196 
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
jFomgtt Agricultural N 
ms. 
By the steamer Hibernia, we are in receipt of our 
foreign journals to 4th of May. 
Markets. — Ashes, in steady demand. Cotton , an ad¬ 
vance of -?f d. to \d. per lb., with large sales. Wheat 
and Beef, a slight improvement in most other American 
products a trilling reduction. 
Professorship of Culture in the Garden of Plants 
at Paris. —M.. Decaisne has been recommended as the 
successor, in this important chair, of M. de Mirbel, who 
lias resigned in consequence of illness and age. 
Glass for Conservatories. —Rolled, rough, plate glass 
is coming into general use, in England, for conservatory 
roofs, much exposed to the sun, as a preventive of burn¬ 
ing. Its excellence has now become a matter of cer¬ 
tainty. 
To Cultivate Canary Seed. —Sow ten pounds per 
acre, in rows a foot apart, on a clay loam, in October, 
and treat the growing crop exactly as you treat wheat. 
—Agricultural Gazette. 
Glaze for Muslin. —Three pints of old pale linseed 
oil; sugar of lead, one ounce; and white resin four 
ounces. The sugar of lead must be ground with a 
small quantity of the oil, and added to the remainder, 
incorporated with the resin by means of a gentle heat. 
Lay it on the muslin with a brush. One coat annually, 
is sufficient.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
New Invention. —A portable instrument has lately 
been invented and brought into use, in England, for 
fumigating greenhouses, stoves, and frames, or shrubs 
and flowers in the open air, without injuring the 
most delicate plants; delivering the smoke cool, in a 
dense mass and effecting a great saving of tobacco. 
Covering for Gravel Walks. —Decomposed sand¬ 
stone is an excellent covering for walks, in order to 
bind any loose material of which they may be formed. 
Soon after its application, the surface becomes perfectly 
smooth, and almost as firm as a flag. The walks may 
be swept during wet weather, nearly as well as when 
it is dry.—■ Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Death of Professor Kunth. —The foreign papers 
announpe the death of this learned botanist, at Berlin, 
on the 22d of March. He was well known as the col¬ 
league of Baron Humboldt and M. Bonpland in the 
preparation of the great work on the new plants dis¬ 
covered by them in Equinoctial America; and latterly, 
for a useful enumeration of all known plants, of which, 
however, only a few volumes have appeared. 
Salt and Lime. —Slack lime with brine, in some 
sheltered place, and apply 50 or 60 bushels per acre 
some months or so hence. Your best plan will be to 
do all this in midsummer, so as to be ready to apply it 
on the stubble in autumn.— Agricultural Gazette. 
To Raise Turnips. —-Pare and burn. Spread the 
ashes. Plow 3 inches deep, roll, harrow, and harrow 
again. When that plowing is reduced to a tilth, cross 
plow at double the depth, and repeat the tillage. Sow 
3 cwt. superphosphate of lime, broadcast, drill up in rows, 
26 inches apart, and sow 3 lbs. of seed on the tops of 
the drills. Sow 3 or 4 lbs. per acre, in rows 2 feet 
or more apart, and single out to 10 or 12 inches.— Ibid. 
Tanners' Bark as a Manure. —This, in its manufac¬ 
turing state, is unfit for cultivators to use; but when 
exhausted of its tannin, and allowed to decay, it ceases 
to be “ tanners’ bark,” and becomes, like all other de- 
paying vegetable, substances, valuable to the cultivator 
in proportion to its degree of decay. The worst way 
of using it is to burn it to ashes; the best way is to 
char it. Whether charred or merely decayed, it should 
be mixed with putrifying matters, such as the contents 
of cesspools, or rotten dung, and also earth or any other 
common material, except lime. It then becomes one of 
the most Valuable of all manures.— Agricultuzal Gaz. 
The Best Mode of Mixing Salt with Lime.—hay 
three inches of unslacked lime, ten feet long and six 
wide, as a bed, and then spread one inch thich of com¬ 
mon salt. Repeat these layers till a bed two feet high 
is formed. If the mixture is made in summer, when it 
is dry, it may be in the open air; at other times, under 
cover. After ten days, turn it over, and repeat the 
turnings five or six times, at intervals of seven days; 
spread from a cart about 60 bushels per acre, covering 
the horse with a sheet or cloth, to prevent burning the 
hair off. It should be plowed in before wheat sowing. 
— Hillyard's Practical Farming. % 
l Seed Oats. — Oats intended for seed should not be 
allowed to be too ripe before cutting, as considerable 
loss is sustained in all the various processes of manu¬ 
factures, and if sown upon damp soils, and uncongenial 
climates, are apt to burst, especially if the seed Iras 
been grown in the neighborhood of the seaboard. 
Another reason why they should not be too ripe, is 
j their aptitude to “ she el,” by the powerful machines so 
generally used for threshing.— North-British Agricul¬ 
turist. 
Spent Tanners' Bark a good Manure for Strawber¬ 
ries. —Perhaps the following experiment with strwher¬ 
ries in tan, near Edinburgh, may prove useful. The 
soil was very light, and appeared unfit for their growth, 
yet finer fruit, or of better flavor I have seldom seen. 
This was entirely owing to a covering of old tanners’ 
bark, about an inch thick, being applied between the 
rows. The bark not only kept the ground moist and 
the fruit clean, but it is the material of all others in 
which this plant most delights. Many persons may 
j have remarked how almost all plants, but particularly 
; the strawberry, will root into the old tan of a bed in 
! which they have been forced, and yet, because they 
know new tan will kill weeds, they do not think it val- 
' uable as a manure. In the same garden were beds of 
strawberries, which had not been covered, but after 
growing and flowering well, these bore no fruit worth 
j gathering (a very common thing if the soil is too light); 
others were almost burnt up, whilst those to which the 
tan had been applied were luxuriant, and the ground 
: was covered with fine runners, fit to plant out, though 
tire fruit was just in perfection.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Green Vegetable Manure. —This has been used for 
upwards of 2,000 years, and in countries where the art 
‘ of culture has been most attended to. Various crops 
| have been sown with no other view than to be buried 
in when fully grown, to render the soil fit for crops of 
more importance. Every species of vegetable, in a 
green state, acts more or less as fertilisers, some prob¬ 
ably more than others, according to their power of 
i draining organic matter from the air, and inorganie 
from the subsoil. It is, therefore, no detriment to the 
j soil to be covered with weeds, providing they are not 
| allowed to seed, and that they be dug into the ground 
instead of being hoed down and raked off, which latter 
process is a direct robbery of the soil. Green vegeta¬ 
ble manure is most effective on light, sandy soils, and 
least so on peaty lands, It is surprising how much val- 
I uable manure is wasted in gardens, by carrying it to 
: the compost heap, instead of at once burying it in the 
' soil; and how much is lost or neglected in woods and 
waste places, from mere indolence, or from want of 
knowing that rampant nettles and rank-growing plants, 
constitute a great amount of 'the food of plants. Tree 
leaves, and the mowings of lawns are valuable manures, 
and far too seldom turned to useful account. For us¬ 
ing green vegetable manure, it should be applied as 
1 soon as possible after it is cut.— North-British Agricul- 
! turist. 
