cess of moss, improves the quality of the grass, and seems to encourage the growth of white clover and other useful herbage. Both these operations, however, are first-class improvements, and should be the subject of special agreement between landlord and tenant. Above all, it is necessary, in order to keep pastures in a profitable state, not to mow it too often unless an adequate return can be made in manure. It is not sufficiently considered that the hay crop removes more nitrogen from the land than rye, oats, barley, or wheat, and that not only is to return made to the mown meadow in the shape of special manures, but the stock fed on the aftermath are often driven off at night to help to enrich the arable. Can we wonder that the process of deterioration should proceed so rapidly in pastures thus treated, aud that the most valuable grasses begin to die out, and thistles, which ought to be unsparingly mown down in the earlier stage of their growth, are left to seed and extend their baneful influence,until they threaten to obtain a parochial settlement, and we begin to think it would be a good thing to plough up the turf, which annually disappoints our expectations. Having thus endeavoured, inadequately I fear, to fulfil the task I proposed to myself, it is now time to bring this paper to a conclusion. The importance of having a due and sufficient proportion of grass land to every occupation cannot be exaggerated at the present time, when the problem to be solved is how to obtain the best return from the land without materially imparing its fertility. Injudicious and over cropping our lands, even under the influence of highly stimulating manures, is not likely to prove a lasting benefit. Land for the most part is honest, and will respond to all reasonablǝ demands on its recources, but we must not work a willing horse too hard. We must give our grass lands a chance as well as the arable, increasing their acreage where necessary, and improving the condition of those which exist at present. Such a plan, I feel convinced, holds out a fair prospect of success, and if persevered in will result in increasing benefit, and is also, I believe, well adapted, if not altogether to mend, at least to meet, the critical time on which we have now entered. The CHIRMAN, in inviting discussion, commented on the interest and importance of the subject, and observed that if grass were laid down only temporarily, the land would be in a fine condition to revert to corn growing. Mr. RENDLE asked what grasses Mr. Corrance would recommend. Mr. CORRANCE replied, tall fescue, various leaved fescue, hard fescue, cat's tail, or Timothy smooth-stalked, meadow grass, rough-stalked meadow grass, giant fescue, meadow gross, nerve seed meadow, and meadow fescue. Mr. RENDLE also suggested gold grass and red and white suckling, with fair quantities of red clover. Mr. FLINTHAN approved of Mr. Corrance's paper, but did not agree with allowing the young layer to stand till July, believing that it exhausted the plants more than the profit for the seed would compensate for-he believed that it would be be better to sow a little fresh seed. would not break up pasture now, as nothing paid better than stock. The CHAIRMAN observed that much judgment was required in selecting grass seeds suitable to a particular soil. If Mr. Gooderham could show them that he could make enough from his temporarily laid down grass to answer his purpose, he thought it would be preferable to having to go to the landlord for a remission of rent. Mr. FLINTHAM expressed his approval of Mr. Gooderham's plan, but as to poor pasture much profit could not be obtained from it, and he agreed with the advice to plough it up. Mr. CORRANCE then replied upon the discussion. The plan advocated by Mr. Gooderham was, he said, much favoured in Scotland; at the same time, his object in reading the paper had been to endeavour to show how much it would benefit the present occupations if much larger portions than now consisted of grass. He believed the benefit, would be considerable, and there was one point of importance which had not been touched on the indirect benefit which the grass conferred on the arable land by enabling the occupier to keep more stock. One objection to temporarily laying down pasture was the danger of getting the land foul, and he put it too them, as practical men, whether a farm on his plan would not be worth more in the market than one on Mr. Gooderham's plan. As to farmers being loth to give up a field to pasture, it would in reality not be given up, but improved; and admitting that arable land paid better than poor pasture, why, he asked, should the pasture be poor ? The best artificial manure for grass he believed was superphosphate. Nitrate of soda, while it increased the quantity, did not produce grass of good quality, and stock did not thrive upon it. DEAD MEAT IMPORTATION.-Some idea may be formed of the magnitude to which the trade in foreign meat has now grown by the figures given in a Parliamentary return just issued. It appears from this document that the total quantity of dead meat imported into the United Kingdom in the first three months of the present year was 477,598 tons. Fully two-thirds of this consisted of salted beef and porkarticles which have been introduced from abroad regularly for thirty years past, mainly to be used for ships' provisons, and probably not above 150,000 tons at most is fresh beef or mutton such as the home consumer requires. But 150,000 tons a quarter is 600,000 tons, or 12,000,000 cwt., a year; and without drawing very elaborately on the rules of Cocker, or the imagination of the professional philanthropist, we may see at a glance that this supply from abroad is equivalent to the provisioning of several of our large towns from extraneous sources. The return, in truth, gives but an imperfect notion of what the new sources of supply lately opened are worth, for it is only during the last few months that the import of fresh meat from the United States can be said to have commenced. Each quarter as it passes will show the development of this trade, and we cannot at all speculate on its dimensions at present. Yet one thing is already elear: nothing else than the accidents of the sea will interfere with it. So far as is known there has not been a solitary instance of mishap in all the importations of meat from the Atlantic coasts since the year opened, caused by a defect in the preserving process, so by some fault inherent in the meat itself. One failure certainly long been overdue. That vessel, the City of Brussels, left there is in the cargo by the Inman steamer which had so her destination. She has thus been more than a month New York on the 21st of April, and has only just arrived at instead of eight days, on her voyage; and it is not surprising to be told that when the ice ran short the fresh meat portion of the cargo had to be thrown overboard. This, however, is an extreme case. Any steamer may break her shaft, and have to proceed under sail; but the accident, for all that, does not frequently happen, and it really would seem that, short of this-short of a delay which multiplies nearly five-fold the average length of the voyage-there is no obstacle whatever to sending any quantity of fresh meat as cargo across the Atlantic. In fact, the difficulties will diminish, as experience Mr. READ argued on the authority of Mr. Mechi that the shows, particularly as we happen to witness the somewhat profits from pastures were more precarious than from arable singular result at present, that the home farmer,who is generally land, and referred to the experience of Messrs. Prout, of Saw-jealous of foreign meat, eagerly clamours for it now as the best bridgeworth. way to keep out rinderpest—a much greater evil than the com petition of Australian mullon or American beef.-Daily Telegraph, Mr. P. READ believed farmers would hardly know which field to give up for pasture, and argued that the Eastern counties were not the place for grass. He quoted from the Royal Agricultural Society's volume for 1875 to show that it was more ptofitable to grow corn than pasture unless it was a superior pasture. Mr. Mechi had expressed his conviction that to keep land under permanent pasture was a mistake, and almost a crime. The return from permanent pasture was only £32s., as compared to £10 per acre from arable land. Mr. Read caused some amusement by speaking of comfrey as a crop which would yield 300 tons per acre. Mr. J. BURT believed a good deal of poor land might be more profitably worked by laying it down temporarily. Mr. GOODERHAM concurred in this. Permanent pasture, in his opinion, seldom paid well. Mr. GEORGE GRAY regarded it as almost a ruinous thing to lay down permanent pasture, even though the landlord might fud seed. The pastures were too often neglected in regard to manure, and he advocated farmyard in preference to artificial manure for pasture. Mr. GOODERHAM favoured the growth of artificial grasses rather than laying down more permanent pasture, but he The extraordinary advances made by agriculture during the last century are matters of daily comment. The substitution of mechanical for manual power, the high pressure aspect of farming, the sewage farm, and the immense competition in market from foreign producers are topics ofgeneral almost hourly discussion, and sufficiently declare on the slightest comparison with the records of past agriculture, the magnitude of the change to which I allude. The farmer is no longer the uncultivated, illiterate hind, content with his own unassisted. observation as guide to the tillage of his land. He no longer holds the theory that book-learning spoils his labourers, and the prejudice against machinery is of necessity a thing of the past, which the advancing civilisation of the community at large relegates to the limbo of forgetfulness. The iminediate cause of all the changes, however, seems to me to be the extensive application of the results of purely physical science. Until quite recently agriculture seems to have been left ont in the dark in this respect, and while important discoveries without number in physics were being made, while men of learning were refining the people with pieces of immortal literature, and while social institutions were rising rapidly for the benefit of all other classes, the farmer was either overlooked as outside the pale of learning, or remained unprogressive through his own exclusive tendencies, which were undoubtedly mainly caused by the deficiencies of early education and subsequent training. Thus when Newton was announcing his glorious conceptions, and revolutionising the scientific world, the only educational works, or investigations concerning a much more utile subject to us, namely the tillage of the soil, were either so purely theorectical as to be practically useless, or so technical and pedantic as to be of little use to the ordinary farmer; indeed, they were not written for him. Slowly, however, but not the less surely, science and learning have stepped from their high self-erected pinnacle and become allies and friends of the agriculturist. The desirability of making two blades of grass grow where one only grew before has become apparent. The farmer no longer looks askance on the advantages of culture and the results of science, but, invoking the aid of both successfully, prepares to meet the demand of an increasing population, and the niceties of greater civilisation. It is strange, however, in this connection to observe that nearly three hundred years ago The broad-brimmed Verulam The first of those who know, in the marvellous method of scientific application, the Novum Organum sketched out the very plan on which science now seeks to benefit not only agriculture, but all the arts. Socrates asked of his young friend Glaucon, "Shall we set down astronomy among the subjects of study ?" "I think so," answers Glaucon; "to know something about the seasons, the months, and the years, is of nse for military purposes, as well as for agriculture and navigation." And this strikes the key-note of our subject. We see what results have ensued from the proper application of meteorology quite recently. Thrice during three weeks the electric messenger conveyed the news of impending storms from shore to shore of the broad Atlantic. Thrice these predictions were verified, which if acted upon promptly would save incaluable loss to the agriculturist. Yet half a century ago such warnings would have met with unqualified scorn, or apathetic disbelief. Thus thousands of years ago Plato indicated an important application of science of which we are only at this late date availing ourselves. And it may be asserted that it is precisely the province of all natural philosophers not only to discover and announce, but to apply truths of this sort to the daily affairs of mankind. Science unapplied is like the ox of Prometheus, a sleek, well-shaped hide stuffed with rubbish, goodly to look at, but containing nothing to eat. But of all the different branches of physics which have lent their aid in agriculture, probably chemistry stands pre-eminent. The nature of soils, the composition aud desirability of manures, the histology of plants, and consequent knowledge of their chemical requirements, all these and a host more of collateral issues, advantageous to mention, but which, owing to the exigencies of space, I must pass over, are comprehended in the category. A long array of scientists have lent their time to the study, and ample results are forthcoming to show the advancement of mankind in this particular industry, since Lucretius accounted for the mystery of germination in this way" By first beginnings of things in the earth which we stimulate to rise," or "by there having been given to the different trees a strong and emulous desire of growing up into the air." The subject of agricultural chemistry is so vast as to preclude a consideration of it here in anything like a utile form, but I cannot forbear to cursorily instance what has been done in a curious but exceedingly valuable section of it-viz., microscopy. In the selection of wheat for seeding purposes the farmer, for obvious reasons, relies generally on his experience of such grain for quality. So far, there is no objection to this procedure. But when it is necessary to obtain an absolutely accurate knowledge of the grain in question, as to its purity, health (that is, freedom from natural diseases to which such vegetables are liable), and freedom from living parasites, the microscope is of necessity the only reliable means of effecting the purpose. Thus if the wheat grains be affected with rust, burut, or smut, or dust brand, the means of detection indicated are those only by which either of these almost exactly similar diseases are to be precisely ascertained. In England good wheat weighs about 60lb. to the bushel, and the minimum weight required in the Belgian army is 77 kilogrammes the hectolitre. Fungi of all kinds, of course, considerably lessen the standard. The weevil is also found to be very destructive in some cases, and, thanks to the microscope, has been carefully examined and described. Occasionally, as is well known, its ravages leave but the outer shell of the grain, the whole of the starch being completely eaten. The acarius farina also occasionally preys on wheat, but can only be seen with high powers of the microscope. In connection with the meal of wheat microscopy is yet more useful, and for the purpose of the detection of adulterations is indispensable. Microscopical examination is, however, specially directed in most cases to the relative amount of pure flour and bran, and to the presence of fungi or acari as well as adulteration. Then, in order to value the relative proportions of the bran and flour and to detect the presence of adulterations, an intimate knowledge of the structure of wheat is necessary. A technical synopsis of the various divisions and subdivisions of this structure with their differentiation would of course be out of place in these columns. I shall therefore content myself wit outlining the method of their operation. At present there is very little adulteration of flour in this country. Should the price rise to any considerable extent the case would be different. In other countries, however, we are informed on the authority of Dr. Parkes that it is more common, and it is therefore necessary to investigate this point in connection with imported flour. The chief adulterations are by the flour of other grain, and may be thus roughly enumerated: In native flour, barley, potatoes, beans, peas, oats, maize, rye; in foreign flour, rice, buckwheat, millet, linseed, melampyrum, lolium, together with some other grains noted lower down. For the detection of these there are only two methods, one of which is costly and uncertain, and the other simple, inexpensive, conclusive, and unfailing. The former is by a chemical analysis; the latter by microscopical examination. The determination of a mixture of barley can with care be easily made. The envelopes of the grain are the same number as those of wheat, but are considerably more delicate. The walls of the external layer of wheat are bearded, but those of barley are beautifully waved. The second coat or skin is much more beautiful and delicate in barley than in wheat. The third coat is hyaline and transparent as in wheat, but the cells of the fourth coat essentially differ in size and disposition. Of potato starch the detection is much more easily made than in the case of any other adulterating agent. The grains of starch under the glass, instead of being round or oval, and with a ceutral hilum and obscure rings, are pyriform, with an eccentric hilum placed at the smaller end, and welldefined concentric rings. Weak liquor potassæ (1 drop liq. pot., "British Pharmacopoeia," to 10 of water) swells them out greatly after a time, while wheat starch is not affected. If the strength be 1 to 3 the swelling is very rapid, and consequently the difficulty of detection is a inatter of no moment to the experienced observer. The starch graius of Indian flour are so compressed in their envelopes as to be angular to a degree. This feature renders the admixture capable of immediately being perceived. The cellulose also is immensely distinctive. Of bean and pea, as well as of oatmeal, the same pronounced difference is observable; in fact, barley-the chief of native adulterations-is the most difficult of detection, and this can be easily achieved after a little experience and manipulative care. Buckwheat in wheat from the Baltic; millet in India, Egypt, China, and the West Coast of Africa; melampyrun or corn wheat (he bread of which is smoky-hued or violet), trefoil, and sainfoin, all more or less have been used as adulteratious to wheat flour. Of course to the private consu mer such information is of small value, but when the immense quantities required by and supplied to the military authorities are taken into account, such investigations become a matter of vital commercial importance, especially in time of war. And not only of commercial importance. Some admixtures, such as ryegrass, are positively poisonous. Drs. Parkes and Hassall, Pelleschek and Pererira, all agree in describing its physiological effects as extremely pernicious. The symptoms produced are narcotism, vertigo, hallucinations, delirium, convulsions, paralysis. The physical structure of the flour is, however, easily perceivable, as in all other grain under the microscope. Thus I have instanced wheat and its flour as a fair example of the results of science adapted. On every side the same step in the right direction seems reproduced. What the ancient poets-Homer, Heriod, Lucretius, Virgil-once did for the agriculture of their day, in some sort science performs for the "farm" of the nineteenth century. No longer the voice of "sweet singer" is raised in praise, direction, or guidance of the agriculturist; but in place of this the unrolling of Nature's laws enables the scientific man to till the land not to the harmony of numbers but in accordance with the deductions from observed physical facts, leaving the rest to natural influences, till, as Eschylus sings. From the kindly sky the rain shower falls TWICE ACROSS THE PYRENEES. BY H. KAINS-JACKSON. Spain in April and May has a climate greatly in contrast with the bitter end of spring in England, and a journey twice across the Pyrenees-west and east-should Jurnish observations of some interest, if made, as they are, quite independently of guide books. Accustomed to surveys of the crops at home and in France for many years, I have taken special note of the prospects of oil, corn, and wine, over nearly 2,000 miles of country, so far as the yield may this year affect the wealth of two nations, France and Spain; whilst my note-book records two phases of social life that many believe to be passing away. Of the well-known track-London, Paris, Bordeaux, Bayonne, Madrid-the journey may be dismissed as a common experience, with one reflection: the cigarette is undoubtedly usurping the functions of the obsolete snuffbox as a means of showing politeness amongst travellers. It emphasises conversation in Spain-it gives time to the business man to make a cautious answer, as his fingers roll up the dainty morsel; and what snuff was to one generation the cigarette is becoming to the nineteenth century. In northern lands, where a man must have his pipe, he is therefore Protestant, marries, and smokes. In temperate and Catholic France the priest alone abstains from an unnecessary carnal enjoyment; but cross the Pyrenees, and the clerical can hold out no longer, for being in the south he, like others, rolls up his cigarette, and smokes it on his way to church, showing that tobacco, like climate, has its zones. The wheat plant was barely a covering for the ground on the sandy African plateau of central Spain, the elevation being 3,000 to 4,000 feet, where passes the highest railway line in Europe." However, great-almost measureless-breadths would make up for thinness of plant, where daylight allowed me to see it; and the better districts of Castille, near Burgos, Valladolid, &c., could not be observed as the night exp ess flitted past. But going further I was to see more-o leave the wilderness of rocks and sand, and reach a fruitful paradise 300 miles south. Really satisfactory signs of farming began to appear when my aneroid barometer showed the elevation was sinking to a few hundred feet above sea level; yet for quite half the distance the corn looked low and backward to an English eye, even so late as on the 23rd of April. But the train rolls on descending, and, about 6 a.m., rushing through dense misty clouds, the other side showed the sun up, and shining on the great plains and valley of the kingdom of Valencia, yet too distant for the eye to distinguish cereal or foliage in the masses of verdure, green as au English lawn, aud in con trast with the red arid bareness of the enclosing mountain range. Another half-hour gave detail to the green breadth-it was the fresh spring green of the orange plantations, here and there toned down by the sober greygreen tints of the olive trees. The valley level was reached, and now corn is seen, thicker, taller, and nearer harvest, until, at Alcuda, I see the first wheat-ear of 1877, on Tuesday, the 24th of April. It was the scout of an army of wheat-fields, tall, and thick, and in full ear, and which for 200 miles along the Mediterranean coast made the land fat with its promise of plenty, and notwithstanding a great natural drawback. The river beds we passed were all dry, but yet the field gardens are not suffering from drought; they are not thin and thirsty, but have a bacchanalian look of strength and jollity, and with good reason; for they are soaked every day, if needed, by the system of irrigation bequeathed by the Moors to Spain-a system that would make many another desert to bloom with fruit and corn, and which, as described by others, I pass over, merely testifying to its results this season. These are really astounding in a period of drought, and substitute plenty for scarcity from Alicante to Barcelona. With water enough for wheat, for barley, for the orange tree, there is yet sufficient to make the land a cornucopia of garden vegetables and flowers, to swamp the square acre plots where the young rice plant is just peeping through the surface mud, green, ten der, and confident of hot summer sunshine that will satisfy and ripen it. Thanks to the works of the past, and the honest labour of the present, Spain may well reckon on a good harvest, any shortcomings in the wheat districts of old and new Castille being made good by the western coast, and, as I hear, by Arragon and Granadaa conclusion that is not the impression of a railway journey, but of a fortnight's observation in the fields around Valentia. The impression received at Madrid as to the light buoyant march of the Spanish soldier was confirmed by the evolutions of artillery and infantry at the latter city in the dry bed of the river: evidently the sandal, commonly worn, allows a freedom to the foot which no shoe or boot permits, as again, at Barcelona, the same springines of gait was observable in all the troops. During the last fortnight of April our table d'hote was served with all the vegetables and fruits, including vegetable marrow, that in June only come into season in England; and they were very abundant and cheap. It was only on passing the Ebro at Tortosa that I saw a river full of water since entering Spain, via Bayonne. At Tarajona, a fine wine, of a cinnamon colour, "Priorato seco," was obtainable and deserves record. The next morning I was to cross the Pyrenees, leaving Barcelona about 6 (I say about, for my chronometer was always chopping around half an hour's difference between railway and local time), and I found the railway passing a rich land full of crops of all sorts; mustard in blossom, beans in flour, wheat and barley in ear. Much of the route was through a wide valley sheltered by hills on either side, the sides often covered with store-pines, the levels with viaes or corn, which in many places are irrigated. The sight of poplars showed we were going north, where, in France, they are universal, but which I had scarcely seen in Spain. Olives were still abundant, but the great olive and orange district had been left behind in the valley of Valencia. The railway terminates at historic Gerona, where breakfast was obtainable at 10 o'clock, and although pestered to take my diligence-ticket at Barcelona-" or I might not get a place the same day"-I had the pick and got the coupé, with the mail-guard in a blouse for my companion. The diligence itself was quite a building, with compartments that might be called first and second floors, but it was strong and fairly clean. Attached were five horses, two in the shafts, three abreast in front. Each horse had the traditional fox's brush hanging about his ears, and on his neck and collar some 20 bells. By next December the railway connecting Gerona and Perpignan is likely to be open, when few persons will care to pass ten hours on the road, instead of two hours in a comfortable carriage. However, on Friday, the 11th of May, with jingle and jolt, we pass through the ancient streets-with very musical holes in them-of Gerona. The dislocations of that passage were a new experience of life, one was surprised to find one's limbs still together at each fresh shake, but what a body or a diligence can bear in the way of shaking was fully tested. Out of the paved town the road soon improved, and the route ran alongside a river, at the foot of a rocky hill. The mountains soon show in front, the diligence slowly climbs a long hill, the travellers think of their overcoats, and the air has the bracing freshness of elevation. The breadths of corn begin to look thin and backward, but vines and olives still are flourishing in suitable aspects. During this first stage we met a couple of gendarmes, guarding six handcuffed prisoners, but otherwise vehicles or travellers were rare. At 1 o'clock, more than two hours after starting, the horses are changed, and with the horses goes the driver. This is sensible, each driver knows his horses, and the box passenger escapes the bore of talking to the same man who in England tyrannises over his coach and passengers. As the driver descended, the guard paid him his fee-three pesetas, I believe-and the new coachman took possession of his six horses, as an extra horse is put on after getting out of Gerina. Here was a coachman of a different stamp to the first: an old grey moustache, who had seen the world and gathered in his face wrinkles from all parts, most of them of the dissipated, blackguard, reckless character. But the old soldier, with herculean shoulders, knew how to drive, and conducted us safely enough over hills and valleys and river fords, that in rainy times must be impassable-one ford was over 100 feet in width. After passing Bascarra and mounting rapidly our road was, for many miles, almost level, and the track of land was good, with great numbers of olive-trees, now in blossom, yet having their wood cut out so much that under many trees the branches would have made two or three large faggots. Here, too, the new line is seen, and the navigators at work, Catalans, each in his red cap and coloured waistbaud, made a picturesque group. We get to Figueras at 2.45, and here we see where the mountain wall dips and allows a passage. Here, too, the old soldier yields up his seat, takes his three pesetas, and the box passenger gets another type of coachman-all speak French, and probably are Frenchmen. I would note here a beauty that is lost in the lower lands of Spain. The olive orchards below are all dusty with a dingy, thin foliage that gives them a neglected look. On the Pyrenees the leaves keep a cool grey-green tone, that when seen in a mass, as near Figueras, gives great softness to the landscape. Cactus hedges were very common, some of the plants being six feet high. Bridges over streams, now very low, granite masses, and rocky hills often wooded, are the features of this stage, and boulders, with nature generally in a savage mood, have possession of this border land. We are nearing the frontier, and pass through the gate of an abject dirty little town, offensive alike to the nose and eye. In fact, the city gate seems to be a sharp line, separating fresh sweet-smelling mountain air from the reverse, since, if blinded, the passenger would have known his entrance by the sudden change to one of his senses. It was now five to six hours since starting, and we were still in Spain. Now and then custom house officers gave evidence of the frontier, but at the Mail guard's nod, they allowed us to pass at different points. Proceeding a short distance further we arrive at a town where French and Spanish words are side by side over the shops. Stop for half an hour, and here the luggage is overhauled. I was hungry and left mine to its fate. A Frenchman is, in most cases, an honest fellow, and is satisfied with a franc for protecting your goods. The French fort, Belleguarde, that crowns the adjacent mountain, is a large and noble work, dominating the Pyrenees with Gallic pride. Again a fresh coachman, and this time a good, bold whip, replacing a stolid fellow, who had let his horses crawl, with continual ejaculations of "Hee-hee-hee," and who was ever winding and unwinding his brake if the level but changed one foot in a thousand. This stage down the French side was the grandest of the journey, but it was getting dark. The road is carried in magnificent and bold curves on the mountain sides, whence the views are really grand, and the work is an engineer's triumph. There were no longer holes in the road, as on the Spanish side; we were always going down-hill, and our merry, free driver kept his six horses on at a rattling pace that exhilirated the journey, and would have satisfied good English stage-coach drivers. The six-in-hand, the bells, the swing of the curving road, the clatter and the continual cracking of the whip, combined to give to our movement a triumphal character, and kept us contionally on the qui vive until, past twinkling lights, under a long avenue of trees, over a drawbridge, we are in the good city of Perpignan, in La Belle France-and in reach of a newspaper with war news not a week old. From Perpignan and Narbonne, on to Toulouse, the crops of corn in the great southern valley are undoubtedly excellent. The poor lands of the centre have a better promise than last year, and the granary of France, La Beauce, has a wonderful yield of forage, whilst the cereal crops are various; rye abundant, barley a fine plant, the wheat thick and strong, but yellow from weather influences, from which it may rapidly recover. In the West of France correspondents assure me the crops are forward and heavy. Whilst the Spanish rivers had mostly disappeared, those of France are flooded. For the first time in five years at Orleans I saw the river beds covered. From present appearances France is likely this year to get a surplus of wheat-three to four million qrs.-for export or reserve, a result dependent on the next six weeks. To-day the Paris corn market remained dull for wheat and flour. Spain, May 10th, 1877. as a The fourteenth annual show of horses commenced, as usual, on the Saturday in the Derby week with the hall got up as a hall should be when a miraculous haul is expected The novelties this year were docking the hunters in two classes of their fourth prizes; a gong in the centre of the ring to muster the classes, which startled some of the nags as it tolled the knell of others, when the secretary, with a flourish worthy of imitation by the renowned Tom Codlin and managers of all other shows who have found the dinner bell a failure, struck it with a drumstick, and a collection of racing cups, the oldest being lent by Sir Watkin, which was won by Spot, a horse of his grandfather in 1731, when Welshmen would sing, "Good Sir Watkin is our king, and his son is prince of Wales." If Sir Watkin does not set more value on cups than we do on empty bottles we shall be glad to exchange with him we have one dated 1738, which as curiosity must be more valuable than silver, or we would willingly lend it to the Agricultural Hall Company next year should they have a bottle show, with a pair of very old top boots, supposed to be those of the jockey who rode Queen Anne's horses Pepper and Mustard, a collection of which would be very interesting to sportsmen. A little after ten Lords Shannon, Waterford, and Valencia commenced judging the weight carrying hunters, a class of 37 including those sick and on leave, no easy or enviable task, nor must we be surprised, in this age of show and masquerade, when even our hatter cannot tell whether his own build is superfine, double superfine, the best, or the very best without a peep at the lining, if a prize horse, made up like a full blown puff, should now and then turn out like the widow of the Marquis of Granby whom Mr. Weller took for better or worse and found a deal worse than he took her for. As there is as much difference of opinion about horse flesh as there is about many other things in this United Kingdom we must not wonder if some of the verdicts were not quite approved of by the public while others appeared to them incomprehensible, and many thought as we do that better horses were turned out than remained in the ring. Then owners of prize naga who were sure of a first, second, or a third prize on seeing their horses sent empty away looked, "I can't believe it," as much as we should if some one were to leave us just clear six hundred pounds a-year. Still we admire the judges for taking a line of their own, which they evidently did regardless of previous decisions as all were supplied with catalogues. If judges would always do the like there would be no crying out for champion classes or disqualifying nags from winning the same prize twice and thus letting in the second best, which is not the way to improve, but letting the best win as long as he can, and "Eclipse first' is more attractive than "the rest nowhere." Change the judges oftener, say we, get new blood, and don't put an old hand on to lead the young ones. The weight carriers were not a grand lot but a good one, with many smart nags and some well-known prize-takers, such as that model of a weight carrier, Winder, the second here last year, and the first at the Royal Show, Rossington, the first at Manchester this year, and showing more hunting form and quality here than anything in the class, though the good looking Colonel is almost the Edwinstowe nag's equal in form, but he goes rather stiff behind. The Colonel was the first four-year-old here last year, beating Mr. Hutchinson's Glengyle, who, at Skipton in Craven, galloped away from the brown, and all Yorkshire, in a style that a show horse is seldom seen to go, and we have been watching the rings throughout the country for the last eighteen years, till, at times, we begin to think we have got into a whirl without end, as the Ancient Mariner found his waltzing with Charybdis to be. Mr. Hornsby's prize nag, Jericho gets neither money nor ribands, and Mr. Harvey Bayley's Haymaker and Mr. Starkie's Staghound, both powerful horses, fare no better; with Mr. Holmes' chestnut by Theobald, Mr. Clemitson's Light-Heart, Mr. Darrell's Sutton, Mr. Loder's Half-and-Half, Mr. Barker's Maltonean, and Mr. Hutchinson's Negro-all showing breed, but would have done better if they had gone for less weight. Mr. Billington's handsome black brown QC., by the Lawyer, fares better, being highly commended, though his legs show that he has not been kept to look at, scars being honourable to a hunter and a soldier; while, from the same stable is Loyala, |