The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-04-09 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE.

My father invariably planted mall-sized pototoe.,
and was careful, when none such were to be had to
cut the large ones until no oieoe contained more than
• single eye. lie had a neighbour, a brother, whose
rule through life in this matter wee the exact oppoeith
The field. adjoined, and in so far ea anything could be
discovered, there was no difference whatever in mill .r
the quality of the soil or ineth.ni of cultivation. Yet
there were failures and succeseee on both aide., no
often on ooe as on the other; and an experience of 50
years' potato growing left both estiefivi a. to the
soundnees of their individual views, without any other
perceptible difference except that my father hal the
satisfaction of eating his finest potatoes, while my
uncle dined on smell ones. This is but a single
instance by way of example, and every one will
remember plenty of others in his own experience.
NOTE FROSI WEATHER AN!) WORK.
We have certainly passed through one of the in 4
extraordinary winters, so lota, weather is concerneds
that we ever remember. A winter with a r.infall :e..
than an average thiumer is something untnival, but lot
the some to be accompanied by an almost no roken
gpai of mild weather is a circumstance bevoit,l the
ken of the oldest inhabitant. In conerquence .Ef the
very favourable weather, work of all Mod. is v.-I.y
forward. the bulk of the spring seeding being preuy
geaerally conpieted, and that in the best poseinle
rammer. On most farina a portion of the barley land
I. still occupied by the cheep fold, and will be for
several weeks to come; in f•ct, we never rth .llect so
large a quantity .1 •wthies at thin tits. ..1 the tear.
Grass, no, is very f ourard—more so than we have
often see it the first week in %lay. As a natural con.
sequence of the abundance f be p, sheep an.l rude
are making long p ices. The wheat pleat is looking
well, not by any main*" winter proud," bat in a good
healthy state. It is far to ea.ly yet, „f coon, to
calculate on present appearanee, but we ars thankful,
so far.—J.J.L. ii. " Agricultural Gesetre."
- - - -

SINGULAR DISE VSE AMONG 'CATTLE
Mr. Leath, an extend.° farmer. reeiding at
Lamplugh Hall, Cumberland, has jut sawed a
awn, laws through the death of several cattle.
Notisiuff • fault .4 in the audition of he. stock, he
commeoced to give them rough cotton cake, Indian
moid, arid locust beard The Mali in charge I, are
twice as muc:: e. an ordinary feed to them. One cow
.addeoly. and another, which wee strangely
attacked, was alauil.ltered- The next days bull died,
awtthe following y* two more &Wt. Mr. Thomp.on,
of Aepatria, Mr. S. HojMoO, Of Brigham, and M.
Feulder, of Cocker...tab, m els am examination of the
deed animate sad have comao the conclusiou that
death nisi:died from splenic apopka:r. There are shout
fourscore cattle altogether, .onia of a-hich are affected
I...clierse, and some am In a critic.] The
prone fatal in front fcur to twenty. four house,
and the animals display unusual frfalna,M when
attacked. This is the tret outbreak of this awes,
that has ever occurred in Cumberland.
A SPIDER'S INSTIN(T.
Dr. J. Lawrence, Hamilton, writes from 34,
Gloucester-terrace, Hyde Park, Loudon :—" Tbe
following incident, which I witnessed, may possibly
faltered some of your readers :—A boy rent oved a
men spider to place It in the centre ,4 a big spider'.
web which was hung smog f diage, and distant souse
ut. from tkr giNatli.i. The larger animal son rushed
from it. hiding place under a leaf to attack the in.
under, who ran up one of the emending lines by
*Web the web was secured. The big io.oct golood
mod', upon his desired prey. the entaller cretin»
4opidom ma cannibals, notably the larger lemal, who
gi en to devour their smaller male lovers). Wkea
=Nile spider we. barely an inch in adraace of it.
tier, the small spider out with one of Its
en pooforf,
ate Bp* behind itself, that the stronger beam
Fto the ground, thin affording time and opportunity
for the ditaisatire spider to wow. along ths monad-
big rope of the web. This is MX the only fait which
semi to indica* ibi•l • *kiln laglaci may 611"11
Wig iernate."

The country now beiter understands what the
preliminaries of wet cied than before the Budget was
introduced to the Howe of Commons. and an estimate
of the fiscal burdens which war itself must entail win
the community may be torment upon tilerably accurate
ground.. Doing very Utile tau already occasion° I the
expenditure of very much. A naval or military pro.
menatle is an expensive spectacle. Miami cannot
walk round and show their muscles, an prize fighters
were wont to do, without coosiiierably outlay. Some'
body must pay for the exhibition, awl in the care of
England the taxpayer, are compelled to put their
hands into their pockets. Unfortunately, in the
pre-ent exce•dianal depreedon of trade, too many of
them find nothing else there when thee make a
despairing effort to pay the collectors. The prospect
is not a plea.a t one. Tittle are 'midges that business
i. about to revive; the Eeetern Question etill stops the
Way .1 commercial enterprise; preparations for war
agitate the public mind • menu& iturers are afraid to
execute orders for Rued; or Turkey ;iiiiubt, perplexity,
surmise, conjecture, all are rife, and &trip- remains
in a state of chew No light comes out of the derk-
nr is ; the theatre is crow, led with an anxious throng;
hills of the play cannot be obtained, fir they bare not
Iren issued, and an impatient people begin to think
the curtain will newer flee. 'the Budget, therefore,
c,imee as • relief, and alth 'ugh the Eastern Question,
like Charles the Filet's head which Mr. 11 ck always
paw in the petirion, is interwoven with the fizoree and
statistics set forth, there is some satisfaction in having
to look at the suldect from an economic, rather
than a "Rule Britannia" point id view. The
naiiiinal revenue last year reached the sum of
£79,763 298, which was an excels of £617,295; the
expenditure in connection with all ,lep.,ri,seeta was
4778 903.495, leaving • surplus of income amounting
£359,803. No time has been Ist in expending • large
portion of the six millions voted a short time ago.
Ed 500,000 having already been lair] out This turns
the surplus into a deficit of C 2.640,000 To meet the
deficiency Exchequer bonds for one year have been j
issued to the amount of £2.750.000, and £730,000 of I
the surplue has been aeide. The country has to be
thankful for only small mercies. No attempt, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer says, will be made to I
propose another Vote of Credit, hut it will be necessary
to present supplementary estimates. It is to be '
presumed that under any circumstances more money
will be required. If war is an expensive game, so also,
it would appear, is the preservation of peace. The
expenditure of the ensuing year Sir Stafford Northcote
thinks will amount to £81.020,000. The right hon.
gentlemen puts the Army down for £l5 595,800 the
Navy at £11,833. 901, the Civil service at £l4 816,475,
National Debt at £28,000.000, Indian Charges at
el, 080,030, and Consolidated Fund at £9,689.814.
The position of affairs is not altogether hopeful.
Upwards of two millions more must be found next
year than during the teat twelve months, and that,
ton, irrespective of any supplementary estimates
whi b the Chancellor of the Exchequer assures
Parliament and the the country will in all probability
be required If expenditure is to he taken as an
indicati of wealth, England is gradu illy getting to
be an affluent nation indeed. Forther, it should be
home in mind that a portion of the deficiency which.
in the DedreDitte, 111112 iunte to upwards of five toildop,s
sterling, is left over for settlement to a more con-
Vo,llBlli IDD.. ID ord-r to iron 'e for the increased
outlay contemplated, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Imposes to make a ch ewe in rowel of the Howe
Doty, whereby the care-takers of professional offices
will be plawel on the s tme footing as traders, and sepia,
ate tenements be charged asseverate houses, The dog tax
is to be iiicreass from 5s to 7.. 6 1., a SUM by no means
excessive. Had it been four times IM much the puulies
would not have objected, since there is to be an
exemption in favour of dogs used by shepherds and ,
or other useful purposes. Twopence is ad led yo the
income tax • and anemic)! penny now produce £1,800,000 I
It ie calculated that 23 OW.OOO will be obtainel in the
present year. lii ad 'Won to this it is proposed to
add fourpenoe per pound to the duty on tobacco,
raising it to 3e 61 l'he present yield of the tax is
C 7.164,000, end it is anticipated that it will then be
raised to £9,723,000, so that, allowiaw for • draw.
hack the tobacco duty will supply £750 000 of the
deficit. Income tax and tobacco duty togirber. thers
fore, sill yield adill banal revenue of 4,500 000 for
the coming year. leaving • renisient for next year,
which might be £1,550,000 or 12.000.000. It is to be
regretted that recourse ers. n .t ha I to an increased
duty in spirits ass • means of meeting the deficiency.
The income tax presses very heevily won those wtio
Are in receipt of *mall salmis', out of which they are
coni, elled to keep up what is conventionally called
"a decent appearance.' Pressure taken off such
people and cast up •n the consumers of spirit could
Riot reasonably have ben reveled in the light of •
grievance. But the preset g.ivernment owe • great
d al to licensed, victuallers, and they cannot he
charged with ingratitude toward, them. It may still
be hoped that war wiU be averted, and that the
necessity for asking f more will not arise. Paw
experience, however, suggest. that, whether hostilities
are commenced or not, when ODDS GOvell2looot
departmente have been put in a position to spend
m 'hwy. they seldom be,in to illustrate the pimiples of
economy until the full amount voted ha, been
ex coded. Precedents give rise to pretext+, and the
country, under any circumstances must he peepers' to
meet the enormous hill of c eta which the eh incellor
the rxecbquer laid before Parliatnaut the other
night.

Who is responsible forth. manning of her Majesty's
ships? Take for instanoe the ill-fated Eurydice.
What exquisite taste is therein displayed, every one
must admit when iii. rem-mhered Eurydice the wife
of • Macedonian King, wee chiefly distinguished for •
criminal partiality for her daughter's hualsand,
sacrificii24 her own husband and a eon in her lewd
oineiiiracies. A nice sort of WoMall to be coin.
memorated truly!
A person ads-stridess in the Daily Yelol that he has
r disposal " about fifty manuscript lei mon* preached
by eminent minister:, and taken down in shorthand
verbatim at time of delivery.*

The fallowing is • version of the Crimean War taken
loins leading Moscow newspaper :
_ .

" Nam the bloated shopkeepers— of the North Sea Sand
Bank forgotten the time when the Russian sea heroes
drove their porter drinking Admiral • ()barley from the
shone of fort-girt Cranetadtl Elam the purse-prood
aristoonier of the Nei. eesoby Lverion metropolie
(molten the day when the ranks of kneel= steel
ee= down the elopes of Alma and Inkermann, and
c ismumine into Lail the honer of Island Ties
war of Mg vas glory to Reels and aunts to Rurope. It
i„..velt three nations to melee flebeetopol--• gain a a
N. an log we men than no had in all our arnar.
Buats named, aar trebled, her strength slam thin.
tb. anginal* nations of Western Zurope have
Ramie act vi three nations in UM;
sb• mad detest si: as:JO:5 in Vgif

One of Mr. MlHiss's great works for inhibition IS
the Royal Academy this year is ectitied "St.
Martin'. Summer." The plums has only tittle
meaning in this country, exoept on the Southern
shores and in the Channel Islands, if them last
remnants of the Norman Duchy may be included in
the term "our country'; there, by the way, the
name of St. Martin's Summer is prettily rendered in
the Norman French as "Th. little Summer of St. '
Maio." Very dear to the farmer and to the poet is
this mem tit of sunshine, the time when
summer mem, to awe ea for • few bright days from
Isar grawsbar,e. thaogb to rebuke the unkina winds
sod Will which lave ands sham big of peit of bar

If the Budget is not ana altogether satisfactory docu-
ment, it is, at least, vastly less unsatisfactory than was
anticipated. Conservative Governments do not save
money, or, at least, they have never done so since the
time of Sir Robert Peel, whose" sliding scale " was •
great nationsl scheme of retrenchment. It is necreeary
to remind onrselvm oecssionally, however, that so long
as from year to year we are not vastly increasing our
expenditure we are virtually retrenching. The national
debt, etiormons aa it ii., neverthelem bears • much
smaller projaytiou to the national wealth than it did
in years gone by. Sir Stafford Northonte's scheme for
increasing the revenue is admirable from its simplicity.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not a great
financier, like some of his predecessors, but with him
we are at least secure &name the ambitious flights and
eccentric crotchet, of Disraeli or Lowe. Wino the
the tax on dogs was reduced some years ago from 12s.
to 5a , there was a wide-felt satisfaction at the change.
But since then public sentiment has altered; dogs • Ave
multiplied enormously, hydrophobia has increased, and
it has become impossible not to feel the superabundance
of the canine race or nuisance. If the tax had been
raised to 10a., or even restored to it. original figure of
12s, most people would have preferred it. For my
own part, fond as I am of doge. I should hail with
pleasure an almost timbibitory tax on them in towns.
There must be hundreds of thousands of dogs in
London. and whilst we spend untold wealth to remove
human seerscre, our streets are everywhere rendered
foul and offensive by other carnivorous animals; •
state of things which cannot be healthy.
Everyone hot the tobaco • merchants join in the
sensible remark of Sir Patrick O'Brien thst the tax on
tobacc i might just as well have been raised by Si
as by 4.1.; the diffrrenoe to the consumer will he
exactly the same. As it is tobacoonisa will grail*
increase their profit; just a • the eff -ct ..f the last
remission of the sugar duties was to enrich the wiser
merchants whilst it failed to benefit the comnunie.

There is something unusual in the torpid condition
ci ehe country. Under any ordinary circumstanoes
Lord Derby's resignation and the calling out of the
Reserves would have sent a thrill through the country.
It would have been understood an a direct appeal to
arms, and the challenge thrown out by the War
Party would have been taken up by the peace men.
As it is, the country is dumb. Mr. Richards and the
Peace Society have one of their usual mild protests,
which come. as a matter ,4 course, and, like the regu-
Latin. grace of the regulation chaplain, have little to say
to the epeechea which follow. But as to the country
at large, it has no vice at all. or Probably think., that
Bosnia is en utterly wrong in withholding the Treaty
from the rongtess that we are justili ni in any nmount
of rraiettrice t, her. Bid between that stage cod the
outbreak of hostilitiee and many steps have to be
taken, and this is the very point on which the country
ought to make up its mind.