FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
259 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the Steamer Britannia we are in 
receipt of our foreign journals to the 4th of July. 
Markets. — Ashes dull. Cotton an advance of %d. per 
lb. Flour and Grain have experienced a great de¬ 
pression in price. Beef, Pork, and Lard , a slight ad¬ 
vance. Naval Stores slow of sale. Rice has receded. 
Tallow in fair request. Tobacco no change. Wool a 
small advance and in active demand. 
Money tolerably abundant at 5 to 6 per cent. 
The Weather continued very fine, and the crops 
throughout Europe highly promising. In Ireland 
alone, do we hear of any disease in the potato, and even 
there, thus far, it has only shown itself slightly. The 
quantity planted is said to be much less than that of 
last year. 
Effect of Speculations in Grain.- —Many failures have 
recently taken place in Europe in consequence of the 
fall in prices of grain and flour. 
Prices of Flour, Meal, Wheat, and Indian Corn in 
Liverpool: — 
July 3. June 26. May 19. 
Per Britannia. Caledonia. Hibernia. 
U. S. Wht.pr. 70 tbs. $2 04 a 2 52 2 82 a 2 94 3 57 a 3 68 
U. S. Flour, per bbl., 7 94 a 8 28 9 12 a 9 60 12 26 a 2 50 
Ind. Corn, per qu., 7 98 a 10 96 11 88 a 12 98 15 48 a 5 60 
Ind. Meal, per. bbl., 4 00 a 5 00 5 72 a 5 96 - a - 
The above table shows the decline from the highest 
point, May 19th, to Saturday, 3d of July. The prices 
are calculated at 24 cents to the British shilling, or $5 
to the £ sterling. 
Measure of the English Quarter and Bushel. —Many 
persons do not clearly comprehend the “ quarter,” as 
applied to grain in England. It is this:—A ton is 
2,240 lbs., a quarter of that is 560 lbs. and this is the 
weight of the British, or Imperial quarter of wheat. 
The U. S. standard allows 60 lbs. the British 70 lbs. 
thus 8 x 70 — 560. A bushel of wheat in the U. S. is 
equal to 6-7ths of an English bushel, and a British 
quarter of wheat is equal to 9h U. S. bushels of 60 
lbs. each. A load of oatmeal is 240 lbs; a sack of 
flour is 280 lbs. 
Australian Cotton. —The Rev. Dr. Lang has com¬ 
municated to the Glasgow Argus his views respecting 
the practicability of growing cotton to a great extent in 
the northeastern portion of Australia. Dr. Lang 
states that at Moreton Bay, in latitude 274° S., he has 
plucked pods of cotton pronounced in Glasgow to be 
of first-rate quality. The climate is well adapted to the 
constitution of Europeans; there are inexhaustible 
tracts of fertile land ; and great facilities for the ship¬ 
ment of produce. 
Putting up Corn-Meal —Messrs. Still, Day & Co., 
of Liverpool, call attention to serious loss in weight in¬ 
curred on barrels of corn-meal, by the almost una¬ 
voidable leakage in every stage of shipping, landing, 
carting, warehousing, weighing, &c., and recommend 
fine canvas bags, holding 196 lbs. net each, as by far 
the preferable package. Shippers have also encoun¬ 
tered heavy loss by the practice of corn-meal, warm 
from the kiln, being packed in barrels made from 
fresh unseasoned lumber, leading to the extraction of 
the sap from the wood by the meal, to the prejudice of 
the whole contents. This would be avoided by the use 
of bags. 
Splendid Glycine Sinensis. —A celebrated plant at 
Warminster, on the wall, is 151 feet long by 13 feet 
deep, making 1963 superficial feet, and from the same 
plant is an arbor, swung across the gravel-walk, 
which is 24 feet by 17, making a total of 2371 feet. 
This surely surpasses the one at Speen Nursery, which 
is said to cover 1180 feet.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Analysis of the Fibre of the Flax-Plant. —It may be 
useful for the information of those who are not familiar 
with the processes of the laboratory, to mention that 
every plant, when exposed to a strong heat in the cru¬ 
cible of the chemist, is found to consist of two parts—a 
part of which is combustible and flies away, being com¬ 
posed of the elements which the plant, during its growth, 
had derived from the air; and a fixed incombustible 
ash, containing the materials supplied by the soil. 
A portion of the fibre, dried at 212°, was burned in a 
clean platinum, and ignited, until all organic matter 
had burned away, when there remained in the crucible 
a quantity of a very light bulky ash, which possessed 
the same slightly yellowish-white tinge which the fibre 
exhibited. A qualitative examination of this ash 
showed that it contained the following ingredients of 
the soil—iron, lime, magnesia, soda, chlorine, sulphu¬ 
ric acid, phosphoric acid. One hundred parts of the 
dry flax-fibre was found to contain 0.54 parts of ash, 
so that 2$ cwt. of dressed flax would contain rather 
more than 1$ lbs. of the ingredients of the soil. 
A quantity of ash was prepared from the same sam¬ 
ple, and was found to possess the following composition 
in the 100 parts :— 
Carbonate of lime, . •... *62.00 
Sulphate of lime, gypsum,. 7.15 
Phosphate of lime,. 13.66 
Oxide of iron,. 3.99 
Carbonate of magnesia, with traces of chloride of 
sodium (common salt). 2.00 
Silica, ...11.20 
100.00 
Jt is evident, therefore, from the above analysis, that 
the fibre of the flax-plant, even after steeping and dress¬ 
ing, contrary to what is commonly supposed, does not 
consist merely of the condensed gases of the air, but 
robs the soil of a considerable amount of its most valua¬ 
ble ingredients. These consist, as we might naturally 
suppose from the treatment which the fibfe has under¬ 
gone, chiefly of the most insoluble ingredients of the 
inorganic matter of the plant, the carbonate of lime, and 
the phosphate of lime and silica; but it appears that the 
steep water does not abstract all the soluble salts of the 
fibre, as the sample examined contained considerable 
traces of the chloride of sodium (common salt).— Ibid. 
Ashes not Good to Mix with Guano .—Fresh wood- 
ashes are not good to mjjx with guano. Those which 
have been leached or long exposed to the air, espe¬ 
cially if they contain much charcoal, will do well.— Ibid. 
Analysis of the Orange-Tree (Citrus aurantium ).— 
The materials employed in this examination were sup¬ 
plied by M. Da Camera, of the island of St. Michael’s. 
After describing the methods of preparing the ash, and 
the routine of analysis, the authors sum up with the fol¬ 
lowing results:— 
Per centage of Ash,. 
Root. 
Stem. 
Leaves. 
Fruit. 
jSeed. 
4-48 
2-74 
13 71 
3-94 
3-30 
Votash,. 
35-43 
11-69 
1651 
36-42 
40 28 
Soda,. 
4-52 
307 
1-68 
11-42 
0-92 
Lime,. 
49-89 
55-13 
5638 
24-52 
18-97 
Magnesia,. 
Oxide of iron,. 
691 
6.34 
5-72 
8-06 
8-74 
1-02 
0-57 
0-52 
0-46 
080 
Chloride of sodium,. 
118 
0-25 
666 
3-87 
0-82 
Phosphoric acid,.... 
Sulphuric acid,. 
13-47 
17-09 
3-27 
11-07 
23-24 
5-78 
4-64 
4-43 
3-74 
510 
Silicic acid,. 
1-75 
1-22 
4-83 
0-44 
113 
100-00 
100.00 
10000 
100 00 
100-00 
These results confirm the observations of Saussure, 
that the largest amount of mineral constituents is de¬ 
posited in those parts of the plant in which the process 
of assimilation appears to be most active. In the ashes 
of the root, the stem, and the leaves, the joint amount of 
the lime and magnesia exceeds the rest of the mineral 
constituents. [May not the gardener test the value of 
this analysis by the application of phosphates, such as 
cow-dung, superphosphate of lime, to the roots of 
trees 'l —Ed ]—London Lit. Gaz. 
