The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

Manslaughter by Incautious Driving.—Mr. Payne has just held an inquest on John Sheerwood Withey, 74, Mount-cottage, Edmonton, florist. He was driving a van down Wirehall-lane, Edmonton, when one Thomas Filey, of Sontbgate, was coming in an opposite direction on a cart asleep. In passing be- tween deceased's van and two other carts Filey's eart came in collision with the van and knocked deceased off, running over him, and causing injuries, of which he died. Verdict—Manslaughter against Filey It will be remembered that about seven weeks ago some jewellery was stolen from Bolton Lodge, Tadcaster, the residence of Captain Oliver, and that Henry Ernest Newcomen King, stated to be the son of Viscountess Lorton by a previous marriage, was charged with the robbery, and committed for trial at the Bradford sessions. These have been held, but no evidence being offered against the prisoner, the bill was ignored, and he was discharged from custody.

BLIKTS UPGS GARDENING. KITCHEN GARDEN AND FRAME GROUND.-Broad beans to be sown again if a late supply is at all likely to ba wanted. Top those in flower as soon as a reason- able amount of bloom is expanded; the small early sorts, such as Hangdown, to be topped when about 18 inches high, and the strong growers, such as Longpod and Windsor, at two and a half to three feet high. But the height much depends upon the way they are grown. When in close rows, they run up tall; when in single rows, far apart, they are much shorter and better. Broccoli coming forward in seed pans must now be pricked out on well-manured beds, four inches apart, and when they touch each other will be a good time to plant them out for flowering. Winter greens of all kinds to be planted out as occasions offer; a few of the forwardest plants of Brussels sprouts should be put oat where they are to remain in deeply trenched and well-manured ground to furnish an early supply of buttons. Cucumbers em ridges may now have the hand-lights or other protection removed, so as to benefit by the night dews and showers. Lettuce to be sown now where they are to remain. This ia a golden rule to prevent bolting when the weather becomes torrid. Peas do better without water than with it if they are in trenches well manured before the seeds were sown. But where they look yellow or thin a heavy soaking of water will be beneficial. Sow a few first and second early sorts, giving preference to the wrinkled varieties if possible. Turnips As there will soon be a demand for these, it will be well to sow a small breadth in some odd place, so as to secure a few small bulbs in advance of the ordinary autumn supplies. Take especial care to break wp and manure the ground first, or the crop will come to nothing. Vegetable Marrow: During warm showers is a good time to plant these out. But they ought first. to be somewhat hardened by placing the plants in a sheltered spot for a week. To take them from warm cucumber pits or propagating houses, and plant them direct, is bad practice. Celery to have an abundant supply of water if the ground is dry, as slow growth is ruin to it, and may cause half the crop to bolt. Continue to plant out, using abundance of rotten dung well worked into the soil of the trenches. Leeks to be transplanted from the seed-bed to the very rieh ground, and to be earthed up as they grow, to blanch the neck of the bulb. The frequent use of sewage water will swell them to a great size, and with improved quality. Melons to be stopped and trained regularly. The rule is for the female blossoms to be impregnated at midday when quite dry. We left a bed of six plants to take care of themselves in that re- spect last year, and we had as good a crop as by the process of artificial impregnation, but then they were grown on the border of a lean-to where the bees were in and out all day long. Sow lettuce for succession, broad beans, wrinkled marrow, emperor, and advancer peas, radishes, scarlet runners, turnips, early York, East Ham, and Shilling's grotto cabbage, a few rosette coleworts, and Walcheren brocaoli. » FLOWER GARDEN.-Piuks must be supported by neat stakes to keep the blooms from being spoilt by rain and wind. The best way to propagate is by pipings, and now is a good time to secure plenty of them. Annuals: This week or next is a good time to sow any of the quick-growing annuals for autumn display. The blue nemophila. blooms beautifully if sown at the end of June; better by far than from spring sowings. Balsams, asters, and stocks to be planted out where they are to flower. Sow Brompton and queen stocks. Bedders to have every necessary attention to regu- late the growth and display the bloom; peg verbenas and other trailers as soon as they need it. If the ground is very dry, loosen the sarfaoo with the hoe between the plants, and if necessary to water, soak the ground well. Plants running away to leaf to have no water; and where tropasolums, grow rank, re- move a few of the leaves, so as to make more room for the blossoms to be seen. Border bulbs may be taken up as soon as the leaves are withered, and to insure a perfect ripening lay them in clumps as taken up, without damage to the roots, in a shady place, with a sprinkling of earth over them. Dahlias to be tied up betimes, or sudden gusts of wind will tear away the best branches from the base. On hot dry soils mulching is needful, and will prevent need of watering, but in small gardens mulching attracts vermin, and had best not be practised. Propagate at once Neapolitan violets by dividing; pansies, by cuttings and layers; pinks, by pipings and cuttings—if the latter, dibble ttism into pans and cover with bell-glasses put pipings in the open ground in a shady place; chrysanthemums, by cuttings, for blooming under glass in pots; roses, by cuttings and half-ripe wood; and any Bummer-dowering plants wanted for late blooms under glass; also iberis sempervirens, the best of all spring flowers. Tritoma nvaria and varieties require abundance of water now, especially if in pots. Liliums the same; when throwing up their spikes they can scarcely have too much. Ixias and other Cape bulbs in flower need the same treatment; after flowering, lessen the supply, but allow free growth, that they may die down and ripen naturally, during which process let them go quite dry. FRUIT GARDEN AND ORCHARD HOUSE.-Rasp- berries are a welling their fruit, and if a few extra large samples are required it is a good plan to thin the fruit on the canes, and give them two or three heavy soakings with manure-water. But for all ordinary supplies it is best to let them ripen as much fruit as they will. The ground amongst raspberries is now pretty well paved with seedling plants from berries that fell last year. Hoe them down, they only rob the fruiting ones of nourishment. Strawberry beds are showing a good crop, and the plants are generally in good health. The best of all materials wherewith to cover the ground to keep the fruit clean is cocoa-nut fibre refuse. In the place of this, graBS mowings may be used, or clean straw or chaff. Bush and pyramid fruit trees are generally in better health than standards, because they get more attention; and as they are in a somewhat artificial state through close pinching and frequent lifting, they require extra attention. Shorten in at once all rambling growths: tie in espaliers while the wood is pliable, as if they harden out of shape, it will be difficult to train them hereafter. Keep down grub, fly, and American blight. The simplest remedy for the last-named pest is a touch of oil by means of a soft brush on the places to which it adheres. The oil will kill any leaves it falls on, but will not hurt the bark. At this time last year we had some young plum trees which had had their roots out in severely the winter before through their having stood in a wet place where the roots rotted. After starting well, they were suddenly covered with aphis, and were literally alive from head to foot, and looked as if they had been washed with powder-blue. We made a mixture of tobacco-water, size, and sulphur, and with this they were painted all over, bark and leaves alike, so that when finished they looked as u varn*eked. They were then heavily watered, and t n r x?ta mu^c^-ed with half-rotten dung. Not a leaf fell, the side-shoots broke nicely, and they ripened their wood to perfection. They are now handsome trees, and not one of the pests of the season has visited them. This note may be useful to some who are in a similar difficulty.—Gardener's Magazine.

BEARING OF POULTRY. We extract the following from a series of articles on Poultry, and How to make Them Pay," BOw publish- ing in Cass ell's Illustrated Family Pa/per:— The Hen.-The choice of hens is no less important than that of the male birds. If inferior hens are asso- ciated with good cocks, the product will naturally be inferior to that resulting from birds of equal excellence: so also, if the cock be of inferior quality. Select a hen of easy temper, well feathered, the after part of the body well developed, and always diligent in seeking food. If it be naturally shy and turbulent, no good can be expected of it. If put to set, it will break its eggs, and injure its chickens by its clumsiness and abruptness; and by its vagaries, disturb the peace of well-conducted hens. When the raising of poultry is the business on band, we must secure, in the reproducers of both sexes, the existence of the evident signs of good flesh- viz., the colour of the feet, the quality of the akin, a large frame, and precocious growth. A yellow foot generally shows the fowl to be tough, with large bones, and yellow fat, which is usually accompanied by a yellow fikin; but with the exception of yellow and green, no other colour excludes ex- cellence from the flesh. It will be said that the feet of the Cochins are yellow, but that forms no exception to the rule, for its flesh is of inferior quality, and its bones are large and heavy. If, upon examining the skin of the breast and thighs, it appears fine, supple, elastic, and of a pearly rose colour, there is reason to be satisfied, for these are signs of an aptitude to acquire fat. It is usual to estimate the fecundity of the hen by the number of eggs it lays in a year, but this is an error. It is not the total number, but the gross weight, that is most deserving consideration; every means should therefore be adopted to increase their weight. There is no doubt that this result may be brought about by the exercise of proper judgment. We have stated that the average weight of the egga laid by the domestic hen is two ounces (875 grains); but this weight is attained only when the hens are well supplied with proper food-under ordinary cir- cumstances the average weight will not exceed 750 grains. The eggs of the Spanish and the Crevecour breeds weigh 1,200 grains. The following calculation will show the relative advantages of weight and number. Suppose the ill-fed domestic hen lays 100 eggs during the same space of time that the Spanish lays 70, which will be the most productive as regards quantity ? 100 eggs, weighing each 750 grains, gives 75,000 grains, or 10 5-7th lb. 70 eggs, weighing each 1,200 grains, gives 84,000 grains, or 12 lb. This is a striking difference, and fully contradicts the common belief, showing that the best layer is not the hen that lays the greatest number of eggs, but the one that lays the heaviest. It, therefore, becomes important to take this fact into consideration in selecting laying hens. We know that the first eggs laid by a hen are neither so large nor so heavy as those laid after she has become a year older; and it is the same with a hen after she has passed her fourth or fifth year.

A TERRIBLE FIRE IN DUBLIN: AN AGONISING SCEAIB. The special correspondent of the Times gives the following harrowing account of a fire which took place in Dublin on Thursday :—The corner house of Westmoreland-street, adjoining Aston-quay, and just at Carlisle-bridge, has been recently rebuilt, and is occupied by the Ballast Board. The next house, numbered 19 and 20, was occupied by Mr. Delaney, a respectable merchant tailor. There were two front shops, one of which was let to a hatter named Williams, and both having very large plate-glass windows. A solicitor and a photographer occupied apartments on the drawing-room floor. The only persons in the house at the time of the fire were Mrs. Delaney and her three daughters, aged respectively 21,20, and 12 years, a ser- vant maid, and a gentleman named Strahan, aged 24, son of Mr. Strahan, proprietorof alarge furniture ware- house in Henry-street. He was a fine young man, and is said to have been engaged to Miss Delaney. Mr. Delaney had gone out to take a walk with his son, who is 16 or 18 years of age, little imagining that he would never again see a single member of the happy family which he had left behind him, probably conversing joyfully and hopefully about their plans for the future. A gentleman who was passing through Westmoreland- street about twenty or twenty-five minutes to nine o'clock states that he found the shutters of the hatter's shop down, and the interior a perfect furnace. The fire seemed then to be confined to the back shop, though rapidly tending frontwards. Just then the plate glass was either broken intentionally by some one anxious to extinguish the fire, or it was shattered by the intensity of the heat. The consequence was that thet current of air gave tremendous force to the flames, which rushed out with fury, seizing upon the windows of Mr. Delaney's shop, mounting upwards to the drawing-room, penetrating in its devouring course to all parts of the building, and with terrific rapidity bursting through floor after floor. Another gentleman states that when passing over Carlisle bridge at 20 minutes to nine o'clock he saw the smoke issuing from both shops, and presently the plate-glass windows fell to pieces with a loud crash, and the flames lighted up the sign-bcarde, and seized the next floor windows. At this time the attention of those who now crowded the streets were attracted to the top windows at the right hand side, next to the Ballast-office. There they beheld five agonised and terror-stricken people—a mother, her three young daughters, and a young man. The latter seemed calm and collected, soothing his companions, and pointing to the approaching fire- escape. The writer says that,- Fervent prayers went up from all present as the firemen put the machine to the wall, and the poor creatures above became calm, and seemed to think deliverance certain. But, oh! how shall I describe the shriek of utter despair which came from that window, when the frail and worthless play-toy which innocent citizens call a fite-escape ber like a willow, collapsed; and fell to the ground. That shriek I shall remember while life lasts. A fireman went up a few steps and tried to adjust the 'escape,' but the fire burst out then in all its fury, drove him off the ladder, shot up the side of the house like a lightning flash, and seemed to strike the victims in the very face. I saw them reel backward, heard them utter a stifled shriek, and disappear. Many who had arrived subsequently thought they had escaped by the roof," but no one who saw them at the time I speak of dared to hope so. Sorry should I be to take from the honour due to any brave :man who tries to save the life of a fellow, creature from a horrible death, and if I do so I shall be glad to be set right, but I must say that I often saw far more effort made to save a horse from a similar death thav was put forth for these poor human beings. The fire engines were not at work till the house was a furnace; the fire-escapes were miserable and cruel failur and all working them seemed to give up the victims to their fate after very little effort. In a veryshort time the top floor gave way, and the shrieking victims dis- appeared never to be seen again. When I went to the place at twelve o'clock on Thursday night people hoped that they might have escaped by the roof of one of the adjoining houses. They could easily have done so, for the window at which they stood is only a few feet from the top of the parapet. Mr. Strahan might have got out there, and pulled up the ladies, and passed them on to the roof of the Ballast-office, where they would have been quite safe; or with the aid of ropes, blankets, or some contrivance of the kind they might have been drawn into that building by the adjoining windows. But everybody seemed to rely, anJ very naturally, upon the fire brigade and their grand ma- chines until it was, alas! too late. Scarcely anything now remains of the building but the outer walls. The fire has been extinguished, and men have been at work ever since clearing out the debris; but up to two o'clock p.m. this day, when I visited the ruin, not a trace had been discovered of the six human beings who perished, except a small bone which I found, and which seemed to belong to the little girl. It is stated that the first escape, from:Sachville- street, broke and be. came unmanageable, but the other, which hac ladders yoked, reaching, seemingly, to the proper neighfe, remained till any attempt at rescue was hopeless, reared against the front of the Imperial Office, where the persons were engaged throwing out bedding and furniture while their fellow-beings were despairingly shrieking for aid within a few yards' distance." The feeling against the fire brigade is so strong that they are said to have been hooted by the mob while removing their machines. Nearly all the Dublin papers vehemently denounce the Corporation for lllowing their officers to let their fire-eecapes get out of order, and rendering it possible for such a calamity to occur because of their utter inefficiency. They not only failed to save those six lives, but they hindered those who positively assert that they would and could have saved them. The Waterworks Committee of the Cor- poration held a private inquiry in order to ascertain whether their officers deserved the public censure which has been poured upon them. The Lord Mayor expressed his belief that they would be able to justify their officers, and a desire was expressed by Mr. Sulli- van that the public would suspend their judgment till they should give their evidence at the inquest. Mr. Byrne said that it was right the public should ksiow that the failure to save life was very much owing to the interference of the people in the street, who prevented the work of the machinery by the officers of the Corporation. The public were, no doubt, justly exasperated at this failure, but the very efforts made by the people outside, although well- meant, were most unfortunate.

Crinoline in a Railway Carriage.-Thomas Lattimore, late a quartermaster-sergeant of the 48th Middlesex (Havelock's), surrendered to take his trial last week at the Surrey Sessions on aa indictment charging him with committing an indecent assault on Pfccebe Wareham, a widow, in a first-class carriage on the North Kent Railway, between Charlton and the London bridge terminus. The defendant while returning from a field-day at Charlton-park, in which he had taken part, was alleged to have been guilty of the offence with which he was charged. The com- plainant gave evidence, and minutely described the details of the assault. For the defence it was urged that what had taken place was entirely the result of accident, caused by the accused endeavouring to put back the complainant's crinoline. After a short con- sultation the jury ieturned a verdict of Acquittal.

SPORTS AND PASTIMES. DURING the past week a noble duke laid no less a sum than Y,180,000 to Y,6,000 against Hermit for the next year's Derby; a gallant captain, a confederate of the owner, having aocepted the odds. This, we believe, to be the heaviest betting on record. AN action was brought against the London and Brighton Railway, in the Court of Exchequer last week, for not taking care of two pug dogs, which said pugs were valued at X150 each. SPEAKING of the early honey harvest in Sussex, a cor- respondent of the Field says :-The last few weeks have been unprecedented for honey gathering. On the 2nd of June I took off two top hives, which had only been on 15 days. One contained 161b., the other 151b. of pure white comb. I could take off now 2001b. any day. THE river Tweed has been more indebted to the changes of tide and wind than the special state of its own waters during the late dry weather for its supplies of fish. The produce has been fluctuating; some satisfactory days' fishing have occurred; even so many as over 300 salmon have been had on one day, but this has been exceptional; the past week's fishing in the river was not a favourable one for salmon, but grilse have commenced; the take in the tidal waters has been about half-a-dozen for the week. Trout, too, are on the increase; and the sea-fishing benefiting by the dry weather and onshore winds have had better success. Salmon bring Is. lOd. and trout Is. 5d. per pound in Berwiok. Anglers are confined to trout for their sport, and there are still many smolts on their way seaward. THURSDAY was the second target day of the Royal Toxophilite Society, when the society met to shoot for the first lieutenancy. This rank in the society has been lately revived, and Mr. Anon has presented a decoration for the winner. It was won by Mr. William Spottiswoode, who also won eight points towards the gold medal, and Mr. Butt won two points. Mr. E. Wilkinson made the best gold at 100 yards, and became the Budworth member, winning the bugle and decoration. THE race for the Wingfield Sculls-the amateur championship of the Thames-is fixed for Tuesday, July 3, when Messrs. Michell, Woodgate, and Chambers may be expected at the post. On the following days the two races between Henry Kelley, of Putney, and J. Hammill, of the United States of America, will take place on the Tyne; the first over a straight-away course of five miles, and the second over a two mile and a half course out, and back to the starting-point—the High Level Bridge. No doubt the 4th and 5th of July will be great days at Newcastle. J. Drewett, of Chelsea, and David Coombes, of Horse- lydown, likewise meet to scull for X100 a side on the Thames, on the 25th inst. A FEW weeks ago, says the Dundee Advertiser, the attention of edginemen and guards on the Great North of Scotland Railway was attracted to the conduct of a cock pheasant, which seemed de- termined to vie in speed with the trains. This bird, which genera.lly made its appearance from a wood near the Rotbiemay station, came with all possible speed to the line on hearing a train. After waiting patiently till the en gino was fairly alongside, the pheasant then started off and raced with great apparent determination till he was distanced by the locomotive, which generally occurred within 400 yards. As day after day passed in this way, the bird began to be looked for at every train, and seldom failed to enter the lists. He also seemed to get better acquainted with the trains, and commenced to avoid those with passengers, as being (it is supposed) too fast for his powers of speed, choosing rather to make his contest with the heavier goods. And, though it may appear incredulous, this pheasant has evidently got some knowledge of the dangers attending such freaks as his. One day last week he was observed feeding in a field with two hens, and as soon as the train came in eight be made off towards the wood till he had started his companions, and got them, so to speak, to a place of safety. Then he suddenly reversed his course, and made straight for the line, where he got his usual run with the train. As may be supposed, the bird has made himself a favourite with the officials, who say that his rueful and disappointed looks when he is fairly beaten and left behind are of the most comical and amusing character. PERSONS desirous of thoroughly understanding the game of billiards should read The Billiard Book," by Captain Crawley, reoently brought out by Longman and Co. By means of this the merest tyro at billiards would soon become a good player by studying these pages, whilst to the most scientific player it affords information. We never saw a more complete work. The table, the instruments, and the game are all treated with a masterly band. The rules of the game, the angles, the hazards, the cannons, the cramp game, the foreign games, the cramp strokes, and the trick strokes, are all clearly explained; and the book will doubtless become an authority in deciding disputes upon all matters connected with billiards. Numerous woodcuts illustrate almost every position a player can take, and the course of the ball across the table; in fact, every posible thing which may occur in a game of billiards is treated upon and explained.

The Yorkshire Art and Industrial Exhibition at York is to be opened in July. During its continuance the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, who are to attend the volunteer review at the ancient city during the autumn, are expeoted to visit the exhibi- tion.

AGRICULTURE. J On the Use and Cultivation of Sainfoin. Sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa) is a native wild plant,, more or less common to calcareous soils. As an Eng- lish plant it was formerly known by the name of cocks- head, which was given to it on account of the spinous crest of its seed covering. It was introduced as a fodder plant from France, and brought with it the .-name by which it is now most generally known to the botanist as well as the farmer. Like the furze, it is a papilionaceous plant, and is well recognised by its spikes of handsome light pink 1 flowers, which are striped with lines of scarlet. Two varieties are known in the seed-market, Onobrychis ,sativa, common sainfoin, and 0. sativa, var. bifera, twice-flowering sainfoin—the Sainfoin à deux coupes of the French. The first of these is the one most commonly cultivated; it flowers but once in the sea- son, and therefore, if eaten off or made into hay, a second crop will be of leaves only, in which it differs from the second form, which, when made into hay, will send up a second crop of stems and flowers. It, how- ever, has not such a thick undergrowth of leaves, and we therefore prefer the common sainfoin, taking the first crop for hay and depasturing the aftergrowth. We have remarked that the wild plant prefers calca- reous soils, and in practice we find that the oolites and chalks of England are best adapted for its growth. For some time we were deterred from growingsain- foin-on our own farm in Dorset, as the land OR which we wished to employ it could only be designated as quite a light sand; still, as it is not free from some of the spoils of the inferior oolites—themselves, indeed, more sandy than rocks of the same date in Gloucester- shire—and as the sand substratum contains occasional layers of carbonate of lime, we were induced to try it first in one of our experimental plots. Here, on the at of May of last year, 1865, our rows were 16 inches high-no mean recommendation for a fodder plant to afford such a mass of herbage so early; and while writing this, the same plot, in its second year, is 22 inches Supported, then, by this trial we drilled about six acres with our last year's barley, and this now presents a thick herbage of the uniform height of 15 inches (May 24th), with a backward season. We may here mention that our neighbour had previously told us that it was no use to sow sainfoin in this part of the country, but finding that he had never tried it we pro- ceeded, and now we iind that in future he will grow sainfoin too. It is admirably adapted to poor soils of all descriptions, provided they have a sufficiency of lime; and this not because as is some- times supposed, a good plant can grow on next to nothing," but because by means of ita long penetrat- ing tap-root it is capable of searching out depths in soil, even though unmoved by the plough, to which the horizentally rooted plants cannot penetrate. In illr stration of this, let any one observe a plot of sainfoin pliced by the side of a plot of wheat or of rape. He will find the former level all over, while the latter will be taller at the edges of the plot, because the horizontal rootlets encroach upon the space by which the plots are divided. On account of the property which this plant possesses of bringing up matter from great depths, its cultivation on thin, brashy soils is highly valuable as a medium of deepening the surface soil under the process of depasturing. We come now to speak of the cultivation of sainfoin. For this the usual plan ia to drill the seed either plain-that is, with its rough pod- or milled," in which the covering is removed. Of the first, from two to three bushels an acre may be drilled across the barley or oats. As the rough seed is generally so impure, we usually employ the milled seed, drilling about 20lb. an acre; after which, whether we use the rough or the milled seed, we follow its sowing with about 21b. to the acre of farmers' hop trefoil (Medicago Iwpulina); this fills up the bottom the first year, and greatly adds to the .produce. Sainfoin may be kept down for four years if sown with care. Formerly, indeed, it was kept for a longer period; but, like clovers, cultivation seems to have injured its perennial habit on the one hand, while the weeds by which the seed is too often accompanied render it useless on the other.-The Field. Turnip Culture. The Gardener's Chronicle gives the following advice: —Keep the harrows and rollers working close behind the ploughs in dry weather. Land that has borne vetches and rye ma.y be sown with turnips taward the end of June. The order in which the different kinds should be sown is that of the hardiness which respec- tively characterises them:—1, swedes,: 2, hybrids 3, hard yellow turnips; 4, soft white turnips. The earlier turnips will have come into br, ad leaf, after which they are to be feorse-hoed and singled. Three good hoers will single an acre of turnips in a day. Where, however, much seed has been sown, and the plants are crowded in the rows, an acre's singling will be a day's work for as many as four or even five hands; it is of the utmost importance that this opera- tion be well and carefully performed. One horse-hoe will keep before seven good hoers. Its use reduces the ridge on which the row of plants is growing to a width of about four inches raised abruptly about two inches above the general level. The action of the hand-hoe is very rapid; alternate pushes and pulls bevel off this raised drill, so as to give it the true ridge form, and at the same time so as to destroy all the plants except those intended to grow, which are left in a neatly-executed row, at intervals of about twelve inches, along the ridge line, all lying one way, with half of their roots exposed. This operation is best performed by a party of women at days' wages, headed by a man who assists the laggers, and corrects ,the deficiencies of the unskilful. b The Use of Refuse Lime. A correspondent of the Mark- lane Express says, in answer to the inquiry of another writer respecting the value as a manure of the refuse lime from gas works:— li My experience with it is only when applied to grass land, for which purpose I have been in the habit of using considerable quantities. I mix the lime fresh from the works with about an equal portion of pond- cleanings, road-scrapings and parings, or soil, or any other such refuse; allow the heap to remain for twelve months, turning1 it over once or twice during that time to get it well mixed, and apply it as early as possible in the winter at the rate of about four tons of the lime per acre. This, I find, has the effect of killing the moss with which our grass land is much troubled, and also considerably increasing the quantity and im- proving the quality of the hay If applied to pasture I find the stock prefer the grass from the land that has been so dressed. I should mention that my land ia naturally very deficient in lime, and any application of chalk or lime to the arable land is very beneficial; but I have not as yet tried gas lime for the pur- pose. Indeed, I should be glad to know to what crops it is best suited, and in what way best applied, as it has a tendency to poison vegetation if not kept some time. I have been told that a small quantity fresh from the works, sown just before the barley is drilled, will kill the wireworm, which is a very trouble- some pest to that crop here. I have been fearful, however, of trying it, thinking that, if I put sufficient to kill the wireworm, I should also destroy the barley. I believe that considerable chemical changes go on during the time that the lime and soil are together in a heap-that the sulphur or sulphites that the crude gas-lime contains, and which are so prejudicial to vegetation, become converted into sulohate of lime, or gypsum, by combining with free lime. Perhaps, -also, any nitrogen that may be contained in the sub- stance that is mixed with the lime, and which would be set free on the decomposition of the former, caused by the mixing with lime, may become converted into nitrates. This may, perhaps, explain the manurial value that the mixture appears to have other than that obtained from applying pure lime."

METROPOLITAN STREET TRAFFIC. Mr. J. P. Knight, traffic superintendent of the South-Eastern Railway, has published a pamphlet embodying the suggestions which be made when recently under examination before the select committee of the House of Commons on the City Traffic Regulation Bill. The basis of his plan as regards street-crossings is the adoption of a system of signalling similar to that employed on railways, and he recommends the establishment of the following regulations:— Every principal public street throughout London to be provided with an appointed and authorised crossing-place for pedestrians. Should the street be of unusual lon gth-for instance, the Strand, Piccadilly, Cheapside, &e.—there should be more than one of euch appointed crossing-places. The crossing-places should be indicated and protected by a semaphore signal on each side of the street. This signal, com- mon upon railways, would indicate by day and night respectively, when the arms were down and the green light exhibited, that all vehicular traffic should pass over such appoined crossing at caution or walking pace; and when the arms were up (viz., extended horizontally), or the red light exhibited, that the vehicular traffic should stop clear, on either side, of such foot-crossing. The semaphore signal in ques- tion would therefore indicate only two positions— caution (or walking pace) and stop-and would be easily understood by the public. These signals could be worked by the policemen on the beat; if neoessary, the stop position of the signal could be exhibited at intervals to allow the public to cross the street in safety; but it may be assumed that the caution, or nor- mal position of the signal, by regulatingthe vehicle traffic to walking pace, would aflord the requisite amount of safety to pedestrians. The signal could, as upon railways, be worked with great ease-a. common wire conducted through an iron tube underneath the street would connect both signals, so that they coul be worked with one leverage, thereby enabling the policemen on either side of the street to work the signal on the other side. These signals would, by reason of their height (say fronr 25 to 30 feet high) be seen a long distance off, and every driver of vehicles would thereby be aware he was approaching an appointed foot-crossing. The lower part of the signal-post would serve for the street lamps, so that one post or standard would serve both purposes. This combined signal and street lamp- post might be at once ornamental in appearance as well aa practically useful. It ia assumed that the adoption of these signals at certain busy thoroughfares where streets cross at right angles, and where extra policemen are now ntationeci to regulate the traffic, would be the means of reducing the number required, inasmuch as one man would be enabled to control each side of the street; and furthermore, the raising of the signals to the stop position occasionally would the better enable the vehicles to cross each other where side streets occur, and which is now only accomplished with difficulty by the policemen going into the road- way and struggling to give precedence to the various vehicles at such points of intersection." I

Wrecks.-During the past week 30 wrecks have been reported, making for the present year a total of 1,018. It is reported that the Crown Prince of Denmark has made an offer of marriage to the Princess Mary, daughter of Prince Frederick of Denmark, who is one of the richest heiresses in the country. TheVen. Henry Tattam, LL.D., Archdeacon of Bedford, in his charge just addressed to the clergy, announced to them that he had placed his resignation in the hands of the bishop of the diocese.