228 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the steamer Caledonia, we are in 
receipt of our foreign journals to June 4th. 
Markets. — Ashes were in limited request. Cotton 
firm. There were 780,500 bales on hand in Liverpool on 
the 1st of June, against 865,190 same period last year. 
Flour dull. Pork and Lard dull. Beef and Cheese of 
superior qualities much wanted. Naval Stores quiet. 
Bice in good demand. Tobacco steady. Wool a trifling 
decline. 
Money is again tight. 
The Weather has been very fine for the past month, 
and the crops were looking uncommonly well, promis¬ 
ing an early and abundant harvest. 
Last Year's Cotton Crop. —By the report of the 
Board of Trade, it is prove’d that, in 1845, 1,069,320 
cwt. of cotton were imported into Great Britain; 
during the present year, 1,019,738 cwts. The differ¬ 
ence in weight is thus reduced to a trifle less than 
50,009 cwts., or about 14,000 bales. In other words, 
the falling off in weight this year, as compared with 
last year, is under 4 per cent., but the falling off* in 
number of bags is above 30 per cent! The result is, 
that the manufacturers have little faith in the short¬ 
ness of the crop, and are of opinion that there is abun¬ 
dance of cotton in the country to meet any demand 
that is likely to arise. All idea of speculation, there¬ 
fore, in this article, based upon the shortness of the 
crop of last year, may be considered at an end. 
Fatal Flowers. —Recently in London, a young lady 
went to bed in good health, and was found the next 
morning dead ! The physicians who were called in, 
declared that the sole cause of this catastrophe was the 
poisoning of the air by the exhalations of a quantity 
of lilies found in two large vases on a low table in the 
room. Roses, tuberoses, jasmines, and, in fact, most 
flowers, may, in the same way, produce effects, if not 
mortal, at least very injurious. Their influence acts 
most powerfully on nervous persons. 
A New Fuchsia. —At a late meeting of the London 
Horticultural Society, the report states, that of new 
plants, perhaps that which excited the most interest 
was a fuchsia, from Messrs. Yeitch & Son, of Exeter, 
which had been discovered by Mr. W. Lobb, near 
Lima, in Peru, for which was awarded a large silver 
medal. It proves to be a curious and rather handsome 
species, entirely new to gardens, producing an abun¬ 
dance of long rosy pink tubes, of about four inches 
in length. It is entirely destitute of petals, and there¬ 
fore the beauty of the flower is confined to the calyx 
Alone. 
Honor to the Introducer of Madder into France. —The 
city of Avignon has erected a statue to John Althen, 
a Persian, who, a century ago, first introduced madder 
into France. It now yields the nation about twenty- 
five millions of francs per annum. 
Watering out of Doors. —Some persons are for morn¬ 
ing watering, arid others for evening; all, however, 
will agree in the propriety or even necessity of a 
timely application of this most important element. 
For my own part, I like the morning as a general 
rule; more especially for such things as have been 
recently planted out, such as bedded plants in the 
flower garden, and young vegetables transplanted from 
the seed-beds in the kitchen garden. To saturate the 
soil in such cases is, in my opinion, highly improper, 
as leading to a considerable waste of the accumulated 
ground heat, and also as tending to exclude the genial 
influence of the atmosphere. With regard to young 
stock of this kind, frequent sprinklings are all that is 
required ; in fact, a kind of cutting treatment, chiefly 
(n order to prevent undue perspiration in the leaf. If 
this waste is prevented through the day by early morn¬ 
ing watering, the plants may safely be left to the dews 
during the night Fine-rosed pots should at all times 
be used, and light sprinklings repeated will prevent 
the soil from becoming puddled.— Gard. Chron. 
Manures. —Don’t add lime to soot; it ruins it. 
Add soot to chamber ley, and you will do well, but not 
lime.— Ibid. 
Drying Plants. —In drying plants for a herbarium, 
care must be taken not to press them so much as to 
crush them. Succulents, and kinds that drop their 
leaves, such as heaths, should be dipped in hot watei 
before they are pressed. Each specimen should be 
placed between a sheet of brown paper, and between 
each filled sheet several empty ones should be placed; 
for the first day or two the pressure should be only 
just sufficient to prevent the leaves and flowers from 
shrivelling. When the papers are damp, the plants 
should be shifted to dry ones, increasing the pressure 
after every change till the specimens are perfectly dry- 
— Ibid. 
Dissolving Bones in Sulphuric Acid for the Pwposes 
of Manure. —On the publication of the first experi¬ 
ments by the Duke of Richmond, Mr. Geddes, Dr. 
Monson, and Mr. M‘William, in the Journal of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, and by Mr. Hannam, in 
his Prize Report on Special Effects of Manures to 
the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, Mr 
Pusey expressed his opinion that they afforded “ good 
hope” that the discovery would enable us to realizq 
the most important saving ever yet held out in the 
use of manure. For this opinion, treason as it was to 
the existing order of affairs, Mr. Pusey could not hope 
to escape the ridicule and the indignation of the pre¬ 
judiced and the interested. The theory of Liebig was 
declared to be “ far-fetched and unworthy of credit,” 
and the experiments “ evidently unfair;” and thus di¬ 
vested alike of theoretical and practical evidence, his 
suggestion was freely offered to be “ taken for what it 
was worth— 
‘ A pin, a nut, a cherry-stone.’ ” 
Mr. Pusey, however, afterwards laid before the 
Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, some ex¬ 
tracts from Mr. Hannam’s unpublished Essay on the 
Theory of the Action of Bones on the Turnip Crop, 
having reference to what he termed the “ great disco¬ 
very of the economical employment of dissolved 
bonesand stated that it contained, in his opinion, 
“ not only a detailed account of the best experiment 
ever made in agriculture, but some points of so much 
importance, that he felt anxious that not a moment 
should be lost in communicating the facts to the mem¬ 
bers.” And this is the mode in which his cause was 
then spoken of:—“ The day of Chartist regeneration, 
of Johanna Southcote, of flying machines, of South 
Sea schemes, nay of Caesarian Cow Cabbage, is gone, 
and the lion of 1845 is ‘ bones dissolved in acid/ 
Every season has its lions. The world of politics, of 
religion, of science, of speculation, and even of poor 
agriculture, has now and then bubbles cast upon its 
surface—so varied, so resplendent with glittering em¬ 
bellishments, that the eager hand grasps the bubble, 
and it bursts and dissipates in nothing but ‘ thin air.' ” 
And then came the application of the figurative ima¬ 
gery of the oracle—the practical morale of the 
prophecy—“ Will any one be found who will risk 
a crop upon the evidence V* In Jess than twelve 
months from the issuing of this oracular denunciation, 
we find the theory which was to “ dissolve and dissi- 
ate into thin air,” recognized as a thing clearly esta- 
lished—supported by the evidence of scores of crops 
risked in its trial, and recorded in every agricultural 
periodical in the kingdom. This result, we say, is 
agreeable to us, and to every lover of true progress, 
not merely because of its practical usefulness, but also 
because it thoroughly justifies those who have labored 
through such difficulties, in the search of what has now 
proved a scientific and practical truth.— Lond.Ag. Gas. 
