279 
generally dry, stringy, and indigestible. An English farmer on the 
same soil raised 11 tons of very superior turnips. The above are but 
specimens of the difference between English and Hindoo farming gen- 
erally. 
FrEenNcH Crops.—From recently-published statistics it appears that 
in 1820 land in France sown ip grain averaged about 103 bushels per 
acre. In 1874 the average yield is stated at 214 bushels, or a doubling 
of production in half a century. As the French population doubles 
itself only in one hundred and sixty years, the above fact would indi- 
cate that food products are increasing faster than the mouths that are 
to consume them. This increase of production is due to the adoption of 
more scientific methods than those prevailing a half century ago. In 
potatoes, however, the statisties of 1874 show a smaller increase. In 
1820, the average product was 79.3 bushels per acre; in 1874, 120.8 
bushels. In 1815, 11,341,500 acres were sown with grain, yielding 
119,085,750 bushels; in 1874, 17,080,240 acres yielded 386,517,625 
bushels. The price of wheat in 1874 was 44s. 6d. per quarter, or about 
$1.35 per bushel; in 1874 it was 58s. 5d. per quarter, or about $1.76 per 
bushel. 
WASTE OF FERTILIZING PRINCIPLES.—From aseries of analyses made 
by M. Boussingault, of the French Academy of Sciences, it appears that 
a cubic meter of water passing under the Pont d’Austerlitz, in the heart 
of Paris, contained one-ninetieth part of an ounce of ammonia, and 
one-twenty-fifth of an ounce of nitric acid. This was during the severe 
spring-flood of 1876. When the river is at its average stage there is 
but a third of this quantity of ammonia and a fourth of the nitric acid 
in a cubic meter of water. The increased amount of these elements 
during the flood is due to the fact that the swollen waters covering a 
wider portion of the soil extract more of its fertility. The water of the 
Nile is said to be richer than that of any other river on earth in these 
fertilizing matters, containing about one-seventh of an ounce per cubic 
meter of nitric acid. At the date of Boussingault’s observation the 
Seine was running 143,510,400 cubic meters in twenty-four hours, and 
in this mass about 47 tons of ammonia and 182 tons of nitric acid were 
swept into the ocean. 
FOREST-PLANTING IN FRANCE.—The past spring has been very fav 
orable to the large areas in France lately planted in forests. It is stated 
that 5,000,000 hectares or 12,350,000 acres—about half the area of 
Ohio—have become unproductive as agricultural lands. Pine-trees 
without any cultivation and a very inexpensive supervision can be made 
to grow upon these barren acres, netting about $2.50 per acre of annual 
profit. This would add to the productive capacity of these lands about 
$30,000,000 per annum. Other trees have been planted with similar 
economic results, and now landed proprietors are looking to tree-plant- 
ing as a means of utilizing their unproductive acres. 
SPARE THE BIRDS.—M. Waddington, French minister of public in- 
struction, at the request of bis colleagues, the ministers of agriculture 
and of the interior, has issued a circular to the departmental prefects 
detailing the injuries suffered by growing crops from the ravages of 
destructive insects, and enforcing the necessity of protecting those 
classes of insectiverous birds which prey upon them. The same fact is 
noticed and deplored in France which has been recognized by intelli- 
gent agriculturists in this country, that there exists in the minds of the 
people an unfortunate and inveterate tendency to destroy these birds, 
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