456 Catalogue of Works 



Fleming's British Farmer's Magazine, exclusively devoted to Agriculture 

 and Rural Affairs. Published Quarterly. 4s. 

 A description and engraving of Actonia, a three years old short-horned 

 heifer, the property of the Reverend Henry Berry. — On the Game Laws. In 

 which the writer suggests the idea of empowering lords of manors to grant 

 leases of the game to all holders of the soil ; thereby to legalise the sale of 

 game, and give tenants and other occupiers an interest in preserving it. — 

 On the improved breeds of cattle. The writer takes what we consider to be 

 the good-sense view of the subject; and breeds from animals having the 

 properties desired in their offspring, whatever may be the proximity of 

 consanguinity. — On planting forest trees. By our esteemed correspondent, 

 Mr. Main. In which Mr. Withers is requested to consider the best practical 

 mode of planting our national wastes ; the best mode for the trees being so 

 expensive, that Mr. Main fears it will deter many landholders from planting 

 at all. — Dairy husbandry. — Croivs, rabbits, Sfc. The latter should, and 

 the former should not, be destroyed. — Agriculture in Jersey. Agreeable 

 reading. Sea-weed the universal manure. — Science of Agriculture. An 

 extract from an American work, gratifying to see, as a specimen of the state 

 of science, and rapid progress of improvement, in 'North America, and as a 

 proof of liberal and enlightened feeling on the part of Mr. Fleming. With 

 the Quarterly Review, as it was conducted a few years ago, an approbatory 

 extract from any American work would have been sufficient to procure the 

 damnation of whatever it was connected with. Happily, these times are 

 gone by, even with the Quarterly Review, and we trust for ever. — On the 

 present distress. By Simon Gray, of Camden Town. Which is traced partly 

 to over-trading and new commercial regulations, but principally to the 

 great and sudden diminution of the accommodation granted by the Bank of 

 England. — Smithfield Club and Cattle Shows. — On the manufacture of straw 

 plat and hats in imitation of Leghorn. By J. and A. Muir ; extracted from 

 vol. xliv. Trans. Soc Arts. M. and Commerce. Messrs. Muir, after many 

 trials, prefer the straw obtained from rye grown in sandy soil, well ma- 

 nured, Twenty bushels of grain are sown to the acre. The crop is cut when 

 in flower, or when the grain is in a milky state, — put in boiling water for 

 half an hour, then spread on dry clean sand or gravel, bleaching on grass 

 being liable to produce mildew, and in two or three days the process is 

 completed. The following extract from Messrs. Muir's remarks is of par- 

 ticular interest : — " This manufacture, if introduced, might be productive 

 of much good, by giving our peasantry, who are engaged in it, habits of 

 cleanliness ; for the value of the work will always depend very much on its 

 proportionate cleanness. Their houses, clothes, and hands must be kept 

 clean, otherwise they cannot make clean work." With commendable 

 liberality, Messrs. Muir, who are extensive straw-hat manufacturers in 

 Greenock, remark, that they " do not think premiums should be offered to 

 the manufacturers ; they will be rewarded by procuring superior work. We 

 think a premium may be offered to the person who raises wheat-straw as 

 spindly as fine wire, and which is also found to bleach to as good a colour as 

 Leghorn hats." If platting straw and winding silk cocoons could be 

 generally introduced and found to pay, the blessing to females of the lowest 

 classes would be so much the greater ; because there is no chance of these 

 operations ever being satisfactorily performed by machinery. But our fear 

 is, that even if chey were introduced, the high price of the means of exist- 

 ence in this country, would prevent the operators from coming in compe- 

 tition with those of other countries, for which there is no remedy but in 

 the approximation of the prices of the necessaries of life in Europe to 

 something like a common level ; and this is the result to which they must 

 infallibly come. The necessity and the advantage of such a result, the 

 distress which every year brings with it, and which is only partially sub- 

 dued to re-appear with greater vigour, renders more and more obvious.— 



