Miscellaneous Intelligence. 457 



out being peeled ; when half done, the water may he poured from them, and 

 fresh. cold water added, which is also to be poured away when they are done 

 sufficiently. They are then to be left by the fire to dry for some time, and 

 will be found more floury when boiled in this way than when the water is 

 not changed. 



To supply with vegetables a cottager's family, in England, including pigs 

 and poultry, is estimated to require, on an average, 1 rood of land, — about 

 J of a morgen. 



The young glaucous shoots which spring from the collar, and a little way 

 up the trunk of Pinus longefolia, P. canadensis, P. sinensis, &c. strike root 

 readily, and in a short time make as handsome plants as those raised from 

 seeds. 



Grapes during the last severe winter (in Europe) were preserved in great 

 abundance, at Florence, during four months after they were cut, by being 

 kept hanging in rooms without tires. 



AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Edward Petri, in a memorial presented to the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris, at their sitting, May 3, announces that in sheep in a state of nature, 

 the nutritive fluids should be found divided among the flesh, the fat, and 

 the wool; but, by frequent clippings when the animal is young, we may 

 determine these fluids in greater quantity towards the skin, to produce 

 there a more abundant fleece. He asserts that he has made a successful 

 application of this theory, and that the practice increases the fineness, as 

 well as the quantity of the fleece, and that this amelioration may, with due 

 attention, be transmitted by breeding. 



Soils are deteriorated by exposure to (he sun and air, — the best and most 

 nutricious element in soils is sagiline, and flies oft' in exhalation, and too 

 frequent turnings may disperse a great proportion of it. A thin light strag- 

 gling crop, which too freely admits the parching rays of the sun, will cer- 

 tainly be succeeded by another thin crop. The ground under a heap of 

 stones which has lain in a fallow field during a summer, will, by the superio- 

 rity of its crop, be distinguished during the two succeeding crops. So much 

 does the shading of greund preserve its nutritious qualities. 



On Wells for Irrigation. — These offer the following advantages:— The 

 immense resources for irrigation, cannot fail to produce a rapid extension of 

 agricultural speculation, by rendering productive, lands which seemed 

 condemned to perpetual sterility, by disseminating cultivators more equally 

 over the surface, m consequence of their procuring, where they require it, 

 abundance of this necessary element. The art of boring those artificial 

 springs which seemed in France confined to the chalk soils of the North, is 

 being generally adopted over the whole kingdom; numerous associations 

 have been established for the purpose, some of whom are carrying on their 

 operations at great depths, with every prospect of success. There are many 

 things regarding these operations still undetermined, which, it is expected, 

 future researches will soon clear up, viz. the entire depth of the Jura lime- 

 stone, and of the marine clays, and of the great mass of the chalk, and, 

 lastly, of the great depositions of quick-sand between certain of the tertiary 

 fdrmations, which has rendered it necessary to abandon a great many wells 

 already of considerable depth.— Royal Agricultural Association, Paris. 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Mr. Dureau read a memoir on the developement of the intellect of ani- 

 mals, in which he pointed out the effects of example and instruction on 

 animals living in society. Dogs appeared to him to adopt the faults of their 

 masters ; and like men, they seem to feel pain more acutely as they become- 

 more civilised. He allots to animals, 1st, A blind instinct ;" 2d, A faculty of 

 imitation; 3d, An intelligent will, and a faculty of comparing and judging. 

 During a thirty years residence in the Louvre, he observed the sparrow- 

 hawks which look refuge there, giving singular lessons to their young, when 

 the parent returned with a bird or mouse it called the young around it, and 

 let fall the prey to be seized by them, itself taking care, if the object escaped 

 them, to seize it again before it reached the ground ; this process was re- 

 peated subsequently with living captives, and their education terminated 

 n the young could seize such with facility. — Acad. Sciences, Paris, 



3 n 



