FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
163 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 
By the steamer Herman we are in receipt of our 
foreign journals to 26th March. 
Markets. — With the exception of Indian meal, 
American produce had a downward look, though very 
little change in prices had actually taken place since 
our last. 
Best Cleansing Drink for a Cow after Calving. — 
Give her 1 lb. of Epsom salts and a tablespoonful of 
ground ginger, in a quart of good, warm ale. — Dublin 
Paper. 
Facts in Cooking Meats. — From an average of the 
nicest experiments made on good meat, moderately 
fat, 4 lbs. of beef lose 1 lb. in boiling, 1 lb. 3 oz. in 
baking, and 1 lb. 5 oz. in roasting ; while 4 lbs. of 
mutton lose 14 oz. in boiling, 1 lb. 4 oz. in baking, 
and 1 lb. 6 oz. in roasting. 
Effects of the Game Laws in Great Britain. — It 
is asserted by the " Suffolk Chronicle," that the de- 
struction of the game preserves, alone, would produce 
greater crops in England than all the artificial manures 
in the world. 
Cucumbers have been selling in Covent Garden 
Market, London, at prices varying from As. to 9s. a 
couple. 
Guano for Rose Bushes. — Genuine Peruvian guano, 
applied in wet weather, is an excellent manure for 
roses. — Gardeners' 1 Chronicle. 
Grafting Grape Vines. — This operation may be 
performed precisely as in the case of apples and pears, 
provided the following precautions are attended to : — 
The wood on which you wish to fit the graft may be 
one or more years old. Let the buds push into leaf, 
then graft, and allow the bud opposite the graft to 
grow till the buds of the scion begin to swell ; then 
stop the other above the first joint, and check it en- 
"tirely as soon as the scion pushes into leaf. — lb. 
A Saturday's JVew Moon a Wet One. — Dr. Forster, 
-of Bruges, has made a communication to the Royal 
Astronomical Society, in which he declares that by 
journals of the weather kept by his grandfather, fa- 
ther, and himself, ever since 1767, to the present 
time, whenever the new moon has fallen on a Satur- 
day, the following twenty days have been wet and 
windy in nineteen cases out of twenty. 
Roarers Disqualified for Breeding. — At a late 
meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
Mr. Cator suggested that all stallions and mares 
known under the name of " roarers," should be dis- 
qualified for competing for prizes offered by the 
•society for improving the breed of horses. 
How to Kill Lice. — Tobacco water, or the ammo- 
niacal liquor from the gas works, is recommended by 
~ihe Agricultural Gazette for destroying lice. 
Manures Favorable to the Potato Crop. — Mr. J. 
Cuthill, florist, Camberwell, used 30 cwt. of salt and 
30 bushels of soot per acre on light sandy land, plant- 
ed in February. The crop entirely escaped. 
Mr. C. Jeffery, farmer, Antony, states that Mr Peel, 
at Trenant Park, planted his potatoes in October, ma- 
nured with salt, soot, and charcoal, and had an excel- 
lent crop, without one single diseased potato. 
The Bishop of Carlisle reports from Cumberland 
that no disease appeared in October-planted potatoes, 
when the furrows at the time of planting were dusted 
with a mixture of soot, salt, charcoal, wood ashes, 
and gas tar. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Adulterated Flour Detector. — M. Boland, a baker, 
of Paris, has invented an ingenious instrument, call- 
ed by him the aleurometer, the purpose of which is 
to indicate the paniflable properties of wheat flour. 
The indication depends upon the expansion of the 
gluten contained in a given quantity of flour, say 500 
grains, when freed by elutriation from its starch. A 
"ball of gluten being placed in a cylinder to which a 
piston is fitted, the apparatus is exposed to a tempera- 
ture of 150 degrees ; as the gluten dilates, its degree 
of dilatation is marked by the piston rod. If 25 de- 
grees of dilatation are not obtained, the flour is reject- 
ed, the best flour usually giving from 38 to 50 degrees. 
From experiments which have been made by Chev- 
reul and Payen, it appears that the dilatation shows 
correctly the degree of deterioration which the wheat 
flour has undergone ; and consequently the aleurome- 
ter offers itself as an instrument of practical impor- 
tance. The same principle may be applied to various 
other purposes ; indeed, Silberman has constructed a 
new alcoholmeter, of a character, similar to the aleu- 
rometer. — Athenaeum. 
Guano a Preventive of the Potato Disease. — The 
"Gardeners' Chronicle" having mado extensive in- 
quiries as to the effect of the time of planting, the 
use of lime and the several sorts of manures upon the 
potato as promoting or preventing disease, has given 
the following results of the use of guano and farm- 
yard dung : — " Guano. — Under all circumstances, two 
crops manured with guano have been saved out of 
three ; that, if applied to autumn and early spring- 
planted crops, it is advantageous, but that it is dange- 
rous in late planting. Farm-yard Dung. — There caa 
be no doubt that, if used abundantly, in a very rank 
condition, and especially in this state to late-planted 
crops, it is an extremely disadvantageous applica- 
tion. ; 
This is not merely the result of a single experiment 
of three crops, but of thirty-six good cases to twenty- 
four bad. The editor states, moreover — " We do not 
find, upon searching through our columns for the last 
four years, that we have more than three bad cases 
against nine reported to be good." This may be con- 
sidered triumphant testimony in favor of guano. We 
need scarcely add that the Peruvian should be U3ed, 
and care taken to obtain it genuine. — Mark-Lane 
Express. 
The Value of Ornamental Shrubs in England. — 
Three hundred and seventy-eight lots of Camellias, 
the greater portion of them plants of a large size, and 
a few lots of Rhododendrons and Andromeda flori- 
bunda were brought to the hammer last week by Mr. 
Stevens, in Messrs. Loddiges' nursery, Hackney. The 
highest price realized on the occasion was \9l. 8s. 6d. 
for Camellia incarnata, a magnificent tree 15 feet high ; 
Speciosa, 9 feet high, fetched 191. ; Altheseflora, 10 
feet, 141. ; Chandlerii, 12 feet, a magnificent tree, 14/.; 
Myrtifolia, 12 feet, 12/.; Rossii, 10 feet, 91. 10s ; 
double white, 5 feet, 9/. 15*.; Eximia, 12 feet, 91. ; 
and Corallina, 8 feet, 9/. 15s. ; the other lots fetched 
from 2l. to 81. each. Rhododendron nilagiricum fetch- 
ed 21. 17s. 6d.; R. barbatum, 1/. 12s.; and plants of 
R. robustum, from 1/. 18s. to 21. 2s. A specimen of 
R.^arboreum, 8 feet high, fetched 41. 15s. ; and hand- 
some plants of Andromeda floribunda, 17s. each. 
Interesting Experiment in Feeding Cows. — In 
Switzerland they estimate that hay loses at least a 
third of its nutritive 'value by the process of fermen- 
tation. The following experiments were made upon 
cows: — Thirteen cows were put up, and each got 
daily 36 lbs. of newly-made hay, and gave, one with 
the other, 25 lbs. of milk ; the same got afterwards, 
and during 15 days, 36 lbs. of old hay of the preceding 
year, from the same meadow. Thev gave, after the 
fifth dav, 20 lbs. of milk ; after 10 days, 14 lbs. ; and 
the last two days, only 12 lbs. The same cows were ' 
again put upon new hay, and gave, after the fifth dav, 
18 lbs.; after the tenth day, 22 lbs. ; and after the fif- 
teenth, gave again 25 lbs. This experiment shows 
clearly that the hay during the process of fermentation 
loses a great deal of its nutritive value, and if there 
were means of preventing the fermentation, it would 
be of great service. 
