FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
315 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS* 
By the steam-ship Britannia, we are favored with our 
European journals to the 4th of September. 
Markets. — Ashes remained without change the 
transactions fair. Cotton had fallen from |d. to fd. on 
upland, and |d. on Sea Island—sales heavy and languid. 
Stock on hand at Liverpool on the 1st of August, 
936,000 hales. Flour and Grain extremely dull and 
declining in price—the importers will be heavy losers. 
Provisions . Beef, Pork, and Lard, had improved, and 
were brisk of sale—but a small quantity of either of 
these articles on hand, and a steady market for them 
was anticipated. Naval Stores without change. Rice 
the same. Tobacco languid when the packet left, 
though the transactions through August had been unu¬ 
sually large. k 
Money more in demand, and first class bills quoted 
from 2 to 2§ per cent. 
American Stocks without change, and transactions 
unimportant. 
Trade continued steady, and all branches of manu¬ 
factures were in full employment. 
The Weather was highly favorable for the harvest, 
which was going on briskly throughout the country. 
Tobacco Trade .—An alteration in the excise of this 
article is anticipated. 
Prolific Cow. —Mr. George Nicholls, of Thornton, 
near Pocklington, has now in his possession a cow that 
has produced twins three times. One of the offspring 
of this animal has also had twins once. Out of the 
eight calves six of them are heifers, and they are all 
exceedingly promising. 
Hiveless Bees. —We find the following curious obser¬ 
vations on hiveless bees in Capt. Widrington’s Spain 
and the Spaniards in 1843: “Bees abound in this dis¬ 
trict, and increase to such an extent that they return an 
enormous profit to those who take the trouble of look¬ 
ing after them. The common hive is the hollow stem 
of the cork-tree, which is cut in lengths and is perhaps 
the best material in the world for the purpose; next to 
it is the common straw one used in England ; both these 
substances have the same valuable quality of being 
non-conductors of heat and cold. They had never 
heard of such a thing, much less practised it, as killing 
bees, and were surprised when I mentioned such a 
custom. I ascertained a very curious fact in their 
economy that is well worth attending to. The Canon 
Cepero, so well known in the first Cortes, being shut 
up in the convent of the Cartuxa at Seville by order of 
King Fedinand, by way of passing the time, applied 
himself to study the economy of bees, which he had fol¬ 
lowed up atCazalla, and was so successful in his man¬ 
agement that in a very short time he had a thousand 
hives! When the civil war commenced, circumstances 
caused their being neglected and dispersed, and some 
swarms, finding no holes or cavities to suit them, at¬ 
tached themselves to a beam in an out-house, where 
they made their combs in a similar manner to that by 
which the tree wasps suspend their curious fabric from 
the branches. They were so well satisfied with this 
novel situation that they never left it nor swarmed, but 
kept adding successive combs, until they nearly reached 
the ground, and hung from the point of suspension like 
a huge living and waxen stalactite. The owner never 
disturbed them, but had the lower combs cut off as they 
were wanted, and the colony had now remained for a 
considerable period, without their showing the least 
disposition to change it. This is certainly rather im¬ 
portant information for the managers of apiaries, and 
may serve to confirm the statements lately published on 
the practicability of inducing the insect to work down¬ 
ward. 35 
Saving Flower Seed. —Instead of saving seed from 
any blooms that may chance to remain on, it should he 
saved from the best well formed early flowers. The 
proper way is to mark good flowers as soon as they can 
be found, and let their seeds ripen well before they are 
gathered. Let them be from good double flowers. 
When the seed is rubbed out, only the few outside rows 
of seed should be used; those Which come from the 
centre or disk, will almost always come high. There 
are no means so effectual as making the best early 
blooms of the best varieties, and relying on those pods 
of seed only.— Gardener and Practical Florist. 
Strawberry. — A very fine strawberry, measuring 
eight inches and three quarters in circumference, was 
plucked from the garden of Mr. John Saxelby, of 
Castle Bonington, during the past week. 
Benefit of Soot and Saw Dust.— About a month since 
three chimney sweeps sold sixty bushels of soot to a 
neighboring farmer for 25s., each party being very well 
satisfied with the bargain. Some days after, it was dis¬ 
covered that the gentlemen of the black robe had adul¬ 
terated the soot with three sacks of very dry saw dust. 
The farmer, however, is convinced that his crop of 
turneps is greatly improved by the saw dust, as it mate¬ 
rially contributed to the passing the manure through the 
drill; and the vegetation of the seed looks most propi¬ 
tious, and promises to prove, with hone dust, guano, 
gypsum, and other experiments, a valuable trial of the 
virtues of the chimney and saw pit.— New Farmers 3 
Journal. 
Peruvian Sheep. —The captain of the Leo, at present 
discharging a cargo of guano at the Quay, brought 
over with him a very fine specimen of Peruvian sheep. 
It is a remarkably Active looking animal, and bore the 
rigors of the eight months 3 voyage with amazing hard¬ 
ihood, its food being chiefly bread and peas. It has 
four large circular horns, two projecting from the fore¬ 
head and two toward the shoulders, and its feet resem¬ 
ble those of a goat more than our native sheep. It is 
a two-shear tup, with wool of a rich silky fibre, and 
much like what is used in the fabrication of the finer 
shawls. It was purchased by Mr. Shanks, butcher, 
Berwick, who purposes crossing him with sheep of dif¬ 
ferent kinds, viz: black-faced horned, Cheviot, and 
Leicester sheep.— Berwick Warder. 
Transmutation of Grain. —It is well known that we 
are an unbeliever in the transmutation of grain; but 
for the benefit of those who do not agree with us in 
opinion, we give the following extracts on this subject 
from a late London Gardeners Chronicle. We shall 
be pleased to record all such as have a tendency to elu¬ 
cidate principles , whatever result they may lead to, 
and however they may conflict with established notions. 
While on this subject we may be allowed to state, that 
we have recently been shown a stool of wheat and 
chess, as nearly as we can judge, originating from one 
seed , in which 5 or 6 stalks of chess were indiscrimi¬ 
nately mixed with 25 or 30 of wheat. The account 
of its origin by its intelligent owner was this: Last 
spring he discovered in his wheat field a number of 
wheat plants, thrown out by the frost of an open win¬ 
ter, and being desirous of testing the principle of trans¬ 
mutation, he transplanted several of them carefully to 
a rich bed in the garden. Many plants produced all 
wheat, but some produced wheat and chess from the 
same plant—at least this was the honest conclusion he 
arrived at from the observations he made in the trans¬ 
planting and subsequent growth. He thinks he can 
not be mistaken, as he aimed to take and thinks he did 
I take up every plant singly which gave the double prod- 
