SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

* * * * *

_On Planting Poor Light Land_.


Besides paring and burning, and trenching the soil previous to making
the plantation, Mr. Withers, (who received the large silver medal from
the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. London, for experiments
conducted on the subject in Norfolk,) spreads on it marl and farmyard
dung, as for a common agricultural crop, and at the same time keeps the
surface perfectly free from weeds by hoeing till the young trees have
completely covered the ground. The progress that they make under this
treatment is so extremely rapid, as apparently to justify, in _an
economical point of view_, the extraordinary expenses that attend it. In
three years, even oaks and other usually slow growing forest trees have
covered the land, making shoots by three feet in a season, and throwing
out roots well qualified, by their number and length, to derive from the
subsoil abundant nourishment, in proportion as the surface becomes
exhausted.--_Trans. Soc. Arts_.

_The Air Plant_.

Prince Leopold has succeeded in bringing to perfection that
extraordinary exotic, the air plant. It is suspended from the ceiling,
and derives its nourishment entirely from the atmosphere.