important branch of industry in every society, and more especially in one where all the finer arts are yet in a state of infancy. In Africa, however, both the extent of cultivation and the processes employed are still extremely imperfect. This is particularly manifest from the fact, that no private property in land has been any where established. Every city or village is en. circled by an unoccupied domain of forest or waste, belonging to the king or the state, and of which a portion is ready to be granted to any one who will undertake the labour and expense of cultivation; while the remainder forms an immense common, on which all the inhabitants have the liberty of pasturing their cattle. There are, in Africa, no country-seats, no rural farms, such as embellish the aspect of a European landscape; and which, in fact, could not exist in safety, where each little state is begirt with hostile neighbours, and so many predatory bands are prowling in every direction. The popula tion is collected in towns or large villages, round which a circle of cultivation is formed; while, beyond, are pasture-lands, where numerous herds are fed and watched by day as well as by night. The space within the walls forms a pretty wide district, where, even in the largest cities, the houses are interspersed with cultivated fields, and the low roofs are seen rising behind ears of corn. All the processes of preparing the ground, sowing and reaping, are slight and simple. The plough has not passed the limits of Barbary; and, perhaps, in tropical climates, the deep furrow which it lays open, might expose the soil too much to the parching effects of a burning sun. Grain is raised only by means of the most profuse moisture, which, of itself, softens the earth. As soon as the periodical floods have deluged the ground, or the temporary river-inundation has retired, the labourers walk forth; one slightly stirs the earth with a hoe, while another, close behind, deposites the grain. Frequently this toil is lightened, from being performed by the whole village in common, when it appears less a scene of labour than a gay festival, like our English period of reaping. The village musician plays the most lively airs; the labourers keep time to his tune, and a spectator at a little distance would suppose them to be dancing instead of working. Irrigation in all tropical climates is the grand source of fertility; and wherever industry has made any progress, very considerable pains are taken to collect and distribute the waters, which either fall in rain or are conveyed by river-channels. Egypt is well known to owe its fertility altogether to the canals which diffuse over its plains the water of the Nile; and in Nubia, where the current remains constantly sunk in its rocky bed, there is a succession of sakies, or wheels, by which it is raised, and conducted over the adjoining fields. In this way a belt of cultivation, of about a mile in breadth, is perpetuated along the whole upper course of that great river. In all the tropical and more arid regions, the prevailing grains are of inferior character, coarse and small, rather, as Jobson says, like seeds than grains, and fitted less for bread than for paste or pottage. The dhourra is the most common, extending over all Eastern Africa; while millet in the west, and teff in Abyssinia, are productions nearly similar. In the latter country, and Houssa, both wheat and rice are raised, but only in favourable situations, and for the tables of the more opulent. Perhaps the greatest exertion of agricultural industry is that bestowed upon the culture of the manioc, which forms the main article of food in Congo, and some of the in

sular territories. Considerable care is required in rearing it, and cleaning the ground round the plants; after the root, which is the valuable part, has been dug up, it must be ground in a species of mill, and dried in small furnaces, before it can be used as flour.-Edinburgh Cabinet Library, Vol. II. Africa.

5. Pruning of certain kinds of Trees -In the Annal. de la Soc. d'Horticul ture de Paris August 1829, M. Marcellin Vetillart describes what he calls a new method of pruning poplars and oaks. His principle is, that the fibres of the root bear always a certain relation to the leaves, and that the develop ment of the one is intimately connected with that of the other. This he illustrates by the case of the poplar and willow,-trees which are easily propagated by slips. If you take off all the leaves of the slip as they appear, you immediately stop the development of the root, and the slip soon dies. In like manner, if you suppress the roots as they appear, the leaves die, and the same consequence ensues to the stem. After some remarks on engrafting founded upon these principles, he describes his system of pruning in the case of the poplar and the oak, which consists simply in cutting off by slow degrees the lower branches only, and close to the stem, and not pruning up to the top, which appears to be the practice in France, as it unfortunately is in this country. In the case of the oak he recommends great circumspection, and in an especial manner that no new branches should be taken off until the wounds of the previous pruning shall have been healed. M. Vetillart does not seem to be aware of the practice recently introduced into this country of shortening the upper branches, and thus promoting the growth of the leading shoot. We hope in our next Number to give the remarks on this subject of an intelligent and experienced pruner, and to show that the system of pruning, so ill understood, and imperfectly practised, may be reduced to a few practical rules, deduced from simple principles.

6. Italian Ryegrass-Lolium perenne Italicum.-This plant is said to be distinguished from the common Ryegrass (Lolium perenne) by its larger leaves, by its being of a deeper green, and by the greater height to which it grows. It is usually sown in autumn, as is the general practice with grass seeds in the south of Europe. After the field is harrowed, it is sown at the rate of from 16 to 18 lb. per acre, and the seed rolled in. In the following autumn the turf is covered like an old meadow, and the crop of the following year is more than double. It may be also sown in spring. If it be sown with clover or lucern, its growth is so rapid that it will quickly choke them. It is eaten greedily by cattle, whether green or dry, and yields 50 per cent. of hay. These statements are taken from the Bulletin des Sciences Agricoles; but we yet want more information before we can hazard an opinion upon the merits of this plant.

7. On a supposed means of improving the Quantity and Quality of Wool.—In a Memoir presented to the Academy of Sciences, M. Petri advances a new theory for the improvement of the wool of sheep. He contends that by frequently shearing the sheep when young, the animal fluids, which are naturally distributed between the flesh, the fat, and the wool, will be determined in greater abundance to the skin, and thus contribute to nourish the woollen fibre. He says that he has applied his principle with complete success, and

has found the quantity of the wool to be increased, and its quality and staple greatly improved. He even maintains that the improvement thus effected may be transmitted from one generation to another, and that thus whole flocks may be converted into fine-woolled animals, taking care only to reserve the animals for breeding which yield the most improved produce. We may observe, that the latter course alone would be sufficient to improve the wool of sheep to all the extent which the kind of breed will allow; and it is precisely the course to which practical breeders resort for the purpose of reproducing the peculiar qualities of animals. They select those which manifest the particular properties which it is proposed to propagate in the breed, whether that be symmetry of form and tendency to fatten, disposition to yield milk, or power to produce wool. But that the effect of such an operation as M. Petri refers to, would give a permanent character to the quality and kind of the wool to be produced in the progeny, we must beg leave to doubt. Nature, indeed, might hasten to repair the violence done to the individual animal, by renewing the fleece of which it had thus been repeatedly deprived; and, perhaps, even render its growth afterwards more close and fine. But it would require the evidence of long observation to convince us that the effect would extend beyond the poor animal which had thus been treated and had thus suffered. The period at which sheep can be shorn of their covering, is sufficiently marked by the state of the wool itself, and is dependent on climate and other circumstances. A repeated shearing of the fleece of young sheep would be a violence done to nature, and could scarcely fail to injure or destroy the health of the animals. M. Petri's supposed discovery, therefore, we hold to be a mere theory, which can lead to no useful consequences.

8. Extraction of Potash from certain Minerals.-This alkali, so important in the arts, may, it is stated, be extracted from minerals containing it, by a very simple process. This consists in merely calcining them with lime, and then leaving them for some time in contact with water, which is afterwards filtered and evaporated. M. Fuchs, as quoted in the Ann. de l'Industrie, states, that he has in this manner obtained from 19 to 20 per cent. of potash from felspar, and from 15 to 16 per cent. from mica.

QUARTERLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

JANUARY 15. 1831.

IN our last report we adverted to circumstances, which were calculated to enhance the prices of grain during the ensuing part of the season, namely, the retardation of the period of harvest, the diminished stocks at home, the deficient crops in the exporting countries, the supplies required in Holland and other parts of Europe, and the defective returns of our own harvest. Upon this latter point, our information is now more precise than it could be immediately on the termination of the harvest itself. But we find, that the information which we then communicated to our readers, was, in all essential points, correct.

At the close of the harvest, the wheat crop in the principal wheatdistricts of England was generally reported of favourably, being supposed likely to yield an average quantity, with a better quality than in the two preceding years. But since thrashing has become general in Essex, Kent, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the produce both in quantity and quality is found to fall short of the estimate formed. Wheat, too, in many of the inland counties, as well as in the northern districts of England, in Scotland, and in Ireland, is found to turn out greatly more defective than was anticipated. Those countries in the north of Europe from which the Baltic ports are supplied, and from which we also derive our chief supplies, appear, as well as the northern parts of France and Holland, to have suffered in the same manner, and in some cases in a greater degree than we have done, by the wet and ungenial nature of the season. The crops, accordingly, are generally reported to be not only deficient in quantity, but indifferent in quality, with the exception of some provinces of Poland, where the wheat is stated to be fine in quality, but deficient in produce. In the United States of America, the wheat is said to be good in quality as well as very productive.

Barley, on the high and early soils in England, and where it has been well harvested, is extremely good in quality, and produces the finest malt we have seen for several years. Yet the produce is not so great as was anticipated, and on all the strong clays it has proved defective. In some districts of the north of England and of Scotland, the quality

is better than was supposed, weighing in many cases from 50 to 52 lb. per bushel; but the quantity, it is believed, will fall short of the produce which the bulk seemed to indicate. In Ireland, there has been a greater extent of land under this crop than in some former years. The general produce, however, it is conceived, will prove defective as to quality, and as to quantity also in many of the northern districts. Beans and peas are both very short crops. The consumption of the former of these grains appears, from some cause not very obvious, to have fallen off in this country.

The oat crop in England is to be regarded as rather above an average in quantity, and of better quality, than for some seasons past. In Scotland, too, the crop is good; although, in the high lands, from the late and unequal period of ripening, it can scarcely be supposed to prove so productive as the bulk on the ground promised. In Ireland, at the period of harvest, it was very generally reported to be abundant in quantity, and extremely good in quality. This impression, however, is now found, in the case of many districts, to be erroneous, the return falling greatly short of the expectations entertained.

In consequence of the very small stocks of every kind of old grain at the close of last harvest in all the Continental ports, the shipments to this country previous to winter were very limited; and as the stock of free and bonded corn in Britain is now extremely small, we shall be left in a great measure dependent on our internal resources, until the arrival of foreign supplies in spring. These may, no doubt, be expected to be very extensive, from every part of Europe where a surplus exists, as well as from America; though, with respect to Europe, the supplies may, by possibility, be interrupted by the troubled state of so many countries. Upon the whole, we do not anticipate any immediate fall in the prices of grain, which, our readers will see from the Tables, have been gradually increasing, and have recently received a further impulse. Whatever be the amount of the spring supplies, we do not think it likely that they will produce any very powerful effect upon the market; unless, indeed, the ensuing season shall be of so favourable a nature, as to afford the prospect of a very early and plentiful harvest.

That our readers may farther judge of the correctness of the data upon which we found these opinions, it may be observed, that, on a reasonable estimate, London alone will require a supply of foreign wheat to the extent of 600,000 quarters, in order that the usual stock may be on hand at the conclusion of September next; and as the stock in all the principal consuming districts of the country is reduced in a