FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Tliougli the action of many poisons upon plants, as opium, prussic acid, chloroform, &c., 

 may be considered by the cultivator as mere matters of curiosity, which can never call for 

 any especial treatment at his hands, it is most important that he should attend to the prin- 

 ciple involved in them, for, if so, he will not over-manure his plants or trees. However 

 beneficial the substance may be when properly administered, he will not use coarse, putrid 

 manure as is the fashion with some, of treating vines, the most delicate, perhaps, of fi-uits, 

 and the most easily impaired by injudicious treatment, nor will he be mdiiferent to the 

 quality of air with which his houses are supplied. Ventilation will be of little use if poison- 

 ous vapors are constantly rising from beneath, and these are sometimes so intense as to 

 produce at once visible evil. 



It is very doubtful whether plants are capable of rendering ground noxious by excretion 

 from their sound and entire roots. It is, however, easy to conceive that such plants as 

 poppies, if ploughed green into the ground in considerable quantities, might prove injurious. 

 — M. J. B., in Gardeners'' Chronicle. 



The following article is taken from a French pajier : — 



" Few people form an exact idea of the importance attained by many branches of oiir 

 rural industry, such, for example, as the product of eggs. France sends every year to Eng- 

 land about 7,780,000 kilogrammes of eggs, say 717,160,000 eggs, at a calculation of twenty- 

 two for the kilogramme. Reckoning that a hen lays 100 eggs in a year, which is a fair 

 average, it will be seen that this exportion is the produce of 1,711,600 hens. Our importa- 

 tions from other countries are only about 66,000 kilogrammes, and about the eighth of those 

 sent to England are supi^lied by Belgium, and the Sardinian States. As for the consumption 

 in Paris, it is not less than five or six millions of kilogrammes — that is to say, from 110 to 

 132 millions of eggs." 



It will not be said there is not a demand, when it is proved that so many millions are 

 consumed over and above what the country can produce. Our own poultry -keepers have a 

 great advantage over foreigners. They have no freight, duty, nor expensive packing. Their 

 market is always close at hand. A still greater advantage is, that the expense incurred by 

 the foreign exporter, in collecting from Belgium and Sardinia, is just so much encouragement 

 to ourselves. 



The first idea that strikes us is, that, in many large fann-yards, many more fowls might 

 be kept, without causing extra expense. Let us admit that the occu]3ier is not a poultry 

 fancier. A hen lays 100 eggs, and they are worth at least five shillings ; a Imndred hens 

 will then pay, in eggs, twenty-five pounds. But, with care in selecting the breed and the 

 birds, they may be made to produce more. We say nothing of food, because the fowls bred 

 at a farm will more than pay any expense. Near a large town, where there is a demand 

 for new-laid eggs in the winter, and at the commencement of the spring, they will realize 

 much more than we have stated above. 



We will say nothing of the other mode of making poultry profitable, as we have so lately 

 treated of it. We desire only to call attention to the fact, that a great demand exists, that 

 all the advantage is on the side of the home producer, while his inattention to it throws i^ 

 into the hands of others who are moi'e careful to look at small matters. — Cottage Gardener. 



The Exi?rER Nuksekies. — Tlie city of Exeter is in the West of England, and is about 200 

 miles on the Great Western Railway. We very recently visited the two Exeter nurseries ; 

 that of James Veitch and Son was the first to which our attention was directed. Tliis is 

 one of the largest and best kept nurseries in the kingdom, in which will be found full 

 collections of all the principal classes of plants in cultivation. Here you find growin 

 luxuriantly such plants as Pix>tanthus nepalensis, Eleagnuses, Tittosporums, and a number 



