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beyond the reach of many; and a wooden paling is good, as long as it lasts, but nothing can be more shabby when it begins to decay, besides requiring constant expence or repairs. Now a holly hedge, if well kept, is as compact and close as a wall; it comes perpendicularly down to the ground leaving no straggling branches to make litter, so that a gravel walk may be swept close up to it, giving altogether a fresh and beautiful appearance. The greenness of the holly in winter makes it a delightful refreshment to the eye, and on a sunny day gives us a sort of foretaste of spring. Travellers on the Portsmouth road may see a specimen of the compactness and closeness of a holly hedge, as they pass through the pleasant village of Esher. There is a still better one in that part of the village which is a little out of the road. There is also a noble holly hedge, some hundred yards in length, surrounding the grounds of Lord Henry Fitzgerald, at Thames Ditton. It is so close, and compact that it seems as if a mouse could hardly get through it. Whoever sees this will, I think, soon wish to have a holly hedge, and will thank your correspondents for having put them in the way of getting one.

Yours,

VIATOR.

ON RINGING FRUIT TREES,

In reply to A Correspondent.

To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

SIR,

THE practice to which your Correspondent refers, (P. 415,) is technically called Ringing. The operation is usually performed by cutting, with a sharp knife, two rings completely through the bark, and

Ringing Fruit-Trees.

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from a quarter of an inch to two or three inches distant, from each other; the bark between the rings, is then removed. The space thus freed from the bark, must not be larger than what, in stone fruits, will heal the same year, and in other kinds, in two years, or the life of the tree will be en-. dangered. One or more branches, or the whole tree, may be operated upon at once. The result will be, that luxuriant branches, by having their growth checked, will be brought into bearing, and that bearing branches will set their fruit better, and bring it earlier to maturity, and to a larger size, than branches which have not been thus treated.

Ringing is decidedly injurious to all kinds of stone-fruit trees, and, with regard to other trees, if too frequently repeated, occasions premature old age, and even death. The practice is not, however, to be condemned altogether, as it may, under a variety of circumstances, be resorted to with advantage; for instance, if a young tree is to be brought into early bearing when from a growth too luxuriant a branch does not bear, or when a tree does not bring its fruit to maturity.

Du Hamel once removed the whole bark from the trunk of a cherry tree, and yet the tree not only survived, but was covered with a fresh bark the same year.

Your Correspondent asks-Why on a branch which has been rung, the fruit is more abundant, and attains to larger dimensions, than on one which has not been rung*? The sap of trees ascends through the white wood, between the heart and the bark, and,after circulating through the leaves,flowers, and fruit, descends through the bark. Now it is evident, that, if in any particular branch, the

* I fear that it will very seldom bear a double portion, as

descent of the sap be prevented, as by ringing, (though that branch be not more abundantly supplied with sap than the rest), it will contain`a larger quantity than any other branch, and, therefore, can support a larger crop of fruit, and bring it to a greater size.

A tight ligature, for instance a copper wire twisted round a branch so firmly as to compress the bark, will prevent the descent of the sap, and consequently produce the same effect as dividing the bark. This method of ringing is, perhaps, preferable to that mentioned by your correspondent. E. W. B.

MUSHROOMS.

BEFORE mushrooms are eaten they should be carefully examined; as persons are sometimes made ill by eating those poisonous fungi which resemble them. Mushrooms have sometimes soft fibrous stems, but not tubular ones. The gills are pink. In decay, chocolate coloured. The skin is not slimy, is rather scaly, and separates easily from the flesh. The scent of the whole plant is peculiar, and quite different from that of fungi in general.

The species which is most easily mistaken for it, is slimy to the touch, and has rather an unpleasant scent. It also grows in woods, and is very seldom met with in open pastures.

B.

SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT AUTHORS. JESUS CHRIST is our Saviour; the end of our journey; the hope of our travel, and the port whereunto we ought to direct all the course of our life if we seek after pleasure, He is pleasure it

Selections from different Authors.

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self; if we desire riches, He is the only way to obtain those riches that cannot perish; if we look after honour and glory, He is our true honour, glory, credit, and everlasting crown of victory. All the joy of this our mortal life is comprehended in Him alone, and there is no joy in the life to come but by Him. But, without Him, all the delights and vanities of this wicked world turn in the end to bitterness and misery, and, in the world to come, to never ceasing pains and torment. I pray you take it in good part (my dear Nephew) if I use this kind of conference with you in my letters: the great love I bear you for divers good causes doth force me to put you in mind of this our only felicity, trusting that Almighty God will so assist you with his grace, that you shall one day attain to the perfection thereof, whereby you shall feel such joy and comfort as no man knoweth but he that hath tasted thereof.

From a MS. of the 17th Century.

Lines written in a Bower at St. Leonard's Hill.

This peaceful shade, this green-roofed bower,
GREAT MAKER, all are full of THEE;
Thine is the bloom, that decks the flower,
And thine the fruit that bends the tree.

As much creative goodness charms

In these low shrubs, that humbly creep,
As in the oak, whose giant arms

Wave o'er the high romantic steep.
The bow'r, the shade, retir'd, serene,
The peaceful heart may most affect;
Here, GoD in every leaf is seen,
And man has leisure to reflect.

Lady Elizabeth Lee.

On the Nature of God.

Weak man! decide not on this lofty theme,
Nor vainly strive to fathom the Supreme;

Nought less than God a God can comprehend *.
So vast its nature, so sublime its end,

Man's feeble sense is lost ere half 'tis view'd,
In the full blaze of his infinitude.

Seek, then, to penetrate the veil no more,
But bow the knee with rev'rence, and adore.

The contrivances of Nature are so various and so consummately skilful, that the wisest of mankind, in endeavouring to search them out, have not yet been able to discover them all.

:

Galen.

"How can a man, of any intelligence, refer all this (the construction of the human body) to chance, as its cause or if he deny this to be the effect of foresight and skill, I would ask, what is there that foresight and skill do effect? For, surely, where chance or fortune act, we see not this correspondence and regularity of parts. I am not very solicitous about terms; but if you choose to call that chance which has so nicely constructed and so justly distributed all the parts of an animal body, do so; only remember and allow, that, in so doing, you do not fairly exercise the privilege of framing new terms for in this way you may call the meridian splendour of the Sun by the name of night; and the Sun itself, Darkness. What! was it chance that made the skin give way so as to produce a month? or, if this happened by chance, did chance also place teeth and a tongue within the mouth? For, if so, why should there not be teeth and a tongue in the nostrils or in the ear?" Or, to carry on a similar appeal, "Did chance dispose the teeth themselves in their present order; which, if it were any other than it is, what would be the consequence? If, for instance, the cutting teeth had occupied the back part of the mouth, and the grinding teeth had occupied the front, what use could we have made of either? Shall we then admire the skill of him who disposes a chorus of thirty-two men in just order; and can we deny the

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