528 



land the raius run off more rapidly, the moisture is soouer dissipated 

 from the surface, and there is no vegetable deposit from leaves and 

 decayed wood for enriching lower lands. 



Forest protection in Russia. — The Moscow Gazette, in comment- 

 ing upon a correspondence from the provinces of the Vistula, predicts that 

 if the wholesale destruction of timber be not placed under effective 

 limitations within the next quarter century, that finely- wooded region 

 will become an arid plain. Volhynia, in which formerly 42 per cent, 

 of the land was forest, now contains but 25 per cent. Riga will soon 

 lose its character as a timber-exporting point. Renza has reduced her 

 forest area from 35 per cent, to 20 jier cent, of her surface. Other prov- 

 inces show a similar tendency. These complaints are re-echoed by 

 the other leading journals of the empire. The danger of injurious 

 denudation of forest areas has attracted the attention of the leading 

 agricultural societies, and the impression is gaining ground among all 

 classes of the people that prompt action must be taken by the govern- 

 ment to avert the injurious consequences of a general destruction of 

 forests. 



Export of horses from France. — Horses were exported from 

 France, in the first nine months of 1874, to the value of §3,000,000. 

 They included 5,217 mares, 536 stallions, and 11,959 geldings. The ex- 

 ports for the corresponding period in the two previous years were : 

 1873. Mares, 4,957; stallions, 616; geldings, 12,990. 1872. Mares, 

 4,265 ; stallions, 992 ; geldings, 7,126. They are exported principally 

 to England, Belgium, and Germany. 



Barley versus wheat. — The Mark Lane Express, in reporting 

 that the best malting barley, for the first time, sells in the British mar- 

 ket at a higher rate than the best red wheat, says that " a very remark- 

 able change is about to take place in the history of agriculture, conse- 

 quent on the change in the value of English wheat and barley." Reck- 

 oned by measure, barley is quoted at 48 shillings, and wheat at 46, per 

 quarter; by weight, (barley being 7 pounds per bushel lighter than 

 wheat,) while 456 pounds of barley bring 48 shillings, 456 pounds of 

 wheat bring only 41. 



Progress of agriculture in Victoria. — The Department of 

 Agriculture in Victoria, Australia, has published its second annual re- 

 port. The volume is described as " an exact counterpart " of those 

 issued by this Department. It reports -results of investigations with, 

 respect to the state of crops, the cultivation of special plants, (includ- 

 ing flax, the grape, and native grasses,) diseases of cattle and sheep, 

 injuries of birds and insects, characteristics of different soils in the 

 colony, &c. The Department is furnished with a chemist and an ento- 

 mologist,who report on their specialties. Agricultural education is largely 

 discussed, and a sketch of all the principal agricultural schools and col- 

 leges in Europe and America is given. It is also reported that the De- 

 partment is about adding to its own facilities an experimental college 

 and farm. 



Steam Cultivation. — The following statements are gathered from 

 a letter written by an experienced cultivator, at the request of Sir Will- 

 iam Cunningham, M. P., and read at a recent meeting of the Carrick 

 Farmers' Society, Scotland. The writer began to cultivate by steam, in 

 1861, with a " roundabout set of tackle ; that is, with rope and anchor 

 at each end of the field, and one engine." The next year he procured a 

 14-horse power engine and tackle, and in 1864 another. These two en- 



