FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
187 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the steamship Britannia, we are in 
receipt of our European journals to the 4th of May. 
Markets.' — Ashes have fallen a trifle aqd are dull of 
sale. Cotton. The downward tendency of this article 
seems to have been checked, and the sales were exten¬ 
sive with a firmer feeling. The stock on hand at Liv¬ 
erpool on the 1st of May, was 656,000 bales, against 
780,000 at the same period last season. Flour was 
quite depressed, but it was thought prices had reached 
their lowest notch. Cheese, there is so small a stock 
on hand, that prices are merely nominal. Be/has 
improved a shade, a large stock on hand. Pork, with¬ 
out change. Hams, dull. Lard, in moderate request. 
Lard-Oil, none on hand, prices therefore nominal—it 
would sell well now if in market. Tallow, firm, Rice, 
steady. Tar, the same. Turpentine, on the advance. 
Tobacco is increasing in demand, and prices firmer. 
Money continues abundant as ever. 
American Stocks, scarce any transactions—prices 
merely nominal. 
Business generally good and on the increase. 
The Weather had been very mild through April, and 
prospect of a good harvest not only in England but on 
the continent. 
The Duty on Vinegar is abolished, and we should 
suppose now that it could be exported at a profit. 
The Duty on Wool is also taken off, thus giving us a 
chance in the British market, as soon as we can grow 
wool cheap enough for exportation; which we think 
will ere long be done on our broad prairies. 
The following summary is made up principally from 
the Edinburgh Quar. Jour, of Ag., Royal Ag. Jour., 
Far. Mag., New Far. Jour., British Far. Mag., Far. 
Herald, Lindley’s Gar. Chron., and Veterinarian. 
Importations of Cheese. —During the year ending Jan¬ 
uary 5th, 179,389 cwt. of cheese were imported into 
Great Britain, of which 48,312 cwt. were from the 
United States. 
Durham Bulls in France. —Nine of these fine an¬ 
imals have been sold at the Veterinary school of Alford, 
the highest price paid was 3000/. ($600.) 
Large Covk —A cow was lately killed in Durham, 
whose gross weight was 2,156 lbs. 
Three Calves. —A cow at Stoke Prior, recently drop¬ 
ped three calves at one birth ; one black, another red, 
and the third grizzle. They are all alive and doing well. 
Incendiarism. —It is painful to notice that there is no 
cessation among the peasantry, in firing the stacks of 
wheat and other grain in different parts of England. 
Death by a Boar. —A Mr. Fisher was recently killed 
at Upton, by having his thigh badly bitten by a boar. 
It is supposed the enraged animal cut the femoral ar¬ 
tery with his tusks, as Mr. F. bled to death in a few 
minutes. 
Agricultural Colleges. —We see that it is contempla¬ 
ted establishing several of these institutions, in differ¬ 
ent parts of Great Britain. 
Ripe Peaches were produced at Eatington Park, 
Warwickshire, on the 7th of April. Mr. Hutchinson, 
the gardener, thinks he shall be able to produce them 
another year in March. He grew them in the pinery, 
from a border 6 feet wide and 18 inches deep, filled up 
with pasture-loam of medium strength, put in as rough 
as possible. He says, to make peach-borders wide and 
deep, and to fill up with rich manures, is a waste of 
money. He much prefers syringing to smoking to keep 
his trees clean. 
African Guano.— The best of this comes from the 
island of Ichaboe. 
Syrian Fruits. —John Barker, Esq., lately H. M.’s 
consul at Aleppo, after a residence of more than 40 
years in the east, has returned to this country with 
trees of many new and valuable fruits. Among them 
are several peaches, nectarines, and apricots with sweet 
kernels. These, when grown in Syria side by side with 
the finest of the varieties known in Europe, are said to 
have proved as superior to the latter as they are to the 
worst sorts of which we have any knowledge. Mr. 
Barker also possesses a white-mulberry from Armenia, 
so sweet that its fruit is dried like raisins, and so juicy 
that when pressed it produces the syrup in which the 
delicious butter of Armenia is brought to Aleppo. We 
shall watch with great interest the period when these 
fruit-trees yield their first crop in this country. 
Bees. —A hive which was opened by Swammerdam, 
was found to contain one queen bee, 33 males or drones, 
5,635 working-bees, 45 eggs, and 150 worms. Total 
population, 5,864; for whose accommodation there were 
3,392 wax cells for the use of the working-bees, 62 
cells containing bees* bread, and 236 cells in which 
honey had been deposited; in all 3,620 cells. From 
this observation it may be presumed the hives contain 
from 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants, among which there is 
only one female, viz., the queen bee, and from 3,000 to 
4,000 cells. 
Glass Milk-Pans. —Milk set in these produces a 
better quality of butter than any other. Those used 
are made of the common green bottle-glass. 
To Preserve Turneps from the Fly. —A day or two 
before sowing, put the seed into a sieve and tub of 
clean water, and rub it quite clean through the sieve, 
changing the water once or twice; dry it in the sun 
under a wall or glass, or before a fire. A little flour 
of brimstone may be mixed with the seed while still 
damp. If the egg of the turnep-flea is committed to the 
soil with the seed, this is an effectual preventive. 
Tussac-Grass. —All the seed of this valuable grass 
sent to England from the Falkland Islands, has failed 
to vegetate, and in consequence of this it is contempla¬ 
ted importing tufts of the grass with roots for propaga¬ 
tion. 
Destruction of Insects. —Mr. Read of Regent Circus, 
Piccadilly, had leave given him to submit to the inspec¬ 
tion of the council his garden-syringes for throwing 
currents of aqueous vapor or narcotic fumes over 
the surfaces of trees and plants infested with noxious 
insects, without the slightest injury to their bloom or 
foliage. By an ingenious arrangement of the nozzles 
of the syringes, the currents could be directed to any 
given point without inconvenience to the operator; and 
water being introduced into the syringe in its liquid 
state, passed out through the nozzle as vapor or mist, 
settling on the plants as the gentle dew. 
Sources of Ammonia. —According to Dr. Ure, in the 
year 1838 the quantity of coal distilled in London alone 
amounted to 180,000 tons, containing at 1 per cent. 
4, 032,000 lbs. of nitrogen, equivalent to 4,896,000 lbs. 
of ammonia!—the produce of a single city in one 
year. 
Again, it is a supposition, certainly within the mark, 
that every person, one with another, gives rise to 1 lb. 
of urine every day, containing, according to the esti¬ 
mate of Berzelius, about 210 grains of urea. Taking 
the present population of London at two millions, this 
gives 60,000 lbs. of urea daily, or 21,900,000 lbs. year¬ 
ly of this valuable substance thrown away —a quan¬ 
tity capable of producing by its decomposition 12,410,000 
lbs. of ammonia. Could one fourth of this ammonia be 
converted into flour, it would produce the astonishing 
quantity of 159,687,500 lbs. 
