantage is, that the most tender of them, when in flower, can be taken to the conservatory, or green-house, where they will continue in flower double or treble the time they would have done in a hot-house. The accompanying sketch, (fig. 7.) shows the way in which I train them. It is simple and

convenient. The rods (fig. 8.), and rings (fig. 9.), are made of strong wire, painted green; but they might also be made 9 of wood with iron hooks. The hooks should be made to fit the ring exactly, and the rods can be made of any length, according to the nature of the plant they are meant for. Also, when necessary, they can be taken out of the pot, painted, and put together again with very little trouble.

Hardy climbers might be trained in the same way; and if mixed with forty or fifty half-standard and standard roses in flower, under a veranda or portico, the whole would have a fine appearance, especially if planted in handsome pots or boxes. In such situations they keep in flower much longer than when fully exposed to the sun.

At a future time I may, perhaps, send you the result of my experience with some other ornamental plants. Holm, near Kilmarnock, 1826.

ART. VI. On the Importance of Liquid Manure in Horticulture, and the peculiar Advantages of Soot as an Ingredient for that Purpose. By Mr. JOHN ROBERTSON, F.H.S. Nurseryman, Kilkenny.

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AMONGST the many advantages which horticulture has derived from Mr. Knight's enlightened application of science to its practice, we may reckon as not the least important, his earnest and repeated recommendation of liquid manures. general, liquid manures have not had that importance attached to them by gardeners which they merit, They may at all times be resorted to with advantage; but, in a number of instances, and particularly where immediate effect is required, no other manure can be so well applied. To enumerate their uses and preparation, however, would demand more consideration than I am enabled to bestow; my present object being solely to point out a material for the purpose, which I have long availed myself of with success, though it seems to have been overlooked by most gardeners

it is soot.

Sir H. Davy characterizes soot as "a powerful manure, possessing ammoniacal salt, empyreumatic oil, and charcoal, which is capable of being rendered soluble by the action of oxygen, or pure vital air;" all which component parts rank high as nutritious or stimulant manures. On meadows I have used

soot with great advantage in substance, and though sown by the hand, one dressing gave me always heavy crops of hay for two successive seasons; but this is a wasteful mode of applying it, a great proportion of its ammonia, one of its most active ingredients, being volatilized and dissipated in the atmosphere. When dissolved in water there is no waste: it is all available, and for horticultural purposes I have mostly used it in that state, mixing it up in the proportion of about six quarts of soot to a hogshead of water. Asparagus, peas, and a variety of other vegetables, I have manured with it with as much effect as if I had used solid dung; but to plants in pots, particularly pines, I have found it admirably well adapted: when watered with it, they assume a deep healthy green, and grow strong and luxuriant. I generally use it and clean water alternately, and always overhead in summer; but except for the purpose of cleansing, it might be used constantly with advantage; and though I cannot speak from my own experience, never having had either scale or bug on my pines, yet I think it highly probable, as the ammonia it contains is known to be destructive to these insects in a state of gas or vapour, that in a liquid state, if it does not totally destroy them, yet that it will in a great degree check their progress.

Other materials for liquid manures are often difficult to procure, and tedious in their preparation: but soot, sufficient for the gardener's purposes, is almost every where at hand, and in a few minutes prepared.

Were gardeners more generally aware that no manures can be taken up in a state of solidity by plants as food, and that they can only be absorbed by them in a gaseous or liquid state, to which all solid manures applied must be previously reduced, before any benefit can be derived from them, they would in many cases facilitate the process by using them in a liquid state. In houses where the rains have not access, it appears to me superior to any other mode of administering manure to trees. Kilkenny, Aug. 24. 1826.

ART. VII. An Account of a successful Experiment made by John H. Moggridge, Esq. in Monmouthshire, with a View to ameliorate the Condition of Country Labourers. By J. H. MOGGRIDGE, Esq. of Woodfield, near Newport.

Sir,

THE Communications which have been made to your excellent Magazine by some of your correspondents, and, above all,

the remarks you have appended thereto, on the means of increasing the comforts and respectability of the labouring poor, are so much in unison with the principles I have myself adopted on the same interesting subject, that I cannot refrain from tendering you, for insertion in your next number, some account of an original experiment begun by myself, about six years ago, on a part of my property in the immediate neighbourhood of this place. Twenty years' experience as a magistrate of this and two adjoining counties have fully confirmed in my mind a suspicion I had from general observation previously formed, that the moral and political degradation of the labouring classes in this country, generally, is more the effect of the circumstances in which they have been placed, than of any ositive and unavoidable necessity; and I by far less the result of their own indifference or criminality, than of the imperfection and errors of that state of society of which they form an essential, but a most oppressed and unjustly treated portion. Not satisfied with endeavouring to demonstrate this great and important truth, by means of the public press, I determined on making it a matter of actual experiment; in opposition to the advice of nearly every person I thought it right previously to consult, and to the evident surprise of all others. Having at the time a colliery in work upon my estate, I selected a piece of land not very fully or profitably stocked as woodland, at a moderate distance therefrom; three quarters of a mile from my house, on the opposite bank of the river, and within a mile of one or two other collieries, which I knew my lands to be capable of admitting the formation of, at some period of time. having previously cleared away the underwood and bushes on about one hundred perches of land, I invited several working colliers and others, whom I knew to be industrious and tolerably sober, to build houses fit for the reception of themselves and families, offering them the land and raw materials for building, (to be had on the property, with other temporary aid,) on terms that, whilst they left them but little to risk, provided a prospect of fair remuneration in time to myself, as owner of the property, should the plan succeed. If the experiment failed, the loss I calculated on adding to the amount of other losses incurred in making less valuable experiments; if it succeeded, it would carry with it its own reward. The greatest difficulty I found, in the first instance, to arise out of that state, bordering on despair, which paralyses the exertions of a great majority of our labouring poor;-this overcome, every thing else became comparatively easy, especially when Í

Here,