FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 
227 
Jbrrign ^igricuitural 3farus. 
By the steamer Niagara, we are in receipt of our for¬ 
eign journals to the 7 th of June. 
Markets. — Cotton was selling steadily but with a 
downward tendency in the lower qualities. It was the 
same with Provisions and most other American pro¬ 
ducts, except Lard, which has advanced from Is. to W. 
Flower Trade in St. Petersburgh. —A fair which is 
held as soon as the frosts are over, and which lasts a 
whole month, namely, from the 25th of May to the 25th 
of June, is almost exclusively a flower fair; it is at; 
this fair that the nobility and country gentlemen make 
their purchases for decorating their country houses 
to which they are about to retreat. The flowers are 
supplied almost entirely from Germany. We remark¬ 
ed the hundred-leaved and four-seasons rose, planted 
in a sort of hamper; cherry, apple, plum, service, and 
sweet chestnut trees, a few pear trees, all shrubs, and 
selling for double what they do in Paris ; the lilies of 
the valley, especially, seemed to bear a most exorbi¬ 
tant price.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Hot Houses in the Time of the Romans .—In the me¬ 
moir a short time since i:ead to the French Academy 
upon the subject of Roman hot houses and pits, heated 
artificially, I omitted several quotations which proved 
my statements, and they have consequently been im¬ 
pugned. My first authority is Columella (xi., 3, 51, 
53). Tiberius being in ill health, was advised to eat 
cucumbers every day. The Roman gardeners culti¬ 
vated these vegetables in frames, containing hot dung, 
and exppsed to the sun in front of a wall. The frames 
were, moreover, on wheels, so as to be easily moved 
into, and continually placed in the sun’s rays, and were, 
in addition, furnished with pieces of talc, by which they 
were covered at night, and by which the plants were 
protected from frost and cold. “Thanks to this in¬ 
vention,” says Columella, “ Tiberius was supplied with 
cucumbers at nearly every season of the year.’’ 
Martial, (viii., 14,) the contemporary of Domitian who 
had in his palace a hot house, containing exotic plants, 
called Adonea, describes a glass hot house, belonging 
to one of his patrons, which was set apart for similar 
plants as follows in one of his epigrams :—“ As you are 
afraid that your pale fruit trees, natives of Cilicia, can¬ 
not withstand the winter, and that a too cold wind may 
nip your delicate shrubs, you take care that by panes 
of talc the chilly wintry blast may be kept off, and 
that nothing be admitted but sun and a genial air ; and 
yet, I have nothing but a miserable lodging, with a 
window that does not fit, and where Boreas himself 
would not find a habitation. Is it thus, cruel man, that 
you lodge an old friend ? I had much rather be the 
guest of your tree !” The use of some heating appar¬ 
atus is here clearly referred to; but Seneca, (letter 122,) 
tells us that the Roman hot houses were heated by 
steam. He denounces the unbridled luxury of his con¬ 
temporaries. “Do not those live contrary to nature 
who require roses in winter, and who, by the use of 
hot water, and application of heat, compel the lily to 
blossom in winter, instead of in the spring ?” It is re¬ 
markable that the most direct evidence of the use of 
hot houses by the Romans should be furnished by a 
poet and a philosopher.— Comptes Rendus. 
Decrease in the Cidtivation of Flax in Englomd .— 
England has never produced a sufficient quantity of 
flax for its own use, and the cultivation of it has de¬ 
creased as agricultural improvements have advanced. 
It suits small farming and cottage farming, and hence 
the very general cultivation in Flanders and in Ireland, 
where the above mode of using land prevails. The 
i preparation of the land is laborious, the treatment of 
the growing crop is troublesome, and the application of 
the produce is tedious and expensive, and any plant 
that needs premiums and the rewards of societies to 
support its use, may be suspected to want the intrinsic 
worth, under the soil and climate, and under the cir¬ 
cumstances of the social system, which regulate the use 
and fix the value of every vendible commodity. The 
British cultivator will grow articles which suit his 
market most readily, and at the least cost, of the greater 
return.— Ag. Gazette. 
Lime, or Pure Quick Lime. —Tins earth frequently 
enters into mixture with vegetable juices; it is found 
next to silica, most frequently in the ashes of plants, 
and consequently particular families and species of 
plants, and even the same plants according to their 
different periods of development, exhibit remarkable 
differences. The ash of several species of trees is very 
rich in carbonate of lime; the ash also, of many legu¬ 
minous seeds is rich in this earth, while, on the contrary, 
the stalks of many of the cerealia, so abundant in silica 
contain only a small proportion of lime. Plants of the 
same kind commonly contain less lime in their early 
growth, but a larger proportion of in their advanced 
stages. Many aquatic plants, several of the Myrio- 
phylla, Characeie, and different Alg<e, during their pro¬ 
cess of vegetation, deposit lime, even in crystalline 
grains, upon their inner or outer surfaces, although the 
water in which these plants develope themselves con¬ 
tains only a very little carbonate of lime, which is not 
deposited on other organic bodies. 
It appears from all these circumstances to be highly 
probable, that on the perfect cultivation of various plants, 
lime acts favorably as a virtual means of nourishment; 
and on the contrary, to be injurious to others : accord¬ 
ingly we observe that Chrysanthemum segetum, Erica 
vulgaris, and various species of Carex, become more 
rare when clay lands are improved by lim'e and marl. 
Mixed with soil, lime has the property of preventing 
the formation of the free acids, which, in wet clay lands, 
easily result from the decomposition of organic matter, 
or other process of oxidation. It renders acids already 
present in the soil innoxious, provided they are not in 
too great an amount. Particles of humus, in an almost 
insoluble state, have become, through its agency soluble, 
and converted into a beneficial means of nourishment 
for plants. Heavy clay soils by its means are rendered 
lighter, lose their too great tenacity, and acquire the 
property of drying up more easily.— Prof. Schubler. 
