doing you will make the sprouts much stronger. Towards the latter end of March, set them, covering the sprouts about two inches deep. If the sprouts be about two inches long when set, the potatoes will be ready in seven or eight weeks afterwards. Another friend of mine, who has got a green-house, adopts the following plan. He places the potatoes in the greenhouse, in turf mould, or peat earth, in the beginning of February, and keeps them well moistened with water; he plants them in the open air about the end of March, on a warm border, leaving about half an inch of the points of the sprouts above the ground, and protects them during nights by coverings of mats. By this plan he is able to have new potatoes about the beginning of May. It is considered a very material thing to get the potatoes well sprouted before they are planted. I am, Sir, &c. Sulyard Street, Lancaster, Nov. 4. 1826. M. SAUL. P. S.-In July last, it was feared that the winter potatoes would be a bad crop, on account of the dryness of the season, and this induced many to plant a second crop in August; notwithstanding the lateness, this second crop has produced a more abundant crop than the first. Many planted them merely as an experiment, to see whether it would answer to plant potatoes in August or not, and the trial has proved that they will answer very well. M. S. This being an important subject for all who possess small gardens, and especially for cottagers, we invite as many of our readers as conveniently can, to consider this paper in connection with that of R. W., and make such trials as suggest themselves, and as circumstances will permit. Mr. S. says nothing about the kind of early potatoe used, or the mode of cutting the sets. But, in the mean time, every one may try an experiment with the best variety of early potato that is to be found in his neighbourhood, and follow the directions of R. W. in respect to the sets. In some parts of Scotland, it is customary in preparing the sets both of early and late potatoes, to begin by cutting off and throwing aside for the pigs the two extremities of the potatoe: that full of buds as being apt to run too much to haulm, and the root-end, or that in which there are none. Cond. ART. XXII. Results of an Experiment to destroy the Aphis Lanigera, or American Blight on Fruit Trees. By Mr. JOHN ADAMS, Gardener at Apley Castle, Shropshire. Sir, HAVING read in Vol. I. p. 388. of the Gardener's Magazine of an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the ravages of the woolly Aphis, by T. C. Huddlestone, Esq., I send you the following account of an experiment I made on an apple tree which was much infested with the woolly aphis. This tree I had headed down and re-grafted last spring; in June I went to cut off the superfluous shoots, when I found the wounds and most of the young shoots covered with the insect, and instead of healing, the wounds were very cankery round the edges. I had tried tobacco water, and a liquor that will destroy the pine bug, without success. (A painter being at work here) I thought of trying spirits of turpentine, which I immediately applied with a small brush, (well rubbing it on where I could see any sign of the insect,) with complete success. I have frequently examined the tree since, and cannot perceive any insect, and the wounds are fast healing over. If you consider this account worth insertion in the Gardener's Magazine, it is much at your service. I am, Sir, &c. Apley Castle, near Wellington, Shropshire, JOHN ADAMS. ART. XXIII. On the Destruction of the Aphis Lanigera, or American Blight on Apple Trees. By A. W. Sir, IN Vol. I. p. 388. of your truly valuable Magazine, I observe a letter from T. C. Huddlestone, Esq., relative to an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Aphis lanigera, or American blight; and as I have formerly been very much troubled with the same insect, but am now, I flatter myself, quite master of it, I take the liberty to address a few lines to you upon the subject. In the year 1824, I planted upwards of fifty choice sorts of apple trees, and in the same autumn they were infested with the above-mentioned insect. I immediately set about cleaning them with what I then thought the most efficacious means; namely, lime-water and soft soap; but in the summer followVOL. II. No. 5. E ing, they were much worse than in the preceding season: some of the branches were quite covered with the insect. Therefore, finding the liquid that I had dressed them with of no avail whatever, unless I except the good done by continually brushing them, I applied strong old urine to all the trees, with a soft brush, and I can positively say, it has had the desired effect in every sense of the word; for the trees are now, and have been all this summer, as clean and healthy as I can wish them to be. If the urine is used in a fresh state, it will not answer so well as if it were two or three months old, and kept in a body of fifteen or twenty gallons. After brushing the trees, if I have any of the liquid to spare, I take a syringe and sprinkle the trees all over. By attending to the above method, there is very little difficulty in completely eradicating the destructive insect your correspondent complains of. A cheaper remedy it is almost impossible to find. On large old trees, where the bark is rough, of course the labour is much greater than on small or middling sized trees, but even then it need not be despaired of. If you think this worth a place in your Magazine, I shall feel proud in contributing my mite to so useful a work. I am, Sir, &c. Near Droitwich, Nov. 10th, 1826. A. W. Since the above was printed, we have received some other communications on the same subject: Mr. James Brown of York has used tobacco water; R. S. T. soot and salt in equal quantities; and Mr. James Gibson, Hampstead, the Chelsea apple powder, the principal ingredient in which appears to be soot, with perfect success. Cond. "A gentleman from Upper Canada, one of the most distinguished individuals in that province, told me this summer of a remedy, which he said proved in that country completely effectual-soft soap. I applied it the latter end of June to some trees of mine which had been dreadfully infested for a long time, and on which I had previously tried various remedies. I laid it on with a brush, hot, and of the consistency of paint. The outer bark is since come off, and a fine healthy under surface appears. I have not seen the least appearance of the American blight since, and the trees have been thus far perfectly healthy." November 22. 1826. A SUFFOLK AMATEUR. 51 PART II. REVIEWS. ART. I. Essay on the beneficial Direction of Rural Expenditure. By ROBERT SLANEY, Esq. (Continued from Vol. I. p. 186.) IN considering the condition and character of the agricultural population of Great Britain, our first position was, that at present they can command a smaller portion of the necessaries of life than their ancestors could. This position we grounded on numerous and indisputable facts; and we particularly referred to a table of wages and prices, from the middle of the 13th to the beginning of the 17th century, which we inserted. We ought now, agreeably to our plan, to proceed to our second position, but previously we may be allowed to illustrate our first position by another table, borrowed from Sir Frederic Eden's History of the Poor. We have dwelt thus long and particularly on this position, not merely in order to establish it firmly, but likewise, because by establishing it, we virtually refute a very prevalent but erroneous principle, which, so long as it is considered true, and consequently is acted upon, must be injurious to the amelioration of the condition of the poor. This principle is, that wages depend on the price of provi sions: if it were true, let us see what consequences and inferences would follow: first, that though the present agricultural population might not be better off, they could not possibly be worse off than their ancestors; because, wages rising proportionally with the price of provisions, the present race must have the command of the same quantity as their ancestors had. But the second inference is still more important: if wages, and the price of provisions, or, more strictly speaking, of corn, rise and fall together, of what advantage to the poor would be a low price of corn, and, therefore, how are they interested in the question of the Corn Laws? Let us grant that the free importation of wheat would reduce its price from 60s. a quarter to 40s., what would this signify to the labourer, if, with this fall in the price of wheat, his wages fell in the same proportion, or from 12s. to 8s. a week? would he not, in fact, be worse off with wheat at 40s. and his wages at 8s., than he had been with wheat at 60s. and his wages at 12s.? For, though we allow that a reduction in the price of wheat might reduce in the same proportion, not only his wages, but many things he was in the habit of purchasing, yet there are some highly-taxed articles in this country, to |