80 Foreign Notices. 



Distillation from Plains. An excellent spirit is obtained from the bruised 

 pulp and kernel, fermented with honey and flour, and distilled in the 

 usual manner. — Jour, du Midi. Fevrier, 1825. 



Goats of Thibet. M. Ternaux has obtained great praise throughout 

 France for the Introduction of these animals, which seem to thrive in all the 

 climates of that country. " The heat of the departments of the south, and 

 the cold of the highest mountains, such as the Pyrenees, the Mount d'Or, 

 and the Vosges seem equally to agree with therfT." — Constitut. Avril, 1825. 



Potatoes. Voltaire, it seems, was the first to call the attention of the 

 French to this valuable tuber in 1777,and after him, Parmentier and Cadet 

 de Vaux. 



Code of Agricidture. This work has been translated into French by 

 M.Mathieu de Dombasle, under the title of " L' Agriculture Pratique et 

 Raisonnee;" because, says the translator, the word " code" conveys the 

 idea of a collection of particular laws. 



Destruction of Ants. The first mode is to sprinkle snuff over them ; the 

 second consists in mixing soot with oil of hemp-seed, and sprinkling the 

 mixture on the plant it is wished to preserve. The odour is said to be 

 insupportable both to ants and bugs. 



American Cranberry and Oak Leaves. Some of the German journals are 

 only translating in 1824, the culture of the former plant, and the use of 

 the leaves as a substitute for tan or dung, from the Horticultural Transac- 

 tions for 1808, and Speechley's Treatise on the Vine for 1790. — Bullet. Univ. 

 Sept. 1825. 



Thunder and Hail. A society for mutual assurance against storms of 

 this description in France, is proposed by M. Tessier in the Annales de 

 l'Agriculture Francoise, t. xxx. 



Preserving Potatoes in a, dried state. Wash them, cut them in pieces, 

 steep them forty-eight hours in lime water, then forty-eight hours in fresh 

 water ; dry them in an oven. One hundred parts of fresh potatoes will 

 give thirty so prepared and dried. In this state they may be kept for 

 years, or ground at once into flour. This flour mixed with a third part of 

 that of rye, is said to make an excellent bread. The same author proposes 

 to moisten potatoes dried as above with olive oil, and then to grind them, 

 and use them as coffee. 



How to make the most of Unripe Melons. Boil them, and season them 

 with spices and salt, or bake them like pumpkin pie. 



Pine Apple. A manufacturer who has a steam-engine, is said to have 

 conceived the happy idea of applying the spare steam to the culture of 

 this fruit; of course the result was, fruit of a superior quality to those 

 grown in the ordinary way. — Jour.Hebdom. Paris, May 1825. 



Primula sinensis. This plant is greatly prized in France and in the 

 Netherlands, where, under the protection of glass, without fire-heat, it 

 flowers most abundantly the whole year. — Ann de la Soc. Linn, de Paris, 

 Mars 1825. 



Ringing Fruit Trees. A pamphlet has been published on this subject 

 by M. C. Bailly, of Paris ; it is in two parts, the first treating of the effect 

 of ringing on fruit trees in general, and the second of the effect of ringing 

 the vine. 



1st. Ringing increases the diameter of the parts of trees, but not their 

 length; a fact, explained by the theory of the ascending and descending 

 sap. The latter is arrested in its progress by the circular incision, as is 

 proved by the thick edge which takes place on the upper margin of the 

 wound, and by the diameter of the shoot, which, in the vine in particular, 

 acquires double the thickness above the wound that it does below it. 



But in proportion as the shoots are benefited by ringing, the roots are 

 injured by the want of the regular circulation of the descending sap; the 

 great art, therefore, is to adjust the dimension of the incision to the degree 



