FOREIGN. AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
99 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 
By the Steam-packet Hibernia, we have our Euro¬ 
pean journals to the 4th of February. 
Markets. — Ashes had rather a downward tendency. 
Cotton remains without change. Stock on hand on 
the 1st of February, 772,300 bales, against 625,300 of 
same date last year. Flour is dull, and had declined. 
Provisions. —Beef and Pork in demand at full prices; 
Butter, Cheese and Lard, have given way a little 
owing to the large arrivals Tallow has fallen. Tobac¬ 
co.— The consumption has increased in Great Britain 
1,634,000 lbs. the past year. Wool was in brisk demand 
at full prices. 
Money was plenty at 2| per cent, interest. 
American Stocks without change. The news of the 
payment of the Pennsylvania interest, as soon as 
known abroad, will have a favorable effect upon them. 
The Consumption of Guano in England is enormous, 
it having reached 63,000 tons last year. The present 
y*ar it is supposed it will amount to at least 150,000 
tons. Prices were rising. 
American Hops. —Under the new tariff these have 
found their way into England. They are said to be 
equal in flavor and quality to any ever grown in that 
country. 
Great Butter Cows. —In Ireland five Kerry cows 
made last year 1,600 lbs. of butter, which is an ave¬ 
rage of 320 lbs. each. 
Another Guano Island has been discovered in the 
neighborhood of Saldanha Bay, near the Cape of 
Good Hope, but the manure is of a poor quality. 
Extraordinary Turnips. —Two turnips, grown on the 
farm of Mrs, Boothroyd, at Carcroft, were taken up the 
other day, and were found to measure, the first, 3 feet 
11 inches round, and weighed 214 lbs.; and the other 
2 feet 10 inches, and the same weight as the other. 
Pigs Nursed by a Cow. — A cow on the farm of W. 
Raven, Esq., at Gingley-on-the-Hill, may be seen two 
or three times a day laid on her side in the fold-yard, 
suckling a litter of pigs, nine in number, which have 
recently been taken from the sow. Several attempts 
have been made to drive her off, but she always re¬ 
turns, and has once or twice ran at the parties who 
have attempted to interfere with her in her maternal 
cares of the young litter. 
Poultry Exported from Dublin to England during the 
Christmas week amounted to 500 tons, and was worth 
50/. per ton. 
“ Does Charcoal Absorb Ammonia ?”—Charcoal has the 
curious property of absorbing bad smells from all sub¬ 
stances with which it may be brought into contact, 
when in a finely divided state. New made charcoal 
absorbs moisture with avidity. It also absorbs gases, 
and what is extraordinary, it has the power of condens¬ 
ing gases when so absorbed. This will be observa¬ 
ble, in the following table by De Saussure, which gives 
the number of volumes of gas absorbed by one volume 
of box-wood charcoal, that is to say, one cubic inch 
of such charcoal Will absorb the extraordinary quan¬ 
tity of 90 cubic inches of ammoniacal gas,and so on:— 
Ammoniacal gas 90 
Muriatic acid.85 
Sulphurous acid 65 
Sulphuretted hydrogen - - - 55 
Protoxide of azote (Nitrogen) - 40 
Carbonic acid.35 
Olefiant. 35 
Carbonic oxide.9.42 
Oxygen.9.25 
Azotic (nitrogen) - - - - 7.5 
Oxy-carburetted hydrogen - 5 
Hydrogen.1.75 
As plants have the power of decomposing, or rather 
extracting from the charcoal, the gas which has been 
thus absorbed, it would seem to us that the mechani¬ 
cal use of charcoal, in stables and cow-houses, would 
be almost equal, in retaining the ammonia, to the 
chemical use of gypsum. 
Sago Palmist .— Of all the palm-trees which are na¬ 
tives of Asia, the sago palmist is one of the most 
useful and interesting; a liquor runs from the inci¬ 
sions made in its trunk, which readily ferments, and is 
both salutary and agreeable for drinking. The mar¬ 
row, or pith of the tree, after undergoing a slight 
preparation, is the substance known by the name of 
sago in Europe, and so eminently useful in the list of 
nutritious food for the sick. The trunk and large 
leaves of the sago palmist are highly useful in the 
construction of buildings; the first furnishes planks 
for the carpenter, and the second a covering for the 
roof. From the leaves are also made cord, matting, 
and other articles of domestic use. 
Weight of Soil of an Acre. —The soil of an acre of 
land, at the usual depth to which it is ploughed, weighs 
on an average about 700 tons. 
Alpaca Wool. —The London import of this article 
amounted to 5,165 bales in 1844, against 3,667 bales in 
1843, which shows an increase last year of 1,498 bales, 
or 414 cent, on the import of 1843. The alpaca, 
or goat’s wool, now enters so largely into the manu¬ 
factures of this district, and the demand for the fabrics 
composed of it, in whole or in part, is now so large 
and increasing, and the growth of it so apparently in¬ 
adequate to the demand, that we must look forward to 
at least the maintenance of the very high prices to 
which the article has risen; and it may well be feared 
that the deficient supplies of alpaca wool may place a 
limit on the production of the manufactured article 
more contracted than that which the demand for it 
would prescribe. 
Fattening of Geese. —At the last meeting of the French 
Academy of Sciences, a communication of some inte¬ 
rest to the lovers of fat geese was made by M. Persoz, 
who appears to have gone into the affair con amove , 
and to have been fully imbued with the importance as¬ 
signed to it. A hundred modes of fattening geese have 
been conceived, but most of those who have been en¬ 
gaged in the speculation have been of opinion that it 
was necessary the food should contain the elements 
of fat to be eliminated by the goose in the process of 
digestion. M. Persoz is of a different opinion. He 
contends that it is of no consequence whether the food 
be of the kind alluded to or not, as the goose, he says, 
forms in the process of digestion fat from any food, i i 
it contains a certain proportion of azote. We hope M. 
Persoz will also show that it is not necessary in the 
fattening of geese to expose them to the tortures prac¬ 
tised by many feeders, such as nailing them by the 
feet and confining them in a narrow space to prevent 
motion. We have no objection to partake of a good fat 
goose, if the feeding be merely the result of abundance 
of wholesome food, but we confess that w T e never see a 
fat goose, and, above all, a large goose liver, without 
thinking of the inhumanity frequently resorted to in 
order to make the feeding of these poor animals a suc¬ 
cessful speculation.— New Far. Journal. 
Steeping Seeds. —In March last, some Pink-seeds were 
steeped in a solution of sulphate of ammonia, another 
parcel in nitrate of soda, and a third in a mixture of 
lime, salt, and hen’s-dung A quantity of Pink-seed was 
sown at the same time, in the usual way. The seeds in 
sulphate of ammonia grew very quickly , and are now 
the largest plants of this year’s" sowing. Those in ni¬ 
trate did no good, three only surviving ; and those in 
the mixture failed altogether. 
Longevity of a Horse. —A horse, the property of Mr. 
John Lambert, Thornton-in-Lonsdale, d-ied last week 
in the forty-second year of its age. It worked as 
usual until a day or two previous to its death. 
