380 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 
By the Steamer Acadia we are in receipt of our for¬ 
eign journals to November 4th. 
Markets. — Ashes, in fair request. Cottony an ad¬ 
vance of \d. to id. per lb. Grain and Flour , a trifle 
lower. Provisions the same. 
American Provisions for the English Market. —We 
copy from our European correspondent the following 
excellent observations on the method of putting up 
beef and pork for the English Market:— 
Beef. —The quality of the best brands of American 
beef are much approved of. The desirable points be¬ 
ing to have the color a bright pink, the pickle clear, 
with a good capping of Turks Island or other coarse 
salt; the coarse pieces, necks, shanks, &c., as scarce, 
and the meat as fat as possible ; in addition to all these, 
the weight (marked on the cask), correctly put into 
every tierce. 
Pork. —A really good article of “ prime mess pork” 
cut into four pound pieces from hogs not exceeding 
180 to 200 lbs., cured only in pickle, to be of a bright 
pink color, packed with clean clear pickle, and with a 
good capping of coarse salt, will always find a ready 
sale. Mess pork, or stripes, is a waste of material that 
should be put into bacon. Prime pork the same to a 
less extent. The heads, or jowls, will selL here when 
alone for as much money as the prime pork. 
The Best Breed of Sheep. —Let it be assumed that 
the best breed of sheep is that which produces the 
greatest net profit in money from a given quantity of 
food.— Agricultural Gazette. 
Winter Management of Calves. —Let them have 
plenty of good hay and roots, with chopped straw and 
linseed, a quarter of a pint to a quart of water, put into 
a jar, or saucepan, and placed on the hearth on hot ashes; 
in the morning it will be done but not burnt. Should 
calves scour during the year, I give in balls one table 
spoonful of Epsom salts, two of flour, and two of whit¬ 
ening, or chalk.— Anon. 
Bull Fight. —At Ashton Keynes, a two-year-old 
stock bull and a fat bull stag, furiously attacked each 
other, and fought until the latter dropped dead, cov¬ 
ered with wounds. It was with the greatest difficulty 
that the victor was removed from the dead body of his 
fallen foe. The latter weighed 300 lbs. per quarter. 
Lime a Means of Preventing Plant Wounds from 
Bleeding. —This year, I saved some fine pelargoniums 
from bleeding to death, after being cut down, by dust¬ 
ing slacked lime over the wound. It might have the 
effect of preserving other plants under similar circum¬ 
stances.— Gardeners’’ Chronicle. 
Influence of Night Temperature on Plants. —Every 
gardener who pretends to an acquaintance with his 
profession is now aware of the prejudicial effect of 
high night temperature. We have repeatedly pressed 
the subject on his attention ; we have shown that in 
countries, called hot, the thermometer often falls low 
during the night, and that, to the vine in particular, 
night cold is indispensable and always provided by na¬ 
ture where grapes are finest. The well-known forma¬ 
tion of ice near Calcutta, although brought about by 
slightly artificial means, is in itself a beacon to guide 
the gardener who reflects. In short, the kind of pe¬ 
riodical rest which a low nocturnal temperature se¬ 
cures to plants is undoubtedly as necessary to them as 
sleep to animals ; it may be broken for a short time 
with impunity, but it must be provided eventually, 
and the greater the regularity of it the better the 
health of the individual. —English Paper. 
Advice in Poultry Keeping. —The principles upon 
which I rely for success in keeping hens, are 1, to 
have two breeds—a few to hatch and rear the chick¬ 
ens, and twice the number of everlasting layers, as 
eggs are more profitable than chickens ; 2, to get a 
hatch as early as possible in spring, and to keep them 
well; these never cast their feathers like the old birds, 
and if they begin to lay in autumn, lay more or less all 
winter; 3, never to keep old fowls (none but favorite 
fowls ought to be kept more than two years); old 
birds lay larger eggs than pullets, but not nearly so 
many; 4, to give them the best barley I could get, and 
as much as they could pick up once a day, in summer 
and twice in winter; they are not only more profitable, 
well kept, but the eggs are better. The two breeds I 
like best are the spotted Dorkings for sitting, and the 
pheasant breed for laying .—Agricultural Gazette. 
Prize Gooseberries .—The following are the names 
and weights of four of each color of the gooseberries 
standing highest on the prize lists of the Gooseberry 
Shows held at Lancashire, Cheshire, and other parts 
of the United Kingdom, in the year 1848:— 
Red. 
London . 
Companion ... 
Wonderful .... 
Lion. 
Yellow. 
Catherina. 
Leader . 
Drill. 
Pilot.. 
Green. 
Thumper. 
Peacock. 
Turnout.. 
Overall. 
White. 
Freedom. 
Eagle. 
Lady Leicester, 
Tally Ho. 
Weight of Heaviest Berry 
dwts. 
19 grs. 
3 
“ 
18 
<4 
“ 
4 
44 
44 
15 
44 
‘4 
20 
*4 
12 
<4 
0 
“ 
41 
9 
4 < 
.24 
15 
44 
23 
44 
19 
44 
il 
0 
44 
.28 
4 .' 
1 
44 
.22 
19 
4 < 
“ 
13 
44 
“ 
21 
“ 
Important Enterprise in the Island of Cuba .—The 
“Junta Fomento,” or Board of Agriculture and 
Improvements of the island of Cuba, have re¬ 
cently made considerable purchases of such articles 
and stock, as are calculated to improve and render 
more profitable, the agricultural interests of that valua¬ 
ble territory. The purchases have been made in this 
country by their highly intelligent and accomplished 
commissioner, Senor Don Jose Maria de la Torre. 
The animals consist of several cattle of the Short- 
Horn, Devon, and Hereford breeds; Cotswold and 
Southdown sheep; swine of four different breeds; 
and poultry of various kinds. Among other articles 
introduced, are several implements and machines of 
rhe latest improvement, and a choice variety of seeds 
for field and horticultural purposes. This enterprise, 
if properly carried out, must have the happiest effect 
in developing the resources of the island, and in ad¬ 
vancing the interests of all parties concerned. 
Insects in Wheat .—The mode of dressing seed 
wheat, practised by hundreds of farmers in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Ipswich, Eng., is to wet the seed by various 
modes and dust arsenic on the dry heap, out of the paper 
it is done up with by the chemist, whilst another turns 
the heap over. A half bushel of lime is first emptied 
into a half-hogshead tub a week or two before seed 
time, to which is added the drainings from the cattle 
yards, sufficient to cover the wheat when dipped ; the 
wheat is then stirred in a basket, orskep, skimmed and 
turned on the floor. When the seed is wetted, it is 
dusted with dry powdered arsenic, which is sprinkled 
on and mixed with the wheat. It is then swept and 
rounded up into a heap and left over night. The li¬ 
quor in the tub, is about as thick as bricklayer’s lime 
wash for walls. 
A quarter of a pound of arsenic is sufficient for 
dressing four bushels of wheat, which costs less than a 
cent per bushel. The spent lime is worth its cost as 
manure. It may be thought that the sleep should be 
sunk in the liquor, and the wheat slowly poured in, 
to cause the light grains to float; but an extra stirring 
will rectify this. If two persons are employed, of 
course one may sink the skep, and dust on the arsenic 
on every skepful shot on the floor, whilst the other 
stirs and skims the wheat. 
