374 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. —EDITOR’S TABLE. 
Iy prized. One of the pullets has laid upward of 50 I 
eggs in less than eight weeks. The cock chickens, 
although not more than a feW months old, now meas¬ 
ure in height 23 inches from the claws to the beak, not¬ 
withstanding they are but little more than half-grown. 
Of Java milk-white silver bantams, that extremely 
rare fowl in England, so difficult even to preserve in 
this country, there are 12 couples. Until now it has 
never been considered possible, although numerous at¬ 
tempts have been made, to rear this singular and del¬ 
icate description of bird in our generally cold and va¬ 
riable climate; Mr. Walters, however, who has the 
whole superintendence of the aviary, has fortunately 
succeeded in rearing eight birds out of a hatching of 
ten. They are now three months old, and perfectly 
healthy. Five Scotch fowls, peculiar to only some 
portions of the highlands in the north of Scotland, are 
among the collection. They are fully feathered 
down the legs to the very nails of their feet, and in 
general appearance somewhat resemble the ptarmigan, 
or red grouse. The cock-bird which is beautifully 
marked, is a perfect picture. Among the other de¬ 
scriptions of rare birds at the aviary are two liens and 
a cock of Sir John Sebright’s pheasantlike breed, sever¬ 
al clear-white bantams, eight real black Spanish birds, 
and other fowls of a similarly choice and valuable 
character. The spacious pigeon-house, which rises 
from out of the centre of the aviary, forming a pictur¬ 
esque object when viewed from the home-park, con¬ 
tains a vast number of pigeons of nearly every known 
breed, among which may be enumerated pouters, 
bald-heads, tumblers, Spanish runts, nuns, and carriers. 
The whole of these birds (not excepting the carrier- 
pigeons) have been trained to become so exceedingly 
tame, that upon visiting the aviary they will hover 
around the head, perch upon the arms, and feed out 
of the hands of their possessor. 
Rapid Vegetation. —The National states that an extra¬ 
ordinary specimen of rapid vegetation may be seen in 
one of the hot-houses of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 
An offshoot of bamboo cane has within the last ten 
months grown ten yards high, which is more than 5 
inches each day. It may, in fact, he seen to grow, 
since its march of ascension is as rapid as the move¬ 
ment of the large hand of a drawing-room clock. 
Gardener’s Chronicle. — Enormous Egg. —An egg 
was this week laid by a goose at a farm in Quermore, 
near Lancaster, whose weight was 10 ounces, its cir¬ 
cumference longitudinally was 10| inches, and it meas¬ 
ured 8| inches round. 
Large Onions. —An average sample of 15 onions, 
which weighed upward of 10 pounds, was grown on 
a small croft in the fertile village of Longton, near 
Preston, which had been sown with 5 lbs. of seed 
from the same ground. It is supposed more than as 
many tons have been gathered. 
Propagation. —Perhaps there may be no harm in 
stating the fact, although it may he known to some of 
your readers already, that young plants may he prop¬ 
agated by means of birds’-nests. Roses and other 
kinds of bushes will sometimes put forth roots into the 
old moist nests of the wren and hedge-sparrow. 
Enormous Mushroom. —A mushroom of the species 
Cow Boletus (Boletus Bovinus) has this week been 
got on the farm of Mr. Thomas Beesley, Higher Bartle 
Wood, Plumpton, which measured 43 inches in circum¬ 
ference, and weighed the extraordinary weight of 5 lbs. 
Prolific Hive of Bees. —Mr. Anthony Balderston, of 
Barnfield, Mervith, has a hive of bees that swarmed 
twice in May; the plumb swarm of which swarmed 
twice in July. From one swarm (including the old 
one) he has at the present time five flourishing hives. 
JSftftoi-’s Gallic. 
COPYING ARTICLES WITHOUT CREDIT. 
The Boston Cultivator, of 25th November, copies 
two articles from us without credit. The Tennessee 
Agriculturist copies an article in its November number, 
and during the past year several others; one of con¬ 
siderable length, which it says was written (( by our 
friend 11. L. Allen.” This is not proper, it should 
credit it to the American Agriculturist. The Ameri¬ 
can Farmer took a “ Receipt for Curing Hams” some 
time since from us, which was afterward copied half 
over the Union, giving it (the American Farmer) 
credit; and in its number of the 29th November, it 
copies a column and a half of our Foreign Agricultural 
News without credit. Now these are small samples, 
which happen to be at hand this moment, and that 
weekly and monthly occur among our contemporaries; 
they also condense articles repeatedly from us, with¬ 
out giving credit to the source whence they draw 
them. We never do this intentionally, as will be seen 
by reference to our department of Foreign Agricultural 
News, also to the article Agricultural Shows, which 
appeared in our last number. It is our intention to 
he scrupulously exact in giving credit for everything, 
according to the strictest usage. We know the ed- 
itorps of the above papers intend to credit, but we 
certainly suffer, through some one’s carelessness, and 
we think it can not be objected to, if we hereafter point 
out these omissions, and claim the credit which is 
justly due us. 
We have been plundered of our Foreign News de¬ 
partment without mercy, and on this point we feel a 
little sore ; for we pay a large subscription annually for 
foreign journals, as they will rarely exchange; and to 
make up this department, it usually costs us ten times 
the labor that it does to write an equal amount of ed¬ 
itorial matter. If any one has any doubts on this sub¬ 
ject, let him, upon the arrival of a steamship, be in 
the receipt of 1000 to 1500 pages or so, of foreign 
journals, and set down to extract and express all the 
substance of these which he may think interesting or 
instructive to his readers, aud he will then find out 
that it is pretty hard work; especially, if after being 
actively engaged in some business all day, he is obliged 
to rob himself of his regular hours of sleep in order to 
accomplish his task by a given time. This we do every 
month; and in consequence of several of our contem¬ 
poraries continuing to copy these items, after repeated 
warning of the injustice they were doing us, we struck 
them from our exchange list. Since the above was 
written, we have received the Boston Cultivator of 2d 
inst., and Traveller of same date, both of which copy 
the “ Receipt for Curing Hams,” and give us credit. 
Very well, gentlemen, that will do. Will the Travel¬ 
ler now correct the misstatement it made of our opin¬ 
ions upon Ayrshires ? We have sent it a marked no¬ 
tice three times, and yet it has paid no attention to it 
to our knowledge. 
The Vegetable Kingdom ; or Hand-Book of Plants 
and Fruits, by L. D, Chapin; with 140 Illustrations, 
a copious Glossary, &c., comprising part I. and II.; 
New York, James Lott, 156 Fulton street. This is a 
very pretty volume, comprising in both parts upward 
of 400 pages, handsomely illustrated. Mr. Chapin has 
devoted several years to fit himself for writing this 
work, and we have no doubt he has produced an ex¬ 
cellent hook, and one worthy the attention of the stu 
dent of the vegetable creation. Price $1,00, which, 
we consider extremely cheap. For sale by Saxton & 
Miles. 
