EEYIEWS — AGBICULTTTBE OF THE EEEKCH EXHIBITION. 141 



care, and he was also appointed a Juror in the general examination 

 and adjudication of awards. "We need scarcely say, therefore, that 

 Professor "Wilson must be highly qualified, from previous acquire- 

 ments and professional duties, to speak and write on the Agriculture 

 of the French Exhibition. "We proceed to lay before our readers a 

 few facts and statements relating to this department, gleaned princi- 

 pally from his lecture. 



The Agriculture of France continues as yet very defective in 

 reference to two of its most important departments, draining, and 

 the use of special manures. The former, Professor Wilson says, is 

 daily becoming more appreciated, and some few plans of drainage 

 were exhibited, with a comparative statement of results. A French 

 writer on agriculture, who has already established a European repu- 

 tation, Leokce de Laveegnk, observes in a recent number of the 

 Revue des Deux Mondes : " That with badly worked and badly 

 manured fields as is still the case with three- fourths of France, 

 drainage can produce but little good effect. Great progress has to 

 be made in most districts before that. The adoption of a good rota- 

 tion costs less, and may prove as productive. Then comes the 

 employment of some improved implements, as a good plough, a good 

 harrow, threshing by machinery, and the use of improvers for the soil." 



Ghiano till quite recently has been but very sparingly used in 

 France. During the first six months of 1854, out of 225,000 tons 

 exported from the Chincha Islands, 113,000 went to England, 98,000 

 to the United States, and only 5688 to France. In 1855, however, 

 France imported 100,000 tons of this valuable fertiliser. Con- 

 siderable attention seems lately to have been given in that country 

 to the manufacture of artificial manures, several of which were 

 exhibited. " Of these," the Professor remarks "one, the Fish Guano — 



14 Particularly claimed attention, inasmuch as the practicability of the manufacture 

 was lately the subject of much discussion in scientific as well as in commercial circles. 

 It was manufactured, I was informed, upon a considerable scale, the process 

 differing somewhat from that suggested in this country. The fish, either the 

 refuse of the market or otherwise, is cut into pieces, and submitted to the action 

 of high pressure steam (four or five atmospheres) in suitable vessels, for about an 

 hour. It is by that time sufficiently cooked, and is then ready for the presses, 

 which expel a great proportion of the water, and leave the residue in the form of a 

 cake. This cake is, by means of a coarse rasp or grating machine, broken up into 

 a sort of pulp, which is spread out in thin layers on canvass, and dried by means of 

 warm currents of air. It is sold either in this state or more minutely divided by 

 means of the ordinary grinding processes. It is stated in this condition to corres- 

 pond to 22 per cent, of the crude weight of the fish, and to contain from 10 to 12 

 per cent, of nitrogen, aDd from 16 to 22 per cent, of phosphate. The price was 



