FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
195 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURA NEWS. 
i By the arrival of the Steamer Cambria, we are in 
receipt of our foreign journals to the 29th of April. 
Markets.— Ashes, more enquiry. Cotton, a still 
further depression of g d. per lb. Flour, Grain, and 
Rice, a small advance. Naval Stores, dull. Tobac¬ 
co, brisk. Wool, steady. 
Money continues at a low rate, but can only be had 
on the best security. 
The Weather was rather unpromising, being cold 
and wet. 
Guano Destructive to the Wire Worm. —Amongst 
the communications lately sent to the Council of the 
Royal Agricultural Association, was one from Mr. 
Dickinson, on the application of volatile alkali, as it 
exists in guano, for the extirpation of the wire worm. 
' Hussey's Reaping Machine. —Mr. Hussey, of Balti¬ 
more, has requested that his reaping machine may be 
subjected to trial, in England, under the orders of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, which request has been 
granted. / 
How to Fix the Ammonia in Urine. —The best 
way of fixing ammonia in urine, is said to be by the 
use of crude Epsom salts (sulphate of magnesia); its 
action is to throw down the triple compound of phos¬ 
phates of lime and magnesia, while the sulphate of am¬ 
monia remains in the solution. 
Cause of the Gapes in Poultry. —The cause of this 
disease is stated to be the use of filthy, sour diet, and 
drinking from dirty puddle water, infected with pu¬ 
trid decaying substances. The symptoms are gaping, 
coughing, and sneezing, dullness and inactivity, ruf¬ 
fled feathers, and loss of appetite. 
JYew Work on Farming. —It is stated in the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle that upwards of twenty of the best 
agricultural and scientific writers of the day are en¬ 
gaged, each in his own department, in writing a 
complete treatise on farming, to be commenced in 
monthly parts, sometime in the coming autumn. 
Spanish Hens' Eggs are advertised for sale in Lon¬ 
don at (is. per dozen. The hens, by which they were 
laid, were imported last autumn from Andalusia. 
They are represented as beautifully speckled, and 
much superior to the Spanish black hens, being un¬ 
equalled as layers, both in the size and number of the 
eggs. 
Remedy for the Potato Disease .—Dr. Klotzsch, of 
Germany, it is stated, has succeeded in preserving 
potato plants from disease by the peculiar method de¬ 
scribed below. He attempts to show that, as the 
potato is cultivated for its tubers, there is a great loss 
of nutrient matter if it be allowed to form flowers and 
fruit; and he concludes, that if this be prevented, the 
nutrient matter will be sent in the direction of the 
tubers and roots, and thus the plant will be strength¬ 
ened and enabled to resist disease. He proposes, 
therefore, when the plants are from 6 to 9 inches 
above ground, to pinch off the ends of the stem and 
branches for half an inch only downwards from the 
point, and to repeat this four weeks later. In the ex¬ 
periments already made by him, in which the alter¬ 
nate rows were treated in this way, the result was, 
that the rows not so treated were straggling and sickly, 
and had scabby tubers liable to rot; while the rows so 
treated were bushy, luxuriant, dark-green, with very 
numerous tubers, clean, and free from all disease 
whatever. 
Ellerman's Deodorizing Liquid. —Mr. Tower, of 
Weald Hall, lately called the attention of the Council 
of the English Agricultural Society, to the good effects 
he had found to arise from the use of the deodorizing 
liquid of Mr. Ellerman, tha component parts of which, 
according to the analysis he submitted to the council, 
could not, he thought, but render the use of this pre¬ 
paration valuable as an agricultural as well as a de¬ 
odorizing agent. 
Mr. Ellerman’s fluid, it will be recollected, is very 
efficacious as a means of destroying the odor of night 
soil, and other similar substances. It possesses, also, 
this advantage, that, while it neutralizes the odor so 
as to admit of the soil being removed, at any time, 
without creating a nuisance, it does not in any degree 
interfere with the efficacy of such matters as manures. 
On the contrary, it rather tends to increase the fer¬ 
tilizing quality. It is also stated that this fluid pos¬ 
sesses - a greater power than any agent invented for 
destroying the smell of faecal matter, and leaving in 
the end only a slight acid odor. 
Chicken Hatching in Egypt. —It is well known 
that there are immense numbers of double ovens for 
hatching chickens, both in Upper and Lower Egypt, 
called in Arabic makhmals. The number of these 
establishments has been estimated to be 164 ; whole 
number of eggs used, 26,204,500; number of egg3 
spoiled, 8,785,527 ; and the number of eggs hatched, 
17,418,973. It-is stated that each makhmal receives 
about 150,000 eggs during the time it continues open ; 
say two or three months in the year, one quarter, or 
one third of which generally fail. One chicken is 
usually given for every two eggs received. 
The eggs are first heated in the lower oven to a 
temperature of about 106°, for the first 10 days, and 
then for 11 days more in the upper oven, from which 
the fire has been removed ; on the 21st day, the chick¬ 
ens come out. During the time of incubation the 
mouths of the ovens are kept well closed. 
Exhibition of the Societe centrale d’horticulture, 
heretofore Societe Royale —The annual show of this 
society was held at Paris on the 23d of March and 
three days following, at the grand gallery of the Lux¬ 
embourg Palace, under any but auspicious circum¬ 
stances. For at the very moment I was looking at 
the flowers, some thousands of persons were congre¬ 
gated in the gardens of the Luxembourg, almost closo 
under the gallery, shouting the “Marseillaise”; but 
all this is now looked for as a matter of course, and no 
one thinks anything about it; even on Wednesday 
and Thursday, in the height of the revolution, all 
the theatres and places of amusement were as much 
crowded as at any other time.— Paris Correspondent. 
Common Salt as a Manure. —Mr. J. B. Lawes, of 
Rothamstead, expresses his full belief, in the Garden¬ 
ers’ Chronicle, that salt can never be a substitute for 
the constituents ammonia and phosphoric acid ; that 
no soil exporting corn and meat can be restored to 
fertility without the application of these two sub¬ 
stances; that much of the money now expended in 
purchasing salt for agricultural purposes would be 
more profitably employed in procuring ammonia and 
phosphates; that salt, although apparently essential 
in the animal economy, and perhaps in that of plants 
also, is exported from a farm in such small quantities 
that many soils will, under an ordinary system of 
cultivation, never require its direct application, and 
others will do so seldom, and to a small extent only. 
Interesting Physiological Fact in Relation to the 
Cotnposifion of the Horse. —By comparing the blood 
extracted from the different breeds of horses, it has 
been proved by the French chemists that their com¬ 
position is naturally different; that from the thorough 
breeds, when exposed to natural decomposition, ex¬ 
hibits less serositv, or serum, than that of othej 
breeds, and consequently the solid, or coagulated part 
is in greater proportion ; it contains also saline sub 
stances in greater abundance, and of a different qual 
ity. This blood, too, exposed to the air, retains iti 
fluidity longer than any other, and does not give out a 
fetid odor like that of other horses.— Exchange Paper 
