2-3:0 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
Remedy Against Hydrophobia. — Dr. Bui'nes,on learn¬ 
ing that two tradesmen had been bitten by a mad dog, 
instantly cauterized, cupped, and excised the wounds; 
and had also recourse to the singular method of mak¬ 
ing the patients suck their wounds. This course the 
Doctor recommended ten years ago in the Lancet; and 
he says that no danger whatever is to be feared from it, 
if the mouth and lips are free from sores or chaps. 
Bones and Sulphuric Acid. —Mr. P. Davis says, with 
reference to Mr. Puse}’s -uggestion as to the propriety 
of using bone-dust dissolved in sulphuric acid, along 
with compost instead of water, for turnips, I can confirm 
this idea from practice, having last year manured five 
acres with only 13 bushels of bone-dust dissolved in 
270 lbs. of the acid and 150 gallons of water. After 
standing 24 hours, the liquid was mixed w r ith three 
cart-loads of coal ashes, and left to remain for a week ; 
during which time it was turned over two or three 
times. The mixture was then drilled along with the 
seed ; and the result was a fair crop of common tur¬ 
nips off a piece of poor land, without other manure, 
and at a cost of only 12s. 9d. per acre. 
Culture of Flax. —We learn from good authority that 
flax will be grown this year, more or less, in every 
county of England, and it is expected somewhat ex¬ 
tensively in Sussex. One gentleman will sow nine 
acres.— Brighton Gazette. 
Progress of Short-Horns. —The Great National Irish 
Agricu’tural Society appears to have adopted the plan 
so long followed by the Union Agricultural Society, of 
diffusing the Short-Horned breed over Ireland. At the 
recent annual meeting, sales to a great extent were 
made, in addition to the usual business of premi¬ 
ums, See. 
Double Eggs Joined by a Filament. —We have had sent 
us from Summerville two hen-eggs, the yolk and white 
perfect, but without any shell, and which are firmly 
joined together by a filament. A scientific friend has 
favored us with the following remarks upon them :— 
These eggs are very unusual productions; but I think 
their having been born together may be accounted for 
by the fact, that eggs are always formed in a long 
chain, and that only one is in general detached at a 
time, when its communication with the one above has 
been cut off by a complete deposit of phosphate, of 
lime round it. The hen, in this case has been about to 
cease laying, and has likely been badly supplied with 
lime or broken shells, without a large supply of which 
no hen can complete an egg, or be a good layer. In 
many eggs you will notice a swirled appearance of 
the shell at the ends, showing where the lime has been 
liberally supplied, or rather applied, to separate it from 
the eggs above or below it. I believe that the fowl 
has not had liberty enough to enable it to gratify its 
appetite for chalky substances, or this arrest in the 
development of these eggs would not have occurred. 
—Dumfries Courier. 
French Agriculture. —The Piesse publishes some ex¬ 
tracts from a work presented to the Agricultural Con¬ 
gress now sitting at the Palace, of the Luxemb< urg 
by the author, M. Catineau Laroche, and entitled, 
“ France and England compared with respect to Ag¬ 
ricultural, Manufacturing, and Commercial Industry, 
and the consequences to be deduced from this compa¬ 
rison.” It appears from this work, that Eqgland, in 
comparison with the extent of its surface, possesses 
four times more cattle than France. And as it is not 
possible to pursue a judicious system of agriculture 
without manure, and as the feeding of cattle is the 
must productive of supplying manure, it follows that 
before France can compete with England in agricul¬ 
tural wealth, she must incr ase her stock of cattle, 
but in order to do so she must increase her pasture lands 
or meadows “ France,” says M. Laroche, u possesses 
but 4,200,000 hectares of natural meadows, or only 
1-lGth of her cultivated soil. From this calculation it 
may be easily comprehended, how insufficient is her 
supply of green food, and that it becomes absolutely 
necessary that she should substitute another to the 
triennial system at present in use.” M. Laroche con¬ 
cludes by stating, that if the alternate system of culti¬ 
vation pursued in England was introduced into 
France, the produce of corn would be doubled within 
twenty years. Fifty-five years since, the produce of 
Great Britain was estimated by Arthur Young at three 
milliards. At present it is estimated at five milliards 
725 millions.”— New Farmers' Journal. 
Fibrous Covering Stimulates Vegetable Growth. —A 
light covering of straw , for instance, on grass land, will 
stimulate its growth in an extraordinary degree ; much 
more indeed, it would appear, than can be accounted 
for on the supposition that the ground is thus kept 
moist in dry weather. 
Average Rent of Land in England and Wales. —The 
average rent of land in England is said to be 18s. 10d., 
and that of Wales, -9s. 5d.; the average of England and 
Wales, 17s. 8d. The produce of wheat in England and 
Wales is probably under twenty-one bushels per acre. 
American Ice. —A novel article of import has recently 
taken place in the shape of ice from America, in the 
neighborhood of the Wenham Lake, &c. The article 
is brought in large blocks, varying from 2 cwt. to 4 
cwt., and several vessels have arrived laden almost 
entirely with it, having several hundred tons on board. 
It is deposited in the ship’s hold with care, and covered 
and surrounded with wood dust, and so arrives in a 
very perfect state, with very little loss in weight, par¬ 
ticularly at this period of the year. The greater por¬ 
tion of that hitherto imported has been landed at the 
St. Catherine docks, where a shed or warehouse has 
been appropriated in a cool portion of the south quay, 
and to which it is removed on being landed and depo¬ 
sited until removed to the owners’ private stores. 
Curious Hatching. —During the greatest heat of the 
summer of 1843, a chicken was hatched in my hen¬ 
house, from a nest-egg which had so long served the 
purpose that it was on the point of being removed, 
it was hatched by the hens which successively 
chanced to lay their eggs in the nest, aided by the un¬ 
usual and equable heat of the atmosphere. 
Endurance of Arabian Horses. —I was present at a race 
in Persia, and there was no question about the choice 
of the best turf, or taking precautions against accidents; 
neither was the race limited to a few minutes. The 
winning point was at the distance of seven farsangs — 
that is, ten or eleven leagues, or twenty-six or twenty- 
seven English miles, across a rocky country, without 
any indicated road. The winner arrived in an hour. 
When Sir John M’Neil was physician to the British 
embassy at Teheran, he went to visit one of his coun¬ 
trymen, who was ill, at Ispahan, and he assured me 
that he arrived in four days with his horses. The dis¬ 
tance is about 120 leagues. 
I w’as shown, in the stables of Feth-Ali-Shah, the 
Arabian horse on which that prince came from Shiraz 
to succeed his uncle. He traversed the distance in a 
much more extraordinary manner, if we may believe 
Malcolm, for it took him only seven days. This facul¬ 
ty of travelling for a long time without stopping, and 
their great abstemiousness, causes the horses of the 
province of Nejd to be particularly esteemed. 
The young Pole whom I met at Djedda, and who 
had travelled thither through that country on his way 
to Bussora, attributed these qualifications to the train¬ 
ing of the horses and the difficulty of procuring food 
for them. According to him they have to accustom 
themselves to brackish water, and to live on a species 
of thistle, the only plant met with in those deserts. 
None but animals of a strong constitution can endure 
this regimen.— Narrative of a Mission to India. 
