42 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



jy nurserymen, who will set about propagating 

 the sort — but as the earliest time at which they 

 can offer young trees will be in the autumn of 

 1851 — the next sale for the charity fund from 

 the Duke of Northumberland's stock, will 

 probably bring pretty large prices also j though 

 Mr. Rivers announces that' he expects to have 

 500 plants ready for that sale, which is to take 

 place early this autumn. We trust some of our 

 enterprising nurserymen will secure a plant or 

 two. Ed. 



Great Sale of Short-Horn Cattle. — We 

 received the following interesting account of Mr. 

 Bates' sale of stock, which attracted so much at- 

 tention in England, too late for our last number. 

 It will be seen that our friends Messrs. Morris and 

 Becar have secured some of the most desirable 

 animals for this country. Mr. Morris is looking 

 very closely into the condition and breeding of the 

 best herds in Great Britain, with a view to im- 

 proving his own at Mount Fordham. Westchester 

 CO., N. Y.—Ed. 



My Dear Sir — The great Bates sale took 

 place yesterday. It was a sight which England 

 never has, nor ever will see again, as to the ex- 

 tent and quality of the herd. The attendance was 

 from three to five thousand persons, from almost 

 all parts of the world. The average price was 

 about 63 guineas, the highest 205, and the lowest 

 price for sound animals 30 guineas. Mr. Col- 

 lings' sale reached higher prices I believe, but it 

 was when this country was in a more properous 

 state than it now is, and the terms of sale must 

 have been more liberal than these. Mr. Bates' 

 heirs and executors are in chancery, and all busi- 

 ness done through a receiver, who made the terms 

 half cash down, and balance on delivery of the 

 animals, which was to take place five or six days, 

 at furthest, from the day of sale ; the risk of the 

 animals, immediately on being struck down, was 

 to be borne by the purchaser. 



I purchased three head, and Noel J. Becar, 

 Esq., of Long Island, whose acquaintance I made 

 on board the steamer, purchased four head. 



I did not make my purchases until I had exam- 

 ined all the herds of any note in the counties of 

 Yorkshire and Durham, which is the finest short- 

 horned section in the world; and even then I did 

 not make my final selection until I had re-examin- 

 ed Mr. Bates' herd several times, and the only 

 animals I bid for I purchased. If I can get a 

 complete list of the sale before the time of mail- 

 ing this I will enclose it to you, but I am fearful 

 that even this will not be in time for the steamer 

 of to-morrow. I remain yours, respectfully, L. 

 G. Morris. Kirk Leavington, Yorkshire, May 10. 



Steam Cullure. — " Have you heard," says a 

 writer in " Chambers' Edinburgh Journal," " what 

 the Recueil of the Societe Polytechnique" says 

 about a new mode of turning waste steam to ac- 

 count ? The proprietor of a factory took it into 



his head to introduce his waste steam under the 

 roots of Pine-apple plants; and such was the com- 

 bined effect of heat and moisture that a magnifi- 

 cent crop of ripe fruit was the speedy result, and 

 of a much finer flavor than usual, owing to the 

 growing part of the plant having been daily ex- 

 posed to the open air." 



This is a subject to which we gladly direct at- 

 tention, for we have long felt convinced that the 

 true places for forced vegetables and fruits of all 

 kinds are near fixed steam engines, whose waste 

 steam will supply all the heat that is required, 

 without the cost of a farthing for fuel. While 

 glass was dear this was a suggestion which it 

 would have answered no good purpose to have 

 made; but now that timber is cheap, glass about 

 one-sixth of its former price, and that bricks may 

 be expected to fall 50 per cent., it is evident that 

 we want no Lisbon for early peas, or New-Provi- 

 dence for Pine-apples, or even Penzance for winter 

 broccoli, but that all such produce may be grown 

 cheaper, and as well or much better in every 

 manufacturing town. 



As matters are now arranged the heat belong- 

 ing to the waste water of steam engines is utterly 

 lost, instead of being economised, and applied to 

 the production of food, or luxuries, in both the 

 animal and vegetable kingdom. There is no con- 

 ceivable reason why ponds should not be warmed, 

 and made to produce magnificent marketable fish, 

 bred beneath the foliage of water lilies and other 

 beautiful aquatics of hot countries, while the ponds 

 themselves impart a gentle warmth to the neigh- 

 boring soil, teeming with early kidney beans, early 

 lettuces, early asparagus, early salads, green 

 peas in March; peaches, plums, and apricots in 

 May, with grapes and Pine-apples at all seasons. 

 To effect this, little labor is wanted, no great ele- 

 vation of roof, no wide span, involving costly 

 rafters of timber or metal ; but a series of low 

 span-roofed pits, half sunk in the earth, to save 

 materials. In such places the waste water would 

 give warmth and moisture ; the moisture might be 

 regulated by various cheap mechanical contri- 

 vances ; and by the application of a little steam 

 power the atmosphere of such places could be 

 kept in any degree of agitation that might be re- 

 quired for the healthiness of the vegetation. In 

 short, summer breezes might blow, at the com- 

 mand of a screw, even though the external air 

 was that of Iceland at Christmas. 



The difficulty that gardeners experience with 

 forced crops arises from the impossibility of venti- 

 lating them — from the difficulty of keeping the 

 earth, in which the roots grow, warm without 

 over-heating — the air, in which the leaves grow, 

 dry without withering — and in maintaining a pro- 

 per temperature without such a consumption of 

 labor and fuel as render the charges to a consumer 

 such as to excessively limit all sales. At the side 

 of manufactories all such difficulties vanish. The 

 power which works the looms and the spinning- 



