The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

THE POTATO CROP.—The letters from all districts of
Ireland continue to report the complete destruction of the
potato crop. It is stated that there is hardly in any part
of the country a sufficiency of supply up to Christmas,
and in most places the crop fit for human consumption
will not last to the middle of November.

A REMEDY FOR 'IRE POTATO DISEASE.—Take a three-
pronged fork, put it in just sufficient to raise the root and
soil surrounding it, and I wilt guarantee it answering.
This will cost ss. 9th per acre, which 1 am now paying.
I found this out last year by pulling up a few roots, as
every one is apt to do, to see how they go on ; the disease
did not touch them, although the remainder were as bad
as poss'ble.—J. vans, Newton Abbot.—Agricultural
Gazette. _ _

The Downpatrick Recorder says: " we have had as
fine a week of glorious weather as the anxious husband-
man could desire for the securing of his crops. A great
breadth of ground has been cleared in consequence, and
in the finest order. The wheat crop is not only abundant,
but of superior quality. Oats are not so favourably
spoken of; they are represented as being light and small
in the pickle. Batley is an average crop and of fair qua-
lity. Should this fine weather continue another week,
the harvest would be well nigh completed in this neigh-
bourhood.

SCARCITY OF FRUIT.—We believe the price now paid
in London for good ripe fruit is much above what it has
been for the last twenty years. The following compara-
tive statement shews how scarce and dear good apples,
pears, and stone-fruit are : 1845 1846
Pears, per pot .
Plums, ditto ........ 4s. to 58.-18 s. to 225.
Damascenes, ditto
' Apricots, per dozen .... 44. to Is.-Is. 6d. to 31.
Peaches, ditto ls to Is. 6d.-2s. to 3s. 6d.

CUCUMBERS.—The very warm weather with which we
have been favoured this summer, seems to Lave been
favourable to the growth of cucumbers; no less than two
tons of which (a novel way of reckoning this fruit) were
brought to Norwich on Tuesday night last. They were
taken to the market the next morning, an:l in a few hours
nearly the whole of them were disposed of. Two or three
small heaps remained about one o'clock; which were being
retailed at four-a-penny. They were brought from Bed-
fordshire, where they were grown in the open air in great
quantities. Though small and not very inviting in ap-
pearance, they were by no means ill-flavoured, and were
well adapted for pickling.—Norfolk Chronicle.

IMPROVED CENTRAL FIRE GUN--There can be no-
thing more important to our sporting friends, the shoot-
ing season having commenced, than to observe the im-
provement that has recently been made by our townsman,
Mr. Bentley (whose advertisement appears in our paper
of to-day) in the construction of the ordinary fowling
pieces. By the ordinary principle, combustion is com-
municated to the charge in the barrel by an angle or el-
boar, and is consequently slow ; but, by the new principle,
it is direct, the nipple being placed angularly at the
breach of the gun. The only objection that could ever
be urged against this principle was the probability of the
rapid:explosion blowing off the nipple; but this is now so
arranged (fitting with a cone into the interior of the part),
that three or four threads of screws are beyond the reach
of the explosive power, and the powder cannot exert any
force upon it. To use the words of the circular, " the
patent guns have given satisfaction to every sportsman
that have tried them ; they shot quicker, stronger, and
are considered safer to use than the usual gun. They can
be made with back or fore action locks, and old guns can
be altered to the patent principle.
PRESERVATION OF FLOWERS.—Aar you are fond of
having flowers in your room, and as your present garden
is so far from your house, you will perhaps be glad to
know how to preserve cut flowers as long as possible.
The most simple rules are, not to put too many flowers in
a glass, to change the water every morning, and to remove
every decayed leaf as soon as it appears, cutting off the
ends of the stems occasionally, as soon as they show any
symptoms to decay. A more efficacious way, however,
is to put nitrate of soda in the water ; as much as can be
easily taken up between the forefinger and the thumb, put
into the glass every time the water is changed, will pre-
serve cut flowers in all their beauty for above a fortnight.
Nitrate of potash (that is, common salt petre), in powder,
has nearly the same effect, but it is not quite so effi-
cacious.—Mre. Loudon's Lady's Country Companion.
THE ERRORS OF Romu.—The Romish Church is in-
fallible and contradictory to herself ; she reduces the
whole sacrament to one half ; scripture is veiled by hor
own traditions; prayer is made in public in an unknown
tongue ; fasting is elevated to the rank of a meritorious
performance for salvation, and not retained as a mere dis-
cipline of the soul; reliance is placed too often in crea-
tures, and not exclusively in God ; dependance on outward
acts of religious worship and alms is substituted for in-
ward acts of thought and grace ; the intention of the priest
is made the cause of withholding the presence of Christ in
the holy sacrament ; salvation is denied in the most posi-
tive terms to all who do not unite with these peculiarerrors,
and adopt them as a standard of true religion. Is not this
catalogue of practices error ? and are they not additions
to the Apostles' Nicene and Athanasian creeds? Where
will you find them binding on the conscience, even in the
Roman communion before the Council of Trent? At that
fatal assembly Rome committed an act of religious sui-
cide. She bound the millstone of changeless additions in
the creeds of her triple crown, and it must sink, and is
doomed at last never to rise again. This impolitic Council
rivetted the chains of infallibility upon those subject to
her community. It is equally fatal to break and to bear
the chain. She-lost in that city her freedom, and wrote
anathemas against her throne.—Hollinsarvorth's Folly of
going to Rome for a Religion.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE OXEN.—The sagacity and do-
cility of the Cape ox, when properly trained, is amazing :
good cattle, without any guide, and on the darkest night,
will adhere to a road, and never leave it whilst in harness;
should they by any accident lose their way, they will stop.
On these occasions the two leading oxen, always the best
in the span, carry their heads close to the ground, and
seem to be exercising all their powers of discernment.
They. obey the voice of the driver, when desired to go to
the right or left, with great readiness. I have even heard
of a trader to Port Natal, whose oxen would bring an
empty waggon across narrow but deep rivers, if they only
saw their master wave a white handkerchief on the oppo-
site bank; the leaders appeared to watch for this signal,
and, on beholding it, at once dashed in and swam in its
direction. This story may appear incredible, but I had it
from a very respectable person. It may assist the reader
to give him a slight description of the Cape ox-waggon
it is clumsy and uncouth in its appearance, but never was
any vehicle more admirably adapted for contending with
bad roads, upsets, and other vicissitudes of South African
travelling. Should an overturn occur, it is so constructed
that the sides, roof, and other portions, easily clench
themselves from the bed, and in half an hour all may be
replaced; or if a fracture have taken place, excepting in
the wheels, which con rarely happen, it may be mended
or supplied on the path, by the aid of a few tools and some
green wood.—Wanderings in South Africa.