AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2612, 21 December 1867, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

The Gardeners' Chronicle has been publishing a series of letters on the horticultural department of the Paris Exhibition. In the twenty-first of this series, which we append, a description is given of some novel arrangements for watering gardens without employing a large amount of hand labor. It has, therefore interest for New Zealand gardeners : — Inconsequence of the permanent nature of the show of horticultural implements in connection with this great Exposition, they ] are better represented than they ever have i been in any one place before. I shall therefore endeavor to point out such things as deserve adoption with us, passing by other things, email or great, novel or extraordinary, if they do not come up to this standard. Probably the first object that catches the visitor's eye on entering the Jardin Reserve are several machines or contrivances for spreading water without the aid of an attendant. The French system of watering gardens, &c, is perfect, or at least the system generally adopted, for there are yet wateringpots at the Jardin des Plantes, made of thick copper, which are worthy of the days of Tubal Cain, but a disgrace to any more recent manufacturer, and a curse to the poor xaen who have to water with them. Generally, Parisian lawns and gardens are watered . every evening with the hose, and most effectively. The contrivances spoken of are for spreading water without the continual aid of a workman. They consist of metal hoses with stop-cocka here and there, and of globes elevated six feet or so, from which the water emerges in a circle. I shall describe one of these machines, because an old system which I have rtcently observed in Baron Rothschild's beautiful garden in the Bois de Bou- ' logne, and ia other places, is so simple and so superior, that it is impossible to beat it. A metal hose, in six feet lengths, is stretched across a lawn — the lengths being joined together by about one foot of strong leathern hose, so that the whole affair is flexible, each bjx feet of piping being supported by two pairs of little wheels. It is, in fact, the same contrivance that they have for watering the grand thoroughfares, only that in that case there is merely a pipe at one end, which is managed by a workman who directs his stream about among the carriages with oase. But for watering a lawn they simply perfoSflte the pipes with little holes at about a

yard apart on one side, so that, when the water is laid on, a dense and gentle shower falls over about three or four feet of the ground all the lengths of the hose. I saw them watering the plain of Longchamps lately with this piping, and, with Mr Smith, of Kew, who accompanied me, was delighted with it. The plain had been beaten into dust by the great review, and by numerous races, and yet they were watering it from one side to the other with one hose, a man attending it, and going gradually from one end of the line to the other, pushing the wheeled hose forward as the ground became suffi-. ciently saturated. This is simplicity and effectiveness itself. The only thing needing other remark about it is, that they perforate the piping simply with a bit of metal, and in a direction along the pipe, as by doing so the water spreads gently in the same line with the hose ; if the nail were driven in in the opposite direction the water would play across the pipe, which they do not desire. There can be no doubt that the success of the subtropical plants depends to a greater extent on the excellent system of watering adopted. In some of tho drier districts of Britain there is quite as much want for a good system of watering as there is here. To isolated beds, specimens, and general planting, they apply water with a hose — a dense heavy shower. The profuse cropping of the market gardens here is also to be attributed, to some extent, to their regular watering ; the ground being always moist and friable. In the market gardens they raise the water from deep wells by horse power, and send it to barrels and cement 'cisters plunged in various parts of the garden. In each market garden, and in many nurseries, you usually see a horse of the establishment working one of these pumps. Tho next things that demand notice are the various hothouses, &c, at the Exposition. They are all of iron, usually neatly and well built, occasionally elegaut, but offering very little that is worthy of adoption. The French use iron houses, and generally think our wooden ones too heavy and cumbrous. There is one house which is on tho principle adopted at La Muette for the larger structures. The mode of glazing these is worth notice, and better and neater than we ofteu see in England. The panes do not overlap, but meet evenly, a particle or so of putty being used between them if they do not meet exactly ; and on tho outer side a neat thin strip of lead paper, about half an inch wide, is laid over each junction. The appearance of this silvery strip is good, and it is in every way effective. It is in fact heartily adopted by M. Barillet, and is probably not surpassed, if equalled, by any mode of glazing. The house is by its use glazed hermetically, while there is not a partical of the rustiness that occurs in English Louses from decaying putty, &c, to be seen. All drip is entirely prevented in this house by making every four feet or so of its length slightly undorlap that above it, the top pane of each division projecting half an inch into the house, and catching all the drip which then escapes on the roof by the very thin slit between the panes and the bar under which they rest. There is no difficulty whatever in the repairing of such houses, which is not the case in i some of our funny modes of glazing. This I method is good and^ elegant — the best for! large houses, which 'should generally be of iron, if we do not wish them to be intolerably ugly. The small houses of the French are of iron too, and nothing can be more useful than the very cheap, one-light, low iron houses at La Muette — which, by tho way, is only in its youth, from what M. Burillet told me yesterday, namely, that they have arranged to build between 50 and 60 more houses there. The aspect of most, French glass houses is spoiled by the effect of the shading they employ — laths connected together by string and little hooks, and painted dark green, and by all the houses above the small and useful low two-light ones having a gangway over tho roof to arrange this shading, &c. It is a very bad, very awkward, and very expensive way. The garden is edged with the edgings I have already recommended, but they are mostly of the strongest type, suited for well frequented avenues, &c, in public gardens. The smaller size of these, such as you see in gardens around the Louvre, are certainly the neatest and most tasteful that can be employed.