517 



ending October 1, wns 45,953,574. Of these 0,303,700 were sbii)pcd to 

 Boston, 0,474,343 to New York, and 3,051,547 to riiiladelphia. A pros- 

 perous though less extensive lumher-trade lias also been carried on the 

 past year at Jacksonville, Eernandina, and some other points. 



Thorougii-ered Stock in Nova Scotia, — The friends of agricul- 

 ture and the public authorities in Nova Scotia are making a laudabh' 

 ellbrt to encourage the more general diffusion of thorougli-bred stock 

 throughout that j^rovince. The board of agriculture, under the author- 

 ity of the provincial legislature, have imported a number of entire Eng- 

 lish draught-horses. Short-horn, Ayrshire, and IJevou bulls, bull calves, 

 and cows, and Cotswold, Leicester, Shropshire, and Southdown rams 

 and ewes, which were offered for sale at public au'ction a.t Halifax on a. 

 recent occasion, under the restriction that the animals were to be kept 

 in the province for breeding ])urposes. The idea of improving the stock 

 of the Country by importing pure breeds and selling them at auction 

 is borrowed from the Belgians, who have long been in the habit, under 

 the countenance ami direct support of the government, of importing 

 Durham bulls and heifers, and disposing of them by luiblic sale in the 

 different provinces of the kingdom. 



Fluke in sheep. — The disease known in common parlance as "the 

 fluke," iTom the popular name applied to the entozoa found in the livers 

 of those afflicted, is prevailing to an alarming degree in Australia. In 

 consequence of the reticence of stock-owners on the subject the extent 

 of the malady is not stated ; but it is no secret that one large stock- 

 owner, out of 44,000 sheep, has lost 30,000 the past year, and that a 

 flock of 3,000 flukey ewes produced only 90 lambs. Through the un- 

 willingness of stock-owners to investigate the matter and seek for a 

 remedy, the disease has spread unchecked, until in some parts of the 

 colony it is said to be difficult to find a sound sheep for the butcher. In 

 l)ortions of the New South Wales back country, where the negroes 

 occasionally steal a sheep and feast upon it when half raw, it is said to 

 l)e no uncommon occurrence to find the natives dying of fluke. In 

 Tasmania the disease is likewise very fatally prevalent. 



ExPERniENT IN PLOWING BY STEAM-POWER. — On the 8th of No- 

 vember, on the seed-farm of D. Landreth, at Bloomsdale, near Bristol, 

 Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a trial was made of the " Williamson 

 road and field steamer," under the supervision of the inventor, D. D. 

 Williamson, of New York. The experiment is reported as entirely suc- 

 cessful. Mr. Williamson's invention is an improvement on the " Thomp- 

 son road-steamer "of Great Britain, consisting mainly in the attachment 

 of vulcanized-rubber tires in such a way as to prevent |the wheels from 

 sinking in soft soil, or compressing it to an injurious degree. The report 

 represents that the steamer consumes about one ton of coal per day ; re- 

 quires for working it an engineer, fireman, and " a boy to drive a water- 

 cart;" can be used for driving thrashing and other machines; will draw 

 from twenty to thirty tons of freight in wagons on any fair country 

 road ; will turn on a space not exceeding in diameter its own length ; 

 will plow, on laud suitable for cultivation by steam, from one to three, 

 acres per hour, according to length of land and depth of furrow; and 

 costs, with plow and tackle complete, |5,000. The following extracts are 

 from a description of its action by an eye-witness : 



No team of horses could have tiirne<l, hacked, and stopped with more facility and cer- 

 tainty. It was run np the steei) hridgeway of a barn, having an elevation of 1 foot ii! 

 f), hacked down, and run up again Avith the greatest ease and facility. For a fur- 

 ther confirmation of its capacity a couple of large farm-wagons were coui)le(l behind it, 

 in which about twenty of the guests were seated for a vide. It trotted ott" with us on 

 the public road toward Bristol, at the rate of six to seven miles jser hour ; went through 



