846 
FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
less afflicted by the dearness of meat, would gain immensely 
by a larger supply, in better condition, and with improved 
arrangements for slaughter and distribution . — Food Journal. 
The Effects of the Siege of Paris on the Con- 
sumption of Horseflesh. — The Paris papers announce 
that horseflesh has already become an important article of 
consumption, and one gentleman residing near the boucherie 
hippophagique in the Rue Pernetti, w T rites to the Debats to say 
that his neighbours and himself like it very much. A muni- 
cipal notice has been issued, announcing the opening of 
eleven fresh depots for the sale of horseflesh. The increasing 
number of horses daily killed and supplied to the public 
affords another proof that Vappetit vient en mangeant. The 
daily consumption of horses, which at the beginning of the 
siege was only twenty or thirty, rose in the last three days of 
last week to 141, 195, and 275 respectively. — Times. 
Famished Dogs in Paris. — The Debats complains of the 
number of famished and diseased dogs which for more than a 
fortnight have been roaming about Paris, and calls on the 
authorities to guard against the danger of their becoming 
mad, or of their corpses adding to the numerous other sources 
of infection. — Ibid. 
Food Supplies in Beleaguered Paris. — The 
Bulletin Administrate of the 26th of September stated that 
at that time the Government had in Paris a store of 
292.000 quintals, or cwts., of grain, in addition to which there 
\ras in the hands of private dealers a further quantity of 
155.000 quintals — making a total of 447,000 quintals, suffi- 
cient, at the estimated requirement of the population of 7000 
quintals daily, for a period of two months or two and a half 
months. The meat store consisted of 24,600 oxen and cow s, 
150.000 sheep, and 6000 pigs, or an estimated ordinary sup- 
ply for two months. 
Effects of the Drought on Agricultural Pro- 
duce. — The advance of the year and the extraordinarily pro- 
longed absence of rain are causing the gravest apprehensions 
to farmers, who have no grass, and are losing the turnip crop 
(at best a bad one) by lice, and who look to the wintering of 
stock with anxiety. Since the rainfall table has been kept at 
Malton (twelve years) the past nine months show the driest and 
fully account for the present condition of things. The compa- 
rative rainfall for the first nine months of the past twelve years 
is asfollows: — 1859? 17’78in.; I860, 25*72in. ; 1861, 18*36in. ; 
1862,21*04in.j 1 863, 1869in.; 1864, 14’84in.; 1865, 14*26in. ; 
1866, 24-07in. ; 1867, 23*6lin. ; 1868, I5*19in.; 1869, 
20 08in. ; and 1870, 13*50in., the driest year recorded. 
