Peaches, Plums, &c.—Make your selections from such trees as bear the finest fruit, and from that growing on the south side of the trees. If you wish to make the young stock of fruit earlier than that of the parent tree, make your selections of such peaches or plums as ripen first, and these will always be found on the south side of the tree.
For preserving the germinative power of seeds, let them be mixed with a due proportion of sugar.
There is, in most cases, perhaps in all, a very essential advantage to be derived from a change of seeds, or bringing them from one part of the world to be sown in another. Sufficient attention has not, however, been paid to this matter to enable us to ascertain what changes prove most beneficial; but in making them, regard must doubtless be had that the seeds be taken from climates not too widely dissimilar. In bringing southern seeds to be sown in northerly climates, the danger is, that they will want sufficient time for ripening, and in pursuing the reverse of this, the crop may ripen so early as to be, on that account, lessened in its products.
In raising seeds of plants of which there are different species, it is essential that the seed plants be placed so far apart as to preclude any danger of the pollen of the one being carried by the winds to the other; for if an intermixture of breeds take place, a degeneracy of the plants must ensue, by mixing the valuable qualities of each. In the Brascia tribe, for instance, there is one species denominated cabbages, of many varieties, and are valuable for their heads or leaves; another species is the common turnip, of several varieties, and valuable for its bulbous root; and another is the Swedish turnip or Ruta Baga, whose principle excellence is its bulbous stalk. The effect, therefore, of an admixture of these plants, must be a diminution of the bulbs of the two latter, and an increase of foliage, while the cabbages would lessen in the heads and leaves, with a proportionate augmentation of stalk and roots.
[Plough Boy.
HOLKHAM SHEEP-SHEARING, (ENG.)
This festival, established by T. W. Coke, Esq. forty-three years ago, commenced on 10th July last.——Among the company present this year were, his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Princes Potemkin and Trabetzkoy, (Russia,) the Marquis of Downshire, Earl of Albemarle; Lords Waterpark, Erskine, Anson, Ebrington, Lynedock, Delaware;—Hon. Mr. Keppel, Hon. Geo. Walpole, Hon. Gen. Fitzroy, Hon. Mr. Thellison, Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Sir Wm. Hoste, Bart. T. W. Coke, jr. Esq. M. P.; G. W. Hall, Esq. Thos. Gay, Esq. (Herts,) Robert Patterson, Esq. (Baltimore,) C. Deering, Esq. (Middlesex,) Mons. Petit, Esq. (Paris,) Thos. B. Beevor, Esq. J. Ellman, Esq. (Sussex,) and many eminent agriculturists from Norfolk, Suffolk, and various parts of the kingdom. This festival, instituted for the improvement of agriculture, assumes, at every anniversary, a greater degree of interest and importance.
Among the sheep exhibited there was an Arabian, and one from New Zealand; likewise a half-bred Zealand lamb, from a Southdown ewe. The Arabian sheep is a large animal, covered with a close coat of hair, like our pointer dogs. The colour of the one exhibited was white, with a black head and neck. The tail is very singularly formed—a large piece of loose flesh projects from the rump, above which grows a tail, about four inches in length, exactly resembling that of a young pig; the sheep has also a large pouch under the jaw.
A simple but most effectual method of preventing rats and mice from injuring corn stalks, was recommended by Mr. Gibbs. of Quarles, a tenant to Mr. Coke. The cost is not more than 6s. or 7s. per stack; and it has been found by several gentlemen who have made the trial, to be a complete bar to the depredations of those destructive vermin. The stack is cut round, and merely plastered with common lime and hair, about three feet high; and when properly done, it will be found that no vermin can possibly make their way into the stacks.