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AGRICULTURE,

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AGRICULTURE, We extract the following from the JFarmer:— Early Maturity. A correspondent, writing on the 13th July, supplies the following remarkable instance of early maturity :— There were dropt on U.-q abate farm, Fife, this week, three fine calves. The respective ages of the dams are 15, 16, and 18 months old, and that of the sire 18 months. They were all isnoklsd together in a park last summer, hence the result. The dams are nursing the calves with abundance of milk." t The Movement of Sheep. The restrictions affecting the movement of sheep continue to excite much attention, and the numerous meetings of aheep farmers which are being held at present afford ample opportunities for having the sub- i'eet thoroughly discussed. "With respect to Scotland, at east, restrictions are considered not merely grievous and vexatious, and unnecessary, seeing that only one case of plague was reported in the returns as having occurred ia that part of the kingdom; and judging from the steady rate in which casei have decreased, it is not too much to expact a clean bill of health for the country north of the Tweed in the next weekly bulletin from the Government Veterinary Department. During this end the next three months there must of necessity be innumerable transactions in sheep for breeding as well as for fattening purposes, and granting that restric- tions on the movement of sheep were necessary hereto- fore, it is evident to every one that it continuance of those restrictions, now that thsy are no longer called for as a protection, will be, unless considerably relaxed, a positive evil to the community," Watering Cattle and Sheep,. Oar contemporary, the Farmer, points out the great importance of having cattle and sheep supplied with a sufficient quantity of water, and more especially ■when being carried by sieamsr and railway, ft says Although thore Lave of late been some heavy thunderstorms, there is a great scarcity of water in many pasture-fields; or do we think that sufficient care has been taken in several cases which have come recently under our notice to remedy the deficiency. We know that some maintain that sheep do not re- quire water when on grass, but this is a great mistake, especially when the weathcr is of the excessively hot, parching nature we Lave recently experienced. But even when the weather )-.as been cooler, the want of pure water in abundance tells on the health of sheep, just as it does on that of cattle and as over-wet pas- tures have their own peculiar diseases, over-dry pastures engender disease which not unfrequently we find attri- buted to other causes. A friend of ours who takes an interest in such matters, has been lately measur- ing the water consumed daily by his cattle, and as every drop must be pumped for them, the quantity used has been easily ascertained. The result of his observations is, that the 33 head he has grazing in two adjoining fields consume daily upwards of 900 gallons of water. Now, bearing this fact in mind, what can be the state of cattle or sheep carried by railway, and confined in trucks for 24, 48, or it may be 56 hoars, and even more, without getting a drop of water all the time, besides the terrible shaking which cattle experience during the journey, and the fatigue caused by their being unable to lie down? Is it possible that animals treated in this way can be healthy, or their fiish, if fat, in a wholesome state to be used as human food ? Uailway cattle traffic is a matter in which the public at large, not less than farmers and graziers, are deeply ooneerned. If it had been the case of a cab-home or a costermonger's donkey at work with a galled shoulder, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would be down upon the owner at once, and quite right; but railway folk, we suspect, are too high game to fly at, and in this way an amount of cruelty is perpetrated—unin- tentionally, we candidly believe, in most ca.ses-of which few have any adequate idea. With respect to cattle grazing in fields where the supply of water is neither sufficient in quantity nor pure in quality, it is certain that the animals are thereby rendered much more susceptible to the influence of contagion than they would be if placed in other cireumstances. The germs of disease find in the unhealthy system of the animals-rendered EO from the want of an essential element of health—a congenial home in which they be- come rapidly and fatally developed. In the reports given of the recent eases, cf disease which have taken place at Enfield, in the county of Meath, it is unani- mously set forth, both by those who have pronounced that disease to be acute èaWe plague and by those who ascribe it to some othar cause, that the diseased animals had not access to water, and that the little they occasionally got was impure. To this both parties ascribe the disease, whether it be plague or something else, and we are quite sure they are per- fectly right. We therefore earnestly counsel all to look, without delay, to the Eupply of water in their fields. If derived from natural sources, let them see that it is abundant and pare, not stagnating in dirty holes; and if artificially provided, let them take care that the troughs are neyer empty."

HINTS UPCmr (lAEDENma

SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

THE CHOLERA.

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION OF NAPHTHA.

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" KILLING NO MURDER." AN EXTRAORDINARY…

THE HYDE-PARK RlOTS.

EXTRAORDINARY DEATH OF A CHILD…

IFACTS AND FACETXiE.

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