286 



national legislation. The penal code of Belgium inflicts fines and im- 

 prisonment upon persons guilty of maltreating animals or of exposing 

 them to. torture in public spectacles and fights. The society above 

 referred to is designed to promote the merciful treatment of animals ; to 

 co-operate with the laws which aim at that end ; to encourage such pub- 

 lications as are calculated to further the object; and by all i)racticable 

 methods to enforce the law which, in that respect, ought to rule in 

 every man's heart. It aims likewise to check the needless cruelties which 

 too often attend the slaughtering of animals, and even extends its 

 beneficent guardianship to the protection of such birds as the interests 

 of agriculture require should be preserved from the snare of the fowler. 

 The bulletin furnishes information also as to the operations of other 

 foreign societies for the protection of animals. At the International 

 Exposition of Agriculture to be held at the Hague in September next, 

 by the Agricultural Society of Holland, premiums, with a view to the 

 more comfortable working and compassionate treatment of animals, are 

 to be offered for the most approved railway car for the transportation of 

 cattle ; for the best descriptions of harnesses for plowing, for draught, for 

 the tow-path uiion canals, and for ordinary carriages ; for improvements 

 in head-stalls, bits, halters, sheep-shears, methods of transporting poul- 

 try, &c. 5 and also for treatises on horse-shoeing, slaughtering animals, 

 and insectiverous birds. A society at Lyons has offered a premium of 

 200 francs for the best treatise on the origin and causes of cruelty to 

 animals, and the most natural and effectual remedies. A society exists 

 at Hamburg which is distinguished by its active and intelligent efforts. 

 It numbers 1,250 members, and extends its operations to the giving of 

 horse-blankets to hackmen and others who are unable to purchase them, 

 and to the distribution of rewards among those who are especially care- 

 ful of their horses, and premiums for meritorious acts of solicitude for 

 animals, as well as to the detection and prosecution of cases of cruelty. 

 The colonial secretary of the island of Trinidad, in response to a letter 

 of the Department, writes, that the government of that island will be 

 happy to co-operate with the Department of Agriculture in Washington 

 in effecting a mutual interchange of plants and seeds indigenous to the 

 respective countries, and that the government botanist has been directed 

 to prepare such seeds and plants as this Department may desire to pos- 

 sess. 



TEA-CULTURE IN JAPAN. 



The Department of Agriculture is indebted to the Secretary of the 

 Navy for the following very interesting report upon the culture and 

 preparation for the market of tea in the Suruga district, Japan, made 

 by Master J. E. Pillsbury, in command of the United States steamship 

 Emperor, and transmitted to the Navy Department by Eear- Admiral 

 Jenkins, of the Asiatic fleet. The Emperor was detailed to convey Mr. 

 0. O. Shepard, charge d'affaires, and a party of several other gentle- 

 men, including two Japanese ofiicials, from Shimidze, Japan, to the tea 

 district ; and Master Pillsbury made the observations which are detailed 

 in his report in company with this party, under the guidance of a mer- 

 chant of Skidzaoka, from whom much valuable information was ob- 

 tained. 



