124 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the steamship Caledonia, we are 
in receipt of our European journals to the 5th March. 
Markets. — Ashes are steady, but little doing in 
them, holders anticipating an advance. Cotton, es¬ 
pecially of the low and middling grades, has fallen § d. 
per lb., and a very moderate business has been done in it; 
the spinners confining themselves to purchases for their 
immediate wants, only, the past month. The import into 
Liverpool, since the 1st January last, has been 200,000 
bales, against 207,000 at the same period last season. 
The stock on hand is estimated at 628,000 bales, 
against 444,000 same time last year; the stock of 
American is an increase of 175,000 bales. Flour and 
Wheat were rather more in demand, and at a slight ad¬ 
vance of prices. Beef, Pork, and Hams, in good re¬ 
quest, with an upward tendency; an extensive trade in 
these articles is anticipated. Lard is much depressed, 
and smaller shipments advised. Cheese of the finer sorts, 
a light stock, and many inquirers. Oil-Cake has a 
downward look. Naval Stores in fair demand. Bice, 
no change. Tallow and Tobacco more active, and larger 
sales than were anticipated at this season. 
Money as abundant as usual, the bullion in the Bank 
of England still on the increase, being nearly £15,000,- 
€00 (about $72,000,000.) 
American Stocks merely nominal, and little done in 
them the past month, except by speculators. 
Business generally is increasingly active, and all 
branches of trade are well employed; there seems to 
be no doubt that the present will be a prosperous year. 
The Annual Show of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England, will be held at Southampton on the 24th, 
25th, and 26th of July next. 
Beef for the English Market. —Not a circular do we 
receive, that does not emphatically point out the neces¬ 
sity of packing beef for the English market cut from 
HEAVY, WELL-FED CATTLE of an IMPROVED BREED and 
as nearly as possible into 8 lb. pieces. Our stock-raisers 
would gain immensely if they would pay proper atten¬ 
tion to these facts. 
Increase of Stock of American Cotton. —By our late 
monthly cotton circular from Liverpool, we notice that 
the quantity of American cotton on hand, has increased 
175,000 bales this year, over that of any previous cor¬ 
responding season. This is a very important fact, and 
should be immediately made known to our planters; for 
if such an increase has taken place principally from 
the large crop of ’42, notwithstanding the greatly di¬ 
minished one of ’43, the south should be careful to con¬ 
tinue the system of supplying itself from its own re¬ 
sources, and put its surplus labor only into cotton and 
the other staple products usually exported. 
Mr. Caiman’s Tour. —In a letter by the Caledonia, 
to his publisher in Boston, Mr. Arthur D. Phelps, Mr. 
Colman says, that an edition of his Agricultural Tour 
being desired in England, he put the MSS. for his first 
number into his publisher’s hands there on the 1st Feb. 
last, but that he has greatly disappointed him, and kept 
putting it by for other work. He is now promised his 
first number on the 16th of March, when it will be im¬ 
mediately sent to Boston. Mr. Phelps writes us, if re¬ 
ceived at this time, it will be issued by him on the 6th 
of May. We quote the following from Mr. Colman’s 
letter, « By the time my first number is out, my sec¬ 
ond will probably be ready for the press; and if my 
health is spared, I have confident hopes of getting four 
numbers out by the 1st of June. But I am sadly dis¬ 
appointed by my printer. I trust that my friends will 
wait patiently a few weeks longer, and they will then 
see that I have not been an idle traveller, or forgetful 
of their interests.” 
Proposed Agricultural Colleges. —The establishment 
of Agricultural Colleges and Example Farms in differ¬ 
ent districts of the kingdom is now engaging the atten¬ 
tion of some of the leading agricultural bodies. It is 
proposed that in these colleges, or agricultural semina¬ 
ries, young men intended for agricultural pursuits 
shall pursue a course of study combined with practical 
illustrations of the science and practice of agriculture, 
so as to fit them for obtaining situations in the service 
of landed proprietors as stewards, or for carrying out 
at home correct principles of husbandry and farming. 
It is intended that the in-door establishment shall con¬ 
sist of a head and second master, who shall instruct 
the pupils in the elements of education, together with 
land-surveying, the use of the water-level, the theod¬ 
olite and chain, and everything applicable to agricul¬ 
tural pursuits. With a view of rendering them practi¬ 
cal farmers, every pupil is to be made a plowman, 
and to be taught not only how to use the plow, but 
how to settle the irons for every soil, and all kinds of 
work. Their attention is also to be turned to stock of 
all descriptions, and to the making and repairing of 
fences. Lectures are to be delivered by head-farmers 
on the practice of agriculture, explaining the reasons 
for adopting any particular crop or rotation of crops ; 
also, on the breeding, feeding, and proper management 
of stock, the drainage, reclamation, and improvement 
of land, and the invention and proper application of 
agricultural implements. 
To make Ewes own their Lambs. —Sprinkle a little 
fine salt over the disowned lambs, this will usually at¬ 
tract the mothers, and when once the operation of 
licking has been performed there is seldom any danger 
of desertion. 
Domestic Yeast. —Boil one lb. of good flour, J lb. ol 
brown sugar, and a little salt in two gallons of water 
for an hour. When milk-warm, bottle it and cork it 
close, and it will be fit for use in 24 hours. 
Condensation of Carbonic Acid by Charcoal .—The 
cells of wood-charcoal have a diameter of about 
one twenty-four-hundredth of an inch, and if a cubic 
inch consisted entirely of cells, their united surface 
would amount to 100 square feet. By experiment it 
can be shown that the cells constitute five eighths of 
the whole cubic contents of the charcoal; and allowing 
for the space occupied by the charcoal, the actual sur¬ 
face of the cells will be about 73 square feet. When 
charcoal is plunged into carbonic-acid gas, it absorbs 
into its cells no less than 56 times their cubic contents 
at the ordinary temperature and pressure, and conse¬ 
quently the gas is condensed to 56 atmospheres. But 
according to the experiments of Addami, carbonic-acid 
liquefies under a pressure of 36.7 atmospheres, and we 
are hence compelled to conclude that above one third 
of the carbonic acid which is condensed on the walls 
of the cells is in the liquid state. 
Value of different kinds of Wheat. —Sir G. S. Mac¬ 
kenzie states ; that he found upon analyzing eight va¬ 
rieties of wheat, they yielded an amount of gluten 
varying from 10, 19, to 21 per cent, of gluten. Now 
the value of wheat flour depends mainly upon the 
amount of gluten contained in it; and yet, owing to 
purchasers not being able to detect this by the eye, 
that which has the least gluten in it, and is consequent¬ 
ly least valuable, frequently brings the highest price. 
Analytical experiments by others have shown that the 
amount of gluten varied from 11 to 35 per cent. The 
wheat producing only 11 per cent, of gluten was ma¬ 
nured with cow-dung, while that giving 35 per cent, 
was manured with human urine. 
