226 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the Steamer Cambria, we are in 
receipt of European journals to the 4th of June. 
Markets. — Ashes in limited demand and prices 
scarcely supported. Cotton , an advance of $ to £d. per 
lb. Wheat , Flour , Indian Corn , Meal , and Rice , a con¬ 
siderable fall in prices. Provisions no change. Yellow 
Corn 1 to 3s. per cent, dearer. Naval Stores and Tobacco 
dull. Wool more brisk. 
Money is much easier, though still hard to be obtain¬ 
ed except upon the best of paper at a short time to run. 
The current rate on this was 4 to 5 per cent. 
The Weather had been very fine for three weeks, and 
with the exception of the potatoe, all crops were highly 
promising throughout Europe. Large quantities of 
grain were ready for shipment at St. Petersburg, Odessa, 
and Egypt, and the probability is, that the French and 
British markets hereafter will be well supplied. 
Cheese Imported into Great Britain. —The total quan¬ 
tity of cheese imported into the United Kingdom from 
Europe during the year 1846, amounted to 249,664 cwt., 
and the quantity imported from the United States to 
91,901 cwt. 
Cotton-Growing in Africa. —Accounts from the Cape 
of Good Hope mention that an experiment made last 
year at Natal, on the southwest coast of Africa, in 
growing the cotton-plant, had been very succeessful, 
and that a joint-stock company had been formed to per¬ 
fect and extend the cultivation. 
A New Source for supplying India-Rubber .-—It is 
stated that the forests of Assam, in British India, are 
capable of producing India-rubber sufficient to supply 
the demands of the civilized world, and that it has al¬ 
ready become an extensive article of export from that 
province. 
A New Mode of Preparing Cream for Churning .— 
When cream is being collected for churning, as soon 
as the first skimming is put into the vessel, add at the 
rate of half a pint of vinegar to each gallon of cream. 
Suppose you churn six gallons at a time, and collect 
only one gallon per day, put six half pints of vinegar in 
the vessel, at once, to the first day’s cream, and so in 
proportion to any other quantity. Let all the vinegar 
for the whole churning be added to the first collected 
cream. I had this from a friend who supplies a large 
quantity of butler of the best quality to one of the crack 
shops at the west end. [Has anybody ever tried this 
in the United States'?]— Gardeners ’ Chronicle. 
Humble Bees Destructive to Bean-Flowers. —It is a 
well-established fact that bees are exceedingly servicea¬ 
ble in rendering flowers prolific; but it is not so gene¬ 
rally known that many are greatly injured by them, 
and few farmers are probably aware that humble bees 
in some seasons deprive them, it is believed, of a very 
large proportion of their crop of beans, by puncturing 
the base of the flowers and rendering the incipient pod 
entirely or partially abortive. Many garden flowers 
are similarly attacked by these bees, as lark-spurs, aza¬ 
leas, fuchsias, salvias, snap-dragons, and probably many 
others. 
The cause of the humble bees thus damaging the 
crops of beans and flowers arises possibly from some 
unusually large females, for individuals of the same 
species vary greatly in size, not being able to creep in¬ 
to many flowers that are too small to admit of their 
bodies, and too long to allow, of their reaching the nec¬ 
tary with their tongues. They are not, however, to be 
thus balked of their feast, and instinct directs them to 
the exact spot on the calyx beneath which the nectar is 
stored. There they nibble with their strong jaws until 
they are enabled to introduce their probosces and obtain 
the desired treasure. It is surprising, too, that in flow¬ 
ers of a peculiar structure, the bees make two holes, to 
extract the nectar on both sides of the germen, simply 
”o save trouble. It is a question, however, whether 
these insects are not more beneficial than injurious to 
crops; for if they could be extirpated, in all probability 
the beans would not be so prolific, and by the destruc¬ 
tion of some flowers it is almost certain that those which 
escape form larger and finer pods and seeds. These 
are fit subjects for the cultivator to investigate, and into 
his hands we consign them. Hive-bees have been ac¬ 
cused also of assisting in puncturing the flowers, but 
Mr. Darwin thinks they only participate in taking ad¬ 
vantage of the labors of their bustling neighbors, as they 
do not exhibit the adroitness which the humble bees do, 
in detecting the hidden treasure.— J. Curtis in Journal 
of Royal Ag. Soc. 
Thermometers. —I would call the attention of all per¬ 
sons having hothouses and greenhouses to the value of 
having two thermometers hanging in them, the one 
with a dry, and the other with a wet bulb. By this plan 
the state of humidity in the air is to be seen in a mo¬ 
ment, by comparing the height of the two thermometers 
in degrees. About ten degrees between the readings of 
the two thermometers is what is required by most plants 
for their well being; the wet-bulb thermometer being 
the lowest. The two thermometers ought, with both 
bulbs dry, to indicate the same heat in rising and fall¬ 
ing, and ought to undergo this trial, previously to being 
used in a hothouse. Thermometers cannot be expected 
to work correctly unless purchased at the best instru¬ 
ment makers in London. Some gardeners may already 
use what I mention, but many are ignorant about it.— 
Gard. Chron. 
New Era in Navigation. —On the 20th inst. the 
three-masted schooner New Brunswick anchored out¬ 
side Chicago harbor, loaded with 18,000 bushels of 
wheat, with which she had cleared for Liverpool. She 
goes by the way of Welland Canal and St. Lawrence. 
This is the first clearance of the kind ever made from 
the inland waters of the great lakes for an European 
port, and constitutes a new era in the history of naviga¬ 
tion.— Quebec Gazette. 
Vinous Fermentation. —If water holding saccharine 
matter in solution be exposed to a temperature of about 
60° Fahr., an intestine motion takes place, and bubbles 
of carbonic acid gas are evolved slowly at first, but af¬ 
terwards more rapidly. In proportion to the evolution 
of this gas, the liquor loses its sweetness—its tempera¬ 
ture rises and its specific gravity diminishes; after a 
time the formation of carbonic acid ceases, the sweet¬ 
ness is no longer perceptible, and the temperature of the 
fluid remains stationary; it is then said to have under¬ 
gone the vinous fermentation, and to have been con¬ 
verted into an intoxicating, or, as it is commonly called, 
a fermented liquor. 
The chemical change which takes place during the 
fermentation is very simple; it consists merely in the 
decomposition of the sugar, and a new arrangement of 
its elements—about one-half its weight being converted 
into alcoholic or pure spirit, and the other half into car¬ 
bonic acid. It is owing to this change that the specific 
gravity of the liquor is diminished; the sugar, a sub¬ 
stance of considerable density, being replaced by alco¬ 
hol, a fluid of much less specific gravity than that of 
water. 
The result is the same, whatever may be the nature 
of the saccharine fluid; whether it be a natural produc¬ 
tion, as the juice of the grape or the apple, or an arti¬ 
ficial combination of saccharine matter and water, such 
as a solution of sugar or molasses, or the wort of malt¬ 
ed grain. On the other hand, chemists are not 
acquainted with any other means by which alcohol or 
ardent spirit can be produced; brandy, rum, whiskey, 
gin, arrack, &c., are all, in the first instance, products 
of the vinous fermentation, being afterwards separated 
by distillation from the water, mucilage, and other for¬ 
eign matters, that all fermented liquors contain.— Gar¬ 
deners' Chronicle. 
