36 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the steam-ship Acadia, we are in receipt of our 
foreign journals to December 4th. 
Markets. — Ashes were in limited demand. Cotton 
much depressed, and a further reduction of *d, per lb, 
has taken place. The stock on hand at Liverpool on the 
1st Dec. was 926,000 bales, against 786,000 same time 
last year. It is within id. as low now as it was ever 
known. Flour has undergone a decided decline. Beef,\ 
little alteration. Pork , dull. Cheese , a slight decline, 
but a good demand. Naval Stores. The sales in these 
were large, and at good prices. Rice and Tallow , no¬ 
thing particularly worthy of notice. Tobacco lirm 
with an upward tendency. Wool did not go off well 
at the late sale, most of it being put up in a very slo¬ 
venly and imperfect manner. We must pay more 
attention to this matter if we wish to command fair 
prices in the British market. 
Money was in good demand, and a further advance 
of the rate of interest is anticipated. From 3 to 5 
per cent, was asked. 
Trade in the manufacturing districts was dull, and 
undergoing curtailment. 
Failure of the Potato Crop. —The accounts of the 
failure of this crop are so fluctuating that we can hard¬ 
ly give an opinion respecting it. There is no doubt, 
however, that the loss has been grossly and wickedly 
exaggerated, for the purpose of aiding speculators. We 
may say the same of wheat and other products. 
Emigration to the United States. —Great preparations 
are making in Germany and Switzerland to emigrate 
to America the coming season. Food is scarce and 
high there; besides,the people being much persecuted 
for their religious opinions, desire to live where they 
can choose their own road to Heaven, and have plenty 
to eat while travelling thither. 
Professor Liebig's Opinion on the Potato Disease. —The 
researches 1 have undertaken upon the sound and dis¬ 
eased potatoes of the present year have disclosed to me 
the remarkable fact, that they contain in ‘the sap a 
considerable quantity of vegetable casein (cheese) 
precipitable by acids. This constituent 1 did not ob¬ 
serve in my previous researches. It would thus appear 
that, from the influence of the weather, or generally 
speaking, from atmospheric causes, a part of the vege¬ 
table albumen which prevails in the potato has become 
converted into vegetable casein. The great instability 
of this last substance is well known, hence the facility 
with which the potato containing it undergoes putre¬ 
faction. Any injury to health from the use of these 
potatoes is out of the question, and nowhere in Ger¬ 
many has such an effect been observed. In the dis¬ 
eased potato no solanin can be discovered. It may be 
of some use to call attention to the fact that diseased 
potatoes may easily, and at very little expense, be kept 
for a length of time, and afterwards employed in vari¬ 
ous ways, by cutting them into slices, of about a quar¬ 
ter of an inch thick, and immersing them in water, 
containing from two to three per cent, of sulphuric 
acid. After twenty-four or thirty-six hours, the ac.id 
liquor may be drawn off, and all remains of it washed 
away by steeping in successive portions of freshwater. 
Treated in this manner, the potatoes are easily dried. 
The pieces are white and of little weight, and can be 
round to flour and baked into bread along with the 
our of wheat. I think it probable that the diseased 
potatoes, after being sliced and kept for some time in 
contact with weak sulphuric acid, so as to be pene¬ 
trated by the acid, may be preserved in that state in 
pits. But further experiments are necessary to deter¬ 
mine this. It is certain, however, that dilute sulphuric 
acid stops the progress of putrefaction. 
Protection of Tender Roses. —One of the best plans 
consists in pegging the shoots close to the ground, after 
the bloom is destroyed in the autumn, and afterwards 
covering them with spruce branches, fern, or any dry 
litter that may be at hand. This is laid on very thinly, 
barely sufficient to hide the branches, and yet, although 
we had the thermometer at zero last winter, I did not 
lose a single plant, not even among the Fairy Roses, 
which many of the rose growers experience great diffi¬ 
culty in preserving in well-protected pits and frames. 
My roses are planted in an exposed situation, on a 
rather retentive soil, so they have no local advantages. 
They have been in excellent bloom from the middle of 
May up to the end of October; and really I do not 
know a more interesting appendage to a garden than a 
few beds of these perpetual blooming favorites.— Gar. 
Chron. 
Keeping Fruit. —Numerous inquiries having, from 
time to time, been made relative to the best methods 
of preserving apples and pears during winter, I will 
mention one or two particulars necessary in the storing 
of these, and the kind of house best adapted for secur¬ 
ing a prolonged supply. The house, in the first place, 
should be ventilated in the ceiling, as from the moment 
of storing until the apple is absolutely decayed, an or¬ 
ganic transposition of its parts is constantly going on; 
therefore it is important to allow the confined air of 
the room, which becomes highly impregnated with the 
effluvia, to pass off. Any animal or vegetable substance 
in a sound state is more liable to become diseased 
when placed in an atmosphere impregnated with 
effluvia; but again, on the other hand, it is well 
known that apples and pears shrivel and lose their fla¬ 
vor when exposed, particularly in spring, to a free, 
admission of external air. This may be attributed not 
so much to the mere admission of air, as to the increased 
temperature which the air in spring has attained. The 
increased heat of the atmosphere then dries up the 
juices of the apple and destroys its flavor; in fact, 
fruit so exposed becomes tasteless and tough. Now it 
appears to me quite necessary to admit air or rather to 
allow the impure air to pass off quietly at the ceiling 
without creating a complete current in the house, and 
to exclude the admission of external air at the doors 
and window’s as much as possible, to keep dowm the 
temperature of the room, for on this a great deal de¬ 
pends. Could the same kind of temperature be main¬ 
tained in spring as during winter, there can be no doubt 
that fruit wmuld keep much better, and be better 
flavored. When pears are just arriving at perfection, 
they may be greatly improved in flavor by being placed 
in a warm room for a few days before they are eaten. 
The increased temperature promotes more rapidly and 
perfectly the transposition of the juices into the sac¬ 
charine state. 
Air Churn. —The Bishop of Derry has invented an 
atmospheric churn. Instead of the present unscienti¬ 
fic mode of making butter by churning, his lordship 
accomplishes this measure by the simpler manner 
of forcing a full current of atmospheric air through the 
cream by means of an exceedingly w’ell-devised foic- 
ingpump. The air passes through a glass tube con¬ 
nected wflth the air-pump, descending nearly to the 
bottom of the churn. The churn is of tin, and fits in¬ 
to another tin cylinder, provided with a funnel and 
stop-cock, so as to heat the cream to the necessary 
temperature. The pump is w’orked by means of a 
winch, w’hich is not so laborious as the usual churn. 
Independently of the happy application of science to 
this important department of domestic economy, in a 
practical point of view' it is extremely valuable. The 
milk is not moved by a dasher, as in the common 
churn; but the oxygen of the atmosphere is brought 
into close contact with the cream, so as to effect a full 
combination of the butyracious part, and to convert it 
all into butter. On.one occasion the churning was car¬ 
ried on for the space of 1 hour and 45 minutes, and II 
gallons of cream produced 26 lbs, of butter.— Globe* 
