FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL STEWS'. 
131 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the arrival of the Steamer Britannia, we are in 
receipt of our foreign journals to 12th of February, 
Markets.— The only important change which we 
notice since our last, is a rise in cotton of id. per lb. 
Money was not worth mote than 3 to 3g per cent, 
on the best securities. A great want of confidence 
still prevailed throughout Europe. Large failures had 
nearly ceased, and they were looking for a gradual 
improvement in business. 
Salt Applied to As 2 Jaragus. —Salt should not be 
applied to asparagus at the time of making the beds ; 
but when the plants are growing—frequently, and in 
small doses. Water no salter than that of the ocean 
is what is recommended.— London Agricultural 
Gazette. 
Comparative Value of Human Food. —According to 
Dr. Lyon Playfair, at London prices, a man can lay a 
pound of flesh on his body with milk, at 3s.; with 
turnips, at 2s. 9 d .; with potatoes, carrots, and butch¬ 
ers’ meat, free from bones and fat, at 2s.; with oat¬ 
meal, at Is. 1(M.; with bread, flour, and barley meal, 
at Is. 2d. ; and with beans at less than 6d, 
An Old Raven. —The “ Journal de Rheims” says that 
the other day, a gentleman captured a raven, round 
the neck of which was a silver plate, with an inscrip¬ 
tion in English,—“ This raven, caught by Capt. Dun¬ 
can, of the Scotch Guards, in the garrison, at Rheims, 
was set at liberty, Jan. 7th, ledS” 
Wine Making in New South Wales. —Such is the 
extent to which vineyards have been planted in New 
South Wales, that a single landowner, Mr. M‘Arthur, 
has made, in one year, 17,000 gallons of wine, some of 
which when bottled, has been sold for 20s a dozen, at 
Sydney. 
A Splendid Market at Paris. —The municipality of 
Paris is about to build a splendid central market, 
which will cost 20,000,000, francs ($3,700,000), and 
will require ten years for its erection. 
Growth of Cotton in India .— We understand ad¬ 
vices from India have been received at Manchester, 
stating, on the authority of the government collector 
of the Dharvvar district, that there are at present at 
least 20,000 acres of New Orleans seed cotton under 
cultivation in that district; and that, had.it not been 
for the deficient fall of rain last monsoon, there would 
have been at least 60,000 acres under cultivation. 
The cultivation of cotton is also extending fast into 
the Nizam’s country. 
Amount Paid for Dutch Butter by England .— 
England pays to Holland, Belgium, and Holstein 
about $3,500,000 per annum for butter. 
Amount of Grain Raised in France. —France pro¬ 
duces annually 231,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 
369,600,000 bushels of inferior grains. 
Fecundation of the Eggs of Poultry. —If any of 
your readers have seen a hen, in full laying, dissected, 
they might have observed that the ovary was com¬ 
posed of a mass of yolk bags, resembling a bunch of 
grapes, but with this difference, that the yolk bags 
varied in size from an inch in diameter down to a pin’s 
head, and often smaller. Now, that these yolk bags, 
hardly visible themselves, should be capable of having 
their contents fecundated is contrary to reason, and 
has not been allowed by any physiologist that I know 
■of. 
In the case of the bee, there is appended to the ovi¬ 
duct a reservoir or sac, which, when once filled, is 
sufficient for the vivification of all the eggs in the 
ovary; this taking place as the egg passes the mouth 
of the sac in its course down the oviduct. Birds, not 
being furnished with a similar apparatus, cannot have 
more than a few of the germs fecundated at a time— 
only those that are in a sufficient state of forwardness; 
but where to fix the limit, how many days before lay¬ 
ing, can only be ascertained by experiment. My be¬ 
lief is, that two or three of the first might prove fruit¬ 
ful; but this your correspondent may rest assured of, 
that no hen could in the normal state lay 100 or 150 
eggs from which chickens might be reared after the 
death of the cock or cocks, as those eggs which do not 
possess an embvyon before his death cannot do so after. 
Those, who believe and assert the contrary, must have 
been deceived by the unseen visits of some neighboring 
cock, which, regulating them according to the known 
hours of the master’s inspection of his hens, eluded 
his prejudiced gaze.— Gardeners' Chro7iicle t , 
Effects of Turnips on Ewes with Lamb. —Three 
years ago, when turnips were very abundant, a flock 
master of Berwickshire, Scotland, allowed his black¬ 
faced ewes (Cheviots), which are seldom in high con¬ 
dition, nearly as many as they could eat. for about 
eight weeks before lambing, and the consequence 
was, that he lost a considerable number of ewes from 
this overfeeding, having caused the horns of the tup 
lambs to grow so much, that some of them never could 
be born ; and others were so much injured that they 
inflamed and died. The horns of the new-born 
lambs, in some instances, were three inches long; but 
in general they were not more than two. This exu¬ 
berant growth of horns was doubtless owing to the 
excess of phosphate of lime, which existed in the food 
of their dams, as it is well known that this substance, 
in the turnip, largely abounds. 
The Mode in which Sulphuric Acid Increases the 
Fertilizing Influence of Bone Dust. —It has been 
found that bones, in a heap with moistened ashes or 
sand, ferment so intensely, as soon entirely to lose 
their structure and form. In this state they have 
acquired greatly more power as a manure. In one 
case 17 bushels of bones yielded a crop of 13J tons of 
turnips per acre, while the same crop was obtained 
from half the quantity of bones that had heated in 
sand. In another case 141 tons of turnips followed 
the application of 25£ bushels of bones, while K2| 
bushels heated in sand yielded a crop of upwards of 
17 tons per acre. In the former case 4| bushels of 
“ sulphated” bones produced 14J tons of roots, and in 
the latter 7| bushels of “ sulphated” bones produced a 
crop of 14£ tons. The explanation is this. In the 
course of it, let it be assumed that the value of the 
bones, as a manure, is mainly due to the phosphorus 
with which they furnish the plant. The chief con¬ 
stituent of bone dust is phosphate of lime, a com¬ 
pound of phosphoric acid and lime, which is insoluble 
in pure water, and which, therefore, if rain water 
were pure water, would be useless as a manure. 
Lime will unite with two different proportions of 
phosphoric acid ; and though as phosphate of lime it is 
insoluble, as biphosphate (that is, united with a 
double quantity of phosphoric acid), it is very easily 
soluble in water. And the advantage of adding sul¬ 
phuric acid to bones is simply this—that it converts 
the insoluble phosphate which they contain into the 
soluble biphosphate. From one portion of the phos¬ 
phate of lime it detaches the phosphoric acid, and, 
taking its place, unites with the lime thus isolated, 
forming eypsum, while the phosphoric acid which it 
has detached combines with another portion of phos¬ 
phate forming a biphosphate. Bone earth thus treat¬ 
ed, therefore, contains phosphorus in a soluble form, 
and the turnip plant has an abundance presented to it 
by every shower which penetrates the soil in which 
the manure has been deposited.— Agr. Gazette. 
Starch from Diseased Potatoes. —Starch made from 
diseased potatoes, it is said, has been found to injure 
silk goods when used to stiffen them. The goods are 
covered with spots, which, when examined through a 
microscope, present the same fungus that is found 
in the diseased potato. 
