380 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Joraou Agricultural 'Ntvos. 
We are in receipt of our foreign journals to the 2d 
of November. 
Markets. — Cotton -J- d. per lb., lower. Tobacco, an ad- 
vance. All other American produce about the same as 
reported in our last. Business generally was good, and 
a large consumption of our produce may be anticipated 
for the coming year. 
Cheapness of English Sparroios Tend to Cruelty. — 
A few months since, while making some purchases at 
the shop of a bird fancier, a ragged urchin rushed in and 
asked for a " penny bird." In exchange for his penny, 
he received a cock sparrow. Shortly afterwards, a 
little girl entered, with scarcely sufficient clothes on to 
cover her person ; her demand was for a " halfpenny 
bird" There was handed to her a hen sparrow. From 
the exquisitely-savage feeling of delight with which 
both birds were clutched by their respective purchas- 
ers, it would require little of the spirit of divination to 
enable one to predict their fate — torment, doubtless, 
and starvation ; but they were " only sparrows !" — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Interesting Fact in Cutting off Potato Haulms — 
Tombelle-Lomba's Remedy for the Potato Disease. — In 
the beginning of April last, a few potatoes, of the seed- 
ling kidney kind, were received from Mr. W. Stent, 
of Stockworth, as a variety of great excellence, but not 
very early. They were immediately planted in heavy, 
well-drained, kitchen-garden land, without manure. In 
the beginning of August, they were in flower. The 
flowers were nearly all removed. In the midst of Au- 
gust, the leaves were extensively spotted, and, with the 
haulm, became offensive to the smell. After remaining 
in this condition three or four days, the whole were cut 
down with a sharp knife, so as not to disturb the roots. 
About four inches of earth were then thrown over the 
ground, and the whole was rolled down firmly. Near 
the end of September, the crop was dug. The pota- 
toes were excellent in quality, perfectly ripe, fully 
formed ; and, out of a bushel and a half, not above a 
score were bad ones. The produce was at the rate of 
a bushel to a perch. — Agricultural Gazette. 
Advantages Arising from Peep Culture and Pul- 
verisation. — It is the oxygen of the air and water 
which changes the color of soils ; by exposure, a red 
one will become yellow, arising from a different dose of 
gas. Apart from the benefit derived by the land in 
the act of continual exposure of fresh surfaces, and thus 
imbibing the gases of oxygen and nitrogen, and car- 
bonic acid gas, from the air, and hydrogen and oxygen 
from the rains and aqueous parts of the air ; this pro- 
cess of culture divides and amalgamates the earths, 
disintegrates the particles of soils, and is of the most 
essential service to close tenacious ones, when they are 
bound together by winter rains or summer drought, by 
admitting the aqueous particles to roots. Much more 
depends on an intimate division of the soil, than is gen- 
erally considered, seeing that air and water are the 
principal sources and media of vegetable food ; culture 
will therefore partially supersede manuring, by opening 
the surface earth, so that it may receive the boons 
offered to the industrious cultivator, by the bounteous 
hands of Providence. — Parmer's Herald. 
Lime Composts. — Experiments with lime aud earth, 
lime and weeds, &c, are too numerous to quote. Sev- 
eral special and important conclusions are established, 
by the series made in the neighborhood of Edinburgh. 
From numerous trials, carried on for nearly forty years ; 
it was demonstrated : 1. That the most effective and 
profitable mode of using lime was in a compound state. 
2. That in the ensuing rotation, superior manuring be- 
came necessary, to render the part dressed with lime 
only equally productive with the portion to which the 
compost had been applied ; and, 3. That the effects of 
the compost were visible on all the crops of the rota- 
| tion, but in a more marked degree upon the wheat. 
In these cases, it seems that lime had been previously 
freely used, and had brought into use all the organic 
matter in the soil ; hence, it was of little use when ap- 
plied in its caustic state. The substances used in com- 
post, were scrapings of roads, ditch scourings, earth 
from headlands — and the proportion of lime was one 
to three of the other material. The compost was ap- 
plied every alternate rotation of cropping with wheat 
upon fallow. It was uniformly found that the crops 
in the course were as good, if not superior, to those 
grown with farmyard manure instead of compost. A 
compost of clay, coal ashes, and lime has been used 
successfully in the reclamation of peat moss. — Farmer's 
Herald. 
New Agricultual Plant. — The first article in the 
Farmer's Note Book, by Dr. Augustus Vbelcker, pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the Royal Agricultural College, 
Cirencester, is " on the chemical composition of quinoa 
seed" (Chenopodium quinoa). It is now about fifteen 
years since this plant was brought under the notice of 
British agriculturists ; and at that time, it was repre- 
sented as a plant likely to yield as much nutritious 
food on the same breadth of land as either wheat or 
barley. We then procured some of the seeds, and 
found the plant of exceedingly easy culture, yielding 
an immense quantity of small seeds about the' size of 
millet, and well ripened in the open air with us, but 
did not then think it of sufficient importance to induce 
us to continue its culture. The rjlarrt i s large and 
coarse looking, growing about from three to four feet 
in height, with foliage something like the leaves of 
atriplex, a weed known by some by the trivial name of 
fat hen, growing frequently on old dunghills. Its inflor- 
escence is something like that of beet or spinach, and 
therefore no way ornamental. — North-British Agricul- 
turist. 
Bread and Biscuit Making by Steam. — A new pro- 
cess of making and baking bread and biscuits by steam 
under the patent of Messrs. Lee and Robinson, has 
lately been exhibited in London, by which the flour is 
placed in a hopper, and in its descent, it comes in con- 
tact with carbonated water, which immediately con- 
verts it into dough, in which form it issues from a cone 
below, and is cut off into portions of a given size, when, 
being received by an attendant boy, it is passed through 
other machines as it may be required for bread or bis- 
cuits, into which form it is almost instantaneously con- 
verted. The batch of bread or biscuits is then placed 
in an oven heated by the same steam machine, by 
which the whole machinery is worked, and within a 
few minutes is ready for the table ; excellent biscuit 
being made and baked within 10 or 12 minutes. This 
application of the powers of steam, appears likely to 
effect a complete revolution in the baking trade, as two 
or three boys will be capable, with one man as an 
overseer, to conduct the baking operations of a large 
establishment ; while the night work, of which the 
journeymen bakers now so much complain, in watching 
the sponge and preparing the morning's batch of bread, 
may be entirely superseded. It is understood that the 
whole cost of "the machinery for carrying on the pro- 
cess does not exceed $750, and that a saving in the 
cost of bread making of from 20 to 40 per cent, will 
be effected by it. 
It is stated, that, should any parties, desirous of 
availing themselves of the advantages to be derived 
from the machine, object to the use of the carbonated 
water, barm, (as at present in use,) is equally applica- 
ble by the machinery in the process of converting the 
flour into dou^h. 
