The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-24 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE.

JuffP.r.itig,....Maere j. suid. Central..
viotilT' not press Icadi in(

i be

A recent journey through many counties in Western
" flentrai England, says the A ricultural Gazette,
.nevitably to the conclusion that the prospects of
the harvest of 1816 are worse than those of many past
years. Wheat is often spindling and yellow, and every-
where at least a fortnight late; and spring sown corn
crops are almost univtraally below par. We have
never before eeen,so much late sown oats and barley—
looking now, indeed, as it ought to look in April.
Beans are coming into bloom on DM unusually short
stem. Fellows are foul, and grass is very short.
The Magnet says : —The crops have improved, but
they are very backward, and a long spell of dry, bright
weather is now required to bring them to maturity.
This is especially the case as regards hay. There is a
better supply of grass in the pastures than was ex-
pected, but sunshine is now essentially aceseary to
secure a good yield.

The Maidstone Journal states that the hop bine is
grawing very rapidly where the land is well cultivated,
but where the ground is badly cultivated the poles ate
rather thinly clad. Fly is on the decrease. Warm,
nights are much desired, as well as genial and growieg
showers. Hoptying is. being pushed rapidly on, the
bine in many cases having out grown the reach of the
hop-tyers, mid gained nearly the top of the poles. As
regards fruit prospects, the same paper pays, although
for some time it has been known that the fruit etop
would be short, the weather of late has been such that
the prospect is still more unfavourable. There is a
great quantity of maggot in the apples and nuts, and
much ot the stone fruit has "run down." Of course in
this, as in every other crop, there are favoured spots,
where the producer will reap a rich harvest.

A FIGGER OF SPEECH.
I had a fig•tree in my garden growing,
I sat one eve beneath its sheltering shade,
When, a low bough with stately grace bestowing,
To me, astonished, this remaik it made :
" Oh, gentle poet, 'neath my leaves reclining, .
When your ungainly limbs and head I view, i
I can but sympathize with your repining; • .e.L
We both are figgers, so I feel Li.

EPITOME OF NEWS
BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

In the last five months the value of eggs imported
was £1,217,743; in 1875, £1,288,720.

Tuesday, June 20, Was the thirty-ninth anniversary
of her Majasty's accession to the Throne.

- -
The Glasym Malt By the Tweed is this year in
fetel with otters, which are a source of groat annoyance t
anglers.

Her INlijesty the Queen attended Divine service in
the chapel at Balmoral Castle on Nionday incrnlng. The Res.
Mr. Campbell, ol Crathie, preached.

The Rev. Newman Hall intends to open his new
church with great ceremony on July 4, the anniversary of
the declaration of independelace.
This year the' indigo imported was valued at
£1,555,473; last year in the same period, £1,375,939.

It is stated that the complaint for which Prince Bis-
marck has been ordered to drink the waters of Kissengen is
induration of the bons.
Dynamite is being need to uproot -a number of fine
old trees on the Duke of Hamilton's estate, and the process is
remarkably expeditious.
One of the wives of the late Sultan has died at•
Tcberaghaiñ. She had never been recognised or even beard
of until she died. She had been iil for some time, and recent
events were too much for her.

Kladderadatsch has a caricature, which is to the
point. The three European doctors aro at ilia beside of
Turkey in consultation, buS, while the patient is djing, they
are carefully feeling each other's pulse.
The ChanCellor of the Exchequer acknowledges•
In The Times, as "Conscience Money," the receipt cf the
first half of a £lO note from "A." for Income Tax.
_ _ _• _ _ _

The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the
performances at-Her Majesty', Opera on Monday evening,
with a numerous suite,.
A coroner's inqiiiry, held -on Monday, returned a.
verdict-of accidental death in the case of tne unfortunate
persons who were-drowned by the cspslzing of a boat off
Eastbourne.' • .
A ball was given a few evenings ago by her Majesty
the Queen to the tenants and servants at Balmoral. Her
Majesty joined in the dance. On Monday the Queen was
present at the baptism of the infant son of one of her
tenants. ,
A parliamentary return obtained by Mr. Hanbury
Tracy thews that the total number of corporal punishments
inflicted in the navy curing the years 1869.74 was as follows ;
in 1869, 60; in 1810, Si; in 1871, 51; in 1872, 16; in 1873, 19;
In 1874, 8: total, 210.
"Out of one hundred and seventeen laiies in
Michigan University only four have taken to law." How
many have taken to lawyers is not stated.

A no,hl suspended railway car for sick and wounded
has been successfully tried by the Great Eastern Railway of
France. This will prove a boon, as hardly any movement is
felt by the patient, even when trains are stopped with ex-
treme suddenness.

The Marquis du Val-Dieu died suddenly on Sunday
at Paris, at the age of seventy.eight, from the rapture of an
aneutism as he was stooping to kiss the hand of the Countess
Dowager de la Tour d'Atadec in her drawing•room, Rue de
Ponthieu. The marquis was one of the last survivors of the
body-guard of Charles X.—Court Journal.

- -
One of the chief amusements at present for Parisian
high life is the mill-coach plc-nic. Several owners of four-in-
hands start for a fixed point 'natio the suburbs; if a passable
Inn can be found, the parties enjoy their ease there at dd.
jtflier; if not, the materials far a lunch are extracted from
the boots, a tent run up, and a dance improvised if passible
on the grass.

Last year there were publi.hed in Japan two new
daily, four weekly, and one monthly periodicals; one novel;
one aictiomry ; one geography, grammar, and history corn-
blued; and a number of official statements, the latter
actually bound in blue. The land of blue dragons take now
to blue books.
The parish church of Prestbury, near Macclesfield,
one of thedoldest churches in the kingdom, was struck by
lightning last Friday during a thunderstorm. The electric
fl lid. destroyed the vane en the top of the steeple, and passing
down the north side of the tower damaged a large portion of
the batirens.
A West Indian correspondent gives an expressive
idea of the delights of the bone fever, wnich prevails in those
latitudes, when he says that often, when first attacked, did
he lie in his berth, "and revel in luxurious recollections of
the hippy day when he was only sea-sick."
The Duke of Bedford has presented to the congrega•
tion of Bunyan Chapel, Bedford, • a pair of massive bronze
gates .from the studio of Mr. Frederick Thrupp. The panels
are ten in number, and each has a bas-relief illustrative of a
scene in the Bunyan allegory.
"As the custenn of decorating the interior of churches
is becoming more common, we would suggest, at least in the
country, for each church to grow its OWII flowers, and th is
accomplish two ends—decorating both the church and the
churchyard. In many country and suburban churchyards
there is plenty of room in which even the choicest liewers
might be grown in quantity."—The Garden.

From a parliamentary return just issued, it appears
that there were forty six deaths in the Metropolitan district
during the year 1875 upon which a coroner's jury had re-
turned a verdict of death from starvation, or ueuth accele-
rated by privation. Thirty-two of these cases cccarred in
the eastern division of Middlesex, seven In the central, one
In the western, one in the City and Liberty of Westminster,
and five in the City of London and. Borough of Southwark.
Lapland mothers are not in the habit of staying at
home with their babies. The Laps are a Ye ry religious people,
and take long journeys to hear their pastors. As soon as the
family surly,' at tbe little wooden- church, and the reindeer
ere wilted, the father shovels a snug little bed in the snow,
and the mother wraps the baby in skins and depoiits it
therein, then the father piles the snow around it, and the
dog is set on guard, while the parents go decorously into the
church. Often as many as thirty babies may be seen laid
away in the snow about a aurch.
The elephant presented to the Prince
of I;\rae large
Wales
eshgle female
Indilndia, and
ndwhich is now in the Z )ological Gar-
dens, has been given by his Royal Highness to the society.
The two small elephants which have attracted so much public
attention since their soj )urn in the gardens are, together
with the large male elephant, to be taken to Sandringham
as !non as a proper place has been prepared for them
there.
A. young man, named William Henry Hirons, the
son of a publican at Atherstone, In Warwickshire, went
into the cout.try to carry out a sheep-shearing engagement'
and while he was engaged in the work one of the animals
suddenly became vicious, and butted him severely in
athveaisl,totmheapch.oor Afelelldoic,adlyalitd,gwiansgprreoactuargedor,,
yhnit triomprtohveedeofffeentos
of the injuries infEcted.

A bill has been printed bearing the names of Sir
EArdley Wilmot, Mr. noyer, and Mr. Serjdant Simon, which
proposes "to enable courts and justices to send to a certified
reformatory school, without previous imprisonment, young
children of tender age when convicted of certain felonies
and tnlsdbmeanoura." The bill gives power to magistrates to
scud such children to a workhouse while inquiries respecting
a school are being made.

At noon, on Monday, an explosion of dynamite took
place in the workshop ot Msrs 13-and and Sous, railway
contractors, 13urnbat:k, Hamilton A quantity of what was
considered to be damaged dynamite, and to be useless for
blasting purposes, had been thrown aside into a shed adjoin-
ing the smith's shop. This dynamite exploded, spreading
destruction among the workshops, and more or less damaging
other buildings. Six mon were killed on the spot, and
another is seriously. injured.

The reduction of miners' wag,es in West Yorkshire
by 121 per cent, is not likely to be resisted. The miners'
secretarr, Mr. B. Pizkard has, says the Sheffield I'ele9raph,
Written to all the lodges, "that we are on the eve of a ter-
rible crisis, mid that there is not to be a strike, but that terms
are to be made somehow." He assures the miners that if
there is a strike there is every. Ilkellhood that it would.con-
tinue for some time', with the possibility of having to Ail/mit
to a still greater reduction.
A peasant of Lavagnola, in Liguria, recently took•
an old picture which had been long lying in aloft to hang
before some broken equares of glass in a window to keep out
the wind, 31 Disegui, professor of music at Genoa, pur-
chased it for 701. Ile afterwards sold it to M. Periano, a con-
noisseur, who, having had is restored, discovered that it was
an authentic MI, Family by Raphael, and the Academy of
Urbino has deci,ted In the same aense. The frame bears the
arms of the ROVere family, the archives of which relate that
a picture on that subject was ordered of the great painter. •
A Parliamentary return
asuhdowths,,
pro
that
ct3h:3,4lg;rtoh.ses
revenue for the year 1875 of
rtash,nechhocmsessm;annedytiloeridierortiabnt branch
1,t19:110;
gortothserervoesntuOehlo
fc et
the
foreign
b()
and the gross revenue of the•colonial branch £7,830,
profit £3,296. The home gross revenue Includes the sum of
£5300, being the proceeds of money orders forfeited in the
year. The estimated Cost of an Inland raoney order i
and the estimated cost of a foreign or colonial sor3dde,
r-
T. Hon. J. 1. Featherston, Agent-General for
New Zealand, died at Brighton on Monday, after an illness
of tivo months' duration. Mr. Featherston has been con-
tinuously engaged in the service of the colony, since, the pass-
ing of the New Zealand Constitution Act of 148. • During the
Maori war he took the field at the head of a native contin-
gent, and displayed such remarkable personal courage in
loading them into action on the occasion of the assault and
capture of the Otapawa Pa, that General Sir Trevor Chute
recommended him for the diatinction of the New Z-Jaland
Cross, which was conferred up on him. Besides being chief
of the Exrcutive of his Province, Mr. Few hereon was twice
a member of the NtAv Z3aland CaLinet,. Mr. Featherston
was in his sixty-third year,
"Without doubt we aro y"l7 rapidly increasing our
knowledge of the denizens 4,1514 e aeep by means of the
aquariums, to which they teeth' to take' so kindly, and in
which we are able to observe them at our leisure. It ,y seem
to be so far at home in their tanks as to breed wits' great
liberality, and the case of a conger eel at Southport within
the past few days, gives us a good idea of their immense fer-
tility, and of the enormous waste of life or amount of life
absorbed in supporting life, in a couger eel weighing about
sixteen pounds were seven pounds of ova. On the bulk of
the whole being taken, and a small portion being counted,
the number oL eggs was found to be 8,336,612. Sixteen
pounds is light weigljt for a conger eel, and the question
naturally arises what would be the fair proportion for the Lea
serpent,. putting the length at the very moderate estimate of
about a buzidral andfitt Pt!et!...7.Bvenng Stantked.