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The results which we obtained coincided entirely with those of the author, and we have no hesitation in saying, that his is the best we have ever seen of the kind which is called indelible ink. It is liable, however, to deposit a sediment, a disadvantage which we think might be removed by M. Tarry after a few more experiments. We have tried to discharge it with all the known chemical agents, but without effect; and we think the inventor deserves the thanks of the Institute, and of the community at large.

ON THE CULTURE OF PARSNEPS.
By Charles Le Hardy, Esq. of
the Islond of Jersey.
From the Transactions of the So-
ciety of Arts.

Having observed in the book of premiums offered by the society, that they wished for information on the culture of Parsneps, which are much used in the island of Jersey; as having practised it for many years, I take the liberty to communicate what I know on the subject, with the result of some comparative experiments.

The culture of parsneps and beans is looked upon as one of the regular courses of crops in the island. There is no farmer, be the extent of his grounds ever so small, who does not yearly plant a proportionate quantity, for the purpose of fattening his hogs and cattle, or feeding his milch cows. A few years ago, the culture of potatoes was substituted by some farmers to that of parsneps, and apparently with advantage; but further experience has brought them back again to their former

practice. Potatoes produce more weight and measure on a given extent of ground, and may be cul. tivated with less expense; still the parsnep is found to answer best for the farmer's purpose. A perch of the island, which is twenty-four square feet, will produce on an average crop seven cabots of potatoes, each weighing forty pounds; the same extent in parsneps will only average six cabots, which weigh only thirty-five pounds each, making twenty pounds weight in favour of the potatoes, but they are not so nutritious as parsneps.

Parsneps will thrive almost any where, but better in a deep stiff loam. They are generally cultivated in the island after a crop of barley, in the following manner: At the end of January, or the beginning of February, the soil, which red from the bottom, is either dug requires for this purpose to be stirwith spades after a skimming plough, or with two ploughs of different shapes following one another. The latter of the two, invented some years ago by a farmer in the island, will go to a depth of fifteen inches. In both these ways the neighbouring farmers assist each other: in the season, it is not uncommon to see forty or fifty men in one field, digging after a plough. When the large plough is used, fewer men are required, but more strength of cattle: two oxen and six horses are the team generally used. Those days are reckoned days of recreation, and tend to promote social intercourse among that class of men.

After the ground has been tilled in this way, it is coarsely harrowed, and a sufficient number of wo

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tance of five feet from row to row. Two women may plant one vergee in a day; two vergees and a half being equal to an English acre. Three sextenniers of parsnep seed (about one quarter of a Winchester bushel) are then sown upon each vergee, and the whole is finely harrowed,

This crop now requires no attendance till the month of May, when weeding becomes necessary. This is the most expensive part of the culture. It is generally done by hand, with a small weeding-fork; and as the parsneps require to be kept very clean, the expense is proportionate to the quantity of weeds. This latter summer four women were employed twenty-eight days each in weeding about five vergees. I tried a few perches with the hand hoe, and thinned them like turnips; they proved finer than those which were hand weeded In Guernsey they make use of the spade for this purpose.

In the beginning of September, the beans are pulled up from among the parsneps, and about the latter end the digging begins. The instrument used is the common three pronged fork. This work is done gradually as the cattle want them, till the ground requires to be cleared for sowing wheat; which after parsneps is generally done about the middle of December. They are reckoned an excellent fallow for that kind of grain, and the finest crops are generally, those which succeed them; as it is a tap rooted plant, it does not, like the

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When parsneps require to be kept for the use of cattle, they are brought under dry sheds, and will keep good without any care till the end of March. Should they require to be kept longer, they are laid in double rows over one another, their heads outward, with alternate strata of earth, which, when finished, have the appearance of small walls, or, if made circular, of small towers. Those for seed are always preserved in this manner, and sometimes carrots and beets for culinary purposes.

Parsneps are not injured by frost; after having been frozen, they are fit for vegetation; the only sensible alteration is their acquiring a sweeter taste, and by this perhaps becoming more nutritive. They are given raw to hogs and to horned cattle. Though horses are fond of these roots, they are not suffered to eat them, as they make them languid, and are apt to injure their sight. Their leaves, when wet, are so caustic as to blister the hands of the weeders, and sometimes to occasion a violent inflammation in the eyes and udders of the cattle feeding upon them.

Cows fed on parsneps in the winter months give a greater quantity of milk and butter, and of better flavour, than those fed upon potatoes. The butter is nearly equal to that from spring grass. Though the root of t is plant has the quality of improving that article, it must be observed, that the leaves give it a very disagreeable taste, which, however,

is of no consequence when intended to be potted, as it goes off in a short time.

Parsneps are dangerous food for sows before they farrow, and might occasion them to lose their litter. Hogs may be fattened with them in about six weeks. It is the custom during that time to thicken their swill with the meal of beans and oats ground together. Pork fattened in this way is very firm, and does not waste in boiling.

Horned cattle may be fattened with parsneps in about three months. I never knew them used for sheep.

It is the general opinion in the island, that hogs or cattle fed on parsneps may be brought to a condition for slaughtering, in less time, and with half the quantity, that would be required of potatoes. The butchers are sensible of the superiority of the former, and will give a halfpenny per pound more for cattle fattened with them, than for such as have been fed any other way. Upon inquiry I was informed, they always contained a greater quantity of talJow.

This I believe to be a full account of the culture and use of the parsnep, and a just comparison with the potatoe.

rope, where chesputs are used for food, the practice of grafting the trees that bear them has been known from time immemorial; the wild or ungrafted chesnut is called in French châtaignier, the grafted or cultivated sort maronnier.

Though the grafting of chesnuts has been little, it at all used in this part of the island, it is not an uncommon practice in Devonshire, and other western counties. The nurserymen there deal in grafted chesnut trees, and the gen tlemen bave no doubt introduced them into their gardens.

About sixteen years ago, Sir William Watson sent some of thess grafted trees from Devonshire to Spring Grove, with an assurance, that the fruit would be plentiful and good. They were at first neg lected and ill treated, owing to the disinclination most gardeners have to the introduction of novelties, the management of which they are unacquainted with: it was therefore six or seven years before they began to bear fruit.

Since that time, as the trees have increased in size, the crop has every year become more abundant; last autumn the produce, though they are only six in number, was sufficient to afford the family a daily supply from the beginning of November till after Christmas. The nuts are much smaller than the Spanish imported fruit, but they are beyond comparison sweeter to By the taste. The crops are little subject to injury, except from very late frosts. The trees are in gene ral covered with blossoms to a de gree, that retards their annual increase. They are now so low, that a part of the crop is gathered from

ON THE HORTICULTURAL MA-
NAGEMENT OF THE SWEET OR
SPANISH CHESNUT-TREE.
Sir Joseph Banks.

From Trans. of the Horticultural
Society.

In all the northern parts of En

the

the ground, and the remainder by a step-ladder. They require no care or attendance on the part of the gardener, except only the labour of gathering the fruit. Most people prefer the taste of the fruit to that of the imported, but there can be no doubt, that, when the usage of grafting chesnuts becomes common in this country, grafts of all other sorts will in due time be procured from the continent.

The kernels of these chesnuts, and of all others ripened in England, are more liable to shrivel and dry up than those imported, owing to a deficiency of summer heat in our climate to mature the fruit; this must be guarded against by keeping the nuts always in a cool place, rather damp than dry; the vessel best suited to preserve them is an earthenware jar with a cover; this will not only keep them cool, but it will restrain the loss of moisture without entirely prevent ing perspiration, and thus endangering the loss of vitality, the immediate consequence of which is the appearance of must and mouldiness.

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nature one of the best preparers of land for a corn crop that has hitherto been discovered; and, if the land is properly chosen for it, and well managed, will be found very profitable, more particularly at this time, when its price is advanced to almost an unprecedented degree: therefore I conceive that in rendering its cultivation and preparation better known and understood, it may be greatly beneficial to the nation.

I have the honour to be a member of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, where many noble and exalted characters unite their talents to promote the public benefit. And to one of its earliest and most respectable members I presume to address this information.

I have been many years a considerable consumer of woad, and have also cultivated it with much success: and though I am well experienced in the usual method of its preparation, I was induced to depart from it in consequence of the great waste of its juices in the old method of grinding and balling. But I shall endeavour to give instructions for carrying on each process, and leave those who shall undertake it to proceed as they think best.

This plant is cultivated in different parts of England for the use of the dyers, as well as in France, Germany, &c. It is best to sow the seeds in the month of March, or early in April, if the season in. vite, and the soil be in condition to receive it; but it requires a deep loamy soil, and is better still with a clay bottom, such as is not subject to become dry too quickly.

It must never be flooded, but si

tuated

tuated so as to drain its surface, that it may not be poisoned by any water stagnant upon it.

If (at any reasonable price) meadow land to break the turf can be obtained, it will be doubly productive. This land is generally freest from weeds and putrid matter, though sometimes it abounds with botts, grubs, and snails. However, it saves much expense in weeding; and judicious management will get rid of these otherwise destructive vermin. A season of warm showers, not too dry or too wet, gives the most regular crop, and produces the best woad.

If woad is sown on corn-land, much expense generally attends hoeing and weeding: and here it will require strong manure, though on leys it is seldom much necessary, yet land cannot be too rich for woad. On rich land dung should be avoided, particularly on leys, to avoid weeds. Some people sow it as grain, and harrow it in, and afterwards hoe it as turnips, leaving the plants at a distance in proportion to the strength of the land: others sow it in ranks by a drillplough; and some dibble it in, (in quincunx form, by a stick with a peg crossways, about two or two and a half inches from the point, according to the land,) putting three or four seeds in a hole, and these holes to be from twenty inches to two feet apart, according to the richness of the land for good land, if room be given, will produce very luxuriant plants in good seasons; but if too nearly planted, so that air cannot circulate, they do not thrive so well : attention to this is necessary in

every way of sowing it. I have been most successful in this last process. Woad very often fails in its crop, from the land not being in condition, or from want of knowing how to destroy the botts, smails, wire-worms, &c. that so often prey upon and destroy it, as well as from inattention to weeding, &c. Crops fail also from being sown on land that is naturally too dry, and in a dry season; but as the roots take a perpendicular direction, and run deep, such land as I have described (with proper attention to my observations) will seldom fail of a crop and if the season will admit sowing early enough to have the plants strong before the dry and hot weather comes on, there will be almost a certainty of a great produce.

These plants are frequently destroyed in the germination by flies, or animalculæ, and by grubs, snails, &c. as before observed; and in order to preserve them, I have steeped the seeds with good success in lime and soot, until they began to vegetate; first throwing half a load or more of flour lime* on the acre, and harrowing it in. Then plant the seeds as soon as they break the pod, taking care not to have more than one day's seed ready; for it is better to be too early, than to have their ve getation too strong before it is planted, lest they should receive in jury; yet I have never observed any injury in mine from this, though I have often seen the shoot strong. Either barrows or rollers will close the holes. If the ground be moist it will appear in a few days; but it will be safe, and a

* If the seeds are not sown within a day after the time, it will lose much effect.

benefit

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