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NOTES EROM THE MAIL-NEWS.-
At a monthly meeting of the Highland and Agri
cultural Society of Scotland a letter was read from
the Ballarat Farmers' Club, asking for suggestions
relative to the mode of collecting scientific and
; practical knowledge, and tho best means to reduce
the same to farm practice, and copies of the rules
and journal. The board agreed to send a copy
of the transactions from the commencement of "the
present series in 1866, and any other document of
interest.
I The name of George Hope, of Fenton Barns, is
laminar to all who are interested m the progress
of agriculture . Mr. Scot Skirving, chairman of
the Haddington Farmers' Club, considers Mr.
Hope to be the foremost farmer in all Scotland ;
and that by hiB address and example he has raised
the value of the whole landed property of Soot"
land. As is well known, he has been forced tcf
leave the farm which has been in the occupation
of his family for many generations, and advantage
is to be - taken of the opportunity of presenting
him with a testimonial, which shall, in some
degree, express the feelings of respect in. which he
is held by the agricultural community.
The council of the Smithfield Farmers' Club
having appointed three gentlemen to make ex
periments on the best method of destroying tho
life of animals in slaughtering, their leport
gives their decided and unanimous opinion that
the use of the poieaxe is preferable to all other
modes.
Iowa is shipping dressed poultry, preserved :n
ice, direct to England.
The council of the Royal Horticultural Society
of London have resigned in consequence of an
adverse vote at a general meeting on .the presenta
tion of their annual report. A new council h&B
j been appointed. The Duke of Buccleugh was
1 re-elected president, Mr. W. A. Lindsay
secretary, and Sir A. Slade treasurer.
A splendid winter garden or Crystal Palacf,
erected at Edinburgh by the enterprising firm of
Downie, Laird, and Laing, has been formally
opened with a grand exhibition of spring-flowering
plants, etc. It has cost upwards of £3,600. Ac
has a frontage of 202ft. to the Glasgow road, is
30ft. wide in the centre, and is surmounted by a
glass dome 68ft. high. Behind it is a range of
greenhouses of about 336ft. in length.
I TTV/im A marifA ftnmM t.hft AnnnnnnAmAiif. nf fUn
death of Dr. John Torry, in whom New York haB
lost its most eminent man of science.
The deaths are recorded also of Mr. Ohater, of
Cambridge, the well-known raiser of hollyhocks ;
and of M. Jaoob-Makoy, the celebrated nursery
man of Liege.
We observe thatMr.Olareon, late superintend
ent of the garden of the Horticultural Society,
has been elected a fellow of the Linnsean Society,
on the nomination of Dr. Hooker.
An announcement has appeared in a cotftem
porary that a change in the management of the
Botanic Gardens is to be effected. Baron Von
Mueller is to be sent out of the garden altogether,
and transferred from the Lands Department to that
of the Chief Secretary. But of what use : a
Government Botanist will be, or how his duties
are to bs carried on without a garden, or without
the means of making exchanges, or without
assistance in the museum or laboratory, without
even a messenger, or the means to purchase books,
is more than we can imagine. It appears that Mr.
Hodgkinson is to be the Bole head of the public
gardens and reserves, including the Botanic
Garden, with a qualified curator under him.- ft is
also stated that the Baron is to he sent to lecture
at the University, but so absurd a supnetion
must surely have had its originan the i&aginipre
brain of our hundred-eyed friend. T ,
Carlton Gaidens are at last to be made decent,
and Mr. Hodgkinson is the man chosen to do it.
J He has suggested a plan, which has been approved-
I of, for their improvement and adornment.
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