Papurau Newydd Cymru
Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru
16 erthygl ar y dudalen hon
HERAT DESCRIBED.
HERAT DESCRIBED. Ike Times has published the following letter, giving an nterettingdesortption of Derat Sir,-At a moment when the public feel great anxiety as to the course which Her Majesty s Ministers will pursue with reference to Afghanistan, when it is urged on the one side that they should with- draw from the country, and on the. other that they should occupy permanently the most important cities, it may not be inopportune to examine a few Btat stics regarding that special city which the highest military authorities have described as the gate of India, which the commercial instincts of traders have made the mercantile capital of Central Asia-I mean the ClTh°e £ position I claim for Herat is one of very ancient clate. The prosperity of that city, even before frhn invasion of Genghiz Khan, was assured. In those davs the city could boast of 12,000 retail Bhops, 350 schools, 144.000 occupied houses, and 6,000 baths, caravanserais, and water mills. That prosperity, though it suffered, disappeared neither before the rl1 pacity of Genghiz Khan nor before the ruthlessness of Tamerlane. Under the mild and genial rule of the son of the latter, Shahrukh Mirza, it recovered all it had lost. The restored prosperity continued till the beginning of the 16th century. Up to that period Herat was not only the richest city in Central Asia, but the resort of the greatest divines, philosophers, poets, and historians of the age. Such was Herat under good administration. But in the beginning of the 16th century Herat was con- quered by and annexed to Persia. Herat in the hands of the Persians was like Venice in the hands of Austria, Venice was Btarved and milked to build up Trieste. Herat was starved and milked to buy Id up Meshed. No wonder, then, that its trade dwindled and its prosperity melted away. In 1715 l*>wever, the Abd&Ii Afghans wrested Herat froia Persia. In 1731 the city was conquered by Nadir Shah. On his death, 1749, it again fell into the hands of the Abdati Afghans. Since that time the fate of Herat has been linked to that of Cabul, Although constantly besieged and always misgoverned, the prosperity of Herat has revived considerably since her severance from Persia. Looking at the enormous disadvantages under which she has laboured, at the fact that she has been governed by a race of mountain robbers, who know no rule but that of extortion, and marking the advance she has made since she was freed from the forced rivalry with Meshed, it is clear that were she administered on the principles which charac- terize British rule in India she would speedily attain a position far exceeding in splendour that which she reached even under the fostering care of the descend. ants of Tamerlane. The position occupied by Herat—on the high road between India and Persia, the centre spot of an ex- tensive and fertile valley, well watered by channels made ftom a perennial stream-marks her out as the natural garden and granary of Central Asia. Let us see for a moment how she responds to this claim. Herat was visited by Mr. Forster in 178S, That gentleman describes the city as far surpassing Can- dahar in the extent of her markets aud the amount o her merchandise. European wares were then brought thither by way of the Persian Gulf. In the caravan- serais in Herat Mr. Forster met about 100 bankers and traders from India—all rich and well-to-do men, and a j whose credit was at the highest. The next English traveller of whom I find any record is Captain Christie. He visited the city in disguise in 1810, and spent a month there. He de- scribes Herat as situated in a valley, stretching six geographical miles from east to west and about half that breadth, fertilized to a degree not to be surpassed by the streams which richly watered it. As far as the eye could reach were orchards, and gardens, and corn. fields. Oa the north side rose lofty mountains; on the Bouth.tbe traveller, coming from Candahar and Farrah, would hnve to ride for two hours through luxuriant fields aud gardens before he could reach the bridge over the Herirud crossing that bridge, he would have another ride of a similar length through the same class of country before he could reach the city gate. Christie described the city as covering four English Equare miles. In the public market, of vast extent, he found wares and merchandise from India, from Persia, from the shores of the Caspian, from Orenbeig, from Samarcand, and from Afghanistan. The population he reckoned at 100.000, of whom 10,000 only were Afghans. Of Hindoos there were 600, held in the highest esteem; and there were few ^Arthur Conolly visited Herat twenty-one years later in 1831. He travelled all over the province of which Herat is the capital, found its natural capabili- ties far greater than had been represented, but re- cords that these were wasted—partly by the misrule of the Afghans, partly by the unchecked plundering by the Persians and border tribes, and partly by internal feuds. The same causes had produced a decline of the population to 45,000; the Hindoos, however, had in. creased 1,000, and the Jews maintained their posi- tion. The city he describe* as being dirty in the ex. treme. But if any one ventured to express surprise that in spite of the filth it should be healthy, he re- ceived the stereotyped answer, If dirt were to kill, where would the Afghans be ? Conolly describes the environs as being wonderfully beautiful, and he confirms the accounts of previous travellers as to the extraordinary fertility of the soil. The gardens, vineyards, cornfields, and hamlets occu- pying the valley which stretches four miles to the foot of the mountain ranges on the north and twelve miles to the ranges on the south are described by him with au enthusiasm worthy of the theme. The water of the Herirud he pronounces the best he ever tasted the fruits as the rarest and most delicious in flavour. They are so plentiful that people are allowed to enter the gardens and pluck and eat them. Each visitor is weighed as he enters and again as he returns, and pays at a fixed rate the difference in weight. The climate is the finest in Asia. There are two hot months in the year, but the thermometer even then rarely stands higher than 85deg. (Fahrenheit) in the shade. The nights are always cool. often cold. The Heratis have a proverb,—" If the soil of Ispahan, the cool breezes of Herat, and the waters of Khwarizin Were in the same place, there would be no such thing act death." The districts of Herat boast of extensive mines of iron and lead. These have, as yet, only been worked *t the surface. If properly dealt with, they would yield enormous returns. The character of the iron is by the fact that the scimitars made at Herat are considered the best in Central Asia. The breed of Berati horses is scarcely leas renowned they are Very cheap and are exported in large numbers, Herat, too, is famous for its carpets. Worked in silk and in Wool, and in both combined, they are made of any size and command large prices. Hitherto the difficulty in the way of transport has prevented their being ao well known as they deserve. Silk is spun in large quan- tities in the districts. The districts likewise produce largely assafcetida, saffron, pistachio nuts, gum, and teanna. These and horses constitute the principal exports. Of skins. only those of the sheep and the lamb are used in Herat. But of these the supply is ItFjnffioient. Shoes are, therefore, imported from India vid Candabar. Herat produces neither cotton Roods nor cloths. The sheep. skins are made up into Suchgis Herat—a olace possessing vast capabilities, the employment of which only demands intelligent >ole. The annual revenue, under the tyranuical ^eminent of Shah Kamran. was £ 89,248. Under rule of the British it could be made to cover the e)cPenl'e of the occupation of the great cities of Afghanistan. Again, would Herat become what she > 500 years ago-" the garden and 8"nary _of Antral Asia." In the course of a few years thia &*den and granary must fall either to Russia or to vnW* Wfay D0t take U n0 iJFnXnd *ill solve difficuityi Not only would England govern the country with its own revenues, but she Vouid rescue from'Afghan tyranny a race who hate ge Afghans, and obtain for the industries of England market ot Oetttral Asia.-I remain, Sir, your bedient servant, G B< MALLESON. 2 West Cromwell-road.
PREJUDICES OF THE KITCHEN.
PREJUDICES OF THE KITCHEN. Observer remarks Nowhere is there greater obstinacy, than in the Nowhere do people make such alight pro- ^or derive so little profit from experience. The i« Pledge of the parlour regarding CH 'nary matters much greater than that of theJ"tchen, ,et i<J6*°*oy, health, and pleasure ahke depend on some ie,°f what to eat, drink, and avoid and how food M>\d be prepared. Some very lnterestmg and vai„. fc ^formation is being afforded by Mr* Rritilh ^series of articles being published ua t Journal. This week this philosopher «en discourses on soups, hominy porridge,^ of fuel, butter and mint sauces, river fish, *nd minus in general. Soup, as a commenc dinner, is often spoken of as being uawnoie- that it injures the digestion and overloads Ik** V>.Qlach* This, it appears, is an error. In order t stomach, exhausted by previous digestion, recover the power of tarnishing a complete capable of transforming albuminoids, it vtj^BRary that it should first absorb certain aliments changed into pepsine in the peptic glands. JLMQ substance which contains the greatest pepto- t^-Power {s clear soup. Mr. Hart condemns in the vNa termB the sauce which is served up under the melted butter,' which is a compound of flour K* a little butter or milk added to it. belted butter should consist of Bimply butter With a little salt added to it. Mr. Hart w»th equal force, clearness, and wisdom on K subjects above mentioned by us; bafc our **4 better study the topic »t first hand."
VISIT OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP…
VISIT OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP OPAL TO PITCAIRN ISLAND. The following account has been received of a visit paid to Pitcairn liland by the officera of her Majesty's ship Opal. [Our readers will remember tnat it was this island which was colonised by ten of the mutineers of the Bounty, in the year 1789—Captain Bligh and nineteen men having been turned adrift In an open boat. The mutineers were accidentally discovered in 1814, when it appeared that, soon after settling there, they had married some women from a neighbouring Island, and had become a singularly well-conducted com- munity under the care of Adams, the principal mutineer] We have just left a place of great interest—namely, Pitcairn Island. After a thirty days' passage from San Francisco we sighted the island at 8 a.m. on the 2nd July, and at ten o'clock anchored off Bounty Bay -the first time a man-of-war has anchored there for about twenty years-it being customary to steam off and on the island while communicating with it. Im- mediately on our arrival the islanders launched a boat through the surf, and came off with a quantity of fruit for us. The chief magistrate whose name is M Coy, came on board, as did also some of the Youngs and Christians. I say advisedly some of them, for it is very difficult to find out who ia who on the island, they all being Youngs, Christians, M'Coys, or Warrens, although a fashion is coming into vogue, owing to the confusion caused by there being only about five names between ninety-three persons—the total population —of individuals assuming names. Thus, one of the Christians has taken the name of Downes, and is bringing up a family under that cognomen, whilst another has assumed the name of Selwyn. If this continues into a few generations it will be hard to trace their connection with the original name of "Bounty." At one o'clock a number of the officers landed, and this is how we did it. We went in one of our boats to some distance from the shore, and then anchored, for we could not get through the heavy surf which is always running there. However, the islanders, who managed their boat admirably, came off for us, and took the whole2 party. numbering thirteen, in two trips, without even damping us. Some of the people were on the beach ready to meet us, and a great deal of hand-shaking at once took place. We then started for the settlement up an exceedingly steep hill, and as it bad been raining heavily for two or three days we found some diffi- culty in climbing, especially after having been five weeks on board. At the top of the hill almost all the rest of the people were assembled. I was the first up, arriving about three paces in front of our chaplain. Then ensued more "How do you do?" &c., some of them being so anxious to talk that before you had time to ask they would say Quite well, thank you." Continuing our walk about a hundred yards, or so, through plots of sweet potatoes, we came to the houses, and then the church and school-house. We went into the church, and Miss Mary Young, who is schoolmistress, played some of Moody and Sankey's hymns on the harmonium, several of the women at the same time singing, and that not unpleasantly. All the houses are completely hidden in the trees, so that from the sea the island looks uninhabited, unless you have sharp eyes, and can distinguish cleared patches under cultivation. The principal things cultivated are yams, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins,, although there are many other kinds of vegetable grown. I noticed quantities of sugar-cane and coffee plants apparently growing without any need of cultivation. The inhabi- tants make sufficient coarse sugar for their own use, and very good salt is made by the evaporation of the sea water. I have seen a far inferior article used in South America. Vegetation is very wild, and there is a heavy growth of ferns. Oranges grow in the wildest profusion, and after eating them in many parts of the world, I must say I never tasted any to equal in excel- ence the Pitcairn oranges. Every one who visits the island makes the same remark. The bread-fruit tree does not flourish so well at Pitcairn as at Tahiti and other South Sea islands, and, at present, the cocoa- nut trees do not bear very well. This, however, could probably be remedied by the introduction of fresh planta. Bananas, chirimoyaB, and plantains are also in great abundance; from the succulent stem of the last they make ink, which, however, fades away pretty soon. Of animals, they have pigs and a few sheep, whilst in the highlands there are goats, which they shoot; there are also ducks and fowls and a few pigeons. I observed many of the ducks and fowls feed- ing on oranges, which would have caused some astonishment to an English farmer. Cotton is grow- ing well, and hopes were entertained that enough would soon be produced to enable the islanders to obtain everything they required by bartering with the vessels which occasionally visited them. I obtained most of my information from Miss Young, whom I was astonished to find so well educated, as she could converse fluently on any subject, and had a very fair knowledge of botany. Her mother is the daughter of an American, named Buffett, who settled on the island many years ago to teach the people to read and write. He is now eighty years old, and is living at Norfolk Island. From the church we proceeded to see the tomb of John Adams, who was the last survivor of the mutineers, and who first instructed the islanders in religion. The grave is situated arnongst a cluster of orange and gaava trees, and has a neat headstone, which was sent out from Devonport. From the tomb we next went to visit the Bounty's gun, which one of our lieutenants, the paymaster, and I rolled right over, to the great amusement of the islanders, none of whom had ever seen it moved before. After a short stay at Simon Young's house, where we were supplied with quan- tities of fruit, we returned on board, the vessel re- maining off the island all night. We again landed on the following day, and under the guidance of Miss Young obtained some splendid specimens of ferns, afterwards dining at the chief magistrate's house. I ought to mention that on the evening of our arrival was a grand festival, for then was opened the organ which we had brought from San Francisco for them as a present from the Queen. It is an American organ, with fifteen stops and swell, and very handsomely carved. On a silver shield in front is the inscription, A present from the Queen to her loyal and dutiful subjects, the Pitcairn Islanders, in u token of her estimation of their domestic virtues." The first tune played on the organ was God Save the Queen," the whole population of men, women, and children joining in singing it, the thoughtful present of her Majesty occasioning the most in- tense delight and satisfaction. During the second day the islanders came on board and visited every part of the ship, the last of the party leaving for the shore just before dusk, when WCoy and Miss Young both made appropriate little speeches. As the last boat pulled off from the ship they gave three hearty cheers for the Queen, followed by three for the Opal, to which officers and men responded with three cheers for the Pitcairn Islanders. They then pulled away,sing- ing as they went one of Moody and Sankey's hymns, Pull for the shore, sailor," followed by'' God Save the Queen! We then weighed and quitted Pitcairn Island. It may be said of the islanders that they are virtuous, industrious, and well educated that apparently they live in most perfect harmony, the whole population appearing as a happy family, all working for the com- mon good; that they are truly a religious race, and although they have, as it were, been made pets of by England on that account, to their credit be it said that their religion is devoid of hypocrisy. I should motion that some excellent photographs were taken by Captain Robinson duiing the time we remained at the island.
MR. SPURGEON ON OPEN-AIR PREACHING.
MR. SPURGEON ON OPEN-AIR PREACHING. On Monday evening the members and friends of the Open- Air Million held their quarterly meeting and took tea together In the schoolroom under the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and after the ordinary prayer meeting which is always held in the Tabernacle on Monday evenings, The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon delivered an address on open-air preaching. After observing that his words must be brief, for he was in great pain of body, he said there was one thing which they who were engaged in preaching the Gospel must always take care of- namely, that they kept themselves by God's grace right with God. If they were to touch the hearts of their fellow-men, if they were to be used by God as his instrumenta they must be right with God. To be right with God they must be holy men. Unless they were holy men they might be great speakers, but they would never have the blessings of God on their work. He did not believe that a man could go and preach to his neighbours in a street, and have the blessing of God on his preaching if he had a shop and did not keep good weights. (Hear hear.) If God did not make them holy they had better shut up and keep quiet till he did. Another essential point was that they should be humble. A person said to him the other day that he prayed for him that he might be humble, Thank son," be replied, "I tope you also prayed for yourself." Oh no," saia the man, 1 m not tempted that way." (Laughter.) There was pro- P»bly no maa BC; proa(i as the man who thought be was humble. Pride was natural to us ever fall and in some form or other it existed m us ail. We only wanted a little bit of success to get elevated very much. and the reason why £ 0<* il^Lsive success to some men waB because they would be o« their heads. (Laughter). If they had a l«rge crewd round them they would tell their wives and beproud ofit, and the Devil would creep in and say. What a fine fellow you are 1" (Laughter). Then tbey must be pr»yerfaL They mtxBt pray at all times, ^h'le preaching as weU as before preach- ing, and after Preaching, jf tbay did not pray, the Lord dight Bay» X am not going to bleBs your sermoa--yoa not fOP jt," Then they must look for toe harvest. TJiev must not be like the man who thought there might be a harvest, and jost walked to the field to see: but they must be like the man who knew there was a harvest, and went with his sickle on his shoulder to cut tbe corn, and with his waggons behltad him to carry it away. He believed many a sermon might have good in it but for the want of faith. The first thing then, for them as preachers, was to keep themselves right with God. The next thing was to keep themselves right with themselves. It was awkward if they fell out with themselves, because they could not get away. (Laughter.) People would ask them sometimes when they were preaching, Who sent you out to preach? and if they could not give the right answer they must go back like a dog. He was consulted about so many things, that it was the burden of his life. Some- times he tried to imitate the Delphic oracle, and give an answer that might be taken two ways. A man wrote to him lately that his master objected to his preaching, and asked him whether he should go on with it, and he wrote him this reply, Dear Brother, -If the Lord has opened your mouth the Devil can- not shut it; but if the Lord has not opened your mouth may the Devil shut it." (Laughter.) This parson said he felt encouraged by the answer. He only hoped that his reading of the oracle was the correct reading. If they felt that they had power to fulfil their mission-he did not mean if they were edu- cated, but if they felt they were called of God to preach—then tbey should go on preaching. If a man spoke because he felt that he was delivering God's message, there was something so decorous and so Bolemn about him, that scoffers, unless they were altogether swine, would respect the pearls that were cast in their way. If God sent them to preach, He would give them strength, for He never did send any one without giving him strength to do the work he was sent to do. He had heard a great deal about sympathy with modern doabt. He bad no sympathy with it himself. What they had to say to people was-" This is God's word, and you have got to believe it;" and they might tell them that if they would not believe it they would be cast into hell, whatever Canon this or Canon the other might say. Perhaps they would say they could not speak so positively. Then they could not do much good. Martin Luther was strong because he was dogmatic, and if they wanted to be strong they must be dogmatic too. They should preach what they believed. "I believed; therefore have I spoken." If he did not believe he would be honest enough to change his profession. He would not be so wicked and so dishonest as to go on preaching that which he doubted the truth of. The last thing he had to say to them was that they should not only keep right with God and right with themselves, but that they should keep right with the people. They must love those whom they taught. They must love them and honour them too. They must honour the man that had had his hair cropped and had only just come out of gaol. "Well," said a young man, draw- ing on hit lavender gloves, I would not mind-haw, haw — addressing a congregation in — haw — Willis's Rooms, but—haw—to go down and address people in Whitechapel—haw—it would be ridiculous. "(Laughter.) And probably it would be ridiculous, because he would not be respectful to his audience. It would not do for them to fe 1 that they were superior persons, and ought not to go out to preach in the open air, and say, I don't mind filling up a vacancy for Dr. So-and-So, but I do not like preaching in the street." He had known servants say We do not like to do this or that," and the employer had been obliged to say to them, "Would you not like a superior place?" (Laughter.) No, they must keep themselves friendly with the people, or they would never do much good. He once saw a friend of his stand. ing up to the knees in water fishing, and he said to him, If I were fishing I should be on the bank," but his friend said. "It is better to be down among the fishes, you catch more." And so it was with preachers; if they wanted to win souls tbey must go amongst them. When Gibraltar was besieged it might have been captured, but that the defenders threw red hot shot into the attacking vessels. And so if they wanted to succeed they must fire red hot shot. They must feel that they would die if they did not succeed. It must not be a matter of indifference to them whether those they preached to were saved, but they must feel that they must be saved. In con- clusion he exhorted them to preach away, for in open air preaching they were following the example of their Master. _———
THE SPIRIT IN WHICH TEACHERS…
THE SPIRIT IN WHICH TEACHERS SHOULD WORE The annual meeting of the Metropolitan Board Teachers' Association was held on Saturday in the Opera-theatre at the Crystal Palace. The annual report-the sevelJth-of the Executive Committee, having been printed and published, was taken as read, and the president (Mr. Charles Wilaon) then delivered an address, in which he spoke with satisfaction of the progress made by the association. The Rev. John Rodgers, vice-chairmam of the London School Board, speaking on the spirit in which teachers should work. begged them not to teach because the codes laid down certain subjects to be taught, because they might easily get certain things from books, or because they were paid pounds, shillings, and pence, but to teach because they loved to teach, because they themselves loved that which they taught, because they loved those little thinking, sensi- tive, feeling- beings called boys and girls, and wished to inspire them with a sense of the nobility of human life. He wanted them to remember that they were teaching, not the little children gathered round their knees to-day, but the men and the women that these little children would be another day, and that they were influencing the future of generations beyond. He wanted the teacher not to trust to books or black- boards-both good things as far as they went-but to inspire the children with the intellectual, emotional, moral, and, he would even say, the religious life he had in himself. Thus he would benefit the children and, by a necessary reaction, he would benefit himself. This he understood to be education. To do this the teacher did not want codes, or an Education Depart- ment, or School Boards. Such things were required for other purposes—to keep the external machinery in order; but the living teacher's work was not to be done by Sir Francis Sandford, or the Duke of Richmond, or Lord George Hamilton. After some further obser- vations on the union the teachers had formed amongst themselves, Mr. Rogers proceeded to say that he did not like caste or class. Though tne boy belonging to tbenoble. man, who could afford to pay for his education ought perhaps, to have a different kind of education, because he was to occupy a different sphere, yet it should be recognized that they were all dealing with one thing— humanity; and he had yet to learn that there was one kind of human brain belonging to the aristocrat, and another belonging to the middle class, and another belonging to the working class. So far as his expe- rience of human life went, it was all one. Those he spoke to might have to do with the working-class portion it did not matter, it was a part of humanity. Nor should they confine their sympathies to the few bright and exceptionally endowed boys and girls to be found in every school. Their object must be to lift up the whole mass. They must seek to give a tone to the school—discipline, ability, accuracy, honesty of character—all these, of course, but a some- thing more was needed—a tone of refinement. By all means let them make clever accurate scholars, able men and able women. Why should not the girls in our cottages and kitchens have their pianos ? Why should not the boys In our workshops be first-rate mathematicians ? But with all that let the teachers try to make them gentlemen and ladies. He knew that what he said would shock some who were called the ladies and gentlemen of this day, but a man was not a gentleman because he had a long rent-roll or a large balance at his bankers and owed his gentility to his family descent. Let them try, then, to make these children gentle-gentlemen and gentlewomen— Christ-like in thought and manner.
HOW FISH ARE BRED IN CHINA.
HOW FISH ARE BRED IN CHINA. Mr. Frank Backland, writing in Land and Water, says be has discovered the following interesting note :— The province of Kiang-si possesses another trade, leas important and valuable doubtlesB than the china manufactory, but worthy of remark on account of its peculiarity, and the profits of which are not to be despised. This province is very marshy, and abounds in ponds; there is scarcely a cottager who cannot boast of at least one close to his house, and these are turned to account for the rearing of fish, which yield annually a considerable revenue to their cultivators. During the last few years much attention has been turned in France to Ae art of pisciculture, as it has been called, and pains have been bestowed on the arti. ficial production and rearing of fish. But, however new to Europeans, thia art is very well known in China. In Kiang-si it is practised after the following fashien. In spring a number of men go round the provinces selling spawn their establishment consists of a wheelbarrow loaded with barrels containing a thick liquid, more like mud than anything else. It is impossible to distinguish the smallest animalcula in it with the naked eye. For a few sapecks you may buy a bowlful of this mud, enough to BOW a large pond. It is merely thrown into the water, and in a few days the young come forth. When they have attained some size they are fed with tender vegetables. chopped up and thrown into the water, tbe quantity being augmented as they increase in size. The growth of these fish is incredibly rapid; in a month at most they are strong and active, and require abundant nourishment. Morning and evening the proprietors of the fish ponds ransack the fields for suitable plants, which they carry home in enormous quantities. The fish rise to the surfaee, and throw themselves eagerly on their food, which they devour speedily, keeping up all the time a kind of murmuring noise like a number of rabbits; their veracity can only be compared to that of silkworms just before spinning their eocoon. After being fed thus for about a fortnight they gene- rally attain a weight of two or three pounds, after which they grow no more; they are then taken out and sold alive in the towns. The fish ponds of Kiang-si contain jonly tkis one kind of fish, which M of exquisite flavour. If there are any other sort at least we never saw them, and we are also unaware whether the spawn undergoes any preparation before it ia sold."
EMIGRATION AND OUR FOOD SUPPLY.
EMIGRATION AND OUR FOOD SUPPLY. At the meeting of the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce last week, Colonel E S. Barnaby referred to the inquiry into agricultural depression, and eatd :— Fifty years ago one-fifth of our working population was engaged in agriculture it is now, however, less than one-tenth. The draft to the better paid labour of the mining, manufacturing, and other indus- trial centres has caused this. The ancient tie of adhesiveness to the spoil which for generations bound the labourer to the parish of his birth (far more than the owner) seems to have been loosened. Emi- gration, after subtracting immigration, has of late years been over 100,000 a year. Mr; Shurtz, the Minister of Interior of the United States, informed me that in the years since 1847 no less than eight million immigrants had been added to the population of that country, which is new producing 40 bushels of corn per head upon its estimated population of 48 millions. I would likewise call to notice the striding import of foreign food. Thirty years ago our foreign food supplies amounted to £ 1 per head on the popula- tion of this kingdom; they now amount to 23 per head on the estimated population. But it is especially to the N orthAmerican exportation of cattle that I would call at- tention. Markthe increase of the sapply in beasts: 1875, 1,511; 1876, 3 047; 1877, 19,187; 1878,86,589. Re- verting to the importation of grain, I am informed on good authority that the high dividends of the General Omnibus Company (which owns 8,500 horses) are at- tributable to the increased consumption of the im- ported article of maize, to which is attributable the decrease in the value of oats, barley of inferior quality, and rye, thereby depreciating a vast quantity of British produce, I find we are now obtaining from abroad over one-half our consumption of corn, and nearly one quarter our meat and dairy produce. As regards dairy produce, the British Dairy Farmers' Association have done me the honour to elect me its President for the last and current year, and I would bring to the notice of this Chamber the rapid progress of scientific dairying in Eastern North America, Germany, and Sweden. The State of New York alone has no less than one million pounds in dairying and the export demand is rapidly stimulat- ing this industry to still greater proportions. Dairy- ing is an important agricultural interest, and I do trust that everything that concerns it will be also in- quired into. Everything which directly or indirectly concerns the agricultural interests of England should be exhaustively brought to the notice of the Com- missioners.
DIFFICULTIES OF AGRICULTURISTS.
DIFFICULTIES OF AGRICULTURISTS. At a meeting of the Warwickshire Chamber of Agri- culture, held at the Shire-hall, Warwick, the Presi. dent, Mr. Arthur Hodgson, C.G.M., read a paper on the utilization of night schools in agricultural dis- tricts. The difficulty which the Education Act causes in agricultural districts is that farmers have to pay men full wages to do work which would be equally well performed by boys at from 3s. to 5s. per week, while the agricultural labourers are deprived of an important source of income they would other- wise derive from wages earned by their children. Mr. Hodgson discussed the question at length and referred to recent correspondence in The Times on the subject. Half-time was regarded by some as the solution of the difficulty, but he more readily endorsed the suggestion made in The Times by the Rev. E. H. M'Lachlan that greater liberty to work should be allowed to boys above 11 years of age, conditionally on attendance at an evening Bchool. The obstacles which appeared to be in the way were, apparently, the difficulty of finding suitable masters, as the certificated masters of day schools were usually engaged with their pupil-teachers at night; that, unless there were twenty pupils, no special examination for night scholars would be held, without which the Govern- ment grant could not be obtained; and the existing regulations, which require a child to pass in a higher standard at each successive examination. On the conclusion of the paper, Lord Leigh, Lord. Lieutenant of the county, at whose request the subject had been brought forward, said he did not now feel so sanguine about night schools being utilized in the way he had hoped they might have been; and the Chamber abstained from passing any resolution on the subject. On the motion of Lord Leigh, a committee was appointed to collect evidence for the Royal Com- mission on Agriculture, and to communicate with the Commissioner whose district embraces Warwick- øhire. Mr. Startin, of Exhall, an ex-President of the Chamber, said emphatically they could not expect a return to protection, and that it would not be advan- tageous to agriculturists if they could. Where they must hope for relief was in a more equal distribution of local taxation and liberty to use malt for feeding purposes, instead of having to pay double the price for less efficacious eondiments. As illutsrating his first point, he said fifty-six millions sterling per annum were received as dividends from foreign funds by British residents, who enjoyed all the benefits and ad. vantages for which local taxation was imposed upon real property, but whose rates upon the houses they occupied, which might be cottages, were all they con. tributed to British taxation.
AN EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY…
AN EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY OF A WEDDING RING. A doctor, residing at Moringa, in Australia, writes to the Revue tTHygiine Sunitain to solicit the atten- tion of naturalists to the following extraordinary fact, which he asks them to account for if they can (says the Evening Standard). In the month of February last, the doctor relates, his wife was engaged in distributing food to the hens and chickens in her farm yard. Whilst so doing, her wedding ring by some means or other slipped from her finger, and in spite of diligent searching made at once for the missing article, could not be found. The marriage ring was, therefore, deemed to be definitively lost, and was replaced by another. But some weeks subsequently, whilst the same lady was seated at her breakfast table with her husband, the lost ring reappeared again under circumstances so astounding that one in half inclined to think the noted German eonjuror Professor Herrmann must have bad some hand in the affair. The matron's breakfast on the day in question consisted of bread and butter with boiled eggs. She had disposed of her first egg, and was half- way through the second, whon her spoon encountered some- thing hard firmly attached to the bottom of the egg shell. Imagine our amazement," writes the worthy doctor, when, after a little scraping my wife brought up in her spoen the very ring which had been lost about two months previously." He adds that the egg containing the ring was of nnusual size, and had been laid the day before; and asks any naturalist who reads his recital to kindly explain to him how the ring had remained seven or eight weeks in the hen's stomach, and, above all, how it had managed to lodge itself in the egg. Here is a problem for the learned in such matters to solve; to the uninitiated it will cer- tainly appear inexplicable, unless, as we remarked before, Professor Herrmann or some of his dexterous colleagues were privy to the phenomenon,
THE CROWN LANDS.
THE CROWN LANDS. The 67th report ot the commissioners of Her Majesty's Woodi, Forests, and Land Revenues, dated June 28, 1879, shows a net revenue paid to the Exchequer of £UO,OOO. while twenty years ago, in 1869, the amount so paid over was only £ 280,000- The property In charge of Mr. Gore consists 01 over 14,000 acres of land, maintained as part of the domain attached to Windsor Castle; about 70,000 acres of land in various parts of England let for agricultural pur- Poses about 600 houses let at rack-rents; about 4,800 houses butlt by Crown lessees upon land let on building leases; various collieries and other mine works; and numerous small miscellaneous premilel.-n. Timet com- ments upon the report in an interesting leader, from which we make the following extract* :— The Commissioners of Woods and Forests and Land Revenue are, without their other defects, not sine- enrists. Their annual report, of which that for the official year endin g the 30th of March, 1879, has j ust been issued, show that these two gentlemen have to per. form the most curiously multifarious functions. Never was there so heterogeneous a medley of dissimilar estates, rights, titles, interests, and liabilities massed together under an apparently innocent name. Mr. Gore and Mr. Howard, and more particularly the former, ought not only to have the property of ubiquity, but to have served apprenticeships to every vocation under the sun. They should have eyes for the largest interests, and eyes for the smallest. They have to take thought for the collec- tion of a yearly rent of 30s. The next moment they must be ready to let thousands of pounds run royally to waste in a deer park or a chase, where the plough is yearning to coin the soil into gold. Not among the least of their tasks in to reconcile their duty to the estate in their charge and to employers who are determined to enjoy as well as profit by it. Their employers are themselves twofold. There is the Crown, the owner, and there is the nation, which has taken a lease of the property for a life. Mr. Gore and. in a less degree, Mr. Howard are bound to improve the estate with a view to the interest of a future sovereign. They are bound equally not to seek to do good to after possessors at the expense of the actual tenant. It is as if the agent to an estate perceived that there was an excellent building plot in front of a lessee's drawing-room windows. The most tempting offers from speculating contractors must, nevertheless, be refused by him, lest their works should interfere with the amenity of the prospect. The public wishes to aerive a good income from the Crown States so long as its tenantcy lasts. There are, how- ever, incidents of some parts of the property which it values more than income. It is as keenly sensi- tive to the beauty of a Hampshire landscape as it is to the charms of a glade in Kensington-gardens. On the other hand, the royal remaindermen or rever- sioners are necessarily absentees as regards much of their inheritance. Their enjoyment of it is of the pecuniary kind only. The public, which has hired the royal domains for a fixed yearly payment, is never an absentee. It misses oak or beech in the most sequestered corner of England as if it were an elm in the Long Walk at Windsor. Te say that the Commis- sioners of Woods and Forests and Land Revenue have not always discharged their double functions so as to please both sets of masters is to say that they have not grown wings on their shoulders and a halo round their heads. We have ourselves not rarely had occasion to point out to them that the relative prices of oak and fir wood, measured by the year's growth, are not the sole elements in estimating a forest improvement. Still, on the whole, the public they serve, as well as the Crown, has only had occasionally a right to com- plain of them, even as landscape gardeners. From a more commercial point of view a regularly mounting revenue in bad years as well as good demonstrates their loyalty as land agents, both to the nation, the tenant for life, and to the Crown, the remainderman. In 1874 the amount paid to the Exchequer was £ 375,000. In 1875 it rote to £385,000; in 1876, to 395,000; and in 1877 to £410,000. For the year to which the present report refers and for the preceding year it has remained at the same amount, in spite of bad seasons and necessary abatements of rent. The rent books of few great landlords for the same period would show equally satisfactory results. The charge of collection scarcely exceeds three per cent. That is sufficiently moderate in view of the multiplicity of the properties whence the revenue is gathered. A rent of a pound has to be collected in a Bedfordshire parish and a rent of five hundred at Barking. Mines beneath the sea in Cornwall have to be valued, and a right of sport in Durham. The sale of the Crown's consent to the enfranchisement of a copyhold cottage under its very abstract interest as re- versioner to a grant by Charles the Second brings in some twenty.four pounds, while a house in Charles- street, St. James's, is let at a yearly rent of over four hundred. Great Scotland-yard yields toll on the ale sold there in the shape of a hundred ay ear rent for the'' Rising Sun." Scotland herself contributes a rent of sixty shillings for the lease of a Kirkcudbright salmon fishery to, of all unlikely persons in the kingdom, a Kirk minister and his elders. The Crown and an adventurous captain share in another quarter of Scot- land the gorgeous possibilities involved in mines of gold under the bed of the sea in Elgin." The lessee is to work them, and the Woods and Forests are to receive a full twenty-fourth of the value, whatever that may be. The result has not yet come into the Exchequer. A more sanguine Irishman pays, not a mere percentage of his problematical gains, but a solid rent of forty pounds sterling for the right to search for gold in Wicklow and Wexford. The shooting over a Welsh sheep-walk of two or three hundred acres brings in two pounds a year, and a Cardigan waste of four hundred acres is sold outright for two hundred. A park is not maintained for profit; but the Woods and Forests Commissioners, like good stewards, do not disdain to take a sum of thirty-six pounds odd for Windsor deer skins. To tell how this curious accumu- lation of ill-assorted properties came together under the title of the Crown estates it would be necessary to search the highways and byways of all British history. Each new dynasty which has held the British Crown or Crowns had its enemies, and they all paid tribute for their antipathies in their estates. In Mr. Gore's and Mr. Howard's rent books are entries traceable to the Norman Conquest, and entries traceable to the Jacobite rising under the Young Pretender. An annual report of the Woods and Forests Department would seem written in blood to the historical student who sought out the origin of each parcel of land or royalty. The Crown, as it was presumed to be the cotrmon grantor, was in its turn the common heir. When a landowner died without legitimate heirs his land re- turned to the source whence it was held to have come. The restless passions of great houses in times which did not end with the Middle Ages gave the Crown abundant opportunities of anticipating the natural pericd of a family's deeay. Had English and Scottish kings been as prudent to keep as many of them were quick to confiscate, Mr. Gore's and Mr. Howard's Department would make the Commons' power of the purse an unimportant privilege. Most of the best soil of the two kingdoms might be shown to have passed at one date or another into the sovereign's hands. But monarchs are human. They have their caprices and their favouritisms mag- nificent escheats which marked the fall of one aspiring family gave the means of mounting to another. Often a re-grant which impoverished the Crown was not, in- deed, a caprice, bat a necessity. Services which had built up or propped the throne had to be rewarded or retained. Of all lavish wearers of the English Crown perhaps the Department has most to sorrow over the prodigality in this way of one who was, perhaps, the most public-spirited. No Prine gave away with a more open hand than William of Orange estates which the Woods and Forests Office would have worked with more substan- tial results than all the gold mines of Elgin and Wick- low. It is only a skrunken and tattered remnant of right royal robes which Mr. Gore labours at patching into an adequate vesture for an English monarch. Happily for the national welfare, but sadly for the Board of Works and Forests, the age of rebellions and noble forfeitures for treason has gone, never, we devoutly trust, to return. An occasional melancholy escheat of a few acres lapses to the domain when some poor fellow, kithlees and kinlesa, has cherished such a grudge against humanitv that he does not even care to choose out of mankind an acquaintance to make an heir of. Whatever may be the improvement in the income of those estates through Mr. Gore's and Mr. Howard's ability and zeal, they can never] become adequate to the enormous official demands which are a first charge upon them. Persons sometimes talk as if the nation received the Crown rents as an equivalent simply for the sums assigned for the support of Her Majesty and the Royal Family. In truth they are transferred at the commencement of a reign ia exchange for the acceptance by the nation of the entire cost of the royal dignity, which these domains at one time bore. The salaries of ambassadors and of various great officers of State, with an infinity of other sources of expense, are in theory a burden upon the sovereign. Were the rents of the royal domains taken back, the burdens upon them would have to be taken back also. But such questions are only of hypothetical interest. A change in the existing system would be equally dis- tasteful to Prince and people. An English sovereign in receiving a sufficient revenue from the State Treasury receives what he is neither more nor less en. titled to of his soverign right than if It accrued from certain specified lands. The nation in bestowing the means of maintaining the royal splendour feels that the magnificence of the Court is as necessary for its own credit as for the honour of the monarch who u|its centre.
AN ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY UNDER'I…
AN ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY UNDER GROUND. A tolerably accurate account is given by the France of the new underground railway in course of construc- tion between the Jardin d'Acclimatation, in the Bois de Boulogne, and the Place de l'Etoile, or, as monarchically-minded Englishmen generally prefer to call it, the Arc de Triomphe. The length of this line is almost exactly an English mile, and it is to run beneath the soil at an average depth of about 15 feet. The peculiarity of it is that it is to be worked by atmospheric pressure—the agency which Brunei so strenuously attempted to carry out with success in England, and which was for no in- considerable time actaally employed in Devonshire and in Surrey in the traction of trains above ground. The system now adopted is, however, very different from the old idea of a tubular passage running beneath the engine and train. In the new railway the whole engine bodily, and with a mere piston joined to it, is to run in the air tube to the sides of which it, of course, fits accurately, and along which it will be enabled, by means which the France does not explain, to slide without a great deal of friction. This engine, which consists really of a sort of fan or piston, is capable of being impelled in either of two ways by means of the air behind it rushing into a vacuum created in front, or by means of strong at. mospheric pressure acting upon it directly from be. hind. In the latter case the carriages containing the passengers would be attached in front of the engine, and in the former case behind it. The engineers calculate that the whole transit will be made in three minutes and a half, or, if a halt is made at a station mid-way, in six minutes. There are, it seems, to be about four carriages carrying fifty passengers each, and the acting power will be air compressed by machines at Neuilly to a force equivalent to forty atmospheres. The surface of the engine exposed to the pressure is described as measuring from ten to twelve square metres.—Globe.
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SBONGES. —The coarse, soft, flat sponges, with large pores and great orifices in them, come from the Bahamas and Florida. The finer kind, suitable for toilet use. are found in the Levant; the best on the coast of Northern Syria, near Tripoli, and secondary qualities among the Greek isles. There are either globular or of a cup-like form, with fine pores, and are not easily torn. They are got by divers plunging from a boat, many fathoms down, with a heavy stone tied to a rope for sinking the man, who snatches the sponges, puts them into a net fastened to his waist, and is then hauled up. Some of the Greeks, instead of diving, throw short harpoons attached to a cord, having first spied their prey at the bottom through a tin tube with a glass bottom immersed below the sur- face waver.
THE GROWTH OF ARMAMENTS IN…
THE GROWTH OF ARMAMENTS IN EUROPE. At the meeting of the Liverpool and North Wales Dis- trict meeting of the United Methodist Free Churches held at Crewe, the following resolution was unanimously passed That the recent declaration of the Right Hon. the Marqnis of Salisbury, K.G., attributing some of the evils under which the country has been Buffering to the growth of armaments and the increasing burdens their maintenance has entailed upon the peoples of Europe, is, in the opinion of this meeting, an urgent call for negotiations for a mutual diminution of their armaments by the European Powers. That this meeting is further of opinion that such negotiations should be initiated by the British Government, and that a copy of this resolution be sent to Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., in the hope that he will carry out his publicly-expressed intention to introduce into the House of Commons next session a resolution bearing upon the subject."
ZULU CURIOSITIES AND ARMS.
ZULU CURIOSITIES AND ARMS. The Times of Monday says :—"A small but interest- ing specimens of Zulu and South African workman- ship may now be seen at Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co.'s, No, 166, Piccadilly, London. The first thing to attract the attention of the visitor will pro- bably be the armoury of weapons, including throwing, stabbing, and skinning assegais brought from the battle-fields of Ulundi and Ginghilova, a mutikclt. and a rifle recovered from the Inyazane River; bus the articles in domestic use among the Zulus will be found not less interesting. Thebeadwork, the carved spoons, the bowl simply but taetefully ornamented with charred decorations, ths double pipes, tbe snuff-boxee made from the little nest ef the trap door spider, the bangles and bracelets curiously wrought out of odd materials, the gourds containing the buck's marrow (an invaluable salve for wounds in the estimation of the Zulus), the small carved headrests which serve for pillows, and many things either ornamental or useful produced by native ingenuity from castaway European materials, all show a higher feeling for form and finish, and even for colour, than could be expected from so rude a people. There are besides many beautiful trophies of the chase-horns of the hartebeest, buffalo, waterbock, steenbock, bontebock, epringbocb, &a., and come lion skins. In the collection are curiosities brought homebyMr.R.D. Thomburgh Cropper, extra aide-de-camp to General Sir Evelyn Woodby Viscount Downe; aud by Mr. N. Newnham Davis, of the Buffs."
GARDENING OPERATIONS FOR THE…
GARDENING OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK (From the Gardener's Magazine.) IAn excellent weekly journal, containing much valuable Information for amateur and professional gardeners.] KITCHEN GARDEN AND FRAME GROUND. Cauliflowers potted for keeping over winter should be kept rather dry, and as much as possible exposed to the weather, to keep them stocky and hard. The lights,or glasses must remain on always at night from from this time forth, removing them every morning, except during frost or drenching rains. In wet muggy weather tilt the lights upon blocks of wood or bricks, so as to create a circulation of air amengst the plants, and yet keep the soil from being saturated with water. Kitchen Garden crops to be kept clean, all dead leaves removed, the ground frequently hoed between cabbage, &c. Thin winter spinach, clear off Brussels sprouts in compartments as used, and dig the ground over as soon as vacant. Lettitcu.- Treat as recommended for cauliflowers. FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. Auriculas must be kept clean and dry; any drip from the frames will do incalculable mischief; at no time, not even during frost, should the roots be duet- dry; it causes an exhaustion of the plant which will tell seriously on the bloom hereafter. Carnations will often be found beset with green-fly during d&mp warm weather at this time of year; in which case fumigate at once, and again a few days afterwards, and they will probably remain quite clean till they begin to grow again in spring. FRUIT GARDEN AND ORCHARD. Currants and Gooseberries should, if required, now be lifted, as the next year's crop will be less jeopardised by getting them early to the places in which they are to fruit. Fork in a good dressing of manure between the trees in old plantations. Put in cuttings of choice aorts; the cuttings to be straight ripe shoots of this year, and all the lower buds removed, so as to prevent the throwing up of suckers. Fruit-trees to be planted as soon as possible; manure In not to be used unless the ground is in a poor condition, and then a little fresh soil should be used with it if possible. Turf from the roadside, clay, clearing of ponds and ditches are excellent materials to invigorate an old worn-out soU required for fruit culture, as also to give body to poor sandy and chalky Boils, In planting, keep all roots near the surface never plant any tree deeper than it was planted before, and it it was evidently planted too deeply before give it a better chance than it had previously by mere shallow planting. Stake as soon as planted to prevent rock- ing by the wind. FORCING AND YRUIT HOUSES. Peach HMW.—Trees in the early forcing house ta be pruned at once; the roots top-dressed, the branches washed, and the lights put on but give plenty of air. Vacancies may now be filled up in the peach house, and nothing better for the purpose than bearing trees. Generally where peaches are unproductive on open walls the climate ia most to blame, and the mere protection of glass, even without fire-heat, suffices to convert barren into fruitful trees, besides the fact, which must always be borne in mind, that trees under glass invariably receive more attention than those in the open air. In planting peaches on open borders, let attention be first given to drainage, if the soil is light, lay down six inches of tenacious loam or clay, or turf from a loamy pasture, and about three inches of rotten dung, and then stir the whole, and mix this material with the staple to a depth of two feet, mixing the ingredients well together. The peach, nectarine, and apricot all require a firm, substantial, and some- what adhesive soil, a south aspect, and a dry bottom. CONSERVATORY AND GRIENHOUSE, Cyclamens and Primulas to be kept in the warmest part of the house, and have every encouragement to push forward for bloom. Keep these near the glass where there ia no drip. Greenhouse.—On bright days open all the ventilators, te cause a free circulation ot air amongst the plantsu Avoid using fire-heat as mueh as possible consistent with the safety of the plants, and give very little water to those a that have finished their growth, or which it is desirable to throw into a state of rest* Plants in pita will endure short periods of frost better if kept well aired and moderately dry. In case of a severe frost,now to be looked for, light a briskfire early in the day, give air while the sun shines, shut up early, and trust to covering up rather than keep the fire burning all night. A clear sky and a few pointa of north in the wind may be considered indications of frost, and at such times the cultivator should be OIL his guard. Plants in Frames will soon be infested with mildew now, if kept close or damp. Though nothing should go dust dry, it will be best always to defer watering till the weather is clear and bright, and then water well the first thing in the morning, that the pots and plunge material may be somewhat dry before night one good watering will go a long distance now. Daring keen north-east winds-not very prevalent at this season—soft-wooded plants suffer severely if kept very dry. and at the same time they will not then bear so much exposure as at other times. STOVB AND OBSHU) HOUSE. Orchid Mouse. — Orchids approaching a dormant state should be kept comparatively cool and dry, but due caution must be exercised to avoid all extremes. Stove.—Solar light is now becoming a scarce com- modity, and the careful cultivator will catch all he can. Clean glass, climbers a little reduced, and plants most in need of light put as high up as possible, arothreedirect ways of obtaining the fullest benefit of the present subdued daylight.
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HEREDITARY ABISTOOBACY IN CHINA.—When A Chinese has, by his services, merited a title of nobility, his son neither has nor ever will have the right to use any title except that immediately inferior to it and thus the nobility goes on diminishing in the family from one generation to generation, until it be- coir eg completely extinct, unless one of its members renders to his country a signal service, and thus rein- states himself in thA title originally granted to his ancestor. This ingenious combination give to the nobility an ever growing emulation, a desire to render service to their country great in proportion as the family title is diminishing, because it is more dis- honourable to see this heritage declining in their hands than never to have possessed it. CHINESE METHOD OF INCVBATION.-A. peculiar process of hatching eggs is adopted in China. The eggs are are placed in tiers in large baskets, twice the size of an wrainary barrel, thickly lined with bay, aud carefully closed from the air by a tIght. fitting cover of twisted straws. In three days time the eggs are taken out and replaced in different order, those at the surface being put in the lowest tier. This is repeated every third day for a fortnight, when the eggs are removed from the basket and placed on a shelf 111 another room. being carefully covered with bran. Ir a day or two the chicken chips the shell and makes its aopeor- ance in the world. The success ot the method is attributed to the fact that the animal heat of the eggs being retained by the basket, which is formed of materials not conducting caloric, is sufficient to support animal life and foster its development.