The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-06-01 00:00:00

Rariculturt.

Nsw AND STRENGTHENING FOOD POE HOBOES.—
Mr. Forbes Watson in his observations on the Pro.
duative Resources of India says :—" With regard to
the grain or chick-pea, from the ricer aricrtium, which
is so largely employed in India, the essential nutritive
elements in it seem to be so fairly balanced that it is not
liable to produce the heating effects usually tensed by
peas and bean*, and it is invariably eaten with relish.
As • food for horses I know of no subetanoe of equal
value. The grain•fed mutton of Bengal has long been
famous. At Messrs. Green's establishment, at Black-
well, it is stated that he has used it both here and at
sea for upwards of thirty years, and has found nothing
equal to it in imparting richness to the milk of cows
and of goato, and flavour and firmness to the flesh of
Pigs and sheep. The price of grain in the Bombay
market varies from 2s. fid. to 4,e. per bushel of 621 b.,
according to quality and lesson of the year; and an
allowance of from 71b. to 10Ib., with about ltlb. of hay,
is found sufficient for an Arab horse, of from 14g to
15 hands, doing fair carriage work daily, or hunting
every second day."
PasMiuMs YOR THE Beer SAMPLES OP BARLEY—Last
year Messrs. Slim& andGodull, of Tewkesbury, offered
• prise of a silver cup, of ten guineas value, to the farmer
who should Bell them the but um ple of barley, not less than
two hundred bushels in quantity. The results were so
satisfactory, that the firm for the succeeding year
offered two cups upon the same conditions, one to be
competed for by growers in the counties of Gloucester,
Woroester, and Hereford ; and the other by those of
Oxford, Wilts, and Berks. The imps were adjudged on
Wednesday, and about 50 samples were shown from the
first.nemed counties, and ten from the other three. The
judges, Mews. A. Saunders, brewer, of Cheltenham ;
W. Turk, maltster, Cheltenham ; and W. H. Gillett,
corn merchant, of Swindon, decided that one prise was
due to J. Hall, Esq., of Ripple, Woroestenhire ; and
the other to W, T. Hayward,loq,, of Little Whittenham,
Berko. They highly commended the barley shown by
Mr. Lane, of Ripple, who won the cup last year. The
competing samples were ranged on Messrs. Miura
stall in the Corn Exchange. The event was celebrated
by • dinner at the Swan Hotel, which was attended by
• great number of the egrioulturiste and merchants of
the neighbourhood, as well as many from • dlictanoe.
POTTING OOP BEDDING PLAMTS.—Plalits which have
been trained up for the summer garden may generally
be put in their places. Caution must indeed be ex.
incised as frosts have occasionally done much injury in
June. Alo duration of fine weather, the advance of
forest • , and other signs will guide the
amateur, and if he keeps • watch over the more tender
things such as dahlias, and coven them up when hail.
otorms may indicate frosty nights, we think that
bedding out may reasonably commence when May has
reached the decline of life and is going down the hill.
Commence with the hardiest and strongest plants, and
let the work be done, it possible, in still weather. The
varieties of flowers which are to occupy the various
beds, and the admixtures of foliage and of oolonro, are
matter' which ought to be decided upon beforehand,
and if • plan of the resolutions adopted is marked down
on paper it will save much trouble and some &up-
pointmenta. A map, constructed with regard to testa
and general effect, will much help the gardener. Turn
out the plants with as little disturbance of the roots as
possible. Sometimes, however, older kinds will be
found root•bound, and in that use the compact mass
should be broken a little so as to disengage the entangled
roots and give them • new direction. Press each plant
firmly into the soil and give it a good watering. Both
the beds and the pots should be in • rather, dry state
when this work it attended to, as nothing is Worse than
working
_ln mud, or clay, or anything approaching to
them. When the soil is • little moist without sticking
to the fingers, it is a state lit for any gardening opera..
tions. Water applied then will run through, and
benefit the roots of the plants without saturating the
material in which they grow. Watering afterwards
must be performed with discretion. The roots will
extend themselves far more rapidly in • dryish warm
substance than in one made crude and cold by overwator
Mg. A good rain will be of great benefit, and so long
as the plants do not suffer from drought it will be beet
to wait for tits friendly irrigation of the (donde. Train.
leg must be kept in mind PA the work of bedding out
proceeds. For instance, verbenas should be pegged
down at ono*, so that they may receive the desired
direction from earliest Infancy, so to speak, since with
plants as with things pommeled of a higher life, edu•
cation should begin young. The last operation of stop.
ping the shoots may also now be attended to, and no
theirs to sive a flower at the present moment should
interfere with the future_ groat advantage, of a robust
and oompoot growth. Finch out, therefore, the heart
of any Wading shoot which seems to be going too much
ahead of the list, and the result will be the formation
of more side branches. Scarlet geraniums, verbenas,
oalceolarlas, and indeed moat things, are the better for
this proem. Where bulbs are mush cultivated they
will now be somewhat in the why of the plants whieh
are to take their places. Unless the Mho is nearly
withered it will injure the bulbs to smith off, and,
therefore, if they must remain where they are the
bedding plante oan be inserted among the I of the
crocuses, Hyacinths, and tulips. A little patients* must
be exeroleed with the untidy appearance this will give
to the bode, and the centrist will be most pleasing when
all this redundant matter twin be cleared away, and the
new plants allowed full and sole occupation. But our
plan io generally to devote a bed in some cool situation
for transplanting the bulb. which we find to he thus in
our way. We take them up with bolls of earth and put
time in trenches In the new plus prepared for them,
where they gradually perfect themselves, and are then
taken up and put sway In a dry shed.—C.R.
STIAII eutzruts.—Any practical proof of this MOT.
room results that seem likely to arise from the intro.
auction of steam In the cultivation of the soil is at theories.
ent moment most valuable, and that the most sanguine
even under.estimeted thew remits seems evident from
the appearance of Hr. Smith's crops at Little Woolatone.
To Kr. Smith undoubtedly belongs the credit of being
the Aria continuously to apply steam power to the oulti.
nation of any one farm and! think all will agree that
we owe him a large debt of gratitude for the peroever•
ante and energy he has shown in working out this great
problem. A visit to his farm would well repay those
Interested in agriculture, as no one can doubt that his
crops are greatly improved and that his working has
shown the most oo,nplete SUOSSIS. Whether Mr. Smith's
plan of not inverting the soil is universally applicable is
• point that must be left to time and experience to
decide. That the avoiding the tread of the hones, and
the deeper cultivation, have tended largely to the result
lie has attained lie would, probably, belt, erot to admit.
Greatly increased crops have been oominon both to the
use of the scarifier and the plough when worked by
steam, as in the case of the plough seen on Mr. Mould's,
Mr. Hobb's, and Mr. BMW'S farms (the latter a very
light sandy soil near Ipswich, on which the result was
as striking as unexpected), and as no equally continuous
trial of the turnover system on the same soil is yet in
existence, no fair comparison can at present be instituted
between them, Mr. Smith has kindly consented to
show his farm as • practical proof of the value of steam
cultivation.
_ _ . . . .

los.—Contrary to the thousand and one fears ex-
pressed by almost everybody who bestowed any thought
upon the subject (the ioe dealers in particular, up to the
early dap' of February, who thought 'the winter was
like to rot in the sky), this has been one of the best ice
seasons we ever knew—better even than many of our
longest, severest winters. There are two good reasons
for this : the first is that the water through the months
of December and January was kept at such a low tem-
perature that the first severely frosty weather froze it
at once, and deeply, forming • pure, mimosa ice; and
the second is, that it had no thaws or rains upon it,
melting the surface into "slush" to spoil its beautiful
hardness, and open the surface pores to let the air either
out or in, and destroy its consistency. In consequence,
our ice-houses all over the country are filled with the
nicest hod' of good, solid ice that ever was got together.
Thirty or forty years ago the use of ice in summer was
little known, and then only as a rare luxury, either in
this or any other country. It is now an indispensible
necessity in our large cities and towns, and the country
family should have it in the absence of a spring-house,
or a well of the coldest water. To the dairymen of our
country ice is to come into almost universal use—par-
ticularly with the butter-makers, through the aid of
preservatories and such-like inventions, which, we are
happy to say, are fast coming into use. And to town's-
people so cheaply is the article now afforded, and
brought to their own doors by the ice companies, that
no house-keeeper can afford to be without it.—American
Agriculturist.
HUMOR IN AN AGIUCULTURAL SOCIETY.—It we are
to credit the Springfield Republican, the managers of
the Amherst (Mau.) Agricultural Society enjoyed a bit
of fun in making up the committee on stook for their
oattle show. If the several boards of judges do not per-
form their duties well it will certainly be no fault of the
manager,. The Republican gives the following example:
—The committee on cattle, upon the principle that "he
who drives fat oxen should himself be fat," was composed
of eight gentlemen whose aggregate weight is over two
thousand pounds! Then the committee on calves (most
impudent selection) ! was wholly composed of members
of the last Legislature. The committee on fowls were
gentlemen from several towns about here, all of them
blessed with the name of Fowls. But the happiest thing,
and one that really had a good grain of satire in it, was
the committee upon maple-sugar. This was made up of
"sweet hearts," three lilies and three gentlemen, who
were flown to be engaged to be married, being upon it.—
American Agriculturist.
PRESERVING CANS, AND A HINT TO TINMEN.-A
fourth year's experience with the air-tight, screw-top,
or self-sealing cans for preserving most kinds of fruits,
has convinced us beyond a doubt that this mode of
putting up fruit ii not only more healthful, but in the
end cheaper than the old-fashioned way of preserving in
sugar. When the fruit season comes round we shall ad-
vise our readers to put up their cherries, strawberries,
raspberries, and by all means the peaches in air-tight
cans. We have these fruits now as fresh and good as
when they were picked last season, but large numbers of
our subscribers wrote last year that they could not get
the cans, without paying double or treble the first cost,
for transportation of such bulky articles. The main ob-
ject of this note is to say that a better way for those
living remote from large towns where these tans are
made, is to secure a quantity of the covers with the
screw caps attached, and have the main body of the can,
that is the sides and bottom, made by • Unman in your
immediate vicinity. Or what would be better, perhaps,
suggest to your Unman to get • growl or two of the oar
more or less, and prepare the cans for sale. This •
was suggested by seeing a quantity of the covers and
caps being packed for a distant Western town. They
are made on a large scale by machinery, and sold at
about $1 25 per dozen, the same cover answering for
• one quart or a two quart can. A dollar per dozen or
at most $1 12, would probably cover the cost of making
the body of the quart cane and the transportation of
the caps. This would bring them below the price
($2 50 per dosen), that they are retailed for at the head
quarters. We are using some quart cans the fourth
year, which redness the cost to 5 cents a year, and this
amount is saved in the lea' sugar required, to say
nothing of the more healthful and more delicious sweet
meats thus secured.—American Apricuttawin.
CURIOUS BISECTS Or LIXS-WATZR.— The J 01414141
de Rouen says A landed proprietor in the neighbour-
hood of Yvetot had in his garden some old apple trees
which produced no fruit. Two winters sgo he took
some lime, which he steeped in water, and with a brush
washed the old trees all over. The result was the des-
truction of all the insects; the old bark fell off, and was
replaced by new, and the trees bore an excellent mop.
Most of them have now acquired such renewed vigour
gat all appearance slag. has disappeared.

Tre:

RIPINING 001,D00111 GINAPZL--BOMO experimente
that have been recently made in France, lead the bops.
fuls to think that outdoor grapes may be made to
ripen as regularly under all seasons in England as in
Paris. A committee of the Society Imperial Rortioul.
turale made experiments last autumn, from which they
feel justified in reporting that the operation of ringing
the vines will canoe the grapes to ripen • fortnight
earlier, and to produce larger berries. A circular cut is
made round • branch of the vine, and 0* bark removed,
by which the return of the sap is prevented, and the
rap islet% to nourish the bunches on the branch. A mere
turrular out procured • good efface, but • ligature did
not answer. The rings of bark removed were from S-
tith' to9-10ths of an inch wide, and the vine did not
at all suffer from its wounds. The time of operation is
after flowering, and when the wine is in full growth.
Imams Nsvtit Gaow.—Many people fancy that •
little Sy is only little because it is young, and that it
will grow up in process of time to be as big as a blue-
bottle. Now this idea is entirely wrong; for when an
insect has once attained to its winged state, it grows no
more. All the growing, and most part of the sating, is
done in its previous states of life; and, indeed, there
are many insects, such as the silkworm moth, which do
not eat at all from the time when they assume .the
ohrysallo state to the time when they dl..—Common
Okeets of the Country. By the Rev. J. G. Wood.