distressing, for no relief could be given, to hear the constant clamour and importunity of the young for food. The old birds seemed to suffer without complaint; but the wants of their offspring were expressed by the unceasing cry of hunger, and pursuit of their parents for supply, and our fields were scenes of daily restlessness and lament. Yet, amid all the distress, it was pleasing to observe the perseverance of the old birds in the endeavour to relieve their famishing families, as many of them remained out, searching for food, quite in the dusk, and returned to their roosts long after the usual period for retiring. In this extremity it becomes a plunderer, to which by inclination it is not much addicted, and resorts to our our newly-set potato fields, digging out the cuttings. Ranks are seen sadly defective, the result of its labours I fear; and the request of my neighbours now and then for a bird from my rookery, to hang up in terrorem in their fields, is confirmatory of its bad name. In autumn, a ripe pear, or a walnut, becomes an irresistible temptation, and it will occasionally obtain a good share of these fruits. In hard frosts, it is pinched again, visits for food the banks of streams, and, in conjunction with its congener, the " villain crow," becomes a wayfaring bird, and seeks a dole from every passing steed. Its life, however, is not always dark and sombre; it has its periods of festivity also. When the waters retire from the meadows and low lands, where they have remained any time, a luxurious banquet is provided for this corvus, in the multitude of worms which it finds drowned on them. But its jubilee is the season of the cockchaffer (Melolantha vulgaris), when every little copse, every oak, becomes animated with it and all its noisy joyful family, feeding and scrambling for the insect food. The power or faculty, be it by the scent or by other means, that rooks possess of discovering their food, is very remarkable. I have often observed them alight on a pasture of uniform verdure, and exhibiting no sensible appearance of withering or decay, and immediately commence stocking up the ground. Upon investigating the object of their operations, I have found many heads of plantains, the little autumnal dandelions, and other plants, drawn out of the ground and scattered about, their roots having been eaten off by a grub, leaving only a crown of leaves upon the surface. This grub beneath in the earth the rooks had detected in their flight, and descended to feed on it, first pulling up the plant which concealed it, and then drawing the larvæ from their holes. By what intimation this bird had discovered its hidden food we are at a loss to conjecture; but the rook has always been supposed to scent matters with great discrimination. It is but simple justice to these often-censured birds to mention the service that they at times perform for us in our pasture lands. There is no plant that I endeavour to root out with more persistency, in these places, than the turfy hair-grass ( Aira cæspitosa). It abounds in all the colder parts of our grass lands, increasing greatly when undisturbed, and, worthless itself, overpowers its more valuable neighbours. The larger turfs we pretty well get rid of; but multitudes of small roots are so interwoven with the pasture herbage, that we cannot separate them without injury; and these our persevering rooks stock up for us in such quantities, that in some seasons the fields are strewed with the eradicated plants. The whole so torn up does not exclusively prove to be the hair-grass, but infinitely the larger portion consists of this injurious plant. The object of the

bird in performing this service for us, is to obtain the larvae of several species of insects, underground feeders, that prey on the roots, as Linnæus long ago observed on the subject, of the little nard grass (Nardus stricta). This benefit is partly a joint operation: the grub eats the root, but not often so effectually as to destroy the plant, which easily roots itself anew; but the rook -finishes the affair, by pulling it up to get at the larvæ, and thus prevents all vegetation; nor do I believe, that the bird ever removes a specimen that has not already been eaten or commenced upon by the caterpillar. The rook entices its young from the breeding trees as soon as they can flutter to any other. These young, for a few evenings after their flight, will return with their parents, and roost where they were bred; but they soon quit their abode, and remain absent the whole of the summer months. As soon, however, as the heat of summer months is subdued, and the air of antumn felt, they return and visit their forsaken habitations, and some few of them even commence the repair of their shattered nests: but this meeting is very differently conducted from that in the spring; their voices have now a mellowness, approaching to musical, with little admixture of that harsh and noisy contention, so distracting at the former season, and seem more like a grave consultation upon future procedure; and, as winter approaches, they depart for some other place. The object of this meeting is unknown; nor are we aware that any other bird revisits the nest it has once forsaken. Domestic fowls, indeed, make use again of their old nests; but this is never, or only occasionally, done by birds in a wild state. The daw and rock-pigeon will build in society with their separate kindred; and the former even revisits in autumn the places it had nestled in. But such situations as these birds require, the ruined castle, abbey, or church-tower, ledge in the rock, &c. are not universally found, and are apparently occupied from necessity. The rooks appear to associate from preference to society, as trees are common every where; but what motive they can have in view in lingering thus for a few autumnal mornings, and counselling with each other around their abandoned and now useless nests, which before the return of spring are generally beaten from the trees, is by no means manifest to us. The hardy rook is probably not found in such numbers as formerly, its haunts having been destroyed or disturbed by the felling of trees, in consequence of the increased value of timber, and the changes in our manners and ideas. Rooks love to build near the habitation of man; but their delight, the long avenue, to caw as it were in perspective from end to end, is no longer in fashion: and the poor birds have been dispersed to settle on single distant trees, or in the copse, and are captured and persecuted.

"Old-fashioned halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks,"

a modern Zephalinda would scarcely find now to anticipate with dread. In many counties very few rookeries remain, where once they were considered as a necessary appendage, and regularly pointed out the abbey, the hall, the court-house, and the grange.-Journal of a Naturalist.

4. On the substitution of Iron for Poles in the cultivation of the Hop.-M. Denis, member of the Society of Agriculture of the Vosges, has published a treatise on the cultivation of the hop; in which, founding upon his own ex

perience, he recommends the substitution of iron wires for poles for the training of the plant. These wires, formed in pieces of about three feet in length, and joined together so as to resemble a surveyor's chain, are suspended horizontally between two posts of oak, placed at the extremities of the lines of hops, and supported by wooden props at regular intervals. The hops are planted at the distance from each other of eight feet, and are each left with four shoots, which are conducted by little rods to the iron chain, along which they are trained, two in each direction. M. Denis computes that by this practice about a fifth part of the original cost of poles is saved, and 50 francs per annum afterwards for each 500 square mètres.—Bulletin des Sciences Agricoles.

5. Consumption of Food in a German City.-The city of Bremen, which contains about 44,000 inhabitants, consumed in 1827, 2295 oxen, 767 cows, 12,301 calves, 8,405 sheep, 6,075 hogs, 90,608 pounds of smoked and salted meat, 63,328 fowls, ducks and pigeons, 16,434 hares, turkeys and geese, 194,050 oysters, 1,133,943 pounds of butter, 56,640 pounds of cheese, 991 lasts of rye, 116,400 pounds of rye-flour, 597,850 pounds of wheat-flour, and 192,275 pounds of oatmeal. The manufacture of beer has consumed 42,999 bushels of malt, and 977 lasts of rye. There have been drunk 2,314 exhofts of wine, and 323 of brandy, rum, and arrack.—Ephemar. Geogr. de Weimar. 6. Advantage of Short Stages in Drawing Heavy Loads.-Mr Stuart Menteath of Closeburn, proprietor of one of the richest coal-fields in the island, both as to quantity and quality, has very successfully employed horse power to the drawing of heavy loads, by dividing the road into short stages. Before this expedient was resorted to, each horse could travel the distance of only 18 miles, and return with a load of 24 cwt. thrice a week; that is to say, the aggregate of the labour of each horse amounted to 3 tons 12 cwt. weekly. But by dividing that distance into four stages of 44 miles each, four horses can make three trips daily, and draw a load of 33 cwt. each trip, or very nearly 5 tons daily, or 30 tons weekly. Hence, according to this method, the aggregate of the labour of each horse amounts to above 7 tons weekly. Suppose 16 horses are employed, instead of making them travel 18 miles one day, and return with a load the following, the more advantageous plan is to arrange them in four divisions, and make each division travel only 4 miles in succession. Were this distance divided into six stages, the load might be proportionally increased, with less fatigue to the horses; for it will invariably be found, that the most profitable mode of applying the labour of horses is to vary their muscular action, and revive its tone by short and frequent intervals of repose.

7. On Oleaginous Plants.-Among the articles of vegetable food, the oils which are extracted from plants afford one of the most valuable; nor are they of less importance in affording us light by their combustion. They are employed also in a number of manufactures, such as soap, woollens, varnishes, and perfumery. There are two kinds of vegetable oil, distinguished by the name of fixed and volatile. The latter may be extracted from almost every plant; but it is used only as a perfume or to flavour liqueurs, such as the oil called Attar of Roses. These sweet-scented oils constitute the luxury of the

sense of smelling, but are frequently prejudicial, from their effect on the nerves; and some few of them are employed medicinally. But the essential or volatile oils are not those most deserving our attention; the fixed oils are of much higher importance, and are extracted from a class of plants, hence called oleaginous. The oil is expressed from the seed of all these plants excepting the olive, in which it is obtained from the pericarp. The greater part of the seeds of oleaginous plants contain albumen, and it is from this that the oil is obtained; but when the seed has no albumen, as is the case with the poppy, it is the embryo which furnishes the oil. In the family of the Euphorbiacea, all of which have oleaginous seeds, the embryo is of a venomous nature, and oil extracted from it would be poisonous; while that expressed from the albumen of the same plant, situated contiguous to the embryo, is perfectly innocent. Such is Bancul-nut (Aleurites Moluccanum), which is remarkably mild, and is eaten by the inhabitants of the Molucca Isles, as we eat hedge-nuts in Europe, while oil obtained from the embryo is an acrid poison. The fixed oils obtained by cultivation may be ranged under three heads: 1st, Olive-oil, the produce of warm climates; 2d, Nutoil, that of temperate climates; and, 3d, Oils obtained from the seeds of oleaginous herbs. The olive-tree originally came from Syria. That plant, as well as the vine, was brought to Marseilles by the Phocians; and, at the present day, it is cultivated in all the shores of the Mediterranean. It is a tree of very slow growth, but of long duration; it can support a temperature as low as eight or ten degrees of Fahrenheit, provided the air be dry; but, if accompanied with humidity, one or two degrees below the freezing point, proves fatal.

The cultivation of oleaginous herbs enters into the course of cropping; they exhaust the soil almost as much as grain, on account of the number of seeds to be ripened; they require, therefore, a considerable quantity of manure. These herbs are generally of the cruciform family, containing azote, an element of the animal kingdom which forms excellent manure; so that, after the soil is expressed, the cake which remains serves to restore the exhausted soil. Rape is a species of cabbage with thin roots, whose seeds yield excellent oil. The poppy is an oleaginous plant, with white, scarlet, and violet flowers, while the seeds are white or black. They yield oil, perfectly innoxious and wholesome, though drawn from the same plant which supplies us with opium. Flax also is an oleaginous herb. It is, however, chiefly cultivated for its stalks, from which linen thread is fabricated; but its seed also yields the oil we call linseed-oil. It is much used in the art of painting. Hemp is of the same description. There are some few oleaginous herbs of the leguminous family, such as the subterranean arachis (Arachis hypogœa), a plant we derive from America, which has the singular property of ripening its seeds under ground. This plant requires a loose sandy soil, in order that the lower branches may be enabled to bury themselves in the ground. In a state of cultivation, the earth should be heaped over them, as is done with potatoes. The upper branches, which blossom in the air, ripen no seed; while the lower lateral branches, which burrow in the earth, develope no regular blossom; that is to say, have no petals; but the stamens and pistils bring the seeds to perfection.--Conversations on Vegetable Physiology.

QUARTERLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

January 15. 1830.

NOTWITHSTANDING the presumed deficiency of the crop of last year, an unusual degree of depression has prevailed in the corn market during the last three months, nor are there yet any symptoms of improvement, either in demand or price. Various circumstances may be supposed to operate in keeping the market in its present state. The difficulties of the farmers, particularly in the southern and midland counties of England, oblige them to thrash out their corn more liberally than usual; and the markets are, consequently, very fully supplied, while the raw condition of the grain prevents the speculator from storing with safety; and this, added to the circumstance of the poorer classes being unable, from the low rate of wages, to acquire sufficient means to meet their ordinary consumption, may account, in a great degree, for the depression which exists. If, however, we are correct in our opinion and we have not seen the least reason to distrast it as to the deficiency of last crop, we conceive it probable that, as the season advances the supplies will fall off, and that when the deficiency shall have been felt, an improvement will take place in the price of all kinds of corn. Should the condition of the grain improve, the present low prices may perhaps promote speculation in the course of spring, and thus also affect the value of corn. The stocks of old wheat have certainly not been lower for many years, and we think it scarcely possible that we shall be able to meet the consumption without the assistance of foreign supplies, although, from the present state of the averages, and the low qualities of the new wheats, the duties will probably act as a prohibition against importation until the season is far advanced.

During the months of September and October, the markets for lean stock were exceedingly dull. Latterly, the demand has been rather greater, and the prices a little higher. For fat stock there has been an extremely languid demand. Stock, it may be said, has been fully as unprofitable to the farmer as corn. In many cases he will be unable, after his summer's grazing, to obtain the price which he paid in spring. The demand for wool has in no degree increased.

This statement shows that we are yet unable to report any alleviation of that distress in which the agricultural interests of the country are involved. As regards the degree of the distress, indeed, a remark