FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
291 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
By the steamer Hibernia, we are in receipt of our 
foreign journals to August 3d. 
Markets. — Ashes in good demand. Cotton, no 
change since our last. Grain and Flour, a slight 
decline. 
Provisions in greater request, with a tendency to 
advance. Cheese of a good quality much wanted. 
Money abundant, and American stocks in moderate 
request. 
Annual Show of the Agricultural Society of Eng¬ 
land. —This took place in July, at the old town of Nor¬ 
wich. It shows a steady, increasing interest in the 
improvement of agriculture in the mother country. 
The number of animals exhibited was 624, and of im¬ 
plements 1,880. Several of the latter were of a new 
kind. Among other things, we find plenty of portable 
steam engines, for threshing, and performing other 
farm work. The number of visitors present was 
very large. Lectures were delivered by able profes¬ 
sors on different branches of agriculture. Dinners, 
toasts, and speeches followed, rendering the meeting 
an agreeable jubilee to the English farmer. 
Letting of Southdown Bucks. — Mr. Webb, of 
Babraham, England, has just let 67 Southdown bucks 
for the season, for £1,474 (about $7,000!) The 
highest price was paid by Earl Ducie, which was 86 
guineas ($430). Think of that, ye improvers of stock 
in America. But we may hardly live to see breeders 
of fine animals so well remunerated in this country. 
State of Crops in Ireland. —The weather has been 
beautifully fine, and the reports from several districts 
respecting the crops are most satisfactory. From some 
of the midland counties, however, there are accounts 
of the appearance of blight, or rust, in wheat, but 
nothing that will affect that crop generally. Rumors 
are afloat, also, concerning the potato disease, but they 
were partial; though the disease will appear, there 
can be little doubt; still, the general belief is that it 
will be in a very mitigated form. 
Disease among Sheep. —“ We regret to learn,” says 
the Norfolk Chronicle, “ that a disease in sheep is 
again prevalent on several farms in the southeastern 
district of the county; and it is believed to have been 
caused by a want of due caution in burying the car¬ 
casses of those animals which died last year by infec¬ 
tion.” 
Shetland Ponies. —It appears that the facilities now 
offered for the conveyance of stock from the Shetlands 
southward, has had an effect on the sale of the cele¬ 
brated ponies bred in these islands. Those which 
would have sold for 20s. before the introduction of 
steamers, are now generally sold at about £5 ; and 
£7, £S, and sometimes as high as £10, are given for 
superior animals.— Inverness Courier. 
JYew Water Lily. —“ The most extraordinary plant 
I have seen,” writes Mr. W. Bidwell, from Wide Bay, 
New Holland, “ is a water lily, (Nymphaea,) growing 
in a lagoon called Boppoo. This plant has leaves 
18 inches or more in diameter, grows in 15 feet of 
water, and the flowers are 11 inches in diameter in 
their natural expansion. I doubt if Victoria regina is 
a finer plant.” * 
Cutting off the Stems of Potatoes. —Mr. C. Wood, 
of Wadsworth Common, England, says, in a commu¬ 
nication in the Agricultural Gazette, “ I have fol¬ 
lowed the plan ever since 1845, with success. I had 
the tops cut off, last year, quite in a green state, long 
before the tubers could possibly be either ripe or have 
finished their growth ; and, when taken up, they were 
fine in size and of excellent quality. I have a few of 
them left yet, (July 10th,) in a perfectly sound state. 
The only difference in the plan pursued by Mr. Lomba 
and mine, consists in putting a layer of earth over the 
surface, a practice in which I can see no value, I 
usually remove the haulm on the first appearance of 
the botrytes, (disease,) on the tftidersides of the leaves. 
I have already taken it off my early sorts, and I am 
satisfied, from experience, that, if this is strictly 
attended to, no one need fear the disease, either in 
wet or dry, rich or poor soils.” 
Etherizing Bees Preparatory to Taking Honey — 
Put about half an ounce of ether in a small flask of 
two ounces capacity, and connect it with the hive by 
a piece of glass tube 15 or 18 inches long, bent in the 
middle at a right angle; place the flask in a basin of 
hot water, and the ether will then pass through the 
tube into the hive in a state of vapor. The glass tube 
should be fixed air-tight in the flask with a cork, in 
the usual way, and the entrance hole of the hive 
should also be closed with glaziers’ putty, dough, or 
any similar substance, after the other end of the tube 
has been inserted into it. If a flask be not at hand, a 
thin phial may be used instead of it. The operation 
must be performed in the evening.— Ag. Gazette. 
An Ancient Goose. —On Sunday last, Mr. W. Turnill, 
of Braceborough, experienced a loss of a singular na¬ 
ture—no less than the death of a favorite goose, which 
had been on the premises at Braceborough for sixty 
years, and prior to that had been in the possession of 
Mr. John Smith, of Deeping, St. James, for forty years. 
The bird was consequently 100 years old at its demise. 
Mr. Turnill intends having the skin stuffed, and pre¬ 
served as a relic of antiquity.— Stamford Mercury. 
Unappropriated Land in JYew Scotland. —That por¬ 
tion of British America, lying south of the river St. 
Lawrence, between latitude 43® and 49® north, and 
the longitudes 58® and 68® west, known at present 
under the name of “ New Scotland,” is estimated to 
contain the following amount of vacant land at the 
disposal of the crown:—In Nova Scotia, (proper,) 
5,787,772 acres; in New Brunswick, 12,300,851; in 
Prince-Edward Island, and Cape Breton, 1,000,000 ; in 
Gaspe and Anticosti, 5,000,000—in all, 24,088,623 
acres. • a, 
Method of Expelling the Weevil. —The chief direc¬ 
tor of the hospital of the city of Sens has devised an 
easy method of expelling the weevil, the ravages of 
which pest he estimates at twenty millions of dollars 
annually in the barns of Europe. 
Canada Woolens. —The Ontario Woolen Mills, Co¬ 
burg, Canada West, wove and finished nearly 60,000 
yards of cloths during the last six months. The 
year’s work will be 140,000 yards. Last year, Mr. 
Mackenzie, the proprietor, finished, of cloths, Tweeds, 
satinets, and flannels, 100,538 yards. 
Meeting of the French JYational and Central 
Society of Agriculture. —At a late session of the 
French National and Central Society of Agriculture, 
an association which has proved widely useful, the 
audience was very numerous and distinguished, and 
included many ladies. The Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce, M. Lanjuinais, presided. He delivered a 
pertinent address, in which he paid a warm tribute to 
the provincial societies for the services rendered by 
them to the national agriculture. Payen, the eminent 
chemist, perpetual secretary, read a highly interesting 
report of the Transactions of the Central Society, and 
its correspondents, for the last two years. The distri¬ 
bution of medals followed. One was assigned to a young 
man in humble life, who conceived and executed the 
idea of expediting the development or formation of the 
cork oak, (chene-liege,) by a skillful graft on the green 
oak, of which the growth is quicker. Another fell to 
a gentleman of Rheims, for what seemed to excite 
surprise and sensation in tlie assembly—a mode of 
preserving bees during the winter, by burying them 
in a sort of furrow, or pit. In the spring they come 
forth in good health, having hibernated in torpor and 
abstinence. 
