is to lay a good coat of manure upon the furface, as foon as the under-roots are taken off. "Water is most frequently the caufe of blight, particularly from land-fprings, which should be carefully drained off, otherwife it were better never to plant at all. The beft method is to let the drain run directly under the respective rows of trees; but be fure they be not fmall. The most completely planned orchard I ever faw has been totally ruined for want of this precaution, and a fufficient quantity of manure; and a tree, now one of the finest More-park apricots in this country, was planted feventeen years ago, by way of experiment, on the crown of a large ftonearched cellar. Thefe facts are well worthy of attention. Whenever the land is kept cold from under water, fruit-trecs can make no progrefs, and generally canker; alfo, where water remains ftagnant for any length of time about the roots of trees, the tender fibres are chilled, and thereby deftroyed. I am here only speaking of noxious waters; for pure water judicioufly, frequently, and fparingly applied, is one of the beft agents for keeping fruit-trees in permanent health: first take all the proper precautions, then water, and the tree will probably not blight. This muft, of courte, be understood of good fituations. "Heat, much oftener than cold, proves deftructive to vegetation, by causing blight. I fpeak of the quick tranfition from heat to cold, for that does the mifchief. Thus what is called honey-dew originates from heat checked by fuc. ceeding cold, which occafions the fap and faccharine juices to coagulate on the furface of the leaves, and greatly injures the tree, by im peding its growth. But I have inore fully confidered the alternate fucceffion from heat to cold in my laft paper. (See our last volume.) "Honey dew is very detrimental to trees, by stopping the pores of the leaves. Old and decayed trees are much fubject to this evil, from the fap running more to a faccharine juice. "Mr. Knight, and the author of the Worcester Report, afcribe honey-dew to infects. Should it be infects, the fat of hogs, or rufty bacon, rubbed on the body of the tree, would difguft them, and prevent the mifchief, and would alío keep hares and rabbits from biting the bark. Blight is also caused by extraneous vegetation, I mean mofs or other vegetable productions, that are fuffered to grow on the bark of fruit-trees: thefe prey upon the juices and nourishment of the plant; and, by preventing a proper circulation of the fap, produce blight. This evil, if taken in time, is fo eafily removed by the brufh and foap-fuds, that I fhall not enter further on the fubject here, than to remark, that washing makes the ftem and branches molt delicately fmooth and foft, if the practice be taken up from the first plantation of the tree. "Accidents, carelefsnefs, and the fuffering vermin to continue eating and fretting the tender bark, are very great caufes of blight, often debilitating a large branch in a fhort time, and bringing on fure deftruction to the tree. This is moft effectually prevented by cutting and cleaning out the wounds, and ufing the medication as directed in the 11th volume, where there is a note on vermin. To avoid any of the causes above enumerated, examine the trees often, and and remove all the impediments to health, as foon as they are perceived. Do not regard the time of the year, but stop every evil in the bud; and be affured that the knife does not injure the tree even in fummer, and when it is full of leaves, for the growth is then fo free that the wound only heals the better. Summer, indeed, is the best time for fcoring trees, when the bark is too clofe for the tree to grow. "I fhall now notice the laft, but by no means the leaft, of the caufes of blight, which I have mentioned before, in the 17th volume of your Tranfactions, p. 274. (See our last volume.) I mean infects, which are certainly the grand caufe. I have there given it as my opinion, that infects do not come over in the winds from the continent, but ' are bred at home, from the eggs 'depofited about the tree in fam'mer and autumn.' I am well convinced, that a minute obferver will find this to be the fact; and, in confirmation of my opinion, I beg leave to lay before you three niduses or repofitories for the eggs of infects; one of which contains 578 cells, another 650, and a third 880; each nidus being formed upon, and adhering to, a very fmall twig; the account of which is well authenticated, and leads to a confideration of the power of infects to do much mifchief to infantine vegetation. I beg thofe gentlemen who have patronized attempts to raife filk in this country, and have obferved he production and nourishment of the filk-worm, to confider the probable quantity of leaves and bloffoms that are eaten by infects; reflect upon the quantity of vegetable matter required for the nourishment of 2108 infects, the number produced in these three niduses; and obferve the fall fpace they occupy, and how eafily they efcape no. tice. "For deftroying infects, I cannot too strongly or too often recommend the frequent and careful examination of fruit-trees, and the gathering every nidus that may be found. The talk is not fo difficult to execute as it may at firft appear, and fhould be undertaken early in the fpring, before the buds expand; you may then defroy in a fhort time many receptacles of 500 to 700 infects, which cannot, at a more advanced age, be killed by fumigation, or collected by the hand, without infinite trouble. The niduses fhould be collected in a bag or box, and burnt; for if merely thrown upon the ground, the infects will ftill be produced. "The niduses are of various kinds; fome adhere to the bark of trees, and contain an infinite num→ ber of small cells, in which the ova are depofited, as in the fpecimens I lay before you. Others are formed in fmall bags, or downy matter, of a fubftance refembling a spider's web; others in leaves, curled up with great care. It is in all thefe ftages of their production that they fhould be difcovered and deftroyed; otherwife the fame warm day that brings forward vegetation hatches the infects, fupplies them with food and shelter, and renders the evil difficult to be cured, though at a more early stage it might easily have been prevented. "As a proof that this operation is neither difficult nor tedious, it has actually been practifed during three fucceffive years, on four acres of a newly-planted orchard, of which proof has been adduced beM 3 fore fore the Society. I would say to, the public, Go thou and do likewife; but the greater part of the trouble may be faved by proper cleaning in the preceding autumn. "Were it poffible to contrive a regularly progreffive flow of heat and cold, according to the will of the director, and regulated by the thermometer, blight might actually be prevented. To prove this, I mentioned the Hampton-Court vine in my paper inferted in the Tranfactions of the Society laft year. 'This plant is kept perfectly healthy and productive, merely through being regularly washed, pruned, cleaned, and protected from the external elements. "Let thus the attentive orchardist fee, forefee, and remove every evil in his power, and nature will do the rest. "Thefe various modes of preventing blight, according to circumftances, are confirmed by my own obfervations, during more than ten years of affiduous care and attention, and have approximated as nearly to the object as the nature of the cafe admitted. It is my with the Society should be in poffeffion of a regular feries of principles on this important fubject. "It is not eafy to imagine how much benefit would refult from what I call plantations of flips, fhaws, and felter, to protect the bloffoms in fpring, and the fruit in autumn. To explain this, let four acres and a half be marked out for an orchard; then plant a flip of land, one pole wide, with fweet chefnut Hunting don willow, or any other freegrowing wood, in fix rows, exfending along the three cold fides. If the ground be twenty-feven poles fquare, this flip would occupy half an acre, and, if kept clean, the wood would more than pay its expence; whereas to build a wall to this extent would require a thousand pounds, and not be fo efficacious. In the Green Park, Weftminster, is a plantation of horfe-chefnuts, about eight years old, feathering down to the ground. Such trees would afford ample protection to a plantation fo defended. "Let the fhaws be properly raifed, as before directed, to fe cure fhelter and warmth to the plantation. Make the trees perfectly clean in autumn, and cover the ground, as far as the roots may be fuppofed to extend, with proper manure. Examine the buds as they fwell; and, if strong eafterly drying winds prevail in the fpring of the year, then eject, with a garden machine, two or three pails of water every morning, over the whole tops of the trees. "It may be faid, that it is impoffible to do this on an extenfive plantation; but let me advise the experiment to be made on a few trees, and you will find the time to be well employed; and if there is a great return from the produce, you will be encouraged to perfe vere. One great objection may be the want of manure, as that, you may fuppofe, cannot be spared from the farm-yard dung. I can however fuggeft a method whereby you may conftantly procure, for four acres of land, as much manure as is neceffary for a term of twenty-one years, without expend ing x-pence. This will be explained under an account of an experimental orchard, or fruit-gar den. "I am not ashamed to own, that I feel a pride in being able, fo far, to have accomplished the improvement of ftandard-fruittrees, to fome fatisfaction. The principles principles I have endeavoured to eftablish may be depended upon; but the practical part ftill remains very defective, and will depend on the energy and exertions of the country at large. I would particularly request gentlemen to confider the power of the new vari eties. At a distance from towns, few perfons are without one or more apple-trees; therefore let me beg that each may do fomething; for public happiness is but the refult of that portion of general good which arifes from the exertions of individuals." ACCOUNT of the CULTURE of the BEET-PLANT, and the APPLICATION of its Roor for making SUGAR, &c. in a LETTER from MR. JOHN TAYLOR, Of LEIPSIG, to the SECRETARY of the SOCIETY. [From the fame WORK.] "Dear Sir, "IN N compliance with your de fire, I have taken fome pains to examine into the merits of the various processes for preparing fugar from the beet-root, and to gain information upon the culture of the plant. You well know that Director Achard, of Berlin, first introduced this fubject into general notice, and recommended that the fugar fhould be procured by boiling the beet-roots, when taken out of the earth; that they be fliced when cold; that afterwards the faccharine juice be preffed out; that it be filtered, evaporated, and, after evaporation, the fugar be procured by cryftallifation and preffure. That account having been printed in England, I fhall not notice it further, but proceed to fuch other obfervations as have arifen from fubfequent experiments. "The kinds of beets which have been used for the preparation of fugar from their roots, are varieties of that fpecies called the beta vulgaris, or beta caule erecto of Linnæus, and of his pentandria dyginia clafs and order: they confift of the beta rubra vulgaris, beta rubra major, beta rubra radici rapæ, beta lutea major, beta pallide virens major, beta alba vel pallef cens quæ cicla officinarum, and beta communis viridis. Of thefe the principal are the beta rubra vulgaris, runkel rube of the Germans, or red beet of the English, and the beta cicla, den weilen mangold, of the Germans, or the white English beet; and varieties of thefe whofe roots have coloured rings. "Method of Culture of the BETA VULGARIS of Linnæus; RUNKEL RUBE, of the Germans; LA BETTE, of the French; or COMMON BEET, of the English. "THE foil fhould be a good black earth, not too moift; the land fhould be prepared as for cabbages, namely, dunged in autumn with fhort rotten dung, and ploughed; turned again in fpring, and then ploughed a third time much deeper than before. The land on which (kohl) white cabbage has been planted the preceding year anfwers well for the culture of the beet, fuch land having been generally kept clean from weeds, and well dunged. The feeds are M 4 ufually J ufually placed from twelve to eighteen inches diftant from each other, and one inch deep in the earth. The finger is used for the purpose, or an inftrument refembling a bean-fetter, with this difference, that the teeth are an inch long, and the above-mentioned diftance from each other. In each hole one feed is laid, and immediately covered with earth. As the field where the beet-root is fown is eafly over run with weeds, and the beet-plants do not fpring fo foon as many of the weeds, therefore the ground must be weeded in four or five weeks time, and fome weeks afterwards hoed: and fince from one feed three or four plants frequently grow, or by negligence feveral feeds are fometimes thrown into one hole, therefore the extra plants must be drawn out to be placed where there are vacancies, and the weeds must be frequently deftroyed. There is this advantage in fowing the feed in the method above mentioned, that the plants remain, and are not checked in their growth by change of fituation. It is neceffary, however, to pick out good and ripe feed, to prevent vacant places in the field. "Some prefer tranfplanting the roots to fowing the feed on the ground where the plants are intended to remain; and, in fuch cafe, make ufe of a stick to form the hole, the length of the stick determining the didance at which the plants fhould be placed from each other. After the plants have been fome weeks in the ground, the earth fhould be loofened with a hoe, and the weeds deftroved. "The red beet is the kind which has been ufually grown in the neighbourhood of Halberstadt; and the leaves of this, and the others, are eaten, when prepared, as fpi nach for the table; but are prin cipally employed as herbage for cattle, who are fed therewith in the stalls. "The roots are pleasant food when boiled, fliced, and eaten cold, either alone or in fallads. "As the method which profeffor Gottling has invented, to separate the fugar from beet-roots, appears to me the most eafy to be put in general practice, at little expence, and beft calculated for Great Britain, I fhall notice it more particularly. "He recommends the beetroots to be taken out of the ground about the middle of September, or from that time to the middle of October, in order to have good wea ther to dry them: they should be wafhed from their adhering earth as fpeedily as poffible, and their fmall fibres fhould at the fame time be cut off; as likewife fuch part of the root as, in growing, had risen above the furface of the earth. "The roots are to be afterwards wiped with a cloth, and laid upon a dry floor; their heads are to be cut off and given to the cattle: the roots fhould be then fliced lengthways down the middle, each half again cut into thin flices, and loofely hung on strong thread upon nails, in an airy chamber or place fecure from the rain. The flices should not be placed too near together, left they fpoil, nor too many be put upon one ftring, left it fhould break; it is advifcable to turn the ftrings upfide down, once or twice, to effectuate a speedy drying. In the 'courfe of ten or twelve days they become fo dry that the ftrings may be removed nearer together, in order to allow fresh beet-roots to be hung up, if there fhould be scarcity of room. "In the courfe of fourteen days, or |