72 



FARMEllS' REGISTER— TEA PLANT— CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. 



commonly^ treat them as men not to be trusted, 

 and siiapicion naturally :beojets. deceit. There is, 

 CGhseqa-^nlly, but little sympathy existing between 

 them; but when servants are -used wi;h kindness, 

 they often return it. wilh interest, and devote 

 themselves with sincerity to the service of their 

 employer. 



■Condition is a word of large meaniag in the 

 Btable of a gentleman; in ihat of a tiu'mer, Avhose 

 horses should be kept.more ibr work than for show, 

 it should be understood to mean a sufficiency oi' 

 wholesome food, evidenced by a healthy, iTiellow, 

 clean-skinned hide, without much fat, — a lively 

 eye, and a general appearance of health; Com- 

 mon working horses require but little grooming; 

 yet their coats should be kept clear of scurf, and 

 their feet shoitld be well attended to. The rough 

 hair which encumbers their fetlocks is useful in 

 some countries as a protection against flints, but a 

 much less quantity would serve that purpose,' and 

 when allowed to remain clogged wilh dirt, it en- 

 genders grease. Through a very unwise economy 

 of some masters, the shoes, too, are seldom re- 

 moved until they are either completely worn or 

 broken, by which much injuiy is done to the hoof: 

 their shoulders are galled by want of timely atten- 

 tion to the state of the collars; and time is contin- 

 ually lost by the breaking and patching of the 

 harness. In all these cases prevention is better 

 than cure; and, besides the established reg^ilation 

 of removing the dung and 'setting the stable fair' 

 every' morning, as well as seeing that each horse 

 be thoroughly dry a,nd clean, his feet washed, and 

 occasionally oiled and stopped, before 'making up 

 for the night,'— it would be a good rule to have a 

 regular inspection of the cattle, harness, and im- 

 plements, once every week, jeven were a portion of 

 the Saturday evening's usual work devoted to that 

 purpose. 



TEA PLAKT. 



Notliing seems more extraordinary than that 

 we should be dependent upon one country, and 

 often upon the will of a capricious government, for 

 a production which may now be considered as a 

 necessary of life in Great Britain. . It does not ap- 

 pear that the tea-plaut is altogether the production 

 of a low latitude. On the contr^iry, various spe- 

 cies of the CameUia of tea-plant seem to be culti- 

 vated in China far to the north, and at considera- 

 ble elevations. Why, then, might not the tea- 

 plant be cultivated to an unlimited extent in Eu- 

 rope; or why might we not produce it in our nu- 

 merous colonies, possessed of every variety of cli- 

 mate? In Prince of Wales' Island it has been 

 long introduced, and it is known- that tliere is no 

 dilliculty whatever in rai-sing it. In almost ever}' 

 part of Hindostan, therefore, the tea-plant could 

 be grown. Nay, there is reason to believe that 

 fipe'cie.s of it might be gro^vn in Gr(>at Britain as 

 easily as some of our most common shririis. ft is 

 said that the Camellia viridis, or green tea-plant, 

 has been recently successtully planted by Mr. 

 Rootsey, of Bristol, in a part- of Breconshire, near 

 the source of the Usk, about 1,000 feel, above the 

 level of the sea, and higher than the limits of the 

 native woods, consisting of alder and birch. It 

 endured the winter, and was not affected by the 

 frost of the 7th of May, and it has now "made 

 several vigorous shoots, — Q,uart. Joufn. jfgric. 



CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. 



In a paper recently published in the Transac- 

 tions of the HortirAiltural Society of London, Mr* 

 Knight says that he entertains no doubt whatever 

 but that our Avinters are generally a good deal less 

 severe than formerly, — our springs more cold and 

 ungenial, — our summers, and particularly, the lat- 

 ter parts of them, as warm, at least, as they for- 

 merly Ave re, and our autumns considerably warmer. 

 In accounting for these -changes,, our author ob- 

 serves, thatAvithin the last fifty years, very exten- 

 siA'e tracts of ground, AA'hich were preAaously co- 

 vered with trees, have been oleared, and much 

 Avasle land has been inclos'ed and cultivated; and 

 by means ol" drains and improA'ements in agricul- 

 ture, the Avater troni the clouds has been more 

 ra])idly carried off. From these circums^tances, 

 the ground becomes niore dry in the end of May 

 thanitAvas formerly, and it consequently absorbs 

 and retains much more of the Avarm summer rain 

 than it did in an uncultiA-ated state; and as water 

 in cooling is knoAvn to give out much heat to sur- 

 rounding bodies, much AA'armth, must be commu- 

 nicated to the ground, and this cannot fail to affect 

 the temperature of the autumn. The Avarm au- 

 tumnal rains, in conjunction with Those of summer, 

 operate poAverfuUy upon the temperature of the 

 Avinter; and, consistently Avith this hypothesis, Mr. 

 Knight asserts that he has observed, that during 

 the last forty years, when the summer and autumn 

 have been veEy Avet, the succeeding Avinter has 

 been mild; and that Avhen north-east Avinds have 

 prcA'ailed after Avet seasons, the- AAinter has been 

 cold and cloudy, but Avitlioiit severe irost, probably 

 oAving to the ground upon the opposite shores of 

 the continent being in a state similar to that on 

 this side the Channel. 



Supposing the ground to contam less AA'ater in 

 the commencement of Avinter, on account of the 

 operations of the drains and improAemicnls before 

 mentioned, more of the Ava,ter aftbrded by dissoh-- 

 ing snoAvs and cold rains in Avinter Avill riece.ssarily 

 be absorbed by i1; and in the end of February, 

 hoAvever dry the ground may have been at the 

 AAdnt'er solstice, it Avill almost ahvays' be .found 

 saturated Avith water; and as the infkjence of the 

 sun is as poAverful on the last day of February as 

 on the 15th of October, and it is the high temper- 

 ature of the ground in the latter period Avhich oc- 

 casions the difference of temperature in those op- 

 posite seasons, Mr. Knight, thinks it cannot be 

 doubted, that if the soil be rendered- more cold by 

 the absorption of Avater at nearly the freezing 

 temperature, the Avcather of the spring must be, to 

 some extent, injuriously aflected. — Trans. Hort. 

 Soc. Lund. 



From the Libiar.v of Uspful Ti^nowlcdge — Faniici-'s Series. 

 Mta.ES AND ASSES. 



A beast of draught throws fonvard as. much of 

 his oAvn weight as enables him to overromt' the 

 Aveight, or equivalent resistance, that is behind 

 him; and the more s])irited the animal, AAnth the 

 niore activity, will he exert himself; but, t-he exer- 

 tion being measured by its rapidity, A-elocily is 

 labor in another shape, and though he may dra.AV 

 better (or a short space than a hoa\-ier and sloAver 

 animal, yet he avIII tire sooner: weiglit is, there- 

 fore, the steady poAver of heavy draught, and is a 



