50 CAN SODA REPLACE POTASH AS A MANURE. 
the so-called oiseaux de boucherie, he did not feel warranted in includ- 
ing the African ostrich amongst these, but confined himself to the 
recommendation of the Nandu, and of the Dromaius or Emeu of 
Australia—genera belonging to climates much less warm than that 
of Africa. As to the Emeu or so-called Cassowary of Australia, not 
only is that bird able to support the climate of France, but no species 
appears to be better fitted to withstand its changes. The Emeu is so 
robust and hardy, that it has been seen in the menagerie of the | 
Paris Museum, to remain out of doors from one end of the year to 
the other, at night as well as during the day, without ever seeking the 
shelter of its lodge, even during the most rigorous weather. More 
than once, indeed, it has let itself, literally, be buried in the snow, 
without appearing to suffer from this in the least degree. 
With regard to the facts also, mentioned in the interesting commu- 
nication of Prince Demidoff, M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire stated, that, 
likewise in Algeria, M. Hardy had seen the male ostrich occupy itself 
with the incubation of the eggs, much more fully than the female. 
On one occasion, even, the female limited her duties principally to the 
bare act of turning the eggs carefully over in the nest during the 
temporary absence of the male. At the Paris Museum, where the Emeu 
has re-produced itself, and where M. Florent Prevost noted down with 
the greatest care all the attendant circumstances, the male Emeu alone 
hatched the eggs, and took care of the young birds. The part of the 
female in the case recorded, was confined to the simple laying of the 
eggs. E. J. C. 
NOTE ON THE QUESTION—CAN SODA REPLACE POTASH 
AS A MANURE. 
BY M. GEORGE VILLE. 
[Translated from the Comptes Rendus of September 17th, 1860.) 
For some years past, enormous and constantly increasing quantities 
of nitrate of soda from Peru, have been consumed for agricultural 
purposes in Great Britain. The good effects of this salt, attested at 
present by the most extended employment, were originally made 
known by the able researches of M. Kuhlmann,* and by those, more 
* Expériences chimiques et agronomiques: 1847. 
