the boundary. What furrows they have they seem carefully to "spit" out. I suppose they are anxious to get rid of snow and rain-water quickly; but too much of that I have never seen, for I am sure many five months of summer are much wetter than the last five we have had here. Their course of husbandry isbetteraves; wheat; oats; clover, mowed often three times; bitteraves; wheat; oats; then perhaps potatoes or colza for seed, or beans; and then wheat for last. The wheat is harrowed and well-rolled in spring; cut with a bagging hook, shocked with a hood sheaf, and harvested as it ought to be, from what I saw of the dry samples of white wheat in the markets (brown is not much grown). It is thrashed with a flail, and sold by the hectolitre, i. e., 200 pints, worth now about 16s. 8d., i. e., 5s. 6d. per bushel; bread and gin being the only cheap things here. The former is three pounds for 34d. Straw delivered is worth 5d. per truss.

The oats are generally white, and are harvested in the same manner; and of them the only thing worthy of remark is, the very small quantity of seed they give to them: they are worth about 3s. 6d. a bushel; they grow great crops.

The clover they make like corn. They tie them in little bundles, and set them up like corn sheaves; consequently it is all woefully made too much, put in little stacks, and when sold at £3 10s. a load is delivered in these same bundles, weighing 9 lbs. each, without a tilt; consequently, if delivered in damp weather, not worth much after a fortnight's housing in a hay-loft. Their hay is made much as ours; and did they not stack and deliver it in the same ridiculous way as the clover, it would be of excellent quality: they are both the same price. Extraordinary that these capital farmers should not have copied our admirable manner of stacking and trussing hay! I should fancy they grow large crops of clover, as I saw many pieces being cut, for soiling the cows and horses, the third time, at the rate of a load an acre. This, of course, is never made into hay.

The colza is sown in beds in the latter end of July, and transplanted (in land manured) in October, in rows across four-step lands, one foot from row to row and four inches in the row. It is cut in July: a good crop is thirty bushels an acre of seed, worth 6s. per bushel. The land is generally immediately ploughed, and sown with white turnips (like our six-weeks' turnips), which come off in time for wheat. The disease of the potatoes

has troubled them like us, but I think not to the same extent. It has for some five years past been gradually becoming less; they grow about ten tons an acre; the best worth £3 5s. per ton. Peas they seldom grow. Beans they do occasionally, which they principally give the fatting hogs. Barley is little sown in this district.

You see their prices are about the same as ours, so that with the advantage also of the betteraves, I do not think an English farmer could extract more gross return per acre than they do; and this, added to the heavy stock of cattle they keep, which being fed on bought food has almost no limit but the pocket, make a small farm here a good living. They are a most frugal race, and their great ambition is to save and invest their accumulations in the purchase of land, which fetches an enormous price. A highly respectable notary informed me 24 per cent. was considered a fair return. A very great proportion farm their own property.

Leases generally extend to nine years. They have not restrictions in cultivation like us, and the repairs are generally done by the landlord, the farmer providing food the while for the men; but all here is so solidly built of brick and stone, that the repairs are trifling. The barn and stable-doors being all arched, look like the buildings attached to an old monastery or castle, more

than an isolated little farm of the nineteenth century. They certainly are a contented happy people, and most industrious. On market-days the son or father, gener. ally both, with mother or sisters, take their covered waggon of corn themselves; pitch it in the marketplace, and, when sold, return in the same manner, the exact quantity and price being taken by a policeman and signed by the seller. I never saw such exact statistics as are taken here by Government in everything. I fancy it will be interesting just now, as the question of agri. cultural returns is so much agitated in England, if I some time send you an account of the progress here made therein, and their manner of doing it; but I am trespassing on your space. My walk to Bergue I will finish in my next, with their cattle management, and the extraordinary but very general treatment of the pleuropneumonia.

After a few days' stay at the principal hotel at Dunkirk at the moderate expense of seven shillings per day,

I took the rail for Lille.

This is the northern railway running from Dunkirk and Calais to Paris, the Belgian lines running into it. It is a most profitable affair. The carriages are better than ours: first class more silkily lined, and more softly stuffed, and with hot water tanks for the feet; the second also have cushions and stuffed backs; and the third are exactly like our second. The pace is very slow-fifteen to twenty miles an hour; but the price is cheap-first class for fifty miles 6s. 10d. ; 66lbs. of luggage is allowed each passenger; all above is charged, but very moderately. The grass grows between the rails, the stationhouses are inexpensive, and all seems done cheaply for profit. The crossings were all on the flat (no bridges), with a cottage at each for the woman who has care of it. She stands with her folded flag extended in her right hand, as you pass, with a uniform-black glazed hat, white cap, blue cape, and wide red collar. Nothing more is worthy of remark but the fences: they are the same all the way, made of oak laths, about a yard high, together along the top; and at every five feet an oak upright, four inches apart, with two longer ones tied post, of which a pole of six or eight inches diameter would make four, the whole being tied together by three double rails (if I may so call them) of iron wire, which are twisted round each lath the whole way, and the two tie laths on the top are served the same. It is stronger with new posts will stand many longer. It is good than you would fancy, has stood seventeen years, and applied at home-a good protection to a young quick against sheep and hogs, and might often be economically near a farmyard. The same sort of landscape prevails the whole way (as I have described it), with the exception of some rising ground about Cassell (half way). I saw two or three small hop grounds, on ridges much narrower and higher than ours; but I will describe their manner of management at the same time as I speak of their malt and beer.

A long delay took place at Calais junction, waiting for the London train, during which time I was much amused at the sang froid of a Zouave in a first class carriage; a little sallow man in yellow leather leggings, blue breeches large enough for three, embroidered jacket, and red cloth cap-in Algeria they put on it the white cloth, which makes it a turban: you might readily fancy him a Turk. The reason he was in a first class is, all soldiers and officers here have the entrée of railways and theatres for one-fourth the price of other people-a great advantage to the rank and file of the infantry, who have only a halfpenny per day. This is the fact; and very happy and content they are. Of course all necessaries are found them; and I am not at all astonished at their predilection for military life: they have little to do.

In time I arrived at Lille, the principal manufacturing town in all France: its Manchester, with a population, including a radius of two miles, of 300,000. It is surrounded with windmills. There is a spot from which you may count 200. I have counted fifty in sight at once frequently. Some are for oil. Few Englishmen stop here, as all haste on to Paris; but it is worth a couple of days to the tourist. About 400 English are here resident, mostly operatives. Very few speak English, none much; but in a few years that will be altered, as now it is taught at all the public schools, to which all go. A better education may be had here for one shilling a week than in many parts of England for £1. Every boy has to undergo examination, and all are taught mathematics.

All seem thriving here under the strictest system of protection. No one has any fondness for free trade. Government manages everything. You cannot set up a business without leave from the mayor. They are very jealous of us, as we either undersell or outdo them in everything. Anything English is valued. How many times I have been asked if English razors are very dear, as they are so superior to French! Many wealthy men are here. Money is worshipped as much as in England; more so, for those who have it keep it. You do not find the noble examples of self earned fortunes spent like princes, and in doing good as we do at home. Last Tuesday was held here the yearly cattle show of eight surrounding departments, viz., Novd, Calais, Somme, Aisne, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, Marne, Seine; and it is considered a very important meeting. The abattoir in which the cattle were shown was ornamented with a profusion of tri-coloured flags, and a pavilion was erected for the notabilities who distributed the 38 prizes, which amounted to £342. Agriculture is particularly patronized by the Government; all is done to assist it; and at the introduction of a new plant, or manufacture connected with it, it is not unusual for the public money to be lent to the farmers to try it, as was done many· years ago at the introduction of the betterave for sugar (by-the-bye, there is a new plant, called sorgho, likely in some parts to supersede the raves: I will send you a succinct account of it shortly).

The number of bullocks exhibited were 80, cows 41, calves 10, sheep 15 lots, pigs 27. The first class were sixteen Flemish beasts, from two to three years old. They are very useful animals; dark red; much like a coarse Devon or Sussex. They had evidently been well managed, from their size-generally 14 hands, and one 15 nearly-and not so very long in the leg. Not very fat-fat animals are not relished here, as, from their mode of cooking, the fat does not come to table: all is boiled or baked to rags; nothing like cur English cooking. As to a good floury potato, no one knows what it is.

The first class had three prizes of £28, £24, and £20, and two were 66 honourably mentioned."

The next lot in same class were 12 more, same breed,

from 3 to 4 years old; they also had three prizes of £28, £24, and £20.

The second class consisted of three lots. The first were Flemish bullocks, without reference to age; these had three prizes of £16, £12, and £8. The second lot were six Courtois bullocks (a place near the Swiss frontier), a very cloddy animal; but they seem to have many breeds there. Prize 1, of £16, was something like a very coarse Ayrshire; the second prize, of £12, more like a Hereford; and the honourably mentioned was a little thick dun bullock, like a bad Highlander.

The third lot were 27 of all breeds: many were crossed with Durham. Prize 1, of £16, was like a leggy York, with roach back; prize 2, was £12; and prize 3, £8in my opinion, the best half-bred English of the lot.

The 41 cows were better than the bullocks: I may say they were excellent. The first prize, of £12, was thorough-bred English (of course bred in France, the property of the Marquis of Verdun, of D'Ancy Manche, in Normandy); not large, but very neat; her live weight was 230 stone; that would be about 150 stone dead. He sold her for £55 to a butcher, who expected to get a prize with her at a Show at Bergues this week. Second prize, of £10, was an English roan; very good also. Third, of £9, was a Dutch cow; fourth, of £S, was half-English and Flemish-very neat, but small; fifth, of £7; sixth, of £6; seventh, of £5 10s.; eighth, of £5; ninth, of £4 10s.; tenth, of £4; and some honourably mentioned. I would not wish for 41 more useful cows.

The fourth lot were 27 cattle, in droves of four and five each. Many of these were a distant breed (I believe, Courtois), very thick and heavy, 13 hands high (I like to speak within bounds). There was only one prize of £20 in this lot, and that was given to five yellow dun bullocks between five and six years old, which had evidently been worked; and handsome they looked, no doubt, ia their harness. There was not a single polled cow or beast, and they were all trimmed; the latter was a pity.

Ten fat calves come next in the list, generally Dutch bred, from 11 weeks to 3 months old; nothing particularly good. There were two prizes of £6 and £4.

The sheep were divided into two classes: 1st, young sheep, without reference to breed. The first prize of £16 was for a lot of half-bred Flemish and half-bred Down yearlings; second of £12, for a lot of 14 months old same breed; third of £8, for some 1 month old do. All had their tails bobbed short, and were shorn: the last lot cut 10lbs. wool each (10d. per lb.), and would weigh 11 stone each. The 2nd class was divided into two lots; one without restrictions, and the other merino or half-merinos. The first prize of £12 was for some three-year-old half-bred Flemish and Leicester very big heavy sheep; the second, of £8, for some same breed two-years old; and the third of £4 for halfFlemish half-Down. They told me the wool of the Down cross was worth more than the Leicester cross.

The merinos and half-breds were enormously fat; I never saw fatter. There was only one prize of £12, and that was given to half-merino half-Leicester. This wool does not fetch the highest price. I shall know the live and dead weight, all in one of these lots. Pigs were good. two prizes of £4 French breed), and 2 for cross-breeds. At 3 o'clock the Prefect of the Department, the Inspector-General of Agriculture from Paris, the Mayor of Lille, their secretaries, and others, all in diplomatic blue uniforms, cocked hats, and swords, took their seats under the Pavilion, while the brass band of 1st Dragoons amused the crowd. The Prefect began by congratulating the people on the progress they had made in agriculture in the north, combining with manufactures, by feeding the cattle on their refuse, making Lille an especial place of attraction to all who had an interest in land. He thanked all who had assisted, and the who had come many from distant parts to do honour to the meeting. The Government was anxious to give every encouragement possible to agriculture. The Emperor applies himself energetically and at all times to the agriculture of France to raise it to the utmost of his power was his most earnest desire. He depends on you to assist him in this good work, and in that hope I am happy to join you in exclaiming Vive L'Empereur.' The Inspector-General then rose, and in the name of

Short-legged, hardy, white hogs, and £3 were given in class 1 (all three of £4, £3, and £2 in class This concludes the list of cattle.

the Government and the judges of the show begged to bear witness to the improvement every year made in the agriculture of the north of France.

The recipients of the prizes were nearly all farmers, and in appearance respectable men, about the same as our 200-acred tenants at home; but in their homes what a difference! what a life of discomfort, compared

to the same men in England! I have been to two of their houses, and shall go to a third next week (one of the strongest tobacco-growers about here), to which I shall devote my next letter, and will now conclude. AN ENGLISH FARMER IN FRANCE. Lille, March 29, 1858.

THE VALUE OF FURZE The following are extracts from the testimonies of respectable agriculturists; addressed to the editor of the "Cork Daily Reporter":

From Rev. Benjamin Williamson, Old Dromore, Mallow" I have been using furze for horses these last three or four years, cut with a chaff-cutter. I commenced this winter on the fourth of October, and am feeding all my horses, for pleasure and otherwise, to the number of twelve, and a yearling from that time to the present, and hope to continue doing so for another month. They get nothing else, and are in capital condition. One of the riding horses is rather too fat. I have two furze meadows, each about two acres, and have cut every second year hitherto; but in future I mean to cut every year, as the second year it becomes woody. The land on which the furze is grown is very poor, not worth more than 7s. Of course the richer the land the heavier the crop. I am cutting some two years old for litter, and think of sowing another field this year for that purpose. Sow with barley or oats under the harrow, about 15 lb. to the statute acre. A donkey can work the chaff cutter without bruising, which with young furze is not necessary. By hand-labour (though mine is inferior to Richmond and Chandler's £10 cutter which I intend purchasing) two men and a boy feeding will cut in an hour sufficient for twelve horses. Four hands working got four firkins (equal to bushels), a little packed at night, and no hay. There is a good deal of grass growing with the furze, which is much relished. The other horses don't get so much, but always get a couple of gallons mixed with their oats, which makes them masticate the latter better. The furze is mown daily with an ordinary scythe. The first crop I sowed without corn, but gained nothing by the sacrifice, as it is very slow of growth the season it is sown, not more than a couple of inches in length."

Richard Barter, Esq., M.D., St. Anne's, Blarney -I have been using furze for nearly twenty years, I prepare with a chaff-cutter, I have five farms, and in all have water-power. The furze is cut very green, with a scythe, every year. It is far superior to hay for cows and horses, and the yield of inferior land is superior to the best meadow."

William Crooke, Esq., J.P., Derrun, Coachford-"My mind is made up, after more than twenty years' experience, that furze is the most valuable forage plant we possess in scarce seasons. Farmers from great distances come here to buy furze by the half-acre, at high prices, which they could so easily grow on their own farms. The lowest price I ever got was £4 per acre (statute),

AS FOOD FOR CATTLE. which was not half its value. My plan of culturesow 281b. of seed to each acre, as you would clover seed in oaten tillage the day after sowing the corn; the oats will not injure the furze, nor the furze the oats in mowing, unless the oats be a very heavy crop, and should lodge, in which case it is sure to kill the furze. You will have a great crop every succeeding year-say from four to eight tons. On no account let it stand more than a year uncut; it gets woody and bad for food. No beast should be allowed in the field at any time, except that which draws in to the farm yard. It requires no manure, no weeding, and mine is yielding abundantly, after more than twenty years' constant mowing. After many years' experience, cutting every year, it has been rising every year in my estimation. Good as it is for food, it is equally good for litter. I have found that furze passed through the cattle-house is just as good manure as if wheaten straw had been used. For food it must be used fresh: it will not keep cut and bruised a second day; any left ought to be swept into the manure pit. Water-power works a powerful cutting machine, bought from M'Kenzie, Cork; works also a Gardner's turnipcutter, and it is astonishing in how short a time turnips and furze are prepared for twenty head of cattle."

Mr. Hawkes, Passage West, adopted Mr. Crooke's plan of cultivating and preparing furze, and found it to be of the greatest advantage in supporting cows and horses. This year the herdsman varied the food with great advantage, giving half furze with some turnips and hay, and never had them in such a condition before.

Mr. Samuel Lane, steward to the Hon. Mrs. Austen, Hadwell, Aghada, writes that he has had many years' practical experience of its great utility as food for horses and horned cattle, and its value as a substitute for hay. He had for many years the superintendence of two large farms; and on one he worked on his own account, furze propagated by plants from seed in previous spring, in November, and mown every year, turned to best account. Poor light or mountain land, which would be useless for other crops, will bring good furze, by ploughing and digging, sowing 20lbs. seed to the acre. Any farmer so devoting five acres of poor land would find that they were the most valuable and useful part of his land. His way of preparing was, first the cutting spade and pounder; but in 1854 he bought a furze cutter from, as he truly says, that first-rate seedsman and machine-maker Mr. Thomas M'Kenzie, Camden-quay, Cork, for eight guineas,

Among mineral manures none are more highly valued than lime and its various admixtures with marl and other earthy substances. That lime furnishes any absolute nutrition to the plant is extremely doubtful, as very few traces of it are ever found in analyzing the different kinds of vegetables. Its great advantages as a fertilizer appear to be almost entirely derived from its chemical action on various ingredients, and in a certain mechanical influence which often acts favourably in improving the texture of the soil. In order to use lime with any degree of certainty as to its effects, a partial knowledge of its chemical and mechanical uses is absolutely necessary. It is obvious to all, that this substance on different farms produces the most contrary effects. While, used with discretion, on some soils it produces the most astonishing results, it is known to be attended with really ruinous effects when applied to marly and calcareous soils, without they have previously been very much reduced, in which case lime can be applied in small quantities in conjunction with other manures. Lime is used with the greatest advantage on peaty soils, and those which contain a large amount of vegetable matter-clayey soils, which need to be acted on by its mechanical effects, in rendering them more light, open, and easily cultivated-soils which are barren by the existence of green copperas (proto-sulphate of iron)-those which need potash, and, as a general rule, most soils which are sterile and worn out from long and exhausting systems of cultivation.

Marl varies very much in its composition in different localities, but is generally known as a mixture of various kinds of earth with lime; and its value is chiefly estimated by the amount of this mineral which it contains-hence we have clayey, sandy, and earthy marls. Although owing its fertilizing qualities mostly to its per-centage of lime, its other ingredients are often highly valuable, especially when applied to opposite formations of soil. Thus sandy marl would prove the best of fertilizers for stiff clay. In England the value of marl has long been recognized, and we are informed that leases were granted as far back as the reign of Edward I. which compelled the tenants to make use of it, but its use is much less employed since lime has become more known.

The farmers at one time were so confident of its virtues, that they depended almost entirely on it, and made it supersede the use of dung, by which means they were enabled to sell large quantities of hay and straw. But this course, although it enabled them for a time to raise good crops, eventually reduced the soil, and thus has arisen the old saying which was cited by Barnaby Goorge, who wrote so long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century, that "lime and marl are good for the father, but bad for the son." But this saying, like many others of ancient date, is evidently an error when

they are judiciously employed in connection with animal and vegetable manures.

As the value of marl is computed by the quantity of lime which it possesses, that value can be roughly ascertained by the effervescence which ensues when vinegar or muriatic acid is poured on it, after which a chemical analysis, if deemed expedi ent, would show the exact per-centage of this and all other ingredients. When a bed of marl is first found, and no good reasons are given for its use, farmers should be careful to use it first in small quantities, and thus experiment with it until they are perfectly satisfied of its real worth. In order to get poor land into a good state of productiveness by lime and marl, it is also necessary to manure highly with animal and vegetable fertilizers, such as stable manures. But where it is impossible from the scarcity of these manures to bring it up in this way, the cheaper but slower process of ploughing-under green crops can be resorted to with almost equal success. Clover is perhaps the best crop to turn under, when the land is in good heart enough to produce it; but when too poor for its production, buckwheat can always be relied on until the soil is sufficiently replenished for the growth of clover or lucern.

Farmers possessing fertile land must be aware, by what has been previously said, that if they find the use of lime or marl beneficial to their crops, they must not rely too implicity on this class of (mineral) fertilizers, but rather increase than diminish the amount of farm-yard manures; for the increase of the crops which is produced by liming rather tends to exhaust the soil of its necessary ingredients, and to destroy its fertility; so that while the use of lime is continued, it becomes more than ever important not to decrease the use of other manures. All this extra labour and expense bestowed on this system of cultivation will be doubly repaying; for if there is any profit in raising medium crops on a farm, this profit rapidly swells when the same land is made to produce large and abundant returns.

Most marls need to be drawn out and exposed to the action of the weather for some months before it is intended to use them, that they may be pulverized and made suitable for application by the action of the weather. Some kinds are so stiff and unmanageable, as to need the action of both the summer and winter elements to reduce them to a proper state of fineness for application.

Lime should not be applied in its caustic state, except to lands containing large quantities of inactive vegetable matter, and on those in which organic manure is contained unchanged and ineffective. When partially slacked and reduced to fineness by exposure to the air, it possesses sufficient caustic properties for all other soils, if applied soon after being slacked. Mild lime, after being reduced to a powder, is more beneficial to all lands, with the