galvanized of convenient. The rods (fig. 8.), and rings (fig. 9.), are made of strong wire, painted green; but they might also be made 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. In 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 W. 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 positive and unavoidable necessity; and 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. Here, 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 I had once established the conviction on their minds, that nothing done for them would be considered in the light of charity. I was determined to put them upon their own resources, and that what was found wanting should be supplied, but repaid by degrees, and in a manner to be as little burdensome as possible. The plan took, after a short pause, during which the attention bestowed upon it was intense and unremitting on the part of many who had the opportunity of observing what was going on; and I have now the pleasure of seeing a village of well-built, comfortable, and commodious houses, picturesquely rising in grouped and single dwellings, between groves and smaller masses of trees, containing eight or nine hundred inhabitants, where seven years ago were nothing but thickets, brakes, and wood. It must not, however, be supposed that these buildings, many of which are large and costly, have either all, or the major part, been erected by the description of persons I have named as the first adventurers. As these formed a little colony, the baker, the smith, the tailor, the shopkeeper of various trades wished to embark in the undertaking; and deeming it advisable that as many conveniences and advantages as possible should be combined on the spot, a tolerable inn has been erected, and a good markethouse built with an excellent room over it, which latter I appropriate to the uses of public worship on the Sunday, and to those of a school on other days. The chapel is occupied in succession by three, and sometimes by four, congregations of different sects of religion on the same day, without interference with each other; my directions being, to refuse the use of it to none, but those who fail in bringing satisfactory testimonials of the good moral character of their officiating minister, or who quarrel with others of different persuasions; and for more than two years, since the chapel was opened, has no instance occurred, to my knowledge, of these requisitions not being satisfactorily complied with. There is, however, another chapel, on a larger scale, about to be erected out of the funds of the congregation intending to assemble therein. One of the excellent and highly useful iron railways, or tram roads, of this country, connecting the interior with the great shipping port of the Bristol Channel, and forming one of several of the existing conveyances to market of the iron and coals of its neighbourhood, had previously been laid through the site of the present village, and since a public carriage running parallel thereto has been completed. I have now begun to make a road at right angles thereto, intended to extend from a new iron bridge at present erecting over the river Sirko wey on the east, to the river Rumney on the west, (where I I have, within the last two months, laid the foundation of another village,) at a distance of about two miles. I took care that the situation abounded in springs of water; but the last summer has been so trying a one, that the inhabitants have thankfully acceded to my proposition of bringing different springs together, and uniting them into two streams and fountains for their issue in different parts of the village, they defraying one half the necessary cost. I must now, however, advert more particularly to what may be termed the economical, moral, and political effects of my experiment. And, first, families that were formerly accustomed to live together, by night as well as by day, without regard to age or sex, decency or health, are completely separated, at least as regards adults; and many houses have a room to spare for lodgers, the return for which more than covers the interest of the money borrowed, (if all had been done with borrowed money,) the ground rent, and every other outgoing incident to the premises, and will continue to do so, in all probability, as long as the industrious cottagers continue exempted from the iron gripe of direct taxation, with which they have been more than threatened. Every cottager has his own oven, and bakes his own bread; he has also a snug corner in his pantry, which I hope to live to see filled with a small cask of good homebrewed beer or ale*; but, what is worth both put together, he has his garden. The original allotment to each house was twenty perches of land, and the same amount still accompanies every fresh grant. The taste of the country savoured not of a garden; the old cottager was well content with a few square yards, sufficient to contain a few leeks, and perhaps onions; and I found more difficulty in inducing them to bring their gardens into useful cultivation, than on any other point after the plan was first started: but great praise for little work, where any was performed; the reward of one hundred cabbage plants, or a couple of gooseberry trees, but, above all, - * I should be thankful for any suggestion that might lead to the establishment of any plan for brewing by means of simple unexpensive machinery, (common property,) transferable from house to house in rotation; or any better method of effecting this desirable object without excise interference. In the Mechanics' Magazine, vol. vi. p. 319. is an article entitled "Brew ing Simplified," which, as it may afford some hints to our correspondent, and also to gardeners, we shall quote under the head of Domestic Economy, in PART III., recommending the subject to the consideration of such of our readers as are conversant with it. Cond. |