392 Foreign Notices. — Holla?id and the Nethcrlatids. 



it is said, the female sex display, in extracting them, a high degree of skill, 

 mixed with much innocent gaiety and vivacity. This use of the seeds of 

 the Pinus Cemhra is not approved of by some, who recommend that com- 

 mon in Siberia ; there, according to Pallas, an oil is extracted from the 

 seeds, which is used at table, and might be employed in the manufacture of 

 soup. This species of pine is becoming very rare in the Alps. In order to 

 expedite and secure its growth, and thus remove the principal objection to 

 its cultivation, the seeds should be deposited in a compost of earth, and the 

 clippings and leaves of the pinaster and the larch ; or this compost should 

 be put round the roots of the young plants. 



The Larch is a valuable tree, not only for the purpose of forming manure, 

 but also for its durable timber. This lasts four times longer than pine 

 timber grown at the same elevation. If, therefore, the larch were planted 

 where the pine now grows, it is evident that much forest ground might be 

 gained and applied to pasture. The foliage of these and other trees is care- 

 fully collected on the mountains for winter fodder, put into large nets, and 

 then hurled down into the valleys. {JFor. Rev. and Cont. MisceL, Jan. 1828.) 

 ■ Schabzieger Cheese is that species of Swiss cheese made by the moun- 

 taineers of the Canton of Glaris, and readily distinguished by that peculiar 

 marbled appearance, and aromatic flavour, communicated by the pressed 

 flowers or the bruised seeds of the ikfelilotus officinalis. The practice of 

 mixing the flowers or seeds of plants with cheese, was common among the 

 Romans; thyme was generally used by them. That a similar method was 

 pursued in the middle ages is apparent fi'om an anecdote told of Charlemagne. 

 When travelling without attendants, he arrived at a bishop's palace : it was a 

 fast day, and the bishop, having no fish, was obliged to set cheese before the 

 monarch. Observing some small specks (parsley seed) in it, and mistaking 

 them for rotten parts, he took the trouble of picking them out with his 

 knife. The bishop told him he was throwing away the best parts of the 

 cheese ; on this the monarch eat it as it was, and liked it so much, that he 

 ordered the bishop to send him, every year, two cases of such cheese to Aix- 

 la-Chapelle ; and, in order that the cheese-merchant might not send cheeses 

 without the seeds, he directed the bishop to cut each in two, and afterwards, 

 to fasten the parts by means of a wooden skewer. {Ibid.) 



HOLLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS. 



The Flesh-coloured Clover (Trifolium incarnatum liin.. Farouche Fr.) has 

 long been cultivated in some of the southern departments of France, and, 

 though an annual, is found very advantageous on dry sandy soils. The Agri- 

 cultural Society of Nancy have lately recommended it for culture in the 

 province of Lorraine, and a writer in the Journal des Pays-Bas, as suitable 

 to many parts of the Netherlands. M. de Dombasle, a theoretical and 

 practical agriculturist in great estimation, sows it, after harvest, in the stub- 

 bles, with no other culture than harrowing in. It grows all the winter, and 

 early in spring affords abundant feed for sheep ; or, if left till May, it pre- 

 sents a heavy crop for the scythe, and may be used for soiling, or making 

 into hay. A writer in the Journal des Pays-Bas says, it is not so liable as 

 common clover, or lucerne, to hove cattle, but this may be doubted. {Jour. 

 d'Ag. des Fays-Bas, Oct. and Dec. 1827.) 



The Art of improving the Quality of Fruits is said to have originated in 

 Belgium ; and while the Academy of Munich were doubting the possibility 

 of this description of improvement, and even giving a prize to an essay which 

 maintained the negative side of the question, the art had already made an 

 immense progress in the Netherlands. It is not meant that new fruits were 

 never raised from seed before, but that the business of raising new sorts of 

 fruits from seeds was never before undertaken on scientific principles. 

 Chance has, at all times and in all countries, discovered new sorts of fruits 



