The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-19 00:00:00

THE AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK.

Fn an article under the above heading the Daily
News says
In spite of the sudden changes of an unusually fickle
spring, and of the excessive rainfall to which we have
just been subjected, prospects for the corning harvest,
so far as they can be estimated at present,are decidedly
hopeful, especially when contrasted with the exceed-
ingly gloomy forebodings which accompanied the
advent of the year and continued till the end of Feb.
nat is needed now is warm weather, with plenty
of sunshine. We can scarcely have too forcing a
season up to harvest, as the crops are so late that
such frosts as are likely to occur after the middle of
May will not do them much injury. It is true that
sometimes we have frost as late as June, when
wheat is in bloom, and that great injury results;
but against such a contingency as that no
previously favourable conditions of vegetation
can ever be proof. Apart from such a cata-
strophe, which we hope will not occur, the
quickest maturing of the crops at all likely in our slow
climate must be held to be desirable. Mangolde have
been sown under the most propitious circumstances,
and it is seldom that potatoes have been put into drier
or more friable moulds. Early potatoes have had a
trying time of it, frost having turned their tops
black in some cases, so that new English
potatoes will be very late, if not scarce also.
Other market-garden produce is also late, and
it is to be feared that market- gardeners
will have another bad start this year, though
it may still be hoped that they will be more fortunate
with their late crops. Farmers are now preparing the
land for turnips, and after the abundant rainfall they
may sow with a good prospect of a thick plant. At
present we have heard very little of injury from wire-
worm and other insect pests, and as the best safeguard
against their ravages is a season of rapid growth we
hope that will be forthcoming.
The area of the wheat crop, in spite of the unusually
large breadth of spring wheat, is still considerably
below average. The deficiency is made up for chiefly
with an exceptionally large acreage of barley and
oats. As the season for sowing Leans was very late,
there is probably a barely average acreage of that
crop, and the same remark applies to peas. Of
hops it can only be said that reports are at present
satisfactory as a whole. The bay crop must be
late, but will almost certainly be abundant after
so much rain as we have had, especially as the
clovers are so thick and healthy. Tares and other
feeding crops are very backward, which is awkward
for the owners of cattle and sheep, who have seldom
been more short of keep than they are at present. ,
Partly for this reason, and partly on account of re-
strictions upon the movement of animals rendered
necessary by the recent prevalence of disease, store
stock are not selling well; but as disease has been
rapidly subsiding during the last month, and many
markets which have been closed are now open,
farmers who are short of keep will be able to
dispose of their cattle and sheep to better I
advantage. The crop of lambs is not a large one, the
beginning of the lanabing season having been un-
favourable. Nor has the spring, so far, been favour-
able to dairy farmers, grass being so late in starting.
Still, taking English agricultural prospects as a whole
into consideration, there is great reason for hopeful-
ness, if not yet for congratulation. Everything, of
conrse depends upon the weather up to and through
harvest, and if that should be propitious, we shall cer-
tainly have a more prosperous agricultural year than -
has blessed the country for a long time.

In Scotland and Ireland the lateness cf the season
has told more seriously than in England, and it is too
soon to estimate even agricultural probabilities for
these portions of the kingdom, taking their late and
early districts together. In European countries
generally the climate conditions have been similar to
our own and the results, so far, are also similar, The
American wheat crop is said to be fully a month
behind time, and considerably below average in
appearance. New Zealand has had an excellent
harvest, but in Australia the wheat crop is below
average.
Of fruit prospects it is too early to speak with con-
fidence ; but there is a very great show of blossom,
and although the recent frosts have done some
damage, there is not much to complain of except in
exposed situations and very early districts. If we get
no more sharp frosts we shall probably have a larger
fruit crop than we have enjoyed far many years, apples
especially promising to be abundant,

EMIGRATION to the UNITED STATES.

The New York Correspondent of the Daily News
says :—There has been a great increase in the general
immigration during the past few weeks, and the indi-
cations now arc that the total arrivals this year will be
nearly as large as last year.

During the first four months of this year the total
arrivals at New York have been 103,535, against
138,385 for the same period of last year.

During the first ten days of May, 22876 arrived,
only 476 less than for the same time last May, and the
total for the month is likely to exceed last May's un•
precedented total of nearly 89,000.
There is a marked increase in the Irish Scandinavians,
Germans, and Italians. The character of the arrivals
is much unlike those of recent years. The majority
are young, unmarried, able-bodied, and while generally
better clad, have less money than former arrivals The
Germans continue the most desirable class. Nearly
all are farmers, and have sufficient money to buy farms
in the West. The demand for labour at the Immigra•
tion Bureau greatly exceeds the supply,

The total number of visitors admitted on Whit.
Monday to the State Apartments at Windsor Castle
was 6,399.

PORCELAIN AND FAiENCE AT THE
ZURICH EXHIBITION.

The Geneva Correspondent of The Times writes
"Switzerland's lack of mineral wealth, albeit econo-
mically a great disadvantage, is, in one respect, a
priceless blessing. The pure air of her mountains can
never be fouled by coal, sm.lce, nor the beauty of the
valleys marred by long chimneys, coke ovens, and
pestiferous 'black countries.' She is not only destitute
of ores and native metals, but possesses none of the
earths which whiten by exposure to heat, neither kaolin
nor pipeclay. It is for this reason that the Swiss,
ingenious as they are, have not been able to compete
with neighbouring countries in the production
of porcelain. Nevertheless, in the last century
the porcelains of Nyon, in Canton Vaud, and of
Munster, in Canton Lucerne, acquired a wide if short-
lived reputation. Nyon for awhile equalled Sevres in
the fineness of its wares, and its dessert services,
adorned with rosebuds, violets, and forget-munots, are
still well known and eagerly sought. Several speci-
mens from the collection of Harr Angst, shown at the
Swiss National Exhibition, can hardly be distin-
guished from the choicest productions of Meissen.
But the difficulty of procuring the raw material, all of
which had to be imported, proved fatal to the com-
mercial success of the enterprise, and the manufacture
of porcelain in Switzerland has long been an extinct
industry. On the other hand, as if in some measure
to make up for the lack of kaolin, the country pos.
sesses an abundance of red earths, some of very
superior quality. These red earths have been turned
to good account not alone for the making of common
pottery, but for the production of highly artistic
faience. The industry is an ancient one, some of the
specimens shown at the Zurich Exhibition dating from
the 14th century. Several of them, the property of
the Museum of Lucerne, are moulded in relief.
"The Bernese Oberland has long been the seat of an
extensive manufactory of red earthenware, and some
of the older examples, which are marked by a certain
originality of design, are much sought by foreign col-
lectors. Winterthur produces a sort of pottery mid-
way between the utilitarian wares of the Oberland and
decorative faience, and Basel sends an interesting ex-
hibit of brilliantly black and richly-ornamented
articles and white faience of excellent workmanship.
But in this branch of artistic industry the Swiss
Romande far surpasses German Switzerland. The
faiences of Nyon, Carouge, and Geneva, with their
beautiful flowers in relief, brown plates with arabesque
patterns, both cut and in relief, large vases and orna-
mental tea, coffee, and dessert services, are of a high
order of merit, and attest the rapid progress which
this industry—one of the most promising in the
country—is making.
"The exhibition contains several fine epecimentof
faience stoves, both ancient and modern, in the pro-
duction of which Switzerland has for ages excelled.
This industry flourished from the 16th to the 18th
century, and its most important seat was Winterthur.
These stoves are composed of tiles which, in the
first instance, were embellished with figures in
strong relief, painted green or brown, and highly
varnished. The scenes depicted are nearly always
Biblical and in great variety. Built as they are in
stages en retraite, and surmounted with a highly
artistic qpping, the whole in true Renaissance style,
some of the stoves are exceedingly beautiful. At a
later period it became the fashion simply to ornament
the tiles in colours on a white ground. Swiss stoves
in this style of the 17th century are unrivalled. The
most illustrious masters did not disdain to furnish
designs for their decoration. The subjects, mostly
allegories and personifications, were well chosen and
skilfully executed. A Swiss gentleman of that age
often spent as much money in the decoration of his
stoves as on the building of his house.

"After the seventeenth century painting in colours
was superseded by designs in blue, of which the sub-
jects, at first artistic, degenerated into the conven-
tional and stereotyped landscapes. In the end,
decoration was altogether abandoned and the stoves
were built inexpensively of white faience tiles. But
the, older stoves are as remarkable for the beauty of
their form as for the richness of their adornment.
"The making of faience stoves has recently been re.
vived, and a wonderful specimen, modelled by Mr. F.
Pt sue, of Winterthur, in whose family the art has
been a tradition for generations, is on view at the exhi.
bition. It is hexagonal in shape, and supported on four
pedestals in the form of lions. Under the coping is a
frieze, on which are depicted night and morning and
the four seasons,while, lower down appear allegoric
figures representing faith, justice, charity, and other
virtues. The back part of the stove touches the
wall, through which, from the outside, after the
manner common in Germany and Switzerland, the
fire is fed with fuel. On either side of the stove is a
seat, also in faience. In the centre are niches con-
taining, in full relief, statuettes emblematic of the
five continents. The entire front is decorated in
painted faience ; and here and there, according to
ancient custom, appear texts and verses in old German
characters.

"Another specimen, on which are painted, in deep
green on a white ground, the five senses, in the style
of the sixteenth century, is an exact reproduction of a
stove of that age still in use in the ()Wean of
Wulflingen."