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. NOTES OF THE WEEK.

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NOTES OF THE WEEK. A reader of the JOCRXAL resident in the Mid'ands writes to a friend at Carmarthen: Yes, the JOURNAL is real NEWS to me. I read every line of it, even the advertisements down to Doan's backache pills at Tumble! Lord Dundreary asked the famous question, Whv does a dog wag his tail and forthwith gave the answer, Because the dog is stronger than the tail. If the tail were stronger than the dog the tail would wag the dog. It appears that a problem on similar lines has been solved by the "Wearers of the Green" over yonder. It has been found ex- pedient to lock the doors of the last carriage of the fast train because it is dangerous'y wagged by what goes before. The Irish have solved this prob- lem by leaving this last carriage at home. While speaking of American wonders the follow- ing from an ancient Carmarthenshire man who had been in America comes to our recollection. When he was new in the country he went to a farmer for a of tobacco. Come out to the barn," said the farmer. What have you to carry it?" added he. The buyer produced his born box. Oh, that will not do, I'll lend you one of the horse lines. said he. Then he put his pitchfork into a heap of tobacco, told the buyer to plant his foot against the end of the handle to stay it. The farmer lifted with all his might, and said, "There, that's your pennyworlh!" Now that we have revivals worked up in different directions it may not be inopportune to remind our readers of the kindling of the fire at Trewcrn during the great 1859 revival. According to the late Rev. Isaac Davies, better known as Father Isaac," Trewen had been untouched until a couple of famous revivalists came round of a week evening. One of them had beaten the bushes until he sat down breathless. Then his "brother" got up, and after travelling Gilboa without dew nor rAn for a while he thought he would touch a cord an octavo lower. You people now hear of a railway going to come through your beautiful valley," he said. "Oh. what a boon for you farmers," "A ha," said the senior deacon. "Then you will get your coal and lime for nothing," he cried, and the carriage of it free "Amen" came from dozens, and "Hosannah, Hallelujah!' came in deafening shouts. The second revivalist fat down in triumph. The fire had been lit at Trewern. The following comes from an American's nugo Cabbage Patch," a man who met his match in one of the rdrer,ohers of Carmarthen. He described one of his cabbages as having grown to very unusual proportions, having a height of jne thousand feet- and a spread of two thousand. The apparently untravelled Welshman said he could readily believe it from what he saw six miles out- side New York. He thought he heard the noise of Niagara when four miles away, but when within a mile he saw some tremendous object rising like a mountain several thousand feet to the sky. When he came nearer he saw thousands of people hammer- ing at this huge boiler. "Halt," said the American, "I guess you mistake." "Oh, no," said Taffy, "this boiier I was told was being built to boil y.our big cabbage." With an almost stationary population, and some ten years of brisk building, how is the scarcity of houses accounted for at Carmarthen? The con- demning and breaking up of certain old portions of the town and the consequent migration of tthe occupants to new cottages and houses offer only a part explanation. The fact is thati Carmarthen is quietly becoming a centre for business in a more or less modest way. For instance, commercial travellers have for a few years past been finding it a convenient and pleasant centirc, and there are about 70 representatives of important firms now living there. Then. again, there are the new rail- way repairing sheds, several large and growing public offices, flourishing cottages and schools, all of which doubtless create a demand for more and better QCcommoda tinJl. Mr. Ernest Parke's eleventh annual report on manurial trials on the arable part of his farm at Kineton, in Warwickshire, has just been issued. The Mangold crop. grown after Wheat, was a heavy one where well manured. The unmanured portion of tne field grew only 16 tons per acre. This was increased to 25 tons by a dressing of superphos- phate. Different portions of the field had, in addi- tion. dressings of nitrate of soda in quantities of 2 cwt., 4 cwt., and 6 cwt. per acre, and in these oases the yield of Mangolds was 32 tons, 37 tons, and 43 tons per acre. Deducting the yield of the unmanured land, the increase, when botih super- phosphate and nitrate were used, averaged 21 tons of Mangolds per acre, and, as the average cost of the fertilisers was only about 60s. per acre, the cost of the extra 21 tons of roots was only 3s. per ton. As the consuming value of Mangolds :8 usually assumed to be nearer 10s. a ton, the result appears to show a handsome profit. The responsive nature, under manurial treatment, of this naturally poor soil-which is typical of much in this neighbourhood—is a.gain illustrated by the Oat crop. which followed roots of the year before. An unmanured plot gave 46 bushels of Oats per acre. Where manured with 3 cwt. of superphosphate and 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda the crop was 59 bushels per acre, and with a second hundredweight of nitrate it was raised to 77 bushels, making a total increase, due to fertilisers, of nearly 4 quarters of Oats per acre, worth, at the present price of English Oats, about' j64, the cost of the fertilisers responsible for the increase being only about 35s. In the Hon. Stephen Coleridge's new work, I "Memories," there are some interesting references to the late Sir Lewis Morris. "For many years (he says) I saw a good deal of Lewis Morris, the poet. He lived atl a house on the hill opposite the town of Carmarthen, which I have visited three times a year since 1890; and until his death I was in the habit of walking up in the evening to see him after the Courts had risen. He experienced two great disappointments during those years. The first was his rejection as a candidate for Parliament; and, indeed, one would have supposed that if a dis- tinguished Welshman, who was certainly a very well-known poet the world over, was willing to go to Parliament), any Welsh constituency ought to have been proud to return him; it was uncouth of them not to be imaginative enough to elect him when he offered to serve them as his representative. Moreover, there was no political difficulty, for he waa a good Liberal, and stood for a Liberal con- stituency. "The second and more poignant disappointment was when the ingenious author of the 'Ode to the Jameson Raiders' was made Poet Laureate, before he had even established his reputation by that great performance. Lord Salisbury's tastes were always reputed bo lie more in the direction of chemistry than the Muser, and tnere could be no doubt of the sound political credentials of the amiable author who subsequently bid the young gentleman on horseback 'hurry up for pity' to save 'the girls in the gold-reefed city' from whatever it was that Mr. Paul Kruger contemplated inflicting upon them. Lewis Morris's chagrin was somewhat assuaged with the solation of a knighthood, but that anodyne never really sufficed to heal the sore. I suggested to him as a consolatory explanation of what had happened thafl it might have been the difficulty of deciding between him and Swinburne that led to the selection of neither. "Ceftainly he was a blazing luminary in the surrounding gloom of Carmarthenshire, and my own vanity was flattered by the manner in which my visits were hailed as memorable events in a dreary world. "We browsed about together among his books, and talked of the lives and works and loves and calamities of authors; of the best title ifor his next volume, of predestination, of free will, of creeds, out-worn, and what not, about it and about it and about, and then, &c., and then he would walk with me to the edge of the nil], where he could look down together upon the lights of dull Carmarthen, and so part till the next circuit. "Carmarthen has never been the same to me since he died; I never stay there now an hour longer than I can help." In another place. we have an extract from Mr Coleridge's Diary, under date Nov. 2, 1883 :Last night Mr. Gladstone came to dinner. Mr. Gladstone was full of Lewis Morris's lasb volume of poems, superlative in praise as is his woitt."

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