196 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the Steamer Britannia, we are in 
receipt of our foreign journals to 4th of May. 
Markets. — Ashes unchanged. Cotton has fallen 
i-d. per lb. Flour and Indian Meal , quite an advance. 
Provisions remain about the same as per our last. 
Lard a decline of 2s. to 4s. per cwt. Rice in great de¬ 
mand. Turpentine a slight fall. Tallow the same. 
Tar scarce ahd'firm. Tobacco dull. ' Wool' the same. 
Money is scarce, the rates of discount high, varying 
from 6 to to 8 per cent, on the best paper. Some was 
done as high as 10 per cent. 
The weather was favorable, and crops of all kinds 
looked well. 
Donations to Ireland and, Scotland. —The amou nt of 
flour and grain which the Americans have sent to the 
starving Irish and Highlanders, has been the universal 
theme of eulogy in Ireland, and of warm and generous 
sympathy in Great Britain. 
Emigration to the United States is unprecedented. 
Whole villages in several parts of Europe are likely to 
be depopulated by it. 
Destruction of Insects by Hot Water. —Mr. Gordon, the 
Superintendent -of the ornamental department of the 
garden of the London Horticultural Society, has ascer¬ 
tained that the scale insect, with all its young ones, 
eggs included, may be effectually destroyed and even 
dissolved by means of water heated to a temperature of 
140° F., and this, too, without injury to the bark of the 
trees on which the insect feeds. It may be applied by 
a syringe or a sponge, to the parts of the tree where the 
scales reside. 
Water, at a temperature of 140°, undoubtedly, would 
destroy the young, tender leaves of plants; therefore, it 
should be applied, if possible, before the trees put 
forth. It is not improbable that this method will be 
found applicable to most other insects which infest 
woody plants and trees. Boiling-hot water has been 
applied with success to the vine and peach-tree for kill¬ 
ing insects, without any apparent injury therefrom. 
Agricultural Statistics of Ireland. —The returns of the 
harvest of 1846 give 2,162 lbs. of wheat per acre as 
the result of last year’s crop all over Ireland, except the 
county of Kildare, against 2,186 lbs., the average pro¬ 
duce of past years; 2,155 lbs. of barley, as last year’s 
crop against a former average of 2.298 lbs.; 1,726 lbs. 
against 2,130 lbs. per acre of oats; and of potatoes, 
one-half only, of which are supposed to be lost, the 
crop of last year being on an average of 821 lbs. per 
acre against a crop of 17,808 lbs., as in former }-ears ! 
Fads in Pruning. —The general principles of prun¬ 
ing, as distinguished from hardwork, are few in num¬ 
ber, and among the easiest of all things to understand ; 
but their application is manifold, often difficult, and 
always special. For example, it is an axiom that hard 
pruning produces barrenness, and that slight pruning 
leads to productiveness; a second well known law is 
that the removal of one bud or branch strengthens an¬ 
other; a third law teaches us. that to stop a branch by 
cutting away its extremity, compels what is left to pro¬ 
duce side branches, which might not have otherwise 
appeared. Then again, the necessity for using the 
pruningdmife at all is often obviated by the employ¬ 
ment of the finger and thumb; that is to say, a young 
branch.may be prevented from appearing by pinching 
off its bud as soon as it begins to push, as well as by 
first allowing it to grow, and then removing it—and 
better. All these, and all such, facts are plain to the 
meanest capacity ; the difficulty is how to apply them, 
and when, and where. The answer to such questions 
is only to be found in experience, and in a very care¬ 
ful examination of the peculiar mode of growth of each 
species of tree to be operated on. For no two species 
of tred can be found of which it is the nature to grow, 
flower, and fruit, exactly in the same way, and 
every variation in the manner of growing, flowering, 
and fruiting, demands a corresponding variation in 
the mode of applying the principles of pruning.— Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle. 
Importance of Deep Tillage. —However skilfully and 
philosophically we may carry on our saving and appli¬ 
cation of manures ; however well we may select our 
seed, and choose our seed-time, without deep tillage we 
can by no means receive the maximum result. Drained 
land deeply stirred, and thoroughly pulverized, becomes 
a kind of regulator of the weather for itself; it is not 
soon soaked in wet, and it forms a storehouse of mois- 
ture in dry weather. It is a bad conductor of heat, and 
is therefore not easily over heated; but on the other 
hand it is not soon cooled, and so keeps up an equal 
temperature by night and by day, in cloud and in sun¬ 
shine—in the highest degree favorable to the healthy 
development of plants.— Farmer’s Herald. 
Pulverization of the Soil. —The grand object of pul¬ 
verization of the soil is to giye free scope to the roots 
of plants for without an abundance of roots no plant 
will become vigorous, however rich the soil may be in 
which it is planted. Pulverization, therefore, is not 
only advantageous previous to planting, or sowing, but 
also during the progress of vegetation of most plants. 
At this stage the operator, by means of pruning, or cut¬ 
ting off the extended fibres, causes Them to send out nu¬ 
merous others, by which such food as is in the soil is- 
the more readily taken up. Pulverization increases the 
capillary attraction, or sponge-like property of soils, by 
which their humidity is rendered more uniform. This 
capillary attraction is always greatest where the parti¬ 
cles of the soil are finely divided. Gravels or sands re¬ 
tain little or no water, while stiff soils, as clays, .which, 
have not been opened by pulverization, either do not 
absorb water, when by long action it is absorbed, or they 
retain too much. AVater is not only necessary to the 
grtfwth of plants, but it is essential to the production of" 
extfact from the vegetable matter which they contain, 
and unless the soil by pulverization is so constituted as 
to retain the requisite quantity of water to produce this 
extract, the application of manures would be useless.. 
Water is known to be a condenser and solvent of car¬ 
bonic acid gas, which is immediately carried by it to 
the roots of vegetables. The de|fth of pulverization 
must depend upon the soil and subsoil. In rich lands 
it can scarcely be too deep, and even in sands, unless 
the subsoil contains particles noxious to vegetables;, 
but very dry sands, if the season is hot and dry, should 
merely be stirred, otherwise the great evaporation of' 
moisture which would take place by deep pulveriza¬ 
tion, would render them too dry for Vigorous growth of 
plants. By deep pulverization the temperature of the- 
earth is increased. As earths are bad conductors of 
heat, it would be a considerable time before the gradual 
increasing temperature of spring could communicate: 
its genial warmth to the roots of vegetables. It is thus 
of the utmost importance to have the land open, so that 
the warm air and tepid rains of spring may have free- 
ingress. Some soils are more readily heated than 
others, and some soils cool much sooner than others. 
In general, soils that consist principally of a stiff, white 
clay are difficult to heat, and being usually very moist, 
they retain the heat only for a short time. Chalks are 
similar in one respect, they are difficult to heat, but be¬ 
ing dry they retain the heat longer. A black soil is 
readily heated; colored soils, and those soils contain¬ 
ing much carbonaceous matter, exposed under equal 
circumstances, acquire a much higher temperature than 
pale-colored soils. When soils are perfectly dry, those 
which most readily become heated by the solar rays, 
likewise cool much more rapidly. Abundance of animal 
and vegetable matter, when heated to the same degree, 
will cool much more slowly than a wet, pale soil entirely 
composed of earthy matter.— A Contemporary. 
