390 
sent over several pieces of iron- 
stone, on which are imprinted very 
distinct specimens of Lepidoden- 
dron, and several ferns not unlike 
those of the coal-measures of Britain. 
A gentleman, also, who has studied 
the coal-measures of Nova Scotia, 
which are of the same age as those 
of Britain, refers, in a letter which 
we have seen, to fine specimens of 
Sigillaria and Stigmaria, both of 
which are characteristic of this pe- 
riod. Specimens of these, however, 
are not in the collection we have 
examined, but nothing can be more 
distinct than the fronds of Lepido- 
dendron already referred to. While 
on this subject we may be allowed 
to remark, that although, on the 
authority of Professor M‘Coy, the 
age of the Australian coal-fields was 
for some time considered to be Ju- 
rassic, the recent investigations of 
the Rev. W. B. Clarke go to esta- 
blish the Carboniferous age of these 
beds. Mr.Clarke has sent to England 
a collection of fossils from the New 
South Wales coal-field,* containing 
specimens of Lepidendron and Spi- 
rifer; and thus it would appear 
that, during the same great epoch, 
so pre-eminently carboniferous, de- 
posits of coal were being elaborated 
over both hemispheres and on both 
sides of the equator; a marvellous 
instance of the uniformity of na- 
ture’s operations in early geologic 
times. 
The importance of these great 
deposits to the commerce of the 
eastern seaboard of South America 
need not be dwelt upon. At the 
present time, 250,000 tons of coal 
are annually imported into Rio 
Janeiro, at a cost of 49s. per ton, 
and from this depot other coast- 
towns are supplied. When once 
the coal-field of Candiota is opened 
up, the Brazilian Government may 
be supplied at less than half the 
price, and our own little Island be 
spared the doubtful honour of pro- 
viding fuel for a continent on the 
other side of the globe. 
Epwarp Hutt. 
* In the Museum of the Geological 
Society of London, Somerset House. 
Notes and Correspondence. 
| April, 
Mult as Cattle Food, By J. Chalmers 
Morton. 
Srreatiey, near Reading. 
Your agricultural chronicle will 
doubtless place before your readers 
the fact that a bill has been intro- 
duced into Parliament, which will 
probably pass into law, for permit- 
ting the use of malt duty free in 
feeding sheep and cattle. They 
may, however, wish to know the 
probabilities of this measure prov- 
ing agriculturally serviceable, more 
in detail than the limits of the 
chronicle will enable you there to 
discuss them. 
The measure has probably origi- 
nated in the interview with which 
the Chancellor cf the Exchequer 
honoured a deputation of the Cen- 
tral Farmers’ Club early last year, 
when Mr. Booth of Warlaby, Mr. 
Arkell of Swindon, and Mr. Willams 
of Baydon, all well-known agricul- 
turists, declared to him that malt is 
greatly‘’superior to barley as food for 
cattle and for sheep ; and when Mr. 
Williams in particular put the case 
of an English farmer who had fed 
300 sheep on a lot of spoiled malt, 
and was refused a drawback of the 
duty, though this would have been 
allowed to him had he exported the 
malt to a French farmer, who might 
thereafter have sent his sheep, 
fattened on this very malt, for sale 
at Smithfield. ‘‘Thus, while the 
foreigner might have the advantage 
of feeding his sheep on malt without 
paying any duty, the British farmer, 
if he wished to feed his sheep on 
malt, was subject to a tax of 21s. 8d. 
per quarter.” ‘The inconsistency of 
this was obvious enough to the logi- 
cal mind to whom it was thus pre- 
sented, and accordingly we have now 
a Bill which will for the future put 
an end to so great an anomaly ! 
Barley may, for the future, in houses 
set apart for the purpose, be malted ; 
and the malt may be dried and 
ground, with 10 per cent. of linseed, 
to a certain degree of fineness, and 
it may be thereafter sold under cer- 
tain conditions, duty free, for feeding 
purposes. And no English farmer 
will hereafter be able to complain 
