JVoics and Gleanings. 59 



exposed for sale in the market. How they can be used in tins condition we have 

 not the remotest idea, excepting it be for soups ; certainly not for salads, as we 

 are accustomed to. 



The important section of machinery and implements was not as good as might 

 have been anticipated. The first prize for a machine for transplanting large trees, 

 was awarded to Messrs. Peter Smith & Co., of Hamburg, over Messrs. Barron & 

 Son, of Borrowash, which we consider a gross piece of partiality. If a trial had 

 been allowed, this decision would certainly have been reversed. Shading for 

 hothouses was exhibited largely : the prize w-as awarded to an article peculiar to 

 the continent, where the houses require a thicker shade than in this country. 

 This shading is simply thin laths, about an inch in breadth, fastened together by 

 some thick string. This, when painted green, as it usually is, has a very pretty 

 appearance, and may be as easily rolled up as canvas. Messrs. C. Buhring & 

 Co., Hamburg and London, exhibited a quantity of their new charcoal flower- 

 pots. They are made of a composition of pitch and charcoal, afterwards burnt, 

 and are of a very firm substance, yet very porous. 



A very splendid lot of drawings of fruits — apples and pears — was exhibited 

 by Dr. Ed. Lucas, Director of the Pomological Institute, Ruttingen. These 

 were well and faithfully executed in colors, and deservedly admired. 



As a general exhibition of horticulture, embracing almost every article con- 

 nected with gardening, — as a beautiful and pleasing sight, for which no expense 

 was spared, — it was certainly deserving of our highest praise ; and unhesitat- 

 ingly we say it was one of the greatest exhibitions that has ever come under our 

 notice. ' EnglisJi yoiirnal of Hoi-iiculiiire. 



Lady-bugs. — Myriads of the pretty little beetles, known as May-bugs, lady- 

 bugs, lady-cows, or lady-birds, have appeared in England the past summer. 

 This, however, was not a calamity to be deplored, but a blessing to be rejoiced 

 over, for they were an army of deliverers, bent on exterminating the legions of 

 aphides that had quartered themselves in our fields, hop grounds, and gardens. 



A similar visitation of lady-bugs occurred in 1835, ^vhen the wiseacres of 

 Berkshire actually called out the public fire engines, and charged them with to- 

 bacco-water, in order to destroy the hosts of lady-birds which they fancied 

 threatened their crops with annihilation. We fear there is a good deal to be 

 learned in this W'ay yet ; agriculturists and gardeners are too ready to destrov 

 their best friends ; a little encouragement of Nature's police would pay them 

 better than all their pottering with expensive and troublesome nostrums, which 

 seldom achieve the purpose for which they are used. Chambers's Journal. 



Effects of cuttixg dowx Forests. — Owing to the extensive destruction 

 of trees in \'ictoria the climate is changing. Near Ballarat the rain-fall is sensi- 

 bly diminislied, and the government is taking measures to prevent the waste of 

 timber, and to establish nurseries of forest trees. 



Steam Ploug?iixg. — It takes two hundred steam ploughs to cultivate the 

 two hundred thousand acres of land owned by the viceroy of Egypt. 



