MASSACHUSETTS
STATE COLLEGE

GOODELL LIBRARY

Per

Y13

V

No. 1, Vol. XIII. 1 JANUARY, 1858. [Third Sbkies,

THE

FAEMEE'S MAGAZINE,

AND

MONTHLY JOURNAL

OF

THE AGRICULTURAL IITTEREST.

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 246, STRAND.

PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.

B0QBB80N AND TnXJORD,] [PBINTKBS, 246, STEXKD.

THE ROYAL FARMERS'
AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL

3, NOB.FOI.K STB.1S:ST, STRiLND,

L ® Q^ © © B^o

DIRECTORS.
CTflirman.— STEPHEN C. DENISON, Esq. Deputy Judge Advocate, 35, Great George Street, Weatminster,

London.
Deputy Chairman. — B. P. SHEARER, Esq., Swanmore House, Bishop Waltham, Hants.

William Wilberforce Pearson, Esq., 27, Wim-

pole Street, London.
Thomas Rolls, Esq., Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Thomas Smith, Esq., 36, Hart Street, Bloomsbury

London.
George Parker Tusfori?, Esq., 246, Strand,

London.
Thomas Waters, Esq., Winchester, Hants,

Samuel Boydell, Esq., 41, Queen Square, Blooms-
bury, London.

Newson Garrett, Esq., Aide House, Aldeburgh,
Suffolk.

William Hodges, Esq., Recorder of Poole, 1, Essex
Court, Temple, London.

Samuel Jonas, Esq., Ickleton, Cambridgeshire.

Rev. Henry E. Knatchbull, Elmham Vicarage,
Thetford, Norfolk.

FIRE INSURANCE on every description of property on terms as moderate as any other well-established
Office.

No Charge for New Fire Policies if for ^^300 and upwards, or if removed from other Offices to favour this
Company.

HAIL INSURANCE.— The Bonus allowed in the year 1856 was upwards of 66 per cent, on Insurance of
five years' daration.

LOSSES promptly and liberally settled.

LIFE POLICIES payable to the Registered Holders, by which much inconvenience and expense is pre-
vented.

Bonuses Guaranteed, and therefore secured to the Assured, irrespective of the profits of the Office.
Insurers in 1857 will be entitled to participate in the Bonus to be declared on the profits to the 31st of Decem-
ber, 1858.

No Charge for Life Policy Stamps.

Additional Agents Wanted. Application to be made to

JOHN REDDISH, Secretary and Actuary.

%* The Renewal Receipts for the Christmas Quarter are now in the hands of the Agents.

ESTABLISHED 1812.

TURNIP MANURE.— This valuable fertilizer has been used for the last twelve years
with great success by most of the eminent Agriculturists throughout England, and stands unrivalled in
the imight and quality of the bulbs which it produces ; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain Crops
which follow, while Clover is rarely found to fail after the first application. Some of the crops produced by
this Manure last year weighed upwards of Thirty Tons per acre. GRASS, BARLEY, CLOVER, and WHEAT
MANURES; also BONE, GUANO, and SUPERPHOSPHATE of LIME, warranted of the best quality.
Apply to —

H. & T. PROCTOR, CATHAY, BRISTOL.

r BIRMINGHAM,
PROCTOR & RYLAND \ EDMONSCOTE, WARWICK,

■ [ And SALTNEY, near CHESTER.

N.B.— A Pamphlet on " MANURES, their PROPERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded on receipt
of 12 postage stamps.

FARM ACCOUNTS.
Just published, in royal 8vo, bound in cloth, price 2s. 6d.,

A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF FARM BOOKKEEPlNGj being that recommended
in " The Book of the Farm," by Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E. Also, Folio ACCOUNT-BOOKS, con-
structed in accordance with the system, printed and ruled throughout ; the whole being specially adapted for
keeping, by an easy and accurate method, an account of all the transactions of the Farm.

'• The great characteristic of this system is its simplicity. When once the details are mastered, which it
will take very little trouble to accomplish, it will be prized as the clearest method to show the profit and loss
of business, and to prove how the soundest and surest calculations can be arrived at. We earnestly recom-
mend a trial of the entire series of books." — Bell's Messenger.

William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London.

J^

WF^:£il

^f

^

\^

^

-^^

e,'

--i J'BMunt r'rarri'

Pli^^'J'

(O

.iT-^

Diidcn.rvtliskcd. Ini Ra^erson i^ Ttixfr^rd. 246 Strand.. /S.V.

^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIIN'E,

JANUARY, 1858.

PLATE I.

PORTRAIT OF MR. RICHARD HORNSBY.

TWO

PLATE 11.
LABOURERS' COTTAGES,

(For description see page 81 J

MR. RICHARD HORNSBY,

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER, OF SPITTLEGATE WORKS, GRANTHAM, LINCOLNSHIRE.

If undeviating integrity, earnestness of intention,
and a thorough knowledge of his profession should
bring success, Mr. Hornsby has surely earned his
reward. One is at a loss which to admire the more,
the genuine straight-forward character of the man
himself, or the excellence of those inventions with
which his name is identified. But, after all, one
is only the reflection of the other. We see in the
good, sound, durable machinery that Hornsby and
Sons send out, how the spirit of the master-mind
has been employed upon them. From him the
whole works take their tone. There shall be no-
thing here but what is honestly fitted for its pur-
pose. Turning neither to the right nor the left,
uninfluenced by any other consideration, the aim
of the House has been to supply the farmer with
those implements really best adapted for his use.
This is now, and indeed has long been, well known ;
and we but echo the opinion of the whole country
when we say, there are no people with whom a man
can deal with more confidence than with the
Hornsby's of Grantham,

This firm has now been established as that of
Hornsby alone something like thirty years. It owes
its origin and gradual development to the man
whose portrait here occupies so worthy a place in
our pages. Much as the business and repute of
the house have increased of late years, under the
careful direction of his eldest son, it was Richard
Hornsby himself who not only commenced, but
established it. Like many other good men before
him, who have honestly risen to eminence, we trace
him back to small beginnings — the road-side
foundry — the master-man, busy at the forge — the
gradual extension from one department to another
until many hundreds have to look to him for their
sustenance ; and the town he entered a com-
parative stranger, points to him and his as its
pride and boast.

The county, however, has an equal claim to him.

OLD SERIES.]

Mr. Hornsby is both Lincolnshire born and bred.
We have to go so far back as the summer of 1/90
for the time of his birth — on rather a memorable
day at that period, being no other than the fourth
of June, the birth-day of good King George him-
self. The Hornsbys then farmed at Elsham, near
Brigg, where the son continued until his fifteenth
year. He was at best but a dehcate boy ;a nd,
much against his friends' inclination, who would
have preferred his adopting some less laborious
pursuit, bound himself apprentice, in 1805, to Mr.
Havercroft, a wheelwright at Barnetby-le-Wold.
His new master shared the fears of his own rela-
tions as to his ever being able enough for such
work, remarking, on first seeing him, that " he
looked far more like filling a coftin than making
one." The choice, however, was a good one. The
pursuit agreed with him, and in five years' time he
left Barnetby a hale, hearty man.

Mr. Hornsby turned his steps towards Gran-
tham, where he quickly engaged himself with one
Mr. Seaman, of the Spittle or Hospital Gate. The
latter had discrimination enough to appreciate the
value of his young workman. On the first of
January, 1815, a business was opened under the
title of " Seaman and Hornsby, Makers of Horse
Thrashing Machines, &c,, &c." The firm pros-
pered, and in eleven years from this time we find
Mr. Hornsby entering into a partnership of a yet
more agreeable character. In a word, his marriage
further settled him as a Grantham man, while but
two years more found him with the works alto-
gether under his own control. In the December
of 1828. Mr. Seaman retired with a competency,
and tliu bas.ucss was known henceforth as that of
Hornsby's solely.

The success of the House may be dated from this

period. It was in Mr. Hornsby's hands that the

trade gradually extended, and its repute propor-

tionably increased. It was under his immediate

B [VOL. XLYIII.— No. 1.

3

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

inspection that the machinery, for which they are
still so famous, was first tried. It was with his im-
primatur that the horse thrashing-machines* bowed
to the power of steam ; that the drills (first made
here in 1815) were improved, and the dressing-
machines were perfected. From this it is but an
old story of well-merited distinction, with the old
moral of going again to those who use you the
best. Public and private experience have alike
confirmed this ; and the Hornsbys have never re-
ceived a premium or an order but that they deserved
it. Let their long ranges of workshops, and their
hundreds of men in them, speak to the latter j
while for the former we have some as readily avail-
able proof.

For their Improved Patent Portable Steam En-
gines they have been awarded : —
At tlie Imperial Royal Agricultural Society of Austria,

at Vienna, May, 1857, the Gold Medal.
At the Hungarian Agricultural Society, at Pestb, June,

1857, the liighest Diploma of Merit.
At the Universal Agricultural Exposition, Paris, 185G,
the First Prize ot£24: and Gold Medal, for the best
Portable Steam Engine for Agricultural Purposes.
At the Universal Exposition at Paris, 1855, the Medal

of Honour, lor the best Portable Steam Engine.
At the Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations,
held at the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London,
Jidy, 1851, for the best Portable Steam Engine for
Agricultural Purposes, the First Prize or Council
IVledal. £ s.
By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
ciety, Boston, August, 1855 20 0

By tlie Bath and West of England Agricultural

Society, at Tiverton, June, 1855 10 0

By the Royal Afrricultural Society of England,

at Lincoln, July, 1854 20 0

By the Bath and West of England Agricultural

Society, at Bath, June, 1854 10' 0

By the Selby and Tadcaster Agricultural

Society, at Selby, July, 1854 20 0

By the Herts AsTicultural Society, at Hert-
ford, October, 1854 5 0

By the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Society,

at York, August, 1863 12 10

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
ciety, at Gainsborough, July, 1853 20 0

By thf! Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Gloucester, July, 1853 10 0

By the Bath and West of England Agricul-
tural Society, at Plymouth, June, 1853 .... 15 0
By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Lewes, July, 1852 40 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
ciety, at Horncastle, July, 1852 7 0

By the Great Y'orkshire Agricultural Society,

at Sheffield, August, 1852 15 0

By the Royal North Lancashire Agricultural

Society, held at Preston, August, 1852 .... 5 0

_ * In 1830, the labourers of Lincolnshire conceived a
violent dislike to these horse-thrashing machines, and
traversed the country in mobs, destroying them. The far-
mers became much alarmed, and Mr. Hornsby's yards
were filled with such implements, consigned by them to his
care. His premises consequently became a mark for the
rioters; but they were never attacked, as the men, having
gained their point with the masters, went back to work
with the flail. In a very short time they again revolted, or,
rather, asked as a favour that the thrashing-machines
might be brought back ! From that day their use was
everywhere recognised, until in turn they had to succumb to
steam-power.

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
'ciety, at Horncastle, July, 1852 i€20 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
ciety, at Caistor, July, 1851 20 0

By the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Society,

at Bridlington, August, 1851 15 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Exeter, July, 1850 50 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society, at York,

July, 1848 50 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural So-
ciety, at Lincoln, July, 1848 20 0

For the Patent Combined Thrashing, Shaking,

and Pressing Machine :

At the Universal Exposition at Paris, 1855, the Medal
of Honour.

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,
at Carlisle, July, 1855, the First Prize of.. . . 20 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Boston, August, 1855, the First Prize of . . 5 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Lincoln, July, 1854, the First Prize of . . 10 0

By the Selby and Tadcaster Agricultural So-
ciety, at Selby, July, 1854, the First Prize of 20 0

By the Herts Agricultural Society, at Hertford,

October, 1854, the First Prize of 5 0

By the Northamptonshire Agricultural Society,

at Oundle, Sept., 1853, the First Prize of . . 5 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Gainsborough, July, 1853, the First Prize of 5 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,
at Horncastle, July, 1852, the First Prizes,
amounting to 26 0

By the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Society,

at Sheffield, August, 1852, the First Prize of 10 0 '

By the Highland Society of Scotland, at Glas-
gow, August, 1857, the First Prize of 10 0

For Patent Drills of every kind :-—
By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at
Salisbury, July, 1857 —

For the best drill for general purposes 5 0

For the best turnip, seed, and manure drill. ... 50

For the best corn drill 2 0

At the Universal Agricultural Exposition at Paris,
June, 1856, for the best drill for general purposes, the "^

First Prize of £"10, and the Gold Medal; for the
best corn and seed drill, the First Prize of i^lO, and
the Gold Medal.
At the Universal Expositioa at Paris, 1855, the Medal
of Honour, for the best corn and seed drill, and for
the best drill for general purposes.
At the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations,
held at the Crystal Palace, Hyde-park, London,
1851, for the best corn and seed drill, the Great
Council Prize Medal ; for the best turnip and ma-
nure drill for either ridges or flat ground, the Great
Prize Medal.
For the best drop Drill for depositing turnip or mangold
wurtzel seed at any required intervals, and in any
given quantity, the Great Prize Medal.
By the Royal Agricultural Society of England at Car-
lisle, July, 1855 :— £ s.

For the best corn and seed Drill 10 0

For the best small occupation corn Drill 5 0

For the best turnip Drill with manure 5 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Lin-
coln, July, 1854 :— £ s.

For the best Drill for general purposes 10 0

For the best corn and seed Drill 10 0

For the best turnip Drill, on the flat, with manure 5 0
ForthebestturnipDrill, on the ridge, with manure 5 0

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at
Gloucester, July, 1853 : — £ s.

For the best corn and seed Drill, with R. H.

and Son's patent fore-carriage steerage .... 10 0
For the best turnip and mangold wurtzel and

manure Drill, on the ridge 10 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Lewes,
July, 1852 :— £ s.

For the best Drill for general purposes 10 0

For the best corn and seed Drill 10 0

For the best turnip, mangold wurtzel, and ma-
nure Drill, on the flat 10 0

For the best turnip, mangold wurtzel, and ma-
nure Drill, on the ridge 10 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Exe-
ter, July, 1850:— £ s.

For the best corn and turnip Drill 10 o

For the best Drill for turnips and manure, on

the flat 10 0

For the best Drill for turnips and manure, on

the ridge 10 0

With other similar prizes at earlier meetings of the
Royal Agricultural Society, as well as |at the Yorkshire,
j^ West of England, and others.

For Corn-dressing Machines :
The Medal of Honour at the Universal Expo- £ a.

sition at Paris.
By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Boston, August, 1855 0 10

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at

Carlisle, July, 1855, first prize of 5 0

By the Bath and West of England Agricultural

Society, at Tiverton, June, 1855 3 0

» By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at

Lincoln, July, 1854, first prize of 5 0

By the Bath and West of England Agricultural

Society, at Bath, June, 1854, the first prize of 5 0
By the Selby and Tadcaster Agricultural Society,

at Selby, July, 1854, first prize of 2 10

By the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Society, at

Ripoii, August, 1854, first prize of 2 0

By the Herts Agricultural Society, at Hertford,

October, 1854, first prize of 2 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at

Gloucester, July, 1853, the first prize of ... . 5 0
*■ By the Bath and West of England Agri. Society,

at Plymouth, June, 1853, the first prize of . . . . 3 0
By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Gainsborough, July, 1855, the first prize of 1 0
By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Lewes, July, 1852, first prize of 10 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Horncastle, July, 1852, the first prize of . . 1 5
By the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, at Shef-
field, August, 1852, the first prize of 5 0

By the Royal North Lancashire Agri. Society,

at Preston, August, 1852, the first prize of . . 3 0
By the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, at Brid-
lington, August, 1851, the first prize of 5 0

By the Royal Agricultural Society of England,

at Exeter, July, 1850, the first prize of 10 0

By the Royal Agri. Society, at Norwich, July, 1849 10 0
By the Royal Agri. Society, at York, July, 1848 10 0
By the Royal Agricultural Society, atNewcastle-

'upon-Tyne, July, 1846 3 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Caistor, J uly, 1851 2 q

"i By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

> at Louth, July, 1850 3 0

"* By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Brigg, July, 1849 3 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,
Q at Lincoln, July, 1848,. , , 3 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Spilsby, July, 1847 £3 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Market Rasen, July, 1846 3 0

By the North Lincolnshire Agricultural Society,

at Gainsborough, July, 1845 10 0

By the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, at Bever-
ley, August, 1815, the Prize Medal.

Bv the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, at
"Sleaford, August, 1845 1 10

The firm has been also successful with cake
crushers and chaff cutters ; numbering in all about
200 money prizes, of about £1400 value, and 21
gold, silver, and bronze medal prizes. These in-
clude the Great Council medal at the Exhibition
of the Industry of all Nations, London, 1851 ; the
Grand Medal of Honour, at the Universal Exposi-
tion at Paris, 1855; three gold medals at the
Universal Agricultural Exposition at Paris, 1856;
the gold medal at the Imperial Royal Agricultural
Society of Austria, at Vienna, 1857 ; and the gold
medal at the Agricultural and Horticultural Society
of Gers, at Condom, 1857.

In appropriate commentary on this legion of
honours, we may avail ourselves of the following
well-written description from the Official Illus-
trated Guide to the Great Northern Railway : —

" No visitor to Grantham should leave the town
without visiting the immense manufactory of
Messrs. Hornsby and Son, whose agricultural im-
plements have gained for them a world-wide repu-
tation. Those who inspected the rich collection of
machinery devoted to farming purposes, at the
Great Exhibition of 1851, will remember the en-
comiums awarded to the productions of this emi-
nent firm. The wonderful development in this de-
partment of science, and the great demand for first-
class articles, are partly exemplified in the history
of Mr. R. Hornsby's career. Forty years ago this
gentleman walked into Grantham, — without capital
or friends, it is true ; but endowed with a patience
and determination which speedily placed him on
the high road to success : his present position is
entirely owing to the intelligence with which he
has studied the requirements of agricultural in-
terests, and to the encouragement he has given to
inventions of great ability and convenience. The
works of Messrs. Hornsby and Son possess an in-
terest which all must acknowledge and appreciate.
The Turnery, into which the visitor is ushered on
his visit to this manufactory, will prepare him, in
some measure, for the extensive operations of this
firm. In the immense department for machinery
are the corn-drill, successfully introduced by Mr.
Hornsby in the early days of his career, and ex-
hibited at the world's bazaar in 1851, where a
* council medal' was awarded for it. Five of these
machines, each combining various excellencies,
were then shown. The ten-rowed corn and general
purpose drill is a ' highly finished machine, with an
improvement patented by this firm, of India-rubber
tubes for conducting the seed down to the channel
made by the coulter, which is a valuable improve-
ment upon the old plan of a series of cups, made
of tin, working one within the other. This drill
has also another improvement of two coulter bars,
by which an equal pressure is obtained upon every

B 2

i

THP: FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

coulter, and the double-action lever enables the
manure to be deposited to any depth, and covered
up previous to the seed being deposited.' The
visitor, in promenading through this great manu-
factory, will do well to notice the moveable steam
engines, for which Messrs. Hornsby and Son re-
ceived the preference at the Great Exhibition over
all their competitors ; and have taken the first prizes
in twenty-one out of twenty-three public competi-
tions. The services rendered to agriculture by
\ this little machine are invaluable. The necessity of
threshing corn under cover in barns is obviated by
this steam engine, the rick now being threshed in
the open air at once as it stands. ' Instead of three
^or more barns clustering round the homestead, a
slingle building will now suffice for dressing corn
and chaff-cutting.' Besides these, there are many
uses to which the moveable steam engine may be
applied. The winnowing machines of the same
manufacturers elicited the following verdict of the
Judges at the York Agricultural Meeting: —
' Several machines,' they say, ' were tried, but could
not get through the grain, shorts, straw, and chaff,
as it came from the threshing machines, without
being choked, or requiring much more time than
Hornsby's, winch did its work ivell, parting the
whole into best corn, good tail, tail, whites, screen-
ings, and chaff, at the rate of about fifteen quarters
an hour, and dressing over the second time at the
rate of about twenty quarters per hour, parting the
whole into six parts, as before, in a workmanlike
manner.' ' Such masterly mastication and diges-
tion, making the contents of our supposed wheat

rick, forty quarters, in five hours ready for market,
must be appreciated by farmers.'

" The whole of the operations in this estabhsh-
ment are on a great scale, and will astonish the
uninitiated visitor. The plant is estimated at
£100,000. The number of hands employed is 500.
There are rooms and yards for every department of
implement manufacturing : — for carpenters' work ;
for testing engines ; a smithy, with thirty forges ;
a lathe-room ; draftsman's-room ; four joiners'
shops ; sawing-room, with six saws at work : im-
mense quantities of wood (oak) and iron lie about.
The timber-yard contains a stock of an average
worth of £6,000. Machines are here in readiness
to be sent to all parts of the world, especially to
New Zealand and Australia, Sweden, Austria,
France, and South America."

It was only this last week that we ourselves had
the pleasure of inspecting the works ; but Christ-
mas is a busy time in the Strand ; and we can only
offer our thanks to Mr. Measom and his Guide,
for a description that has served us so well.

For the last few years declining health has pre-
vented Mr. Hornsby taking any very active share
in the business. He has, however, a worthy suc-
cessor in his eldest son, who, with two younger
brothers, now represent the firm. Under their
good stewardship the trade has been still increasing,
while the name, even in this age of competition,
more than sustains its pristine repute. " A good
name," says an old proverb, " is a precious oint-
ment;" and that of Hornsby promises long to illus-
trate the adage.

THE FOOD OF DAIRY COWS.

BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESa., F.R.S.

The treatment of the cow in the early days of
English husbandry was evidently of a very rough
description. In times when the advantages derived
from feeding her well at all seasons was utterly
disregarded — when warmth and cleanliness were
deemed to be, for her, useless luxuries — when she
was only kept in good condition with the duration
of the grass of her pastures — when hay and straw
was her only winter sustenance — need we wonder,
in such days, that her breeding was equally neg-
lected, and her diseases ascribed to all kinds of
imaginary causes, such as the influence of the
witch or the shrew-mouse ?

It is hardly more than two centuries since we
first find our Enghsh agricultural writers giving
any directions for the breeding of cows. It was
about the year 1669, that old Worlidge gives, with
commendations, his English translation of Virgil's
advice to the breeder of oxen — directions which
would rather startle a modern breeder. He says :

" whoe'er breeds.

To choose well-bodye'd females mast have care.
Of the best shape the sour-lookt heifers are ;
Her head great, long her ueck, and to her thigh,
Down from her chin, her dewlaps dangling lye;
Long-sided, all parts large, whom great feet bears.
And under crooked horns her bristling ears ;
The whole cow fair, and visag'd like the male.
Sweeping the ground with her long bushy tail."

The large-boned, coarse-looking cows were evi-
dently in the highest favour with the farmers of those
days ; they perhaps were the best adapted to with-
stand the rough treatment they had then to endure.
When the cows were ill, they assigned the origin of
their complaints not to neglect or bad feeding, but
if the disease was in the slightest degree uncommon,
to very imaginary and evil causes. It was about
the year 1596, that Leonard Mascal, of Plumstead,
in Kent, gives evidence of what knowledge even a
cattle-doctor possessed in those days; for he came
to the farmer's aid in his book " On the Government
of Cattle." In this book, amongst other equally
wise observations, he gave them directions how "to
know the difference between cattle bewitched, and
other soreness." Then, with a similar credulity,
the farmers of that time believed, it seems, that if a
poor little shrew-mouse ran over their cow, it ren-
dered her lame. So Mascal gravely propounds to
them the following remedy : — " You shall have her
to a briar growing at both ends, and draw the
beast under it, and so she will recover." Then he
proceeded to inform his reader that if the cow had the
bloody flux, then " ye shall take a frog ; cut off his
left leg, and so put him alive in the beast's mouth,"
&c.

With such abounding ignorance, we may rea-
sonably conclude what comfortless kind of home-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

stead-yards and winter pastures must have existed
in those days ; and from the directions which ever
and anon appear in the works of these early writers,
it is evident that leaves, straw, and the young
branches of trees were not very unfrequently the
sole food on which the dairy cows had to sub-
sist.

How refreshing it is, then, to turn from the
barbarism of those days to the modern well-bred
and carefully-tended herds of our time — to a period
when the advantages of gentleness, skilful feeding,
cleanliness, quiet, and warmth, are so generally
imderstood ! Take, for instance, the researches of

Mr. Horsfall, of Burley, in Yorkshire, described in
the recent number of the Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society; notice how, step by step, he
shows the demands made upon the cow for her
calf and her milk and the food necessary to meet
that ensuing waste of her substance. To illustrate
these practical questions, he experimented during
rather more than 27 weeks upon six milch cows.
During this time the food was weighed, its com-
position ascertained, and the disposal of that food
traced {Jour. Roy. Ag. Sac, vol.xviii. p. 156). The
food these cows consumed during that period, and
its composition, were as follows : —

Total

Per day.

weight of
food given.

Albumen.

Starch.

Oil.

Fibre.

Minerals.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

Meadow hay ....

56

10,715

990

4,257

287

2,933

953

Rape-cake

30

5,740

1,803

2,177

611

494

171

Malt-coombs ....

9

1,722

411

791

5]

320

88

Bran

9
9

1,722
1,722

246
464

800

774

96
34

258
176

100

Beans .

53

Green food

204

39,032

862

3,074

115

1,148

541

Oat-£traw

50

9,566

287

3,066

100

4,526

428

Bean-straw

12

2,296

376

725

51

594

217

Total ....

379

72,515

5,439
= Nitrogen

888 lbs.

15,664

1,345

10,449

'2,551

The constituents of this food could only be dis-
posed of by these cows in either the milk they
yielded, the perspiration they emitted, the flesh
they acquired, or the excrement they voided.

Now in this time the production of milk by six
cows averaged 14 quarts per day each for 27^
weeks = 16,072 quarts, which at 41 oz. per quart
= 41, 184 lbs. lbs.

When dry or free from moisture 5230

Butter in 16,07.2 quarts at 30 per 1000 = 1235
Casein ,, „ 48.2 „ = 1977
Sugar of milk = 1804

M'"-'^ {otSs'r:!.°.^'rnI} = ^

5230
And in the same time they gained in weight
500 lbs., which their owner calculated to be 300 lbs.
as fat, and 200 lbs. as flesh. The excrement of
these cows was then examined, which amounted to
88 lbs. a day. This was examined by Professor
Way, who found in it percent. : —

Moisture . . 84.85

Phosphoric acid .39

Potash 58

Soda 22

Other substances 13.96

In the casein 316.

„ Fibrin 7.35

„ Manure 414.

The remainder consumed in perspiration 150.65

888.

100.

Nitrogen .41 = Ammonia .49

So that from these examinations it would appear
that if the nitrogen in the food of these cows
equalled 888, the disposal of this was a? follows ;—

The question as to the proportion of the food
necessary to keep her in store condition, and the
farther proportion required by her when yielding
milk, did not escape Mr. HorsfalFs attention. He
takes for his starting point the established opinion
of his district, that 20 lbs. of meadow hay suffice
for the daily maintenance of a cow of fair size in
store condition, a like result being obtained from
120 lbs. of turnips per day. The six cows then
required during the 27 weeks, for their mam?e?i«?jce
only: —

Albuminous Starch, Total

matter. Oil. &c. weight.

Hay., lbs. 2127 6l6 9130 22,960
Turnips.. 2295 306 9100 137,760
The excess of the food given to them beyond this
amount, then, was chiefly converted into milk, or
meat, or the enrichment of the excreta. For the
maintenance, then, of a fair-sized cow for one day
in a normal state, the following elements seem
adequate: —

Mineral
Ingredients.
Phos-

Albumen. Oil. Starcli, Lime.

phoric

acid.

1.11

1.9

In 20 lbs. of hay. . 1.85 .536 7.95 .90
120 „ turnips 1.93 .26 7.82 .97

" When cows are in milk, there occurs a much
greater activity of the functions ; they eat and

6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

drink more, evacuate more excrement, and, in all
probability, spend considerably more food in
respiration. Whilst the 17-60 lbs. per day dry
matter in 20 lbs. of hay are found adequate for the
maintenance of a cow in a store state, the six cows
in milk have eaten on the average 21.37 lbs. solid
matter per day during the 273 weeks. When I
have fattened cattle together with a number of
milch cows of similar size, which gave on an ave-
rage 8 quarts of milk per day, the whole being fed
with moist steamed food, and receiving the same
allowance of green food, I have found the fattening
cattle refuse water, whilst the milk cows on the
average drank upwards of 40 lbs. per day of water
given separately. The 8 quarts of milk contain
only about 17-58 lbs. of water ; still in several
analyses of excrement I have noticed little differ-
ence in the percentage of moisture in that from the
fattening animals as compared with that from, cows
giving milk.

" These facts would seem to show that upwards of
20 lbs. more water were given off from the lungs
and pores of the skin of a milking than of a
fattening animal."

Another branch of the inquiry of the greatest
practical value is the comparative real value of the
dung of oxen when kept on different kinds of food.
In elucidation of this most important inquiry, we
have here two experiments of Mr, Horsfall, and
two analyses by Mr. Way. These were made with
eight cattle, the experiment being commenced in
March, 1835. Mr. Horsfall tells us that "for the
first six weeks after they were tied up, their food
consisted of chopped straw, shells of oats, and
bean straw in about equal proportions ; 4 lbs. of
rape-cake, 1 lb. bean-meal, 4 lb. linseed, and | lb.
wheat ground together, and 30 lbs. swedes per day.
The straw, &c., were cooked by steaming. On
this food two of the heifers had gained 9lbs. each
in the month's weighing, the others 16 lbs. and
18 lbs. each per week; the average being some-
what more than 1 4 lbs. per week. A sample of the
excrement was sent on the 26th of March to Pro-
fessor Way for analyses. It contained : —

Moisture 83.81 lbs.

Organic matter . , . e 13.44

Sand, &c 93

Phosphate of lime .64

Common salt .18

Sulphate of soda and potash 95

99-95
Nitrogen .51 = ammonia .62.
" The yield of excrement is at the rate of about 9|

tons per year; value, Ss. 6d. per ton; or Is. 7d.
per week for each.

" My store of turnips being exhausted with March,
an additional proportion of bean-straw, with the
above-mentioned allowance of rape-cake, bean-
meal, linseed, and wheat ground together, was sup-
plied till the 24th of May, when a portion of
meadow-grass was mixed with the straw, and by
degrees the straw was discontinued ; when mown
grass, together with the same allowance of extra
food, was given till the close of June, when the lot
were of prime quality, and sold for the top market
price. Up to the close of May their gain averaged
over 14 lbs. per week; during June they gained
something less than 14 lbs. per week. On the
29th of June a sample of excrement was sent to
Professor Way, wh« reported its contents : —

Moisture 84.90 lbs.

Organic matter , 11.94

Sand 86

Phosphate of lime 1.33

Common salt .24

Sulphate of soda and potash 76

100.00
Nitrogen .94 = 1.14 ammonia.

''The yield of excrement was at the rate of 94
tons per year, and its value in ammonia and phos-
phate of lime may be computed at 15s. per ton,
being at the rate of 2s. lO^d. per week for each, to
which the sulphate of potash will be an appreciable
addition."

It is impossible to assign an adequate value to
inquiries such as these ; they will lead to other and
still more minute investigations as to the chemistry
of food — a subject whose importance has only of
late years been felt by the practical farmer. Great
indeed, although slow, have been the advances
made in this way since those days of the witches
and the shrew-mouse to which I have referred, and
the present time. And if we take the experience
of the last two centuries as our guide, there appears ^^
little chance of the advancing progress of agricul-
ture being stayed. The advance made only in the
present century, in the breeding and rearing of our
live stock, indicates this. Few farmers now sur-
vive who remember the times of Francis Duke of
Bedford, and the institution in 1798 of the Smith-
field Club ; but we may learn from other sources
of information the fact that what was then deemed
perfection in the breed and management of our
live stock, would be now little regarded by the
present and-far-better-informed race of England's
agriculturists.

THE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.

O'HE MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES APPLICABLE TO DRAINAGE.

THE NESBIT TESTIMONIAL.

The concluding: meeting for the present year, took place at
the Club House, Bridge-street, Blackfriars.on Monday evening,
December 7.

Mr. OwenWallis presided, supported by a very large attend-
ance of members, and subscribers to the Nesbit Testimonial.
Amongst others present were Messrs. R. Baker, W. Bennett
Joseph Pain, Rer. T. C. James, W. Bullock Webster, T. Hat-

field, J. J.Mechi, T. E.Pawlett, J. Thomas (Bletsoe), J. Thomas
(Lidlington), J. B. Spearing, L. A. Coussmaker, H. Shotter,
J. Grove, G. Wilshir, J. Marshall, T. Chandler, T. Congreve,
B. E. Ward, S. Sidney, C. Stokes, J. Tyler, W. Gray,
G. P. Tuxford. J. Bailey Denton, C. M. Bidwcll, J. Wood
(Sussex), J. Wood (Croydon), J. Brown, W. Brown, J.
Ploughman, W. Shaw (Coton), J. Smith (Rye), 0. A. Yowl,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

J. G. Ki!)g, C. J. Morton, T. Scott, C. Howard (Beds), T.
Twitchell, E. H. Bentall, C. J. Brickwell, G. H. Ramaay,
R. de Trehonnais, W. Cheffing, J. Wells (Yorkshire), G. S.
Harrison, S. Skeltou, G. Hammond, W. Eve, J, Parkinson,
&c., &c.

The subject for discussion, entrusted to Mr. J. C. Nesbit
to introdnce, was put on the card in the following terms : " The
Mechanical and Chemical Principles which should properly re-
gulate the Practice of Drainage."

On the table, in front of the Chairman, were placed a
service of silver plate and a microscope, purchased by the
promoters of the fund raised for the purpose of presenting a
testimonial to Mr. Nesbit, for the services which he has ren-
dered to the cause of agriculture. The service of plate —
which whether for beauty of design or excellence of workman-
ship has not often been excelled by testimonials of a similar
character — consisted of the folio (fing : A tea and coffee service,
a very large salver, two smaller salvers, a cake-basket, an egg-
frame, a butter-cooler, four tankards, a mahogany case contain-
ing twelve pairs of silver and dessert knives and forks with
carved pearl handles, and about a hundred spoons and forks.
The whole was supplied by Mr. Durrant, of No. 40, Cheapside.
On the principal salver is engraved the following inscription,
explanatory of the object of the presentation : —

" Presented, together with a Service of Plate

and a Microscope,

to

Mr. J. C. Nesbit, F. C. S., &c.,&c.,

Principal of the Agricultural and Chemical College,

Kennington,

By Memhers of the Central Farmers^ Club, and others

interested in the Cultivation of the Soil,

In appreciation of the valuable services rendered

by him to the Cause of Agriculture.

December 7th, 1857."

It may be added that the microscope, by Ross, was an ad-
mirable specimen of that species of instrument, and powerful
enough to admit of the reading of the sixty-thousandth part
of an inch.

The Chairman in opening the proceedings said — Gentle-
men, before we go to the discussion of the evening, I have a very
agreeable and pleasing duty to perform on your behalf, namely,
that of presenting to Mr. Nesbit the handsome testimonial
which you see on the table, as a mark of our appreciation of
the services rendered by him to the agricultural community of
this country (cheers). Mr. Nesbit has, as you are aware, on
several occasions introduced discussions in this room, of a most
valuable and instructive character; and whenever he has been
amongst us he has answered any questions which may have
been put to him, relative to agricultural subjects, most unre-
servedly and kindly (renewed cheers). Neither have his ser-
vices been confined to the members of this club. I believe
there is scarcely an agricultural club of any importance in the
country, which has not availed itself of the same source of in-
formation, and all have, no doubt, profited by the instruction
afforded to them. At the close of the last discussion which
was introduced here by Mr. Nesbit — it was, I think, in April
last year — it occurred to several members of the club that the
time had come when the acknowledgment of the services thus
renbered should assume some more substantial form than the
customary and matter-of-course one of a vote of thanks. It
was suggested that a subscription should be set on foot, with
the view of purchasing a suitable testimonial ; and this sug-
gestion was immediately acted upon (cheers). Although the
design originated with members of this club, it was hoped that
the subscription would not be confined to them, and I am
happy to say that that hope has not been disappointed (Hear,
hear). The very handsome sum of £280 has been collected
throughout the country on account of the Testimonial Fund. Of
this sum I believe about £12 has been disbursed in defraying un-
avoidable expenses ; the remainder has been expended in pur-
chasing the very handsome and useful service of plate, and the
very beautiful and powerful microscope, which are now on the
table. This testimonial appears to me the more gratifying be-
cause it is an additional proof to the many which we have
happily seen in the present age, that Science is no longer looked
upon with doubt and distrust (Hear, hear), but is generally
recognized as the handmaid of Practice, and its safest and surest
guide. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I will not take up any more of
your time, knowing that many of you are anxious to visit Baker-
street in the course of this evening, and knowing, too, that

you are all desirous of hearing the remarks which Mr. Nesbit
has to make in introducing the approaching discussion. I will
now, with your permission, therefore, in the name and on be-
half of the numerous subscribers to this handsome testimo-
nial, request Mr. Nesbit's acceptance of it, as a mark of our good
will and grateful feelings towards him ; only adding the ex-
pression of a sincere hope that he may be enabled to enjoy
what is now presented to him, and that his life may long be
spared, not only for the sake of his family and friends, but
also that he may continue to labour in the great field of science
(loud cheers).

Mr. Nesbit, who on rising was very cordially received,
spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman and gentleman, I assure
you it is with very considerable diflaculty that I can even at-
tempt to tell you how deeply I appreciate the kind and muni-
ficent present which you have bestowed upon me this evening.
I accept it as a sign that the farmers of this country no longer
think that science can be of no assistance to them, but are
disposed to take science as an aid by which the art of agri-
culture may be improved (Hear, hear;. Although, as a mark
of personal respect for myself, I receive this testimonial with
as strong a feeling of gratification as any man could possibly
entertain under similar circumstances, and although I cherish
a feeling of deep gratitude to those friends who have come
forward to express their opinion as to the humble services
which I have rendered to the cause of agriculture, I yet assign
to this testimonial a much higher meaning than that ; I regard
it as a testimonial from the agricultural public to the scien-
tific body. I view it not merely as an acknowledgment of ser-
vices which I myself may have rendered, but also as a recog-
nition on the part of agriculturists generally of the services of
all who have been endeavouring to apply science to the ad-
vancement of agriculture (cheers). It is, therefore, gentlemen,
not in my own name alone that I return thanks for the beau-
tiful testimonial which you have presented to me, I return
thanks in the name of all who have been fellow-workers with
myself, of whom there are many both in England and abroad.
I return thanks, I say, in their name as well as my own, for
this testimony from the art of agriculture to the practice of
science (cheers). I would only say in conclusion that I feel
deeply indebted to all the subscribers for the very handsome
testimonial which has just been presented to me, which I
trust will cause me to redouble my efforts for the advancement
of agriculture (much cheering).

The Chairman said they would now proceed to the discus-
sion of the evening. He" was quite sure they would all be as much
edified by Mr. Nesbit's remarks on that occasion as they had
been by his previous efforts ; and, without tak ng up any more
time, he would now call upon that gentleman to open the dis-
cussion.

Mr. Nesbit then rose and said : Mr. Chairman and
Gentlemen, — I really feel that I am placed in a position
of some difficulty this evening. There are so many prac-
tical drainers around me, who have been working in the
soil with deep drains and shallow drains, and ever}' variety
of drains, that I cannot help feeling that one who does not
even profess to be a practical drainer,mightby some be fairly
considered to be presumptuous in appearing before such an
assembly. We have had many excellent lectures on this
subject, including the philosophical lectures of Mr. Parkes
and the able disquisitions of Mr. Bailey Denton. _ We have
our deep drainers and we have our shallow drainers, Mr.
Bailey Denton representing the one on this occasion, and
Mr. Bullock Webster the other ; and I must declare at
once that I do not belong to either class. I come before
you to-night, not to advocate deep draining or shallow
draining, but to endeavour to deduce from the nature of the
soil itself the laws which ought to govern the art of drain-
ing in different localities. Beyond that I do not presume to
go. I shall lay down certain principles, and leave those
who have the practical management of drainage operations,
so far as they maj'find these principles consistent with fact,
to modify their practice by them. Now, in the first
place, setting aside the different modes of carrying on
drainage, let us look for a moment at the difference between
a drained and an undrained soil. Let me remark, at the
outset, that I have no wish to ignore what has been done by
others in relation to this subject ; but I feel that, in a
lecture like that which I have undertaken to give, I ought
to begin, as it were, with first principles, and not to take
everything for granted. I am perfectly well aware that

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

many gentlemen now present are at least as well acquainted
as myself with what I am now about to state ; but never-
theless I must, for the purpose of clearing the ground, com-
mence by laying down elementary principles. Now what
is the diiference, chemically, betrt'een a drained and an un-
drained soil ? An undrained soil is, I apprehend, not
simply a soil in which water is present, but a soil in which
water is present to an abnormal extent— to an extent that
■will injure the vegetation. The question then arises, how
does an excess of water injure the condition of the soil ? If
you have a large quantity of water very near the sutface of
the soil, that water by its evaporation produces cold ; the
land is, in consequence of being undrained, very much colder
than it otherwise would be ; in other words, the average
temperature of the soil, throughout the year, is very much
lower than it would be, if the water did not approach so
near the surface. That is one case. We will take an-
other—that in which the water-level does not come to
the top of the land, but so near to it, that the mere capil-
lary attraction of the soil Avill bring the water to the
surface. Here j'ou have a second case of injury from ex-
cess of water, though not so bad a one as the first. Now,
in order to illusti'ate what I mean by " capillary attrac-
tion," I will just set at work a little instrument which I
have on the table, the action of which will proceed while I
am speaking. I have here, in a glass tube, a quantity of
dry sand. The bottom of the tube is covered with a small
piece of linen, to retain the sand in the tube. I have also
a little cup containing water. I will now insert the bottom
of the glass tube in the vessel of water. You will observe
that the water rises through the pores of the sand much
higher than the level of the water in the cup. The power
■which causes the water to rise is called " capillary attrac-
tion"— that is, the attraction of minute tubes. [The water
rose in the tube many inches above the level of the water
in the cup.] Now, what is styled " capillary attraction'' is
simply the power which all soil has, under certain circum-
stances, of taking up water by attraction beyond the ordinary
level, into the pores of the soil itself. Capillary attraction has a
very important bearing on the question of drahiage,as respects
both the depth and distance of collateral drains. I wish to
impress upon you this point — that, where the soil is exceed-
ingly fine, where the pores of the soil are very minute,
capillary attraction will raise the water much higher than
it will where the soil is of a gravelly and coarse character.
In the more porous soils, water will not rise so high as in
soils of an opposite description. It is a well-known fact
—a fact which might be exhibited by means of glass tubes
drawn out to different degrees of fineness — that the
finer the tubes or pores, the higher water will ascend in
them. It must, therefore, ba borne in mind that the ca-
pillary attraction of the soil will necessarily exert a consi-
derable influence on its condition. This ought to afiJ'ect
the judgment of every man who puts a drain into the land,
because, in proportion as the capillary attraction of ditrcrent
soils varies in force and amount, so the modes of draining
those soils properly and effectuall3f must vary likewise.
Another point of considerable importance is this — that, in
drained land, not onlj' have you got rid of the evaporation
of the water from the surface of the soil, but the soil at the
surface, being warmed by the rays of the sun and by the
diffused heat of daj-, warms the water that falls on the
soil ; and that water, in passing downwards, leaves its heat
in the soil. You see, therefore, that, if a soil be capable of
deep drainage, the deeper the drain, within certain limits,
the greater will be the amount of soil heated by the water
that comes from the surface. There is a very important
point relating to the distance of drains, upon which I shall
say a few words hereafter. Another effect presents itself
here— namely, that, after the water has entered the soil,
the air mu'>t follow it. So that you have two courses of
action. You have the water heated, particularly in
.summer weather, passing downwards, and warming the
soil ; and you have the warm air following afterwards, and
also warming the soil. Besides that, the drainage has a
distinct action in disintegrating the mineral matters of the
soil for the purposes of the plant, and in oxidizing the
vegetable matters, and furnishing means by which the pro-
cess of vegetation may take place more rapidly than it
otherwise would do. Thus good drainage replaces rank
weeds and grasses by grasses of finer quality and more

nutritious properties. [Mr. Nesbit here illustrated the fact
of the retention of heat in soils by pouring heated water on
some soil in a glass vessel. The hot water, after passing
through eighteen inches of soil, issued therefrom quite cold,
the heat of the water being retained in the soil] It is
quite clear that, in such a case, the heat left in the soil
must have ■warmed the roots of the plants growing in that
soil. I am obliged of course to use, in performing this ex-
periment, a rather coarse species of soil, because I must
make, as it were, a week's rain pass through in a very
short space of time. In the soils themselves to which I
have been referring, the action is, of course, not so rapid ;
but the principle is the same.

Mr. Meciii : The fall of rain in the first instance expels
the air ?

Mr. Nesbit: When water falls on dry and porous soils,
it first, as it descends, drives out the air, and is then itself
followed by air from above. The question of deep and
shallow drainage is one which you will have to determine,
in each case, upon its own merits (Hear, hear). The expe-
riments which I have to exhibit will, however, evince
clearly that there is no one decided depth, and no one de-
cided width, at which it can be laid down as a rule that all
draining should be carried on, but that draining must vary
according to the circumstances and condition of the soil
(Hear, hear). What I wished to do was to illustrate the fact
that when water is heated at the surface, and then passes down-
wards to a drain below, it issues, in spring and summer, very
much cooler.

A Member: Is that regular soil ?

Mr. Nesbit: It is a gravelly soil. You see, then, very
clearly that, so far as chemical principles are concerned, we
have here the passage of the water through the soil and the
alternative passage of air ; and thus we have the irrigation and
the aeration of the soil accomplished in the most beneficial
manner by means of drainage. If you now look to this illus-
tration of capillary attraction, you will see that the water has
risen some four or five inches, in apparent opposition to the
principle of gravitation. Well, now, before I proceed to speak
of simple, regular drainage at so many feet distant, such
drainage as uniformly-pervious soils must require, let me refer
to a few facts in connection with the drainage of springs,
and of certain particular soils in various localities. The
case of the drainage of springs is one that ought, perhaps, to
be considered separately from that of the ordinary gridiron
draining, as it has been termed ; but it is very often found
that, by one or two drains, one can set free a very large tract
of land from the water that comes in from a higher level. I
have here [referring to some diagrams suspended against the
wall] illu-trstions of a few cases to which I wish to allude. The
first case to which I shall allude is the most ordiuary one.
It is one which very fr. quently occurs in the West of England.

[Diagram No. 1.]

Here you have the rocks themselves upon which the vegetable
soil rests stratified very nearly vertically (as represented in
Diagram No. 1); you have a pan r;, g, almost impervious to
water ; and upon that pan you have vegetable earth. Now,
instead of this soil requiring to be drained in the ordinary way,
the subsoil plough is, in fact, all that is wanted. If the line f/ </
be cut through by the subsoil plough or otherwise, at proper
intervals, the land will be drained by the percolation of the
water through the fissures of the rock. It must be recollected
that the plough must pass tranaveraely to the stratification.
You juat plough the subsoil, so as to break the pan; and if
my friend Mr. Kobert Smith were here, he would tell you that
a very considerable portion of Exmoor has been drained by
him in this manner. Where the upper surface of the nearly
vertically-stratified rock is too deep to be touched by the sub-
soil plough, the simple brcaking-up of its outcrop at suitable

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

9

depths and distances will often effect the same object. That
is the firat case. Another case is that of a hill of porous cha-

[Diagram No. 2].

racter, with a valley consistiug of clay, and the wafer con-
tinually running over the edge of the clay where it abuts upon
the gravel or other porous soil at the point F, as represented in
diagram No. 2. Now the plan of Elkington was simply to
make an outlet in the bottom of the valley, to cut towards the
hill, and at the proper point to bore down until he tapped the
porous soil ff. The water innmediately issued forth, the
level was reduced below the junction F, and the whole land be-
tween F and d was consequently laid dry. His great point was
to hit the porous gravel at the point b, as he might have
bored to any depth at d without any effect. By opera-
tions of this kind he often succeeded in laying dry
very considerable tracts of land. Take another case
diagram No. 3 represents a porous soil resting on clay.

[Diagram No. 3]

Here is a stratum of gravel or porous soil, resting
on clay. All the water which falls between the
points (/ and m issues at m, and makes the subjacent
land bej'ond m wet and swampy. A cutting at the point
d, simply into the clay, where there is an outfall, will cut
otF all the water between cf and d. If there be a porous
stratum below the clay, even without an outfall, the land
can be drained by cutting through the clay to the porous
subsoil, into which the vvater will empty itself. I believe
I could point to gentlemen in this room, who have adopted
this plan of proceeding in many instances. Many similar
cases of juxtaposition of porous and retentive soils, where
similar means may be made use of, will occur to every gen-
tleman present. We now come to general, ordinary drain-
age. And the first question which here presents itself is,
whether the drains ought to be on the greatest slant, or
horizontal, or at some angle between. I have here two dia-
grams which will serve to illustrate this point. Diagram No. 4

tally— that is to say, at right-angles to the fall of the hill.
Now it is quite clear that each of these drains only acts
in a horizontal direction. Each drain is acting separately
on a small piece of land : it cannot act upon the general
mass of the land below it. On the other hand, where there
is a drain running down the hill— that is, in the line ofquick-

[Uiagram No. 5.]

est descent — that drain will act upon the whole of the hill,
from the top to the bottom. So that it is perfectly clear
that you apply your labour and time and money to the
greatest advantage when you drain on the line of quickest
descent. There may, however, be some exceptional cases
where a deviation at some angle from the line of quickest
descent may, owing to local peculiarities, be necessary.
These cases cannot affect the general rule. These are
principles which I am attempting to lay down distinctly
for consideration. Of course they are open to discussion :
and I hope myself to obtain a great deal of information,
though I think that what I have said is for the most part
sufficiently simple. Another question to be considered is.
What should be the distance of the drains apart ? On this
point, I wish to illustrate that the different capillary attrac-
tion of various soils, and their rates of resistance to the
passage of a certain amount of water in a given time, must
be distinctly taken into account, not only in regulating the
depth of drains, but also their distance. This applies more
particularlj' to porous soils, which have a water-level more
or less near the surface. It does not equally appl}' to
those real clay or other retentive soils having no real
water-level, which, in fact, give no trace of water, even
when penetrated to the depth of fifty or one hundred

[Diagram No. 4.]
represents a section of a hill, with drains running horizon.

[Diagram No. 6.]

feet. In diagram No. 6, S represents the surface- soil, a a
the subsoil, d d the drains, and C C the water-bearing soil
beneath the drains. According to the varying degrees of
fineness of the particles of the soil, and consequently the
resistance to tlie passage of the water, so will the water
rise higher in the soil between the drains ; the water-
level in drained lauds not being a horizontal plane, but an
undulating or curved surface, the height of which, above
and between the drains, must vary according to the me-
chanical fineness and condition of the soil. The light line
passing the drains represents the water-level. From these
facts it would appear that the greater the distance of drains
apart, the higher will be the water-level between tliem ;
and that this ought to be taken into consideration by prac
tical men in tlieir practice of drainage, in respect to both
depth and distance. The amount of the resistance of differ-
ent soils to the passage of water in a given time has, in my
opinion, not yet been taken into sufficient account. In con-
tinuation ; I mentioned before that if the water came neiir

10

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the surface, and evaporated, it must produce cold. Well
now, gentlemen, suppose you had to drain a piece of land,
and this [pointing to the light line in the diagram] was the
water-level, where actual water existed as water, the land
woidd take up by capillary attraction many inches of
•water that would not run out of it afterwards. _ It is quite
clear that that would bring it within a certain distance
from the surface ; but it is equally clear that, if this water
comes too near the surface, and evaporates, it will produce
cold. The consideration of the proper depth of the
drains, then, appears to depend partly on the degree of
power of the soil to raise the v/ater beyond the water-
level ; and, in order that a soil may be a workable soil,
the consideration of the proper depth of the drains
must be determined with reference to the force which
the soil exerts in raising the water from be-
low, as well as to the resistance, in time, which it offers
to the passage of the water through it. _ Now there
13 one point of very considerable interest, the importance of
which has I thiuk been too much overlooked, viz., as to the
depth to which water will penetrate into the earth or soil.
Are there no limits either as to distance or time ? What
answer should we give to the question — " How far will water
penetrate into soils ?" Upon a careful consideration of this
question, I think that the following answer will, in terms
sufficiently simple, express a general law which governs all
cases : " Until the resistance to its downward passage equals
the pressure from ahove." If the soil be porous, the water
from above will pass down until it reaches the water-level ;
and when it reaches the water-level, it meets with opposition
and begins to rise. But where is the point in a clay-soil — a
homogeneous clay-soil — at which the water will issue ? We
cannot talk of a water-level in clays where no water can be
found, even at a depth of fifty or sixty feet. But some soils
like these are those precisely which most require draining
from surface-water. There is a depth in these soils beyond
which surface-water will not penetrate; and this depth
will vary with the varying fineness and tenacity of the soil.
These considerations ought, therefore, to exert their proper
influence on the art of the practical drainer. Let me here
observe that a vast variety of the soils which are called
by farmers clay-soils, are not clay-soils. If you show me a
soil which requires an admixture of forty or fifty per cent, of
sand before it will make a brick, I will admit that to be a clay-
aoil ; but when a soil will make a brick without any admixture
of sand, I cannot admit it to be a real clay-soil. The question
of drainage therefore, we see, in depth and distance, depends
on the fineness of the particles and pores of the soil ;
the amount of capillary attraction, and last, though not
least, the amount of resistance a soil offers to the
passage of a given quantity of water in a given time. Let
me here remark that one great element appears to me
to have been very much neglected in all discussions on
drainnge. I say this without intending any disparagement of
the admirable lectures which we have had on this question. I
mean that this element of time has not been sufficiently taken
into consideration. A friend of mine, who is present, has
tried some experiments for me, illustrating this subject. He
has got a clay on the top of one of his hilly farms, in which
he has sunk fifty feet without getting any water. At my re-
quest, some trial-holes five or six feet deep were sunk in this
clay, the upper rim of the holes being a little raised, to pre-
vent water entering directly at the surface. The object in
view was to find where and when the surface-water would
enter the pits, under rain- falls of different quantities. Under
these conditions it was found that, when there fell a large
amounts of rain in a short time, the water began to ooze into
the pits about one foot from the surface, the resistance to the
further passage of the water downwards being at that point
sufficient to prevent its further descent with sufficient rapidity.
On the other hand, when the rain-fall extended over a much
greater length of time, and was consequently more gradual,
the water was found to penetrate to the depth of two feet^
which was the lowest depth observed. I think a fair deduc-
tion from these experiments must be allowed by all to be,
that " the degree of resistance of a soil to the passage of a
given quantity of water in a given time ought to have its
proper mfluence in regulating both the depth and the distance
of drains." Another conclusion which I think we must
inevitably draw from these facts is, that the assertion that
deep drains always run the first ia not always correct. If this

clay-land had been drained at one foot depth and at two feet
depth, it is apparent that, under the condition of a rapid and
heavy fall of rain, the drain at one foot deep would have run
the first, and that, besides, a considerable quantity of water
would have also escaped by simply running over the surface of
the land into the nearest ditches. The effect of varying
amount of rain-fall in a given time is easily illustrated. I
have here a glass vessel filled with soil, having three apertures
— one near the bottom, one in the middle, and one some dis-
tance from the top. If I pour in water at such a rate that the
pores of the soil will permit it to percolate through them as
fast as I pour in, the water will descend to the bottom, will
then rise, and will issue from the lowest opening first. If I
pour in more water than the lowest aperture or drain can dis-
charge, the water will rise in the soil, and at length issues at
the middle drain. If I continue still to pour in an increasing
quantity, the water will rise to the top drain ; and all three
will discharge their respective quantities of water. If I now
discontinue pouring in water, you will observe that the upper
drain first ceases, then the middle one, and subsequently the
last [Experiment performed]. This is the ordinary state and
condition of porous soils. It is, however, as before stated,
different in those soils which offer greater resistance to the
passage of water through their pores. Even with this same
soil, in which you have seen the lower draiu run first, the fact
would be reveiaed if I were to pour iu water faster than the
soil could permit it to percolate. I will now pour iu the
water with some rapidity, when you will see the upper drain
run first [Experiment performed] (cheers). This last
case is strictly analogous to the results obtained by my
friend Mr. Hatfield, where he observed that the
heaviest rain issued at the shallowest depth. It is,
therefore, a question of the rapidity with which water
will percolate through the soil ; and I state it to be my deli-
berate opinion that, unless you pay sufficient attention to the
time wiiich water will occupy in going through the soil, you
cannot drain upon scientific principles. There is another point,
gentlemen, which I wish to introduce. It is one that I approach
with great diffidence ; but I must say that it is just possible
to have a mania for drainage, and it has often occurred to me
that in some cases it would be well if instead of further drain-
ing there were irrigation (Hear, hear). I would suggest that
there is such a thing as natural overdrainage ; that I have
seen such a thing, in such soils as the sands resting on
chalk, in the district between Bury St. Edmund's and Brandon
in Suffolk. Has there been no such thing as overdraining
artificially ? I would submit for the consideration of practical
farmers the inquiry, whether there be not many cases in which
the land of this country is drained too much. It is a well-
known fact — I cannot doubt that it is well-known to most
present — that if you have a piece of fallow land exposed to the
action of the atmosphere, and have another piece of land under
crop (say vetches or winter tares), when you come to plough
them up you will find the latter quite dry and hard, compared
with the former (Hear, hear). This difference is accounted for
by the fact that every leaf of the vetch has its little root or
tube with ramifications running downward into the soil, and
that all the moisture of the soil is brought up by the roots
to the surface, where it evaporates by the leaves of the plant.
This may perhaps account for the difficulty often experienced
in getting a good crop of turnips after tares. But does not
the evaporation from the leaf and the absorption likewise of
water by the roots of the plants, as in the case of grass and
meadow lands, seem to point to the necessity of more .vater
than in ordinary arable land ? And in the case of the con-
stant evaporation from grass-land by the leaves and roots,
may not the water level, without danger of injury from stag-
nant water, be allowed to approach a little nearer the suvface
than in arable-land ? It is the opinion of many practical men,
and I submit it to you with great diffidence, that some grass-
lands may have been over-drained — that the water has been
taken away too deeply from them. It is one thing to remove
an excess of water ; it is another thing to take away what is
necessary for crops ; and therefore any invariable depth — any
depth, that is, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, to be
observed in all cases, and in all varieties of soil — is, in my
judgment, founded in error (Hear, hear). Well, gentlemen, it
was not my intention to deliver a long lecture this evening, but
simply to present the points which I have laid before you. I
have spoken of the rate at which water will descend through
the soU. That ia a question which must be determined by

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

11

actual trial and expeviraent before you caa arrive at any con-
clusioD, either as to depth or as to distance. Time ia a most
important element, and ought not to be forgotten. Capillary
attraction is also most important. I leave it for your decision
whether in grass lands the veater may not be allowed to ap-
proach nearer the surface than iu arable land. I shall be hap-
py to learn from many gentlemen whom I see before me ; for
I know that they have had a great deal to do practically vvith
the art of draining. I have endeavoured to lay down certain
principles which appear to me to be correct, and without de-
taining the meeting longer, I now leave others to enlarge upon
the practice of draining (Cheers).

Mr. Mechi : What is your opinion vfith respect to dis-
tance in the case of stiff clays ?

Mr. Nesbit : I do not believe depth can ever fully com-
pensate for undue distance.

Mr. Mechi (of Tiptree) said : It was now ten years since he
first began to drain, and he had cut altogether, probably, a hun-
dred miles of drains, under the advice of Mr. Viall, a well-known
agriculturist in Suffolk. As they were no doubt aware, he had
at first made his drains 12 feet apart and 2 feet 8 inches deep,
and put stone at the bottom (for which his friend Mr. Pain
had laughed at him) and the pipes at the top. That was on
a very tenacious plastic yellow clay, almost like birdlime, with
a great deal of iron, but no lime. Subsequently he had
drained other lands to a considerable extent 4 and 5 feet deep,
at intervals varying from 23 to 50 feet, still on the same
kind of clay. After ten years' practical experience on that
land, his labourers were now able to form an opinion upon the
comparative value of the drainage; and they told him, and he
himself believed it from, his own observation, that they could
always plough easier and work with one or two harrowings
less ou land drained 12 feet apart and 2 feet 8 inches
deep, than ou land drained four or five feet deep at
wider distances. (Hear, hear.) He had taken the trouble
to cut across these draias occasionally, for the purpose of
noticing the action of the water, and he found that the
stones, which were put in in very small quantities, were per-
fectly clean, and the pipes were never called upon to
take in any water (a laugh). But, owing to ths ventila-
tion of that soil, or (o some circumstance which he could
not perfectly explaiE, there was an equality in the crops, and
an evenness in the jield, both on the furrows and the other
parts of the laud, that afforded uomistakeable evidence of
thorough drainage. Having read Mr. Parkes'a paper, and
feeling the jeers of some of his Bedfordshire friends, he was,
at one time, inclined to think that he had done wrong ;
but he was now convinced that the distance between the
drains was a most important element on these soils. He
wished to guard himself to that extent, because he had
drained on other soils of & more friable character six feet
deep, and there the drainage had been very different
from that on the yellow homogeneous soil, free
from lime, but containing a large quantity of iron, which
he had mentioned. True, the drainage cost £10 an acre ;
but even if it were more, it would have been very profitable
to him. Indeed, it had been profitable, as it was ; and to
this day he believed it was the best drainage he had ever
executed — an opinion which was not confined to himself,
but was shared in by all who had seen it. One subject
which Mr. Nesbit, in his able lecture, had not touched
upon, was the necessity for having open furrows on these
kinds of soils. His (Mr. Mechi's; experience, and that of
many others, was that during the winter open furrows were
of advantage, and acted occasionally as drains, although
the other drains might be running abundantly. In order
to test that point, he had left an acre in each field on the
flat ; the rest being the ordinary furrow, at seven feet apart.
Now, he was free to confess that, contrary to his own expec-
tations, when the land wasploughed a yearortwoafterwards,
he found that, where it had been laid on the flat, it was of
a more homogeneous and less friable character than where
the furrows existed (Hear, hear). He was there to speak
the truth, and not to advance any mere crotchet of his own ;
and he did believe that the ventilation of homogeneous
soils was a very important matter (Hear). He knew
practically, as a horticulturist, that, if he wanted to
grow roots or plants on such soils, he must take the ven-
tilation or circulation of the air below into account; and
he apprehended that the pipes which he placed on the
top of the stones had produced very beneficial results.

That fact, then, he commended to the consideration of
his friend Mr. Bennett (a laugh). When he drained
deeper on other soils, he did so for this reason — that he
was a tenant on part of the land, and was not sure how
long he might continue to be so : he therefore drained
four or five feet down in the strong clays, at inter-
vals of thirty, forty, and fifty feet apart. That drainage
had turned out to be very profitable, and the crcips were
feiy good, though he readily admitted that the land was
not in so satisfactory a condition as the land which he had
treated on the other method of twelve feet apart, and two
feet eight inches deep. With regard to spring drainage,
he had certainly some drains twelve feet deep ; and he
thought there could be no doubt that, on friable soils, they
must cut off" the spring at the lowest point, in order to pre-
vent the water from rising, and saturating the soil. He
would merely observe, in conclusion, that not to drain the
strong, tenacious clays, would be a most ruinous thing to
British agriculture,

Mr. R. Baker (of Writtle) congratulated the meeting
upon having had the subject treated in so purely scien-
tific a manner by Mr. Nesbit. Hitherto, when it had
occupied their attention in that room, professional drainers
had come there, and not unnaturally advocated the par-
ticular systems which they had found best adapted to
their own localities; but it had been the object of Mr.
Nesbit to instruct them as far as he could scienti-
fically, with regard to the principles on which drain-
age ought to be applied to various descriptions of soil.
Upon all occasions there seemed to have been a great
diversity of opinion on this subject. Some persons lived
in districts where there was a retentive soil on the
surface, and a porous soil below ; whilst others resided in
districts where the porous soil was above and the retentive
soil below. Of course, therefore, the process of drainage in
these localities would be extremely dissimilar. Nature had
so arranged it that in geological strata we constant!}- found
a porous surface with a retentive subsoil, or a retentive
surface with a porous subsoil; but neither continued for
any great depth without reaching the other. Tlius the
order of Nature was preserved, and sufficient moisture was
retained for the growth of vegetables for the use of man.
Now, the process of drainage must, as Mr. Nesbit said, vary
according to circumstances. Wherever there was a porous
subsoil continued from a valley to a hill the water would
always be endeavouring to escape upwards ; consequently, in
all such cases, the system of deep drainage must be pursued,
in order to intercept the water at the lowest point before it
reached the surface. That was one description of drainage.
Another description was that to which Mr. Mechi had re-
ferred. He (Mr. Baker) had had some experience in
drainage; but chiefly upon land where the retentive sub-
soil was near the surface, and he found that a certain depth
of drainage on a homogeneous clay, at suitable distances —
say 5 or 6 yards — was the most beneficial. He made his
rains 6 3'ards apart, and 30 inches deep ; and he was
engaged on one occasion in draining a field according to
this system, when the Ti7iies Commissioners paid him a
visit — their object being apparently rather to condemn than
approve of what they saw. When these gentleman entered
the field he was draining at a depth of 30 inches. One of
them asking him what he was doing. He replied, " Drain-
ing." " Oh, dear, no !" was the rejoinder, '"you are not
draining, nor making an attempt to drain."" He (Mr.
Baker) ventured to ask, " Why ?" " Because you are not
going deep enough. You should put in your drains 4 or o
feet deep, instead of 2^ feet deep." In answer to that, all
he (Mr. Bilker) said was, that if a hole were sunk in that
soil to the depth of 4 or 5 feet, and filled with water, there
was not a hydraulic machine in London that would force it
into the drain. Pie then made a drain 3 feet deep, and cut a
parallel drain exactly 1 yard from it, but leaving the parallel
without any opening except what it possessed nom percola-
tion. It wasfilled on Friday night, and on Monday it had
only sunk 1 foot, and_ the water was percolating from the
ditch in a manner which convinced him that ithad never
entered the pores of the subsoil. H e then proceeded to drain
the_rem.nining portion of this field. The largest part was
drained 3 feet deep, with pipes, and filled up" in the ordi-
nary way. _ Another portion was drained 4 feet deep ; a
third portion in that execrable mode which had been so

12

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

much condemned in Essex, of using wood and straw ; and
a fourth with a common mole-plough. There was the
field to this day, and he defied any person to tell where one
system was adopted, and where another.

Mr. Mechi : Did the crops show any difference ?
Mr. Baker never observed any difference in them.
With regard to the running of the lower drains first, of
which Mr. Nesbit had favoured them with some experi-
ments, he would observe that those experiments, though
nndoubtedly very interesting, proved nothing. Mr. Nes-
bit had adopted gravel for his purpose, and every one knew
that water would pass through gravel to any depth. In
fact, if they all had soils of that description, they would
never require any artificial drainage, for the land would
drain itself. The water would go down until it met with
resistance. Bj' capillary attraction the water would rise
to the soil above, and the result would be that the same
process would take place as Mr. Nesbit had exhibited with
his tube. Pie had no wish to contradict Mr. Nesbit, because
he was sure every one present felt indebted to him for the
able and scientific remarks he had addressed to them that
evening. (Hear, he^r. ) But he had constantly found that
theorj' did not constitute practice, nor did practice always
corroborate theory. Unless it could be shown that the
particular circumstances of the soil, the quality of the sub-
soil, the position of the drains, their depth and distance
apart, always corresponded, they could not arrive at any
correct conclusion. In fact, the circumstances attendant
on drainins operations were in no case ever alike. (Hear,
hear.) Mr. Mechi had certainly tried all the different sys-
tems. He first put stones below and the pipes at the top of the
drain, which many persons thought absurd. Some one had
told him that water would rise through the stones, be beauti-
fully filtrated, and pass through the pipes (laughter) ! He
then changed his plan, and drained in a manner that he had
not mentioned to-uight. The pipes were placed at the bottom
of the drains, and some of his neighbours on seeing them
expressed their doubts respecting the purpose for which
they had been put there, and imagined that as some of them
pointed upwards they were intended to catch the rain
(laughter) But he (Mr. Baker) had no desire to be too
hard upon his friend Mr. Mechi, who had certainly been a
very effective engineer, and contributed much towards
making the subject of drainage familiar to the British
farmer. His efforts had been attended with a great deal of
good, and although he might not have cut verykeenl}' him-
self, he had proved a capital whetstone for other men's
minds. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Mr. Nesbit had told
them, and he (Mr. Baker) wished them to adopt it as a
principle, that no depth of drain would compensate for dis-
tance.

Mr. Mechi : On certain soils.

Mr. Baker : If they were draining a retentive soil,
with a porous soil below, they could not go too deep, be-
cause the water had not the power to escape upwards. If
they were draining a thoroughly homogeneous soil, they
might depend upon it they would gain nothing bj' going
deep ; and provided they went deep enough to protect the
drain from injury, that was sufficient. As he had before re-
marked, different systems must be applied to different local-
ities ; the same method would not answer under all cir-
cumstances (Hear, hear). He himself had been draining
considerably during the present year, and had used Fow-
ler's plough for putting in the pipes. Upon that system he
had drained seventeen acres of land ; and he believed that
there was no other mode — not even the spade — by which
draining could be so effectually accomplished, for it notonlv
drained, but opened the soil. The drains worked remark-
ably well, and the pipes answered better than if they were
put in by hand. In saying this, lie merely gave that method
the meed of praise which was its duo ; and he would only
observe, in conclusion, that it would not do in these mat-
ters to rely too much upon theory. A theory might be very
good under one set of circumstances, but very bad under
another.

Mr. Mechi denied that any part of hia land had been re-
drained, or that he was expecting the water to rise up to
the pipes (laughter). He had simply used the pipes with a
view to ventilating the soil, and as the cheapest method of
preventing the yellow birdlime-like soil from sinking between
the stones. He wished to add that he h?.d draine very

deep on stiff clay soils. When he irrigated the land in
summer with liquid manure, he made the drains 5 feet deep,
and on these tenacious soils the drains ran from the effects
of irrigation at that depth.

A SIember : Have you ever drained at 5 feet?

Mr. Mechi had drained 40 acres 5 feet deep. In one
field the drains were 23 feet apart, in another 40, and
another 50. They all paid well, but the land did not look
so kindly, nor pay so well, as the other part.

Mr. Bailey Denton (of Stevenage) was s was sorry to
find that his friend Mr. Mechi was still wavering (a Voice:
" He is decided"). He could account for the circumstance,
however, when he recollected that he was comparing drains
at 50 feet intervals 5 feet deep, with drains at V2 feet inter-
vals and 2- feet 8 inches deep. Now, he should like Mr.
Mechi to inform him whether draining four or five feet deep,
at intervals of twelve or eighteen feet, would not have ame-
liorated the soil to the full depth of the drains and to an
equal extent with the less depth and the nearer intervals.
There might be excess in all things, and he thought that in
this case Mr. Mechi had run from one extreme to ano-
ther. He was sure he should not be charged with any
discourtesy if he said that there were several facts, or as-
sumed facts, contained in Mr. Nesbit's lecture, to which he
could not give his assent. He observed that that gentleman
had adopted the old trite illusion that there was no water
level in claj's ; and had also alluded to the case of a well of
which he had heard his friend Mr. Bullock Webster
speak before to-da3^ Mr. Nesbit said that water would
not accumulate in a well. Now the simple answer to this
was, that a well was a hole pierced in the soil, and could
only have any effect upon the space [immediately around it,
which was not sufficient to fill it. What was the object of
draining ? The perfect aeration of the soil. When the
soil had been uniformly aerated from one drain to another,
the water as regularl}'' descended — for this reason, that it
was ust 817 times heavier than the air which was displaced
by it. The level of the drains then became the level of
standing water. That was one of the principal points in
drainage, and it disposed at once of the illusion that a well
was any criterion of a water level. They knew from ob-
servation that deep drains ran before shallow in all cases
(A voice, " No, no.") Excuse him, he would repeat that deep
drains, under equal circumstances, always ran before shallow.

A Member. — Not on a clay soil.

Mr. B. Denton. — It was not mere assertion that would
decide the point ; and, if he had expressed himself decidedly
upon that subject, it was not from anj' dogmatic opinion of
his own, but because he was sure of the accuracy of what
he had said, as the result of a most minute and careful ex-
amination of the facts. Mr. Thompson, of Moat Hall, has
most beautifully and conclusively explained the cause of
deep drains running before shallow ones. Contradiction
would not dispose of the question. Truth must, in the end,
prevail ; and what he had stated was the truth. Another
point to which he would refer was the idea which had taken
possession of some miuds, with reference to Elkington's sys-
tem of drainage. That was a system which certainly had an
existence in the practise of Elkington,and a prize of £1,000
had been given to Elkington for its discovery ; but it had not
existed since (an expression of dissent). He repeated, that
both as to principle and system it had not practically existed
since Elkington's time. That might be regarded as a bold as-
sertion, but he waited to be informed that the principle had
been confirmed by subsequent practice. With regard to the
swallow-hole system, nothing could be more lazy than that,
except under peculiar circumstances. There were no doubt
cases of pans near the eartli's surface for which there was
no outlet. Of course in such cases they might adopt this
expedient; but rather than lay that down as a " system of
drainage," he would blot it out from the practice of agri-
culture. He could mention if necessary several instances
in Yorkshire, Hertfordshire, and other parts of England,
where the swallow-hole method had been adopted ; and if
it were possible to ride in a balloon over the land so treated,
they might in every case fix upon the particular places
where it had been applied. They were black spots upon
the earth's surface, regular scabs, owing to the non-existence
of anything like a proper outlet, and the consequent destruc-
tion of the surface crop. Mr. Nesbit had adopted a corru-
gated line as the lin? of water leyel on clay soils. He (Mr,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

i;

Denton) thouglit that gentleman had disputed the existence
of a water level altogether. That line, if it existed at all,
was simply attributable to the superior power of capillary
attraction ; there was no line of positive wetness on drained
land above the mean level of the drains. He believed that
if test holes were made in drained land, and left open for a
certain time, an atmospheric action took place on^the sides
of the holes, and an expansion of the soil, which prevented
the water from passing through. They must not, therefore,
take test holes as a criterion of drainage in all cases; al-
though on any other lands than clay no doubt they were so.

Mr. Mechi : Mr. Parkes made his test-holes with pipes
of clay around them.

Mr. Thomas (Lidlington) said that Mr, Nesbithad con-
trived to divest the subject of all empiricism, and shown,
as far as it could be shown, that no particular system of
drainage was suitable for all kinds of soils. It was much
to be regretted that rival drainers, whether professional or
amateur, could scarcely ever meet without declaring their
own plans to be absolutely perfect, and all others to be es-
sentially wrong (Hear, hear). Most of them had, no doubt,
read that interesting work, " The Adventures of Gil Bias,"
in which Dr, Sangrado laid it down that bleeding and co-
pious draughts of hot water were a certain specific and cure
for every sort of disease ; but Dr, Sangrado himself was
not a greater impostor than the man who contended that
" one particular system of drainage, atone uniform depth, was

applicable to all soils (Hear,hear, and laughter). The pre-
sent discussion seemed to tend to two practical conclusions,
both of great importance. One was, that no depth could
compensate in the case of homogeneous clays for too great a
distance between the drains (Hear, hear). The other, that
in the case of friable and springy soils they could hardly go
too deep (Hear, hear). In the case of springy soils at Lid-
lington, he (Ml-, Thomas) had gone down to a depth of
twelve and fourteen feet, but he did not maintain that depth
was necessary iu all cases. There was one point upon
which, as a practical man, he differed from the lecturer. It
was, that at all inclinations of the soil, the drains should be
taken up the steepest acclivity. Up to a certain angle that
was no doubt very good, but it was not of universal appli-
cation. He himself occupied a good deal of land on wet
and precipitate hills, and he was satisfied, by experiment,
that the system would not answer there. With regard to
the overdrainage of grass land, he had seen it done so often,
on so many hundreds of acres, that he could not help ex-
pressing his entire concurrence in what had been said upon
that subject by Mr, Nesbit. What they wanted was, that
the land should be sufficiently dry for the cattle, and at the
same time sufficiently moist for the production of grasses,
*^ and that object was not ahvays kept clearly in view. On

the whole, he thought they might safely arrive at the con-
clusion that it was impossible to lay down any known rule
in drainage as of general application to all soils (Hear,
hear),

Mr, Bullock Webster said it was only a few years
ago that he stated, as his opinion, that certain grass lands
might be oyer-drained; and when he did so, the Quarterly
Review declared that such a remark could only have ema-
nated from a hermit, brooding over his own ignorance, in
a garret in London (laughter) — that it was only such a
man who could entertain the idea that grass lands could be
over-drained ; now the discussion to-night showed this
idea was not entertained by himself onlj'. There can be
no doubt as to the importance of deep drainage for springs ;
and in porous subsoils, deep drains at wide intervals are
more economical and beneficial ; but that in the retentive
clay subsoils, not surcharged with underwater, he had
always taken a decided part in opposition to draining below
thirty-si.x to forty inches ; as these soils require drainage
for surftice water, and the object was to get rid of that
quickly. But he had hardly expected his friend Mr. Mechi
to admit in so straightforward a manner that his shallow
drains had answered best. He believed that the practice
of going deep in strong clay subsoils was only a waste of
money; and his friend Mr, Denton, who had advocated
that system for many years, now allowed that they could
not put their drains further apart in consequence of the
increased depth.

Mr. Denton : I never said that, I have always been of
opinion that depth does not compensate for distance.

Mr. Webster : Then to make the drains an extra foot
deep could not effect the slightest good. It was only to in-
cur extra expense, without any corresponding advantage.
After the many years' experience they had had, he was
sure there must be at least five hundred practical farmers
in p]ngland who were able to state whether or not a depth
of four or of three feet was best in the case of strong clay
soils. (A voice: More; there are five thousand). He
held, then, that they ought to come to a practical con-
clusion as to what was right in the case of these soils.
Every day's observation and experience increased his con-
viction that his own views were correct, and that evening's
discussion had afforded a most gratifying confirmation of
their accuracy,

Mr. Mechi asked how far apart Mr. Webster placed
his drains ?

Mr. Webster : The closer the better. I should like
them to be eighteen feet.

Mr. Hatfield, (of Euston, Stamford,) said that having
had some experience of draining upon retentive clay soils,
he should like to make one or two observations upon the
subject of that evening's discussion. Before commencing the
drains he dug a few trial holes of about five feet in depth ; he
covered them carefully, and watched when the rains fell for
the purpose of ascertaining at what depth the waters entered,
as a guide how he ought to drain hia land. Now he found
that whenever there was a continuous heavy fall of rain it would
enter the pits at one foot, but in a moderate fall of rain it
would enter the pits at a depth of two feet. He concluded,
therefore, that it was necessary to go sutBciently deep below
the two feet, in order to arrive at a method that would be ap-
plicable to all the circumstances of the soil. Adopting that
system as a standard for his drains, he went dowu thirty
inches, and afterwards increased the depth to thirty -six mches;
and for ten years he had found that thirty-six inches would
drain the land most effectually.

Mr. B. Webster : In what county do you farm ?

Mr. Hatfield : Northampton ; and the drains answered
admirably. But there was another point which entered into
the question of drainage, and that was the cost. He had
therefore made one description of drain in this manner : — He
cut a drain three feet deep, and nine inches in width at the top
and gradually tapering away to an inch-and-a-half at the
bottom. This he performed with tools made for the purpose.
The first spit was thrown on one side, the second on the op-
posite side, and the third on the same side as the first. The
second was then returned to fit the drain in the same manner
as the key-stone of an arch. In order to avoid the expense of
tiles, he put some thorns at the bottom, not for the purpose
of supporting the drain, but simply to intercept an escape of
mould. By this simple means he secured a most effective
drainage. The drains had now been in existence for eight
years, and were still in the most perfect condition. He men-
tioned these facta because he considered that they had au im-
portant Leariijg upon the question of expense, and showed
that there were cases in strong retentive clays in which laud
might be effectually drained without resorting to the use of
tiles,

Mr. Mechi : Is yours brick-earth or tile-earth ?

Mr. Hatfield : Brick-earth.

Mr. CoussMAKER, (of West wood, Guildford,) was glad
to find that there was one point at all events upon which
they were agreed, namelj', that no one system was gene-
rally applicable to all soils alike. He knew nothing about
springy, and little about porous soils ; but upon strong clay
soils his idea was, that the best system was that which got
rid of the water in the quickest manner, A moderate
depth, therefore, at as frequent intervals as convenient, was
what he considered best. He had no objection to increase
the depth — thej' would drain the soil perhaps equallv well
— supposing the expense of the operation was not an object,
but it was money thrown away to increase the depth beyond
a certain distance, or to suppose that bj- so doing they could
place the drains further apart. His practice had been to go
about seven yards apart and about thirtj' inches deep ; he
was glad to find Mr. JMcchi agreeing with him. With
regard to laying the land flat where the soil was com-
posed of clay, it was not desirable. He had seen the
system fail, and would on no account adopt it himself; as
the cultivation of the land could not in that case be per-
formed without considerable treading of the horses, which

14.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ought most carefully to be avoided ; but by laying ground
in 7i feet lands the horses could be confined entirely to the
furrows, also the land dried faster.

Mr. W. Bennett (Cambridge), after some experience in
draining various descriptions of laud, had arrived at coaclu-
siona similar to those of Mr. Nesbit. He was also pleased
with the observations of Mr. Mechi, on account of the frankness
with which they were spoken, and readily acknowledged the
services which that gentleman had rendered to the cause of
agriculture by his experiments in farming, and by directing
attention to masters which were of interest and importance
to the agricultural community (Hear, hear). He thought,
however, that his friend was certainly wrong in putting
gravel at the bottom of his drains and tiles at the top
(laughter). Upon the whole, he (Mr. Bennett) was of
opniion that they were likely to come to a safe conclusion to-
night; and that was, that upon strong clays it was useless
to go tremendous depths, involving au expenditure that
could never be repaid the farmer ; and that drains
varying from five to seven yards apart, with a mode-
rate depth, so as secure them from damage, say from
two-atid-s-half to three feet, were most desirable upon
retentive soils. He had farmed some of the strongest land
in Eujdland for a considerable portion of his life, and these
observations were the result of his experience. For his ow
part, he thought the club was much indebted to the profes-
sional drainers who had expressed their opinions to-night.
Although he could not go the " whole hog" with Mr. Denton,
yet the views of that gentleman well deserved consideration ;
and he could not doubt that the discussion would prove of
great service to the agricultural classes generally.

Mr. Trethewy (of Silsoe, Beds) said the subject had
taken exactly the turn that he expected it would take. Al-
though Mr. Nesbit gave notice that he would treat on the
mechanical and chemical principles connected with the soil,
the discussion very quietly diverj^ed into practice — a result
which might have been anticipated in the case of a meeting of
practical agriculturists. One great point which had occupied
their attention was the depth of drains. He did not himself
advocate either deep draining or shallow draining as a system,
but from what he had heard that evening, he supposed he
might infer that the shallow drainers were those who went
three feet deep and less, and the deep drainers those who
went further below the surface. Now, his idea of draining
was not only to get rid of the water, but also to act upon the
surface and the substance of the soil as much as possible. ( Hear,
hear.) In draining for corn lands and for grass lands there
were different objects to be kept in view. In the case of grass
lands they wanted to keep up a continuous verdure; but that
was not the case as regarded arable lands, and he maintained
that the latter required to be more drained than the former.
It was well known that the roots of wheat would descend to a
very great depth. He had never witnessed it himself, but he
had been told on good authority that the roots could some-
times be traced four feet below the surface. (A voice : " More
than that.") If the roots of the soil did really descend so
low, it should be made a great object in drainage to prepare
the soil for the sustenance of the wheat plant. He did n'jt
fully subscribe to the doctrine that depth did not at all depend
on distance. He held that it did depend on distance to a cer-
taia extent ; conceiving that if they went twelve yards apart
they must generally drain deeper than if they went only four
yards apart. Some remarks had been made about Elkington's
system ; such things looked very pretty in theory, but he
must declare that in his experience he had never been able to
hit upon the right mark. He remembered one instance in
particvdar in which he could not do that. There was a bog at
the bottom of a sandhill. On one side of the road was a wild
sandhill : immediately below it was a bog. He thought that if
he cut a very deep drain at the junction of the sandhill and
the bog, he should thereby cure the bog; but he did not. He
was obliged to go through the bog, in the direction of the
hill, and then he did cure it. He did not know whether
or not the geological strata in his district were similar to
the strata of districts in which Elkington's system was
said to have answered ; but this he did not know, that
he had tried that system three or four times, and was
determined that he would never try it again. (Hear, hear.)
Swallow-holes had been referred to. He held that in many
instauces it was impossible to do without them. No one could
suppose that swallow-holea were applicable to clay lands ; bnt '

there were certain descriptions of soil — for example, there
was a case near the Tetbury road, in the vicinity of Cirences-
ter— where by adopting that mode of proceeding you get rid of
au immense quantity of water at a very small expense; where-
as the obtaining an outfall in the usual manner would involve a
large expenditure.

Mr. Wood (of Ockley, Sussex) said he had the misfortune
to farm that description of soil which Mr. Nesbit regarded as
a bona fide clay, and he had expended a good deal of money in
draining land which required quite 50 per cent, of sand to
bring it into a fit state to make a brick. What Mr. Nesbit
had pointed out with respect to hilly land corresponded with
his own experience. If in putting a drain across the slope
you were to place it under a stratum of clay, you would catch
none ot the water ; whereas if you were to place it above,
you would catch all. The great difficulty was to find the exact
position ; and, therefore, by going down the slope and cutting
across, or through the strata, you generally would let off the
water in the most effectual manner. The discussion had turned
naturally more upon the practice than upon the mechanical
and chemical principles of draining. As regarded distance,
he certainly thought that in the description of soil of which
he had spoken, the deeper drains would carry wider than
shallow ones. He had found that in cases which, owing to a
hollow perhaps in the ground, he had not been able to go so
deep as in other places, the ground had not been made so dry.
He had drained at distances of one rod apart, and that was as
close as he felt justified in going, with the prospect of wheat
at 4O3. per qr.

A Member : What is your depth ?

Mr. Wood continued : When he commenced eight or ten
years ago, a depth of two feet was advocated by one party,
and a depth of four feet by another. Being of a prudent turn
of mind, he thought he would adopt the middle course, and
accordingly he adopted three feet (laughter). In cases iu which
he had to cross a flat, he had been prevented from going more
than two feet or even eighteen inches deep to preserve a fall,
and iu such cases he had always doubled the number of drains.

Mr. Mechi : You have not drained four feet.

Mr. Wood said he had done a little, but it was on grass
lands. He had learned from Mr. Nesbit and others, that
there are some beneficial results to be secured through the
passage of rain through the soil, and he was very much opposed
to carrying it away by means of surface furrows. Besides,
having had doubts about the best depths for his drains, he
had entertained doubts about the proper distances between
them. He did not find his land too well drained with the
drahis at a rod apart, that is 16^- feet. He found the soil wettest
farthest from the drains, and he also found that the wheat
above the drains and nearest to them looked the best. If his
drains were placed eighth feet apart the change would, he be-
lieved, be very beneficial to him. As regarded depth, if he could
go four feet at the same expense as three feet he should prefer
that depth.

Mr. W. SiiAAV (of Cotoa, Northampton) said, viewing the
question as a taoney question, he had no hesitation in saying
that three drains at four feet were more beneficial than four
drains at three feet. He wished to state that emphatically,
as his decided opinion in regard to depth.

Mr. John Parkinson (of Kuapthorpe, Notts) said he had
found, from experience with regard to drainage, that practice was
far more valuable than theory. He did not refer now to his own
practice; what he alluded to was draining done thirty years
ago by his predecessor. That drainage was under two feet six
inches deep. It was done at the time when tiles were first
introduced into Nottinghamshire. The person who put them
oa was very much laui^hed at, at the time, for burying his
money ; but he persevered) and his neighbours first became
convinced that he was right in the year 1829, when he and his
brother were the only persons in the district who had not a rotten
sheep. The land was a strong red clay ; the drains were put in
undei' the old furrows, tenacious as they were, about eighteen
or twenty inches deep, aud the lands having been gradually
levelled from the high ridges, the depth of the drains was
now about two feet six inches. That land was as well drained
as any land could be, even though it were drained four feet
deep. To illustrate this he might refer to an article, with
which they were no doubt all familiar, which had appeared in
the pages of the Koyal Agricultural Society's Journal, and
which was written by Mr. Milward. That gentleman stated
that he had drained a twelve-acre field, two feet, two and a-half

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

15

feet, and four feet. The outfalls of all the drains were visible,
so that anyone could at once see in which the rains v.hich had
fallen ran first ; and having been there frequently himself, he
could never perceive very much difference in poiut of speed
between the different drains. No doubt some diffeiecce
would be discovered on a careful eKamination, but he had not
perceived any. The effect of the drainage as a whole was
such that no one could tell where the shallow drainage was,
and where the deep drainage was — the soil was equally pro-
ductive ; and he concluded therefore, iu this case, that, as
shallow drainage involved the least espense, it v/as preferable
to deep drainage.

A Member : You have been speaking of grass lands only.

Mr. Parkinson continued : The land to which he had
been alluding was all ploughed land. He could tell Mr.
Denton of an instauce iu which Elkingtou's system of draining
had been put in operation within the last few years. There was
a large tract of boggy laud, the outbreak of Sherwood Forest
springs, which was attempted to be drained for a number of
years, in a great variety of ways, the attempts all failing, be-
cause those who made them could not get beneath the water.
Mr. Mildward happened to get hold of some land in the vicinity
which commanded this, though it did not appear at first to be
connected with it ; and when a drain had been opened there,
the water rushed out with great force, the result being that
the land in question was completely drained, on the Elkiugton
, system.

Mens. Trehonnais thought the practical coaclusion to be
arrived at, as the result of that evening's discussion, was —
that no one principle or system of drainage should be dogme-
tically proclaimed as applicable to all descriptions of lands
(Hear, hear). The value of the discussion arose chiefly from
the fact that those who took part in it represented different
parts of England, with all their differences of geological for-
mation and soil ; while he himself appeared there to represent
France in this matter. It could not fail to be advantageous
to elicit the opinions of practical men with rigard to the
drainage of the land with which they»had to deal. Mr. Wood
bad found that, iu the case of high lands, the beat course was
to lay the drain up-hill. His own practice was the reverse of
this. On his farm in France, he was engaged in extensive
draining operations on such land last winter, lie was obliged
to lay his drains perpendicularly to the dip ■ f the land, hav-
ing been taught by observation and experience that the other
practice would not prove satisfactory. Having devoted atten-
tion for some years to what he mii^ht term scientific drainage,
he contended that the aid of science was by no means to be
despised. Scientific principles like those laid down by Mr.
Nesbit were, in his opinion, very useful guides iu the prac-
tical operations of drainage. In this matter, as in many others,
^ what was especially needed was, a combination of science
with practice ; and this would, he believed, prevent a vast
amount of useless expenditure, and labour in vain.

Mr. Thomas (of Bletsoe) said : I would not trouble you at
this late hour after so much has been said ou the subject had
not my own experience (which has extended over a period ex-
ceeding twenty-five years) led me to a different conclusion from
that of several of the previous speakers, in regard to draining
stiff clays. I am of opinion that three feet is a depth suffi-
cient iu such lands ; a less depth would be liable to injury
from cart-wheels and other casualties. Diains four feet deep
would not be so effective in such soils placed at a greater dis-
tance apart ; and the advantages arising from drains of such
a depth would not compensate for the extra expense or cost.
However, on soils of a different character — for instance, mixed
soils, it would be desirable to go four feet, or even more ;
having myself drained such soils to the extent of five, and in a
few instances as much as six feet. It is, therefore, difficult to
lay down any system as a general rule; and I am glad to find
that my practical experience has been confirmed by much that
has been advanced by Mr. Nisbet on the subject.

Mr. [C. M. BiDWELL (Ely) said, having been present at
mapy discussions on the subject of drainage, he was very glad,
as a practical man, to see that the question of deep drainage
versus shallow drainage was being reduced to a very narrow com-
pass, namely, between three feet and three feet four inches, and
four feet. He thought they were nearly all progressing more and
more towards four feet. He had seen a great deal of draining
done at that depth, and he did not know a single instance
connected with strong clay lands in which experience was not
in favour of a depth of four feet. He had been over a farm in

Sussex that day, iu the neighbourhood of Mr. Wood's farm ;
»ud in that case the drainage was carried to the depth which
he had mentioned, and the result was highly satisfactory. He
hoped that in a few years they would all adopt a minimum
depth of four feet.

Mons. Trehonnais hoped he should be allowed to supply
an omission in the remarks v/hich had fallen from him. He
had intended to allude to the loss which the agriculturists
both of England and France had sustained in the lamented death
of the late Mr. Trimmer. (Hear, hear.) During a great part
of his life that gentleman bestowed more attention on the sub-
ject of drainage than almost any one in that room ; and he
thought he rightly interpreted the feelings of all the members
of that club when he said that they regretted the loss sus-
tained by geology end agriculture in the death of that distin-
guished man. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. C. Stokes (Kingston, Kegworth) had seen a good
deal of draining, and of the effects produced by draining in
the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby, and he
must testify that in the last five-and-twenty years there had
been a very great improvement there in that respect. When
they first began to drain in that part of the country, thirty or
forty years ago, they put tiles in the ground from 12 to 18
inches deep, and in a very few years this proved to be of no use.
Mr. Parkes' system 'was then introduced ; about six or seven
hundred acres were drained on this system, and he had not
seen a single case of failure. It was strong land, but not
entirely clay, there being a good deal of marl. He did not
know a single failure at a depth of four feet. When that system
was first adopted, there was hardly a person in the neighbour-
hood who did not laugh at it ; now no one scarcely drained at a
depth less than four feet. He was satisfied that it was a great
mistake to suppose that water would not percolate through
the soil at that depth. Let the air get into the land, by
making the drains, and that would make a way for the
water. He did not wish to find fault with what had
fallen from gentlemen who came from other parts of the
kiEgdom ; but as regarded that part of the country in which
he lived, he was convinced that no practice answered so well as
that which he had mentioned, (Hear, hear.) One word with
regard to what had been said by Mr. Thomas about the over
draining of grass lands. He fully admitted that for a year or
two grass lands might appear to have been orer-drained,
the water having been taken away which previously tended
to produce a coarse kind of grasses. The remedy for this,
however, was to put some manure on the land ; and when that
had been done judiciously, the advantage of draining would
soon be visible in the production of grasses of a better descrip-
tion. (Hear, hear.) A .friend of his, who drained some grass
lands soon afterwards, remarked to him that it was injured.
The next year he (Mr. Stokes) asked him if be still considered
it injured by draining. " Oh, no," was the reply ; " I never saw
finer grass laud iu my life." (Hear, hear.) If the draining of
grass land were followed by a proper application of manure,
the laud would soon come round again. In conclusion, he
would observe that they had not heurd any gentleman say that
evening, that having put his drain pipes four feet deep, he had
been compelled to pull them out again. On the other hand, he
had himself drained at a depth of two feet and a-half, and the
result was most unsatisfactory.

Mr. B. Denton could not help expressing his concurrence
in the remarks of Mons. Trehouuais, respecting the death of
Mr. Trimmer. He had beeu frequently opposed to Mr. Trimmer
in his views relating to drainage, but there was no man for
whose exertions and character he entertained a greater re-
spect.

Mr. G. H. Ramsay (Newcastle-on-Tyne) must express his
dissent from the notion which appeared to exist in the
minds of some practical, farmers that there was something like
opposition between practice and theory. He might point to
the most practical man in that room, and predicate of him,
that before he became a practical man, as regarded drainage,
he was to some extent a theorist (Hear, hear). He thought
it was high time to do away with the foolish distinction which
was often drawn between theory and practice. What they
had to aim at, in seeking perfection in drainage, was the proper
combinatiou of practice and theory (Hear, hear). They did
not ask Mr. Nesbit how they were to use a spade or to dig
their drains ; they looked to him for the enunciation of scien-
tific principles, and all they had to do was to consider the
general rules which he had laid down ; he was not so foolish

16

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

as to expect them implicitly to follow them under all circum-
stances (Hear, hear). If they began at practice without theory,
they would all find, ultimately, that they had begun at the
wrong end. There was one view of this question which he had
not heard that eveniug. The matter had been discussed as if
the faruiers drained all the land of the country ; whereas, in
fact, a great deal of draining was done by the owners of land.
If, indeed, a farmer had plenty of capital, there was uo reason
why he should not avail himself of it, under proper conditions,
to tffect the drainage of his land ; but they all knew very well
that, as regarded the country generally, landlords were called
upon to aid with their money in drainage operations as well as
in providing proper buildings on the farms (Hear, hear). This
was not, therefore, solely a farmer's question ; but he believed
that landlords in general were open to conviction, and that if
the work of drainage were slow, it would also be sure. He
congratulated the club on the inteiligeote which had been
displayed that evening in regard to drainage, and considered
the tone of the discussion an indication that the club would
continue to be— what it deserved to be— the leading agricul-
tural club of ^the kingdom (Hear, hear). There was one point
on which he wished to correct what appeared to him a mis-
apprehension. One or two gentlemen had talked of the sub-
soil as if there were everywhere a sheet of lead just below the
surface, which it was very difficult to break through. He did
not know how far the observation of others agreed with his
own ; but he must say he never saw, in his life, a field with a
uniform subsoil (Hear, hear). He never saw a field where the
subsoil did not vary in depth and quality. As regarded the
different systems of drainage, he would not pretend to say
which system was best. He did not think the shallow system
was the best, and he did not know that the deep one was the
best (laughter) ; but iu regard to that point he would
simply observe that anyone who was acquainted vfith the
science of geology would unite with him in declaring that a
subsoil was not the uniform sort of thing that some appeared
to imagine.

Mr. Marshall (of Riaeholrae) said, so far as his own ex-
perience enabled him to speak, he thought the ordinary drain-
age of land, where no great geological difficulties presented
themselves, a very plain, common-sense !^course of proceeding.
To lay the drains down the line of greatest descent;
to put them in at a minimum depth of four feet,
at a distance, varying according to the nature of
the subsoil, of seven to ten yards apart, would in all the cases
be had met with be found equal to any emergency. He had
reason to feel greatly obliged to Mr. Bailey Denton for his
assistance and advice in most of the draining he had carried
out ; and in confirmation of his (Mr. Marshall's) belief in deep
drainage, he had within the last two years taken up and other-
wise obhterated the entire drains upon two hundred acres of
land which he had lately become possessed of, which had been
put in up the furrows at a maximum depth of two feet six
inches, at a distance of five yards apart, but which had proved
utterly worthless as a means of drainage. He had since
re-drained the whole at a minimum depth of four feet, nine
yards apart, down the direct fall, across ridge and furrow, and
without reference to high-backed lands or other irregulari-
ties of any kind ; and he had good reason to be perfectly satis-
fied with what he had done. And he felt uo hesitation in re-
commending the same system to others, where a like descrip-
tion of soil presents itself. By a moderately strong jointy
clay, intermixed with very small sand-beds and an occasional
thin stratum of stone, varying in depth from one to three feet,
and v,lth uo water to contend with but surface water, this land
— from having been a wet, ungcnial clay, requiring three and
four horses to plough it — is now a dry strong loam, most satis-
factorily ploughed by two horses, and producing as fine crops
of turnips as can be seen anywhere, and without any diffi-
culty whatever in ordinary seasons as to eating them upon the
land. He would add that he had known others in his own im-
mediate neighbourhood who had taken up miles of shallow
drains, and replaced them by deep ones ; but he never yet
heard of any one who had ever taken up a deep drain and re-
placed it by a shallow one. His draining cost 653. per
acre, besides the pipes— say about 18,000, 1| inch, at 18s.
per thousand.

The Chairman said, after the very long discussion which
had taken place, he would not trouble them with many ob-
servations. He must, however, make one remark in confirma-
tion of the opinion expressed by Mr. Stokes, with respect to

the apparent injury sustained by grass-lands from draining
He quite agreed with that gentleman that the injury was more
apparent than real (Hear, hear). Of course, when grass-lands
had been drained, a certain amount of coarse herbage would
disappear, in consequence of the removal of the water. But
they must wait patiently till better and more nourishing
grasses took their place. That that operation would be as-
sisted by a good coat of dung there could be no question
(Hear, hear), but that Nature herself would perform the
work, if they only had patience, was equally clear. He had
seen this result iu the cases of grass-lauds which had been
drained by himself and others. With respect to the depth of
drains, he thought there could be no positive and invariable
rule ; but every person should, before he began to drain, try
to find out where the water was, and then make his drain of
the requisite depth (Hear, hear). His own opinion, however,
was decidedly in favour of deep drains ; and he believed that
where errors had been committed they had been more on the
side of shallow drains than of deep ones (Hear, hearj. He
would now call upon Mr. Nesbit to reply.

Mr. Nesbit said he had very little to say in reply to the
observations which had fallen from the various speakers. He
must confess that he had expected to meet with much more
opposition than he had done ; though all he contemplated
doing, in his opening address, was to state a few scientific
facts and principles relative to the nature of the soil. He an-
ticipated that he would be overwhelmed by the shallow-
drainers, but the principal attack had come from the deep-
drainers. He took neither one side of the question nor the
other; but he must say that he could hardly conceive any
person, who considered how great was the variety of soils to be
drained, maintaining that any oue uniform depth would answer
best universally. If there were any such person, he was cer-
tainly much stronger in self-will than he (Mr. Nesbit) was'
Mr. Baker made a remark with respect to the nature of the
experiments presented, which indicated that he scarcely un-
derstood their object. In the different specimens of soil which
he had exhibited, his design was to represent, in a few seconds,
what would probably take place on their farms in several days.
He was very much astonished that Mr. Bailey Denton appeared
never to have heard that a shallow drain would sometimes
run before a deep one. He had a work of Mr. Denton's in his
hand, which he had carefully studied, and which contained a re-
ference to Lord Wharncliffe's system of drainage. It was stated
that Lord Wharncliffe having drained four feet deep, and this
not having been found to answer, he then put shallow between
deep drains, and that did answer. Again, the following is an ex-
tract fromaletterof Lord Fortescue tohissonin reference to the
same point : — " I may here mention that the people on our two
farms say that they constantly find the two-feet drains dry
after continuous dry weather ; but that after heavy rains they
seem to discharge much more water, in proportion to their
length, than the four-feet drains, which seem to be compara-
tively little influenced by change of weather." All this was
taken from Mr. Denton's own book, and he might cite other
passages to the same effect. The ouly other observations
which he wished to make had reference to the amount of rain-
fall That must, of course, have a distinct influence on the
depth and distances of drains.

Mr. Nesbit then exhibited a rain-gauge of very simple
character, and explained to the meeting the manner in which
it might be used, adding that the cost of such a useful instru-
ment was only 123. 6d. They could be obtained from Mr.
Casella, of Hatton Garden.

On the motion of the Rev. Mr. James, seconded by Mr.
Thomas, of Bletsoe, the following resolution was unanimously
adopted —

" That in draining land, no depths of the drains can com-
pensate for too great width of the intervals— that porous soils
should be drained at depths and intervals suitable to their re-
spective characters — but that retentive clays require drains at
more moderate depths and distances."

Mr. Nesbit moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, ob-
serving that they had never had a better chairman since the
club was established (cheers).

The motion was seconded by Mr. Ramsay, and carried by
acclamation.

On the motion of Mr. Payne, seconded by Mr. Bullock
Webster, a vote of thanks was given to Mr. Nesbit for his able
introductory lecture ; and with this terminated the proceedings
of the evening.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

17

THE TRADE IN THE HORNS OF ANIMALS.

The trade in animal products of a miscellaneous
character is a much larger one than is generally sup-
posed. There ai'e several of the minor products
dealt in, which offer an interesting field for inquiry, and
for collecting the scattered data which can alone serve
to furnish an approximate idea of the aggregate value
and importance of the trade considered in a mercantile
and a manufacturing point of view.

The horns of animals, for instance, wild and domestic,
may seem of a very secondary importance, and yet the
trade in them, home and foreign, rises to a very
respectable position in the statistical returns. Indeed,
the rights and privileges of the hornworkers and horn-
pressers have in vai-ious reigns occupied the prominent
attention of the Legislature. But there is no fear in the
present day " of the trade being ruined, and the busi-
ness lost to the nation," as was the cry when the statutes
6 Edward IV. c. 8, and 7 James I. c. 14 were passed,
forbidding the sale of horns to foreigners, and prohi-
biting the export of unwrought horns. We not only
use up our own large home supply of horns, but
import on the average fully as many more, namely,
about 3,500 tons per annum.

While many of the former uses of horn for glazing pur-
poses, for drinking-cups, for hornbooks, and for the
sounding instruments of the bold forester, have
passed away, other and more elegant and varied ap-
plications have been found for this plastic material,
insomuch that the trade Directories show us half-a-
dozen or more workers in horn, forming separate and
distinct classes of the trade.

Large as the present use of horns and hoofs is, we
believe that many further manufacturing purposes may
be found for them, and that they will become even still
more important than they now are in a commei'cial
point of view.

Although the largest trade application of horn is for
knife-handles, combs, and umbrella tops, still the
other uses are also extensive, and as numerous as the
varieties of horn which come into the market, or
bristle on the head of the animals characterized by
this frontal appendage. Ox, buffalo, and deer horns
are those mostly worked up ; but the horn of the rhi-
noceros, ram, and some few other animals, are also em-
ployed to a limited extent. For the spiral tube of the
antelope, little or no commercial use seems yet to have
been found.

The study of the composition, formation, and growth
of horn is an interesting one, and well deserving of
careful investigation, in view of the manufacturing pur-
poses to which this substance may be applied. In com-
mon parlance, any hard body projecting from the head,
terminating in a free, unopposed point, and sei-viceable
as a weapon, is called a " horn." But the composition
of these differ materially. Professor Owen well ob-
serves, " Even the weapons to which the term ' horn'
is properly or technically applied consist of very dif-
ferent substances, and belong to two organic systems,
as distinct from each other as both are from the teeth.
Thus the horns of deer consist of bone, and are pro-
cesses of the frontal bone ; those of the giraffe are in-
dependent bones or 'epiphyses,' covered by hairy skin;
those of oxen, sheep, and antelopes are 'apophyses' of
the frontal bone, covered by the corium, and by a
sheath of true horny material; those of the prong-
horned antelope consist at their basis of bony processes,

covered by hairy skin, and are covered by horny
sheaths in the rest of their extent. They thus combine
the character of those of the giraffe and ordinary an-
telope, together with the expanded and branched form
of the antlers of deer. Only the horns of the rhinoceros
are composed wholly of horny matter, and this is dis-
posed in longitudinal fibres; so that the horn seems
rather to consist of coarse bristles compactly matted
together in the form of a more or less elongated sub-
compressed cone."

The horn of the rhinoceros, like its skin, when po-
lished and in thin layers, is as transparent and mottled
as tortoiseshell. These horns are often obtained 2 feet
long, and 10 inches in diameter. In India they have the
reputation among the Mohammedans of being an an-
tidote to poison; and in older times they were the
fashionable scent and oil-bottles of the Roman dames.

It is commonly believed that the horns of the ox
acquire an additional I'ing every year after the third,
but the addition of annuli is far from being annual in
other species. Many rings are gained irl one year's
growth of the ram's horns, and in those of the ring-
horned antelope. The length of the horn forms a
distinguishing characteristic in some breeds of cattle ;
but whatever improvements may have been effected in
the form and character of the carcase, by the modifi-
cation of food and habits, it does not appear that we
have been able to superinduce any improvement or
alteration in the size or texture of the horns. Indeed,
the horns of the wild animals would seem to be more
prominent than in the domesticated races.

The immense horns of the African or Cape buffalo, of
the Java buffalo, and the Arnee buffalo of India, are the
most valuable, and the extent of the trade in this class of
horns may be estimated from the fact that about one
million buffalo horns were shipped from the port of
Madras last year. As we derive two-thirds of our
foreign supply of horns from the East Indies, it is not
improbable that the existing disturbances may cause a
deficiency in the shipments thence, owing to the inter-
ruption of internal communication, and the withdrawal
of large masses of the population from their ordinary
peaceful occupation of collecting and bringing in the
horns to the mercantile houses.

South America (chiefly Brazil and the Argentine
Republic) furnishes us with a considerable quantity of
ox horns, and we also receive several hundred tons a
year from the United States. For buffalo and stag
horns we are mainly dependent on India : of the former
we import fully 1,400 tons per annum. Averaging
these at 1,400 horns to the ton, this would show a
mortality of a million buffaloes a year, besides what
may be locally used up, or sent to America and the
European ports. Of deer horns the Sheffield cutlers
and others work up about 400 tons, chiefly derived
from Ceylon and the peninsula of India. The " fall"
from at least 300,000 head of deer is requii'ed to
supply this quantity.

Of the aggregate annual quantity of horns entering
the market, estimated at 6,400 tons, about one-fifth is
manufactured into combs, valued at from ib300,000 to
£400,000 ; a large quantity is worked up into knife
and cutlass handles ; while there are many other mis-
cellaneous uses, in shoe horns, scoops, drinking horns,
&c. The waste pieces of stag horn are boiled for size
in the cloth-maldng districts; and the pith or slough
of other horns and hoofs is crushed for tillage, when

18

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

light, and thus fit. The heavier portion is converted into
prussiate of potash and Prussian blue, of which about
10 tons are made jveekly in Sheffield from tlie waste
products.

Tlie hoofs of cattle, being composed of the same ma-
terial as horn, are used for manufacturing purposes to a
small extent ; and besides our home supply, we impoit
about £4,000 to ^^''fljOOO in value. They are pressed
out into combs and horn buttons; but the greater part
finds its way to the boilers of the glue maker, and to
the manufactory of the chemist, who work them up,
with other animal refuse, into prussiates.

As a fertilizer, horn cuttings and shavings are very
useful when they can be obtained in any quantity.

The composition of stag horn most resembles bone,
while the horns of black contain fully 90 per cent, of
albuminous matter. It is difficult to estimate what
quantity of the horns used up in manufactures, or of
the slaughtered animals, are returned to the soil in the
shape of manure, in common with the numerous other
animal and vegetable products. Mr. Braithwaite
Poole, in his Statistics of British Commerce, calculates
that the animal manures used yearly amount to about
ninety miljiou tons, besides fat, blood, garbage, &c,

MODES OF ENTERING AND QUITTING FARMS, WITH
SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT.

[a paper read by MR. ROBERT BAKER, OF WRITTLE, TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FARINGDON
BOOK SOCIETY, ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 ST, LORD BARRINGTON IN THE CHAIR; LORD RADNOR
AND ABOUT A HUNDRED OTHER GENTLEMEN BEING PRESENT.]

The growing importance of agriculture, and tlie rapid
strides it has of late made, demand our utmost con-
sideration ; 'for when we consider that with a limited
area we have a largely increasing population augmenting
yearly, it becomes a subject of the greatest national im-
portance to ascertain to what extent the ordinary modes
in operation for the production of bread-corn and meat
are beneficial, and more especially whether the present
system of tenure is the best calculated to attain that
desirable object ; for, as Adam Smith asserts what few
will be disposed to attempt to disprove, that " Labour is
wealth, "thus it requires no laboured argument to
prove that the large amount paid annually for wheat
might be saved to the country, at any rate to such an
extent as we by increased exertions and application of
means might be able to effect it ; and as the enterprise
and energy of the British farmer can be sufficiently
estimated, it will be well rext to inquire what other
obstacles exist to retard it ; and, upon a due consider-
ation of the subject, to point out a remedy so far as it
may appear requisite for the accomplishment of such
purpose.

As it will be of too extensive a character, upon an
occasion like the present, to attempt an investigation of
the question in all its bearings, ard as the discussion (f
this evening is appointed for that portion only which
relates to the customs existing in different portions of
the kingdom, upon the change of tenancy of farms, as
well as upon what period of the year is most suitable, I
shall at once discard any elaborate investigation of the
customs now prevailing throughout this kingdom, but
proceed at ouce to investigate the subject^ upon its
broad principle, with a view rather to show which really
ought to prevail, than to discuss the anomalous con-
ditions that at present exist, the remains now of a
period long passed away, and at the present tim.e totally
inadequate to the advanced requirements of the age.

If we endeavour to trace back to a very distant period,
we shall find that the first tenants rendered payment of
rent to the lords of the soil, for the most part, in labour
or in kind. Most of the college leases, even to the
present day, retain many of the conditions that existed
centuries before our time ; still receiving their rents in
grain, malt, and money, or having the amount of rent
upon the average prices of corn and malt for the year
current to which they apply. In process of time lents
became entirely paid in money; and corn leases for
terms of years have become so modified, as to meet the
fluctuations that arise in the value of produce. This

system has been attended with the most beneficial
results, as it has enabled landlords to demise their
estates for terms of years, without a liability of becom-
ing seriously injured in case the price of wheat and
grain, from unforeseen circumstances, should rise to
higher prices than had been contemplated. It enables a
tenant also to take land upon like tenure, with a cer-
tainty of continuance as tenant under circumstances of
depression in. the prices of corn, inasmuch as his rent
will fluctuate in amount proportionally with the prices
he obtains ; and thus his rent will at all times more
truly represent the value of land, in relation to the value
of produce, than by any fixed money payment that
could be devised.

At a subsequent period it was found necessary to
establish a principle to protect the landlord from being
seriously injured by the ignorance or wilfulness of a bad
tenant; and the ancient law, based upon antecedent
customs, afterwards became modified as the advancing
progress of the age required.

In our time, however, such has not been the case.
The old law prevails to such an extent as to become in-
jurious to an improving tenant, whilst it has not suffi-
ciently restrained a bad one. Conditions in leases,
there'ore, have more or less been resorted to, as the only
means of defining what custom had failed doing, and
thereby fixing the mode of cultivation to be pursued,
and determining the mode of entering upon and quitting
of farms.

In the first instance the custom was to fix the mode
of entering in such manner that the largest amount of
payment miglit be exacted from the tenant by valuation,
upon his entering upon the farm. This was done
mainly for the purpose of insuring an amount of capital
to be paid down, v^bich, from the nature of the invest-
ment, could not be extracted by the tenant until at the
immediate time of his quitting the occupation, thereby
securing the rent to the landlord to the amount of claim
that the tenant would have upon the farm at quitting.
This system, however, carried its own result to the end of
the term: it was, in fact, equivalent to depriving the tenant
of the capital he embarked throughout his entire lease,
and thus depriving him of any advantages, either by re-
turn of interest or by the application of the capital to
the improvement of the soil.

It was obvious, however, then, as at the present time,
that the farmer ought to be protected from waste, more
eppecially by the tenant selling off the buy and straw
without consuming it by horses or cattle, and without

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

19

bringing on any equivalent in manure ; and as the latter
could not be formerly obtained to a sufficient extent to
maintain the farm in good heart, a direct prohibition
through the term to the selling any portion became the
necessary and established custom of the kingdom, with
partial exceptions only, where farms also were situated
near large towns, when the tenants were allowed to sell
wheat straw and hay, upon bringing back upon the farm
an equivalent in purchased manure. This, by degrees,
has become in many instances a pernicious custom upon
estates. The tenants, from having paid the market
value of the wheat straw and hay upon entering, also
claim it upon quitting their respective farms. In other
cases, and upon custom widely extended, the outgoing
tenant is allowed the bite, or foddering, as it is termed,
of the straw or hay, or is paid the value of such bite or
foddering value by the incoming tenant, either at
its money value, as estimated upon half the amount of
marketable value, or by the outgoing tenant paying the
expense of thrashing out the crop and carting the grain
to a distance of ten miles, as the equivalent of such
foddering value.

This mode appears a very rational one, and is, per-
haps, the best hitherto propounded, as it enables the in-
coming tenant at once to take entire possession of the
farm, and to turn the straw and hay to the best account,
as well as enabling the outgoing tenant to proceed at
once to his new occupation upon the same conditions.

The next consideration will be the manure, which, in
all cases, ought to be left for the landlord, or his repre-
sentative (the incoming tenant), by valuation, including
also the expense incurred by the outgoing tenant in
throwing it into heaps, or carting it out to its final
destination for direct incorporation with the soil, or in
heaps for subsequent application.

The next item usually paid for, and witli due reason,
is the amoaat of labour bestowed upon the land under
tillage for the production of green cattle crops, or for the
purpose only of cleaning and fallowing and draining; the
land. These heads premised, I shall at once proceed to
show their various bearings, and to point out how fur
they become beneficial, as well as to discuss those points
bearing immediately upon the question under notice for
this evening's discussion.

In pursuing the subject, I consider it the best mode
at once to assume that the estate is in hand, and un-
shackled by any previous fixed customs interfering with
the system to be propounded in what I shall have in
continuation to offer ; and, therefore, discarding all
other modes of entry and occupation, many of which
are notorious for their defects, I shall, ia discussing the
subject, endeavour to simplify the mode of entering and
quitting farms, thus keeping the principle I adverted to
in the outset, of not charging the tenant with un-
necessary payments, so far as can consistently be
avoided without damaging the landlord, or preventing
him resuming the occupation of his estate without diffi-
culty or constraint.

My chief aim will be to show hov? far a system may
be applied, so as to leave the capital of the tenant un-
fettered, but also to secure a continuous improvement
of an estate, in place of those customs that secure it
only up to a certain period of an occupation, and, after-
wards, as it approaches its termination, allow it to
become yearly withdrawn by the tenant — so mucli so,
that, by the time of its closing, all the capital he had
first invested in improving the farm becomes withdrawn,
so that at the last it is frequently reduced to a worse
position, as regards its state of cultivation, than it was
found in at the time of entry upon the occupation. To
obtain a desirable result of the nature I have pro-
pounded, I confess many obstacles present themselves ;
the customs that have prevailed upon estates being diffi-
cult to supersede, although those customs, for the most

part, do not secure any object either desirable or bene-
ficial, but, having for many years been practised, have
become as it were rent-charges upon the estate to which
they apply, payable every time a farm is transferred
from tenant to tenant in perpetuity, and almost as diffi-
cult to be got rid of as even the tithe rent-charge itself,
or parochial charges of any other description, unless by
way of purchase at their estimated values. Whenever
such payments extend to many subjects, so as to swell
the amount of valuation beyond an ordinary and neces-
sary amount, they become a severe tax upon the in-
coming tenant ; and when they appertain to the value of
the manure, through two or three years, in the shape of
dressings, half-dressings, &c., as well as to rent, rates,
tithe rent-charge, or parish and national rates, they
uselessly swell the amount of the valuations, to the great
injury of the tenants, who thereby become deprived of
the benefit of the capital so invested throughout the
whole period of their term or yearly occupation, as well
as inflicting upon the landlord a very heavy charge in
perpetuity upon his estate, and occasioning him great in-
convenience whenever his farms again may chance to fall
into his hands.

To obviate these evils on the one hand, and to secure
the continuance of good farming to the end of the lease
on the other, will occupy my attention in the task I
have now undertaken ; I therefore must crave your in-
dulgence, and, although I may only partially succeed, I
shall probably advance suggestions that more able and
talented individuals will hereafter turn to better account,
and which at some future period may obtain that de-
gree of perfection which at my advanced period of life
I can hardly expect myself to attain.

I will now proceed to investigate the period best
adapted for the change of tenancy upon farms, the usual
periods being New Michaelmas and Lady-day ; and
wherever the occupation consists principally of arable
land, no doubt can exist that Michaelmas is the time
most beneficial to both incoming and outgoing tenant,
as it is the climax of the year's proceedings on the one
hand and their commencement on the other, and with
certain modifications may be made fully to embrace
every object desirable for an outgoing and an incoming
tenant to attain. In some districts, however, the harvest
cannot be concluded by that period. In such cases the
occupation must partly be retained and partly given up,
still considering the quarterly day of New Michaelmas
as the one best suited for the commencement of the
year's tenancy, as well as for carrying on the necessary
work upon the farm. I would premise, however, that
the incoming tenant should have possession of those
portions of the farm from which the grain crops have
been cleared at an earlier day, and as soon as he may
require them after they have been so cleared, and which
should be allowed from one week after such clearing.

We will at once suppose that the landlord, being
desirous to assist the incoming tenant, commences by
allowing him, without prejudice, to take possession
of such portions of the farm, for the purpose of fallow-
ing, putting-in vetches or rye, or preparing for root
crops, immediately aiier the fields have been cleared, due
time being allowed for feeding them with sheep and
swine — say fourteen days at furthest — from the time of
clearing. He should also allow him to plough and till
the fallowed land, if the tenant is desirous of doing so,
and he declines himself further to do so at the time re-
quired ; in fact, a virtual possession should be allowed
upon portions of the farm previous to Michaelmas day,
after the preceding crops have been removed.

At or previous to Michaelma-sday the valuation should
be made, and which valuation should include all acts of
husbandry executed by the outgoing tenant, of which he
may not have derived any benefit, and from which be
may only have derived a benefit in part,

c 3

20

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

In the first place, the necessary ploughings and till-
ages given to land since the preceding Michaelmas, when
a green crop has not been taken. This portion of the
valuation will include the ploughings and tillings of all
lands considered as fallows, or producing green crops,
as tares, rye, and such crops as are consumed by cattle
during the preceding summer, and of all land prepared
for the growth of roots, as mangel wurzel, Swede and
common turnips, rape, cabbages, and crops of a like
description. The course of cultivation of these crops,
in addition to the ploughings and tillings as before
stated, must be estimated and paid for at a such a sum
as they may be valued at, without reference to the value
of the crops, unless any defective management has pro-
duced such a result, and which must be determined by
the valuers appointed.

In the next place, the manure ought to be valued at
what it may be worth, taking the expenditure for oil-
cake and corn in the preceding year into consideration,
a fair proportion of such corn or oil-cake to be allowed
over and above the ordinary value of the dung, to the
extent of one-fifth of the entire cost only, upon proper
vouchers being produced of its having been consumed
upon the farm from the preceding Michaelmas, and to
insure good cultivation to the last an allowance upon
the oil-cake consumed the preceding year to the extent
of twenty per cent., in my opinion, oxght to be allowed.
We have not treated of manure produced by ex-
traordinary means, and it remains only to show that the
ordinary manure produced upon the farm, and not ap-
plied to the production of grain crops, should or should
not be paid for, together with the labour of carrying out
and preparing, as well as carting and spreading upon the
land , be paid for according to its value, which must depend
upon the number of cattle and horses kept upon it, and
the description of food upon which they have been fed ;
in no instance, however, should any manure be paid for
unless made since the preceding Michaelmas, so in fact
that the manure only of one year should in any case be
valued, nor any portion be valued if a grain crop had
been since taken from the land to which it had been
applied.

"We now come to an important item — the straw and
hay of the previous year's crop. As regards the former,
it ought to be considered as the property of the land-
lord, and not removable from the estate at the expira-
tion of the term ; the tenant having an iuterest therein
by feeding it, and for which he ought to be compensated.
Thus in many counties is it computed by the cost of
thrashing and carting out the crop, the former being
paid for by the incoming tenant, at such a sum per qr.
as the valuers may agree upon, the incoming tenant
carting out the grain a distance not exceeding ten miles
in addition : in other cases the wheat straw being esti-
mated at per ton, at its market value at the barn, half
that price is jiaid ; barley being taken at two-thirds ;
and oats, if well harvested, at three' fourths ofthe value 3
beans and peas at half that amount. Supposing, there-
fore, that the wheat straw is worth 24s. per ton, 12s.
would be paid as the feeding value ; barley at two-
thirds, or 8s. ; oats at 9s. ; and beans and peas at 6s. :
if measured by the quarter, say wheat thrashing 2s. 6d.
and carrying Is. per quarter, this at four quarters per
acre will be 14s. ; barley, at 2s. 6d. and carting 8d., at
five quarters, lis. 8d. ; beans, four quarters, at Is. 6d.
and carting Is., 10s. per acre, and so on. This is one
of the most ready modes of settling, and is very fair, as
the incoming tenant, having the horses upon the farm,
is enabled to carry out the corn without much incon-
venience.

The hay is the next consideration. The market
value being found, one-third is deducted to meet the
cost of marketing and carting out, and bringing back a

suitable quantity of manure if sold, an allowance of one-
third partly meeting the question.

These items will be found to comprise all the subjects
that ought fairly to be valued, and which constitute the
ordinary valuation. To provide for the well-cultivation
of the farm to the end of the term, permanent improve-
ments, carried out during the preceding four years,
ought to be allowed and paid for. Draining, if done by
the tenant within that period, should be paid for to half
the cost ; and so of any like permanent improvement,
such as would extend throughout an entire term of four-
teen years. It would, however, not be desirable to
burden the landlord, on the one hand, with too heavy
payments of this nature; but the tenant should, not-
withstanding, be partly compensated by way of induce-
ment to proceed, so that, either event occurring of quit-
ting or continuing the occupation of the farm, he may
be placed in such a position that the least possible loss
should accrue to himself or to the farmer.

I believe I have now adverted to the principal items
ordinarily coming under valuation, and I propose, in an
appendix, to show how such valuation would be best
carried out, and the proportion per acre that they would
carry out upon the entire farm ; and it has been my study
not to increase the amount of valuation beyond the
actual necessity of the case, at the same time paying to
such an extent as to insure equable cultivation to the end
ofthe term.

It has happened throughout my practice to observe
that tenants, farming under leases, for the most part make
a large investment in the soil at first, which they
gradually exhaust as they approach the termination of
the lease. Now, it must be apparent to every one con-
nected with farm management, that a farm ought to con-
tinuously advance in improvement ; and, under due
restrictions and a well-defined lease or custom, such
would be the case. But tenants are too apt to imagine
that in such event their rents would be advanced, inas-
much as the improvement remaining would be a suf-
ficient inducement for a stranger to give an advanced
rent in consequence. This certainly ought to be ob-
viated to some extent by the mode I have recommended,
and which applies only to the termination of the lease ;
but the restrictive covenants of the latter frequently de-
prive the tenant of the advantages he ought to derive
under good management. I will now consider what the
nature of such covenants ought to be, to insure it. It is
advisable in all tcases that a lease should exist : the
mere custom of a district is never sufficiently defined to
admit of an occupation being carried throughout to the
close in a satisfactory manner. But a lease for a long
term is to some extent an unsatisfactory bargain. The
landlord might suS'er by parting with his estate for the
period stipulated ; prices might so alter as to render it a
bad bargain, either for one party or the other : to obviate
this, the rent should be subjected to a rise and fall in
amount annually to meet the occasion. A corn rent,
however, depending entirely upon the price of wheat or
grain, would in many cases not operate beneficially.
Grain might fall so low from the peculiar circum-
stances of season, blight, or other causes, as to mate-
rially affect the income of the landlord ; whilst at other
times it might rise so high as to affect the tenant in
like manner, by calling upon him to pay a greatly in-
creased amount of rent at a time probably |when he did
not derive a proportionate advance in his produce. In
a work lately published, entitled " Bayldon on Valuing
Rents and Tillages," as editor I treated upon this sub-
ject, and advanced in principle what in my experience I
had found to work well, viz., to pay a moiety of the en-
tire rental in money, and the other moiety to be depen-
dent upon the price of grain. By this arrangement the
fluctuation would be lessened, and neither party become

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

21

seriously affected. Another mode has been adopted, and
is equally to be recommended, viz., assuming the amount
of rent, with wheat upon an average for the last three
years at 6s. per bushel, to be at the rate of 4 bushels or
24s. per acre, and that the average should be in the first
year 7s. per bushel, by striking off the first year and
adding the last, the average of the three years would be
6s. 4d. per bushel for the current year, and the rent 25s.
4d. per acre, the averages to be deduced upon the first
market day in each month, as published in the Gazette
or neighbouring market. By this mode the fluctuations
in amount of rent could never be excessive in any single
year, the average of three years always coming into ac-
count. Some persons, however, from prejudice, would
not adopt a corn rent ; but it must be obvious to every
one who dispassionately investigates the subject, that
rent and the value of produce ought always to be pro-
portionate with each other. In cases where leases for
long terms are objected to, a lease might be granted lor
z. single year, and to extend from year to year until
either party should give to the other notice in writing to
determine the occupation. In such cases provision
should be made to pay for drainage and other permanent
improvements, if executed by the tenant, in proportion
as such improvements might remain unexpended at the
end of the occupancy.

Although upon some estates the tenants continue to
farm from year to year without either agreement or
lease, and a good understanding has prevailed, still it
must be a most objectionable mode of proceeding, and
should be avoided as far as possible, as everyone must
have been convinced from the recent occurrences that
have taken place that all transactions of this nature ought
to be carried out as any other description of commercial
transaction ; and whether extending over along or short
period of time, the principle and stipulations of the bar-
gain ought to be clearly set out and defined in writing,
so as not to admit of a doubt as to the intention at the
end of the term ; nor would it be advisable to clog such
an agreement with such stipulations as to the mode of
cultivation or of quitting the farm upon so short a term.
This would to some extent be useless, inasmuch as the
landlord could at any time repossess himself of the farm,
if he found the tenant was not cultivating it properly.
At an early period, when no more manure could be ob-
tained beyond that produced upon the farm, it was ne-
cessary to guard against straw, hay, and roots being sold ;
but it must be obvious, that when it might be done by
the tenant, that he should not be prevented selling such
descriptions of produce upon bringing back upon the farm
two-thirds of their value in manure. In the case of re-
pairs, some well-defined system ought to be adopted —
admitting that the landlord finds all materials and pays
half the cost of labour, the premises might be main-
tained in good repair and condition, so as never to cause
at any one time any large expenditure, as is too gene-
rally the case, though I cannot recommend that the te-
nant should be exonerated altogether, and charged a pro-
portionably higher rent. I, on the other hand, think
that repairs are better done by workmen employed by
the landlord, and some proportion of the outlay only be
charged to the tenant, so that in any given year the sum
ought not to exceed Is. 6d. per acre. There ought to
be sufficient inducement for the tenant to assist in keep-
ing the premises in proper order, and which he would
endeavour to do if called upon to pay a proportion of
the cost of repairing them from year to year. The fences
Upon the farm should also be well repaired as soon as
they require it, or the tenant be charged with the cost
for his neglect.

The customs of different districts vary so greatly that
I fear it would be difficult to introduce any one of ge-
nera' application ; still by defining one least liable to ob-

jection, all others may be made to approximate in degree,
and in course of time be brought more in accordance
with each other.

Having digressed considerably from the subject as put
down upon the card, I may be allowed to state that I
have felt it necessary to state what the management, as
well as the tenure, ought to be, to insure the determina-
tion of the lease upon the best and most approved prin-
ciple. The landlord's interest ought to be protected to
such an extent as only to prevent the tenant from taking
undue advantage at the close of the term, at the same
time taking precaution not to load the tenant unneces-
sarily upon entering the farm with payments — the less
sum he has to put down at the commencement of a term ,
the larger amount he will have to carry on the farm
throughout the entire lease. Some parties, however,
object to this mode, as they state it allows persons with
a small amount of capital to compete for large farms.
This argument, however, has little weight. It must be
obvious that the charge upon a large amount of capital
produces an increased expenditure without a return an-
nually, and therefore ought to be avoided. Landlords
would do better to ascertain beforehand the capabilities
of a tenant, in a monetary point of view, to take a
farm, rather than to load him with heavy payments to
insure it.

During my experience I have had opportunities of
obtaining considerable knowledge of the working of the
various modes by which tenants enter upon and quit
farms, and, without egotism, I consider the system al-
luded to by me in the first instance as the best adapted.

The out-going tenant ought be allowed to make the
fallows, if competent to do so. Horses must be kept
by him for assisting in harvestino; the crops, and he
should have the privilege of ploughing and tilling the
land until the termination of the last year of his term ;
the in-coming tenant, however, being allowed to come
in to carry on the preparations in addition, as at first
stated, and also to hoe and cultivate the root crops when
considered by him to be necessary. The manure of the
last year ought to be paid for in full, in proportion to
the cost incurred in producing it. The hay and straw
of the last year should also be paid for, as stipulated
previously. The improvements of a permanent and en-
during character should be also paid for in proportion
to their value, when executed within a given period ;
and any erections, put up solely by the tenant, should
be allowed to be taken away, provided the landlord re-
fuses to pay for them, at such a price as they would be
worth to remove. So all fixtures and machinery, put
up by the tenant to enable him the better to carry on
his pursuit, should also be allowed to be removed, if the
landlord should refuse to take them by valuation.

I am quite aware of the difficulty incurred of intro-
ducing any new details ; but as my object always, through
life, has been to recommend such changes as would be
most likely to become beneficial upon an extended scale,
and, if possible, to introduce such a policy betwixt land-
lands and tenants as ought to exist, and, when existing,
most likely to produce results of a beneficial character
to themselves, but more especially to a community of
persons, daily increasing, but limited to a certain space,
upon which to carry out their exertions — then, I say,
the utmost facility that can be afforded to them ought
to be the chief aim and study of our united endeavours.
In conclusion, I may be allowed to say, that under
all circumstances I think it best that the manure made
in the last year of the term should be paid for. I have
invariably observed whenever it is left gratis that very
little remains for the in-coming tenant, and that is gene-
rally of very inferior quality ; and although it creates a
considerable amount of charge in the first instance, it
will be found the most beneficial mode in the end.

■2-2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

I can only add, that T have been studious, as far as I
am enabled, to state from my practice and experience
what I consider the best mode of entering upon and
quitting a farm. I have no private theory to carry out
beyond that of benefiting a class from which I have re-

ceived the utmost consideration and respect, and which
it will ever be my desire to retain.

Some short discussion followed, on the subject of the
lecture ; and the proceedings terminated with a vote of
I thanks to Mr. Baker.

THE BANK CHARTER— ITS OBJECT AND EFFECT.

As many of our country readers may not be ac-
quainted with the matters relating to the currency,
and are consequently at a loi^s to understand the causes
of the financial crisis under which the country is now
passing, and which has so powerfully affected the
grain as well as all other produce markets of the king-
dom, the following explanation of the Bank of England
Charter, and its effects u2:)on the commerce of the
country, may not be unacceptable.

By an act of parliament passed in 1819, at which
time the Bank Cliarter was renewed, provision was
made for a return to cash payments. In explanation
of this we must state that in the year 1797 a crisis of
a similar nature to that now existing took place, imder
the pressure of which the Bank of England was com-
pelled to suspend its payments. Upon which, Mr.
Pitt, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, issued
an order in Council authorizing the Bank to refuse
giving cash for their notes ; and an act of parliament
was subsequently passed declaring the one pound note
and a shilling equal in value to a guinea in gold, and
making bank notes a legal tender, inflicting a penalty
upon any one refusing to accept them in payment for
goods or otherwise.

This act continued in force until the year 1819,
when, upon the question of a renewal of the Bank
Charter being brought forward, the Restriction Act, as
it was called, was repealed, and the Bank of England
from the time the act came into operation was nomi-
nally obliged, like any other bank, to pay its notes in
cash when required to do so by the holders. Wo re-
striction, however, was laid upon the Bank by this mea-
sure as to the amount of notes to be issued by it; that
question being left entirely' at the discretion of the
directors, to manage it according to the supposed
requirements of the commerce of the country.

In 1844 Sir Robert Peel found himself at the head
of the Government, and the question of the renewal of
the Charter of the Bank of England being again agi-
tated in Parliament, he brought forward and carried a
bill, by which material alterations were made in the
management of the Bank, the principal of which were
as follows :

First. That the two departments of the Bank, namely,
the bank of issue, and the bank of deposit, or common
banking business, should in future be kept entirely
separate, so that the funds of one should not be avail-
able to, or be interfered with, by the other.

Secondly. That the issue of notes should be restricted
in amount to the value of the gold held by and the se-
curities deposited with that establishment. It is here
proper to state that, by an arrangement of long stand-
ing, the capital of the Bank was taken on loan by the
Government, for which securities are held; the Bank
being allowed to issue notes to the amount.

Thirdly. The Bank was required to give a weekly
instead of a quarterly account or statement of its lia-
bilities and a.-sets, to be made up every Saturday night,
and published in the Gflzeitife the following week, the
two departments of issue and deposit being kept sepa-
rate in the statement.

These, so far as the Bank of England was concerned
are the most important arrangements provided for by
the act of parliament of 1844-5. The two first, how-
ever, are those which were likely the most seriously to
affect the commercial interests, according to the opi-
nions of some of the most eminent financiers. Nor
were they wrong in their conjectures; for in 1847
such was the position of the Bank, superinduced by the
separation of the two departments, that the Govern-
ment were compelled to issue a letter of licence to the
Bank to set aside pro tempore the act of parliament,
and make a transfer of coin from the issuing depart-
ment to that of banking J the specie held by this latter
on Oct. 25 being only £2,860,000, whilst the former
held i;5,570,000. Tims, whilst the one department of
the same establishment was on the eve of stopping
payment, the other was in possession of a sufficient
sum to afford it relief, but was restricted by the act of
parliament from doing so.

Since that period the gold-fields of California and
Australia have unfolded their treasures, which have
nearly all passed through this country, by which the
Bank of England might have been supposed to be well
supplied with bullion. And such, in fact, was the case
for a time ; for we find that in July, 1852, the amount
of gold in the two departments was £22,040,000, being
nearly half the liabilities (i'46,480,000). But since that
period, notwithstanding the enormous and unprece-
dented quantitif s of bullion continually since arriving
at our shores, the quantity held by the Bank has as
continually decreased, although to prevent it the
interest upon discounts has advanced from 1| per cent,
in 1852 to 10 per cent, in 1857, at which latter period
(Nov. 11th inst.) the Bank Account for the week stood
as follows :

GENERAL ACCOUNT.

Liabilities.
Bank Stock .^14,553,000

Rest 3,364,356

Notes in Cir-

culation . .

Public De-
posits . . . .

Private do. . .

7 Day Bills .

20,183,355

5,314,659

12,935,344

853,075

Assets.
Government

Securities . £14,475,600

Do, do 9,444,828

Other ditto . 26,113,453
Bullion and

Specie .. 7,170,508

£57,203,789 £57,203,789

And the accounts of the separate departments were as
follows :

Dr. Issue Department. Cr.

Circulation .£20,183,355 | Bullion, &c.. £6,666,065

Dr. Banking Department. Cr.

Liabilities . . £37,020,434 | Specie £504,443

Thus, by the prohibition of the act of parliament, or
the Bank Charter, the banking department was reduced
to such a dilemma as not to have more bullion and
specie than would have paid three 2}e>icc in the pound
had it been required to meet all its liabilities ; whilst
its colleague, the issue department, was in possession of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

9.?,

upwards of six and a-lialf millions, not available for
its relief without an infraction of the act, amounting
for the time to an abrogation of the Bank Charter.

Many important questions will be raised when the
subject of the Bank Charter comes to be discussed in
the approaching session of Parliament. Amongst
these will probably bo the inquiry how far a charter,
granted in 1844, when the exports of British and Irish
produce amounted to 62 millions sterling, and the ton-
nage of shipping entered and cleared at our ports was
lOj million tons, is applicable to our commerce in 1856,
when the exports have risen to 96i millions sterling,
and the tonnage to 21^ million tons?

The cause of the decrease of gold at the Bank is, in
part, the unfavourable state of the exchanges, or the
excess of imports over the exports, which must be paid
for in specie. But, independent of this, the require-
ments of the French government have compelled it

to purcliase bullion of the Bank of England at a heavy
premium. The amount of gold and silver coined in
Franco since 1848 is nearly 112 millions sterling, being
respectively £88,351,000 'in gold, and £23,631,000 in
silver ; whilst that coined in the United Kingdom is
£52,438,000 sterling, or £50,378,000 in gold, and
£2,060,000 sterling in silver.

We must not, however, conclude our statement
without stating that the immediate cause of the finan-
cial crisis was the panic, and consequent oxteusive
failures, in America, which stopped the remittances
from that country, and produced a heavy pressure upon
our banks. The letter-of-liccnce from Loid Palmer-
ston to the Bank of England relieved the commerce of
the country for the time; the object, of Parliament
must be to devise means to prevent, as far as possible,
the recurrence of these crises, which cause so much dis-
tress in the commercial world.

WHO INVENTED THE STEAM PLOUGH?

Sir, — I have read with much interest in your
journal for several weeks, "A Plain Farmer's View of
the IV ew Things in Agriculture;" and I am pleased to
see, that, although he styles himself "A Plain Farmer,"
he is not a prejudiced one.

In your paper of November 16tli he was pleased to
notice Mr. Smith's and my own modes of steam culture;
and it is with reference to his observations, and Mr.
Smith's letter of this week, that I crave a place in your
columns to correct an error into which they appear to
have fallen, with respect to Mr. Smith being the in-
ventor of the steam plough.

Your" Plain Farmer" says, " Mr. Smith shall next
have my notice, as he has been indefatigable in the in-
troduction of steam power to cultivation, and also lays
claim to being the originator of the ■modern improve-
ments in steam 2}loiighi7ig ." To which Mr. Smith
replies," I find it stated that I claim to be the originator
of the windlasses and rope traction for ploughing by
steam, I say Mr. Hannam made the first attt mpt,
but failed ; and that it icas I loho first efficieritly
originated and applied them."

Now, Sir, in justice to myself, I beg to state, that
three years at least before Mr. Smith entered into it I
ploughed part of my farm with a five- horse engine ; and
as long ago as the Lewes Cattle Shoio, 1852, I took a
model of a ploughing machine to that meeting, and
showed it to Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth, asking
them to carry it out, but they declined, and I have been
obliged to manufacture and work it out myself. At
that meeting I well remember Mr. Fowler (who made
Mr. Smith's machine) was draining in a meadow ad-
joining the show-yard with horses, he not having as
yet applied the steam engine to that purpose. In June,
1854, I took out a patent for a combined lever plough
and cultivator, and in May, 1855 (previous to the
Carlisle meeting), I patented my first mode of steam
culture, viz., with one engine, to work both ways by
means of a platform and pulleys at the opposite head-
land, the engine, machine, &c., to move forward a7id
keep opposite the ivorh.

On the same day I opened a discussion at the Central
London. Farmers' Club, " On the General Application
of Steam-power to Agricultural Purposes;" and I men-
tioned the names of every person that I could ascertain
had made any attempts at steam ploughing (Mr.
Hannam amongst the rest) ; but Mr. Smith's name was
not there, for the very reason, that, as yet, he had no
hand la it.

All this I had done before Mr. Fowler contracted to
make Mr. Smith's machine. The model, which I ex-
hibited last year at the Smithfield Show, was made, that
drawings might be taken from it ; and if your readers
and the public at large will refer to your paper of May
14th, 1855, or Bell's Weekly Messenger of the same
date, they will find my predictions there stated, which
are being more confirmed every day ; and it will require
no further argument than that discussion, and the dates
that I have given above, to prove, amongst those who
are carrying out the modern improvements in steam
ploughing, " who was the inventor of the steam
plough."

I have subsequently patented another mode of using
two engines, with machines attached, to do away iviih
all friction of pulleys, and to require no more rope
than the length of the field, the same to move along
the headlands, as before described, and which was exhi-
bited at Salisbury. And also a method of making the
common portable engines " locomotive," by means of a
chain motion connecting the crank-shaft to the hind
wheel; thus propelling themselves along. Your " Plain
Farmer " will perhaps be pleased to know, that my tfro
engines brought themselves and their respective ma-
chines home from Salisbury, a distance of forty miles,
with the assistance of one horse to steer ; carrying, in
addition to the weight of the machine, 100 gallons of
water and half a ton of coal, and only had assistance at
two hills, which were very long and steep.

Your correspondent, who appears to me to have given
a very fair and descriptive account of the several im-
plements at work at Salisbury, says i-f my ploughs,
" The ploughs are badly arranged.'' N'W, 1 have no
right to find fault with bis decision, because their work
was not such as I could have wished ; but when I tell
him that it was never tried till on that piece, and was
the first I had made in that form being actually finished
at Salisbury, and that being obliged, from want of
power, to take off two ploughs on account of the imprac-
ticable position in which we were placed, and conse-
quently the line of draught being incorrect; he will
perhaps make some allowance for their performance on
the hill, as on every occasion since they have made ex-
cellent work. The ex Mayor ot Sahsbury was much
pleased with iheir work on his farm. Mr. Boydell has
tried them behind his traction engine, and told me he
never made such good work with a combined plough ;
and they have been tried in Staffordshire, making
equally good work there. Your correspondent, who

24

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

is evidently well up in mechanics, will perhaps
form a different opinion of my ploughs when
I tell him that, hy their construction, they are
capable of being altered in five minutes from a four-
furrow or six-furrow plough to a ridge plough, by simply
taking off the first, third, and fifth plough-bodies, and
substituting a large steel broadshare in their stead. The
work is then performed as follows : The first beam,
carrying a broadshare, cuts and breaks up the soil, but
does not turn it ; the second beam, a plough, cuts its
own ground, and turns it on the top of the other ; the
others alternately acting the same, throwing the whole
into ridges or rafters, and the whole of it being broken
up, it lies admirably for exposure to the atmosphere and
the frost. Several farmers in Staffordshire told me, on
seeing it work, "they should like all their land done
like it.''

I ought to apologise, Mr. Editor, for the length of my
letter ; but I know that anything relating to steam cul-
ture finds a ready place in your columns. And as on a

past occasion, when a long controversy as to " Who in-
vented the Steam Plough?" took place in your journal,
I took no part therein, feeling convinced that — having
proposed and introduced the subject of " Steam Culti-
vation" at the London Farmers' Club, previous to either
of the disputants taking any part in it, and the publicity
that was given to that discussion through your paper and
several others, besides the Journal of the Club — that the
public would give me credit for being first in the matter.
However, it appears that " A Plain Farmer" was not
aware of the fact, and possibly many more like him ; I
therefore consider it a duty I owe to myself to put this
matter straight, as I am not only the inventor of the haul-
ing machine, but it will be found that, ultimately, when
brought to perfection, my system of moving ahead op-
posite the work will be the best.

I remain, Mr. Editor, yours faithfully,

J. A. Williams.
Saydon, Wilts, Nov. 24, 1857.

THE PROPER POSITION OF THE LABOURING MAN.

Heflections arising out of the Rev. C. T. James's
eloquent address and the afternoon discussion on
labourers' education we have already offered to
our readers. We shall now give a few more,
which, on the contrary, were never likely to occur
to anybody from a perusal of wliat passed at the
Farmers' Club. Our working-classes, having no news-
paper, edited, contributed to, and supported by them-
selves, speaking their views and stating their wants
and wishes, read what we write for them, and have
their case always pleaded by men of a class above
them. A journal, therefore, like the Mark-lane Ex-
press, representing all the interests connected with
agriculture, whether owning, occupying, orl abouring,
should not be frugal of its devotion to the cause of the
workman, while giving due regard to the rights and
duties of the landlord and tenant-farmer. The subject
of improving the educational condition of the agricul-
tural labourer was or should have been treated, on
the above occasion, in its relation to the exigencies of
the farmer. We would now extend the topic in a
somewhat new direction, bearing upon the welfare of
the labourer himself, and through him of the whole
community.

It is certainly worth while to persist in urging upon
sluggish and short-sighted. farmers that their interests
'would be advanced by doing a little bit of philanthropy
among their work-people ; and there are many igno-
rant masters yet left, who cannot perceive any good in
making their men more thoughtful as well as more
handy than they now are. But our intelligent men of
business admit all you can plead on behalf of more
extended education (that is, of mental, moral, and
bodily training), and deplore with you that the thing
remains so scantily and insignificantly done. Shrewd
and calculating, as well as right-minded and benevolent
men, agree that it would be better for all classes if
labourers could have higher wages, earned more at piece-
work than by the day, and were paid perhaps parUy
in bread- corn or barley for home-brewing. If their
homes were more decent and comfortable; if they
universally had rood-pieces for potatoes, grain, and
garden vegetables (not omitting floral beauties by
cottage-doors and windows), and did they all possess,
if not the poor-man's Elysian blessedness of a milk-
giving cow agisted by the master, at any rate a sleek
economizing pig or two in the manure-making sty.

You may add also every variety of sick-club, coal-
club, savings-banks, &c., for providence and mutual
help, and crown the list with evening-classes for adults,
and time and opportunity for good training for their
families, with, perhaps, athletic games and rural fes-
tivals in which ail classes may cheerily mingle.

Still further, every one whose views are worthy of re-
spect acknowledge that farmers are greatly to blame for
their remissness in many of these matters ; that clergy-
men, and squires, and people of influence and power are
accusable of great neglect in some points ; and that
landowners and proprietors are impeachable with re-
ference to others. Then again, the good ladies, who,
like improvised Sisters of Mercy, parcel out " their
poor" into visiting districts, tell us that personal im-
providence and recklessness in the men, and a want of
ability for cooking, soup-making, and working-up of
domestic odds-and-ends in the wives, mothers, and
daughters, are sufiicient to account for much of the
labourers' poverty. Even beyond these, there is the tee-
totaller charging the brewers and publicans with being
at the bottom of more than half the mischief and misery.
It is a matter for general congratulation that we at last
know and admit these things, and that we treat the
labourers' case in a better spirit than we did. At an
agricultural meeting, when the hard-handed, hard-
headed fellows come up into the dining-hall to receive
the golden honours for prize ploughing, and the careful
old servant, housemaid, and the diligent scholar, or
clever little needlewoman from the parish school,
share in the distribution of rewards, the benevolent
vicar or his indefatigable curate makes a fatherly ad-
dress to this elite of the working-classes, fairly and
good-humouredly adverting to the above-mentioned
grievances — generally concluding, by-the-bye, with
an earnest appeal against tobacco and the beer-shop,
just as the health of the labourer is being drunk
by their masters with " three times three." On
greater occasions, too, our noble lords and right
honourables, as well as plain agriculturists, in dilating
upon the " operative" question, invariably enfoi'ce
the principle that the men who slave for the community,
for capitalists and gentry, have a right to receive
education and assistance from the classes above them ;
and that it is the bounden duty of all, above the position
of being drudges of society, to help their toiling brothers
in proportion to the measure of their own affluence and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

25

prosperity. Thus, it is not only the selfish principle
(or want of " principle") within us that is appealed.
Something more is set before us than the mere
advantage to ourselves of having better-fed, better-
housed, better- taught " lower orders ;" of having
fewer pestilential and feverous courts and back lanes
to involve our wealthier mansions in their subtle poi-
soning, and having fewer temptations of want and
ignorance and vice pressing the poor to rob and hate
and attack the rich. Our sense of fairness and honour,
our sympathy and generosity are appealed to, and we
are constrained to declare whether or not it is fair and
righteous that our fellow-citizens, who strain their
sinews, waste their energies, and hazard their health
and existence most, should eat of the plainest, and be
comforted with the hardest. Or, that they should dwarf
and dwindle on dry bread, while the more for-
tunate and idle partake of the best of palatable
luxuries. Our own sense of justness and fitness
and propriety tells us that a condition of society
in which the workman obtains the least part of Nature's
bounties, and does not find that he is " worthy of his
hire," cannot be in accordance with the perfect and
normal government of the universe by a Providence of
equity and mercy. Let us even confess that there is
something wrong in our present social and economic
arrangements for distributing the profits of the products
of labour; doubtless permitted by the Ruler of the
nations for a wise and righteous end, but which shall
be adjusted and compensated for in tliat millennial age
to which the world looks ever forward.

Now, no one will suppose that we are going to
open up the theories and fallacies of " socialism," or to
quarrel with our existing national institutions. All we
want to impress upon the true labourers' friends is, that
remedial and alleviating measures, good and necessary
as they are, can only be of temporary effect, and should
not be urged and agitated as if they constituted a com-
plete solution of that perplexing problem, the "labour
question." True, there is plenty of work for us, at
present, in getting such measures as cottage-building,
piece-work, allotments, and schooling, admitted and
actively set-about in the right quarters ; so that pi'esent
distress may be allayed, present abuses removed, and a
brighter prospect unfolded to the sons of toil. But so
long as the framework, customs, and regulations of
society permit and establish an imperfect, unequal,
and therefore dangerous appropriation by difie-
rent classes of the nation's industrial earnings, all
such measures will fail to reconcile the working-
classes to their position, or make them as happy
and contented as they should be. Anyone who
considers the general condition of society at the
present day, must see that only by a vast change
in the character, sympathies, and customs of the va-
rious classes of the community, can there be a period
inaugurated in which men shall always be able to com-
mand their reasonable share of the national store of
food and comforts, as well as of leisure for mental
culture. But in efiecting this alteration, there
is no necessity for any sudden or violent organic
change in our social or political state. Nei-
ther need we wait until the Christian rule of "doing
unto others as we would they should do unto us" shall
be the inspiring motive in every man's heart. By
means of sentiment and habit slowly growing up among
us, and as a step toward the attainment of the pro-
phesied world of honest men, we believe it will be pos-
sible for all classes mutually to agree as to their respec-
tive functions, duties, and just scale of remuneration;
so that inequality and oppression shall be individual,
and no longer inflicted by one entire class upon another.
And this time will arrive only when men are qualified

for the work allotted to them, and when that work is
always such as reasoning, reflecting human beings may
be satisfied to spend their life in, and earn their living
by. This, then, is the point we would enforce — that
the only permanent and safe condition of the working-
classes is when their position is fairly and honestly as
good in its loay as that of other classes. When no
man who is too weak to rise out of this situation in life
need be ashamed of or disgusted with it.

There are two ways of endeavouring to bring this
about — one consisting in measures for securing the
labourer better payment for his toil, either in wages,
household comforts, or educational privileges ; and
the other seeking to improve and elevate the nature of
the worTi itself, rescuing the workman from occupa-
tions purely animal or mechanical, and employing him
in such as engage the faculties of his mind.

We continually hear suggestions for aiding the for-
mer, but very seldom for advancing the latter method.

One of the saddest facts connected with the condition
of many of our working-classes is, that a worse than
the primeval curse has fallen upon them. " In the
sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," was the judg-
ment pronounced against Adam and his posterity.
Alas ! how many of our labourers have come to suffer
this penalty in its narrowed literal meaning — eating
" bread" and bread only, often not a sufficiency of that,
in recompence for "the sweat of their brow !" But
with the progi'ess of machinery, the increase of popu-
lation, and an enormous consumptive demand for cheap
articles of prepared food, manufactured apparel, furni-
ture, and workmanship of art and ornament, there has
gradually crept upon the " operatives" a worse form of
laborious occupation than is included in this figure of
the perspiring brow — unless, indeed, the expression be
not only metaphorical, but symbolical. This may be
taken to indicate that fearful, horrible, and cruel wast-
ing of the souls of men in forms of labour engaging
only their animal power, and calling for no exertion of
their minds, which has become a necessity of actual
existence to tens of thousands of pale men rightly
named " mechanics ;" as also to others proudly class-
ing themselves in a higher grade of occupation. Our
" mills" and "works" abound with men and women,
young and old, who would rejoice might they but vary
their bodily labours and revive their mental languor
in work that had thought in it — in processes but the
least elevated above the monotony of recurrence, repe-
tition, and relentless copying. The joiner has scope
for contrivance and invention in laying-out a window-
sash of a new pattern, or a staircase of novel combina-
tion of curve and pitch ; but look at that workman in
the tool-factory, who does nothing for days, months,
years, but cut out with a turn-saw rough wood handles
of a shape marked out for him, never finishing or
varying one. Or look, again, at that old man bending
over a saw, and tap-tapping its teeth with its ceaseless
hammer to give them the right "set." The accurate
touch of his blow is marvellous, but for years and years
his daily life has been consumed in as unintelligent a
task as that of the horse pacing round his infinite mill-
walk.

Bodily toil, even excessive at times, is healthful and
invigorating both to the physical and intellectual
faculties. But to labour your whole day, and every day
for a life-time, at work which has no jirogress or diver-
sity in it, no space for design or the exercising of the
gifts of a man's soul ever so humbly upon it— this is
true slavery. In extorting sncli protracted change-
less labour of body, or unrelaxed attention, to details
admitting of no improvement l\v the thouglit of the
workman, wo are making not only a slave, but a ma-
chine of our brother — causing him not merely to yield

26

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

us "the service of liis body" but to relinquish for our
benefit the right and opportunity of exercising his
mind. We are using his body and soul in lieu of ma-
chinery of brass and iron. lYot that we blame capitalists,
howevci", for manufacturing and consuming, or accuse
the upper classes of living by such repression and de-
gradation of the lower. By no means; for we are all
in fault. And the factory-girls spend years in tying
threads, in order that the poor housewife elsewhere
may procure cheap calico ; and the lad grows up to
manhood in the din of the railworks, feeding strips of
metal into the cutting engine, in order that wc may
save in building and constructing. Machinery has
wonder-fully extended knowledge and a high order of
skill among workmen. Still at the same time it has
made immense numbei's of human beings into mere
machines; and we believe that one of the best
means of inaugurating a happier condition of the
labouring-classes, is to introduce wood and metal
wherever it can be economically made to take the place
of human nerves and muscles and a low order of mental
attention, confining manual labour to operations re-
quiring thought, and exercising beneficial effects on
the character of the workman. One of the finest
pieces of education is to instruct a youth in the use,
and entrust him with the care, of a machine or process
needing the energy of his mind ; and one of the worst
kinds of intellectual degradation is to bind him ten or
twelve hours a day to labour, for which the "unthinking
horse" or other dumb beast might be equally fitted,
had it hands instead of hoofs. What a difference in
ability and independence of thought between the turner
who holds the tool to the lathe, or the potter who
shapes the vase upon the wheel, and their men who
merely actuate the crank ! What a distance of inferioi'ity
between the labourer that carries bricks to the scaffold-
ing, and him that lays them in lintels or " string-
courses" of his own designing !

While many have pitied poor Hodge, or rather the
smart intelligent ploughman and carter that he is ra-
pidly becoming, we do not know that anyone ever dis-
covered the superiority of Hodge's kind of work over
many tasks performed by the quick-fingered "division-
of-labour" factory-folk. But think of the variety of his
toils — of his judgment in guiding a team, or feeding a
bullock — in straightening a furrow or paring a sheep's
foot — in managing a drill, or sloping the banks and
levelling the bottom of a ditch ! Is there not selection
and calculation in the plashing of a hedge; and taste,
as well as tact and skill, in the building of an elegant
and noble rick ? True, there is still the old toil of
filling dung-cart, for which strong-armed and weak-
headed men are proverbially said to be fitted. But the
progress of agricultural mechanics is gradually re-
lieving the labourer of his more excessively mechanical
toils. He is delivered from the long winter discipline of
the flail ; relieved of shaking-out grass and raking it
up again as hay. He has been partially freed from the
hoe; the steam engine, in large farmsteads, cuts, grinds,
and crushes for him, leaving him to study the wants
and comforts of the animals under his charge. The
reaping machine has well-nigh saved him from the
racking scythe and arduous sickle ; the steam plough
will soon make tillage-labour his pleasing occupation
instead of his burden. There might also be a satisfac-
tory comparison between t'he amount of happiness and
mental satisfaction which Hodge finds in the nature
and objects, and in watching the successful issue of his
toil — the beasts turned-out fat for market, the crop
prospering under his toil and attention, and so on,
against the mere knowledge of having kuocked-off so
many pens or buttons jjer day, and seen them packed
in boxes, never more to be heard of.

Some readers may fail to see at once how the eleva-
tion of the nature of his employment is to accomplish
much in benefiting the labourer's condition.' But just
consider that some masters, as well as men, hold senti-
ments on this matter", and act in a way which may be
stigmatised, without harshness or extravagance, as a
species of brutality. They care only to keep their men
at hard work, no matter at all what the nature of the
work may be, provided it answers their purpose of
profit— careless that human minds should be smothered
in mere bestial occupations, with the natural result of
debasing both the slaves and their task-masters. Such
employers never consider lohat sorts of labour are good
for men, and would have men and women dragging
ploughs and harrows, if it were only legal, customary,
and would pay.

But we ought not to reckon our labourers as so many
" hands" merely, as the statisticians do. We are not to
calculate the water-power, wind-power, steam-power,
horse-power, and manual-poioer on an estate, as all
alike in value, according to the number of pounds
avoirdupois it can raise one foot per minute. We are
blaspheming the work of God to do so-^who " made
man in His own image." Rather let us say. We have
so many minds on our estate, each capable of more or *

less exercise in invention and study; and the aim
should be to produce the highest result of yield and
profit from the land, with the least harm and greatest
improvement to the mental and moral powers of the
workmen.

Again, reflect that if the masses of our population
(who have the heaviest of the national work to do) are
ever to be thinking, well-cultured men, and everybody
must wish they were so, for the sake of humanity,
morality, and religion, tJiey must have work that they ^

can take pleasure in. If labour is to continue to be
so extensively only a mechanical slavery, the further
you extend education and power for thought, the more
dissatisfied will labourers be with that drudgery ; and
all the wisdom and power of the rich and titled will
not hinder them from rebelling against it. Men have
no right to be made to toil in that which they abhor,
and which holds down their mental energies, if there be
any means for making machinery perform it instead.
And there are manj^ cases in which, if mechanism can-
not be economically applied in such work, the product
can be dispensed with. We honour those who preach "^
the dignity of labour, and strive to introduce whatever
means may avail to make the woi'kmau's toil more
pleasant to him.

Let our readers meditate on this subject. Let them
consider that if " education," when left only to earliest
youth, to evenings and spare hours, yet brings happy
results, how much more may be done by altering and
exalting the character of such occupations as absorb all
a man's day in what is strictly and rigidly machine-
like and material ! We have alluded to the introduction
of improved farm-implements as having in many ways
lightened the pressure of the labourer's work ; but
there are other measures required — such as the relieving
of boys and girls, and also women, from the painfully
demoralizing system of field gang- work; the substitu-
tion of contract- work for much that is now unnecessarily
done by the day, and other methods of giving the
labourer a direct personal interest, and therefore of
pleasure, in the task he is periorming. We only urge
a greater attention to the principle of employing men
as much as possible in suitable operations, affording
scope for the greatest exercise of what thinking faculty
they may possess — leaving practical suggestions and
applications for business -peoj^le to discover in the
course of their daily arrangements and pursuits.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

27

THE EDUCATION OF THE LABOURING C L ASS ES— CON S I D E R ED
AS A NATIONAL QUESTION.

The education of the poor has ever been a stumblhig-
block, and so it must continue, so long as sectarian
differences continue to exist, and to counteract tlie
efTorts of eacli other. An exemplification of this took
place at the last discussion of the London Central
Farmers' Club, where the different speakers took
entirely different views of the question; while the
testimony of what liad taken place in their localities ex-
hibited how badly the present jilan worked, and the
necessity of a general revision of the wliole system.
The Rev. Mr. James appears to have imbibed the same
opinions that pertain to his class, that it is thebounden
duty of the upper classes to provide education for the
poor. As a Christian duty, it undoubtedly is so ; but
at the same time we must admit that it is the first duty
of parents to provide education for their children, and
when unable from poverty, it then becomes the duty of
the state to supply it. It is to the wellbeing
of a civilized community, that all its mem-
bers should be educated and trained in their re-
ligious and moral duties, as well as provided
with the means whereby afterwards to obtain a subsis-
tence. So that the present system, as supported by
voluntary subscriptions, whicli always press heavily
upon the charitable and well-disposed portion of the
community, should be equalized, and borne by the
property of the country, and be paid through the same
channel as other national charges. Until this
system is adopted education never can become general.
We cannot admit that knowledge is power, without at
the same time admitting that knowledge is wealth —
therefore the educating a child is in fact conferring
upon it the benefit that it would derive were it given
the sum of money considered as the equivalent.

The middle classes of this kingdom are sufficiently
aware of the importance of education as to induce
them to bestow it upon their children sufficiently to
enable them to enter into the pursuits of after life,
similar to their own. It is one of the most ex-
pensive charges that they have to contend with,
as it very frequently happens to persons of slender
means, averaging from £100 to £200 per annum, that
tlie education of their children, even when carried out
with economy, amounts to one-third of their entire
incomes. In times of pressure, such have fallen upon the
farmer, the amount of education conferred on their
children has been totally inadequate to their require-
ments, and far below that frequently bestowed upon
the children of their labourers, in such parishes as
have schools endowed, or supported by tlie donations
of well-disposed persons.

We maintain, therefore, that it is the state that is
bound to provide education for the poor — not only to
insure it — but also to compel all persons having pro-
perty to contribute in fair proportion to their means,
wliether inclined or not, to promote so desirable a
result. As a state necessity, and still further to ensure
it, parents ought to be assisted, to enable their children
to be educated until they attain the age of twelve
years at least, or until they are enabled to read and
write sufficiently well.

We are of opinion that it is unnecessary to teach
the children of the poor anything beyond reading,
writing, and simple arithmetic, accompanied with
sound moral inculcation and religious teaching, such

as the state is bound to provide ; beyond this, it is the
duty of the parent to provide, as the means of fur-
thering the progress of his children through life;
neither is it necessary, as it cannot be expected that all
men and women should be equally endowed with
mental ability — the different grades of society do not
require it, neither would it produce what Mr. James
so strongly contends for — skilled artizans and labour-
ers. That department of education does not pertain
to the schoolmaster, but devolves upon the parent to
complete, either by his own tuition, or that of others
appointed by him to the task.

In rural d istricts the necessity or carelessness of
parents is the main obstacle to the education of their
children. We know that the utmost difficulty exists
in procuring scholars for the schools, and even when
procured the irregularity that prevails prevents the
education of the child proceeding steadily, or con-
tinuing long enough to become of any material
advantage. The ideas that prevail among the
dissenting classes of the poor too frequently operate
to their own injury, especially if the school happens to
be an endowed one, or in any way under the control
of a clergyman. On the other hand, the strict disci-
pline enforced by the latter in the teaching of children
has the effect of driving away many from the school
that would in its absence have been too glad to have
attended.

Such is the difference in the natural endowment of
the human mind, that education becomes only the
stepping-stone by which men become advanced — the
most skilled artizans are those who frequently have
been the lea*t educated — the same also holds good with
our agricultural labourers; and so long as the one con-
tinues an artizan and the other a labourer, education
simply considered would not have produced a better
workman. iVot that we advocate the opinion of some
masters that the " weak in the head and strong in the
arm make the best labourers," but we contend that
skill and tact are natural abilities that become advanced
by practice, rather than by education. But if we look
more deeply into the question, we believe that educa-
tion by teaching a man his duty, enables him the better
afterwards to fulfil it ; and if the education of the
school is supported by the example and teaching of the
parent the greatest benefit must inevitably follow.

The gTcatest obstacle to morality with the labouring
youth arises after they have quitted school, and before
they become settled in life. So soon as they can earn
sufficient to emancipate themselves from their parents,
an era which usually commences at the age of fifteen,
they become their own masters, and without any control
from their parents, seek at the alehouse, that com-
fort which in most instances could not be found at
home — a comfortable fireside and "jolly companions."
During the interval betwixt that period and man-
hood, the good instruction bestowed upon them pre-
viously becomes too frequently lost.

The advantage derived by evening schools has
been insisted upon, but this would be made avail-
able to a large proportion of the labouring
youth ; during the winter months only, could any
attendance at all be obtained, and even then many
hours would require to be filled up beyond tho.-e
actually spent here.' In all populous villages the school-

28

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

room might be converted, at other times, into a
reading-room, and at the trifling expense at which
hooks can now be procured of an amusing and in-
structive character, the experiment is well worthy the
attention of the benevolent, and would probably, in
proportion to tlie outlay, be one of the cheapest modes
of supplying the wants of the labouring classes.

The experience produced by our union schools is not
Tery satisfactory, the children are instructed in the
elements of learning but are perfectly heli^less, as
Mr. James expressed, of the best manner of using
their arms and legs. This arises in a great measure

from most of our unions not having sufficient land upon
which to train them in such employment as they may be
called upon in after-life to perform.

In conclusion, we can only state, that although in-
superable difficulties appear to invest the question,
we believe that they are more imaginary than real; and
if the task of laying down a system of national education
was only set about in earnest, and with a desire to pre-
vent our prejudices operating so as to overcome our
reason, we should very soon become convinced that it
was no very difficult task, and feel surprised indeed,
that it could have been so long delayed in execution.

THE STEAM-ENGINE AND OTHER MACHINERY TRIALS FOR
THE CHESTER M E ETI NG— S UG GE S TI O N S.

1 have been much interested, as also greatly amused,
by reading the various observations and suggestions
made by the respective manufacturers of steam-engines,
thrashing-machines, mills, chaff-cutters, &c., &c., rela-
tive to the triennial trial of these classes of machines, as
already arranged to be tested at the ensuing meeting of
the Royal Agricultural Society, to be held at Chester.
How they are to be met I cannot conceive ; and yet very
many of them are truly valuable. I will try and combine
the sense of them, and perhaps indulge in a remark or
two upon them in passing.

Triennial Trials. — The first observation I shall
notice is that of triennial tests of merit, by which a
larger number of implements and machines may have a
chance of a more extended and a more efficient trial. I
find this plan is generally approved of in its essence, but
grave objections are made to its full efficiency. These
objections will certainly lie. It is not right that every
trial should invariably be made at the time of the meet-
ing, whether circumstances are favourable or not.
Ploughing, for instance, should only be done when the
soil and season are suitable. Reaping should only be
performed upon ripe crops.

Medals or Diplomas — The next thing I shall no-
tice is the suggestion to set aside money-prizes as a
token of merit, and substitute medals or diplomas. I
don't like this. A money-prize is undoubtedly no great
object to a large and wealthy firm : a medal is always in
view; but how many poor, hard-working men have
come out as clever inventors and mechanists, to whom
the chance of a money-prize has been a great incentive,
and, when obtained, a great help ! Besides, Old John
Bull looks to the money : his pride does not consist in a
medal encased in morocco : he loves to hear the chink ;
on hearing which he jvill work.

Trial of Steam Engines. — The trial of steam-
engines I will next notice. It is one of high importance'
and is the most valuable investigation to be made
at Chester. It deserves the utmost care in perfecting all
the arrangements for a satisfactory and conclusive trial.
For this purpose the society puts forth certain con-
ditions to be observed by competitors. This is right
enough, to a certain extent : it is quite right to cause
exhibitors to particularise and define the amount of
horse-power, the thickness and quality of the boiler-
plates, the diameter of the cylinder, the length of stroke
of the piston, the number of revolutions of the crank-
shaft, the diameter and weight of the fly-wheel,
and also of the driving-pulley and its width and speed,
together with a sectional plan of the boiler, showing the
action of the fire upon the flues, and stating the area of
fire-surface, and the clear water-space between the tubes ;
this is perfectly correct, but beyond this I don't see

that more ought to be required of them ; all other mat-
ters should be left to their discretion. The trials, I
presume, are intended to ascertain and prove the value
of the engine under trial, with all its merits or demerits,
and with all its improvements and additions, be they
good or bad, as exhibited before the judges by the sanguine
exhibitors. The Society should be provided with every
necessary scientific apparatus to test the power, to prove
the quantity of water used, and the amount of evapora-
tion. Indeed, every aid must be ofi'eied by the Society
to insure a perfect trial ; but every manufacturer should
be left perfectly free to take his own course in the con-
struction and manufacture of his engine. It is for the
judges to say if he has succeeded in producing the best
in his class. I take it as a necessary adjunct that exhi-
bitors shall be required to state of what and how such
parts of their engine is constructed, which does not ap-
pear to the view of the judges ; beyond that, the judges
should detect any defect, or note any progression, and
the Society should always have the power to take to
pieces any engine for examination, if required by the
judges. In arranging for the trial of these engines, the
coal should be of the best bituminous quality, equally
broken and clear from rubbish or dust, all accurately
weighed irom the same heap. The trials should take
place under a suitable shed, containing the engine and
dynamometer.

Thrashing Machines. — The grain to be thrashed
should all be from the same stack, and the sheaves should
be weighed as well as counted. The trial should take
place also under a suitable shed, and should extend to
fifteen or thirty minutes each, during which time every
circumstance in the working and dressing must be care-
fully noted by the engineers and judges, and the produce
weighed as well as measured, thus making a double test
— the weight and quantity — the greater weight proving
the better dressing.

Mills of all kinds. — At the Lincoln Meeting a standard
sample was crushed or ground, and time given for ex-
hibitors to adjust their mills to this standard, and from
this point the adjudications were made. At Carlisle,
the best samples produced with the least waste of power
was the chief guide. This was cyrefully tested. I re-
collect seeing a mill there dancing about under trial
most amusingly, owing to ill-regulated power. This is
a great point for consideration. They should have
thirty minutes each for a trial, and time for adjustment
for diff'erent qualities of flour and meal.

Chaff Cutters. — These are very various in make
and adaptation, and qualified for cutting different lengths.
In trial all should be set to accomplish the same kind of
work, and to cut the same length of chaff; otherwise no
real test can be given. It is suggested that some foreign

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

29

material be used along with the straw, to show the
length, i.e., a piece of soft wood, or slip of pine. This
would be serviceable. The break or dynamometer will
prove the power absorbed, and the measure the quantity.
Dressing Machines. — These, if possible, are more
varied in pattern and uses than chafF-engines. These
machines should be made capable of performing all kinds
of dressing, from the foulest corn to fine seeds. The
dynamometer readily shows the power used. The
judges decide the work.

Adjudication by Points. — The last thing I shall notice
in this short paper is the novel mode suggested by several
manufacturers for arriving at a satisfactory adjudication,
viz., by the representation of a given number of points.
Take Messrs. Ransomes and Sims' suggestion as to points.

1. Durability,

2. Simplicity,

3. Material and work-

manship,
Duty done on 4. Consumption of coal,

5. Portability,

6. Price per horae-power.

Points,
to count 20 -^

20

20 VIOO points.
20 j

isJ

What work for judges, even with this defined for their
guidance ! What is to rule them ? If one machine is
somewhat better finished than another, is it to count 20
points ; and the other, of which the judges have a
wavering opinion as to what is best, to count nothing ?
Again, the latter may be the most simple in construc-
tion by some slight difference, then it counts 20 ; the
first nothing, and so on. Then what are the tests of
durability but material and workmanship ? and so both
get the 20 points. Then again, what is portability : a
light frame on light carriages ? That would never do ;

yet it gets 10 points. Again, price per horse-power?
Why it seems the lowest-priced or the least costly make
would win here, when generally the best-made engines
are the most costly ; yet it has the 10 points. Con-
sumption of coal has something definite. Here a test
can be applied ; so we will give the 10 or 20 points as
these gentlemen suggest. In many machines similar re-
sults may be obtained. Thrashing-machines, dressing-
machines, chaff-engines and mills might possibly be so
determined, because they each have many " duties"
to perform, and a given number of points might indi-
cate grades of merit, but it would be very indefinite.
If points are to be adopted as an index of merit, the
division must be free and open ; it must be left to
the discretion of the judges to place such a number
of points to the merit as it is entitled to, and not
have it defined for them. What bones of contention !
Points — defined points — will never do ; they would fre-
quently bring inferior machines and implements first. I
have often seen splendidly-made machinery which was
of no practical use. The mill I have named was pre-
cisely of that class : it appeared of beautiful manufac-
ture, but the break proved it worthless. I see no true
way of solving these difificulties better than to trust to
the free unprejudiced judgment of really good practical
men, aided, as they now are, by so many true mechanical
and scientific powers. The power used can be de-
tected to the greatest nicety by the dynamometer. The
quantity and evaporation of water can be ascertained by
the water-meter. The coals can readily be weighed,
and other matters can be proved, so that, in fact, the
judge of implements and machinery is vastly aided in
coming to a decision ; and he has, for the most part,
mainly to exercise his judgment as to the quality of the
work performed.

THE BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES FAT CATTLE

AND POULTRY SHOW.

As an agricultural exhibition, that at Birmingham,
even as a commercial speculation, should be eminently
successful. It enjoys, in a word, just double the at-
tractions of any other such gathering. Quite as manyj
or more, people go to see the Poultry than there do to
see the Stock. Whereas at other meetings the cocks
and hens are of little consideration, and half the visitors
most likely never look at them. Birmingham, from
the very first, has had a long lead in this respect that
has never been approached. We have had Poultry
Shows in Baker-street and at the Crystal Palace. The
Royal Agricultural Society itself lias ventured on a few
mild accessories of the kind. Even exhibitors, however,
think comparatively very little of them ; while on the
other hand, taking the prize for the best pen at Bingley
Hall is something equivalent to winning the Derby,
or the Gold Medal at Smithfield. Still, in the very face
of this, with everything as well done as it could be,
the funds of the Midland Counties Show have
not been in too flourishing a condition. The fact
is, or was, the Society, like many an individual
ere now, had over-housed itself. Bingley-hall is,
by this, proverbially well known as the best show-
yard in the three kingdoms; but then, unfortunately,
it is nothing more. For fifty-one weeks in tlie year
the Hall is little better than a dead letter. The Bound-
ing Brothers may occasionally, for a day or so, display
their athletic forms, or Madame Robinsino pirouette
from the back of a piebald steed. But beyond this the

Society has so far had little to aid them in paying so
large a rent ; and consequently, although they have
done everything to ensure the attendance of visitors,
they have still had serious difficulties to contend with.
There may be something of a lesson or a moral in this.
Tliere is scarcely a spectator or an exhibitor enters
Bingley-hall but says at once, " Ah ! we ought to
have such a place as this for our London shows !" We
were told as much, over and over again, during this
past week. But yet a little reflection, ere we proceed
to such a step, may be not altogether unadvisable.
Whose money is to build ? What shall we do with our
hall when we have no fat cattle to put in it ? And would
it be sure to be a safe speculation in other ways ? The
Birmingham Show has, we repeat, the best place for
its meeting of any we ever entered ; and the one gTcat
drag on the Society is this self-same capital place !

It must not be supposed, however, that " the Mid-
land Counties" is in a desponding or declining con-
dition. The reverse of this is the case. The Council
last year boldly faced their rent-difficulty, and, by a
little exertion amongst themselves, have, we believe,
nearly conquered it. As for the Meeting, it is now
better supported in every way than it hitherto has been.
The Society gives more money in premiums, the ex-
hibitors enter in greater numbers, and the character of
tlie Meeting is manifestly improving. The Poultry-
Show no longer depends on monstrosities or " rages,"
but is really what it should be — a collection of useful

30

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

birds. As a gatherings of stock, again, the weak places
have been gradually lilled up, more particularlywithin
the last year or two ; since care has been taken to a\ oid
any further collision with the Smithfield week. The
Birmingham Meeting has still its own especial features
in full force — its Herefords and Long-horn cattle,
Shropshire sheep, and Tamworth pigs. But it has, with
these, other sorts as well represented ; and is, indeed, a
Midland Counties Show no longer. You may look to
the best of their breeds here almost as certainly as you
would in London ; and we shall be by no means sur-
prised to see the Gold Medal beasts of Bingley Hall
equally distinguished this week in Baker-street.

It will be rather strange if they are not. Mr. Shaw's
Hereford ox and Colonel Towneley's shorthorn cow
are two as fine specimens of their several breeds as were
almost ever seen. Were it not for a little diji in the
back of the ox, or had the cow only a rather better
head, either might have been passed as perfect. Mr.
Shaw's beast is a magnificent animal, of immense
length and depth, with all the good points of the
Hereford beautifully developed. There was no mistake
about his cliiim to the Gold Medal ; while it is apleasure
to see this carried off by a new man. Beyond the local
shows of his neighbourhood, or as the exhibitor of a
few good sheep at this show, Mr. Shaw's name is not a
familiar one in the catalogue; and the only previous
occasion, we hear, on which tliis ox had been shown,
was at Rugby within the last fortnight, where of course
he was also placed Ihe first of his class. Colonel
Towneley, the owner of the Gold Medal cow, is far more
generally known as a successful exhibitor, and this cow
herself has some fame in our show-yards. She is,
moreover, not only one of the best looking,
but one of the best bred of her kind. As
recently as the end of last July " Victoria" — for
so is she called — was declared to be the best
Shorthorn cow at the Salisbury Great National Meet-
ing. She was also the best of her year at Chelmsford
in 1856. She is of Ctipital proportions, roomy, and of
excellent quality. She is just four yeai's old, and
has had one calf. The first prize breeding boar
at Salisbury was the first-prize fat pig at Birming-
ham. So that, in point of fact, the breeding stock
show of the Royal Agricultural Society is becoming
a mere " feeder" to our fat cattle shows of a few weeks
on. You are told to admire a magnificent beast or a
good pig, and think to yourself how much such ani-
mals will do, now their merits are known, to improve
our breeds. Most impotent conclusion ! By Christmas-
day they will be selling as beef and bacon.

There is another bad habit creeping into these meet-
ings, that may be very appropriately noticed here.
For the last few seasons the entry of Devon cattle has
been gradually getting better and better at the Midland
Counties anniversaries. This year the improvement
is very marked. Lord Leicester takes the two prizes
for the oxen or steers, with a pair of his own breeding.
The first prize is one of the most evenly-fed oxen ever
seen, and both are admirable specimens of that multum
in parvo capability (of packing a great deal of meat in
a small compass) tliat so signally distinguishes the
Devons. Mr. Heath supports his Lordship with
another brace of very beautiful beasts, both liighly
commended ; and then we come to a third, also highly
commended. This turns out to be nothing more or less
than the Gold Medal Smithfield Club ox of last Christ-
mas, then the property of Mr. Heath, but now standing
in the name of Mr. Passmore. So that this ox was fed
for the meeting in December, then kept on for the Poissy
Show in the sj^ring, and now made up again for an-
other Christmas ! He is getting on for six years old,
and has not improved in any way since last year. This

is hardly an illustration of early maturity, but is more
like keeping a plater to run on, as long as his legs will
carry him. We did not notice that those of Mr. Potter's
beast were failing him, so that most likely we shall
meet him about for some seasons to come. By all
means let young animals be kept on to show how they
will develop ; but really, re-feeding or fattening au
animal over four or five years old sounds like an ab-
surdity. The first prize Hereford steer, for example,
a wonderful animal for his age, of great width and
weight, should be kept on another year, as most
probably he will be. By that time he promises to be
quite as good a beast as that of Mr. Shaw.

The show of Herefords was right through, eows,
heifers, and all, a very capital one. We seldom
remember a better class of cows, and the first and
second prizes, of very even merit, had all the fine points
of the sort. When well-fed there is perhaps no so telling
a looking beast as the Hereford. The very way in
which they are marked gives them a favourable appear-
ance. By-tbe-bye, is there such a thing as a white
Hereford ? There was one entered and shown as such,
though wo rather question whether, if he " claimed
kindred here," he would " have that claim allowed."
The Society is, notwithstanding, very strict in its
regulations on matters of purity. Some very good-
looking Shorthorns, including the prize one of Lord
Lichfield, had to be entered in the extra classes from
the want of pedigree, or of some such proof of their
descent. On the other hand, there were some leggy,
patchy beasts in the classes proper, that in these times
we should have scarcely thought worth sending. In
fact, the Shorthorn oxen and steers were all below the
mark ; while the eows were as good as the others
were bad. Of seventeen Shorthorn cows and heifers
exhibited, sixteen had either premiums or commenda-
tions. The judges, to be sure, were very liberal in this
respect, and commended occasionally where they had
better, perhaps, have not left their sign. But this was
not the case with the Shorthorn cows, all of which
fairly merited the compliment. Indeed the cows were
all good, the Devons being another excellent class,
with the Prince Consort's heifer as the pick from
amongst them. She is a most beautiful creature, and
does equal credit to the Prince as her feeder, and to
Mr. Hole, of Dunster, as her breeder.

The excellencies of the Longhorn are certainly not
seen in a show-yard. The Highlanders and Welsh
cattle — both famous eating — were short in entries, and
no-ways so good as we have seen them ; while the most
interesting cross was one exhibited by his Grace the
Duke of Beaufort, who seems fond of experiments.
This was between a West Highlander and a Devon, in
which some of the points of either were well preserved.
It is satisfactory to see that the Longhorn is being fast
crossed into a Shorthorn.

The sheep show at Birmingham is seldom, at least in
point of numbers, a very great one. Two or three of
our favourite sorts are generally in the hands of two or
three as well-known breeders. As, for instance, Mr.
Foljambe and Lord Exeter enter from their Leicester
flocks, and Lord Walsingham from his Southdowns.
This season Mr. Foljambe takes every i)remium
awarded for the Longwools, and his Lordship is nearly
as successful as he was last Christmas with his Downs.
But within a very few years Lord Walsingham has
made extraordinary progress with his sheep, and they
have now quite a characterof their own — beautiful bends,
straight backs, and great width behind the shoulder.
So generally good, indeed, are they, that it was again
difiicult to pick out the best of the lot, many going to
a merely commended pen for him. The Cots-
wolds do not abound here, but their cross with

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

31

the Southdown was seen to great advantage.
People as yet have scarcely become familiar with its
new title, but " the Oxfordshire Down" is a most useful-
looking sheep, for almost anything you require of him.
He has here, however, some especially formidable op-
position to contend with. The sort of all others entered
in anything like numerical force is the Shropshire
Down, a variety coming fast into fashion, and that
some think will soon be at the top of the tree. Still
even the Shropshire Down does not stand quite on his
own merits. The purest bred sheep of this kind in (he
yard were perhaps those of Lord Aylesford ; and the
best, once more, those of Mr. Smith of Sutton Maddock.
The latter have a taste of the Southdown in them, im-
ported from such men as Jonas Webb, Sainsbury, and
Lugar. Both the first prize pens of Shropshire, those
of Mr. Foster, as well Mr. Smith's, were of this im-
proved character. Originally they claim to be a dis-
tinct breed of sheep ; but now, like their cotem-
poraries, the Hampshire and Oxfordshire, they have to
go to the thoroughbred Down as a refining medium.

The Midland Counties show of pigs is always a great
one. The town and neighbourhood has a strong taste
for the unclean animal ; while such men as Messrs.
Watson, Mangles, and Wiley generally give their sup-
port. As we have already intimated, the first-prize fat
pig was Mr. Mangles' " Bendigo," the prize boar at
Salisbury, and a most successful cross between the
Yorkshire and Cumberland breeds. His portrait ap-
pears in the Farmer's Magazine for this month : not,
of course, as a fat pig at Birmingham, but as a breeding
one at Salisbury. The prize list will show that most of
our best varieties were well represented. The rnn,
however, was upon the Bcrkshires, of which Mr. Smith,
of Henley -in- Arden, brought a pen of five unusually
good young pigs. Two or three rather cautiously-
worded certificates were handed in by the referees as to
the ages of some of the pigs exhibited ; although it seems
scarcely possible that gentlemen of character should com-
mit themselves in this wise.

An excellent show of roots admirably arranged, and
as usual, a most attractive one of poultry, complete the
chronicle. As wc cannot find room for the awards in
this latter department, we will allow, as far as is possible,
the judges to tell their own story. In addition, then, to
infinite commendations, they declared the golden pen-
cilled Hamburgs, to be " a very good class" — the golden
spangled Hamburgh to be "an extraordinarily good
class " — the silver pencilled Hatnburghs " a very good
class" — and the same of the silver spangled. The
Polish they passed without comment, but the Spanish
were "excellent" — " raeritorious and useful" and
" unusually good." The coloured Dorkings " mar-
vellous!" and the whites "improving." They delibe-
rately pronounced the buff Cochins to be " beautiful "
and the browns " excellent ;" some of the game were also
"excellent," and to the bantams they gave one " gene-
ral high commendation." Of the game bantams they
" could not speak too highly." The geese and Rouen
ducks furnished " good classes," and the turkeys an
" excellent one." We cm only add to this, that there
were pigeons of such fanciful tonsure and fashion as to
utterly defy description. We can only hope such ex-
quisites are never intended for pies. But still a layer
of Mr. Towneley's famous cow, with two or three couples
of prize Jacobins or Archangels over it, would be " a
dainty dish to set before a queen."

We have often ere now had to speak to the good
management displayed in Bingley Hall. If it were possi-
ble to improve on this, it has been done. Even on the
best of the shilling days there was nothing like a crowd
or a crush. Rarely was there a difficulty to see anything
you wanted to — having when just as Mr, Davis had

pitched his easel opposite a prize animal ; or for the
moment, as some right reverend enthusiast held forth on
the many beauties of a bird he was anxious to buy — or
to sell.

PRIZE LIST.

FAT CATTLE.

Judges :— Mr. Samuel Bloxsidge, Warwick.

Mr. John Tanuer Davy, Ashtown Hoase, South

MoItoD, Devon.
Mr. Charles Stokes, KiDgston, Kegworth, Derby.

HEREFORD 8.

Class I.— Oxen or Steers.

First prize £10, with extra prize of £20 as best Hereford,

and GOLD MEDAL as best of all the oxen, Mr. John Shaw,

Hunabury Hill, Northampton. Silver medal to breeder, Mr.

Richard Shirley, Bawcott, MuqsIow, Shropshire.

Second, £3, Mr. William Heath, Ludham Hall, Norwich,
Norfolk,

The Class generally commended.

Class II.— Steers.

First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. John
Naylor, Leighton Hall, Welshpool.

Second, £3, Mr. William Child, Wigmore Grange, Leint-
wardine, Herefordshire.

Commended, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
Windsor Castle ; the Earl of Aylesford, Packington, for two
ateers ; and Mr. Joseph Phillips, Ardiugton, Wantage, Berk-
shire.

Class HI. — Cows,

First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Philip
Turner, The Leen, Petubridge, Herefordshire (had three calves).

Second, £5, Mr. Edward Thomas, Colebatch, Bishop's Cas-
tle, Sbropshire (had two calves).

The Class generally/ commended.

Class IV. — Heifers.
First pr'ze £10, and silver medal to breeder, Mr. Henry
Higglns, Woolaston Grange, near LytJney, Gloucestershire.

Second, £5, Mr. Samuel Walker Urwick, Leiuthall Staiks,
Ludlow.

SHORTHORNS.
Class V.— Oxen or Steers.
First prize £10, and sdver medal aa breeder, Mr. Wdham
Eytou, Gousal, Shrewsbury.

Second, £5, Mr. John Robinson, Leckby Palace, Topcliffe,
Thirsk.

Commended, Mr. William Winterton, Wolvey Villa, Nunea-
ton ; and Mr. Henry Roberts, Paxford, Blockley, Woicester-
ahire.

Class VL— Steers.
First prize £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. Richard
Stratton, Broad Hiutou, Swindon.

Second, £5, Earl Spencer, Althorp, Northamptonshire.

Class VII.— Cows.

First prize £10, with extra prize £20 as best shorthorn,
GOLD MEDAL as best of all the cows, and silver medal as
breeder, LieutenaQt-Oolouel Charles Towueley, Towneley Park,
Burnley, Lancasliire (had one calf).

Second, £5, Mr. Robert Swiunerton, Weddingtou, Nuneaton
(had one calf).

llif/li'ij commended, Viscount Ilill. Hawkstone, Shropshire
(had three calves), and Sir Thomas Whichcofe, Bart., Aswarhy
Park, Falkiugham, Liucolnshire (had one live calf and one
dead).

The Class generally cornmended.
Class VHL— Heifers.

First prize £10, a-ud silver medal as breeder, Lord Fever-
sham, Duncorabe Park, Helmsley, Yorksliire.

Second, £5, Mr. Robert Gell, Grimston Hill, York.

Highly' commended, Mr. Richard Thomas, Kyton, Dorring-
ton.

Commended, Viacouut Hill, and Mr. Joseph Phillips,
Ardiugton, Wautagf.

32

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

DEVONS.

Class IX. — Oxen or Steers.

First prize £10, with £20 extra prize aa best Devon,

Lord Ward's prize of £25 for best ox bred and fed by an exhi-

biter, and silver medal aa breeder, Earl of Leicester, Holkham

Hall, Norfolk.

Second, £5, The Earl of Leicester.

IligMy commended, Mr. William Heath (for two oxen), and
Mr. Joseph Potter, Witton, near Birmingham.
The Class generally commended.

Class X. — Devon Steers.
First prize £10, and silver medal as breeder, the Earl of
Aylesford, Packingtou.

Second, £5, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
Commended, the Earl of Leicester, and Mr. Thomas White
Fouracre, Durston, near Taunton.

Class XI. — Cows.
First prize, £10, Mr. John C. Halse, Molland, Devonshire ;
silver medal to breeder, Mr. Thomas Hahe, Molland (had five
calves).

Second, £5, Mr. William Heath, Ludham (bad two calves).
Highly commended. Mr. Abraham Umbers, Weston Hall,
Leamington (had six calves) ; and Mr. James Hole, Knowle
House, Dunster, Somerset (had one calf).

Class XII.— Heifers.
First prize, £10, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort ;
silver medal to breeder, Mr. James Hole, Knowle House.
Second, £5, Mr. Thomas White Fouracre, Durston, near
TauntoE,

LONG-HORNS.
Class XIII. — Oxen or Steers.
Prize, £5, Mr. R. H. Chapman, Upton, near Nuneaton ;
silver medal to breeder, the late Mr. Samuel Burbery,
Wroxhall, Warwick.

Class XIV.— Cows or Heifers.
First prize, £10, Mr. Joseph Holland Burbery, Kenil-
worth ; silver medal as breeder, the late Mr. Samuel Burbery
(had one calf).

Second, £5, Mr. W. T. Cox, Spondon Hall, Derby (had
three calves).

OTHER PURE BREEDS AND CROSS-BRED

ANIMALS.

Class XV. — Fat Oxen or Steers.

First prize, £10, Mr. Richard Thomas Ryton, Dorrington,

Shropshire ; silver medal to breeder, Mr. J. K. Smith, Rad-

brook, near Shrewsbury (Short-horn, Hereford).

Second £5, Lieutenant-Colouel Towneley (Cross-bred).

Class XVI. — Fat Cows.
First prize, £10, Mr. Robert Swinnertou, Wedditigton,
Nuneaton ; silver medal to breeder, Mrs. Caroline Williams
Bedworth, Nuneaton (Cross-brei — had one calf).

Second, £5, Mr. Richard Machin, Papplewick, Nottingham-
shire (Long-horn and Short-horn cross — had one calf).
Class XVII. — Fat Heifers.
First prize £10, and silver medal aa breeder, the Duke of
Beaufort, Badminton, near Chippenham, Wilts (West High-
land Scotch).

Second, £5, the Duke of Beaufort (a cross between a West
Highland Scotch cow and a Devon bjU )

Class XVIII. — Scotch Oxen or Steers.
First prize, £10, Mr. Ralph Sneyd, Keel Hall, Staffordshire
(West Highland).

Second, £5, Mr. Ralph Sneyd (West Highland).

WELSH BREEDS.
Class XIX.— Oxen or Steers.
First prize, £10, Mr. William Heath, Ludham.
Second, £5, Mr. Richard Doig, Surney Farm, Long Buck-
by, Daventry, Northamptonshire.

EXTRA CLASSES.

(For Animals not qualified to compete in any of the preceding

Classes).

Class XX. — Oxen or Steers.

Prize £5, and silver medal as breeder. Viscount Dillon,

Ditchley Park, Enstone, Oxfordshire.

Class XXI. — Cows or Heifers.
Prize £5, Earl of Lichfield, Shugborough, (shorthorn, had
one calf).

SHEEP.
Judges : — Mr. Edward Gough, Gravel Hill, Shrewsbury.

Mr. Joseph Holland Burbery, Kenil worth, War-
wick.
Mr. John Moon, Hurstbourne Priors, Whit-
church, Hanta.

Class XXII. — Leicesters.
(Fat Wethers, not exceeding twenty-two months old.)
First prize £10, extra prize £10 as best of all the Long-
wools, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. George Saville Fol-
jambe, Oaberton Hall, Worksop, Notts.
Second, £5, Mr. Foljambe.

Highly Commended, Mr. John Hopper, Brompton, Picker-
ing, Yorkshire.

Class XXIII. — Leicesters.

(Fat Wethers, exceeding twenty-two, but not exceeding thirty-

fuur months old.)

No entry.

Class XXIV. — Long-woolled Sheep, not being
Leicesters.
(Fat Wethers, not exceeding twenty-two months old).
First prize £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mrs. West,
Green Hill Farm, Bietchington, Oxfordshire (Cotswold).
Second, £5, Mrs. West.

Commended, Mr. William Hewer, Sevenhampton, High-
worth, Wilts.

Class XXV.
(Fat Wethers, eyceeding twenty-two, but not exceeding thirty-
four months old).
No entry.
Class XXVI. — South and other Down Sheep.

(Fat Wethers, not exceeding twenty-two months old).
First prize £10, and silver medal as breeder. Lord Walsing-
ham, MettoiJ Hall, Thetford, Norfolk.
Second, £5, Lord Walsingham.

Class XXVII.— South and other Down Sheep.
(Fat Wethers, exceeding twenty-two, but not exceeding thirty-
months old).
First prize £10, extra prize £10 as beat of all the Short-
wools, and silver medal as breeder, Lord Walsingham, Merton
Hall, Thetford, Norfolk.

Second, £5, Sir Robert George Throckmorlon.Bart., Buck-
land, Faringdon.

Class XXVIH. — Shropshire and other Black or

Grey-faced Short-woolled Sheep.

(Fat Wethers, not exceeding twenty-two months old.)

First prize £10, and silver medal aa breeder, Mr. Henry
Smith, jun., Sutton Maddock, Shiffnal, Shropshire.

Second, £5, Mr. J. B. Green, Marlow, Leintwardine,
Ludlow.

Highly Commended, Mr. Holland, M.P., Dnmbleton Hall,
Evesham; Mr. William Orme Foster, M.P., Kinver-hill
Farm, Stourbridge ; and Mr, J. B. Green, Marlow (for ano-
ther pen).

Class XXIX. — Shropshire and other Black or Grey-
faced Short-woolled Sheep.
(Fat Wethers, exceeding twenty-two, but not exceeding thirty-
four months old).
First prize £10, and silver medal aa breeder, Mr. W. 0.
Foster, M.P.

Second, £5, Mr. T. C. Wbitmore, Apley Park, Bridgnorth.
Hiijhly commended., the Earl of Aylesford and Mr. H. Smith,
jun., Sutton Maddock.

Class XXX. — Cross-Bred Sheep.
(Fat Wethers, not exceeding twenty-two months old.)
First prize, £10, silver medal as best cross-breds, and silver
medal aa breeder, Mr. Adam Corrie Keep, WoUaaton, Well-
ingborough (South Down and Cotswold).

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

33

Second, £5, the Earl of Leicester (Dowu and Leices-
ter).

H'ujhly commended, the Earl of Leicester (Down and
Leicester).

Commended, Mr. John Woolston,' Wellingborough (South
Down and Cotswold) ; and Mr. John Bryan, Southleigh, near
Witney, Oxfordshire (Cross-bred or Oxfordshire Down).
Class XXXL— Fat Wethers, exceedinb Twenty-two,

BUT NOT EXCEEDING ThIRTY-FOUR MoNTHS OLD.

First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. A. C.
Keep, Wollaston, Wellingborough (South Down and Cots-
wold).

Second, £5, Mr. A. C. Keep, (South Dowu and Cotswold).

PIGS.

Judges: — Mr. Edward Gough, Gravel Hill, Shrewsbury.

Mr. Joseph Holland Butbery, Kenilworth,
Warwickshire.

Mr. John Moon, Huratbourne Priors, Whit-
church, Hants.

Class XXXIL— Fat Pigs.
(Fat Pigs of one litter, not exceeding ten months old.)

First prize, £10, and silver medal to breeder, Mr. T. R. B.
Cartwright, Aynhoe, near Brackley, Northamptonshire.

Second, £5, Mr. Henry William Dashwood, Dunstew, near
Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Class XXXHI.— Fat Pigs.

(Fat Pigs of one litter, not exceeding fifteen months old.)

First prize, £10, and silver medal to breeder, Mr. Richard
Benyon, Eu^lefield House, Reading.

Second, £5, the Countess of Chesterfield, Bretby Hall,
Burton-upon-Trent.

Highly commended, Lord Leigh, Stoueleigh Abbey, Kenil-
worth ; and Mr. William James Sadler, Calcutt and Bentham,
near Crickdale, Wilts.

Commended, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort ; and
Mr. G. B Morland, Chilton Farm, near Abingdon.

Class XXXIV.— Fat Pig.
(Exceeding Fifteen Months Old.)

First prize, £6, and silver medal as breeder, Mr. George
Mangles, Givendale, Ripon, Yorkshire (Bendigo).

Second, £3, Mr. James John Whiteman, Brownsover, War-
wickshire.

Highly commended, Mr. William Hemming, Coldicott, near
Moreton-in-the-Marsh ,

Commended, Mr. William Parkes, sen., Camp Hill, Birming-
ham, (for 2 pigs) ; Mr. Geo. Mangles, (for another pig) ; and
Mr. Henry Thornley, Marston Hall, Birmingham.

Class XXXV. — Pigs of a Large Breed.

(Five Pigs of one litter, exceeding three, and not exceeding six

months old.)

First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder, Mr Joseph
Smith, Henley-in-Ardeo, Warwickshire (Berkshire).

Second, £5, Sir F. L. H. Goodricke, Bart., Studley Caatle.

Silver medals to Mr. William Hewer, Sevenhampton, Hifjh-
worth, Wilts (Berkshire); Mr. T. B. Wright, Great Barr,
Staffordshire (Berkshire; Mr. Edward H. France, Ham Hill,
near Worcester ; Mr. Walter John Breach Scott, Queen's
Hotel, Birmingham ; and Mr. Henry Howell, The Firs, Green
Lanes, Birmingham (Berkshire).

Highly commended, Mr. James Atty, Rugby ; Mr. William
Bradley Wainman, Carhead, Cross Hills, Yorkshire; Mr. Wm.
Endall, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire (Improved Tarn-
worth) ; and Mr. Robert Overbury, Henley-in-Arden, War-
wickshire (Berkshire).

Class XXXVL — Pigs of a Small Breed.

(Five Pigs of one litter, exceeding three, and not exceeding six

months old.)

First prize, £10, and silver medal as breeder. His Royal
Highness the Prince Consort.

Second, £5, Mr. Samuel Wiley, Brandsby, York.

Silver medals to Colonel Pennant, Penrhyn Castle, Bangor,
North Wales ; Mr. Robert Harrison, Watson, Bolton Park,
Wigton, Cumberland {2); Mr. Samuel Wiley; Mr. George
Mangles ; and Mr. George Game, Churchill Heath, Chipping
Norton,

Highly commended. Captain Robert Gunter, Wetherby
Grange, Wetherby, Yorkshire; and His Royal Highness the
Prince Consort.

The following Certificates were given in reference to the
pens of Pigs disqualified :

"Birmingham, Nov. 28th, 1857.
" We hereby certify that one of the pigs in Pen No. 196
has a state of its dentition which indicates that the animal is
about eleven months old.

(Signed) " James B. Simonds.

"Robert L. Hunt."
"Birmingham, Nov. 28th, 1857.
" We hereby certify that the state of the dentition of the
pigs, Pen No. 198, indicates that the animals exceed the ages
named in the exhibitor's certificate.

(Signed) " James B. Simonds.

" Robert L. Hunt."
"Birmingham, Nov. 28th, 1857.
•' We hereby certify that the dentition of the pigs, Pen No.
239, shows that the animals are of greater age than repre-
sented in the exhibitor's certificate.

(Signed) " James B. Simonds.

"Robert L. Hunt."

PRIZES FOR ROOTS.

Judge. — Mr. J. Matthews, Edgbaston House, Birming-
ham.

Class I. — A Silver Cup valued Ten Guineas,
offered by the Mayor op Birmingham, for the
best Collection of the four following Varie-
ties : Long Mangold Wurzel, Globe Mangold
WuRZEL, Swedes, and Carrots ; Six Roots of Each
to be shown.

Mr. Richard Beuyou, Englefield House, Reading.
Highly cominended, Mr. A. W. Johnson, Manor House,
Gunuersbury, Ealing, Middlesex.

Commended, Mr. Robert Fellowes, Bitteswell Hall, Lutter-
worth; the Rev. Thomas Stevens, Bradfie'.d Rectory, Read-
ing ; and Mr. J. B. Starkey, Spye Park, Chippenham.

Class XL— Long Mangold Wurzel.

Firat prize, £2 23., Mr. Charles Pratt, Stratford upon-
Avon.

Second, £1 Is., Mr. A.[H. Johnson, Manor House, Gunners-
bury.

Highly commended, Mr. J. H. Horsburgh, Bradfield, Read-
ing.

Commended, Mr. T. T. Stainton, Horsell, Wokmg, Surrey ;
Mr. Richard Benyon; and Mr. Saml. Robinson, Shaw House,
Melbourne.

Class III. — Globe Mangold Wurzel.

First prize, £2 2s., Mr. J. H. Horsburgh, Bradfield, Read-
ing.

Second, £1 Is., Mr. Richard Benyon.

Commended, Mr. A. H. Johnson (for two lots).

Class IV. — Swedes of any Variety.

First prize, £2 2s., Mr. Wm. Fletcher, Radmanthwaite,
Mansfield.

Second, £1 Is., Mr. Robert Harrison Watson, Bolton Park,
Wigton, Cumberland.

Class V.— Common Turnips.

First prize, £2 2s., Mr. Geo. Mangles, Givendale, Ripon,
Yorkshire.

Second, £1 Is., Mr. Samuel Druce, Jan., Abbey Farm,
Eynsham, near Oxford.

Class VI. — Carrots of any Variety.

First prize, £'2 2s,, Mr. George Saville Foljambe.

Second, £1 Is., Mr. George M'Cann, Graham House, Mal-
vern.

Highly commended, Mr. Wm. Lay, Place Farm, Chilton,
near Abingdon.

Commended, Mr. George M. Kettle, Dallicott House,
Bridgnorth.

Class VII. — Ox Cabbage.

First prize, £2 2s., Mr. Samuel Robinson, Shaw House,
Melbourne.

Second, £l Is., Mt. Robt. Fellows, Bitteswell Hall, Lutter-
worth.

u

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

Class VIIL— Potatoes.

First prize, £2 23 , Lord Leigh, Stoneleigh.

Second, £l Is., Mr. James Howard, Tarleton, Chorley, Lan-
cashire.

The Judges for Poultry weie :

Mr, George James Andrews, Dorchester.

Mr. John Baily, Mount-street, Grosvenor-square, London,

Mr. Thos. Challoner, Burnt Leys, Whitwell, near Worksop.

Mr. Edward Hewitt, Eden Cottage, Spatkbrook, near Bir-
mingham.

The Kev. Kobert Pulleine, the Rectory, Kirby Wiske, near
Thirsk.

For Pigeons.

Mr. T. J. Cottle, Ptilteney-villa, Cheltenham.

Mr. Edward Hale, Handsworth.

Referee for the Ages of Pigs.
Professor Siaioads, Royal Veterinary College, London.

Veterinary Inspector and General Referee.
Mr. R. L. Hunt, Cannon-street, Birmingham.

The Birmingham exhibition has grown into suchim-
portaiice in nine years, that it deserves even an ad-
ditional notice beyond that embraced in our regular
report of the Meeting.

In the first place, what a magniflcent building for
the purpose is that Bingley-hall : with ample room and
every convenience of arrangement, and even with ele-
gance in the construction of the roof and the array of
pillars, in the ornamentation and blazing chandeliers !
And this year how comfortably have the enlarged num-
bers of stocli and poultry been accommodated, by dis-
tributing the stalls of roots and seedsmen's specimens
throughout various parts of the great area! Would
that a similarly covered space existed in the metropolis !
It would be most valuable and useful during other
months than December. Cannot a site be found ?
where is the spirit to begin ; and who will find the
bricks and timber ? Does the Smitlifield Club answer
best to a coaxing, or a roasting ? Or is it quite bfild
enough to venture on such a spec, (after the example
of young Birmingham) were it only a little more
liberally fed with funds ?

Look at tlie sliow in Bingley Hall : we had 3G
classes of stock — mcluding 135 entries of cattle, against
109 last year; 53 of sheep, against 46 last year ; and
103 of pigs, agaiuirt 101 last year. There were 8
classes of roots — comprising 130 entries, against 119
last year ; 69 classes of fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys,
with 1,498 pens of birds, against 1,416 last year.
Six hundred exhibitors this year — an increase of 46
over last time — contributed toward the excellence of
the show ; and while we had the presence of the very
highest class of fat stock and unsurpassed poultry, it is
remarkable that so many of the honours were carried
ofi" by new competitors, or else by those previously low
in the scale : an evidence this ot the extension of first-
class breeding and feeding; while the old standard
prizemen keep up their pace of improvement.

In examining the dificrent classes, we did not forget
how good the Herefords were last year; what a greatly
improved, and indeed unsurpassed show of Devons we
had ; while the Shorthorns, as a whole, were not so gTand
as on some other occasions. Yet, as a testimony to
individual merit in diiTerent breeds, it should be
remembered that, while the Shorthorn gained the gold
medal, the Hereford and Devon prize steers were also
the judge's candidates for it. Last year one gold medal
went to Mr. Stratton's Shorthorn ox, and the other to
Mr. Pitt's Hereford heifer ; and this time Mr. Shaw's
Hereford ox and Colonel Tovv'neley's Shorthorn cow are

similarly victorious. But, beside these gold medals,
singling out the best ox or steer and the best cow or
heifer "of any breed or age" (that is, the best in the
Show), just as at Baker-street, a competition is also
established between animals of the same breed, but
of course of different sex — "extra prizes" being
awarded to the best Hereford, the best Short-
horn, and best Devon ; that is, to the most me-
ritorious animal in each breed, no matter whether
it be aged or young ox, steer, cow, or heifer. And this
year Lord Ward (the President) has given a piece of
ornamental plate for the best ox or steer of any breed
or age, "bred, as well as fed, by the exhibitor ;" be-
sides which, there is a sweepstakes in the Hereford,
Shorthorn, and Devon classes for the breeders who are
also the feeders and exhibitors. "Would not some new
honours of this kind be advisable in the next Smithfield
Club prize sheet ?

We shall not enter, in this place, into any criticism
of the various classes; but what a magnificent cow is
that of Colonel Towneley ! her breadth and depth are
wonderful ! her back, chine, and rump splendid. How
compact she is — how level ! and what a rare touch she
has ! Her girth is 8 feet 6 inches ; and Mr. Swinner-
ton's second-prize cow, one year and five months
older, girths just the same. The small Devons took
the palm away from the large animals, as witness the
first-prize ox, which girths 7 feet 9 inches ; while the
second-piize one girths 8 feet 1 inch, having a much
deeper chest and a larger frame.

It was gratifying to find the Shropshire Down sheep
come up in such force. This breed is fast rising in
fame, in spite of their alleged special liability to foot-
halt. Originally descended from a hardy mountain
breed, and inheriting an excellent constitution, they
are not only enabled to thrive on exposed moorlands,
but on better pastures evince an unsurpassed rapidity
of growth and a tendency to a heavy weight at an
early age. In frame and symmetry they have been so
improved as to be noted for deep chests, famous legs
of mutton, and fine dark-brown heads; while their w'ool
is of the first-class for its thick pile and length of staple.
And equally pleasing was it to see such a splendid show
of cross-bred sheep ; Mr. Keep's beautiful and indeed
wonderfully-fed wethers proving the value of the
cross between Cotswold and Southdown. It should be
noticed that this breeder's first-prize older sheep com-
peted closely with his shearlings for the silver medal,
the latter taking the honour principally on account of
their age.

We were glad to see that the veterinary inspectors
were unflinching in the discharge of their dulies in the
pig classes. In one class we saw a pen of most beau-
tiful pigs, which would undoubtedly have gained the
prize had they not been disqualified because "the
state of their dentition" indicated that their age ex-
ceeds that stated in the exhibitor's certificate.

It is impossible to estimate too highly the value of
the Birmingham Poultry Show, standing, as it does,
alone and above all others; for even at the Crystal
Palace Show, it must be remembered that the birds
are not exhibited in all the glory of their winter
plumage, as they are here; and besides, this year's
chickens have time to develope themselves before the
show. Bingley Hall is the best possible guide for
poultry keepers; as the fowls, are all classified, their
points of excellence or demerit reduced to a system,
and their individual deserts determined by the men
who best understand them. And the public are not
shuply taught which are the most profitable breed for
difliierent districts or purposes; but they are instructed
in the more minute characteristics of each variety
and in all the abstruse exceilenci's of a perfect speci-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

35

men, which make poultry-fancying almost a science.
Thus, high condition, quality, beauty of plumage,
purity of race, and uniformity in the markings, combs,
and other characteristics of the fowls, are taken into con-
sideration by the judges, in a greater degree than mere
weight, without these distinctions. And the immense
number of pens of almost perfect birds proves the
extent to which these shows have spread the know-
ledge of good breeding and proper management. With
a view of weeding-out inferior poultry, which might
degrade the exhibition into a mere market, there is a
rule forbidding any exhibitor showing more than four
pens of fowls, ducks, geese, or turkeys, or six of pigeons ;
the subscription for entry is high ; an extra charge is
levied on each pen shown; and 10 per cent, is charged
on every sale effected in the Hall. Yet there are more
exhibitors than last year, and fully three pens a-piece
were sent in ; some apparently managing also to mono-
polize room by parcelling the ownerships of their ducks

or chickens among the junior members of their family.
Every part of the show was most satisfactory and
successful ; and we would also offer a word of praise
to the admirable arrangement of matter in the bulky
catalogue. In addition to the descriptive particulars
of the animal, birds, and specimen of produce (and
bear in mind that the details of the cultivation and
manuring of each lot of roots is published for our in-
struction, as well as the sorts of food given to the live
stock), there is a separate index for each of the two
great divisions of the show. In the first you find not
only the name and address of each exhibitor, but
whether he shows cattle, sheep, pigs, or roots, and aUo
the " number" attached to each of his animals. In
the other list are the poultry and pigeon exhibitors,
with similar convenient references. Here, again,
might not our Smithfield Club managers follow with
advantage a society which has in so many respects
imitated them ?

GLOUCESTERSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The third annual exhibition was held at Cirencester, on
Thursday, November 26th, when the following prizes were
awarded —

SHORT-HORNS AND OTHER BREEDS, EXCEPT
HEREFORDS AND DEVONS.

For the beat Bull above two years olil, the gift of the Right
Hod. Earl Ducie, £10, Mr. William Hewer, Sevenhampton,
near Highworth.

Second best, £5, Mr. William Slatter, Stratton, near
Cirencester.

Commended. — Mr. W. A. Elston, Bugbrook, Weedon.

For the best Bull above one and under two years old, £10,
Mr. Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton, near Swindon.

Second best, the gift of W. P. Price, Esq., M.P., £5, Mr.
J. W. Brown, Utfcott, near Swindon.

For the best Bull, Cow, and their Offspring, £10, Mr.
Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton, near Swindon.

Second best, £5, J. H. Langston, Esq., M.P., Sarsden
House, Chipping Norton.

For the best cow, in-calf or in-milk, £6, J. H. Langston,
Esq., M.P., Sarsdon House, Chipping Norton.

Second-best, £3, Mr. Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton,
Swindon.

For the best pair of heifers, in-calf or in-milk, under three
years old, bred by the exhibiter, £10, Mr. Richard Stratton,
Broad Hinton, Swindon.

Second-best, £5, Mr. John Lane, Cirencester.

Commended, Mr. Edward Bowly.

For the best pair of breeding heifers, under two years
old, bred by the exhibiter, £8, tlie gift of Edward Holland,
Esq., M.P., Mr, Edward Bowly, Siddington House, Ciren-
cester.

Second beat, £4, Mr. T. R. B. Cartwright, Aynho, neer
Brackley.

Highly commended. — Mr. John Lane, and Mr. R. Stratton.

HEREFORDS AND DEVONS.

For the best Bull above two years old, £10, the gift of the
Right Hon. Earl Bathurst, Mr. John Walker Westfield
House, Holmer, Hereford.

Second beat, £5, Mr. James Ackers, Prinknash Park,
Painswick.

Commended. — Mr. J. E. Lloyd Hewer, jun.

For the best Bull above one and under two years old, the
gift of Sir C. W. Codrington, Bart., M.P., £10, Mr. J. E.
Lloyd Hewer, jun., Vern House, Hereford.

Second best, £5, Mr. Wm. Taylor, Showle Court, Lower
Eggleton, near Ledbury.

For the best bull, cow, and their offspring £10, the gift of
the Right Hon. Earl Beaucharap, Mr. Wilham Perry, Chols-
strey, near Leominster.

Second best, £5, Mr. W. G. Bennett, North Ceraey, Ciren-
cester.

For the best cow, in-calf or in milk, £6, the gift of Robert
Stayner Holford, Esq., M.P., Mr. Wm. Stedman, Bedstone
Hall, Aston-on-Clun, Shrewsbury.

Second best, £3, Mr. J. E. Lloyd Hewer, jun., Vern House,
Hereford.

For the best pair of heifers, in calf or in milk, under three
years old, bred by the exhibitor, £10, the gift of Robert
Stayner Holford, Esq., M.P,, Mr. WilUam Stedman, Bedstone
Hall, Aston-on-Clun, Shrewsbury.

Second best, £5, Mr. Thomas Pope, Hornmgsham, War-
minster.

The whole of this class commended.

For the beat pair of Breeding Heifers under two years old,
bred by the exhibitor, the gift of James Ackers, Esq., £8, Mr.
Wdliam Perry, Cholstrey, near Leominster.

Second beat, £4, Mr. Thomas Pope, HorniEgsham, War-
minster.

Highly commended. — Mr. William Taylor.
FAT CATTLE.

For the beat Fat Steer of any breed, the gift of the Hon.
W. L. Bathurat, £6, Mr. Aaron Pike, Mitten, near Tewkes-
bury.

Second best, £4, Mr. Richard Stratton, Broad Hinton, near
Swindon.

For the best fat cow, having had a calf at its full time, £6,
Mr. Thomas Game, Broadmore Farm, near Northleach.

Second best, £4, Mr. Aaron Pike, Mitton, Tewkesbury.
LONG WOOLS.

For the best five breeding ewes not more than 35 months
old, £8, the gift of the Hon, Ashley Pousonby, Mr, Wilham
Smith, Bibury.

Second best, £4, Mr. Thomaa Beale Browne, Hampen,
Andoversford.

For the best five breeding theave?, not more than twenty-
three months old, £S, Mr. Wm. Smith, Bibury.

Second best, £4, to the Royal Agricultural College, Ci-
rencester.

Commended. — Mr. Thomaa Beale Browne.

For the best five Ewe Lambs not more than 11 months old,
£5, Mr. James Newman, Calmsdeu, Cirencester.
SHORT WOOLS,

For the best five Breeding Ewes not more than 35 months
old, the gift of the Right Hon. Earl of St. Germans, £5, His
Grace the Duke of Beaufort.

Second best, £2 10s., Su; Robert G. Throckmorton, Bart.,
Bucklaud, Fariugdon.

For the best five Breeding Theaves not more than 23
months old, £5, Sir. Robert G. Throckmorton, Bart., Buck-
land, Faringdou.

D 2

3G

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Second best, £2 10s., Mr. Thomas Pope, Horningaham,
Warminster.

CROSS BREED.

For the best five breeding theaves, not more than 23 months
old, £5, Mr. William Hemming, Coldicott, near Moreton-in-
Marsh.

Second beat, £2 lOs., Mr. John King Tombs, Langford,

FAT SHEEP.— LONG WOOL.

For the best three shearhogs not more than 23 months old,
£5, to Mr. William Hewer, Sevenhampton, near Highworth.

Second best, £2 lOs, to the Royal Agricultuial College,
Cirencester.

For the best five wether tegs not more than 11 months old,
£5, Mr. Jamea Newman, Calmsden, Cirencester.

For the best three fat ewes, £5, Mr. George Fletcher, Ship-
ton, near Andoversford,

FAT SHEEP— SHORT WOOL.

For the best three shearhogs not more than 23 months old,
£5, Mr. Edward Holland, M.P., Dumbleton Hall, near Eves-
ham.

Class I.— FAT SHEEP— CROSS BREED.

For the best three shearhogs not more than 23 months old,
£5, Mr. John Plumbe, Ashton Keynes, near Cirencester,

Second best, £2 10s., Mr. Charles HobbSjMaisey Hampton,
near Cirencester.

PIGS.

For the best boar pig under one year old, the gift of T. Gam=

bier Parry, Esq., £4, Mr. Wm. Hewer, Sevenhampton, near
Highworth.

Commended. — Mr. Edward Bowly.

For the best three sow pigs of the same litter under 4 months
old, the giit of T. B. Lloyed, Esq., £4, Mr. J.H. Elwes, Coles-
bourne Park, Cirencester.

The whole of this class commended.

For the best sow pig for breeding purposes, the gift of J.
H. Elwes, Esq., £3, Mr. Wm. Hewer, Sevenhampton, near
Highworth.

For the best sow and pigs her own produce, the pigs under
10 weeks old, £3, Sir Robt. G. Throckmorton, Bart., Buck-
land, Faringdon.

HORSES.

For the best mare and foal (her own offspring) for agricul-
tural purposes, £8, Mr. Henry Baily, Wallgaaton, near Berke-
ley.

Second best, £4, Mr. Edward Holland, M.P., Dumbleton
Hall, Evesham.

Commended — Mr. Samuel Bidmead.

For the best stallion, for agricultural purposes, above 2 years
old, £10, Mr. William Edmonds, Wroughtou, near Swindon.

For the best filly, for agricultural purposes, under 3 years
old, the gift of Robert Gordon, Esq., £5, Mr. William Smith,
Bibury.

Second best, £3, Earl of Radnor.
Commended — Mr. Richard Waine.

RUTLAND AGRICULTURAL MEETING.

Famous as the agriculturists of Rutland have been for the
last 26 years for their exhibition of stock in the Riding House
at Oakham, it is questionable whether a more splendid show
of cattle of all kinds ever graced that building thau took place
at the anniversary on Wednesday, Dec. 2. It was acknowledged
by many who have attended these gatherings for a number of
years that a finer array of stock, both in regard to numbers
and quality, was never seen in this county : so meritorious in
every respect was the exhibition, that to say more in general
praise would only detract from the excellet!ce of what might
be justly termed a "little Smithfield." If we may venture,
however, to notice individual claims, the first-class steer shown
by Mr. Wortley, of Ridlington, and which took the prize of 15
sovs., was generally acknowledged to be a fine specimen. Mr.
Wortley was very successful this year, having taken four prizes
in this department. The second prize ox shown by Mr. Lynn,
of Stroxton, also attracted considerable notice. In class 2 the
prize ox, 3 years and 9 months old, shown by the Marquis of
Exeter, came in for its share of well-deserved admiration. It
is intended to exhibit this beautiful animal at Leicester and
Smithfield. Next in order stood (in class 3) a first-rate steer
shown by R. W. Baker, Esq , of Cottesmore ; this animal,
although small, was perfect in every respect, and met with a
very large share of commendation from practical men. A one-
year-and-nine months-old heifer, in extra stock, belonging to
C. O. Eaton, Esq , was a first-rate animal, and obtained the
silver medal given by the Duke of Rutland. There was a
large show of theep, and in these classes a spirited competition
took place between Mr. C. J. Bradshaw, of Burley, and Mr.
V/ortley : the former, however, seems to have inherited the
spirit of his father, who for a number of years figured so con-
spicuously and successfully in this department at Rutland and
elsewhere. On the present occasion Mr. Bradshaw, jun.,
carried off four first prizes and one second prize ; Mr. Wortley
obt. msd second prizes in three classes. The most extraordi-
nary specimen in the show was a Leicester ewe (bred by Mr.
R. L. Bradshaw, and exhibited by his son), which competed
for the silver medal offered by the tradesmen of Oakham ; this
animal was acknowledged to be the best ewe that has been
Been at any of these shows : it will be entered for competition
ai Cnuthfield, and will, we think, be a match for any one of its
kind that can be taken to the metropolis. In the same class
WEO a ewe, 13 years and 8 months old, exhibited by Mr. T
Swingler, of Langham; this, considering its great age was
allowed to be a first-rate specimen. There was a large

number of hunters for the premium given by the Marquis of
Exeter, but nothing to call for particular notice was exhibited.
The show of pigs was limited, but the animals were of a supe-
rior kind; one, a year and three months old, exhibited by R.
W. Baker, Esq., as extra stock, was a perfect specimen of the
porcine breed, and was highly commended. In the root-crop
department the increase of prizes brought a corresponding in-
crease in the number of competitors. Some first-rate turnips,
mangolds, and cabbages, were shown outside the gates. Tde
first prize in class 8 was awarded to the Hon. Col. Lowther;
and Messrs. Painter, of Burley, carried off the silver cup given
by the Hon. G. J. Noel, M.P., for Swedish turnips in quan-
tities of not less than ten acres.

During the morning a large number visited the Riding-
house. A good sum was taken at the doors. Amongst the
company we noticed Lord Aveland, Viscount Campden, the
Hon. Col. Lowther and Miss Lowther, the Hon. G. J. Noel,
M.P., the Hon. G. H. Heathcote, M.P., Geo. Finch, Esq ,
Gen. Fludyer, R. W. and W. H. Baker, Eaqs., Jno. Eagleton,
Esq., the Rev. H. Fludyer, Rev. Wm. Jacksofl, Rev. T.
Davidson, &c., &c.

The Judges.
Stock. — Thomas Townsend, Esq., Ilmorton-hall, Warwick-
shire; Chas. Bosworth, Esq., Dishley, Leicestershire; R,
B. Richardson, Esq., West Firsby, Lincolnshire.
Hunting Horses.— S. Hunt, Esq.; W. W. Tailby, Esq. ;

W. A. Pochin, Esq.
Vegetables. — Mr. R. Ward, Harringworth ; Mr. J. Grimes,
Pickworth ; Mr. J. Linney, Thistletou.

AWARD OF PREMIUMS.

Oxen or steers, of any breed or weight, under five years of
age. Open to all England. First prize, £15, to Mr. E.
Wortley, of Ridlington; second, £7, to Mr. R. Lynn, of
Stroxton ; W. De Capell Brooke, Esq., and Mr. R. Jones
commended.

Oxen or steers, of any breed or weight, under four years of
age. First prize, £10, to the Most Noble the Marquis of
Exeter, K.G. ; second, £5, W. De Capell Brooke, Esq., of
Geddington-grange.

Cows or heiferSj of any breed, age, or weight. Open to all
England. First prizo, £10, to R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottes-
more ; second, £5, to Mr. E. Wortley, of Ridlington ; W. De
Capell Brooke, Esq., and Sir Thos. Whichcote, Bart,, com-
mended.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

37

To the owner, bein^ a tenant farmer, of the best steer, under
three years of age. First prize, £7, to Mr. Tbos. Swingler, of
Langham ; second, £3, to Mr. E. Wortley, of Kidliugton.

To the owner, bein» a tenant farmer, of the beat steer, under
two years of age. First prize, £5, to Mr. R. Lynn, of Strox-
ton ; second, £3, to R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottesmore,

To the owner, being a tenant farmer, of the beat heifer,
above two and under three years of age. First prize, £6, to
Mr. C. J. Bradshaw, of Burley-on-the-Hill; second, £3, to
Mr. T. W, Fowler, of Eston ; Mr. E. Wortley and Mr. J.
Woods commended.

To the owner, being a tenant farmer, of the best heifer,
under two years of age. First prize, £4, to Mr. T. Chapman
ofWhitwell; second, £2, to Mr. E. Wortley, of Ridlington j
Mr. T. Swingler and Mr. J. Pears commended.
Offered by Stafford O'Brien, Esq.

To the owner, being a tenant farmer, of the best cow in
milk, £5, to C. O. Eaton, Esq., of Kelthorpe ; second, £2, to
R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottesmore.

To the exhibitor of the best bull, above two-and-a-half and
under five years old, £5, to Mr. R.Lynn, of Stroxton; second,
£3, to Mr. T. Suter, of Brook.

To the exhibitor of the beat bull, above one and under two-
and-a-half years old, £5, to the Right Hon. the Earl of Gains-
boroujh ; second, £3, to Mr. R. Lynn, of Stroxton.

To the exhibitor of the best mare, £3, to Mr. J. Hack, of
Egleton.

To the exhibitor of the best yearling gelding or filly for
agricultural purposes, £3, to Mr. W. Hammond, of Barrow.

Offered by the Right Hon. the Earl of Gainsborough.

(To the tenant occupier of not more than thirty acres of land

in the district.)

To the owner of the best cow in milk, £5, to Mr. J. Wil-
iamson, of Langham; second, £2, to Mrs. J. Harris, of Lang-
ham ; Mr. R. Mills, of Whitwell, commended.

To the owner of the best heifer, under two years and-a-
half old, £4, to Mrs. J. Harris, of Langham ; second, £2, to
Mr. J. Edgson, of Langham ; Mr. P. Healey, of Burley, com-
mended.

To the owner of the'best heifer calf, £2, to Mr. W. Hubbard,
of Langham; second, £1, to Mrs. J, Harris, of Langham.
Offered by the Right Hon. Lord Aveland.

Long-wooUed fat wether sheep, £10, to Mr. C. J. Bradshaw,
of Burley-on-the-Hill ; second, £5 (offered by the Society), to
Mr. E. Wortley, of Ridlington.

Offered by the Society.

Long-woolled fat wether sheep, £7, to Mr. C. J. Bradshaw,
of Burley-on-the-Hill ; second, £4, to Mr. E. Wortley, of Rid-
lington.

To the owner of the best breeding ewes, £5, to Mr. C. J.
Bradshaw. of Burley-on-the-HOl; second, £3, to Mr. T.
Swiugler, of Langham.

Long-woolled theaves, £4, to Mr. C. J. Bradshaw, of
Burley-on-the-Hill; second, £2, to the Hon. Colonel Lowther,
of Barleythorpe.

Long-woolled wether lambs, £3. to Mr. E. Wortley, of Rid-
lington ; second, £2, to R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottesmore.

To the owner of the best long-woolled ewe lambs, £3, to
R. W.Baker, Esq, of Cottesmore; second, £2, to Mr. C. J.
Bradshaw, of Burley-on-the Hill,

To the owner of the best pig of any breed, £4, to Mr. T.
Bowles, of Great Hale ; second, £2, to R. W. Baker, Esq., of
Cottesmore.

To the owner of the best fat pig, £3, to Mr. T. Suter, of
Brook; second, £1, to Mr. W. Benskin, of Rearsby.

Offered by the Right Hon. the Earl of Gainsborough.

To the owner of the best fat pig, £2, to Mr. J. Stimson, of
Egleton.

Offered by the Society.

To the owner of the best in-pigged or suckling sow o? yelt,
£2, to Mr. T. Rudkin, of Langham Lodge; the Right Hon.
the Earl of Gainsborough commended.

Offered by the Most Hon. the Marquis of Exeter.

To the owner of the best half-bred <our years old hunting
mare or gelding, £10, to Mr. G. Tipping, sen., of Saithy;
second (offered by gentlemen of the Cottesmore Hunt), £5 to
Mr. P. Healey, of Manton.

Offered by his Grace the Euke of Rutland.

To the exhibitor of the best beast shown as cstra stooir, %

silver medal, value £3, to C. O. Eaton, Esq., Tixover Hall ;
W. R. Morris, Esq , of North Luffenham, W. De Capell
Brooke, Esq., of Geddiugton Grange, Mr. R. Lynn, of Strox-
ton, Mr. C. Chapman of JExton, commended.

Offered by the Tradesmen of Oakham.
To the exhibitor of the best sheep shown as extra stock, a
silver medal, value £3, to Mr. J. C. Bradshaw, of Burley-on-
thc-HiU ; Mr. R. L. Bradshaw, jun., Tinwell, Mr. R. Lynn, of
Stroxton, Mr. T. Swindler, Langham, Mr.E. Wortley, of Rid-
lington, commended.

EXTRA STOCK.
R. W. Baker, Esq., of Cottesmore, a pig, one year and
three weeks old, bred and fed by himself on wheat and barley
meal, commended.

ROOTS AND VEGETABLES.
Offered by the Right Hon. Viscount Campdeu.
For Swedish turnips cultivated on any system, £7, to the
Hon. Colonel Lowther, of Barleythorpe ; second, £3, to Mr.
W. Berridge, of Barrow.

Offered by the Hon. Gerard James Noel, M.P.
For the best specimen of Swedish turnips, a silver cup, value
£10, to Messrs. J, and R. Painter, of Burley.
Offered by the Society.
For the best specimen of mangold wurtzel, £2, to Mr. T.
Suter, of Brooke.

Offered by the Hon Roden Noel.
For best :^eeimen of maagold wurtzel, £3 to Mr, T. God-
frey, o£ Glaston Lodgs.

Offered by the Society.
For the best specimen of ctbbage, £1, to W. Fabliflg, Esq.,
of Burley.

Offered by the Tradestaen of Oakh&m.
For the beat specimen of wki£s turnips, £7, to Mr. J. G.
Bosworth, of Grsetham.

Oflfered by S. W. BLker, Esq,
For the best specimens of ten SvTeQish turnips, mangold,
wurtzel, and CF.bbsges, 10s. sacb. Turaips, Messrs. Painter ;
mangolds, Mr. Fabling ; and ci.bbr.ges. Mi. Rudkin.

ENGLAND WILL HS7ER BE FARMED
AS IT OUGHT TO 3E, UHTIL WE HAVE
A TENANT-RIGxIT BY LAW.

Sir,— The old adage sr.ys, "Out of evil cometh good;"
and the case of iJLi: iiresdor- 3vsrs,rd, of Gioij/ Kail, Leices-
tershire, will open the sa^a £ud ejes of ;ht,ae£.nd3 o," furmers
in Great Britain, tad cruse I'^aui to think for themselves, and
not to lay out their money sc freoly s.s Mr. Everard haadone,
upon the estates of others, witliout tcnLnt-right, alias jusdes
for unexhausted improvemsnta made on the farm by the tenant.
It is plain Mr. Everard hts ruined hiniself by improving the
estate of a uoble lo?d, after V7hieh h2 is turned out by his
lordship without stating any reason why, or aliening hiii; com-
pensation for the vust improvcmsiits r^tue ca the farm. In
the Mark Lane Express of the 23th October, it was stated
that Mr. Eversrd " had, in fact, in a. space of five years, laid
out £5,000 in improvirg .. farm of scxethi^.g over 300 aeteB."
The above treatment of ths cibie lord to his dihgent and. ad-
mirable tenant, in the gre::t ige of diseovsry and iiipiovemeut
is monstrous : auch a feudal aysteiE. must soon either be ended
or mended. The tide of raasoa lo2g delayed, long checked
and obstructed, has neverthtless set is, in North Linooinsbire,
in the shape of tenant-right, which is wise, just, reasonable
and profitable, but more so to the landlord t.^iaii the tenant.
Lincoln Heath, and the Lincolnshire wolds, for instarie.i— a
century back, rabbit warrens and wildernes-ea the principiil
part of them— what do they "roducenow under teaaat-rij,hc ?
Why great crops of corn, clo7er, tad turnips, aad some of the
heaviest-wcoUed sheap in the kiagdom. Th; great improvc-
laent of the said -K'ild land uader teirnt-rijht is a fir.^ axampla
to r.ll the world. I hope the Groby Kail cise ^ili be the
nerns of causing a tsnaa'-right to bs;ocio the I&tt of the
i' nd, to protect such useful tad orsfc.r.eati:i tcaaatc r.c 'ilr.
ISveiard. Sa-K'SJ-Z, i^::.i:!:sY.

Peterborough, Nov, 5,

38

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB FAT CATTLE SHOW.

CATTLE.

As very erroneous impressions of the relative nume-
rical strength of the diiFereat cattle classes, as compared
with last year, may arise from mere inspection and re-
collection, we give the following figures, stating in the
closest form which breeds have come up in unwonted
force, and which of the new classes have contributed
most to the increase of our present show. The entries
were :

1855. 1836. 1857.
Devons ................ 17 21 32

Herefords ..,...,... 20 21 36

Shorthorns..., 40 42 43

Scotch, Irish, and Welsh ..16 13 18

Other pure breeds 3 18 22

Cross-brea.. 7 12 8

Bxura. .....,.,. 9 13 17

Total...... 112 140 176

An increase, it appears, of one-third, both in the
Hereford and tevon ciasies, has beca the principal
ilfiin in cvrsiiing tiia catalogue and filling the show-
yard, though the Shorihorns still reaiain a long way
ahsad cf the oi;n3r breeds. The total number of cattle
i^ very ioiuch £;iiatsi' inan en any other occasion.

Aj tio e^ceiienoa, we have 20 hesitation in prpnounc-
i'Ag this e^hibitica the best ever collected together in
Biiker-stiesi Jjazaar. Class after class presented an
r.riay of anizails oi reinarKabiy higu character, with
ra^rely an infeiioj; bsr.si ; and, as v^e mign'c anticipate
from tue eziensso:! of good bresding of late yeary, the
cpaiii,/ 33 ainiGst u--iivci-£aily of a superior description,
£;nd the L-.:ge mcaEtrc-sities of fat once wondered at and
riuicuied have given place to animals of a more
profitaDiy-feedin^-, CDriy-fatteaing, and valuable kind.
J. he !ii;and£.ra of merit is not now simply the amount cf
flesh, except :.n the judgmsnt of come old-school autho-
nt-es i but the syiumetry, quality, and valuaoie charac-
teiiotics or ti?.e aulmai e.o taken into consideration,
ncCTyithiitaiidiii^- tus cii_aijii.tance of tnis Show being
puipccsly desxr^iied for fat stock intended for the
bu^ohir. ^ Anu V76 tro-fc this priaclpie will bs persevered
1" — iiai:as^y, to eiiGC"arc-'.2;s cuch a tatness as may indicate
tue proiitaoie nature cf a breed, rather than mere
weight, regardless cf expense and time wasted in its
attaiaa.ent.

A3 \,o individual merit, we must own that, wliile the
i^Qi'/eisal ezceilence pi'oves how our various breeds are
progreELing, instead of dclcriorating, the two best ani-
"^^^ .^ '"^^ '-^'^ cannct'be udi up as aobie.- and more
iri;:gniilceat specimens than were ever seen before. If
v.'e xrcce t»i compare the gold-medal ox or cow this year
Vita tiicso of iii«r.y yeais baci, we should undoubtedly
^ina cuat a grc^i advance Lr.s been made i but to expect
that cy3iyye:,ro prize aniaial is t.bcolutiiy to eclipse the
preccuijj.- tone, is to jc-sider breeding a::; purely mecha-
mcai. V/li«iirbus Nitcre beci.svs her gifts of form and
ttauty, t.:id constltuticn sua kindly habit, capriciously,
£j lar Uu v/eriu-rencwncd lyarvels of excellence are con-
corned; Eiid EcmstiL-ass only ui rare iutervcis gives us a
J'idsccr ^atier.iy t.r a ^Ilurhani C,-;. Hence the relative
rnciit Ox iaaivida:.! a::2in::ii3 from ore year to another is
oi less icjpcrtance than the amaunt cf improvement or
cli-erwise Ui&rkinj,- an entire class, cr, mdced, a whole
srovv. And, of cov.reo, the iar-cr the number of firet-
casr. ::airsais brea, tne r-sater tiis clause of obtdniag
an cs nore p-.iecc or actciushiag than tlid vforlu has

yet seen. Now we do not at all detract from the merits
of Mr. Wortley's gold-medal ox when we say that there
have been other animals which are remembered as being
grander in their day and generation. By affirming that
the best ox once was better than the best is now, we are
not implying the deterioration of all ; because, now, the
prize animal is not so far beyond all compeers as he
used to be — or, at any rate, there is far greater merit in
every beast in his class than was the case a very little
time back.

The prize Shorthorn ox will remind many persons of
the famous Durham ox, and is remotely descended, we
hear, from Earl Spencer's celebrated stock. What an
extraorainary length and breadth, and yet most beauti-
ful symmetry and compactness of form ; his chine and ribs
most wonderfully expanded, his immense weight of flesh
most evenly laid on, and of first-class quality ; and his
head and bone fine, and very handsome. The only de-
ficiency appears in his thigh and twist, which might have
been better in proportion. His measurement is extra-
ordinary, the girth being no less than nine feet two inches,
and the length nearly six feet. Now that Mr. Wortley
has made such a glorious debut at Baker-street, winning
golden opinions with his real golden honours, and also, in
addition, a third prize for his Shorthorn cow, likewise of
his own breeding, we hope to welcome him in future
as an annually successful competitor.

Last year the Shorthorns were obliged to yield one
of the gold medals to Mr. Heath's superb Devon; but
the year before, they carried off both, just as on the
present occasion. Colonel Towneley 's splendid cow, four
years and one month old, and having had one calf, is
far before any other animal in her exceedingly good
class, and is, indeed, one of the finest we ever saw;
not, however, for an immense frame or an extravagant
degree of over-fatness, but because of her level and
regular feeding, her unsurpassed touch and quality of
meat, united to a faultless symmetry, beauty, fine oflTal,
and neat head. But the visitors to Salisbury, York,
Birmingham, and elsewhere, know her so well that
we need not extend our expression of admiration.
We would only add, that if any proof were wanted of
the importance of fat stock shows, it is here in the fact
that an animal of the very purest and best breed has
won the day against all others, in the production of the
largest quantity of most valuable beef. But is she a
bona fide fat animal for the butcher ? Or will she be
taken home, and, if possible, again used as a breeding
cow ? Colonel Towneley also gains a second prize for an
exceedingly good steer in the cross or mixed-breed
class ; this steer and the cow being the only animals
eshibited by him.

The show of Shorthorns, as a whole, was very satis-
factory ; and we particularly admired the class for steers
or oxen above three years old, comprising some espe-
cially good animals, and the class of cows which con-
tained some amazingly good and meritorious. Yet it
will be observed in the list of awards that the judges
have given the Shorthorns little more encouragement or
approval than they were compelled to administer, only
two commendations being accorded— one to Lord South-
amptOii's ex, and the other to Mr. Game's white cow
The laiter is very handsome, very fat, and had she been
less patchy, and with mere meat on her neck, would
have been entitled to a prize.

In the steer class, Mr. Lynn's prize animal has a
wonderfully good fore-quarter, but struck us as being

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

39

defective about the first rib, and also on the hip. Earl
Spencer's second-prize steer is a very good one ; and Mr.
Joseph Stratton's third-prize steer has great substance,
though deficient in some points. Mr, Richard Stratton's
steer in this class beat Earl Spencer*s at Birmingham ;
but is certainly inferior in size and not superior in
character. Mr. Brooke's second-prize os and Mr.
Roberts's third-prize ox are both useful and good beasts ;
the former, however, too patchy on the loin for our
taste, and neither of them coming at all up to compari-
son with the magnificent Ridlington ox that has van-
quished them. Mr. Cook's ox, five months older than
Mr. Wortley's, is exceedingly large, and weighty, having
great depth and length, but nothing like its breadth of
chine and fore-quarter. Mr. Rushbrooke's is a very
heavy good animal ; as also that shown by Viscount
Emlyn, and another shown by the Earl of Lonsdale.
Mr. Barton's enormous beast is worth noting for his
colossal frame ; but very deficient in meat and quality.

In the heifer-class, Mr. Phillips's first-prize heifer is
certainly the tallest and biggest ; but considering that a
first-prize female at any rate ought to be symmetrical, we
do not like the chine or fore-quarter, though her hind-
quarter is very good. Two other white heifers — one of
the Earl of Radnor (taking the second prize), and the
other bred and fed by Mr. Baker (which has been left
without any recognition) — have occasioned considerable
discussion as to the judges' award; the latter is very
pretty and uniform in her proportions, and while not
equal to the other in chine and neck-vein, rib and
flank, is of greater size, and much better in loin, thigh
and twist, and only three months older. Mr. Thomas's
white heifer is very fleshy, having a wonderfully fat
back ; but we have here an evidence that mere adipose
substance is not enough of itself to captivate the favour
of the judges.

Sir Thomas Whichcote's second-prize cow is exceed-
ingly level and handsome ; her meat firm and good ; but
she is not well ribbed-up. Mr. Wortley's white third-
prize cow is a beauty — splendidly fed.

A finer show of Herefords has never appeared at Eaker-
street, though their number is only three-fourths of that
which we saw last week in Bingley Hall. Mr. Heath's
prize steer has an immensely long frame, hip wide and well
covered, tut and rump somewhat defective ; altogether
not so meritorious as the prize beast on some former
occasions. His Royal Highness's second-prize steer is
straight, deep, and heavy ; but not particularly hand-
some. We consider Mr. Naylor's third-prize steer is of
better quality ; and has certainly a far better fore-
quarter, though not so heavily fleshed, or so high and
great. The oxen form an uncommonly good class,
" generally commended" by the judges. Mr. Shaw's
ox (which took the prize at Rugby, at Birmingham, and
also here) is very extraordinary for bis tremendous
breadth, his good back and fore-quarter, and wonder-
fully fine head ; he is very heavy, of splendid character
and quality, perhaps his chief deficiency being in the flank.
Mr. Heath's second-prize ox is of great length, very high
■standing, but not particularly good in girth. The Earl
of Darnley's third-prize ox is exceedingly good; so are
Mr. Ford's, Mr. Duffield's and Mr. Wright's " com-
mended" oxen, the latter having almost a bison's depth
of chest and bold fore-quarter. The beifers are a good
class, Mr. Higgins' prize one being vory fat and hr.ud-
some, preposterous rump ; Mr. Urwick's secoud-prize
very symmetrical and compaci, tut short, hips gwod ;
Mr. Thomas' perhaps too fat and lumpy.

The Hereiovd cows are extraordinarily good, and were
all exhibited prcvioasly at Birmingham. Mr. Thcinas,
of Coiebatch, and Mr. Thomas, of xiyton, both take
prizes for uncom.nonly good animals. Mr. Naylor's
third-piize cow Is fat and (if very fine quality, and Mr.
Herbert's is also exceedingly good.

In the class of Devon steers we meet at once with a
"bone of contention," namely the hip and rump, and
other points, of His Royal Highness's second-prize steer,
which, being somewhat narrow and defective, cause people
to inquire how he could be selected for such an honour.
His fine bone, handsome head, straight back, and
nice quality of meat have been adjudged meritorious ;
for while the Earl of Leicester's third-prize steer has a
wider fore-quarter, a better rump, thigh and twist, and
good back, he has by no means that fashion about him
that could make him more worthy of the second place
than the other. Mr. John Overman's prize steer is a
beauty ; very perfect in form, a fine cylindrical frame,
deep, with a full breast, and a handsome head. We
also admired Mr. Fouracre's, for its size and substance.
The Earl of Leicester's prize ox is very heavy, and well-
fed, his girth extremely good, hind-quarters not so fine.
Mr. Heath's second-prize ox has great girth, a splendid
chine, but loin too lumpy, very firm in hand. Mr.
Ball's third prize is a good animal; so is one shown by
Mr. Fouracre, jun. His Royal Highness's is large, with
a good back, beautiful breast, and most wonderful thigh
and twist. Mr. Tucker's is a splendid ox; large, long,
deep, symmetrical, and very weighty. The Devon
heifers are an exceedingly good class. His Royal High-
ness's prize heifer is beautifully fed, her hips amaziagly
wide and good, good chine, but neck not thick enough
in proportion. Mr. Farthing's second prize is very
good, with a deep frame and short legs. We admired
Mr. Heath's commended heifer ; she is a little beauty,
very fine indeed in quality. Mr. Farquharsou's is ex-
traordinarily good, particularly for her hind-quarters
and rump. Mr. Coates's prize cow is very good in some
points, having an especially good rump, but her first
rib too much sinking-in. Mr. Bodley's second-priza
cow is very handsome. Mr. Ilalse'g third-prize cow, re-
markable for her large tuts, was first at Birmingham, and
at the Bath and West of England Show, and was also
highly commended as a breeding cow at Chelmsford.
The fact is, not only that cows c.re shown here which
did not compete at Birmingham, but that the travelling
and handling of that show greatly cut and spoil
the quality of cattle exhibited here a week after, th'^s
lessening their chance ot prizes here, unless they be
marvellously superior to ail competitors.

The Sussex Cattle have come up well ; they are
better than ever : indeed, so meritorious that the vyhole
class of steers or oren is " generally commeiideu."
Mr. Cane's prize ox is very symisietrical indeed ; of won-
derful depth, and altogether a most valuable description
of animal. Mr. Heame's second prize is handsome, and
uncommonly good meat. Wc would menaon, as par-
ticularly good, those shown by Mr. BoUing, Mr. Shco-
smich, £.nd Mr. Jer. Smith ; and among ihe helicrs or
cows, those of Mr. Tilden Smith, Mr. Ner^me, Mr.
Cane, and Mr. Jer, Smith, are si:niiarl/ worthy ci gieafc

Of the Norfolk and Suffolk Polled Breedc, valuable
both for fattening and for milking, we have only one
in eachoi tae two clacses; bat 3. larger shcw^-.ml doubt-
less appear next year. Lord Sonuss aad Mr. Ba^haoi
are the succecsful e^hibitcrs.

Of the Longhor^s wa have not much to say. Mr.
Chapman's prize on, which took the prize at .oirniing-
ham, ol a light-red coicuv with c curly c^a,'c, is c. good
ionghorn. Ivlr. Eurbery's pri:;3 cow, whloh aisc ooiained
the prize at Birmingham, is of very good quality,
though net in such good coudidcn as she v.as iiiCi^j,
and, aa wg were told, sis uould uoi eat ''ia tliis close

piuC3."

'i'he Scotch Horned Steers or Osen wcre_ " gsnsraliy
ecmmended." Mr. Gacarsan's prize Qun-cGi0u.s4
Kighliud is . of consIuci-a>ic n:eriw, Oi ext.acrduiar/
depth &ad guastaace, csaa si;r.avis oa Suvii; le£-. ■^^'

40

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Duckworth's second- prize West Highland is also very
good, and another of his black West Highlands is also
an uncommonly good beast. Mrs. Delap's dun West
Highland, bred by Lord Abinger, has very great size ;
but the ribs are flat, and the frame, therefore, too nar-
row. The Marquis of Downshire has also a good
heifer in this class. The Duke of Beaufort's light-red
West Highland heifer is very good in form, and of su-
perior quality. Mr. Naylor's, though of great propor-
tionate length, is low, small, and not straight enough
to show much symmetry.

Of the only three Scotch Polled Oxen exhibited, Mr.
Heath's and Mr. M'Combie's got prizes, and Mr.
Oakley's Galloway was commended. BIr. Heath's is
magnificent for the breed, which is the Aberdeen ;
having not only great length and depth, but widely -
expanded chest and fore quarters, ribs well arched, and
uncommonly good hind-quarters and rump. This is
the animal which was disqualified by the French Go-
vernment at Poissy, because the Scotch exhibitors
protested that he had been falsely entered as pure-bred,
although (as they asserted) the breeder had declared to
Mr. Htath that the bullock was a cross from a shorthorn
and Scot. Mr. Heath was not suffered to explain or
defend himself from such a gross charge ; but, owing to
the interference of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, who would not
quietly see his countryman treated in so underhand
and unfair a manner, the documents and evidences
brought forward by these protestors v;ere obtained. A
correspondence took place between Mr. Heath, Mr.
Longmore the breeder, and the gentlemen who had
offered their testimony to the cross breed of the ox ; and
this has just been published in a pamphlet, from which
it would appear that tiie Scotch gentlemen have either
retracted or been shamed to silence ; while Mr. Heath
has been fully cleared of the calumnious accusation made
against him. At the present show he has carried off
the inrst prize for his bullock, the judges being thoroughly
satisfied about the correctness of its breed.

No Irish beasts have arrived.

In the Welsh classes every one admired Colonel Pen-
nant's ox, which gained the first prize, and also Mr.
Williamson's second-priEe younger beast. Mr. Heath's
black and white Welsh ox is of extraordinary size, his
depth and girth being great, and his back exceedingly
good.

In the cross or mixed-breed classes, the Earl of Rad-
nor takes the first prize for a very compact and well-
fed Hereford and Shcnhorn steer ; Colonel Towneley
the second prise ; and Mr. Hare's Suffolk and Short-
horn poll is c: valuable aaiE:s,l of nice quality. Mr.
TiiOiuas's Shorthorn and Hera.'ord 0:1 shows the possi-
bility of making t pretty good beast by intermixing two
breeds, each of which is psrfect in its own way ; brt we
c&nno^ say we like the produce as much as the originals.
The l>uk8 of Beaufort's prize West Highland and
Devon red heifer is an interesting and successful attempt
to combine the valuable qualities of amazingly distinct
breeda. She is a very conipactly-formed, fine, and beau-
tiful little mug.

We do not remember to have seen such a fine
Extra Stock class before 5 and the judges have de-
serveal? gijea i; c, " ger.sral ccmmendation." The sil-
ver ;a;ed^l is aujudicaved to hlsRcya'. Highness, for a very
capita; jvevon steer ; but cth3r ;udg£s would be quite as
likely tc .:&ve av/arded it in 0. different direction. In this
class 7?c find i^crd Walsinghaui's Shorthorn heifer,
which 13 iei, sad uncominonly r^cod ; the Marquis of
Esetsr b waits Saorthorn ox, which took the prize at
Oaktiam last vsek : the Earl cf Leicester's Be^on 02,
handscme, fing, beautifully fed, Icnr, Tr^t symmetri-
cal, s-'^ig'^tty defective aLcut the aind-^raarters; Sir
A-nosnai "//"hiehcsts's cbcrthorn sew. lev-sij'deso-framed,
r-.r^', ^noi-mcusly larre Shorthorn

f.ad g-Cw-d ; i/ir. Bi'coke',

ox ; Lord Feversham's uncommonly fine, level, and
beautiful Shorthorn heifer ,remarkable for her wide hips
and good rump of beef ; Mr. Game's good Shorthorn
cow ; Mr. Minton's very good and compact Shorthorn
heifer; Mr. Williamson's large-horned Welsh ox, very
meritorious indeed : and Mr. Pertwee's Hereford, which
is a picture.

SHEEP.

There has been a considerable growth in the exhi-
bition of good mutton, the number last year and this
being as follows :

1856. 1857.

Long-wools 40 .. 35

Cross-breeds 18 .. 32

Short-wools 38 . . 62

Here we see at a glance that, while the Long-wools — or
more properly the Leicesters — have slightly diminished
in number, the crossbreeds and Southdowns, and other
Short-wools have nearly doubled their entries in a single
year. The great feature of the sheep-classes (just as
at Birmingham) is the great advance made, and the size
and superior quality attained, in a few years, by the
crossbreeds, the long and short-wool half-breds being
now some of the most profitable sheep we possess.

Class thirty-three includes some very great shear-
lings, as Ml. nine's Leicester and Downs, and Mr. C.
Howard's Oxfordshire Downs. It is a pity that the
first prize sheep, good as they are, present the appear-
ance of far wider backs to the eye than they actually re-
veal to the hand. Mr. Keep's second-prize Southdown
and Cotswolds are very large, of great width and sub-
stance, thick necks, and have beautiful mutton and a good
quantity of fair wool ; their rumps rather defective.
Mr. Hitchman's are good, and Mr. Stevens's have un-
commonly good backs. Mr. John Overman's com-
mended Southdown and Leicesters are very great, broad,
and good ; Mr. Edmonds's highly-commended ,Oxford-
shire Downs not equally meritorious.

The next class — in which the sheep do not
exceed 2201bs. live weight — is very good. Mr.
Overman's prize Southdown and Leicesters are beauties,
and their quality first-rate. Mr. C. Howard's second-
prize Oxfordshire Downs are only slightly inferior ; and
the Earl of Leicester's, Mr. Hine's, and Mr. Twitchell's
pens are all of exceeding good character.

The " Extra Stock" of crossbreds is a large class.
Mr. Keep's extremely good Cotswold and Southdown
wether gains tlie silver medal ; Mr. John Overman's
highly-commended Southdown and Leicester wether is
very well formed, wide, and meritorious ; Mr. Hine's
Leicester and Down wether very handsome ; Mr.
Twitchell's, and the Earl of Leicester's, both deserving
their commendations ; and Mr. Hemming's Cotswold
and Sussex Down wether is noticeable for its tremen-
dous frame and proportions.

The short-woolled breeds are honoured with a gold
medal, which has been fairly won by his Grace the Duke
of Richmond, for a pen of Southdowns of his well-
known character. The Earl of Radnor's Southdowns
are very fine, meriting their second prize. Mr. Kent
exhibits Downs of splendid form, which would have
certainly gained a prize had they been more judiciously
fed. The third prize is awarded to Mr. Rigden, and a
high commendation to Lord Walsingham : but we do
not concur in the decision here, his lordship's being
much broadei', better-formed, and handsomer than the
others, and not far below them in quality. What a
pity it la that exhibiters often leave so much to their
chephsrds ! for were they to hand their sheep a little
before se.iding off to the show, they would detect
EOiae two inches' thickness of wool on ths shoulder and
not cne inch on the loin, which (we may inform them)
has the effect of displaying an even, perfectly -shaped

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

41

contour lo superficial observers, and by concealing a
defective form from the eye, vrinning a favourable first
impression that often goes a long way with inexperienced
judges. The class for sheep under 2001bs. live weight
is remarkably meritorious, and therefore " generally
commended. ' The Duke of Richmond's prize sheep
are wonderfully handsome, and of superb quality ; Mr.
Marjoribank's highly commended are extremely good
Lord Walsingham's beautiful, and very good mutton
Mr. Rigden's small, but very pretty, and of nice quality
but we did not like the handling of Mr. Kent's second-
prize sheep anything like so well as that of some others.
The Earl of Radnor's prize older sheep are of great sub-
stance, and of the right form and quality ; Lord Wal-
singham's second prize most excellent in shape, and
longer and bigger than Mr. Kent's highly-commended
beautiful wethers. Ths Duke of Richmond is also suc-
cessful here in getting the third prize. In the class for
short-wools, "not being Southdowns," the first-prize
Hampshire Down wethers of Mr. Sharp have good
backs ; of very large size, said to weigh 24 stone each.
Mr. Pain gets the second prize ; but the pen is not a
level lot, one sheep being a beauty, and the other two
having defective loins and rumps ; and we are of opinion
that Mr. Canning's sheep — of great size and expansion,
as well as handsome looks — ought to have had this prize
instead of the third. Mr. Humphries' west-country
Downs are highly-commended, doubtless for their beau-
tiful form, great substmce, and splendid backs. Mr.
H. Smit-.h's Shropshire Downs, which took the prize at
Birmingham, do not hmdle so well here as they did
there, but are of very good form, with capital ramps
and good wool. Tie extra-stock short-wool class com-
prises a great many sheep. The wethers are extraordi-
narily good ; and we need only mention as of first-class
character and quality the Duke of Richmond's, which
won the silver medal ; Mr. Kent's, highly commended ;
the Earl of Radnor's, highly commended; Mr. Marjori-
banks, highly commended ; and Mr. W. King's, com-
mended. Mr. Foljambe's silver-medal Southdown ewe
is a beauty ; Lord Walsingham's and Mr. Rigden's very
good.

The gold medal for long-wools is taken by Lord Ber-
ners for by far the handsomest and best shearlings in
these classes. The rest of the sheep in class thirty-one
do not present any very remarkable points. In class
** thirty, Mr. Foljambe's prize wethers are remarkably

good, very good frames, handsome backs, though rumps
too short. Mr. Bradshaw's second-prize pen are open
to a similar criticism. Mr. Hopper's are extremely
good sheep, which were commended at Birmingham.
In the class for Fat wethers not Leicesters, Mr. Hewer's
prize Cotswolds are particularly good ; and the second-
prize Cotswolds of the Royal Agricultural College of
Cirencester are of great size, but rather long in frame.
Lord Berners gets the silver medal in the extra-stock
class for long-wooUed wethers ; and the Marquis of
Exeter also shows well here. In the extra-stock class
for ewes, Mr, Bradshaw's Leicester ewe — a real beauty,
and exceedingly good in back, plaits, ramp, and fore-
quarters — wins the silver medal.

PIGS.

This year we have four classes of pigs instead of three,
in addition to one for extra stock, the alteration provid-
ing separate competition for animals of a younger age;
and, except in the last class, all the stated ages are much
earlier than was formerly the case. Last year there
were 25 pens of three, and 13 single animals, or 38
entries altogether : this year there are 40 pens of three,
and 19 single animals, making a total of 59 ; which is a
very large increase in one year.

Pig-breeding and pig-feeding have simultaneously
progressed at such a rapid rate, that we are every year

more and more astonished at the earliness of maturity
they manifest. It is really wonderful how so much meat
can be accumulated upon the tender, unhardened frames
of mere porcine "babes and sucklings." Mr. Morland's
first prize white Chiltons are not 4 months old ; and
Mr. Baskcomb's second prize little beauties, of the white
Kent breed, are only 15 weeks old. Mr. Driice's small
black Oxfordshire pigs (highly commended) are only
justS months old. la the class for " Pigs not exceeding
8 months old," Mr. Barber's prize Middlesex pigs deserve
the highest praise. Sir J. B. Mills's second-prize white
pigs are very fiue in quality. We admired Sir John
Cathcarl's black ones (highly commended), and also
Mr. Crisp's 6^ months old (black), which were sucking
at Salisbury in July.

The next class, for *'Pigsnotexceedingl2monthsold,"
is not particularly meritorious. Sir W. Booth's white
Woodburys are good, and also the pen shown by Mr.
Underwood and those of Mr. Marjoribanks ; and there
are three pretty good Neapolitan black pigs, exhibited
by Lady Pigot.

The class for " Pigs not exceeding 18 months old" is
" generally commended," being certainly very mag-
nificent.

Mr. Morland's first-prize Improved Chiltons are
very perfect in form, of splendid quality, very deep,
and thick both in neck, chine, and hind-quarters. Mr,
Betts's second prize Improved Suff"olks are also particu-
larly good. Mr. Tombs's highly-commended black
Berkshire and Essex pigs are beauties ; and Mr. Sadler's
Berkshires, and the Rev. J. Holmes's Norfolk and
Essex pigs are remarkably good in form and quality.
His Royal Highness shows some excellent pigs in this
class ; and there is a pen of enormously fat ones, of a
black breed, from the Parkhurst Prison Farm, in the
Isle of Wight.

The Extra Stock single pigs form a famous class.
The silver medal is awarded to Mr. W. Davey, jun., for
No. 354 — small black Leicester breed, very fat, and of
most beautiful quality; in symmetry uncommonly well-
formed. No, 349, shown by Mr. Barber, is highly
commended, having a wonderfully fat neck. No. 351,
shown by Mr. Hemming, is highly commended, and is
certainly of extraordinary substance. Mr. Crisp's white
Suffolk sow is also higlily commended — a magnificent
animal, of very great size, deep, wide, and beautifully
proportioned ; in quality also very fine.

Taken as a whole, we do not rank the show of pigs
above the exhibitions of some former years, in respect
to superbness of quality and high fattening ; though
there are certainly several very grand specimens to be
found among the unprecedented number of pens entered
on this occasion.

AWARD OF PRIZES.

FAT CATTLE.

JUDGES.

S. Anstey, Cornwall.

J. Buckley, Normantoti Hdl, Loughborough.

J. B. Thompson, Arnaby, Hull.

DEVONS.
Steers, not exceeding 3 years olJ.
First prize, £25 — John Overman, Buriihani Sutton, Burn-
ham Market, Norfolk. Silver Medal to breeder, Mrs. Clark,
Buruham Market. Purchased by Mr. Jeffery, Foubert'a-place,
Regent-street.

Second, £10 — His Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
Purchased by Mr. Jeffery.

Third, £5— The Earl of Leicester, Holkhara, Norfolk.
Purchased by Mr. Jeffery.

Steers or Oxen, above 3 years old.
First prize, £25., and Silver Medal as breeder — The Earl of
Leicester. Purchased by Mr. Jeffery.

42

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

Second, £10 — William Heath, Ludham Hall, Norwich.
Purchased by Mr. Spencer, of Southampton.

Third, £5 — Henry Hine Ball, Hankridge Farm, West
Monkton, Taunton. Purchased by Mr. Harry Frampton, of
Blandford, Dorset.

Heifers, not exceeding 4 years old.

First prize, £15 — His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
Silver Medal to the breeder, James Hole, Knowle House,
DuQster, Somerset, Purchased by Mr. Jeffery.

Second, £5 — Walter Farthing, Stowey Court, Bridgwater.
Purchased by Mr. J. W. Cowell, Colchester, Essex.

Cows, above 4 years old.

First prize, £20 — John Coate, Hammoon, Blandford, Dorset.
Silver medal to the breeder, Edward Boucher, Jews Farm,
Wiveliscombe. Purchased by Mr. Clifton, Wimborne, Dorset.

Second, £10— John Bodley, Stockley Pomeroy, Crediton,
Devon. Purchased by Mr. T. M. Smith, Westbury, Wilts.

Third, £5— John C. Halse, Molland, South MoltOD, Devon.
Purchased by Mr. W. Stone, HoUoway Road.

HEREFORDS.
Steers, not exceeding 3 years old.
First prize, £25— William Heath, Ludham. Silver Medal
to the breeder, William Stedman, Bedstone Hall, Aston-on-
Clunn, Salop.

Second, £10 — His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
Purchased by George Reed, Burnham, Somerset.

Third, £5— John Naylor, Leighton Hal!, Welsh Pool,
Montgomery.

Steers or Oxen, above 3 years old.

First prize, £25 — John Shaw, Hunsbury HUl, Northamp-
ton. Silver Medal to the breeder, Richard Shirley, Bancott,
Shropshire. Purchased by George Gutheridge, High-street,
Poplar.

Second, £10 — William Heath, Ludham. Purchased by Mr.
W. Pointing, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Third, £5— The Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall, Gravesend,
Kent. Purchased by G. Freemautle, Upper Hill-street,
Richmond, Surrey.

Commended — E. Wright, Halston, Oswestry ; C. Duffield,
Marcham, Abingdon; J. Ford, juu., Ruston, Blandford: and
the class generally commended.

Heifers, not exceeding 4 years.

First prize, £15 — Henry Higgins, Woolaston Grange,
Lydney, Gloucester. Silver Medal to the breeder, William
Raester, Withington Court, Hereford.

Second, £5 — Samuel Walker Urwick, Linthall Starks,
Ludlow.

Cows, above 4 years old.

First prize, £20, and Silver Medal as breeder — Edward
Thomas, Colebatch, Bishop's Castle, Salop.

Second, £10 — Richard Thomas, Ryton, Dorrington, Salop,
Purchased by Mr. Tomline, 2, Queen-street, Pimlico.

Third, £25 — John Naylor, Leighton. Purchased by Mr.
G. Stanley, 10, Cambridge Road, Mile-End Gate,

SHORTHORNS.
Steers, not exceeding 3 years old.
First prize, £25, and Silver Medal as breeder— Robert
Lynn, Stroxton, Grantham, Lincoln. Purchased by W. Bot-
trell, Rochester-row, Westminster.

Second, £10— Earl Spencer, Althorp, Northampton. Pur-
chased by W. Lambert, Victoria-road, Pimlico.

Third, £5 — Joseph Stratton, Manningford Bruce, Pewsey,
Wilts. Purchased by Smith and Sod, Salisbury.

Steers or Oxen, above 3 years old.

First prize, £25, Gold Medal as best steer or ox in any
of the classes, and Silver Medal as breeder. — Edward Wortley,
Ridlington, Uppingham, Rutland. Purchased by Messrs. Da-
vis, Black Bull, New Cattle Market.

Second, £10 — W. de Capell Brooke, Geddington Grange,
Kettering. Purchased by W. Jones, Merthyr, Glamorgan-
shire.

Third, £5— Henry Roberts, Paxford, Moreton-in-Marsh,
Gloucester.

Commended— hoiA Southampton, V/hittlsbury, Towcester.

Heifers, not exceeding 4 years old.

First prize, £15 — Joseph Phillips, Ardington, Wantage,
Berks. Silver Medal to the breeder, Richard Stratton, Broad
HintoD, Swindon. Purchased by Thomas Collingwood, Abing-
don, Berks.

Second, £5 — Earl of Radnor, Coleshill House, Faringdon,
Berks. Purchased by William Jones, Merthyr,

Cows, above 4 years old.

First prize, £20, Gold Medal as best cow or heifer in
any of the classes, and Silver Medal as breeder — Lieut.-Col.
Charles Towneley, Towneley, Burnley, Lancaster.

Second, £10 — Sir Thomas Whichcote, Bart.. Ashwarby
Park, Falkingham, Lincoln.

Third, £5 — Edward Wortley, Ridlington, Purchased
by Mr. Thomas Phelp, 10, Seymour-place, Camden Town.

Commended — T. Girne, Broadmoor, Nothleach.

SUSSEX.
Steers or Oxen of any age.

First prize, £20, and Silver Medal aa breeder — Edward
Cane, Berwick Court, Lewes. Purchased by Mr. Sharp,
Brighton.

Second, £10— Charles Neame and Sons, Selling, Fever-
sham, Kent. Purchased by Mr. Sharp.

The Class yenerally commended.

Heifers or Cows of any age.

First prize, £10, and Silver Medal'as breeder — Tilden Smith,
Beckley, Staplehurst, Sussex. Purchased by Mr. Spinger,
Southampton.

Second, £5— Charles Neame and Sons, Selling, Feversham,
Kent.

Commended — E. Cane, Berwick.

NORFOLK or SUFFOLK.
Polled Steers or Oxen of any age.
First prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder— Lord
Sondes, Elmham Hall, Thetford, Norfolk. Purchased by Mr.
G. Nicholson, North Elmham, Norfolk.

Polled Heifers or Cow, of any age.
First prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder — G. D. Bad-
ham, The Sparrow's Nest, Ipswich. Purchased by Mr. T,
Richards, 3, Phcenix-^treet, Somers Town ,

LONGHORNS.

Steers or Oxen, of any age.

First prize, £10~R. H. Cliapmaa, Upton, Nuneaton, War-
wick. Silver Medal to the breeder, the late Samuel Burbery,
Wroxhall, Warwick. Purchased by Mr. Newbury, Southamp-
ton-street, Camberwell.

Heifers or Cows, of any age.

First prize, £10 — Joseph Holland Burbery, of The Chase,
Kenilworth, Warwick. Silver Medal to the breeder, the late
Samuel Burbery, Wroxhall. Purchased by Mr. Newbury,
Southampton-street, Camberwell.

Second, £5 — John Jackson Burbery, Ibstock, Ashby-de-la-
Zoucb, Leicester. Purchased by Mr, Newbury.

SCOTCH-HORNED.
Steers or Oxen, of any age.

First prize, £20 — Mr. Alexander Goodman, Willow Hall,
Thorney, Cambridge. Purchased by Mr. Smith, King'a-
road, Chelsea.

Second, £10— Mr. Thomas Duckworth, Park Farm,
Finchley, Middlesex. Purchased by Mr, James Home, High-
street, Camden Town.

The class generally commended.

Heifers or Cows, of any age.

First prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder — The Duke
of Beaufort, Badmington, Chippenham, Wilts. Purchased by
Mr. Thomas Pawsey, Bath.

Second, £5 — Mr, John Naylor, Leighton. Purchased by
Mr. H. Squire, Watford, Herts.

SCOTCH POLLED.
Steers or Oxen, of any age.
First prize, £20— Mr. William Heath, Ludham. Purchased
by Mr. S, Mann, Croydon.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

48

Second, £10— Mr. William McCombie, Tillyfour, Aberdeen.
Purchased by Mr. Joseph Banniatcr, Windsor.

Commended — Mr. R. Oakley, Laurence End, Luton.

Heifers or Cows, of any age.
[No entry.]

IRISH.

Steers or Oxen, of any age.

[No entry.]

Heifers or Cows, of any age.
[No competition.].

WELSH.
Steers or Oxen (Runts), of any age.

First prize, £20— The Hon. Colonel Pennant, Penrhyn
Castle, Bangor, Carnarvon — Silver Medal to the breeder, Mr.
Richard Evans, Tal-y-braich, Bangor. Purchased by Hall
and Son, Liverpool.

Second, £5— Mr. Isaac Williamson, Greenhill, Pembroke.
Purchased by Mr. Petherbridge, Hastinga-atreet, Brunswick-
square.

The class generally commended.

Heifers or Cows, of any age.
The prize of £10— Mr. John Ewins Bennett, Bosworth
Grange, Rugby. Purchased by Mr. G. Hatch, Croydon.

CROSS OR MIXED-BRED.
Steers, not exceeding 3 years old.
First prize, £15, and Silver Medal as breeder— The Earl of
Radnor, Coleshill House, Faringdon. Purchased by Mr.
Field Waghorn, Cheltenham.

Second, £10 — Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Towneley. Pur-
chased by Miss Abbott, Wimborne.

Steers or Oxen, above 3 years old.

First prize, £15 — Mr. Richard Thomas, Ryton, Dorrington,
Salop— Silver Medal to breeder, Mr. J. K. Smith, Radbrook,
Shrewsbury.

Second, £5 — Henry Bone, Avon Farm, Ringwood,
Southampton. Purchased by Mr. John Ridout, Poole, Dorset.

Heifers, not exceeding 4 years old.
The prize of £10, and Silver Medal as breeder — The Duke
of Beaufort. Purchased by Mr. Thomas Pawsey, Bath.

SHEEP.

Judges.
S. Anstey, Cornwall.

J. Buckley, Normanton Hill, Longhborough.
J. B. Thompson, Aruaby, Hull.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any Long-woolled breed,
1 year old (under 22 months.)

First prize, £20, and Silver Medal as breeder— Mr. G. 3.
Foljambe, Osberton Hall, Worksop, Notts. Purchased by
Mr. Newbury, Southampton-street, Camberwell.

Second, £15 — Mr. C. J. Bradshaw, Alstoe House, Burley-
on-the-Hill, Oakham, Rutland. Purchased by Mr. Wm.
Hawkins, 6, Johnson-place, Harrow-road.

Third, £5 — Mr. John Hopper, Brompton Green, Pickering,
York. Purchased by Mr. E. Basaett, Crown-court, St.
James's.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any long-woolled breed, 1 year

old (under 22 months), each sheep not to exceed 2201bs.

live weight.

First prize, £20, Gold Medal as best long-woolled sheep
in any of the classes, and Silver Medal as breeder — Lord Ber-
ners, Keythorpe Hall, Leicester. Purchased by Alfred Gor-
ton, Great Windmill- street, Haymarket.

Second prize, £15 — Richard Newman, Harrowden, Bedford.
Purchased by Mr. J. Parfitt, Old Manor-road, Stepney.

Third prize, £5 — G. S. Foljambe, Osberton.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any long-woolled breed not Lei-
cesters, 1 year old (under 22 months).
First prize, £15, and Silver Medal as breeder — William
Hewer, Seveahampton, Hii;hwortb, Wilts. Purchased by Mr.
Samuel Bridge, Manor-street, Chelsea.

Second prize, £10— The Royal Agricultural College, Ciren-
cester. Purchased by Mr. Rebble, Chapel-street, Edgeware-
road.

Third prize, £5 — no competition.

Judges for cross-bred and ahort-woolled sheep—

J. Clayden, Littlebury, Saffron Walden.
H. Lugar, Hengrave, Bury St. Edmunds.
E. Pope, Great Toller, Dorset.

Long and Short-woolled Cross-bred Fat Wether
Sheep, 1 year old (under 22 months),

Fiist prize, £15, and Silver Medal as breeder— George
Hine, jun., Oakley, Bedford. Purchased by Mr. Spinger,
Southampton.

Second prize, £10— Adam Corrie Keep, WoUaston, Welling-
borough. Purchased by Mr. Woriey, Kensington.

Third prize, £5— Charies Howard, Biddenham, Bedford.
Purchased by Mr. S. Knight, Union-street, Clarendon-square,
Somerstown.

Highly commended— E. Edmonds, Longworth, Faringdon.

Commended— J. Overman, Burnham Sutton.

Long and Short-woolled Cross-bred Fat Wether

Sheep, 1 year old (under 22 months), each sheep not to

exceed 2201b3. live weight.

First prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder— John Over-
man, Burnham Sutton. Purchased by Mr. Sacks, Crawford-
street, Marylebone.

Second prize, £5— Charies Howard, Biddenham. Pur-
chased by John Stevens, Oxford.

IligJdy commended — The Earl of Leicester.

Commended — G. Hine, jun., Oakley.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any short-woolled breed, 1 year old
(under 22 months).

First prize, £20, Gold Medal as best short-woolled sheep,
and Silver Medal as breeder — The Duke of Richmond, Good-
wood, Chichester. Purchased by Mr. King, Paddington-street.

Second prize, £10— The Eari of Radnor, Coleshill House,
Faringdon. Purchased by Mr. Stimpaon, Wandsworth.
. Third prize, £5— William Rigden, Hove, Brighton. Pur-
chased by Mr. Davey, Brighton.

Fligldy commended— LorA Walsingham, Merton, Thetford.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any short-woolled breed, 1 year old

(under 22 months), each sheep not to exceed 2001b3. live

weight.

First prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder— The Duke of
Richmond. Purchased by Mr. King, Paddington-street.

Second prize, £5— John Kent, Goodwood, Chichester. Pur-
chased by John Stevens, Oxford.

HigJdy commended — S. Maijoribanks, Bushey Grove, Wat-
ford.

Commended— Jjori Chichester, Stanmer, Lewes ; and the
class generally commended.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any ahort-woolled breed, 2 years
old (above 22 and under 34 months).

First prize, £20, and Silver Medal as breeder— The Earl of
Radnor, Coleshill. Purchased by W. Jeffery, Foubert's-place.

Second prize, £10— Lord Walsingham, Merton Hall, Thet-
ford. Purchased by W. Jeffery.

Third prize, £5— The Duke of Richmond. Purchased by
W. King, Paddington-street.

Highly coynmended — J. Kent, Goodwood.

Commended — W. Rigden, Hove.

Fat Wether Sheep, of any short- wooUed breed not South
Downs, 1 year old (under 22 months),

First prize, £15 — James Sharp, Remenham, Henley on
Thames ; Silver Medal to the breeder, John Piggott, Harrow
Farm, Froxfield, Hungerford. Purchased by W. Jeffery.

Second prize, £10— J. T. F.Pain, North Houghton Manor,
Stockbridge. Purchased by Alfred Gorton, Great Windmill-
street, Regent-street.

Third prize, £5 — William B. Canning, Chisleden, Swindon,
Wilts. Purchased by W. Bottrill, Rochester-row, Westmin-
ster.

Highly commended — W. Humphrey, Oak Ash, Wantage.

Commended — W. King, New Hayward, Hungerford.

44

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

PIGS.

Judges.
J. Clayden, Littlebury, Saffron Waldeii.
H. LuGAR, Hengrave, Bury St. Edmuuds.
E. Pope, Great Toller, Dorset.

Pigs of auy breed, not exceeding 4 months old.

First prize, £10, and Gold and Silver Medals as breeder —
George B. Morland, Chilton Farm, Abingdon, Berks. Pur-
chased by John Lewes, Bristol.

Second, £5 — George Henry Bascomb, Manor House,
Chislehurst, Kent. Purchased by Mr. Ketteman, King-street,
Bow.

Ilir/Jihj commended — S. Druce, Eynaham, Oxon.
Pigs of any breed, above 4 and not exceeding 8 months old.

First prize, £10, and Sdver Medal as breeder — William
Mills Barber, Suuninghill Wells, Berks.

Second, £5— Sir J. B. Mill, Bart., Mottisfont Abbey,
Romsey, Southampton. Purchased by Mr. Benny, Camber-
well Gate.

Highly commended — Sir J. A. Cathcart, Cooper's Hill,
Chertsey,

Commended — T. Crisp, Butley, Woodbrid^je.
Pigs of any breed, above 8 and not exceeding 12 months old.

First prize, £10 — Sir Williamson Booth, Bart., Woodbury
Hall, St. Neots. Purchased by Mr. G. Glock, Broadway,
Deptford.

Hiyhlij coimnended — G, Underwood, Ashbridge, Berk-
hampsted.

Commended — S. Marjoribanks, Bushey Grove.
Pigs of any breed, above 12 and under 18 months old.

Fiist prize, £10, and Silver Medal as breeder — George B.
Morland, Chilton. Purchased by Mr. Tinkler, Knijihtsbridge.

Second, £5 — Edward Ladd Betts, Preston Hall, Maidstone.
Purchased by Mr. John Lewes, Bristol.

Highly commended — J. K. Tombs, Langford, Lechlade.

The class generally commended.

EXTRA STOCK.

Silver Medal, for the best Beast in extra stock — His
Royal Highness the Prince Consort (Devon Steer). Pur-
chased by Messrs. Comfort and Son, 77, Farringdon-street,
City.

Silver Medal, for the best Long-woolled Wether Sheep in
extra stock — Lord Berners. Purchased by Alfred Gorton,
Great Wiudmill-street, Haymarket.

Silver Medal, for the best Long-woolled Ewe in extra stock —
Mr. C. J. Bradihaw, Alstoe, Burley-on-t,he-Hill. Purchased
by Mr. Ford, Kenton-street, Brunswick-square.

Silver Medal, for the best Cross-bred Sheep in extra stock-
Mr. Adam Corrie Keep, WoUaston, Wellingborough (South-
down and Cotswold).

Silver Medal, for the best Short-woolled Wether Sheep in
extra stock — The Duke of Richmond. Purchased by Mr.
King, Paddingtou-atreet.

Silver Medal, for the best Short-woolled Ewe in extra
stock— Mr. G. S. Foljambe. Purchased by Mr. Turpen,
Barkiug, Essex.

Silver Medal, for the best Pig in extra stock — Mr. William
Davey, jiin. (Leicester.)

The Cattle in extra stock generally commended.

In extra-stock Sheep, highly commended— Mr. J. Overman,
Burnham (Southdown and Leicester), Mr. J. Kent (Southdown),
Mr. S Marjoribanks (Southdown), Lord Radnor (Southdown),
and Lord Wahiugham (Southdown).

In extra-atock Sheep, commended — Lord Leicester (Leicester
and Southdown), Mr. J. B. Twitchell, Wilby (Down Cotswold
and Leicester), Mr. W. King (West-country Down), and Mr.
W. Kig.len (Southdown).

In extra-stock Pigs, liiyhly coynmended—Ur. W. Mills Bar-
ber, Sunning-hill (Liiproved Middlesex), Mr. W. Hemming,
Coldicott, Moretou-in-Marsh (Improved Coldicott). and T.
Crisp, Butley (Suffolk).

EXHIBITION OF IMPLEMENTS, ROOTS. &c.

_ We will certainly try to give some report of this ex-
hibition, but the crowded state of the galleries contain-

ing the specimens exhibited forbids any approach to
accuracy in detail ; and much as we should like to
oblige our many exhibitors by an extended notice of
their interesting collection of implements, machinery,
articles of dairy and domestic use, and the various root,
seed, and other stalls, we find it is utterly impossible to
do so with any satisfaction to ourselves or to them. If
want of space characterizes the cattle show below, how
much more is it felt above ! There valuable implements
are packed one above another, and others are never seen
at all. We inquired for Bentall's well-known scarifier,
and, large as it is, it was hidden amongst the surround-
ing implements. This department of the Smithfield
Club Show is npw becoming a most important feature ;
the immense offshoot is fast outgrowing the stupendous
tree, and must be provided for. We are well aware
that the implement show is independent of the Smith-
field Club, and forms no part of their operations; but
as it has now become in real fact a prominent part of
the show, the public look to the Club to make provision
for suitable accommodation. Last year the charge
for space was one guinea for every 4ft. Gin. frontage ;
this year the same charge is made for 2ft. 9in. frontage.
We were told that one of our leading firms paid from
^^33 to £37 for standing, another a similar sum, another
£22, and so on according to the engaged space. We do
not know the srea of these galleries, but they contain
about 100 exhibitors, few of whom pay less than from
two to ten guineas eiich. We never heard a complaint
so general of bad accommodation, for which they paid so
dearly. The proprietor has done what he could to
divide his space between the applicants ; but not having
enough, the consequence is that the implements and ma-
chinery are imperfectly shown, they thus obtain a doubtful
reputation, and dissatisfaction is the result. We com-
mend the subject to the Smithfield Club. Something
must be done. The proprietor must be induced to
enlarge his space by adding more upper galleries, and
the steam-engines below must give place to the stock.
We admire the general arrangements made by Mr,
Boulnois for the accommodation of all parties, and we
think the site of the show-yard very desirable ; but as
the thing continues to grovr, the space will not suflSce,
and it will ultimately be for the Club to provide for its
increasing exhibitors. We think the neighbourhood
of the Metropolitan Market could point out a good
place. We have now every convenience of rail and other
modes of transit. It may not be visited by so many of
the London citizens as 2. show place ; but the attendance
of agriculturists would be larger, as it would un-
doubtedly then include the Great Metropolitan Market-
day, when great numbers from every part of the kingdom
attend. It is precisely at this period of the year when a
national implement show is of most value : the various
operations of thrashing, chaff cutting, cake-breaking,
root-steaming, &c., are now going on, and farmers are
not always so provident as to provide these things in the
summer for the requirements of the winter. We urge
these matters upon the favourable attention of the Club.
We will now elbow our way through the rows of ma-
chinery. The usual place below-stairs was appro-
priated to the exhibition of steam-engines and thrashing-
machines, but so pressed have the club been for room,
that they could not allow any firm to show both an en-
gine and machine ; so that Messrs. Garrett and Sons,
Clayton and Shuttleworth, Barrett and Exall, Tuxford
and Sons, Ransomes and Sims, Oliver Maggs, and Hay-
ward (of Derby) exhibited their well-known portable
engines ; whilst Hornsby and Sons, Wedlake and Dendy,
Humphries, Roby and Scott, Foord (of Lenham), and
Smith and Co. preferred showing their combined thrash-
ing and dressing or finishing machines. Holmes and
Son (Norwich) had also their cloverseed-drawing ma-
chine; and Hey wood's two-and-a-half-horse engine,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

45

with vertical cylinder and novel method of working the
slide, is well worthy the attention of the farmer.

[We now ascend the stairs with the crowd, for the short
time permitted for the private view does not suffice to
allow us to obtain even a cursory look at the im-
plements. This might be obviated another year without
interfering with the stock judges. We commend this
to the stewards']

We make our way to No. 1, the stall of
our indefatigable Director, or rather the firm
with which he stands connected. They exhibit
a splendid collection of roots — globe mangolds in abund-
ance, weighing from 20 to Sl^lbs. each ; carrots, reds and
whites ; exceedingly good long red mangolds, very fine
specimens ; capital swedes, Mr. Rose's variety standing
prominent; many beautiful specimens of turnips in
great variety. Many of the roots have the names of
the growers ticketed upon them ; amongst whom
we observed his Royal Highness the Prince Con-
sort, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. W. F. Hobbs, Mr.
Powells, Mr. Druce, Mr. Williams, Mr. Fryer, Mr.
W, E. Williams, Rev. R. T. Forrester, Mr. J. Ark-
wright, Mr. J. B. Twitchell, Mr. B. Crawshay, Mr. F.
Strickland, and the Parkhurst Prison Spade Husbandry.
The stall was beautifully ornamented with specimens
of seeds and grasses, &c.

The next stand is Mr. Busby's, of Bedale, York,
who exliibits his very useful prize carts and ploughs,
Woofe's patent paring-plough, and horse-hoes.

Wedlake sent a two-horse and a three-horse steam
machine of very useful character. These small machines
and engines appear to make way ; we have this year
several exhibitors of them.

Messrs. Garrett and Sons have the next stand, and
display their usual admirable selection from their manu-
factory. Their horse-hoe has a new and novel appliance
for elevating and depressing the hoes in work, consist-
ing of a movement made by a right and left-handed
screw, which, as turned by a crank, will lower or elevate
the hoes as required. To names so well known as im-
provers in agricultural mechanics we need not add our
word of approval.

Messrs. Geo. Gibbs and Co. show a stall of unusual
interest: cabbages weighing 301bs., gourd 1251bs.,
grown by Messrs. Thraill ; Skirving's swedes, very large ;
stubble or River's swede, grown since 1st of August ;
these and the yellow mangolds, very fine.

Btggs' dipping apparatus comes next. The sheep in
trough looks natural, and attractive enough to the casual
visitor.

Clayton and Shuttleworth are exhibitors of
their excellent machinery. The chief thing we would
notice in connection with this firm is their general reduc-
tion in prices of their engines and thrashing-machines,
drying from five to fifteen per cent., as good as ever.

Clayton (Henry) brings a very interesting model
of a cottage built with his improved bricks, tubular
and perforated. The cottage model is exceedingly good,
and consists of a double cottage under a large, expand-
ing roof, the one cottage being behind the other : a
small portico entrance, living room to the right, boys'
bed-room to the left, stairs in front of door ; the upper
floor consists of parents' bed-room and girls' bed-room,
with closets, &c. ; the living-room II feet 4 inches
by 9 feet 4 inches, other details in proportion ; the price
of double cottage, ^150. They have brought out also a
hand-machine for brick- making, and a small two-horse
pugging and brick machine ; their machines for brick-
making are so well known, that it is almost superfluous
to enumerate them.

Jno. Warner and Sons have a stand of their cele-
brated pumps for field service and the fold-yard ; root-
cutters and graters. Their irrigating pump may become
a yalnable acquisition in farm management.

T. Lloyd and Sons enter their superior flour and
corn crushing mills. These flour mills divide the meal
into five parts. We found Ball's ovens here.

Sutton and Sons have a splendid show of roots.
Globe yellow mangolds, very large : one grown on the
Prince Consort's farm weighed 291b8. ; another by Earl
Radnor Sl^lbs., which took the prize at Cirencester ;
a long white mangold weighed 421bs., another 401bs. ;
some large long reds by Mr. Benyon. Turnips and
other roots in splendid variety.

Jas. and Fred. Howard exhibit theirfamed ploughs,
horse-rakes, &c. They have effected an improvement
in strengthening their plough-beams by manufacturing
them of "ribbed or T iron," taking care to give ad-
ditional strength at the point of draught. When this
is done, the weight of the plough is not so heavy by
61bs. The coulter-stalk is oval. The management of
wheel fastenings is new and commendable.

Burgess and Key have an interesting exhibition,
attracting much attention, their prize reaper ranking
first : the conical screw, aiding so admirably the side-
delivery, was much noticed. The machine looks some-
what large and massive, but we have the result of the
trials at Boxted Lodge showing the draught before us,
which we have pleasure in giving. It is as follows :

Messrs. Burgess and Keys's. 2| cwt., cutting 5 ft. 4 in.
Messrs. Crosskill's Bell ... 4 cwt., cutting 5 ft. 4 in.
Messrs. Dray and Co.'s .... 3 cwt., cutting 4 ft. 4 in.

Their rotary pump is a novelty worth close examination :
it is a peculiar way of raising water, the continuous
turning of the crank causing a constant flow of water
through the vulcanized india-rubber pipe ; it is effected
by pressure creating the vacuum.

Dray and Co. have a first-class collection, including
their prize reaper, which created such interest at Water,
ford. Their other implements fully sustained their ac-
knowledged reputation as first-class mechanics as well
as agents. Their portable forge is a simple and useful
appendage in a farm-yard.

Messrs. Priest and Woolnough attract us with their
first-class horse-hoe, Garretts' pattern, with their own
improvements, the elevating and depressing movement
being the chief. Their general-purpose drills do the
firm great credit for clever arrangement, workmanship,
and cheapness.

Bentall has no less than three stands in diff'erent
places of the gallery, owing to want of space for con-
venient showing. He has a first-rate collection of
his own manufacture : his root-pulper now forestalling
his celebrated scarifier, in public interest. We did not
observe anything new as coming out since the Salisbury
Meeting. That it is to novelties that throughout this
report we have confined ourselves, having at that time
entered pretty fully into a notice of all the known im-
provements.

E. R. and F. Turner exhibit their customary and
excellent assortment of agricultural machinery, consist-
ing of roller mills, crushing and grinding mills, cake-
breaker, chaff-cutter, circular-saw bench, &c., &c.

HoRNSBY and Sons — Their unrivalled drills and
dressing machines, so universally known as to barely
need our notice of them as being present here.

Lawson and Son, select specimens of wheat, oats,
roots, &c. : their Lothian purple top continues to give
great satisfaction, being a near approach to the firm flesh
of the swede. Their Tweeddale yellow and Kohl rabi are
very fine roots. The stall was a fine exhibition of roots
of Scotch growth.

Skirving's stall is as attractive as ever — some im-
mense swedes and carrots. The swedes retain their
character in shape, quality, and size, and are now be-
come quite a known sort everywhere.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

BiNNS* manures deserve notice, Hs shows a sample
of wool manure.

Barrett and Exall's stand commands attention by
a large display of medals. But this is not all ; their show
of implements and machinery is very superior, consist-
ing of a good assortment of their excellent manufacture.
We think their names so well known that we need not
add more.

Angel and Co. make a selection of agricultural
books and almanacks. They appear desirous to aid in
agricultural literature by a choice selection.

Crosskill and Co. — This, again, is a firm so well
known, and the implements and machinery they exhibit
are so highly appreciated, that it seems to us quite out
of place to do more than notice them otherwise than in
this general way : all was as is usual with them,

Thorley called attention to his stand of samples of
flour for cattle food by the display of a magnificent gold
cup, which he is desirous to present to the Royal Agri-
cultural Society for their gift to the farmer who shall
fatten the most cattle best from his prepared food.

Archer brings forward some useful nose pincers or
cattle leaders, at 2s. 6d. each.

Tree and Co. show Ewart's cattle gauges, and Ca-
sella's weather instruments.

Grove (James) has his usual good collection of
roots ; his long red Bugle mangels are excellent ;
turnips, &c., in good variety. We are pleased to see
him keep up so good a stock.

Richmond and Chandler take their usual promi-
nent position in the exhibition gallery ; amongst their
machinery and implements we noticed a very useful and
cheap chafF-engine for small occupations, price £3 15s.

Snowden(VV.) exhibits a chaff engine and bruising
mill. The chaff engine has a large feeding-box, and is a
large machine to be worked by one person ; it does not
feed by rollers, but by a web underneath ; the feed
" only comes forward when the knife is from it;" its
novelty deserves attention.

Holmes and Sons send their manure-distribu-
tor, drill, and other machinery and implements ; their
weighing machines have long stood high in public
favour : they have also chaff engines, corn crushers,
cake breakers, turnip cutters, and pig troughs in good
variety ; their corn- dressing machine is popular.

Moore and Co. have churns in variety; the Yankee
churn the chief attraction. We did not see the Yankee
reaper.

Swift Brothers show their patent washing, wring-
ing, and mangling machines, liquid-manure pump, corn
bin, &c. ; all very good,

CuLLiNGFORD (VV.) boasts of vcry excellent garden
netting, sheep-fold netting, rabbit nets, carriage-horse
nets, fishing-nets, &c., some from cocoa fibre.

Page and Co. had a capital root-stall, immense
cabbage, mangels, and turnips ; six of Skirving's im-
proved weighed llOlbs., and six mangels weighed
193lbs, ; the largest specimen of mangel we noticed was
on this stand, its weight 441bs. ; turnips in fine variety.

Barnard and Bishop have their celebrated root
pulpers in variety.

Selby Hand, a combined crushing mill, sack weigh-
ing machine and lifter.

PicKSLEY, Sims, and Co. : Chaff cutters, mills,
washing machines, chain harrow, lawn mower, and
wringing and mangling machine.

GoDDARD : A very complete kitchen range.

B. Fowler and Co. : Cast-iron and bored pumps,
wrought-iron pumps, liquid-manure pumps on tripod
stands, and iron stable pails. These pumps last year ob-
tained great attention from their double action, thus keep-
ing up a continuous flow of water ; " the piston is solid,
and all the valves being out of the barrel, permits their
areas to equal that of the piston, and the water passages

to be proportionately large ;" the arrangements of the
details are very good, the application of Holman's
patent reciprocating lever being an improvement.

James exhibited his liquid-manure carts.

T. Hunt and Brothers : A clover and trefoil seed
drawer, chaff engine, scythes, and a variety of other
useful farm machinery ; well worthy a better notice.

Sigma : Dibbling implements, &c. ; specimens of
wheat unusually fine.

Carsons's chaff cutters, scarifiers, mills, crushers,
pulpers, hay rakes, ploughs, &c,, stand deservedly high
in pubhc estimation.

Impey shows his well-known dressing machine.

Smith and Sons, their truly-valuable drills, of simple
construction and excellent manufacture ; we believe this
firm is the oldest in drill machinery extant.

Cambridge sends his chain harrows ; we sup-
pose the regulations relative to weight (not to exceed
one ton) would preclude the exhibition of his large
rollers.

Samuelson showed his Gardner's turnip cutter in
variety, as also several pulpers, corn crushers, chaff
cutters, pumps for irrigation, and foldyard washing ma-
chines, and a variety of other useful articles, in character
with his long-established reputation for first-class ma-
chinery.

Williams' celebrated harrows were among other
things exhibited of highly useful character.

Reeves. — In addition to his celebrated Chandler's
liquid manure drills, which he has improved b}' an alter-
ation of the speed of delivery, showed a garden or one-row
drill. This can be made to deposit seed continuously or
as a drop or " bunch" drill ; the regulation is by discs
with perforated holes of various sizes inserted in the up-
right cylinder containing the seed ; these are turned as
the drill proceeds, and the seed drops through. The
height is regulated by the diameter of the wheel, but it
is requisite that the dropping should be close to the soil
for " bunching." Price £3 lOs. A new invention by
Mr. Reeve.

Woods exhibited a section of his poppy extirpator,
pulper, and other useful articles.

Delf entered a new invention for opening furrows,
or rather for taking the sheep droppings with the fur-
row sole out of furrows on seed pastures, and distribut-
ing them over the surface. It is of similar form to
Bentall's scarifier — say with one share on — and it has
two long iron plates four or five feet by six inches, which
expand and throw soil and manure over the surface. I
is novel, but did not appear to us a very useful implet
ment for its price, ^'10 10s.

Warren's expanding plough we heard was here,
but we did not see it.

Luck's dressing machine with patent elevators for
weighing, together with his mills, constituted his stand-
ing. The dressing machine is very popular.

Fisher exhibited his very useful horse-rake, mounted
on his other implements for want of space. His cake
mill is cheap ; and his other exhibition consisted of
bean, oats, and barley mills, chaff engines, &c.

PuRDiE and Co. brought washing machines and
knife cleaners. The washing machine is an oblong chest,
with dashers.

Read's cattle probangs, &c.j and garden engine came
next in our walk.

Smith and Ashby exhibited a well-known assort-
ment of their most useful implements ; the latest im-
provements in their chaff-engines, being a newly-invented
patent safety pressor : this is a lifting roller immediately
behind the cutting front, which prevents clogging. Their
chief novelty in this show is a 2^ horse power steam
engine, which can be used to work machinery, or is
easily converted into a steaming apparatus by turning
the steam into steam cylinders or tubs ; price .^60.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

47

Wallis and Haslam have a good selection of im-
plements; their two-horse portable thrashing machine is
good for small occupations.

Whitmee. — His flour mills, crushing mills, &c.

Boby's Screen. — This screen has received an improve-
ment ; it will now separate into three distinct qualities.
It has an additional separator like a flat box, fixed in
front, and receives beans, peas, &c., which it deposits
by spouts behind.

Barton's stable fittings are very complete through-
out; his self-acting rack keeps the hay always within
reach of the horse, by the elevation of the bottom, like
as sash windows are raised.

Boyd's dairy and washing utensils are worth a closer
inspection; he also shows a variety of implements.

Bridges has an almost infinite collection of butter
prints, of very pretty devices suited to the purpose.

BuRNEY and Bellamy have iron cisterns of various
sizes.

The St. Pancras Works show varieties in man-
gers, stable fittings, and furniture, specimens of wire
and iron fencing, hurdles, field-gates, and wire netting.

Jas. Hayes. — Grinding mill, straw elevator pat-
tern, &c.

S. Skye and Co. — Coffee-mills, sausage mills.

Perreaux's patent puuip is a capital general pur-
pose pump, and its india-rubber piston-valve has proved
well under severe trial.

Whitehead shows his very superior brick and tile
machines, which have received many honours from our
different societies at home and abroad. His pug ma-
chine is exceedingly good.

Thompson's haymaking machine and horserake —
two very superior implements, of which we reported
favourably in our Salisbury report.

Coleman displays his Hanson's prize potato digger,
his scarifier cr cultivator, harrows, &c. Hanson's po-
tato digger is the implement of the year : its capabilities
are great — it will clean a ridge of potatoes without diffi-
culty, throwing them abroad for picking so that all can
be readily gathered. It has been more than once
described in the Marli Lane Express. " Coleman's
cultivator" is assuming a new position. He has suc-
ceeded in adapting it on a large scale for steam cultiva-
tion. Its adaptation was fully proved at the great
meetings of Salisbury and York, where it was worked
^ by BoydeU's traction engine.

Crowley and Son show a truly well-made and
very useful cart, the wheels run on bevel tire or square
level soles. Tipping apparatus very good.

Oliver Maggs exhibits a good assortment of ma-
chinery. Chafi" engines, cake breakers, turnip cutters,
bean and other mills and crushers, &c., &c.

Smith's steerage horse hoe is the best of its kind,
and after Goorka pattern. Delving machine good.

Wheeler sent his patent root grater, turnip cutter,
circular saw, and bean mill. The circular saw is a
very useful machine.

Cottam and Hallen have an attractive stand, con-
sisting partly of stable fittings, in variety of raclcs and
mangers. Their new triangular manger, for corners, is
a very convenient one. We noticed a good and unique
corn-bin of sheet-iron. Their stable furniture, con-
taining every requisite, is excellent. They make a
small portable liquid manure pump to run on its own
wheels, the pipe of vulcanized India-rubber. It is of
very simple arrangement ; can be moved to any cess-
pool for emptying it, &c.

Halifax and Co. display their farmers' account
books, recommended by the Royal Agricultural Society
of England, containing five books, i. e. for weekly
transactions — sale, purchase, ledger, and cash re-
spectively.

Ransomes and Sims occupy the most extensive

stand in the gallery, consisting of ploughs in great
variety, chaff engines, cake-breakers, crushing mills for
every farm purpose, with other machinery of their
almost unrivalled manufacture. We did not observe
any new invention or recent improvement of moment ;
while to give here any extended notice to describe the
uses and exquisite finish of their implements and ma-
chinery, would indeed be superfluous.

The Royal Dublin Society's Exhibition.—
The efforts of this Society have done much for Ireland.
It was established so far back as 1731. It now enjoys
a Government grant of ^7,000 annually, besides annual
subscriptions amounting to £2,000. An entrance fee
of ^£20 with an annual subscription of £1 Is. consti-
tutes an honorary member, and an entrance fee of ^5
5s. with an annual subscription of £l Is. an annual
member. The specimens on the Society's stands
were a portion of those shown at the Society's winter
exhibition of farm and dairy produce, held last month
on their premises in Dublin. The several roots, and sam-
ples of cereals, pulse, wool, and butter, were principally
contributed by the following noblemen and gentlemen :
the Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Charlemont, Col.
Kane Bunbury, the Marquis of Waterford, Major
Quentin, Doctor Taylor, Doctor Collins, the Com-
missioners of the Board of National Education in
Ireland from the Albert Model Farm and several of
their district model farms, J. H. Peart, Doctor
Radcliffe, LL.D., J. E. V. Vernon, Lord Talbot
de Malahide, the Marquis of Kildare, &c., &c. The
Royal Dublin Society exhibited, for the first time,
collections of Irish-grown produce at the Smithfield
Club Show in 1851, at the request of the Earl
of Clarendon, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
and, by virtue of his office, President for the time being
of the Society. The good results which attended that
step are well known in Ireland and in this country.
The collection shown at the Smithfield Club Show during
1851 and the subsequent years brought before the
British capitalist the capability of the soil of Ireland for
the production of white and green crops, " the great
reproducers of beef;" and English capital, still further
stimulated by the Great Irish Exhibition of 1853, flowed
freely into Ireland, and was largely employed in land
speculations, which turned out to be of a permanent
and highly remunerative kind. The Council of the
Society have sent forward this year a collection of
excellent farm products from various parts of Ire-
land ; and there are cards affixed to each lot, setting
forth the particulars of the various modes of culti-
vation, quantity and quality of manure, time of sowing,
and every particular which may be useful to the prac-
tical farmer, or others interested in husbandry.

Mr. Halket has a miniature field set out, to show
his new ^system called guide- way culture. It did not
appear to us very feasible, and must involve, in a great
degree, a new order of agriculture.

Nicholson's celebrated haymaking machine has our
unqualified praise. His assortment of machinery is ex-
ceedingly good ; his dressing and screen machines are
superior and cheap ; he has a capital machine for break-
ing thick cake ; grinding-mill, very serviceable. He
was prevented showing his newly-invented 2|^-horse
power steam engine, owing to the regulations not per-
mitting, as it weighed 1 ton 6 cwt. We saw some ma-
chinery we thought equally heavy. We hope in all cases
one rule was adhered to.

Sawney exhibited his renowned hariff-screen at-
tached to his almost equally-noted dressing machine.

Stacey had his barley-hummeller and chaff-cutters ;
the former has the long cylinder, in which revolves a
spindle armed with steel knives in a spiral form.

Spill — specimens of rick-covers, tarpaulins, horse-
cloths, and other covers.

48

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Johnson — his box-churns in variety, improved from
the Yankee pattern.

Impey — turnip and mangold graters, Taylor's inven-
tion,

Bradley exhibits samples of his fattening food for
cattle, &c. ; horse or cattle 42s., pig ditto 24s. per cwt.

The mincing machines exhibited by Taylor and
Buckingham must not be omitted — so simple and
effective. Richmond's box-churn is worthy oi better
notice than we can afford. Humphries' double cider-
press is a valuable aid to cider- makers : their winnowing-
machines and perforated riddles are well known. Their
clover-machine is good ; and here we notice Smith's
patent steam cultivator, of which they are agents, but
which we cannot stay to describe. It is now before the
world.

A. and T. Fry make up an interesting stand. Their
double-press plough by Cousins, their corn-crushers,
kibblers, root-graters, churns, draining tools, hand
hay-rake, and other implements, demand an extended
notice ; but our space is more than filled.

F. M'Neil and Co., as usual at all our great meet-
ings, bring forward their asphaltic felt, so admirably
adapted for cheap roofing.

GENEKAL MEETINGS.
Tuesday, Dec. 8 1857.

The Duke of Richmoud, President, prevented attending,
in consequence of being with his regiment of militia.

Cases of doubtful qualification of animals referred to
Stewards.

Officers re-elected : President ; vice-presidents ; trustees ;
hon. secretary.

Mr. QuaHly elected Steward of Cattle and Loug-wool Sheep
in place of Mr. Hole, who retires by rotation.

Mr. Henry Waters elected Steward of Short-wool Sheep,
Cross-bred Sheep, and Pigs, in place of Mr. Frost, who retires
by rotation.

New Members elected.

Thursday, Dec. 10, 1857.
Report of Stewards on cases referred to them presented.
Mr. B. E. Bennett's motion for a new Class for Welsh
Steers under four years old, was not carried.
The Prize Sheet to remain as settled last year.

THE ANNUAL DINNER.

The annual dinner of the Smithfield Club took place on
Wednesday evening, at Freemasons' Tavern. In the un-
avoidable absence of the President, His Grace the Duke of
Richmond, the chair was taken by Lord Beruers.

The attendance was larger than usual, the number pre-
sent being about 160. The company included Lord Fe-
vershatD, Lord William Lennox, ViceCliancellor Kindersly,
Mr, Western, M.P., Lieut. Col.-Towneley, Mr. Henry Wilson,
Mr. C. T. Tower, Mr. H. Brandreth, Rev. Mr. Tooke,
Mr. W. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Mechi, Mr. W. Hole, Mr. Sandy,
Mr. Torr, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. J. Raymond Barker, Mr.
R. W. Barker, Mr. S. Druce, Mr. G. P.Tuxford, Mr. R. W.
Baker, Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Wilmore, Mr. Badham, Mr.
Buckley, Mr. Corbet, Mr. Wortley, Professor Simonds,
&c., &c.

The dinner, an excellent one, was admirably served.
The musical arrangements were under the able direction of
Mr. Genge, who had the assistance of Miss Wells, Miss J.
Wells, Mr. Shoubridge, and Mr. Smythson.

On the removal of the cloth, the grace from the " Laudi
Spirituali" was sung.

The Chairman then rose and said he had to express his
deep regret, a regret which he was confident they all shared
with him, at the unavoidable absence of the noble duke their
President, in consequence of which he (Lord Berners) ,had,
in compliance with the request of the committee, accepted

the oflSce of chairman that day. It was now his pleasing
duty to propose to them " The Health of our illustrious and
gaacious Queen" (cheers). This was a toast which ought
always to stand upon its own merits, and it required no
eulogium from him to ensure for it an enthusiastic reception.
It might not, however, be unbecoming if at this particular
juncture he added his fervent aspiration that an Almighty
Providence might so direct her Majesty's councils that they
might tend to secure a speedy restoration of peace in her
foreign dominions, and increase the social happiness and pros-
perity of her people.

The toast was drunk with three times three, and followed^by
the National Anthem.

The Chairman would now give them "' The Prince Consort,
the Prince of Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family." The
Prince Consort, he observed, had claims upon their respect,
not only as the husband of onr beloved Sovereign, and the
father of that family in whom the hopes of England centred,
but as the patron of arts and agriculture, and as a member aud
a successful competitor at the Smithfield Show (cheers).

Serenade. — "Bless'd be the Home."

The Chairman again rose, and said that there were certain
times and circumstances which rendered the next toast
especially interesting, and he thought it should be given on
the present occasion in that assembly, although it had not
been the custom at these annual gatherings to do so. The
toast he had to propose was " The Army and Navy of
England" (loud cheers). When he considered that the mind
of every Englishman and every Englishwoman, and he might
add of every man and woman in the civilized world, had for
some time, and was even now, turned with absorbing interest
to the achievements of our army in the East, he felt that he
should hardly be doing his duty if he did not, at a meeting
of British faimers such as this, give them an opportunity
of expressing their respect and admiration for the mili-
tary aud naval services of their country (cheers). All
hearts had of late been painfully affected by the unparalleled
atrocities and barbarities that had been committed by the
rebel troops in India. Their blood had run cold in their
veins as they read the accounts which had reached them of the
barbarities which had been perpetrated upon innocent and
defenceless women, with children hanging at their knees, and
infants at their breasts. The foul deeds which had been
committed were, in short, such as were unrecorded iu
history. But as they contemplated them with the feelings
of emotion they were calculated to evoke, they turned with
hope to those gallant bands of our countrymen who were
engaged in avenging the cause of outraged humanity, and to
whose exertions alone we should owe it, if ever the territory
of India was restored to the authority of the British crown
(cheers). When they reflected on the comparatively small
numerical force of the British troops in India, and the diffi-
culties they had had to encounter in a climate and at a
season of the year when it was thought almost impossible
for European soldiers to traverse that country ; when,
notwithstanding this, they reflected upon the rapidity of
their marches, their indomitable courage and perseverance,
aud the military skill which had beeu displayed by their in-
trepid commanders ; that, uuaided by reinforcements from
home, they had contended successfully, not with an undis-
ciplined rabble, but with troops disciplined by our owu
officers, armed with our own weapons, and having an artillery
force in the city of Delhi alone that numbered 270 guns,
manufactured in our own arsenals; that the military defences
of that and other cities in revolt in India were all constructed
by English engineers ; and that the magazines and munitions
of war in the hands of the rebels were almost unprecedented
in amount — then he did say that the army of England in India
was entitled to the gratitude and thanks of the country at
large (cheers). And here he would mention the high com-
pliment which had been paid to our government and army by
the Emperor of the French — a comphment such has had never
before been kno^n, and which ought to be sounded in terms
of praise from one end of the kingdom to the other ; for it
was a guarantee of the fidelity and of the friendship which the
Emperor entertained and had expressed towards ua (Hear).
When the rebellion broke out in India, aud it became
necessary to send out reinforcements by the quickest
route, the Emperox" Napoleon, with the magnamimity
for which he had rendered himself conspicuous, offered

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

49

to allow the army of EnglauJ, ia any njmbers, to pass
through France (loud cheers). Now, the Pacha of Egypt,
acting in the same spirit, volunteered to facilitate the transit
of our army across the Isthmus of Suez (renewed cheers). It
was hardly necessary, perhaps, that he should mention the
names of the heroes who had distinguished themselves during
these troubles in India. TQey were "familliar in our mouths
as household words ;" still he might be excused if he referred
to a fe^ of those to whom they were anxious to do honour.
There were Neill and Nicholson, and other brave men, who
had fought and bled iu their country's cause. There were
others who, he trusted, still survived, and who only last night
received fro:u parliament an scknowlelgment of their gallant
services; lie alluded to General Wilson and General Havelock
(tremendous cheering). There were also Greathed (cheers), and
Ontram aud Eyre of the Punjaub, the devoted Salkeld, uu-
equalled for his gallant daring (cheers) ; Lawrence, Home,
Wheeler, Chamberlain, Cotton, and Edwardes (loud cheers).
All lliesehad distinguished themselvesby their heroic qualities
and military skill, and had covered themselves with glory.
He was sure, therefore, that the present assembly would, with
the warm enthusiasm of grateful hearts, drink to the health of
our Army and Navy. (The toast was drunk with loud and
protracted cheering.)

Lieut.-Colonel Towneley, in returning thanks, said that
he had not the honour of being connected with the regular
army, but he begged to say that he sympathised fully in the
expression of adiuiration which had fallen from the Chairman
for our gallant troops iu India ; and that he had taken the
command of a regiment of militia for the sole purpose of giving
greater facility to the efforts of our army abroad (cheers).

Glee — '-Blow, gentle galea "

The Chairman would now propose to them what was
generally considered, at these gatherings, as the toast of the
evening, and he was happy to state that any difficulty he
might have experienced in giving it had been entirely removed
by the able pamphlet which their excellent Secretary,
Mr. Gibbs, had recently published, and which contained a
history of the Club from its commencement (Hear). He was
quite sure that he only echoed the sentiment of every member
when he expressed his thanks to Mr. Gibbs for the trouble
and pains he had taken in drawing up t lat report (Hear, hear).
It appeared, then, that the Smithfleld Club was established so
early as the year 1798, and that iu 1800 it comprised only
fifty members. In 1833 the Royal Agricultural Society of
England was originated in this room, and he well remembered
being present on the occasion, and being consulted, with many
others, upon the subject. The statement contained in Mr.
Gibbs' pamphlet, therefore, he could take upon himself to say
was perfectly correct, and that the Royal Agricultural Society
did derive its origin from this (Hear, hear). It was also
noticed in the pamphlet that the show was removed from the
inconvenient situation in Goswell-street to Baker-street, in
1839 ; and that her gracious Majesty visited the yard in 1844,
and again in 1850. In 1841 the Prince Consort became a
member of the Club ; and how the institution had gone on
and prospered to the present time all who were in the habit of
visiting the show could tell (cheers). The members of the
Club now numbered, he believed, about 300; and he might
state, not as a matter of boast, but as a matter of fact, what
could not be said of any other society in the kingdom, that
with these 300 members they were enabled to give prizes to the
amount altogether of £1,250 (loud cheers). The interest
which their annual shows excited in the metropolis and through-
out the country, proved the extent of the interest which
was everywhere taken in agriculture, and that the community
at large approved of the farmers of England uniting together
for the purpose of devising the best means of producing for
the population the greatest amount of animal food at the
cheapest possible rate (cheers). Now, that was the main
object of the club (Hear, hear). It was for that it was esta-
blished, and in that it had succeeded. But notwithstanding
the interest which was manifested in the show-yard, it was
impossible to appreciate all the benefits which accrued to the
country at large from the operations of the Smithfield Cattle
Club (Hear, hear). It was all very well for their friends in
Loudon to go into the yard and admire a beast ; but they
should go into the country, into the country markets, and
into the tenant farmers' homesteads and the tenant farmers'
fields. There they would see for themselves the increased
value givea to cattle. There they would see the aptitude to

feed and fatten, and there they would see the development of
early maturity; all of which showed that the club were doing
good service to their country by promoting the production of
the largest amount of food for the people at the smallest
possible cost. He would detain them no longer, but at once
give "Success to the Smithfield Cattle Club,"

The toast was drunk with three times three, and great
applause.

Mr. Gibbs, the Honorary Secretary, then read the list of
winners of the gold medals at the exhibition of the club for
the present year.

The Chairman, in presenting the gold medal for the beet
steer or ox in any of the classes to Mr. Wortley, congratulated
that gentleman on his success, and expressed the pleasure he
felt that the medal would be taken into his own neighbour-
hood. In conclusion, he proposed Mr. Wortley 's health.

Mr. Wortley returned thanks, and assured the company
that he felt the highest pride in being able to contribute
another laurel to the chaplet worn by the agriculture of his
native county.

The Chairman next presented Colonel Towneley with the
gold medal for the best heifer or cow in any of the classes,
and announced that that was the twentieth gold medal which
the gallant colonel had won in various parts of the kingdom
(cheers). He begt;ed to propose his health.

Lieut.-Colonel Towneley acknowledged the compliment,
and assured them that he esteemed it a very high honour to
be a second time the winner of the gold medal of the Smith-
field Chib. His success, however, he attributed more to the
judgment and skill of the gentleman from whom he had ob
taiued his herd, than to any merits of his own. He got that
herd from a gentleman who had been bred up with a know-
ledge of the good points of an animal from his youth, and when
he (Colonel Towneley) came into the estate, that gentleman,
having more to do than he could well manage, gave up hia
herd to him ; and that was the commencement of his own
operations. He had now been in the trade, he might say,
about eight or nine years ; and another cause of the success
he had achieved was that he had always endeavoured to get
the best males and the best females together. If they got
really good blood they were almost certain to produce a good
animal. The ox whicli he had had the pleasure of showing in
the yard this year was from a common milking cow which he
had bought in the market. He forgot the price he had paid for
her, but it was certainly under £20. The ox, he believed, was
not a bad one; and it had been produced by a single cross
with a good bull. Indeed, he could not recommend farmers to
do better than to get a good male animal for whatever stock
they happened to have. He had placed a good bull at the dis-
posal of his tenants, and he believed that by this means he
had improved the value of their stock from £1 to £3 a-head
(cheers). It should not be forgotten, either, that the most
valuable animals were good milkers as well as good breeders
(hear, hear).

Lord Fevershaji then presented the gold medal awarded
to the best pen of long-wooUed sheep in any of the classes, to
Lord Beriers.

The Chairman said the pleasing task now devolved upon
him of proposing the health of their President, his Grace the
Duke of Richmond, as the winner of the gold medal to the
best pen of one year-old short-woolled sheep (cheers). Thau
the name of the Duke of Richmond, he was sure there was
none more acceptable to the farmers of this country (Hear,
hear). At periods when the interests of agriculture had beeu
assailed, they had known him as the faithful friend of the
farmer, and such they had iuvariably found him to the present
day. He regretted the absence of his noble friend on this
occasion ; but it arose entirely from a sense of duty. His
noble friend was devoting himself to completing the organiza-
tion of the militia of his county, and in a letter which he had
written to the Society he stated that he did not wish to be
absent from that militia a single day, whilst he thought his
presence amongst them was of importance. If he (Lord
Berners) might be allowed to address a word to his brother-
farmers in reference to the militia, he would observe, that it
was iu the power, as it was the duty, of each and all of them
in their several stations, when they returned to their homes, to
assist in recruiting by volunteers that truly constitutional
force (Hear, hear). And let them remember that every man
who joined the militia at the present moment was filling the
place of one of those known and tried soldiers who had beea

50

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

sent to that part of the world where their' services were taost
required in the interests of tlie country (cheers). With these
remarks he begged to give, with three times three, " The
Health of his Grace the Duke of Richmond, the President of
the Club, aud a winner of the gold medal" (cheers).

The toast was drunk with enthusiasm.

Son": by Mr. Shoubrldge — "The Yeomen of England."

Lord William Lennox said, on rising in obedience to
a call from the chair, he must claim the indulgence of the
assemblj', as he was not prepared when he came there to
take part in the proceedings of the evening. He had come
in the expectation that his brother would be there ; and it
was not till after entering the room that he learnt that he
was detained on dutj"-. The diffidence which he always felt
on rising to address a public assembly was increased on
that occasion by the feeling that he stood there alone, pro-
bably, in perfect ignorance of land and cattle, and of
anything appertaining to agriculture. They were all aware
that a younger son of a noble family did not inherit a very
.arge portion of the broad acres of his ancestors ; they were
probably aware that his share of the soil generally con-
sisted of the mignonette-pots outside his window, and his
live-stock of a half-starved pointer (laughter). It was not
necessary, however, either to own land or to breed stock in
order to understand the benefit conferred on the country bj^
a society which aimed at securing good and cheap food for
our rapidly-increasing population (Hear, hear). Having
explained the position in which he stood, he now begged to
thank them, on behalf of his brother, for the kind manner in
which they had drunk his health. In early life his brother
entered, along: with six of his brothers, the profession of
the army. He saw service under the Duke of Wellington ;
and perhaps what he had most reason to be proud of in his
military career was the fact recorded by Napier, that he
left the staff of Wellington to do duty as a regimental
officer of the line (Hear, hear). Those times were now
long past ; but his conduct with regard to the militia was
such that he might fitly be compared to an old warhorse,
who, on hearing the sound of bugle or trumpet, immediately
manifested a determination to live or die in active service
(cheers). As an illustration of that sort of feeling, he miglit
mention that about Christmas last year, his regiment bemg at
Brighton, he left a comfortable home to dine with the officers ;
and when he got there he foimd only an ensign and an orderly
officer, all the rest having gone away Christmasing
(laughter). That showed how much his heart was wrapped
up in his regiment. He (Lord W. Lennox) trusted that
under the new state of thing;s no difficulty would ever be
experienced in obtaining recruits for the army. As long as
a portion of the money nominally p»id to the men was de-
ducted on various pretences, it was natural to suppose that
tliere would be a scarcity of recruits ; but now that the recruit
knew exactly what he was receive, and so much encourage-
ment was given to the soldier, he thought they might expect
to see the rauks of the army not only filled, but comprising a
better class of men than formerly entered the service. To re-
turn to his brother. He was quite sure that nothing but a
regard fOr military duty would have prevented him from oc-
cupying the chair. He believed he was at Dover, where his
militia regiment was stationed ; and that the cause of his ab-
sence was a i,little unpleasantness between that regiment and
a regiment from Ireland, which he was desirous of removing.
He should tell him of the manner in which his health had
been drunk, and he was sure he would be gratified at receiving
the information. Might he long be spared to preside ovei
that excellent institution, and to promote as far as he could,
in public and in private, the interests of the agriculturists of
this country ! (Cheers).

Lord Feversham said the duty had devolved upon him
of proposing the next toast, and it was one which he was sure
every gentleman in that room would receive wiih the warmest
feelings of gratitude, being the health of his noble friend Lord
Berners, who had so ably and efficiently discharged the impor-
tant duties of the chair that evening, in the absence— in the
unavoidable absence, as they had just been informed— of the
President of the Club, the Duke of Richmond. In proposing
that toast, it would be superliuons in him to detain them by
offering any observations of eulogium or commendatioa. His
uoble friend was well known to the agricultural community as
a practical farmer. He had long devoted a large portion of his
time and attention to agriculture ; he had made it his study,

and he was at all times ready to impart information to those
who consulted him on aubjecta of importance. His noble
friend was, as they were aware, not only a practical agricul-
turist, but also a successful exhibitor of stock (Hear, hear).
The gold medal had just been presented to him in that capa-
city ; and perhaps he (Lord Feversham) might be allowed to
observe, that his own county — York — had partly contri-
buted to his noble friend's success on that occasiou, inasmuch
as hu beautiful sheep were descended from a flock belonging
to a gentleman who resided in his (Lord Feversham'a) neigh-
bourhood. They were aware that his noble friend now filled
the important office of President of the Royal Agricultural
Society. He was confident that in presiding over the proceed-
ings of that great institution he would al9S'ay3 manifest ability,
fairness, and judgment; and that whenever any suggestions
v/ere made in^the council with a view to improvement, however
humble might be the person that made t'lem, they would be
listened to patiently, and receive due consideration. He might
add, that it was the opinion of some eminent members of
that society that there was still room for improvement ; and
he hoped that if any observations were made in relation to
that subject at the meeting to be held on the following Friday,
his noble friend would receive them with thaC courtesy for
which, no less than by his firmness, he had always been dis-
tinguished. He had no doubt that his noble friend would
retire from office with a reputation for ability inferior to that
of none of his predecessors. He would now propose that they
should drink, " Lord Berners, and Success to the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England."

The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm.

The Chairman said his noble friend and school-fellow Lord
Feversham had imposed upon him one of the most difficult tasks
he had ever been called upon to perform. He had mentioned his
name in so many different points of view, that he hardly knew
where to begin or where to end, and therefore he thought he
had better discard all the compliments which had been paid to
him, and once for all thank the company, as he did most
heartily and sincerely, for the honour which they had done him,
by the manner in which they had received the toast. There
could not, in his opinion, be a higher compliment paid to any
man than by his name being well received by the farmers of
England. From his earliest youth he had been in the habit
of meeting the cultivators of the soil in every part of the
country. It was from that great patron of agriculture Mr.
Coke, of Holkham, afterwards Lord Leicester, that he received
his first instructions in ascriculture, and from that time to the
present he had constantly met with the greatest kindness at
the hands of English farmers. His name had been coupled wiih
that of the Royal Agricultural Society, of which he had the
honour that year to be the president. He could only say that
it would afford him the greatest gratification to see the meet-
ing at Cheater rival, if it did not exceed, as he expected it
would, all the preceding meetings of the society (cheers).
He could assure his uoble friend that he was not mistaken in
supposing that he would be prepared to listen attentively to
any suggestions that might be made for the improvement of
the society, and especially would this be the case if they pro-
ceeded from practical farmers. It was by the union of science
with practice that the council aimed at carrying out the ob-
jects of the society — objects of national importance, and of a
similar nature to those of the Smithfield Club. That day the
council had agreed to their report, aud it might not be unin-
teresting to some present to hear a little about their pro-
ceedings. It appeared that during the last year they had
gained an accession of 150 members, aud that the total number
v/as now 5,218. There was one subject which the society hud
taken up, tor their conduct with regard to which he thought
the farmers of England ought to fe>>l especially grateful to
them. When it was reported that a terrible plague was pre-
vailing among cattle in Austria, Prussia, and other continental
countries, the Royal Agricultural Society, acting iu conjunction
with the Highland Society ot Scotland, and the corresponding
society in Ireland, took up the matter, and sent over Professor
Simonds to ascertain the causes of the prevailing disease.
The Professor had since made his report, and he trusted it
would shortly appear in the society's Journal (cheers). He
might aUo mention that at the Salisbury Meeting the visitors
exceeded by 2,000 the number that attended on any former
occasion (Hear, hear). At the Cheater Meeting, the prizes
would exceed in amount those that had ever before been
offered by any local society ; he believed the amount would be

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

SI

upwards of :el,200. The society had done much to diffuse
sound principles iu reference to agriculture, and, having regard
to that geaeral fact, and especially to the improvement which
it had been instrumental iu effecting, by bringing forward im-
p'eaieuts combining cheapness with simplicity and efficiency,
he thought it might be said that the society had not failed to
perform its duty (Hear, hear). He hoped that all present
would endeavour to come to the meeting at Chester, and to
bring friends with them, and that he should be enabled to feel
that the society had not suffered in efficiency and usefulness
during his presidency.

Ballad by Miss M. Wells— "Oh, yes, I love thee."
Vice-Chancellor Kindersley said — In obedience to a
command— for lie considered a request from the Chairman
equivalent to a command — he rose to propose a toast, with
which he had the honour to be entrusted. He must begin
bjr apologizing for venturing to address an assembly of per-
sons familiarly acquainted with agriculture, he himself
being entirely ignorant on that subject. Though he had
the honour to be a judge in equity, he confessed he was no
judge of Southdowns or Leicesters (laughter). With re-
gard to cattle, he believed he did know a poll-cow when he
saw one ; and when he met with the word poll-cow, it was
involuntarily associated in his mind with a deed poll (laugh-
ter). He knew nothing of the distinction between long-
horns and shorthorns ; the only horns with which he had
any familiarity were the horns of a dilemma in argument
(renewed laughter). But, although he was profoundly ig-
norant on this subject, he was not so unobservant of what
was going on in the improvement of agriculture as not to
feel astonished at the extraordinary success which had at-
tended the efforts of that and similar societies. Particu-
larly had he observed the advance made in the case of pigs,
of which he begged to say he was no less ignorant than of
cattle ; hut when he saw the outward improvement wliich
had taken place in the skins of pigs, and observed the gra-
dual refinement of their coats, he could not doubt that in
time they would be able to realize the making ofa silk purse
out of a sow's car (laughter). Although he was uncon-
nected with agriculture, he might not perhaps be altogether
out of place there. He did not, indeed, belong to the class
of breeders, not to the class of feeders, nor to another class,
without whom he presumed they would find it difficult to
get on, he meant the butchers ; but he belonged to a class
without whom he would like to know how they would get
on at all, namely, the consunfiers (Hear, hear) ; and it was
as a humble representative of that very numerous and by
no means unimportant class that he ventured to address
them. But looking at this matter in a more serious point
of view, he confessed that he felt very deeply impressed
when he found himself in the presence of gentlemen who
were concerned in the pursuit of agriculture, and more par-
ticularly of gentlemen who were engaged in the breeding of
cattle. He felt that he was in the presence of those who
were the descendants and representatives of the old yeomen
of England — the backbone of the nation — who had for cen-
tirries past maintained the vigour, and force, and character
of this country in a manner with whicii they were all fa-
miliar historically, and of which they were all justly proud
(cheers). Moreover, the interest which attached to that
society was enhanced by the fact that the gentry aud aris-
tocracy, including some of the highest nobles in the land,
united with the farmers in efforts to achieve what was un-
doubtedly a work of great public importance, namely, the
increasing the quantity, improving the quality, and cheapen-
ing the price of what was a most important article of food
in this country (Hear, hear). Still more was this the case
when even the highest personage in the realm, next to the
Sovereign, did not disdain to enter the arena and compete
with the farmer; and he might add that he had no doubt
his Royal Highness was very glad when he obtained a prize
(laughter). In this respect the society had established an
equality of the right sort — an equality which was perfectly
consistent with the gradations and ranks of society. He
had now to propose the health of certain gentlemen, who
filled certain offices in that society, and who in filling them
rendered, he was convinced, the gTeatest service to it ; he
meant the Vice-presidents and Trustees, including the Ho-
norary Secretary, who, he was informed, was one of the
trustees, and who, in addition to his other services, had re-
cently prepared a history of the past proceedings of the

club, which he was sure would be read by agriculturists in
general with deep interest. If he might be forgiven for
taking such a course in the presence of those to whom he
had no right to suggest a word of advice or admonition, he
would before sitting down remind the farmers of England
of what appeared to him a very important part of their duty
in this most momentous crisis. It was, of course, of the
utmost importance at the present time that the ranks of the
army and that of the nursery of the armj'', the militia,
should he well and adequately filled ; and he would suggest
that it was a real duty devolving on every farmer and every
landed proprietor in this country, instead of doing what he
was afraid some individuals had done— he was sure none pre-
senthad taken that course — namely, discouraging enlistment;
it was, he submitted, the duty of all such persons to encou-
rage the luboarers to enrol themselves in the militia, in order
that, in the absence of the regular troops, the shores of this
country might not be left without that defence which from
the earliest periods in our history, from the Normans, the
Plantagenets, and the Tudors downwards, had always
formed the greatest security of the nation (cheers).

After a cordial response to the toast,

Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, on rising to reply, said he re-
gretted that it should have agam -fallen to his lot to return
thanks on behalf of the Vice-presidents aud the Trustees. He
regretted it, first, because but for the unavoidable absence of
his Grace the President this duty would have devolved on
their noble chairman ; and secondly, because the Vice-presidents
and the other Trustees were also absent. He sincerely
thanked them, however, for the manner in which the toast had
been received ; and for himself he would say that he was
always delighted if his conduct met with approbation. The
present show seemed to him to mark a positive step in advance,
whether they looked at the number of animals exhibited, or
whether they looked at the more fully-developed classification
o! breeds under which the stock was now exhibited. When
thia classification was introduced tliree or four years ago, it
was regarded by some as an innovation, by others as an im-
provement ; but in that little pamphlet which he had pub-
liahed he had shown that this classification was nothing new,
but tbat the club had only reverted to a practice which existed
in it some fifty years ago (Hear, hear). He thought the re-
currence to the foroier custom in that respect had proved most
beneficial. If they recalled the nuoiber of Devous exhibited a
few years back, and then took a glance at the long range of
such animals exhibited this year, they would perceive that the
breeders fully appreciated the alteration (Hear, hear). He
would not detain them longer, but, again thanking them for
the compliment which had been paid to the Vice-presidents
and Trustees, he would conclude by observing that if the
little pamphlet of his which had been referred to proved
acceptable and useful to the members, he did feel amply repaid
for the time and labour which he had bestowed upon it
(cheers).

Duet, by the Misses Wells — " We come to thee. Savoy."

Lord W. Lennox proposed, "The Unsuccessful Candi-
dates," coupled with the names of Lord Fevershara and Mr.
Bruce, junior. After some eulogistic expressions with regard
ti Lord Fevershara, he said he had been informed that hia
lordship was successful as the exhibitor of a short-horned
heifer at Birmingham, though he had not succeeded iu London;
and he was convinced thrtt he had too much of the pluck of an
Englishman to cease exhibiting ia Baker-street because he had
failed this year (cheers).

The toast having been duly honoured.

The Chairman said he was sui-e that if either Lord
Feversham or Mr. Druce could give the company any infor-
mation of a practical character, it would be gratefully received.
He should be glad if his old friend Mr. Druce could tell them
how he and his neighbours had succeeded in bringing the
cross-breed to such perfection as they had done.

Lord Fevershabi said, as one of the unsuccessful can-
didates, he begged to return thanks for the honour which
had been conferred upon them. As regarded his failure
that year, he must observe, that had he ceased exhibiting
when he was first unsuccessful, he should have stopped
long ago (Hear, hear) ; and they might rest assured that
his want of success that year would not deter him_ from
coming forward again (cheers). It happened that in the
very first year in which he exhibited in Baker-street,
namely, in "1850, he obtained the first prize in his class, and

E 2

52

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

the result was similar in 1051 ; but it did not follow
because a man had bred a good animal one j'ear or two
years in succession, he could always do so. He assured
them he had found tlie greatest difficulty in breeding any-
thing like a perfect animal ; and an animal must certainly
be as nearly perfect as possible to give anyone a chance of
carrying oil:' a prize (Hear, hear). When he wanted a
cross, he meant fresh blood, he generally had recourse to
the large short-horned sales ; and when he saw an animal
that he liked, he did not mind bidding a high price for him
(Hear, hear). Thus, some time ago he bought two very
nice bull-calves at the sale of Lord Ducie's, each of which
weighed about 420 lbs., neither being then more than six
months old, and the result was very satisfactory. One of
them gained a prize of 1,000 francs at Paris, and ho after-
wards sold it to a gentleman for 200 guineas, lie agreed
with Col. Towneley, that in breeding the great object
should be to bring a good male and a good female together.
It was an entire mistake to suppose that provided the male
were good, it was comparatively unimportant what the
female was (Hear, hear). Some difference of opinion
existed as to what was most desirable in the case of short-
horned cattle : he agreed with the late Mr. Bates that it
■was most desirable to have animals with nice soft hair, and
thin — not too thin — soft, supple skins. He was convinced
that such animals were the most easily fed, and would
thrive the best. He had adhered to the principle of
crossing the herd followed by the late Mr. Bates; and he
was told that the farmers in his neighbourhood found that
the cattle descended from his bulla fetched higher prices in
the market than those which were not so well bred. He
again returned thanks on behalf of the unsuccessful can-
didates, and repeated that he did not intend to cease ex-
hibiting because he had not this j'ear obtained the prize
(cheers).

Mr. Deuce, jun., also returned thanks, and said he hoped
that next year he should be successful (Hear, hear).

Mr. Wilson, on rising to propose the next toast, observed j
that he could not say with their excellent friend Vice-ChaDcellor !
Kindersley that he was entirely unacquainted with agriculture ; j
for although it might be long before he appeared as a competitor, '
his position was happily that of a learner. As regarded the ,
learned judge, he might safely declare that all present would i
be glad to meet him there on future occasions, and that they j
would much rather meet him there as often as he could come j
than only once in the Court of Chancery (laughter). The i
toast which he had to propose was, " The Judges." They i
would, he was sure, all agree with him that those gentlemen |
occupied a very proud position ; and unless the greatest con- '
fidence were reposed in them, it \»ould be impossible for them ■
to discharge their duties satisfactorily (Hear, hear). ;

Before the toast was drunk, the Chairman expressed a |
hope that the judges might be induced to make some practical :
remarks in reference to the breeding and fattening of animals.

The toast having been drunk with proper spirit, '

Mr, Buckley replied on behalf of the judges.

The Chairman then proposed "The Stewards," and in
doing so repeated the invitation which he had just given to the
judges.

Mr. Hole briefly acknowledged the compliment.

Song by Miss J. Wells — "Bid me discourse."

The next toast was, " The Father of the Club, Mr. Wol-
stead."

The Chairman then proposed " The Butchers." He ob-
served that the Club now offered a premium to the butcher

who was the largest purchaser at the show ; and said the
tenant farmers of England would be glad to see among them
some representatives of a class'who were their best customers,
on an occabion like that. The noble lord coupled the toast
Mdth the name of Mr. Jeffrey, the wiuner of the Butcher's
Medal last year.

The toast having been duly responded to,

Mr. Sawtell, cattle salesman, said, on behalf of Mr. Jef-
frey, who was a particular friend of his, he begged to return
thanks for the toast. At the same time he would take the
liberty of calling his lordship's attention to the very serious
injury which was being inflicted on butchers through the exer-
cise of the power vested in the magistrates of doing away with
private slaughter-houses. It would be of no use for such
beautiful animals to be brought to London if they had to go
to a common slaughter-house to be killed (Hear, hear). The
abolition of the private slaughter-houses would impose on
butchers an extra expense of £483,000 a year ; and he would
leave it to his lordship to judge whether that burden must not
ultimately rest on the consumer. He concluded by handing
to the Chairman, and several gentlemen near him, a printed
statement with regard to the loss which the change he com-
plained of would throw upon the trade.

The Chairman said, by the rules of the Club they were
precluded from discussing any subject that was likely to come
before Parliament ; but this ho would say, that if there were
any measure which ii.juriously affected the interests of the
butchers of the metropolis, and therefore the tenant farmers cf
England, it would be his duty and his earnest desire to give
his best attention to it where he could attend to it with pro-
priety (cheers).

Irish ballad by Mr. Genge — " O, it's time I should talk to
your mother."

Mr. Western, M.P., said he had been called upon to pro-
pose a toast, and he supposed the reason was that he hap-
pened to have a name which was formeidy somewhat distin-
guished in the agricultural world, and belonged to a county
which was rather celebrated for agricultural improvements.
The toast was, " The health of the labouring classes ;" and
he was quite sure that in a meeting of British farmers it would
meet with a cordial reponse (cheers). The farmers throughout
the country now felt the necessity of endeavouring to diffuse
intelligence and sound morality amoug the labouring popula-
tion ; and this not less for their own sake than for the sake of
the labourers (Hear, hear). As the Vice-Chairman bad al-
luded to the subject of recruiting, he would observe that now
that such brilliant prospects were held out to recruits, it must
be quite unnecessary to cripple the number of agricultural
labourers required for the cultivation of the soil (Hear, hear).
Having, as a member of the House of Commons, been sum-
moned to London to consider the Bank Act of 1344, he re-
joiced to find, as one result of his arrival in town, that this
country had a large surplus in the Bank of England ; and he
hoped it would continue to increase. Ho would give, " The
Agricultural Labourers."

The toast was received with much cordiality.

Madrigal, by all the singers — " Down in a flowery Vale."

The Chairman said, in parting with those whom he saw
before him, he could not help saying how grateful he was for
the kind support which he had received that evening ; and he
'elt that he should not be doing his duty if he retired without
giving a sentiment which was always given on similar occa-
sions by the late Lord Spencer, namely, " Sorry to part, but
happy to meet again" (cheers).

The company separated at about half-past 10.

METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.
THE GREAT CHRISTMAS CATTLE MARKET.

Monday, Dec. 14.— Notwithstanding that the con-
sumptiou of food has unquestionably fallen off, owing to
the late panic in the commercial world ; and although
the pi ices of fat stock have, consequently, shown a ten-
dency to give way, we never recollect a period during
which so much general interest has been shown in refer-

ence to our fat stock shows as was the case here this
morning. At an early hour the market was thronged
with visitors from nearly all parts of the United King-
dom, as well as from the continent, to inspect and ad-
mire perhaps the finest collection of animals ever shown
in this or any other market, in the world. As the day

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

53

advanced, the number of visitors rapidly increased, yet,
from the enlarged space included in the market's area,
there w^as ample room for close inspection without incon-
venience.

That the show of Beasts was of the highest order of
merit will be understood when we observe that fully nine-
tenths of them were considerably above average weight,
and otherwise in unusually fine cotidiiion. The increase,
be it understood, was not so much in the quantity of fat
carried by the collective breeds, as in their general
symmetry. As was the case at Baker-street, ihere
were not so many " obese marvels "as in
some former years ; but the absence of ex-
treme fatness may be noted as one of the great merits
of the present show. The fat being laid on evenly and
well is the result of well-shaped and well-bred animals
being in moregener:il demand on the part of the butchers
and consumers. Formerly, by dint of stuffing, fat was
often deposited every where save in the right places; and
the result was that the buyers of both Beasts and Sheep
lost considerable sums by the stock when slaughtered.
We hail this change in the system with much satisfac-
tion, because we are perfectly convinced that our
breeders and feeders have at length got into the high
road to additional fame.

From the foregoing observations, it will be seen that
the supply of Beasts was one of no ordinary merit, and
we may now briefly glance at each of the leading classes,
the more fully to determine their positive excellence.
These classes we may call Scots, Herefords, Devons,
Shorthorns, Sussex, and Welsh. When we consider
the great disadvantages, as to climate, under which the
Scotch graziers are suffering, compared with those re-
siding in the " sunny south," fzreat surprise may well
be expressed at the wonderful animals which were
shown from the "far North." Whether we carefully
consider the high value of their primer, consequently
most selling, parts to the butcher, and the superior
quality of the inferior joints, it must be admitted that
the word " perfection" may be fairly applied to them.
Those who witnessed the splendid collection of Scots,
the property of Mr William Mc Combie, of Tillyfour,
exhibited by Mr. Daniel Maidwell, will at once under-
stand the bearing of these remarks. Not a fault could
be found with them ; though, on the other hand, it is to
be regretted that they should have been reserved for an
open market ; still, they added greatly to the show, and
proved to the world what Scotland really can produce.
Mr. Mc Combie's ox exhibited in the bazaar was pur-
chased by Messrs. Banister and Bedborough, of Wind-
sor, to supply the royal table on Christmas-day.

The collection of Herefords has seldom, if ever,
been equalled. Amongst it were very few what may be
termed large animals, the supply being almost wholly
composed of a size admirably suited for general
consumption. As regards the Devons, the excel-
lence of their condition was fully equal to the
Herefords, and the " men of the West " mustered
in full average strength. The Short-horns, too,
were of more than average merit. There was
everything to admire in them, even though the fat was
not "plastered" upon them so much as at some former
exhibitions. From Sussex there was an increased show
of Oxen, all in first-rate order ; but the graziers in that
county can do even greater things by a more extended
cultivation of the turnip. They have now a wide field
opened to their enterprise and industry from a separate
class having at length been allotted to them in Baker-
street. There were about 300 extraordinarily prime
Welsh runts on sale, and which elicited the marked en-
comiums of the visitors.

As regards the Sheep here to-day, wc must admit
that the supply, taken as a whole, fell short of our ex-

pectations. True there were some very fine and very
large animals on offer ; but the bulk of the show was
of a second-rate character. And here is the result of
premature forcing, and of what is termed " early matu-
rity ;" whilst, no doubt, an unfortunate selection of
stock for crossing purposes has led to a decreased size
and supply. Exceptions, however, should be noticed,
and we have no hesitation in referring to choice speci-
mens of the Lincolnshire long-wooUed breed direct
from that county. They were shown by Messrs.
Eland, Hancock, Woodward, and Smith, and comprised
30 from the flock of Marshall Heanly, Esq, of Croft ;
10 from II. Seals, Esq., of VVainflcet Hall; 29 from
J. Byron, Esq., Marblethorpe Hall; 50 from George
Saul, Esq., of Wrengle ; 20 from — Bealbry, Esq., of
Wigtoft; and 20 from R. G. Chatterton, Esq., of the
latter place. There were also a few splendid Sheep of
the same breed, the property of J. Cook, Esq., of Nor-
folk. The whole of them possessed that peculiar qua-
lity which the county of Lincoln is noted for producing,
viz., a large proportion of meat, compared with size.
In this respect the breed must be considered superior
to what are termed the New Leicester. From Norfolk,
Suffolk, Essex, and Sussex some fine Sheep came to
hand.

The following return shows the numbers of Beasts
shown, and the highest and lowest prices obtained for
them on the great days in the last seventeen years : —

Year. Beasts shown. ^ ^ ad

1840 .... 3,528 .... 4 4 to 5 8

1841 4,509 3 8 „ 5 0

1842 .... 4,541 3 4 „ 4 8

1843 .... 4510 .... 2 8 „ 4 4

1844 .... 5,713 .... 4 0 „ 4 6

1845 5,326 3 G „ 4 8

ISlfi .... .5,470 .... 4 0 „ 5 8

1847 4,282 3 4 „ 4 8

1848 5,942 3 4 „ 4 8

1849 5,765 3 4 „ 4 6

1850 6,341 3 0 „ 3 10

1851 6,103 2 8 „ 4 2

1852 .... 6,271 .... 2 8 „ 4 0

1853 .... 7,037 .... 3 2 „ 4 10

1854 .... 6,181 .... 3 6 „ 5 4

1855 .... 7,000 .... 3 8 „ 5 2

1856 .... 6,748 .... 3 4 „ 5 0

The total imports of foreign stock into London last
week amounted to 1,773 head. In the corresponding
week in 1856 we received 1,622 ; in 1855, 4,752; in
1354, 3,999; in 1853, 6,316; in 1852, 4,436; ia
1851, 4,277 ; and in 1850, 5,124 head.

IMPORTS INTO LONDON LAST WEEK.
FROM WHENCE. BEASTS. SHEEP. CALVES. PIGS.

RotterdHra 64 528 106 —

Hailiugeu 149 833 18 —

Schiedam., o 46 — — —

Antwerp — — 29 —

Total 259 1361 153 —

VEARLY COMPARISON OF WEEKLY IMPORTS.

BEASTS. SHEEP. CALVES. PIQB.

1856 499 919 204 —

1855..., 859 3555 238 —

1854 1130 2593 269 7

1853 1136 4698 462 20

1852 235 3782 419 —

1851 607 3155 363 152

We may here observe that great dissatisfaction was
expressed, both by the salesmen and graziers, at the
large increase in the tolls for stock now levied by the
city authorities. -The old and present charges we here
subjoin ;

THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE.

LIST OF MARKET CHARGES.

Old charge. Present cliarge.
3. d. s. d.

Sheep (per score) 0 2 0 4

Beasts (per head) 0 2 0 SJ

Calves „ 0 1 0 2|

Pigs (par score) 0 4 0 6

Whole pens for sheep, calves,

and pigs 1 0 1 0

Horses (each) ,..0 6 0 7*

Donkeys „ ,..0 6 0 S"

This great increase will, if we mistake not, produce a
material falling off in the supplies of stock ia future :
but why donkeys should be so highly favoured as to
have a reduced tollage, we leave others to imagine.

A portion of the unsold stock exhibited in Baker-
street was here to-day. Amongst it, we noticed a
short-horn, the property of Sir Thos. Whichcote, Bart.,
which took the second prize of £\Q. In addition to
the Beasts from Scotland already referred to, Mr. D.
Maidwell hud on show some wonderful Short-horns,
over 210 stones, forwarded by Messrs. Wiseman, residing
near Spalding, as also some prime animals of the same
breed, fed by E. Sheringham, Esq., of Croxford
Abbey, Norfolk.

On the stand of Mr. Robert Morgan, we observed one
of the most even lots of Beasts ever sold by any one sales-
man. They were forwarded by the following breeders :
Wm. Thomas, Esq., of Holbeach ; the executors of the
late Robert Cook, Esq., of Rostland; — Fisher, Esq., of
Weston, near Spalding; L. Bird, Esq., of Farcet End;
W. Hewsoa, Esq., of Crowland ; Robert Leeds, Esq.,
of West Lexham, Norfolk; Edmund Farrer, Esq., of
Sporle ; Josh. Freeman, Esq., of Dersingham ; John
Allday, Esq., of Lolehill, near Birmingham ; and from
Messrs. Martin, Cooper, Mitchell, Stoddart, Milne, &c.,
residing in Scotland.

Messrs. Giblett and Gurrier exhibited some remarka-
bly fine animals, fed by Messrs. Milne, Steward,
Mennie, Martin, Garden, &,c., residing in Scotland,
besides some prime breeds from the home-counties.

Mr. William Collins showed some wonderful Beasts,
the property of John Hudson, Esq., of Castleacre,
Norfolk; Mr. T. Scrivener, of Stunton ; W. Brands,
Esq., of Great Stace ; and Mr. W. Shaw, of Cotton End.
Mr. Thomas Dixon had also a good show of Beasts,
fed by the Marquis of Exeter, Sir Thomas Whichcote,
Bart., Mr. Duckets, contractor, of Bermondsey, Mr.
John Little, and others.

Mr. Vorley's stand was well filled with good sym-
metrical stock, forwarded by Mr. Sweeton, of Lincoln-
shire, Mr. J. Seppings, of Norfolk, and Mr. Cooper,
of Hilbrae, N. B.

Considering the immense supply in the market,
and its unusually fine quality, there was what may
be termed a fair demand for most breeds. A few very
superior Scots sold at 5s. per 8 lbs. ; but the general top
quotation for Beef was the same as on Monday last,
viz., 4s. 8d. per 8 lbs.

We have before alluded to the general quality of the
Sheep ; but we must here notice those offered by Messrs.
Weall. They were certainly very prime animals, and
comprised 20 Downs from Richard Wakley, Eeq.j
of Lawrence End, near Luton, Beds ; 70 Glouceslers
from Richard Rowland, Esq., of Creslow, near Aylesbury;
and several pens from Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hert-
fordshire. At the stand of Mr. Gurrier were some extraor-
dinary Cotswolds, bred and fed by the Messrs. Hewers
and others; also some fine half-breds from Mr. Edmonds,
together with several pens of good Downs. Some of
the Cotswolds realized £1 each. We understand that
the latter breed is becomlDg more generally used for
crossing purposes.

Mr. Starkey exhibited 20 very good half-breds, the
property of the Earl of Leicester, of Holkham ; and 50
from S. Abbott, Esq., of Castleacre. Messrs. Parkin-
son and Mawer exhibited 5 wonderful Lincolns, fed by
Marshall Healley, Esq., of Croft ; and some of the same
breed, forwarded by R. Everard, Esq., of Fulne.y-
house, near Spalding. There were 6 very fine Hamp-
shire Downs shown by Mr. G. Bullock, bred by Mr.
Sharp, of Remeuham, Heniey-on-Thames. This gen-
tleman took the first prize in the Show-yard.

The total number of Sheep in the market was only
moderate. For nearly all breeds the demand was in-
active, but without leading to any quotable change in
pi ices compared with Mondoy last. The best old
Downs sold at 5s. 4d. per Slbs.

Calves were in short supply, and good request, at a
further advance in prices of 2d. per Slbs.

In Pigs only a limited business vvas doing, at late
rates.

The arrivals of Beasts from Lincolnshire, &c., were
3,600 Shorthorns; from other parts of England, 2,800
Herefords, Devons, &c. ; from Scotland, 700 Scots;
and from Ireland 200 Oxen. The show of foreign stock
was very limited.

THE SMITHFIELD SHOW WEEK

The Smithfield Club Show has fully realized all
that was expected of it. The chorus of our song
is still the same — it was the best meeting ever known.
There was a great increase in the entries of stock,
■while the animals were generally remarkable for
their excellence. These have of late years been the
strong features in the progress of the Club. Its influ-
ence has tended to multiply the good and to diminish
our supply of inferior sorts. There are far more Herefords
and Devons than ever. The Shorthorns hold their
ground, and other meritorious races come gradually to
assert and develope their good qualities. This was
efpeeially the case with the Sussex beasts, of which
there was a most commendable entry. In fact, no
varieties would appear to be getting more into repute
just now than this kind, and theii- distant relatives the
Devons. The latter, after having been for some time
comparatively in the shade, are regaining their posi-

tion very rapidly. Individually they nearly always
show well, but for some time we have seen them but
scantily represented. They are now, however, be-
coming once more numerically strong. We sliould
question, moreover, whether so many of them have
ever been brought into the focus of one meetiuif, as we
have been enabled to count up within this last week
or two.

A further proof of what the Club is effecting for an
increased supply of the best meat is to be found in the
new names on the prize lift. The Gold Medal ox at
Birmingham, and the best of his breed in Baker-street,
was fed by a gentleman who had never previously ex-
hibited a beast at anything beyond a local meeting.
The Gold Medal ox of the Smithfield Club was both
bred and fed by another who had never ere this entered
his name upon the catalogue. It is not all now King,
Queen, and Knave — or, KnavC; Queen, and King; but

:THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

we have fresh men, both as breeders and feeders, com-
peting successfully against others that but a few sea-
sons since were held to be almost invincible. Nobody-
will say but that this is all in favour of that great ob-
ject the Club has set itself to achieve. At the same
time the lesson has been thoroughly learnt. Although
we have new men with good animals, v/e have none
such with bad or indifferent. They have taken careful
observation of the place before they have ventured to
enter it. There was a time when you could the more
readily appreciate the superiority of a prize animal
from the comjjarisou with those which stood beside
him. By this we have no such marked difference.
Tiie labours of the judges are yearly beeoming more
difficult and trying; and many a one of us, who bows
at once to their deci-ee, would be likely enough, and
with very good showing, to make another choice for
himself. The placing of the same animals in Bingley
Hall and Baker-street was often at direct variance.
Animals passed over one week were the selected of the
next, and vice versa. In a word, they were nearly
all prize beasts.

As we give in another place a full report on
the merits of the several classes, we need not repeat
ourselves here. There are one or two especial points,
however, that we may touch on. The first of these
relates to unquestionably the best animal in the
show-yard — Colonel Towneley's short-horn. It
now turns out that this cow is not, as was
supposed, intended for the butcher; but is to be still
kept on for breeding. She is, in fact, declared to be
in-calf. This announcement has caused considerable
discussion during the week. Many contend that such
a proceeding is in direct contradiction to the prin-
ciple of a Society that annually offers a premium to the
butcher who purchases to the largest extent in the yard.
Others, again, maintain it to be a triumphant vindica-
tion of the Towneley theory, that, let stock be ever so
fat, if they be only of the ri^ht sort, they will still
breed. As a rule, thougli, we imagine that it would be
rather dangerous to adopt a practice thtit goes to say the
best way to prepare an animal for breeding is to feed her
up for a fat show. In verity, if this continues, the line be-
tween the show of " the Royal" and that of the Club will
be a distinction without a difference. But the matter
is not to rest here. Mr. Badham, of Suffolk, has de-
clared his intention of moving, at the next Meeting of
the Members of the Smithfield Club, that heifers or
cows in-calf be not allowed to enter at the Christmas
Fat Show; but that spaced heifers and martins bo ad-
missible. At present it seems, that the two latter
are excluded. Another mooted question was that
touching Mr. Heath's polled Scot, which was dis-
qualified at Poissy as being a cross, and not a pure-
bred animal. With praiseworihy resolution to have
the charge thoroughly sifted, Mr. Heath reserved
the animal for this Meeting, where he takes
the first premium of his class against a well-
known Scotch exhibitor. Surely this should settle
the case. If Mr. Heath has fairly won at Smith-
field, he is as clearly entitled to his place at Poissy.
But he goes further than this. He has challenged
his opponents to the proof, yea or nay ; and none is
forthcoming ! During the week his friends have circu-
lated a pamphlet containing the particulars and
correspondence, which is unmistakeably all one
way. A number of breeders and experienced
judges have also signed a paper declaring that
the beast looks like a pure Scot. Of itself
however, this goes for little or nothing. An animal
may to ail appearance look thorough-bred, without
actually being so. Some of the seemingly best Short-
horns at Birmingham last week were prevented from

competing because their pedigrees could not be proved.
We think, indeed, that Mr. Heath has clearly won his
cause without the aid of such evidence as this. At the
same time it is only right to say that the Editor of the
North British Agriculturist, in his paper of this
week, calls the Times to account for even now record-
ing the beast as a pure Scot; and declares "the Jury
at Poissy were furnished with documents which proved
that the sire of the ox was a Shorthorn, and the dam
a polled cow."

Turning for a moment from the Stock Show below to
the Implement Gallery above, we find at once that the
crowd is worse than ever. It is almost a question
whether, with the present limited accommodation, agri-
cultural machinery can still hold its place here.
Despite a higher charge for less space, the entries both
of stands and wares appear, naturally enough, to
increase. The different articles were positively piled
up one on the other, and a purchaser might quite as
well buy from hearsay as from v/hat he could see or
test under such circumstances. Generally business was
complained of as not being so good, although one or
two prize firms of the present year drove a very thriv-
ing trade.

The week, as we anticipated, was altogether a busy
one ; and we must hasten to take a brief review of a
few of the more important events to be chronicled in
its history. The Monday was signalized by the pre-
sentation of THE Nesbit Testimonial, which, with
the discussion of the evening, brought together a very
large audience at the Farmers' Club- The amount
subscribed approached very closely on the handsome
sum of three hundred pounds, which was expended in
a service of plate, with the appropriate addition of a
valuable microscope, Mr, Nesbit subsequently lectured
on "the mechanical and chemical principles which
should properly regulate the practice of drainage ;" the
discussion quickly resolving itself into the comparative
merits of deep or shallow. The turn appeared to be for
some time all in favour of the latter, though a few
good men came to the rescue of the four-feet system
before the debate concluded. The resolution went to
declare that much might be said on both sides; and,
more definitely, that depth alone would never control
width,

A full report of the Farmers' Club dinner will be
found further on. It was satisfactory to see from the
Report circulated that the Club never stood so well either
in strength, funds, or influence. The Smithfield Club
Dinner, of the day following, is also given. We never re-
member one so well attended ; aud if the members and
their secretary, Mr. Gibbs, will only continue to break
out a little beyond their conventional course, as suc-
cessful a meeting may be annually ensured. What is
chiefly t.) be feared is the stereotyped answer that " we
have never done this or that before." In the unavoid-
able absence of the Duke of Richmond, Lord Berners
took the chair, with every right, not merely from his
own tastes and success in the pursuit, but as the Presi-
dent of the Royal Agricultural Society.

In this capacity his Lordship also presided at the Gene-
ral Annual Meeting in Hanover-square, on the Friday.
This was the first year of bringing forward the meeting
a day earlier in the week, and the experiment may be
recorded as a successful one. The attendance was
far better than usual. A lengthy discussion fol-
lowed the reading of the report, during which
another effort was made by a few malcontents
to put the Society and its management in as bad a
a light as possible. The number of members were de-
clining— the accounts were badly kept — the country
meetings did little good — and so forth. It turns out
that the Council, in the exercise of the soundest j udg-

56

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ment, have struck ofi a great many names from their
list, who would not, or could not, be made to pay up ;
and that in really good members — practical farmers
and others of a similar character — the Society was never
so strong as it is at present. Again, the only auditor
present declared that the accounts could not be better
or more clearly kept. We have heard the same over
and over again from very many quarters, and we believe
that in tliis respect Mr. Hudson and the Royal Agri-
cultural Society might challenge any public body in
the kingdom. Then, the country meetings do no good,
but only raise a little temporary excitement ! We
fearlessly assert that if anything has tended to the ad-
vance of agriculture it has been tliese country meetings
of tlie Society. And as to a little temporary excite-
ment, it is well known that the effect of such a visit is
never forgotten. The climax to all this came in a pro-
position bodily put, that all meetings for the future
should be held in London ! If any man wished to de-
stroy the good of wliich such a society is really suscep-
tible, he could name no other so suicidal a proceeding.
Still, in some minor matters let the Council take heed.
For instance, let the Professors hand in their lectures
for publication immediately on their being delivered ;
allow the Press to repoit the proceedings of the weekly
meetings althougli we by no means pledge ourselves
to record all that is said on these occasions. The fact
is, and tliere is no denying it, that some people go here
merely to advertise themselves. They even find fault in
the furtherance of so laudable an object. Let us never
forget what Mr. Acland said at Salisbury, when a very
similar exhibition to what was witnessed on Friday took
place : — "The Council should be careful to notice whence
complaints really emanated. They were too often, witli
some people, but the excuse to make for themselves a
little "petty importance, or to indulge in the oppor-
tunity of delivering a fine speech." How true all this is,
many who were present at the meeting here will need
not to be told. Let those who were absent picture a
man witliout j^osition or any authority as to what is
going on, self-electing himself patron of the proceed-
ings— greeting every sentence he approved of with an
isolated " Hear, hear," and smirking and nodding at every
speaker, lord or commoner, who got up. Assurance, no

doubt, is a very fine thing, but surely it has some limit.
Again we say with Mr. Acland, let the Council be
careful to see from what quarter these complaints
come.

The other meetings included one on the Thursday
at the Freemasons' Tavern, when Mr. Halkett lec-
tured on his new process of ploughing by steam.
We shall return to the subject at some length
hereafter, and to the pamphlet he has just issued
— the fourth or fifth during the week on things agri-
cultural. On the Wednesday evening, clashing as usual
with the Smithfield dinner, the Society of Arts an-
nounced the reading of a paper " On the progress of
the agricultural implement trade during the last twenty
years." Fortunately, as it would appear, we were
prevented, for the reason just given, from hearing this
effusion. Our contemporary, The Gardeners' Chro-
nicle, in manifestly a most charitable spirit, declares it
to have been " a rather tedious account, deficient in
point and interest." We have since had an opportunity
of seeing the paper in the Society's " Journal." It
seems to us to be a clumsy attempt to puff certain
manufacturers, and as awkward a one to ignore others.
So palpable was this, that a member rose on the first op-
portunity, to protest at the unfairness of such a course,
and to name firms which had been excluded in so ex-
traordinary manner from notice. Mr. Caird the
chairman ol the evening, at once stopped this, as out of
order! But, in doing so, the honourable Member for
Dartmouth must have surely forgotten the first duty
for which a chairman is elected at all — to see and ensure
fair-play.

Further than this, we can leave the prize lists and
such reports as are worth giving, to speak for them-
selves. As a whole, the week's result must be regarded
as a most encouraging one for agriculture. All tn.
Institutions devoted to her cause are doing well, for tho
farmers themselves are taking more and more interest
in them. In such hands would we cheerfully trust
them. What is chiefly to be feared and guarded against
is the interference of empirics and charlatans — whose
only object is to create disaffection, and float them-
selves upon the troubled waters they may have raised.
With Mr. Acland we say, once more, beware of them !

REVIEW.— MR. GIBBS' HISTORY OF THE SMITHFIELD CLUB.

Very nicely timed to the occasion, and in fulfilment
of a promise made some time since, Mr. Brandreth
Gibbs gives us his history of the Club. It is very well
done. There is no attempt at fine writing; but with
the best taste the author strings the facts before liim
together in plain wholesome English. It is, in fact,
just the style for such work. The value of the essay,
moreover, is made to depend essentially upon matter
which Mr. Gibbs found at his command in the chro-
nicles of the Club. From this he extracts and con-
denses with much judgment; while from the same
source he is enabled to compile several sets of tables
that will always have a value in the way of reference,
and an interest for those at all taken with the pursuit
upon which they turn. It is satisfactory to feel that
this history could not have been in better hands.

Without in any way attempting to follow Mr. Gibbs
through the succession of eventful changes that have
characterized the progress of the Smithfitld Club, we
may still avail ourselves of a few points that at such a
season must be more than usually acceptable. lu the
first place, then, as to its origin : —

" Tlie natioual society now known as the Smithfield Club
was instituted under the title of the ' Smithfield Cattle and
Sheep Society,' Dec. 17th, 1/98. Mr. J, Wilkes, of Measham,
Derbyshire, the fouuder, and several other well-known agricul-
turists, assembled for ita formation on that day, being the
great Smithfield market-day before Christmas. The late
Francis Duke of Bedford occupied the chair. There were alao
present. Lord Sometville, John Bennet, the Earl of Winchel-
sea, John Westcar, Richard Astley, Jobn EUman, Arthur
Young, and twenty one others. Later in the same day eight
more members, including S:r Joseph Banks, were added."

In some twenty years from this time the Club was
supposed to have accomplished all it had aimed at
achieving. Arthur Young had not only resigned the
secretaryship, but had withdrawn entirely from the Club.
The suppcu't of the country had not been afforded or con-
tinued to that extent tlie members expected. According-
ly, in December, 1821, the Duke of Bedford, the then
chief patron and prop of the Club, not only retired, but
at the same time discontinued the handsome sum he had
for years been in the habit of giving in premiums.
His Grace's letter in announcing this determination is

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

57

rendered chiefly memorable by the following passage
in it : —

" The advantages which, on the first formation of the insti-
tution, we held out to the public have been amply reabzed,
and that auy further incentive to improve the breeds of cattle,
sheep, and swine, is hecome wholhj useless. The only object
was to increase the animal production of the iingdom, and
this object has been fully attained. The markets of the me-
tropolis and throughout the kingdom are abundautly supplied ;
the best and most profitable breeds of cattle and sheep have
been brought into notice, and have made rapid and extraor-
dinary progress in the estimation of the breeder and grazier."

Fortunately the other members did not fall in with
the Duke's opinion ; but struggled on. The very next
year the judges pronounced the Show to be one of the
best ever witnessed And, in short, the Club has never
done so much good as from the time its President de-
clared the incentive it offered to have become wholly un-
necessary. Ifhc could only have lived to see one of our
gatherings of this present day I But the Bedford
title is still one that will ever have a high place in the
records of the Smithfield Club.

What a common, everyday question it is to be asked
" Which is our best breed of stock ?" " Which have
really done best at our public shows ?" And what
answers you have, turning of course on the bias or
prejudice of the authority you consult ! Thoroughly
independent of rank or person, let the Club itself for
once stand as Sir Oracle : —

" The short-horns (oxen 10,cow3 16) have won 26 r/ohl medals
The Ilerefords (oxen 9, cows 1). . „ 10 ,,

The Devous (oxen) „ 3 „

Cross-bred (cows) „ 2 „

Whilst iu the general prizes —

The Hereford oxeu have won 185 prises £2758 2
cows ., 22 „ 231 0

£2989 2

The short-born oxen „ 82 „ £1399 5

cows „ 92 „ 1132 15

£2532 0

" The result obtained is that the total number of gold medals
is much in favour of the short- horns. This is chiefly owing to
the short-horn cows haviug won the greater proportion of them.
On the other hand the number and amount of general prizes
are vastly in favour of the Herefords, their principal winnings
having been in the oxen and steer classes, while the short-
horns owe the fact of their approaclnng the Herefords at all,
in total amount of winning, to the success of the short-horned
cows."

Complete lists of all the gold-medal animals are given,
for sheep and pigs as well as cattle. The most in-
teresting deductions obtained from weighing the stock
are recorded. The several alterations and additions
to the prize sheet are methodically dated; and the
names of all those noblemen and gentlemen who have
ever taken an active part in the administration are
classified in accordance with the offices they have
filled. Information of this kind was much wanted ; and
we can well understand, while meeting but just once
a year, " how little was generally known by the mem-
bers of the History of the Club." For their especial
benefit has their secretary thus employed himself;
and to them, with his Grace the Duke of Richmond at
their head, is his work dedicated. The offering, we
repent, is a most acceptable one. For agriculturists in
general, however, it contains so much interesting in-
formation as to necessarily demand for it a circulation
far beyond the few hundred members, over which it
appears the Club has never extended.

BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND
SOCIETY.

An important monthly Council meeting of this Society
was held, on Saturday, Nov. 28, atWaghorn's Railway Hotel,
Taunton, John Sillifant, Esq., of Coombe, Crediton, in the
chair. There were also present — Messrs. W. Porter, J.
E. Knolly'?, W. E. Gillett, T. D. Acland, J. Hooper, J.
Gray, C. Gordon, J. Widdicombe, R. Smith, R. Dymond,
G. Poole, D. Adair, R. K. M. King, W. Thompson, E.
Vidal, M. Farrant, T. Danger, W. VVippell, R. May, J.
Frj', H. G. Moysey, J. Belficld, J. D. Hancock, T. B.
Morle, S. Pitman, J. Gould, &c.

Appointment of Veterinary Inspector. — The re-
port of the committee appointed to consider the subject of
the Veterinary Inspector was brought up and discussed.
The committee represented that the services of Professor
Brown had been retained on behalf of the Society in this
department for the forthcoming meeting at Cardiff, in 18.58 ;
and the selection appeared to meet the unanimous approval
of the Council.

The Implement Prizes. — Mr. Knollya presented the
report of the committee, to whom the preparation of the im-
plement prize sheets for the ensuing year had been entrusted.
A report was presented with the implement schedule at the
last monthly raeetius', when the hat was referred back for
further consideration, and the same as now revised was re-
ceived and adopted.

The Meeting of 1859. — A deputation from the in-
habitants of Bridgwater attended with a view of urging upon
the attention of the Council the great facilities presented by
that town for holding the annual exhibition of the Society in
1859. In reference to this subject a communication was read
from the promoters of a public meeting at Barnstaple, which,
it was stated, was attended by the leading inhabitants and
many of the influential landowners and leading yeomen of
North Devon, called for the purpose of securing a proper re-
ception of the Bath and West of England Society there,
should the Council think fit to select Barnstaple for the site
of the meeting of 1859. Mr. Smith, on behalf of the latter
place, mentioned that active measures were being taken by
the tradesmen of the borough and the agriculturists of the
vicinity to give the Society a reception in eveiy way worthy of
its high character and importance. The decision of the ques-
tion was, after some discussion, deferred to a future meeting.

Terms for the Cultivation of Land in the West
OF England. — The question as to the desirability or other-
wise of the Society taking steps to secure a form of covenant
between landlord and tenant, better adapted to the advanced
condition of agriculture in the West ot England, has been
several times before the Council, and it was again introduced
to-day, when, a'ter a lengthened di cusaion, it was resolved
on the motion of Mr. Charles Gordon, seconded by Mr
Knollys, "That a committee beappointed to consider whether
the Society may, with advantage, prepare some suggestions of
terms for arrangement between landlord and tenant for the
cultivation of land in the West of England, which may be suit-
able to the advanced state of agriculture, and to consider other
subjects connected therewith, which may tend to promote its
further progress."

The Cardiff Meeting. — Two members of the Council
— Mr. Jonathan Gray and Mr. J. Widdicombe — were autho-
rized, en behalf of the Preliminary Committee, to enter into
the various contracts necessary at the meeting at 1S58, and
requested to report the same to the Council Meeting m
January.

New Members. — The undenneutioued gentlemen were
elected members of the society : Mr. Frederick May, Courier
Office, Taunton, Somerset ; Mr. Winter Gibbs, Taunton,
Somerset ; Mr. Frederick Knowles, Wringtou, Somerset ; Mr.
Williams, Barnstaple, Devon ; Mr. Francis Trood, Netherexe,
Devon ; Mr. T. Goldie Harding, Halsaanery, near Bideford,
Devon ; Mr. C. Roe, Lynniouth, Devon ; Mr. W. Hemming,
Coldioott, near .Moretou-in-the-Marah, Gloucestershire; Mr,
' II. Entwistle, Llaubelbiau, Cowhridge, South Wales.

THE FARMER'S MAGA2INE.

THE TRIALS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE.

Suggestions sent by Implement-makers and
Judges.

to the editor of the mark lane express.

Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter re-
specting " Certain correspondence from the Royal Agricultural
Society, ou the subject of Steam-engines," which you are pub-
lisliing, and think your offer to contributora most liberal and
fair. I did not gi?e any opinion in the matter of the society's
circular, but being very much dissatisfied with the trial of
implopjcnta at Salisbury, and hay machines in particular, I
took the opportunity of addressing the secretary on it, aud
beg to enclose a copy of my letter to him. I know not whether
it may have any result with the implement committee. I
leave it with you to do as you please, and should be glad to
have the name of your agent in Bury.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant.

Vi. Wyatts.

Hardwick Ilouae, Bury St. Edmund's, Nov. 25th.

TO THE SECRETARY OP THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETY.

Sir, — I have been favoured with your circular to the Eoyal
Agricultural Society's implement exhibitors, logether with a
minute of the society's councd, " inviting the respective opin-
ions of its implement makers in reference to a revision of the
conditions affecting the construction of steam-engiaes and
other machinery to be exhibited for trial next year," the
mportance ot which has been brought to the attention of the
councd by Messrs. Shuttleworth and Howard.

I am not able to give any opinion on this subject, not well
knowing the existing conditions or their bearing. I hope,
however, if they are revised they will not become more ex-
clusive by it. But, Sir, I am anxious to sddress you and the
committee on a part of the society's aifairs, of not less im-
portance to a certam class of its exhibitors, and I hope I may
be allowed to do so on this occasion.

I wish to draw attention to the defects of the rules and
management under which competitive trial of field implements
for prizes is conducted, and under which, I respectfully sub-
mit, that general improvement and " fair trial" contemplated
by the society is not attainable.

To be brief in explanation, I refer to my own work. I en-
tered a hay machine for competitive trial at the meeting in
July last, under the impression that all field implements would
be severely tested as to their weight and resistance to draught.
I had found the best modern hay machines heavy in these
respects, and thought I could improve on them, simplifying at
the same time. My implement is original in all its parts and
adjustments, the work of years under private trial. I reduced
the working parts thirtj^-aeven per cent, as compared with the
machine that took the first prize at Salisbury, and reduced
from forty to fifty per cent, iu weight as compured with that
machine, without giving up strength. The difference as to
the resistance I had no means of knowing. I made other im-
portant improvements, which practical men thought worth a
patent. If my work had any merit it went for nothing, from
a defective mode of trial. To my great disappointment there
was no test of the weight, or of the power required to draw
any implement whatever. There was nothing about it iu the
rules or in practice. I consider this a very great defect, and
that those testa ought to be the ground-work of the trial in
aU field implements. Practical farmers know it is of import-
ance whether any particular implement is seven or twelve
hundred weight. Whether it may be drawn by a pony or from
its weight or principles of construction, it may be too much
for a heavy horse, but they can draw no information on those
points from the society's prize trials. They are left to find it
out in their own fields. I wonder at this. The judges walk
iu the dark with the rest. They draw no light from the rules,
which ought to guide them. The worse machine may do its
work as well as the best at such a trial. The only way to

inventive improvement or excellence is shut up, and competi-
tive trial does more harm than good.

Another great defect at the trial of hay machines and horee
rakes at Salisbury was, the insufficiency of ground for them.
I suppose this was the fault of management. I think this
also ought to be subject to some rule. The ground was only
enough for two implements, instead of ten or twelve. Marking
out a piece for each was not attempted, it was not practicable
on half an acre. Once or twice up and down the piece was all
that could be afforded, one machine throwing the grass in on
the ground to be gone over by the next, the horses often trot-
ting rather than walking, which would disqualify under proper
rules. I have been working these machines for thirty years,
and have brought some espeiience to their use and construction,
and I assert respectfully that their merits and capabilities re-
spectively are not to be brought out ia this way, snd that I
consider the trial of them at Salisbury unworthy the Royal
Agricultural Society.

It is my wish to address this to the proper quarter, with a
desire only of fair play, aud the general improvement, my
interest otherwise being little affected. I think I have pointed
out faults, und that they are most easy of cure. I hope,
therefore, you will think the subject worthy of being brought
before the committee, aud hope also the decision on the ques-
tion to be soon before it on steam-engines, &c., may be made
known to the society's exhibitors.

I am, Sir, &c., &c.

To James Hudson, Esq. W. W.

October, 1857.

I received for atisvrtr that the above would be laid before
the committee, which waa to meet on the 3rd of this month.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MARK LANE EXPRESS.

Sir, — Iu common with other exhibitors, we were requested
by the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of Englaud
some time since to furnish them with our opinion, aud to offer
any suggestions we might think advisable upon the method
employed to test the capabilities of the different implements
exhibited at their annual shows. A variety of circumstances
caused us, quite unintentionally, to overlook the prescribed
period for doing so ; we,the.-efore, take the liberty of offering
a few observations on the subject, trusting you may find them
of sufficient importance to give them a place in your valuable
columns.

The first remarks we have to make will be upon portable
engines. It is unnecessary for us to remind you that the pri-
mary object the Council had in establishing prizes for them
was by testing the engines of various makers to be in a po-
sition to guide the decision of farmers and the public as to
which were the most serviceable, and the best adapted for the
purposes of a farm, and therefore most fit to be placed in the
hands of an ordinary farm-servant. So far so good ; but the
annual testing of these engines, and the great stress laid by
the judges upon the consumption of coal induced all the first-
claas makers to depart from the ordinary commercial engine
they were iu the constant habit of making, and to construct
one whose especial purpose would be to effect that economy
without regard due to other points— such as simplicity of
parts, strength of construction, &c., so that the trial engine
would bear about the same likeness to its commercial brother
in point of simplicity that a chronometer would bear to a com-
mon watch. Tubes were multiplied to three or four times the
surface of an ordinary engine, tlieir thickness reduced to 16
to 18 in. wire gauge, and the spaces between them to f or
-^ in. Further expansion valves were introduced as well as
water-heaters, and all this for the simple object of economizing
the fuel in the hope of securing the society's prize. This de-
scription of engine we have known to coat the makers £200
more than the ordinary kind, while this large expense has been
incurred not to produce a more serviceable engine, not to pro-
duce a stronger one, not to produce one more calculated fcr

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

59

the work of a faim, but an eagiae that might save a few
pounds of coal per day ; v/hile from the delicacy of its adjust-
ments, its extreme complication, aud number of parts, in-
creased number aud slightcess of tubes, and diminished water-
spalls rendered it much more likely to derangement. The
effect of this decision is, that the farmer says to the Royal
Society, " Gentlemen, let me know which is the best engine."
The Society answers, " So and so's is the most economical
engine ;" and therefore the prize one, aud the unfortunate
farmer buys an engine from these makers which has nothing
in common with the prize engine except a boiler, a cylinder,
and travelling wheels. For these considerations, therefore, it
is that we think that most of the observations made by the
different makers to the Royal Society miss the mark, and that
their attention should be directed to "ensure a supply of fair
commercial engines rather than to the details of the trials,
which we consider to have been performed with the greatest
are aud exactitude by the judges. As a remedy for this
serious difficulty, we beg respectfully to suggest whether the
Royal Agricultural Society of England could not cause each
maker or exhibitor of engines to sign a declaration to the effect
that he the exhibitor on his honour declares the engine entered
to be a bona fide, fair, conimerciitl engine, that the evaporating
surface amounts to — feet per horae-power, that there is no
water-heater, nor extra expansion yalve, and that he is ready
to supply an engine similar in every respect to any purchaser
at his catalogue price. On the other hand, if the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England caa prove that a false declaration
has been made, the Society ar'cer investigating the circum-
stances shall prohibit him from ever exhibiting at any of their
future shows. We do not think that the society should take upon
itself to lay down certain propositions for boilers or steam-
engines, as tl;at would hare the eifect of preventing any further
improvements ; but we do think they should take every pos-
sible means of preveuting a racing engine being entered ; and
we would further urge that in case of any departure by the
maker or makers from their ordinary engine, such improve-
ments should be described in their declaration, and they should
be able to add that for the future they mean to construct all
their commercial engines with such improvement or improve-
ments. We have said before that we have every confidence in
the correctness of the trials; we should, however, suggest that
the coal, of whatever description used, should be broken up in
lumps the size of walnuts, aud screened free from dust, and
that it should be afterwards weighed out to the different com-
petitors.

Respecting the trial of steam-thrashers, we have only one
observation to make, viz., that we should suggest the weighing
of the sheaves to be thrashed instead of counting them,
as it is well known that the same field very often varies
25 per cent, both in the length of the straw and in the quan-
tity of grain yielded ; aud, after all, the surest test of the
working of a thrashing-machine is the quantity of straw passed
through it in a given time, and clean thrashed, and not the
quantity of grain. We also think that the trials should last
during one-half hour for each machine.

V/ith respect to the other machinery trials, we think that
the general principles laid done by the Society are sufficiently
guarded to ensure a pretty accurate result.

Hoping you will excuse the length of .this letter, and that
you will have the goodness to insert it in your next.

We are, sir, yours respectfully,
Barrett, Exall, and Andkewes.

Kates Grove Iron Works, Reading,
Nov. 27, 1857.

TO THE EDITOK OF THE ENGINEER.

Sir, — Your agricultural contemporary, the Mark Lane
Express, is publishing a series of suggestions made to the
Royal Agricultural Society by a number of engineers and
jmplement-exhibitors at the Society's shows, for the future
conditions for trials of steam-engines, threshing-machines,
&c. ; from these suggestions have arisen the remarks which I
now beg to enclose you, and shall have pleasure in seeing the
same in your scientific eolumua if you consider them worthy
of a place there.

" Adjudication should be represented by points," say
Messrs. Ransomes and Sims, and say also Messrs. Giirrett
aud Sons, aud Mr. B. Samuelson, in their suggestions to the
R.A.S. relative to the forthcoming trials of steam-engines and
threshing-machines, at Chester, as published iu the Mark-lane
Express of November 16th ; whiht Messrs. Brown and Iilay,
John Gray and Co., and Tuxford and Sons, in their sug-
gestions leave oui of consiieratioa the question of points
altogether. Messrs. Ransomes and Sims, and Messrs. Garrett
and Sons, give certain divisions of points, each in the same
rotation, with the exception of the third one, which Messrs.
Garrett omit. This conformity of views gives evidence of
some previous conference or correspondence between those
two firms, and hence these points must not be set down as
hasty remarks, but as matured ideas leading to some desired
result — say,

Ransomes and Garrett aud
Sims, Sons.

1. Durability to count, . 20 points .... 10 points.

2. Simplicity . . , , 20 „ 10 „

S. Excellence of material

and workmanship. , 20 „ ,,.. — „

4. Consumption of coal . 20 „ .,,. 8 ,,

5. Portability ,. .,, 10 „ 6 „

6. Price per horse-power 10 „ ..,. 6 „

In reasoning upoa this subject of points, we must first as-
certain if perfection or any proof positive can be arrived at,
as the index to count from : if not, thsn the system is false, and
no satisfactory results can be obtained. With the threshing
machine, the straw may be so closely examined as to determine
whether it be threshed clean or not, whether it is cleaa sh/iken
or not, and what power has been absorbed in threshiog a given
number of sheaves. These and other determinate results may
be obtained with the threshing machine, and are true standards
upon which to establish a system of points. But with the
steam-engine, what in a trial is to determine " durability" ?
what " simplicity"? what " excellence of material and work-
manship"? Such as is sent out from the factory to the pur-
chaser, not that which is merely sent to the agricultural
shows ? — " Consumption of coal" can be determined, and the
power obtainable from a given quantity established; the judi-
cious arrangement of boiler and furnace can be proved by the
evaporation of a given quantity of water with a given quantity
of fuel, in a given period of time. — " Portability," what is to
determine it? Shall simple lightness of construction, at the
hazard of explosion, be the guiding star here ? or is this to be
determmed as a quality in combination with something not
expressed ? And " price per horse power," is it not with en-
gines as with horses ? — whether worth £5 or worth £50, a
horse is still a horse ; or whether inferior or excellent, an engice
is an engine. But unfortunately, in the proposed points
the superior engine, because more costly to produce, would
lose its points ; while the inferior engine, through its less
price, would count so many points towards a prize !

Here, then, we have amongst all these heads for points but
one that can be brought to a determinate result, and that is
" consumption of coal ;" and is it not upon this result in
trials of steam-engines that awards should be made ? Is not
fuel the primum mobile of the steam-engine? and is not the most
economical use of it the great desideratum with practical en-
gineers ? Will not the excellency of results prove the excel-
lency of the mechanical combinations for producing these re-
sults ? And does not this simple, clear, and accurately-definable
test of fuel, close the door against all charlatanism, and spe-
cious reasoning under the cloak of " points ;" beneath which
garb, engines doing but inferior duty would be brought before
the world with first-class reputations ? B, C. E.

Nov. 18th, 1857.

60

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

A PLAIN FARMER'S VIEWS OF THE NEW THINGS IN AGRICULTURE.

T have, as briefly as I knew how, noticed the steam
ploughs lately introdaced to the agricultural world. Be-
sides these so-called ploughs, we have various other
inventions made to aid in cultivation : these are upon
the rotary principle. The only one drawn or im-
pelled by steam, which I have actually seen in work, is
Usher's steam plough. This I saw at Carlisle. It is a
ponderous thing altogether. A powerful steam engine
precedes a large revolving cylinder, or cylindrical frame-
work, upon which are affixed a number of jdough
bodies, or rather ploughshares in frames; and as each
shai-e comes down in contact with the soil, it penetrates
or presses into it, and turns over with more or less accu-
racy a furrow a few feet in length. The slight trial given
to it there sufficed to con\ince me that it was a great
waste of power for a very ineffectual purpose. The idea
of every share having to descend to enter the soil inde-
pendently, and turn over a small length of furrow, and
then to rise again, and so on in succession, one after
another, leaving little strips after theengine, I felt assured
must be an erroneous one, and could never be brought
into general practice. The result has proved my view
correct ; for we never hear of it now, so I presume the
scheme is given up, or, at all events, laid aside.

One almost wonders what will come nest ; and to
find so much thought, ingenuity, and capital expended
upon manifestly erroneous principles, astonishes every
plain farmer. I like the plough : it is near perfection :
we only want to establish economical draught-power. I
believe it will be a long time before it is superseded,
even by our friend Mr. Smith ; but revolving ploughs
around a large drum I don't believe in. Far better, in
my humble opinion, is the principle of rotary culti-
vators, of which, however, I have not yet formed any
very elevated opinion. I will now notice some of these
very briefly. I have more than once seen Samuelson's
digging machine in work. Gibson's I have also seen in
work. Both pulverize very well, so far as they go ; but
it requires the power of four good horses to break up
even a less breadth than two feet. Both machines work
upon a similar principle — having revolving teeth or
forks. Samuelson's are like fork tines, and are made of
steel. They revolve very rapidly, and break up the soil
to six or eight inches deep, throwing out behind a con-
tinuous stream of pulverized soil. Gibson's is a series
of cast-iron wheels with strong prongs. These press
into the soil, which is pulverized as it is turned up. This
machine is, however, better adapted for clod-crushing
rather than breaking up the unploughed soil. Samuel-
son's can more effectually break up such soil, bnt at a
great expenditure of power. The most important im-
plement of this class with which I am accpaainted is
Romaine's patent steam cultivator. I have not seen this
machine in work, therefore cannot oflfer any personal
observations ; but from reliable information given me
by a close observer who recently inspected it, I am in-
clined to think there is something really valuable and of
considerable utility in the invention. It is the same
machine upon which our worthy pioneering friend
Mechi some time ago staked, or offered to stake, his
agricultural reputation. It is said to " differ from all
others hitherto brought before the public for the pur-
pose of applying steam-power to the cultivation of the
soil, in entirely dispensing with the use of ploughs,
ropes, or auxiliary implements. It is a fourteen -horse
portable steam-engine capable of propelling itself, com-

bined with, and giving motion to, a rotary digger."
The engine and boiler are carried on a pair of high
broad wheels, with two small wheels in front. The
large wheels are driven by the engine ; the small wheels
are used for steerage. By a simple disengaging arrange-
ment the latter are left free when the machine has to be
turned round, and by driving one of the large wheels,
while the other remains stationary, the implement can
be turned completely round within its own length. The
cultivating part consists of a hollow cylinder six feet six
inches long and two feet six inches in diameter, armed
with cutters made of wrought-iron, of sufficient strength
to enter the soil. These are separately secured by bolts,
and can readily be rep'aced in case of accident. In work,
it takes six and a-ha!f feet, which it highly pulverizes ;
and it can be turned on the headland in less space than
the common plougli with two horses abreast. Its daily
work is about six acres, at an expense of 35s. ; and ttie
depth taken from seven to nine inches. It digs the
ground, besides pulverizing it; so that at one operation,
it is said, the work of two ploughings and an indefinite
number of harrowings is performed, whereby a good seed-
bed is obtained. Now, to me, this does seem more like a
really useful implement ; and if it can be made to do
all this work eflfectively at a moderate cost, it cannot
fail to be a great boon to the farming community.
I heartily wish Mr, Romaine, the inventor, and Mr.
Crosskill, the manufacturer, every success with it ; and
hope they will soon bring it before the public openly,
so that its merits may be well looked into.

Just a word about rotary cultivation. I am a plain
man of business, and look to have my work done pro-
perly and effectually, so as to save the necessity of re-
sorting to adventitious aids to accomplish my purpose.
With a strong iron plough and a good team, I can plough
and thus break up my land in its driest, hardest state.
No cultivator that I have seen can do this. I am to-
day, in my latter-seeding, ploughing-in a luxuriant
growth of green oats and annuals, which constitute in
this most prolific season a regular green manuring.
There it lies under the broken furrow, where I hope it
will do my crop good service. These rotary cultivators
would throw it on the top, making a pretty mess — stop-
ping harrows and drilling, and leaving a most unsightly
field. In all cropped lands there are corn roots, stub-
bles, &c., &c., to be ploughed in, there to rot upon the
furrow-sole, to be mingled in the next operation of cul-
ture. The rotary cultivators attempt to mix all as they
proceed, but don't do it ; and the value of rotting
roots, stubbles, and other vegetable matter, is chiefly lost
or passes away. The mingling must have time, the
decaying process must have time, and the decaying
matter must be arrested and retained in the soil. 1 am
one of those untidy farmers whose farms will, somehow
or other, produce twitch ; of course it is indigenous — it
grows, it wdl grow. Well, there it is. My ploughs
break it up, in ploughing, in something like order ; and it
is brought up, in the next process, as a sod or lump, and
is easily " picked." These rotators tear it all into bits,
which on my cool light soils will never die, and not
readily on the heavier portions of my farm ; there it lies,
forming innumerable sets for future plants. Well,
enough of this ; for one might go on indefinitely. I must
say that I am old-fashioned enough to prefer that old
time-honoured implement the plough, in some one or
other of its now almost iimumerable phases, as the first

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

61

motive power for breaking up the soil. I like that par-
tial inversion of it ; I like that simple, gradual, gliding
process of upturning the furrow ; I like that simple
combination of artistic power so admirably shown in the
ploughshare and ncould-turner — the gradual lever-lift,
the inverted Archimedian screw, gently pressing over
the soil at the most acceptable angle. I much question

if any implement will ever be invented requiring less
draught power in perfecting the same work.

To Mr. Hemming. — I am obliged by your correc-
tion. My full conviction still is that fourteen tons was
given to me as the weight of the engine, which of course
would include water ; and I much regret if I have made a
wrong statement.

NOTES ON NOVELTIES AT THE AGRICULTURAL SHOWS OF 1857.

THE GLASGOW MEETING OF THE HIGHLAND
AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOT-
LAND.

Of this, confessedly the most successful of all the So-
ciety's meetings, the feature which at once claimed the
attention of the English visitor was the mode of
classification of the implements and machines con-
tributed. For agricultural shows there are two modes
of classification eligible : first, according to the
kind of work to be performed by the implement
or machine ; second, giving a certain amount of space
to each individual manufacturer, allowing him to
arrange his contributions as best he thinks fit.
Of these two modts the first is the philosophical ;
the second, the commercial ; and they are to be judged
of from entirely different points of view. If the object
of the Show is to facilitate the farmer in making com-
parative observations of the different machines, and to
serve some important points in agricultural education,
there can be no doubt that the first mode is in every
way the best. If, however, it is considered essential to
consult the commercial interests of the exhibitor, and,
to facilitate his obtaining orders, to create a sale for his
wares, the nearer the approach is made to the character
of a bazaar the better. It is simply a question between
the farmer and the implement maker, as the buyer and
the seller, and whether it is politic to study the interests
of the one more than those of the other. For purely
agricultural purposes it is evident that the first classifi-
cati jn is the best ; for it is obvious enough ^that, of any
machine which the farmer is wishful to purchase, the
more specimens — that is, of different makers — he sees,
the better. A thoughtful walk through what may be
cilled the confusion of Salisbury and the well-ordered
philosophical arrangements of Glasgow, would have
soon made this clear to any one previously doubtful of
the truth of the position. Not, let it here be noted,
that we are carping at the arrangements of the Salisbury
Show — they were admirable, so far as the system of
classification adopted admitted of; we simply wish to
show that where a farmer was desirous of comparing
the arrangements and workmanship of a machine brought
out by one manufacturer with those of others, before he
could go from one place to another, hunt up specimens,
and examine the peculiarities of each, all data for com-
parative observations would have evaporated from his
brain. Few mechanics could effect the object — how
could we suppose farmers to be successful ? The
Judges adjudicating the merits of each implement are
not thus expected to wander from stand to stand — at
least if they do, their judgment will fail in some parti-
culars ; and every farmer would undoubtedly be the
better if the shows enabled him to have the facilities of
the Judges. It is for the Societies to say how far in
this way they wish their shows to be truly educational
institutions ; nor would this facility of making compa-
rative observations be prejudicial to the interests of the
manufacturers themselves. We can easily imagine some,

who to crude notions of arrangement add imperfection
in workmanship, objecting to this facility of comparison
being afforded to the buyers ; but we have some difii-
culty in understanding how those who sell the best
machine of any class fear competition. In truth, we
do not think that this fear exists amongst our celebrated
manufacturers — it is their truest interest and wisest
policy to court comparison ; at the same time, before
closing our remarks on this subject — not altogether
without its importance to the agricultural world — it is
but right to mention that the system of classification
adopted by the Highland Society does entail a hardship
on those manufacturers who are desirous to do a trade
at the shovs — as who of them is not ? — in forcing them
to have either an assistant at each separate department
to explain to inquirers their machines and implements
there exhibited, or, failing this, to allow them to remain
unrepresented altogether- an alternative which no busi-
ness man likes to be forced to adopt. This is a grave
difficulty, and it is difficult to see how it can be over-
come.

As the object of our paper is to take notice of the
novelties chiefly at the various shows, not to give a
report newspaper fashion, we have under the present
division but little to say ; for numerous as were the
machines represented, many of them either presented
the stereotyped features which are seen at each succes-
sive show, or where new, have been already described
in the first part of our present paper, or in the paper
given in the number of this Journal for March last on
the Novelties of the Smithfield Club Show. For the
purposes of this paper we deem it best, therefore, to
take the classification adopted in the prize list as offi-
cially announced, and describe the peculiar features of
the novelties of such sections as we consider it necessary
to notice.

In Section 4 (Subsoil Ploughs for Moor or Strong
Land, for three or four horses), Mr. Bentall took the
first prize of £4, This implement, although no novelty
to the English reader, may be so to some of our Scotch
readers ; we therefore give a slight description of its
peculiarities. One form of it has three shares, preceded
by three points, arranged parallel with each other ; the
centre share and point project beyond the two others,
this arrangement enabling the implement to penetrate
the hardest soils, and gives it a steady motion. It is
mounted on three wheels, by which the depth of the
work is regulated: the central beam, to which the centre
tine is fitted, has two cross arms, each of which carries
a side tine, the side tines having a lateral adjustment
given to them as well as a vertical. By this arrangement
the distance between the side tines and the centre one is
increased or decreased so as to take in a lesser or greater
width of land. The width usually covered is 3 feet
6 inches.

In Section 10 (Consolidating Land-rollers), Mr.
William Cambridge of Bristol took the first prize of
£5 for his patent self- cleansing clod-crusher. This

0:3

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

impleiBeiit has a high reputation in England, and con-
sists of a series of press-wheels on a central bar; each
wheel has a slightly eccentric motion on the bar, and
the wheels are made alternately large and small.

In Section 28 (Liquid ManureDistributing-Machines),
Mr. Isaac James of Cheltenham took the first prize of
£'i. The liquid in this machine is forced through a
distributor, which gives a shower capable of covering
from 10 to 15 feet wide. The joints are all waterproof.
The valve is prevented from choking by the employ-
ment of a double strainer through which the liquid
manure is made to pass before it enters the body of the
cart.

In Section 29 (liquid manure pumps), Mr. David
Falconer, Causey side- street. Paisley, took the first prize
of £2. The arrangements of this pump are simple and
ingenious. The two pump barrels, so to speak, are
formed of tubes of vulcanized India-rubber, and are
made to collapse and extend alternately by the recipro-
cating movement of a beam.

In Section 30 (straw cutters for hand labour),
Messrs. Richmond and Chandler, of Salford, took the
first prize of £2. This machine is remarkable for the
simplicity of its arrangements, its compactness, and for
the excellence of its workmanship. By the use of
toothed rollers, instead of the fluted ones generally
used in straw cutters, the apparatus is nearly self-
feeding.

In Section 41 (root washers), the same firm took the
first prize of £2. To the back of the trough in which
the cylinder containing the roots to be washed revolves,
two curved racks are attached, one at each end. These
extend beyond the machine. When the handle of the
cylinder is turned in one direction, the cylinder conti-
nues to revolve in the trough, washing the roots.
When they are judged sufficiently clean, the cylinder is
caused* to revolve in the opposite direction, when the
toothed wheels at the end of the shaft take into the
teeth of the curved racks, up which the cylinder climbs,
as it were, and delivers the potatoes. When empty, it
rolls down the rack to the bearings in the side of the
washing trough.

In Section 42 (steaming apparatus), Messrs. R. and
W. Smith and Co , of Eglinton Engine Works, Glas-
gow, took the first prize of £b. This apparatus is ex-
ceedingly compact in arrangement, and complete in its
details. The boiler is on the Cornish or internal-flue
principle, and constructed specially with a view to
economize fuel.

YORK MEETING.

This, the twentieth meeting of the Yorkshire Agri-
cultural Society, from its splendid show of stock, aird
its admirable collection of implements, proved itself no
mean rival, in bidding for public favour and attention,
to the Royal Society's show at Salisbuiy. From a
good authority we learn that, at the society's nineteenth
meeting, last year, ^^800 in prizes, besides gold and
silver medals, were awarded, ^£'200 of this being given
for implements alone ; the amount of the Royal Society,
for the same class, at Salisbury this year, being only
£173. The Yorkshire Society had at its show 700 im-
plements— less by 180 only than the number exhibited
at Salisbury. While at the latter show 154 exhibitors
met, at the Yorkshire show there were no fewer than
93. But in stock the Yorkshire show bore off the
palm: for, while at Salisbury there were only 151
horses, at the Yorkshire show there were 177 ; for 109
shorthorns at Salisbury, there were 100 at the York-
shire show ; while of poultry 220 entries were made,
against 156 only at Salisbury. Certainly, this society
owes no little to the district in which it is held, with a

population of little short of two millions, noted for their
enterprise in trade and commerce.

With reference to the implement department of this
most important show, the two great features were the
competition for the steam cultivation and the reaping
machines. For the former the prize was announced in
terms which, from their explicitness, contrasted favour--
ably with the announcement for a similar prize com-
peted for at Salisbury — " For the best application of
machinery impelled by steam power to the cultivation
of the soil, i;'30." But, still further to remove all
doubts as to the comprehensiveness, and at the same
time the precision, of the results aimed at, as regards
economy of working, the following note was added :
" N.B. — It is essential that the operation performed by
this cultivator, whether it be disintegration or complete
inversion of the soil, be accomplished at less cost than
similar or equal results can be obtained by horse or
manual power, and that the work be also as well done
by the former as by the latter agencies." In competi-
tion for this prize, which thus included steam ploughs,
rotary cultivators, and digging machines, two entries
were made — namely, by the Patent Traction Engine
Company (Boy dell's endless railway), and by Mr.
Fowler. Mr. Fowler's apparatus was not brought for-
ward, so that the only apparatus tried was Mr. Boydell's
traction engine. Being engaged at Glasgow, we could
not get forward to York in time to wiUiess the trial of
this machine. We understand, however, that the work
performed by the engine dragging Coleman's scarifier —
taking a breadth of 7 feet 9 inches, and a depth varying
from 5 to 12 inches — was, on the whole, satisfactory.
While working with four iron ploughs, which were
afterwards used, the crank of the engine broke, and put
an end to the experiment, which, from all we can learn,
seems to have been the most successful yet attempted
with this form of traction engine.

For the reaping machine prize three competitors en-
tered—Mr, Palmer, Mr. Wray, and Mr. Bushy. The
machine entered by the latter was that of Messrs. Dray
— Hussey's improved, with tipping platform. The
principal peculiarity in Mr. Palmer's " Union" reaper
is the side and back delivery. This is effected by the
use of a radiating platform at the back of the machine;-
the floor of this platform being composed of a series of
rollers, those being of larger dimensions at the outer
than at the inner extremities. The two outward rollers
have a rotary motion given to them. The attendant,
sitting on the machine, uses a rake, with which he
draws back the cut produce from the front of the ma-
chine on to the receiver board, and the first of the set
of rollers. On the line reaching the last rollers, which
have, as above stated, a rotary motion given to them,
it is taken on by them, and delivered to the ground in a
line parallel, or nearly so, to the line of draught. A
steel separator precedes the cutters, and, jointed to the
side opposite to the working gear, it marks the division
in the standing crop between the portion to come
under the operation of the cutters and that left for the
return of action. While passing over the platform, the
corn is retained till it is dehvered to the last rollers by
a light fence. This is supplied with a roller, which
facilitates the passage of the corn over its surface.

The peculiarity of Mr. Wray's machine is, that it is
worked with one horse only. The inventor has aimed
at making all the parts light, and moving the knife
slowly. The knife is an endless one, revolving freely
from under the back of the machine.

In the show-yard we noticed one or two novelties
only. Amongst these the compact portable gas-making
apparatus of Mr. B. Sanders, of Layerthorpe, attracted
our attention. Gas can be made by it without much
trouble, at the cost, it is said, of Is. per thousand cubic

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

G3

feet. This, we should think, was an under-estimate.
The whole apparatus takes up little room, and its ar-
rangements seem simple enough to be managed without
difficulty by any farm-servant. The inventor has fitted
up nearly 300 apparatuses in diflferent parts of the
country.

On the stand of Mr. Buxton (Malton, Yorkshire) we
noticed a patent mill for breaking, splitting, and grind-
ing oats, peas, &c. In this there is an ingenious adapta-
tion of an Archimedean screw in the shaft which carries
the grinding part. The screw is immediately beneath
the hopper which supplies the grain to be crushed, and
carries it to the grinding surface, over which it is dis-
tributed at an equal rate, so that if the mill is running
fast or slow it cannot choke. The grinding part is
formed of a cone divided into three sections ; the first of
these conical sections is provided with a series of coarse-
cut segments, adjustable by means of set screws to fit
them for breaking, splitting, &c. The second conical
section is smooth in its periphery, but is provided with
a series of ribs forming a screw, which carries the sub-
stances broken or split by the first cone up to the action

of the third and last cone, over the surface of which they
are distributed equally by the action of the screw cone.
A current of air is also projected over the surface of the
last cone, through the medium of the screw cone. The
last cone is provided with fine-cut segments, which
grind the substances split by tne first cone into meal.
A 12-inch mill will grind by power from 10 to 14
busbels per hour. The cost of a machine of this size
is ^^12 12s. We understand that the manufacture of
this machine has been taken up by Messrs. Richmond
and Chandler of Salford, Manchester, whose well-known
mechanical abilities will doubtless result in making it a
machine of first-class workmanship.

Many of the machines and implement?; which pre-
sented features of novelty were also exhibited at Salis-
bury ; and as we have already described their pecu-
liarities, we have now little more to do, in concluding
our brief notice of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's
Show, than to thank the Secretary, J. Hannam, Esq.,
for so courteously throwing all facilities in our way for
inspecting the implements exhibited. — Journal of
Agricultitre.

THE EAST KENT AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS' ASSOCIATION.

Sir, — The vignette of your journal — an able engine, in-
scribed " The Mark Lane Express^' — is a happy emblem of
the work you have in hand. Deep-draining, long leases,
improved machinerj', chemical composts, agricultural pro-
gress— steps in advance, upwards and onwards — v/hatever
may benefit the soil or its intelligent fertilizer, be he master
or man — these are your aim. Your locomotive runs out,
and brings back every passing incident of importance to
agriculture, without prejudice of matter, distance, or coun-
try from whence you fetch your readers' information.

This is the more welcome at the farmer's breakfast-table,
inasmuch as there is but little to tempthimout just now. A
December morning is seldom pleasant — the " foracre" is so
sodden, the air so raw, the fog so solid — as the early rooks
cleave it with their wings — our whiskers so wet with the
pride of the morning. Almost the only sound to cheer a
farmer's heart in December is that which one would, at
first, take for a couple of self-hunting puppies, but which
proves to be " Yex," "Beam," " Chep," and " Scroad" of
the Kentish plough in musical striving and labour together,
as the crazy " turn-wrest" comes again to the straining of
the smoky team and the crack of the ploughboy's whip.

Will a whistle from behind a Kentish plough interest
any of your readers at this time ?

Let it be known, then, since country practices diifer, that
the complete working establishment on a farm, say of five
hundred acres, in East Kent is five teams, with a man and
his mate to each of them. These ploughmen may be occa-
sionally married men, but the majority of them are single.
These are "farm-servants" in East Kent, in contradistinc-
tion to the ordinary " labourer" on the farm. It is calculated
that this class of " farm- servants" in the eastern division
of the county alone must amount fally to 5,000. This class
has been hitherto mainly without education, and sadly ig-
norant of the merest elements of that inward hope on which
their eternal destiny hinges, when ploughing and farming
shall be over for ever.

There are things enough in tJds world that move us ! For
example, it touches the heart to the quick when, trebly
cased in wool and waterproof, warm and snug, dry and well
fed, the cold rain beats mercilessly down, and you pass on
the road a mere child (one of the 80,000 employed in agri-
culture in England) — laying in the first seeds of a rheumatic
old age, if not of earlier consumption — rook-keeping !
Saturated with the storm, he drags one foot after the other,
heavy laden with wet earth, to dislodge a sable trio, who
only mock his misery and childish struggles by sweeping
jauntily over his head, down- wind, and challenging another
toilsome pilgrimage to the opposite extremity of the hundred

acre field. No shelter for this child — no "tempering of the
breeze for this shorn lamb!" His only interlude till the
daylight closes in is his little dinner, to be eaten wet and
cold ; then more rain, and more rooks, till at last his day is
done. This tears one's heart-strings. Surely there should
be provision for these lads against the weather in every in-
stance.

But this has its end ; moral evils have no end — their in*
fluence is for ever.

With a lively appreciation of this last sentiment, the
fact is an unwelcome one, that the class of whom we are
now speaking Jiave been, for the m.ost part, habitual absentees
from the house of God.

Was there any cause for this, operating upon this class
more than upon others ?

The inquiry suggested itself ; and there appeared, on in-
vestigation, a long-standing custom upon the farms of East
Kent, with some iew exceptions, of " baiting" farm-horses
on the Sabbath, from 10 to 12 a.m. (the hours of divine ser-
vice in the morning), and from 4 p.m. (half an hour before
the afternoon service is ordinarily concluded) to 6 p.m.

Here, then, appeared at once an insuperable barrier, in
the shape of a custom, to the possibility of these 5,000 men
and boys worshipping God at all on the Sabbath, if we ex-
cept a limited number, who, having the ." will," found the
way by mutual arrangement of relief in Sunday-work.

In October, 1853, attention was first called to the exist-
ence of this custom, the injurious tendencies of which were
not, indeed, wantonly sanctioned by the farmer, since it had
crept insensibly into his establishment as a "custom re-
ceived from his fathers." The first furrow being turned up,
other things long existing — but existing also for the same
reason unobserved — came, one by one, to the surface of in-
quiry. These were met by the immediate and honest
acknowledgment of the farmer, and by his willing co-
operation in desiring their removal or alteration.

Amongst these may be mentioned —

1. The yearly renewal of service between master and
man, so subversive of any mutual interest and sympathy be^
tween the two.

2. The usual mode o^aocess to the farm-servant's bed-
chamber, viz., by a ladder from without-doors, giving op-
portunity for nightly excesses find absence, thefts and other
irregularities.

3. The want of domestic comfort in the farm-servant's
bed-chamber, want of water and washing utensils, of clean
bedding, &c., together with excessive crowding in some in-
stances, and commouly two men in a bed.

4. The general absence in farm-houses of any common

61.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

room, with a fire and caudle in winter, as a place of rest, re-
tirement, or quiet occupation, except tlie stable and bed-
chamber.

5. To these may be added the ne2:lect of insisting on some
satisfactory character (and especially a written one) on the
hiring of farm-servants.

Here were many undesirable things, but all more or less
easy of remedy. It was determined, however, to aim first
at the reformation of that custom, already noticed, which
left such a ready excuse on the lips of every farm-servant
for neglecting his religious duties on the Sabbath-day. " I
have no time for public worship," said he ; "I am called
during the hours of divine service in another direction, to
feed my master's horses."

Now it gives us real pleasure to record that since the first
mooting of these questions, in October, 1853, the willing
concurrence of the farmer in effecting a radical change in
the hours hitherto observed on the Sabbath on East Kent
farms has been more and more afforded. At the agricultural
meeting of 1 854 this matter, which had been discussed at
their previous anniversaries, was again brought forward with
an earnest spirit. In October, 1855, a meeting of county
gentlemen and farmers took up the question again ; and in
September of the year following (1856) a still more influ-
ential meeting was held at Canterbury, William Deedes,
Esq , M.P., taking the chair.

The resolution following was then proposed —

" That this meeting, being desirous of removing every
obstacle to the religious and moral improvement of the
farm labourers, recommends the adoption, henceforward, of
such hours of stable attendance on the Sabbath as shall give
every opportunity to farm servants to attend a place of divine
worship."

This was followed by 255 signatures, including the names
of the leading gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers of the east-
ern division of the county.

So the movement advanced. It was only necessary to
show that time had insidiously engrafted upon Kentish
farms customs and moral disabilities at once unnecessary
and injurious to the labourer, and right-minded men lost no
time in endeavouring to remove the evil.

Yet long custom is not broken through iu a day, or even
in years. Accordingly the year 1857, the fifth year of the
movement, found something still to be done. There were
farmers who still held back from an alteration in their
hours on a Sunday, in compliance with the prejudices of
many of the " servants," who clung to the old system,
which gave them a pretext to neglect those holj'^ services of
God's house, which a low state of education too often un-
fitted them to enjoy. AVhen reluctance " to change the
customs" manifested itself among the men, it required some
moral determination to carry out desirable changes, and to
meet it might be some inconvenience, the labour market
being barely supplied. Nor was this moral difficulty less-
ened ; if A carried out the system, and not being backed by
his neighbour B, had warning given him by his men, who
were immediately taken loitJwut a character.

One remedy alone remained for this —association. If the
farmers would agree to act on one and the same plan, and
each of them to vindicate the honour of the Sabbath, no
difficulty would remain. One more meeting, then, was
convened on the 3rd of October last. Mr. Deedes again
took the chair. The object of the meeting had the cordial
support of Lord Winchelsea, Lord Sondes, Lord Cowper,
and other influential persons. The association was pro-
posed and carried, under the name of " The East Kent
Agricultural Labourers' Association," and donations were
received.

Little more remains to be added, in giving a summary of
this movement, than to state that the first meeting of
the committee has since been held, and the following ad-
vertisement circulated through the,county papers : —
" East Kent Agricultural Labourers' Association.

" The committee of the above association, having held
their first meeting on Monday, Nov. IC, feel it due to its
supporters, and those interested in its operations, to lay be-
fore them the following etatements : —

" I. That the object of the Society is the religious, moral,
and social improvement of the agricultural labourers of East
Kent, especially the farm-servants.

"2. That the committee have received information of a
very encouraging character respecting the closing of farm-
stables during the hours of divine service ; of the increased
domestic comforts now afforded to farm -servants; and of
the success attending the establishment of night schools in
various quarters.

" 3. That, in their opinion, the first and most efficacious
means of carrying out their object, above-mentioned, is the
closing of farm-siablcs during iJie hours of divine service; and
next to this, the encouragement of night-schools^''

The advertisement is then followed by an appeal to the
public for support.

And now we have only to congratulate the agriculturists of
East Kent and their farm-servants upon the successful com-
mencement of such an improvement upon old customs, as
that henceforward farm-service, in the particular above
alhided to, shall be no hindrance between a man and his
God. We congratulate the labouring class especially that
night-schools hold out, in various quarters, the promise to
every man who will help himself that he shall not be at a
loss to find those who in turn will help him in his search
after self-elevation and improvement. Why should it be
said, in our day of progress and philanthropy, that any
adult of the labouring class is unable to receive the bless-
ings of divine and human knowledge because he is unable
to read. 5^

It gives us still more pleasure to learn that inquiries have
reached the promoters of this movement from Oxfordshire,
Hertfordshire, and Northamptonshire, with a view of them-
selves advancing, by some kindred movement, the well-
being of the agricultural labourer in those counties.

We only trust that many other counties will be found to
follow Kent and Norfolk; and that a reciprocal interest of
classes, in the welfare the one of the other, will more than
keep pace with the scientific and professional advances of
the da}'. In that class of single farm-servants whose special
mprovement has been agitated in Kent, be it remembered,
we see the expanding of that bulwark of our rural villages —
the orderly, staid, trustworthy, respectful, and highly re-
spectable " labourer" — the occupier of the neatest cottage —
the father of the best-conducted family — the most faithful
of servants to his earthly master, because also to his God —
the most unvarying attendant at the house of God — one of
the corner-stones of an English village.

A Kentish Plough.

"ENGLISH TRAITS," by R. W. Emerson.— Bacon
said, " Rome was a state not subject to paradoses" ; but Eng-
land subsists by antagonisms and contradictions. The foun-
dations of its greatness are the rolling waves ; and, from first
to last, it is a museum of anomalies. This foggy and rainy
country furnishes the world with astronomical observations.
Its short rivers do not afford water-power, but the land shakes
under the thunder of the mills. There is no gold mine of any
importance, but there is more gold in l<]nglaud than in all
other countries. It is too far north for the culture of the vine,
but the wines of all countries are in its docks. The French
Comte de Lauraguais said, " no fruit ripens in England but a
baked apple" ; but oranges and pine-apples are as cheap in
London as in the Mediterranean. The Mark-lane Express, or
the Custom House Returns, bear out to the letter the vaunt of
Pope —

" Let India boast her palms, nor envy we
The weeping; amber nor the spicy tree,
While^b}' our oaks those precious loads are borne
And realms commanded which those trees adorn."
The native cattle are extinct, but the island is full of artificial
breeds. The agriculturist, Bakewell, created sheep, and cows,
and horses to order, and breeds in which everything was
omitted but what is economical. The cow is sacrificed to her
bag, the ox to his sirloin. Stall-feeding makes sperai-mills of
the cattle, and converts the stable to a chemical factory. The
rivers, lakes, and ponds, too much fished, or obstructed by fac-
tories, are artificially filled with the eggs of salmon, turbot,
and herring. Chat Moss and the fens of Lincolnshire and
Cambridgeshire are unhealthy, and too barren to pay rent. By
cylindrical tiles and gutta-percha tubes five millions of acres
of bad land have been drained, and put on equality with the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

65

best, for rape-culture aud grass. The tliiuato, too, which was
already believed to have become milder aud drier by the enor-
mous consumption of coal, is so far reached by this new action
that fogs aud storms are said to disappear. In due course, all
England will be drained, and rise a second time out of the
waters. The latest step was to call in the aid of steam to agri-

culture. Steam is almost an Englishman. I do not know but
they will send him to Parliament next to make laws. He
weaves, forges, saws, pounds, fans, and now he must pump,
grind, dig, and plough for the farmer. The markets created
by the manufacturing population have erected agriculture into
a great thriving and spending industry.

LEICESTERSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The auuual show of this society took place on Friday, Dec. 4.
in the yard of the Bell Hotel, the spirited proprietor of which
had g.eatly enlarged the space appropriated for that purpose,
by er jctiwg long ranges of comfortable sheds. The result was
that though the quantity of stoc^ was uuusually large, there
was an absence of all crowding, and the animals of all kinds
were inspected with the greatest facility aud advantage. Of
the quality of the stock shown opinions varied, some thinking
it oue of the best shows in this respect the society has had,
aud others considering that there were many rough things
sent, which never ought to have appeared in an exhibition.
The decisions of the judges of stock too did not meet with
uciversal approval, as they were considered to have leaned too
much to bulk, to the neglect of symmetry and quality, and to
have passed over unuoticed some of the very best animals
shown, amongst others the excellent sheep of Mr. Bradshaw,
ofBurley. Sir. Wortley of Ridlington showed some very
excellent beasts, and was fortunate enough to secure three
prizes. Mr. Spencer's sheep were also very good. Almost
the only vegetables and roots shown were sent by Mr. W.
Carver, of Ingarsby.

LIST OF TPIE PRIZES.

BEASTS.

For the best ox under five years old, of any breed, open
to all counties, £15, Mr. Edwaid Wortley, of Ridlington.
Second prize, £5, Mr. Robert Lynu, of Stroxton, near
Grantham.

For the best ox under fo\ir years old, of any breed, bred and
fed in the county, a silver cup, value £10, Loid Berners, of
Keythorpe-hall. Second prize, £5, Mr. Abraham Perkins, of
Arnesby.

For the best short-horned ox, fed by a member of the
society, £5, Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Knaptoft-hall.

For the best Scotch or Welch ox, fed by a member of the
society, £5, Mr. J. E. Bennett, of Husbands Bosworth
Grange.

For the best Hereford, Devon, or Shropshire ox, fed by a
member of the society £5, Mr. Abraham Perkins, of Arnesby.

For the best fat cow or heifer, of any breed, age, or weight,
open to all counties, £10, Mr. Edward Wortley, of Ridlington.
For the next best ditto, £5, Mr. William Winterton, of
Wolvey Villa.

Per the best fat heifer, under four years old, fed in the
county, a silver cup, value £5, Mr. Samuel Spencer, of Snare-
stone.

For the best dairy cow, fed in the county, that has produced
a calf, is either in milk, or has been regularly milked twice a
day to the 10th of October, £10, Earl Howe, of Gopsall-hall.
For the next best ditto, £5, Mr. George Townshend, of
Stoney Stanton.

For the best pair of in calf heifers, under three years old,
open to all counties, £5, Mr. Richard Timms, of Brauustone.
For the next beat ditto, £3, Mr. C. J. Bradshaw, of Burley-
on-the-Hill.

For the best pair of heifers, under two years old, open to
all counties, £5, Mr. Thomas Ivens, of Lutterworth. For the
next beat ditto, £3, C. W. Packe, Esq., M.P., of Prestwold-
haU.

For the best bull, above ten months, and under two years
olJ, breeding open to all counties, £10, Earl Howe, of Gopsall-
hall. For the next best ditto, £5, Mr. Joseph Sharp Spencer,
of Higham-on-the-Hill.

For the best bull, of any breed or age, that has served cows
in the previous season, £5, Earl Howe, of Gopsall-hall. For
ihe next best ditto, £2, C. W. Packe, Esq., M.P.

SHEEP.

For the best pen (of three) under twenty-two mouths old,
of long-woolled fat wether sheep, open to all counties, £7,
Mr. Edward Wortley, of Ridlington. For the next best ditto,
£3, Mr. T. n. Simpkiu, of Hoby.

By the Right Hon. the Earl Howe. For the best pen (of
three) under twenty-two months old, of long-woolled fat
wether sheep, bred and fed in the county, £5, Mr. B. Simpkin,
of Hoby. For the next best ditto, £3, Mr. William Everard,
of Narborough Wood.

For the best pen (of three) under twenty-two months old,
of short-woolled or cross-bred fat wether sheep, open to all
counties, £5, Mr. Samuel C. Pilgrim, of Buibage.

By the Treasurer. For the best four long-woolled ewes,
which have suckled lambs to the 1st of July, 1857, open to all
counties, £5, Mr. Joseph Sharp Spencer, of Higham-on-the-
Hill. For the next best ditto, £3, Mr. B. Simpkiu, of Hoby.

Fo: the best lougwoolled theaves, that have been put to the
ram, and supposed to be in-lamb, open to all counties, £5, Mr.
John Palethorpe, of Harlaxton. For the next best ditto £3,
Mr. William Everard, of Narborough Wood.

For the best four short-wooUed ewes, which have suckled
lambs to the 1st of July, 1857, open to all counties, £4, Mr.
Samuel C. Pilgrim, of Burbage.

For the best four pure short-woolled theaves, that have
been put to the ram, and supposed to be in-lamb, open to all
counties, £3, Mr. Samuel C. Pilgrim, of Burbage.

For the best pen (of five) long-woolled ewe lambs, open to
all counties, £3, Mr. William Everard, of Narborough Wood.

PIGS.

In-pigged or suckling sow, or gelt, breeding open to all
counties, £5, Mr. W. H. Harrison, Clipstoue House.

Boar, breeding open to all counties, £4, Mr. James Marriott,
Floore. |

Fat pig, under 12 months old, open to all counties, £2, Mr.
G. Beale, juu.,Frole3Worth ; 2ud, £1, to ditto.

By Lord Berners. — Fat pig, under 18 months old, open to
all counties, £2, Mr. G. Beale, jun., Frolesworth ; 2nd, £1,
Mr. Wm. Benskin, Rearsbj.

HORSES.

By Lord Berners. — Gelding or filly (two years old) bona fide
the property of a person occupying at least 50 acres as tenant,
best adapted to the general purposes of agriculture in the
county, £5, Mr. J. E. Bennett, Husbands Bosworth Grange.

By Lord Berners. — Gelding or filly (oue year old) as in Class
30, £5, Mr. J. E. Bennett.

In-foal mare, the property of a tenant farmer, best adapted
for the general purposes of agriculture, £5, Mr. H. B. Wayte,
Psatling.

By Lord Beruers. — Foal best adapted for agriculture, the
property of a tenant farmer, £3, Mr. John Campion, Sharnford.

By Mr. Thomas Gilbert. — Cart foal by Leicestershire Hero,
Young England's Glory, or Derby, £3, Mr. John Campion,
Sharnford.

EXTRA STOCK.

Breeding beast shown as extra stock, £5, C. W. Packe,
Esq , M.P.

By C. W. Packe, Esq., M.P. — Fat beast shown as extra
stock, a sili'er cup, value £5 5s., Lord Howe.

By C. W. Packe, Esq., M.P. — Pen of three Leicester or
long-wooUed sheep, 'shown as extra stock, a silver cup, value
£5, Mr. Breedon Everard, Groby.

F

66

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

OYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Monthly Council was held on Wednesday, the
2nd of December : present, the Right Hon. Lord
PoRTMAN, Trustee, in the Chair, Lord Walsingham,
Lord Southampton, Lord Feversham, Right Hon. the
Speaker, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., M.P.,
Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., MP., Mr. Dyke
Acland, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Bar-
thropp, Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Cavendish,
Colonel Challoner, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Jlr. Fisher
Hobbs, Mr. Wren Iloskyns, Mr. James Howard, Mr.
Jonas, Mr. Lawes, Mr. Milwood, Mr. Slaney, M.P.,
Mr. Banks Stanhope, M.P., Mr. Thompson, Mr. Torr,
and Mr. Burch Western.

The following new Members were elected : —
Best, the Hon. and Rev. Samuel, Abbott's Ann, Andover
Bowen, Pryse, Shrawardine Castle, Shrewsbury
Brown, Edward, Oakland?, St. Alban's
Butler, John Field, Childerdi'ch Hall, Brentwood
Fry, Tiiomss, Baglake Farm, Longbredy, Dorsetshire
Gardnor, Captain Thomas, Sea View, Ryde, Isle of Wight
Gibbs, Thomas, Down-street, Piccadilly, London
Graham, Thomas, jun., Abingdon, Berkshire
Hardacre, Richard, Hellifield, Leeds
K'jos, Octavius Newry, South-Collingham, Newark, Notticg-

hamshire.
Locnck, Edmund, South Elkington, Louth
Madswick, 'William, jnn., Alciston, Lewea
Minton, Alfred, Clewer Court, Windsor
Moorsora, C. R., Gotham, Redcar, Yorkshire
Ostler, John Lely, Granthaiu, Lincolnshire.
Purton, William, The Woodhouse, Cleobury-Mortimer
Sadler, Betijaaiin Greamp, Linon Hall, Belfast
Simpson, Piuder, Hendon, Middlesex
Smith, Henry, Brierley Hill, Dudley
Turner, Edward Rush, St. Peter's Iron Works, Ipswich
Turner, Frederick, St. Peter's Iron Works, Ipswich
Veitcb, James, jnn.. Exotic Nursery, Chelsea
Warner, Henry, jun., Hawkley, Petersfield
Woodford, William, Bidford Grange, Alcester
Yonge, Rev. V/illiam, Roehbourne, Foraingbridge.

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented to the Council the
monthly report on the accounts of the society, from
which it appeared that the current cash balance in the
hand of the bankers at the end of the previous month
was ^153.

ExPENCES. — Lord Portman, as Chairman of the Ex-
penses Committee, made a further report on the pro-
gress of the committee in their consideration of the
various topics referred to them. He informed the
Council, that the excess of payments over receipts on ac-
count of the Salisbury Meeting had been considerably
reduced by the adoption, to a certain extent, of the recom-
mendations of the committee, aad he trusted that a much
further reduction would be effected, not only by a steady
adherence to economical arrangement on the one hand,
but to an increase in the receipts on the other. His
lordship concluded his communication by reading to the
Council the several details, under each head of recom-
mendation, which the report containad.

Prize Essay.— Mr. Thompson, Chairman of the
Journal Committee, reported the following adjudication
in the class of Essays and Reports :

To the Rav. William Beavor, of Cowbridge, Glamorganshire,
the prize of £20, for the best essay on the comparative advan-
tages of entering upon farms iu spring and autumn, with
instructions to the young farmer on his catering at either
season.

Agricultural Chemistry. — Mr. Wren Hoskyns,
Chairman of the Chemical Committee, read to the Coun-
cil a letter addressed to him by Professor Way, the con-
sulting chemist of the Society, dated Milan, the 20th of
November last, and tendering his resignation of that
office, which the Council accepted, and passed a vote of
thanks to Professor Way for his past services to the
Society in that capacity. A special committee was then
appointed, consisting of the members of the chemical
and finance committees, with the addition of Lord Fever-
sham, Mr. Slaney, M.P., and Mr. Fisher Hobbs, to
consider of an improved arrangement for the chemical
business of the Society.

Agricultural Implements and Machinery. —
Colonel Challoner, Chairman of the Implement Com-
mittee, read the following :

REPORT.

The Implement Committee have, agreeably with the in-
structions of the council, afforded an opportunity to the ex-
hibitors and judges of implements and machinery at the
Society's country meetings, during the last three years, of
offering any suggestions relative to the construction and
trial of steam-engines and other agricultural machinery at
the Chester Meeting, and the committee received fourteen
communications on the subject.

The committee haying taken these suggestions, and the
report made upon them by the Society's considtine: engi-
neer, into their consideration, beg to make the following
recommendations to the Council: —

1. That in steam-boilers the tubes should not be placed

neater to each other than one inch.

2. That the evaporative power of the boiler may, if thought

necessary, be ascertained.
Remark hy Mr. Amos. — '"' This course appears to me
to be good only indirectly : for if the combination
work well as a whole, and in its marketable form, the
Society need hardly look too minutely into details,
unless they see fit to do so."

3. That the parts of the steam-engines should admit of

being taken to pieces, and their parts, as well as those
of other machines, be examined as to mechanical de-
tail.

4. That the coal used in the getting-up of steam be selected

and weighed, as usual, under the direction of the
judges ; and although the Llangennych variety has been
hitherto used as a constant standard for marking pro-
gressive improvement in the steam-engine, on account
of its uniformity of character and absence of smoke in
combustion, that the common bituminous coal of the
countiy may be employed in its place, should the judges
think proper to adopt it.

5. That the trials of steam-machinery might, in future, be

conducted under sheds, should the advantages proposed
to be gained by their adoption be considered equiva-
lent to the expense incurred in their erection.

6. That well-tested self-acting breaks be employed in tlio

trials of steam-engines.

7. That the judges bo at liberty to employ, as heretofore,

any scheme of data or points that may, in their
opinion, best lead them to a clear decision on the prac-
tical value of anjr engine or machine.

8. That higher prizes might be given for steam-engines, on

condition that the prize-engine in each class shall be
lodged in some public exhibition during the period while
it holds the prize ; and that the maker will supplj', in
each case, an equal machine at the price stated in his
original certificate of entry.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

67

Some of tlie suggestions offered by the implement makers
to the committee have been found to be either discordant
among themselves, or to refer to conditions adopted by
the Society at the Carlisle and other meetings ; others
are connected either with details of practical management
in the stewards' and judges' departments, or with questions
on which the committee are not at present prepared to offer
anj' recommendations to the Council ; — but wherever the
committee have found it advisable, they have introduced
into the conditions and regulations of the proposed prize-
sheet for nest year modifications in accordance with the sug-
gestions made to them.

PRIZES FOR IMPLEMENTS— 1858.

The committee beg to recommend the following prizes for
implements at the Chester Meeting : —
Portable steam-engine, above 8 and not exceeding 12- £

horsepower .. .. .. ., .. ..25

Portable steam-engine, not exceeding 8-horse power ... 25

Second-best ditto 10

Fixed engine, not exceeding 10-horse power 20

Second-best ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 10

Boiler for a fixed engine, not exceeding 10-horse power 10
Portable thrashing-machine, not exceeding 6-horse

power ., .. .. .. .. .. ..10

Portable thrashing-machine, not exceeding 8-horse

power, for large occupations o. .. .. ..15

Portable thrashing-machine, not exceeding 8-horse

power, that will best prepare the corn for the finishing

dressing machine . . . . . . . . . . 15

Portable combined thrashing-machine, that will best

prepare the corn for market, not exceeding S-horse

power .. .. .. .. .. .. ..15

Fixed combined steam thrashing-machine, for preparing

corn for market, not exceeding 1 0-horse power . . 20

Fixed combined steam thrashing-machine, for preparing

corn for market, not exceeding 8-horse power . . 10

Corn-dressing machine . . . . . . . . . . 5

Com- dressing machine, for preparing corn for market after

being riddled and screened . . . . . . . . 5

Screen for corn . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Sci'een for seed . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chaff-cutter, for horse or steam-power .. .. .. 5

Second-best ditto ., .. .. ., .. ..3

Chaff-cutter, for hand-power .. .. .. ..3

Second-best ditto . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Grinding-mill, with steel or stone grinders, for grinding

agricultural produce into meal, to be worked by horse

or steam-power .. .. .. .. ..10

Grinding-mill, with steel grinders, for grinding agricul-
tural produce . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Linseed or corn-crusher . . . . . . . . . . 5

Oilcake-breaker . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Oilcate for common cake . . . . . . . . . . 3

Bone-mill, to be worked by steam or otlier power „. 10
Bone-dust mill . . . . . , . . . . . . 5

Turnip-cutter .. .. .. .. .. ..3

Turnip-cutter, for hand-power .. .. .. ..3

Root-pulper ., .. .. .. .. ..3

Churn , 3

Cheese-making apparatus .. ., .. ..3

Cheese-press . . . . . . . . . . . , 3

Miscellaneous awards for essential improvements in any

of the implements or machinery exhibited — 21 silver

medals.
Any new implement, such sura as the Council, on the

report of the judges, may think proper to award.

Should the Council decide again to offer the prize for the
best steam-cultivator, the committee recommend that it be
offered in precisely the same terms as last year.

(Signed) C. B. Challoner, Chairman,

CONDITIONS OF THE PORTABLE STEAM
ENGINE.

1. One uf the portable steam engines must not be more
than eight horses nominal power, nor must the diameter of
the cylinder be more than 9f inches. The one above eight
must not exceed twelve horses nominal power, must have two

cylinders, and the diameter of each cylinder must not exceed
8 inches.

2. The tubes in the boiler must not be less than 2J inches
diameter, not less than No. 12 on the metal gauge in thick-
ness, nor placed a less distance apart than one inch from each
other. The tube plates must be made of either " Lowmoor'
or " Bowling" iron, and the " trade mark" of the iron com-
pany must be lej^ible on each plate.

3. The exhibitor will be required to furnish to the Society,
along with the specification, a longitudinal and transverse
sectional plan of the boiler, showing the action of the fire
upon III flues, and also to state in writing :— •

(«) The thickness and quality of the boiler plates.
(6) The diameter of the cylinder.

(c) The length of the stroke of the piston.

(d) The number of revolutions, and diameter of the crank

and shaft, which must be made of wrought iron.

(e) The diameter and weight of the fly-wheel.

(/) The diameter of the driving pulley (which must not
be leas than 6 inches wide, nor move at a less
velocity than 1,G00 feet per minute). A second
pulley must also be fitted, and which must not be
less than 5 inches wide, nor move at a less velocity
than 900 feet per minute, for driving chaff-cutting
or other machines requiring a slower motion than
can be given by the large driving pulley.

(</) The number of horse-power the engine is calculated
to work at.

4. The engine must be provided with a good water-gauge,
and with a short piece of pipe fitted with a cock, having a
thread to fit the -|-inch gas pipe, for the purpose of fixing a
pressure gauge.

5. If the engine be worked on the expansive principle, it is
desirable that the means used for cutting off the steam be of a
simple character. No force-pump must be fitted with more
than two valves, and these must be easy of access. If a heater
for water be used, it must be so constructed that the engine
will work either with or without it.

6. The Society will be empowered to select any of the
engines exhibited, for the purpose of driving other machinery
under trial, and will pay the exhibitor £1 per day for the use
of the engine and a competent attendant during the time the
services of such engine may be required.

7. In adjudicating on the merits of the engine, reference
will be had to the simplicity of construction and the probable
durability of the engine, considered as a whole and in detail,
also the portability of the engine, without losing sight of the
strength required for safety, the economy of working, and the
price.

8. The Judges will be instructed to have the boilers filled
properly with water, the steam got up to the working pressure
of 45 lbs. on the square inch, the engine set to work for a
short time, and then cooled down.

9. The exhibitor will then be required to take the engine to
pieces in the presence of the Judges, and withdraw the piston,
slide, expansion valve, and pump valves, for examination.
Two men will only be allowed to assist in the operation, and
the time of taking to pieces and replacing the parts will be
noted. When the whole is put together the engine will
undergo the trial of working in the ordinary manner, and in
accordance with the practice of former meetings. If after trial
the Judges should require any one or more of the tubes with-
drawn for examination, the exhibitor shall withdraw such tube
or tubes.

CONDITIONS OP FIXED STEAM ENGINES.

1. The fixed steam engine must not be more than ten horses
nominal power, and the diameter of the cylinder must not
exceed 11 J inches.

2. The exhibitor will not be required to bring a boiler, as
steam will be furnished by boilers supplied by the Society,
but he will be required to fix the engine, also to find the mate-
rials for doing so, at his own expense, and in such a position
in the Trial Yard as may be pointed out to him.

3. He must also furnish the Society with plans and specifi-
cations, fully describing the boiler and fittings that he would
supply to his customer with the engine he exhibits, such
boiler to possess the capacity of 25 superficial feet of effective
heating surface and | of one foot of effective fire-grate for
each horae-power of the nominal power of the engine. No

? 2

68

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

tubes will be allowed of less diameter than 2^ inches, nor
thinner than No. 12 on the metal gauf;e. Also the leading
particulars of the engine he intends to exhibit ; such as —

(a) The horse-power of the (engine.

(b) The diameter of the cylinder.

(c) The length of stroke.

(d) The number of strokes per minute.

(e) The diameter of crank-shaft.

(/) The diameter and weight of fly-wheel.

Ig) The diameter of driving pulley (which should not be
less than 7 inches wide, nor travel less than 1,200
feet per minute).

The greatest attention will be paid by the Mechanical
Judges to the drawings and specifications relating to
the boilers of the Prize Fixed Engines. Such
drawings and specifications will remain the copyright
property of the Society ; and will be published in
the Journal of the Society for the purpose of guiding
its members in making their purchases.

4. The engine exhibited must be supplied with a governor,
and have a starting-cock to regulate the supply of steam, and
be fitted with a thread equal to the 2-inch gas pipe.

5. If the engine is worked on the expansive principle, a
simpla means must be used for cutting off the steam. No
force-pump must be fitted with more than two valves, and
these must be easy of access. If a heater for water be used,
it must be so constructed that the engine will work either
with or without it.

7. In adjudicating on the merits of the fixed engines, refer-
ence will be had to the price, simplicity of construction, pro-
bable durability of the whole and in detail, and the means
provided for easy access to the working parts, and to economy
of fuel.

CONDITIONS OF FIXED STEAM BOILERS.—
"SPECIAL PRIZE."

The boiler must possess an effective heating surface of 25
superficial feet and three-fourths of one foot superficial of
effective fire-grate surface for each nominal horse-power.
Clear and concise drawings and specifications, with the
cost of forming the boiler-setting, with its flues and pas-
sages up to the entrance into a chimney, must be furnished
to the Society, for publication, should the Council think fit
to publish them.

If tubes are used, none less than 3 inches diameter and 1
inch apart will be allowed ; and no tube-plates shallbe used
which are not made either of" Low Moor" or Bowling iron,
and bearing the ironmaster's tradingmavk, Thefittings which
the exhibitor supplies must be shown with the boiler, and a
guarantee given that he will supply the public with boilers
and fittings of a similar description, at the price named, for
tivelve months certain after the prize has been awarded to
the exhibitor.

CONDITIONS OF CHAFF-CUTTERS AND
MILLS.

Chaff-cutters will be required to cut chaff three-eighths
of one inch in length, in the trial. The exhibitor may pro-
vide means for cutting various lengths, to show the useful-
ness of his production. The Judges will be instructed to
use thin slips of wood for determining the length of chaff
cut •, and if the deviation from the given length of three-
eighths of an inch is, in their judgment, too much departed
from, they may refrain from taking any notice of the ma-
chine in question ; and in estimating the weight of chaff
cut, allowance must be made and taken according to the
length of chaff cut.

Grinding mills will be fairly set to work, and their pro-
duction compared with a sample which the Judges shall
cause to be produced by one mill, and which produce shall,
in their estimation, be adapted for the farmers' purposes
of feeding. The mill under trial shall be " set" until it
produces like meal; and the time, power, and quantity of
work noted.

Steel mills for grinding will not bo expected to produce
softened meal, although any mill or combination, with
rollers or otherwise, which will do so, will receive consi-
deration from the Judges ; but mills of this class generally
will be tried and compared in the class as grinding mills
with stones are compared in their class.

SPEED AND PRESSURE.

All implements turned by the winch or hand-crank shall
not be worked, at any trial, beyond the following speed —
namelj', 42 revolutions per minute for 12-inch crank, 37
revolutions for 14-inch crank, 32 revolutions for 16-inch
crank ; and, in addition to the winch-handle which must be
supplied with the machine, for the purpose of trial, a pulley
not less than 4 inches wide, of the same radius as the
winch, must be fitted to each machine. The machine, in
its trial, will be driven by the pulley of the testing ma-
chine, which pulley is 31 inches diameter, and will make
32J revolutions per minute.

Chaff-cutting and other small machines, worked usually
by horses and by steam power, will be worked, when under
trial, by pulleys not less than O-J inches wide, moving with
a velocity of, or about, 900 feet per minute.

Exhibitors are requested to pay particular attention to
the instructions given for the speed and working of their
machines, as the Judges may refuse to try any machine not
fitted in accordance with the instructions.

The working pressure of steam to be 4.51bs. per square
inch, which must not be exceeded.

The Council adopted this report, and ordered that its
recommendations should be introduced into the imple-
ment prize sheet for the Chester Meeting, now in the
press, and awaiting publication.

Age of Bui ls. — On the motion of Mr. Torr,
seconded by Mr. Milward, it was decided that the age
at which the old Bulls might compete should be raised
from four to six years.

Poultry Show. — Mr. Milward gave notice, that
at the Monthly Council, in February next, he should
move that after 1858 there shall be no exhibition of
Poultry at the country meetings of the Society.

Entry Fees and Shedding. — The Expenses Com-
mittee having called the attention of the Council to the
contribution which, in their opinion, the exhibitors of
stock (as in the case of those of implements) should
make toward the great expenses incurred for the ac-
commodation of their animals during the show, it was
resolved that exhibitors of stock should contribute to
the expenses of the yard. It was then, oa the motion
of Mr. Torr, resolved, "That the charge for all stock
exhibited shall be 5s. for each entry, in addition to the
10s. paid by non-members," This resolution was
ordered to be added to the prize sheet.

Showyard. — Lord Portman, as Chairman of the
General Chester Committee, read to the Council the
report of that committee, in which it was strongly re-
commended that the arrangements for the showyard
at Chester should be finally settled by February next ;
and with a view to enable the council to decide on the
arrangement to be adopted, the committee would be pre-
pared by that time to lay before them the plan which
the committee would recommend for adoption.

Dinner. — On the motion ofSir WatkinWynn, Bart.,
M.P., seconded by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the Council post-
poned until their monthly meeting in February the fur-
ther consideration of the question whether any dinner
should be ordered under the responsibility of the society.
Mr. Banks Stanhope, M.P., gave notice of the follow-
ing motion he should bring forward on that occasion : —
" That no dinner of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England shall for the future take place at the annual
country meeting, unless the locality shall guarantee a
sufficient number of tickets to defray the expense."

Implement Judges. — The Council decided that it
shall be the duty of the Implement Committee, in each
year, to report to the Council the number of judges re-
quired for the implement department, previously to the
meeting of the committee for the selection of judges.
The Council resolved not to adopt the recommendation
of the Expenses' Committee on the question of the num-
I ber of the judges of stock.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

69

Orders of Council. — Ou the motiou of Lord
Portman, seconded by Mr. Raymond Barker, the fol-
lowing motion was agreed to : " That it be a bye-law
of the society, that no order in council shall be altered
without one clear month's previous notice being given
to each member of the council."

Code of Bye-laws. — On the motion of Mr. Fisher
Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the Council
ordered that the bye-laws and resolutions of council,
which are now in force, be collected together, complete
up to the end of the present year, and printed for the
use of the members of council.

Vice-President. — On the motion of Mr. Raymond
Barker, seconded by Lord Feversham, Viscount Eversley
was unauimously elected a vice-president of the society,
in the place of the late Earl Fitzwilliam.

Responsibility of Implements and Stock. —
On the motion of Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, seconded by
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the following resolutions were agreed
to:—

That in future the delivery orders which are now in use for
both live stock, implements, &c., be discontiuued.

That a clause be inserted iu the conditions stating that the
society will not iu any case hold itself responsible for any loss,
damage, or mis-delivery of such live stock or implements, or
other articles exhibited at the society's shows.

Metropolitan Meetinf. — On the motion of Mr.
Brandreth Gisbb, seconded by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, a
committee was appointed — consisting of Lord
Portman, Lord Walsingham, Lord Feversham, the
Speaker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Brandreth, Colonel
Challoner, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr,
Wren Hoskyns, Sir JohnV. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P.,
Mr. Jonas, Mr. Milward, Mr. Thonapson, and Mr.
Torr — to consider the following subject, and to report
their recommendations to the C ouncil, viz., as to how
far it will be expedient for the Society to make applica-
tion to the Royal Commissioners for permission to hold
a show, in an early year, on the admirable site which the
land lying between the Kensington and Brompton roads,
and adjacent to that portion of Hyde Park on which the
Great Exhibition of 1851 was held, now offers for the
purposes of the Society, if such permission can be ob-
tained.

Lectures and Museum. — Mr. Henry Cole com-
municated to the Council, on the part of the Committee
01 Council on Education, an offer tj the Society, under
certain conditions, of the use of the museum and lecture
room of the South Kensington Museum. The Council
received this communication with an acknowledgment
of their thanks.

Railways. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs called the attention
of the Council to the great advantage of obtaining, if
possible, earlier decisions from the railway companies
of the facilities they are willing to grant to the Society's
Exhibitors at the Country Meetings, and the Secretary
was directed to enter into communication with the dif-
ferent companies on that point.

Steam-spade. — Major-General Grey transmitted to
the Council, by direction of H.R.H. the Prince Consort,
a communication addressed to His Royal Highness on
the subject of a steam-spade recently invented in the
United States. The Council ordered an acknowledg-
ment of their thanks for the favour of this communica-
tion, which they referred to the Implement Committee.

The Half-yearly Meeting of members was
held on Friday last, at the Society's House, Hanover
Squai'e. The chair was taken at 11 o'clock by the
President of the year, Lord Berners. Among- those
present were Lord Feversham, Col. Challoner, Mr.

Barrow, M.P., Lieut. -Col. Townley, Mr. R. Barker,
Mr. Bramston, M.P., Mr, Slaney, M.P., Mr. Bad-
ham, Mr. W. F. Hobbs, Mr. Barthropp, Mr. B.
Webster, Mr. H. Wilson, Mr. Sainsbury, Professor
Simonds, Professor Way, Mr. H, Corbet, Mr. Jonas
Webb, the Rev. James Linton, Mons. Trehounais, Mr.
J. C. Nesbit, Mr. Jonathan Gray, Mr. Moore (Wilts),
Mr. S. Sydney, &c., &c.

The Secretary, Mr. Hudson, read the following
report of the Council : —

REPORT.
The Society has gained since the last half-yearly meeting 150
new members on its list, and consists, at the present time, of —
83 Life Governors,
135 Annual Governors,
908 Life Members,
4074 Annual Members, and
18 Honorary Members.

5218

The Council have unauimously elected Viscount Eversley
one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, in the place of the
late Earl Fitzwilliam.

The funded capital of the Society stands at £9,264 8s. lid.
in the New Three-per-cents. Stock.

Professor Way, the Consulting-Chemist of the Society,
having tendered his resignation of that office, which the Conn-
ed have accepted, a special Committee has been appointed to
report to the Council, in February next, their recommenda-
tions of arrangements to be adopted for the discharge of the
duties of that appointment.

Professor Simouds, the Veterinary-Inspector of the So-
ciety, has made his report to the Council of his observations
and investigations abroad, ou the occurrence and nature of the
Cattle-plague ou the confines of Poland, Prussia, and Austria ;
and the Couucd have transmitted to the Highland and Agri-
cultural Society of Scotland, and to the Royal Agricultural
Improvement Society of Ireland, a counterpart of that report.
Professor Simonds has also made several verbal reports to
the Council ou his investigations into the nature of diseases
which have broken out in several parts of the country among
the cattle and sheep of members of the Society. He has also
expressed to the Council hia decided conviction of the conta-
gious character of that fatal and prevalent malady pleuro-
pneumonia.

The Salisbury Meeting has been one of the moat remark-
able assemblages of live-stock and implements ever held in
this country. Almost uniform excellence distinguished the
several classes of the animals exhibited, while the implements
were marked by a high degree of simplicity combined with
efficiency. The Show itself, too, was one of the largest ever
held by the Society, and was attended by a greater number of
visitors than on any former occasion. The success of that
meeting affords to the Councd a well-grounded assurance of
the practical value of the Society's operations in carrying out
the great national objects for which it was founded ; and en-
courages them in their continued endeavours to render the
future country meetings still more effective, if possible, in
promoting agricultural improvement throughout the kingdom,
without the risk of infringing to an injurious extent on the finan-
cial resources of the Society. Iu order to combine these objects
the Council have under their consideration the adoption of
several ptopoaed plans which appear likel}'^ to lead to improved
arrangements in the Country Meeting department. The
Mayor and Corporation of Salisbury and the Local Committee
co-operated most cordially with the Council in carrying out
the details of the Meeting to so successful an issue ; and the
Members were indebted to the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert,
M.P., for the reception he gave them at Wilton; to Mr. Raw-
lence and Mr. Squarey, for the inspection of their water
meadows ; aud to Mr. Squirey for the interesting lecture he
delivered on the occasion, iu explanation of their construction
and peculiar value ; as well as to Mr. Stephen Mills for his
invitation to inspect the light-land system of Wiltshire farm-
ing, as carried out ou his own extensive farms iu that county.

The Country Meeting to be held i ext year at Chester N^ill
be distinguished by the unusual amount oi Local Prizes placed
at the disposal of the Society by the Local Committee of that
city, by the triennial exhibition aud trial of steam engines aud

70

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE,

agricultural steam machinery generally, and by the peculiar
advantages of ita position in reference to railway comasuDication.
The local prizes may be represented by the following
classification : —

Cheshire Cheese (made in the district) . . £420

Dairy Maids and Cheese Makers 21

Dairy Cattle 170

Horses 215

Welsh Cattle , 195

Established Breeds (not including Short-
horns, Herefords, or Devons) „ 30

Sheep (Welsh, Shropshire-Downs, and

Cheviots) 230

£1231
The prizes of the Society for the Chester Meeting are in-
cluded in the following schedules : —

I. — Live Stock,

Short-horned Cattle £170

Herefords , .>...,.. 170

Devons 170

Cattle of other Breeds 45

Agricultural Horses . „ 130

Dray Horses 75

Other Horses 105

Leicester Sheep 90

Southdown Sheep ,,.... 90

Long Woolled Sheep 90

Short Woolled Sheep ., = 90

Pigs 80

Poultry 119

£1,424
II. — Implements and Machinery.

Portable Steam Engines , £60

Fixed Steam Engines 30

Boiler for a Fixed Steam Engine , 10

Portable Thrashing Machines 55

Fixed Thrashing Machines 30

Corn Dressing Machines 10

Screen for Corn 3

Screen for Seed 3

Chaff Cutters 13

Grinding Mills , 15

Linseed or Corn Crusher 5

Oilcake Breakers 8

Bone Mill 10

Bone-dust Mill , 5

Turnip Cutters 6

Root Pulper 3

Churn , 3

Cheese-making Apparatus 3

Cheese Press 3

Steam- Cultivator . , , 500

£775

Miscellaneous awards 21 Silver Medals.

The Prize Sheets, containing the special terms in which
these various prizes are offered, the conditions under which
the competition for them will take place, and the general
regulations for exhibition and trial, are now in the prets, and,
when finally corrected, will be ready for distribution. The
Implement Prize Sheet will include the recommendations of
the Implement Committee, in reference to the suggestions
obtained by a circular issued, by order of the Council, to each
exhibitor in that department, and to each of the Implement
Judges, during the last three years.

By Order of the Council,

James Hudson, Secretary.
London^ December, 1857.

The Rev. J. Linton moved the adoption of the report.

Mr. Moore seconded the motion.

Mr. Sidney said it would be in the recollection of some of
the gentlemen present, that the last occasion on which they
had an opportunity of expressing an opinion upon the manner
in which the Society's affairs were conducted, was at Salis-
bury, in the month of July. On that occasion he made some
observations in reference to that subject, and all who knew

hira, ha was sure, would believe that in any observations he
might make be was actuated solely by the warmest wishes for
the Society. Now, he felt that he was perfectly justified in call-
ing the attention of the Council and members to ihis subject,
because, although they had prepared a very flourishing report
of the Society's proceedings, they could not help being aware,
from the little information which oozed out from time to
time, that the finances of the Society were not in so satisfactory
a state ss could be desired. That fact was proved by
the circumstance that a committee, over which Lord Portman
presided, had several times investigated the condition of the
finances, and that in order to improve them it had been found
necessary to recommend the reduction of expenses of a
necessary and important character. For instance, just before
the Salisbury Meeting, in the summer, the Finance Committee
recommended that the services of a number of the judofes
should be dispensed with, and that the psyments made to the
yardmen should be discontinued, — [Colonel Challoner : It
was not the Finance Committee who did that ; it was the
Expense Committee.] —But in this instance they considered it
so closely, that it appeared a mistake was made ; for, when the
report oi the committee came before other parties more expe-
rienced than themselves, the recommendation as to the judges
was disregarded. The judges, whom it was proposed to dis-
pense with, were re-appointed ; and even then it was found
that the gentlemen at Salisbury, who had that business in
their hands — notwithstanding all their zeal and industry — ^were
greatly over -worked. If, then, the Society was in such a condi-
tion that reduction of expenditure, recommended by a commit-
tee, could not be effected with advantage to the Society, it must
be evident that something was wanted to be done. They
were now in the 20th year of the history cf the society.
During that period it had doubtless effected great things, and
it had held a magnificent exhibition every year ; but what
was the reason they had not an income sufficient to do largely
and Liberally all that was required ? True, after a falling off
in the number of .members lor a series of years, the tide had
turned, and their ranks were beginning to increase. Still
there was something that ought to be done which had not
been done, for the number of members was much less than it
was ten years ago, although agriculture was never in a more
flourishing condition than at the present moment ; and, instead
of a few gentlemen here and there feeling an interest in experi-
mental farming, there was scarcely a parish in England in which
some tenant farmer or other had not been carrying out culti-
vation in a high and improved style (Hear, hear). No'y, he
believed that, inasmuch as there were 10,000 parishes in the
kingdom, there was no reason whatever why, if the society
were properly conducted, it should not have 10,000 members.
But they had 5,000 members, from whom a large income was
derived. Nevertheless, they had only one great event in the
year, and that was their annual country show. On those occa-
sions they certainly did bring the worli together, and accom-
plished great things. But, in his opinion, it was not enough
to do great things once a-year ; and if they glanced at other
scientific societies it would be seen that those institutions
created many opportunities for bringing their associates
together. True, the society had its Wednesday meetings ;
but all who were in the least acquainted with them knew that,
as at present conducted, they were very little better than a
farce ; for this reason, that no announcement was made
of the business to be transacted on those days — a course
of proceeding which was condemned by the practice of the
other societies of England. It had happened again and agalu
that interesting discussions had taken place at these weekly
meetings, and that those discussions were not reported in the
journals which circulated among the tenant farmers, simply
because it was the absurd and mistaken rule to exclude re-
porters ; while the official report was so meagre, that
little information was to be gleaned from it, and very often
even that did not find its way into the hands of the public
until months after. As an instance of this, let him
remind them of what took place last year, when the
whole agricultural world being alarmed by the progress of
the fatal cattle disease on the Continent, the society
commissioned Professor Simonds to go abroad and make a
report upon the subject. The learned professor returned
home, and read a most interesting paper to us ;
but it never appeared, though he heard now that it was
about to be published. There was no doubt they might

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

71

commaud the best agricultural knowledge of the day,
if they would only adopt the simple method of announcing
what papers were to be read at their meetings, and allowing
the gentlemen who represented the agricultural papers to
attend and report the discussion. He believed, also, that the
adoption of such a plan would create new interest in the
society, and largely augment the number of its members.
The nest subject to which he would allude was the Journal ;
aud he ventured to say that its management^ had greatly
disappointed the subscribers. If they wished to see
what an agricultural journal might be made, let them
turn to the pages of the Bath and West of England
Agricultural Journal," which was an admirable work, re-
plete with the most valuable information. The fact was that
the mauagemeat of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society was entrusted to three gentlemen, and he had
never yet known the office of editor conducted as it
ought to be when put in commission like the Chancel-
lor's seal. With regard to the prizes which were to be
offered at their next country meeting. Cheshire, they well
knew, was a dairy county ; and it was a curious fact that,
although the Society had been nearly twenty years in ex-
istence, and had held 17 or 18 country meetings, they had
never yet had a trial of churns on a large scale. Three
quarts of cream was the utmost they had ever tried ; and
he had been informed, by persons who kept dairies, thfet the
trial of churns should be conducled on a larger scale in
order to bs of practical use. He observed that prizes
were to be offered at Chester for cliaff-cutters, and root-
slicers, and other things equally familiar, and for which
prizes had been given ever since the Society was established.
Now, these impleaients were just the same now as they were
17 years ago ; and he would throw it out for the consideration
of the Council whether they had not better strike some of
these standard implements off the list, and reserve their
prizes for machines in which a good deal was yet to be done
before they attained perfection. It would not have been neces-
sary for him to make these observatioas if they had not fol-
lowed the practice described at the Salisbury Meeting, when it
was said that their Council were elected for life, and elected
their successors (No, no). He did not mean to say it was in
the charter, but it was, no doubt, practically the case. la con-
clusion, he said he believed that if they had a larger infusion
of gentlemen from the different counties in the Council,
instead of continuing on the list a number of gentlemen who
could not attend, it would popularise the Society and render
it as flourishing as it ought to be.

The Chairman said it was highly desirable that reports
like Professor Simonds' should appear sooner. The sooner
they were published the better. He was under the impression
that notice of the Wednesday meetings was always given a
month beforehand.

The Secretary said the Wednesday meetings were entirely
dependent on casual communications. Whenever any com-
munication of importance had been received, notice had been
given of it.

The motion for adopting the report was then put, and
agreed to.

Mr. Raymond Barker then read the balance-sheet of
receipts and expenditure for the half-year ending the 30th of
June last.

Half-yearly Account from the 1st of January to the 30th
of June, 1857.

Receipts during the half-year. £ s. d.

Balance in the hands of the Bankers, Jan. 1,1857 438 12 8
Petty Cash Balance in the hands of the Sec-
retary. Jan. 1, 1857 17 1 8

Dividends on Stock 129 14 1

Governors' Life-Compositions 90 0 0

Governors' Annual Subscriptions . . . . . . 569 0 0

Members' Life-Compositions . . 403 0 0

Members' Annual Subscriptions 1836 5 0

Journal Receipts .. 161 13 0

Sale of old Catalogues .. 230

Country Meeting Receipts : —

Salisbury .. 1500 0 0

JS5147 9 5

Payments during the half-year. £ s. d.

Permanent Charges 165 0 0

Taxes and Rates • •• 19 9 0

Establishment Charges * • •• 1221 6 9

Postage aud Carriage •• 23 3 11

Advertisements 14 5 0

Journal Payments 1098 11 7

Essay Prizes 150 0 0

Veterinary Grant 200 0 0

Chemical Grant ISO 0 0

Chemical Investigations 100 0 0

Country Meeting Payments :—

Chelmsford .. 46i 0 10

Salisbury .. .,. 525 6 0

Subscriptions, over-paid by Bankers, returned . . 4 0 0

Sundry items of Petty Cash , •• 3 10 11

Balance in the hands of the Bankers, June 30,

1857 989 8 10

Petty Cash Balance in the hands of the Sec-
retary, June 30, 1857 16 6 7

£5147 9 5
(Signed) Thomas Raymond Barker,"!

Chairman, [ Finance Committee,

C. B. ClIALLONER, I

Henry Wilson, J

Examined, audited, and found correct this 4th day of De-
cember, 1857.

(Signed) George I. Raymond "i ^^^^.^^,.^ ^,^ ^J^^ ^^^ ^^

Barker, ^ ^j^^ ^^^-^^ f
William Astbury, J "

£

s.

d.

1500

0

0

120

0

0

5

0

0

146

7

6

26

0

0

614

2

9

3447

15

9

324

17

0

2

0

0

78

0

0

3

0

0

345

12

11

£6612

15

11

Country Meeting Account, Salisbury, 1857.
Dr.

Subscription from Salisbury

Prizes offered by the Local Committee for
Hamps. Down Sheep

Prize offered by M. Duttone for polled bull . .

Non-members' fees for the entry of live-stock. .

Non-members' fees for the entry of implements

Implement-makers' payment for shedding re-
quired

Admisasions to show and trial-yards . .

Sale of catalogues of implements and stock . .

Fines for the non-exhibition of live-stock

Sale of dinner-tickets . .

Sale of Council-badges . .

Balance, chargeable on the general funds of the
Society

Ck.

£ s. d.
Showyard and trial works, poultry-coops, hurdles,

entrance-turnstiles . . . . . . 2530 9 1

Trial-land for steam-cultivators, compensations,

water supply, cooperage .. .. .. 231 7 6

Yardmen, fieldmen, clerks, money-takers, door-
keepers, catalogue-sellers .. .. .. 217 2 3

Judges of the show .. .. .. .. 344 0 0

Judges' refreshments .. .. ,. .. 56190

Veterinary inspector and assistant . . . . 26 0 0

Consulting engineer . . . . . . . . 89 9 9

Hire of farm-horses .. .. .. .. 56 10 0

Metropolitan police . . . . . . . . 86 4 0

Green-food 139 18 0

Hay and straw 146 19 6

Poultry food 7 18 9

Coals, seeds, manure, and cream, for trials . . 17 18 6

Ropes, bags, padlocks, brooms. . . . . . 6 4 0

Stationery .. 20 2 11

Advertisements.. .. .. .. .. 128 9 3

Postage, carriage, messengers . . . . . . 24 10 5

Programmes of the meeting , . . . . . 6 2 0

* Under this head is included the sum of ^£703 4s. lid. paid

on account of repairs required in the house of the Society,

73

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

Prize-sheeU, certificates, labels, admission-
orders, circulars, railway-papers .. .. £ 149 5 3
Live-stock aud implement catalogues . . . . 349 2 0
Live-stock aud implement award-sheets . . 29 13 0
Prizes of the Society, awarded aud paid .. 1594 12 0
Prizes of the Local Committee, awarded aud

paid 120 0 0

Prize of M. Dutrone, awarded and paid .. 5 0 0

Diuner-coutract 200 0 0

Dicner-ticiiets aud toast-papers . . . . 2 5 0

Badges for Council, stewards, and judges . . 7 IS 9
Official staff, travelling expenses, board, and

lodging 17 14 2

Loss ou sale of foreign and other coin. . . . 0 19 10

£6612 15 11

Mr. W. F. HoBBS drew attention to the loss sustained by
the dinner of the Society at Salisbury.

Mr. Raymond Barker said that a contract was made
for the dinner for £200. The sale of tickets was conducted
as usual, but very feiv persons seemed disposed to buy. Only
£78 was received for tickets. It was, however, the most pro-
fitable dinner the Society had ever had, because it involved
the least loss (a laugh).

After some remarks frora Mr. Moore and Mr. Slaney,
with reference to the annual dinners of the Society,

Mr. Sainsdury said, he would take upon himself, as a
Wiltshire farmer, to state that had the Council erected a
pavilion at Salisbury they could have found tbe Wiltshire
farmers flockiug to it in a body, and it would, no doubt, have
been well filled. The reason they did not go to the Council
Chamber at Salisbury was that they considered that they had
not been fairly treated in that respect — in fact, they took a
little huff (a laugh).

Mr. Bullock Webster proposed, and Mr. Arkell seconded,
a vote of thanks to the auditors, which was agreed to ; Mr.
Barker and Mr. Astbury were re-elected auditors; and Mr.
Druce chosen as auditor in the room of Mr. Dyer, who retired
from ill health.

Mr. MooKE then addressed the meeting at some length. He
complained that the mode in which the accounts were presented
to the members w»s not satisfactory, and suggested that
a tabular statement should be prepared of the income
and expenditure of the Society from the commencement,
together with a statement of the number of members each
year. He was anxious, he said, for the adoptiou of some jjlan
by which the farmers in the different localities mij^ht be led
to take greater interest in the meetings of the Society. So
far as the Journal was concerned, he believed it was scarcely
ever seen by the majority of the farmers, and that, when they
did take it up, they soon put it down iu despair. The articles
were very valuable, no doubt, to the class of men who could
read aud understand them, and had produced beneficial effects
on the agticuUure of the country, but ihey did not bring home
what was wanted to the minds of the agricultural community.
By what means that was to be done he left to tiie considera-
tion of the managers of the Society, la his opinion, too, the
Sraithfleld Club ought to he au-.alganiated with this society,
aud the country meetings giveu up, substituting for them
a great annual metropolitan meeting iu the summer, and
establishing district societies, comprising three or four coiiu-
ties, such district societies to be affiliations of the great
central institution iu London.

Col. CuALLONER Said he Tose for the purpose of answer-
ing some of the observations of Mr. Sidney, and he thought
he should be able to show that the Council had not been quite
so idle and so inattentive to the interests of the Society as
some persons might suppose. Mr. Sidney had remarked that
the number of members was at one period larger than it was
at the preaeat moment. Aumitting that that was the case, he
must observe that as regarded the class of members whom
the Council were most anxious to secure, namely, tenant
farmers aud practical men, the list was cever before so
numerous as it wa^ then. Soon after the formation of the
Society, when members were elected, as it were, by acclama-
tion, he had seen thirty or forty members put down their
names all together at a country meeting. But what was the
explanation of that ? Why, that gentleo;en could not attend
the dinner without first becoming members. The result was

that they used to be constantly writing ten or fifteen letters
to persons for their subscriptions without getting any answer
It was then quite common for a gentleman to say, " I sub--
scribed at Southampton," or " at Liverpool," as the case might
be ; " but I am not a member of the society now, and I shall
not pay any money." Iu fact, many hundreds of persons had
their names struck off the books because they would not keep
up their subscriptions. This was early in the history of the
Society, up to the seventh or eighth years, perhaps, of its
career" The Council were prepared to give, not only the gross
number, but even the separate names of those who were struck
off under those circumstances. Mr Sidney said that if they
did soand-so the number of members would be increased to
10,000. It might be so ; but they liked to act upon some-
thing like certainty, aud it was certain that within the last
three or four years, or since the number of names was reduced,
by the process of striking off, to three or four thousand, they
had obtained an accession of a thousand additional and paying
members, and he would add that there were less arrears in pro-
portion among the farmers than among the governors. (Hear).
It appeared to him that they could not have erred very
much in the management of the Society, when the Society
had been getting better known aud more popular every
year, and wheu there had been an accession of 1,000
paying members (Hear, hear). Again, Mr. Sidney had
spoken of the necessity of giving notice of the lectures. He
had papers there before him {The Mark Lane Express)
from which it appeared that in all the reports issued by Mr.
Hudson, the Council stated on what day Professor Way or
Professor Siriir.ds would deliver alecture, and these announce-
ments were kUvays forwarded to the RIark Lane Express, the
Gardener's Chronicle, and other agricultural journa's; aud
when Professor Way was ill, there was a special advertisement
to the effect that iu consequence of his illness the lecture
which had been announced would be postponed to a future
day. With regard to the Bath and West of England Society,
he must observe that it was no uncommon thing for children
to outstrip their parents — (laughter) — and if this were the
result of energy and vigorous management, it was a feather in
the cap of the society iu question rather than a reason for con-
demning the parent institution. With regard to the churns,
trials had been made, but it was a very difficult matter. That
was his department in the Exhibition of 1851, when he was
for upwards of twelve hours in an atmosphere of 83 degrees.
His report appeared in the Journal at that time, and since that
period there had, he believed, been no very great variation in
the different churns. That trial had subsequently proved to
be a very correct one, because the same churn — the square
American churn, makin? from 15ibs. to 201bs.of butter — was
found to be the best. With respect to the root-cutters and
slicers, he might observe that at the Lincoln Show Mr. Moody
brought out a turnip-cutter that was tried thoroughly, aud he
was so much pleased with it that he immediately bought
one. He had procured three of them since, and every gentle-
man who had seen them at his place had pronounced them the
beat that they had met with. He would add that their con-
sulting engineer, on being consulted the other day, recom-
mended the Council to offer a reward for turnip-cutters, there
not beiug one that he considered perfect. With regard to the
election of the,Council,he believed everyone knew that under the
Charter of the Society, on a certain day in May the Council
for the ensuing year had to be elected . Nothing could be better
known than tliat at the General Meeting in May, the Council
and trustees, aud the officers of the Society, had to be elected
by the members, the fact being made public, he believed,
through the medium of all the agricultural papers. Mr. Moore
had referred to the accounts. On that subject he would detain
them only one minute. Let any gentleman present call for
information under any one head of expenditure— be it the
chemical grant, be it the veterinary grant, be it the country
meetings, be it the establishment charges, he would undertake
to find the information in a book which was before him.

Mr. Moore said he did not for a moment question that
the affairs of the Society had been managed in the most perfect
manner possible. What he desired was, that a clear state-
ment of the income aud expendituie should be published half-
yearly in the Journal.

Col. CiiALLONER intimated that what Mr. Moore required
had been done.

Mr. MooRB said, having examined the accounts published

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

73

from time to time, he must declare that he could not make
out the annual receipts and expenditure. What he wanted
was au account of the annual incoms and expenditure, with
the number of members from year to year.

Col. Challoner said, the book before him, and to
which he had just referred, was not got up for the occasion,
but had existed from the earliest period in the society's career,
and within five minutes he could point out the most trivial
item iu the accounts of any one year.

Mr. Moore was afraid that his remarks had produced a
wrong impreasioa. What he meant to say was that the
accounts published did not appear to him to furnish a fair
criterion of the actual progress of the society from year to
year.

Col. Challoner observed that there were arrears in
every society, and that it was absolutely necessary to make
out the accouiits up to a certain day. He concluded by ob-
serving that as regarded the proposed alteration iu the mode
of conducting the society's operations, that was a question
the decision of which must be lelt to the members as a body.

Mr. AsTBUEY, as one of the auditors, felt it his duty to
testify to the admirable maimer in which the accounts of the
Society were kept, and to the readiness with which they had
been furnished with every possible information by Mr. Hudson.

Mr. Barrow, MP., wished to correct au opinion that the
Council were self-elected, and weretlected for life Under the
constitution of the Society, the Council wereelected by the mem-
bers generally. The Council naturally looked around among
themselves, in the first instance, to ascertain who had been most
useful, by attending the meetings and in other ways; a state-
ment of the attendances was laid before the election took place :
this was a guide as to the future. They were always prepared to
listen to suggestions as to the election of a new member ; and
he had repeatedly heard it remarked that one gentleman
should not be chosen because his county was fully represented,
and that another should be chosen for the opposite reason.
He was anxious that the mambers of the Society should have
the election of the Council entirely in their own povcer, and
that the right to nominate a new member should not be a
mere shadow (Hear, hear). At the last election of the Council
there were four-and-tweuty members who might have been re-
elected ; and six of them were passed by, although they were
men of high standing, simply because their attendance had not
been satisfactory. With respect to the observations
made as to the desirability of centralizing the meet-
ings of the society, he must confess he was not particu-
larly partial to the principle of ceu'ralizatiou (Hear, hear) ;
and he must say that he thought the travelling of the
society from place to place had been beneficial to
agriculturists generally. It was remarked that the large
attendance at the shows was the result of excite-
ment. He accepted that representation ; and he said
that if the country meetings led to excitement, there was rea-
son to believe that that excitement produced good eflfects in
the district (Hear, hear). Au addition to the number of mem-
herein the particular locality was one consequence of holding
a country meeting (Hear, hear). He was as desirous as those
who had introduced the subject were, that the society should
improve and progress, aud the Council were happy to hear
suggestions from gentlemen whom they had not had the plea-
sure of meeting at the Council Board.

Mr. Sidney wished to make two practical suggestions. Pro-
fessor Way, it appeared, had resigned his office ; and with all
the respect which he entertained for that gentleman's scientific
talents, he must say he was exceedingly glad that he had done
so. It was absolutely necessary that if that society had a
chemist, he should do something for his money. Pro-
fessor Voelcker had been lecturing for the Bath and West
of England Society in various towns; aud in his case this had
proved very useful. His lectures were on practical subjects;
and owing to the manner in which these were brought home
to the minds of those who heard them, the attendance of farm-
era had been very large, and the result very satisfactory. What
he had to suggest on that subject was, that in filling the va-
cancy which had arisen the greatest care should be taken to
select the most suitable person, and that arrangements should
be made for securing a larger attendance of members.

Mr. Bullock Webster, referring to the Chester Meet-
ing, said he understood that Mr. Holt, the proprietor of Radley's
Hotel, was prepared to erect the building at his own expense,

provided he received sufficient encouragement from the Council.
He would be glad to know whether the Council iuteuded to
hold out any special inducement to the inventors of steam-
cultivators to send their inventions to the Chester Meeting ?
Many persons, he understood, were inclined to send them, but
not entirely at their own expense.

The Kev. Mr. Linton thought it very advantageous to hold
meetings in the country. An opportunity was thus afforded to
them of observing what implements were used in other districts
besides their own ; and he for one, had seldom gone away
from a country meeting without having learnt something
which he had afterwards found very useful to him in his own
county — Huntingdonshire. The Journal had, he thought,
been the means of ditfusing an immense amount of agricul-
tural knowledge throughout the kingdom. For example, in
the very last Journal there was one of the most useful papers
he had ever read iii his lite : he referred to the paper which
described a very simple and economical mode of constructing
roads on clay-farms, the author of which was Mr. Bailey
Denton.

Lord Feversham then moved a vote of thanks to the
Chairman. He did not see how any association of that kind,
having practical objects in view, aud aiming at practical
results, could rest on its oars; and he was happy to say there
was reason to believe that most of the members of the
Council were iu favour of progressive improvement (Hear,
hear). He had himself proposed in the Council that the
Show meetings should in future be held in the metropolis.
He did not know whether or not Mr. Moore wished to have
country meetings as well as London meetings.

Mr. Moore said he would have three or four counties
thrown into one, and have affiliated societies in different parts
of the country.

Lord Feversham thought the Council would do well to
consider whether it might not be an improvement to hold
the meetings in London iastead of in the country. Every-
thing he heard with respect to the railways, with respect to
the want of accommodation in towns, and with respect to the
inconveuieuce sustained by exhibitors iu consequence of having
to send their stock to distant parts of the kingdom, convinced
him that this view was correct. He was opposed to the
amalgamation of the society with the Smithfield Club. He
wouhl keep both societies distinct, but would have a large
building ertcted for the meetings of both societies — one iu
the summer and the other in the winter. His lordship con-
cluded by expressing his dissent from the opinion that the
judges should be required to give reasons for their decisious,
observing that such an arrangement would lead to great prac-
tical inconvenience, while it coald produce no useful result.

Mr. HoBBS, in seconding the motion, said he was pleased
to find that the members of the society were beginning to
take an interest iu its proceediugs, because he felt satisfied
tbat unless the Council knew what a strong feeling prevailed
among the members, the measures which were so desirable
for the success of the society would never be carried out.
He trusted that duriug their noble President's year of oftice
necessary reforms would be effected.

The motion having been carried by acclamation.

The Chairman, in replying, said he rejoiced at the ob-
servations which were made at the commencement of the
meeting, because they had elicited the remarks of Col. Chal-
loner, who was a member of the Finance Committee. He
was one of those who thought that there could not be too
much publicity as regarded the accounts, and that the entire
management of the society could not be too thoroughly ven-
tilated (Hear, hear). It was on that principle that he bad
always acted iu relation lo his oiva farming operations, being
convinced that it was the best mode of eliciting the truth and
promoting improvement. He could not agree with his noble
friend. Lord Feversham, that it was desirable entirely to do
away with the migratory proceedings of the society, because
iu counties which had been most behindhand in agriculture,
he had seen not merely excitement for a time, but very great
permanent improvements as the result of the country mest-
ings. He admitted, however, that the holding of a meeting
occasionally in Loudon would be advantageous to agriculture,
and he sljould be glad, so far, if his nobis friend's suggestiou
could be carried out.

The meeting then separated.

74.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.
THE ANNUAL DINNER.

The annual dinner took place on the Tuesday evening in
the Smithfield Show ^veek, at Radley's Hotel, under the
presidency of the chairman of the year, Mr. Owen Wallis.
Among those present on this occasion Avere : Mr. R. Baker
(of Writtle), Mr. VV. Bennett, Mr. Mechi, Mr. Cuthbert
Johnson, Mr. Trethewy, Mr. Wihnot, Mr. Bullock
Webster, Mr. Bell, Mr. C. Stokes, Mr. Parkinson, Mr.
Coussmaker, Mr. Skelton, Mr. J. Wood (Sussex), Mr. E.
Pope, Mr. C. Howard, Mr. J. Druce, Mr. Molyneus, Mr.
J. H. Johnson, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Goldhurst, Mr. H.
Cheffins, .Mr. W. Cheffins, Mr. Tuxford, Mr. Purser, Mr.
Pile, Mr, Cutts, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Ward, Mr. Reeve, &c.,
&c. Mr. Thomas, of Bletsoe, occupied the vice-chair.

After the dinner, which was furnished by the landlord,
Mr. Holt, in excellent style.

The Chairman proposed " The Queen," observing that
the throne of England was never occupied by a sovereign
who had greater claims to the affection of lier subjects.

Alter a heartily-loyal response to the toast.

The Chairman said, the next toast was " The Prince
Consort, the Prince of Wales, and the rest of the Royal
Family." The first of these exalted individuals had been
distinguished ever since he had been amongst them as the
patron of the arts and sciences, and had done all he could
to promote the social and intellectual welfare of his fellow-
beings. He was also, as they were aware, a great patron
of agriculture. Of the Prince of Wales ihej at present
knew but little, but they induced a hope that he would
profit by the example of his illustrious parents, and would
prove at some distant day a fit successor to his Roj^al
mother. While the cause of the arts and sciences was well
represented by the Prince Consort, the cause of the army
and of the national defences was equally well represented
b}^ another member of the Royal family, the Duke of Cam-
bridge, who by his speeches on various public occasions
had shown that he was as much to be admired for his
sound, practical, good sense and his kindness of heart, as
they all knew that he was for his daring courage and intre-
pidity in the presence of an enemy (cheers).

After a due response to this toast.

The Chairman proposed " The Army and Navy." He
said when that toast was proposed three years ago, their
gallant soldiers had just won for themselves imperishable
fame at the battles of the Alma and Inkermann, and now
they had fresh claims to our admiration, arising from the
fortitude with which they had undergone suiferings and
privations ten times more fatal than the bullets or the
bayonets, the shot or the shell, of the Russians (cheers).
The army, which had before so much cause for just pride,
had recently performed acts of the greatest intrepidity and
daring in suppressing the mutiny of the treacherous Bengal
sepoys ; and though vmiversally outnumbered, they had on
all occasions come off the victors. The names and deeds of
Havelock and his devoted companions would continue in
the recollection of a grateful country. Well might they
indulge a hope that Havelock and his forces would be
rescued from the perilous position in which they were when
last heard of, and that the gallant general would live to
reap the reward and enjoy the honours conferred upon him
(cheers).

The toast was drank with the greatest enthusiasm.

The Chairman afterwards said, the toast which he was
about to propose was undoubtedly the toast of the evening,
for it was " Success to the Central Farmers' Club" (cheers).
It had been customary on that and similar occasions to
review their past proceedings, and to examine the present
state and future prospects of the club ; and whether they
looked at the past, the present, or the future, he thought
that at no period of its existence had it been in so good a
position as at that moment. Three or four years ago it was
thought that the club would be broken up. Indeed its

downfall was very commonly predicted. He, for one, never
paid much attention to these predictions, believing that the
club was of so useful and valuable a character that it would
ultimately receive that amount of support from the farmers
of England to which the objects it had in view so well
entitled it. The Royal Agricultural Society brought
before them the best specimens of breeding stock, and the
implements which were best suited to the increasing wants of
the farmer. On the other hand, the Smithfield Club, and
other societies of a similar nature, brought before their notice
the best specimens of fat animals. But ia a society like the
Central Farmers' Club, the farmers of England could meet to-
gether, and learn how breeding-stock might be best rearedj
how fatteniug stock might be best fed ; what implements were
best suited to their purposes in their respective localities;
what manure waa most adv.=.ntageou3 for a particular crop —
how it could be beat prepared, and how best appli.?d ; how the
soil could be most economically and effectually drained ; how
laud which had hitherto been in a state of waste could be
brought under successful and profitable cultivation ; and last,
though not least, how the labourers of England could be best
educated, so as to suit the altered circumatauces of themselves
and their employers (cheers). It was, he said, in societies like
that, that farmers met together to learn from each other, by
discussing subjects of that nature; and those who from a false
economy stayed st home, or took no notice of the matter,
would ultimately find themselves distanced ia the race which
they v,ere all running (Hear, hear). So far from having to
mourn over the dowcfall l f the club, they had to rejoice in its
daily increasing prosperity. During the year which was now
closing, they had elected very nearly the same number of
members that they had in two preceding years — by far
the three best years the club ever enjoyed — and concur-
rent with this augmentatioa in its numbers, the club had
greatly increased in reputation and ia the estimation of the
public. This was manifest from the value of the discussions
which had taken place during the past jeaf, and the position
and character of the gentlemen by whom they were introduced.
Moreover, their financial position also exhibited a great im-
provement ; for instead of their being iu debt, as they were
some years ago — if they were not in debt at that period, their
income was not equal to their expenditure — that state of
things was now reversed, and they were actually saving money
at the rate of about £50 a year (cheers). He thought he was
safe, therefore, in affirming that the prospects of the club were
more flourishing than they bad been at any previous time
during its career. He now called upon them to drink "Suc-
cess to the Club ;" and he would couple with the toast the
name of Mr. Baker, of Writtle.

After a fitting response to this toast,

Mr. Bakee said he felt that be was very highly compli-
mented in being selected to return thanks for this toast, more
especially as his name had been connected with the toast by
their excellent chairman, Mr. Wellia. He was quite sure that
the club was very much indebted to that gentleman for the manner
in which he had presided over its proceedings ; and no one
could be otherwise than satisfied with the progress it had made
under his superintendence." He hoped he should be excused if
be spoke for a moment of himself iu connection with the club
(Hear, hear). He was one of the first originators of the club ;
He had been an attentive promoter of its interests from the
commencement, and he hoped he should continue so to the
end. He saw it in its first infancy, winding along its tortuous
way, " dragging its slow length along;" he now rejoiced to
see it in its maturity, occupying a position superior to that of
any similar institution of the kind in the country (cheers).
And how were they to account for this ? How were ihey to
explain the fact that that club now formed one of the leading
agricultural features of this country ; and that, though it did
not perhaps occupy so elevated a position as the Boyal Agri-
cultural Society, but one of a secondary nature, yet it bene

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

75

fited a larger number of persoDS than even that society itself?
If it were an honour to be connected with any leading society
of the country, more especially did he feel it to be an honour
to be connected witn a society which was so closely connected
with agriculture. Of agriculture, indeed, he had always been
one of the warmest advocates, and he might say of her in the
words of the poet Burns —

" She found me at the plough,
And cast her inspiring mantle over me."
He was sure that the most pleasurable pnrt of his life had been
spent in the pursuit of agriculture ; whether or not his efforts
as an agriculturist had proved beneficial to others as well as
himself, he must leave it to others to decide. The great ob-
ject of that society was, like that of the Royal Agricultural
Society, to blend science with practice. With this view they
had had scientific lectures bearing upou agriculture. How the
subjects introduced were treated, it was not necessary for him
to state ; nor need he remind them how a subject of great
importance was treated on the previous evening by a very able
member of the club, or of the valuable discussion which fol-
lowed (Hear, hear). For his own part, he must confess that
he had derived very great benefit from the club. He had ob-
tained much information there, which he probably would never
have obtained elsewhere (Hear, hear) ; and, more than that,
he had been brought into association with many oi the lead-
ing agriculturists belonging to different parts of the kingdom.
Formerly farmers used to live constantly ou their farms, and
were hardly ever brought in contact with persons of their own
pursuit in other districts ; and the associations which that club
had produced among the leading cultivators of land was cer-
taiuly not one of the smallest benefits conferred by it on the
agricultural community (Hear, hear). In that club farmers
were brought to know each other; each member commu-
nicated any important information which he possessed for the
benefit of the whole, and by means of the press that informa-
tion was disseminated throughout the whole of England. He
thought, therefore, it might be said that the Central Farmers'
club had done its duty, and fulfilled the expectations which
were raised with regard to it at the time of its formation,
(Hear, hear.) It was as one of the oldest members of the
club that he had been selected to respond to the toast. He now
called upon them to look forward to its increasing usefulness,
more especially ia connection with the various political or
financial events which might hereafter affect the interests of
agriculture. There had of late, as they were all aware, been
a great prostration of the monetary interests of the country.
It was not to be supposed for a moment that that did not
concern them. (Hear, hear.) He believed there was no class
of persons in the kingdom who were more affected by the
money-laws than farmers were; and, although the question
might appear to some present an abstract one, it appeared to
him that they ought, as a body, to watch the proceedings of
Parliament, and to give their best attention to a matter in
which their interests were so clearly involved. (Hear, hear.)
They, would all, no doubt, be very much surprised and alarmed
if it were enacted by the Legislature that the bushel, instead
of holding four pecks, should hold five, and that they should
still sell at the same price that they did before ; they would all,
of course, regard that as a robbery of them to the extent of
twenty per cent, of their property in corn. That was exactly
what was done, however, by the money-laws ; and they might
depend upon it that, without some change in this state of the
law, an act which worked as the present one did would be set
aside from time to time whenever it was considered necessary
to suspend its operation. The present law was not based on
honest and just principles. There were a number of individuals
who reaped their harvest at the farmers' expense ; and when
times of pressure occurred, and a large rate of interest was
being exacted from mercantile houses which were in a state of
difficulty and dismay, the Government, under the pretence of
stopping the evil, stepped in and suspended a law which was
not based ou a proper foundation. He felt that he was now
touching on a question of which he was not master ; he had,
however, studied the law in some of its bearings ; he had fore-
told some of its consequences, and he would predict that, un-
less some remedy were applied, farmers would be still more
seriously affected even than they had been. As there was a
gentleman present who had made the monetary system his
special study — he referred to Mr. Bell — he hoped that gentle-
man would favour them with his views on the subject : more

especially as regarded the bearing of the existing siate o
things on agriculture. In conclusion, he would remark that
agriculture, as now carried on in this country, might justly be
rtgarded as a science ; and it was as a science as well as an
art that it was being carried on, and its present position was
not only the strength of our own country, but the admiration
of all surrounding nations (cheers). He thanked them most
sincerely for the manner in which they had received the toast.

Mr. Tkethewey said he rose to propose a toast which
he was sure would be well received — it was the health of
their excellent Chairman (cheers). In doing so, he felt
that the task entrusted to him was, in fact, a very easy
one. They had all heard a good deal, of late, about putting
the right man in the right place; and he thoirght they
could not possibly have a better illustration of that maxim
than they had in the case of their present Chairman. If he
were merely addressing the committee, or if he were address-
ing only those members of the club who were in the habit of
attending the monthly discussions, he should feel that it was
nnnecessary for him to say anything in reference to the merits
of Mr. Wallis ; but on looking round the room he saw a
great many gentlemen who had not had an opportitnity of
meeting the Chairman of the club, and therefore he hoped
he should not be considered tedious if he showed how for-
tunate the club was in having so good a president. That
evening was the last occasion on which Mr. Wallis would
have to preside over them that year. Another gentleman
would fill the chair ; and he earnestly hoped that, when Mr.
Wallis's successor quitted office, the club would be as pros-
perous as it was then (Hear, hear). He had said, in effect,
that they had the right man in the right place ; and if any
arguments were necessary to prove that, there could be no
difficulty in bringing it forward. He conceived that, for
the chairmanship of a farmers' club, it was necessary to
have a practical farmer, or, if not a practical farmer, at least
some one who had identified himself with the cultivation of
the land, and took a deep interest in agriculture. Now in
their present chairman they had a practical farmer (Hear,
hear) — a farmer occupying a very large amount of land, and
one whom his neighbours regarded as one of the best speci-
mens of their class. " Depend upon it," one of those neigh-
bours said to him that day—" depend upon it, whatever Mr.
Wallis undertakes to do, he will do well" (Hear, hear).
Not only had they the testimony of his neighbours in his
favour, but his name was to be found among the list of the
judges of the Royal Agricultural Society; and he really did
not know a more honourable position thanjthat. He felt that
he had said quite enough in proposing the toast ; and con-
gratulating the members on the improved prospects of the
club, he now left it in their hands.

After the toast had been drunk in the most cordial man-
ner—

The Chairman said he cmdd not adequately express his
thanks for the very handsome manner in which the toast had
been proposed and received. He felt that he was quite un-
worthy of what had been said with regard to him by Mr.
Trethewy. He had, however, endeavoured to do his duty
duriug the past year, and he felt greatly indebted to the
members for the couttesey which he had met with ou all
occasions. He was confident that there were many gentlemen
who would have filled his position with much more ability and
with much greater advantage to the club than he had done
(No, no). When, however, they did him the honour to nomi-
nate him, he felt bound to obey the call, and he should retire
from the chair with the feeling that he could never forget the
kindness which he had always experienced. He valued this
club very highly indeed, on account of the many valuable
friendships which he had formed in connection with it, and he
should endeavour to support it as long as he lived. He would
conclude by drinking to the good health of all preseat
(cheers),

Mr. Bullock Webster said he had been entrusted with
a toast, which he felt great pleasure in proposing, namely,
" The Koyal Agricultural Society of England" (cheers). That
society had now very great diflSculties to encounter. Formerly
it was very easy for the council to dispose of the routine sort
of business, which constituted the bulk of their proceedings ;
but the case was very different in the present day. There
were now no less than five or six different descriptions of the
steam cidtivator brought under their notice, upon the compa-

76

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

railve mtnla of which they liad to adjudicate. He might here
observe that the gentlemau who sat on hia right (Mr. Halkett)
had invented a ueW steam cultivator, which he was about to bring
before the Agricultural Society, and which he was prepared to
prove would pciform the following operations at the following
cost:— Plout;i)ing, Is. 7d. per acre ; scarifying, 8d.; harrow-
ing and rolling, 5d. ; hoeing, 3d. ; reaping, cutting, and
delivering, lOd. ; surface water, Is. 2d.; carriage of manure
and distributing. Id. That was of course when the pre-
paratory expenses in laying down the rails, &c., had
been defrayed. It would require a good deal of the
time and attention of the Council of the Royal Agricultural
Society to investigate this matter, and he thought that was an
additional reason why the society should be supported by
farmers. Mr. Halkett prepared for the work of ploughing by
placing rails on the surface of the land ; and he must say
that when so many thousands of pounds were spent in pre-
paring to launch the "Leviathan," farmers should not grudge
a guinea a-year to a society which undertook the task of
ascertaining the merits of an invention, the object of which
was to enable them to perform the operations of the farm in
the shortest time and at the least exjxuse (Hear, hear). He
trusted that those farmers who had hitherto done nothing for
the Royal Agricultural Society beyond drinking success to it
would now be induced to come forward with their annual
subscription (Hear, hear).

The toast having been duly honoured,
Mr. W. Bennett rose to respond. He said no one
could feel more deeply indebted to the Royal Agricultural
Society than he did. The society had been established
about twenty years, and no one could be ignorant of the
great benefit which had been conferred on the country by
its proceedings. Agriculture had made sucli rapid progress
during that period, that it might be said, as was remarked
by Sir James Graham a short time ago, to have climbed
almost every hill top, to have given fertility to barrenness,
and changed the whole face of the country. (Hear, hear.)
If a tract of land were now uncultivated, or not cultivated
properly, it was quite an exception to the rule. In his
native county, to which his attention was of course more
particularly directed, he had lately taken a review of what
had been done in the last forty years ; and he had been
exceedingly struck with the extraordinary progress which
agriculture had made there. He had no doubt that for
this improvement it was in a great degree indebted to the
Royal Agricultural Societ}'. It was the fashion to speak
contemptuously of the practice of offering rewards to agri-
cultural labourers for superior skill in ploughing ; but, in
his opinion, it was a great advantage to the community to
encourage emulation among the labourers, in order that what-
ever they did might be done in the best possible manner.
(Hear, hear. ) It was a good maxim that "whatever was
worth doing at all was worth doing well," and that maxim
was as applicable to the daily operations of the farm as to
any other branch of labour. (Hear, hear.) He had ob-
served that if a labourer contracted a habit of doing things
in a slovenly manner early in life, he hardly ever became a
good labourer afterwards ; and it was of great importance,
therefore, that efforts should be made to excite a spirit of
emulation among all who were employed on the farm.
The Royal Agricultural Society had in that way been
very useful to agriculture ; and it was remarkable that
in the counties where that society was best supported would
almost invariably be found the best farming (Hear, hear). The
society had been of great service in encouraging the best breeds
of animals— those breeds which it would pay best to rear and
to fatten. It hud also done much to improve agricultural nia-
chiuery. It was indeed astonishing what had been do!;e in
that depaitment within the last fifteen or twenty years, and
he fully expected that still greater results would follow if the
society were supported in a proper manner. No man could
predict what would yet be done by means of steam (Hear,
hear) ; but he must say that he thought Mr. Webster was
rather pulling the long bow when he spoke with euch confi-
dence of the ploui^hing of land at Is. 7d. per acre (laughter).
It reminded him of something that was said to him on an oc-
casion when he was about to give evidence ia reference to some
agricultural topic. A noble lord who had been at the bar ad-
vised him beforehand to be careful not to put the matter too
Strongly, observing that when he was at the bar he never felt

so sure of losing hU cause as when his witnesses were ready
to swear anything (laughter). He (Mr. Beutett) had always
remembered that caution in similar cases. It was an import-
ant maxim that men never did themselves so much injury as
when they put their case so strongly that no one believed it
(laughter). He hoped he should not be misunderstood. He
admitted that no one could fix a limit to the extent to which
steam might be applied to the cultivation of the soil ; but still
he would recommend his friend, Mr. Webster, not to put the
case of Mr. Halkett again quite so strongly as he had done
(Hear, hear). Before sitting down he had to propose a toast,
which he was sure would be well received by all present ; it
was " Success to the Sraithfield Club " That society was the
handmaid of the Hoy al Agricultural Society, and its operations
had beez; exceedir.gly useful. Tiiey all knew that it had, like
many other institutions, been a good deal abused. It had been
said, for example, that the Smithfield Club eticouraged the
feediug of animals to such a pitch that no one covdd eat them.
It might happen that a fashionable and delicate young lady
would sometimes find on her plate a piece of beef that was too
fat for her, and might turn up her nose at it ; but it did not
follow that good lat beef was not a good thing for the com-
munity at large. Moreover, it had to be borne in mind that
the great object of the Smithfield Club was to determine the
question what kinds of animals it would pay best to rear and
fatten for the market. He believed that that club had within
the Idit fifty years conferred immense benefit on this country.
Why was it that England stood before all the rest of the world
as regarded the quality of its animals ? Why was it that, as
regarded the growing and fattening of animals, no other coun-
try came near our own ? It was because practical, business-
like men had devoted their attention to the subject for a great
number of years, and offered rewards for the best animals that
were brought to London. Let the Times or any other great
leviathan of the press say what it would on this subject, they
must still strive to go ahead, they must still endeavour to im-
prove the breed of stock, and he was confident that they would
thus effectually promote both their own interest and that of
the community at large. He would now propose " Success to
the Smithfield Club 1"

Mr. C. Stokes said, as an old member of the Smith-
field Club, he felt great pleasure in rising to return
thanks. Thirty years ago, he remembered when the Euke
of Bedford withdrew his premium, this club was verj' near
being broken up. Had it not been for a few spirited
farmers at that time, it must certainly have become extinct ;
and he might leave it to any one who had that day visited
the noble exhibition in Baker-street to say how great a loss
that would have been. (Hear, hear.) No one could look at
the Devons, the Herefords, and some of the Shorthorns ; or ex-
amine the Long-woolled sheep, tie Leictstersi, and the South-
downs, without being gratified at the great improvement
which had taken place within the last few years. It should be
remembered that the Smithfield Club had been a pioneer to
all the other societies having similar objects, and that but for
it the various local associations would, probably, nevef have
existed. (Hear, hear.) Its infliuence had been felt not only iu
this country, but even in France, where there had been periodi-
cal exhibitions of stock for the last five or six years. More-
over, the Smithfield Club might claim the honour of having
produced the Royal Agricultural Society. Lord Spencer and
the Duke of Richmond mentioned their intention of forming
the Royal Agricultural Society to the members of the Smith-
field Club, and Lord Spencer afterwards declared that it was
the cheers with which the British farmers received the propo-
sal, that encouraged them to proceed. No club in the king-
dom, he believed, now rested on a surer foundation than the
Smithfield Club. Their funds were in a most flourishing
state. They had plenty of money to give away, and plenty of
money to put by (cheers).

Mr. WiLMOT said he had been called upon to propose the
next toaist, which was " The Committee of Management." He
thought the best thing that he could do, in propo>ing that
toast, was to refer to the report just issued, which shov.ed an
increasing number of subscribers, and an increase of the funds
(cheers). If that state of things continued, the club must go
on and prosper. He begged to couple with the toast the name
of Mr. Wood, of Ockley.

Mr. Wood, in replying on behalf of the Committee
congratulated the assembly on the fact stated in the report

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

77

just issued — that 74 new members bad been elected during
the last year. It would be wrong to take credit on behalf
of the Committee of the year for that increase ; for the
circulars which were sent round the country, with the able
assistance of the Secretary, informing farmers generally
that there was such an institution as a Central Farmers'
Club, and setting forth its claims to the support of tenant-
farmers — those circulars, he said, were issued by a previous
committee. It had been already observed, that the sub-
jects discussed had usually been very well introduced. He
thought most persons would agree with him that the list
of subjects for the past year had been more than ordinarily
interesting ; but, at the same time, he hoped the list for
the ensuing year would be equally interesting and equally
useful. There was one subject which to his mind appeared
extremely interesting, and which he should be exceedingly
glad to see brought forward. It had, indeed, already been
introduced on one occasion ; but it was done by a very in-
competent individual — namely, himself (laughter). [Mr.
Wood was understood to refer to the currency question ;
but he did not specify the topic to which he alluded.] On
that subject he entertained very decided opinions; and he
hoped it would be again introduced, by some gentleman
who was competent to deal with it. It certainly could
not be too well understood by the agricultural community.
Mr. Bell, responding to the appeal made to him by Mr.
Baker, made an elaborate statement of his views on
the currency laws, condemning the monopoly which, he
contended, was practcally established, under the present
system, in favour of capitalists as opposed to producers,
whether agricultural or manu.facturing, and referring to the
suspension of the Bank Act of 1844 as a proof that the
sj'stem required alteration. He concluded by proposing
the health of the vice-chairman, Mr. Thomas, of Bletsoe,
which was verj' cordially received.
Mr. Thom.a,s briefly returned thanks.
Mr. Mechi said he had been requested to propose
" The Local Farmers' Clubs," in connection with the name
of Mr. Pile, of Winchester. The remarks of the Chairman
with regard to the Central Farmers' Club were applicable
to farmers' ^clubs generally. If remaining always at home
and never associating with farmers belonging to other parts
of the country tended to perpetuate prejudice and ob-
struct improvement, still more must that be the case if
farmers did not associate together in tiieir several localities.
One of the chief advantages of local clubs was that they
enabled farmers to test the merits of their labourers in the
field. He would not broach the delicate question of giving
rewards for good conduct, because that was a question
which was open to difference of opinion ; but he must say
that when a labourer who thought himself a capital plough-
man found himself the worst ploughman among the compe-
titors, that result was likely to take a little of the conceit
out of him, and make him more humble and deferential in
future. The same remark applied to farmers who competed
lor premiums for the best farms. Moreover, farmers' clubs
tended to strengthen the social position of farmers in this
country, and there could be no doubt that their association
was in various ways a great mutual advantage. With
regard to the prospects of agriculture, he agreed with pre-
ceding speakers that they had to look forward to important
changes. Great improvements had doubtless been made in
their own time, but it must prepare their minds tor still
greater oaes. Thsy had already got rid of tlie flcil, which cost
a shilling, and substituted for it a costly machine, because it
did the work cheaper; aud it remained to be seea whether or
not that enormous power which clothed the world could
not be substituted for the ex sting plough. Mr. Halkett, who
had undertaken this task, v-as a man of great intelligence ; and
having gone the other clay to sec his machine at work, he must
declare hia satisfaction at what he witnessed. As regarded
the expense, he did not thiuk Mr. Bullock Webster was quite
correct in stating the coat of ploughing at Is. 7d. per acre, as
that did not include the interest of money expended on the
rail (Hear, hear). He supposed that was additional.
Mr. Halkett : Yes.

Mr. Mechi continued : If the invention were adopted, the
power of keeping "these horses" at work night aiid day would
be an enormous advantage. He was happy to find that Mr.
Halkett was going to explain his views on the following even-

ing. The question at issue seemed to hinge on the practica-
bility of using steam-power without encountering too much
friction, and he hoped that question would now receive a satis-
factory solution.

Mr. Pile, in replying, alluded to the efforts which were
being made in his own neighbourhood to improve the condition
of labourers. Besides the ordinary means, a society with
which he was connected was endeavouring to promote that
object by means of cottagers' shows. In order to make the
labourers in the neighbourhood better gardeners they gave re-
wards for the best garden productions. They also bestowed
premiums on the wives who were the best Kauagers. The
society had only been in existence two years, and there was
already visible aud material improvement.

The Rev. Mr. James, on rising to propose the next toast,
said, having had a glimpse of the list of toasts, he regretted to
find that the honest and hard-working agricultural labourers
were not included. He had no doubt that that omission was
an inadvertent one, and would be supplied. (Hear, hear.)
The toast which he had himself to propose was, " The Agri-
cultural Press," coupled with the name of a man, whom to
know was to esteem — he meant Mr. Tuxford. (Cheers.) He
would say of that gentleman tliat his principles of action
always appeared to be the same.

Mr. Tuxford Jelt very much indebted to all present
for the kmd manner in which they had been pleased to
receive his name in connection with the agricultural press of
this country. He did not know that any man could fill a
prouder position than the one in which he was required faith-
fully, couscieutiously, and independently to dischdrge such
functions as had fallen to his own lot (hear, hear). Stdl per-
haps there was no office with cuties of a more onerous cha-
racter attached to it. (Hear, hear). You had to speak inde-
pendeutly of all men, regardless of any crochets or any peculiar
views which they might entertain, and even at the risk of giving
them offence. You had to speak the truth on all topics
without considering the consequences which might befal you
in the discharge of your duty. Now, when such was the case,
the recollection of the kindness evinced towards himself that
night would be a source of satisfaction to him through
life (hear, hear). But if ever the press of this country should
be actuated by sinister motives, or led by anything else than
a sense of rectitude, it would forget the nature of its office, aud
descend from the high position it had now attained (hear,
hear). He would now supply the omission mentioned by Mr.
Jamea — and in doing ao he thoroughy agreed with him
could only have been an oversight— by proposing " The Agri-
cultural Labourers," and he was quite sure there was not a
person present by whom that toast would not be received
with as much enthusiasm as any preceding one (cheers).
He was glad that so much attention was now being devoted
. to the education of agricultural labourers. There was a period
when the plough constituted almost the only implement on
the farm. That time had now happily passed away — a very
different state of things existed — and if they wished to culti-
vate their farms on the best principles, they should take care
to educate the labourers, so as to prepare them to properly
fulfil their duties, instead of injuring, from their want of know-
ledge, the new machinery which was now being brought to
bear on agriculture (hear, hear).

The toast was drunk with enthusiasm.

Mr. W. Shaw proposed "The Secretary," observing that it
was the united testimony of all who had had the means of
forming au opinion, that no man could possibly discharge the
duties of the office better than they were discharged by Mr.
Corbet (cheers).

The toast was very warmly received ; but Mr. Corbet having
retired shortly before, wbs of course unable to reply.

The concluding toast was " The Visitors," coupled with the
name of Mr. Halkelt, and to which that gentleman replied
at some length on the subject of steam power, aud his own
invention.

The company, then separated.

EXTRAORDINARY AGRICULTURAL CASE.— At the
Aylesbury County Court, on Friday, Nov. 20th, au important
case was heard, and the facts involved the point whether the
owners of bulls are permitted to turn them out without taking
proper care that they could not break through the fences

78

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and herd with other graziera' stock. The plaintiff was Mr.
Senior, of Broughton hall, near Aylesbury, a magistrate for the
county, and a well-known grazier ; the defendant being Mr.
Self, the manager of the London and County Bank at Ayles-
bury. The action was brought to recover the sum of £19 19s.,
for damages from the negligence of the defendant. It was
elleged that the plaintiff had, at great trouble, secured a pure
breed of Devons, which were depasturing in a field adjoining
Mr. Self's grounds, in which was a bull, which trespassed on
the plaintiff's grounds, and associated with his stock ; in con-
sequence of which the plaintiff said a most valuable heifer, the
produce of the bull which had won the prize at Norwich, and
had never been beaten, and a cow which he had bought of
Lord Macclesfield, w as in calf. He ( plaintiff) said it was im-
portant that his stock should remain pure. He said he was
offered 30 guineas for the produce of the heifer which was the
cause of the action ; but owing to Mr. Self's bull having comt
mitted the trespass, he sold the heifer and calf (which ough-
to have been worth £40) for £17 lOs. The witnesses stated
that Mr. Self's fences were very bad. Mr. G. L. Brown, bar-
rister, for the defence, contended that the case had nothing to
do with the breeding of cattle, but was merely a little bit of
private quarrelling. It was said that there was an assumed
likeness between the calf and his suspected sire; but there
was no daguerreotype, and of course no likeness could be proved.
He contended, therefore, that there was no proof that the
plaintiff had sustained damage at the defendant's hands. He
called upon the jury to give tlie plaintiff the smallest con-
ceivable coin in full satisfaction for any conceivable injury he
had sustained. Various witnesses, includiug Mr. Gadsden,
the extensive auctioneer and valuer, and Mr. H. Phillips, the
well-known dealer of Thame, were called on the part of the
defendant; and they swore that there was nothing extiaordi-
nary in the breed of the plaintiff's stock, and that the heifer
and calf were not worth more than £17 or £13. Other wit-
nesses swore (in opposition to what had been urged on the
part of the plaintiff) that the defendant's fences were in good
condition. His Honour, Mr. C. Temple, summed up at great
leagth. The jury retired, and, after being absent about ha If-
aa-hour, found a verdict for the plaintiff — damages Is. Im-
mediately the verdict was announced, the court, which was
deiisely crowded throughout the whole five hours the case
lasted, rang with a shout the like of which has never, perhaps,
been uttered there on any such occasion. It was, however, of
course, suppressed by the officers and the judge.

ROMAINE'S CANADIAN STEAM
CULTIVATOR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ENGINEER.

Sir, — Certain errors having been, inadvertently or other-
wise, promulgated respecting the above invention, calculated
to depreciate the efficiency of the " Cultivator," and to detract
the honour of the invention from the rightful and sole in-
ventor, we shall feel obliged if you will give prominency in your
journal to the following remarks in order that the public may
be rightly informed on the subject.

A writer in the Illustrated London News of Oct. 3rd, 1857,
whilst strongly commending the invention, makes the following
delusive remark :

" Crosskill's Romaine Cultivator. — We give an illustration
of the new steam-cultivator, invented by Mr. Robert Ro-
maine, a Cauadian ; improved and manufactured by Messrs.
Crosskill, the eminent agricultural impleraeut makers, of
Beverley, Yorkshire, whose name is so well known in connec-
tion with the dod-crusher Crosskill's Romaine steam

cultivator differs from all others hitherto brought before
the public, in entirely dispensing with ropes, &c."

In reference to the above paragraph, we deem it necessary
to state that Mr. Robert Romaine, of Peterborough, Canada,
but now residing at Beverley, in Yorkshire, is the sole and
entire inventor, and that the whole of the improvements that
have been made in it have been effected by himself, and not
by another party, as therein implied ; and further, that the
machines are manufactured by the trustees of the Beverley
Iron Works, from Mr. Romaine's own suggestions and im-
provements.

la the game paper of the same date it is subsequently
affirmed that Mr. Romaine sent one of his machines (the
second that was built) to the " Great Exhibition of Paris iu
1855, where the inventor, Mr. Romaine, was one of the
Canadian commissioners. This machine, like Mr. Mechi's,
was to be drawn by a pair of horses, the steam power being
employed in turning the cultivator. In Paris Mr. W. Cross-
kill saw it, and thought so well of it that he took it up, and
the firm have spent two years and some thousand pounds in
bringing it to its present state of efficiency. The third ma-
chine would not steer or travel, until the wheel arrangements
had been changed to the present form and proportions."

With regard to the above statement, which is decidedly and
injuriously incorrect, it is necessary to state that the second
machine, which was intended for the Exhibitioa at Paris in
1855, worked on the plains of St. Denis during the summer,
and tilled the land. As well as the present one it was not
drawn by horses, but propelled itself over the land by steam-
power, being only deficient in its boiler and steering apparatus.
The third machine, being the first built by the trustees of the
Beverley Iron Works, was perfect in its steering apparatus,
and travelled equally as well as the present one. The state-
ment that the firm have spent some thousand pounds in bring-
ing it to its perfection requires no answer, as the trustees of
the irou works are alone the responsible manufacturers.

The same errors have been fallen into or communicated to a
writer in Bell's Messenger, of September 21st, 1857, in which
paper it la stated : " Romaine and Crosskill's steam culti-
vator.— On Friday, the 11th instant, Messrs. Crosskill broke
the silence they have so long maintained as to the steam cul-
tivator, which they entered but did not produce at Chelms-
ford and at Ssliabury."

The claim Mr. Romaine enforces as the sole inventor and
improver of the machine, as stated before, is a satisfactory
reply to the mistakes disseminated by such an incorrect ver-
sion of the invention. In the same article it is afterwards
stated : '' The patentees estimate that it (the machine) can
do nearly an acre an hour, and work at night as well as day."

In reference lo this quotation, we beg to say that Mr. Ro-
maine h&s the sole credit of the patent, and with him alone is
vested the power of granting licenses for its manufacture. The
writer inthe same^'paper afterwards adds — "At that time (that
is during the Paris Exhibition) it could not steer, and could
not work without breaking down."

It will be observed that the writers ia the London News as
well as iu Bell's Messenger — probably one and the same party
— have fallen into the same error, and made the same mis-
statement. As the repetition of these mistakes and erroneous
representations iu other papers might prove both prejudicial
to the inventor and the invention, we trust you will do justice
to both, as well as to the manufacturers and the public, by
giving insertion in your journal to these very necessary cor-
rections. R. Romaine, and T. E. Turner,

(for the Trustees of the Beverley

Beverley, Nov. \Zili, 1857. Iron Works).

ALUM IN BREAD.

Sir, — More alarm may perhaps have been excited upon
this subject than it requires ; for when used with sound
flour, merely to whiten the bread, and in quantitj^ not ex-
ceeding 1 oz, to the bushel of flour, it would not be likely
much to affect a healthy stomach. But even then it is an
illegal and dishonest practice, and might hurt weak diges-
tions; and when used in arger quantit}-, with unsound flour
to give it the appearance of sound, the unsoundness of the
flour and the increased quantity of alum are likely to be
very injurious in daily use, particularly to the aged and in-
firm poor who have little or no other strengthening diet.
And this is probably the way in which most of it is'used.

The precise detection of the alum is a nice point.

But there has just been suggested a simple method of dis-
covering it, not only easy but rather amusing. Many house-
keepers are aware that logwood strikes a purple dye with
alum, but not so evidently without ; so, if we put a slice of
bread into a solution of logwood, and let it soak three or
four hours, and then take it out, if it contains alum it will
have taken the purple dye, but not otherwise. Making

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

79

therefore a logwood solution, by boiling a few chips of log-
wood in a good pint of soft water in a pipkin or skillet (not
iron), till the liquid becomes a deep orange colour that one
can just see through, straining it off, letting it cool in a
basin, then putting in a slice of bread without crust, be-
tween a quarter and half an inch thick, letting it digest two
ov three hoiu-s, and then taking out the bread and breaking
it ; if it contains alum it will be dj'cd purple, more or less
through (not merely on the surface), except the bread is
very sour, which will prevent the dye from changing co-
lour : or, on the other hand, when the baker or miller has
put in too much soda to correct the sourness, in which case

it will turn purple (liquor and all) without alum, so that it
is not quite certain ; though if bread which is not sour takes
no purple dye, it may generally be regarded as free from
alum, and when it does take the purple it is likely to be
alumy or otherwise unsound, and if needful should be sub-
mitted to chemical examination.

J. Prideaux,
P.S. I am obliged to your correspondent for the complete
information respecting " till-seed." It is odd enough 'that
the English translator should have gone to India for a name
so well-known as Sesamum or Sesame, at least from the
first translation of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments."

ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY WINTER EXHIBITION OF FARM PRODUCE.

Those who have had aa opportunity of visiting the
Christmas shows of the Smithficld (London) Farmers'
Club, for the last few years, have been delighted and in-
structed with the extraordinary specimens of mangel-
wurzel and other crops from Ireland. Without drawing
any invidious distinction between English and Irish
farming, it must be confessed that so far the Emerald
Isle has yielded larger roots than has been produced on
liritish soil. Whence arises this superiority ? There
is much in the climate of Ireland ; but we believe that
the chief cause lies in the stimulus given to Irish agri-
culturists by intei'course with those English and Scotch
farmers who have made Ireland the land of their choice.
If this supposition be correct, — and it is the opinion of
many Englishmen of our acquaintance, — what an apt
illustration the circumstance aifords of the importance
of having our own experience whetted occasionally by in-
tercourse with others — by an occasional run by " rail
and road," to see a cattle show, or the farm of some
eminent agriculturist.

With these introductory observations, we proceed to
give a brief notice of the exhibition of farm produce
opened on Limton Lawn last Thursday, under the aus-
pices of the Royal Dublin Society. The show is de-
cidedly the most successful which we have seen, either
in Dublin or anywhere else, 'both as to the number of
entries and the excellence of the specimens. Passing by
the cereals and ligumincus crops, which were very cre-
ditable, but which present few features worthy of notice,
we come to the plants cultivated for their roots and
tubers. Judge Radcliffe (per his steward, Mr. Lincham),
and Mr. Vernon, of Clontarff Castle (steward, Mr.
Bowers), are at ones the most extensive and successful
exhibiters in this department. The forms had 109
entries, all admirable specimens. Some of the mangels
are on average half a stone heavier than, any yet pro-
duced. In the long red, red globe, and yellow globe
varieties, Mr. Vernon got first prize. We apprehend
Mr. Lencham'a were weightier specimens, but Mr.
Bower's were cleaner and better grown. These gentle-
men exhibited sugar beet nearly as large as the largest
of the mangels ; and if the specimens of Robert Rabi
can at all be considered a fair exponent of what that
root is capable of producing, the farmer may safely calcu-
late on having another valuable crop for feeding cattle.
We have experimented largely on this root, and our
opinion of it is certainly very favourable. It is a hardy
and nutritious crop. At first the yield was so inferior
that many abandoned it immediately ; but they seem to
overlook that on its first introduction the yield of the I
turnip was equally small.

We may be excused for undertaking to correct an
opinion which, from judging by the monster root at this
show, many persons, especially landlords, form as to
the capabilities of the soil. One often hears the question,
" Why can't my stewards and my tenants grow as large
roots as these ? My steward raises only 25 or 30 tons
an acre, and here I find as much as 60 or 80 tons. Had
my land been skilfully farmed, my rental would be
double what it is!" These are questions of vital in-
terest to the agricultural community. And with all de-
ference to the exhibiters we have named, we must express
the 0])inion that the specimens exhibited on this occa-
sion have not been produced by legitimate means. We
don't mean to detract from the merit of these exhibiters ;
they have all the same means of forcing, and the same
command of manure and labour ; but the weak point in
the whole system is, that only a few roots are taken as
the standard of superior skill and well-directed industry.
Mr. Lencham is, beyond all doubt, a most successful
farmer, and so is Mr. Bowers ; but give either of them
an ordinary farm, and no extraordinary means, and will
he produce mangel weighing 2| stones ?

We would next draw attention to the potatoes. As
usual, Dr. Taylor is an extensive and successful exhibiter
of this tuber. " Taylor's seedlings" were justly awarded
a first lime. Several excellent varieties were contri-
buted. We find that great confusion has arisen re-
specting the White-rocks and Downs, which are gene-
rally regarded as the same potato ; they were so regarded
on this occasion. They possess distinct properties.
The White-rock has a pink blossom, with a slight pinkish
tint in the eye ; high in the shoulder, and hence the term
" rocky." The Down has a white blossom, a soft and
downy eye, not so coarse a potato as the Rock, and
occasional specks are seen under the cuticle.

We were glad to see that the agriculturists in con-
nexion with the National Board of Education have
cheerfully come forward for the first time as exhibiters
of farm produce. This is a step in the right direction.
Much has been said against the Board school farms of
late ; and the most judicious course which the agri-
culturists could pursue, is to come fairly before the
agricultural public, who are competent to judge for
themselves, and who can see if the managers of these in-
stitutions are up and stirring. As we cannot here enter
into their merits, we will only observe that the collections
contributed, — but not for competition, a wise idea, as
public bodies and private individuals should not compete,
—are exceedingly creditable in quantity and quality.

80

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

A VISIT TO THE SMITHFIELD CLUB FAT CATTLE SHOW.

Sir, — The season has again come round at which the
agricultural gatherings are directed to the Smithfield
Club Cattle Show in Baker-street ; and a cab being scarce,
and an omnibus generally 7ion est inveiiUis yesterday, on
account of the dense fog, I groped my way thither by
the " marrowbone stage," as they say — the only resource
left to me ; a dangerous alternative for old bones like
mine to be reduced to. I arrived, however, safe and
sound, and was pleased to find that the discomforts of
the weather had not prevented the public from turning
out on the occasion, but that the attendance was as
numerous as ever ; a plain proof that, unlike our neigh-
bours the Parisians, the Londoners take a deep interest
in these exhibitions.

Any Englishman, indeed, who has the real welfare of
his country at heart, and is more fond of the solid in
national glory than of the superficial, may well feel
proud of the magnificent display of animals exhibited
this year. I saw also many foreign gentlemen there, but
did not recognize so many as I could have wished. The
subject of agriculture is viewed in a different light on the
continent from what it is with us. Even in France, where
powerful efforts have been made by the government to
drill the higher class of the landed interest into a liking to
it, the success hitherto has been very partial and weak.
Nor will it be possible to effect any great and important
change in this respect whilst the subdivision of the land
into minute portions continues. This is the great bane
of agriculture, not only because small occupiers, such
as the overwhelming majority of French farmers con-
sists of, have neither the skill, the disposition, nor the
capital to carry out improvements, but because the very
circumstance of the land being in the hands of such a
class of cultivators excites disgust of rural affairs
amongst those classes which in England are the chief
supporters of agricultural institutions. This, however'
is a digression for which I must apologize.

I have termed the display of animals a magnificent
one, and such it certainly is. I think the show of cat-
tle far superior to that of last year, and I'll tell you
why ; simply because the graziers have taken the hints
that have been given them from time to time, and have
attended more to symmetry and compactness of form
in the selection of their cattle, than to that excessive
obesity which has characterized the former exhibition,
and which led a tallow-chandler to remark, in an ex-
cusable pun, "It was much more advantageous to the
lights than to the liver,"

The show of Devons is an admirable one : they are
perhaps smaller this year, generally speaking, than last ;
but in this respect the standing toast of the late Earl of
Leicester, ^^ small in size but great in value," has
been adopted by the graziers. Some of this breed show
a perfection of symmetry never exceeded. Amongst
these I noticed No. 6, which received the first prize in
class 1, and No. 11 in class 2, which I thick was more
entitled to the first prize of ^£'25 than that of £10,
which it received. Mr. Heath has certainly been very
successful this year, and has contributed some excellent
types of other breeds as well as of the Devons.

The heifers and cows of this latter breed were admira-
ble. Nos. 23 and 24 were everything that can be de-
sired in point of symmetry and compactness. The lat-
ter number, which took the first prize, is certainly the
most finished, but I question whether No. 23 would
not equal, if not excel it at the same age. No. 30 also
is a complete animal, and does equal credit to the
breeder and the grazier.

Amongst the Herefords and Shorthorns I noticed
some first-rate animals, but cannot stop to particularize
all of them. I found I had put a mark to several
which had not received the special approbation of the
Judges, amongst which were No. 72, remarkable for the
degree of finish it has attained at the " tender age" of
two years and eleven months ; No. 80, which does not
appear to have even been " commended" ; and No. 173,
an extra shorthorn heifer, which I think is as compact
an animal as any in the show, although not specially
noticed. The other breeds possess less interest vi-ith
me, but there are some very fine cattle amongst them,
particularly the " Sussex breed." Are these a dis-
tinctive race of cattle, or a mixed breed adopted by the
Sussex farmers at some by-gone period? Their his-
tory is worth inquiring into, and if any of your Sussex
correspondents can throw light upon it, their doing so
will confer a favour on the public generally, everything
connected with such a subject being interesting and im-
portant to the agriculturist.

I was surprised to see so few Galloway or Aberdeen
Scots, and should regret to find that that breed is less in
favour than formerly. They have stood the test of time
in my native county, and have always proved the most
profitable of any cattle for either winter or summer
grazing ; whilst no beef is superior to theirs on the
table. With the Irish breed we can very well dispense ;
their long horns and pugnacious tempers rendering
them dangerous to other cattle, either in the pasture-
field or the yard. The Highland Scots are equally ob-
jectionable on the same account, and never ought to be
put with other cattle. Small as they are, they will
drive a shorthorn of giant size, compared with them-
selves, out of any yard.

Upon passing cursorily through the sheep-pens the
first time, it struck me that that department was less
satisfactory than it was last year. A second and closer
inspection convinced me that this is the case 07ily with
the Southdowns, which certainly are neither so nume-
rous nor so generally meritorious as they were last year.
Two or three of the breeders, however, of that race
have maintained their standing ; and amongst them are
Mr. Rigden and Lord Walsingham. I do not think the
Judges have done the latter noble breeder justice in
awarding him only the second prize for No. 267 (Class
37), for I certainly consider them a superior pen of
sheep to No. 2G9, which obtained it ; and I know that
this opinion was shared by others. The Duke of Rich-
mond has some excellent pens of Southdowns, and car-
ried off a full complement of the honours of the Show.
Some of the Hampshire and West Country Downs
are remarkably handsome sheep. Amongst these I
particularly noticed 274, 279, and 280, as possessing
extraordinary merits, although neither of them obtained
a prize, and only one of them (280) was even com-
mended.

Of the long-woolled breeds there are some excellent
specimens. No. 181 is what the French would call
" magnifique," and well deserved the distinction of the
first prize and silver medal. Lord Berners' jmre
Leicester (No. 191) very properly won a " golden
opinion" in addition to the iL^20 prize. Mr. Over-
man's half-bred Eown and Leicesters were an excellent
type of that breed. I regretted not seeing the name of
his relative, Mr. Henry Overman, of Weasenham,
amongst the exhibitors this year.

My remarks on tie " swinish multitude" must be
brief. In one word, they come fully up to the mark of

THE PARMER'S MAGAZINE.

81

last year, and I most agaia express my astonishment at
the enormous weight most of the pigs have attained in
an incredibly short period. One pen of these animals,
only five months and a few days old, were estimated by
two butchers to weigh 12 stone lo7ig loeight, each.
This is making good use of their time with a vengeance.
The pigs-royal were not so successful as last year, but I
can assure the royal breeder and feeder that this was
from no fault in the stock, which is as lovely as ever j
and we are sure his royal highness will feel more plea-
sure in witnessing the perfect impartiality of the Judges
than he would have done in receiving the first prizes.

I noticed one improvement, which appeared to me
somewhat too refined. Several of the pens were fur-
nished with pilloivs for the pigs to lay their snouts on
when they were sleeping. What would the Highland
chief of the last century (mentioned by Walter Scott),
who kicked a snow-ball from under his son's head,
calling him " an effeminate young rascal, not to be able
to sleep without a pillow" — what, I repeat, would the
old chieftain say to pigs being furnished with such
luxuries ?

I must reserve my observations on the machinery,
&c. Yours, &c.,

An old Norfolk Farmer.

London, Dec. 9.

PLATE II.

TWO LABOURERS' COTTAGES,

ON THE ESTATE OF SIR GEORGE N. BROKE,
BART., C.B., AT BROKE HALL, NEAR IPSWICH,
SUFFOLK.

Upon the present Baronet succeeding to the
picturesque property of the Broke family, running
for some distance along the south side of the Or-
well, one of the prettiest rivers in England, he
determined to effect considerable improvements in
the dwellings of the farm servants and other peas-
antry on his estate. In furtherance of this object,
he has erected, on various parts, model cottages,
according to the accompanying view and plan.

These are constructed of red brick, relieved with
black, worked in different patterns. The roofs are
of high pitch, and covered with plain tiles, the best
and most durable covering that has yet been dis-
covered, effectually excluding from the upper
rooms heat in the summer and cold in the win-
ter.

The cottages have an abundant supply of water
from a well sunk at the back of each pair, in
addition to as much soft water as can be caught
from the roofs. They are also thoroughly well
drained.

The two front rooms on the ground-floor are of
wood ; the others have pavements and bricks laid on
a good thick bed of concrete. None of the wood
work is painted, but merely slightly stained and
varnished, by which process the grain of the real
wood is preserved, and the material itself sufficiently
protected.

The height of the lower rooms is eight feet three
inches, and the chambers (of which there are three
to each cottage) six feet nine inches to the spring-
ing of the roof, and ten feet nine inches to the collar,
to which they are ceiled. Every bedroom has a
fireplace and stove.

Each cottage is provided with a good-sized
baking oven, copper, sink, and well fitted up pantry,
besides the requisite outbuildings for wood, coals,
and other conveniences.

The glazing of the windows is done with quarry
lead lights, in iron frames and casements.

The cost of each pair of cottages has averaged
about £300, and the occupiers seem greatly to
appreciate the boon that has been thus conferred
on them.

A good-sized piece of garden ground has been
allotted to each, fenced off with low wood fencing.

The cottages have been erected from the designs
of Messrs. Morgan and Phipson, architects.

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

This month is often very stormy, especially
in northern latitudes, where snows and frosts pre-
vail. In hard weather, carting will form the chief
attention of the farmer — stones to drains and
roads, fuel to the dwelling-houses of the farm, and
of dung from the cattle-yards to the fields, where
it will be wanted for the fallow crops. Lay the
heap in a lane, or in a convenient place in the field ;
make it oblong square in shape, sloping at the
ends to allow the loaded carts to pass upon and
over it; spread each load evenly over the heap of
six feet in height, dress it neatly, and lay earth on
the edges. The heap should have a dry lair and
level.

The ploughing of lands for Lent crops will be
forwarded in fresh weather, and very advan-
tageously during this month, as a time is given
before sowing for effecting a pulverization, and it
does not, by a lengthened exposure of the land,
reduce it into a hard and battened condition. The
ploughing of leys for grain crops, and of stubbles
for fallows, must be vigorously pushed in this
month.

In fresh weather, continue the cutting of copses
and underwood, the cutting and splashing of
hedges, the scouring of ditches and road sides, and
clear water-courses ; cut drains to half the depth
to be finished in summer. Float water-meadows,
and lay dry occasionally. Sow winter and spring
wheats on lands cleaned of turnips, and on fallows
left in autumn.

Collect and prepare artificial manures of every
kind, and keep them under a dry, open shed.

The live stock on the farm of all kinds will
require the most constant and unremitting attention
of the farmer, if he would rear the animals to profit,
and derive advantage from his labours, never for-
getting the great effects of minute care in increasing
the produce of a farm. Supply the cattle in the
yards and horses with fresh straw daily, and give
turnips or other roots early in the morning, that
the animals may eat during daylight, and be seen
when choked or swollen. Turnips are better fresh
drawn from the field daily as wanted ; but the dan-
ger of heavy snows covering the roots from use,
renders necessary a heap at the homestead, con-
taining a few weeks' supply. The yards must be
littered with straw frequently — thinly and evenly.

S2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The milch cows will now begin to drop calves ;
feed with succulent food, with steamed roots and
chafl'. Suckle both veal calves and for weaning ;
disregard the old maxim that animals must be
starved in order to be reared at little cost; when
milk is exposed, the most valuable parts — the
gaseous fluids— go oif by evaporation ; hence the
superiority of suckling over hand-feeding. When
dairy produce is wanting, use a part of the cows for
that purpose, and the other lor rearing calves ;
allow ample food in every case. Have the calf
pens divided into single apartments, about four
feet by eight feet, opening into the cow-shed
from the end or from behind, if the width of the
shed admit.

The sheep flocks must have fresh turnips daily
from the field, rooted, but not topped in the separ-
ate fields where the animals are lodged in different
flocks, as ewes, store flocks, and fattening flocks,
as arranged after autumn. The Iambs of the last
year and the feeding flocks may be confined on the

growing turnips, or be fed on a ley or stubble field.
A two-horse cart load will be sufficient for forty
fattening sheep, and to keep one hundred in store
condition.

Feed farm-horses with cut chaffs of clover and
straw, oats and beans, and give a warm meal of
steamed potatoes in the twilight, after the day's
work is over.

The piggery must not be neglected ; feed largely
and litter amply. Rear the store pigs with roots ;
as potatoes and beet, raw; the fattening hogs with
steamed roots, chopped and mixed with meals,
served regularly thrice a day. No stock repays
attention better than pigs.

Last in common estimation, but not least in
general use, comes the poultry yard. Feed with
light grains and steamed potatoes, mashed and
mixed with meals, in a shed under cover, and have
the lodging-house comfortably fitted up, and
heated, if possible. Separate apartments for each
kind of animals must be provided.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICCJLTURAL REPORT FOR

DECEMBER.
Notwithstandinp; that only moderate supplies of home-
grown wheat have been on sale in the whole of our leading
markets, and that the imports from abroad have not been
to say extensive, the wheat trade has continued in a most
inactive state, and prices have given way to some extent.
In many quarters it has become a question for serious con-
sideration whether we have yet reached the lowest point;
but we are not prepared to agree with some parties that
ruin is staring the agricultural body in the face, because
the causes which have led to the rapid decline in the value
of produce are exceptional, and may eventually be removed.
In the first place we must bear in mind that we have been
passing thi-ough a commercial crisis of a most severe cha-
racter; in the next, that the consumption of the better
kinds of food has, as a consequence, fallen off; in the next,
that the value of money has ruled unusually high ; and,
lastly, that the French Government have allowed the ex-
port of native produce free of duty. Without assuming
that we shall have any great increase in the use of bread
during the next two or three months, we may safely state
that the worst of the commercial panic has passed away,
and that, as stocks of manufactured goods are now becom-
ing small in nearly all the markets of the world, we shall
shortly have a return of that prosperity which, up to a
certain point, was taken as a true index of our commercial
greatness. Money, too, is now becoming more abundant,
and discount accommodation can be obtained on much
lower terms. There are indications of a steady upward
movement in the value of wheat ; but then we may have to
contend with large importations of flour from France, and,
if the supplies fall into comparatively weak hands, con-
tinued sales may be effected to the prejudice of the value
of home-manufactured qualities. The prospect of large
arrivals of this article alone keeps the wheat trade in a
state of depression, because we see no reason whatever to
assume that we shall receive other than limited quantities
from the United States during the whole of the winter,
and because future supplies of foi-eign wheat— especially
from the North of Europe, owing to the closing of the
navigation — will be on a very limited scale during that
period. Again, owin? to an unusually large number of
forced sales, the stocks of foreign wheat in the United
Kingdom are now reduced to a narrow compass; but,
againstthisdeficiency we must place an unusually large crop
of English, the bulk of which is still in the hands of the
growers, and the imposition of a duty ot 20s. for every
twenty-two gallons of spirit imported into France, This

duty will of necessity check the demand for barley in this
country for distilling purposes, and throw the greater por-
tion of the foreign supply into the hands of the third-class
millers, who are now competing with the first-class on
severe terms. But even these adverse influences may be
counteracted by the partial failure of the potato crop,
which for some time past has been partly made good by
extensive arrivals from France and other parts of the Con-
tinent. Supplies from those quarters, however, cannot be
continued at their present rate, or about 1,500 tons weekly,
and we may eventually be thrown more upon our ov\n re-
sources than appears to be generally imagined. For the
reasons here alluded to, we see no reason to apprehend a
further rapid decline in the value of wheat or oiher articles.

For the time of year, the weather has been remarkably
fine and open, and the wheats have, consequent!}-, stood in
need of frost to check premature exuberance. They are
certainl}' looking well; but, unquestionably, they are more
forward than is desirable. Out-door operations generally
are in a satisfactory state in all parts of the country.

We regret to find that the potato pits exhibit unmistaka-
ble signs of extensive disease. The quantity' of putatoes
lost this year by rot is immense; hence, good and fine
samples are now commanding in the metropolitan markets
from lOOs. to 140s. per ton, and the^e high quotations have
produced an enormous importation of potatoes from the con-
tinent. The arrival during the month has exceeded 5 000
tons, chiefly of a third-rate quality, though free fr m
disea-e, and which have sold at from 55s. to 6os. per ton.
There is still a large supply in France and Belgium, but it
is a debatable ground whether future imports will keep up
to their present amount.

Prices of both wheat and flour rule very low in France,
notwithstanding that flour has been shipped to some extent ;
and they continue to exhibit a fair margin of profit on ex-
ports to this country. In nearly all the other markets of
the world, the result of abundant supplies of produce, the
quotations are comparatively easy.

The various cattle markets have been well supplied with
beasts in first-rate condition for Christmas cousumption.
The trade, considering the extent of the supplies, has been
tolerably healthy, and prices have ruled moderately high.
Other kinds of stock, except pisrs, have sold at very full
quotations. As regards the rather low value of pins, we
may observe that their supplies have wonderfully increased
in this country in the course of the year, and that, conse-
quently, the demand for them has been more readily met.

The wool trade has continued in a state of great depres-
sion. Prices of all kinds of wool have fallen to a eerious

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

83

extent, arisins; from the commercial panic, and up to the
present time there are no buyers unless at further depressed
currencies. The American dealers have returned to this
country nearly 9,000 bales, originally shipped, but which
are now being forced for sale here.

For hops there has been onl}' a moderate demand. The
supply in the hands of the growers and factors continues
large, and prices have consequently ruled very easy.
About 900 bales have come in from Hamburg ; but, owing
tothe high duty, they have not entered into competition
with native-grown qualities.

In Ireland and Scotland the transactions in wheat and
other kinds of'grain have been on a very moderate scale,
and prices have had a drooping tendency. Tiie shipments
tj England have been on a very moderate scale.

ilEVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH.

Notwithstanding that the total number of beasts exhibited
in the Great Metropolitan Market for Christmas consump-
tion has fallen short of the corresponding month in 1856,
the supply, taken as a whole, has seldom or never beeu
eriualled in weight, quality, or symmetry. Taking advan-
tage of past experience, the breeders and graziers have per-
severed until they have succeeded in effecting an important
and most gratifying change in the symmetry of the various
breeds; consequently, they have at length blended fat and
lean together, and altogether repudiated the production of
nion^rosities, which, in a general way, leave very little pro-
fit either to sellers or buyers. Such a system as the present,
if persevered in, must work immense advantages to all
parties, and better regulate the judgmeut of those con-
nected with the production of fat stock. All who visited
the ShoA-yard in Baker- street, and who paid a visit to the
" great" market, will perfectly understand the object of
these remarks ; they will understand that fat alone is not a
feature which will ever render meat more valuable in the
eyes of the consumer, or adequately repay either the breeder
or the butcher. A point, then, of no ordinary importance
has heen gained, and which may eventually be a source of
considerable profit to the producers.

When we consider the great loeiglil of meat brought for-
ward, and the drawback to the demand inseparable from a
great convu'siou in mercantile affairs, the trade may be called
healthy. The beasts have sold at what may be termed fair, but
nnt extravagantly high rates, and a much larger number
of them have changed hands at market rates than we were
prepared for. Srteep have likewise met a good trade at im-
proved quotations. The Norfolk season for beasts has now
commenced, and that from Lincolnshire is just closing. The
forthcoming supplies from the eastern districts are expected
to come up to their usual average.

The following are the total supplies of stock exhibited in
the Metropolitan market : —

Beasts 19,S30 head.

Cows 37.5 „

Sheep 69,132 „

Calves 1,209 „

Pigs 1,915 „

Comparison of Supplies.

Dec. Beasts. Cows. Sheep. Calves. Pigs.

1856.... 23,995 475 73,200 1,526 2,3S0

1855.... 22,412 590 94,030 1,376 3,184

1854.... 20,298 120 88,880 1,673 2,746

1853.... 23,314 484 88,480 1,143 2,403

Beef has sold at from 33. to 5s. ; mutton, 3s. 2d. to 5s.
6d. ; veal, 35. lOd. to 5s. 6d. ; and pork, 3s. (id. to 5s. 4d.
per 8 lbs., to sink the oflal.

Comparison of Prices.
Dec, 1856. Dec, 1855. Dec, 1854.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 3 10 to 5 0..3 4 to 5 4.. 3 4 to 5 4

Mutton ..4 0—5 6.. 3 4—5 0..3 6 — 5 4

Veal.... 3 8—5 6. .310— 6 0..4 0 — 5 8

Pork.... 3 8—5 4.. 3 6—5 0..3 2 — 4 8

Very limited supplies of foreign stock have arrived in the
port of London, the total import being as follows •.—

Beasts 931 head.

Sheep 5,188 „

Calves 489 „

Total 6,608 head.

In the corresponding month last year, we i-eceived 11,079 ;
in 1855, 19,515 ; in 1854, 18,349 ; in 1853, 21,918 ; and in
1852, 1 1,870 head. It will, therefore, be seen that ourim-
portatious from the continent are still falling off, and that
consumption is almost wholly met by home produce.

The month's supplies from Lincolnshire, Leicestershire,
and Northamptonshire haveamounted to 10,100 shorthorns ;
from Norfolk, 2,200 Scots and shorthorns ; from other
parts of England, 4,500 of various breeds; from Scotland,
1,150 Scots ; and from Ireland, 636 oxen.

Very large supplies of meat have been disposed of in
Newgate and Leadenhall. Beef has sold at from 3s. to 43,
8d., mutton 3s. 2d. to 4s. 8d., veal 3s. 8d. to 5s., and
pork 3s. 6d. to 5s. 4d. per 81bs. by the carcase.

Throughout the continent, fat stock continues very high
in price — too high, indeed, to allow of profitable shipments
to this country.

There has been only a moderate business dcing in cakes
and linseed, and prices have had a drooping tendency, al-
though the imports have been on a very moderate scale.

SOUTH LINCOLNSHIRE.

In the midst of the serious depression under which agricul-
ture is now labouring, it is very encouraging to witness such
a beaulirul season aa this we are now so pleasantly passing
through. We tind ourselves engaged in such unusual farm-
operations aa to lead us to think that the winter has actually
passed away, and the interesting routine of spring-culture in
reality set in. We find m all directions the fallowing and
clearing: of land general; the cultivator, harrow, and roller
every '■■•'here at work, aad the twitch-fires aa numerous and
bright aa at Midsummer. This early prepa-^atiou of the land
for the spring-cropa augura well. Potatoes, should the season
be favourable, may be planted just when the planter pleases ;
and the grain-crops have not beeu forgotten ; many lanls
have be?n under preparation for them. This has caused
abur.daut employment; and yet the labourer has not felt the
reverse of the times, and, aa much uiider-iiraining is in pro-
gress, we trust their services will be iu constant requisition.
Just one word on this point. I have read the report of the
ditcusaion on subsoil drainage at the Farmer's Club. It is
one of the best an^i most prac ically useful they have yet
entertainer!. Had some one touched npou dead-level drainage,
I should have been better pleased. This is the character of
this extensive county, and subsoil-drainage is by no means its
leading department of business, and, in many parts of it, not
practised. I think the occupiers, however, who neglect such
subsoil-drainage, are in f;reat error ; and the result of the late
discussion confirms this idea. For the most part, the whole
district possesses a porous subsoil, and an equally open sur^'ace-
soil. To subsoil-drain this soil is comparatively inexpensive.
The water will drain laterally a long way, and the drains may
be shallow — say 2\ feet, and the material thorns on arable,
and wedge on grass-lands. I have drained considerably on
such soils, and I fearlessly assert that a large proportiou of
South Lincolnshire may be effectually subsoil-drained at a
cost of from ^^Os. to SOs. per acre : who, then, would neglect
subsoil drainage? But to my report. The grass-lands look
like May-psstures, and the stock doing well. Turnips and
coleseed hold out fairlj', but do not possess any fattening
quality, and the sheep progress very slowly. We have
abundance of keeping at present. What a retrograde state
we are all in ! wheat thirty per cent, lower than the highest
point since harvest, and other grain nearly as bad I Wool is
thirty-five per cent, below its highest point. Store stock of
all kinds have gone down in similar proportion. Fat stock
still bears a good price, but looks downwards ; notwithstand-
ing, we are strongly inclined to ' elieve we have seen the
worst. The potato-crop is wofuUy bad, so no great amount
cf food can be derived from it. Bread must be the great
support, and, as farmers have almost ceased thrashing for the
prese nt, the supplies must run short. Fat stock are scarce

8i

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

except porkets. Upon the whole, we do not despond ; but as
things become a little more settled, we look for a reasonable
advance in all farm-produce, and trust that the new-year will
ba one of the most satisfactory we have known, for this
reason — the abundant yield can be afforded at a moderate
price; so that the consumer and producer are alike benefited.

WEST GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
The continuance of mild weather since the last report
affords but little for comnrient upon that subject. There
has been an increased quantity of rain during the last ten
days, but every operation is in such a state of forwardness
that no interruption or inconvenience is experienced. The
wheat is looking beautiful, perchance too luxuriant ; and
a check to its vegetating progress will come opportunely,
providing it does not occur when the spring is
far advanced. Frost would now prove seasonable
and acceptable to the land and the stock ; for
although there are not at present complaints worth
notice, the health of animals would be promoted by a
more bracing atmosphere. The veidant state of the pas-
tures offers temptations to keeping cattle in the fields, yet
the homesteads are far more suitable to their healthy con-
dition. The cold state of the grass at this season of the
year, saturated with wet, is not conducive to condition —a
most important consideration. Tliis is one of the weakest
points in the management of many of the dairy farms in
this district. It is too much the custom to keep the stock
upon grass as long as tliere is any for them, with a view
to the saving of the hayricks ; if it keeps them alive, little
respect is paid to their future state, and great loss is sus-
tained in the spring, the early production of cheese runs
short, and the middle of summer arrives before the cows
supply that abundance and quality of milk that are essential
to profit. Nor is it the cows of mature age only that suffer
by such treatment; the young stock become emaciated
during the winter, contracting too diseases which are often-
times incurable. It is very gratifying to observe that the
potatoes have not gone off in the store-pits to anything like
the extent complained of in many parts of the kingdom ;
this, it may be mentioned, is notan extensive potat ) growing
county — there are few cultivated beyond the requirements
of the grower. As yet, no preventive that can be depended
upon has been discovered as an antidote to the disease;
but the best results appear to be attendant upon the follow-
ing practice : To work the ground intended to be planted
with potatoes in the autumn, or at the latest in October or
November, and at the same time apply the manure. Prepare
a comport of lime and soil, or lime and vegetable refuse ;
when the proper season arrives for planting the potatoes,
furrows are opened to receive them, and a moderate portion
of the compost scattered in the furrows, which are after-
wards filled up with the ordinary soil. This method appears
to be more successful than using fresh lime. Farm-yard
manure placed in the furrows where the potatoes are
planted, or artificial manures of any kind, are exceedingly
prejudicial. The very early planting of potatoes has been
adopted by way of experiment as a preventive of the disease
with questionable success ; it produces a precocious faculty,
which interferes with the important property of keeping.
Potatoes planted in February or March will evidently arrive
at maturity earlier than those which are planted in April or
May. They will consequently send forth their shoots the
following spring, at a time conformable with their maturity ;
and at this period there are many of the early-planted pota-
toes of last year which have sent forth shoots several inches
in length. Continuing to plant them early year after year
evidently creates constitutional precocity. The apples ap-
pear this year to have caught an infection similar to the
potato disease; great complaints are made of their rotting
extensively and rapidly in the heaps, be'ore they were made
into cyder. This will most probably have an injurious effect
upon the beverage ; indeed, there is a good deal of it that
already tastes tainted. Every succeeding year produces
improvements in the exhibitions of fat stock, whether it be
at the emporium of hardware, the great metropolis, or in
the provincials— so say the reports, and there is no cause to
impugn the veracity of them. The splendid shows of Christ-
mas fare fully confirm the high encomiums which have been
awarded to the living exhibitions. Adopting the old saw

"that the proof of the pudding is in the eating," we will
leave those to award the final judgment who are more deeply
skilled in gastronomic excellences afterthe culinary art has
been displayed; and hoping that all our friends have en-
joyed their Christmas dinners with the fullest measure of
epicurean satisfaction, that they will award to the farmer
the just meed of praise for his toils, his troubles, and his
anxieties. This, upon the whole, has been a prosperous
term, for which the agriculturists ought to be truly grateful ;
and in wishing them a happy new year, we will express a
fervent hope that it will be as propitious, or more so,
than the past.

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE,
FAIRS. &c.
BANBURY FAIR.— It was not quite so full as we have
seen. However, the quality of the cattle on sale was of the
first character. Mr. Brickwell, of Overthorpe, exhibited a
splendid ox, which was very generally admired. There was a
moderate demand, the average price obtained being about 4s.
4d., although prime beef sold as high as Ss. per Slbs.
Mr. Calesa sold by auction, in the fair, four prime Hereford
oxen, and one three-year-old heifer, from his own stock, at an
average of 35Z. each. The supply of mutton, though not great,
was equal to the demand, and sold from 4s. 4d. to 48. 8d. per
Slbs. Fat hogs sold from Ss. 9d. to 9a. 3d. per score. There
were but few good horses on sale.

BEDALE FORTNIGHT FAIR.— "We had a good show of
stock, which sold at reduced rates, and a portion unsold.
Mutton sheep were well sold. Lean stock and in-calving cows
were inquired for, but could not reach the figures thsy had
been accustomed to do, having gone down from 10 to 12 per
cent. Beef, 63. to 79. per atone ; mutton, S^d. to djd. per lb.
LEDBURY FAIR— Was very scantily supplied with all
kinds of stock, excepting store pig?, of which there was a good
supply. Sales ruled rather dull. Pigs did not realize so much
money as at former fairs. Fat cows might be quoted from
6^ ). to 7d. per lb. ; sheep, 6id. per lb.

PENRITH FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.-There was a
very heavy supply of fat. Prices were down. Sheep fell as
much as 43. or 5s. a-head, and cattle, of which there was a
rwoderate show, were down 2s. or Ss. per stone.

PRESTEIGN FAIR was well supplied with stock of all
descriptions. Prime fat cows realized 6d. to 6^d. Lean stock
was a drug in the market. Fat pigs may be quoted at 43, 9d.
to 5s. per 121b3. Small and store pigs about half the price
they were twelve mouths ago. There was a good supply of
fat sheep, but prices had a downward tendency.

SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR.— There was a numerous attend-
ance of dealers, with a good supply of stock, both store and
fat. Stores fetched low prices, and trade very dull. A number
of Irish cattle exhibited for sale were driven away unsold.
Beef realized from 6-jd. to 7d , and mutton averaged the same
price. A pretty brisk trade was doue amongst fat stock. On
the whole the fair was well attended, and a good deal of
business transacted.

SHREWSBURY FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.— The
show of stock was more than usually thin, with the exceptioa
of pigs, which were penned in large numbers. Beef ranged,
according to quality, from 5^6. to 6^d. per lb. Fat calves, in
some instances, made 6^d. per lb. Cows and calves, of which
there were but few, sold readily. Lean stock met with little
demand. Mutton realized from 6|d. to 7id.per lb., according
to quality. Fat pigs fetched about 5d. per lb.; stores were
nearly unsaleable, and much lower in price.

STRATFORD-ON-AVON FAIR.— There was a very good
show of fat stock, and a large attendance of buyers ; but owing
to the high prices asked for beef, trade was very flat, and iilti-
mately lower prices were submitted to, and this caused a
clearance of all the beef, which was of first-rate quality. Of
store cattle there were but few ; of sheep about 800 penned,
and these were chiefly sold. We may quote beef and mutton,
best qualities, as not exceeding 7d. per lb.

YOKK FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.— The supply of all
descriptions of horned cattle and sheep was very limited, and
the demand equally so ; hence the slow sale for both beef and
mutton, the former at from 6s. 6d. to 73. 6d. per 141bs., and
the latter at 6d. to 6|d. per lb. The sale for calving and
dairy cows, grazing beasts, and sheep has been exceedingly
dull, et prices below former rates.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

85

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

The closing month of the year which has now
passd away was remarkable in many respects. The
season itself was more like a mild autumn than
winter; the grass having continued its growth, as
well as esculents, and the wheat plant having at-
tained a vigour quite unusual. Of the earlier pieces,
some have become rather winter-proud ; and the
almost entire absence of frost has encouraged the
growth of vermin in some localities : but the wea-
ther not only being mild, but dry, the young wheat,
as a whole, perhaps, never gave a better promise,
while ploughing and all kinds of field work have
been prosecuted with scarcely any interruption.
Human labour has therefore done its best, and the
future must be dependent on the Great Ruler of
the times and seasons ; but the present prospect is
full of hope and encouragement.

The last Monday in November, being the 30th
of the month, could not be included in the market
statements ; but it proved the only cheerful one
that could be recorded, as the wheat trade then
closed with an advance of 2s. per qr., reducing
the month's decline to 2s., instead of 4s., as re-
spected the London markets ; but all, and more
than all, the improvment was lost on the opening of
December, prices then declining 3s. per qr., from
which there has been no rally, though no further
dechne has since taken place. Before the last
crop was gathered, stocks were running short; and
the averages on the 20th July rose to 63s. lOd.,
the highest point attained through the year. After
the gathering of harvest, when the yield both in
this country and abroad was known to be abund-
ant, they gradually declined to 53s. lid. by the 9th
of November; and the fall since then to 49s. 3d.
on the last Monday in the year, which is 4s. 8d.
per qr,, may fairly be attributable to the permitted
importation from France, coupled with the almost
unexampled crisis in monetaiy affairs. As the
year opened at 59s. 8d., the decline from its com-
mencement to its close is 10s. 5d. per qr. ; the low-
est point reached being on the 14th of December,
viz., 48s. 3d. As to the future, though unlooked-
for events have hitherto frustrated all calculations,
we cannot but expect a more cheerful state of
things when the holidays are passed, and the new
year has fairly opened. France, which was so
dreaded, can no longer send in shipments either of
flour or wheat without a serious loss ; and farmers
there, with liberty to export, seem no longer in-
clined to force off their produce. The Baltic may
fairly be expected shortly to close by frost, as well
as North America ; and though heavy arrivals of
foreign wheat have been pouring in from the East,
sales involve great sacrifices, and prices of Ghirka
wheat at Odessa and Berdianski are actually higher
than on the London market, while the financial
state of the country is rapidly improving ; and the
serious failure in the potato crop, not felt at present
because of the anxiety of growers to quit their
stores, and the present liberal foreign imports,

must, as spring advances, greatly increase the con-
sumption of wheat, the stocks of which, all over
the world, were at the lowest ebb before the new
gatherings. The following prices show the state of
foreign markets : The best winter red wheat at New
York was quoted 41s. to 43s. 6d. per qr. free on
board, white to 51s. per qr. Odessa quoted 38s.
to 47s. per qr. for Ghirka wheat ; sales of the best
being made, freight included, in London, at 46s.
At Berdianski, prices of soft wheat ranged from
49s. 6d. to 51s. At Taganrog, which is stopped
by frost, the quotations were to 37s. 8d. per qr. At
Galatz, trade had become so prostrate that prices
of wheat had fallen to 25s. for 59s. to 6llbs. per
bushel quality. Freights were quoted lis. per qr.
Nothing can be expected thence till spring, when
the relative lowness of prices may attract orders,
and send them up. Shipments have been making
from Danzic and Harabro' with all haste, in antici-
pation of the set-in of frost. Stocks in store were
short ; and as supplies arrived, they were placed
from the craft on board ship, to save granary ex-
penses. The best high-mixed at the former port
was quoted to about 46s. per qr. ; prices at the
latter were to 44s. 6d. per qr. Stettin quotations
were were about 41s. 6d. per qr The mean price of
wheat in Belgium was 44s. 4d., fine red at Louvain
being held at 45s. per qr. Dutch prices still ranged
high, though markets were continually receding,
Polish wheat at Amsterdam being still quoted 53s.
4d. The influence of French imports has been
most considerable in Spain, where prices have again
receded to a moderate scale, though it is expected
that the country has not grown enough for its own
consumption, notwithstanding some local abund-
ance. At Valladolid wheat was quoted 45s
per qr. ; flour at Santander, for first quality Span-
ish having only brought about equal to 44s. 6d.
per English sack. At Paris Wheat was quoted to
about 43s. per qr., and Flour there to 32s. 6d. per
English sack ; but the expenses of transit, with
duty on both sides and commission, stop consign-
ments on the northern sea-board ; where facilities
exist to make shipments, the rates leave a loss.
Nantes quotes 43s. for wheat, worth only 44s. in
London ; and wheat in Algiers was of the same
value.

The first Monday commenced on the back of
moderate supplies of wheat, with but a scanty show
for the morning from Kent and Essex ; but the
weather having been very damp, the samples
were much deteriorated in condition, and at the
Essex stands fair runs were offered at a reduction
of 3s. per qr., with but slow progress. The foreign
trade was not equally affected ; but to sell, rather
less money had to be taken. In the country
generally prices were not so shaken ; but Bristol,
Norwich, Spalding, and Newmarket were 2s. to 3s.
per qr. lower, the general reduction being seldom
more than Is. per qr., and Portsmouth was firm.
Liverpool on the first market yielded 3d. per 70 lbs,.

S6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

but did not further give way on Friday. London as
the week advanced was further depressed, and on
Friday appeared to reach the lowest point, the trade
seeming quite unnerved, without any accumulation
of supplies ; but the monetary crisis was, perhaps,
the cause of the then depression.

On the second Monday the low tone of the pre-
vious market had passed away, though the sup-
plies were rather better, and the rates of the pre-
vious Monday were recovered for all really fine dry
parcels, which were scarce, but those out of con-
dition were about 2s. per qr. reduced. In foreign
there was rather more doing, but somewhat lower
prices were taken. The country trade again showed
a better feeling than the metropolis : Birmingham,
Hull, and Newark were Is. higher, and Spalding
was nearly 2s. improved; and the markets held on
Saturday were mostly rather dearer ; but Ports-
mouth, which had been an exception to most other
places on the previous v/eek, fell back to the com-
mon level. Liverpool advanced 3d. per 70 lbs. on
Tuesday; and on Friday a further rise of id. to 2d.
per 70 lbs. on fine quality took place.

The third Monday, vvilh small supplies from the
near counties, was a quiet day, in anticipation of
Chiistmas, good-conditioned parcels being cleared
at former rates, though those out of order were
placed with difficulty. Foreign was firm. Christ-
mas occurring on Friday, all the country towns
partook of a holiday character; but at the markets
held, there was scarcely any alteration in prices.

The last Monday was a repeat of its predecessor,
there being but a slow steady trade, without any
quotable variation either in English or foreign
prices, none being anxious to increase stocks at
the year's close.

The supplies of wheat for the four weeks of De-
cember were as follows: 17,269 qrs. English,
and 59,068 qrs. foreign, the weekly average being
19,084 qrs., which is about 4,000 qrs. below No-
vember. The exports have been trifling, viz.,
200 qrs. wheat, 100 brls. 125 sacks of flour; but
the imports into the principal ports of Great Bri-
tain in the four weeks were liberal, viz,, 429,562
qrs.; the arrivals of November into the United
Kingdom were 456,804 qrs. wheat, and 267,159
cwts. flour.

The flour trade, as respects country sorts and
foreign, has been in sympathy with wheat, the
first Monday receding Is. per sack, without any
further reduction subsequently ; Norfolks com-
mencing at 34s., and closing at 33s. per sack ; but
town samples for first quality have continued
unaltered at 47s. per sack. Foreign yielded on the
second Monday, on a large supply from America, to
the extent of Is. per brl., the general quality of good
western being about 28s. per brl., extra to 30s. per
brl. French sold well on the first oflfers ; but lately
having left a loss, agents have not been able to
sell free on board, and unless markets recede fur-
ther in the northern ports, the trade must fall
oflf. The imports into London during four weeks,
in Enghsh sorts| from the country, have been
73,578 sks. 31,409 brls. American, and 9,425 sks.
principally from France, which has proved little
more than half a week's supply from the countr}'.
The weekly arrivals have, however, exceeded those

of November by 2,813 sks. and 5,203 brls., and the
comparative firmness of prices seems rather indica-
tive of an advance.

Tile barley trade all through the month has
been very heavy, the comparative absence
of demand for fine malting qualities exciting
some surprise, but the slow sale of malt at
somewhat reduced rates sufficiently accounts for
the neglect, the pressure of the times having
lessened the consumption of malt liquor; while the
liberty given in France to use grain for distillation,
as well as the duty imposed on foreign spirits, has
made the inquiry for the medium descriptions very
limited. The first Monday had the best supplies,
and the market then gave way for all sorts Is. to
2s. per qr. ; the second Monday showed a still
duller state of trade for secondary qualities, which
sold more in buyers' favour. Towards the month's
close, however, there was a rather better demand,
with a tendency to improve. The arrivals into
London for the four weeks were 17,880 qrs. En-
glish, and 59,859 qrs. foreign, which gives an
increase over the previous month of about 8,000
qrs. weekly.

Malt has been dull all through December, with-
out much change of value ; but Is. per qr. less
Vv'as quoted on the second Monday.

The oat trade, with a falling oflT in the supplies
to less than one-half of those in November, has not
recovered from the effects of previous gluts, dealers
then having liberally stocked themselves, and that
Vv-ithout advantage, having felt no inducement at
the end of the year to make fresh purchases, though
they have had the opportunity to do so on still
more moderate terms. "Ihe first Monday having a
good supply, prices receded 6d. per qr., and though
ever since then they have been exceedingly small,
there has been no improvement in value; with,
however, the certainty of the cessation of Russian
supplies, of which the gluts have alone consisted,
a deficient crop here, and a not over-abundant one
abroad, and less grown in Ireland, we cannot help
arriving at the conclusion that as the granaries
here get relieved, markets will be rather dearer.
The four last weeks show the following arrivals,
viz : of English 1,648 qrs., of Scotch 4,365 qrs.,
of Irish 3,920 qrs., and of foreign only 74,020 qrs. ;
making the total weekly supply only 20,987 qrs.,
against 47,790 qrs. in November.

Beans have declined in the course of the month
more seriously than other corn, the English sup-
plies only being moderate ; but the foreign were
good, and as many are expected from Egypt there
does not appear much prospect of a speedy im-
provement. Almost every market-day has noted
some decline. The first Monday was lower Is.,
the second Is. to 2s., the third rather cheaper, and
the last again Is. per qr. down, leaving the top
price of Mazagan about 34s., and fine small 40s.
per qr. The imports for the month into London
were 2,521 qrs. English, and 11,610 qrs. foreign,
which being more than double that of the previous
month partly accounts for the fall.

Peas have been heavy to sell, and about Is.
cheaper, the change taking place on the first Mon-
day. The comparative scarcity of maples and
duns keeps up prices relatively high, but boilers

THE FARMER'S IMAGAZINE.

87

being freely imported remain only on a par with
hog-feed, the mildness of the season making the
demand unusually small. Should a sharp frost
come on, we may see these latter rally, as stocks are
not heavy.

Linseed, though cheaper, has not declined at the
rate noted in November. The first Monday having
an unusual supply gave way Is. to 2s. per qr., but
arrivals since not exceeding an average, the prices
have not further receded, though business finished
slack. Foreign cakes were less in request, but the
limited stock of English, and the preference given
to this quality, have served to keep up their value.
With the exception of canaryseed, which has given
way about 5s. in the month, there has scarcely been
any change in the value of seeds. Cloverseed has
begun to arrive from America, Germany, and other
parts, in moderate quantities, and some English
samples have appeared ; but though so near the
season, buyers have kept entirely on the reserve,
money being too scarce for speculative purposes,
and the houses in France generally coming best off
by realizing prices on their first sales, which have
not paid here. English dealers this season appear
to prefer a change. Prices in Paris now appear to
have reached their lowest ; and if business be de-
ferred till the demand ensues, there may be a
healthy and profitable trade. Mustardseed has
continued at nominal rates. Rapeseed, hempseed,
carravvay, and coriander, have only been placed in
retail at old prices.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE,

Shillings per Quarter

Wheat, Essex and Kent, white ,, new4oto54

Ditto, red ,, „ 43 60

Norfolk, Lino, and Yorks., red > „ 43 50

Baeley, malting 34to36.... Chevalier, new 37 40

DistilUng 32 34.... Grinding 25 29

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk 60 66 extra — —

Kingston, Ware, and town made.. ,, 60 66 ,, — —

Brown 55 56 — —

Rye ■- — SO 34

Oats, English, feed 20 23 Potato 25 31

Scotch, feed 20 24 Potato 25 3i

Irish, feed, white 20 21 fine 22 29

Ditto, black 19 20 ,, — 23

Beans, Mazagan 33 34 Ticks ...... 33 34

Harrow 34 35 Pigeon 38 40

Peas, white boilers .. 40 44.. Maple .. 41 43.. Grey 39 40

Flour, persackof2801b3., Town, Households. .41s., fine 42 47

Country 34 35 Households.. 38 39

Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship 32 33

FOREIGN GRAIN.

Shilling's per

— high do. — — extra
52 „ — —

— fine.... 50 —
52 red,,.. 46 50

Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. .52

Konigsberg 47

Rostock .....48

American, white ... .50

Pomera., Meckbg.,& Uckermrk, red 46 50

Silesian,red 45 50 white.....

Danish and Holstein

Russian, hard 44 50 French....

St. Petersburg and Riga „

Rhine and Belgium

Barley, grinding 24 28 Distilling...

Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands.. 21 28 Feed

Danish and Swedish, feed . ..20 24 Stralsund...

Russian

Beans , Friesland and Holstein

Konigsberg 31 37 Egyptian...

Peas, feeding 37 40 fine boilers.

Indian Corn, white 34 35 yellow

Floub , per sack French 42 — Spanish . . .

Quarter
— 56

60 52
42 47
. (none)
42 48
— 49
34
25

32
20
22 24
20 22

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

Foe the last Six

Wheat.

Barley.

Oats.

Rye.

Beans.

Peas,

Weeks :

s. d.

8. d.

8. d.

8. d.

8. d.

s. d.

Nov. 14, 1857 ....

51 8

41 3

25 3

34 7

44 9

43 a

Nov. 21, 1857 ....

51 3

39 10

24 1

36 2

43 9

43 3

Nov. 28, 18.57 ....

49 8

37 7

23 10

33 10

42 8

40 10

Dec. 5, 1857 ....

48 3

35 9

23 0

32 9

41 2

40 0

Dec. 12, 1857 ....

49 5

36 5

23 3

34 1

41 1

41 2

Dec. 19, 18.57 ....

49 3

37 0

22 8

35 7

40 3

40 5

Aggregate average

49 11

38 0

23 8

31 4

42 4

41 7

Sametimelastyear 61 10

44 8

25 1

40 10 44 11

42 8

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES-] 857-56.

From last Friday's (?as. s. d.

Wheat 101,379qrs.,49 3

Barley 96,863 .. 37 0

Oats 9,334 .. 22 8

Rye 97 .. 35 7

Beans 4,'i97 .. 40 3

From Gazette o{ 1856. s. d.

Wheat 108,645 qrs., 60 5

Barley, 105,088 .. 43 10

Oats 12,749 .. 23 7

Rye 336 .. 40 2

Beans 6,710 .. 42 8

Peas I,7y5 .. 40 5 Peas 3,617 .. 40 9

FLUCTUATIONS in the AVEKAGE PRICE ofWHE AT.

Dec. 5. Dec. 12.!Dec. 19.

Pbiob.

Nov. 14.

51s. 8d.

""":~i

51s. 3d.

493. 8d.

at

49s. 5d.

493. 3d.

o.

48s. 3d.

..

Nov. 21,

Nov. 28.

.. I

— ■"— T

o.

°.\ «-

MONTHLY RETURN.

An Account shewing the Quantities of Corn
Grain, Meal, and Flour, imported into the
United Kingdom, and admitted to Home Con-
sumption, IN THE month of NOVEMBER, 1857.

Species of Corn, Grain
Meal, and Plour.

Wheat ,...,r

Barley

Oats ■

Rye

Peas >.

Beans ■

Maize or Indian Corn

Buck Wheat ,

Beer or Bi^g

Total of Corn and Grain

Wheat Meal and Flour

Barley IVleal

Oat Meal

Rye Meal

Pea Meal

Indian Meal

Buckwheat Meal

Total of Meal and Plour .

Imported . ^'"P°'?^^

rr.,m foreign ^^^"^^""^'^

n J ■ Possessions

Countries. , i-r^

out of Europe

qrs. bush.

431065 1

1 0597 1

197294 4

218*2 2

lS6rt5 6

363S8 2

152770 3

10 2 I

qrs. bush,
25739 3

1145 0

0 4

26S86 3

cwts. qr.lb. cwts.
2-26366 3 1», 40792

qr.lb.
3 1.

1 8j

0 0

1 o!

40 1 1
14 2 10

1 24

1 ]2

i25l3i 1 S\ 40810 2 19

Total.

qrs. bush.

4568'i4 4

100o97 1

lS72y6 0

2iii8i 2

14830 6

3' 3' 8 2

16.:770 2

10 6

i:8!i559 7

cwts. qr.lb.
267159 3 1

57 2 S5
14 3 22

267^45 0 0

Ainerican,per barrel, sour., ..21 24 sweet.

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.

Tares, new, per bushel..., 5s. Od. to 5s. 9d.

Mustardseed, per bush.,newl78. to — s., brown 13s. to I5s.

Coriander, per cwt 20s. to 30s,

Canary, perqr 80s. to >i 4s.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s.tc —s... crushing 60s. to 61s.

Linseed Cakes, per ton £10 Os. to £ 1 1 Os.

Rapeseed, per qr. 68s. to 70s.

Rape Cake, per ton..... £5 Os. to .£5 10s.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &c.

Tabes, per bushel Os. Od. to Os. Od.

Hempseed, small, per qr — s. to 44s.. .Do. Dutch 46s.

Coriander, per cwt.. , 15s. to 25s.

Carraway ,, 44s. to 46s.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 583. to 59s Bombay 67s. to 58s.

Linseed Cake, per ton £9 I0s.to£l0 10s.

Rapeseed, Dutch 76s. to 80s.

Rape Cake, per ton ,.,.£5 O8.to£5 IDs,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

POTATO MARKETS.
BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.
LONDON, Monday, Dec. 28. — Very moderate supplies of
home-grown Potatoes have come to hand since Monday ; but
the imports from abroad have been liberal, viz., 420 tons from
Antwerp, 5 torss from Boulogne, 80 tons from Havre, SOO tons
from Dunkirk, 517 tons from Roueu, 145 tons from Dieppe,
85 tons from Nieuport, 122 tons from Ostend, 4 tons from
Hamburgh, and 5 tons from Rotterdam. The demand for all
kinds is still very inactive, as follows : —

York Regents HOs. to 160s. per ton.

Kent & Essex do 120s. to 140s. „

Scotch 80g.tol203. „

Do. Cups 75s. to 853. „

Middlings SOs. to GOs. „

Lincolns SOs. to 120s. „

Foreign 553. to 65s. „

SOUTHWARK WATERSIDE, Monday, Dec. 28.—
During the past week the arrivals both coastwise and from
abroad have been limited, but quite equal to the demand.
Trade is very dull, at the following quotations : —

Lincolnshire Regents GOs. to 1208. per ton.

Perth, Forfar, and Fifeshire do. 903. to 110s. „
Ditto ditto reds .. 60s. to TOs. „

French Whites 703. to 80s. „

Irish do 703. to 803. „

Belgian do 60s. to 70s. „

Dutch Reds SOs. to 903. „

COUNTRY POTATO MARKETS.— York, Dec. 19:
Potatoes sell at lid. to Is. per peck, and Ss. to ?n. 4d. per
bush. — Leeds, Dec. 22: A fair supply of Potatoes, which
sold at I4d. to 15d. per 211b3, wholesale, and 15d. to 16d.
retail. — Malton, Dec. 19 -, A poor supply of inferior Potatoes
sold at 12d. per peck. — Thirsk, Dec. 21 ; Potatoes 8d. per
St. — Richmond, Dec. 19 : Potatoes 4s. per bush. — Man-
chester, Dec. 22 : Potatoes lOs. to 15s. per 2521b3.

PRICES OF BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c.

B UTTER, per cwt. ' « . s .

Friesland llfitol24

Kiel 112 126

Dorset , 1)2 124

Carlow 90 104

Waterford 94 100

Cork, 94 106

Limerick 88 98

Slig-o 90 100

FRBSH.per dozen. .ISs.Od. to I6s.0d.

CHEESE, per cwt.: s. u.

Cheshire 66 76

Cheddar 72 82

Double OloTicester 58 64

HAMS:— Old 102 106

York, new 86 92

Westmoreland 90 100

Irish, new 80 90

BACON : Wiltshire, dried 58 62

Irish, ^reen 50 54

ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET.

LONDON, Monday, Dec. 28. — We report a very slow
trade, at declining prices, except for fine qualities.

Dorset fine per cwt, 124a. to 1268.

Ditto, middling 90s. to lOOs.

Fresh perdoz.lbs. lis to I63.

BELFAST, (Thursday last)— Butter : Shipping price, 893.
to 105s. per cwt.; firkins and crocks, 9d. to 10|d. perlb. ;
Bacon, 493. to 533.; Hams, prime 703. to 763., second quality
COs. to 66s. per cwt. ; prime mess Pork, 853. per brl. ;
Pork, 38s. to 45s.; Beef, I20s. to 130s. per tierce; Irish
Lard, in bladders, 723. to 76s. ; kegs or firkins, 643. to 66s
per cwt.

LONDONDERRY, (Thursday last.)— This week, supplies
not 80 large as last ; but the demand being quite djU prices
remained unchanged, and the few sales made were at very ir-
regular rates— firkins, second lOd. to 10|d., third 9d. to 94il.,
fourth 8d., fifth 7id. ; butts, fine Is. O-^-d. to Is. Id., good lid.
to ll|d., middling lOd. to lO^d. per lb.

CHICORY.

LONDON, Saturday. Dec. 26.— Both English and foreign
Chicory continue lo move oft" slowly, but we have no actual
decline to notice in prices. The supplies on offer are tolerably
exiensive.

EKGUSH, per toni; 0 0 to £ 0 0 1 HAMBURG jEU Oto £11 1

HARLINOEN.... 10 10 11 0 BELGIUM 10 15 1110

FLANDERS 0 0 0 0 GUERNSEY .... 10 15 U 0

WOOL MARKETS.
ENGr,ISH WOOL MARKET.
LONDON, Monday, Dec. 28.— Although money has
become easier in the discount market, there is no disposition
shown to purchase aisy kind of English wool. The supply of
late has rather iucreaseJ ; but we do not anticipate any fur-
ther reduction in prices, even though large quantities of colo-
nial wool continue to be returned from the United States.
Per pack of 2401bs.

Fleeces— Southdown Ho£;s ....£17 OtoiElS 0

Do. Half bred Hogs 16 0 dO 0

Do. Kent 15 0 16 0

Do. Southdown Ewes and Wethers 15 0 16 0

Do. Leicester do 15 0 16 0

Sorts-Clothing, picklock 19 0 20 0

Do. Prime and picklock 18 0 0) 0

Do. Choice....... 17 0 00 0

Do. Super IB 0 00 0

Do. Combing— Wether matching .. . 18 0 19 0

Do. Picklock 16 0 17 0

Do. Common 14 0 15 0

Do. HoK matching 19 10 20 0

Do. Picklock matching 18 0 00 0

Do. Superdo. 15 0 00 0

FOREIGN WOOL MAKKET.

Per lb. Duty Free. s. d. s. d,

German, fist and 2nd Elect 3 4 to 4 6

Saxon, jPrima 2 4 8 0

and )Secunda 2 0 2 4

Prussian. (Xertia 18 110

Australian &;V.D. Land— Combg.&Clothg 1 2J 1 8

Do. Lambs 14 2 IJ

Do. Locks and Pieces 0 10 17

Do. Grease 0 8* 0 9

Do. Skin and Slipe 0 8J 1 9

S. Australian &S. River— Combg.&Clothg 18 2 ^

Do. Lambs..... 14 19^

Do. Locks and Pieces 0 7 1 2*

Do. Grease 0 9 0 llj

Do. Skin and Slipe 14 15

Cape — Average Flocks , 1 U 2 0

Do. Combing and Clothing 0 8 1 10^

Do. Lambs 0 11 1 lOj

Do. Locks and Pieces 0 lOj 1 6|

Do. Grease 0 7i 13

MANURES.

PRICES CURRENT OF GUANO, &c.
PERUVIAN GUANO,(perton,for 30 tonB)nominaljel S 0 to .S 0

Do. Do (under 30tons) 14 0 0 0

BOLIVIAN GUANO none 0 0 0 0

ARTIFICIAL MANURES, &c.

Sulph.ofCopper^ jCs.d. £ b. d-

Nitrate Soda 7

(per ton)... J
Nitrate Potash I oo o n

or Saltpetre /
Sulpht. Ammonia 21 0 0
"' ate ditto... 27 0 0

£22 0 Oto£23 0 0

30 0 0

Superphospht. "I
of Lime.... /

Soda Ash, or »
Alkali j

Gyps

6 0 0
0 0

10

Coprolite S 15 0

triol,forWheat M^ 0 0 to 47 0 0

steeping; j

Salt 1 50 SOO

Bones,Dust,perqr. 1 6 0

4-inch

Oil Vitriol,
concentrated,
per lb

Do. Brown....,

1 i 0

0 0 1 0 0 0

0 0 0| 0 0 0

2 10 0

4 0 0
OIL-CAKES.

Marseilles (none) £0 0 Oto £0 0 0

English 10 10 0 11 0 0

Rape-cakes, prton 6 5 0 6 10 0

Linseed-cakes, per ton —

Thin American,} £,„ jj ^ jj j^ g

inbrls.orbaps)
Thick do. round 10 6 0 0 00

JonN Keen, 35, Leadenhall-street,

(Late Odams, Pickford, and Keen.)

Williams & Co., 24, Mark Lane— Azotic £6 10 0

Manufactured by Hod(5:son & Simpson, Wakefield, and
Matthews & Co., Driffield.

Ammonia-Phosphate and Nitro-Phosphate per ton £8 0 0

Superphosphate of Lime ,, 7 0 0

Agricultural Cliemical Worlis, Stowmarkct, Suffolk.

Prentice's Cereal Manure for Corn Crops per ton £8 10 0

Prentice's Turnip Manure ,, 7 0 0

Prentice's Superphosphate of Lime ,, 6 10 0

Lancashire Mi
J. Knight & Co.'s Nitrogeniz

Company, Widnes, near Warrington.

id Bone Manures per ton £8 15 0

Manure Works, Grovehill, Beverley.
Tig-ar & Co.'s Celebrated Turnip Manures per ton £7 1 0 0

END OF VOLUME XLVII.

Printed by Rogeraon and Tuxford,246, Strand, London, W.C.

IMPORTANT TO FLOCKMASTERS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMIST,
APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G.,

LEICESTEK HOUSE, GEEAT BOVER-STREET, BOEOUGH, LONDON,

&c.

Begs to sail the attention of Farmers and Graziers to liis valuable
SHEEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, which requires
no Boiling, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
effectually destroying the Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to the Flock, preventing the alarming attacks of
Fly and Shab, and cleansing and purifying the Skin, thereby
greatly improving the Wool, both in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Chemist, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, although any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 20 sheep, price, jar included £0

6 1b.

30

8 lb.

40

JO lb.

50

20 1b.

100

301b.

150

40 1b.

200

50 lb.

250

60 1b.

800

801b.

400

100 lb.

500

,, (cask and measure 0 10
,, included) 0 15

„ „ 1 0

„ „ 1 3

„ 17 6

„ „ 1 17 6

„ „ 2 5 0

Should any Flockmaster prefer boiling the Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will he found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loathsome and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and which may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons of the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon — sufficient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the viiulence of the disease); also in
wine quart bottles. Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"Scoulton, near Hingham, Norfolk, April Ifith, 1855,
•Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been retried to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

valuable 'Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 60O Sheep
were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the ^Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Shovi^, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid to the flock by my shepherd afier dressing accordiner
to instructions left ; but notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the ' Agent for the
above Specific,' that (he flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me they should
be! at once seen to, but did not do so nntiiytce weeks afterwards,
and in the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing them again, as one third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an exp.rieiiced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near. Being determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to yon for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
following day ; and although the weather was most severe iu
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in tliree weeks the Sheep were quite cured;
and I am happy to say tlie young lambs are doing lemarkablv
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest and
best remeUy now in use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,

" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addiiion to the foregoing, he has very materially improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus; and ho would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ouglu now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 5 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 3 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials,
&c., to bej.had of all agents, or sent direct per post free.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD—SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.

Just published, the 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is., or sent, post-paid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the -various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debility, Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection ;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting SpeimatorrLoea, and other urethral discharges,
by Microscopic Examination ; to which are added, Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L, CURTIS, Surgeon, 15, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till 3, and 6 to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1,

REVIEWS OF THE WORK.

" CtJRTis ON Manhood. — Shilling Edition. — 77th Thousand.— This is a truly valuable work, and should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years' experience as medical referee in the treatment of nervous debihty, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably-written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday 2'imes, 23rd March,
1856.

" Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the source of those diseases which produce decline in youth or more frequently premature old
age."— Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1856.

CiTRTis ON Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea that can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, 1st Feb., 1851.

'* We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Society by whom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the relation of a parent, preceptor, or a clergyman. — Sun, Evening Paper.

Published by the Author; sold also in sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, Paternoster-row ; Hannay, 63,
Oxford-street; Mann, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, 11, Greenside-street, Edinburgh; Heywood,
Oldham-street, Manchester; Howell, 6, Church-street, Liverpool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tynej
Ashley, Post-Office, Newbury; Ferris & Score, Union-stieet, Bristol; Piebson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Braintree; Thew, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester ; Lurcock, Maidstone; CoOK, Ipswich ; Huscroft, Bury St.
Edmunds; Dove, Swindon ; Jearey, Bridewell Alley, Norwich j Smith, Cambridge ; Slatibr, Oxford;
and by all Booksellers and Chemists in the United Kingdom.

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS AND NEW YEAR'S

GI

The exuberance of the feelings amid scenes of gaiety induces the fair and youthful to shine to advantage
under the gaze of many friends, aad therefore to devote increased attention to the duties of the Toilet. It is
at this festive season that

ROWLANDS* AUXILIARIES OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY

are more'tean usually essential for preserving the Hair in its decorative charm, the Skin and Complexion
transparent »nd blooming, and the Teeth in their pearl-like lustre.

The Patronage of Royalty throughout Europe, their general use by Rank and Fashion, and the universally-
known efficacy of these articles give them a celebrity unparalleled, and render them peculiarly

ROWLAND S' MACASSAR OIL

IS A DELIGHTFULLY FRAGRANT AND TRANSPARENT PREPARATION FOR THE HAIR,
AND AS AN IXVIGORATOR AND BEAUTIFIER BEYOND ALL PRECEDENT.

In dressing the Hair nothing can equal its effect, rendering it so admirably soft that it will lie in any direction,
imparting a transcendent lustre, and sustaining it in decorative charm during the heated atmosphere of crowded
assemblies.— Price 3s. 6d., 7s.; Family Bottles (equal to 4 small) 10s. 6d. ; and double that size, 2Is, per bottle.

FOR THE SKIN AND COMPLEXION

IS UNEQUALLED FOR ITS RARE AND INESTIMABLE QUALITIES.

THE SOFTNESS A

fK, RADIANT BLOOM IT IMPARTS TO THE CHEEK,
AITd DELICACY WHICH IT INDUCES OF THE HANI

DS AND ARMS,

Its capability of soothing irritation, and removing cutaneous defects, discolorations, and all unsightly ap-
pearances render it

XNBISF1SNSABI.I3 TO SVISRIT TpXI.ET.

Price 4s. 6d, and 8s. 6d. per bottle.

ROWLANDS' ODONTO,

Compounded of the choicest and most recherche ingi-edients of the ORIENTAL HERBAL, and of inestimable

value in

PItWSJB»VIM«- AWfl> HEAUTIFiril^O THE TEETH,

IMPARTING TO THEM A PEARL-LIKE WHITENESS,

STRENGTHENING THE GUMS,

AND IN RENd^G THE BREATH SWEET AND PURE.

Tvif^ 2s. 9d. per box.

CAUTIOHr.— The name "ROWLANDS'" precedes that of the Article on the Wrapper or Label

of each.

V »oia hy A. I»01TI.A1VI> &, »0-XS, 30, Hatton C^arden, Iiondoa,

AND BY CHEMISTS AND PERFUMERS.

'«* Beware of Spurious Imitations ! !.!

\

JfC^'U'^Uu

No. 2, Vol. XIII. 1 FEBRUARY, 1858. [Third Series.

THE

FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

AKD

MONTHLY JOURNAL

OF

THE AGEICULTURAL INTEREST.

%.\

IBetrwateU ■ '%^'

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 246, STRAND.

PRICK TWO SHILLINGS.

BOOEBSON AND TDXVOBD,] [P&IKTEBS, 246, STKAKO.

unit (Bu}im m

.^^■^^^ji^

CUFF^S FARMER^S FRIEND.

One dose of this invaluable medicine will cure the SCOUR or LOOSENESS in Lambs, Calves, Sheep, Colts,
Heifers, Steers, and all Cattle, v?ithout leaving costiveness ; and given occasionally to Beasts whilst fattening
will promote a healthy and thriving condition. It will also perfectly cure the FRET, COLIC or GRIPES in
Horses. Price Is. 8d. or 3s. per Bottle.

CUFF^S FOOT-ROT POWDER

Is a cheap and effectual remedy for the FOOT- ROT or HALT, a single Packet of which will cure One Hundred
Sheep, and large Flocks may be soon freed from the Disease by its use. It has been extensively used and
highly approved of for nearly thirty years by large Sheep Breeders throughout the Kingdom. Price Is.
per Packet.

CUFF^S FLY, SCAB & MANGE OIL

Will very quickly destroy MAGGOTS in Sheep, and LICE or VERMIN in all animals. It will also cure the
MANGE, and SKIN DISEASES in Horses or Cattle, and effectually cleanse a Flock of Sheep from the
SCAB or SHAB. Price Is. 8d. and 3s. per Bottle.

THE BRITISH SHEEP WASH

Is used for Dipping or Dressing Sheep and Lambs, without boiling, to prevent the Fly striking, and the Scab
or Shab from spreading, and effectually to destroy TICKS, LICE, and VERMIN in Sheep. Price 2s. 9d.,
6s., and 10s. per Jar; or 2s. 6d. per packet.

SHERWOOD'S ORIGINAL DRIFFIELD OILS

Are strongly and confidently recommended for preventing GANGRENE or MORTIFICATION after Lambing
or Calving, and for Healing CUTS, STABS, WOUNDS, BRUISES, STRAINS, SWELLINGS, &c., &c.. As
these Oils are in constant use by some of the most celebrated Breeders in the world, and have maintained a re-
putation about fifty years, it would be superfluous to enlarge upon their value and importance. Pints, 2s. 6d.,
Quarts, 5s.

Prepared by J. H. Cuff, No. 10, Smithfield Market, London, and sold by Druggists and Medicine Vendors
Nonets Genuine unless signed by J. H. CUFF in writing.

Wix&tx mopal

^atvonafle*

PERFECT FREEDOM FROM COUGHS IN TEN MINUTES,

AND INSTANT RELIEF AND A RAPID CURE OF

ASTHMA ASTB CONSUM FTION", COUGHS, COZ.BS,

AND ALL

Disorders^ of the Breath and Xungrs.

ARE INSURED BY

CURE OF ASTHMA AND COUGHS.

From Mr. R. Bagley, Bookseller, Ironmonger Street.

Gentlemen, — I have great pleasure in communicating to you the beneficial effects many parties in and
around Stamford have experienced from your excellent medicine, in asthma, coughs, and difficulty of breath-
ing, and the manner in which they recommend them. One highly respectable gentleman in Stamford has
experienced the most wonderful benefit in a severe and obstinate asthma, with which he has been troubled for
the last twenty years. Calling at my shop the other day, he told me that he had a few days previously caught
a bad cold, and by taking two or three Wafers on going to bed, he found the cough entirely removed the next
day. I have sold dozens of boxes entirely through his recommendation. I have pleasure in adding that the
gentleman is willing to give all the information possible to parties who may be suffering from the same disease,
and on application to me I may give his name. I remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant, R. Bagley.
The particulars of many hundreds of Cures may be had from every Agent throughout the Kingdom.

To Sing-eriS and PuhliC §peakei*lS they are invaluable, as in a few hours they remove all
hoai:seness, and wonderfully increase the power and flexibility of the voice.

They have a pleasant taste. Price is. l^d., 2s. 9d., and lis. per box. Sold by all
Medicine Vendors.

DR. LOCOCK'S COSMETIC.

A delightfully fragrant preparation, for improving and beautifying the complexion, rendering the Skin clear,
soft, and transparent, removing all £:rui>tions, I^^reckles, Sunhurn, Tan, l*iniples,
and Roug-hness-^ curing- C^nat Sites, and the iSting-s of Insects.

In the process of shaving it allays all smarting, and renders the skin soft and smooth.

Sold in Bottles at Is. l^d., 2s. 9d., and 4s. 6d. each. Beware of Counterfeits. Observe the name in the
Government Stamp outside the Wrapper. Sold by all Chemists and Medicine Vendors.

AS USED IN HER MAJESTY'S STABLES,
And also on His Royal Highness tlie Prince Consort's Farm, Windsor.

iii::poMTA:^T t® e^eky mam

WHO KEEPS A

THE FIRST AND ONLY PRIZE

EVER AWARDED FOR FOOD FOR CATTLE IN A CONDENSED STATE WAS GIVEN BY

TO JOSEPH THORLEY, ESQ.,

THE INVENTOR AND SOLE PROPRIETOR OF

THORLEY'S FOOD FOR CATTLE !

TPIIS FOOD is now receiving patronage from all parts of the kingdom, including
His Grace the Duke of Richmond, His Grace tlie Duke of Athole, the Earl of Wilton, the Earl of
Eldon, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Bessborough, the Earl of Aylesford, the Earl of Llsburne, the Earl
Rosslyn, Viscount Strathallan, Viscount Dillon, the Right Hon. Lord Willoughby de Brooke, the Ri^ht Hon.
Lord Londesborough, Lord Lurgan, Lord Macdonald, Lord Saltoun, Lord Greenock, Lord Hatlierton, Lord
A. Russell, Sir John Cathcart, Bart., Sir John Ribton, Bart, Sir Wm. Payne Galvvay, Bart., Sir
David Cunynghame, Bart., Sir Montague Cholmely, Bart., Sir John Seymour, Bart., Sir Charles Payne,
Bart., Sir Thos. Erskine, the Hon. D. Astley, the Ven. Archdeacon Freer, H. Drummond, Esq., M.P.,
E. Holland, Esq., M.P., Gerrart Sturt, Esq., M.P., General Wyndham, Col. Ames, Col. Cartwright, Colonel
C. Hunter, Lieut.-Col. Candley, Lieut. Williams, Lieut, and Adjutant Holland, and many others too numerous
to mention.

Converts tlie commoiiest ©f ^traiiv iuto iA sitiierior

l®i'OTesi€lea%

It is requisite you should notice the Inventor's Signature on each package or feed, as inferior sorts are
often substituted. ____^

BIN6LE7 HALL CATTLE SI

30th November, 1857.

Class X.— FIRST

DEVON STEERS.

See Catalogue, No. 88.— The property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Aylesford.

SECOND PRIZE.
I'E© 0]!¥ THOKl^EY'S I^OOI> FOM CATTI,E.

The property of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.

The above are a few of the many Prizes obtained through the use of this invaluable Compound, which is

adapted for all kinds of Stock, and noio in use throughout the toorld.

Sold in Cases, containing 448 Packages — each Package one feed — at the cost of 56s. per Case; also in

Casks, containing 448 feeds, with measure included, price 50s. per Cask. Carriage paid to any Railway

Station in the United Kingdom.

None are genuine without the Signature being affixed
to each Package or Feed,

inventor AND SOLE PROPRIETOR.

Central Depot. -77, NEWGATE STREET, LONDON.

PRICE ONE SHILLING EACtJ,
Neatly printed in foolscap 8vo., each Volume containing from 130 to 160 pages of Letterpress, with numerous illustratiye Engravings,

RICHARDSON'S RURAL HANDBOOKS,

NEW EDITIONS, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

RURAL ARCHITECTURE ; a Series of Designs for Rural and

other Dwellings.
THE AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTOR; or Young Farmer's

Class Book.
DOMESTIC FOWL ; their Natural History, Breeding, and

General Management.
THE FLOWER GARDEN.
HORSES : their Varieties, Breeding, and Management.

DOGS : their Origin and Varieties.
PIGS : their Origin and Varieties.
COWS : and Dairy Husbandry.
THE HIVE AND THE HONEY BEE.
PESTS OF THE FARM.

LAND DRAINAGE, EMBANKMENT, AND IRRIGATION.
SOILS AND MANURES; with Instruction for their Improve-
ment.

London: Piper & Co., Paternoster Row; Dublin: J. McGlashan, Upper Sackville Street; and all Booksellers.

PROLIFIC PEAS FOR SEED.

TMt^MAS MAM^MAX,!^, TM l^®te, near l^Tisliecli,

LJ AS now ready for delivery his noted " FAN DWARF MAEROW" PEAS, which are the
best and most productive yet sown, being excellent boilers and superior for table, either green In
summer, or dry in winter. In 1856, a seed of six pecks per acre producd 288 pecks per acre, or A'ifold, and
the crop of 1857 is yielding double and treble the quantity of any other sort around.

Price 56s. per Quarter.
N.B. — Early orders only will ensure execution, as T. M. has but a small quantity disengaged.

" A SLIGHT COLD," — if its first symptoms are not arrested, too often lays the founda-
Jl\. tion of a variety oi Pulmonary Complaints, including Winter Cough, Asthma, and other consti-
tutional derangements. The evil consequences of these disorders may be easily avcited or subdued by keeping
at hand a supply of the above celebrated Lozenges, which have now stood the test of public experience for
uj)wards of half a century. The Testimonials to their efficacy have been voluntarily given by the most eminent
of the Taculty, as Vv-ell as by all classes of private individuals. Containing neither opiates nor any injurious
anodyne, they may be safely taken by the youngest child or the most delicate female.

VALUABLE TESTIMONIAL.

CUKE OF ASTHMA OF SEVEEAL YEARS' STANDING.

Cainscross, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Sir, — Having been troubled with Asthma for several years, I could find no lelief from any medicine whatever,
until I was indujed about two years ago to try a box of your valuable Lozenges, and found such relief from them
that I am determined for the future never to be \\ithout a box of them in the house, and will do all in my power
to recommend tlum to my friends.

If you consider the above testimonial of any advantage, you are quite at liberty to make what use of it you
please. I am. Sir, vour most obliged servant,

Thomas Keating, Esq. " W. J. TRIGG.

Prepared and sold in Boxes, Is. l^d., and Tins, 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., and 10s. 6d. each, by Thomas Keatixg,
Chemist, &c , 79, St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Retail by all Druggists and Patent Medicine Vendors in the
world.

N.B. — To prevent spurious imitations, please to observe that the words " KEATING'S COUGH
LOZENGES" are engraven on tbe Government Stamp of each Box, without which none are genuine.

EATING'S PALE NEWFOUNDLAND COD LIVER OIL, perfectly pure, nearly
tasteless, and free from adulteration of any kind, having been analyzed, reported on, and recommended
by Professors Taylor and Thomson, of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, who, in the words of the late Dr.
Pereira, say that " The finest oil is that most devoid of colour, o<Zo?«>-, and ^«?70«r," characters this will be
found to possess in a hijih degree. Half-pints, Is. Cd. ; Pints, 2s. 6d. ; Quarts, 4s. 6d. ; and Five-pint Bottles,
10s. Gd., Imperial Measure.

79, St. Paul's Chdrcuyard, London.

NOTICE OF DIVIDEND.

F DEPOSI

No 3, Pall Mall East, London, s.w.

Established A.D. 1844.

THE WARRANTS for the HALF-YEARLY Interest on Deposit Accounts, to 31s^
Ducember, arc ready for delivery, and payable daily.

PETER MORRISON, Managing Director.
Rate of Interest Six per Cent, till further notice.
Forms for opening accounts free on application.

RICHMOND & CHANDLER^S PRIZE
CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINES.

UNDER LETTERS PATENT,

NO. 57 NEW PATENT CHAFF CUTTING.
MACHINE, price £3 ISs., delivered at Maachester o
Liverpool.

PRESENT PRICES. £ a. d.

No. 57 Chaff Machine 3 15 0

No. 1 A Machine 4 10 0

No. 3b Machine 7 0 0

Pulley for power ea;<rfl! 0 9 0

Change Wheels, to vary the length, per pair 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 4b Machine 10 0 0

Pulley for power, «x<ra....... 0 9 0

Change Wheels, per pair 0 6 0

Kn\\es, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 5 Machine 15 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

Change Wheels 0 6 0

Knivei, extra for each ., 0 7 6

No. 1 Improved Corn Crusher 5 5 0

No. 2 Improved Corn Crusher 6 10 0

Pulley for power 0 9 0

No. 3 Improved Corn Crusher 10 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

No. 4 Improved Corn Crusher 14 0 0

Pulley for power 0 15 0

Richmond & Chandler's extensive application of the most ap-
proved Steam Machinery In the manufacture of these Imple-
ments, afford increased facilities, together with greater mathe-
matical accuracy in every part, obtainable by no other means.

Address,
RICHMOND & CHANDLER, SA.LFORD;
Branch Establishment,
SOUTH JQHN STREET, LIVERPOOL.

C

In packets, 6 Balls. 3s.-3 Balls, Is. 9d.

Unequalled for Woniis, Swelled Let;s, Grease,
Impaired Appetire, Coughs, Colds, Inflamed Eyes,
&c. Read tJie opinions of tlie following eminent
Trainers . —

" For getting horses into condition they ara unoqiuilled."

JOHN OSBORNE.

" In my opinion tliey are invaluable."— JOH N SCOTT.

"Your condition ball.^are excellent."— SAMUEL KOGERS-

"I have never used so efficient a ball "-JOHN DAWSOJ^

Prepared by T^ TAVIjOR,

Veterinary Surgeon, Burton-on-Trent,

and S:yl'i by all Dntr/r/ists.

N.U. — Any gentleman using tlie balls may
consult the projirietor gratuitously,
either personally or
by letter.

ESTABLISHED 1812.

TURNIP MANURE. — This valuable
fertilizer has been used for the last twelve
years with great success by most of the eminent Agri-
culturists throughout England, and stands unrivalled
in the weight and quality of the bulbs which it pro-
duces ; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain
Crops which follow, while Clover is rarely found to
fail after the first application. Some of the crops
produced by this Manure last year weighed upwards
of Thirty Tons per acre. GRASS, BARLEY, CLO-
VER, and WHE.\T MANURES ; also BONE,
GUANO, and SUPERPHOSPHATE of LIME,
warranted of the best quality. Apply to —

H. & T. PROCTOR, Cathay, Bristol.

} Birmingham,
Edmonscote, Warwick.
And Saltncy, near Chester.

N.B.— A Pamphlet on "MANURES, their PRO-
PERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded on
receipt of .1 2 postage stamps.

THE EARMBR'S MAG-AZINE.

FEBRUARY, 1858.

Smithfield Club

— By Professor

CONTENTS.

Plate I.— A PRIZE HEREFORD HEIFER.
Plate II. — BLINK BONNY ; Winner of the Derby and Oaks, 1857.

Description of the Plates ....
The Turnip Plant. — By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esa., F.R.S.
Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland
What shall we do with ottr Sprouted Wheat?
Notes on New Implements and Machines exhibited at the

Show of 1857 .....

Advantages of Leases ....

Haddington Agricultural Club . . »

Manure within reach of the Farmer
Method of extracting the Starch from the Potato
Extraction of Food and Starch from the Potato
Tithe Commutation .....
Different systems of Drainage
Regeneration of the Potato by Cuttings
Wenlock Farmers' Club : — Lecture on Artificial Manures

Voelcker ....

Comparative Value of Artificial and Farmyard Manures. — By Dr. Voelcker
Report on the Cattle Plague, Steppe Murrain, or Rinderpest. — By Professor

Simonds ......

Halkett's Guideway Steam Agriculture

Annual Report of the Linseed and Oilcake Trade

Annual Report of the Liverpool Wool Trade

Trade of the Port of Hull. — Report for the Year 1857

Experiments with different Manures

Report by Judges on Fowler's Steam-plough .

The Plough, or its Substitute

A plain Farmer's Views of the New Things in Agriculture

Manufactured Cattle Food, i. e., Thorley's Food for Cattle

FOR Cattle ....

Milk. — Ordinary Milk — the Milk of Spayed Cows
Stall Feeding of Cattle
Smithfield Club Cattle Show
Feeding of Cattle ....
Surveyors of Highways, and their Responsibilities
Crystal Palace Winter Poultry Show

The Government on the Agricultural Statistics of Scotland
Advantages of a daily register of the Rain-fall throughout t

dom, and the best means of obtaining it .
Present State of Veterinary Science
The Wool Trade of the past Year

Central Farmers' Club.— Subjects for Discussion, 1858
Royal Agricultural College

Important Decision in the Court of Queen's Bench
Calendar of Agriculture
Agricultural Reports

Review of the Cattle Trade during the past Month
Review of the Corn Trade .
Corn Averages and Market Currencies

PAGE
, 89

, 90

. 92

92

93
96
99
101
102
103
104
105
106

Bradley's Food

HE Unit

108
111

113

140
146
149
152
155
156
158
160

162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169

ED KlNG-

. 170

. 172
. 173

. 174
. 174
. 174
. 175
. 176
. 176
. 177
179-180

■i >

^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZIKE.

FEBRUARY, 1858.

PLATE I.
A PRIZE HEREFORD HEIFER.

This heifer, bred and exhibited by Mr. George Pitt, of Chadnor Court, Dilwyn, was by Whitenot
(1116), dam Pretty-Maid the Second, by Northampton (600). She took, at the Birmingham Show,
December, 1856, the first prize of Ten Sovereigns as the best of her class, and the Gold Medal as the
best cow or heifer of any breed in the exhibition ; Mr. Pitt also receiving a Silver Medal as her breeder.
■ Proceeding to London, she took, at the Smithfield Club Show, the second prize of Five Sovereigns for
Hereford Heifers. She was sold here, to kill, to Mr. J. M. Smith, of Westbury, Wilts, her dead weight
was 17 score per quarter.

This heifer also took in her time the following premiums at local meetings: — at Ludlow, in 1854,
Five Sovereigns as the best yearhng heifer; and in the same year at Leominster, a Silver Cup. In,
1855, at Tredegar, a Silver Cup as the best two-year-old heifer. In 1856, Five Sovereigns, at Ludlow
as the best fat cow or heifer ; a Silver Cup at Leominster ; and another Silver Cup at Hereford ; her
winnings in all being seven first prizes, and one second.

This heifer, says our own report of the meeting, was quite a wonder in her way as a fat animal.
Although somewhat small in frame, she was very remarkable for her perfect proportions, fine head and
bone, and prime quality of flesh. She had, too, an extraordinarily good breast, with capital twist, and
stood short on the leg. Mr. Pitt, indeed, may well plume himself on being the breeder and feeder of
such an animal.

PLATE 11.

BLINK BONNY; Winner of the Derby and Oaks, 1857.

Blink Bonny, bred by her present owner Mr. W. I'Anson, at Spring Cottage, Malton, in 1854, is by
Melbourne, out of Queen Mary, by Gladiator, her dam, by Plenipotentiary, out of Myrrha, by Whalebone.

Melbourne, bred by the late Mr. H. Robinson in 1834, is by Humphrey Clinker, out of a Cervantes
mare. He was a good honest race-horse ; and, though but roughly prepared, won many heavy stakes
against superior fields of horses. As a stallion he ranked unquestionably as the best we have had in this
country for many a long day.

Queen Mary, bred by Mr. Dennis in 1843, was put to the stud at three years old. Her first foal
was a good filly called Haricot; in 1848 she had a dead foal to Mango; in 1849, Braxey, by Moss
Trooper; in 1850, Balrownie, by Annandale ; in 1851, a half-bred colt; in 1852, Blooming Heather,
by Melbourne; in 1853, Bonnie Scotland, by lago; in 1854, Blink Bonny; in 1855, she missed to
Touchstone; in 1856, Balnamon, by Annandale; and in 1857, Bab-at-the-Bowster, by Annandale. On
the decease of her owner, Mr. Ramsay, Queen Mary was sold to the late Mr. Carnegie, of Balnamon;
but subsequently repurchased with Braxey and Balrownie at her side for £110. Queen Mary never ran
but once, when she was not placed for a two-yeai'-old stake at Chester.

Blink Bonny is a bay mare, inchning in parts to what artists would call a " negative " colour. She
stands fifteen hands two inches and a-half high ; has a very blood-like lean head, with wide ears, and
also great width between the eyes, which are very prominent. She has a strong arched neck, cleanly set
into her head; splendid shoulders, good chest, and great depth of girth — being very thick through the
jockey's knees. She has immense ribs, a high rump shortening towards the tail, powerful thighs and
gaskins, with good bone, hocks, and knees, and short pasterns. BUnk Bonny has a blaze of white in
the face, giving her quite a family likeness to her famous half-brother West Australian, and a white fore
coronet. She has a capital temper, being extremely temperate and docile, while on the other hand she
' has unfortunately but a thin switch tail, and at the best of times but a roughish dull coat. Making their
estimate by these important points, she has been declared by many, who seem to have entirely forgotten
her really beautiful head and splendid forehand, to be but a hackney- looking mare. For our own part
we have seen few who showed more signs of blood.
OLD SERIES.] H [VOL. XLVIIL^No. 2.

90

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE TURNIP PLANT.

BY CUTHBERT' W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S.

The growth of the turnip plaRt during the
season of 1857-58 has presented to us facts of
considerable interest. The periods of long con-
tinued drought, followed, during that brilliant
summer, by copious rainfalls and a high tempera-
ture, have caused the turnips, in most districts, to
grow in a very unusual manaer. The bulbs, in
the instances to which I refer, have grown in length
to a very irregular extent ; but this has not been
attended with a corresponding enlargement of the
diameter of the bulb. They have commonly ex-
tended above the surface of the soil about eighteen
inches : these more resemble, in their above-ground
shape, the ordinary mangold-wurzei or carrot than
the turnip plant. Unfortunately, this morbid
growth has been attended with a very extensive
diminution of the nutritive properties of the bulb ;
the stock eat it with reluctance ; it seems to possess
little or no fattening properties.

Various reasons have been produced to account
for the phenomenon. The blame has been some-
times laid upon the seed employed ; in other cases,
the loss experienced has been attributed to the use,
for the turnip crop, of certain well-known artificial
manures. To neither of these causes, I believe, can
be truly assigned the malformation. I have found,
upon extended inquiry, that the elongated turnips
have been produced to an equal extent by the
plants produced from seed procured of different
merchants, from different counties, and from seed
ripened on the farm on which it was sown. The
seed, then, we may fairly conclude, has had little or
no influence in the matter. Then, as regards the
use of artificial manures, I find that these long-
rooted turnips have been= procjticed to an equally
injurious extent on land dressed with farmyard
compost only, with farmyard dung and superphos-
phate of lime, with Peruvian guano and superphos-
phate of lime, used alone or employed together on
the turnip soils of Norfolk and Bedford, Surrey
and Dorset, and on lands which have and have not
been marled or chalked. We have not, therefore,
any reason to believe that the use of any particular
dressing has had any influence whatever in the
case.

It is ever our fate, indeed, when we are studying
the diseases or the growth of plants, to meet with—
to be haunted with— suspicions and baseless con-
clusions, not much more wise than those which
bewitched our forefathers. Erer and anon we hear
grave suspicions hazarded that the mortality of our
sheep is increased when fed on roots grown with
artificial manures ; the u&e-^ sprats in this way

has conjured up opinions of this kind. Peruvian
guano and superphosphate of lime have been some-
times held to render the turnip less wholesome for
the flock. With every effort which I have made to
procure reliable evidence on this subject, I have
always found that these kind of suspicions could
not be rendered more conclusive; they rested, in
fact, on the most vague of surmises. The com-
parative analyses of turnips grown with a variety of
manures show that the turnips grown with arti-
ficial dressings do not vary materially in com-
position from the turnips grown with only farm-
yard dung : the same chemical matters are found'
in each. Way, Voelcker, Nesbit, and others, all
concur in this conclusion. Dr. Anderson's trials,
were perhaps the most valuable, because the tur-
nips he examined were grown on three kinds of
soil, and had been dressed with seven diflferent,
manures. We can at this time recur to these
valuable researches with considerable advantage..
For the sake of a more ready comparison, I wilL
give the results obtained by the Professor in the-
same tabular form to which I have elsewhere;
reduced them.

In the following table, then, column I. gives
the soil and crop ; II., the water in 10,000 parts ;
III., the nitrogen in the fibre ; IV., the nitrogen in
the juice ; V., the phosphates. The turnips were
grown on the property of Lord Kinnaird, in Perth^
shire. The clay soil is the heavy alluvial clay of
the Carse of Gowrie, which is a wheat soil of the
best description. The hill land is a light loamy
soil, of an entirely different character from the
Carse clay, and lets at a much inferior rent. The
black land forms the boundary between the two
former, and partakes of the character of both, those
of the clay, however, preponderating :— ■

I.

Swedes in 1849.

Clay land. . . .

Black land.. .

Hill land ....
Swedes in 1850.

Clay land ....

Black land. . .

Hill land ....
Aberd'n yellows, 1849

Clay land ....

Black land. . .

Hill land ....
Aberd'n yellows, 1850

Clay land ....

Black land.. .

Hill Land....

n.

in.

IV.

9058.0
9878.0
8712.0

2.9
4.0

1.7

12.9
14.2
26.8

9273.0
9278.0
9278.0

3.7
4.0
4.5

8.6

5.9

10.2

9119.5
9047.8
9057.8

3.6
3.8
3.9

15.9
13.7

24.4

9426.3
9059.0
9399.0

3.1
2.9
3.4

7.8
13.8
12.0

16.0
17.6
15,9

9.6
9.0
9.8

16.2
16.7
13.3

6.8
12.1
12.0

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

91

In the two ftext tables will be found the results of
some very interesting experiments made with yel-
low turnips, at Lord Kinnaird's farm of Millhill.
The different turnips were all manured with 16
tons of farmyard manure, valued at £4, and had,
in addition, quantities of different auxiliary ma-
nures. This table gives the number of the experi-
ments and the manure, omitting Nos. 4 and 5,
since, owing to the failure of the crops, no analyses
of these turnips were made :

0. 16 yards dung.

1. 4 cwt. White's manure.

2. 2 cwt. guano, 2 cwt. salt.

3. 3 cwt. guano.

6. 3 cwt. London Manure Co.'s manure.

7. 4 cwt. superphosphate.

8. 3 cwt. guano, 1 cwt. superphosphate, diluted

with 200 gallons water.

9. 3 cwt, superphosphate, diluted with 200 gal-

lons water.

In the following table, column I. gives the num-
ber (referring to the preceding table) of the experi-
ments, II. the quantity of water found in 10,000
parts of the turnip, III. the ash, IV. the protein
compounds, V. the fibre, sugar, &c., and VI. the
nitrogen found in these differently-manured turnips.
No analyses were made of Nos. 4 and 5, as the gain
was not equal to the cost of the manures : —

I.

IL

in.

IV.

V.

9327.0

39.6

83.8

549.6

9287.0

67.0

63.5

482.5

9411.0

55.0

68.5

465.5

9345.0

58.0

82.5

514.5

9285.0

76.0

95.8

543.2

9243.0

59.0

73.0

625.0

8862.0

75.0

117.4

945.0

9509.0

56.2

41.3

399.5

VI.

13.2
10.0
10.8
13.1
15.5
11.0
18.5
6.5

It would seeua, therefore, that there is not such a
difTerence in the coraposition of the turnip plant
grown by different manares, as to lead us to con-
clude that any injurious resu.lts would ensue from
them to the stock.

There is no doubt considerable results are to be
obtained from small variations in the mode of apply-
ing the same kind of food. We have an instance of
this in the good effect of slicing or of pulping tur-
nips, a very useful report on which, by Mr. J.
M'Laren, of Rossie, will be found in the last num-
ber of the " Transactions of the Highland Society of
Scotland," p. 153. His trials were made in ] 855-56
and 1856-57, with six. cattle fed on whole turnips ;
six fed on pulped turnips, mixed with cut straw, and
given fresh ; and six fed with pulped turnips, mixed
-with cut chafP, and allowed to ferment for forty-eight
hours. Prom the results of these trials he fairly
enough draws the conclusion, " That, although there
has been some variation as to the largest increment,
this season, it being on the lot consuming un-

fermeuted pulp, whilst last year these were much in
arrear, still the general result has been that the
pulping of the turnips is a saving of the root in feed-
ing cattle. At the same time, it is not to be for-
gotten that, in a feeding experiment, much depends
ou the accident of a well or an ill-feeding beast being
in one or other of the lots. It is, indeed, almost
impossible to find any two animals feed alike, how-
ever well selected or attentively looked after ; still
the average of six cattle in each lot shoidd give a
pretty lair test to judge by; but one set of trials can
hardly be held to be conclusive in determining either
success or failure of any system." The following
were the results obtained in 1855-56 : —

6 fed on pulped "1
turnips, mixed [
with chaff, and [
fermented J

6 fed on whole"!
turnips J

6 fed on pulped "j
turnips and chaff, >
given fresh .... J

Weighed

Oct. 18, 1855. Mar. 1, 1856.

cwts. lbs. cwts. lbs.

82 28

70

14

70 24

70 70

81 77

14

Upon repeating the trial in 1856-57, with the
same kind of short -horned steers, the

Weighed

6 fed on whole tur- 1
nips and straw . . J

6 fed on pulped tur- 1
nips, given fresh, V
mixed with chaff J

6 fed with pulped"!
turnips, mixed [
with chaff, and [
fermented J

Nov. S
cwts.

54

54

1856.' April 9, 1857.
lbs. I cwts. lbs.

54

54

68

28

75

79

78

28

Afier making all the necessary deductions, he found
the profit from feeding these different lots in
1856-57 was

Lot 1 £15 17 4

„ 2 23 15 10

„ 3 22 14 4

The successful growth of the tu.rnip, indeed, is
one of the most important of the farmer's many
anxious efforts : anything, therefore, which adds to
his stock of manure for this root, adds, in fact,
almost directly to the food of his live stock. I have
long urged upon their attention the collection, for
this purpose, of the couch and other weeds, which
ever follow, as it were, the plough on all arable
soils. I have reminded them from year to year of
the valuable compost produced by collecting these
mto heaps, and mixing them with copious dressings
of common salt or lime. By this process, a very
considerable amount of the organic, ^latters of the

b2

92

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

weeds, which are usually lost in burning, is restored
to the soil. Even the ashes or mineral substances
of these weeds contain valuable fertilizing matters.
All the weeds from an inferior turnip soil, when
collected and burnt in a heap, yielded a considerable
portion of ashes. These ashes, when analyzed, were
found to contain of

Potash 8.6 per cent.

Soda 4.2

Lime 15.1 „

Phosphoric acid ,,...«.. 10.9 „

Being aware of these things, it was with much
pleasure that, on a recent occasion, near Ipswich, I
noticed some noble teams of those Suffolk-punch
horses drawing waggon-loads of salt out of the town.
Upon my asking one of the waggoners what these
lots of salt were mtended for, he informed me in the
interval between a "Gee whoi !" and a whistle,
"We puts it on to the spear-grass."

Upon a subsequent occasion, I found one of these
huge gatherings of weeds carted and neatly dressed,
and shaped like an ordinary compost heap, pressed
pretty soHd by the action of the cart and horses, and
copiously covered with salt. Here I felt was indeed
the making the most of uninvited, unwelcome visi-
tors— robbers of the food intended for better and
more honest plants. Of the compost thus prepared,
I find that it is deemed by these skilful Suffolk far-
mers to be useful for all root crops ; and although I
could not find that it iiad been used in any compccrative
trials for mangolds, still I cannot but conclude that,
from the salt and other matters which it contains, it
must be a powerful manure for this valuable and
increasingly-cultivated root.

Such are a few only of the practical movements in
the growth and use of the turnip crop, which have
occurred during the last few months. The retro-
spect adds fresh evidence not only of the many mys-
terious and injurious affections — not to say diseases —
of our cultivated crops, but is also suggestive of the
certain fact, that not only is something considerable
yet to be generally accomplished in the collection and
preparation of home-made manures, but that when,
after escapinpf loss of plant, diseases, malformations,
and stunted growths, the bulbs are fairly stored — that,
after all, something profitable is yet to be ascertained
relating to the consumption of them by our stock.

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT
SOCIETY OF IRELAND.— The Waterford local committee
have placed at the diBposal of the Society a Challenge Cup,
value one hundred guineas — to be competed for at every an-
nual meeting : " for the best lot of three short-horned animals
— bulls or heifers, but not in mixed lots — not exceeding 20
months old, having been bred by the exhibitor, and hona fide
his property. Animals specially entered for this prize not to
be disqualified from competing for the premiums offered for
their section in the short-horned bulls/'

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR
SPROUTED WHEAT?

In the sales made in the Edinburgh Corn Market of Nov.
25, 1 observe that of the 667 quarters wheat sold, just one-
half — say 332 quarters — were sold at prices varying from 23s.
6d. to 263. per quarter, while other 108 quarters were sold at
from 363. to 403. The first 332 quarters we may safely assume
to be grain which had been exposed to the September's
rain, and had become so sprouted as to be unfit for human
food. The 108 quarters we may consider as having been also
exposed to the same storm, but to have escaped with less
damage, and to be fit for mixing with fine wheats for the manu-
facture of second bread and biscuit.

This proportion of 440 damaged out of a total sale of 667
quarters will, I believe, represent the average state of tbe
wheat crop through the eastern counties of Scotland, and the
northern ones of England.

The sale by farmers of the qualities bringing SCs. to 403. is,
perhaps, the best way of turning them to account ; but it is
matter of serious consideration whether the portion so deterio-
rated as to fetch but 23s. to 363. could not be more advan-
tageously turned to account on the farm.

There have been but few experiments made with wheat as a
feeding substance for animals ; indeed, I can find no record of
any such experiment, the reason being that for several years
past, during which the attention of scientific and practical men
has been drawn to the comparative values of different articles
for stock feeding, the price of wheat has been so high, and,
until 1856, its quality so good, that it would have been thought
madness to apply this " nobler grain" to any other purpose
than the supply of the bakers and their millions of customers.
But two disastrous harvests have flooded Scotland and Northern
England with damaged wheat, of the type sold as above in
the Edinburgh market ; and we may take it for granted that,
behind even that poor display, there are many quarters still
more deteriorated. What shall we do with them ?

In comparing the composition of wheat with other grains,
on the data given in Johnston's Elements of Agricultural
C/teww<ri/ (sixth edition, pp. 340 and 341), I find the following
results —

Sugar, Gluten, f^..

Starch, &c. &c. ^"•

Wheat, in each 100 lbs. 55 12 3

Barley „ 60 13 2.75

Oats „ 50 14.5 4.8

Beaus „ 40 26 2.5

Oilcake „ 30 22 12

This places wheat in no disadvantageous light as compared
with the other grains for meat-producing qualities. The effect
of sprouting would be rather favourable than otherwise, aa it
would chunge a portion of the starch iutj sugar; the latter
more easily assimilated by the animal ; while the diastase
formed during germination is believed, as in the case of malted
barley, also to add to the solubility and nutritiveness of the
food.

These are theoretical recommendations of sprouted wheat as
a food for live stock. They place it at least on a par with
barley, which has been largely used for that purpose, when at
a price exceeding that at which the wheat described is at pre-
sent sold. There may, however, be prac^i'cai objections ; and
my design, in calling the attention of yourself and your
readers to the subject, is to elicit these objections, if there
be any.

Would you, therefore, state your own opinions on the sub-
ject, and invite your correspondents to consider and discuss it
also ? S.

Tfia FAR via a 's magazine.

93

NOTES ON NEW IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES EXHIBITED AT
THE SMITHFIELD CLUB SHOW OF 18 5 7.

Once more have we encountered the confusion and
the crush of the implement galleries of the Baker-
street show. Right pleasant was it, nevertheless, in spite
of all the disadvantages attendant thereupon, to witness
the interest taken in the mechanism displayed, by
burly farmers and well-to-do agriculturists. Nor
less pleasant was it to be informed, amidst the crush of
commercial combinations, and the gloomy forebodings
of "cotton men," and men of other substances name-
less here, that something more than a passing interest
was taken, as was evidenced by the comparatively well-
filled " order books" of some of our leading firms. Truly,
intheir quiet unostentatious progress, and in their freedom
from the shocks of panics and the untoward turns of
trade, our agriculturists have little need to envy the
position of their commercial brethren. In view, how-
ever, of the rising importance of the implemental de-
partment of the show, fast treading on the heels of its
more imposing rivals, one could not help — amidst the
bustle and the buzz which prevailed — feeling it to be a
pity that the expansive capabilities of the space for
exhibition were not coincident with those of the exhibi-
tion itself, and that something could not be done to
have it held in some place commensurate with its im-
portance. The present galleries may be termed places
for the exhibition of implements and machines ; places
for their examinition in no wise are they. The close
proximity in which the machines were huddled together
was subversive of all attempts at examination of their
details of construction or principles of arrangement ;
indeed, the feeling raised by a survey of the various
" stands" — so called, we suppose, on the principle of
lucus a non lucendo — was surprise at the ingenuity
which could, in such limited spaces, cram so many and
such bulky articles.

The time has gone by, when the farmers were satisfied
with a mere look at implements and machines • passing
them over, as if careless of their uses to them ; or if pur-
chasing them, doing so on the faith of the opinion of
some friend, or the statements of the manufacturer. By
the gradual increase in the number and in the import-
ance of the objects of our agricultural shows, we have
been educating the farmer in the uses and value of
mechanism ; and, no longer dead to the aid which it
can afford him in his various operations, he is anxious
to see new things, and careful to examine their claims
to support. Hence arises the value of well-ordered
exhibitions, in which every facility is granted to examine
the details of all machines there exhibited. And hence
also arises the value of well-arranged catalogues, in
which the various machines manufactured by the several
firms shall be clearly, that is mechanically illustrated
and described. We of course refer to the trade cata-
logues issued by the respective firms not to the cata-
logues issued by the show or shows at which their ma-
chines are exhibited. In view of the advantages of a
catalogue in which mechanical descriptions and accurate
detailed illustrations would be given, it is certainly curious
that no firm, so far as we know, has yet brought out
one in which this species of information has been dis-
played so fully as the importance of the subject de-
mands. The advantages obtained by the use of such
catalogues would be as much on the side of the manufac-
turer as on that of the purchaser. Makersof manufacturing
mechanism in our cotton districts know this well ; and

although they do not issue catalogues in the manner of
our agricultural implement makers, still, when they
have anything new to bring before the notice of the
manufacturers, they take care in their circular or pros-
pectus to illustrate mechanically and describe clearly the
details of their invention and the principle of its opera-
tion. And this they do, knowing that the parties who
may be the purchasers are well acquainted with the
operation of the machine which the new candidate for
their favour is designed to supersede ; and that conse-
quently what the manufacturer wants is information
which can enable him to decide in what respect the new
machine is calculated to do better work than the old,
or how the machine presented to his notice by one maker
is better than that brought forward by the rival trader.
Are the machines or implements used by the farmer,
because they are less costly or complicated than manu-
factuiing mechanism, less important to him ? or is he
p-esumed to be indifferent to their details of con-
struction, or principle of operation ? or is it supposed
that he cannot understand or appreciate mechanical
description ? These questions we do not venture to
answer ; but true it is that the more facilities are thrown
in his way to understand fully the nature and operation
of ihe mechanism which he is desirous to buy, the more
readily will he become a purchaser. We have said that the
time has gone by when the intelligent farmer will be satis-
fied with a bare look at machinery; a thorough examina-
tion alone satisfies him : and the more readily the manu-
facturer throws facilities in his way for this thorough
examination, the more will they find it redound to their
own interest. It is impossible to overrate the uses of
well-arranged catalogues in enabling farmers to examine
quietly, and at their leisure the peculiarities of machines
which may have attracted their attention at the shows
which they may have visited. It is easy to conceive
what close attention would be given to the detailed de-
scriptions of a machine which a visitor and an intending
purchaser saw, but could not examine, midst the crush
and confusion of the Baker-street show. We have
ventured thus far to detain our readers with remarks on
this subject, because we conceive it one of considerable
importance, and because we happen to know that with
many practical agriculturists it would be a matter of con-
gratulation if they were enabled to examine leisurely
the construction and operations of machines in which
they felt an interest.

Not longer to keep back the more immediate subject
of our paper, we proceed to notice a few of the new, or
comparatively new, implements and machines exhibited,
following as closely as possible the natural order in
which the agricultural mechanism is used in practice,
beginning with cultural implements, and ending with
the mechanism used for the preparation of food for
stock.

(1.) In the department of cultural implements we
have little new to notice. Mr. E. Clarke, of Great
Badley, Essex, exhibited a "furrow-opener and slide,"
invented by Mr. Wm. Delfe. The cultivating part of
this implement bears a resemblance to " Bentall's broad-
share ;" and the lever movement by which it is raised,
when it reaches the end of the stetches at the head-
lands, is a modification of that used in Garrett's horse-
hoe. The implement is supported in front by a small
wheel, and at the rear end of the frame or beam by two

91.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

wheels of larger diameter. Tiiese wheels have their
bearings at the extremities of two levers, jointed near
their centre to the beam of the implement. The free
ends of the lever are continued upwards, and passed
through the slots of two curved or segmental guides,
provided with holes and a catch-pin, by which the
levers are kept in any desired position. Chains are
connected to the upper extremities of the levers, and
carried over and fixed to the peripheries of two eccentric
wheels, keyed on to a shaft working in bearings sup-
ported on the outer extremities of two curved brackets
projecting from the ends of the beam. The stilts or
handles of the implement are placed between these
brackets ; and a cross handle, attached to the shaft bear-
ing the eccentric wheels, is thus placed easily within the
reach of the attendant. By turning this cross-handle
in one direction, the chains are wound round the peri-
pheries of the eccentric wheels, and the upper extremi-
ties of the two levers supporting the wheels pulled to-
wards the attendant. The action lowers the ends of the
levers to which the wheels are attached, or rather, tends
to press the wheels against the ground ; and the leverage
thus obtained raises the implement out of contact with
the ground. Behind the body of the implement, which
acts in the soil, two wings are placed, which expand out-
wards, and spread the soil and manure over the land.

(2.) To their well-known liquid manure drill Messrsg
Reeves, of Bratton, have adapted this season the
" drop drill" invented by Mr. Chambers, the gentle-
man to whom the agricultural world is indebted for the
" broadcast manure distributor." The simple mechanism
of Mr. Chambers is confined entirely to the coulter part
of the drill, so that it is capable of being applied to any
form of water drill. There is little diversity of opinion
as to the desirableness of a "good drop drill for root
crops." The difficulty hitherto attendant upon all at-
tempts to perfect a machine of this class has been caused
by the employment of dry, dusty manures, by which the
chances were lessened of the seed germinating, in dry
seasons. By the use of liquid manure, deposited (along
with the seed) at intervals, and not in a continuous
stream, Mr. Chambers obviates the difficulties attendant
upon the system as hitherto tried ; and the following ad-
vantages are obtained: 1, A saving of two-thirds the
quantities of water now applied, thereby making the
drill applicable on light-land farms, where water is
scarce ; "2, A saving of half the quantity of seed ; 3, A
saving of manure, from its being deposited only where
required ; 4, Where land is clean, a saving of one hand-
hoeing ; 5, The certainty of having the best plant in the
right place, and thereby obtaining a decided increase of
produce. The mechanism by which these advantages
are obtainable is remarkable for its simplicity of action,
and the absence of all complicated parts liable to de-
rangement. The following brief description may suffice
to explain its peculiarities of arrangement : A hollow
rotary chamber, provided with four arms or spouts,
revolves on an axis supported on bearings fixed to a
frame, attached to the drill, in place of the ordinary
swing lever and coulter. The spouts project from the
periphery of the hollow chamber ; and through these the
liquid manure and the seed are passed, to be deposited in
the ground as each spout or outlet comes in contact
with it. The liquid manure and seed are delivered to
the interior of the chamber by means of a spout, which
is also carried by the frame. The successive deposits of
seed are made in a furrow, formed by a coulter, which
precedes the wheel, and is adjusted in the usual
manner. The hollow chamber receives its motion
through the medium of a wheel running on the land, and
which is keyed on the same shaft which supports the hol-
low chamber. The distance between the outlets of the
spouts of the hollow chamber being invariably uniform,

the intervals between the deposits of seed will be uni-
form also. To obviate this defect, however, and give
an adjustability to the mechanism, so as to enable the
distance between the seed deposits to be regulated
as desired, the wheel which gives motion to the chamber
is made in segments, each of which is attached to one of
the spokes, or arms, provided with slots and bolts, and
nuts, by which they can be adjusted nearer to or further
from the centre, thus reducing or enlarging the peri-
phery of the wheel. So efTective is this simple mechan-
ism which we have now described, that the wheel can
be made to rotate even at a very high velocity, without
in any way impairing the integrity of the alternate or
intervaliic dropping, each deposit having its proper
modicum of seed and liquid manure, and being per-
fectly independent of the preceding and succeeding ones.

(3.) Messrs. Reeves also exhibit, in addition to the
liquid-manure and drop drill just described, a simple
hand- drop drill, which seems likely to be useful for market
gardens and small occupations. The main feature of
the apparatus may here be described. To the framing,
which runs on two wheels, and is worked by a cross-
handle, the seed-chamber is fixed; this being formed of
a vertical cylinder, some three or four inches in diame-
ter and six or eight in height. The lower part of this is
capable of being placed very near to the ground while the
machine is in operation, and this facilitates the " bunch-
ing'' and depositing of the seed. In this seed- chamber a
circular plate, or partition, of cast-iron is placed hori-
zontally, provided with a ring or a series of apertures of
determinate size. In close contact with this plate
another, similarly perforated, is made to revolve by sim-
ple mechanism . While the solid parts of the upper and
revolving plate, on which the seed placed in the chamber
rests, are opposite the perforated parts of the partition
or plate below it, there is no passage downwards for the
seed ; but as soon as the perforations of the two plates
coincide with each other, a passage is made for the seed,
which drops down through the lower part of the cham-
ber, and is deposited in the ground at intervals corre-
sponding to the number of holes in the plates and the
rapidity with which the revolving plate is made to rotate.
Various plates are used, according to the kind of seed
which it is desired to deposit. A coulter is placed in
advance of the seed-chamber, to form a furrow, in which
the seed is deposited.

(4.) In addition to the machines already noticed,
Messrs. Reeves exhibited a specimen of Mr. Palmer's
rotary corn separator or screen, for which, we believe,
the first prize was awarded at the York Show in August
last. As this machine presents several features of con-
siderable novelty, we pi'opose to give a brief description
of it. In general appearance it resembles the well-
known barley hummeller of Messrs. Garrett, the main
feature being a rotary cylindrical screen or sieve, the
shaft of which is placed at an angle, and is turned by
means of a winch or handle, or through the medium of
a pulley, if steam-power is used. The meshes of the
cylindrical screen are made of four different gauges, the
coarsest of which is at the delivery, and the finest at
the feeding end. Below these divisions of gauge, shoots
or spouts are placed, to conduct the products of the
various screenings to suitable receptacles. Thus the first
spout receives from the finest gauge of the screen the
small dust and seeds, the second spout from the next
finest gauge the very thin corn, the third spout receives
the tail corn, while the last receives the best. Poppy
heads, and other bulky substances which will not pass
through the largest meshes, are received into a fifth
shoot. But the main feature of the machine consists in
the adaptation of a series of segmental partitions or
plates to the interior of the cylindrical screen ; these fit-
ting close to the inner periphery, and arranged at dis-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

95

*ances from each other of one-and-a-qtiarter inches, so
as to extend from one end of the cylinder to the other.
As these partitions revolve, they drag the grain up the
side of the cylinder, but not over or round the shaft or
centre. As the cylinder in its revolution carries round
these partitions or segmental plates, they dip into the
corn lying on the under side of the screen, and rubbing
against it, tend to arrange the individual grains on a
line with the meshes, and to facilitate their escape from
the screen. The action of the plates is also to spread
the corn over a large surface of the screen, giving a
greater operating surface than is usually obtainable in
ordinary revolving screens. The simple means here
adopted has also, it is said, the effect of obviating the
defect of ordinary winnowing machines, namely, the
passing of " kernels " or " pickels " of the same speci-
fic gravity as the best corn, but which are smaller and
thinner in size. Mr. Palmer informs us that his ma-
chine effectually overcomes this difficulty. To keep
the meshes of the screen clear, a brush of steel wire is
applied at one side and near the upper part of the cylin-
der. Messrs. Reeves make the wires of which the
brush is composed curved ; this increases their elasticity,
and enables them better to thrust inwards any grain,
seeds, or other substance which may get fixed between
the wires of the screen, or be carried up to the level of
the brushes.

(5.) In this class of machines we have to notice
another novelty, namely, the "adjusting screen" of
Mr. Roby, whose "corn screen" is well known to
many of our readers. By a simple arrangement the dis-
tance between the wires of the screen can be adjusted so
as to suit different sizes of grain. If the reader will
imagine two tiers or series of wires placed parallel to

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

each other, the upper row or series of which is fixed,
forming the permanent screen over which the grain
passes, while the wires of the lower row or series are
capable of being moved simultaneously from side to
side, so as to occupy any position between the wires of
the upper row, thus —

he will have some notion of the method by which dif-
ferent gauges or width of spaces between the screening
wires are made, so as to suit different sizes of grain.
The necessary adjustment is very easily made.

(6.) We may here notice, as closely connected with
this department of mechanism, the barley aveller, or
hummeller, exhibited by Messrs. Barnard and Bishop,
of Norwich, and invented by Mr. Holben. Our
readers are doubtless aware of the " hand hum-
meller," consisting of a square frame of iron, open
at top and bottom, and two of the sides of which
are connected by a cross or curved bar carrying
an upright handle. The space between the sides of the
frame is filled up with cross divisions of the same depth
as the sides of the frame, and so arranged as to form a
series of square cells, open at top and bottom. The
barley, to be got rid of awns, is placed on the floor of
the barn ; and the frame with its divisions worked by
means of the handle gently up and down amongst il.
The friction of the thin edges of the frame and its divi-
sions on the grain, and of the particles of grain upon
each other as they are forced up into the cells, gradu-
ally removes the awns, Mr. Holben takes this contriv-
ance, and in place of working it by hand, gives it a
reciprocatory motion up and down by means of a
cranked shaft, to the end of which a fly-wheel is keyed

on I and to the other a small pinion, which engages with
a spur wheel, put in motion by an ordinary winch
handle. To the frame-work supporting this mechanism
a hopper, with regulating or feed-plate, is connected.
The barley to be avelled is put into this, and is passed
at the rate of from ten to twelve quarters per hour, in
a thin stream or layer, below the reciprocatory frame
with its square cells.

An adaptation of this apparatus to a winnowing ma-
chine was also exhibited. In this a series of elevators
take the grain as it is passed from the winnowing-
machine, and carry it up to the hopper, from which
it is passed to the hummelling frame.

(7.) Mr. Simpson, engineer, of Petersham, Surrey, ex-
hibited a new hay and straw band-making machine, which
presents some features worthy of notice. The appa-
ratus consists of an oblong frame, supported on four
standards ; in the centre of the frame a shaft, with fly-
wheel and small pulley, revolves in bearings. From
the small diameter pulley fixed on the shaft, power is
taken, by means of a belt, to two other pulleys of same
diameter, fixed on the shafts revolving in bearings near
each end of the framing; To the outer extremities of each
of the shafts the hook, to which the hay or straw to
form the band required, is attached. Under ordinary
circumstances the hooks do not revolve, although the
.shafts to which they are connected may be revolv-
ing ; but as soon as the straw or hay is attached,
and the", " drag" — made by the operator as he walks
outward from the machine — put on, the hook is pulled
outwards till it engages with a catch on the driving
shaft, and it immediately partakes of its motion ; on
the " drag" being stopped, the hook is pulled out of
connection with the catch of the shaft by means of a
spring. By this arrangement three separate lengths of
bands may be made; and as each hook is in a quiescent
state when no band is attached to it or dragged on it,
should one operator be finished with his length before
another, he can commence a new attachment to the
hook without necessitating the stoppage of the other
two, which would be the case if the hooks had no move-
ments ^independent of the shafts to which they are at-
tached.

(8.) In the department of machines for the preparation
of food for stock, we have little novelty to describe. Mr.
Bentall exhibited his patent root pulper. As this is a
comparatively new machine, we may here shortly de-
scribe it. Its main feature is the employment of a
central barrel or drum revolving in the lower part of
the hopper which receives the roots on which the
machine operates, in close contact with, and parallel to,
a small worm or archimedean screw. The large barrel
or drum is provided with a series of projecting teeth of
a hooked or curved form ; these are not arranged in
parallel Imes in the periphery of the drum, but are set
spirally, forming a helical line, the pitch of which cor-
responds with that of the small archimedean screw
noticed above. To one end of the shaft of the central
barrel or drum the fly-wheel is keyed on, to the other
a spur wheel engaging with a pinion fixed on the end of
the archimedean screw shaft. As the screw revolves,
the thread or blade passes continuously between the
projecting teeth of the drum, and the combined action
thus resulting, the tearing of the teeth and the lateral
or side squeezing of the blade of the screw, rapidly re-
duce the roots subjected to it to a fine pulp. As the
projecting teeth of the drum are not cast on it, but are
wedged into slots or apertures provided in its periphery,
should any break they can easily be replaced by new
ones.

(9.) In the department of chaff-cutters, Messrs. Rich-
mond and Chandler exhibited a new form, which is
noticeable for its compactness of parts and neatness of

96

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

appearance. In its mechanical arrangement it is similar
to their well-known chaff-cutter, and is characterised
by careful workmanship.

(10.) Mr, W. Snowden, of Longford, Gloucester, exhi-
bited a chaff-cutting machine, which possesses considera-
ble novelty of detail, and is worthy of attention from the
ease with which a single attendant can work a large
machine. The principal peculiarity is the absence of
feed-rollers, and toothed gear. The hay and straw are
only passed outwards when the knife is out of contact
with them, so that no power is lost in the mate-
rial pressing on the knife. The whole length of
the box (seven feet) acts as the bottom feeder, and by
a simple adjustment of a thumb-screw, different lengths
can be cut, varying from -g^ of an inch to H inches
long. The bottom feeder consists of an endless cloth,
revolving on back and front rollers. To the front roller
a ratchet wheel is attached, to which motion is com-
municated by a lever and catch, that being moved by
a pin placed in the front frame of the machine. This
frame has a reel precatory movement given to it through
the medium of si crank, worked through the agency of

the fly-wheel which carries the cutting knives. The
front frame is provided with a cross bar, to the centre of
which a stud is fixed ; to this stud the end of a cross
lever is jointed ; this lever is carried backwards a short
distance, and is jointed at its other extremity to a stud
fixed in the centre of an iron block, which acts as the
top feeder, and which moves up and down in grooves
made in the sides of the framing of the machine.
This iron block carries a revolving roller midway be-
tween the lever. Jointed at either end to the front frame
with the iron block, another lever placed at right
angles to it is fixed. This lever is nearer the front
frame than to the block. Pivots are provided at each
end of this cross lever, to which a board, called by the
inventor the pressing-board, is attached ; as this pressing
board is not under the control of the crank, it presses
on all thicknesses of material, from three to seven inches,
passing out to the action of the cutting knife, and the
iron block sliding in a groove accommodates itself also
to all the thicknesses. When the iron block goes down
the pressing-board rises up, so that the iron block acts
alternately as feeder and presser. R. S. B.

THE ADVANTAGES OF LEASES.

On the 30th of December last this question was brought
imder discussion at the monthly meeting of the Winfrith
Farmers' Club. The subject stood aa "The Advantages of
Leases; Security to the Tenant an laducement for the Outlay
of Capital."

Mr. Reader, after a few introductory remarks, said the
subject for that evening's discussion was a most important one,
as it affected the whole farming interest of England, who, he
was informed, had, some years since, over £6,000,000 invested
in lands, which amount was increasing year by year, as im-
provements took place. The question for their general con-
sideration would be: "Were any advantages to be derived
from leases? Were they inducements for the outlay of capi-
tal ? Who would be benefited by leases ? And would any
parties be injured by them ?" He trusted that they should
prove by their discussion that they were not actuated by any
selfish motives or hostility towards any party, but that their
arguments were intended to improve the state of agriculture
in general, which must necessarily improve the position of
the landlord, the tenant, and labourer. He thought no one
would deny that the most practical landholders of this king-
dom long since saw the necessity of giving to the tenant a
security for his outlay, as an inducement to invest his money
with cheerfulness in every acknowledged improvement. For
instance, the late Lord Leicester, the Earl of Yarborough, and
the Duke of Bedford, he believed, adopted the system of
leases, coupled with a tenant-right at the end of it ; and he
(the speaker) was also credibly informed that neither of the
two first noble personages alluded to, ever had to pay one
shilling for those very great improvements which had been
acknowledged by all to have been made upon their estates ;
for they had always found their tenants ready and willing to
pay "for them themselves. Now, he would ask, where was the
gentleman to be found who had improved his property to the
same extent, at so small a cost, under the tenant-at-will system ?
The late Mr. Pusey likewise saw the necessity of a change,
and brought hia famous tenant-right bill before the House of
Commons on various occasions; and although it was rejected
on its first appearance by a large majority, it gradually gained
favour, and was twice carried through the Commons; only to
be rejected by the Lords. He believed, however, if that wor-
thy man who introduced it had only lived a few years longer
he would have seen it become the law of the land. Again,
let them consider also what that eminent man. Judge Gale,
said on this subject at the Botley Club two years since : " I
need not enlarge," said he, " on the absolute necessity there
is that the tenant should be protected by securing to him a
lengthened time in the possession of that land which, on all
sides, he is urged to improve by an investment of capital in

it." Another paragraph said, " The objects to be sought for
in a lease are security to 'the landlord and a freedom of action
to the tenant. The landlord desires to have security that the
land shall not be improperly cultivated, and the tenant that
he shall not be restricted in making the improvements which
his soi-disant friends are so liberally urging him to make."
Then he had the authority also of a practical man (Mr. Stares,
of Droxford) for saying that numerous existing leases pre-
scribed a course of cultivation which was simply absurd. By
a tacit consent these were commonly disregarded; and the
consequence was that the tenant would be better off without
a lease at all, as such a lease puts him, at all times, at the
mercy of the landlord, and, indeed, was of no use but to put
a fee into an attorney's pocket, for copying a senseless docu-
ment, originally prepared in the dark ages of agriculture. He
(Mr. Reader) had brought forward these remarks in order to
prove that the practical landholders had been prepared for a
change in the tenure of land for a long time past, having no
doubt themselves seen the difference in the improved culture
of the land which had been secured to the tenant for a length-
ened period over that held from year to year — except occasion-
ally, where a fair and equitable tenant-right had existed. If
such gentlemen as the noble lords he had before alluded to
could see the necessity of giving security to the tenant for his
outlay of capital as an inducement to invest more capital, and
to improve their land in every respect, when the general
system of farming, more especially in the west, was —

To plough and to sow.

To dress in and mow ;

Then harvest and thrash.

And market for cash,
was not that necessity increased five hundred times over,
when thousands of pounds were annually expended in this
county alone upon artificial manures, and thousands more in
feeding stuffs, a large portion of which could not be returned
for years ? He believed there were farmers in this country who
paid more every year for those manures and feeding stuff than
ever their rents amounted to — to say nothing of the extra
amount of labour this must necessarily entail. They had had
boues iu use as a manure only a few years, comparatively
speaking, and, if he remembered rightly, guaoo was first im-
ported into this country about the year 1836, by Gibbs and
Co., which sold at about £6 per ton. Since that time, how-
ever, a better quality had been found, and now, he believed,
the importation amounted to upwards of 240,000 tons. Then
there was superphosphate, the general manure for the root
crop, the quantity used being beyond description. He was
credibly informed that over £25,000 a year was spent in the
cou'.ity of Dorset alone upon artificial manures. He foimd

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

97

that although linseed cake had beea used extensively in some
of the upper counties, where security was given for the outlay,
for some years past, it had only been introduced here about
ten years since, by Mr. Virtue, the agent of Dixon and Cardus,
and its sale, though small at first, had gradually increased year
by year. Then, again, there were so many other sorts of feed-
ing stuflfs sold in the market, such as Indian ccra, lentil?, &c.,
&c. Now, if they took it that Messrs. Dixon and Cardus, by
their agent, sold 1,000 tons of linseed cake, and estimated that
sold by other firms at 1,000 tons more, at about £11 Ts. 6d.
per ton, they would have an amount equal to that spent in
manures besides all the other feeding stuffs named. He (the
speaker) would ask them whether this quantity might not be
doubled, nay trebled, and made to pay a good interest, pro-
vided tenants could be insured in their holdings ? They often
saw where money might be laid out advantageously^ if parties
were only sure of keeping their farms for a certain number of
years ; he believed, moreover, that if leases were generally
adopted, they would see machinery increase to a very great
extent. If a man were secure in his holding, he would doubt-
less adopt every modern principle of improvement, both in
culture and implements ; in fact, he would expend on the
k farm every pound at his command, provided he could see any

chance of getting something like a return for his outlay, even
though it were ever so far distant. He would endeavour to
improve his farm in every possible way ; he would likewise see
the necessity of turning his attention to the improvement of
the labourer, knowing full well that if attention were paid to
his comforts, for every little sum of money he might lay out
he would be sure to be amply repaid. If they were to havt:
machinery introduced among them, as in Scotland, they would
find that they must have an improved class of men for the
management of it. Now, he would ask why was it that
the Lothians of Scotland were held up as an example
4> to follow, and how came those parts to be so well culti-

vated ? Why, the fact was this — the tenants had
security for their capital, either by way of lease or
tenant-right. Mr. Reader then referred to a communication
which he had received from a friend in Scotland, regarding the
holdings of tenants. The writer, after drawing attention to a
town on the borders of Selkirk and Roxburghshire, near
which a small stream empties itself into the river Tweed, says:
" The country to the north of this is mountainous, and pre-
sents a very rugged and barren appearance, and is in many
places so steep as to render cultivation impossible aud most
• difficult. Its rocks contain no fossil of any description, and

are very hard ; covering them, howevei-, to various depths, is
a deposit of clay, of various degrees of tenacity. In some
places, where the underlying rocks are more brittle than in
others, the soil works easily ; in others it is very difficult to
reduce it to good tilth. It nearly alljeqnires to be drained ;
and when this is performed, and lime applied at the rate of
about four or five tons per acre, it will grow very good crops
of roots, grass, and corn. Not a great many years since the
only cultivation on the borders of the stream already men-
tioned was a mere strip of oats, and occasionally a little barley.
Now large fields are brought into cultivation on the steep
sides of the mountains ; and where a few years ago only
stunted heather, bad grass, and a little furze formed the only
productions, are now grown excellent crops of corn and roots.
One can frequently see two men sowing together, one of whom
sows oats, the other guano, despite its price. On most of
these farms there is a steam-engine fixed, which is the property
of the tenant; and by the goodly rows of feeding sheds, it is
at once evident that great attention is paid to beef-making.
The greater proportion of the draining of late years is done by
Government money, for which the tenant pays 6^ per cent. ;
but a large breadth is drained by the tenant, at his own ex-
pense, exceptiug the tiles. Without one exception, the whole
of these farms are held on leases of considerable length —
generally for 21 years— and the majority of the occupiers do
not expect to derive any profit until after the lease is half ex-
pired. Most of them make a good return for the money laid
out, and nearly all contribute greatly to the general improver
ment of the district. Fixed for so long a period in one place,
a complete identification with local and parochial affairs, and
a permanent interest in the labouring class, are fully secured;
while all the time the tenant feeb quite at home, and perfectly
independent, quietly pursuing his course, and year by year
gddiog sectiot} after section of the rugged steep to the culti-

vated portion of his farm. He feels he has confidence in him-
self, his soil, and the means employed ; he regards his landlord
with feelings of respect. It is impossible that such land could
have been cultivated by tenant farmers without leases ; nor
without them would men of capital and skill have been attracted
to so unpromising a district. Much as the Lothians have
been talked about, and high as is the position to which they
have risen in the agricultural world, there is nothing there
which speaks so forcibly, or which proclaims so unmistake-
ably, the advantages of long leases, as the higher districts
present ; and where we find cultivated farms, of 300 or
400 acres in extent, where twenty or thirty years a^o not more
than one-third was under the plough, aud that the breaking up
still continuei — where we find the face of the country so
changed — where we find everything altered, save one, namely,
the relation of landlord and tenant, and that secured by a
tough bond of 21 years' length — where we find time only
deepens the impression that such long terras tend to the
benefit of all concerned — there need be little hesitation in re-
commending a similar bend to the notice of all parties, and
more especially to those who are compelled to farm under the
unsatisfactory tenure of one year. Many instances could be
named wherein the land which produced, only a few years
since, poor grass, heath, and broom, and which was not worth
Is. 6d. per acre, is now considered cheap at 15s. per acre. I
have juat heard of an instance where, on a farm of 1,000 acres
of arable land, the tenant has expended, one way and another,
over £15,000, and hopes he will be repaid with good interest
before his lease expires. Of the indirect benefits of such a
system it is needless to say a word, as ;hey are patent to all."
Mr Reader then proceeded to say that he thought this com-
munication from Scotland quite sufficient to prove the desira-
bility of long leases. They had often heard of Scotland, of
Norfolk, of Nottingham, &c., as being well farmed, and ex-
amples worthy of following, but they did not tell them the
cause of this good farming. Tbey did not tell them that
security was given to the tenant, either by way of lease or
tenant-right. The system of making tenant-right at Not-
tingham was this : For bones, one-sixth after a crop of
turnips, the whole cost and carriage ; after one crop of corn
deduct two-sixths ; after one crop of corn and grass mown,
one-half; after one crop of corn and two of grass, four-sixths ;
and after two crops of corn and one year's grass, three-fourths.
For lime allow for two crops the whole value and labour before
a crop, and half labour after one crop. For all artificial
manures, snch as guano, rape-dnst, superphosphate of lime,
&c., one-third, witbout carriage, after one crop of corn or
grass mown. For linseed cake one-fourth of the bill for the
last two years, and in many cases one-fourth aud one-
sixteenth. This was a tenant-right, which certainly would
hold out some inducement to invest money, but not to half
the extent as a good long lease. He would ask them to look
around, and see where was the tenant, holding his farm from
year to year, aud liable to be turned out at six months' notice,
that could compete with his friend, the vice-chairman. (Hear,
hear). He (Mr. Reader) would ask him personally whether his
farm would have been so attractive as it was at the present
time, had he not been holding under a lease ? It might be
all very well for people to talk of the confidenea thc-y had in
this aud that gentleman ; but this he did object to, as it was
not based on a sound aud commercial principle ; and, how had
they seen that confidence abused within the last few years ?
He took, as an instance, the Duke of Northumberland. Not
many years since his tenants thought they were safe ; but the
Duke offered a few prizes for good cultivation, &c.,
and, after getting his farms improved by his tenants, he,
or his agent, with his sanction, drew up a lease, which
the tenants were to sign or quit. He (Mr. Reader) thought
it was admitted by all parties, who had the least knowledge of
farming, that it was quite impossible for any person to follow
the rules laid down, and the consequence was some of his
best tenants left. He believe he was right in saying that one
of the clauses gave the landlord or his steward the right to
take possession of the land and all stock, &c., on the farm, to
sell, aud such like, and to deduct the rent, aud what he
thought proper besides, for any littie deviation from the rules
prescribed in the leate, and then hand over the remainder to
the tenant. Mr. Reader then cited the case of another noble
earl who offered prizes in a similar way, and where a tenant
had spent in improving his farm, in about five years, no less

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

tlian £3,000, and who tten received six months' notice to
quit, and to leave behind him all the hard earnings of hia life
for the benefit of the landlord. This tenant, he beUeved he
was right in saying, had on the farm, at the time of receiving
notice to quit, some 700 tons of night-soil, collected from the
different towns, and 300 tons of lime. Nor was this the only
case where a tenant had been ejected from his holding under
similar circumstances. There was a certain captain (his
name we withhold) who received six months' notice to quit,
after having improved the farm to a very great extent ; but
there was this difference in the two cases — that the latter laid
no blame to his landlord, but on the steward, and would not
condescend to ask the reason why he was to be ejected ; whilst
the former inquired the cause, but obtained no reply. Now
they had uo means of knowing why either of these tenants,
who had proved themselves good farmers, and had added
wealth to the county, but who were now obliged to leave all
behind them, should be thus served. It might have been some
little petty affair. It might have been something respecting
those vermin, commonly known by the name of rabbits.
And were not most of them subject to such annoyances, and
often without the means of knowing what was reported to
landlords by gamekeepers against tenants ? He (the speaker)
thought if there was one reason more than another which
ought to urge tenants on to the necessity of having leases, it
was the rabbit system generally adopted by landlords. (Hear,
hear). He should certainly like to see what it costs the
county in keeping up those feudal game-laws. Before he
concluded, Mr. Reader begged to draw their attention to
another point, and that was to the impoverished state of the
pasture land in this county. T'That, he would ask, was the
cause of it? It was simply this — it required a longer time
to get a return on grass land than on arable ; and this he
beheved to be the only cause why the grass land had not at-
tracted the attention of the tenants generally. He would also
ask them this question : Supposing they were to manure a
piece of meadow land just after the hay-hervest (generally ad-
mitted to be the best time), and at Michaelmas receive six
months' notice to quit, what benefit would they derive from
the manure? None. This circumstance alone he thought
quite sufficient to call on landlords to grant leases for the be-
nefit of themselves, the tenants, and, above all, the labourer
(applause).

Mr. Randall perfectly agreed with Mr. Reader in his ob-
servations as to the advantage of leases. Although they were
quite satisfied that a great many tenaots-at-will had gone on
for a number of years, and that there had been a good feeling
existing between them and their landlords, still he did not
think there was any real security to a tenant, unless he were
holding under a lease. It often happened that a tenant-at-
will entered upon a farm, which might be in a. very bad state
of cultivation ; he might lay out his capital in improvements,
subject to quitting at six months' notice ; after expending
much of his capital, there might be such a thing as the farm
falling into other hands— there might be fresh stewards, and
such like ; therefore, unless there were security of some sort,
he did not think any man justified in laying out his capital
upon it.

Mr. Saunders (the Vice-President) said, as allusion had
been made to him by Mr. Reader, he begged to make one or
two observations. He had told them that he (Mr. Snundets)
had improved his land because he was holding it under a lease,
otherwise he could never have brought his farm to the state of
cultivation he had ; but he must inform them this had not
been done but at a very great expense. He did not approve
of what was termed the " cut-and-go " system, where a man
had a return for his money each succeeding year— they ought
to work for their landlords as well as themselves. He had
been spending a very considerable sum in manures, &c., dur-
ing the last thirty years ; therefore he thought that a man
holding under a long lease was of public good, because he was
employing a great deal of labour in the neighbourhood in
which he resided, and he was also expending a considerable
sum in manures, &c. ; therefore he was, in fact, a national
good. He (Mr. S.) considered the tenant-at-will system a
very bad one, because a man must make his rent during the
year be holds it, not knowing whether some one else might
not soon have possession ol it. No tenaut of a yearly holding was
j ustified in putting himself to a great expense, because his present
landlord might die, and he knew not who might then have it

In those cases it sometimes happened that the landlord migh4
say, when the farm was looking well, " I do not want to lose yon,
but then I must have more money ;" and perhaps, by having a
notice to quit, this brought him and his family into difficulties.
If ever they passed by a farm (generally speaking) that
was badly cultivated, and made the inquiry of the tenant,
"How is it you do not farm better?" the reply was, "I
am only a yearly tenant, and I must do the best I can."
Many had told them that the reason they could not do better
arose from the circumstance of their being only yearly
tenants. Although they advocated a lease upon a farm, very
much depended upon the conditions of that lease whether a
man could put that farm into a good state or not. He (the
speaker) called a seven years' lease no lease at all, ia fact he
would rather be a yearly tenant in such a case; but if a
tenant had a fourteen years' lease he could go to work, for his
hands were not then so much tied. He did not think,
however, that a landlord was justified in letting for a long
lease to a man who takes a farm and puts nothing on it, such
an one was not entitled to a lease. There ought to be an un-
derstanding between landlord and tenant that the lease should
be an open one until within the last one or two years of its
expiration, so that there might be sufficient time allowed the
latter for recovering himself. He did not like the idea of
being compelled to adhere to certain rules, that wheat must be
sown one year, and turnips another, and soon; for his own.
part he was holding under an agreement to sow how he liked
until within the last two years of the expiration of the lease.
Mr. Saunders then repeated his argument, that if they saw a
farm badly managed, it generally turned out to be a yearly
tenure. He then cited a case where a man had a farm in
Hampshire, which was much stocked with rabbits and hares.
The tenant gave notice that he should give it up at the ex-
piration of his lease. The farm was offered to others, but no
one appeared willing to take it, on account of its being so in-
fested with rabbits, &c., and the consequence was the landlord
was obliged to take it into his own hands. At length, how-
ever, some one came along and offered to take it, provided
these vermin were only got rid of ; and the landlord having
consented, a great number of rabbits were destroyed. He
(Mr. S.) would advise everyone to have the damage done by
the rabbits taken into consideration in their agreement. If
the landlord paid for it, it would be all very well. He should
be sorry, however, to place any restriction upon the landlord,
and he hoped that he should always be able to see his own
have a good day's sport. As for rabbits, he called them no
sport : they were nothing but vermin. In conclusion, he ob-
served that if a man did not manage his farm well during the
first lease, a second ought not to be granted him. No doubt
there were a great many good landlords in this county to
yearly tenants, but he thought a tenant of that description
was not justified in farming " up to the mark," as if he held
under a lease. If a man had a lease for 12 or 14 years the
landlord ought to do many things towards improving the
farm, and the tenant should be expected to do a great many
more. He again urged the necessity of long leases.

After a few observations from Mr. Clarke, Mr. Reader, and
others,

Mr. Jackson said it so happened that he had rented one
farm as a yearly tenant, and one he had held under a lease.
The first he took was as a yearly tenant, and the farm was
very much out of condition, for it had been very badly managed.
However, he set to work to improve it ; and after some few
years he had the satisfaction of seeing it produce good crops ;
but he soon after had the misfortune of feeling the ill effects
of the system alluded to by Mr. Reader. He found that
although be was trying to produce good crops, he had those
vermin (rabbits) come and eat them up. It was true, he had
one of the best landlords he could possibly wish, but he had
the misfortune of having some one to go between and make
mischief; circumstances being misreprestnted as regarded the
damage done by the rabbits. Mr. Jackson then went on to
say that he obtained leave to kill what rabbits and hares he
thought proper, and an improvement soon took place. At
length, however, he desired to leave the farm, but did not like
leaving behind what he had put upon it. He therefore asked
permission to chooae a tenant to take the same off his hands :
but the consequence was the rent was to be raised, on acouut
of the improvements which had been made. The result of this
was that he could not demand so much of the in-coming tenant

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

99

as he should wish. He theu thought he was entitled to receive
some corapensatiou from the landlord for his outlay, and he
kindly handed bim a cheque on that account. If they could
secure such landlords as that, they would not require long
leases ; but if he had died, what would have become of his
farm ? for here he had buried, as it were, his property in the
soil. When he took the next farm he began to be a little
wiser, and had it upon a lease. He took it upon the following
terms — either for seven or fourteen years, to be at his option
to leave at the end of seven if he felt inclined. After some
further remarks, the speaker proceeded to say that he was very
glad to find Mr. Reader had brought forward something on
the rabbit system. He thought the farmers of England were
very remiss in not coming forward in a body against it — he
did not mean against the landlords. He had the honour of
introducing the subject at an agricultural meeting some little
time since. Sir E. B Lytton occupying the chair; aud he was
gratified to hear the tables ring, and the hands clap, when he
spoke against the game laws. If, however, Mr. A. was run-
ning with the stream, and Mr. B. was rowing against it, one
had better be out of the way altogether (Hear, atid laughter).
He did not say this for the purpose of setting the landlord and
tenant at variance, for he wished them to go on hand in hand;
but depend upon it as long as the gamekeeper stood between
them, they would never get on (loud applause.)

After a few observations from Mr. Reader, and others.
The Chairman having expressed himself in favour of the
long lease system, offered a few remarks on the rabbit system,
remarking that it was a suhject between landlord and tenant ;
the matter ought to be laid before the landlord, who must be
told that the rabbits are a nuisance. It was quite impossible
to farm well when they had a lot of these about thera. He
then proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Reader, for the able
manner in which he had brought forward his subject.

Mr. Fowler said there was one part of the subject he
should like to notice, and that was with regard to the vast
amount of waste land in certain parts which might be brought
into a state of cultivation. It had occurred to him that if they
had the advantage of a long lease, trouble might be taken to
make it productive. Let them look &t the heath-lands, for
instance ; but if they had not length of time given them, it
was impossible to do anything with it. With regard to the
inexhaustible improvements upon their farms, he did think
that it would be of great advantage, both to the laud-
lord and tenant, if compensation were allowed. He concluded
by seconding the proposition of Mr. Daraen.

Mr. Reader, in returning thanks, referred to what had
fallen from Mr. Fowler respecting the cultivation of waste
lands, aud observed that if, as he had shown thera, such a
thing could be done in Scotland under long leases, surely it
might be done in this country — for what would apply to Scot-
land, would in some degree apply to England. He thought
there was a great deal of waste land in this country that could
be made to produce good crops, provided the system of long
leases was adopted. He hoped he should live to see a different
system iu the holdings of land in this country than at the
present time. He theu moved the following resolution :
" That this club would strongly recommend to the notice of
the landholders and tenants the necessity there exists for im-
proving the cultivation of the land, so as to develope its re-
sources to its full extent, which cannot be carried out under
the present tenure, more especially grass land. They would
recommend leases of 21 years, determinable at the end of 14
years, by either party giving two years' notice ; and at the
expiration of the terra a fair and equitable sum to be paid for
unexhausted improvements."

The resolution having been carried unanimously, the pro-
' ceedinga terminated.

HADDINGTON AGRICULTURAL CLUB.

The monthly meeting of this Club was held in the George
Inn, Haddington, on Friday, Jan. 8, Mr. Samuel Sheriff, Salt-
coats, in the chair. There was a large attendance of members ;
and, after dinner and the usual loyal toasts, the subject before
the meeting was, " Reports by Members of Experiments with
Artificial Manures."

The Chairman said : Gentlemen, we are met this after-
noon to hear " Reports of Experiments with Artificial Ma-
nures, by Members of this Club." You will recollect how, last
spring, we came to discuss what were the " Best Substitutes
for Guano." The continued rise in the price of guano com-
pelled us to do this. The results of a few experiments made
for this object I have now the pleasure to lay before you. But,
gentlemen, will you bear with me while I introduce the subject
by a few observations upon the marked change which has
taken place within the last few years, both in the desire by agri-
culturists to give all the information in their power, also in
the means of their doing so ? Is it not a startling fact, gentle-
men, when we think of it now, but a few years ago and we
had no agricultural newspaper ? All agricultural information
was conveyed, and but sparingly, through the medium of the
"AgriculturalJournal of the Highland Society." Now, through
the N. B. Agriculturist, we have a weekly record of the agri-
cultural practice of Great Britain. What stimulus this gives
to practical husbandry I One great feature of the age we live
in is the desire for information; and this again is met by as
great a desire to impart it. Some years ago, I remember
(shortly after this Club was formed), we had a serious discus-
sion whether our discussions and reports were to be given to
the public. Were such a motion to be made now, what would
become of it ? It is by this system, and this system alone,
that the proper cultivation of tae soil is to be continued and
increased, in order to keep pace with the rapid strides of ad-
vance made in every other science. Some very cautious men
would argue, it does not do to tell too much. An invention
in machinery is patented, and an immediate reward accrues
to the inventor. Can you grow 14 bolls of wheat or 40
tons of turnips per acre, by following some system

known only to yourself? Do so, and keep your secret. 1
would compare the man who would do so " to the servant who
hid his talent in the earth." Cultivators of the soil have a
heavy responsibility ; besides having their own interests to
look after, what countless thousands depend on them for the
substantial necessaries of life ! The more you can make the
soil produce the better for the grower, aud the greater the
supply the better for the consumer. The only antidote to
low-priced grain is to grow more of it, if possible ; or by making
an acre of turnips feed two cattle instead of one, you can af-
ford to take a cheaper price per stone. Some years ago, when
grain was considerably cheaper than at present, this doctrine
was both preached and practised successfully. But the means
at command were very different. We could procure the finest
Peruvian guano at £9 per ton, nitrate of soda at £15, rapedust
about £4 lOs. Contrast the present prices of these articles.
Why, in guano alone, the farmer using 30 tons, finds an extra
charge of £180. Why are these things so ? We have it iu
our power to resist extortion, simply by refusing for a time to
use the article. Why have we frequently to take much less of
a Friday for our grain ? Just because the buyers refuse to
give more. Look at the heavy fall which has taken place of
late in the price of almost every marketable commodity — skins
and hides especially. All this falls upon the farmer ; and are
they going to be so inconsiderate as to give the present high
demand for guano ? But this brings me to the subject now at
issue. Before laying the results of the experiments before
you, let me ask why you try experiments ? Of course, you
anticipate the answer, viz., for a two-fold reason — first, to as-
certain what is really the most profitable stimulant to apply to
vegetation ; and secondly, to detect the weaknesses of the
many fertilizers now offered to farmers. There is not a season
without something new, and the best ever heard of has not
been offered to us. We are asked by some one or other to try
his patent improved quintessence of something or other ; you
are prevailed upon to try it, and find yourself minus £8 93.
without any benefit — sometimes a loss, because some safer and
known stimulant wou d have secured a good crop.

TOO

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Table No. 1.
experiments with swedish turnips.
Farmyard manure applied on the stubble, 30 loads to the acre
Scots. Artificial manurea applied in the dfill at the rate of
5 cwt. per acre.

Cost per acre. Yield.
ton;. C9;t.
No. 1. Mixture 21 cwt. guano and 2^

cwt. B. manure, at lis. Gi £2 17 6 22 14

No, 2. 5 cwt. Ball's manure, at 93. ., 2 5 0 19 10

No. 3. 5 cwt. Peruvian euauo, at 143.

6d ...."'. 3 12 6 23 6

No. 4. 5 cwt. B. manure, at 83. 6 !.. . 2 2 (5 21 5

No. 5, same application as No. 1, but

different seed, at 11a. 6d 2 17 6 15 13

Comparative Results of the above.
Guano, No. 3, gives 12 cwt. of swedes more tliaa No. 1,
but at a cost of 15s.

No. 3 gives 2 tons 1 cwt. more than No. 4, but at a cost of
£1 10s.

No. 3 gives 3 tons 16 cwt. more than No. 2, at a coat of
£1 7s. 6d.

No. 5, Different seed, 7 tons 13 cwt.

Table No. 2.

experiments with white globe.

No manure to stubble.

tons. cwt.
No. 1. 8 cwt. per acre superphosphate,

at 8s £3 4 0 9 0

No. 2. 8 cwt. guano, Peruvian, at 12s.

6d 5 0 0 12 12

fJ -.3. 8 cwt. B. manure, at 83. 6d.. . 3 8 0 10 4

No. 4. 8 cwt. ludian guano, atSs 3 4 0 10 16

No. 5. Mixture, 5 cwt. bones and 3

cwt. guaao, at lOs. 6d 4 4 0 12 0

Comparative Results of the above.
No. 2, Guauo, gives 3 tons 12 cwt. more than No. 1, at a
cost of £\ 16s.

No. 2, Guaao, gives 2 tons 8 cvct. more than No. 3, at a cost
of£l 12s.

No. 2, Guano, gives 1 ton 16 cwt. more than No. 4, at a
cost of £1 16s.

No. 2, Guano, gives 12 cwt. per acre more than No. 5, at a
cost of I63.

Table No. 3.
expebiments with purple top.

tons, cwt.
No. 1. Mixture, 10 cwt. drill bones

and 5 Civt. rape, at 6s. 3d. per cwt. £4 13 9 14 8
No. 2. Mixture, 3 cwt. guano, Peru-
vian, and 5 cwt. superphospliate, at
10s. 6d. per cwt 4 4 0 16 4

Comparative Results.
No. 2, gives 1 ton 16 cwt. more than No. 1, costing 9s. 9d.
leas.

Well, gentlemen, the results of the experiments whkh I
now lay before you, go to prove that guano is the greatest
fertilizer we possess ; but when you come to count tlie cost.
it is not the most profitable at its present price— at least,
from an analysis of my experiments. You will observe -
that the extra quantity of turnips raised from guano cost
the owner too much. The striking feature in the experi-
ment No. 5 of Table 1, shows how important it is to secure
the best variety of seed. Why, here is an actual difference
ot 7 tons 13 cwt. where the same manures were applied.
But this is a subject for another discussion. I would detain
you too long were I to enlarge on this theme. 1 now refer
you to Table No. 2. The small crop will startle you all.
This I attribute entirely to accident. The first braird was
completely burnt up by the hot sun we had for some days
during the latter part of .Tune and beginning of July. I
had to re-sow the field, with the exception of a small
portion, where I had the experiment between rape and drill
iDones agamst guano and superphosphate. They suffered
also from the hot sun. The soil is almost pure sand.
Gentlemen,-! hesitated whether or not to tell of this small
crop. Are we not too proud often to speak of our large
crops, and keep the small ones to ourselves? I would call

your attention particularly to the fact of this new guano ;
Indian guano, at £8 per ton, having grown a larger crop
than superphosphate. I would refer you to an experiment
made in Roxburghshire, where, when mixed with Peruvian,
it gives a greater return than Peruvian alone. This is a
fact well worthy of notice. I was rather surprised with
the result of the experiments with purple-top turnips. The
mixti^re of guano and dissolved bones brairded sooner, and
were ready for singling some days before the other ; but
during autumn the contrast was most marked — the leaves
of the rape and drill bones' experiment continued green
long after the other had withered: but the earlier turnips
this season were by far the best crop, and in eight seasons
out often we will find this to be the case. But I fear I trespass
too long, when I consider the other reports to be brought
before you, while, I cannot close without cxpressingjahope
that we may really, and in earnest, try to resist the high
price asked for guano. This is a season of great commercial
depression. It is felt by all. May the cloud which now
hangs over us soon disappear. I am sure all who deal in the
artificial manures moat in vogue must know that the greater
the quantity sold, even at a small profit, is best for themselves.
I would close ray observations with one remark on the diffi-
culty of arriving at correct conclusions, unless experiments are
repeated. This county stands pre-eminent for its agriculture.
Let it not be behind others in its endeavours to impart ad-
ditional information. I may mention that the measurements,
weighing, &c., of my experiments were conducted under the
eye of Mr. Patrick Sheriff, whose qualifications for this are
known to you al).

Mr. Hope, Pentou Barns, said : He had listened with much
interest to the excellent paper which the Ctiairman had just
read. The experiments appeared to have been carefully con-
ducted, and the results accurately ascertained. There was,
however, something very singular attending the turnip crop
this year. Some fields v.ere remarkably fine, and others very
inferior. A difference in a single day in the sowing made a
difference of tons per acre in the crop, while an over-luxuriance
in leaves in many cases diminished the size of the bulbs.
Guano had not this year with him maintained its wonted
superiority; perhaps they had been applying it too liberally
for some time past, and manures richer in phosphates might
be found more profitable. He had tried Cant's manure,
which had been supplied to him by Mr. Peacock, of Edin-
burgh, in growing swedes. The land was well manured with
farm-yard dung on the stubble in autumn. He gave 7J cwt.
of Cam's manure, and 8 bushels bone-dust in the drills.
Adjoining, he gave 5 cwts. Peruvian guano and 8 bushels
bone-dust, all per Scotch acre. The guano had much the
strongest leaves throughout the season, and, when he went to
weigh the crop, he thought the difference in favour of the
guano would be 2 or 3 tons per acre ; but it turned oat only
12 cwt. and some lbs. He had also sown a ton of manure
which he got from Mr. Ball, North Berwick. He applied 8
cwt. per Scotch acre, along with about 20 carts dung in the
drills, as against 5 cwt. guano- and 8 bushels bones. The
crop was purple-top yellow, and Mr. Ball's manure produced
the heaviest crop by 10 cwt., though neither was so heavy as
he expected. From these results, and the high price of guano,
he was resolved to use less guano and more of bones and
other manures containing a greater proportion of phosphates.
Mr. Bavid Sheriff, Muirton, gave the following report of the
experiments made by him at Muirton for crop 1857 : —
Experiments made upon Muirton Farm — Crop 1857.
This season I made a trial of six different lots of white tur-
nips, of three drills each, sown about the 15th of May, 1857 ;
manured at the expense of £5 12s. per Scotch acre. The
result was as follows:—

tons. cwts.

Guano 34 16

Dissolved bones ... ... .,. 26 9

B. manure ... ... ... 29 0

Rape dust 30 9

Blood manure ... ... ... 29 0

Manning's patent ... ... 29 0

I made another trial also this season, with guano against
Manning's patent manure. The land was dunged in winter at
the rate of 28 carts of home dang per Scotch acre, and at sow-
ing 2101b3. of guano against 5 cwt. of Manning's patent
msjuirf;. The turnips were sown on the 4th of June, 1857,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

101

and weighed on the 11th of December laat.
as follows : —

Gaano aud manure — ■ tona.

Green top white 27

Purple top 21

Manning aud manure —

Green top 27

Purple top 19

Money value of each of the manures, £1 63. 3d.

The

result

was

3wfc.

St.

lb.

18

0

0

11

1

2

0

6

12

1

3

6

Mr. Robert Scot Skirving, Campton ; Mr. Durie, Standing-
stane; Mr. Cunningham, guano merchant, Edinburgh, and
other members, took part in the discussion ; and a committee,
consisting of Mr. George Hope, Mr. Sydserff, Ruchlaw ; Mr
Robert Scott Skirving, Mr. Samuel Sheriff, and Mr. David
Sheriff, was appointed to frame rules for members conducting
experiments in raising turnips with the different manures —
the results to be reported to the meeting of the Club in
January, 1859. — Norlh British Agriculturist.

MANURE WITHIN REACH OF THE FARMER.

Sir, — " Let nothing be lost," was the command of
our divine Lord and Master to his disciples many cen-
turies ago ] and although, since these ages have
elapsed, laws have altered and customs changed, the
force of the axiom still remains unimpaired, aud whe-
ther with reference to the warnings we may receive, the
opportunities afforded us, or the advantages placed
within our reach, it forms the basis of all success and
prosperity in every undertaking : " Let 7iot king he lost."
In applying this maxim to the collecting of manure, it
might not be out of place to bear in mind the Scotch
adage, " A stone is the only mote in a muck-heap";
but a more extended knowledge of things has taught us
that what have long been considered stones are even to
be made valuable as a manure. Almost every thing,
therefore, is worthy of our attention in this respect, and
is in some way or other to be rendered available in
aiding fertilization.

In days when agriculture was much more imperfectly
understood than at present, great carelessness was ex-
hibited with regard to manure. Much valuable material
was burnt, liquid manure allowed to run waste, and
even the excrements of the stock with the straw lay
exposed to evaporation, under a burning sun, and to
waste by fermentation. I would be glad if in our day,
and under the authority of an enlightened state of
agriculture, no such abuses existed. But alas 1 I am
sorry to be forced to acknowledge that men with their
eyes open should still be equally neglectful of these
important elements of successful agriculture, annually
spending large sums upon artificial manures (many of
which are altogether useless), and neglecting to take
advantage of those valuable fertilizers produced upon
their own farms, which require only care, attention,
and a small outlay, to be rendered available.

The soil is to be considered as the great store-house,
to contain the food of plants, and the medium operated
upon by air, water, and heat, which, by their various
actions upon the soil and the manure which it contains,
transforms certain of their constituents into such a
soluble and gaseous state as to be absorbed by the
spongioles of the roots, and enter into the organization
of the plant ; so that it is by the application of the
proper manures to the proper crop, and in such quan-
tities as to meet the requirements of the soil, that the
result in the crop, in ordinary cases, is to be attributed
to the different descriptions of soil affecting this more
particularly by their tendency to retain moisture or the
contrary, their liability to become over-saturated, their
power of attracting heat, or their readiness to become
impregnated with those gases assimilated by the plants ;
so that the value of soils is not entirely dependent upon
the amount of the food of plants which they naturally
contain, but by the manner in which they (according to
their nature) allow the food supplied in the manure to
be assimilated by the plants, and yield to them the
greatest benefit of which it is capable.

Having thus briefly adverted to the action of manure
in the soil and its assimilation by plants, with the view

of illustrating how necessary it is for every farmer to
bestow the greatest attention upon the care and manage-
ment of his manures, let me now turn more particularly
to the object of my letter ; and first reflect upon
that custom so prevalent in all parts of the
country of burning couch-grass and all vege-
table rubbish collected upon the farm, a practice
which I consider most wasteful and impolitic. By
analysis we learn that throughout the vegetable kingdom
there exists a great similarity in the constitution of
plants, their components being almost the same, but
existing in different proportions in different kinds of
plants ; surely, then, it is reasonable to conclude that
there must be contained in all vegetable matter much
that is valuable as the food of plants, and requiring
only to be brought into such a condition as to be assimi-
lated by them. No doubt combustion is a sure means
of destroying the vitality of all seeds and weeds of every
description ; but it is an equally certain modeof dissipa-
ting mucilaginous, gelatinous, saccharine, oily, and extrac-
tive fluids, which along with solution of carbonic acid and
water are substances, which in their unchanged state
contain almost all the principles necessary for the life of
plants. The substances, therefore, which principally
compose vegetable matter are dissipated by the action of
fire ; and thus, by the loss of those very ingredients
which constitute their chief value as a manure, they be-
come reduced to a mere fraction of their original bulk.

Upon retentive soils, burnt earth or calcined clay may
have a very good effect ; but in this case their action
(particularly the latter) is almost entirely mechanical,
by disintegrating the soil — their value as a manure con-
sisting chiefly in the amount of carbon, and its power of
absorbing ammonia from the atmosphere. Paring and
burning, although perhaps judicious in reclaiming certain
lands in which all kinds of troublesome seeds, roots, grubs,
and larvse of insects abound, still in very many instances
in which it is adopted it must be pronounced a wasteful
practice ; but whilst benefit may result from the applica-
tion of fire in the instances above-mentioned, we know of
no pretext whatever, beyond that of custom, for the burn-
ing of couch-grass and other vegetable refuse. Experi-
ments have proved that the ashes of burnt straw are tn
excellent manure, but who would think of con-
suming his straw by fire ! And yet as regards manure,
this would be more excusable than the combustion of
vegetable matter, inasmuch as the constituents of straw
have become more solidified, and require more powerful
means to effect decomposition than succulent vegetable
matter, and also far less valuable, much of its quality
being lost in ripening the grain. In ploughing in succu-
lent vegetables for manure, of course decomposition
immediately takes place without any preparation, and,
with almost every description, a very slight incipient fer-
mentation is only necessary to commence decay of the
woody fibre ; in fact, to allow any manure to ferment
to a great degree is highly prejudicial to the interests of
the farmer. Sir H. Davy even doubts whether straio
would not be more beneficial as a manure if chopped up

102

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and applied in a dry state, ratber than lose much of its
value by fermentation ; but we are now too well ac-
quainted with the value of straw as an absorbent, &c., to
be enabled to apply it in such a manner- To destroy
the vitality of couch-grass or such-like weeds, theappli-
cation of quick-lime, salt, or vitriol with a degree of
fermentation is necessary. But where fermentation is
going on in a dunghill, it is of great" advantage to cover
it with burnt earth to absorb the disengaged gases ; or,
if burnt earth cannot be had, then common salt with
gypsum will have a good effect.

And now, sir, will you allow me to say a word to
brother farmers upon liquid manure : I mean that pro-
duced in the farm-yard. Much has already been said
and written upon the subject. I will not, therefore, be
tedious, nor stop to notice all the different plans that
have been tried and recommended for its use. Still, I
see numerous instances of its being neglected. Why
should this be ? It is the very essence of your manure.
Try to prevent its being over-diluted with water by
troughing your buildings, &c., although a little water
mixed with it is advantageous when applied in a liquid
state; but get your muck-heaps to absorb as much
of it as you can. Apply it also in abundance to the
earth you have carted for bottoms to your muck-heaps,
and, if well saturated, they will be valuable, although
not mixed with muck at all. Convert it into solid as
much as possible : by this means you prolong its action
in the soil. But, when you do apply it in a liquid
state, it has a good effect upon grass-land of every de-
scription ; and, from the amount of its ammoniacal
qualities, I have found it very beneficial to corn-crops
whenever applied upon the land before ploughed up for
sowing. Urine contains the essential elements of vege-
tables in a state of solution, and consequently in a state
of the utmost possible preparedness, and is eminently
suited to all crops v^hich require speedy and large ali-
menting with such saline and organic principles as it
contains; but in a liquid state its operation is quick,
but not durable.

I will now conclude with a few remarks upon
other two descriptions of manure within reach of
the farmer, and which well deserve attention, viz.,
the manure from the fowls' house and ashes from
the fires. These are too valuable to be mixed
with the farm-yard manure, they can be applied
by themselves with much greater advantage. It has been
computed that fowls' dung, v/eight for weight, is half
as valuable as Peruvian guano, and that no description
of manure is more deteriorated by decomposition ; to
prevent which, it ought to remain untouched until re-
quired for use, and gypsum or powdered charcoal

sprinkled over it once a week, to prevent the escape of
the ammonia. But without further remark, I will
briefly describe a method of applying fowls' dung and
ashes, which I have seen practised for many years with
eminent success. The ashes throughout the year are
collected in a heap, and with them a quantity of rich
mould mixed ; this is saturated with liquid manure from
the tank as often as it requires. A week or two before
turnip-sowing, the manure from the fowl's house is
brought, also a small quantity of ground bones. These
are all mixed together, and twice turned over, and in-
cipient fermentation allowed to commence. It is then
taken to the field ; shallow ridges are formed, in the
bottom of which the manure is planted in small handfuls
from 9 to 12 inches apart, at the rate of 1^ to 2 tons an
acre, according to the richness of the compost. This is
performed by women with baskets. The seed is then
sown with a machine along the ridges, after the manure
has been lightly covered with a plough. So eminently is
this adapted for turnips, that I never recollect seeing it
fail — always producing a crop superior to any other plan,
and even showing good effects upon the succeeding crop
of barley.

I am afraid, Mr. Editor, I have trespassed too far upon
your valuable space; I hope, however, the importance
of the subject (however imperfectly treated) will be a
sufficient apology for my intrusion. For although many
farmers are very careful to turn everything to advantage,
there are numerous others who^although readily admit-
ting the necessity and propriety of so doing — are never-
theless very careless and indifferent in the performance
of it. And if from a deficiency of chemical knowledge
I have committed mistakes in the course of my remarks,
still I think the accuracy of the principles I have
attempted to lay down cannot be doubted— viz., that
plenty of manure is a most essential element in good
farmin^r ; that the care and management of manures
produced upon the farm are much neglected ; that the
burning of vegetable matter is wasteful ; that by allow-
ing fermentation to go too far much loss is sustained ;
that liquid manure is of great value ; and that fowls'
dung and ashes deserve special attention : in short, that
almost everything quite valueless in other respects is of
value as muck ; and that it behoves every farmer to turn
to the greatest advantage the supply of manure produced
upon his own farm before purchasing at the expensive
and deceptive mart of the manufacturer and importer.
And no watchword will prove a surer guide to the
accomplishment of this object than that with which we
introduced this subject — " Let nothing be lost."

Wm. Arnott,

Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Jan, 13.

ON THE METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE STARCH FROM THE POTATO.

Tlie operations for this purpose are as follows :

1st, Washing the tubers.

2nd, Reducing them to a pulp, by rasping.

3rd, Pressing the pulp.

4th, Washhig the rough starch.

5th, Draining and drying the produce.

6th, Bolting and storing.

1st. Thewashing of the tubers requires particular atten-
tion, any dirt left on them being injurious to the purity of
the starch. The water itself ought to be perfectly pure
and clear. An open cylinder, working m a trough, into
which a stream of watcr_ can be constantly pouring, is the
best method of effecting it.

2nd. The rasping is accomplished by cylinders made of
sheet-iron, roughed by having holes thickly punched in it

from the inside, so as to form a grater. Or, if a more ex-
pensive and durable machine is required, the cylinder is
furnished with iron cutters, set in wood. This is placed
under a hopper similar to that of a corn-niill. The cutting
cylinder is made to turn rapidly— say from GOO to 900
times per minute ; but the quicker tliis is done, the
moi-e eifectual will be the separation of the starch, &c., in
the tubers. The cylinder should be about 16 inches long,
and 20 inches in diameter ; and such a one, revolving by
means of multiplying wheels 800 times per minute, will
reduce 50 bushels of potatoes per hour to a perfect pulp.
It may be worked either by water, steam, horse, or hand-
power.

3rd. The pulping being effectecl, it is passed through a
wire sieve; and the cellular tissues, which constitute the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

103

coarser parts, are separated, and must be pressed, to extract
from it what starcli still remains.

4th. Water is poured on the pulp whilst passing through
the sieve. This is run into vats, in which it is allowed to
|settle. When quite clear, the water is poured off, and a
fresh supply put on.

5th. When the starch is perfectly clean, the water is
finally poured off, and the starch taken out, and laid on
a perfectly clean floor, where it soon becomes hardened
and consolidated into a firm cake, or mass.

The sixth process finishes'the operation, by breaking up
the mass into flour, and passing it through a bolting ma-
chine like those in a flour-mill, which prepares it for sale.

Any machinist is competent to fit up the necessary appa-
ratus, either upon a large or small, cheap or expensive
scale. No grower of potatoes to any considerable extent
ought to be without this addition to his agricultural imple-
ments or machinery, especially in those parts of the
country where it is difficult to dispose of a crop of unsound
potatoes, and it may not be convenient to consume them by
cattle or pigs. In such cases, the diseased tubers are scarcely
worth the raising ; and we have this season heard of jn^

stances in which the growers will not go to the expense of
raising them. The money produce of manufacturing the
potatoes may be stated as follows :

1 ton of potatoes, or 2,2401b., produces, at 17 per £ s. d •
cent., 3 cwt. 1 qr. 161b. of starch, at £22 per

ton 3 15 0

1 cwt. of residue.. 0 11 0

£4 6 0

Against this must be charged the expense of manufac^
ture, and the wear-and-tear of machinery, neither of which
is at all costly, as they require neither skilled labour nor
complicated machines.

Were it not for the excise, the starch, when extracted,
might easily be converted into sugar by a chemical process,
every cwt. of starch (1121b.) producing 1401b. of sugar.
The process, however, is both complicated and expensive,
and would only be remunerative upon a large scale, which
is not the case with the manufacture of starch, which may
be performed by women in even a less expensive mode (on
a small scale) than the one we have described.

EXTRACTION OF FOOD AND STARCH FROM THE POTATO.

Sir, — I have read with great pleasure your observa-
tions respecting the extraction of starch from the po-
tato ; and as I have had much experience in the matter,
having been, 5 believe, the first to introduce the manufac-
ture into this country, as far back as the year 1830, I
would beg to offer my testimony in favour of all you
have stated, and stronglyrecommend to farmers the con-
version of the potato not only into starch, but into food,
which could be simply accomplished, even with the ap-
pliances which almost every farmer now possesses.

The paper which I send you — the Irish Farmers'
Journal, of the 27th of May, 1846 — gives a description
of what was then put into practice at the South Dublin
Union by the paupers, in producing food from diseased
potatoes ; and the facts are, I conceive, of paramount
interest to every farmer.

Strange to say, the whole has lain dormant since that
time, notwithstanding that not one word of what is set
forth can be denied. It is incontrovertible that the actual
nutritive value of food for man, to be had from the pota-
to, is nearly four times that to be had from wheat, when
the produce of each is taken from an equal extent of
land. In other words, an acre of land cultivated with
wheat will produce an average of — starch, sugar, gluten,
and oil — 1,055 lbs., whilst an acre of potatoes will pro-
duce, of the same, 4,076 lbs., each constituent being
in nearly equal proportion.

Should you think right to insert this communication
and the paper I send, I shall at another time put before
your readers simple directions for the modus operandi ;
and some facts which may perhaps explain why so sin-
gularly advantageous a process, as well for the farmer as
the public, has been suffered to rest unproductive.

I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant.
Jasper W. Rogers.

Peat House, Robertstoion, Co. Kildare,
Dec. 27, 1857.

ARTIFICIAL PREPARATIONS FROM THE
POTATO.

There is no other of our agricultural plants which have
come in alternately for so great a share of eulogy and abuse
as the potato. On one hand we hear of its being one of the
best of Nature's gifts ; and on the other, that to its general
cultivation in this country we may ascribe most of the mi-

sery of its inhabitants. Notwithstanding all the discussion
which has taken place on the subject, it is surprising that
the real value of the potato should be so little understood.
In its ordinary form it is one of the most perishable articles
of food which we possess ; but it is capable of being rendered,
by artificial means of an extremely simple character, not only
portable, but capable of being preserved for an almost inde-
finite period. There is, in fact, scarcely any other vegetable
production capable of being made to assume so many forms
or of being turned to account in so many different ways ;
but although this property has been long known to scien-
tific men, it is surprising how little way has hitherto been
made in putting the lower classes, who are forced to exist
almost exclusively on a potato diet, in possession of this in-
formation.

The disease which made such ravages among the potato
crop of last season has caused attention to be forciblj' di-
rected to these facts, and the conversion of the decaying
portion of the crop into farina was a favourite project. It
being known that the attention of Government was directed
to the matter, numerous statements on the subject were
placed before his Excellency ; and among others one from
Mr. Jasper W. Rogers, C.E., who had more than ordinary
experience. That gentleman's plan was considered so very
satisfactory that his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant at
once gave directions that facilities should be granted for
having it fairly tested. Some of the results of Mr. Rogers'
method of making the potato available as food, in many-
different forms, were exhibited on Saturday last, in the
Board-room of the South Dublin Union Workhouse, before
the Guardians and a number of other influential and scien-
tific persons in the form of an elegant dejeuner,, all the items
of which, with the exception of coffee, were prepared more
or less from the potato ; when a most satisfactory account
was afforded by Mr. Rogers, of the different processes in
their preparation, with much interesting information rela-
tive to the value of the potato itself, which, he very justly
observed, is too much overlooked. Every one present was
astonished at the rich treat provided on the occasion, which
consisted of soup, stirabout, milk porridge, jellies, blanc-
mange, Spanish flummery, and pastry of all kinds, made,
as we have already stated, principally of the produce of the
potato, either as meal, flour, or f'ecula.

After the gentlemen present had partaken of the various
preparations, Mr. Rogers observed that the preparation of
the meal and flour from potatoes was so simple that it could
be accomplished in the cottage of the poorest peasant. He
then described the component parts of each food upon the
table. The general proportion being one-half potatoes ;
some, however— viz., milk porridge, " Scotch bread," and

104

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rock biscuits — being entirely made from it; also the jellies,
blanc-mange, &c., produced from the pure fecula, without
animal matter of any kind — in fact, no addition but the
usual seasonings. The soup, also, which appeared to be a
palatable and nutritious food for the lower classes, was
stated to be made of a small quantity of bacon, thickened
with the meal of the potato, and which was capable of being
made in a short period of time at a cost of about one far-
thing per pint.

Mr. Rogers then alluded to the general impression as to
the want of nutritive power in the potato, and deprecated
the publication of statements which were founded in error,
stating that there was " little, if any, nutriment in the po-
tato." He contended that the nutritive properties of the
meal and flour of potatoes were almost, if not entirely, equal
to that of wheat ; and then gave the following analyses of
each, assuming the constituents, for the support of animal
life, contained in vegetables, to be starch, sugar, and gluten.

When converted into meal, the potato contains—

Starch and sugar 84-08

Gluten 14-82

Oil MO

100-
While wheat, converted into meal, contained —

Starch and sugar 78'20

Gluten 17'53

Oil 427

100-

Thus showing that the difference between the gluten was
but 2| per cent., while the starch and sugar were more
abundant.

The difference between "meal and flour of potato," pre-
pared as recommended, and "farina," was pointed out. Fa-
rina is the starch of the jiotato, taken from the fibre, and
contains nothing beyond the properties of starch ; v/hile
the fibre, which is thrown away in the manufacture of fa-
rina, is rich in animal matter and oil, and by being com-
bined with the farina or fecula, produces a meal or flour
closely analogous to that of grain. This fact it was parti-
cularly necessary to bear in mind, in order to counteract the
impression that there was but little nutriment in potatoes
— a strange one, where so many millions lived on them as
their only food.

A comparison was then entered into between the relative
amount of food obtained from an acre of land in wheat and
potatoes. On this subject, Mr. Rogers stated that he did
not rely on his own experience, but cited the authority of
practical men as to produce, and of eminent scientific men,
as to the analysis of the respective crops, stating the follow-
ing as the result of his inquiry : —

Starch & Sugar. Gluten. Oil.

1 acre of Wheat ... . 825 lbs. 185 lbs. 451bs.

1 acre of Potatoes . . 3427 lbs. 604 lbs. 45 lbs.

Thus it appears that potatoes will produce of meal and
flour, FOUR TIMES, nearly, in weight, what can be had from
wheat— a fact not generally known, but which could not
be contradicted. He begged to impress this startling fact
on the minds of those who heard him, and hoped to rescue
the potato from the calumnies thrown upon it. In an esta-
blishment, such as the South Dublin Union Workhouse,
containing from 1,800 to 2,000 persons, Mr. Rogers stated,
that from fifty to sixty paupers would be able to prepare of
potato meal and flour, by the simple means in operation, a suf-
ficiency— say, four to five tons per week — for the use of the
house, mixed with other meal, by which a saving would be
made in the expenditure of the establishment of above
£1,500 a year. He sat down midst much applause.

Sir Robert Shaw, Bart., who presided on the occasion,
expressed his astonishment at what he had seen, and at the
statements made by Mr. Rogers, as to the nutritive pro-
perties of the potato, compared with those of corn, which
differed greatly from the impression which had been hitherto
on bis mind, on the subject. He would have supposed it
impossible to put the potato into so many different forms as
they had before them. They all owed great obligations to
Mr. Rogers for the handsome manner in which that enter-

tainment had been put before them, and in the name of the
Guardians, he (the chairman) returned him thanks. He
had brought most valuable information before them, which
would be of great use if disseminated through the country.

Mr. Rogers returned thanks, and in doing so, observed
that his great object was to render the manufacture of the
potato general, henceforward, throughout the country — not
alone for workhouses and jails, but that every poor cottier
might be enabled to have his bread, his stirabout, and his
soup, as well as his boiled potato— which could be done by
teaching the people a most simple process, capable of being
carried on in every cottage in the country.

Considering the large and influential body of gentlemen
before whom Mr. Rogers so successfully exhibited the good
account to which our much-abused vegetable may be turned,
it is to be hoped that some of them, at least, will further
test the advantages which he held forth. No better expe-
dient could have been adopted for showing the value of the
potato, in a way not likely to be forgotten ; and it must be re-
membered that although it was extraordinary circumstances
which caused the matter to be brought so forcibly under
public notice, yet, under ordinary circumstances, it cannot
be questioned that a portion of the crop may be converted
into meal with great advantage, and be made the means of
adding largely to the comforts of our peasantry. — Irish
Farmers' Journal, May, 1846.

TITHE COMMUTATION.

Sir, — As many of your readers may feel anxious to know
the result of the corn average for the seven years to Christmas
last, published by authority in the London Gazette of the 8th
inat., viz. —

Wheat 7s. 2|d. per imperial buahel.

Barley 4s. 3|d. „ „

Oats 2s. lid. „ „

I beg to state, for their information, that each £100 of tithe
rent-charge will, for the year 1858, amount to £105 16s. 3|-d.,
which is a little more than 6 per cent, above the last year's
value.

The following statement, from my forthcoming " Annual
Tithe Commutation Tables," will show the worth of £100 of
tithe rent-cbarge for each year since the passing of the Tithe
Commutation Act, viz. : — For the year

£ s. d.

1837 98 13 9|

1838 97 7 11

1839 95 7 9

1840 98 15 9^

1841 102 12 5A

1842 105 8 2|

1843 105 12 2i

1844 104 3 5i

1845 103 17 Hi

1846 102 17 8|

1847 99 18 lOi

1848 102 1 0

1849 100 3 7|

1850 98 16 10

1851 96 11 4i

1852 93 16 Hi

1853 91 13 5f

1854 90 19 5

1855 89 15 8|

1856 93 18 li

1857 99 13 7i

1858 105 16 3i

22) £2,178 2 6^

General average for 22 years . . £99 0 1^
I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

Charles M. Willicii,
Actuary University Life Assurance Society.
25, Suffolk-street, Pali-Mall, Jan. 9.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

105

THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF DRAINAGE.

We are sometimes told that farmers ought to leave
their habits and prejudices at home, and come to the
discussion of an agricultural subject, exactly as a lob-
ster would if divested of its shell. Let us see liow much
a meeting conducted on such terms would be worth.
The cultivation of a dark, strong, homogeneous clay,
affected entirely by water on its way from the heavens
downwards to the sea, and where the principle has
been to remove this as quickly as could be effected by
open parallel furrows on the surface, a few feet distance
only ai^art, and intersected by parallel open drains,
in a cross direction, some 20 or 30 yai"ds asunder.
Such a system with one man is the only drainage that
he requires to effect his object.

The cultivator from another district (probably the
oolitic), where the soil is a dark tenacious clay at top, and
an open, porous, or absorbent soil below, is satisfied with
any depth of drain, provided it is deep enough to pene-
trate the retentive soil lying above, so as to give the
water free admission to the porous subsoil below.
Another, who lives in a district, of greatly undulating
surface — with a porous subsoil on extensive or dislo-
cated portions, and intersected at all angles with beds of
tenacious clay lying at various depths and thickness —
the porous portion supplied and overcharged with
water, endeavouring, by its own gravity, to force its
way through it from the highest to the lowest level,
and constantly endeavouring to escape upwards from
its disposition to find a level, or rising to the surface
by capillary attraction whenever the disintegrated par-
ticles rest on quicksands below, already highly charged
with water — the resident in such a district says that
nothing but rfee/7-draining will answer, the distance
apart being only secondary ; but nothing less than
four-feet drains, and in many instances even twice that
depth, will suffice to rid the subsoil of its injurious
occupant.

Again, we have the farmer from a country where
one uniform flat surface prevails, and regularity of
subsoil, are each of themselves equally i^emark-
able features^ and he requires drains as near
to each other, in point of distance, as can be
effected — 6 yards apart at most, and from 26 to
36 inches in depth, running parallel to each
other throughout the whole field. This mode he
bus found to answer his purpose, and he has no doubt
will equally answer for everyone else.

And thus might we multiply instances without end.
But as a few invariable and unerring principles are
connected with the subject, we will endeavour to re-
cord them.

1st. The specific gravity of water is 817 times heavier
than air.

2ad. By its gravity it always has a disposition to
descend ; but the instant it meets with resistance it
exerts its force equally in every other direction.

3rd. That force is invariably exerted until it has found
a level, and it can then only be said to be at rest.

4th. Tliat whenever this equilibrium is attained, it
remains in that state (stagnant) until disturbed.

5th. That in perforating the soil with a drain, that
portion nearest the drain is first set in motion, and
this is followed in successive rotation by the next
nearest portion, and so on to the extent of its action.

6th. That, its action ceases wherever the compact-
ness of the soil is sufficient to overcome the gravity of
the water held in it by suspension.

6th. That water not only descends by its specific
gravity, but ascends by capillary action ; wherever the
lower portion of the soil rests in water, the complete
disintegration of its particles facilitate that object.

7th. That water passing from a higher to a lower
level through the soil, always has a tendency to rise to
the surface, and would invariably do so unless inter-
cepted by open or underground drains — hence the
origin of springs.

8th. Water, on reaching the surface of the earth,
would continue to descend in the soil until resisted,
which it invariably would be whenever a porous soil
was preceded by a retentive one.

9th. That water in its purest state, as rain water, is
slightly charged with ammonia; but to an inconsidera-
ble extent, excepting after long seasons of drought.

10th. That water becoming stagnant in a soil, be-
comes deleterious to plants growing upon the surface,
the mineral deposits, especially iron, after entering
into its composition, rising towards the surface.

11th. That water passing through a hollow pipe
meets with resistance produced by friction. A pipe
filled at one end cannot be made to run full at the
other.

12th. That water in a drain, upon meeting with re-
sistance, will fill it continuously upwards until the
weight of the column of water overcomes such re-
sistance by the pipes giving way at the lowest point.

13th. That the velocity with which drains discharge
themselves depends upon their inclination and the per-
meability of the soil.

14th. The specific gravity of water b.ing greater than
that of air, it invariably displaces the latter in the soil;
but upon its removal, air again occupies the space ori-
ginally held by it, and thus a continuous action is pro-
duced in the soil.

15th. Water when frozen expands, and thus, by its
power, the hardest substances become broken up, or
have their external surfaces abraded by its action.

The foregoing is merely a statement of those princi-
ples which will ever be coming into operation during
the processes of draining; and by observingjwhich the
operator can seldom err. Of all scientific practices,
that of draining is of itself the simplest of application;
the merely perforating the subsoil with a hollow
drain, at a sufficient depth must necessarily draw off
the accumulation of water held in suspension in the ad-
jacent soil. If this be tenacious, from thirty to thirty-
six inches, in most cases, will be sufficient, keep-
ing in mind that, although a greater depth might be
desirable, the cost of the drainage ought al-
ways to govern the proceeding. On the con-
trary, if the subsoil is porous and charged with water,
flowing from a higher level, then the drains must be
sufficiently deep to carry off the water, that the soil
near the surface may not be rendered wet by capillary
action, bearing in mind that the more complete
and minute the disintegration of the soil, the greater the
disposition of the water from below to ascend towards
the surface. In some cases drains from forty to fifty
inches will be requisite.

In soils alternating in quick succession of beds of
gravel, sand, and clay, a few deep drains judiciously
placed will generally effect the drainage of large por-
tions of a field, remembering that the drain should
always be cut so as to intercept the water passing in

106

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the gravel or sand before it readies the clay, and in a
parallel direction with the edgeoftlie deposit. In some
eases the merely perforating the clay in one continuous
line from one gravel bed to another to the lowest level
will also equally well effect the object. The drains
must invariably be deep enough to release the gravel
altogether, and a previous knowledge of their extent
and situation ought to be ascertained. No other
description of draining is so difficult to perform as this,
or when done, repays so largely for the operation. We
might go on multiplying precedents ad infinitum ; but

it is not our intention to raise discussion, so much as
to point out general principles to obviate it.

"Water is the source of sustentation of the ani-
mal and vegetable kingdoms. The agriculturist, more
especially than all others, becomes subjected to its in-
fluence. The smallest quantity, either in excess or de-
ficiency, is to him severe injury or proportionate gain.
If, therefore, we have cleared away any of the im-
pediments by which its withdrawal can be effected, we
have not toiled entirely in vain, even if we only suc-
ceed in obtaining attention.

REGENERATION OF THE POTATO BY CUTTINGS.

[translated from the FRENCH OF THE "JOURNAL d'AGRICULTURE PRATiaUE."]

The AgricuMural Chronicle, of the first fortnight in
December, has in a spirited manner exposed both the
precipitous haste of the searchers after the philosopher's
stone, and the emptiness of those brilliant panacCcE
which are produced on all sides as soon as a question of
a somewhat serious character has been brought before
the public. But all this noise quickly subsides when
the cause which has occasioned it is removed, and we
trouble ourselves as little about it afterwards as before.
We knew of no means of preventing it, and submitted
to it with every symptom of impatience ; but we do not
take into account the possibility of its return. What an
agitation was caused on the occasion of the potato
disease, of the scourge that attacked the vine, of the
disease which was announced in the beetroot ! Is there
any other produce which is not justly entitled to solve
this important problem — '-'■Life at a cheap rate'' ?
But how prompt are all voices, erewhile so noisy, to
become silent or to change the theme ! One question
expels another even to forgetfulness, without the confu-
sion it occasioned having conducted to any good end.

" A mountain in labour uttered a cry so clamorous.

That every one ran at the noise^ believing

It was about to be delivered of a city greater than Paris.

It brought forth a mouse !"

The potato disease is exhausted, and, thank God, tends
to disappear*. It has been this season less general and
less intense. We have spoken of it much, but it now
engages much less of our attention. "Remedies are
powerless to heal this disease," said the Agricultural
Chronicle, of the second fortnight of August ; and, in
its turn, silence threatens to invade this question. Welove
to see a thing worthy of attention remain " the order of
the day" to a complete solution. Whilst we have not
found any means of preventing the return of the potato
disease, we think there will be great utility in bringing
it forward again : " It is the dead only that it is needful
to bury." Besides, we are probably not far from the
end.

A practical man, learned'and modest, began in 1849,
experiments, which he has renewed every year since
then, having no other object than " the regeneration of
the potato." His labours deserve to be known, and his
experiments have need to be repeated by a great number,
in order to be either confirmed or invalidated. In a
word, they ought to be either repulsed or accepted,
according as numerous facts, everywhere observed, and
collected, establish or confute them.

M. Decoste, a former military veterinary surgeon at
Sesanne, states that walking in his garden wholly occu-
pied with the continuance and serious nature of the
potato disease, the idea struck him of cutting some

* This was written in 1855.

stalks of that plant, and pricking them into pots
filled with mellow earth. He was quite in ignorance
as to what this first attempt might lead ; it was only a
pilot balloon, and it went forth without pretension or
interruption. The only thing that the experimenter
proposed to himself was to observe carefully and note
down exactly, all his observations. The result was fa-
vourable. M. Decoste had the satisfaction of seeing
that most of the cuttings that he had planted followed
the ordinary phases of vegetation. He obtained from
them small, but perfectly healthy tubers, which he after-
wards employed in making new experiments. Seven
years of consecutive culture have filled M. Decoste with
hope and confidence that he is possibly on the eve of a
useful discovery, (interesting in the highest degree to
the agricultural world ; and it is certainly the least we
can do to give him the opportunity of rendering an
account of his experiments:

" ' Of all the means employed for multiplying the good
qualities of the potato,' says Parmentier, ' and to
prevent them degenerating, there is none more efficacious
than sowing the seed. It is necessary from time to
time to renew and perfect in this manner the species we
intend to regenerate and propagate.'

" Unfortunately a multitude of experiments have
invalidated this assertion, and proved that the seeds
have produced crops of diseased potatoes.

"Up to the present time the process by cuttings
appears to have a better chance, and offers more certain
guarantees for the crop, than a perfectly healthy sowing,
and of which the ulterior products should be exempt
from the disease. Is it not, to say the least, to this con-
elusion that the results of the following experiments
lead us ?

"First Year. — In the month of August 1849 I
pricked four cuttings of potatoes into a pot filled with
a mixture of earth and vegetable mould. The stalks,
preserving their verdure, gave out vigorous shoots. To-
wards the beginning of November the leaves faded from
maturity, and the stalks became dry, as at the termina-
tion of all healthy vegetation. I then turned out the
pot, and rummaged amongst the earth, and found at
each of the cuttings there were tubers, healthy in ap-
pearance and varying in size from a hazel-nut to a
walnut.

" Second Year. — In April, 1850, I planted the small
potatoes produced from the cuttings of the previous
August, 1849. In July following I took from vigorous
and luxuriant shoots a number of cuttings, which were
planted in different kinds of earth. This was undoubt-
edly the most effectual means of ascertaining the precise
value of the process, either confirming or invalidating
the results of the preceding crop.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

107

" Placed in conditions more generale, and consequently
less exceptionable than in 1849, these cuttings yielded
to the common laws of vegetation ; they faded before
they resumed that vigour which had led me to select
them ; but this weakness of the stalks was of short
duration. These soon recovered their primitive strength,
and threw out in good time new shoots full of sap and
hope.

" I was impatient of success, and wished to detect the
facts in their progress and development, if I may so
express it. During the first days of October I took up
some of the cuttings, and already the roots showed
themselves well furnished with small tubers of healthy
appearance. There was nothing to do but to leave them
to increase in size and reach maturity ; and in November
I gathered potatoes of excellent quality, and weighing
on the average from 30 to 34 grammes (about 1 oz.).

" Third Year. — The crop of 1850 fui-nished me with
the seed of my plantation of 1851, which was made in
April, like the preceding one. The 5th of July I took
cuttings, which were again pricked into various kinds
of mould ; the crop was taken up on the 20th of Sep-
tember, before completely mature : it was at once
abundant, and fine in the quality of^the tubers, which
were sent, with the cuttings attached, to the exposition
of agricultural products of the Agricultural Society of
Chalons-sur-Marne.

" Fourth Year. — The potatoes of the harvest of 1851
were planted the 25th of March, 1852, namely — 1st, in
dry sand, such as is used in paving the streets ; 2nd, in
a sandy earth ; 3rd, in a calcareous earth ; 4tb, in an
earth with clayey subsoil ; 5th and lastly, in an earth
said to be of good quality, both by nature and its state
of cultivation.

"The 10th of June I separated cuttings which I
planted in the same soil as that of the plants from which
they were taken.

'^According to the proportions, the crop was satis-
factory in each kind of soil. The cuttings pricked in
the dry sand were frequently watered. The tubers had
a thin and glossy skin, a firm and close pulp containing
little vegetable water, and presenting to the taste the
flavour of potatoes of first quality.

" Towards the 25th of July I had been able to take
new cuttings from the first, and plant them in their turn,
and I obtained from them a crop as abundant and fine.
The vegetation of the first cuttings was so active and
vigorous that I have measured stalks from half a metre
to one metre in height (or from 15 to 30 inches). The
tubers taken from the good earth weighed from 150 to
235 grammes (or from 4| to 7i oz.).

"The experiment of 1852 presented this peculiarity,
that the planting produced three crops in the same
season, one the produce of the tuber itself, the two others
from successive cuttings.

" The facts have been repeated precisely the same in
1853, 1854, and 1855, and they appear so much the
more conclusive that they have left nothing to wish for,
either in regard to the abundance of the crop or the
good quality of the tubers. The disease has not ap-
peared during the vegetation of the cuttings, and the
potato obtained was excellent to eat and easy to
preserve."

If we were allowed to give our conclusion, we should
say:

From these seven years of conscientious experiment
it follows that from potatoes planted in March or April
we may in June or July take from each bunch some
stalks, plant them with the precautions usual in like
cases, and in the following October obtain from the
cuttings a crop equal to that of the primitive plantation
without the latter suffering from it in any manner what-
ever. In reality, the separation of the branches is made

sufficiently above the soil to allow of there remaining on
the stalk, thus cut, most frequently two eyes (axil of
the leaves), from whence spring new shoots, which will
amply suffice, with the non-mutilated stalks, for the
complete development of the plant and the proper evo^
lution of the tubers it ought to produce.

'* The pulling of the bunches of potatoes proceeding
from the cuttings has constantly yielded a crop equal to
that of the bunches which had not had their stalks sup-
pressed.

" In the diseased potatoes the first signs of the disorder
exhibit themselves upon the stalks which first turn
yellow, and sooner or later acquire a deep brown colour,
then quite black and easy to be perceived. Sometimes,
however, in times of drought, the spots, instead of turn-
ing black, assume a less decided tint, and become
bleached, whilst the stalk dries up.

" In making cuttings for transplanting, we choose care-
fully the most vigorous branches upon the most healthy
stools. In this above all lies the advantage of the process;
for if in the number of cuttings any diseased stalks are
selected, they will soon be endangered ; the vegetation
will be arrested, the branches dried up, before they are
able to produce anything. The disease will thus be
stifled in its birth. This is wonderfully explained Once
separated from its centre of life, the stalk that is about
to be planted needs all the integrity of its organs, to
attract and to assimilate to itself, after a proper
elaboration, all the materials necessary to its develop-
ment, and the complete evolution of all its parts. The
diseased stalk offers none of these conditions, so indis-
pensable to its preservation, for the parts most essential
to its existence are the most affected (epidermis utricles
fibres of the Endophlgeum, &c.) ; consequently it is soon
weakened, and ceases to live.

" By the process of cutting, therefore, we should
have no more to fear from diseased seed, since we can
make use of no other than perfectly healthy plants.

" In any and every case the cuttings seem to possess
a very great and real advantage over seed, even on the
supposition that this latter (what experience does not
warrant us in believing) offers all the guarantees desi-
rable for the regeneration of the plant so deeply affected.
In fact, in order to renew the plant by way of sowing,
it is necessary to wait the crop of the seed, and thus
lose a whole season ; nor is it less necessary to obtain it
of good quality ; and upon that point the uncertainty
lasts during a whole year. With cutting, on the con-
trary, we obtain two crops during the same season.

" Let us not forget to state that it is indispensable to
allow to the cutting as many eyes as possible, for from
this part of the stalk spring the tubers. The abundance
of the crop is consequently strictly dependent on them.

" The culture of the cuttings presents nothing parti-
cular, demanding only the ordinary conditions required
otherwise by all the weeded plants — a light and deep
soil, that yields easily to the development of the tubers.

" In case of drought, it speaks for itself; we must
not neglect to water at the commencement of the
planting.

" One more word, in conclusion. Admitting that the
reproduction of the potato by cutting gives only the
means so much sought after, of regenerating that plant,
our experiments will not less have demonstrated to a
certain extent, that with a single sowing we may crop
several times in the same season. Had we obtained only
this result, still we should have congratulated ourselves
on. having devoted seven years of experiment in finding
it. Let others now add to the facts which we have col-
lected, by renewing them, the sanction they necessarily
require before being adopted in the general agricultural
practice."

The wishes of M. Decoste will certainly be heard.

I 2

lOS

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Agriculture has ceased to be a practice of mere routine;
and it knows how to fulfil the task imposed upon it.
It has suffered too much from the scourge to which M.
Decoste believes he has discovered a preventive, not to

submit to attempts conclusive, by their importance, the
easy means which is recommended to it by a conscientious
experimenter, and, better still,. by a wealthy man.

(Signed) Eug. Gavot.

WENLOCK FARMER'S CLUB.

LECTURE ON ARTIFICIAL MANURES, BY PROFESSOR VOELCKER.

A meeting of the members of the Wenlock Farmers' Club
was heid at tlie Raven Inn, on Monday, Dec. 21, to hear a
lecture on the " Agricultural and Commercial Value of Arti-
ficial Manures," by Dr. Augustus Voelcker.

Dr. VoELCKKii commenced by observing that thereare two
classes of persons who, upon the subject of the utiUty of agri-
cultural chemistry, entertain diametrically opposed opinions.
One of them think nothing more is necessary for successful
farming than to read one or two books upon agricultural che-
mistry, and perhaps Mr. Mechi's letters, or some similar
popular treatise, containing a strange admixture of science and
practice ; and this kind of knowledge they believe will enable
a man to dispense with that vast amount of experience which
every one who has tried his baud at farmii:g knows is requi-
site, no matter how clever a man may be, if he would make a
living by farming ; while the other class think that aj^ricul-
tural chemistry, like all other sciences, is, to use a plain word,
all " humbug." The truth here, as in many other things, lies
in the middle. A mere knowledge of science will never make
a man a good farmer ; but at the same time, it is of very great
advantage if, in addition to practical experience, he has a
knowledge of the principles of science. Moreover, young men
with a scientific knowledge would make much greater progress
in useful experience than others who were ignorant of the
principles of chemistry. The great utility of science to farm-
ing is not so much direct as indirect— it does not dispense
with that practice, without which no excellency could be
acquired, but enables the farmer to make better use of it.
Very frequently, in lectures of that description, the mistake
was made of aiming at too much — a large number of subjects
were mixed up together, and the audience went away more or
less muddled. It was also not unfrequently thought that in
order to make an impression a little exaggeration was neces-
sary. The very fact, however, that this club had existed, and
kept up with spirit for a number of years, was a sufficient
reason, if he had no other, why he should not attempt in this
way to create a httle temporary excitement. He should
coufine himself to one very important subject — that of artificial
manures, and attempt to convey some views on the subject,
which he trusted would be of some use in their practice as
farmer.s (Hear, hear). There could be no question as to the
great improvements which have taken place since artificial
manures have been introduced into farming. The great
demand for artificial manures is the best proof that in many
instances they have not been misapplied, for no man will
spend money for a succession of years upon something which
brings him no useful result. The fact, therefore, that new
companies and new businesses are started almost everywhere,
proves that artificial manures, when judiciously applied, are a
great boon to the agricultural community. Within the last
three or four years manufacturers of artificial manures have
sprung up like mushrooms, and it was therefore not to be
woufiered at that some inferior descriptions have been offered
to the notice of the farmer. It must also not be forgotten
that in many instances artificial manures have proved complete
failures. The question, therefore, arose. What is the reason
of these failures ? It was not always easy to discover
the reason. In some cases artificial manures have been
injudiciously applied ; i. e, in too large or too small quanti-
ties. He had seen guano used in quantities that would cer-
tainly do more harm than good— too large, that was, for
the soils or crops to which it was applied, to the exclusion of
farm-yard manure and other manures more suited for root
crops. In passing, he observed that guano should not be
used generally upon any soils for crops dependent upon the
development of the roots. For turnips, mangolds, and other
root crops, the manure should have a large proportion of bone

material — phosphates, as the chemists called them. In some
cases again, the failure must be attributed to the artificial
manure which has been supplied ; and he grieved to say that
in the present day there was a much larger number of mferior
than superior kinds of manures sold. The diagrams would
show the analyses of different kinds of manure. One of
them was the Loudon Economical, which at one time made a
great noise, and was used in different parts of England and
Scotland. It was accompanied by a small volume of testimo-
nials, all speaking of it as a most eflicient manure ; whereas it
contained nothing which was known as possessing fertilizing
properties in a very high degree. If auy good effect had
therefore been produced by its application, it must be attri-
buted rather to the good farming, or to an uncommonly good
season, which, as was well known, often was more effective
than the best manure (Hear, hear). And indeed it was almost
impossible by experiments, continued eveu for two or three
seasons, to ascertain the practical value of a manure ; but in
the long run a really good manure will be found out. He
remembered the time when there were almost as many people
against guano as there were now for it. Not very long ago
hardly any purchaser for bones could be found ; and even now
no bones were used on the continent, hence the large impor-
tations of that article to this country. Everybody knew that
artificial manures were more efficacious under some circum-
stances than others ; and why ? Because the effect produced
by artificial manure would be just in proportion as it supplied
the ingredients which ^ere deficient in the soil. Artificial
manures sometimes failed too, by reason of the mechanical
condition of the laud being such that it could not produce its
legitimate results. For instance, fresh bone-dust does not act
upon the soil at all for the first year, very little the second,
and only a partial effect the third. For want of sufficient air
the material remains very much in the condition after the first
sis or twelve months in which it is put in. Excess of mois-
ture was ofjeu another reason why manures were unproductive.
Without good draining no amount of artificial or natural
manure would produce a very large crop. It would be seen
then that the practical efficacy of artificial manures is known
by a variety of circumstances; and it would also be clear
that the commercial value of artificial manure does not neces-
sarily coincide with its practical efficacy — the commercial value
of artificial manure being much mote fixed in its character
than the practical value. For instance, under some circum-
stances lime produced an astonishing effect upon the land ; in
other cases none whatever. In the neighbourhood of Ciren-
cester no good farmer limes ; and upon examination the soils
are found to contain sufficient lime to meet the requirements
of the growing crop. In the geuerility ol cases, however, the
soil does not partake of the character of the subjacent rock
— most of our soils being soils of transportation, and do not
belong exactly to the reck on which they rest. Hence a
general geological knowledge will not be a sufficient prac-
tical guide — nothing short of an examination of the surface
will decide when a man should lime and when not. The prac-
tical efficiency of artificial manure is determined by expe-
rience, and does not necessarUy coincide with the price at
which it is bought in the market, but on its particular adapta-
tion to the land whi.re it is applied. In most soils phosphoric
acid was deficient, and hence really effective manures contained
a very considerable proportion of phosphates. Again, in some
descriptions of produce — corn,&c. — ammoniacal matter was of
very great utility, because ammoniacal ingredients were gene-
rally deficient in the soil. It was also found that alkaline
matter, potash and soda, produced very great effects when ap-
plied to the land. This was the conclujiou, then, to which
they must arrive : phosphatee, and substances which, on de-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

109

composition, are ready-formed ammonia ; substances contain-
ing nitrogen; and alkaline matters, more especially potash,
are the most universally efficient manures. These are alao the
more expensive manuring constituents, bo that to some extent
the practical and commercial value of artificial manure go hand
in-baud ; but, on the other hand, it would be wroug always to
determiue what you should pay for artificial manure by the
effect which it pioiiuces. In some cases he had seen super-
phosphates applied upon lands which contained in themselves
a large quantity of phosphates, and therefore the extra supply
did no good whatever. These, however, were exceptional cases,
and did not often occur. The q\iestion — and a very iaipurtant
one it was — then arose : what description of manure o ght
you to use ? and secondly, what ought you to pay for a ma-
nure of a certain character ! No person should understand so
well as the farmer himself what is really required for bis pir-
ticnlar farm ; and in practical matters no fixed rule can be
laid down. Some general hints may be thrown out which
have been collected from a number of experiences in various
districts, whith are useful as a basis ; and it is from the expe-
rience of farmers living in many counties in England and Scot-
land we know that, generally speaking, ammouiacal or nitro-
genous matiers are peculiarly beneficial to corn crops. In
making th s statement, he left entirely untouched the ques-
tion whether mineral substances are not an advantage in some
instances for corn. He knew that they were. But, on the
whole, substances rich in nitrogen are applied with great benefit
to corn crops, Hence good rotten dung was better than fresh
manure, because weijjht for weight it contained a larger
amount of nitrogen. He wished them to imderatand that he
did not recommend well-rotted dung under all circumstances ;
because it was geueraly better to take the manure as fresh as
possible, and get all that was valuable out of it upon the land.
But because rotten manure contained a larger amount of nitro-
gen in the shape of ammoniacal salt, it generally produced
greater effects than the fresh. So with guano — a small quan-
tity of this produced such extraordinary result.^, because it
contained in one cwt. as much ammonia as a ton of well-
rotted farmyard manure. The effect of manures did not depend
upon anything mysterious. Manure from half starved animals
would never be very good, no matter how much it was turned,
and it was not the mere rotting that made it good. In good Peru-
vian guano there was from 16 to 17 per cent, of ammonia.
It was important that they should recollect that there was
a great difference between good Peruvian guano and that
which had been brought over since the best layers had been
cleared away. In good guano there was alao a large propor-
tion of phosphates or bone earth. The solid part of bones
consists of phosphoric acid and lime, and this would explain
why it is that good guano produces a good effect upon tur-
nips. Experience had likewise shown that phosphoric ma-
nures were especially beneficial to root crops — bone dust
and some inferior kinds of guano, having phosphate of lime
as their characteristic constituents, were the manures best-
adapted to turnips, mangolds, et cetera. Alkaline salts was
a very good manure for root crops. It would be admitted by
all who had any experience in the application of artificial
manures, that guano and superphosphate were the two most
valuable, in a commercial point of view, that could possibly
be used in agriculture. Guano, it was well known, was the
most successful agency they coald apply to wheat or grain
and grass lands, while superphosphate was moat applicable to
roots. Saldanha guano, which was cheaper than the best
Peruvian, produced a better result when applied to roots,
because it contained more phosphate. If they depended en-
tirely upon guano they would have too much leaf and not
sufficient bulk. A series of experiments which he had con-
tinued for four years convinced him that they could not dis-
pense entirely with ammonia for root crops, but it produced
frequently more harm than good. To spend, therefore, a
large sum in buying ammonia (which is a very expensive
material) for root crops was to make a great practical blun-
der ; for phosphate was one-seventh the cost, aud produced
infinitely better results when applied to roots. Commercially
speaking, ammonia is the most expensive ingredient used in
superphosphates. Alkaline salts, which are occasionally
found in artificial manures, are likewise expensive materials
— too expensive, in fact, to be used with advantage in agri-
culture. For this reason most artificial manures do not con-
tain any appreciable quantity of these expensive salts — the
effect they produce upon the land is not commensurate with

their cost. Bearing in mind, then, that the value of artifi-
cial manures is to be estimated by the amount of nitrogen
(ammonia) and phosphates which they contain, there wo"',ld
be no difficulty in applying this test to the different manures sold
to farmers. The Economic Mauure, to which he had referred,
contained very little of these ingredients. A sauip'e of Mexican
guano (as would be seen from the diagram) contained only 18
percent, of phosphate of lime (one-third of that contained in
bone dust) and a mere trace of ammonia. Another manure,
advertised as the very essence of Peruvian guano, consisted
chiefly of burnt clay, carbonate of lime, and a little sleep's
duug. (Laughter.) The learned professor then directed
attention to the diagrams showing the composition of the
best guano (for corn) and the best superphosphates for root
crops. These manures varied considerably in their compo-
nent parts, and their effect when applied to the land must
also be vastly different. In one of the samples it would be
seen that there was not more than a fourth as much phos-
phate as that contained in another sample. In the highest
there was no less than 40 per cent, of soluble aud insoluble
phosphates, and this could not be sold for less than il2 per
ton. With this exception the other manures — though vary-
ing so much in quality — were about the same price, from £6
to £7 10.1. How could you ascertain which really was the
most valuable article ? To take it up, and smell it, in order
to discover its quality, was simply ridiculous. In the course
of the year he examined some hundred specimens of super-
phosphates ; yet he had not yet attained to that practical
acquaintance with it to be able by looking at it to ascertain
whether it was good or bad. They all looked very much alike,
and smelled more or less disagreeable. In nine cases out of
ten, as he had said, the farmer wai.ts either guano or super-
phosphate, and he should confine himself to these manures.
As to guano, when farmers buy this they ought to receive in
writing a guarantee that it really is genuine Peruvian with
which they are supplied. But if there is any suspicion, a very
simple test would prove whether it is well grounded or not.
A trustworthy opinion of its genuineness could be obtained at
the moderate expense of seven or eight shillings. Without
this, however, good Peruvian guano has such marked qualities,
and varies so little in its composition, that any one may for
himself ascertain its quality. When burned it should leave
one-third of itself a perfectly white ash — adulterated guano
produces more ash, and is coloured ; this ash, on being dis-
solved in acid, should leave no perceptible amount of sand.
At any rate, it would be easy to obtain in writing from the
dealer a guarantee that what he supplied is genuine. Super-
phosphate is a manure that can be produced in a variety of
ways, its efficacy depending, unlike that of guano, on the
amount of phosphates it contains ; aud not only upon the
amount of material, but upon the state of preparation it has
undergone. Between soluble and insoluble phosphates there
was a great difference, not only in their efficacy, but in
the expense to which the manufacturer is at to produce
them. Manuring constituents to enter into plants must be-
come soluble ; phosphates, when in a condition to be readily
taken up by plants, must be far more efiicacious thau the same
constituents m a state in which they cannot be absorbed by
the rootlets. To illustrate this, a valuable raw material was
coprolite, or fossil remains, which had been not altogether cor-
rectly termed coprolites. That term signified the petrified ex-
crement of animals ; but the substances known as coprolites
were in reality the fossil bones of those animals which in dis-
tant ages inhabited the regions where they were lound.
They were also more correctly known by the name of pseudo-
croprolites, and were in reality nothing more than fossil bones.
With regard to their composition he might observe that they
did not contain any organic matter ; they contained only
mineral substances, and amongst others pho-phUe of lime. In
its crude state, however, this phosphate was of no use what-
ever ; it produced no effect, no matter how finely it was pow-
dered. He had tried it repeatedly, some eight years ago ; and
although finely powdered, it remained insoluble, even when
attacked by acetic acid. Hence there was always some risk of
having a portion of insoluble aud useless material in super-
phosphates. Bones were rendered only soluble by expending
large sums of money in buying expensive acids ; hence soluble
bone earth is worth at least three times as much as it is in its
crude state as insoluble phosphate. It may be asked if, when
these acids came into contact with the tender fibre of the
plant, would they not be injurious to it ? There wa?, however,

110

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

in most soils a natural provision against this ; there was gene-
rated in the soil lime, or oxide of iron, or alumina, or some
other constituent, which neutralised any such effect. Even
oil of vitriol was soon dispersed and neutralised by these con-
stituents. When applied to land, therefore, the superphosphate
became insoluble. Hence it did not enter into the composition
of the plant as applied. But they would be inclined to ask
what was the value of the manure if it did not enter into the
composition of the plant immediately on its application ? To
this he would reply that the great value of superphosphate
was owing to its sub-division, for in its finely divided condi-
tion it possessed properties differing very materially from
ordinary insoluble phosphate of lime. The lecturer took a
solution of bone dissolved in acid, to which he added am-
monia. The result was, that the whole of the phosphate was
rendered soluble, the solution appearing to be converted into a
thick glutinous mass. In this finely-divided state, it was easily
taken up by the plant. This he illustrated by adding to the
precipitated phosphate some strong vinegar (acetic acid), when
the whole was instantly dissolved, although this comparatively
weak acid would scarcely have had any action on bone-dust, if
applied in the first instance ; thus showing that by resorting
to this mode they obtained the advantage of more energetic
action. Pounded or ground bones could never be divided into
such fine particles, or spread so squally or evenly over the soil,
as could be accomplished when dissolved in the manner he had
described ; and their bulk greatly increased, for the one was
mechanical action and the other was chemical. When bones
were used first it was usual to break them into one-inch
pieces ; when they became dearer they were reduced to one-
half the size, for the farmer discovered that when more
uniformly spread half the quantity was just as good. And so
in the application of artificial manures — it was everything to
have it, not here and there, but well distributed, so that the
roots of the plant could reach it, and take up the ingredients
congenial to its growth. Some persons contended that it was
an advantage to have a portion ot the phosphate insoluble, in
order that it may remain after the rain had washed away the
soluble portion, to maintain the after-growth of the plant.
This was all moonshine and theory, and never could have been
founded on practice or correct principles. It was certainly a
most convenient doctrine for artificial manure manufacturers to
say that it was as well, and better, to have a portion inso-
luble, because the more soluble the phosphate was the more
expensive it was. The conclusion, therefore, to which he would
ead them, was this : In buying superphosphate, let them as-
certain that they had a large proportion of soluble phosphates.
There was no reason why the farmer should go to the expense
of an analysis ; let the dealer supply one ; it was his business
to show what he had to sell. If a dealer had an objection, and
said, " My manure is as good as anybody else's, but I cannot
tell you exactly how much soluble phosphate there is in it,"
they may be sure that in nine cases out of ten he had not a very
good article to show. In the absence of an analysis, the dealer
should be required to give a guarantee that it contained so
much of soluble phosphate ; for upon this the value of the
manure chiefly depends, and not only upon the amount of its
various constituents ; analyzation, therefore, was not always a
sufficient test of the full value of a manure, although of course
the material must be present to have a really efficacious ma-
nure. He was most anxious to point out how desirable it was
that the farmer should not be content to buy his superphos-
phate, relying entirely upon the respectability of the dealer.
Frequently the dealer may be a very honest man, and yet may
not know himself what he is selling ; the manufacturer him-
self may be a perfectly trustworthy man, but he may have some
very erroneous notions as to the relative value of soluble and in-
soluble phosphate ; and such ideas may not enable him to
produce so cheaply an effective manure as another manufac-
turer. The farmer is not to pay for the chatacter of the dealer
or the manufacturer, but for the character of the manure
{Hear, hear). The cheaper he could get it the better, but by all
means secure a guarantee. These few practical hints he hoped
would be of advantage to them in purchasing artificial manure.
It was only by these means they could check the nefarious
practices which now and then are attempted upon the farmer.
The adulteration of guano had been practised last year to a far
greater extent than he had ever known it before — as many as
three-fourths of the samples he had received were adulterated ;
on the other hand, superphosphates appeared to be getting
more valuable, and this he attributed to the general demand

which was now made for guarantees. After thanking them
for their attention, the learned professor resumed his seat
loudly cheered.

The Chairman said he was sure all felt equally with
himself much indebted to the learned gentleman for his
able and lucid address. He had never heard a plainer
elucidation of the principles which rendered artificial ma-
nures of importance to soils. There had been lately dis-
covered, as of course the Professor was aware, some large
deposits of guano at Kooria Mooria, in the Eastern Seas ;
and it appeared that there was now upon the seas some-
thing like 100,000 tons of this guano. From the analysis,
it appeared to be equal in ammonia to the Peruvian, and,
like some of the other guanos, to have a larger proportion
of phosphates. They would all readily agree that it was to
the root-crops they must chiefly look ; and not only how
best to prepare the land for the present crop, but how to
get it into good condition for the subsequent produce. He
did not gather from the lecture whether ammonia was so
volatile as to be less available for subsequent crops — whe-
ther it was all absorbed by the cereal crop ; and this was a
very important question for the farmer. Peruvian guano,
at its present price, was almost a forbidden fruit to the
farmer ; and it was certainly worth inquiring, whether the
ammonia, which made it valuable, benefited the land be-
yond one crop. It was most important that they should
know that this expensive manure was not adapted to root-
crops ; for, if they could buy a better article for little more
than half the monej% wh}' should they not do so ? It would
be a great advantage if farmers could be got to adopt some
rule ; but of all men on earth to get to stick to a point,
farmers were the most difficult. If you talked to half-a-
dozen different men, 3'ou would find that they each enter-
tained a separate opinion ; and nothing would induce them
to take any trouble to ascertain the truth. It might not
be very agreeable to hear this ; but it was quite true. The
result of that day's market, when the farmer was offered
6s. 6d. for his wheat, was not very agreeable : it was not
calculated to make him very happy, seeing at how much
trouble and expense he had been to rear it. Their duty
clearly was to be as saving as possible — to ascertain which
was the best manure, and to buy that, and not confide
altogether to the character of the dealer. Nitrate of soda
was some time ago highly recommended as a manure for
cereal crops ; and, as he understood t]\ere was a large
supply on the coast of Peru, he could not understand how
it was that it was not exported in larger quantities than at
present. Another subject of some importance to the
farmer was top-dressing. He should like to know, from
some of the practical farmers present, whether any prac-
tical benefit arose to the crop from top-dressing. A dressing
of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia made the crops
look splendidly green ; but did any real good accrue !

Mr. W. Thursfield said he had found great advantage
from top-dressing.

The Chairman said, it was probably from want of accurate
observation, but he perceived no practical benefit to the crop
on that part of the field which he had top-dressed ; it was
much greener, but at harvest he saw no difference. It was
very true that they could not lay down any general principles ;
every person ought to be able by observation to know what
was best suited for his own land, for there was scarcely a farm
of any extent which did not consist of several kinds of land.
Hence the importance of knowing sufficient of general princi-
ples to be able to apply one's common sense to particular
cases. The value of an institution like that at Cirencester,
where the students were made acquainted with the practical
application of science, was not sufficiently known and could
not be over-estimated. It would be an excellent thing if
farmers could send their sons there for a short time, and the
knowledge that he would acquire would certainly make him
a better farmer. What could be more important than for the
farmer to know that coprolite in an undissolved state was
useless on the land ? It was, however, with some surprise
that he heard that one cwt. of guano was equal to a ton of
farmyard manure. To put upon land 3 or 4 cwt. of guano
was a good dressing — three or four tons of manure would do
nothing at all.

Mr. W. Thursfield asked what kind of bones were
best — those which were calcined, or those in which the glue
was left.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Hi

Dr. VoELCKER said, the value of the bones would be re-
duced just in proportion as the nitrogen was taken out of
them ; but inasmuch as the phosphate was made more available
the deterioration was more than made up. He would therefore
rather have boiled bones.

Mr. Thuesfield inquired how it was when he put lime
upon a field for batley, after it had been manured by guano
and superphosphate for turnips, the crop was not so good in
that part of the field as in the portion where he put no
lime?

Dr. VoELCKER thought the land did not require lime after
being well manured with superphosphate. In answer to the
Chairman the learned Professor further said, that he did not
intend to convey that no ammonia was beneficial to root
crops ; but generally speaking the plant absorbed enough of
atmospheric ammonia, and any large amount applied would do
harm. In speaking of coprolites he meant to say that al-
though they were useless to the farmer, they were of the
greatest use to the manufacturer. All soils more or less stored
up with great care the ammonia— the only exception being
loose soils. If, therefore, he had his choice of manures for root
crops he should take nothing but phosphates, for in most cases
animals were fed on the roots and supplied, with other sources,
sufScient ammonia.

The Chairman said, his land would be in a pitiable mess
if he were to feed on it, and it would take some time to bring
the land into a proper state. Strong land, in his opinion, was
the best for turnips — of course he did not mean wet land, be-
cause land not drained, with a quantity of sour water upon it,
was not conducive to the health of any plant. But those lands
which were most favourable for growing swedes and turnips
were just those which the farmer could not eat off. He pre-
sumed, however, that the Professor meant that if the turnips
were taken to the stall, and consumed there, the land ultimately
received the manure.

Dr. VoELCKER : Certainly ; for, to eat off some soil would
be to ruiu the land. With respect to top-dressing, he had
always looked upon this as patch-work, which on a good farm
should be dispensed with, although it was very useful now and
then. But when the farmer had been prevented prosecuting
his regular work, and the land was not in a good state, a top-
dressing of nitrate of soda and salt — applied in the spring —
was very beneficial. To manure well in rotation however
would enable them to dispense in a great measure with top-
dressing, although on grass land this was of the utmost
utility.

Mr. Thursfield appealed to one or two gentlemen pre-
sent to whom he had recommended his plan of top-dressing,
and they said it had answered.

Eev. H. W. Wayne mentioned that some soils, upon which
very poor crops of grain were given, were extremely deficient
in alumina. He wished to know whether alumina could be
applied to the the land in a concentrated form, or must it
be carted in the shape of clay ?

Dr. VoELCKER answered in the negative.
Kev. H. W. Wayne said there were some springs in that
neighbourhood, which contained in solution a large amount of
lime; now he should like to know if it would be worth while
to mix salt with this water, where it could easily be con-
veyed over the land, and thus have a deposit of carbonate of
soda.

Dr. VoELCKER replied that ordinarily there was in water
BuflScient lime to answer all practical purposes ; and the ex-
periment would not in his opinion produce any marked result.
In reply to another question the learned professor said, super-
phosphate by being diluted was not made more fit to apply to
plants but inasmuch as it could by being diluted be so much
better distributed over the land, immense benefit resulted from
using the liquid manure-drill.

Rev H. W. Wayne then in very complimentary terms
proposed a vote of thanks to the learned lecturer ; and after
making some remarks upon the utility of these gatherings,
referred to the curious fact that, according to an old Roman
writer, the ancient Britons were in the habit of using as manure
what they took out of the mines, thus showing that from a
very early period our ancestors had been accustomed to enrich
the surface of the land.

Mr. Blakeway seconded the proposition with much plea-
sure. The meeting ought to be much obliged to the talented
fecturer for the important knowledge he had communicated,
for there was not a farmer present who would not be able to

see that he could buy a manure to answer his purpose better
than guano at half the cost.

Dr. Voelcker in acknowledging the compliment said, the
difference in price was not^the only advantage gained ; for in an
experiment which he had made upon some poor laud, he found
that guauo produced about six tons per acre, while superphos-
phate produced double — nearly 12 tons.

Mr. Fowler proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Benson for
the able manner in which he had presided over the meeting.

Mr. Evan Davies seconded it. It was often the case that
farmers prided themselves upon the amount of money they
had expended in top-dressing, without, he was afraid, care-
fully weighing the results. Last year he top-dressed part of
a field ; and he must confess that, so far as he could observe,
there was no difference in the crop between that which was
top-dressed and that which was not. The harvest came upon
them rather suddenly, and he was not able to weigh carefully
the product of each portion as he intended to do, otherwise he
should have been better prepared to give the results then he
was at present. The remarks of the Professor upon the sub-
ject of soluble phosphates should be carefully considered, for
it was now clear that they should secure those manures which
had not only phosphate in their composition, but having that
valuable ingredient in a soluble form.

The Chairman, after thanking them, asked what protec-
tion the farmer had that he was supplied with real phosphates ?
Clearly but one — to make the manure himself, by buying the
bones and dissolving tbem in acid.

Dr. Voelcker thought it was certainly rot the best plan
for the farmer to make his own superphosphate. Upon their
farm, up to within the last three jears, they had manufac-
tured their own superphosphate, but they had now discovered
that it was much better to buy it ready manufactured, in
addition to the inconvenience of doing so. If the buyer
obtained a guarantee that the manure contaiued a certain
quantity of soluble phosphate, he wanted nothing more.
This constituent was a distinct chemical substance, and how
the manufacturer produced it was nothing to the farmer.
The manufacturing of artificial manures was now quite an
art ; and the superior appliances at the disposal of the large
manufacturer rendered it easy for him to produce a good
manure at a price not far above what the farmer would have
to pay for the crude material. Thus many intelligent manu-
facturers make a better superphospate thau can be mads from
bones and acids alone.

After a little further conversation, the meeting broke up.

DR. VOELCKER ON THE COMPARATIVE VALUE
OF ARTIFICIAL AND FARM-YARD MANURES,

On Tuesday Professor Voelcker delivered a lecture on the
above subject, in the Lion Rooms, Shrewsbury. Mr. Joseph
Meire, of Berrington, presided.

The attendance was not large.

The Chairman said the subject upon which they were
about to hear a very interesting lecture was a very important
one to the farmer.

Dr. Voelcker said there had been a good deal of talk
about the relative merits of farm-yard manure and artificials.
Some would have nothing but the former, while others evi-
dently thought the perfection of good farming was to use an
unlimited quantity of artificial manure. Many of the latter
gentlemen troubled themselves very little about what they
really bought ; it sufficed for them to expend a certain amount
of money on some description of artificial manure, which might
be entirely valueless for their particular purpose. Such, for
instance, as the London Economic, the Essence of Guano,
and others. Now, farm-yard manure was an excellent thing
in its proper place, and so was any other description of
manure. Some artificial manures, which were exceedingly
valuable, lost their efficacy from being improperly applied, and
a great quantity of valuable manure at the present day waa
wasted on farms for the want of knowledge necessary for its
application. Those who had not sufficient intelligence or
general knowledge on the subject of plants would be lesa
likely to go wrong if they followed the old-fashioned routine
and used farm-yard manure, than by using artificial manure,
which at least would be of no use to them. Some knowledge
ought to be had- of the wants of the different crops that grow
in rotation. Those wants could not well be laid before his

112

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

hearers without a reference to the character or properties of
the soil to which they were applied. On the whole, the proper
system of manuring required a great deal of rudimentary
knowledge, which could not be treated of in a single lecture.
He would therefore rather offer a few remarks on the compa-
rative advantages of natural and artificial manure ; and each
of these possessed peculiarities of their own, which rendered
them perfectly well adapted to special purposes. As would
be seen on reference to the diagrams, one peculiarity of farm-
yard D?anure was its extreme complexity of character. [The
diagram referred to contained the analysis of the component
parts of fresh and rotten manure.] It contained both organic
and inorganic food, and was applicable to a variety of
crops, such as corn, root crops, and grass land; and this,
no doubt, vras the reason why farm-yard manure was enti-
tled to the name of universal manure. It contained every-
thing required by our cultivated crops. But he did not
say that it should always be used indiscriminately. Another
peculiarity of farm-yard manure was that it exercised
beneficial efifect on plants, not only supplying direct food to
them, but producing a highly beneficial mechanical effect on
the soil, especially on stiff clay land. He was a strong ad-
vocate for long dung being applied as soon as possible. In
the yard manure one great peculiarity was the large amount
of water — in fact, this amounted generally to 66 per cent.,
and in rotten it amounted to three-fourths of the whole
bulk; so that for every ton of active manuring matter, the
farmer has to cart three tons of useless materials, even sup-
posing that the remaining ton is composed of nothing else
but valuable fertilizing constituents. This would explain
why it was that artificial manures were especially adapted
for hilly districts and for fields removed a considerable dis-
tance from the farm-yard. He did not think that farmers
alwaj's took a sufficient account of the wear and tear of
horses and men in the transit and application of that ma-
nure. If the subject were carefully considered, the farmer
would think twice befoie he carted a heavy load of farm-
yard manure some eight or nine miles from a town, and
afterwards applied it to a remote field on the farm ; and he
would also hesitate l)efure producing farm-yard manure at
any expense. Under som<! circumstances, which every
farmer ought to know best for himself, feeding cattle
did not pay at all ; farmers sometimes made up their minds
to feed at a loss, calculating on something for the manure.
But it was a very delicate question whether this was the
best way of producing manure, or whether it was not better
to use the ordinarily-made manure, and apply it in connec-
tion with artificial or special manure, the latter term show-
ing that it was adapted for special purposes. If a farm was
not in good order, it ought to be brought round by general
manure, such as farm-yard manure; but when "it was in
better condition, to make it go as far as possible, special
manure must be resorted to. A peculiarity in artificial ma-
nures was that they supplied special fertilizing ingredients
to the exclusion of some others which were abundant in
farm-yard manure. For instance : In the best Peruvian
guano there was a high per-centage of ammonia, with about
20 or 25 per cent, of phosphate of lime ; and that guano was
applied forgetting an additional crop of corn. Some other
artificial manures — bone-dust, for instance — were valuable
on account of their containing phosphate of lime, which was
favourable to the production of roots, nothing tending to
the rapid development of bulb so much as that. He did
not mean that phosphates were of no use to corn crops
In some soils they_ produced a marked elfect, and
he had that morning recommended a gentleman to
use superphosphate by way of a trial, to keep up his wheat.
There had been a good deal of talk about a deficiency of
silica in soils, which prevented corn from standing up. It was
remarkable that soils peculiarly liable to corn lying down gene-
rally contained a high per-centage of silica. From observa-
tions that had been made on the subject, he was inchued to
think that what had been said about silica must be regarded
more as a theory rather than a resting on well-ascertained facts.
It had not yet been ascertained how it was that some crops
were stronger than others ; and until that was found out, it was
of no use reasoning upon the matter. Corn become laid down
from a variety of reasons. If the land contained a supply of all
the elements necessary for the growth of the plant, a dressing
of guano produced a coarse wheat, which often became laid
down, When wheat became laid down it arose from something

in the soil being in too large proportion. Some people had a
curious way of estimating the skill of the farmer by the amount
of the manure which he put on his land. Some men were
content with eight tons of farmyard manure, while others used
as much as twenty tons to the acre. The farmer, however,
who tried the larger dose did not often repeat the experiment,
for he became convinced that, in farming, what was good in one
instance was not good in anotijCr. The great advantage of
artificial manures was that they contained special fertilizing
ingredients to the exclusion of other substances, and hence its
adaptation to special circumstances. How were these special
circumstances to be ascertained ? He had no doubt in bis own
mind that bone dust or superphosphate mixed with farm-yard
manure would be of great advantage, as it would supply the
element which was very much deficient infarm-vardmanure, es-
pecially where the manure was produced by young and lean
stock, which absorbed all the phosphate of the food ; in the
manure from fattening animals there was a large proportion of
this substance, and hence its great value. Pnosphates gene-
rally speakingf were more suitable for root crops, but it was im-
possible to lay down general rules ; the farmer himself ought
to be the best judge, whether in order to obtain a good crop
anything else was required. Turnips did not live alone upon
phosphate; they required a variety of other substances-
lime, soda, potash, and other fertihzing matters. It depended
upon the farmer to find this out, and no one else. There was
a good deal of land in this part of the country which required
nothing more, in order to obtain good root crops, than bone
in an efficient state of preparation. The learned professor
then went on to observe upon the constituent parts of guano
and superphosphate, and their application to particular soils
and for particular crops. [The substance of this part of his
lectu re will be found in our report of the Wenlock Farmers'
Club]. He illustrated the immense importance of examining
the manure we buy, by referring to the following table, which
proved that some superphosphate contained four times as
much valuable feitilizing matters as others :

"H-B

o: en cc

io '^

HJ JO

rf». p
^J en

h-i 1-1 o

o
o

tn en io
O (O o

CD
CO

o
o

o
o

24.42

40.43

2.41

2.16

1

io CO

-I tC M

» .fo I <j

<:

^o 05 oo o?

21

Mr. George Davies, as a farmer, was much obliged for
the able and practical lecture which they had just heard. He
wished to know if the learned professor could tell him how red
clover could be retained on light soils from February until
June. He had some years ago conversed with Dr. Pepper on
this subject, and was now in communication with Mr. Nesbit,
but the latter gentleman had not answered the question he
now put,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

113

Dr. VoELCKER said, this question was a most important
one, which it would be mnst desirable to solve. About
four years ago, he paid some attention to what was called
"clover-sickness ;" and, like most beginners, iu two months
he fancied he knew something about the matter, and threw
out some suggestions, with a view to remedy the evil.
Having, however, followed up the question in various ope-
rations, and in the laboratory, and after some long corre-
spondence, he had come to the conclusion that, upon the
subject of clover-sickness, he knew as much or as little as
the man in the moon.

Mr. Davies asked if the fermentation of oi'dinary ma-
nure would render chipped bones sufficiently soluble to be
of use to the crop ?

Dr. VoELCKER thought it would be quite sufficient ;
and, after one turning, the bone-dust would disappear. It
would, in his opinion, be a very great advantage to use
bone-dust in that way.

Mr. Payne inquired if the Professor recommended long
manure to be ploughed in, or used as a top-dressing ?

Dr. VoELCKER said in very stiff land it would be better
to plough it in, as in that way they obtained the full ad-
vantage of the manure.

The Chairman, in the course of some observations,
asked if the plan recommended for keeping up the wheat
was by stiffening the straw ? If so, superphosphate would
be much more likely to do that than ammonia.

The Professor said he knew, in some instances, that
superphosphate stiffened the soil ; but that was a different
thing from recommendmg it for the purpose of stiffening
the corn. Ammoniacal manures certainly had a tendency
to make corn go down, and should, therefore, be used very
carefull}'.

Mr. George Davies then moved, and Mr. George
Watton seconded, a vote of thanks to the lecturer, which
was cordially carried and acknowledged.

A similar compliment was, on the motion of Mr. Nevett
(Yoreton) accorded to the Chairman, in acknowledging
which,

Mr. Meire expressed his regret that there was not in
the county town a club where farmers could meet and dis-
cuss subjects connected with the improvement of the land,
and other subjects of the greatest importance to the farmer.
The information they had received that day was proof of
how much could be gained in this way.

The meeting then separated.

REPORT ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE, STEPPE MURRAIN, OR RINDERPEST.

By James Beart Simonds,
professor of cattle pathology in the royal veterinary college, london.

Epizootic diseases, and particularly those that have
prevailed among cattle and sheep, have in all ages ex-
cited much attention, and taxed the pen of the faithful
historian, as well as the cultivator of the science of
medicine, to record their successive outbreaks and de-
vastating effects. It is not, however, our intention in
this report to follow in a succinct manner the account
which has been given of these diseases, extending, as it
does, from the period of the infliction of "a grievous
murrian " of "boils and blains " on the cattle of
Egypt, as a Divine punishment to the obdurate Pharaoh
for resisting the command to let the Children of Israel
go, down to our own times ; but to record the result of
Gur investigations into the nature and consequences of
the disease which recently seemed to threaten to invade
our shores. Whether " the murrain " that fell upon
the cattle of the Egyptians has been permitted in an
altered or mitigated form to remain as a scourge to suc-
ceeding nations is a problem which cannot, we opine, be
satisfactorily solved by any supposed resemblance which
our present cattle plagues may bear to the one described
by the sacred historian. This fearful and miraculous
visitation must be regarded as the chief of these scourges,
however destructive they may since have been.

In the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans the
outbreaks of these diseases were not unfrequent, and
numerous records of them are left by Homer, Plutarch,
Virgil, and others. Columella, at about the commence-
ment of the Christian era, speaks of them as contagious
maladies ; and Vegetius, in the fourth century, treats
largely of their contagious properties, and recommends
that the diseased animals should, " with all diligence
and care, be separated from the herd, and put apart by
themselves." Fracastorius and Weierus also describe

the sad effects of one of these visitations in 810, when it
is said that the greater part of the cattle perished through-
out the Emperor Charlemagne's dominions.

The first recorded instance, however, which we find
of the cattle in England being affected by one of this
class of maladies is in 1713-14, at which period an
epizootic, that for a few years previously had prevailed
in several continental states, suddenly broke out here,
and swept off many of our cattle. No account suffi-
ciently explicit upon the nature and progress of the dis-
ease has been handed down to us, so that it is difficult
to speak with certainty of its true characters, and much
more either of its duration or the amount of loss which
the country sustained. It appears, however, that the
malady possessed many of the features of Eczema
epizootica, now common among us, and it may possibly
have been identical with this disease. The infection
seems to have been communicated by the saliva, as it is
said that " when this is dropped on the grass, and
sound animals are immediately placed on the same pas-
ture, they contract the disorder ; and in some bullocks
the tongue was inflamed and covered with many red
blisters."

This malady was succeeded in 1744 by one of far
greater importance, because attended with a far greater
fatality. The disease in question early attracted the
attention of the Government, who promptly adopted
vigorous means of arresting its progress. It is asserted
that the malady first appeared in the neighbourhood of
London, whence it extended over the length and breadth
of the land, destroying hundreds of thousands of cattle,
and continuing its devastating effects with almost un-
mitigated severity down to 1754-5. Its introduction
here has been difTerently accounted for ; but it is pretty

lU

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

generally attributed to the importation of two calves
from Holland by a farmer residing at Poplar, with a
view of improving his breed, and in whose systems the
disease was incubated.

Dr. Layard, in his Essay on the disease, says, how-
ever, that an opinion prevailed that it was brought over
by an English tanner, who had purchased "a parcel of
distempered hides in Zealand very cheap, because they
were forbidden to be sold there, and should have been
buried." It seems, therefore, to have been confidently
believed at the time that the disease was an imported
one — ^a circumstance of much practical value, now that
we are receiving several hundreds of cattle week by week
from the Continent ; although, as this Report will here-
after show, our own investigations have proved that no
fear need be entertained at present of " the great cattle
murrain" visiting our shores. Notwithstanding the
deep and painful interest which this disease excited, and
the efforts made by the Government of the day to stay
its ravages, no correct estimate can be formed of the
numbers of cattle which were lost to the country from
its duration and extension ; but it was ascertained by
one of the Commissioners appointed by the Govern-
ment that in Nottinghamshire alone 40,000 head of
cattle perished in six months, and in Cheshire upwards
of 30,000 in the same space of time.

By a special Act of Parliament, the King in Council
was empowered to issue such orders as were deemed the
most effective to arrest the progress of the pest. In-
structions were thereupon given,

1st. For the killing of all the infected animals, and
burying them entire with the skins on, " slashed from
head to tail," that they might not be used for the pur-
pose of the manufacturer.

2nd. For the burning of all the hay and straw used
about the animals.

3rd. For the cleaning and fumigating the sheds, &c. ,
and for no sound cattle to be put in them for two months
after the removal of the diseased.

4th. For no recovered animal to be allowed to go near
others for a month after its convalescence.

5th. For no diseased cattle to be driven to fairs
or markets, nor for the flesh to be used as food for
dogs, &c.

6th. For no healthy cattle to be removed from a farm
where the disease had prevailed in less than a month
after its disappearance.

And, lastly, orders were issued for the notice of an
outbreak to be immediately sent by the farmers to either
the constables, churchwardens, overseers, or the special
inspectors appointed by the magistrates acting for the
parish or district. The Government also undertook to
pay forty shillings for every ox, bull, or cow which was
killed, and ten shillings for every calf, with a corre-
spending price for their skins.

Mr. Youatt, in his account of the disease, as pub-
lished in the work entitled " Cattle," says, "Of the
propriety of this bonus for the destruction of infected
cattle, there cannot be a doubt, for there were numerous
instances in which those who began to kill the sick as
soon as the distemper appeared among their cattle, lost

very few ; but others, who would kill none until their
own folly had made them wiser, did not save more than
one out of ten."

Many difficulties were thrown in the way of carrying
out the instructions, and not a few impositions were
practised by some designing persons claiming the award
for old and worn-out animals, as well as for those which
were suffering from totally different diseases. In this
day, now that veterinary surgeons are practising in every
part of the country, such frauds would scarcely be at-
tempted ; and we believe, in the event of occasion re-
quiring it, that a system of inspection, comparatively
inexpensive, might be devised which would effectually
prevent any instances of the kind.

It is further recorded that in one year, the third of
the existence of the disease, ^135,000 was paid out of
the Treasury as a recompense for the cattle killed ac-
cording to the prescribed orders, and that during the
same year 80,000 head of cattle were killed, and nearly
double that number died from the disease. To meet
this alarming state of things, and the difficulties which
sprung out of the adoption of the measures of the Go-
vernment, various other Orders of Council were promul-
gated, and in the third order we find that no cattle, fat
or lean, would be suffered to pass the Humber and the
Trent northward from its date, namely, January 19th,
1747, to the 27th of the following March ; the object
evidently being to protect the cattle in the northern
counties by cutting off all direct communication between
them and the infected districts for two months.

Newby, in an appendix to his work on mangel-wurzel,
states that the cattle fair at Barnet had its origin in the
existence of this disease. " The fair," he says, '
formerly kept at Islington, till the distemper, which
raged violently among the cows at that place in 1746,
obliged the Welshmen to remove to Barnet, where it has
been continued ever since."

Great as were the losses, no reasonable doubt can be
entertained that they would have been much augmented
had not the Government taken the course it did ; and
we also fear that the continuance of the disease would have
been extended over a far greater number of years than
it was. The attempts at cure were not satisfactory, and
very little was known of the true nature of the malady
even by those members of the medical profession who
gave attention to it, for at that time there were no scien-
tifically educated veterinary practitioners. After a careful
perusal and analysation of the writings of the different
physicians who have treated of the subject, we believe
that we are justified in saying that the malady was iden-
tical with that which has recently excited so much fear
and alarm in the public mind, as being likely to be in-
troduced from the continent.

From the period of a subsidence both in the amount
and virulence of this cattle pest in 1754-5 until its final
departure a few years afterwards, England appears to
have been singularly exempt from epizootic diseases, and
to have remained so down to August, 1839, when great
anxiety was created by the sudden and almost simulta-
neous appearance of a "new affection" (although pro-
bably of the same nature as that of 1713-14) among the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

115

cattle ia different parts of the country. The earliest
accounts which we received of the outbreak came from
Norfolk, and there seems no reason to doubt that
it was here that the disease was first observed. Cattle
of all ages and under every variety of system of feeding
and management became the subjects of the malady,
which was recognised by the existence of vesicles upon
the upper surface of the tongue, inside the lips, and the
dental pad. Vesicles were also formed between the
digits, and occasionally upon the teats and udders of
the cows. The existence of these vesicles was associated
with a discharge of viscid saliva from the mouth, loath-
ing of food, imperfect mastication, suspension of rumi-
nation, loss of milk, a tenderness in walking, and general
symptoms of febrile action.

The malady was not confined to cattle, but sheep,
pigs, and domestic poultry of the gallinaceous tribe were
likewise its subjects. By common consent it was desig-
nated the cattle epidemic, but has since been scientifically
known as Eczema epizootica, or popularly as " the
mouth and foot disease." It has continued from that
time to the present, not proving on the whole a de-
structive disease to life, but at irregular intervals assum-
ing a severer form than ordinary, more particularly in
1845 and 1852, and leading on these occasions to a great
deterioration in the value of the animals affected.

Shortly after the appearance of the eczema, namely, in
1841, pleuro-pneumonia broke out among the cattle, and
it, too, has remained down to the present^time. It is
worthy of a passing remark that neither of these were
imported diseases. It was not until several months after

\ pleuro-pneumonia had established itself in the country
that an alteration took place in the tariff by which live
stock came in free of duty, and up to that time the high
rate of duty prevented any importations of foreign cattle
or sheep being made. This fact in itself is sufficient to
prove that the malady was not imported by foreign
cattle ; besides which, the parts of the country where it
was first observed could not possibly have had any im-
diate or direct connection with the ports. Pleuro-
pneumonia had no sooner gained a footing, than, follow-

( ing the laws of all epizootics, it quickly spread over a
great breadth of country, and continued to devastate our
herds with almost unmigitated severity for the first few
years. It has since taken on rather an enzootic form,
and has prevailed mostly in such localities and places
where secondary causes are in full operation to predis-
pose animals to its influence; hence its continuance in
the ill-ventilated, over-crowded, and badly-drained
cow-sheds of the metropolis and other large towns, and
on the "cold retentive soils" and undrained farms
in the country, especially such as lie in exposed situa-
tions.

Besides the special cause, or rather, perhaps, special
combination of causes, Tvhich give origin to the enzootic
form of pleuro-pneumonia, its appearance in a cattle-
shed, or on a farm, is frequently traceable to the in-
troduction of newly-purchased animals, who bring the
disease in a latent state with them ; and which, on its
declaring itself, extends by ordinary infection to those
with whom they are located. Infection we hold to be one
of the chief causes of the continuance of pleuro-pneumonia
for so many years among us, as every diseased animal, by
■virtue of the exhalations given off from its body, becomes
a focus of the malady, and a new source, whence the
poison, so to speak, is disseminated. The same fatality
which marks the progress of pleuro-pneumonia here,
attends it everywhere ; and throughout the continent it
is looked upon as an incurable disease, and dealt with
accordingly. Its great fatality arises from the circum-
stance that the nature of the changes which take place
in the lungs is such as immediately to arrest their func-
tion as perfect aerifying organs, and sooa to destroy, to

a greater or less extent, the integrity of their structure.
The true pathology of pleuro-pneumonia is among the
questiones vexatcB of science. In this report we have
not immediately to do with this question, still we may
observe that the most eminent professors of veterinary
medicine throughout Europe hesitate to declare, as some
medical men have done, and others also who have pro-
bably given but little thought to the subject, that
the changes wrought in the lungs are altogether due to
inflammatory action.

In Belgium, in France, and in many parts of Italy,
the disease is designated ea7M<fa^it;e pleuro-pneumonia —
a name which, while it marks a peculiarity in the disease,
implies, at the same time, that it differs somewhat in its
results from ordinary inflammation of the lungs and
their investing membrane, and which is correctly
called pleuro-pneumonia. We have no hesitation in
giving it as our opinion that the changes which are
originally effected in the lung tissue can take place
otherwist than by inflammatory action. We observe, as
the analogue of these changes, that in the advancement
of the disease, the interstitial areolar tissue, contiguous
to the more affected parts of the organs, becomes pri-
marily choked with serous effusion, which, by its pres-
sure upon the air cells and their rete of capillary
vessels, obstructs both the admission of air to the cells,
and the circulation of the blood through the vessels, and
thus leads to an imperfect decarbonisation of the blood,
as well as to far more important changes in the fluid
itself. Not only, in many diseases, are serous exuda-
tions entirely independent of inflammation, but fibri-
nous are equally so in the opinion of some of the
ablest pathologists of the present day. These deposits
may result from the vital force of the vessels being im-
paired by some depressive influence acting on the
nervous system, either generally or locally, as well as by
some unexplained or ill-understood alteration taking
place in the composition of the blood, by the existence
within it of morbific animal or vegetable products. The
fibrinous depositions in pleuro-pneumonia succeeds the
seroua, and are probably due to either an alteration
in the relative proportion of the component parts
of the blood, or an interference with its vitality,
brought about by the presence of the special materies
morbi of the disease, and which may have entered it in
the ordinary manner of infection. The abnormal action
which commenced in the parenchyma of the lungs ex-
tends towards their investing membrane, when, from the
nature of this tissue, as well as from the longer existence
of the action itself, an augmented fibrinous exuda-
tion takes place upon their surface. We regard,
therefore, the implication of the pleura as a character-
istic of an advanced stage of the malady, and also of a
still further deterioration of the blood.

Since the appearance of pleuro-pneumonia no other
disease of a fatal character and possessing contagious or
epizootic properties has shown itself among our cattle ;
but in 1847 a very fatal malady broke out among the
sheep. This affection was recognised as the small-pox
of sheep ; and it was ascertained in the most conclusive
manner that it had been introduced here by some
" Merinos," which had been shipped at Tonning, on
the coast of Denmark, and also by some others
shipped at about the same time at Hamburgh for the
supply of the English market, and in whose sys-
tems the disease was incubated. From the free
commingling of these foreign sheep with our own
breeds in the London Cattle Market, and also from
the circumstance that many of them were purchased by
farmers as " stock sheep," the small-pox was soon
spread over a great tract of country, proving destruc-
tive to life in numerous instances to the extent of even
90 per cent.

116

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

This state of things was met by legislative enactments
with view to arrest the progress of the disease, and hap-
pily they proved of essential service in so doing. Hy the
expiration of the third year from the outbreak, scarcely
an instance of the disease could be met with in any part ot
the country, and this notwithstanding tens of thousands
of animals were, to our own knowledge, affected in the
year succeeding ics introduction. From the time of its
subsidence in 1850 until now, we have been perfectly
exempt from cases of small-pox.

This short historical account of epizootic affections of
cattle, in this country, brings us down to the present
period, and to the especial subject of this report.

It was during the latter part of the past year that the
public mind became much excited by frequent and
almost continuous renorts that a malady of a most
fatal description had shown itself among the cattle on
the Continent, and that it was rapidly extending towards
those countries whence we received our chief importa-
tions. In the early part of the present year the subject
assumed so much practical importance that the atten-
tion of Parliament was directed to it on two or three
different occasions. Her Majesty's Government, it was
found, had early given instructions for our Consuls
abroad to collect all the information they possibly could
in their several localities, and transmit the particulars
of their inquiries without delay to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs. These despatches were from time to
time forwarded by Lord Clarendon to the Council of
the Royal Agricultural Society, who also had from the
beginning taken the liveliest interest in the matter, and
who lost no opportunity of placing the latest informa-
tion before the country through the weekly publication
of their proceedings. The official documents, however,
in no way tended to allay public apprehensions, but
rather, on the contrary, to increase them, as it was dis-
tinctly stated that the " murrain" was rapidly making
its way westward from the countries where it had been
first observed, and that it would ere long be introduced
here unless the greatest caution was exercised in regu-
lating our supply of foreign cattle ; and that even then
it was more than probable the disease would come in,
it being said that it could be carried from place to place
by skins, hoofs, or horns, or indeed anything which had
been exposed to the infection by being brought near to
the diseased animals.

Notwithstanding the great amount of information
which was supplied by our Consuls, but very little of a
satisfactory kind could be obtained with reference to the
true pathology of the disease. The Council of the
Royal Agricultural Society therefore felt that under
such circumstances as these some more decisive step
should be taken ; and this opinion found a ready
response in the other two national Agricultural Societies
of Scotland and Ireland. At this juncture a communi-
cation was received from the Royal Agricultural
Improvement Society of Ireland, suggesting "that it
would be desirable for the three agricultural societies
of the United Kingdom to join in the common object
of despatching abroad a special veterinary inspector,
for the purpose of ascertaining the exact nature of the
contagious typhus."

At a meeting of the Council, held on the 1st of
April, some further communications were read from
Mr. Hall Maxwell, C.B., Secretary of the Highland and
Agricultural Society of Scotland, and from Captain
Croker, Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Improve-
ment Society of Ireland, expressing their willingness to
concur with the Royal Agricultural Society in making
arrangements for despatching a veterinary inspector to
the districts abroad where the cattle murrain was at pre-
sent raging. The Council thereupon agreed to the fol-
lowing resolution ; —

" That it is expedient to send a competent veterinary pro-
fessor to examine into the nature of the cattle murrain on the
Continent. That the Society gladly accepts the co-operation
of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and the
Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland in this
step. The Society ventures to recommend that Professor
Simoads, of the Royal Veterinary Collei^p, be commissioned
to this task. Tluit he be empowered to take with him a
German veterinary surgeon, established in London, quite com-
petent for the business, and who would smooth the difficulties
of the German language. It is supposed that about three
weeks would be required for a satisfactory examination. That
the Highlanil and Agricultural Society of Scotland be informed
that the Royrtl Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland
propose to share the expense of this mission with the Royal
Agricultural Society of England ; and that they be asked to
join in the same manner."

It is scarcely necessary to say that the national
societies of Scotland and Ireland most readily consented
to the proposition contained in this resolution ; and on
the Government being informed of the step about to be
taken. Lord Clarendon kindly forwarded the subjoined
letter of introduction to the British Consuls to me,
through the Secretary of the Society, accompanied
with the following communication : —

"Foreign Office, April 4, 1857.
"Sir, — I am directed by the Earl of Clarendon to acknow-
ledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd instant, acquainting
his Lordship with the intention of the Council of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, in conjunction with the
Societies of Scotland and Ireland, to send Professor Simonds
to those districts abroad where the disease among cattle is at
present raging ; and I am to enclose a letter which has been
addressed, by Lord Clarendon's direction, to the British con-
sular agents in Northern and Central Europe, instructing
them to afford to Professor Simonds all the assistance in their
power in ca'rying out the objects of his mission.
" I am, sir,
" Your most obedient, humble servant,
" James Hudson, Esq." " E. Hammond.

(Enclosure.)

"Foreign Office, April 4, 1857.
" Sir, — I am directed by the Earl of Clarendon to acquaint
you that the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of this
country have notified to his lordship their intention, in con-
junction with the Agricultural Societies of Scotland and Ire-
land, to send a veterinary professor to the districts abroad
where the disease among cattle is at present raging, and that
the Committee have selected Professor Simonds for this ser-
vice. I am, therefore, to instruct you, in the event of Profes-
sor Simonds visiting any part of your district in the course of
his mission, to show him every attention, and to afford him all
the assistance in your power in carrying out the objects of
the societies by whom he has been appointed — I am, sir,

" Your moat obedient humble servant,
"E. Hammond
" To the British Consular Agents in Northern
and Central Europe."

The first step, according to my instructions, being to
secure the services of a veterinary surgeon familiar with
the German language, I at once called on Mr. Wm.
Ernes, M.R.C.V.S., a gentleman eminently fitted for
the task ; and who, besides being a native of Belgium,
had had the great advantage of travelling almost through-
out Europe, thus becoming practically acquainted with
most of the foreign languages. Mr. Ernes had also re-
ceived an English medical education, and his tastes were
in full accordance with the objects of the mission.

Having secured his co-operation, we left London for
Belgium on the morning of April 9th, and arrived the
same evening at Ghent.

We deemed it expedient to ascertain, with as little de-
lay as possible, the health of the cattle in those countries
whence we were receiving our daily supplies, and also

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

117

the details of the system which prevailed with regard to
the cattle trade, together with the particulars relating to
the shipment of animals to England. This part of our
mission was the more pressing as the recent Order in
Council, prohibiting the importation into the United
Kingdom of " cattle or of horns, hoofs, or hides, from
those territories of Russia, Prussia, or Mecklenburgh-
Schwerin, which lie in the Gulf of Finland, or between
the Gulf and the city of Lllbeck" might be found to re-
quire an immediate extension to other countries, or pos-
sibly we might ascertain that a relaxation of it could be
made without the incurrence of a greater risk of the
disease being introduced. We therefore commence our
inquiries in

Belgium.

Our investigations here fully confirmed the statement
made by Lord Howard de Walden, her Majesty's Am-
bassador at Brussels, in his despatch to Lord Clarendon,
dated March 20th, 1857, that this country was perfectly
free from the rinderpest. We found that eczema
epizootica prevailed to some extent, but not in a serious
form, and that pleuro-pneumonia also existed in several
parts of the kingdom. Rinderpest had not shown itself
to an extent to create much solicitude since the Seven
Year's War, during which time it destroyed vast num-
bers of cattle. From 1813 to 1815 some cases occurred
in the district between Namur and Luxemberg, and
which are said to have depended upon the passage of the
Austrian army into France. The route taken by the
army was south of the Belgian frontier, and near to the
places in question ; and it appears that along its whole
course the disease was manifested to a greater or less
extent on either side of the military road. It is also said
that the cattle belonging to the Prussian army being
healthy, no disease followed its course through the
country, and thus a great part of Belgium escaped the
pest ; the measures of sanitary police confining it chiefly
to the neighbourhood of Namur, and the districts in
which it had manifested itself.

We refrain from commenting on these facts in this
place, as hereafter we shall have to call attention to the
freedom of continental states in general from the disease,
unless infected cattle, or such as have been exposed to
the contagious influence of the malady, are introduced
therein.

At Ghent we visited a cattle fair which was held the
day after our arrival, and had thus an opportunity of
observing the general state and condition of animals
brought from all parts of the kingdom, and which
proved to be most satisfactory. From the cattle-dealers
we learned that no difficulties existed in the way of the
passage of cattle to or fro over the frontier, so long as
they are healthy, but that restrictions would be rigidly
enforced on the breaking out of a contagious disease.
Lord Howard de Walden writes that " no law exists
under which diseased cattle can be excluded at the
frontier ; a project of law, with a view to such sanitary
precaution, was presented to the Chambers two years
ago, but was rejected ; and therefore the only resource
lies in the activity of the burgomasters in frontier locali-
ties, by enforcing the general regulations in regard to
animals while within the range of their jurisdiction."

Pleuro-pneumonia has prevailed rather in a sporadic
than an epizootic form for the last two years, and an
equal number of cases are said to have occurred in places
where the feeding and general management of the ani-
mals are unexceptionable, as in those where the opposite
state of things obtains, but that, under the latter-named
circumstances, the distas(; has assumed a more fatal cha-
racter. All animals which are supposed to be affected
by this disease have to be reported by the proprietors,
and if, on examination by the Governmental veterinary

surgeon, they are found to be the subjects of it, then an
order is given for them to be killed. The skin, horns,
and other integumental parts are used, but the flesh is
buried as a rule, in accordance with the regulation of the
Government, who pay a proportionate amount of the
value of the animal, and generally to the extent of one-
third.

It appears, however, that this regulation is sometimes
evaded, and that the carcases of such animals occasion-
ally find their way into the meat market, but no in-
stance of injury done to persons eating such flesh is
known to have occurred. Many animals also are not
officially reported, as the proprietor either sells them for
slaughtering or has them killed unknown to the autho-
rities. Should this, however, become known, the ani-
mal is seized, and disposed of as the Government sees
fit, and a fine is also inflicted on the offender. Upon
the whole, the laws of the sanitary police are so strictly
enforced, that in the event of the rinderpest extending
into Belgium, it seems scarcely possible for animals
which had even been exposed to its infection to be ex-
ported from the country.

At Antwerp, we ascertained that the chief exports of
animals to England from thence are calves, and that the
major part of the cows and oxen which are fatted for the
market are sent into France, where at this time a better
price is obtained for them than in England. The calves
are purchased of the farmers in diflferent parts of Bel-
gium by commissioned agents, who collect them toge-
ther for shipment from Antwerp, but some of the oxen
come direct from Holland. The proportionate amount
of oxen to calves which are exported is shown by a re-
turn furnished by MM. Vandenbergh for the year 1856.
The MM. Vandenbergh are the largest shippers of cattla
to England ; and although a few animals are sent over
by other companies, they are in about the same propor-
tion. The return shows that 2,020 calves were forwarded
here in the year, but only 10 oxen,

Holland.

As this country sends our principal supply of foreign
cattle and sheep, it became the more important to ascer-
tain their freedom, or otherwise, from contagious dis-
eases. With the exception of pleuro-pneumonia and
eczema, no other affection prevails among the cattle.
Rinderpest has had no existence for upwards of forty
years, and is unknown even to the veterinary profession,
except by name. The parts of the country most affected
with pleuro-pneumonia at this time are North Holland
and Friesland.

By a statistical return from forty-three villages in
North Holland and Friesland, it is shown that only eight
of them have been comparatively free from pleuro-
pneumonia, and in these out very few cattle are kept.
In the villages where the disease has prevailed, about a
fifth part only of the cattle-owners have escaped upon the
whole, but in many every proprietor has had his herd
affected. In the first quarter of the present year the
official returns show a total loss of 3,655 head of cattle
of which 1,502 died, and 2,153 were killed by order of
the authorities, which gives an average loss of about 281
per week.

We are not surprised at the great extent of these
losses, judging from what we saw of the secondary causes
of epizootics in operation in the vicinity of Rotterdam.
The cattle are often crowded into houses so thickly,
that to pass between them is almost an impossibility.
The form and size of the building also will frequently
allow of a passage only tc be made by a person along its
centre, where the heads of the animals nearly meet over
their feeding troughs, while the height of it is generally
insufficient to stand upright in. No windows exist ia
many of these sheds, nor any other inlet for light and

118

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

air, except the door. The heat is almost suffocating,
and the stench abominable. In such unwholesome and
pest-breeding places as these the cattle, often to the ex-
tent of forty or fifty in a shed, are kept for weeks toge-
ther to be fatted for the market, by being fed chiefly on
the wash and grains which come from the distilleries.

The cattle which are sent from Friesland are shipped
at Harlingen direct for England, and the numbers put
on board there are fully six times greater than at Am-
sterdam. Friesland is one of the great cattle districts of
Holland, and supplies not only the English market with
many animals, but other countries likewise. She there-
fore receives no imports, nor does it appear that any of
the vessels conveying cattle from the ports of the Elbe
or the Weser, or from any part of the coast of Holstein,
ever touch at the Dutch ports, so that a contagious
malady like rinderpest, existing in Holstein or in the
countries watered by those rivers, would have to make
its entrance by way of the land into Holland.

No restrictions are put upon the cattle trade with re-
ference to the bringing of animals over the frontier, but
all importations of the kind would be immediately pro-
hibited on the appearance of the disease in question in
any neighbouring states. The prices obtained for cattle
in the English market are not viewed as being sufficiently
remunerative just now by the Dutch feeders, and hence
the diminished numbers sent here. When the contrary
state of things prevailed, many animals were purchased
in Prussia by the dealers, and forwarded to the different
ports of Holland for exportation ; and not a few, it is
said, came even from Switzerland down the Rhine for
the same purpose. These facts show that it is possible
for a disease of a malignant kind, which is incubated in
the system of an animal for ten days or a fortnight, to
be introduced into England from other countries via
Holland : and, also, how necessary it is that we should
be acquainted with what is passing on the continent with
regard to diseases in general as affecting cattle, and
particularly if belonging to the^ class which forms the
subject of this report.

The continuance of a well-ordered and rigid system of
inspection of imported animals on our part will, how-
ever do much to protect us, and that not merely by its
leading to the detection of diseased animals on their ar-
rival, but by the effect which it will have upon the ex-
port trade of foreign countries. Proof of this is given
by the circumstance that last year, when it became known
that our Customs' inspectors had received orders to be
particularly strict in the examinations of cattle, the Ge-
neral Steam Navigation Company of Rotterdam, un-
willing to take the responsibility of the probable rejec-
tion of animals committed to their care, appointed a
veterinary surgeon to examine them when put on board
their boats. This company brings by far tlie largest
proportion of cattle to England, and although this pre-
cautionary measure was not adopted by other shipping
companies, they nevertheless declared their intention of
having recourse to it, and only refrained from so doing,
because of the great diminution which took place in the
number of the animals which were shipped. The sys-
tem of examination was kept in force for about three
months, when also, and from the same cause, the Gene-
ral Steam Navigation Company discontinued it. The
returns of these examinations, together with the results
were regularly transmitted to the British Consul. Should
the prices again rise in England to an extent which
would, in the opinion of the cattle feeders, justify them
in sending us more animals, then there cannot be a
doubt of the re-establishment of this system of inspec-
tion.

No duty is chargeable on animals imported into Hol-
land, but an export one has to be paid, and which
amounts in English money to about the following rate

per head, namely, oxen, lOd., calves 2d., sheep 2d.,
lambs Id., pigs Id., with an additional duty of thirteen
per cent, on the gross sum.

Although Holland rears immense numbers of cattle,
she, for her great export trade in these animals, becomes
an importing country for hides, receiving her chief sup-
ply of these from Java and Buenos Ayres, with some
Enjiland, but none from Russia, so that all fear of our
introduction of contagious diseases through the means
of skins may cease, in so far as Holland is concerned.

Our investigations led us to visit the cattle feeders,
and among others we saw Mynheer A. Poot, who resides
within a few miles of Rotterdam. M. Poot ships upon
an average 600 animals a-year. He informed us that no
disease had prevailed in his sheds since February last,
prior to which time he had several cases of pleuro-
pneumonia. He appeared to be an entire stranger to
any other contagious disease, and said that, in the event
of an affection like rinderpest breaking out among his
stock, a cordon would be immediately placed around
the farm by the local authorities, and that he should be
compelled to slaughter the diseased animals and bury
them with their skins on in quick lime. In his opinion
it would be an impossibility to export any portion of
their carcases to England, even if attempts were made to
Jo so, in consequence of the strictness with which the
police sanitary regulations are carried our. He adduced
as an instance that on the first breaking out of pleuro-
pneumonia in 1829, and before experience had shown
that the flesh could safely be used for food, he and others
had to kill the affected cattle and bury them entire, with
a view to prevent injury being done to the people, as
well as to limit the spread of the malady.

On the question of our Government ordering all im-
ported animals to be slaughtered on their arrival in the
docks, and their carcases sent to the meat market, M. ,
Poot considered that such a step would be tantamount
to the stopping of the importations entirely. The boats
very rarely, if indeed at any time, are freighted with
cattle all belonging to the same person ; the cargo is there-
fore mostly comprised of animals the property of several
individuals, and identity of each particular animal, which
is necessary for the purposes of trade, could scarcely be
made under such circumstances ; besides, he said, a ne-
cessity would be created for an immediate sale of the meat
to the injury of the interests of the persons sending the
animals. He was equally opposed to the establishment
of a quarantine, and was of opinion that it could never
be carried into practice, and England continue to receive
full supplies of foreign cattle.

The system at present adopted is for various feeders
to consign their cattle to salesmen in the London mar-
cet, who, as in the home trade, charge a commission on
ihe sales they sffect. As no animals are brought into
Rotterdam coastways for re-shipment, all consequently
have to pass through the town to reach the vessels, so that
they are thus subjected to the general inspection of the
local authorities, regulations existing to prevent diseased
animals from entering into this and the other towns of
Holland. Besides the security thus afforded it is clearly
not in accordance with the interests of the exporters to
put diseased cattle on board, as it is impossible for them
to bear up against the fatigue of a sea-voyage, or to be
on their arrival here in a fit state to pass the scrutiny of
our Customs inspectors.

The cattle which are fatted either for the Dutch mar-
kets or for exportation are purchased at the different
fairs and markets in thecountry, and are for the most part
reared in Friesland and Guelderland, scarcel)- any being
brought in from other countries

Upon the whole, notwithstanding the dangers we have
pointed out, the system which prevails generally with
regard to the cattle trade, and the additional regulations

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

119

which would be enforced did necessity arise, appear to
offer a fair amount of security against the introduction
of a new cattle pest from Holland.

Westphalia and Hanover.

These countries are entirely free from Rinderpest, and
have been so for upwards of forty years ; and, besides
which, very little disease of any kind was found to be
prevalent among the cattle. The laws which are en-
forced with regard to contagious diseases, are analogous
vO those which are generally adopted upon the Con-
tinent, but difier a little in some of their details.

Pleuro- pneumonia was said by the late M. Haus-
mann, Professor of the Veterinary School, to have been
first observed in Hanover as early as 1807. This
disease has existed with some few intervals, and with
more or less severity, down to the present day. Of late
years the animals attacked have been so few as not
to create any great solicitude on the part of the Govern-
ment. Precautionary measures are, however, adopted
on the frontier with regard to cattle coming from Hol-
land, which are made to undergo a quarantine, and none
are allowed to enter from Holstein, unless they are cer-
tified to be in a state of perfect health.

Veterinary surgeons are bound to give notice of all cases
of contagious disease which they may meet with in their
practice, and proprietors also are required to report the
appearance of pleuro-pneumonia or allied affections among
their cattle. No animal, although seemingly in perfect
health, if it has been living with others affected with
pleuro-pneumonia, can be pastured or driven on roads
60 as to come within two hundred yards of other cattle ;
nor can the owner dispose of any of his herd under such
circumstances until it is certified by the department
veterinary surgeon that all the animals are perfectly free
from the disease. The period of time which is allowed
to elapse after the passing away of the malady and the
selling of the cattle is left to the discretion of the veteri-
nary surgeon. A proprietor can place his animals under
medical treatment if he sees fit, or he is at liberty to
slaughter them and send them to the meat market. The
( flesh of those affected with pleuro-pneumonia, even in its
advanced stages, is not unfrequently sold, as in England,
by the inferior class of butchers.

f, A regulation exists with regard to the disease of
glanders, which, although it does not belong to the
special object of this report, may, nevertheless, be men-
tioned. Horses affected with this malady are not only
prevented being sold or exposed for sale, but the owner
is compelled to have them killed ; and he is not allowed,
under the pain of a heavy penalty, to sell any other horse
out of his establishment, or even to place any one of
them in stables belonging to other persons, for six
months after the death of the affected animal.

M. Hausraann, Veterinary Surgeon to his Majesty the
King of Hanover, informed us that a conviction had
very recently taken place under this law, where a carrier
was heavily fined for putting his horses, which had been
with a glandered animal, into a stable at a public inn in
the town of Hanover, on the occasion of his coming to
the place on the market day.

Hamburg.

This, as the chief port of the Elbe, receives a consi-
derable number of cattle from the surrounding districts
for exportation to England, and large quantities of hides
are also sent from hence. Some diminution in the
amount of cattle which of late has been shipped at
Hamburg has taken place, and from the same cause
which is assigned by the exporters from Holland,
namely, that the price obtained in the English markets
is not sufficiently remunerative when compared with that
which can be procured at home.

The cattle come chiefly from the distillers, sugar refi-
ners, and farmers in the town and territory of Hamburg,
and the adjoining duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg,
They are usually sent first to the market at Hamburg,
and if not sold are exported to England. An inspection of
them is regularly made in the market by a duly appointed
veterinary surgeon ; besides which they are prevented
entering the town unless found to be in a healthy state.
These regulations afford us a certain amount of security
against the importation of diseased animals from this
port. The system of inspection has been in operation
from the commencement of the recent outbreak of
pleuro-pneumonia in Holstein ; but it has been particu-
larly observed since September, 1856, when the follow-
ing proclamation was made by the Senator of the Marsh-
lands of the territory of Hamburg —
Proclamation.
It having been communicated to the Senator for the district of
the Marshlands that in several parts of the Duchy of Holstein a
pulmonary disease has again broken out araong the cattle ; in
order to prevent the introduction of this dangerous malady, it is
hereby ordered that for the present no cattle can be brought
into the district of the Marshlands from the duchies of Hol-
stein and Lauenburg without a certificate from the proper
local authorities, stating that, at the places from whence the
same may come, no infectious disease prevails among the
cattle, and this under a penalty of 50 thalers for every case of
contravention.

The whole of the bailiffs and subordinates ore hereby re
quired particularly to attend to this order, and obtain obser-
vance of the same, and denounce to the authorities of the
Marshlands all who may disobey or attempt to disobey the
same.

(Signed) Arning, Dr.

Senator for the Marshlands.
Hamburg, 19th September, 1856.

No cattle intended for the English market are brought
into Hamburg by the ships from Tonning or the other
ports on the coast of Denmark, but they go direct to
England ; nor are many conveyed there for this pur-
pose by means of the navigation of the Elbe from Cen-
tral Germany. " The Order in Council," at the time
our visit in April, did not appear to be understood by
the exporters of cattle as to the intention of the Govern-
ment with regard to this port ; and they refrained at first
from shipping cattle, although Hamburgh was not named
in the prohibition, for fear lest on their arrival in Eng-
land they should be seized by the Commissioners of
Customs.

We were informed by Colonel Hodges, Consul-
General at Hamburg, that a similar doubt existed with
regard to hides, and, further, that the order would be
inoperative for good, presuming that the seeds of a con-
tagious disease could be conveyed by these articles of
commerce so long as Hamburg, as the port of the Elbe,
and Bremen, as the port of the Weser, were left open,
as large quantities of these commodities come down those
rivers. The hides are collected from out of various
countries, and it is impossible to trace them to their
original source. The merchants of Hamburg, however,
continued to export hides, first making a declaration
before the consul that they did not come from Lubeck
or any of the Baltic ports. The consul upon this certi-
fied that such declaration had been made, and thus left
our Commissioners of Customs to deal with the ques-
tion as they might see fit. Should the necessity unfor-
tunately arise to prohibit the importation of cattle,
hides, hoofs, &c., from fear of introducing a contagious
disease, such astherinderpest,then not only must Bremen
and Hamburg be named in the order, but Tonning also,
as the port of the Eider, as this place has direct water
communication with the port of Kiel on the Baltic, from
which place hides, hoofs, &c., can readily be conveyed.
Little fear, however, need be entertained of the intro-
duction of the disease from Denmark by means of any

120

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

cattle which she might receive from the Baltic ports.
The difficulties in the way of a direct trade of this kind
are too great for it to be carried on with facility or ad-
vantage. Such cattle would have to make the port of
Kiel, and be then disembarked, in order to be placed on
the vessels navigating the canal which connects Kiel with
the Eider, and on reaching Tonning be again re-em-
barked on vessels bound for England.

Denmark, Schlestvig, and Holstein.

In September last it was officially communicated to
the Government by Vice-Consul Blackwell of Lubeck,
that " the steppe inurrain of Russia had made its way
into Holstein, having passed through Poland, Prussia,
and Mecklenburg." We ascertained, however, that
this disease had no existence in this part of Europe since
the occasion of its last general outbreak in 1813. It is
also recorded that up to that time the affection had not
prevailed in the duchies since 1774 to 1781, when
150,000 head of cattle are said to have perished.

Pleuro-pneumouia is rife in Holstein, particularly in
the neighbourhood of Altoua, where an active cattle
trade is carried on. The malady is said originally to
have appeared here in 1842, or nearly about the same
time it was first observed in England. At the com-
mencement of 1843, Herr Rottger, district veterinary
surgeon of Altona, received orders from the Danish
Government to watch the progress of the disease. No
active means to limit its extension were, however, had
recourse to until 1845, when the Government sent Pro-
fessor Witt of Copenhagen, to investigate the matter.
Professor Witt and Herr Rottger, with a surgeon and
the Government veterinary surgeon of Hamburg, formed
a sanitary commission of inquiry. The commission
came to the conclusion that the disease was highly con-
tagious, and recommended the Government to adopt
the most stringent measures of prevention. These con-
sist in chief of —

a. Sequestration of the places where the disease is
found to exist.

b. The immediate slaughter of the infected animals.

c. The killing of the whole herd upon the occurrence
of fresh cases.

d. The burial of the diseased cattle with their skins
on, cut in such a manner as to prevent their being sur-
reptitiously disposed of, and the sprinkling the body
over with chloride of lime.

The indemnity consists in the Government paying
two-thirds of the value of the diseased animals, and the
full value of the healthy, the loss to the treasury being
partly provided for by the Government selling by public
auction the carcases of the animals which are free from
disease.

For the carrying out of these regulations, it is ordered
among other things that every proprietor of cattle shall,
upon the outbreak of a disease which seems to possess
some unusual features, give notice to the district veteri-
nary surgeon, or be subjected to a fine varying from
fifty to a hundred thalers. The veterinary surgeon has
to report the result of his examination to the police,
and if it should prove that the malady is a contagious
one, then the regulations are strictly enforced. The
animals are valued on the part of the Government, and
branded on the horns for the purpose of identity. Should
no other cases occur after the diseased animals are killed,
then a proprietor is prevented selling any of those which
had been exposed to the contagion, and which bear the
Government stamp, in a less period of time than six
momhs, and only then with a certificate from the veteri-
nary surgeon that they are free from disease.

The adoption of these severe measures led, it is be-
lieved, to the nearly total extinction of pleuro pneumonia
in two orthreeyears. In 1847, however, itagain prevailed
in Holstein, also commencing, it is said, in the neigh-

bourhood of Altona. In 1849 and 1851 other outbreaks
occurred, the disease extending on the latter occasion
into Schleswig and Denmark proper, but was quickly
suppressed by the severity with which the law was
executed.

The outbreak from which the country is at present
suffering took place in the spring of 1856. It is attri-
buted to the circumstance of two gentlemen of Hamburg
purchasing in Hungary 180 oxen, and sending them to
graze on the islands and marshlands of the Elbe. The
disease manifested itself in these animals, and from them
it was communicated to some cows which were sent daily
from the town of Hamburg to graze in the same pastures,
and was thus spread over the territory and the adjacent
portions of Holstein. This called for the re-adoption of
the preventive measures previously alluded to, and which
are still in operation in the Duchies, but modified to
some considerable extent in the town and territory of
Hamburg.

The almost simultaneous appearance of pleuro-pneu-
monia in Mecklenburg, which is said to have depended
on the introduction of some cattle from Bavaria, toge-
gether with its existence in several of the German States,
led the Government to issue the following order with re-
ference to the importation of cattle into Holstein and
Lauenburg.

Copenhagen, June 18, 1856.
Proclamation for the Duchies of Holstein and Lau-
enburg, in reference to the Importation of Horned

Cattle from abroad.

Whereas, accordiDg to official information, the pulmonary
epidemic has recently shown itself again in horned cattle in
several German States, the importation of horned cattle from
abroad will not, until further notice, be permitted into the
duchies of Holattin and Lauenburg, unless satisfactory certi.
ficates, issued by authority, be handed in at the same time,
stating the place from whence the cattle have been brought, and
that in such place no signs of the pulmonary epidemic have
appeared for more than six months, the cattle being therein
described as accurately as possible.

The above ia hereby made known for the information and
guidance of those who receive it ; and at the same time the
police authorities are especially directed to see the strict ob-
servance of the above order.

Koyal Ministerial Department for the Duchies of Holstein
and Lauenburg, 9th June, 1856.

(Signed) V. Scheele.

G. Harbou.

Pleuro-pneumonia, however, continued to prevail in
Holstein, despite all measures precautionary or other-
wise, which were had recourse to, and this led the Mi-
nister to issue new regulations during last year, to stay
if possible its further progress. It was thereupon or-
dered that " all estates (farms) in which cases of pul-
monary disease have occurred within the last six
months, are to be closed, and no removal of cattle from
such estates is to he permitted. The cattle are to re-
main as much as possible in the same stalls, and only
to he removed to the pasture grounds of the owners,
which are to be fenced round to the exclusion of all
other cattle, us it is deemed necessary to remove cattle
from their infected stalls to purer air."

In July, 1856, Schleswig placed the importations
into her territory from Holstein under restrictions ; but
as these also proved to be insufficient, the Minister of this
Duchy, in March of the present year, forbade the impor-
tations entirely.

In August, 1856, Denmark, by the Minister of the
Interior, likewise ordered that no cattle would be per-
mitted to enter the kingdom from Holstein, unless they
were accompanied by a certificate of a veterinary sur-
geon, stating that they were in good health when ex-
ported, and also by the certificate of a magistrate, that
the district from which they came was free from disease.
And in September following proclamation was made to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

121

a similar effect by " the Senator of the District of the
Marshlands of Hamburg," a copy of which has been
given above.

This succinct history of the proceedings of foreign
governments enables us to trace to their probable origin
those restrictive laws which have created so great so-
licitude in England. "We could hardly have supposed
that such severe measures would have had the support
of scientific men, and more especially in their exclusive
application to a disease, whether contagious or not, the
antecedents of whose history show that it often passes
from country to country as an ordinary epizootic affec-
tion.

Without wishing to animadvert on the opinions of
others, we hold that an equal amount of good would
attend measures far less stringent; and, if this be so,
then a positive injury is inflicted on the country where
they are enacted. Take, as one illustration, the quan-
tity of food which is lost to the people by the burying of
animals in whose system the malady has made but little
progress. We are exceedingly jealous lest any obser-
vation of ours should be supposed to give encoui'agement
to the sale of diseased meat ; but, after fifteen years'
experience of pleuro-pneumonia in this country, and of
the sale of the carcases of animals, the subject of it, we
do not hesitate to state that the flesh is fitted for food in
the early stage of the affection.

The surprise in the continuance of the system of
killing and burying bovine animals becomes the greater
when we see it adopted in a country where the sale of
horseflesh, as an article of food, is both legalized and
encouraged by the Government. In Altona we passed
by the shop of one of these horse-butchers, and saw
exposed for sale part of the hind-quarters, and sundry
pieces of flesh of a horse, and also the liver and kidneys
of the animal. We were tempted to walk in, when we
were informed by the proprietor that there were four
other establishments of the same kind in the town, but
that his was "the original one." He said that so ready
a sale was found for the meat that it was with great
difficulty he could procure horses enough for his cus-
tomers. The price ranged from about 2d. to 3d. per lb.
English money, and it appeared that the meat was often
bought by persons who could not be properly said to
belong to the lower classes. We were invited to see
the establishment, and visited the slaughter-house and
stable. In the former, besides more meat, was hanging
the lower part of the fore leg, with the foot of the animal
last slaughtered, which had been put aside for the in-
spection of the police ; and in the latter were standing
two aged and worn-out horses waiting their turn to be
led to the stake.

These butcheries are licensed by the Government,
and are under the supervision of the police. Notice has
to be given before a horse can be killed, when the veteri-
nary surgeon of the department attends and examines
the animal, and, if found to be free from constitutional
disease, notwithstanding it may be incapacitated for
work from lameness or other defect, he certifies to that
effect, and for the sake of identity brands the animal on
its hoof. Within a given time the animal must be
killed, and its leg and foot produced for the inspection
and satisfaction of the police.

Sweden and Norway.
We find by a perusal of official documents which have
been placed at our disposal, that the fear of the introduc-
tion of pleuro-pneumonia from Holstein led the govern-
ment of Sweden to interdict the importation of cattle from
that duchy in August, 1856, unless accompanied by
satisfactory certificates of health. The importation also
of cattle from England and Scotland into Sweden was
prohibited in the same month. These precautionary
measures on the part of Sweden were quickly followed

by the promulgation of similar ones by the Government
of Norway, being in each case evidently founded on the
belief that contagion is the chief, if not the only cause of
the spread of pleuro-pneumonia.

LUBECK.

From the circumstance that her Majesty's Govern-
ment, by " the Order in Council" of April 2nd, saw fit
to prohibit the importation into England " of cattle,
horns, hoofs, raw or wet hides or skins of cattle,
which shall come from, or shall have been at any
place within the territories of the free city of
Llibeck," as well as other places named in the
said order, it was to be expected that the so-called
" steppe murrain" (rinderpest) would be found to be
prevailing among the cattle at Llibeck. We were in-
formed, however, and immediately on our arrival, that no
such disease existed ; and ample opportunities were afford-
ed us of subsequently confirming the correctness of this
statement. Indeed, rinderpest has never shown itself in
the territory since 1813-15, when by the movement of
troops throughout Europe it prevailed rather exten-
sively here and also in most countries of the continent.
The precautionary measures which were taken in the
spring of 1856, by the Senate of Llibeck, had especial
reference to pleuro-pneumonia, which disease had some-
what suddenly made its appearance in the adjoining
Duchies of Mecklenburg- Schwerin and Mecklenburg-
Strelitz. Some doubt, however, was felt in this country
as to whether the " steppe murrain" had not found its
way thence from Prussia ; and this was considerably
added to by the official reports of Mr. J. A. Blackwell,
who up to the beginning of the present year was British
Vice-Consul at Llibeck.

In two despatches dated respectively May 17th and
30th, 1856, Mr. Blackwell informed her Majesty's Go-
vernment, through the Consul- General at Hamburg,
that a contagious pulmonary disease or murrain had
broken out among the cattle in Mecklenburgh ; and
after giving the particulars of the precautionary mea-
sures adopted by the Llibeck authorities to prevent its
entrance into their territories, he states that he had con-
sulted several of the best German authors on the conta-
gious maladies^of cattle, and found that they made a
distinction between " rinderpest and pulmonary mur-
rain ;" hxxt he diAAs,'^ loth are equally contagious and
almost equally fatal, and in a sanitary point of view
may in fact be regarded as identical."

Mr. Blackwell next gives, in the despatch of May 30th,
an epitome of the works in question, and under the
heading of the steppe murrain, he says that it has
been calculated that during the last centnry alone this
murrain carried off 28,000,000 head of cattle in Ger-
many ; and in the whole of Europe, including Russia,
but exclusive of Siberia and Tartary, upwards of
200,000,000 ;" and that " although the disease ichich
has brohen out among the horned cattle in Mecklen-
burg seems to be regarded as the pulmonary murrain'
pleuro-pneumonia, " it may perhaps be the real
steppe murrain, which is noiv raging in Poland to a
fearful extent, notwithstanding the slririgent measures
that have been adopted by the Russian Government for
putting a stop to it."

In a despatch dated September 17th, the same gen-
tleman reports that the murrain had extended to
Hoistein, and that in consequence of this the regu-
lations of the Llibeck Government were enforced
with regard to that huchy, as well as Mecklen-
burg. He concludes his communication by observing
that, "as this highly contagious murrain has spread
from the steppes of South Russia, through Poland,
Prussia, and Mecklenburg to Holstein, to a district
from which the English market is supplied iviih cattle,
I must beg leave to call the attention of her Majesty's

122

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Government to my Bcjyort of Us origin, progress,
treatment, symptoms, Sfc, transmitted on the SiJth of
May last."

These statements could not fail to add to the alarm
which was originally felt in this country ; and when it is
considered that for several months afterwards scarcely a
week elapsed without intelligence reaching us that " the
cattle murrain" was spreading, the surprise becomes
the greater rather than otherwise, that some measures
of a preventive nature were not earlier adopted by her
Majesty's Government. It is true that the reports from
other British consuls did not fully bear out Mr, Black-
well's statements, but still nothing satisfactory could be
learned of the true nature of the malady ; and up to the
time of the three National Agricultural Societies deter-
mining on sending a commission to investigate the sub-
ject, the English public were left in a state of uncer-
tainty and doubt.

In October, 1856, we find that the restrictions
against the entrance of cattle into Liibeck from Meck-
lenburg were removed, as the disease appeared to have
ceased there; but they were again enforced in February
following, as the malady had reappeared, and on our
arrival they were still in full operation.

"i he regulations which had been enforced by the
Senate to guard against the introduction of contagious
diseases are as follows. They have been established for
several years, and are only modified from time to time,
according to the places in which such diseases are known
to prevail.

" 1. Every owner of cattle is required, in case any disease
should break out among the same, which leaves no doubt of
its contagious nature, to separate the diseased from the other
cattle.

" a. The special symptoms of lungenseuche (pleuro-pneu-
monia) are a husky cough, which is increased, panicularly after
the cattle have been watered or moved about, less inclination
for food, indifference as to chewing the cud, duluess of the
hair, and its rough appearance in particular places, and fever
after these symptoms have continued for some time.

" 2. On the appearance of this disease, or eveu in cases
when it is suspected to exist, the owners of cattle are required,
under a penalty of a fine of 20 dollars (about £3 lOs.) to give
immediate notice to the chief of the police, or to the bailiff, at
Travemunde, who will take the necessary steps to arrest the
progress of the disease.

" S. The briDging in of cattle into the Liibeck territory
from the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Meck-
lenburg-Strelitz shall only be permitted when the cattle are
accompanied by satisfactory certificates of their being free
from disease.

" 4. All veterinary surgeons are directed, in case this dis-
ease should break out withia the Liibeck territory, to adopt
the necessary sanitary precautions according to the instructions
of the police. The directions of the veterinary surgeons are
implicitly to be obeyed under penalty of heavy fines and im-
prisonment.

" 5, Finally, all police-officers, bailiffs, and gens-d'armes
are hereby directed to give notice to the respective police-
offices in case any horned cattle should be attacked with the
pulmonary disease, or even in cases where it is suspected to
exist.

"■ Given at Liibeck in the Assembly of the Senate, this 14th
day of May, 1856. (Signed)

" C. Th. Overbeck, Dr., Secretary."

Besides these measures of precaution, special instruc-
tions are issued for the guidance of veterinary surgeons
when the disease has entered the territory. These are —

"1. That, on the appearance of pleuro-pneumonia, im-
mediate notice should be given to the police authorities.

" 2. That the affected cattle are to be forthwith sepa-
rated from the healthy, and removed to a distance. If
they are put to grass, the meadows must be divided by
good fences, and_ must be at the least five hundred paces
distant from any in which other cattle are kept.

" 3. That the persons who tend cattle are to be directed
to note carefully the feeding and ruminating of the ani-

mals, and, on the slightest indication of disturbed health,
to have them professionally examined.

" 4. That an inspector, duly conversant with disease,
is to be specially appointed to attend the sick cattle ; and
that without his permission no animal is to be returned to
those which are healthy.

" 5. That all animals which die are to be buried five feet
deep, and covered over with compact earth ; that the
burial-places are to be not less distant than eight hundred
paces from any road or paths travelled by cattle, and that
they are afterwards to be surrounded by a strong fence or a
ditch.

" 6. That the diseased cattle are only to be driven in
particular roads; that the stables in which they were
placed when attacked are to be carefully cleaned, and the
manure to be covered over with earth.

'' 7. That none but medical officers are to make post-
mortem examinatitns, and these only by permission of the
police authorities •, and that no part of the carcase is to be
taken away or used, with the exception of the skin.

"8. That fur the removal of the dead animals special
vehicles arc to be provided; and these are to be kept in
proper places, and not used for any other purpose. Persons
attending upon the sick cattle, or coming in contact with
them or with the dead, are not to go near healthy animals,
and are to take care that all tools or utensils they may
have used are properly cleaned.

" 9. That no manure or fodder is to be sold from off an
infected farm,

" 10. That no animal, however slightly atfected, is to be
killed for food. Great vigilance must be used in respect to
this order.

" 11. That, after the disappearance of the disease from a
commune or farm for a period of eigJit weeks, it is to be
considered as being free from the malady ; but that for
four weeks longer the proprietor is not to sell any cattle or
other forbidden things from off the place."

It does not appear thatany law is in operation to prevent
the importation into the territory from Russia or other
countries, of skins, horns, hoofs, or tallow ; but we were in-
formed byM.ToUhausen, the French Consul, and who was
acting also pro tern, as British Vice- Consul, that the
official returns show that from 6,000 to 8,000 only of
dry hides annually enter the port of Liibeck from
Russia, for transit inland ; while from Mecklenburg and
the surrounding countries 80,000 skins are received.
These are mostly either salted or fresh, and as such are
too heavy for transit to a distance, besides being other-
wise unfitted for such a purpose : they are, therefore,
further prepared and dried in Liibeck, and then sent
onwards to Belgium, Rhenish Prussia, &c., and up the
Rhine even as far as Switzerland.

No exports of cattle take place from Liibeck by
means of the shipping, nor are any imported in this
manner from the Baltic or elsewhere, the supply which
is needed being sent over the frontier from the sur-
rounding duchies. Besides this, we could not ascertain
that any cattle have ever been shipped for England from
any of the Baltic ports. The difficulties attending such
a voyage, and the time it would occupy, are suflBcient
barriers against a trade of this description being carried
on, even if no facilities existed for the transit of cattle
inland.

Young stock, however, to the amount, it is said, of
50,000 a year, pass through the territory of Liibeck,
from Holstein into Mecklenburg, for the supply of the
dairies and farms.

These facts cannot fail to be of importance for legis-
lation, if hereafter it should unfortunately be the case
that the rinderpest should extend thus far westward, and
in a direction from which foreign cattle are shipped for
England.

Mecklenbcrg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-
Strelitz.
It was from these Duchies that some of the earliest
accounts reached England respecting " the murrain,"

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

123

the appearance of which promptly led the Senate of
Lubeck to interdict the passage of cattle into its
territory, unless accompanied with a certificate of
their being in a perfect state of health, and
created also much anxiety as to whether the malady
might not soon extend to our own country. The
alarm, however, seems to have arisen out of the circum-
stance that pleuro-pneumonia, which had occasionally
of late years affected the cattle in Mecklenburg, in
common with other continental states, showed itself
somewhat suddenly in March, 1856, at the village of
Great Gonon, near to Steinberg. Its outbreak is attri-
buted to the introduction of some cattle from Bavaria ;
and it appears that the "court cattle which were in the
same stable" were subsequently attacked. After the
death of several, the remainder of the animals were
killed, and buried entire.

This summary proceeding appears to have arrested
the disease in that particular village ; but cases are said
to have occurred in other parts of the Duchies, The
interdict which was laid on the estate of Great Gbrnon
concerning the " exnc rt, import, and transit of cattle,
immediately on the outbreak of the disease," was not,
however, removed until Oct. 1st of the same year, after
which time free intercourse was allowed.

On this fact being officially communicated to the
authorities at Liibeck, and also that the whole of Meck-
lenburg was free from the disease, the Senate removed
the restrictions which had been placed in the way of
cattle entering their territory ; but, as has been ob-
served in that part of this report which specially refers
to Ijiibeck, these were again enforced in February of
the present year, in consequence of the re-appearance of
the disease in the Duchies of Mecklenburg.

On the 24th of December, 1856, the Commissioners
of our Customs published an order with regard to a
more rigid examination by the Inspectors of Foreign
Cattle, " with special reference to a contagious disease
called ' murrain,' which has recently broken out amongst
the horned cattle of Mecklenburg." Count Bulow,
Minister to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
complained of this order to Lord Blomfield, her Ma-
jesty's Ambassador to the Court of Prussia, and re-
quested that the attention of the Home Government
might be directed to it ; and Lord Blomfield thereupon
sent a despatch to the Earl of Clarendon, to the follow-
ing effect :

" Berlin, January 23, 1857.

"My Lord, — I have the honour to inclose to your lord-
ship herewith a copy of a communication which I have
received from Count Bulow, Minister of his Royal High-
ness the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, requesting
me to draw the attention of her Majesty's Government to
the injurious effects which the publication of the Custom
House order, published in Ijondon the 24th December,
1856, respecting the importation of cattle, alleged to be
diseased, from the Mecklenburg States, is likely to have on
the commerce of the country. Count Bulow states that
'the cattle murrain," alluded to in this order as now exist-
ing in Mecklenburg, has only manifested itself twice, fora
short period, during the years 1855, 1856; and that in
each case measures of such a stringent naturewere taken
as effectually arrested the spreading of the disease, inso-
much that since the 1st of October last all the measures of
precaution that were in force for its prevention have been
suspended by the official order to this effect, a copy pf
which Count Bulow has transmitted to me, and which, in
original and translation, I have the honour to forward
herewith to your lordship. " I have, &c.,

(Signed) "Blomfield."

From this and all the additional information which we
have collected, it would appear that there was very little
cause for danger to be apprehended, and none in so
far as our country was concerned, from the state of the
health of the cattle of Mecklenburg, the so-called

"murrain" being only the affection known as pleuro-
pneumonia.

Saxony.

This kingdom is perfectly free from rinderpest, and
has been so for many years. Scarcely any apprehensions
are entertained that the disease would reach the country,
even if it were to encroach very much more upon the
Prussian frontiers of Russia and Poland, or prevail to a
far greater extent than it has recently done in Silesia,
as the severity with which the preventive laws of those
countries is carried out is viewed as affording all the
security which is required.

Eczema epizootica has been somewhat rife of late, and
many cases are still to be met with. Pleuro-pneumonia
has only existed in a sporadic form in Saxony and Cen-
tral Germany, and has, therefore, not excited so much
of the public attention here as elsewhere. The laws in
force with reference to cattle diseases are almost identi-
cal with those which have already been made mention of
in this report.

The investigations in Saxony completed our inspection
of the chief course of the river Elbe, and showed that
all the countries through which it flows were entirely
free from the rinderpest, a result equally as satisfactory
as that which had previously been ascertained with re-
ference to the Weser.

Prussia,

Finding that the rinderpest had no existence in the
countries we had already passed through, we proceeded
to Berlin with a view of going to Konigsburg, and thence
into Courland, as, according to the information we were
at present in possession of, it was here that the malady
was prevailing to some considerable extent.

Arriving at Berlin, we first called on the professors of
the Veterinary School, who, by virtue of their appoint-
ments under Government, are always put in possession
of the latest information with regard to the existence
and extent of contagious diseases among domesticated
animals. From them we learned that the entire district
we had proposed to visit was now perfectly free from the
pest, and that, if it existed anywhere in Prussia, it would
probably be found in the neighbourhood of Breslau, in
the province of Silesia. They further also informed us
that there was but little chance of our being able to
study the nature and symptons of the pest in any part
of the Prussian dominions, from the summary proceed-
ings which are invariably had recourse to, for its imme-
diate extirpation, and that for the purpose of seeing the
malady in its different stages, we should have to go
into Austro-Poland, or some other part of the Austrian
empire, where the laws are somewhat less stringent, and
not so rigorously enforced as in Prussia, We ascer-
tained also that in all probability, in the event of our
succeeding in obtaining an entrance within the Prussian
military cordon, we should not be allowed to repass it in
a less period than three weeks, and even then we should
most likely have to leave the clothes we had worn be-
hind us, besides having ourselves to undergo a disinfect-
ing process.

Under these circumstances we sought an interview
with Lord Augustus Loftus, her Majesty's Charge
cV Affaires, in the absence of Lord Blomfield, minister
at Berlin, with a view of obtaining from the Govern-
ment of Prussia the latest particulars with regard to the
location of the malady, and that amount of assistance
and protection which we needed for the fulfilment of
our mission.

This interview was at once granted, and we were
most courteously received by his lordship, who mani-
fested the liveliest interest in the question, and also ex-
pressed his willingness to do all he could in furtherance
of our object. His lordship explained at some length
his views as to the absolute necessity of keeping up of a

K 2

124

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

strict su7-vetllance over all articles of commerce which
were likely to carry the maferies morhi of the cattle
pest, and of the danger which would be incurred in the
event of its extension, by allowing the importations to
go on from the great ports of the Weser and the Elbe ;
facts which have already been alluded to in the former
part of this report. Lord Loftus also dwelt on the
amount of danger which might probably arise from the
free importation of bones from Russia and the Baltic
poits, and instanced a case where an outbreak of the
malady was believed to have depended on the convey-
ance of the bones of an animal dying with the affection
into a siable its which other cattle were placed.

His lordthip requested that I would write to him,
stating the object of our inquiry and the requirements
we needed from the Government. He also promised
that he would put himstlf in immediate communication
with Baron Manteuffel, and would likewise write to his
Excellency Sir Hamilton Seymour, her Majesty's am-
bassador at the Court of Vienna, to procure for us
letters of introduction and recommendation to the autho-
rities in the Cracow division of Galicia, in the event of
its being found necessary to go thus far to complete our
inquiry.

A letter containing his lordship's suggestions was
thereupon forwarded to him, and to this I had the
honour of receiving the following reply with the sub-
joined enclosure:—-

" Berlin, April 23, 1857.

" Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
this date.

" I enclose to you herewith copy of a letter I have addressed
to Barou MaviteufTel, requesting H. E. to jjive you a letter of
recommendatiou for the proper authorities at Breslau ; and I
shall not fait to forward to you without dela>' H. E.'s reply.

" I shall likewise request Sir H. Seymour to procure for
you a similar introduction to the authorities at Cracow, and
shall further bea; him to forward the reply to your address,
" Poste restaate a Cracovie.' " I have, &c.,

" Augustus Loftus.

'Professor Siraonds, Hotel Victoria, Berlin."

{E7iclosure.)

" Berlin, ce 23 Avril, 1857.

" Monsieur le Baron, — Le Professor Simonds, Membre
du College Royal Veterinaire a Londres, vieiit d'arriver a Ber-
lia, etaat charge d'etudier sur les lieux la nature et le traite-
meiit de I'epizootie qui s'est mauifestds en plusieurs endroits
sur la froutiere de la Prusse et de I'Autriche. Se rendant
Samedi prochain dajis ce but a Breslau, et dcsirant acquerir
la protection et I'assistauce des autorites Prussiennes, il s'est
addre-!S:C a moi, me priant de soUiciter de V. E. une lettre de
reoommandation pour S. E. Monsieur le President Superieur
de la Province de Silesie.

" J'ai done eu recours a I'obligeance si souvent eprouvee de
V. E., eu la priant de vouloirbien recoramander le Professeur
Siiiiouds soit a la haute protection du President Superieur on
a la bienveillance des autorites competeutes de cette province.

" Je doisi avertir V. E. que le Professeur compte quitter
Berlin pour cette province Samedi prochaiu.

" Je prodte de cette occasion, &c.,

" (Signe) Augustus Loftus.

" A. S. E. la Baron de Manteuffel."

His Excellency Baron Manteuffel most readily com-
plied with the request thus made, and in the evcningof
the same day Lord Loftus wrote as follows : —

" Berlin, A prd 23, 1857.

" Sir, — Barou Manteuffel has told me that he will forward,
or cause to be forwarded, though M. de Raumer, a letter of
recommendation for you to the Upper President of the pro-
vince of Silesia, so that on your arrival at Breslau you may at
once announce yourselves to Baron Schleinitz.

" I enclose herewith the despatch for Mr. Ward, her Ma-
jesty's Consul-General at Leipzic, to whom I likewise enclose
for you a letter of introduction. I am, Sir, &c.

" Augustus Loftus.

" Professor Simonds, Hotel Victoria."

Being now furnished with all the necessary letters of
recommendation, we made our way as quickly as possi-
ble into Silesia ; and arriving at Breslau, at once re-
ported ourselves to Baron Schleinitz, by whom we were
also most courteously received, and who had already
prepared for our use a written account of the progress
which the disease had made in the spring of the present
year in his province.

The Baron met us by somewhat facetiously remark-
ing, " that fortunately for Prussia, but perhaps very
unfortunately for us, who had travelled so far to study
the nature of rinderpest, it had no existence just now in
Silesia." He traced, however, upon the map the dif-
ferent places where it had recently prevailed near to the
Polish frontier, and which he himself had visited. He
likewise related several remarkable instances of the
highly infectious nature of the disease, and of its con-
veyance from place to place by indirect means of con-
tagion. The following is a translation of the report
alluded to : —

" Report of the Disease which prevailed among the Horned
Cattle in the Province of Silesia during the months of
March and April, 1857.

" The rinderpest, which in the present year has visited the
province of Silesia, has, with one exception, in which the pre-
cise manner that the infection was carried to the premises
could not be satisfactorily ascertained, been clearly traced to
the introduction of two herds of cattle from Galicia, of the
Podolian or Hungarian breed, numbering respectively 44 and
37. These beasts were purchased by different landowners,
and were brought to their several estates in an apparently
healthy condition. Some of the animals have remained in
health, as, for example, those which were taken to L. Gutten-
tag, in the circle of Lublinitz, and to Blazeiowitz, in the
circle of Tost-Gleiwitz, but others of them became the sub-
jects of the disease.

" THE GOVERNMENT DISTRICTS OF BRESLAU.

" Eight oxen were brought to the domain or estate of
Furstenau, circle of Neumarlit, and were put into a stable
with some other cattle. In a few days the eight oxen fell ill,
and, on the disease being recognized as the rinderpest, they
were immediately slaughtered. They had, however, already
infected the others, and, on several becoming diseased, the
whole herd, consisting of twenty-one animals, was lilsewise
slaughtered. On the same estate there were eighty cows, but
these were living in other sleds, and did not come in contact
witii the diseased aiiimala; and, moreover in the same village
there are upwards of one hundred cattle-owners, but the whole
of the cattle were preserved by the tumraary measures had
recourse to. The sanitary cordon drawn around the estate
was removed twelve days since ; three weeks having elapsed
since the last case, and everything u?ed about the animals
being disinfected,

"THE GOVERNMENT DISTRICT OP OPPELN.

" 1. Twenty oxen were brought to the estate of Schweieben,
in the circle of Tost Gteiwitz, and on their arrival they were
distributed to the different stations (farms) of the estate.
The disease also broke out among these animals, and, as they
sickened, they were removed to a station wtiere only shiep
were kept, and here slaughtered. A military cordon was also
drawn around the place. Notwithstanding this precaution,
the disease spread thus —

" a. In Schweieben one ox was attacked, and he, with
another with which he was standing, was immediately killed.
The further progress of the disease was at once arrested,
although there were 120 head of other cattle on the estate,
and ia the village also about a hundred cattle-owners.

"h. Station Radum. — An ox which showed premonitory
symptoms was immediately killed, together with another that
he was standing next to, and no other cases have occurred,

" c. Station Wischnilz. — The appearance of the rinderpest
at this station is very remarkable. It appears that either (our
or six of the Podolian oxen were sent here, and remained for a
few days. These animals gave no evidence of being affected ;
but tioen'y days after their departure, one animal of a herd of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

125

19, that tbey had been placed with, fell ill with the disease, and
the whole were forthwith slaughtered.

"2. At Pouischowitz. — Twenty Podoliaa oxen came hereon
the same occasiori, and they within a few days gave indica-
tions of being affected. Like the others, also, they had been
put with other cattle, 49 in number. On the occurrence of
the outbreak the whole were killed, so that not a single head
of cattle was let on the estate. The place was likewise sui-
rcuuded by a military cordon ; but while the disease was
going on, a carpenter's apprentice, employed on the estate,
escaped the vigilance of the guards, and went to his father's
bouse, ■iThich was distant about two thouaaod paces. While
there he repaired a manger in his father's cow-shed, and also
changed the clothes he had worn at Ponischowitz. The rinder-
pest in conjequeuce of this broke out among his father's cattle.
The whole were thereupon killed, and a military cordon drawn
around the premises. It is now ten days since the animals
were slaughtered.

"3. At Sliipsho, four of the Podolian oxen sent here were
attacked. They were likewise slaughtered, and the further
progress of the disease arrested. The cordon has been raised
here four weeks ; the place haviug been previously disin-
fected.

" 4. At Zawaiz, iu the circle of Beuthen, at a totally isolated
farm, a ease of sudden death occurred to an ox, which the sur-
geon reported as happening from rinderpest; but there is con-
siderable doubt as to this opinion being correct.

" 5. At Wohlau, in the circle of Pless, close to the frontier
of Galicia, and iuto which no cattle had been imported, three
cases of the disease occurred, and all at peasants'. These ani-
Eiala had come in contact with nine others, and all were con-
sequently killed and a military cordon established. In this
particular instance it was impossible to trace the cause of
the introduction of the disease.

" These are all the cases of rinderpest which have recently
occurred in the provinces of Silesia, and at the present time
not a single suspicious case exists, owing to the means which
the Government has adopted to arrest its course. No fear
need be entertained that the disease will extend from Prussia
to the neighbouring countries.

" (Signed) Baron Schleinitz.

"Privy Councillor to hia Majesty the King of Prussia,

and Upper President of the province of Silesia.

"Breslau, April 27th, 1857."

It will not be necessary to comment on this Report
in this place, and more particularly as we shall have
hereafter to adduce some remarkable proofs of the con-
tagious nature of the rinderpest. It is right, however,
as several parts of Prussia have experienced during the
last two years different outbreaks of the malady, and as
its extension in this kingdom especially is an object of
much practical importance, as thereby a greater risk is
incurred of its reaching those countries which are in
direct communication with our ports, that as complete
a history of these recent visitations should be here given
as we have been able to collect.

The Recent Outbreak of the Rinderpest in
Eastern Europe.

Throughout the late war, the movements of the Rus-
sian troops necessarily called for the transit of large
numbers of cattle to those places which the army suc-
cessively occupied ; and it appears more than probab'e
that the wide diffusion of the "steppe murrain" which lias
occurred within the last three years has depended en-
tirely upon this cause.

The ordinary traffic in cattle leads, it is true , to the
annual removal of large herds from the steppes ; and
hence the outbreaks of the rinderpest in those countries
which are otherwise free from it can often be traced to
the animals which find their way from the various fairs
and markets. No cause, however, is so potent in the
spread of the disease as the outbreak of a Russian war ;
and consequently, whenever circumstances have required
the passage of her troops over the frontier, the pest has
pianifested itself in a far more extensive form.

Thus it is recorded that, " during the Russo-Turkish
scar in 1827 and 1828, the Russian cattle which were
sent for the supply of the array carried the murrain with
them, and that it destroyed no less than 30,000 head of
cattle in Hungary, 12,000 in Galicia, and 9,000 in
Moravia."

Again in 1831, 1832, and 1833, in consequence of
the Polish insurrection, the disease committed great
ravages in that country, causing considerable distress.
At this period it also crossed the Prussian frontier, in
the department of Bromberg, and, although quickly ex-
terminated, swept away nearly 1,000 head of cattle.

In 1849-50 the malady again prevailed to a very great
extent in Hungrtry, its introduction being due. accord-
ing to the official report of M.M. Renault and Tmlin,
commissioners appointed by the French Government to
inquire into the subject, to the passage of the Russian
troops from Wallachia by way of Transylvania.

Very shortly also after the army of Russia was sent
to occupy the Principalities, rumours of the cattle plague
became current ; and we find that as early as 1854 the
disease had made considerable progress both in Volhynia
and Podolia. From that period nearly down to the pre-
sent the malady gradually extended itself, until it
reached most of the countries in Eastern Europe, and
some parts even of Asia Minor. From the Principali-
ties it can be traced in a northerly and westerly direc-
tion into Moravia, Galicia, Poland, Prussia, Lithuania,
&c. ; easterly into Bessarabia, Southern Russia, and the
Crimea ; as also into Turkey, and to the southern shore
of the Black Sea.

We have not been able to arrive at any correct esti-
mate of the immense losses these several countries sus-
tained in consequence ot this visitation ; but it has been
officialy reported that no less than 26,442 head of cattle
were destroyed in the Austrian dominions in the year
1856. And Consul-General Mansfield, in a despatch
from Warsaw, states that from May 9th, 1856, to the
date of his report, March 29th, 1857, twenty thousand
beasts had been sacrificed in Poland alone. It has like-
wise been said that the French army lost in Samsoun
8,000 beasts out of 17,500 in the space of nine months,
and that we lost during the same time 4,000 out of
10,000 from the pest — facts which may help to convey
an idea of the hundreds of thousands which were swept
away.

Mr. RadcliflFe, M.R.C.S., who lately held a commis-
sion in the Ottoman army, reports that, while he was
stationed at Sinope, the murrain was developed towards
the termination of the spring or early part of the summer
of 1855, and that in the mouth of June it reached its
acme. " Scattered cases," he adds, " occurred, how-
ever, from time to time until November, when, about
the second or third week of the month, the disease broke
out again with great fierceness, spresd rapidly among
the cattle in the depot and in the town, reached a second
acme about the termination of the month, declined dur-
ing December, and ceased altogether in January, 1856."

Among many others also, Mr. Walton Mayer, V.S. to
the " Royal Engineer Field Equipment," who was,
during the war, attached to the Land Transport Corps,
speaks of the existence of the disease in several parts of
Turkey, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Con-
stantinople, in the summer of 1855, Early in the same
year, in consequence of a considerable part of both Aus-
trian and Russian Poland having become the seat of the
disease, much apprehension was shown lest it should
cross the Prussian frontier. To prevent this the Prus-
sian Government took the precaution of sending detach-
ments of troops to all the points of egress below Thorn,
with a view of cutting off the communication with the
infected localities.

136

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

M. V. Schleinitz, President of the department of
Bromberg, in the province of Posen, in his official re-
port, says, that " it was in the month of March, 1855,
that we were obliged to order the frontier to be closed,
which was first effected in pursuance of the directions in
section 2 of the law of 1836. la October of the same
year we were under the necessity, in consequence of the
threatening approach of danger, of putting into force the
severer directions of section 3 respecting the closing of
the frontier ; and when, at the end of that month, intel-
ligence, though not officially confirmed, arrived here re-
garding the progress of the murrain, we caused the
Polish district bordering upon our department to be
thoroughly investigated by the veterinary surgeon of our
department within a distance of three miles from the
boundary of our territory."

" It being then ascertained that the disease was only
2^ miles from our frontier, we determined, at the begin-
ning of November, to close the same still more strictly,
according to section 4 of the said law. At the same
time we ordered the district commissaries of police to
inform the mayors of the different places of the impend-
ing calamity, who were not only instructed to exhort
the inhabitants of their districts to use the greatest pre-
caution, but also to give immediate notice, per express,
to the Councillor of administration of the district of
every suspicious case of disease breaking out among the
cattle."

" As a further warning: and instruction to the public,
we caused copies of the circular which was issued by the
chief magistrate of our province, under the date of 28th
January, 1845, to be printed and distributed, to which
we annexed a description of the symptoms of the disease,
and caused the same to be distributed as a supplement
to our official paper {Gazette). Besides this we prohi-
bited the attendance of peisons at the weekly markets
of the towns lying nearest to the threatened boundary
with those species of cattle, as well as with other things
likely to convey infection, and which the law of 1833
specially enumerates ; we likewise ordered establish-
ments to be erected for personal purification in the vil-
lages wherein the frontier custom-office is established ;
stationed gendarmes in the villages on our side of the
boundary situated nearest the infected Polish districts,
and charged the district commissaries in the immediate
neighbourhood, under pain of dismissal from office, with
the execution of the ppeventive measures incase the con-
tagion should break out in our territory. We further
empowered the Councillors of the Administration of
the district to order the district veterinary surgeons to
inspect the villages and places on the boundary as often
as necessity requ, red, and to watch over the state of
the health of the cattle there."

Notwithstanding these precautions were rigorously
adopted, the disease crossed the Prussian frontier ; and
in the latter part of November, 1855, it manifested it-
self in the circle of Inowraclaw, and shortly afterwards
in the circle of Gnesen, near the towit of Posen. The
official report states, that on this occurrence "general
measures were taken for closing the boundaries of the
places infected, and special ones for the infected farm-
yards, by means of sentries posted under the superin-
tendence of gendarmes; quarantine Etablss were esta-
blished, superintendents and cattle inspectors appointed,
and these persons provided with written instructions
and bound by oath to their observance ; all trade in
cattle was forbidden within a circuit of three miles, all
dogs chained up, and every proprietor of cattle within a
circuit of two miles from the infected place was bound
upon pain of incurring the penalty of sec. 309 of the
Criminal Law, to give immediate notice even of the least
symptom of disease among his cattle, to the mayor of
the place, who had forthwith to inform the Councillor

of the Administration of the district by an express mes-
senger, of such cases of disease, provided they did not
proceed from exterior injuries."

" These measures for prevention and cutting off in-
tercourse were in no instance abandoned before the ex-
piration of the fourth week ; and the carcases of the
cattle that had died of the pest, or had been killed in
consequence of its appearance in infected districts, no
matter whether diseased or healthy, were always, after
their skins had been cut into pieces on all parts of the
body, buried in pits from six to eight feet deep, each
carcase being previously covered with unslackened lime."
At thefirst the chief execution of these preventive means
on the several farms was intrusted to civilians, but very
early in the progress of the malady the military was em-
ployed. The disease presently began to subside, but
despite every precaution occasional cases occurred, so
that the department of Bromberg was not entirely freed
from it until the beginning of 1856.

The cordon, however, on the frontier of Poland was
not raised ; but on a decline of the disease in that coun-
try a removal of the impediments which had been placed
in the way of trade was gladly permitted. Indiifiduals
who could satisfy the officers of the urgency of their bu-
siness— which, however, must not be in connection with
cattle or cattle offal — were, by reason of a certificate
from the Councillor of Administration of the district,
allowed to cross the frontier, through the custom offices,
into Poland. Upon similar conditions foot passengers,
who must, however, be furnished with only the most
necessary requirements, were likewise permitted to pass
into the department of Bromberg from Poland. Never-
theless all individuals crossing the frontier, together
with their effects, were required to be disinfected in the
establishments erected for that purpose at the boundary
custom place, under the superintendence of a gendarme.
Persons travelling post were likewise subject to the
same regulations, and spun goods were not allowed to
enter.

Early in 1856 — namely, in the month of April — the
disease also broke out in the department of Breslau, in
the province of Silesia. For the particulars of this
occurrence we are indebted to Lord Loftus, to whom
they were officially communicated by the Prussian
Government. The report states that " for forty years
the department had been entirely free from the rinder-
pest, but that the disease had existed therein during the
' War of Independence.' " " All investigations have
failed," it says, " to show the precise manner in which
the outbreak occurred ; but it appears that the disease
came from the circle of Schrimm, in the district of
Posen. The means of its extension from the circle of
Scbrimm are the more obscure, because those persons
who might have been the cause of the conveyance of the
infection are interested in not giving correct informa-
tion. A knowledge of the existence of the pest only
reached the authorities at Breslau after three different
circles were more or less affected, which circumstance
arose from the want of experience of the district
veterinary surgeons, none having had an opportunity of
previously seeing the disease. Subsequently, also,
about a month elapsed before correct reports were ob-
tained from the commissioners who were specially ap-
pointed for the investigation, arising from the great
distances they had to travel, and the difficulties which
were in the way of their makmg j)Osi-mortem examina-
tions."

" The disease lasted for seven months ; and its con-
tinuance so long depended in part on the footing it
obtained while the investigations were going ou, as
during this time many animals were inadvertently ex-
posed to the infection ; and consequently they had the
malady mcubated in their systems wheu the preventive

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

127

measures were enforced. Another cause of this long
duration of the malady is to be found in the difficulties
which were experienced in the adoption of the sanitary-
laws, and the want of zeal on the part of the public in
giving effect to them."

In October, the disease declined in the different
circles, and was nearly extirpated ; but, about the
middle of November, it reappeared in the villages of
Braunau and Seitsch, which doubtless depended on a
second communication being established between them
and some of the still infected farms. The following
table shows the number of the places affected, together
with the quantity of cattle kept, and the result of the
outbreak :

Circle.

Number

of
Infectert

Villages,

Number

of
Infected
Farms.

Number
of Cattle

kept
in the
Villages.

■3

Killed.

o

1^

Diseased

Healthy.

o

Wohlau .
Steinau,.
Guhrau..

5
4
15

7
35

77

828
487
4313

5
97
151

8

78

423

10
107
187

23
2B2
761

24

119

5528

i.'53

S09

304

1066

The report states, in conclusion, that, " considering
the extent of the circles, and the number of cattle kept
in them, together with the length of time which elapsed
before a correct diagnosis was arrived at, the loss is but
a trifling one, and especially when it is compared with
the thousands of animals which are sacrificed to the
disease in other countries."

Subsequently to the extirpation of the pest from this
part of Silesia, in November, 1856, the province conti-
nued free until the month of March of the present year,
when, as has been previously explained by the official
report which we have previously inserted on the authority
of Baron Schleinitz, some villages lying near to the
frontier of Galicia were affected by " the introduction of
two herds of cattle from that country." It thus appears
that Silesia has experienced two separate outbreaks, the
first during the year 1856, and the second in 1857.

By the extension of the disease northward Lithuania
and Courland became affected, the pest showing itself in
the latter-named province in the autumn of 1856, and
continuing until January, 1857, with an estimated loss
of 2000 head of cattle. Throughout the entire year of
1856, in consequence of the steady progress of the dis-
ease in Russian Poland, the importation of cattle, skins,
bones, hair, &c., was strictly prohibited all along the
Russian frontier of Eastern Prussia.

On the occurrence of cases at Kowno and Tauroggen,
and particularly at Lansayen and Georgenburg, places
near to the frontier in the circle of Tilset, more severe
measures were adopted ; the driving of cattle along the
right bank of the Niemen was interdicted, and all traffic
between the countries was suspended. No persons
having to do with cattle were allowed to cross ; or if so,
they had to undergo a quarantine, while mail passengers
were fumigated at the borders. In the month of August
the authorities in the circle of Gumbinen were ordered
to stop all the cattle and horse fairs which were to be
held in the succeeding months of September and October.

By the strictest enforcement of these sanatary regu-
lations this division of Prussia was preserved until the
spring of 1857, when the malady crossed the frontier,
and showed itself in the villages of Bassnitzkehmen and
Meldiglaucken on the 2nd and 3rd of April. The dis-
ease, however, was at once arrested by the establishment
of a military cordon, and by the wholesale slaughter of
the animals affected, as also of those suspected to be
diseased, and the burial of their carcasses in quicklime
in holes 8 feet deep.

It was this immediate arrestation of the pest in this
district which induced us, as has been previously ob-
served, to alter our route and to go on to Silesia,
instead of Eastern Prussia and Courland, with a view of
studying the nature of the malady.

From the preceding particulars it appears, then, that
since the latter part of 1855 the disease has entered the
kingdom of Prussia from adjacent countries in three of
its different provinces, namely, in November 1855, in
the circle of Inowraclaw, province of Posen ; in March,
1857, in the districts of Tost-Gleiwitz and Lubinitz,
province of Silesia ; and in the following April in the
villages of Bassnitzkehmen and Meldiglaucken, province
of East Prussia ; besides having prevailed for several
months in 1856 in other parts of Silesia, coming there
from Posen.

Galicia.

Leaving Silesia, we proceeded to Cracow, taking with
us letters of recommendation from Baron Schleinitz to
Count Clam Martinitz, President of this division of Ga-
licia. Waiting our arrival also, we found at the posle-
restante a similar communication from G. H. Sey-
mour, her Majesty's Ambassador at Vienna, which was
accompanied by the subjoined letter : —

" Vienna, April 27. 1836.

" Sir^ — lu compliance with the request made ia your behalf
by her Majesty's Legation at Berlin, I at once apjilied to the
Minister of the Interior for the facilities of which you stand in
need, and have now the pleasure of forwarding to you the en-
closed letter of iutroductiou for Count Clam Martinitz, Presi-
dent of the Government of Cracow, who has already received
instructions by telegraph to afford you every possible assistance
in the prosecution of the inquiries with which you have been
entrusted by the Agricultural Societies of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, under the sanction of her Majestj^'s Government.
" I am, &c.,

" J. B. Slmonds, Esq." " G. H. Seymour,

On calling at thff official residence of Count Clam
Martinitz, we were immediately admitted to an audience,
when, on presenting our letters of recommendation, his
Excellency expressed his entire concurrence in the object
of our mission, and his readiness to afford us every faci-
lity in his power in its accomplishment. He explained
that, in his division of Galicia, the malady was fast
declining, but in the circle of Neu Sandec, and also of
Jaslo, a few cases would probably be met with. He
likewise expressed an opinion that we might have to go
as far as Lemberg to satisfactorily study the disease, as
in that division of the country it prevailed to a much
greater extent. In the event of this being found neces-
sary, he kindly promised to furnish us with all necessary
letters of introduction to the Governor of the Lemberg
division of Galicia, as well as to the local authorities of
the places we should visit in his own governmental divi-
sion, and also copies of the official documents relating
to the progress of the disease, and the instructions issued
by the commissioners of the sanitary laws.

In accordance with this arrangement, in the evening
of the same day we had the honour to receive the follow-
ing letter, with its several enclosures, two of which we
here insert, namely, the statistical return of the progress
of the disease, and the notice which regulates the pro-
ceedings of the sanitary commission.

" 30th April, 1857.

" Sir, — I have the honour, according to my promise, to send
you a letter for the Kreiahauptman of Jaslo, and another for
Count Gotachowski at Lemberg. I thnik it proper to join one
more addressed to the Kreishauptman of Tarnow 'the place
where you are to leave the railroad), in case \ou should need
any assistance relating to your further journey. I send you
also the papers we have spoken of. " I am, &c.,

" J. B. Simonda, Esq." " Clam Martinitz.

128

THE t"ARMER'S MAGAZINE.

(Enclosure No. 1.)
General Report of the Progress of the Rinderpest in the Government of Ckaco^v, fr6m the Ist to the I5th of

April, 1857.— Cracow, 23rd April, 1857.

Circle.

Names of Villages.

Date of
the Out-
break.

1

No. of

Cattle.l

i

No. of
infect-
ed
Farms.

Sick
on 1st
April,
1857.

In-
crease
to Apr.

15.

o

6 .

13

-a

13

■gin

a ■— '

Total from the time of the
outbreak of the Disease.

13 w
1

O
O

At- 1 Re-
tacked, covered

Died.

Killed.

p

Starawiea

March 21

940

1

26

4

22

Lipowe

„ 2]

182

1

_

7

7

—

Rovtoka

April 11

100

1

2

2

1

1

2

—

1

—

Lossosina-doluah .

March 20

395

1

3

12

15

15

—

72

3

53

16

Wrouica = .

„ 20'

262

2

4

17

21

10

11

—

53

1

41

11

Paszyn , .

, 25

213

1

10

10

4

6

12

4

8

Alt Saudec

, 31

729

1

__

6

—

2

4

Tazowako

, 20

257

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

3

—

1

2

Zabrzez

, 20

453

1

2

1

3

1

2

14

3

8

1

a<

Kamienica

. 30

433

1

—

—

—

44

—

32

12

m

Szczawnica

Tylka

, 21

, 20

490

78

2

1

1

—

1

—

—

1

34
11

4

25
10

4

1

Florynka

, 17

190

2

2

3

5

4

1

21

2

18

—

. 22

SO

425

1
1

1
2

—

1
2

1

—

2

z

9
4

1

8
2

__

Kruzlowa wyz. . . .

April 6

2

Ptaszkowa

3

800

4

10

6

16

2

14

—

16

—

2

14

Bialah-niznia ....

March 30

258

2

10

—

10

—

10

—

11

—

1

10

Bialawyznia. .....

Total of 18 villages

April 4

586

1

—

1

1

—

—

1

—

1

—

—

1

—

6,841

26

35

52

87

2

21

59

5

346

14

212

115

f

Trabarna

March 15

67

1

4

4

3

- 1

9

8

Pielgrzynka

„ 16

362

3

4

2

6

4

—

2

27

—

25

—

Czekay

„ 14

103

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

6

—

3

3

Mylarz

» 23
„ 16

198
225

1
1

—

—

—

—

— ■

—

—

1
6

z

1

1

Foluszo

5

Swialkowa

„ 30

472

1

2

2

4

3

1

17

2

11

3

Taworze

„ 27

210

1

—

6

6

—

5

—

1

6

—

5

—

'i<

Turaszuwka

„ 15

350

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

7

—

7

—

>->

Suchodol

„ 30

558

1

1

2

3

1

2

4

—

2

—

Szymbak

„ 19

866

1

_

—

—

—

—

9

—

1

8

Ropa

„ 29

T,382

1

—

7

7

—

2

5

—

8

—

3

5

Niecznajowa

„ 28

237

1

1

2

3

—

1

2

—

3

—

1

2

Grab

„ 15
„ 19

486
237

1
1

1
5

7

1
12

1

8

3

1

16
15

1

12
11

3

Zydowskie

3

L

Lipiaki

Total of 15 villages
Dabrowka

„ 28

875

1

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

4

2

2

6,633

17

14

32

46

1

24

13

8

138

3

93

34

March 21

56

1

_

_

_

16

12

4

Siemiechow

Total of 2 villages .
Rzyki

„ 28

75

1

7

—

7

5

2

—

—

42

6

36

—

—

131

2

7

—

i 7; 5

2

-

-

58

6

48

1

4

flj r

■March 20

408

1

2

2 i —

2

7

6

»l

Lipowa

; „ 31

92

1

—

8

8 1 -

3

—

5

3

—

3

—

Wieprz

„ 29
April 4

83
46

1
1

—

5

1

5 1 —

! 1 ' —

1

1

4

5
2

—

1

1

,

|l

Cieciua

1

Cisiec

9

40

1

—

1

! 1 —

—

- 1

1

—

—

Total of 5 villages .
Cieszkowice

! —

669

5

—

17

17 -

4

3 10

23

—

6

7

Cracow

M

arch 30

300

1

11

1 11

1

—

2

9

i

11

—

2

9

Total of the Whole Government.
41 1 — 1 14574 I 51 I 67 I 101 | 168 | 8 j 53 | 84 1 23 i 576 | 23 | 361 | 169

(Translation.) (Enclosure No. 2.)

"Circular Notice of llie Imperial Royal Government of Galicia
respecting the Slaiirjhtering of Cattle to prevent the spread-
ing of the Rinderpest.

" To prevent the spreading of this disease by the means
which are at the command of the Minister of the Interior, it
has been deemed expedient to issue the following orders : —

" Ist. That whenever there are reasons to suspect the ex-
istence of the pest, all diseases occurring among cattle shall be
carefully watched; and when the least doubt exists as to the

nature of the affection, the animal shall be killed, aad a. post
m.ortem examination made with a view of ascertaining as far
as possible the exact nature of its ailment.

" (a) The disease having been declared suspicious by a
medical officer duly appointed for that purpose ; and

" (6) The local authorities having been informed by the
medical officer of his opinion, they shall jointly proceed to
value the animal to be slaughtered, according to the manner
hereafter described.

" 2nd. Slaughtering is to be enforced in the Austrian do«
minions when the rinderpest already prevails —

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

129

" (a) At its outbreak in places which have hitherto been free
from it.

" (6) When the disease is well marked in its characters,
symptoms, and duration, or by its violence and deatructive-
ness, and when also the police measures which have been
already taken have been without effect in checking its progress,
so that there is a probability that either the malady by the
slaughtering may be suddenly brought to an end, or that its
further spreading may be entirely or partly prevented, to enable
the communication between healthy and diseased districts to
be speedily re-established.

" (c) The ultimate decision as to whether the slaughtering
shall be enforced when the certainty of the presence of the
rinderpest has been decided on, and to what extent it shall be
carried, is to depend on the commissioners who are appointed for
that purpose, who, after having been duly informed of the out-
break of the rinderpest or other disease of a suspicious nature,
or the spreading of the same in the infected communes, shall,
conjointly with those who are charged with the carrying out
of the veterinary police regulations, and also, if possible, with
a medical officer acquainted with the disease, and two sworn
valuers, taken from the commune, who are well acquainted with
the price of farm stock, first value the cattle which it has been
decided to slaughter. A special report is to be made of ti;e pro-
ceedings to the competent authorities.

" 3rd. With reference to the question by whom and in what
manner the estimated value is to be paid to the owner of the
condemned cattle, and whether it is ultimately to be paid by
an order on the Treasury from the police authority of the dis-
trict—

" (a) The owner will receive the full value ordered by the
authorities, after deduction has been made for the parts that
may be used, as determined by competent authorities, for the
cattle which have been killed on suspicion under rule 1, with
a view to ascertain if the disease was the rinderpest or not.

"(b) For those cattle where no doubt exists as to the nature
of the disease being the rinderpest, and in those districts in
the Austrian dominions which are known to be infected. And
when the slaughtering shall have been ordered by the autho-
rities, the owner shall only be entitled to receive the amount
of their value on condition that he has not neglected any of
the precautions which are prescribed by the veterinary police,
snd thereby contributed to the spread of the infection among
his stock, or has in no way ccncealed the disease after the out-
break on his premises.

" (c) Under the same circumstances of the existence of the
disease, the sum named by the valuers, after deducting the
worth of ihe parts allowed to be used, such as the skin and
horns, when properly disinfected, will be paid for every head
of cattle killed by order of the commissioners.

"{d) With a view to facilitate those proprietors whose
cattle have been slaughtered by the commission for the pur-
pose of ascertaining the nature of the disease, and when it has
been proved not to be the rinderpest, in replacing their cattle
speedily, the district authorities are empowered to order the
payment to be made out of the district funds, and to duly in-
form the superior authorities of the same.

" 4th. To estimate the true value of the cattle ordered to be
slaughtered by the commission, the local authorities as well as
the sworn valuers wi'l have to take into consideration the
market value, agCj and breed of every animal submitted to
them.

" 5th. With regard to the cattle which have been killed as
suspected, but which are found on a sectio cadaveris to be
perfectly free from the disease, the flesh of the same may be
nsed for food, and the hide, horns, and tallow as articles of
commerce. Of those, also, which were known to be affected
by the pest, or were discovered to be diseased on the making
of the x>ost mortem examination, the horns, fat, and hides may
be nsed for commercial purposes, but only on the regulations
framed for that end beiug strictly complied with; and it is
ordained that in these instances the parts shall he valued, and
deduction made from the amount to be paid to the proprietors,
" The attention of the local authorities and veterinary police
is specially directed to this point.

" Lastly. It is ordered that these fresh directions of the dis-
trict government upon the necessity of the slaughtering of
cattle to yreveut the spreading of the rinderpest be in force
from the present time.

"Lemberg, 17th September, 1850."

Immediately on the receipt of these official documents
and our letters of introduction from Count Clam
Martinitz, we set forward on our journey to Neu Sandec
via Bochnia, passing over the great rock-salt formation
of Austro-Poland in company with Professor Nicklas,
of the Veterinary School at Munich, whom we had
previously met at Berlin, and who had been sent by the
authorities of Bavaria on a similar mission to our-
selves.

Arriving; at Neu Sandec, our first business was to
wait upon the President of the department, who referred
us to the district physician for the latest particulars as
to the precise location of the disease, as the week's re-
port had not yet reached his office.

It may be asw ell here to observe that in this part of
the Austrian dominions there are no scientifically edu-
cated veterinary surgeons ; and that from the frequent
occurrence of epizootic diseases, both physicians and
surgeons are appointed by the Government as inspectors
of the health of cattle, and to act also as commissioners
of veterinary sanitary police during the prevalence of
these affections. To fit them for this purpose, they have
to make this class of maladies their special study, and
subsequently to undergo an examination as a test of
their competency.

By the district physician we were placed in communi-
cation with M. Carl Zankel, surgeon and commissioner
of Alt, Sandec, who received instructions to accompany
us forthwith to the different places where the disease ex-
isted ; and to proceed, in the first instance, to a village
called Ludowica, lying at the foot of the high range of
the Carpathian mountains, where a case had just oc-
curred, and which it was hoped that we might succeed
in seeing before the animal was destroyed.

On reaching Ludowica we were at once admitted
within the cordon, when we found that this animal, to-
gether with nine others which had been exposed to the
infection with him, had already been slaughtered and
buried. An application was made to have the bodies
disinterred, but which for want of due formality was not
complied with — Ludowica, in fact, being outside the
circle of Alt Sandec, to which M. Zankel was attached,
and we not having with us a special order from the Pre-
sident to the authorities of the circle we were now in for
the disinterment.

The slaughtering had swept away all the animals in the
village which were known to have been exposed to the
infectious influence of the disease, and consequently we
pressed forward through the mountain passes, which
here chiefly consisted of the partially dried beds of rivers
and streams, to another village called Zabrzez. It was
somewhat singular that at Zabrzez we came upon the
identical farm where the malady had first showed itself
in this locality, and saw on the premises four of the
o.-iginal Steppe oxen by which it had been brought.
Three of these had been the subjects of the disease, but
had recovered, and the fourth had resisted the contagion
throughout, as was believed, because he had before been
aff'ected. They were tied up to fatten, and had every
appearance of perfect health, having no trace of disease
of any kird about them.

Besides these, there were nine other animals on the
farm in quarantine, consisting of three oxen, a young
bull, and five cows. They also were feeding, and look-
ing well. Twelve days had elapsed since the occurrence
of the last death ; and we learned that should no other
case happen, the animals would not be liberated till the
completion of the twenty-first day from the time of the
last death.

Leavine: Zabrzez, we went on to Kamienica, five
miles distant, and the head-quarters of the Austrian
commission, which bad been specially sent to adminis-
ter the sanitary laws applicable to the rinderpest. The

130

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

commission was constituted of Dr. Anton Karger and
M. Johanu Rucki, " Imperial Royal Commissioners of
sanitary police for Epizootiss," and from them, during
our entire stay, we not only experienced all the assistance
in their power in furtherance of our inquiry, but liliewise
the greatest liindness and friendship. We were thus
left free to pass as often as occasion required between
Kamieiiica and Zabrzez, and so to act in our investiga-
tions, both within and without the coidon, as scarcely
could be anticipated, when the austerity of military dis-
cipline in these cases is considered, and which compen-
sated in a great measure for our oat-straw beds and sour
rye-bread repasts.

In Kamienica we found two quarantine stations, in
one of which seven animals were placed, and in the
other nine. Two days prior to our arrival a case had
occurred in the first station, and move were daily looked
for. The animal in question, a cow, was observed by
her owner, late in the evening of Thursday, April 30th,
to be out of health. She was reported early on the fol-
lowing morning, and immediately seen by the Commis-
sioners, who at once recognised the pest. She lived till
2 p.m. on Saturday, May 2nd, only surviving the attack
about forty-two hours. After the body had been ex-
amined—and which has to be done in every instance —
it was buried. The skin, however, was allowed to be
removed for the owner's use subsequent to its being
disinfected and prepared under the inspection of the
proper officers.

At our first visit to these quarantine stations, in com-
pany with the Commissioners and Professor Nicklas,
and which was late in the afterpart of Monday, May 4th,
no ii.dications of disease could be detected in any of the
animals— a fact not without some value, as, on our
second visit, at 6 a.m. of the following day, an aged
cow, one of the seven, exhibited some of the premonitory
symptoms of the pest. This case will hereafter be re-
ferred to.

According to arrangement, we next proceeded to ex-
hume the animal which had died on Saturday, that we
might note for ourselves the several lesions which had
been produced by the disease. We found that all the
viscera of the chest had been removed, and were lying
by the side of the body, and on bringing both these and
the carcase to the surface, we were forcibly struck by
the circumstance that so little decomposition had taken
place, that no unpleasant smell attended our operations,
although the animal had been dead about 65 hours.
The flesh also was firm, and of a normal colour; the
blood, however, was still fluid in the [vessels, and of a
darker hue than natural. It will not be necessary to
give a detailed account of the morbid appearancps which
were met with in the viscera, and more especially as, in
the course of this report, we shall have to desciibe these
171 extsnso as they were observed in other cases ; suffice
therefore to say, that although they left no doubt of the
animal having died from the rinderpest, they opened
up new ideas in our minds as to the pathology of the
disease.

Before proceeding to a description of the nature and
symptoms of the malady, or the relation of indivi-
dual cases of it, we propose to give in the next place the

History of the Appearance of the Rinder-
pest IN Zabrzez and Kamienica.

Until the present occasion, the villages of Zabrzez
and Kamienica, as well as all the surrounding district,
have been perfectly free from the disease since 1846.
The present outbreak took place in the month of
March, and was due to the introduction of 10 steppe
oxen which had been purchased at a cattle fair held at
Jacmirz, in the Lemberg division of Galicia. These oxen
came with large droves from Bessarabia, and from three

to four thousand head were brought together at the fair.
Jacmirz is about twenty German miles from Zabrzez,
and three full days were occupied in driving the animals
to the latter-named place.

They were bought by M. Berl Krumholz, farmer and
distiller, and arrived at the farm on the 15th of the
same month, and, after remaining a few hours, were
sent on to Kamienica, where the distillery is situated.
They were here put with 14 fat oxen, but, in conse-
quence of these bting sold for slaughtering two days
afterwards, the steppe cattle were retvirned to Zabrzez
on the 18th. Here they were placed in a stable by
themselves, and stood there until the 20th, when four of
them were a second tim^e sent to Kamienica, with 10
head of young stock, and on their arrival were placed
with 21 others. On the following day, the 21st, the
six steppe oxen left at Zabrzez were observed to be
trembling, which being supposed to depend on exposure
to cold, they were put into a shed for warmth, in which
were 18 other animals, consisting of some young bulls,
cows, and two calves. Oa the 22nd, the four steppe
oxen at Kamienica were likewise noticed to be unwell
and trembling, and, the true nature of their illness being
now suspected, they were immediately removed from
the other stock, and orders were sent to Zabrzez for
the six to be also taken away and kept by themselves.

As a further security to the stock at Kamienica, early
the next morning the four steppe cattle were sent back
to the farm at Zabrzez. Notwithstanding this precau-
tion, the disease broke out among the young stock on
the 30th, and eight of them died on the first day ; and
by April 3rd, thirty-one in all were dead. Besides these
animals, M. Berl Krumholz had ten others at
Kamienica, and the Commissioners decided upon killing
them at once, so that he might receive something to-
wards his loss. The entire number, therefore, lost by
him Kamienica was 41 animals ; and had it not been for
the selling of the 14 fat oxen, they also in all proba-
bility would have been sacrificed.

On the same day that the disease manifested itself at
Kamienica it also broke out at Zabrzez among the
eighteen with which the steppe oxen were placed on the
21st. Of the entire 28 animals located here, including
the 10 steppe cattle, thirteen died, eleven were killed,
three recovered, and one resisted the infection entirely.
The three animals which recovered, and the one which
escaped the attack, were all steppe oxen : they have
been previously mentioned as being seen by us on our
first visit to the farm.

The establishment of the cordon confined the disease
entirely to this farm, although there were in the village
altogether 453 head of cattle, the greater part of which
were very poor and weak animals, badly fed and badly
provided for.

The progress of the disease was rather singular at
Zabrzez — thus, 11 of the 13 deaths had occurred by the
end of the third day of the outbreak ; every one of the
animals dying which up to that time had shown symp-
toms of the disease. On the ninth day subsequent to the
death of these, another animal sickened and died, and
on the fourteenth day after its attack a second ; while in
twelve days more a third was taken ill, namely, a young
bull, whose case will be hereafter recorded in full as
coming under our own immediate investigation.

Notwithstanding that the same sanitary measures
were taken at Kamienica as at Zabrzez, the disease
reached the village cattle, but was fortunately prevented
making much havoc among them. The ultimate result
of the outbreak was that, out of 433 cattle kept in the
village, 65 were attacked, of which 37 died, and 28
were slaughtered.

In Kamienica the malady chiefly prevailed among the
cattle of the small proprietors and peasants ; and the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

131

daily lamentations of the poor women, to whom was
confided the principal care, or rather, on whom was
forced the labour of nursing and feeding the animals, at
the losses they were sustaining, were most distressing
to witness. Nearly the entire means of living of these
small farmers depend on the well-being of their cattle ;
and to see them swept away by such a fatal scourge,
could not fail to excite our deepest sympathy. A gloom
was cast over the whole village ; and fear seemed to be
depicted on every countenance, lest the disease should
still further extend itself.

As a warning to surrounding places, notice-boards
were erected at the different entrances into the villages,
setting forth, by their Polish and German inscriptions of
" Zaraza na bydlo rogate," and " Horn, Vieh
Seuche," that the pest was there, while each fresh
place of outbreak was instantly surrounded by the mili-
tary cordon, and all com'iiunication effectually cut off.

Besides Zabrzez and Kamienica, two other adjacent
villages in the circle of Kroscienko were the seat of the
pest — namely, Tilka and Szchawnica. The total
number of cattle kept in the former was 78, out of
which 11 were attacked; and of these, 10 died, and 1
was slaughtered. In the latter place, 490 were kept,
and 34 became the subjects of the malady ; and of
these, 25 died, 4 were slaughtered, and 5 recovered.
It has been ascertained that the outbreak also in these
instances depended upon the introduction of steppe
oxen, bought at the same fair.

Characters of the Disease.

Infection. — Rinderpest properly belongs to that class
of diseases which is denominated special or specific, by
which we understand that there is either some certain
and particular cause which gives origin to them, or that
a marked peculiarity attends their progress and results.
Affections of • this kind most frequently possess the
power of extension, by an inherent property of dissemi-
nating the maieries morbi upon which they themselves
depend, and which we recognize by the terms infection
and contagion. Thus each victim may be viewed as
adding new seeds to the malady, by the exhalations
arising from its own body ; it being a remarkable cir-
cumstance that, when the morbific matter has entered
the system, it multiplies to an inconceivable extent be-
fore it is cast out by the organic functions. The circum-
stance of animals, when in health, contracting a disease
of the same description as that affecting others with
which they are located, is the best proof of the infec-
tious or contagious nature of the malady. The escape
of some under the same circumstances may be due to
a variety of causes, and offers no satisfactory proof that
the disease is wow-contagious. For example, all animals
are not equally susceptible of being acted on at the same
time by the morbific matter : some may, therefore, re-
sist its influence to-day, but in the course of a few days
afterwards be susceptible of its action.

The facts which have been given with reference to the
various outbreaks of the rinderpest do not require the
addition of scientific deductions to establish more firmly
the infectious nature of the malady. We believe that it
stands second to none in its capability of spreading from
animal to animal, the cattle tribe being alone its
victims. If the malady were one that owed its exten-
sion to unexplained causes ; if it suddenly showed itself
in one part of the continent, and rapidly spread, despite
all precautionary measures and without the introduction
of diseased animals, to others near to or at a greater
distance from its origin ; if, in short, it possessed all the
characters of an epizootic, then we might have some
reason to doubt its infectious nature.

It has been stated, on indisputable authority, that any
animal which has been exposed to the infection can

propagate the disease without itself becoming affected ;
and that even cattle can do this before they are diseased,
in consequence af the materies morbi being lodged in
the hair which covers their bodies. This is by no
means improbable, and the opinion receives support
from the circumstance that in numberless instances per-
sons visiting the sick cattle have conveyed the pest to
other animals of the ox tribe. Thus we see that in
these paiticulars the disease agrees with the small pox
of sheep, or with the plague, small-pox, &c., of man,
and that it is as infectious among cattle as the latter-
named diseases are among ourselves.

There have been doubters of the infectious nature of
the rinderpest ; and whenever speculation has been al-
lowed to take the place of facts, although it may seem-
ingly have had science as its basis, great injury has
resulted to those most interested in the question. A
notable instance of this kind has been furnished us by
Professor Renault, Director of the Alfort Veterinary
School, and through his kindness we are enabled to
transcribe the following particulars.

Towards the end of 1844 the rinderpest, which had
prevailed among the cattle in Galicia, passed through
Moravia, and made its appearance in Bohemia, in the
circle of Koniggratz. The malady had already made
some progress in the district, when M. Verner, chief of
tlie Veterinary Department of Boheaiia, was sent from
Prague by the government to inquire into the precise
nature of the affection. This gentleman, who had had
many opportunities of seeing the rinderpest, had no
difficulty in recognising this disease in the malady in
question, and, with a view to arrest its further progresF,
he recommended to the superior authorities the adop-
tion of those measures which experience l;ad shown to
be best calculated not only for this, but to cause its
quick extermination ; namely, to slaughter the sick
animals, isolate those which had been exposed to the
contagion, and establish a cordon around the infected
places. These measures were put in force at once, and
soon had the effect of arresting the further pro-
gress of the malady, when some young physicians, who
had had an opportunity of making, for their instruction,
some juos? ?nortoM examinations of the cattle, thought
that they recognised in the affection an analogy to that
of the typhus abdominalis of man. They therefore
communicated their opinion to some members of the
faculty of medicine at Prague, who, after making several
autopsies, came to the same conclusion. A report was
accordingly sent to the government setting forth that
the malady was not contagious, that it could rise spon-
taneously amongst the horned cattle of the country by
other influences than those of the contagion, and that
the means which the government had adopted were not
only useless but vexatious. As the faculty had great
authority in all sanitary matters, the government, al-
though it did not entirely remove the restriccive mea-
sures, still did not enforce them with its usual rigour;
the result of which was that in a few weeks the malady
had extended into several other circles of the kingdom,
committing such dreadful ravages, that the Austrian
government took alarm, and forthwith sent M. Eckel,
Director of the Imperial Veterinary Institute, into Bo-
hemia. He at once found that it was the rinderpest,
and recommended the rigorous enforcement of the
former measures, the result of which was that in six
weeks or two months afterwards the malady had entirely
disappeared in the kingdom of Bohemia."

Incubation. — Like small-pox, and many other affec-
tions common to man and animals, rinderpest lies dor-
mant for a time after the infection has entered the or-
ganism. This period is found to vary in different dis-
eases, and also in the same disease at different times, as
well as with animals which belong to different zoological

132

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

classes. It is influenced by many external circumstances,
such as the manner in which the infection is received,
the heat of the weather, temperament of tlie animal,
freedom from other diseases, peculiarity of constitution,
&c. None of these causes can be said, however, to pre-
vent the outbreak of the malady, although some of them
may retard, and others facilitate, its appearance. Dur-
ing the incubative period, the animal gives no indication
of ill-liealth, and only does so when the disease is about
to declare itself.

The time that the poison of the rinderpest lies dor-
mant is also found to vary ; many animals sickening on
the seventh day after exposure, and others not until the
thirteenth or fourteenth. Some are said even to pass to
the twentieth day before giving evidence of the malady.
Such cases are f e v and may possibly depend on secondary
exposure to the infection rather than on so great a varia-
tion in the periods of incubation. These secondary ex-
posures are not unfrequently entirely overlooked, and es-
pecially with such an affection as the rinderpest, the infect-
ing materials of which can be conveyed by indirect as well
as by direct means. It must not be forgotten, also,
tthat it is a rule or law belong to this class of maladies
that if an animal passes over the usual period of incu-
bation, it is secure against an attack, and in order to be-
come the victim of an infection, it must be a second
time exposed to the influence of the morbific matter.
Direct and well-considered experiments are wanting with
regard to the incubation of the pest, and these we had
no opportunity of making while on our mission. No
doubt, however, should be allowed to remain on a point
like this, as on it depends the security to be afforded to
every country whicli is contiguous to the steppes of
Russia. Austria, which suffers almost annually from
this disease in some parts of her dominions, has an es-
pecial interest in tbe question, and should lose no lime
effecting its complete and satisfactory solution. In our
opinion Austria should appoint a commission of scientific
men, and vest it with some of her absolute power to
conduct experiments and take every necessary means of
determining tbe point in a conclusive manner, for the
benefit of other countries as well as herself, and she will
then both deserve and receive the thanks of the world.

Spontaneous Origin. — The steppes of Russia are the
home of the rinderpest, and here it may be said to hold
almost undisputed sway, little being done by the Im-
perial Government to stay its ravages. Here also, as
as has been elsewhere stated, it is alone regarded as hav-
ing a spontaneous origin, but it is very probable that a
scientific investigation would show that it spreads only
from infection directly or indirectly communicated to the
numerous herds of cattle which inhabit these extensive
plains.

Doubtless every disease has had its place of origin,
and in it there may exist persistent causes which keep
alive, so to speak, the curse of sin. Such causes may
possibly be found on these vast plains of Russia ; and if
so, here would be the natural habitation of the pest. Be
this as it may, it is certain that in those countries which
are contiguous to the steppes the malady has no such
origin, and its appearance in them is invariably associated
witli the recent introduction of steppe cattle, and gene-
rally in the ordinary course of traffic.

No disease which we have ever studied appears to be
governed by such precise laws as this, with regard to the
means of its extension ; and it is difficult to believe that
it should spread by infection alone throughout Europe,
and not be subject to the same law in the steppes. Sup-
posing the face, however, to be as asserted, it io evident
that peculiarity of breed is not of the causes on which
it depends. Large numbers of steppe oxen are met with
out of Russia, and in Galicia we saw many which were
used for the purposes of husbandry, and these arc ni^ver

known to be the subjects of the pest, unless brought
under the influence of the infection. Besides, the Hun-
garian, Italian, and steppe cattle are all, from their great
similarity, evident descendants of the old Roman ox, and
yet it appears that in but one of these has rinderpest a
spontaneous origin. Hungarian oxen are even said to
be less susceptible to the disease than the other breeds
met with in the Austrian dominions, and to bear up
better against it, so that the percentage of deaths among
them is much less than among others.

Exertion has been assigned as the cause of the appear-
ance of the malady, but like breed this too is powerless
with all cattle except with the steppe. We do not re-
gard, therefore, the fact of the breaking out of the pest
among steppe cattle at the end of a journey as a satis-
factory proof that the exertion they have undergone is
the cause.

When we observe a m;ilady to be capable of being
communicated from animal to animal by innumerable
means of conveying the wa^e/ies morbi; and when we
take into account the varying susceptibility of animals
to the immediate action of this matter, and also the
further circumstance of its remaining dormant in the
system for a fortnight, or possibly a longer time, we see
many reasons for withholding our assent, without
greater experience in the disease, to the opinion that
the pest has a spontaneous origin in the ox of the
steppes.

General Symptoms of the Pest. — When the animal
sickens, the affection will be recognised by almost con-
tinuous spasmodic twitchings of the voluntary muscles
of the body, more particularly those of the neck and
shoulders, and of the hind quarters. These twitchings
are accompanied by tremors, which are more or less
generally diffused, and which interrupt the regularity of
the spasms, and give to the animal an appearance of
suffering from exposure to cold. The coat stares, and
the patient stands with its back arched and its legs
gathered together under the body, but does not seemingly
suffer much acute pain. In the course of a few hours
rumination is suspended, and the appetite fails, but
water will generally be partaken of almost up to the
end.

Tb.e temperature of the body is variable, a slightly
increased warmth of skin existing at the beginning of
the illness, which soon, however, gives way to chilliness
of the surface, and this again to a death-like coldness of
the ears, legs, and horns, as the malady advances to a
fatal termination. The pulse is scarcely disturbed at
first, unless the attack is a severe one ; when it quickly
rises to 70 or more, but wants tone in its action. In
all ordinary cases it becomes gradually more frequent in
number, but less in force, and in tbe latter stages can
only be felt at the heart.

The respiration is but very little altered at the com-
mencement; it rarely becomes difficult, and was never
painful in any of the cases we witnessed It sometimes
rises to 30 on the second day. The contractions of the
abdominal muscles are often interrupted in their rhyth-
mical action by the spasmodic twitchings, which give a
singular motion to the animal's flanks, and has led some
observers to speak of a difficulty of breathing as being
invariably present. A discharge comes on early from
the nostrils, which has many of the characters of ordi-
nary mucus, but, when carefully examined, will be found
to contain flocculi of lymph. A slight cough is also
present in some cases ; but it cannot be heard except
one is near to the patient, when it imparts a singular
and almost indescribable sound to the ear.

The expression of the countenance does not denote
much acute suffering, and the eyes are without any dull
appearance, except in the advanced stages of the malady,
when the lids are found to be drooping as in sleep, and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

133

the ears to be a little lopped. The vessels of the conjunc-
tival membrane are almost without turgescence ; but a
discharge in most cases comes from the eyes, which ac-
cumulates in a yellow jelly like mass at the inner angle,
and when examined is likewise found to be composed
principally of lymph.

The bowels are but little disturbed at the very begin-
ning of the disease ; but the feculent matter, almost un-
altered at first in consistency, is soon passed in in-
creased quantity, and in the course of the second day
diarrhoea sets in. This diarrhoea is presently followed
by dysentery, which continues to the end. The evacua-
tions are not particularly offensive, but they are remark-
ably fluid, of a dirty yellow colour, and mixed with
numerous small flocculi of lymph. Occasionally a little
blood stains the evacuations, and tenesmus is also pre-
sent in some cases. The abdomen becomes much
pinched in, and the animal's strength quickly fails him He
now keeps mostly recumbent, and rises very reluctantly.
If made to raove he staggers, and often falls for want of
strength. The spasmodic twitchings now begin to
diminish, and for some hours before death they have
enrirely passed off.

A sickly smell attends the patient, but there are no
disengagements of gaseous compounds into the areolar
tissue, nor any other indications of the decomposition of
the tissues which have been spoken of by some writers.
In short, the animal dies, apparently, and almost with-
out convulsions, from pure prostration of the vital
powers.

In those cases which recover no pustules have been
observed as forming on the skin, nor any desquamation
of the cuticle or fall of the hair. Nor have any ulcers
of the eyes, nostrils, or muzzle been noticed in either
extreme or protracted cases.

One of the most favourable indications of a return to
health is a less frequent evacuation of fluid from the in-
testinal canal, and the dejections possessing somewhat of
a feculent character. Such animals soon acquire a more
lively appearance, look about for some tempting kind
of food, and will slowly begin to ruminate. The pulse
acquires more tone, the temperature of the body rises,
and the respiration becomes natural, but the diarrhoea
will not unfrequently continue for seven or eight days.

Duration. — In all cases which tend to a fatal ter-
mination, the animals rarely live beyond the fourth day
after the symptoms have shown themselves, while very
many of them will sink, as early as the second day. The
greater number, hov;^ever, die on the third day from the
attack. In those which recover, some diminution in
the severity of the symptoms usually takes place on the
third or fourth day, and if the patient survives this time,
even should the symptoms not abate, it is regarded as a
favourable indication of ultimate recovery. The return
to perfect health is rarely effected in less than three
weeks, but much will depend on the age and constitu-
tion of the animal, as likewise on the amount of struc-
tural disease in the mucous membranes of the alimen-
tary canal, and not a little also on the care and attention
which are given the patient.

Percentage of Deaths. — If the pest be allowed to
take its natural course for only a few days, it will be
found that the deaths not unfrequently number 90 per
cent. Steppe cattle are, however, said to bear up better
against the affection than others, so that about one-half
of them will sometimes recover. Speaking, however,
in general terms of the different breeds of cattle, as well
as of the different circumstances under which they are
placed, the mortality will be found throughout Europe
to range from 75 to 80 per cent. Fat animals, and those
which are well cared for, are found to bear up very
badly against the disease.

Post-mortem Appearances. — The morbid lesions

produced by the pest will be found centred in the mu-
cous membranes, which are more or less affected
throughout the entire body. Commencing an examina-
tion at the mouth, it not unfrequently happens that
many of the conical papillse which stud the body of the
tongue will show here and there, at their bases, their
vascular and epithelial coverings to be broken up by the
ulcerative process. The root of the tongue, fauces, and
velum palati, are also similarly implicated to a greater
or less extent, while their follicles are filled with effused
lymph, giving to the parts an appearance as if dotted
over with some yellow pigment. Some of the follicles
are likewise ulcerated, but the major portion are merely
distended with lymph.

The tonsils are in a similar condition ; and when a
section is carried through their long diameter, large
portions of lymph can be drawn from their ducts, the
yellow colour of which, interspersed in lines along the
course of these passages, contrasts strongly with the red
substance of the organs. Much turgescence of the
vessels of the Schneiderian membrane, with points of
ulceration and shreds of lymph, are met with, rnoie
particularly about the posterior nasal opening, and base
of the vomer. These lesions, however, rarely extend
beyond the middle portion of the septum nasi.

The pharynx presents the same appearance, but the
oesophagus is healthy, as is both the rumen and reti-
culum in most cases. In some few instances the epi-
thelium readily peels from off the inner surface of these
stomachs, when the vessels beneath are found to be
turgid with blood, The rumen invariably contains a
fair quantity of ingesta in the state usually met with in
healthy animals. The omasum is without structural
change, or at most its mucous surface presents an
analogous condition to that of the rumen and reticulum.
The contents of the omasum are frequently so dry and
hard that they can be rubbed to powder between the
fingers. This has been considered by many continental
pathologists as a peculiarity attaching to this disease,
and hence the term Losor diirre has been given to rhe
malady. In three consecutive post mortem examina-
tions, as well as in many others, we found that no alter-
ation, either of the omasum or of its contents, existed
which was incompatible with perfect health

The mucous membrane of the abomasum is always
highly congested, more especially towards the pylorus ;
and its follicles are in an analogous state to those of the
fauces, velum, &c. The duodenum, jejunum, and ileum
are similarly affected, but to a greater extent. These
intestines often present a bluish aspect on their serous
surface, but which is entirely due to the turgescence of
the vessels of the mucous membrane, which being seen
through the other coats, gives a greater depth of colour
to it than natural. Peyers glands are not invariably
diseased, but, like other .''oUicular openings of the
digestive canal, they are often covered with layers of
lymph, beneath which ulceration is occasionally ob-
served, but more frequently the surface is healthy,
although turgid with blood.

The chief ravages of the disease, as we have met with
them, are in the large intestines. The blind end of the
colon — the csecum — was, in one case in particular,
ulcerated over several inches of its inner surface, that
is, numerous small and distinct ulcers existed, which
had evidently had their origin in the follicles of the
mucous coat. Thin deposits of lymph, varying in size
from that of a pea to the end of the finger — scabs as
they have been designated — usually stud the large
intestines almost throughout their whole extent. They
are of a dirty yellow colour, and adhere with tolerable
firmness to the mucous membrane beneath. In some
places ulceration is found to be going on in the mem-
brane; in others this destructive process has ceased,

lU

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and the healing one commenced, and in most no change
of structure can be observed. The terminal portion of
the rectum is generally implicated to a far less extent.

The substance of the liver is healthy ; the gall ducts,
however, contain layers of effused lymph ; and some-
times to an amount sufficient to block up the passages.
The gall bladder is filled with bile possessing its or-
dinary characters, but the inner surface of the bladder
is not unfrequently in precisely the same state as the
mucous membrane of the large intestines.

The kidneys are healthy, and the urinary and genera-
tive systems apparently unaffected.

The larynx is occasionally slightly ulcerated, particu-
larly on the edge of the arytsenoid cartilages. No
ulceration, however, has been seen by us throughout
the whole extent of the windpipe and bronchial tubes ;
but thin layers of effused lymph lying in close contact
with the mucous membrane are almost invariably pre-
sent. The lungs are healthy, of a normal colour, and
often remarkably free from congestion. Their serous
membrane is also unaffected.

The heart is healthy, occasionally rather flaccid, and
without blood in its cavities. The blood in all the ves-
sels is fluid, evidently from loss of its fibrine. It is
also darker in colour than ordinary venous blood. The
brain and spinal marrow give no evidence of structural
change ; but an increased quantity of fluid is often found
in the ventricles of the brain, and especially in the
upper part of the theca verteb7'alis. The flesh is firm,
of a good colour, and has but little tendency to pass
quickly into decomposition ; indeed, we have not unfre-
quently seen it in a state fitted for food.

Pathology. — It is difficult to s])eak with certainty of
the true nature of the rinderpest, but it is evident that
the morbific matter on which it depends, having entered
the system through the medium of the organs of respira-
tion, soon acts upon the blood, by converting some of
the constituents of that fluid into its own elements ;
and that, while this process is going on, the animal
gives no recognisable indications of being the subject of
the malady. This period constitutes the incubative
stage of the disease.

The blood, having thus become contaminated, its
vitality impaired, and the poison augmented a thousand-
fold within the organism, the brain and nervous sys-
tems, as the centres of sensation and motion, have their
normal functions necessarily and quickly interfered with,
and hence one of the earliest indications of the disease
is a spasmodic twitching of the voluntary and other
muscles of the body.

The malar] y has now arrived at a stage when nature
makes a bold effort to rid the system of the poison, and
in doing this the force of the morbific matter, so to
speak, falls with more or less severity upon the mucous
membranes throughout the entire body. Effusions of
lymph— the fibrine of the blood — take place into the
follicles of the mucous membranes, as an effect perhaps
in part of the overtaxing of these grand excretory or-
gans, and partly because the fibrine itself is charged
with the muteries niorhi, and has probably also lost
some portion of its vitality, which renders it unfitted to
remain in the vessels. Dark-coloured blood, and which
remains fluid even alter death from its defibrination, now
flows in the vessels ; and dysenteric purging also sets in,
under which, as a rule, the animal quickly sinks.

If, on the contrary, the vis vita should be sufficiently
powerful to withstand so great an exhausting process,
then the poison being cast off, and principally by the
digestive canal, the patient slowly raUies, and tlie func-
tions of the organism are gradually restored. Healthy
fibrine again supplies the place of that which was lost,
so that the blood will now clot when removed from the

vessels, and be once more brought into a state to sup-
port the vitality of the prostrated organs.

Ulceration of the mucous membranes, commencing
in the follicles, may attend these processes, but it is not
a necessary pathological condition of the pest. It is
rather to be regarded as a sequence depending for its
existence on the amount of the contamination of the
blood, the duration of the disease, and the diminished
strength of the vital forces.

In all this we have a great similarity to the pathology
of the small-pox, but in that disease the external skin is
the principal focus of the malady ; while ia rinderpest
the mucous membranes or internal skin are its chief
seat. Small-pox frequently proves fatal before the local
symptoms are well established ; and so, indeed, does
rinderpest, from the great amount of morbific matter
with which the system is charged.

Names given to the disease. — Of all the terms which
have been given to this malady, there is none which we
are v/illing to adopt in preference to " Rinderpest."
It is the one which we have employed throughout this
Report, although it may be thought that it is too gene-
ral in its application, and deficient also in explicitness,
to be selected in preference to others which set forth
something of the nature of the disease. The term never-
theless explains that the w ffection is a true cattle plague;
and, besides this being the one which is used through-
out Germany, it is thoroughly understood in nearly
every European state — a fact which gives a value above
many others.

" Steppe Murrain," although it tends to throw
some light on the chief location of the disease, fails to
take cognizance even of the kind of animal which is the
subject of it, and leaves the pathology entirely unex-
plained.

"Contagious typhus" is far from being appro-
priate, notwithstanding that the disease has some charac-
ters which are common to the typhus of man. The
differences which are observed in the duration, progress,
symptoms, and results of the two maladies, are far too
numerous and important to warrant the pathologist in
the adoption of a definite term of this kind, and for
this reason we have abstained from employing it.

" Loser durre" is, in our opinion, the most inap-
propriate of any of the names we have alluded to. The
hardness of the third stomach, or rather of its contents,
which the term implies, is not a speciality attatching to
the affection. It may often be present, but it is just as
frequently absent. The term directs attention to one
particular part of the body as the seat of diseased action;
and consequently it often leads to incorrect conclusions.
We have seen men of ability, who have been called upon
to make post-mortem examinations, hesitate to pro-
nounce a decided opinion of the existence of the pest
when the third stomach has been found healthy. Hard-
ness or dryness of these contents is common in twenty
other diseases of cattle, and in nearly every instance in
which it occurs it is but an effect of suspended function
of the tliird stomach, as the cessation of rumination is
of the first.

Treatment. — We have very little to report of a satis-
factory description of the medical treatment of the rin-
derpest. Indeed, no attempts at curing the disease are
now made, in consequence of the inutility of all the
means which have been tried, and the greater risk which
is incurred of a slill further extention of the malady by
the keeping alive of animals which would otherwise be
slaughtered at once. The advancement which has of
late years attached to the science of medicine would seem
to hold out a hope that remedies may be found for this
hitherto incurable disease. All experiments, however,
undertaken for this object, would have, we believe, but
little chance of success, unless they were carried out by,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

135

or under the immediate superintendence of, the profes-
sors of the different veterinary institutions of those
countries in which the pest prevails.

No definite plan of treatment can belaid down, except
it is that of supporting the fleeting vital powers while
nature is attempting to rid the system of the poison,
and then to endeavour to counteract the ill effects which
had resulted. Remedies calculated to promote this end
must however be selected for each particular case, and
also be suited to each particular stage of the malady.

With these few observations on this part of our re-
port, we shall proceed to give the details in full of
several cases of the disease which came under our imme-
diate notice.

Case 1.

Mention has been made of an aged cow, which was ob-
served, on our second visit to the quarautine stations on May
5th, to be out of health, the symptoms indicating that she
was the subject of the malady.

Conaideriug the great fatality and the usually rapid pro-
gress of the rinderpest, it is somewhat surprising that its
victims should so frequently show such little disturbance to
their health at the commenceEent of the attack. The animal
iu question was a remarkable instance of this, as v/eli as of
the occasional raild character of the disease. The chief in-
dications of illness which she exhibited, when first seen, were
tremors of most of the voluntary muscles of the body, but
more especialy those of the extremities. The triceps muscles
of the fore-limbs, and the glutei, vasti, and triceps in particular
of the hind-iimbs, were most affected with these tremblings ;
besides which a spasmodic jerking of their fasciculi could be
detected as coming on at irregular and short intervals. The
animal stood with her back arched and legs gathered together
under the body. The head was extended, eats lopped, and
coat staring She was remarkably dull, and greatly indisposed
to move. Her appetite was impaired, but not lost, as at times
she would pick a little fresh grass. Kuminatioa was tardily
performed ; the action of the bowels unaffected ; the breath-
ing natural, and the pulse almost undisturbed. Indeed, had
the morning been a cold one — which it was not — nearly the
whole of the symptoms that she exhibited might have been
ascribed to an exposure to the bleak mountain air.

Towards the after part of the day, the spasmodic coatractiona
of the muscles were more diffuse. The jerking of those situ-
ated at the iafero-lateral part of the neck was very peculiar,
imparting a movement not very dissimilar to the so-called
venous pulse. The skiu was rather warmer than natural, but
the coat was staring, as in the morning. The breathing still
continued undisturbed, while a slight but " thick cough" was
occasionally heard. Tbe pulse had risen to about 62. It was
regular in its action, but beat with somewhat diminished force.
There was no injection of the visible mucous membranes pre-
sent, nor dryness of the muzzle, as seen in active febrile dis-
eases. The Commissioners expressed their decided opinion
that this was a true case of the pest, although an unusually
mild one, and they therefore gave orders that the cow should
be taken from the othera, and placed in a separate shed, tem-
porarily erected with the branches of pine trees for the pur-
pose, so that we might watch its progress.

May 6th, 7 A.M. — The symptoms upon the whole have
undergone but little change since last evening. The animal
stili takes a little food, but is equally as dull and dispirited.
She shows a disposition to drink ireely of water, and would
take even more than it is desirable to give her.

8 P.M. — No alteration of importance.

May ItJi, 6 a.m.— A change for the worse has come on dur-
ing the night. The prostration of strength is cansiderable,
and the animal is down, unable to rise. Neither the puhe nor
the breathing has, however, undergone much change, the
principal being that the actios of the heart is rather weaker.
She refuses food. Kumination is suspended, and the bo\pel3
ase rather irritable, voiding large quantities of faeces. The
twitching of the muscles are yet present, but mostly confined
to the shoulders and neck. The cough is more frequent, and
a little mucous discharge also comes from the nostrils. The
conjunctiva is uninjected, but the eyes are somewhat intoler-
ant of light. The geacral surface of the body is chilly, as are
the legs, ears, and horns.

On visiting the animals in the evening, we found that a
slight diarrhoea had set in during the day ; that the pulse had

risen to 70, and that increasing weakness was existing. There
were, however, but few indications that the attack would ter-
minate fatally, the other symptoms remaining abont the same.

May Slh. — The twitchings of the muscles are scarcely to be
observed this morning, as is generally the case in the advancfd
stages of the malady. The diarrhoea is, however, more copious,
but yet not alarming ; the pulse is quicker and weaker, and
only to be felt at the heart. The breathing has now become
somewhat increased, but is neither laboured nor difficult. The
body is cold, and the animal lies with a drooping head and
closed eyes, as in a state of drowsiness, refusing all food, but
showing the same disposition to take water.

The Commissioners explained that they considered there was
no chance of the animal's ultimate recovery, although the case
would doubtless be a very protracted one. They also said
that they had decided to have her killed in theafter-part of the
day, if we had seen enough of the disease in its mitigated form,
that we might institute a post mortem examination. This
arrangement met with our concurrence, and especially as other
cases had occurred since this cow was attacked, and which we
were busily engaged iu watching the progress of, as by it an
opportunity would be afforded of seeing the lesions which were
early produced by the malady.

Sectio Cadaveris. — Respiratory Or^'ans.— Mucous mem-
brane of the nasal cavities slightly congested, and covered in
patches by a small quantity of a yellowish and somewhat viscid
dischar.^e. Larynx healthy; trachea nearly free from injec-
tion, but containing some thin shreds of colourless lymph lying
in close contact with its lining membrane. Bronchia healthy ;
lungs perfectly healthy. No effusion in to the thorax.

Circnlatinci Organs. — Heait and its vessels healthy. Blood,
dark in colour and but partially coagulated ; the coagulum
being very soft.

Digestive Organs. — Tongue healthy ; fauces and velum con-
gested ; pharynx and cesophagus, healthy. Kumeu healthy,
containing a fair amount of ingesta. Keticulum and omasum
likewise free from structural disease, and no hardness of the
contents of the omasum (loser dlirre). Slight efflorescence of
the mucous membrane of the abomasum in patches was pre-
sent, while nearly throughout it was likewise dotted over with
yellowish points, produced by effusions of lymph into its folli-
cles. The contents of this stomach were fluid, in which floated
some shreds of lymph. The duodenum, jejunum, and ileum
were nearly free from disease, presenting only here and there
a similar state of the raucous membrane to that of the ab-
omasum. The cfecum, colon, and rectum were filled with fluid
fasces; but their mucous membrane vas, on the whole, free
from change.

Liver, healthy iu substance ; the gall-ducts were, however,
enlarged and thickened in their coats from chronic disease,
associated with depositions of osseous matter. The gall-blad-
der was filled with bile, and its mucous membrane was likewise
stud !ed with effusions of lymph into its follicles analogous to
the abomasum.

Pancreas and Spleen. — Healthy.

Urinary System. — Kidueys, bladder, &e., free from disease.

Nervous System. — Brain, spinal marrow, and their mem-
branes healthy in so far as their structural appearance was
concerned.

Case 2.

May Qth. — After giving our attention this morning to case
1, we went over to Zabrzez to inspect the cattle, which we
saw at M. Berl Krumholz's farm at the time of our first visit.
Here we found that a young bull, two years and a half old,
and one of the nine animals formerly referred to, as stdl being
in quarantine, was the subject of the malady. The animal in
question had only been observed to be unwell early this morn-
ing, being twelve days subsequent to the death of the last
victim. The symptoms now present were spasmodic twitch-
ings of the muscles, more particularly of (hose of the neck and
shoulders. The spasms succeeded each other with great
irregularity, but numbered on the average about ten iu the
minute. They were likewise accompanied with sHght shiver-
ings of the entire body. The skin was warm, as were also the
legs, horns, and ears. The back was arched and the animal
stood with his legs gathered under the body, but frequently
shifted his position as if iu pain. His countenance, however,
was more animated than is generally seen, even iu the early
stages of the malady. There was a little turgescence of the
I vessels of the conjunctiva, but no intolerance of light. A
slight mucous discharge flowed from the nostrils, and a short,

136

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

but nearly inaudible cough was present. Tlie breutli was
sweet, and the respiration scarcely disturbed. The pulse was
increased to SO, and hnd more fulness than is usual in these
cases. All desire for food had ceased; rumination was sus-
pended, fcud the bowels were in a relaxed condition.

6 p II. — The symptoms are somewhat aggravated. The
animal is down and is more depressed than in the early part
of the day. Diarrhosa has set in, and some tenesmus is pre-
sent. The twitching of tbe muacks is more violent and fre-
quent. The cougli is increased, as is the discharge from the
nostrils ; the pulse, however, remains the same.

Mop 7th. — There is no great change in the general charac-
ter of the symptoms this morning. The diarrhoja is, however,
more copious. The pulse is weaker, but its number is not in-
creased. The breathing is but little altered. Tbe cough is
of the same mucous character. The nasal discharge is tiiicker
and contains shreds of lymph. The ejes are heavy. The
animal keeps laid a good deal, and when down appears sleepy.
The spasmodic contractions of the abdominal muscles, which
at times are considerable, give a peculiar tremor to the whole
body and interrupt the rhythmical action of inspiration and
expiration. Presaire on the spine augments these spasms as
well as those of the mnacles of the neck and limbs. He refuses
all food, but takes a little water.

6 P.M. — Except that the auimal is weaker, and the alvine
evacuations more fluid, there is no change which needs to be
specially reported.

May 8lh. — The spasmodic twitchings are less diffused than
yesterday and not so severe. The pulse is, on the contrary,
more rapid, and so weak as to be felt with very great difficulty
except at the heart. The respiration is also increased, and now
numbers twenty-six in the minute; it is not, however, la-
boured. The cough although frequent is scarcely audible ; it
has the same mucous character. The muzzle is moist, but
cold, as are the extremities and horns ; while the surface of
the body is yet warm. The diarrhcei has passed into dysen-
tery. The evacuations are now of a dirty-yellow colour, and
remarkably fluid ; they contain flocculi of lymph, and are
occasionally streaked with blood, but are not particularly
offensive. A sickly smell attends the patient. The eyelids
are drooping, and a (hick jelly-hke mass of a pale straw colour
has accumulated at the inner angle of the eyes. This is evi-
dently composed chiefly of fibriue ; yet the vessels of the
conjunctiva are not turgid with blood. The animal has a
greater disposition to keep laid, and often while recumbent
turns the head to the side as if suffering slight abdominal pain.

Mtty 9th. — The spasmodic twitchings and the tremors are
no longer to be recognised, having entirely passed away. The
prostration of strength is very great. The dysenteric purging
continues unabated in severity. Tenesmus is present, and the
evacuations are now very offensive. The abdomen is much
pinched in. The respiration remains the same in number, and
is occasionally accompanied with a nasal blowing-like sound.
The discharge from bsth the nostrils and eyes is augmented in
quantity ; the eyes, however, still retain their transparency,
and the blood vessels are but slightly injected. The pulse is
not weaker than yesterday, but upon the whole a little more
distinct. The ears, horns, and extremities are still a little
warm. The animal takes a small quantity of water, and ap-
pears to be free from any acute pan).*

* The Commissioners decided to-da}' upon slaughtering tlie
remaining eight animals in the quarantine, as two or three of
Ihem were giving indications of approaching illnt-ss. They also
had in view the raising of the cordon at an earlier date than it
otherwise could be, supposing the malady was allowed to lako its
ordinary course; for, as elsewhere staled, it has to be maintained
for twenty-one days after the deah or the liilling of tlie last
animal. The chief object in keeping up the cordon for this ler.gth
of time is to prevent, tlie possibility of a fresli outbreak. No
newly-purchased cattle are therefoie allowed to come on to the
farm, nor is any labourer, or other person, allowed to leave it
No straw or fodder of any kind is permitted to ba removed : in
fact, all the details are as rigorously enforced during these three
wci'ks as while the disease exists.

The resoive of the Commission' rs afTorded us the opportunity of
witnessing the form O: valuing the cattle for slaugJiicring on the
part of Government, their real value be ng greater than the esti-
mated one. For Diis purpose a jury of three persons was sum-
moned, consisting of the Burgouiaster of the villuL'e and two
Other inhabitants convsrsant with the worth of cattle. Tliey
were not, however, allowed to come within 2)0 paces of the line
of the cordon. The non-medical Commissioner, M. Rucki, took
his seat on a table placed on the line, and being furnished with

May lOlh. — The symptoms are somewhat diminished iu
severity this morning, leading to the hope that the auimal
may possibly rally. The dysenteric purging is less iu quan-
tity, and the evacuations also are less frequent. The breathing
is more tranqud, and the cough more audible. The pulse has
sunk to 70, and has an increased tone. Each rising of the
artery is accompanied with a peculiar jerking action. The
discharge from the nostrils and eyes has not undergone any
material change. The extremities and surface of the body
are warmer, and the animal is evidently freer from suffering.
He lies leas ; takes freely of water, and shows a little disposi-
tion to pick some fresh green clover, a handful of which we
gathered for him.

Alay 1 !</<.— Scarcely so well today. Some blood is occa-
sionally passed with the alvine evacuations. These are atiU
fluid, have a fetid smell, are of a pale colour, and contain
numerous shreds of lymph. The abdomen is more pinched in.
The pulse is rather quicker, as is the breathing, the expirations
being at times accompanied with a slight grunt. The dis-
charge from the eyes and nostrils is less, but the cough is
more frequent. He has, however, eaten a little clover and
drank some water, and stood up at intervals for a loiger time
than before.

This change in the symptoms made us moat desirous of
watching the case to its close, but the commissioners ordered
that the auimal should be killed forthwith, as they saw no hope
of recovery, and were anxious to remove the cordon, there
being no cattle left on the premises, except the Steppe oxen,
mentioned aa having some weeka since recovered from the
pest.

Post-mortem Examinalion. — On removing the skin, the
muscles were found of their usual colour and integrity, and
the areolar tissue throughout was free from congestion. Com-
mencing the examination of the interna! organs at the nostrils,
the Schneiderian membrane was ohserved to be much con-
gested, more particularly that portion of it which is continued
into the posterior nares, where it was extensively ulcerated.
This ulceration could be traced from thence to the free edges
of the velum palali. In places it was concealed by a thick
layer of lymph, which adhered with tolerable firmness to the
membrane beneath. The larynx, trachea, and bronchi were
free from disease, as were also the lungs. The heart was
healthy. It contained within its ventricles a small quantity
of blood, which was partially coagulated ; the coagulum being
very soft.

The tongue was healthy, es was also the pharynx ; but the
ducts of the tonsils were filled with effused lymph, the sur-

writing materials, noted every p.articular of the transaction. The
catt'e were then brought one by one to within a short distance of
the Commissioner, to be inspected by the jury, whoaskeJ a great
variety of questions relating to their age, breed, and use for feed-
ing, milking, or working purposes ; which being satisfactorily
answered, they made their award.

£ s. d.
The first, a young heifer, was valued at about, in ) , q ^.

English money )
The second, also a heifer do. 4 0 0

The third, a milking cow do. 7 0 0

The fourth, a young steer do, 3 6 0

The fifth, an older steer do. 4 18 0

The sixth, a young bull do. 4 0 0

The seventh and L'iLrhtli, two lieiferj do. 8 !6 0

Total £m 4 0

The skins of the animals were next valued at 8s. each for the
larger ones, and 6s. the smaller, which suras, we weie informed,
would be deducted from the gro.-s amount, the proprietor being
allowed to dispose of iheui as he thouglit fit, after tney had
undergone a disinfecting process, under the immediate superin-
tendence of tlie Commissioners. This part of the ceremony being
ended, the animals were led away to be slaughtered and buried,
when the jury were permitted to apjiroach the table to sign their
award. One only of the three could write, namely, the Burgo-
master, and he received authority to sign for the others. The
appearance of fliese men was certainly picturesque, if not very
prepossessing. They were very scarilily clad, having on scarcly
ai/y clothes except a long coat made of a coar.^o and thick woollen
material of a dirty-white colour, and reaching to below their
knees. The Burgomaster differed but little from his compeers,
excepting that he wore a leathern girdle, furnished with a pocket,
around his waist, in which he carried his money, and of which,
little as it was, he .appeared very proud. Tlieir legs were en-
veloped in pieces of linen tied on with string, and their feet were
protected by roughly-rnade sandals, having very thin leather
sJles, being appai'ently of their own manufacturing.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

137

rounding vessels being turgid with blood. The oesophagus,
rumen, and reticulum were in a normal condition. The con-
tents of the omasum were rather dry from retention, but no
structural chauge had taken place in the stomach itself. The
mucous membrane of the abomasum was slightly ulcerated in
small- sized patches here and there, while nearly throughout
its follicles were distended with lymph, more especially towards
the pylorus.

The mucous membrane of the small intestines was congested,
the bowels themselves containing numerous flocculi of lymph.
Several of Peyer's glands were ulcerated. lu some, arrestation
to this process had taken place, and the healing one had begun.
All these glands were covered more or less with a thickish
layer of effused lymph. The mucous membrane of the caecum
was extensively ulcerated at the blind end, and throughout the
intestines it was thickly beset with scabs of a dirty yellow
colour. Many of these scabs — the product of lymph effusions
—covered surfaces in which no disease could be detected.
Other of the scabs had ulceration going on beneath them,
while under several the healing process had commenced. They
varied in size from that of a small pea to the end of the finger.
They were also of different forms and thicknesses.

The colon was in a similar condition to the caecum, as was
likewise the rectum to within a few inches of its termination.
These intestines contained no faeces, but were filled with a
fluid of a yellowish colour, in which floated many shreds of
lymph. The liver was healthy, but the lining-membrane of
the gall-bladder was in a precisely similar condition to that of
the large intestines. The kidneys were pallid, but unchanged
in structure. The bladder aud genital organs were perfectly
healthy. The brain and spinal marrow gave no evidence of
structural change, but effusion of serous fluid had taken place
into the theca vertebralis.

Case 3.

May 7. — The animal, a very poor and weak heifer, was re-
ported by the sentinel on night duty at the quarantine in Kam-
ienica to have been observed early this morning to be giving
indications of the disease. The symptoms noticed by us on
our visit consisted in chief of spasmodic twitchinga of the
muscles of the neck and extremities in particular, associated
also with general shiverings of the body at irregular intervals ;
pulse 60, having a sharper beat than natural ; a loathing of
food ; suspension of rumination ; grinding teeth ; lax and co-
pious faeces ; depressed countenance, drooping eyelids, lopped
ears ; staring coat, arched back, and chilly surface of body ;
the animal standing with its legs gathered together under the
belly. The respiration was, however, undisturbed ; the vessels
of the conjunctiva uninfected, and the muzzle moist. No ten-
derness along the course of the spine was evinced on the ap-
plication of pressure.

At night, with the exception of increased weakness and the
passing of more fluid faecal evacuations, there was no material
change in the symptoms.

Wi. — The pulse now numbers 65, and has lost its sharp
beat ; the breathing is a little quickened ; the diarrhoea has
passed into"dysentery ; the animal's appearance is very de-
jected ; a discharge flows from the nostrils and eyes ; the coat
is staring ; the spasm of the muscles more intense ; the ex-
tremities and body are cold ; and the prostration of the vital
powers very considerable.

9 P.M. — The pulse has risen to 75, and can be felt only with
difficulty in the arteries \ the breathing has become very much
quicker during the day, and now numbers 24 in the minute ;
the dysentery is profuse ; tenesmus is likewise present. The
other symptoms remain about the same as in the morning.

Wi. — The symptoms are all increased in severity, excepting
that the tremors have nearly disappeared ; the abdomen is
much pinched in ; small quantities of blood stain the alvine
evacuations, which are likewise very foetid ; the pulse is re-
markably tremulous, and the respiration is short and quick.
The animal will, however, take a little water to drink.

10</j. — During this day she struggled on against the disease,
but sunk about midnight, being far too weak to rise for several
hours before death.

Vort morlem — eight hours after death. — No congestion of
the superficial vessels, nor change in the colour of the flesh,
was observed on the removal of the skin, nor was there but
little tendency to decomposition of the body. The blood, how-
ever, was fluid and of a dark colour in all the large veins.
Ulceration had commenced in several places on the dorsum

aud root of the tongue, especially around the bases of the
conical papillae. The fauces, velum palati, pharynx, larynx,
were also ulcerated here and there in patches of about the size
of a shilling ; the mucous membrane of the posterior nasal
opening was intensely reddened, and studded with yellowish-
coloured points from effusions of lymph into its follicles ; the
ducts of the tonsils were also filled to repletion with lymph.
The lining membrane of the windpipe and bronchial tubes was
but slightly congested, but in many places it was covered with
layers of effused lymph. The substance of the lungs was
healthy, as was their serous covering. The heart was rather
flaccid ; no blood was found in its ventricles.

On opening the abdomen some petechial spots were found
on the omentum, otherwise the serous membrane was free from
any vascular injection. The fourth stomach, and also the small
intestines, presented a dark-eoloured condition of their outer
coat ; but this was ascertained to depend on the congested
state of their mucous Iming as seen through the other ccats.
The first stomach — rumen — was free from disease ; but its
epithelial lining could be readily peeled off in places, doubtless
from changes which had taken place since death. This
stomach contained some rather dry ingesta. A similar state
of things was met with in both the reticulum and omasum,
but no true loser diirre existed. The lining membrane of the
fourth stomach — abomasum — was intensely reddened through-
out, aud its follicles crammed with lymph. Effusions of lymph
adhered in many places, as scabs of a dirty yellow colour, to
the mucous membrane of this stomach.

The duodenum, near to tbe pylorus, was in a similar state
to the fourth stomach, as were tiie jejunum aud ileum in seve-
ral detached places aloog their course. Peyer's glands were
free from ulceration, and several of them had every appearance
of health. The mucous membrane of the large intestines was
ulcerated here and there ; whi!e in other parts no change of
structure could be detected. These intestines contained much
mucus mixed with shreds of lymph. Tae liver was healthy
in its substance, aud the gall bladder was filled with a green-
ish coloured bile. Its lining membrane was free from disease,
but thin bauds of lymph could be drawn from out of many oi
the large biliary ducts. The urinary and genitive organs gave
no evidence of disease. The brain and spinal marrow were
firm, and presented no structural change ; but an unusual
quantity of fluid existed both in the ventricles of the brain
and also in the upper part of the theca vertebralis.

In consequence of the occurrence of this case, and of Case
No. 1 in the same quarantine station, the Commissioners de-
termined to slaughter the rest of the cattle, consisting of five,
reserving only the animal in question for our special purposes.
This resolve was taken on May 8th, and was somewhat
hastened by the circumstance that all the animals were in
very low condition and of little value, being the property of
small farmers but one degree superior in position to the pea-
sants. The greatest difficulty also existed in procuring suffi-
cient food for them; and poor women, the wives of the pro-
prietors, could be daily seen standing in the mountain streams
for hours together, up to their knees in water, with scarcely
clothing sufficient to cover their persons, washings couch grass,
which had been picked from off the land in order to feed these
cattle. The step was, doubtless, rendered n. cessary by the
circumstances ; it was nevertheless most painful to witness the
lamentations of the poor women on its being carried into ex-
ecution.

Shortly after the removal and slaughter of the animals, the
quarantine station was set on fire, and soon razed to the
ground.

Case 4.

On the evening of May 9th, information was brought to the
Commissioners that a fresh outbreak of the malady had oc-
curred mthe village of Kamienica. On hearing this, we were
almost immediately on the spot; and found that a cow, one of
five of the herd, was fast sinking from tJie disease. It was
evident that she had been ill for at least two or three days,
but had not been reported. The Commissioners expressed
much dissatisfaction at this.'and immediately ,took possession of
all the animals, and.sent them off the premises into quarantine.
The key of the stable in which the cow had been standing was
delivered over to the custody of the military, and the cordon
established. We may here repeat, that if the proprietor con-
ceals the fact of the appearance of the pest among his cattle,
or has been in any way instrumental in bringing it among

13S

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

them when it prevails in the locality, the entire loss which he
may sustain falls npon himself, the Governmect refusing to
make any allowance even for those that are ordered to be
killed by their officers. This course was, therefore, the one
adopted.

The most marked symptoms shown by the animal in ques-
tion were — a profuse dysenteric purging ; indistinct pulse ;
rapid breathinar ; surface of body and limbs cold ; eyes sunk in
their orbits ; discharge of mucus, mingled with lymph, from
the eyes and nostrils ; staggering gait, and great prostration of
strength. Indeed, on the way to the quarantine station, she
fell twice, although the distance was not more than three
hundred yards. It was also with much difficulty that she was
made to rise. In this condition she lingered en for about
eight hours, when death put an end to her suiferings.

The principal lesions met with, in making the jiost mortem
examination, were — ulcerations at the root of the tongue and
extensive turgesccnee of all the surrounding vessels ; tonsils
loaded with effused lymph, and also all the follicles of the
fauces and contigous parts ; large shreds of lymph existed in
the windpipe and bronchial tubes. The heart was pale and
flaccid. The abomasum was not so much affected as in other
cases we have quoted, nor was any portion of either the small
or large intestines. Where diseased, the lesions of these vicera
were precisely similar to those already described. The mucous
membrane of the gall-bladder was estensively diseased, but
the ducts of the liver were free from deposits of lymph. Ex-
cess of fluid existed in the ventricles of the brain and also
in the spinal sheath. All the organs which have not
been specially named in this case were free from strictural
change.

Cases 5, 6, 7, S.

The animals which formed the subjects of these cases were
the companions of Case 4. Three of them exhibited the usual
symptoms which are seen at the commencement of the pest
on the morning of May 10th, and the other was taken ill during
the next day. The character and progress of the symptoms
in the first three were about the same as usual, and therefore
do not call for any particular remarks. The opportunity was
afforded ua of watching these animals during the whole of May
10th, the Commissioners allowing them to be kept for that
purpose ; but on the following day, as soon as the only re-
maining animal (Case 8) was attacked, they were all slaugh-
tered. The malady was quickly running its course at this
time, and doubtless would have terminated fatally in all the
animals within a day or two ; indeed, in one of them the
symptoms were now so much aggravated as to convince us that
a few hours would suffice for it to succumb to the pest.

The postnwrlem examination, which we made in each of
these cases, showed that in all essential particulars the morbid
changes agreed wi'h those we have already given in detail.
Slight differences were observed both in the extent and loca-
tion of the principal lesions, but these it is unnecessary to
describe. Indeed a careful perusal of the cases we have
selected for embodiment iu this report will, we hope, suffi-
ciently explain these, even to the medical as to the non-medical
reader.

Austria.

In our return journey from Gaiicia we visited Vienna,
and went from thence to Munich, Stuttgardt, and
Frankfort, with a view of ascertaining, by a personal
examination, the state of things in Southern Germany
and Rhenish Prussia. In no division of the Austi-ian
dominions, except Gaiicia, has rinderpest prevailed dur-
ing the present year; Bohemia, Moravia, and even
H ungary have been entirely free from it. The disease
existed in several parts of the empire in 1855 and 1856,
but was suppressed in the usual manner. It was in-
troduced from Bessarabia, whence it appears that it gene-
rally comes.

Some anxiety was shown for fear the malady might
be disseminated by the bringing together of animals
from different countries at the great Agricultural Ex-
hibition at Vienna, which took place in May last ; and
the directors of the show, early in April, issued a notice,
in which they stated " that the cases of disease which
had occurred in Moldavia and Silesia had been confined

altogether to the individual animals which had been im-
ported, and that the cattle of the country was free from
all murrain." It was further notified, that on the days
appointed for the admission of animals for exhibition the
transport to Vienna of cattle intended for the slaughter-
house would not be permitted by railroad, and that the
conveyance of the cattle to be exhibited would be effected
in perfectly new waggons.

The extent of the last outbreak in Austria, its dura-
tion, &c., will be shown by the following official re-
port :

i — .,^ ._ ^j

ii es o M

"^ .. o

3 a) Q.

a

"^ '43 (u flj

J5 i3 ja.S

&

O « <-. 53

^ i^ .

>n ^ ,-H CO LO rx) (o '^

OJ

"*^ aj -*J IJ

. rH CO CO W -■; C-i rH

Date of
disappe
ance of

Diseas

«- 1 i -s

s

1

, T*<t^oiraMO'*(«!o

00

•^

c P

Cvi OJ rH (>i 1^ rt O

CO

=3 S

1 r-ITfl

J>

M -^

(n

i>.i:^(>i^cooio*oioc^

CO

co

J3

tDQOM.-HOCO'a-l^-H

}>•

3

"S

CO t^ o}_ci_o o CO lo 03

«o

£

tu

«3 ofl-Tr-TiC^''

irT

P5

Q

Oi

TS

c<!0roo50comoso

J--,

1*

C0J>t^O10-*^l~-.C0

CO

CO «3 T)<_m M co__eo__<M i

I

OJ_

O

rH O" Oj" l> CO 1

1

cT

W

f-H

CO

mber

attle

the

icted

ages.

05— ICOlOi— IIOOCOCOQO

^

■^

O5C0(-HC0CPt^^0t0lO

f^

CO

^ CO rH eO_05_ CO t-; O »0

t--

= " a SB 3

00 ccr^ eo ira" rn r-!"

1(5

i

CO r-1 CO tH ra t^ CO

Ol

Tt<

c

1 1 OJ OO i-i O! O

!0

aJ

1 1 t^ 1 ^ CO a;__io

o>

TS

fc<

'"' -^w"

oT

!"

S)

coco0'0.-ico^:o!:^co

C5

m

— <MOC0N i-HOi-l

CO

r^

C^ r-l r-l

U3

i

>

5

m

0)

r^

1 Noooscoi-iojeO'-ioj

r=(

t-

£

a

1 -s<

00

Eh

o

Number

of cattle

iu the

whole

District.

<-Ht— »OO:>lrtc^J<tOCQ00tO

1^

CO

l>>tOr-llOCOCO-*'a'«OCO

o^

^51

f— tCOCOCOC^JtDOi'— *IOCO

oOi-Ha3oi^ooco"'^oo'r-r

rH r-^ ^ lO CO rH

w

-.2-1 ^•

'ra,_(rjHCJr-IO01D00eOT«

w

o 55 "S ■«

CO ^ CO CO (W :-< 1-H

Date
he rec
f the
Repo:

<^ 1-, :z; ;? ^:; ^5 ph o g j^

1

^ o

coo5Ci50ioiMeor-i'*ro

^

www <M CNJ

ITS ^H 4j 4j ,1., nj ^

w

Date

the brei

out of

Diaei

O ^ P S aj l3 =3 z! OJ « <U

1

'. l '.

.2

ei

' .5 •

'l-t

*t-l

a

<D

^-a yr

B

s

__,

a
o

o

•S2 lis 2s^ s §:

cq O uj O O O Pm M 1^ P

<

u

u

3

1

As the facts set forth in this Report are so explicit,
that no comments thereon are required, we may proceed

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

139

to state, that after leaving Austria we made our way
into

Bavaria.

This country, in common with so many others which
we had visited, has likewise been perfectly free from the
rinderpest, since from 1813 to 1815 ; its outbreak at that
time being referable to the same cause as in Belgium,
&c„ namely, the passage of the Austrian army into
France.

Professor Nicklas, of the Munich Veterinary School,
who had leturned earlier than ourselves from Galicia,
informed us that pleuro-pneumonia was the chief epi-
zootic disease which prevailed in Bavaria, but that it had
not existed to any considerable extent of late years. The
sanitary laws to limit its spread are similar to those in
other countries, being founded on the fact of the conta-
gious nature of the affections Animals which have re-
covered from an attack are marked on their horns with
the letters L. S., signifying that they have been the sub-
jects of Lungenseuche, it being thought that from the
partial disorganization of their lungs they may be the
means of spreading the disease for several months after
their convalescence.

With regard to rinderpest the laws are very severe ;
and through the kindness of Professor Niklas, we are
enabled to give the following details of their provi-
sions :—

Daring the continuance of the disease, no cattle, dead
or alive, are allowed to be brouoht across the frontier.
Flesh, hides, enti-ails, horns, hair, and tallow of cattle, and
bones, whole or crushed, of any animal, with their hair,
wool, or bristles, are also especially preveiUed crossing by
the cordon ; as are woollen cloths, scutchings of leather,
feathers, farmyard manure, hay, clover, straw, and all other
descriptions of cattle fodder.

When the disease occurs on a farm, the affected ani-
mals are not removed from the sheds, but the apparently
healthy are taken to the quarantine station. Each
commune is obliged to provide a station of this description,
which is built of wood and divided into two parts, one for
the doubtful cases, and the other for the supposed healthy.

The Commissioners have -the power of allowing medical
treatment of the animals, but the veterinary surgeon must
remain in the quarantine and receive all he requires at th e
end of a long pole. All churches, schools, and public-
houses of the disti'ict are closed so as to prevent the congre-
gating of people together, and remove those inducements
which might cause persons to come from infected farms.

On the occurrence of illness among cattle from other
causes as well as the pest, the Commissioners do not, as a
rule, approach the animals ; but, standing at a distance,
and within sight of them, they arrive at a decision as to
the nature of the ailment, frequently ordering some food to
be offered as a test of their freedom or otherwise from the
malady. In those instances where the Commissioners
enter the stable, they are compelled, before leaving, to
wash their hands, &c., with vinegar, and have their clothes
fumigated with chlorine gas.

All dogs, cats, rabbits, domestic poultry, pigeons, &c.,
have to be kept in places of security and close continoment.
If the disease exist in a village through which a high-road
rims, the course of the road is turned, if possible ; but when
this is not practicable, then a guard accompanies the several
travellers who arrive at the boundaries of the cordon, to
see that they do not go upon an infected premises. The
cordon is frequently maintained by the peasants ; but none
are taken for this purpose from an infected village, the se-
lection being made from contiguous villages or farms where
the cattle are healthy.

As soon as the malady is observed in a commune, no-
tices are sent to all the surrounding places, that precau-
tionary measures may be immediately adopted by the
owners of cattle. Each commune has to provide a place
for the burial of the animals which die or are slaughtered,
and also a waggon and horses to carry them upon ; and,
on the disease passing away, the waggon is burnt, and the
, orses are washed with a solution of chlorinated lime.

The place of interment is Hkewise enclosed, and not
allowed to be disturbed for several years.

_ On an inspection of supposed cases, the animals which
give indications of the malady by spasmodic twitchings ot
the muscles are ordered by the Commissioners to be taken
to_ the burial-ground, where they are killed, and interred
with their skins on, these being cut m the usual manner.
Occasionally, a special order of' the Government permits
the_ removal of the skins, which are then to be subjected to
a disinfecting process, undtT the immediate superintendence
of the Commissioners. If but a few cases occur in a large
herd of cattle, the Commissioners have the power to sus-
pend the slaughtering of the exposed animals for a few
days, in order to watch the result : such animals have a
value put upon them, which is paid by the Government.
Should no animal fall ill within twenty days from the
death or slaughtering of the 'last case, then the quarantine
is raised ; but the cattle which have been liberated are not
allowed to go near to others until they have been washed
with a solution of chlorinated lime. On the discharge ot
the animals, the quarantine station is razed and burnt.

The Commissioners have to report day by day every
occurrence to the Government, and to give the fullest par-
ticulars, even to the names of the persons employed at the
cordon, and the age, colour, sex, &c., of the cattle in the
quarantine. The hay on a farm at the time the pest
occurred is not allowed to be used for cattle, but must be
consumed by horses and sheep.

Such are the regulations existing in Bavaria ; in sub-
stance they agree with others which have been previously
given, but nevertheless we are of opinion that they
should find a place in this Report, as several of the de-
tails are singularly minute in providing against an ex-
tension of the evil. A great difficulty must evidently
belong to the carrying out of the requirement respecting
the consumption of the hay, and more particularly if
the malady should break out in the autumnal period
of the year, as then nearly the whole crop would be in
store. This regulation, we believe, has been enforced,
because it not unfrequently happens that, in accordance
with custom, the whole of the hay of a farm is placed
on strong floors above the cattle-sheds, and not put into
ricks as in England.

wuktemburg and the surrounding german
States.

We learned from Professor Hering of the Veterinary
School at Stuttgardt, that, like Bavaria and other
kingdoms and States, Wurtemburg had experienced no
outbreak of the rinderpest since 1815, and that its
existence at that time was also due to the movements of
the Austrian army. The regulations of the sanitary
police are almost identical with those in force in Bavaria,
both with regard to the rinderpest, and also pleuro-
pneumonia.

Cattle are reared in large numbers in this kingdom,
and are fed for the market principally by the sugar-
manufacturers, distillers, and brewers. When fat, they
are exported for the supply of the French towns, and
Paris in particular. With the exception of Swiss cattle,
which are imported for the improvement of the native
breeds, very few animals are sent into Wurtemburg
from any other country.

Rhenish Prussia.

It could hardly have been expected that this province
would be found otherwise than perfectly free from the
cattle pest : indeed, in our inquiries of veterinary sur-
geons, it was somewhat singular that we did not meet
with one who had even seen a case of the disease.

Our investigations into the extent of the cattle-pest
may be said to have been here brought to a close, and to
have shown that even should a revival of the trade in
cattle, which had been spoken of in the former part of
the report, take place to England through Holland, by
means of the' Rhine, there would be no risk incurred

t'. 9.

140

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of introducing this disease thereby, unless circumstances
sliould unfortunately arise, by which it became as rife as
it was in the years 1813, 1814, and 1815.

As the limits which are ordinarily assigned to reports
of this description may have possibly been exceeded, we
feel that it would not be right to make any observations
in addition which are not of a practical character, and
therefore we content ourselves by appending a summary
of the facts which have been ascertained by us in the
fulfilment of our mission.

Conclusions.

1. That all the countries of Northern and Western
Europe from which cattle are exported to England are
perfectly free from the rinderpest ; and that the only
disease of an epizootic or destructive nature which pre-
vails therein is the one known to us as pleuro-pneumo-
nia, which disease has existed here since 1841.

2. That in the greater part of the official dispatches
and reports which have been forwarded to the Govern-
ment, and by them transmitted to the Royal Agricultu-
ral Society of England, the Rinderpest has been con-
founded with Pleuro-pneumonia, " Milzbrand," and
other destructive maladies to which cattle are liable.

3. That the Rinderpest is a disease which specially be-
longs to the Steppes of Russia, from which it fre-
quently extends, in the ordinary course of the cattle-
trade, into Hungary, Austria, Galicia, Poland, &c.

4. That whenever circumstances have arisen which
called for the movements of troops, and consequently
the transit of large numbers of cattle, in Southern and
Eastern Europe, and particularly when Russian troops
have crossed the frontier of their territory, the disease
has been spread over a far greater extent of country.

5. That the disease which has recently prevailed in
Galicia — where it was specially investigated by ourselves
— as well as in Poland, Austria, Hungary, the Danubian
Provinces, Bessarabia, Turkey, &c., is the true Rinder-
pest or Steppe Murrain of Russia.

6. That with the exception of a few places in the
kingdom of Prussia and others in Moravia, near to the
frontier of Galicia and Poland, the disease in its out-
breaks of 1855, 1856, and 1857, did not extend to any
country lying westward of a line drawn from Memel on
the Baltic to Trieste on the Gulf of Venice.

7. That, speaking in general terms. Rinderpest has not
existed in Central and Western Europe for a period of
forty-two years ; its great prevalence at that time being
due to the war which was being then carried on between
the different continental Kingdoms and States.

8. That all the facts connected with the history of

its several outbreaks concur in proving that the malady
does not spread from country to country as an ordinary
epizootic. And that, if it were a disease exclusively
belonging to this class, the sanitary measures which
are had recourse to throughout Europe would be in-
efficient in preventing its extension, and consequently
that in all probability we should long since have been
both painfully and practically familiar with it in this
country, as hundreds of our cattle would have suc-
cumbed to its destructive effects.

9. That it is one of the most infectious maladies of
which we have any experience, and that it is capable of
being conveyed from animal to animal by persons and
various articles of clothing, &c., which have come in
contact with the diseased.

10. That the ox tribe is alone susceptible to the dis-
ease ; and that the morbific matter on which it depends
lies dormant in the system for a period of not less than
seven days, and occasionally, according to some con-
tinental authorities, as long as twenty days, before the
symptoms declare themselves.

11. That an attack of the disease which has termi-
nated favourably renders the animal insusceptible to a
second action of the materies inor'hi which gives
origin to the pest.

12. That the deaths often amount to 90 per cent.

13. That the malady is one in which the blood is
early if not primarily affected ; and that subsequently
the mucous membranes throughout the entire body be-
come the principal seat of the morbid changes.

14. That the symptoms are in general well marked
and quite characteristic of the affection.

15. That all varieties of medical treatment which
have as yet been tried have failed in curing the disease ;
the recoveries which take place having for the most
part depended on the vis medicatrix natures.

16. That no fear need be entertained that this de-
structive pest will reach our shores. Its present great
distance from us would, of itself, afford a fair amount of
security ; but when we add to this that no cattle find their
way from thence, directly or indirectly, to the English
market, and also that in the event of the disease spread-
ing from Galicia, it would have to break through hun-
dreds of military cordons, one after the other, before it
could possibly reach the ivestern side of the German
states ; and, moreover, that for years past commerce has
been unrestricted with regard to skins, hides, bones, &c.,
of cattle from Russia and elsewhere, all alarm, we be-
lieve, may cease with reference to its importation into
the British Isles.

HALKETT'S GUIDEWAY STEAM AGRICULTURE.

Our agriculturists live in the days of innovations. |
Fast fading from the memory of our farmers — all slow
as they are said by some to be, but fortunately sure
withal — is the recollection of the good old times when
processes, and the implements by which they were
carried out, were handed down from one generation to
another, resembling the laws of the Medes and Persians
in this, that " they altered not." And, as the influence
of those steady times is gradually losing its hold on the
minds of our agriculturists as a body, their attention is
directed ever and anon by a succession of proposed in-
novations, fast flowing in, one upon another, to the
time coming — by some thought the *'good," and by
others (who see only evil in any change) ruefully
ruminated upon — when innovations will be welcomed as
the signs of a healthy progress ; and not, as is too often
the case now, met vrith the sneer of the incredulous,

and the one-sided investigations of the prejudiced.
Unpleasant, truly, is the position of the innovator.
He is generally examined as to his purposes and inten-
tions, as if these had for their aim the filching of men's
wealth from them, and the subversion of good order and
social morality. He is set up to be the fair mark of
the carping cabalist, exposed to dull jokes (as if a joke
could upset a theory, or be weighed as equal in value
with a fact), to be sneered at as a dreamer, and perhaps
to have his very sanity placed in doubt. Yet the world
is hugely indebted to innovators. It is now reaping ihe
fruits of the thought of schemers, such as Watt, Fulton,
Stephenson, and Wheatstone. Sneered at as vain en-
thusiasts, or denounced as the robbers of the poor man's
bread, we find these " innovations" on the practice of
their day, unostentatiously yet powerfully at work,
clothing the nations, ministering to our wants, and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

141

catering for our luxuries ; bearing us to distant lands
with amazing speed, against wind and wave ; dasliing
with the fleetness of the race-horse through hill, and
along dale ; and bidding fair soon to realize the prophetic
boast of the Spirit in the play, of " putting a girdle
round the earth in forty minutes." Let us, then, treat
innovators with all generosity, and canvass the merits
of their innovations with all frankness and fairness.
Let us view their proposals in the enlightened spirit of
those who wished to draw information and derive know-
ledge from every source, treating none with scorn and
indifference because it may present at the first blush
features which shock our prejudices, or which run
counter to our own knowledge, or supposed knowledge,
of facts. It is at all times unsafe to judge by appear-
ances ; examination may discover features which were
unrevealed to hasty glances. The lamp in the fairy
tale looked doubtless a worthless thing ; but the ma-
gician-merchant knew its worth, and invoked its power.
The fabled philosopher's- stone clearly was not thought,
by those seeking for it, to be a dazzling gem which, by
its lustre would attract any eyes, and reveal its work
to any finder; it was evidently a thing to be wearily
looked for and closely examined. The glass that glitters
in the sun-light is but worthless, after all, and poorly
repays the labour of him who traverses fields and over-
comes obstacles to gain it ; the golden nugget, in its
roughened matrix, looks like a lump of molten earth or
stone, which may be trodden under-foot or cast aside as
worthless. " Examine all things, try all things : hold
fast that which is good" — not that which is " old," as
some may read it — not that which is " new," as others
may translate it ; but that which is " good." And this
good can only be ascertained by inquiry, by the examina-
tion, by the trial which the first part of the text
commands.

These remarks, and the conclusions which may be
deduced from them, are not, we conceive, inappropriate,
in introducing to the notice of our readers a truly startling
innovation in agriculture, the peculiar features of which,
and their adaptability to practice, the agriculturist is called
to examine and canvass. We have said that agricul-
turists live in the day of innovation ; and in view of the
probability — nay, the almost certainty — that innovations
will increase, not decrease, in number, it behoves
everyone to decide how and in what way those innova-
tions shall be received and considered. Too long have
agriculturists as a body laboured, and their reputa-
tion languished, under the charge, that, as compared
with manufacturers and men of commerce, they are
slow, and in all things opposed to change, even if that
change bring with it improvement. Not here to enter
upon the discussion of the question whether this charge
be true or not, certain it is that if agriculturists wish
" outsiders" to be of opinion that the charge can be
answered in the negative, the discussion of " Innovations
on Practice" must be conducted in a different spirit,
and lead to more practical results than has been the
" use and custom" in times gone by. Far be it from
us to ignore the vast strides which agricultural progress
has made during the last twenty-five years, or the
wondrous aid which our mechanicians have lent to it in
carrying out its various processes ; neither do we join in
the cry (because wholly false we deem it to be) that
agriculture stands still, while manufactures and commerce
flourish and spread their dominion wondrously ; but what
we wish to enforce on the minds of those who think we
have arrived at, or at least pretty near to, the promised
land of Perfection (not many of which class surely will
be among the readers of this journal), that so far are we
from this same perfection, that we are simply in a
transition state; that we have, in fact, invoked — but
not yet possessed ourselves of — that mighty power which
hi=; c'litig-d thT face of commerce; and, further, that

Progress does not mean (what some men evidently do
think it does) that we are to go on, or up to, a certain
point, and stop there ; that the meaning of the term, if
it has any meaning at all, is a going forward — a moving
on : and that consequently it is difficult, if not impossi-
ble, for any one to set limits to this progression, and to
say " Here it shall go, and no further !" — to change, in
fact, the word, and say " Here, up to this point, it
shall be progression ; then, stoppage !"

Not longer to detain our readers, we hasten to explain
the peculiarities of that innovation which forms the
subject of this paper — an innovation so thorough in its
character, and so subversive of established practice and
preconceived notions, that it may well, as some may
deem, be ushered in with those remarks which we have
ventured above to address to our readers. Last year, at
this very time and period, it was our privilege to explain
to the readers of this journal another innovation in agri-
cultural practice, and to deduce from it the probability
that in process of time the farmer would be called upon
to join the somewhat incongruous calling or trade of dis-
tiller to his own ; and that on the ground of his being
enabled thus to become a better farmer. Those who will
please to turn to the Supplement of the Mark Lane
Express of Monday evening, January 9th, 1857, will
find, under the title "^'Agricultural Distilleries," our
explanation of the innovation to which we refer. The
innovation we have now to notice, in the features which
it presents, is even more startling still, and calculated
to give no small shock to time-honoured prejudices.
With its introduction ceases the ploughboy's occupa-
tion ; and from the plough-tail we take him to the plat-
form, and transform him into an engine-driver, working
his machine on a veritable railway. Oh ! shades of our
broad-bottomed ancestors ! what next ? — and next ?
But let us explain : Imagine the field to be cultivated,
to be laid out with a series of permanent ways, or rails,
thus —

placed at a distance from each other of some thirty or
fifty feet. At right angles to those rails {a a), along
the headlands separate railways (& b) are placed.
Imagine, further, two side-frames, each supported
by eight wheels of small diameter, to run on two
contiguous rails ; these frames to be connected by a
platform stretching over the intermediate space between
the rails, and supported by the side-frames. This plat-
form, in its turn, supports two steam-engines ; one at
each end. These give motion, by means of suitable
gearing and connecting rods, to the small wheels
on which the side-frames are supported. The two
steam-engines are coupled together, so that one
end of the platform, or one of the side-frames,
shall not progress at a quicker rate than the
other ; by this means the uniform progression in the
same line of motion of the platform along the rails is
insured. To the under- side of the platform imagine a
series of plough-bodies to be suspended, and to be ad-
justed so that, when moved along the space of ground
between the rails, they shall cut furrow-slices of a de-
terminate depth and breadth. Suppose the frame or plat-
form, with its suspended ploughs — in number equal to a
complete working of the soil the full allowable breadth

142

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

between the rails— to be near the lieadlaud, and on the
near set of rails ; the engines are set in operation ;
the wheels of the side-frames revolve, and the frame
progresses up the field, at a rate determined on, until it
reaches the opposite headland. The land between the
rails over which the frame has traversed will thus be
ploughed. The shifting of the frame or platform, with
its suspended ploughs, to the next set of rails, is now to
be performed. On the headland railway a low traversing
frame — similar to that employed in railways for shifting
carriages from one line to another — runs at such a level
that the platform can be run off to a set of rails placed
on ir. The traversing-fratne is then moved along the
headland-railway to a point opposite the next set of
rails on which the platform, with its ploughs, is required
to run. By a very simple arrangement, the set of
ploughs which were first in use are taken out of contact
with the soil, and another set, working the contrary
way, placed in order. The frame is now moved along
the rails, and the ground between them ploughed as
before. These operations are gone through till the
spaces of ground between the whole sets of rails are all
ploughed. One point in the arrangement of operations
here performed will obviously strike the reader at this
stage of our inquiry, namely, (rom the parallelism of
the rails, and the ease with which, mechanically speak-
ing, exactly similar adjustments of succeeding and diverse
implements can be made to the platform, a degree of
precision hitherto unattainable in actual culture can be
insured. Thus, by the apparatus, the seed can be sown
by means of the ordinary drill mechanism, and the
spaces between the rising plants hoed by hoes or blades
capable of most accurate adjustment to the frame. On this
point the inventor states : " I have drilled by the steam-
machinery rows of plants, and, when they have come
up, I have hoed them repeatedly by the same steam-
machine with the greatest perfection, and at all stages
of their growth. In fact," he continues, " I have
placed'" (note that he states that he has done it, not that
he thinks he can do it — a distinction worthy of attention
here) ' ' the blades of the hoes on each side of the rows, so
near them as to cut within half an inch distance from the
stalks without doing any injury to a single plant as the
machine hoed them. I may mention," he goes on to
say — and what he is about to say is worthy of saying,
and of course of hearing — "that I have frequently
placed upright in the ground two small sticks (two
pencils) at a distance from each other of one inch, and,
having fixed a small stirrer, or tine, propelled it at full
speed of engine, cutting the ground between the sticks
without on any one occasion disturbing either of them.
So much for the facts proving the precision of the
operation of the arrangements adopted by the inventor.

Another feature of the apparatus, which will be ob-
vious to the reader, is that all poaching or padding of
the soil — an evil inherent in all the methods of culture
at present in ordinary use — is avoided ; in fact, nothing
comes in contact with the soil under culture but the
implements and machines which are to effect that cul-
ture. But more of this important point hereafter.

Having now given a general notion of the peculiarities
of the " Guideway Steam Agriculture," we proceed to
enter more fully into details. In doing so, we shall
divide our remarks into four classes : 1, Construction;
2, Practice; 3, Cost; and 4, Results cultural.

I. Construction. Under this head, the point which
first claims our attention is the "permanent way."
This may be constructed in one of two ways — first, by
driving piles into the ground in the line of intended rails,
these supporting a continuous top-rail, or beam,
on which the I'ails are laid ; or second — which is
the method adopted in practice — by digging a trench on
the line of rails, and forming a foundation, or ballast,
after the manner of ordinary railways, and laying the

rails on this. The rail used is not flat on its upper sur-
face, like the ordinary rail of our railways, but angular
in section ; this gives a sufficiently strong yet cheaper
rail than the ordinary one. The section being angular, the
tires of the wheels of the moveable side-frames supporting
the main platform have angular grooves, into which fits
the apex of the angular rail. The rail does not rest on
wooden sleepers laid on the ballast, but upon angular
hollow bricks which act as the sleepers. The space taken
up by the rails and the ballast is, obviously, so much taken
off from the cultivable soil of the farm. This loss, how-
ever, is comparatively insignificant iu amount, being cal-
culated at 2s. per acre only. But, as the distance between
each pair of rails is 30 feet — easily increasable to 50 — the
space of land lost by the rails and their ballast is much
less than that in ordinary cases with the open furrows
between the stetches. Mr. Halkett calculates that
with a ga.uge of fifty feet, and a width of foundation for
the rail of 2i feet, l-20th of the land is taken up
by the rails. One set of driving-wheels, attached
to one of the side-frames, have a lateral play or
adjustment given to them on their axles ; this arrange-
ment meeting any deviation from the exact parallelism of
the rails, or alteration of the width of the gauge, which
may happen through various causes. This play or tra-
verse of the one set of wheels is also useful in adjusting
the implements which, in operation, succeed one another.
Thus the drill-spouts or seed-depositors being made to
travel at a regulated distance from the rails, the succeeding
implements, the hoes, can be adjusted so as to travel in
lines exactly parallel with the lines of motion of the
drills, and, consequently, between the rows of growing
crops. As no transverse ties or sleepers can be used, as
in ordinary railways, to preserve the width of " gauge,"
this has been considered by some as militating against
the utility of the system ; it being argued that one of
the practical difficulties in the maintenance of the per-
manent way of railways is keeping intact the width of
gauge. But it should be remembered, on the other
hand, that there is a vast difi'erence between the speed of
the railway locomotive and that of the travelling platform
of Mr. Halkett, that of the former being up to as high a
velocity as 50 and 60 miles per hour, while that of the
latter is only about 2J miles per hour. The succession
of impacts given to the rail by the passage of a train at a
high speed over them tends rapidly to destroy the in-
tegrity of the railway. la Mr, Halkett's system no
inconvenience has arisen in practice from the want of
any method to preserve the gauge of the rails. In view
of the cultivation of the soil being carried on quite up
to the line of ballast which supports the rails, it has
been objected that the ballast will have a tendency to
give way laterally, from want of solid earth on each side
to support it. In answer to this, Mr. Halkett states
that he does not cultivate close up to the rails to an equal
depth with the rest of the space, but gradually slopes
the cultivated part outwards from each side ; thus
leaving a considerable width of solid ground against the
lower part of the ballast. Moreover, the slow rate of
speed at which the platform travels is not found, in
practice, to injure the ballasting. Even in cases where
the soil may be ploughed quite up to the line of ballast,
and to the ordinary depth, we do not anticipate that its
lateral displacement will amount to much : besides,
this lateral displacement can be easily obviated by simple
contrivances. Again, it is to be remembered that the
pressure of the whole apparatus is distributed over a
large amount of surface by the use of numerous wheels-
eight in number — on which each side-framing supporting
the main platform rests ; just as we find that a beam,
which has the weight which it has to support distributed
over the whole of its surface, can sustain a load double
in amount of a beam which has its load placed on, or
hanging from, the centre.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

14S

The main platform is constructed of timber framing,
and in cross-section is exactly like a trussed roof, with
the tie-beam, rafters, king post, or tie-rod, and struts, or
braces. The tie beams or cross beams are not solid,
but are made of two boards or planks placed on edge, and
secured together by blocks or cross pieces ; a horizontal
board is placed at the lower part to resist the lateral
strain to which the girders or beams are subjected. By
this arrangement the necessary strength is ensured, with
considerable lightness of material. We conceive that
the hollow wrought-iron girder system could be adapted
with success to the construction of a platform of wider
space than any yet contemplated by Mr. Halkett. There
is no engineering difficulty in the way to prevent a space
of much above fifty feet being obtained. By the judi-
cious use of wrqjight-iron a platform of great space,
with all the rigidity required and of great lightness,
could be constructed. But to return : The whole of
the cross girders or tie beams are secured together by
transverse bearers, which run in a direction parallel to
the rails, and are further strengthened by light wrought-
iron diagonal tie rods or stays, which stretch from corner
to corner of the under side of the platform. The ends of
the planks forming the sides of the girders or main tie-
beams of the platform are secured to vertical uprights,
which afford bearings for the running or driving wheels
already alluded to. The bearings of these wheels are not
fixed to those uprights, but are allowed to slide freely up
and down in guides formed between the sides of the up-
rights ; at the upper part of these guides strong springs,
all of equal strength, are placed, to offer resistance to
, the bearing of the wheels when having a tendency to

move too far upwards. By this arrangement the whole
weight of the platform is transferred to these wheels
through the medium of the springs. As before stated,
these springs must be all of equal strength, so that each
wheel may bear as nearly as possible the same amount
of weight while resting on a level surface, and they
must also possess a considerable amount of elas-
ticity, to enable the several wheels to pass over any un-
dulations of the rails without transferring too much
g weight from some of the wheels to the others. A main-

tenance of a uniform distribution of the whole weight of
the platform on the wheels is what is aimed at in this
arrangement.

At each end of the platform a steam-engine is placed :
by preference the patentee employs the portable form,
as engines of this class can be easily removed from
one platform to another, and used for other purposes,
as for thrashing, &c. The two engines are coupled to-
gether, the cranks of the main driving shafts being at
right angles to each other ; so that while one is at its
dead points, the other shall be receiving the full im-
pulse of the engine. The cranks are not on the same
shaft, but are connected together by wheel gearing, and
by a transverse or cross shaft, which stretches from one
side of the platform to the other, and is supported on
suitable bearings, bolted to the platform. To each end
of this shaft a spur wheel is provided, gearing with a
spur wheel of equal size, keyed on to the end of the
crank shaft of the engine. The speed of the cross shaft
is thus equal to that of the engine shaft. To reduce
the speed of the cross shaft change wheels are used ; the
spur wheel on the cross shaft being thrown out of gear
with the spur wheel on the crank shaft of the engine by
means of a sliding clutch ; another spur wheel on the
cross shaft being at the same lime thrown into gear with
a pinion, or wheel of less diameter, fixed on the crank
shaft of the steam-engine. The two engines are thus
coupled together, and the motion of both so regulated
that one side of the platform cannot advance quicker
than the other.

To the outer extremities of the axles of the
driving wheels, on which the platform rests, small cranks

are keyed on, and which have a limited motion up and
down, along with the bearings which have already been
described. The crank pins of these cranks take into,
or play in vertical slots, made in a horizontal, light, open
framework, serving as a connecting-rod to connect all the
cranks together. The extremities of these frameworks
or connecting-rods are jointed to the crank pins of
cranks, the shafts of which are supported in suitable
bearings at the end of the timbers or planks of the plat-
form. To t;'^e same crank pins the extremities of
four connecting-rods — two at each end of the platform
— are jointed ; these are carried diagonally upwards,
and jointed at their upper extremities to the crank pias
of cranks which are keyed on at right angles to the ends
of the cross shaft, which receives its motion from the
engine in the manner already described.

Each wheel is thus made a driving-wheel, being acted
on directly by the horizontal frame or connecting-rod,
which receives its motion from the engine through the
medium of the two conuecting-rods, one at each end,
jointed at their upper ends to the crank pins of the cranks
on the cross shaft. The bite on the rails obtained by this
arrangement is such that the engine can propel the plat-
form up inclines of 1 in 15 with comparative ease, and
without any momentum. Such is a brief outline of the
peculiarities of construction of the mechanism of the
new system — we now enter on the consideration of the
second head, " practice."

And, first, as to ploughing. The method by which
the ploughs are raised and lowered, that is, put in and
taken of work according to the direction in which the
main platform may be proceeding, is very simple. Each
plough body is attached to the end of a long lever, the
opposite end of which is jointed to the end of a bolt,
firmly connected with the main platform. These points
of suspension are capable of adjustment at any point of
the platform. To the end of the lever, at which the
plough body is attached, a curved guide is fixed -, in the
inner side of this bar, and towards its upper extremity
several teeth are provided ; the bar, in fact, forms a
curved rack, the teeth of which enter into those of a
small pinion, the axis of which revolves in bearings
placed on the upper side of the main platform. As the
rack is raised by the revolution of this pinion, the end
of the lever, to which the lower or opposite end of the
rack is fixed, is raised also, and with it the plough body,
which it carries. A series of levers, with their racks,
are placed parallel to one another, and to the raUs on
which the platform traverses. The levers bearing the
corresponding set of ploughs, with their mould-boards
pointing in an opposite direction to the mould-boards
of the other set, are swung the opposite way ; so that
the curved racks of each set of plough levers are at op-
posite sides of the platform. When arranged for plough-
ing, one set of curved racks are depressed to their lowest
point, .the ploughs being in ^contact with the soil ; the
other set being raised to their highest elevation, the
ploughs being suspended in the air. The pinions which
gear into the segmental racks that raise or depress the
plough bodies are keyed on to two shafts, which stretch
across the full breadth of the platform, and revolve
in suitable bearings. To the ends of the shafts cross
handles are fixed, by means of which the attendants on
the platform can work the pinions, raising or depressing
the plough as required.

In ploughing by the implements as thus arranged and
under control, Mr. Halket states that there is no prac-
tical limit to the depth of soil inverted. Neither, from
the peculiar nature of the plough body used, is the hard
crust or sole — inherent in the action of the ordinary
plough— obtained. By his method of operation he suc-
ceeds in getting a stirred soil to the depth of twenty-
five inches. On this point, he says : " I have first
drawn six ploughs, cutting six furrows simultaneously

144

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

to a depth of five inches ; passed over again to a further
depth of five inches with the ploughs ; and at fifteen
inches below, in the subsoil of ii hard yellow clay, drawn
an anchor with a palm of nine inches width through
the subsoil; thus ploughing and breaking up the ground
to a depth of twenty -five inches." Although — as we
understand — Mr. Halkett does not advocate the use of
a rotary cultivator in the first instance, yet he has
succeeded in obtaining some remarkable results in re-
ducing obdurate clay to a state of amazingly fine tilth
by using a rotary implement after the plough has
broken up the land. The implement used resembles in
character the well-known Norwegian harrow. Imagine
this revolving in contact with the soil previously acted
on by the plough ; dashing the clods and lumps of clay
against an inclined board, forming part of the casing
in which rotary implements work, and which is
dragged along by the main platform, which fall back
again to receive the action of the revolving tines, till
finally the couch and weeds are deposited apart,
on one side, to be easily taken up and laid aside, to
be burned, or otherwise disposed of; and the soil, in a
state of fine tilth, deposited on the other. We saw, at
the late meeting, the clay in its original condition, which
gave apparently but little hope to any leducing system ;
and also its condition after it had been subjected to
the action of the rotary cultivator, with the collection
of couch which had been extracted from it ; and
certainly the results obtained were very satisfactory.
All the implements and machines in use on a well-
conducted farm can be worked by means of the plat-
form with as much facility as the ploughs. Mr. Halkett
has used, we believe, harrows, clod-crushers, hoes,
drills, and has even reaped with the machine. Another
novel feature in the system is what is called " under-
ground watering : " this consists in " supplying to the
roots of the crops, while at the same time the ground
is stirred and hoed, water (or liquid manure), by
drawing hollow bars between the rows of the plants, at
the bottom of which the liquid escapes at any desired
depth. By this means the fluid is economised on ac-
count of the evaporation from the surface being pre-
vented ; it does not cake the soil, which agriculturists
object to as the result of the usual practice of watering,
and it does not draw the roots to the surface in search
of the moisture, afterwards to be injured by the parch-
ing of the ground."

We have now to consider, under the third division of
our subject, the cost of the apparatus. The cost of
putting the machine in operation on a farm would be
about £"20 per acre for the rails and £3 for the ma-
chinery; it is calculated, says Mr. Halket, to last as
long as a horse, and may therefore be put down at 21
years' purchase. The following table shows the cost of
the rails, and we may here state that Mr. Halkett is
considered to have given a very liberal estimate of the
cost of all the items, so that there is every probability
of the cost per acre being reduced below that mentioned
in the table.

Cost per acre of (juideway upon burnt clay ballast, in wJiich
angle iron and angle tram bricks are used.

800 feet of tram brick £3 6 4

Laying down and providing ballf.st and levelling for

tram bricks .. .. .. .. .. 3 10 0

Angle iron, l^lb. to the foot, and Ml. per ton . . 7 17 0

Bolts 0 12 0

Fittmg fish jomts 0 10 0

Fishing jointa .. .. , 0 10 0

Punchmg holes in iron . . , . . . ..070

£16 12 4
Contingencies at 10 per cent 1 13 0

Cost per acre £18 5 4

We now come to the consideration of the last division
of our subject, the "results cultural," or as Mr.
Halkett, at the meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern, on
Thursday the 11th December, termed it, the " pith of
the matter — ■the pounds, shillings, and pence part of the
question." In proving the " large profits to be derived
by this system of cultivation," Mr. Halkett, at the
meeting already referred to, stated that he based his
calculation on the following principles : —

" Spade labour is often used to cultivate the same crops as
those farmed by horses. Spade labour is far more costly than
horse farmiug ; and being more costly, it must also be richer
in produce. That it is so is universally admitted to be true,
and, I may also add, with the same amount of manure in both
cases. Now my system of cultivation is performed, at a cost
iucluding the interest for capital to pay for the rails, and
depreciation and wear and tear, together ^ith all charges for
labour, while the work performed is equal in amount and
depth of tillage to common farming, at a smaller annual charge
than is now done by horses ; while, if I increase the depih of
ploughing, and the number of hoeiogs, stirrings, &c., so that
the cost of my system is raised to that of common farming,
while the work done is equal to spade cultivation, then all
that is produced in extra crops is pure gain to a very consi-
derable amount. If I take the usual computations of hors<j
field-work, I find that the average is from £2 iu country dis-
tricts to £3 near towns : and if I take spade labour I find that
it veries from £5 to £6., in fact to £3 per acre above the cost
of horse farming, but the produce is at least worth £4 per
acre more."

In corroboration of these views Mr. Halkett gives the
following table from " Morton's Cyclopaedia of Agri-
culture."

Table iw article " Capital."

Acres.

Rent and
Taxe?.

Labour
per acre.

240 .. ..

20 spade

husbandry .

8. £ s. d.

40 j 2 0 0

1

40 ! 5 10 0

Ditference

3 10 0

Gross produce
per acre

£ 3. d.

7 18 0

12 7 0

4 9 0

Remarks.

Rotation —
Wheat, car-
rots.orpota-
toeg, green
crops for
cattle.

Other tables and evidence are given by Mr. Halket,
which space does not allow us hereto insert; but all cor-
roborative of this, that the cost of spade husbandry per
acre may be set down at between £b and ^6.

In proof of the assertion that by his system he can
plough hard land at Is. 7d, per acre, and light soil at
Is. 3d., Mr. Halkett gives the following tables : —

Steam-ploughing and Horse ploughing

Compared theoretically, ploughing in both cases at the rate

of an acre and one-fifth per hour.

Steam-ploughing.

40 horse-power

X 8 lbs. of coal per hour

320

X 8 houra

8, d.

2560 lbs., or 23 cwt., at Is. per cwt 23 0

Oil, &c 2

«"{! :: :: :: ;: :: :: :: :: :: JJ

33 0
33s. for 8 hours and for 24 acres == Is. 5(3. per acre.
Or 44s. 6d. for 12 hours and for 36 acres = Is. 3d. per acre.

Ploughing by Houses.

40 horses, the day's keep at 3s 120s.

20 men, at 2s 403.

160a.
1603. for 8 hours and for 24 acres = 6s. 8i5. per acre.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

145

Cost of Ploughing by actual Test.
Furrows 5 inches by 10 inches.

E"^-- perTh.

Revolu-
tions.

Platform
Travelling.

Drawing

Garrett's 6 h. p. 50 lbs.
Barrett &Exall's

4h. p 48 lbs.

110
110

2280 feet
per hour

Ploughs.
12

This was upon hard ground trodden on by the workmen for
a year, and equals 5.7 acres per 12 hours, from which subtract
one-tenth for shifting at headlands, gives 5.2 acres per
day. Then 5.2 acres (amount ploughed by 10 horse-power)
X 4 = 20.8 acres (say 21 acres) for a 40-horse power 1 oco-
motive platform. Therefore 33s. (the cost of eight hours'
ploughing by steam as thown above) divided by 21 acres,
is equal to Is. 7d. per acre, the cost of plough-
ing. Upon ground that has been ploughed some period before,
but which had been trodden and rammed down, I have drawn
12 ploughs at the same speed, with a pressure of 32 lbs. in the
6-horse power, and 35 lbs. in the 4-horse power. This makes
the ploughing much less than in the hard-ground example : it
makes it Is. 3d. per acre; or the amount could be increased per
day of ploughing. The statement, therefore, of cost, at Is. 7d.
per acre, and 24 acres per day, may be considered a fair
average.

It will be perceived that Mr. Halkett estimates the
cost of coals at 20s. per ton ; but it is well known that
in many districts this estimate will be too high. In
Lincolnshire coal is obtained for engine-purposes at a
cost far, very far below this. It certainly cannot be
objected to Mr. Halkett's estimates that they are too
low ; he in fact scarcely gives his own invention fair-
play in this respect.

The following is a statement of the cost of operation
per acre for a farm of 1,000 acres : —

8. d.

Ploughing 5 in. by 10 in.-furrows 17

Deep cultivation to the depth of 25 inches .. .. 12 0

Scarifying, grubbing, &c , . . . 0 8

Harrowing, clod-crushing, rolling 0 5

Hoemg (150 acres could be done per day) 0 3

Drilling or dibbling seed 0 5

Reaping (cutting and delivering) at 60 acres per day . 0 8
Underground watering crops, at the rate of 3,000 gal-
lons per acre, and 60 acres per day or night, or
double this quantity if done by night and day . . 10

Surface-watering (with hoes following) 12

Carriage of manures on to and distributed over land,
and of crops carried off, also carriage of marl, clay,
sand, &c., O^d. per ton per mile.
The amount that can be carted at a time, for either
water or manures, &c , 70 tons.

With reference to the important point of carting-ofF
the produce of the farm, Mr. Mechi, who took the chair
at the meeting we have alluded to, spoke as follows : —

" To-day .1 went to the Polytechnic Institution, and heard
Mr, Pepper lecture on this very subject. There were two
trucks, each of which contained a ton-and-a-half of mangel-
wurzel ; and 1 saw two men move the three tons with perfect
ease ; and they would have had no trouble in passing from one
end of London to the other, provided the roads were level.
Now, I have had carted off many hundred tons of mangel-
wurzel within the last month, and I find that on a clay-farm,
late in October, two horses could only carry off at a rate
which would require twelve horses to carry off eight tons ;
and the reason of that was nothing else than the difference in
friction."

It is evident that this system of cultivation will work
under most advantageous circumstances, where large
tracts of lands can be obtained to operate upon. The
question of the cost of its adoption — as much, as Mr.
Mechi remarks, as the fee-simple of the land — is not the
one which is surrounded with difficulties. It is not
What does a thing cost ? but. What per-centage will it
pay ? that is the question, the importance of which no
one knows better than our manufacturers, who have cer-

tainly done more in the way of putting down costly
mechanism than any other class. They stand alone in
this respect. The real difficulty in the way of a wide
extension of this system, is getting large farms to
operate upon — apart, of course, from all questions of me-
chanical and cultural fitness. Mr. C. W. Hoskyns, at
the meeting to which we have already so frequently al-
luded, pointedly drew attention to this. In stating that
Mr. Halkett would have great impediments to encounter
in carrying out his system, he remarked that one of
these would arise "from the difficulties which clog the
advance of any agricultui'al system on a gigantic scale,
where large tracts of land are necessary to be purchased.
The laws of settlement and entail offer great objections,
and also the enormous expense and delay in transferring
land. The first objection that occurred to me was the
difficulty that awaited him in getting farms on such a
scale as to be able to realize his mode of cultivation, sup-
posing he had mastered all mechanical and engineering
difficulties."

Bat our lessening space reminds us that we must
draw our paper to a conclusion as rapidly as possible ;
we therefore hasten to offer an abstract of the advan-
tages obtained by this system of cultivation, as stated
by the inventor :

1. The whole weight employed in culture being taken off
the land, the operations can be carried on in all weathers, and
in any condition of the soil.

2. The land is left in a state of lightness not attainable
where more horses and implements press upon while it culti-
vating.

3. Consecutive' ploughing in exactly the same lines being
easily obtainable, a greater depth of soil stirred than is usually
arrived at can be insured.

4. The bringing up of fresh soil for intermixture with the
top-soil in any desired proportion.

5. Facilities for carrying on manure, and depositing it on
the land.

6. Facilities also for carting off produce.

7. Also for carrying soil of different qualities to intermix
with the soil of the farm.

8. Precision of operation [this we have already enlarged
upon].

9. The operation can be carried on by night and day.

Whatever may be the opinions of some as to the
soundness of these presumed or stated advantages, it
certainly is the case that many are disposed to look
upon this system of Mr. Halkett's as a move in the right,
the philosophical direction. It is fast becoming an es-
tablished opinion amongst engineers and mechanicians,
that before the full advantage of the application of steam-
power to the purposes of cultivation can be obtained,
there must be an adaptation of the land to
the peculiar features of the new power to be employed.
If local or other peculiarities prevent the free and eco-
nomical action of the power of steam, those peculiarities
must be got rid of before full satisfaction can be ob-
tained. And in the long run it will be found a cheaper
method to get rid of, for once and all, those peculiarities
which prevent the free action of the machine, than to
adapt self-adjusting or other arrangements to the me-
chanism, by which it can be enabled to stop itself, till
the peculiarities which impede its free action are got out
of the way. Thus we can conceive of a plough being
dragged by the steady power of steam across a field,
and which has a self-adjusting mechanism given to it,
by which it either stops its own progress if coming in
contact with a boulder, or else is enabled to slide over
it without damage. But the philosophical, and in the long
run the cheapest, method of procedure, is to get rid of
the stone altogether. Root it out : take it away : it
is only an obstacle, and an ever-recurring one if allowed
to remain. Our 'cotton manufacturers know the Talue

146

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of this method of working : it is one of the secrets of
their success. They grudge no outlay in mechanism
and processes to perfect the material for the action of
the higher and finishing class of machines. Why should
not our agriculturists do the same thing, if they are
anxious, as we know they are, to avail themselves of a
power which is most undoubtedly capable of untiringly
and economically doing the work, or a large proportion
of it at least, of our farms ? The whole question is one
of cost only, not of mechanical or cultural difficulty. If
eminent machinists say that with properly-adapted land
they can and will construct machines which shall do the
utmost amount of work, and that far beyond the rea-
lized produce of the present system, then the first thing
clearly which the farmer has to do, is to begin this work
of adaptation, that is if he thinks it worth the cost. A calm
view of the whole circumstances of the case tends to show
that nothing perhaps has prevented the adaptation to
farm purposes of high-class machines, worked by ^team-
power, so much as the obstacles thrown in the way by the
peculiar features of the land on which these machineshave
to operate. We do not ignore the fact that the soils
possess features infinitely more crude, unequal, and
varying than the materials on which high-class manu-
facturing mechanism has to operate ; but there is little
doubt that these peculiarities can be greatly obviated in
many instances, and totally removed in others. When
many of our engineers — the gifted William Fairbairu at
their head — hold opinions such as those we have endea-
voured to state, the time is near at hand when our
agriculturists will see, with them, the necessity of
*' beginning at the beginning." It should always be
remembered that the adaptation of a new power involves
new circumstances of action. The finest locomotive
that ever a Stephenson or a Hawthorne made, could
creep but quietly on our best-paved road ; but give it
the iron rail, and lo 1 the lightning speed.

It is just when viewed in this way that the system of
steam-cultivation invented by Mr. Halkett presents
considerable promise ; so much so, that it is deserving
of the most searching inquii'y by all those interested in
the progress of agriculture. It is just because that, in
using a new power, Mr. Halkett has carried out a new
method of preparing his land, and that too a method
which experience shows clearly enough — the experience
of our railways — is well adapted to the new power. In
this mutual adaptation of the power and the land lies
the secret of the complete novelty of the system in an
agricultural point of viev/ ; and is that, moreover, which
presents a species of fitness and unity which goes some-
what towards satisfying the mechanical requirements of
the case.

As to the way in which it satisfies, or is likely to
satisfy, the agricultural i-equirements, we cannot do
better than quote Mr. Hoskyns's remarks on the system.
We can bring forward no better authority :

" Any gentleman unacquainted with the extraordinary diffi-
culties of a clay soil, cannot have the least idea of the benefits
to be derived from this mode of cultivation, which will perform
the process of culture without having the animals poacbiiig, as
we call it, the ground ; that is, treading and leaviog the marks
of 16 iron-shod feet on the soil as the fulcrum of power on
the laud. As far, therefore, as it is possible to look at Mr.
Halket's plan generally, it appears tc me that two great ad-
vantages are gained by it. The first is the immense saving of
power by means of the rail. I do not here enter into any
question of deflection that may be supposed to exist, as that
is only a question of detail, which by no means should
stand in the way of ultimate success. The first great advan-
tage, I say, is the immense gain of having an iron track to go
upon, instead of the moist and sticky earth. Here he has al-
ways a clean road, and one on which I can see the greatest
amount of power is to be obtained at the least expeuse. The
second advantage is to be able to cultivate clay soil without
any weight whatever attached to the machine that cultivates
or the power that draws the machine ; that ia to say, that if
it is for ploughing, the plough is to go through the ground
without any pressure on the soil. In the act of lifting there
is a degree of pressure by the tugging irregular action of the
horses, because we all know that the tug is very unequal.
With mechanical action, even when apphed to ploughing, we
know that the results are far better; but I say that nothing
can be worse than the action of a plough with four horses
working on the land, as we see every day in winter. The
question, therefore, is the successful solution cf the problem
of the cultivation of clay soils without having any horses or
heavy machines pressing iuto ihe soil during cultivation. When
we have accomplished that, we shall have done more to advance
the value of the clay soils of this country than is done for
light soils by the introduction of machinery. Clay soil is more
valuable, as it contains a far greater quantity of food of plants
in a form more difficult to be taken away either by moisture
or the heat of the sun. Then we shall be able to make twelve
months' soils, instead cf what the farmers call six month's
soils."

In offering our own remarks on this invention, we
deem it right to state that they are not given in the
spirit of the partizan — they are thoroughly independent
of all circumstances save those connected with the me-
chanical and cultural features of the invention. It is
alone with these features we have to do — any other are
completely and altogether indifferent to us. It is our
earnest desire to give a fair field to all, and to see all
inventions considered with candour and fairness, their
good things cordially acknowledged, their faults gene-
rously pointed out, remembering always the pregnant
words of Bacon, " As the birth of living creatures at
first are ill-shapen, so are all innovations which are the
birth of time." He were a poor soul indeed who con-
temned the child because it possessed not the features
nor displayed the vigour of the man. How often as
wise a thing is done, in judging of the merits of an inno.
vation, let the records of the experience of our poor
patient inventors tell.

R. S. B.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LINSEED AND OILCAKE TRADE.

Sir, — We have agaiu the pleasure to furnish you with our
annual circular, and can but regret that the forebodings ex-
pressed at the beginning of the year just passed sh.ould have
been realized even to a much g-eater extent than we could
then have considered possible. The general inflation of trade,
however, was not without its effect on the articles in which
we are interested, and the speculations of the spring and com-
mercial collapse of the autumn will render the history of the
year 1857 a most memorable oue, and in no trades more so
than in seed crushing. From the time of the publication of
our last circular until now, the trade was never less remunera-
tive, but it is to be hoped the lower range of prices now cur-

rent will place it in a healthier condition, and render business,
, both to importer and crusher, more profitable than of late.
The last thiee months must have shown how inherently sound
the trade was, and we trust that the caution exhibited by the
crushers previous to, and during the present crisis, will carry
them through the season at a less loss than might have been
feared from the panic occurring just at a time when, of all
others, they were likely to have been overtaken with heavy
stocks.

We have again returned to Black Sea seed as the standard
of prices, the import of that description being again greatly in
excess of all other sorts.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

147

Linseed was worth 63s. iu Jamiary last, and the expected
short supply gave the market aa upward tendency, and it was
dsily in holders' favour, so that before the end of that month
663. was currently paid for parcels on the spot; and an ad-
vance of Is. to 23. per qr. obtained for cargoes on the way.
February marked the highest prices of the year, 703. 6d. having
been paid for Odessa, and as high as 73s. for Bombay. At
this period also some of the importers took advantage of the
buoyant state of the market on the spot, to place seed for
summer shipment, and several speculative purchases for ship-
ment during the season, from the Azov, were made at 64s. to
653. In March, notwithstanding stocks were very light, the
feeling was strong that prices were too high, and purchases
were made on the smallest possible scale, so that the price on
the spot again fell to 663. ; and in April a further decline of
3s. per qr. was realized. In May, stocks had become so re-
duced, a recovery to 653. took place, and some further very
considerable sales were made of seed for shipment
at about same price. Early in June we were flat at
643., but at the end of the month had again improved
to 66s., although the high price rendered business very
difficult, crushers fearing to accumulate stocks at
such unusually high rates. During this mouth, also, a cir-
cumstance occurred, which exercised a marked influence on the
prospective bearings of the trade. We have named that,
during the course of the previous four months, a large quantity
of seed had been sold (chiefly to speculators) for summer
shipment, from the Azov; and at about this time, the pre-
vailing drought in the south of Kussia rendered it probable
that the greater portion of it would be detained until another
season, owing to want of water to float the leaded barks down
the rivers to the various shipping ports. The leading sellers,
therefore, quietly covered in their contracts ; and the fact
afterwards being made public, crushers also became anxious as
to their future supplies, and bought freely of such descriptions
as oS'ered the greatest inducement to purchase. It turned out,
after all, that means were found to convey the seed overland,
and merchants and crushers were alike caught at high prices,
and, eventually, heavy losses entailed, which would not have
happened bat for this accidental occurrence. In July, the
market was steady, at about 66s., with stocks in the smallest
possible compass, and, but for the unlooked-for import of oil
from Hamburg (causing the closing of the mills in the face of
so heavy a loss iu working), we should probably have had a
much higher range of quotations on the spot, and, in anticipa-
tion of the then expected short supplies, for shipment also. In
August, some of the early speculative purchases arrived at
Falmouth, and, not finding a ready market, prices receded to
64s.; but the decline was recovered by the end of the month
again. During September, 66s. remained a current price,
and the prospects of both oil and cake being encouraging,
some further speculative forward purchases were made as high
as 673. and 68s. In October, the pressure for money began to
tell, and, notwithstanding the unprecedented support given to
the market by holders warehousing nearly every cargo that
came to hand, the downward movement could not be checked,
and 63s. was an outside figure before the month closed. The
incidents of the last two months must be so painfully fresh in
the recollection of us all, that we need scarcely recapitulate
them. 60s. was November's earliest quotation, and a decline
of about 23. per week followed, the market leaving off very
dull at 523. Last mouth a further fall occurred to 49s. to 48s.,
and the unexpectedly heavy arrivals from all quarters (including
several reshipments of East India seed from the United States),
combined with the want of facilities in money matters, would
probably have caused a greater decline, but that holders, find-
ing the utter impossibility of selling, resigned themselves to
the force of circumstances, and an unusual q-aautity therefore
has been housed to await a better demand. This has shown
itself the last two or three days, and the tone of the market is
stronger, 50s. being now the nearest value.

The crushing trade has been uniformly bad throughout the
year — prices having been kept up beyond their natural level by
continual speculative operations, and the demand for oil and cake
not keeping pace with these, the result to the crusher must
contrast very unfavourably with the past three or four years.
We hope, however, we have less discouraging prospects for
reaiainder of the season than at same period last year, for we have
ample stocks afloat, and in granary. We may likewise expect
full supplies from the East Indies ; the late utter prostration

of American credit probably causing (for a time) a stoppage of
all shipments thence; besides the United States sparing us
some of the large quantity they have still on the way and in
stock, and which owing to their present monetary derange-
ments, they are prevented using.

As regards the seaaon 1858-1859 it is quite impossible to
form an opinion before we are out of the present crisis ; our
panic cannot be without its effect on the producing countries,
aud we think we may reasonably look for a low range of prices
for some time to come. The Baltic seed is highly spoken of
as to quality, aud fair in quantity. Archangel is not so well
harvested this season. The crop in the south of Russia is
reported short; it .generally is, and little dependance can be
placed on the reports thence. We presume the means of in-
formation must be very scanty, for we were led to believe the
last year's crop would be under 200,000 qrs., whereas it has
turned out over 500,000 qrs. Erom Bombay we may again
look for an increased quantity ; but the aggregate shipments
from Calcutta will probably be short of last season, owing to
the unhappy disturbauces existing iu the surrounding districts.
At the same time, however, we shall have a much greater sup-
ply sent to this market than at the corresponding periods of
the last two years, owing to the temporary cessation of the
business relations between the East Indies aud America.

The quality of the Black Sea seed has been most unsatis-
factory in the Azov districts, apparently from a bad harvest-
ing season originally, and subsequently owing to a large portion
of it having been transferred from the barks and conveyed
overland to its port of shipment, thereby exposing it to the
risks of weather, &c. Some of the Odessa shipments really
did not deserve the name of Linseed ; but the disgraceful
practice of admixture has at length reaehed such a pitch as
must inevitably put a stop to it altogether, and the late com-
bination amongst the crushers to alter the existing " usual
conditions," on forward contracts, will (if energetically followed
up and acted upon) in future put the trade on a more satisfac-
tory footing iu this respect. Archangel and all the Baltic
seeds have unlike been unsatisfactory; they were both ilU
grown and badly harvested : the late war had probably a good
deal to do in bringing about this result, and its recurrence from
such a cause is never likely, we hope, to happen again. Bom-
bay seed was hardly so good as in former seasons. The very
small quantity of Calcutta which came to the United Kingdom
was again rather better than that of the previous two or three
years' import.

In presenting you with the usual statistical account of im-
ports aud stocks, we cannot help remarking how widely
different they prove to most of the calculations entered upon
during the summer. We were told the total import was to be
less than 800,000 qrs., and that by this time linseed would be
nearly exhausted ; whereas we find, on reference to our pre-
vious circulars, that the quantities warehoused, and known to
be on the way, are more than double those of any previous
season ; that is to say, more by about 200,000 qrs.

In public warehouses here the stock amounts to 88,000 qrs.,
namely, 42,000 Black? ea, 24,000 East India, 11,500 Peters-
burg, 5,000 Archangel, aud 5,500 sundries. At Hull there is
190,000 qrs., and at Liverpool 30,000 qrs. Afloat we have
230,000 qrs. ; say 150,000 Black Sea and Azov, 50,000 Cal-
cutta, 10,000 Bombay, and 15,000 Alexandria, Danube, New
York, and sundries.

The import into London is again short of the two previous
years. The aggregate into the United Kingdom will not be
so great as 1856, but it will probably be ia excess of any
other previous year. The official retnrus of the several years
have been as under : —

1841 ..

. . 363,461 qrs.

1850

603,984 qrs

1842 ..

.. 367,700

1851

630,471

1843 ..

.. 470,539

1852

799,402

18i4 ..

.. 616,947

1853

1,035,335

1815 ..

.. 656,793

1854

828,513

1846 ..

.. 506,141

1855

756,950

1847 -.

.. 439,512

1856

.... 1,180,179

1848 ..

1849 ..

.. 799,650
. 626,495

1857

about 1,050,000

The imports of the working season, that is to say, 1st July
to 30th June, were as follows, namely :

148

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

1848 to 1852

1849 „ 1850

1852 „ 1853

1853 „ 185 4

1854 „ 1855

1855 „ 1856

1856 „ 1857

700,000 qra.

600,000 „

825,000 „

1,030,000 „

1,006,000 „

644,000 „

1,092,047 „

1857 „ 1858 will probably be rather ia excess of
that quantity.

60,000 qrs. Bombay, 40,000 Calcutta, 80,000 Black Sea and
Mediterranean, 20,000 Baltic, 10,000 Archangel, 5,000 Alex-
andria, 13,000 Americaia transhipments and sundries, were the
quantities reported at the London Custom House. The re-
export was again light, and consisted of about 30,000 qrs.,
against 45,000 qrs. in 1856, and 130,000 qrs. in 1855.

The total supplies icto United Kingdom again exhibit a
curious alteration ia the description of Seed imported; the
great falling-off has been from Calcutta, viz , this year only
90,000 qrs , against 225,000 qrs. in 1856. This, however, was
more than counterbalanced by an excess of 185,000 qrs. from
the Black Sea, comparing the same periods. Bombay supplied
120,000 qrs., St. Petersburg sent us 190,000, Archangel
60,000, Riga 75,000, and Mcmel and other places in the
Baltic about 80,000, and Alexandria and sundriea 60,000 qrs.
The Black Sea cargoes amounted to 377,000 qra. ; and were
discharged at the undermentioned porta : Hull 130,000 qrs.,
London 70,000, Grimshy 25,000, Liverpool 12,000, South-
ampton, Ipswich, Dover, and Newcastle 10.000 each, Ireland
5.000, Leith and Lowestoft 4,500 each, Yarmouth 3,500,
Boston 3,000, Rochester 2,000, Gloucester 1,700, and Lynn
1.200. At Antwerp 55,000 qrs. In Holland 18,000 qrs., and
at Dunkirk 1,500 qrs.

The various continental ports were also furnished with
about 160,000 qrs. from Archangel, St. Petersburg, Riga,
Memel, aad other Baltic ports; St. Petersburg supplying
40,000 qrs., Archangel 55,000, and Riga 35,000 of that
quantity. From Riga, also, 75,000 qrs. of sowing Seed v/ere
sliippei; nearly half to Ireland, and remainder to Germany,
France, &c.

Linseed Oil has fluctuated much less than usual during
the past twelve montlis; about £40 appearing to have
been the turning point previous to the late collapse of all
prices, caused by the existing state of general trade and high
rates for money. In January the price opened at £37 lOs.,
and the prospects of the supply of seed being very discouraging,
Crushers were most reluctant sellers, and held so firmly, it had
advanced to £40 153. by the end of that month. In February
the speculators came in, and drove it up to £42 10s. on the
spot, and £43 for summer deliveries ; but the rise was too fast,
and a reaction set io, so that before the month closed, the
advance had been lost, and by the end of March it had declined
to £39, with a very dull market. Daring April it receded to
£38, at which price considerable quantities were taken for the
French markets, and the value again quickly rallied to £40.
In May it touched £42, thereby bringing out numerous sellers,
and £40 was again the quotation at the end of the month.
In June it was remarkably steady at same figure. July de-
serves special notice, for it was in this month that large sales
(for delivery by end of September, and at first considered to be
purely speculative) were made on Hamburg account, and the
market consequently rendered very sensitive and unsettled.
The price at which these sales were made was about £39 lOs.,
and it afterwards occurred that several hundreds of tons of
English-made Oil, which had been lying at Hamburg during
the previous eight or ten months, were re-imported to supply
the contracts so made. Our stocks, however, at this time were
so light, the import was quickly absorbed, and, although the
price was once quoted as low as £38, it had again recovered in
August to £40.

We may here remark that the extraordinary export from
Hull of the previous year is now accounted for, but the loss
attendant on such a speculation will, we should think, effec-
tually bir its reputation. If, also, the general style of busi-
ness at Hamburg has assimilated to the reckless mode of
trading shown by some of the operations in oil, we need not
wonder that the late sad commercial disasters have been more
severely felt there than in any city in the world.

In September there was a large and steady trade at a frac-
tion below £40. In October it felt the effect of the money

pressure, and with a wretcheclly dull market had declined to
£35 before the month closed. November was to have been
the charmed month for the speculative account, and it had
been calculated the options open, and the over-sold account
together would enable the " Bulls" to force settlements at
their own figures, first taking delivery of all the actual oil that
could possibly have been tendered. An abortive attempt was
made early in the month to run up the price, and £36 was
quoted, but it was soon found the times were too difficult for
such an operation, and oil proving much more plentiful than
cash, a sudden drop to £32 occurred, and before the month
closed a further fall to £28. In December holders continued
to realise, and £27 lOs. was accepted, but its present relatively
low value to all other oils has attracted some attention, and
we have the last few days had a good trade doing at £28 10s.
to £29, with buyers for future monthly deliveries at an advance
of £20. per ton.

The exportation, for the reasons just named, shows a very
serious falling off. It amounts to about 16,000 tons only,
against 28,000 in 1856, and 17,500 in 1855.

Linseed Cakes were in active demand during the spring
at about £10 lOs. per ton, and after bein;; dull during the
summer at something below that value, recovered as the autumn
progressed, viith every prospect of a further advance. Not-
withstanding also the late general collapse of prices for all other
articles, they still about maintained their quotations, and tlie
last few days they have been in increased demand at £10. We
never before had so steady a tiade or so few fluctuations as in
1856.

The import of Foreign Cake has been unusually large,
say probably 10,000 ton^, or nearly 20,000 tons in excess of
1856 and 1855. The trade in January was quite of a retail
character, the quotations being, for New York barrels £11,
bags £10 5s., and square Marseilles £9 Ss. C. F, and I. Early
in February the market showed symptoms of improvement,
and a fair trade was done at an advance of 5s. per ton on all
descriptions ; but it was not maintained, as very heavy arrivals
of Marseilles frightened the dealers, and prices continued de-
clining all through March. Importers' continued anxiety to
realize dropped the value fully 25s. per ton by the end of that
month, and early in April the lowest point was touched, say
£9 7s. 6d, for barrels, and £9 bags. The great fall naturally
attracted the attention of dealers, who made heavy purchases,
but any advance was checked by the large supplies which daily
came forward. The demand continued throughout May, and
sellers showing less disposition to realize, obtained an advance
of lOs. per ton. The consumption was great all through June,
and very soon a further improvement was established, and by
the end of that month an additional 20s. per ton obtained, the
quotations being £11 for barrels, £10 10s. bags. During July
we had no alteration in prices, and a steady trade was done ;
but there was a drop of 10s. per ton in August, in consequence
of the slack demand. In September and October some anxiety
was shown to provide for future wants, and prices rallied again,
closing firm at £11 for barrels, £10 lOa. bags. During No-
vember and December we have declined lOs. to 15s. per ton,
and in consequence of the fine open weather all through these
months, we have had but a slow sale, and our quotations to-
day are £10 lOs. for barrels, £10 for bags; square Marseilles
about £9 C. F. and I.

Rai'eseed and other Oilseeds. — The imports are
about one-fifih less ; say 200,000 qrs , against 264,919 qrs. in
1856, but the re-export not exceeding about 65,000 qrs.,
whereas in 1856 it was 150,000, it follows the quantity left
for home consumption has been somewhat in excess of the
previous year.

Rapeseed during the first three or four mouths was in
request, and an advance took place fiom 633. to 703.; fine
Bombay realising as high as 763. ; it afterwards declined to
about 653. in May, and has almost been a dead letter since, so
little business having transpired. Prices are now nominally
533., but the article is of most difficult sale. In warehouse, of
all descriptions, we have about 45,000 qrs., and afloat 10,000
qrs., against 65,000 qrs. in granary and afloat last year.

The following are the quotations for other Oil Seeds, but
they are at present quite nominal : Poppy, Sessame, Teel,
Suraee, and Gingelly, 528. ; Niger, 45s.

Rape Oil this year requires nothing more than a register of
prices. English refined scarcely varied during the first nine
months of the year, and wis qwotel 528. to 54g. durins: all

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

149

that period, and only since the coinmeacemeut of the panic
has it retrograded ia valua. In October the price waa SOs. ;
iu November 403. to 433., since which it has recovered to 45g.,
and is steady thereat. The official imports, as at present
given, combining all Seed Oils, we cannot give the comparison
this year, but the aggregate makes it appear to have been
double that of 1856. The home make has also been lar^ter
than usual, crushers having found it pay better to work than
Linseed.

Rape Cakes has been in varying demand throughout the
year, at about £5 lOs. per ton for English, and £6 10s. for
best Foreign makes.

Fish Oils held their values very steadily, and without
great fluctuations, until October, when they sympathised with
the state of the money market, and we have since had to quote
much lower prices. Sperm Oil was £S8 iu January, rose to
£100 in March, and afterwards fluctuated at about £00 until
October, and is now only about £67. Southern a'ood
at £46 to £50 during the earlier months of the year,
and its nominal value to day is £42. Pale Seal is quoted
£39, whilst, during the first six months of 1856, it was firm at
£49. Cod Oil, however, has experienced the greatest decline,
having within the last four months receded from £49 (at about
which it stood for many months previously) to £29.

Tallow. — During the first six months of 1857 the market
for P. Y. C. was the scene of one continued struggle between

Bears and Bulls, ending in the former being severely pun-
ished, and we fear without a very profitable result to the
latter : SSs. was January's value ; 68g. February's ; early in
-March it waa supposed the speculation had again this year
broken down, and a few venturesome sellers placed some at
623., but were caught, and had to settle at 8O3. at the end of
the mouth. In April prices opened at 56s., but rapidly re-
ceded to 5I3. 6d., and as quickly recovered to 59?.; May
showed fluctuations between 553. 6d. and 58s.; in June we
had a repetition of the Match account, for heavy Bear sales
had also been made for April to June deliveries, in expectation
that all the Tallow received and held over in March must
come out for sale within that period, but sellers again "calcu-
lated without their host," and had to settle at 75s.

Since that period, although the speculative influences have
been at work, we have not had the extraordinary fluctuations
of the spring", and until the month of November, when in
sympathy with every other article of commerce, Tallow expe-
rienced a great decline, the market was steadier than usual.
In July about 583. was the value; in August it ran up to 65s.
It o|)ened at 63s in September, closing at 583. 6d. In Octo-
ber it began to give way, and left off at 56s., declining rapidly
to 473. in November. It has since recovered to 53s., and is
very steady to-day at this price.

London, Jan. 1. Edward Eastty & Co.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LIVERPOOL WOOL TRADE.

General Remarks — In our last annual review of the
wool trade we expressed favourable views of the future. The
state of business at that time was, iu the highest degree, satis-
factory, and held out promise of a continuance of the prosperity
we had some time happily enjoyed; nor have these anticipa-
tions been altogether disappointed, since, notwithstanding oc-
casional complaints of some branches of the trade being un-
profitable, consumption during the greater part of the year
continued on a scale of unwonted activity, which was sufficient
to cause some uneasiness as to how this was to be met later on
in the season. Notwithstanding the excitement which pre-
vailed at one time on the subject of a short supply of cotton, it
is doubtful whether there was not really more cause of alarm
in the case of wool, which, under the most favourable circum-
stances, is susceptible of comparatively slow increase, and is
besides liable to more than an average amount of casualties. We
have referred to this on previous occasions, but general opinion
has not altogether viewed it in the same light, and is least of all
likely to do so in the present altered state of affairs. The argu-
ment of the Yorkshiremen has been that they have never yet met
with actual scarcity, and, as long as there was money topurchase,
they had no fear of any inconvenience. It is, however, an es-
tablished fact that for several years past, in the spring there
has been considerable excitement in the market, owing to the
insufficiency of stock, and prices have for the time been consi-
derably enhanced in consequence. It is well known that
the consumption of wool has greatly increased in every quar-
ter, and everybody who has the means of judging must also be
aware, that the growth has not kept pace with it. The man-
ner in which prices have been supported, and the fact that
during a period of such unexampled pressure, a quantity of
the value of one million sterling could be disposed of at the
ate public sales at such satisfactory prices, at all events add
ome weight to these arguments. With some slight inter-
mission, trade continued good until October, and, although
for some time previously a note of warning had been
sounded from the United States, it failed to exercise much
influence on this side ; but early in this month the ac-
counts became still more alarming, which induced the Bank
of England lo r.iise the rate of discount on the 8th October
from h^ to 6 per cent., rapidly followed by further advances
during the same month to 8 per cent., which was again increased
within the next fourteen liays until on the 9th November
the minimum rate had attained the unheard of point in
this country of 10 per cent. ! These stringent measures
altogether failed to check the efflux of gold, and at length
the position of the Bank of England itself became so critical

that, on the 12th December, it was deemed imperative to sus-
pend the Bank Charter Act. This gave some temporary relief;
but the havoc caused iu the meantime among the commercial
classes had become too deeply rooted, and the feeling of mis-
trust had extended so widely that for a long time numerous
failures continued to take place. Up to this time the panic
had been chiefly confined to the United States and houses in
this country, in France, Belgium, and Germany engaged in
trade with that quarter ; but it soon assumed greater dimen-
sions, and became general throughout the whole continent of
Europe, reacting again with great severity en this country.
Produce for a long time continued almost unsaleable, even at
very considerable sacrifice, and it may well be doubted whe-
ther any panic in our commercial history will bear comparison
with the present, for intensity, protracted duration, and the
extent of ruin it has caused. The number of suspensions has
been truly appalling (estimated in this country alone at fifty
millions sterling!) and while in many cases they have no
doubt been the result of overtrading, fostered by indiscrimi-
nate Bank accommodation, still many old familiar firms have
also had to succumb ; it is to be hoped, however, that some of
these will eventually be able to resume business. The Indian
mutinies and the alarming state of affairs in that quarter have
been a subject of engrossing and painful interest, and have
tended iu no slight degree to increase the gloom during the
last few months ; but happily the worst is now over, thanks'to
the ability and energy of our commanders and the valour and
endurance of our troops; and it is to be hoped that our power
will soon be completely re-established upon a firmer footin"'
than ever, and that the railroads now in course of construction
will greatly tend to consolidate and to develope tiie resources
of that country. Notwithstanding the close of the year has
been attended wiih so much to discourage, there is also great
cause for thankfulness iu the bountiful harvest with which
Providence has blessed not only this country, but other coun-
tries also, and the very low prices of all necessaries of life
will to some extent alleviate the condition of numbers of the
labouring population who have been partially thrown out of
employment.

Home Demand for Woollen Goods. — There has per-
haps never been a period when the population has been so
fully employed, and at such high wages, as during the past
year. Consumption of goods has, consequently, been unpre-
cedentedly large ; and, under all circumstances, we think there
are reasonable grounds to hope this will continue to a fair ex-
tent.

Export of Woollen Goods, — The continued increase

150

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

in shipments for some years past has been very considerable ;
and, although in the previous year they had reached a very
high point, we expressed an oiDinion in our last annual report,
judging from the state of the markets abroad, that there was on
reason to apprehend any falling off. This has been realized
to the fullest extent; and, notwithstanding the decline during
the latter months, chiefly to the United States, the exports
for the past year will greatly exceed any former period ; and
we venture to predict that during the present year, to the
United States, they will at least show no diminution.

Consumers. — Even at the commencement of the year
there was a strong disposition to resort to short time, chiefly
by those who had missed the opportunity of supplying them-
selves while wools could be bought at anything like reasonable
rates ; but it was found the least evil of the two to work
without profit, or even at a little loss, for a short time, till the
new clip came to market. For some time after this, prices
continued to advance ; and those who purchased early must
have done well, although parties holding large stocks at pre-
sent (which, however, is quite exceptional) will have little
cause for satisfaction. While the consumption has been very
large, we believe, on the average, profits have been very small
in the worsted districts ; but those engaged in the clothing
trade have occupied a much better position.

Wool Trade. — The home clip is computed to have been
somewhat deficient in quantit}', partly the consequence of
increased demand for stock during the last two years, the
improved position of the labouring population enabling them
to expend more in animal food. The consumption of do-
mestic wools has, at the same time, very materially increased
in the worsted districts. Prices were firmly maintained in
in the spring, particularly for bright-haired descriptions,
which have throughout the year been much run upon. The
defeat of Ministers on the 4th of March, on the Chinese
question, rendering a dissolution of Parliament necessary,
gave a check to business ( Yorkshiremen taking a
warm interest in politics), and, as clip time ap-
proached, prices became unsettled, buyers _ generally
feeling indisposed to operate freely at the existing high
rates. But as soon as the new wools came to market, great
easerness was evinced to stock themselves freely ; and
prices continued to advance, and probably at no time were
wools more rapidly taken out of the growers' hands. The
enlarged demand for home descriptions in the combing dis-
tricts has been greatly to the exclusion of fine combing
colonial, where formerly this description commanded the
highest rates. It has nevertheless been in good demand for
clothing purposes, the length of staple, combined with the
healthiness of the wool, enabling them to mix up a large
quantity of shoddy in the manufacture —a system which,
owing to the high prices of woo], has been greatly on the
increase. The reaction in business, which began early in
October, took the trade altogether by surprise, even_ the
most cautious ; for up to that time the condition
of the article was, on all hands, admitted to
be as sound as could be desired. It is true
prices were high, but this was clearly traceable to the large
scale of consumption, which had existed up to that period, and
if no interruption had taken place there cannot be a question
that much higher rates would have been attained. There is
scarcely an article that has maintained its position so well, or
has been so exempt from failures during the late crisis. With
the exception of the Pubhc Sales in London, business has been
at a complete stand for the last two months, and profitable
inaction has been the rule, excepting an occasional forced sale
either from alarm or to meet some pressing emergency. Some
improvement has lately taken place, but prices must still be
considered to a great extent nominal. The consumption, on
the average, has been reduced to three or four days a week, but
we think that our trade will be one of the first to feel the effects
of returning confidence. The present position is widely dif-
ferent from the former panic in 1847, which was mainly the
result of reckless overtrading and inordinate railway specula-
tions. We had then also to contend with famine prices of all
necessaries of life, whereas now they are correspondingly low —
a very favourable feature in future prospects. At length we
have been relieved from the 10 per cent, minimum Bank rate,
which was reduced on the 24th ult. to 8 per cent., and there
are indications that a much easier rate of money will ensue,
and we think there is every reason to expect an early and gene-
ral revival of trade.

Wool Imports. — Ourreceipts havegreatlyiucreased,having
been 176,144 bales in the past year, against 134,346 bales in the
preceding one, which may be taken as evidence of the central
position and growing importance of this market. The late
disastrous events all over the continent have greatly tended to
divert shipments to this quarter, but we regret to observe that
they have consisted to a large extent of uncurrent kinds, un-
suited to our requirements, which are only saleable in brisk
times, except at very low prices. It will be noticed that
no less than 24,679 bales from the Australian colo-
nies have reached this port, of which only a most insignifi-
cant portion was left here for sale ; but this will create less
surprise, when those interested in monopolizing the trade in
London have freely stated that they will have them sent up
there, even to be sold at lower prices than could be obtained
here. Trade is of course at all times liable to vicissitudes, and
it is well to place on record at least two occasions during the
past year, when, if the wools had been retained here, the sales
would have resulted in signal advantage to the importers. A
great portion of the early arrivals from Port Philip was brought
by the Liverpool clipper ships, of which part was sold here on
arrival by private contract at 2|^d. per lb. advance on the
closing rate of the previous London public sales, and the whole
might have been most advaatageously disposed of here at the
same time at auction, as the stocks were then quite exhausted
and there was an eager demand. The next public sales in
Loudon, commencing in February, opened with a corresponding
advance, which was well mamtained for a short time, till the
defeat of Government at once caused a reaction, the whole ad-
vance was soon lost, and up to the close the sales proceeded
with very great heaviness. In confirmation of this, we may state
that for some of these wools we ourselves made offers on arri-
val which were refused, and they were subsequently sold for
3d. per lb. less. The second case to refer to is the public sales
held here September 30th, when 1,000 bales Port Philip met
with a bri^k competition at very satisfactory prices, fully main-
taining the highest rates current at the previous London sales
in July and August, but as we stated at the time, if the quan-
tity had been of more importance, we have no doubt the result
would have beea more favourable. The subsequent public
sales, in London, showed a decline from our prices of this
description of al least 2d. per lb., but in most cases even 3d.
to 4d. per lb. In both the instances stated there were cir-
cumstances to account satisfactorily for the decline in London,
and we do not mention them for the purpose of unduly
asserting the importance of this market, but they are at least
evidence that two most favourable opportunities were lost to
the importers.

Wool Exports. — A good demand has existed during the
greater part of the year, chiefly for fine Colonial, which shows
considerable increase. The alteration of the American Tariff
admitting wools costing 20 cents (lOd.) per lb. entirely free of
duty after the 1st July, caused in anticipation a very brisk
demand bcth in this country aa well as abroad for all low
descriptions, and, owing to the scarcity at that period of the
year, prices were considerably enhanced in consequence,
Notwithstanding the liberal scale of imports, the increase has
been almost absorbed by the greatly increased quantity re-
exported, and the supply on hand embraces a comparatively
small proportion of really saleable descriptions.

Australia. — The first sales of the year continued from
the 26th February to the 17th March, and the quantity of fine
colonial offered was 41,375 bales, including 18,744 bales Cape
of Good Hope. The interval between the previous sales was
longer than usual, and the stocks being extremely light, these
sales opened with considerable spirit at an advance upon No-
vember rates of 2d. to 3d. per lb. on Australian, and 2d. per
lb. on Cape. There was much apprehension with part of the
trade, owing to the small supply announced, and it is probable
that even a larger advance would have resulted but for the
very opportune additions of new arrivals just before the sales
commenced. The opening prices were firmly maintained for
about the first week until pressing demands had been satisfied,
and the dissolution of Parliament occurring at the time, at
once caused a reaction, and the advance was almost entirely
lost before the close. The second series continued from the
30th April to 29th May, consisting of 62,143 bales colonial,
including 7,604 bales Cape. The quantity was larger than
usual for this period ; during the first fortnight prices showed
a decline of l|d. per lb. from the close of the previous sales,
and aa they progressed, a little further weakneas for a short

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

151

time ensued, which however was 'fully recovered before the
termination. The General Election, which had just taken
place, had proved a great hindrance to business, and the pre-
vailing high rate of money determined home buyers to act
with great caution, and their operations were very trifling till
towards the close ; on the other hand, foreign buyers being
without stocks, and finding an excellent assortment of first-
class wools, came out very strong on this occasion, particularly
at the beginning, and their purchases were very extensive.
The third series continued from 16th July to the 22nd of
August, and the quantity of fine colonial was 80,306 bales,
including 12,452 bales Cape. Prices having gone very high
at the Gerraan wool fairs and all over the continent, the same
being the case with our own clip, these sales opened under
very favourable auspices, aided by the promising appearance of
the growing crops, and the relaxation in the Money Market.
Foreign buyers again appeared in great numbers, operating
very freely, and, notwithstanding the unusually large quantity,
(of 2^ millions sterling value,) and the great caution still
evinced by home buyers, an advance was established at
the commencement of IJd. per lb., and after a short time
a further improvement took pkce of Id. to l^-J. per lb.,
which was supported to the close. At the fourth and last
series of the year, which took place from the 12th November
to the 4th of December, the quantity of fine colonial was
44,873 bales, including 16,853 bales Cape. These sales opened
under circumstances of extreme depression (the minimum
Bank of England rate having been only a few days before
raised to 10 per cent. !) at a decline from the closing rates of
the previous sale of 2d. to 3d. per lb. ; but as they continued
under the influence of increased pressure, a still further reduc-
tion was established of Id. per lb., chiefly applicable to wools
in faulty condition, which, being in great superabundance, in-
creased the prevailing heaviness, and notwithstanding the fre-
quent withdrawals (which were partly again introduced into
subsequent catalogues) failed to arrest the decline. Sydney
wools show improved management, which is also particularly
observable iu Tasmanian flocks. This is not altogether the
case with Port Philip wools, although, on the whole, the con-
dition has been favourable. New Zealand wools are increas-
ing in favour, owing to the peculiarly healthy growth, and the
only drawback is their imperfect condition. Adelaide wools
exhibit considerable improvement, and although the greater
part imported last year has been in the grease, we do not look
upon this as any impediment to their usefulness, as the pre-
judice even in this country against unwashed wools is much
abated. It is rather a serious matter to notice that for several
years the total receipts from the colonies have been almost
stationary, while during the past year there has actually been a
decrease, and notwithstanding the facilities for early ship-
ments, the quantity still to come forward for the next sales
will be very small.

Cape of Good Hope shows a continuous and rapidly
increasing supply. There has been a marked improvement in
the growth of the wool of late years, aud such flocks as are
well managed are now much esteemed both by home and
foreign buyers. It is, however, much to be regretted that a
considerable portion has been of imperfect growth, arising
from the practice of shearing twice during the year, which
cannot be too strongly deprecated, being both injurious to the
animal aud the quality of the wool, for whatever the grower
may gain in quantity is more than absorbed by the deficiency
in price, such wools besides being a very uncurrent sale. This
system is by no means uncommon in some parts of Germany
and Hungary, aud it is principally by the German and Dutch
colonists that this very objectionable custom has been
practised.

Germany. — The growth appears to be stationary if not
retrograding, and is by no means adequate to the increasing
domestic wants there. The import is no longer considered
worth following, and is chiefly confined to lambs' wool, and
Hungarian and other medium qualities in the spring of the
year, when our market is usually buoyant aud prices are high.

Spanish and Portugal. — The receipts as well aa demand
for the former have almost ceased, and they are chiefly sent to
France, where they are more estimated than in this couutry.
Estremadura wools are at all times a favourite article here,
provided they are in good condition, being of a useful medium
quality; on the other hand, the heavy and gummy descriptions
are mostly of uncurrent sale, except in a very brisk market.

Long Oporto Fleece met with a ready sale during the greater
part of the year at full prices, but the late stagnation in the
demand for English Combing Wools has rendered them for
the time almost unsaleable. Cotts and Lambs have generally
been disposed of on arrival.

United States. — In our last annual report we pointed
rather significantly to the probability of an early alteration in
their taiifl^, which took place soon after, admittiog wools after
the ] st July, not exceeding 20 cents per lb., entirely free of
duty, other descriptions being subject to 24 per cent, ad
valorem. Although this is a very imperfect measure, it is at
the same time an important step gained, and was not carried
without great agitation, there being a strong interest, opposed
to it, and it was only passed at the last moment before the
rising of Congress. This at once caused a very active demand
for all descriptions, and the supplies thus directed to that
quarter would, even under the most favourable circumstances,
have probably proved excessive; but arriving chiefly during the
period the panic was severe, and sales altogether impracticable,
a large quantity was at once re-shipped to this country, of
whicji a great portion are very uusuited to our consumption.
We have also received 1,400 bags of the domestic growth of
the United States. None of these wools have reached us
since 1847, when they were subsequently chiefly bought up
for re-shipment. Although we notice considerable improve-
ment both in the wools themselves, aa well as in their con-
dition, still in the latter respect there is much to be
desired, and arriving too at a most unfavourable season, they
have failed to engage the attention of the home trade to the
extent which we think their merits justly deserve ; but we do
not doubt that in the spring, when stocks of Port Philip, New-
Zealand, and Van Diemen's Land will be light, they will meet
with favour, and in the meantime the trade will have had an
opportunity of fairly testing them.

Buenos Ayres and River Plate. — The direct imports
have been to a full average extent ; and a fair quantity besides has
reached us through Belgium and Italy. Early in the year,
better qualities engaged considerable attention, and the first
arrivals, both of washed and greasy, were sold at once at ex-
treme prices ; but the most favourable period of the year was
in a great measure lost by the interruption to busiuess soon
afterwards caused by the general election. Some quantity
was forced off at extremely low rates, which completely un-
settled the market ; and, for some time, very little business
was done. Prices, however, soon rallied, and sales to some
extent were made, at from Is. lOd. to 23. l^d. for good-
conditioned parcels ; but both Merinos and Mestizos in wasty
condition, aud particularly hurry, have not been in much fa-
vour. Of common qualities the supply has been limited;
and, for the present, we cannot encourage importations.
Cordova as well as Santiago wools are well adapted to our
wants, and will generally meet with ready sale ; but the latter
are open to objection on account of the burr.

Peruvian and Alpaca. — There has again been a large
increase iu the supply of sheep's wool. At intervals it has
been operated in pretty freely, but, on the whole, has not en-
gaged much favour. Alpaca shows greatly-diminished re-
ceipts, owing to the civil war and the blockade of the prin-
cipal ports during the latter mouths ; and the stocks there
awaiting shipment are r2poited to be very small. The demand
has been good throughout the year ; and sales have been
principally made for arrival. The high prices ruling here for
some time past would no doubt have encouraged a full supply,
had not the impediments to shipments existed to which we
have referred ; and it will necessarily continue light for some
time to come.

East India.— The total receipts show a steady increase,
and no less than live-sixths have reached this market, a
proof that it continues to be regarded as the most favour-
able for the sale of this description. Our public sales have
attracted considerable attention ; and at the last October
series 15,723 bales were disposed of, which only a short
time back would have been considered impracticable ;
nevertheless the whole was taken freely by the trade, and
the last day's sale showed even increased spirit. Persian
and other long-stapled kinds of well-bred wools have been
in great favour, and on most occasions have brought very
extreme prices, owing to the high value of English combing
wools, for which they were required as a substitute. These
kinds experienced a serious reaction at the late London

Ib2

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

public sales, in consequence of the heaviness of the market
for English wools. It is now some time since we first drew
attention to this particular class ; and we would again re-
peat, that any trouble and expense would be amply repaid
in increasing the growth of this very useful description, and
we are of opinion tliat the most extreme prices they have
yet attained ha\ e not exceeded their intrinsic merits ; they
have hitherto been chiefly tried for experiments, and as they
become better known they will command a wider consump-
tion and a higher permanent value.

China. — The import continues on a limited scale, and so
ar from any improvement the condition has b een even worse
ban usual. This wool could be used with advantage, if a
moderate degree of care was taken to make it acceptable to
our consumers.

Russia shows a large increase, chiefly of Donskoy. Until
the latter part of this year Douskoy wools were in fair demand,
while superior parcels were much sought after, and were readily
saleable at lid. per lb. Sales were made at this price nett
cash, and it is probable that ll|d. per lb. might have been ob-
tained, if a further quantity of superior wool had been available
at the time. It is to be regretted that the quantity of healthy-
grown bright combiDg wool ia much diminished, the great bulk
being very cotty and short in staple, besides very scurfy and
containing a large proportion of broken wool. The quotations
abroad for this article are still much above what can be ob-
tained here. Autumn and Lambs' have not engaged much
attention. There has been very little done in brook-washed,
or scoured, but for both we consider the prospects favourable.
These kinds have been much sought after in Russia, and already
some extensive contracts have been made for next season's de-
livery in August and September, for Continental account, at
very full prices.

Mediterranean. — There has been a moderate increase,
but the various kinds do not call for particular comment,
having comprised a large proportion of inferior kinds, imported
chiefly with the view of meeting tl'.e demand for the United
States, of which a large quantity still remains on hand.

Egyptian has falleu much in discredit, owing to the great
prevalence of spurious kinds attempted to be passed off under
this name. The pure glossy article continues as much in
favour as ever, but is now rarely met with except mixed with
Syria, and other inferior wools, which are altogether unsuited
to the same purpose.

Turkey Goat's Wool or Mohaik. — Although the im-
port has been on rather a liberal scale, there has been a good
demand throughout the year, and at no time has there been any

accumulation of stocks, sales having been largely entered into
for arribal at advancing rates.

Iceland. — The supply has not equalled the previous year,
but it has incrtased in favour with the new branches of the
trade, owiug to its peculiar brightness of colour and softness.
Early in the season sales were made, both on the spot and for
arrival, at ISjd. per lb. ; but subsequently, some transactions
took place at 12d. to 12|^d. per lb., chiefly for Southland wool.
The remaioing stock consists principally of Northland, in-
cluding some parcels of very superior quality and length.

Barbary. — The import has been below an average. Me-
dium and fine qualities in good condition generally meet with
ready sale, but for the most part they are still open to the
objection of being very sandy, hurry, and in damp condition,
which render them almost unmarketable.

Domestic Wools. — Prices of English have been well
maintained, with a general tendency to advance till the late
panic occurred, and since then they have been altogether
nominal. Some very low sales have been reported, made
under circumstances of peculiar pressure, and can therefore,
hardly be considered any fair criterion of value. The stock
remaining in growers' hands is particularly light, and from the
absence of purchasers for several months, consumers are sup-
posed to be pretty well reduced in stock. During the last
week a good many buyers have been looking round, and any
lots offered at moderate rates have been freely accepted, so
that prices will soon assume a fixed value. In Ireland the
same limited supply exists, and at the present time, owing to
the large quantity exported, the whole country could probably
not furnish more than in former years might readily have been
met with in one single district. Scotch. — Laid Cheviot has
been in very moderate demand, and prices have been chiefly
maintained by speculative purchases, rather indiscriminately
entered into, which were subsequently thrown upon the mar-
ket^under very unfavourable circumstances, entailing very heavy
losses and a depreciation in value disproportionate to any
other description at the time. Laid Highland, on the con-
trary, has maintaiued a high price, and been much dearer than
corresponding qualities of foreign.

Sheep Skins have met with uniformly good demand during
the greater part of the year, and have been saleable on arrival
at satisfactory prices ; but of late there has been a great
desire to press sales of English skins, and there has been
little attention directed to Foreign, of which there is only a
trifling stock.

Liverpool, Jan. 1st. Hughes and Ronald,

Wool Brokers.

TRADE OF THE PORT OF HULL.

REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1857.

During the eventful year now closing, the business of this
port has been carried on on a very extensive scale, as the
amounts of tonnage and of the tabulated exports and imports
fully manifest. The severe money pressure which has pre-
vailed for the last (ev/ months naturally restricted transactions
and depressed prices, causing also a great accumulation of
stocks of many of our leading articles of import. The Bank
of England having now, however, reduced the rate of discount,
and an easier position in our monetary affairs resulting, will,
it ia confidently anticipated, cause a resumption of business in
this quarter, and a greater activity of the general trade of the
country.

The gross tonnage entering the port this year amounts to
1,085,390, against 1,076,787 last year, showing an increase of
8,603 tons. The number of ships and vessels reported inward
on foreign voyages is 3,033, tonnage 738,082, whilst last year
the number was 3,157, and tonnage 743,157, showing a trifling
decrease. The tonnage of steam vessels in the foreign trade
this year is 47,240, against 28,229 in 1856, and 14,392 in 1855,
exhibiting an increase in the number and tonnage of our
steamers of nearly 100 per cent, from year to year. The year
1856, it will be remembered, greatly exceeded, in consequence
of the cessation of hostilities with Russia, any previous year
in the extent of our trade.

Grain. — We have again to record at the close of this j'ear a
great reduction in the value of all cereal produce, which, at
a time like the present, when the manufacturing interests
of the country have hardly begun to recover from the shock
of the commercial disasters above alluded to, must be a
source of congratulation to the consuming public, the price
of the staple article of food in this country being now lower
than it has been since the summer of 1853. It is no part of
our duty to venture an opinion as to the future range of
prices of an article so changeable and so dependent on sea-
sons as grain ; but the value is now reduced to such a point
that the agricultural interest already complain of nnremu-
nerative prices ; and when such is the case, it is generally
admitted— so intimate is the connexion between them —
that the manufacturing interests of the country must also
be in some measure affected pari passu. Already the°grow-
ers appear to have made a stand ; and for the above reason,
and the failure of the potato crop, as well as the prospects of
a resumption of activity in our manufacturing districts, an
upward movement in price is by no means improbable, the
extent of which will greatly depend upon the supplies that
are likely to reach us from America and other corn produ-
cing countries before the coming harvest. At the com-
mencement of the year the value of good red English wheat

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

153

was about 60s. per qr., with a prospect of a still further ad-
vance, as the previous crop— not only in this country, but
on the continent— was defective both in quantity and quality,
added to which a considerable demand for export existed
from the South of Europe. Prices, however, instead
of improving, rather declined, large supplies from the
Black Sea and Mediterranean having satisfied the require-
ments of the Peninsula. At the end of the first quarter, in
consequence of more liberal supplies from our growers, and
larger imports from abroad than were calculated on, prices gave
way 5s. per qr. on English, and 43. to 5s. on foreign sorts. A
better demand however set in, and by the end of May the
value had more than recovered the depression existing in the
four previous months ; and at the end of June English red was
quoted 6Ss. to 70s., mixed Danzig 663. to TOs., Baltic red 6O3.
to 643., and Russian 5Ss. to 623. per qr. A good consumptive
demand nevertheless continued, and in the month of June
prices appear to have reached their highest point. The ap-
proach of the harvest at this time was signalized by the most
brilliant weather, and the splendid appearance of i he wheat
crop was all that could be desired. Prices accordingly soon
gave way; in fact, a sort of weather panic appeared to infl.u-
ence all parties connected with the trade, and a decline of lOs.
per qr. was submitted to before the end of July. In this lo-
cality heavy storms, attended with severe floods, endangered
the favourable ingathering of the crops, a portion of which had
eventually to be harvested in a state hardly fit for human (ood.
Still, taking the country throughout, it is generally admitted
that this year's crop of wheat is fully an average.^both as re-
gards quantity and quality ; and this appears to be fully borne
out by the general, yet important, reduction in value. At the
end of August, at which unusually early period the bulk of
the wheat crop was secured, new English red of first quality
was worth 6O3. to 633., old English 6O3., Baltic red 553. to
583., and white 6O3. to 623. per qr. From this date the
value remained pretty steady, until affected by a more strin-
gent state of monetary affairs ; this increasing in intensity,
drove prices rapidly downward until the middle of the month
of November, at which time we appear to have reached the
lowest point, red English wheat having been forced off at 45s.
per qr., 631bs. ; Baltic red for 463. to 483., choice white 523.
to 543. Since then the gradual and apparently sound improve-
ment in commercial matters generally, combined with a good
consumptive demand, partly arising from the failure of that
valuable esculent the potato, the prospect of a cessation of
supplies from abroad of any magnitude for some time to come,
the tone of the market has gradually improved, buyers gene-
rally show less hesitation in operating, and prices have ad-
vanced on all good useful wheats 2s. to 3s. per qr., at which
advance we close the year, with a good steady trade. The
stock ou hand is estimated at 74,000 qrs., agamst 40,000 qrs.
last year.

Barley. — The import of this cereal during the year has
been on a very liberal scale, exceeding any since 1850, being
250,682 qrs. These large supplies have principally reached us
from the Baltic, whence little has been drawn for many years
past, and part from Turkey, where the cultivation has very
much improved, as shown by the quality of the shipments.
This grain has during the present year commanded high prices,
English malting up to the close of the malting season having
brought 463. to 483. per qr. About this time arrivals to an
almost unprecedented extent from Silesia and the Baltic Ports
affected its value, which declined Ss. to 43. per qr. ; but well-
founded accounts of continued drought on the Continent en-
dangering the crop, produced a speculative demand for every-
thing of malting quality, and prices soon rallied. Monetary
cause3, however, having affected this in common with every
other article of import, the value declined, and at the close of
the year quotations were 343. to 863. for English, and 32s. to
35?. for foreign malting ; whilst grinding stands at 283. to 29s.
for stout, and 27s. to 27s. 6d. for thin qualities. The stock on
hand is 4,000 qrs., against 31,500 the previous year.

Oats. — The import this year consists of 99,500 qrs., against
42,045 the preceding one. This grain has fluctuated less than
any other ; prices scarcely varied from the commencement of
the year until April and May, when, owing to the drought and
the backwardness of the season, an advance of 2s. per qr. was
obtained ; this, however, was of no long duration, prices since
having gradually followed in the wake of other articles, and
chose considerably lower, especially for Russian, of which the

major part of the stock here at present consists, say 28,000
qrs., against 3,000 qrs. in 1856.

Beans. — The import shows a small decrease as compared
with last year, the same being 57,956 qrs. this, and 69,756 up
to the end of last year. The demand has been good through-
out the year, and, with the exception of some portion of Egyp-
tian supplies, which went to granary ou arrival, nearly all the
supplies from the Baltic and nearer ports were realized ex-ship,
and the stock is now very light. In the firat and second quar-
ters of the year prices varied from 38s. to 443., third from 433.
to 46s., October and November 42s. to 43s,, and the closing
prices are now 38s. to SQs. per qr., all 63lbs. per bush. Stock
9,500 qrs., against about same quantity last year.

Peas. — The supplies have been very large in comparison
with those of the preceding year, when they reached only
4,736 qrs. ; whereas this year they amount to 24,004 qrs.
Although the demand has been confined to mere consumption,
supplies have found ready sale, and the year closes with but a
small stock. In the first half-year prices ruled from SSs. to
42s.; during the following -five months, from 403. to 48s. ;^
and the present value is 38s. to 42s. per qr. of 63!bs. Stocks
small — say 2,500 qrs.

Clover and other Agricultural Seeds. — During
the present year seeds have been subjected to great fluctua-
tions, particularly red cloverseed, which early in January
opened at rather moderate prices; but in consequence of fine ge-
nial weather prevailing from the middle of that month to the
second week in March, an active demand appeared, and was
continued up to this period for all descriptions of seeds, and
prices were well maintained, whilst in some cases there was a
considerable advance, red cloverseed having improved in value
since the opening of the year 83. to lOs. per cwt. About the
middle of March, however, from unfavourable weather, the
trade was almost suspended. Notwithstanding this great
curtailment of the consumption, the stocks at the close of the
season were by no means extensive. The new crop of red
cloverseed promises well as to quality, particularly in Holland
and Belgium, from both of which countries we have had some
arrivals of very choice seed ; the breadth thut has been culti-
vated, however, is said to have been small. In Germany the
crop has not been well spoken of as to quality, in quantity
pretty fair. In France moderate, with an average quality. In
this country the crop at one time was expected to be an abun-
dant one ; but in consequence of the long continuance of wet
weather at the time of maturing, the seed was much injured
both as to quality and production ; but it is still thought there
will be a tolerable yield in some districts of rather inferior
seed. The new crop of white in Germany, whence wc receive
our principal supplies, is reported to be very much short of
last year, both iu quality and quantity, particularly as respects
the latter, and under this impression prices have been well
supported, flue and middling old seed having sold the last few
weeks at higher prices than such qualities would have produced
at the close of the season and to the present time. We have
had very small arrivals of new seed.

LiN.SEED. — Of this article our import has been again very
large, being only a few thousand quarters deficient of last
year's, which was the greatest import recorded. The year
commenced with considerable stock in warehouse; notwith-
standing which, the value of seed steadily improved, until
Black Sea qualities attained 68s. per qr. in March. Our
imports becoming large about this time, prices gradually
gave way about 5s., the value in April of Taganrog seed
being 62s. to 63s. For the next two or three months the
market fluctuated to the extent of 2s. to Bs. per qr. in favour
of sellers, but prices were generally well maintained until
the development of the financial crisis in the beginning of
October, which influenced the value of this article very se-
verely, and in the course of two months a decline took place
on fine seeds of about 15s. per qr. from the utmost value;
common qualities suffering in proportion, the prices
at the close of the year being 49s. to 50s. for fair quality
of Taganrog and Odessa seed, 46s. to 48s. fine Petersburg
521bs., 43s. to 45s. for medium, while inferior are not sale-
able at beyond 38s. to 40s., weighed 5Ilbs. The position of
of ih.3 crushing trade during the year has been of an un-
satisfactory nature, the value of seed having been kept up at
an extraordinary high point, which generally precluded the
manufacturer from carrying on his business in a profitable
manner, the raw material being so much above the relative

154

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

value of its produce. The great fall in prices has been, to
some extent, a natural consequence of this state of things ;
and values having now assumed a level more in accordance
with that of previous years, there is every probability of this
important branch of our trade assuming a more healthy
condition. The stock in public warehouses and in crushers'
hands we estimate at 170,000 qrs., being more than double
that of the previous year, and a larger stock than has ever
been held over in this port.

Linseed Oil. — The stocks of this article at the com-
mencement of the year were light, the value being about 37s.
6d. per cwt. An improved demand, partly speculative, deve-
loped itself early, the highest point for the season having been
attained about the middle of February, when we quoted close
upon 428. per cwt., after which a gradual decline of 28. to 3s
took place, which continued with occasional fluctuations, until
prices gave way in sympathy with the raw material, as above
stated, the lowest point attained being 27s. per cwt. We
however close the year with a sl'ght improvement, the price
being 28s. 3d. to 2S3. 6d. per cwt. The natural efifect of a
nigh range of prices during the year has been a considerable
fallin? off in the extent of our exports to the continent, which
are 7,184 tons, against 12,549 tons in 1856. The stocks,
which were considerable two mouths ago, have been much re-
duced, and the low price has attracted the attention of specu-
lative purchasers for forward delivery, at prices about 2s. per
cwt. above the value on the spot, thereby showing a greater
degree of confidence in the article than has been evinced for
manj weeks past.

Linseed Cakes. — The year commenced with small stocks,
and prices of best Hull-make at £10 lOs. per ton. A brisk
demand towards the end of January, backed by liuiited sup-
plies, drove prices up to £12 23. 6ii., which was the highest
figure they reached during the year. Up to the month of June
the demand waa slow, at a decline of 39s. per ton, when, owing
to the dry scorching weather, they became in great request, at
advancing rate?, say £11 for best quality, with a considerable
demand for forward delivery at 5s. to lOs. more. There was
little variation in the value for immediate delivery up to Oct.,
when the fine autumnal weather, which reached far into Dec,
interfered with the demand, and the value gradually fell to £9
158. per ton. The stocks held by crushers are comparatively
light, and many makers decline working at the present low
rates of this article and oil, owing to the uuremunerative
nature of the business. Foreign of good quality have been in
fair demand during the year; these are now in small supply,
a great portion of the present stock being inferior in quality
and condition. The imports of foreign this year show a con-
siderable increase, beiug 14,261 tons, against 9,547 tons at the
close of last year. A steady consumptive demand has been ex-
perienced throughout the year for all good foreign qualities, at
proportionate prices to the English manufacture, say from £8 to
£8 5s. per ton, for " small-shaped" cakes. An increased pro-
portion of the imports consisted of large English-shaped cakes,
which, on account of their form and superior quality to the
ordinary make, commanded prices approximate to the value of
best Enijlish manufacture. Towards the close of the year
arrivals have been moderate; but the consumption of cakes, on
account of the milduesaof the season, has been equally limited.
Stocks in warehouse are considered of fair extent, being prin-
cipally of low quahties, and consisting of about 2,500 tons,
against 1,300 tons the year before.

Rapeseed. — The import of this article considerably exceeds
previous years, being 6,100 lasts, against 1,690 aud 1,404
lasts the two previous years. Prices of new German seed
ruled in the autumn months about £35 to about £36 per last;
since then, owing to the languid demand for oil, the value has
receded to £29 to £30, but these prices must be considered as
nomiual, purchasers for the present being quite out of the
market. Stocks are, however, very light, and with an im-
provement in manufacturing districts, a better demand may be
expected. The bulk of the imports has this year been on
crushers' account, little appearing in our market.

Rapeseed OiL.~The demand throughout the year has
continued to be a purely consumptive one, and at no time was
there anything worthy of particular note in the value or de-
mand of either English or foreign, the import of the latter
having been on a very limited scale. The supply exceeding the
demand during the few last months, brought prices down to £42
for brown, and £44 to £45 for pale oil, at which the year closes.

Rape Cakes. — The value of this article has ruled unusu*
ally the same throughout the year, there having been a fair
demand for good green qualities at £6 to £6 lOs. until the
last few mouths, wheu they declined lOs. to 15s. per ton.
Foreign cakes have fluctuated from £5 7s. 6d. to £5 12s. 6d.
per ton, their present value, up to £6 15s. per ton, the highest
price reached in March aud August. Imports went into con-
sumption as they arrived, and there consequently has been no
accumulation of stock.

Olive Oil. — The import this year has been 3,410 tuns
against 4,920 tuns in 1856, the present stock remaining a
trifle over that of last year at the same time. Prices, as was
anticipated, were well maintained with little variation during
the first nine months of the year; subsequently, in conse-
quence of the reports of good crops, larger supplies than
usual of Rapeseed, and forced sales during the money panic,
prices have ruled very irregular, aud are expected to continue
moderate for some time to come, owing to favourable crops,
and from the fact of the largest holder at Naples realizing all
his heavy stock, causing a reduction in the price of about £15
per tun free on board from the highest point.

Flax. — The import for the year has been 19,466 tons,
against 18,941 tons in 1856, 14,909 tons in 1855, and 12,271
tons in 1854. Of the present year's import, 8,870 tons are
from the Baltic, against 9,030 tons in 1856, 7,465 tons in
1855, and 4,331 tons in 1854 ; the remaining quantities were
received as follows, viz. : 3,852 tons from Holland, 5,583 tons
from Belgium, 866 tons from France, and from sundry porta
295 tons. The imports of Tow and Codilla amount to 3,381
tons, of which 2,323 came from St. Petersburg, and only 20
tons from Archangel. During the season the consumption
has been of a healthy character, but since the money panic
prices have been more irregular, and the demand limited to
the actual requirements of the spinners, the mills being put on
short time. It must, however, be remarked, that during the
late depression the linen trade has suffered much less than any
of the leading branches of the manufactures of the country.
The stock of Flax is moderate at this port, and a revival in
the consumption is confidently anticipated.

Hemp. — Of this article the imports are 1,575 tons from
Petersburg, 1,157 tons from Riga, 62 tons from Bombay, and
145 tons from sundries, making a total of 2,939 tons, against
4,043 tons In 1856, 3,341 tons in 1855, and 2,690 tons in
1854. The consumption of Hemp for roping purposes is
evidently much curtailed by many substitutes now brought
into use, but the short Hemps, for manufacturing purposes,
are much demanded. The prices of clean Hemp during the year
have been much affected by the extensive speculations entered
into during the winter and spriug at St. Petersburg. lu addition
to the influence of the late money panic, the heavy stock of
clean held in London has greatly increased the decline in value,
and takes away any present prospect of advance in prices.

Tallow. — The largest proportion of our import into this
place, which this year reached 3,000 tons against 2,160 last
year, goes direct to the consumers, or into the hands of Liver-
pool houses, the prices being regulated by those of the Lon-
don markets, to a very great extent, in which the fluctuations
have this year been remarkable. The stock on hand is about
2,000 casks against 500 last year, and the value 53a. per cwt.

laoN. — Our imports this year are 34,000 tons against
32,000 in 1856. The prospect of good demand in the begin-
ning of the year was realized to some extent, a considerable
business passing during the spring months at slightly ad-
vanced prices. A fair proportion of our large supplies have'
gone into consumption ; but for the last few months the in-
fluence of the money panic, which from the extensive trans-
actions with the U. S, was first felt in this trade, has ren-
dered business impracticable, and we close the year with
considerable stocks on hand, which can only be reduced by a
resumption of activity in our manufacturing districts, and a
sound natural demand from other countries.

Hides. — The imports during the year have been very li-
mited of all sorts of continental hides, except Petersburg kips,
of which rather a large quantity has come. Prices ruled very
high up to September ; since then a very rapid decline took
place, and present quotations, though in some instances 30 to
40 per cent, less, must be considered nominal from the ab-
sence of buyers. The stock is small in this market.

Cattle Bones. — The import this year is 14,261 tons,
against 16,200 in '56. From its commencement a gradual

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

155

advance in prices of bones and bone ash took place, arising
from a continued good demand and short supplies. For
weeks we bad no arrival, a better market having been found
for the article iu France and Holland. As parcels dropped in
they were taken up at prices varying from £6 10s. to £6 15s.,
and we close the year at this last figure, stocks being 228 tons,
against 3,000 last year.

Tar.— The imports of this article in the fore part of the
summer up to September continued small, in consequence of
which the price, instead of ruling somewhat below, kept
at about a par with the rates obtainable during the same period
in London ; Stockholm tar keeping up, with little variation,
at about 16s. per barrel. Towards the end of September, the
supply, through larger arrivals, becoming more abundant, the
price receded to 14s., and later in the season down to about
123. 6d., at which the article may now be quoted in first hands.
The imports, including Archangel tar, which description ia a
general way does not come much upon the market, reaches a
total of 26,818 barrels, being in excess of that of last year,
which was 22,531 barrels. Of this import, about 3,500 barrels
have been landed for higher prices, and one parcel of about
1,700 barrels is now in course of sale in small quantities (rom
the importing ship.

Turpentine. — The direct import this year is 7,333 barrels
against 9,376 barrels last year ; but this affords no criterion
whatever of the quantity used by distillers in this quarter,
who receive by far the greater proportion used by them from
London. The value of this article remained pretty steady
during the first part of the year, but in the month of July, in
consequence of a reported scarcity in the United States, prices
advanced to 453. per cwt. This high value was not, however,
long maintained, and the year closes at 333. to 34s., with a
small stock on hand.

Wood. — The import this year has shown a large decrease
on the preceding one, as will be observed hy the tablas. The
demand throughout the year has been very languid at generally
declining prices, until they reached their present position, a
lower value than has existed for many years past, especially
with regard to Baltic goods. These prices are diflicult to
quote, arisins; from the irregular nature of recent transactions,
and the result of the disturbance iu our monetary affairs. The
stocks on hand are considerable, but not above the require-
ments of a return to a nominal condition of commercial
matters ; and as the prospect of this is no longer doubtful, a
good demand is anticipated in the ensuing year.

Shipping. — The past year has been a very unsatisfactory
one for the shipping interest generally, and very few vessels
can have done much good. Our local trade has had more than
its full share of the general depression, for although the gross
tonnage into the port appears large, much of it is owing to
the rapid passages and continuous arrival of steamers, and a
more than ordinary proportion of ships arriving, have been
seeking vessels, fixed at unremunerative rates on the other
side. The Colonial trade has been as dull as it could well be.
Freights have been about 35s. Quebec, and DOs. to 953. Richi-
bucto, Buctouehe, Miramachi, &c., with very little doing.
Baltic wood freights have also been scarcely worth attention,
and have varied very little. During the season the rates have
ruled from Dantzic, ISs. to 173. ; Memel, 15s. 6d. to 173. 6d. ;
Sundswall and Holmsund, IQs. to 203. ; Windau, 17s. to IBs.
6d.; Riga, 258. to 27s. ; Cronstad, 423. 6d. to 47s. 6d. ; Wy.
burg, Fredricksham, 47s. 6d. to 52s. 6d.; Archangel, 43. 9d,
seed ; Riga, 423. 6d. flax. At the close of the year seeking
ships have had to leave the Russian and some of the Prussian
ports in ballast. Altogether, shipowners may be very glad to
turn their backs upon 1857, especially as there is rather a
hopeful feeling as to its successor.

P. Bruce,
Secretary to the Hull Chamber of Commerce.

EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT
MANURES.

Some few weeks ago a correspondent suggested that farmers
who had been making experiments with different kinds of
manure should send to you an account of them, with the re-
sults obtained, and you expressed your willingness to publish

them. I take the liberty of repotting to you a statement of
experiments made by me on my turnip crops during three
years, and hope you will find room for it. I vouch for its ac-
curacy, everything connected with the experiments, from the
weighing of the manures to the pulling and weighing of the
turnips, having been done by my own hands. I may men-
tion that none of the manures were procured expressly for the
purpose of making a comparative trial, but were all portions of
larger quantities bought by myself or my father at Over RoS'
burgh farm.

1855.

Shark's Bay guano

Latham Island do

Hottentot do

Farm-yard dung

Patagonian guano

Saldanha Bay do.

Peruvian do

A mixture of (hese guanos

1856.
Patagonian guano

Do. do

Bone ash

Saldanha Bay guano ....
Peruvian do

Do. do

Mexican guano fromMr.H.

Do. and Peruvian ....
Mexican guano from Mr. O.

Do. do

Do. and Peruvian . .

Hottentot guano

C. dissolved bones ....
B. dissolved bones ....
Bone dust

Do. and Peruvian . .
1857.
Patent wool manure . .
Patagonian guano ....

Hottentot do

Peruvian do

Falkland Island do

Superphosphate (Berwick)

Do. (Mr. O.)

Ammoniacal do

Mixture of the above . .
Sawdust steeped in pure

chamber-lye for 6 weeks,

and sown with a good

handful along the drill

Quantity of

Cost
per

manure.

s. d.

4 cwt.. ....

35 4

4 „

37 6

4 „

33 6

[5 loads at 3s.

45 0

4 cwt

33 6

4 „

37 6

4 „

50 6

4 „

38 0

6 „

31 6

8i

45 0

6 „

45 0

6 „

45 0

4 „

45 0

6 „

69 0

6 ,

45 0

4 4-5ths„ ..

45 0

6 cwt

28 6

9i,

45 0

6|„

45 0

6 „

45 0

6 ,

45 0

6 „

45 0

14J-bush

45 0

equal weights

45 0

6 cwt

45 0

8 „

45 0

7 „

45 0

4i„

67 6

41 „

45 0

5i,.

45 0

51- „

45 0

51.

55 0

6 „.,....

45 0

—

-

Weight of
turnips pe

Ton cwt. qr.

7

10 16

11 10
13 0
13 2
13 4
13 18
10 0

0

3
12
10
12

2

5
17

2
12
17

2
10

7
10
16

18 2
14 10
17 11
17 18

19 10
13 14

13 10

14 3
17 18

— 17 8

In 1855.— Sown June 12, weighed Nov. 21. The plants
came very badly away; and, with an unsuitable season, and a
stiff clayey undrained soil, the crop was a very poor one.

In 1856 the braird was good and equal. Soon all the bone
manures took a decided lead, which they kept till about harvest,
when their strength seemed exhausted, and their crops proved
deficient. Sown June 11, and weighed Dec. 2. The field is
clay, but drained and limed the previous year.

In 1857 the bone manures showed as they did in the pre-
vious year, early, but without permanency. The sawdust
steeping was an idea of my own, and wUl be tried next year
on a more extensive scale by several farmers. The soil is clay,
drained and limed five years ago. Sown June 16, and weighed
Dec. 9. An excellent crop, much above the average of the
district. In each year the turnips were of the common white
globe variety. Thos. Thomson.

Millfield, KelsQ, Bee. 9, 1857.

156

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REPORT BY JUDGES ON FOWLER'S STEAM-PLOUGH.

The Highland and Agricultural Society's Premium-
Book, published in February, 18o7, contained the fol-
lowing intimation : —

" For the practical application of steam or water-power to
the ploughing or digging of lan.i, £200. The raerita of tlie
iuvention will be tested by its general applicability, by the cha-
racter of its work, and by its saving in time, labour, and out-
lay, as compared with horse-power. The inventor must be
prepared to deliver his machine at Stirling by the 1st of Octo-
ber, and to put it in practical operation on such farm in the
neighbourhood of that town, and to work it for such a period,
and under such regulations, as the Directors may determine —
the object being to test its capabilities by continued work, and
not by a mere show trial."

The utmost pains were taken to make the premium
known to implement makers, in the hope of securing
competition ; and though for some time there was a
prospect of this, eventually Mr. John Fowler, jun., 28,
Cornhill, London, was the only party who appeared.

The following gentlemen were named as a committee
of judges to test the merits of Mr. Fowler's invention,
and to determine how far he was deserving of the pre-
mium oifered: Messrs. John Miller, of Leithen; James
Stirling, C.E., Edinburgh ; John Dickson, farmer,
Saughton Mains; John Finnic, farmer, Ssvanston ; John
Gibson, farmer, Woolmet; William Henderson, farmer,
Craigarnhall ; and Robert Patterson, Offers.

The neighbourhood of Stirling having been fixed for
the trial, all local arrangements were left to the super-
vision of the Stirlingshire Agricultural Society, by whom
the farm of Stewarthall, possessed by Mr. William For-
rester, was selected as the place, and the 20th of Octo-
ber named as the time for the trial ; and it was resolved
that, previous to the public being admitted to inspect
the operations, they should be privately conducted for at
least three days in the presence of the judges exclusively.

Before entering upon a narrative of the proceedings,
it may probably not be out of place to describe, gene-
rally, the machinery brought forward by Mr. Fowler.
It consists of three main parts — viz., the Plough, the
Steam-engine and gearing connected therewith, and the
Anehor.

The plough, which is constructed to turn over four
ordinary furrows at the same time, consists of a strong
framing about 20 feet in length, supported at the centre
on two wheels, one of which travels in the last formed
furrow, and the other upon the " land," and by adjust-
ment as to relative heights on these wheels the apparatus
is brought into train, and the depth of the furrow to be
turned over determined. The two ends of the framing
join each other at a considerable angle at the centre, so
that when the one end is nearly horizontal and at work,
the other is raised at an angle of about 35 degrees, and
is thus kept entirely clear of the ground; each end of
the framing is supplied with four ordinary plough-heads
(share, sock, and mould) closely following each other,
and each placed so as to take in and turn over a breadth
of 10 inches, or 3 feet 4 inches for the four at each ope-
ration. The plough-heads on the two ends of the
framing being in every respect reversed to each other,
the machine does not require to be turned at the end of
the furrow, but by simply elevating the end of the frame
last at work, the other end, which balances it, is brought
down to working position, and by means of the two car-
rying-wheels the necessary lateral motion of 3 feet 4
inches is easily and correctly given by the man in charge,
and the plough is at once ready for turning over another

set of furrows by being pulled in the opposite direction.
Phis pulling is performed in both directions by means
of a steel-wire rope of about f inch diameter, passing
from the engine at the one end of the field to the anchor
at the other end, and back to the engine again.

The steam-engine used by Mr. Fowler is a portable
one, very similar to those now so much employed in
England for thrashing and other agricultural purposes.
For greater facility in getting into motion, and stopping,
and otherwise for bringing the engine more completely
under the control of the engineman, it is fitted with two
steam cylinders working on a double crank at right
angles to each other, as in locomotive engines. The
cylinders and crank-shaft are placed on and fixed to the
upper part of the boiler, and the motion is carried down
from the crank-shaft by means of an upright shaft fitted
with mitre gear and reversing clutches to two drums,
upon which the wire ropes are alternately coiled and
uncoiled during the operation of ploughing. The drums
are placed horizontally under the framin'j; of the engine,
and their gearing is so arranged that either can be at
pleasure thrown into gear with the upright shaft, so that,
while the one is set loose to allow the uncoiling of the
wire rope, the other is at work dragging the plough.
The drums with the rope partially coiled on have an
effective average diameter of about 3 feet, and are
11 inches in breadth each ; by means of the connecting
gearing already alluded to, the drums are made to take
on the wire rope at the rate of from 2\ to 2| inches an
hour, equal to about the rate at which the pistons travel.
The pistons being 6| inches diameter, or 33 square
in-ches each in area, and the steam in the boiler being at
say 651bs. per square inch, will exert a tractive strain on
the wire rope (allowing a half for loss by friction, &c.) of
2,140 lbs., or nearly one ton. The engine and plough
being placed at opposite ends of the field, it is evident
that the plough could be drawn towards the engine, and
the first set of the furrows turned over, by means of a
single rope attached to the plough, and the other end of
the rope coiled up on one of the diums of the engine;
but to effect the returning draught it is necessary either
to employ another engine with the necessary apparatus
at the other end of the field, or, by passing another rope
also fixed to the plough over a sheave fixed there, and
returning and connecting its other end with the second
drum of the engine, to work both directions by one
engine. This latter plan has been the one adopted by
Mr Fowler, and the simple and ingenious apparatus to
which the sheave is attachedis termed

The anchor. This consists of a strong low wooden
frame about 10 feet long and 5 feet broad, supported
when in use upon two axles or rollers ; on each of which
there are two thin-edged wheels or discs of malleable
iron, which sink by the weight of the machine to a depth
of 8 or 9 inches into the soil : they are prevented from
sinking deeper by the bodies of the rollers (about 9 inches
in diameter) coming in contact with the surface of the
ground, and bearing up the remaining weight. To the
framing between the rollers are fixed the bearings of a
large horizontal sheave about 4 feet in diameter, around
which the wire rope turns when the plough is being
drawn away from the engine ; the utrain thus thrown
upon the sheave, which is double the direct strain
exerted on the rope by the engine, is resisted by the four
discs, which, being placed at right angles to the line of
traction of the plough, act like the flukes of four power-
ful anchors.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

157

It will be apparent that, as the work advances, both
the engine and anchor require to be moved slightly for-
ward for every turn of the plough, so as to keep them
always in the proper line of traction. This motion in
the case of the anchor is ingeniously effected by means of
a small capstan or crab attached to the framing, and
driven by wheel-work from the large sheave. The en-
gine is provided with a similar apparatus, but it is driven
by a direct communication with the gear of the engine.
These crabs give motion to their respective machines by
slowly coiling up two small wire ropes, the other ends of
which are fixed to pawls driven in at suitable points in
advance of the machines along the ends of the field.

It may be proper to remark that the engine can be
made locomotive, so as to be able to move itself along a
road or about the farm without any assistance, and that
it can also be so made as to be available as a power for
thrashing, or any other work about the farm requiring
power, as well as for ploughing. At the same time it is
considered that the circumstance of Mr. Fowler's engine
not being required to travel the land to be ploughed is a
most important feature ; and, in the progress of im-
provement, it may not be far distant when the engine
will be enabled to do its work efficiently without the ne-
cessity of leaving a corner of the field, and thereby
obviate the disadvantage of moving over it.

The trial, as already stated, commenced on the 20th
of October, on a grass field consisting of a very stiff
tenacious clay, and in a very unfavourable state for
ploughing. A considerable extent of ploughing was ac-
complished, but the greater part of the time was spent
in the examination of the various parts of the machinery,
and of the mode in which each portion performed its
part ; and the result of that examination was, that
although the judges were of opinion that in one or two
minor points the machinery might be improved, the main
principle of the apparatus brought forward by Mr. Fow-
ler is correct, and calculated to perform its work in a
satisfactory manner. On the 21st of October they had
the plough put in operation with the view of testing its
power in accomplishing work, and of determining the
character of the work itself. The operations were carried
on in the same tenacious clay-field, and, upon an experi-
ment of several hours, they found that they might assume
the work performed in such time to be about 7 impe-
rial acres in a day of 10 hours : the furrow was in
length 330 yards, and about 6 inches deep, and each
10 inches broad, or taking the four plough-heads,
the breadth turned over at each operation was
3 feet 4 inches, and the work was very satisfac-
torily done. The cost appears to be the following : Mr.
Fowler states that four men and a boy are required for
his apparatus : that the judges found to be sufficient;
indeed they think the work might be done by three men
and two boys ; the daily wages may therefore be as-
sumed at from 13s, to 15s., according to the rate of
wages, but say that it is 15s. A horse and cart are re-
quired to supply the engine with water, unless in cases
where the water may be had in the field; they have,
however, to assume this cost in the mean time, and they
put it down at 6s. per day. The engine is worked with
raw coal, and consumes in the 10 hours what can be ob-
tained at Stirling for 6s., taking the coals at 12s. per
ton ; oil, and other incidentals, they take at 3s. — making,
in all, a daily cost of 30s., exclusive of the tear and
wear of the machinery and interest on capital. The
judges have not had sufficient experience of the ma-
chinery to estimate the cost of the tear and wear, but
they think that were they to say 20s. per day it would be
sufficient to cover these two items. The total day's cost
would in this way be 50s., and assuming the work per-
formed to be 7 acres per day of such land as they found it,
t;he cost would be a little more than 7s. per acre. With

the view of testing this as against horse-power ploughing,
Mr. Forrester was kind enough to put at the disposal of
the judges a plough and pairof horses, but they found that
two horses were not equal to the work of a furrow such
as Mr. Fowler's plough was turning ; according to their
own estimate, and that of farmers well acquainted with
the working of such land, and with whom they consulted,
they are of opinion that such land as they had to do
with, and at such a season, could not be turned over by
horse-labour under a cost of 15s. per acre. Accord-
ing to this, therefore, there is a clear saving of fully half
the cost by Fowler's plough, and the work performed is
fully equal to, if not better than, what could be done by
horse-labour.

It may by some be apprehended that the allowance
for wear and tear is insufficient, in consequence of the
liability of the wire-rope to injury from friction on
sharp soils ; but the risk of this is in a great measure
obviated by the facilities for preventing the rope from
coming into contact with the ground at all. These fa-
cilities are afforded by means of friction-sheaves mounted
on small moveable carriages, and these sheaves are in
number proportioned to the length of the furrow or un-
dulations of the ground.

The judges having satisfied themselves as to the effi-
ciency of Fowler's steam-plough for the ploughing of
stiff tenacious clay-land, they had the whole apparatus
removed to another farm, " Boll-for-nought," also in
the possession of Mr. Forrester, and on the 22nd of
October had the plough tried on a stubble-field of deep
alluvial soil. The furrow on this field was considerably
shorter than that on the other field, being only 220
yards long ; its depth was 7 inches and its breadth
10 inches. In this experiment the quantity turned over
was at the rate of nearly 10 acres in the day of 10
hours. The judges expected that the engine would have
done more work than that, and probably it could when
in continuous operation ; but they have stated the quan-
tity as they found it, and it will be kept in view that the
short furrow tends to diminish the quantity performed.
Assuming the cost per day at 50s., as formerly, the rate
per acre would be about 5s.; but, on the other hand,
the cost of ploughing the same land with horse power
would not greatly exceed, if at all, 8s. per acre. Tha
saving, therefore, on light land cannot be so great as it
would be on heavy land— or even steep land, where
power is so much required. The ploughing was very
well done.

On this field the judges had the apparatus applied to
trench-ploughing, and the work performed gave the
greatest satisfaction, surpassing anything that could
be done with horse-labour. Mr. Fowler, in trench-
ploughing, did not use the same plough-frame as he did
in the ordinary ploughing ; the one employed was fitted
up to turn two trench-furrows at each operation — each
furrow was turned in two lifts, the upper lift in each
case being turned into the bottom of the furrow, and
the bottom lift being laid over all ; and from the speed
at which the plough travels, the subsoil is so completely
thrown up and broken, that nothing executed by horse.
labour can excel, or perhaps equal it. The trenching,
12i inches deep, was performed at the rate of about
5j acres per day of ten hours, and at a cost, assuming
as formerly, of about 9s. per acre.

The experiments, in so far as the judges were con-
cerned, were completed in the afternoon of the 22nd of
October, having occupied a period of three days. On
the 23rd and 24th the trials were continued for the
satisfaction of the public, and it is beheved that those
who witnessed them were very generally pleased with
the result. The agriculturists in the Lothians having
expressed a wish to have an opportunity of witnessing
the operations, the whole apparatus was removed to the

158

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

firm of Saughton Mains, near Edinburgh, possessed by
Mr. Dickson, and tliere Mr. Fowler continued his
operations for several days, with pretty much the same
results. At the same time, it has to be noticed that
there were one or two breakages in the machinery,
which must have led to some disappointment, but these
breakages were not such as to tell against the principle
of working as carried out by Mr. Fowler.

Having now described the various trials gone into,
the judges are called upon to express the high gratifica-
tion they experienced in witnessing the performances of
Mr. Fowler's plough, and the results achieved by it.
They are of opinion that Mr. Fowler has satisfactorily
established, that land of a certain description can be
well and economically ploughed by steam ; and they
think it due to him to say that he highly merits the ap-
probation of the agricultural public, for the ability,
energy, and ingenuity brought by him to bear on the
all-important question of turning the soil. In these
circumstances, the judges recommend that the premium
of i?200 off"ered by the Society should be awarded to
Mr. Fowler. At the same time, they do not desire to
hold forth Mr. Fowler's apparatus as faultless ; experience
will in this, as in all other attempts to apply machinery,
suggest improvements, and, indeed, several important
modifications have been made by Mr. Fowler since
the trials now described terminated ; neither would the
judges wish it to be inferred from their decision that the

apparatus is, in terms of the condition attached to the
premium, susceptible of general ajjpUcation, as, in its
present form, it is not available for land on which large
stones are imbedded, Nevertheless, as Mr. Fowler has
produced a machine well adapted for stiff clay and loamy
soils, and consequently for the very description of land
the most oppressive to horses, and the most expensive to
work, the judges consider that he has established a good
claim, not only to the amount of the premium ofi'ered,
but to whatever support and encouragement the Society's
award can afi"ord ; and the judges would hope that this
liberal interpretation of the terms in which the premium
was offered, will operate as an inducement to others to
persevere in their eff'orts to improve the machinery of
the farm.

In conclusion, the judges have to express their ac-
knowledgments to the Stirlingshire Agricultural Society
for their arrangements ) and to Mr. Forrester for the
facilities and assistance lie aff'orded in conducting the
experiments, as well as for his great attention and hos-
pitality. J. Miller, Chairman.

John Dickson.

John Finnie.

John Gibson.

Wm. Henderson.

Ro. Patterson.

Jas. Stirling.
■ — Journal of Agriculture.

THE PLOUGH, OR ITS SUBSTITUTE.

In the concluding portion of our last article we ad-
verted to a point which has often occurred to practical
men, namely, that the easy turning over of a
regular slice of soil is not all that is desiderated in the
action of the plough — that the whole work which we
require it to do must be taken into account, and that
lightness of draught must not be sacrified at the ex-
pence of the disintegration of the soil. It is evident that
to scratch or score the surface with two horses must of ne-
cessity be done cheaper than obtaining deep culture by
the use of eight horses. This refers to the mere doing of
the work. But we must go into the question of results, if
we wish in the end to ascertain which is the cheapest
mode of operation. If where shallow culture is carried
out the profits bear a higher ratio to the cost of work-
ing than where deep culture is adopted, then by all
means adhere to shallow, and discard the deep. But
so far as experience points out, the case is exactly the
reverse, and everything, nearly, goes in favour of the
deep culture. It is evident then, we think, that the
mere lessening of the draught of the plough is not all
we want, unless this lessening of draught is taken into
consideration together with the peculiar state of the soil
which experience points out as the best fitted for our
purposes.

But supposing us to obtain a form of mouldboard
that gives more disintegration of the soil, and requires
less power to work it, than that of any plough yet in-
troduced, we have still a difficulty to overcome, which
we have shown to be attendant upon the action of every
plough — namely, the formation of the hard crust formed
by the passing of the sole of the plough over the soil.
There can be no question that this is a serious evil. How
to overcome it, is a problem occupying the attention of
not a few of our agricultural mechanics. Rollers, on
which the sole is to run, have been proposed; but al-
though these will tend to mitigate the evil, they will by
no means get rid of it. Revolving tines, like those of the
Norwegian harrow, have also been sugg'ested to follow '

immediately upon the action of the plough, and tear up
the surface on which the sole has been resting. But
in the attempt to combine two or more operations in
one machine or implement there is always danger
either of obtaining work partly done, or getting the
work done, if it so happens that it is good, at a dearer
rate than it could be performed by two machines or
implements, each having its own task to perform. Our
manufacturers know this, and almost invariably act
upon it. They have their machines of preparation as
we may term them, and their finishing machines; each
machine, however complicated, doing its own work
preparatory to that which is to succeed it. And in
dii'ecting our attention to what has been done in agri-
culture, we find that the nobleman who has made
his name famous in connection with indubitably suc-
cessful deep culture, has followed the same principle.
Thus, convinced of the advantages of a deeply pulverized
soil, he has by dint of experimental research discovered
a form of subsoil trench-plough, in which a peculiar and
simple member acts upon the soil — left untouched by
the plough of an ordinary principle of construction,
but capable of taking a furrow of much greater depth
than is ordinarily effected — so as to completely dis-
integrate it. But although this subsoil trench-plough,
as it is called, follows immediately upon the action of the
plough, the two implements are not combined in one,
with eight horses working the combined implement ;
but each implement does its own work, having each its
own complement of four horses. And this arrange-
ment has doubtless been adopted after mature consi-
deration, and from a conviction that the work would be
cheaper and better done than with the use of a com-
bined implement. But apart from this consideration —
the utility or non-utility of the combination of two
principles of action in one implement — the ques-
tion forces itself upon our notice. What necessity
is there for the plough, in both of those plans above
noticed; forming part of the mechanism employed ?

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

159

Grant that by the use of revolving tines following
close upon the action, and forming part of the me-
chanism of the plough, we completely obviate the hard
crust, and that by the use of the " subsoil trench
plough," with, its peculiar member we obtain a pul'
verized soil to a depth of nineteen to twenty inches.
Although in this latter case it will be seen that we still
reach a limit beyond which the pulverization ceases,
and the hard crust begins ; and that, although a deep
soil with a hard crust is better than a shallow one with
the same obstruction, there is no reason why the depth
should be limit edto 20 inches any more than it should be
carried out to six only, as some hold — granting so much,
would it not be cheaper to employ mechanism that would
at once give us a pulverized soil, the depth of which could
be regulated at will, and at any point of which there
would be no hard sole or crust similar to that formed
by the plough ? And which, in fact, is a practical limi-
tation of the depth. Is it positively an essential to
good cultivation, that the soil must he laid over in
regular slices, and that the weeds, leaves, «fcc. must be
buried under the surface ? Spade husbandi'y is said by
nearly all to be the most efficient j yet the spade does
not lay the soil over, as the plough does ; neither as a
necessity of its mode of operation is all the surface
matter buried by its use ; and most assuredly it forms
no hard crust, on which water may lodge, or through
which the roots of plants may with difficulty penetrate.
That it effectually turns over the soil, and leaves it in a
condition fit for the action of the atmosphere, is ad-
mitted by all. A careful observer, uninfluenced by the
force of habit or the trammels of preconceived notions,
would be inclined therefore to ask. Why is not this sys-
tem of cultivation carried out? And if met by the
objection that from the dearness of manual labour
the expense would practically be prohibitive of its
adoption, the answer — in view of what mechanism has
effected — would naturally occur to him that this was
simply a question of economy, which could be solved
by introducing some kind of mechanism, when the
same cultural results could be obtained as by the use of
the spade, and at a rate which would render the opera-
tion a paying one. But on pushing Inquiries further,
our observer would find unanimity of opinion in re-
ference to the value of spade husbandry merely nominal.
For while many say that it assuredly is the most
effectual mode of cultivation, it is notorious that they
act as if they did not believe it ; and so far from there
being an unanimity of opinion on the point, we find a
great diversity, so far at least as the application of the
spade to fanning purposes is concerned ; for it may to
some appear strange that, while admitted to be avail-
able for gardening purposes, and productive of good
results there, it is not so for the farm.

Before asking our agricultural mechanics, then, either
to improve the present plough or to invent a substitute
for it, it seems but fau' that agriculturists should decide
as to the peculiar state in which it is desired to have the
soil — Whether ploughing, in short, is essential. Or whe-
ther simple disintegration is only required — the state
in which the surface is left, or its peculiar finish, being
a matter of trifling or of no importance. Let it be under-
stood that a good implement must give two things — (1),
a well-stirred soil, with a depth easily regulated — know-
ing no practical limit, so far as the action of the imple-
ment is concerned) — and (2), a laying over of the soil so
stirred or moved at a determinate angle, forming a fur-
rowed surface. Or, on the other hand, that that which is
wanted from the implement is simply one thing — that it
shall give us the soil well stirred and disintegrated, with-
ont reference to the way in which the surface is finished.
Let the agriculturist say what he wants, and we have so
much faith in the ability of our mechanicians as to be-

lieve that they will be able to introduce something that
will supply the want. It is not fair to the mechanic, nor is
it good policy on the part of the agriculturist, for the
latter to throw on the shoulders of the former the double
onus ofascertaining what has to be done, and how he is to
do it. The best and quickest way of arriving at the
solution of the difficulty will be to combine the know-
ledge of the farmer with the skill of the mechanic.
Each aiding the other with the knowledge which long
experience in their occupations has given, we may hope
to see a machine or implement introduced which will,
withno hesitation or doubt on the part of the farmer, be
accepted as performing all that he requires.

The settlement of what is wanted is the first thing
that must be done, if true progress is wished for. So
long as we find two great parties — each holding opin-
ions nearly, if not totally, irreconcilable — so long will
we find that the efforts of our mechanicians will be
frittered away. It is hard to believe that both opinions
can be right. Grant that one is wrong, and it is evi-
dent that all the efforts of our mechanicians to meet its
requirements must be simply lost time, and must incur a
needless expenditure of money. Better far to decide on
the way we have to go, and secure the aid of our me-
chanicians to help us on in our journey. We shall, at
least, have the benefit of united effort. The points of
the question to be decided present features of moment-
ous interest to the nation at large. We are, if we read
the signs of the times aright, on the verge of the ex-
tended use of anew power, which in other branches of
our national economy has effected amazing wonders ;
and in view of this probable use of a new power, we
are afforded a most fitting opportunity of inquiry as to
whether the old implement of culture is adapted to it.
We have many lessons given to us, in the history of the
progress of other branches of our arts, to make us
pause to give this inquiry full weight. In theearlydays
of the power of steam, we find that it gave out its won-
drous might through the clumsy medium of N ewcomen's
atmospheric engine ; but the genius of Watt saw that
it could only put forth all its majesty through the
agency of mechanism adapted to all its peculiarities.
When the ambition of a Symington or a Fulton
prompted the application of steam to the propulsion of
vessels, with the power of man they discarded his time-
honoured implement the oar, and yoked the giant to
the whirling paddle-wheel.

We have, at all events, arrived at a point affording
full facilities to an exhaustive inquiry, as to whether
the time-honoured plough is the fittest instrument of
cultivation. INo longer do we find those who uphold it
as perfect. It has acknowledged defects, acknowledged
even by those who maintain that it is, nevertheless,
the best implement we can have. And if we find that
any modification of its mechanism, by which these de-
fects are obviated, brings about a condition of soil much
resembling that effected by other implements not possess-
ing the peculiar features of action of the plough, then
the question will be brought nearer to that point where
it narrows itself to one of comparative economy in work-
ing of different implements, no matter what their dis-
tinctive peculiarities may be. That the plough must
be modified, to enable it to do the work demanded by
a more comprehensive system of cultivation, is obvious
enough ; and that these modifications will tend to
bring its operation nearer to that of implements or ma-
chines which by many are considered at present alto-
gether heterodox in principle, not a few are inclined to
think. Chief among the influences which will necessi-
tate these modifications will be the power of steam

160

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

A PLAIN FARMER'S VIEWS OF THE NEW THINGS IN AGRICULTURE.

Hansen's Potato Digger, made by Coleman of
Chelmsford.— This is the yiewest implement of note I
have seen, andj I see, is called " the implement of the
season." It consists of a frame of wood in shape some-
luing like the Ducie-drag frame, but longer, and is sup-
ported upon two large-sized and strong carriage wheels
of wood, with a pair of small iron steerage-wheels in
front, wide enough to bestride the potato ridge. These
are attached to an upright stem formed as a circular
rack, allowing the wheels to be swivelled, and also per-
mits it to be raised or lowered by means of a pinion
and winch, and faslt?ned by a pin through the rack.
Underneath the hind-part of the frame a strong bracket
carries, by the share- stalk, a curved triangular share or
catting spade (ahodding spade) which passes in a nearly
horizontal position under the potato-rows, raising up
the whole mass for the freer operation of the revolving
forks. These consist of a disc of eight two-tined arms or
forks on a horizontal shaft, made to rotate transversely
behind the machine : this shaft is actuated by means of
two mitre wheels, one on the shaft and the other on the
axle of the driving carriage wheels, both nicely covered
or boxed in. These wheels set the whole in motion
by reversing a cam placed in front of axle, and thus
permitting the machine to travel when not in work.
The wheels are armed with pegs of iron, in a wedge
form, to prevent slipping in work. To allow the disc
to be set higher or lower there is an adjustment behind
for that purpose, and the forward end of the shaft
works in a moveable socket bearing on the axle of the
carriage wheels. The machine is cleverly contrived
and does the manufacturer great credit. I objected to
the size and coal-shoot form of the share : its very form
causes it to clog in work, of course adding greatly to the
draught. We see no reason for such an immense share
for such a simple purpose. A common curved coulter
with such a share-stalk would, I think, do better. The share
is certainly a very clumsy one; and I hope, when I next
see the machine in work, to find a great improvement in
this particular. I think it a mistake to suppose it is
requisite for the row to pass into this shoe or share,
and from thence to be thrown abroad by the revolving
forks : this is not necessary. The revolving forks work
at such a speed that nothing more is required than simply
to raise the row to ensure its being thrown abroad with
great facility ; the instant it is raised the forks seize it
and all is instantly thrown out for convenient picking.
I liave repeatedly seen it at work, and such is its power
that no trifling obstruction can interfere with its proper
working. It cannot on all soils, as now arranged, be
fairly worked by two horses ; it mostly requires three,
on stiff soils, to get forward with expedition. The
whole row of potatoes, haulm, and soil are thrown out
and scattered almost inconveniently far abroad ; so that
in some cases a screen to prevent this is attached to the
side by an apparatus for that purpose. I worked one of
these machines on my own farm, in the past season, and
was much pleased with the result ; for in addition to the
dispersion of the potatoes by the forks, the soil itself
received a good pulverization, and all roots and rubbish
were thrown out on the surface ; thus saving the cost of
a subsequent harrowing and other labour. I do not
hesitate to assert that, with some modification, it is a
highly useful implement, and will come into general
service.

Crank-axle Carts. — I will next make a remark or
two upon this new feature in our carriage-department

of agriculture. The Royal Agricultural Society offered
a prize for the best cart with crank-axle, to be decided
at the Salisbury Meeting, I took pleasure in examining
the carts shown in competition ; but for general- purpose
carts I speedily descried they were inadmissible. The
long shafts I approved, as giving the horse more
power over the carriage. The high wheels (which the
cranked axles were designed to accommodate) are un-
doubtedly advantageous in point of draught ; but they ap-
peared lo me to be disadvantageous in other respects.
The shelvings could not be prevented pressing on the
wheels under a heavy burden. The usual height of a
common cart-wheel is about 45feet. In these carts the
diameter is six feet, and some even more. In loading,
there must be inconvenience from the height of the sides,
and in unloading, too ; for take the tipping, the low
cranked axle cannot permit the cart-body a sufficient
incline to slip out the load behind, and the bottom is so
low that over many of the roads in my neighbourhood
they could not travel, in consequence of the depth of
the ruts. The axle itself would slide on the surface.
Then again, their large wheels would continually throw
into the body of the cart such soil or mud as adhered
to them, unless prevented by high shelving boards. The
principal advantage that 1 could discover was that it
is almost impossible to overturn them ; the load is so
low, resting almost between the wheels ; and their light
draught upon hard level roads — these are great ad-
vantages.

MOWING AND REAPING MACHINES.

Although this class of machines is not decidedly new,
yet some of them have undergone such extensive and re-
cent alterations as almost to constitute them new ma-
chines. It is with such that I have to do, and that very
briefly. Perhaps I shall not be in great error if I con-
sider and treat mowing machines as neiv viachincs.

Mowing Machines. — Caryl's American Eagle
Mowing Machine. — The admirable way in which this
machine cut the clover crop at Salisbury quite took me
by surprise. I at once pronounced it to be the best
ofits kind hitherto produced, and the awards of the
various prizes which have been conferred upon it since
have fully borne out my impression. The machine is in
most respects similar to our common reaping ma-
chines, both in frame and the position of the cutters ;
but in its more minute details it varies considerably.
The most singular adjustment in it is its first moving or
motive power. It is communicated from the axle of
this most unique of all wheels. This wheel is made of
cast-iron, is 3 ft. 7 in. diameter, and the rim is II in.
broad. Throughout its periphery, and parting as it were
what seems a solid cast-iron rim into two parts or slots,
making a series of zig-zags or curves, which, alternately
opening and closing, act as cams, and passing over or by
a ball or roller attached to the cutter-bar, gives it that
quick vibratory motion so requisite to cleanly cutting.
The rapidity of the movement, and its singularity, is
very striking, quite doing away with spur-wheels, cranks,
or pinions to work the cutters. The whole is under the
control of the workman, the frame being so nicely
balanced that, by a movement of his foot, he can instantly
raise or depress the knives, to prevent obstruction from a
surface-drain or uneven ground. " The knives are
acute, not serrated, and slide above fixed sharp fingers,

THE FARME R'S MAGAZINE.

161

having thus a clipping or shearing action ; they are kept
close and free from clogging by a spring pressure-bar,
and each knife may be unscrewed off and renewed at
pleasure. The length of the vibration is only 2 in., and
the motion comparatively slow." The extreme length
of cut is 5 feet. The machine is of simple construction,
being small, compact, and light, and of easy draught ;
and when used as a mower there is not a cog-wheel in
the machine. It is also adapted for reaping corn, by
the addition of a curved platform ; and a radial arm
sweeps, by an ingenious arrangement, backward and
forward over the platform, alternately lifting and letting
fall a rake, which receives and delivers a bundle of corn
at every 3| feet ; or the attendant can retain it longer
upon the platform, according to the crop, at his pleasure.
Its weight as a mower is about G| cwt., as a reaper near
8 cwt. ; its width, 8 ft. 3 in.

I have not seen this machine at work as a reaper, and
my impression is unfavourable as to its capabilities in
that respect, from the manifest reluctance the managers
show to give it a fair trial in a corn-field ; but as a
mowing machine in moderate crops of grass or seeds it
is beyond praise. The work done is so evenly cut,
and so nicely distributed over the land, as to defy the
competition of the best haymakers. In heavy crops
of grass I observed the driving-wheel was occasionally
clogged by accumulating grass or old fog around it, so
as to prevent its turning ; this, however, was soon re-
lieved by backing the machine. The knives, too, were
occasionally obstructed by hard or woolley fog— i. e., last
year's uncut decaying grass. This, however, will often stop
the most expert "mow-men." I merely observe, that
I entertain a high opinion of the efficiency and general
usefulness of this machine, and believe it will ultimately
obtain great pubHc favour.

Dray and Co.'s Hussey's Mowing Machine. —
Moioing Machine as improved by Dray and Co. —
This machine, so far as my observation goes, is identical
with their reaper, minus the tipping platform and facili-
ties for the delivery of corn. TThis is all right. I like a
convertible machine ; and this one certainly cuts grass
and seed-crops in very good style indeed. It is some-
what smaller than the Eagle machine. The acute skele-
ton knives cut admirably. I have repeatedly seen this
work both as a mower and reaper, and, although from its
greater draught whilst taking less work, I cannot class it
as equal with the Eagle machine ; yet it is certainly next
to it as a mower, and the price is less, they being ^"35
and £26 respectively. It is well worthy encouragement.

Lord Kinnaird's McCormick's Mowing Ma-
CHINE. — This machine is, I think, very nearly identi-
cal with his reaper, being also minus the endless web
and the other apparatus for the side-delivery of corn.
I saw it mowing clover and grass at Salisbury ; the
former it did very well, but the heavy grass crop and
surface drains prevented a fair trial as a grass mower,
which, in fair even work, it would cut very well. It is
much larger, and takes a wider space than either of the
above. The price low — £2\. As a mowing machine,
the breadth taken is against its cleanly working.

Mazier's Little French Machine. — I have seen
this machine tried in both departments of mowing,
neither of which it would effect with economy. It is a
compact little thing, but for our go-a-head farmers it
will never do ; they require a machine of greater capa-
city. It is also merely by being deprived of its many
chains for side-delivery of corn, that it forms a mowing
machine. It takes a limited breadth.

Reaping Machines. — In this department of ma-
nufacture we have a great increase, and many improve-
ments. The first I shall name is Burgess and Key's

Reaper. This machine is fitted with M'Cormick'swell-
known cutters. The great novelty is the addition of a
newly-invented conical screw-divider. This is a large
peculiar-shaped roller, like a pavior's rammer, which,
revolving as it passes along, readily divides the upstand-
ing corn, and lifts up the lodged for cutting. This is a
decided improvement upon the divider-board, which
tears its way through the crop, pulling up some and
breaking off others, by which portions of the crop are
lost. The gradually insinuating screw separates the
corn without difficulty, and with less labour to the
horses ; and scarcely any is dropped. The screw-roller
delivery-platform is much as I have heretofore seen it,
but I thought the width taken rather larger than past
years — i. e., 5ft. Gin. ; but the labour to which the
horses are put is not excessive.

Crossklli's Bell's Reaper. — This reaper has under-
gone several improvements. It is the most useful and
convertible of all the reapers. The propulsion being
from behind, it can charge into the crop at any point.
The cutting-bars immediately precede the horses, thus
dispensing with the side draught. The endless web is
so contrived that it can lay the corn in a continuous
swathe on either side of the machine, thus opening a
way for it to pass up and down the field at all times
olose to its work. It takes a breadth of 6 ft. 9 in.,
which is very great ; indeed so great, that two horses can-
not readily work it. The machine itself, although re-
duced in size, is still too large and heavy.

Dray and Co.'s " Husscy." — This machine has not
undergone any material improvement during the past
year, except its convertibility into a mowing machine.
The tipping platform is a decided improvement, but it is
not a very recent invention. The delivery is behind,
which is a great hindrance in work, as the corn must be
gathered before it can take a fresh bout. It is the most
compact and lightest reaper we have, and cuts admir-
ably.

Palmer's Union Reaper. — I have frequently seen
this machine in work ; all is done in a truly business-like
manner. The large curved platform has a singular ap-
pearance, and is provided with rollers to assist the rake-
man to effect a good side delivery. I did not observe
anything essentially new this season, and to which I am
trying to confine myself.

Lord Kinnaird's Reaper. — This is the cheapest I
have seen, and works well. It would be rather more at-
tractive if improved in its manufacture. His lordship
has studied economy to a fault.

Wray's Reaper. — This is a one-horse machine, and
came out for competition at the York meeting. It is
similar in form to " Hussey's Machine," aud has also
a similar back delivery. The novelty to be noticed in
this machine is the ingenious arrangement of its cutters,
or rather in its series of knives. These consist of an
endless band or series of cutting edges, in fact an endless
knife, which in passing very rapidly across in front, aud
revolving freely from beneath the frame, cuts its way in
a very business-like manner. The band revolves by
means of two horizontal wheels, one on each side of the
frame. In work, it appeared necessary that the pace
should be quick, otherwise it did not cut well, and
symptoms of clogging were manifest ; and this clogging
was a serious obstruction, as it was not readily relieved.
I saw it tried thrice at York ; and although the pace
was severe, yet the draught in cutting a breadth of 3 ft.
6 in. was not very great for the one horse. Undoubtedly
the endless knife contributed much to lessen the draught,
of course, there being less friction than from the
vibrating motion .of other machines. I was pleased with
the machine and its working as a whole, and believe it to

162

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

possess many points of great usefulness. I wish it every
success. The price, ^"30, is rather high.

MANUFACTURED CATTLE FOOD, i. e., THOR-
LEY'S FOOD FOR CATTLE — BRADLEY'S
FOOD FOR CATTLE.

The manufacture of food for cattle is certainly by no
means new; but as we find our agricultural papers
teeming with advertisements of " Food for Cattle," I
am tempted to look a little into the matter. I do not
pretend to inquire into the mysteries of the food pre-
pared by e/ose^jfe r/torZey, -B.yg., or Mr. Bradley, and
others ; but as these preparations of food are obtaining
considerable notoriety, if not popularity, I may be par-
doned for classing them amongst the new things in agri-
culture, and briefly alluding to them as such.

The great and very important subject which is here
involved is that of animal nutrition. Now as this is
a subject upon which I am free to confess great igno-
rance, I hope to be excused making copious extracts
from a work now before me, and which ought to be in
the hands of every intelligent farmer — " Morton's Cy-
clopajdia of Agriculture." The article written by Pro-
fessor Voelcker is a very talented and instructive one.
He says —

No scientific investigation in which the animal physiologist
engages is more intimately connected with the successful prac-
tice of farming than the inquiry into the processes of nutri-
tion. On the views we entertain with regard to the theory of
nutrition not only depends our success in breeding and rearing
stock and the fattening of animals, but also the economic
management and application of farm-yard manure. The
greatest interest and highest practical importance, therefore,
belong to the beautiful researches with which Mulder, Bous-
singault, Dumas, and particularly Liebig, have made us ac-
quainted. We are bound to acknowledge with gratitude the
services already rendered by these and other philosophers, who
have endeavoured to determine experimentally the relative
value of the different articles of food, and to throw light on
the still mysterious process of nutrition. The bodies of ani-
mals consist principally of the following parts, the composition
of which we must briefly consider : The flesh, or muscles ;
the blood ; the fat ; the skin, hair, or wool.

The fleshy parts, or muscles, of animals consist principally
of muscular fibre, and contain, besides, cellular tissue, nervous
substance, blood and lymphatic vessels, and an acid juice. In
this juice is found a peculiar organic base, called kreotine, also
lactic and inosinic acid, albumen, the sapid or taste-giving in-
gredients of flesh, and inorganic matter, principally salts of
potash and phosphates of lime and magnesia.

Chemically considered, animal bodies may thus be re-
presented as consisting of —

1st. Organic matters free from nitrogen (fat).
2nd. Organic substances rich in nitrogen (fibrin, albu-
men, &c.).
3rd. Inorganic salts (chloride of sodium, phosphate

of lime, salts of potash).
4th. Water.
These constituents the animal can only have derived from
the food with which it is fed, or from the air, in which a
portion at least of the organic elements occur ; but as we all
know that life is not supported by air, the food naturally is
regarded as the source from which the constituent parts' of
the animal body are derived.

Professor Playfair, in another part of this valuable
work on diet, says —

All food may be divided into three groups : —
1st. Flesh-forming substances.
2nd. Heat-giving ingredients.

3rd. Mineral matter for the production of bones and
inorganic ingredients of flesh and blood.
These three groups exist in all kinds of vegetable food
adapted for the nutrition of animals. It is therefore easy
to tabulate the principal substances used for human nutri-
tion, so as to show their relative value.
Apart of which I extract, as showing the composition
100 parts o food as it occurs la commerce —

H
Wis

s s

O— iOOr-it^OO-*03COOOOOiOC£>COM
•^ cp «5 r^ -jti CI O r^ CI Ol CI -*i Ol CD »0 CD »o »^ to

'bt^o-*cbdDcb»b63t^oj<b»bco»oc<Q30!'*

!>. CI <=> CO O t;, iO ip ^ CI O 00 CO CO .-H CI l^ O (M
OC5C;iCV3r^rM0ClMC-]r^OOOMC:iC«C3O

2 H

OC'5 00»OCCHO<=iOtDO.— iOOCD»i-jCDOt>.
O O U3 rO CI -rH CD O 'Q (>. r-i -o O W C-1 O l^ O ^H

i 4t< CO o ^ -^ ■* o oc) c; c] r— 1 o i^ C5 -^ ib o 05

CD i^ CD i^ t^ t^ 00 CD ira '^ CI .

1 .-H »-, CO o

OOOOO— (MMOOOr-iCC-fOOiOCOOm
<pipOCDt:--0D-*-;fOO-*-JtiCpr7-CDl;-.'O<OC0

t^ 02 -r :»•: o ;it »b CI oo "^ — ^ Ai

,— ( r~( (— 1 — ■ .— 1 CI CI CI

< C3 --1 r-l C2 O O

The column exhibiting the amount of flesh-forming prin-
ciples in the food is a very close approximation to the
true nutritive value.

I have taken these extracts with the view of showing
that in the hands of a good practical chemist a prepara-
tion or compound of ingredients made from the above
articles of food named, and other sources, may consti-
tute one of our most valuable resources for the fattening
of cattle and the nutrition of other animals. I am
generous enough to give Messrs. Thorley, Bradley, and
others, credit for making the attempt to provide for this
want in our new order of things. I regret that just at
this moment I cannot lay my hand upon any analysis of
the locust or Carib bean, which is so generally well
spoken of, as adding nutritive value to many compounds.
I presume these manufacturers of cattle food well know
its value ; for if one might judge from olfactory exami-
nation, it forms no inconsiderable portion of their
mixtures. I find no fault with their prepared or " in-
vented" food, their " invaluable compound" " invented
by the sole proprietor," &c. : I believe them to be good
and serviceable ; all I desire is to guard my brother-
farmers against " paying too much for their whistle."
Thorley's Food is sold in cases containing 448 packages,
each package one feed, at a cost of 56s. per case, or the
same quantity in casks at 50s. Bradley sells his horse
and cattle food at 42s. per cwt.,and his pig food at 24s.
per cwt. Mr. Thorley does not give us the weight of
his packages. I am now purchasing barley-meal at 10s.
6d. per cwt., the best linseed-cake at 10s. 6d. per cwt.,
and Carib beans at 8s. 6d, per cwt. These are really
great contrasts in price ; but of course I do not compare
their relative values with these new things in agricul-
ture ; in fact I know nothing about them, more parti-
cularly as to their composition. Those samples coming
under my examination appeared to consist of a rather
coarse flour of a yellowish colour, having the peculiar
rancid smell of the Carib bean alluded to above. I
have no doubt whatever that a judicious admixture of
Indian corn-meal (maize), barley, bean, pea, or oat
meals, together with Caiib bean or linseed-meal, and
similar substances, does constitute a good article of food,
of highly nutritious and fattening quality. My aim in
forwarding this paper will be fully answered if it should
lead any of your readers to make full inquiry as to th
nature of these kinds of food, and their value, befor
making their purchases.

THE FARxMER'S MAGAZINE.

163

M ILK.

[tPvANSLATED from the FRENCH.]

ORDINARY MILK— THE MILK OF SPAYED COWS.

Notwithstanding the impoi'tant place milk occupies as an
article of diet, nothing is more common than milk of poor
quality. The conditions under which milk is produced ex-
plain the rareness of good milk.

If we examine the milk of a certain number of cows in
the country, we find united, 1st, the milk of cows that calved
ten, fitteen, twenty, or thirty days previous ( ■'). 2nd. The
milk of cows in heat, and essentially prejudicial to health.
3rd. The milk of cows with calf (t). 4th, and as an ex-
ception. A small quantitjr of good milk — that is, milk from
cows that have calved five or six weeks previous, and which
are neither in heat nor in a state of gestation. It is there-
fore seen that milk is in most part of mediocre quality,
or of a nature unfavourable in respect to hj-giene : and yet
this milk, furnished by farmers, surpasses by far the milk
from cows kept in stables in the city.

The condition under which cows in city stables are kept
produces another cause, grave, serious, which greatly adds
to the poor quality of milk above designated — we mean
pulmonary consumption, by which a large number of cows
are attacked. Has it not been stated, in fact, by veterinary
physicians, that one-half at least of the cows kept in stables
in Paris are phthisical ?

Is it not evident that such milk is not only deprived of
its nutritive qualities, but is very injurious to health? and
the water, which in the retail is added to this milk, as-
suredly does not redeem the original vices.

lu regard to the alterations in milk arising from the man-
ner in which the cows producing it are kept, it is difficult
to estimate them, otherwise than by their taste. As to
milk diluted with water, consumers can easily prove this
fraud. A first means consists in the employment of a small
instrument, simple and of small cost, called galactometer or
milk weigher. Plunged into the milk, it indicates exactly,
by its divisions, the quantity of water which has been
added, whether a quarter, or a third, or a half; for it is not
rare that milk is diluted in the latter proportion ! Or a
certain quantity of milk may be left, to remain for six or
eight liours, in a cylindrical glass vase called a gauge, or in
an ordinary glass : after this lapse of time, the cream which
has risen to the surface, and which is distinguished by its
colour, reveals by its thickness, and sUll more by the resis-
tance it presents on touching it, the butter quality of the
milk, that is, its richness in the principles proper for the
extraction of butter.

In the establishment we have founded in Paris under
the na,me oi ^'' Dock modele de la vie a bon marche {X),^'' the
trade in milk has extended considerably. Although the
Bock delivers to consumers milk which is obtained from the
country only, and rejects the milk which hirns in the opera-
tion of boiling, it is often complained that the milk bought
of the Dock has turned. We will take this opportunity to
observe, that the best and purest milk will turn under the
influence of a change of temperature, improper care, and the
employment of an improper pan or vase, etc. (§) ; that the
administration of the £)oc/c might prevent the decomposition,
accidental moreover, of its milk by adding water, oi- the
bicarbonate of soda ; but this establishment, limiting itself
to selling pure milk, leaves it to the consumer to add these
articles.

As it is in bad spirit to indicate an evil without pointing

* It is known that cows' milk is not good for domestic use till
a montli or five weeks after calving ; and it is well known that
farmers put away their calves eight or ten days after birth.

+ This milk generally predominates, as it is common to milk
into the sixth and even into the seventh month ol gestation,

% Rue de Croissant, No. 44, Paris.

§ One precaution we would recommend ; that is, to avoid
placing the milk over a blazing Are, but to submit it to the action
of a mild fire.

out the remedy ; and, having proved the poor and often
bad qualities of ordinary milk, we are happy to speak of
milk of an excellent quality, which is yet unknown to con-
sumers, and of which the Dock modele de la vie a bon marche
has the honour of popularizing the use.

THE MILK OF SPAYED COWS.

This milk is produced from cows which, after the fifth or
sixth gestation, and five or six weeks after calving, under-
go an operation which consists in the ablation of the ovaries,
thus rendering the cows henceforth incapable of reproduc-
tion (*), From this time, as happens in regard to the ox,
the animal changes m nature, and its milk, which we have
named milk of spayed {^lait de beuvonnes), is free from all
perturbations. The spayed cow does not undergo those
disturbances arising from being in heat, from gestation, and
parturition ; she is free from those causes which produce
such evil effects in the quality of milk.

In this new condition of the cow her milk becomes regu-
lated, and — which is important to the farmer — lactation is
maintained in full quantity for a year at least, and is pro-
longed, diminishing in quantity but increasing in quality,
two and even three years, when she is not too old and is
properly kept. When lactation has ceased, the cow, which
has, by a quiet and reposed life, become considerably in-
creased in flesh, may be delivered to the butcher in perfect
condition, and the meat is superior to that of ordinary cows.
By generalizing the spaying of cows after the fifth or sixth
gestation, there would be introduced into common use milk
of an irreproachable quality.

The milk of spayed cows gives more cream than ordinary
milk ; it is also richer in casein, which constitutes — a fact
generally unknown — the most nourishing part of milk.
Hence the superior quality of the milk. The butter extrac-
ted directly from the milk is delicious in taste : it testifies
to the amount and richness of the casein it contains.
This milk offers precious resources for the artificial nursing
of infants : it might be asserted that they will be better
nourished ; for the nourishment of infants, who give it the
preference over other milk (t), we do not doubt that the
milk of spayed cows will be principally used.

Such is the milk which the Dock de la vie a bon marche now
introduces for consumption.

This milk, the production of which for a long time yet
will be far from meeting the wants of those who appreciate
its excellent qualities, sells for a higher price than ordinary
milk ; for it is necessary to pay a higher price to the
farmer either to overcome, by the advantage offered them,
the resistance which routine always opposes to the best
discoveries, or to compensate for the risk of mortality
which the cow undergoes in the operation of spaying.

If, as we doubt not, the milk of spayed cows takes the
place in domestic economy it should occupy^ the Dock is as-
sured of satisfying gradually the exigencies of the consump-
tion, by the numerous operations it is causing to be made
from the present time. Delamarre,

Proprietor of the Dock modele de la vie a bon marclie.

* The spaying of cows was known in remote antiquity. In
modern times the practice of this operation, with the design of
increasing the quality of the milk of cows, dates back but about
twenty-five years. It was applied with advantage in the produc-
tion of milk in 1830, by Mr. Winn, of Natchez, Mississippi, U. S.;
but Mr. Winn and his successors proceeded by the cesarian opera-
tion, which presented serious difficulties, and was often followed
by the death of the animal. At the present time, by a pro-
ceeding recently discovered, a skilful veterinary surgeon, M.
Charlier, executes this operation without an external incision, and
renders the chances of mortality much less.

t All persons who are in the habit of tasting milk, readily re-
cognize the milk of spayed cows by its more unctuous and
sweeter taste.

164

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

STALL FEEDING OF CATTLE.

The recent discussions in the Farmers' Club House in
London on the subject of farm buildings, and more es-
pecially of the parts that are destined to accommodate
the fattening of cattle, having terminated in no special
adoption or recommendation on that point, I am induced
to make a few observations on the subject, as it is a part
of arrangement of a very chief importance in the de-
signing of improved farmeries. I have ever been of opi-
nion that open yards with shelter sheds form the best
accommodation for fatting animals, and I perceive that
Mr. Baker, of Writtle, is of the same opinion, after all
that has been spoken and v?ritten on the subject. I am
pleased with Mr. Baker's judgment, as his authority
weighs heavily on all points of enlightened agriculture.
It is impossible to see what advantage an animal con-
fined in a box or single stall can enjoy over two, three,
or four together in an open yard provided with a shelter
shed, racks for straw, and cribs for roots. I remember
having seen, nearly thirty years ago, a feeding shed with
single boxes, on the farm of Wark, near Coldstream, on
the English side of the Tweed, which was designed and
used by the celebrated Culleys, who for a long time
flourished on that farm. The turnips were given to the
animal through ii spout-hole in the front wall, and the
space barely allowed the beast to turn round, who could
enjoy no exercise. The position was dull, cold, and un-
comfortable, and the plan never advanced into use, and
was not approved even on the farm where it was seen.

Two of the largest-sized animals of any breed are
most beneficially provided in an open yard with a shel-
ter shed, and three or four of the medium-sized will do
equally well in that accommodation. The aspect of the
yards must front the southern hemisphere, and be shone
upon by the sun during some hours of the day. When
filled with meat, the beasts lie down and bask in the yard
in fine weather ; and during rains and storms, retire into
the shed, and repose undisturbed and under shelter. In
wet and stormy countries, it will be advantageous that
the animals eat under cover of the shed, and for this
purpose it is contrived that a railway runs along the wall
of the sheds, and discharges the turnips through spout-
holes in the wall into the cribs placed in the shed ; but
in most cases the roots are placed in cribs with latticed
bottoms, and the straw in an open rack.

Two, three, or four beasts of any size are most con-
veniently fattened in this way ; but with Scotch cattle a
different arrangement is required. The larger breeds
may be treated as English cattle ; but the small beasts,
called Kyloe or the West Highland cattle, of which there
are several varieties, are so very restless in temper and
pugnacious in disposition, that the tying system in stalls
becomes eligible, and even imperatively necessary. These
animals require to be wintered for two years — the first,
they may run in an open yard and shed in six, eight, or
ten together, and be half fattened on untopped turnips
and straws in racks ; the second, the beasts are tied to
stalls in double treviscs, and are fully fed with topped
turnips, beginning in November, and will be finished in
March and April. The very small Highland cattle may
be fattened la yards, but the Argyle and Dunrobie
breeds require to be tied in stalls. And with this view
every feeding farm should be provided with a fattening
shed along with the open yards for the purpose.

A yard, including the shed, of 60, 70, or 80 feet long
and 30 wide, will accommodate 2, 3, or 4 beasts, as it

may be built. The shed is 20 feet wide, and has a
square front opening of 12 feet. The bottom slopes
outwards, in order to provide a dry bed, by discharging all
moisture to the yard ; the roof is filled with loose straw
from the level of the walls to the top ridge, supported
by beams apart at the necessary distances. This filling
prevents the cold of the otherwise empty space ; and the
openings of the loose straw allows the passage of air,
without the close confinement of a ceiled roof. The
bottom of the yards slopes to the gateway in the interior
of the farmery, to which the urine falls, and escapes in
an open gutter to the south front of the farmery, where,
being received by an iron grate into a covered drain, it
is conveyed to a tank, and absorbed by earths, or pre-
pared as liquid manure. 13ut the strawy litter of the
yards will in most cases absorb all the urinary freces ;
and, after all that has been said and written on the sub-
ject of liquid manure, the best use of it is in that way.
I have for many years advocated the cutting into short
lengths of all straws used for litter ; that the yards be
thinly and frequently strewn with the cut straw ; and
that mixed excrements be all lifted and carried in a
fresh condition to the prepared land for turnips, be
covered in broadcast by one ploughing, and subse-
quently mixed with the soil by the workings of Finlay-
son's harrow lengthwise and crosswise. Fresh dung is
superior in effect to the mixen of fermented heaps : the
specific caloric, or animal heat, of freshly voided faeces
is much more efficacious than the production of artificial
fermentation. Whatever the cause may be, the fact is
certain.

The proposed design of roofing over the entire
farmery, like the terminus of a railway, may not be
eligible for the purposes of agriculture. The exclusion
of the rays of the sun will render the whola area cold
and ungenial ; and it seems necessary that the warmth
of that luminary be applied to all objects of organized
life. An open yard, for necessary heat and occasional
exercise, with a shed, to which to retire for shelter from
rains and storms, appears to be the best arrangement
that has yet occurred.

The very superior quality of the turnips and the
straws over Scotland and the North of England fattens
into prime beef the cattle of these countries, and no
variety of food is ever proposed. In South Britain
other kinds of food are used, which require boxes to
be placed in the yards or sheds, from which the beasts
can eat the meat. The shed may afford a cover for that
purpose.

The piggery and poultry yards are best in being
wholly disjoined from the farmery, and placed on some
side of it, or in the south front, as the walls are low,
and the buildings will not exclude the sun from the
yards that are behind. An excellent yard for store pigs
may adjoin the stable, where the strawy litter, with hot
faeces of the horse, affords a most agreeable bed to the
swine ; and a valuable manure is compounded with the
cold and saponaceous excrements of the pig with the
dry and hot feeces of the horse. The winter food may
be roots and raw potatoes ; and during summer, clovers
and vetches. The animals will be in good readiness to
be transferred to the feeding-sties of the piggery,
wherein, two together, the fattening process is finished
for bacon. J. D.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

165

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW.

Dear Sir, — The stimulus given to the agriculture of
this country by the efforts of the various societies of the
kingdom, aud amongst them especially those of the
Smithfield Club, is by no means alone displayed in im-
provements in the breeds of cattle, sheep, and pigs,
wonderful as this has been the last few years. I may
go further, and say, that in the invention and improve-
ment of agricultural machinery, and in the application
of new mechanical powers (if steam and railroads can
be called mechanical) to the processes of agriculture,
the progress made has not only kept pace with, but has
far outstripped, during the last ten or fifteen yeai's, that
made in the breeding and fattening of animals for the
slaughterhouse. In some respects, I cannot see any
great improvement upon the efforts of Bakewell and the
Collins', who by dint of that discernment, united to a
confidence in their own judgment, which few amongst
us are fortunate enough to possess, arrived at perfec-
tion, or nearly so, by what may be truly called " a
royal road," and produced cattle and sheep quite equal,
in point of symmetry, compactness, quality of flesh,
and smallness of bone, to those of the present day. The
chief improvement I discover is in that wonderful pre-
cocity which distinguishes the several kinds and breeds
of animals, and which, however advantageous to the
grazier and breeder — and 1 may add, in some respects,
to the public in general, by affording a larger supply
of meat — it is still a question whether the quality of
precocious beef or mutton is equal to that which has had
a reasonable time to arrive at maturity. Certain it is
that our neighbours the French are glorifying them-
selves on the superiority of their beef, to that which
John Bull himself can now boast.* It is true, 1 don't
give them all the credit they thus claim ; for although I
have never been across the channel to eat " ros-bif" in
that country ; as an old farmer and grazier I can form
some judgment of what sort of " bif" it must be, that
is furnished by a five-year-old bullock, who during at
least three of those years has been employed in doing all
the dirty work of the farm, to the hardening of his muscle
and the impoverishment of the mucous- membrane
and the j bices of the body. This is not the question
raised ; but whether a bullock of four or five years old,
who has lived a gentleman's life t the whole lime, does
not furnish better and more savoury meat than one of
two years, at which age so many are now killed ? The
same reasoning applies to sheep as well as bullocks, and
has much truth in it ; but we must still consider the
modern system of breeding and grazing a vast im-
provement. By it we raise a weight of meat in two
years as great as was formerly done in four, so that the
quantity brought to market is doubled, and the increas-
ing demand met, without a proportionate increase in
the number of animals.

In respect, however, to the advance made in agricul-
tural machinery, there can be but one opinion — that it
has been rapid and beneficial. The exhibition at Baker-
street was calculated to strike a stranger with astonish-
ment at the wonderfully inventive powers of man in the
construction and perfection of the steam-engine and its

* See the " Joiirual d'Agriculture Pratique," of Nov. 5,
1857.

t A negro in the West Indies was asked to define the
word " geutleman." " I s'pose," said he, " dat de pig is de ouy
gentleman." "How so. Sambo?" "Why, you see, massa
work, niissie work, oberseer work, horse work, nigger work;
all work but de pig — derefore de pig is de only gentleman."

application to the various operations of the farm. The
" reaper,'' too, with Burgess and Key's addition of the
Archimedean screw, which so greatly facilitates the bind-
ing of the sheaves, is an extraordinary effort of genius ;
and Boydell's steam-plough and traction-engine is the
crowning application of the monter-power ;* and what-
ever room there may be for improvement in its con-
struction, the principle of steam-ploughing is beyond
a doubt established, and its adoption on large farms at
no distant day is certain. These two machines, the
American reaper and the steam-plough, may be consi-
dered the most important additions to the furniture of
a farm, as facilitating and shortening the time of labour
at those periods when time is of so much value to the
farmer. The plough will also liberate the horses of the
farm, to be employed upon other work, without inter-
fering with the tillage.

In passing through the machinery department of the
Show, a person who, like myself, can look back to the
state of the farmer's stock of implements at the com-
mencement of the present century, cannot but compare
the lightness of the labour of the farm now with the
onerous toil of that period. It is not saying too much,
I think, to assert that one-third more work can be done
now with the same number of hands, and that the land
therefore receives one-third more tillage than formerly,
in the course of the year. This will undoubtedly in-
crease the produce, as well as place the labourer in a
better condition by superseding the heavier work per-
formed heretofore by hand. If this extended only to
the two departments of the flail and the sickle, it would
hav3 conferred a large boon upon the labourer ; for I
can testify, from experience, that nothing tried the
strength of a man more than the barn-labour and reap-
ing ; although the latter, from its short duration, and
the good living incident to harvest time, was less per-
manently wasteful of the labourer's strength than
thrashing.

But the lightening of labour is not confined to these
two departments. Every old implement used upon the
farm has been so improved as to render the use of it less
laborious ; whilst innumerable neio ones have been in-
vented, all tending to the same result of ecoiiomizing
the strength of the operator, or of superseding it alto-
gether by the application of machinery. I might refer
to the chaff-cutters, the corn-dressers and screeners, the
root-cutters and raspers, the haymaking-machines, with
numerous others, by which the work of the farm is per-
formed with so much less of manual labour, and in less
time than formerly. The effect of this will be sensibly
felt in a few years ; not only in the greater produce of
the land, but in extending the average period of the
labourer's efficiency, aud rendering his old age less
painful and burthensome to himself, and to society less
useless.

It is very evident that the implement department is
becoming too large for the place of exhibition. As to
taking a systematic and critical survey, or even a cur-
sory examination of the various machines exhibited, there

* It is a singular coiucidence that a friend of mine, col-
nected with the Board of Public Works, iu Dublin, suggested,
six years ago, to an engineer, the very plan that Boydell has
earned iato eflfect. The engineer doubted whether the shoes
would not fly off when the machine was in motion, and my
friend thought no more of the matter. This, however, does
not affect Boydell's claim to originality, as he knew nothing of
the affair.

166

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

was not room for it, even if the place had been clear of visi-
tors. But, with such a crowd as attended on the two days
I was there, it was impossible to examine any one machine
so as to form any competent judgment of its efficiency ;
and I gave up the task in perfect despair, and could
only walk through the rooms and admire the perfection
of the workmanship of the several machines, and ffuess
at their adaptation to the work for which they are de-
signed. This is the only fault attached to the Show,
but it is a great and groiving one ; for every year adds
to the number of the specimens exhibited, whilst the
bulkiness of many of them requires a much larger space
to display their capabilities.

Whether the present site of the Exhibition is the best
adapted to the purpose that can be obtained, is a ques-

tion I do not feel competent to 'decide ; but there is a
plot of ground in the centre of the metropolis which
might be devoted to that purpose, if it is attainable. I
refer to Old Smithfield, where an ample building might
be erected suitable to the Show, and applicable to other
uses during the rest of the year. I understand that a por-
tion of the ground is to be appropriated to a dead meat
market, but there would still be abundance of room for
a Smithfield Club " Crystal Palace." Such a
building would reflect honour upon the Club, and I
think might be managed so as to yield an ample return
for the capital expended.

Yours truly,
An Old Norfolk Farmer.
London, Dec. 15, 1857.

FEEDING OF CATTLE.

I felt happy in seeing the question mooted in your paper of
the 9th instant, " What shall we do with our sprouted wheat ?"
It is one which I am very certain has been too much neglected
since the disastrous harvest of 1856, when so much of that
valuable cereal was rendered unfit for the usual appliance to
human food. Having uaed grains, especially oats and barley,
for ssveral years in the fiuishing-oft" my fattening cattle, gene-
rally using this artificial food three months before selling, and
always found its use profitable; even when cattle were as low
as 83. a Dutch stone, I considered it a profit to use these
grains, when oats were under 203., and barley 243. per quarter,
for the respective standard weights of 40 Iba. and 53 lbs. per
bushel. I have often remonstrated with my agricultural
friends on the folly of using oilcake at £11 and £12 per ton,
when erain. was at these rates, especially when in most seasons
from late districts they can both be purchased at lightweights,
say 36 lbs. and 43 lbs., thus reducing the price. While I draw
attention to these inferior qualities, I may state that I never
found it a loss to use the very beat quality of both, as when good
I got it cut with mill stones, without drying, and thus lost uo
weight. Having a corn mill of my own, I doubtless possess a
facility for stuffs to mix the cut grains with, which others,
differently situated, may not so easily obtain ; but this is very
secondary, as I conceive cut straw, chaff, and husks of oats
got from a corn mill quite suitable : better than either, bran
would suit the practice admirably. My own practice has been
to give either meal seeds, which sell at 5d. a stone, or corn
dust, which can be had at 4d. a stoue. The meal seeds, beini?
sweeter, is taken with more avidity ; but when ouce cattle
commence with thetn, I find no difficulty in getting them to
take dust when given instead. Just now, my milch cows are
all getting cut wheat, with dust, while the fattening cattle are
upon the seeds. The immense importance of such a feed over
oilcake is, that you save so many turnips. Wheu feeding off
cattle in the early spring months, I have given as few as one-
fourth the quantity of turnips an ox would eat, when not sup-
plemented ; in such a case, giviug water once a day. I may
hriefly state my own mode^of treating the cattle. When they
are put up in October they get for two weeks turnips alone,
fed thrice a day ; after such time I give one feed of cut grain,
either oats, barley, wheat, or rye. I have frequently used Iriah
meal, when it could be bought not over SOs. a load. The
quantity of cut grain allowed at first, 3 lbs. a feed, mixed with
iiearly a stable pailiul of meal-seeds or corn-dust. The cost of
such feed at present, taking wheat, rye, or barley at SOs.,
will not exceed 4^d., and, I may mention that cattle thus fed
will do as much in three weeks as in a month if on turnips
alone. I always give it dry \ at first it was made into brose,
but I find the cattle take it more readily dry, and it seems to
do equally well, if not better, with them : let it be under-
stood, this food serves wholly for the usual supply of turnips
at this time of feeding. When scarce of turuips I give the
grain feed twice, and turnips once, thus saving two-thirds
turnips ; and if having sufficient straw for littering and eating,
i can feed three cattle for one ; and 1 am very certain that
when I raise the grain-feed to 3^ lbs., and give twice a day,

and once turnips, I can fatten twice as fast as on turnips alone.
My stalls for the food are flag stones, so no trough is required
to give the food in ; the cattle-man just sweeps it clean with a
wisp of straw, and when thus occupied, never have you seen
horses more restive for their oats when hearing the corn-chest
opened, than the cattle for this their dainty food. I have all
my milch cows just now in a flow of milk on the same rations.
In their case I give the corn dust instead of the meal-seeds ; it
is cheaper and more plentiful. I consider it a cow is giving
8 quarts, it is profitable to feed her thus, either once or twice
on grain, as you may deem fit. You will secure 11 or 12
quarts instead, have the butter sweet and free of turnip taste,
and, on a cold frosty morning, have the satisfaction in seeing
your cows eating with comfort, instead of trembling over
a mass of frosty turnips. When cows are becoming dry, or
when the flow of milk gets below the said minimum quantity,
it is the better way not to force, unless the cow be not in calf;
ia that case feed on as high as you please, for cows milk to the
last and lay on very fine beef too. Your correspondent '•' S."
refers to analyses of cereal grains in Professor Johnston's
Elements of Ar/ricultural Chemistry. I had my attention
drawn to the very pages he notices from seeing the sprouted
wheat selling at so low a price, as well as good rye; the rye
is not priced by your correspondent, bat it will be found to
possess feeding properties in its analysis just about equal to
wheat. Since seeing this, I have been using in the very same
way rye and sprouted wheat in equal parts, in the exact mode
as I have detailed. For two months my cattle feeding and
milk cows have been thus treated, and my cattle-man says it
is suiting better than the oats or barley, and the dairymaid has
no complaints of a lessened supply of milk. Now, at the
ruinously low rates of wheat (some of last year's crop I bought
as low as 24s., it weighing only 53 lbs., and rye at present
is only 223. to 233. per 531b3. weight), I maintain it is
madness to sell a bushel, and use turnips even at the
moderate rate of 6s. a ton. In my experiments I have never
taken into account the increased value of manure, which is
very great wheu the byres are cleaned out from cattle so fed ;
the discharge of urine is found less by one-half, and the
pungency of the atmosphere clearly proves the gjreat increase
of ammonia. Apart from this profit I am certain that if beef
does not fall below 6d. a pound to the farmer, in selling his
fat cattle, it is his profit to use oats, if not above 203. per
qr., at per bush, of 40 lbs., barley 263. 53 lbs., wheat 363.
62 lbs., rye 283. 56 lbs., rather than give full turnips at
6s. per ton, and I question if many turnips this season are
being consumed at so low a figure, l^ast season, wheu wheat
was very wet, I had it kiln-dried before being cut ; as unless so,
it would have got musty, unless cut very frequently. I may
mention a caution very much needed, however, in feeding with
oats or oatmeal ; the oats possess an alkaline character different
from the other grains, and the cattle fed on them are very
liable to get hoven, so much so, that I could never leave them
for two hours after being fed with turnips, the first feed sub-
sequent to the grain feed When feeding with the oats, I had
almost daily to use turpentine to suppress hoven, which is a

THEIFARMER'S MAGAZINE,

167

decided objection to using them at least oftener than once a
day, in order to have the stomach clear as possible of the oats;
my system being-, to give them the last feed in the afternoon,
and then no turnips till next morning. This I proved obviated
the danger very much ; still not altogether. It uffords me
great pleasure, however, to state, ivith confidence, that there is
not the slightest fear of this hoven from feeding with the wheat
and rye, or either alone. There is a further recommeudatiou
of the wheat I may mention — the cattle seem to prefer it to
anything else — I mean any other grains ; and I feel quite
satisfied your correspondent is right when adverting to the
improved condition of the wheat for feeding by being sprouted.
In conclusion, it must be patent to every one who has tried it
that the saving in turnips by using oilcake at a cost of 4d. to
5d. a feed is trifling, while in issuing the grain it is immense.
By using one feed of grain, you not only get the value of the
nutriment it contains, but by retaining the turnips longer
under the absorbent action of the intestines you extract more
nutriment from them than when using them alone. I have
never tried the grain for young cattle, but am satisfied it would
suit well, and be preferable, because less expensive than the
oilcake you often wisely recommend, instead of full allowance
of turnips to young cattle. In conclusion, I will add my own
experience on hoven. To any who may try oats or oatmeal.

and be damaged by the swelling, give two or more glass-
fuls of turpentine, in a half-bottle of linseed oil, taking care to
shake the whole well together. This, if given early, is quite a
specific. This dose is sufficient for an animal of 50 imperial
stones. This subject I have once and again, for two years past,
desired, through your paper, to lay before my agricultural
brethren ; perhaps I had not yet given my experience but lor
the article of your correspondent " S." of the 9th instant.
Whatever value may attach to my experience, in making
damaged grain of more value to many who unfortunately pos-
sess it, I shall feel very thankful for that. I by no rneana
restrict its use to damaged grain, but to any, the soundest
of it, ranging within those limits I have specified, and beef
worth 73. per imperial stone. My remarks, I feel, have
lengthened out on my hand far beyond anticipation. I only
fear they are too lengthy for insertion.

William Johnston.

Mill of Kincardine,lOth Bee, 1857.

P.S— From what I have said above, those conversant with
fattening cattle will not need to be told that beef thus fed not
only is esteemed highly by butchers, but they will actually, if
they know, buy them higher, the internal fat being much more
plenty. — North British Agriculturist.

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS, AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES.

Our readers are probably well nigh tired of what is called
the " Broughton Astley Surveyor's Case," a further develop-
ment of which is recorded in our columns this week ; but
we must ask them to bear with us yet again for a little
while. The questions involved in the case are of the
highest importance ; and as the subject will have next
session to be discussed in parliament, the case before us in
all probability serving for a text, we are desirous that the
public should be fully informed upon its merits.

By the Act 5 and 6 Wm. IV., cap. 50, the inhabitants
of all rural parishes are obliged to elect from among them-
selves every year, a person to fill the office of surveyor of
highways. The qualification for the office is the possession
of freehold property to the amount of £10, a personal estate
of £100, or the occupation of premises worth £20 per year.
Every person not excused by law from serving the office of
overseer of the poor, is liable to be elected parish surveyor.
Being elected, if he refuse to act, he incurs a penalty of
£20. The person elected will generally be more or less in-
competent for the office, because the making and repairing
of roads is no more to be understood without previbus study
and experience than any other business ; but it is devolved
indiscriminately on the village blacksmith, the carpenter,
some one of the half-dozen farmers in the parish, or mine
host of the Black Lion, all and sundry of whom are by the
law deemed equally capable. The newly-elected surveyor
has his own ideas of road reform, and at once proceeds to
carry them into effect. Here, however, he incurs a serious
responsibility. The same act of parliament which obliges
him to accept an oflrce for which he is utterly unqualified,
says that if he neglect his duties, or fail to fulfil them pro-
perly, he shall be liable to a fine of £5. If, in his anxiety
to avoid the consequences of neglect, he should overstep
the just medium, and, instead of doing too little, do a little
too much, then any ratepayer who may happen to think
his rate a penny in the pound too high, or who may have a
personal enmity to the surveyor, may object to his accounts
when they are brought, as they must be, to be verified by
the magistrates. These, in the exercise of their discretion,
may think too much has been done, or that what has been
done has been paid for too dearly, and they can at once
disallow such items as they consider objectionable ; the
effect of which disallowance is, that the man who un-
willingly took an office for the good of the public, for which
he felt himself incompetent, and then tried to do his best
in it, is exactly the sum of those items out of pocket, and
from such decision, upon whatever insufficient grounds it
may be arrived at, however (in some cases it may be dic-
tated by personal ill-will), there lies no appeal to any court
in the universe.

Such being the state of the law in March, 1856, Mr.
Thomas Pougher Greenway was elected under its pro-
visions to fill the office of surveyor of highways for the
parish of Broughton Astley. He seems to have been an
energetic gentleman, and to have commenced a vigorous
effort for the improvement of the roads which had been
placed under his charge. Work cannot be done for
nothing ; and it naturally followed that a pretty heavy bill
was incurred. Mr. Greenway's year of office terminated
last March, and either himself or his friends were anxious
he should be re-elected ; but, whether from a feeling that
he had led the parish into too large an expenditure, or from
some other cause, he was opposed, and, as the result of the
poll, another gentleman named Johnson was elected, bj^ a
majority of oG. On the 9th of April Mr. Greenway
attended before the Lutterworth bench, represented on that
occasion by the Rev. J. P. Marriott and D. R. Jones, Esq.,
to verifj' his accounts. They were objected to, and the
further consideration of the subject was adjourned till the
20th. On that day the case was gone into : a number of
witnesses were examined to prove that the work done
under Mr. Greenway's directions was unnecessarj^ or badly
executed ; evidence to the contrary was also called, and the
consideration of the case again adjourned till the 1st of
May, in order that in the mean time the magistrates might
see the work and judge for themselves. Accordingly, on
the 28th, they went over to Broughton Astley, and spent
two hours in inspecting the work. On the 1 st of May the
question was again gone into at Lutterworth, when
evidence was given at great length in favour of Mr. Green-
way. The magistrates again adjourned the case without
coming to a decision. On the 14th they gave judgment,
announcing that they had com6 to the determination of
disallowing certain items in Mr. Greenway's accounts, to
the aggregate amount of £80 15s. 2d.

The accounts were then passed, with the following
differences in the items of expenditure : —

P, . ,. Amount of accounts Amounts

Description. ^^ originally presented. allowed.

Manual labour £106 5 11 .... £78 4 11

Materials 85 7 0 .... 77 19 7

Tradesmen's bills 75 6 0 .... 39 4 4

Team labour 52 7 11.^ .... 48 7 11.^

Other payments 23 5 6" .... 18 0 6"

Amount disallowed .

£261 17 21
80 15 2'

£342 12 U £342 12 4h

Mr. Greenway was naturally taken somewhat .aback, and

168

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

declined to hand over the money. An appeal was made to
the Quarter Sessions held in Leicester, in July, upon which
the chairman decided that the court had no jurisdiction.
The case was subsequently brought before Mr. Justice
Wightman, at chambers, but only one result was possible,
and as the conclusion of the whole matter, Mr. Greenway
has just paid the sum of £112 lis. : what his own legal
expenses may be of course we have no means of knowing.

Having thus given a brief resume of the case, we have
no intention to dispute the decision of the magistrates.
They had a difficult duty to perform, and no doubt decided
to the best of their skill and judgment ; but we would ask,
Does not a law which permits such a state of things to
arise, manifestly need a revision ? We regretted the
sudden abandonment of the bill brought in last session, by
Mr. Under-Secretary Massey, because we conceived its

provisions to be in the main admirably fitted to accomplish
their object. It will be remembered that this measure pro-
posed the consolidation of parishes, and the appointment of
a district board, partly elective and partly ex officio, to be
responsible for the highways of the district, over which
they were to appoint a professional surveyor. The prin-
cipal exceptions taken to Mr. Massey's bill related to the
ex officio members, who in some cases would have been all,
or nearly all, clergymen, and who would have completely
out-voted the elective members. In the new measure
promised next session, we trust provision will be made to
secure to the latter at least an equality of votes on the dis-
trict boards ; and it is a serious question for consideration
whether the clerical element should be introduced at all,
except perhaps in the case of clerical magistrates.—
Leicester Journal.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE WINTER POULTRY SHOW.

TheCrystalPalaceatSydenhamhasbeeneverfaoQOUsfor
its musical attractions. Mr. Mann's excellent band still
daily perform the gems of the best composers of all na-
tions. The recollections of the great Handel Festival
are still fresh in the memory of those who at-
tended it; and there are yet to be seen, in
the central transept, the great amphitheatre and the
gigantic organ used on that memorable occasion. But
we doubt whether, in the musical annals of the Palace,
great and glorious as they are, there is to be found an
occasion when so many instruments were heard at the
same time, and kept so long and continuous a roar,
as can now from dawn till dusk be heard in that
huge greenhouse. To make the concert perfect,
there are only two things wanted : Mr. Mann
is not present, with his baton, to lead the
noisy orchestra, and tlie performers have evidently for-
gotten to tune their whistles. But every note — natural,
flat, and sharp — is there to be heard, from the deep
ophicleides and double bass of the Cochins and Bramali
Pootras to the shrill piccolos of the bantams — from the
trumpets oi the ducks and geese to the bassoon modu-
lations of the turkeys and the hautboys of the pigeons
— every sound is intoned, keeping a perpetual roar,
that dins in one's ears for many hours after leaving the
scene of this noisy festival.

To lovers of poultry , and even to the uninitiated public,
who merely admire size, form, and plumage, the pre-
sent exhibition ofters a rare treat, for it is as complete as
it is varied and large ; and as to excellence and perfec-
tion, we have heard several exhibitors, boasting of
great experience in these matters, declare that it has
never been excelled, if ever equalled.

To give an idea of the immense number of fowls now
congregated in the long and spacious gallery situated at
the south extremity of the Palace, we subjoin an ab-
stract of the various classes, and the number of birds
exhibited in each.

Classes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd compose the Spanish, of
which there are 90 old birds, 147 young ones hatched
in 1857, and 17 single cocks; altogether 254 birds.

This valuable breed is very well represented ; but,
notwithstanding their excellence, when compared with
English game and Dorking breeds, they sink into com-
parative inferiority, yielding the palm of elegance to the
one, and of size, compactness, and weight to the other.

The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th classes comprise the
Dorkings, which have never yet justified to so full an
extent the well- deserved popularity they enjoy. For
well-proportioned bulk, weight, delicacy of plumage,
and well-harmonized outlines of shape, this admirable
breed is second to none,in the world ; and their extraor-

dinary muster at the Crystal Palace exhibition clearly
shows the advantages resulting from their being bred at
our farmsteads and around our cottages. It may be pro-
claimed as the English breed of poultry jif^T excellence.
It is substantial and delicate, attaining early maturity,
and pronounced by all gourmets as the most savoury bird
on the table. What else can be wanted to give them
the pre-eminence over all other breeds ?

Of these there were no less than 153 old birds, 303
chickens of 1857, and 46 single cocks ; in all 502 birds !
In these classes, four cocks exhibited by Mr. Fisher
Hobbs, so celebrated for his breed of Dorkings, were
greatly admired ; and one of them obtained the second
prize.

We next come to our old friends the Cochin Chinas,
of bygone celebrity. They are comprised in the 9th,
10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, and 13th classes, and number of
old birds, both buff and white, 75 ; of chickens hatched
in 1857, 159 ; single cocks, 31 : altogether 265,

All we can say of this class is that if such birds as the
majority of those which are exhibited at the Crystal
Palace had existed at the time of the Cochin mania,
great as were the prices then demanded and readily
paid, they would have been still greater and better
justified,' In size, purity of plumage, less awkwardness
of shape and gait, and smaller size of bones, they have
been greatly improved ; but notwithstanding the evident
progress they have made, they must nevertheless yield
the palm in every respect to their first-cousins and
neighbours, the Bramali Pootras, which comprise
the 16th, 17th, and 18th classes, numbering 36 old
birds, 63 chickens — such chickens! — hatched in 1857—
and 13 single cocks; in all 112 birds.

Over the rows of pens, containing the bass instru-
ments of the noisy concert, stand in all the pride of
their gait, the brilliancy of their plumage, the flash of
their brilliant eye, the eagle shape of their fine head,
the elastic and firm stamp of their steel legs, the ele-
gance of their shape — the ever-loved and petted old
English game breeds. And right beautiful is that proud
and defying array of their pugnacious majesties ! They
are comprised in Classes 19 to 27, and number of old
birds 192, chickens hatched in 1857, 309 ; single cocks,
34 ; altogether 535 birds !

What shall we say of the other breeds .' Indeed,
were we to attempt to do justice to all, the short space
at our disposal would not half suffice. We are then very
reluctantly obliged to dismiss the smaller fry of Gold
and Silver-pencilled, and Spangled Hamburghs, so
varied and so beautiful in their gay plumage, with the
mere mention of their brilliant names — names suggested
by the richness of the embroidery with which

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

169

they are so gaily decked. We must reluctantly do the
same with the fussy and busy-looking tufted Polish
fowls, shaking their shaggy helmets as if intent upon the
most important business. Our duty would evidently be
to merely give a nod of recognition to the tiny Bantam ;
but we cannot resist the temptation of tarrying a little
longer before their pleasant and really charming array.
Here you can see the gold and silver-laced, the white
and the black, all gay and crowing, turning and twisting
in their little pens, as if they took pleasure in showing
to the admiring crowd the elegance of their tiny forms
and the delicate lacing of their gay feathers.

The ducks, geese, and turkeys are truly astonishing
by their great weight : we have heard of ducks of twelve
pounds each ; and of a turkey weighing thirty-five
pounds. A pair of geese exhibited by Mr. Baker, of
Chelsea, were certainly the largest and handsomest birds
we have ever seen.

We were pleased to observe a few pens of Creve-cceiir
fowls, the well-known Norman breed from the other
i side of the channel. This truly valuable variety well de-
serves the attention of poultry-fanciers in England ; for
weight, early maturity, and the delicacy of their flesh
they deserve to be compared with the Dorkings, whilst
for the production of eggs they are infinitely superior.

There is one point in this, and other exhibitions of

the kind, which has always struck us as tending to
divest them of that degree of practical utility with
which we should like to see them attended — that is, the
absurdly extravagant prices affixed to the various pens
of birds. It is very true that a man fixing the price of
one thousand guineas for a cock and two hens, merely
means he wont sell them ; but we apprehend that more
modest figures, such as range between five to fifty
guineas, are really meant as the selling value of the birds.
On this we can only observe, that if poultry breeding,
improving, and fancying can only lead to such an
unpractical result as this, these exhibitions become
deprived of their public utility, and sink at once into the
insignificance of hobby displays — solely devoted to
whiling away the time of idle men, and gratifying the
monomaniac tendencies of inoffensive but useless
members of society, having more leisure on their hands
than they have the mental power to fill up. The absurd
regulation of poultry societies compelling exhibitors to
fix a selling price upon their pens, at which they may
be claimed, is no doubt the cause of this extravagance.
As long as this regulation exists, it may be safely
asserted that serious and practical men will keep aloof
from such exhibitions, leaving the pursuits they encou-
rage to sinecurist clergymen, retired tradesmen, shelved
officers, old ladies, and to those who speculate upon the
weaknesses of the rich and idle.

THE GOVERNMENT ON THE AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF SCOTLAND.

It must be admitted that the question of taking
agTieultural statistics has never travelled quite plea-
santly in England. Despite the resolutions of public
meetings and the testimony of individual evidence in
favour of the experiment, there has ever been an
under-current of distrust and opposition. So far, in-
deed, the Government have had but little to stand on.
The practicability of the scheme is still problematical,
and Mr. Caird is even now employed in devising some
new measure that shall " go down" a little more easily.
Nevertheless, there was always one trump- card ready
to be played. The statistics of agriculture ndglit be
collected, simply because they icerc collected. If
prejudice, indifference, or ignorance of their eflect
stayed us here from furnishing such returns, there was
fortunately no such inimical influence to encounter but
a few hours further on. It was surely a great fact for
the Government to handle — a rare weapon to use when
wanted — that the statistics of Scotland had been col-
lected by the farmers themselves, under the immediate
superintendence of a farming society — That such in-
formation was obtained not for a trial of one year only,
but that the machinery had gradually been improved
upon and extended, so as to become almost perfect in
its action, and unquestionably most satisfactory in its
results. With such a story to tell us, we might have
been kept perpetually in check. The farmers of
Scotland have now for some years sent in their returns.
So far from feeling any injury from this practice, they
appear more and more to take a pleasure in completing
the form of such intelligence. They do their work at
little or no cost to the State.— And, in short, the whole
business is a very happy example of what may be done
■with a good will and a proper understanding.

But this proper understanding exists no longer.
This good will is destroyed. The agricultural statistics of
Scotland — or of England, have received something very
like their deathblow. Indeed, at this moment we
should suy such a plan has far more enemies over the
Border than it ever had to encounter nearer home.

And this suicidal act has been administered by the Go-
vernment itself. It is traceable simply and directly to
a blind adhesion to routine and red-tape. Ben Jonson
has told us who works " with line and rule" and by
line and rule, and by never looking an inch beyond the
line ruled, have we contrived to make foes in place
of friends of the great body of Scotch agriculturists.

The murder came out at a General Meeting of the
Highland and Agricultural Society, held in Edinburgh
a few days since. Let our readers learn from Mr.
Hall Maxwell the chief points in this extraordinary
affair : — " The statistical inquiry was commenced in

1853 by an experimental trial in three counties. The
estimated cost was 900; tlie outlay was £672. In

1854 it was extended to the whole of Scotland. The
estimated cost was £6,000 ; the outlay was £4,260.
In 1355 and 1856 the estimate was £4,000; the outlay,
£3,597 12s. lOd., and £3,692 8s. i was permitted
by Government to make, in concert with the district
enumerators, all arrangements, financial and other-
wise, without interference. My accounts were rendered
to the Board of Trade; and in 1853 and 1854 I re-
ceived the thaidis of that department for the economy
observed and the reductions effected. In August 1855
Mr. Bowring, of the Board of Trade, acknowledged the
accounts for 1854 in the following terms; — " I am to
acquaint you, for the information of the directors of
the Society, that my Lords have been pleased to ap-
prove of the accounts in question."

So far certainly so good. The experiment had not
only succeeded, as achieving the object aimed at, but
had been worked at considerably under the estimated
expense; "My Lords" being, naturally enough, ''pleased
to ai'prove of the accounts." But here, however, our
old enemy. Routine, steps in, just, of cours'^, at her
dear, old-fashioned, tortoise pace, and demands, under
the authority of tlie Audit Office, in March, 1856, the
vouchers for the expenditure of 1854— two years after
" my Lords had been pleased to approve of the ac-
counts in question" — and vouchers, too, for everything

N

170

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

— not merely for the most trifling- expenses, such as
extra pens and cleaning out-officcs, but vouchers for
authority for employing enumerators and clerks. Tliat
is to say, Mr. Hall Maxwell, to whom the management
of the Scotch Statistics was unreservedly entrusted by
the Government, is to give the authority upon which
he made an appointment ! To detail why he engaged
this clerk, or how it was he induced this or that friend
to act with him. Then, these friends or acquaintance —
the gentry and leading agriculturists of the country,
who so ably supported their Seo'ctary in his endeavour
to do the thi'ig properly — had, it apiiears, some slight
allowance for necessary expenses, money absolutely
out of pocket. But they had more than this. Once
or so in a season they assembled their coadjutors of
the several districts over a dinner, when they made
their arrangements, received advices, and got through
similar business it would have been difficult
to transact by any other means. Mr. Maxwell
paid for these dinners out of the Government
grant, and sent in his vouchers that he had done so.
But he is to do a great deal more than this. His
word is nothing. The Audit-olfice insists on having
the vouchers of the several enumerators that thtir
expenses and diimers have been paid for — something
of this kind no doubt :

" Received this day, with many thanks, of her BTa-
jesty's Ministers, the sum of six shillings and ten-
pence-halfpenny, in payment of dinner and toddy,
supplied to me by the landlord of the Caledonian
Hotel, as one of the Agi'icultural Enumerators.

{Signed) "Stuart, of Stuart.

" Witness, Sawney McSanday, the waiter."

But one sickens of such absurdities. Mr. Maxwell
■with admirable temper completed the returns of last
year, and then, of course, withdrew in disgust from
any further assooiafion with such powers as he foutid
he had to deal with. It is not too much to
say that the whole of Scotland goes with him.
The enumerators, as a body, have passed resolu-

tions approving of what he has done. He acts
directly under the sanction of the Highland So-
ciety, and on the close of the explanation
he offered, was specially complimented by the
Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Rosslyn, Lord Kiunaird,
Sir .lohn Forbes, and other speakers. There is no
question but that under his superintendence these sta-
tistics have been taken in the most perfect manner pos-
sible. It is scarcely too much to say, that no other
man could have done the business so well. He under-
took and performed a Government contract most suc-
cessfully, and with only one mistake. He did not avail
himself to the full of a contractor's rights. He did not
spend all the money he might have done. Instead of
returning a thousand or two annually, what would have
been easier than to have accounted for — as they want
accounts — the maximum allowed him ? It is a stand-
ing joke in many such a business as this, that " no
money is returned." A smart sharp fellow would have
run it out to the very halfpenny. The Government
did not appreciate the man they had to work with ; but,
unless we are much mistaken, they very soon will.

An attempt has been made to consider Mr. Maxwell
merely as a paid clerk or government official. That is,
he received for each year's services an acknowledgment
of some two or at most three hundred pounds. To do
the same work as it has been done, or half as well,
will necessitate " an appointment'' of at least from
fifteen hundred to two thousand a-year. But we ques-
tion very much whether we shall have any more
Agricultural Statistics from Scotland. Indeed, this is
not, after all, the great thing with the Government.
The statistics they want is the absolute price of a
leg-of-mutton dinner, and what is spent in more pens,
wafers, and red tape.

If ever there was a fatal mistake, it is the treatment
of the HighLind Society by " My Lords" of the Trea-
sury. They have put back Agricultural Statistics to a
status something far worse than what it was when the
Scotch Society took them up, and have contrived for
themselves some very up-hill work to do over again.

THE ADVANTAGES OF A DAILY REGISTER OF THE RAIN-FALL THROUGHOUT
THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND THE BEST MEANS OF OBTAINING IT.

The Society of Arts appears to be more and more
ambitious to rank as an agricultural authority. It is
no longer content with one paper or so on the subject,
in the course of a sea-!on. On the contrary, these now
crowd in upon us in very rapid succession. The new
year's list, running up to the beginning of April only,
has already three evenings to be devoted more or 4css
directly to the improvement of the soil. Unfortunately,
however, there is little promise of the most being made
of these occasions. Of course the first object should be to
ensure the attendance of as many men practically in-
terested in the question, as it is possible to assemble to-
gether. Their convenienceshould be especially consulted;
as their presence must tend materially to put a stamp
and value on the proceedings. Within the la?t year or
two a very fair sprinkling of agriculturists have joined
the Society, while still more have accepted the occa-
sional invitations offered llicm. Now it is well known
the majority of these come up the first week in every
montli. There is the discussion at the Farmers' Club on
the first Monday in the month, and the council meeting
of the Royal Agricultural Society on the first Wednesday
morning. The meetings of the Society of Arts are on
the Wednesday evenings, and yet not one of theao rural

topics is put down for such times as the country gentle-
men may be amongst us. Mr. Algernon Clarke is to
speak to " Steam-cultivation" on Wednesday, February
the tenth, instead of the third — just, in fact, a week
too late for his audience. Monsieur Trehonnais
is to compare " French Agriculture past and
present" on March the seventeenth, whereas the
opening of the following mouth should clearly have
been selected. Even in these railway days far-
mers cannot afford to be perpetually running up to
London : and we know they now so plan thoir ar-
rangements as to kill all sorts of birds with one stone.
Ask Mr. Hudson how many visitors ho has at other
times ; or inspect the Club-rooms later on, and we
shall find that our friends have got into a habit of
accustoming themselves to this first week.

D,i|not let it be supposed that we speak without
some showing. On only Wednesday last, Mr. Bailey
Denton, a gentleman well known amongst agriculturists,
read a paper at the Society's house in the Adelphi,
bearing on a subject at present of particular importance
to the farmer — that of draina^je. In a not over-
numerous audinnro which assembled to gr. ct him, we
noticed one practical agiiculturist, Mr, Fisher Hobbs,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

'in

We will not say thnt c'tlier T\lv. Clavkc or M. Tre-
honnais will meet with a similar reception ; but wc
have litfle doubt but that the character of the company
will, or would have been, very different had Mr.
Denton taken the first Wednesday in February, Mr.
Clarke the first iu March, and M. Trehonnais tb.e first in
April. There is a wondeifulwaatof method in all this.

Mr. Bailey Dentou discoursed again on his pet theme,
and he argued on it as every sensible man now does.
AVe are the victims no longer to dogmatic assertion or
despotic sway. The Professor, who hariis but on one
note, or, Paganini-like, plays on a single string, charms
us no longer. The rule of three, or of four feet has lost
its force. It is no further to bo regarded as v^ithoutaii
exceiition. On the other hand, we study the particular
nature of the soil, we consider its situation as
liable to atmospheric influence, and sum up
a variety of similar causes, ere we venture the applica-
tion of our remedy. Mr. Denton's paper had this direct
tendency. He spoke "on the advantages of a Daily
Register of the Rain-fall throughout the United King-
dom, and the best means of obtaining it"; and every
word he said only went to show how our practice must
vary according to the difference of soil, climate, and loca-
lity. The unintentional moral, moreover, which he con-
veyed to his hearers was, that every-one must think and
act more or less for himself. Indeed, to be of any pecu-
liar value, each one of us should keep his own rain
register, as many even now do. If Mr. Denton's ad-
dress lead to any useful result, it must be to this. At
the same time we are bound to say that his paper of
Wednesday is by far the least practical of all his effu-
sions. It clearly put too much dependence on the rain
test — as manifestly under-rated what had already been
done in this way — and advocated a system for doing
something better, that not one of his auditory had the
slightest opinion of ever seeing carried out. Mr. Den-
ton would map the kingdom out into ten, or even five-
mile stations at a cost to Government of twenty-
six thousand, or on the other scale of about half as
much, per annum. The chairman of the evening, Mr.
Sopwith, "thought such a plan was not required."
Mr. Rawlinson said "a national system of rain-
gaugings must be very costly, and the results would
only be useful to a limited extent. No nation could do
the work of individuals, nor ever would do such
work." Mr. Thomas Webster, F.R.S., "did not
regard it of so much importance to know pre-
cisely the quantity of rain that fell at each place ; and
the observations already made were very numerous, and
might, he thought, be considered sufficient." And Mr.
Greaves " thought Mr. Denton had over-rated the re-
quirements of the case, inasmuch as at the present time
a very large number of records of rainfall were kept."

There is, in short, no doubt but that Mr. Denton's
enthusiasm has carried him too far, and long beyond
the limit of any probable effect to be arrived at by
8uch a means. Still, injustice to him we may quote a
few sentences from his paper, on the actual necessity
for such a monitor as that he advocates the use of: —
" I am bound to record my own conviction, based cu
an extensive practice in the drainage of land, that there
is no information more essential to successful treatment
than that which it is the object of this paper to promote,
and that it is the ignorance now prevailing with regard
to the influence of the rainfall, added to the common
belief that drainage is a mechanical operation which
a;i uneducated bailiff or woodman may carry out, that
has led to the discredit attached to the drainage executed
under Government auspices, and has fostered the
opposition of certain members of the Central Farmers'
Club. As a proof of how little attention landowners have
hitherto paid to rainfall, I may mention that when I
undertook to read a paper, three years back, before the

Central Farmers' Club, on the results of under- draining
in Great Britain, I addressed more than 300
persons in various parts of Great Britain, who had
executed works of under-draining, and asked the
following question among several others : ' What is
the rainfcill in the locality of your works?' I was
gratified by receiving 162 answers to my letters, but
out of 1G2 answers there were only six who were able
to give me any information as to the rainfall."

As a king, who can do no wrong, does Mr. Denton dis-
parage the opposition of the Central Club. However,
let us pass on to more positive proof: — " In the west of
England, where the annual fall of rain is SO inches,
some drainage was effected by a parallel system 40 feet
apart. It was pronounced a failure. It has been com-
pared with other works of drainage which were satisfac-
tory in result, upon the same geological formation (with
soils closely similar in character), drained in the same
way, on the east side of Scotland. The rainfall there was
25 inches, and the number of wet days considerably less
than in the West of England, and it is more than pro-
bable that these differences account for the results. An-
other in stance will render the proposition even more clear.
The lias clay, as already stated, runs nearly the whole
length of England. It starts from Lyme Regis, where
the fall of rain is 37 inches, passes by Grantham, where
the fall is 24 inches, and runs out at the north-east corner
of Yorkshire, where the fall is 21 inches. Lands of this
clay (as similar as soils can be) have been drained in
the several localities in a precisely similar manner, with
different degrees of effect. The difference in the rain-
fall can alone explain the difference of effect. Sixteen
inches of rain, which is the difference between the two
extremes, is equal to 362,000 gallons falling upon every
acre of land, and this excess is nearly equal to the
whole annual amount of rain falling on the surface of
Essex and Suffolk, in which counties many thousands
of acres of clay lands, no stronger than the lias, are
now being drained at a cost of from £5 to £6 per acre.
This is a striking fact ; but it will be rendered still
more striking by reference to the Registrar-General's
Return for the first three months of the year just
closed. There it will be seen that the rainfall, for that
period, at the three places named, was respectively
9 inches (Little Bridy), G inches (Grantham), and 3
inches (Scarborough). Hence it follows that the
drains in Dorset would be required to do three times
the work of drains in Yorkshire with the same means
of doing it."

But still we must remember this average rainfall is
not everything. As M. Trehonnais suggested, " during
a storm an immense quantity of water might fall, and
that contingency naist be kept in view in drainage, in
order to allow the superabundance of water to run out
of the land. In his own opinion the average of rainfall
had not so much to do in the way of drainage as stme
people seemed to imagine, because drains must be laid
in such a manner as to give an outlet for the immense
body of water that might come suddenly upon the
land." Mr. Rawlinson, again, maintained that " in all
cases the engineer must guard, above ground, against
maximums, and, as far as is possible, ascertain what
these were likely to be, and then work on the sa 'e side.
In all cases the rain-gauge should be consulted for mi-
mitia; and for details; but for maximums, such as
land-floods, valley outfalls of streams and rivers must
be gauged."

In fact, the argument was altogether overstrained.
Altliongh there were no farmers to meet what was ad-
vanced, fortunately a few scientific men took up the
discussion. These served at once to correct the some-
what too sanguine notions of Mr. Denton, and give to
the proceedings a more stable character. The meeting
does not promise to leave any very lasting impression.

N 2

m

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE PRESENT STATE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE.

Difficult indeed is tlie choice of a profession. There
is scarcely one but the ranks of wliicli are already over-
crowded. Youths qualify themselves as medical men,
to become clerks or guards on railways ; while gentle-
men learned in the law are waiting at table in Mel-
bourne, or horse-breaking in the Bush. Divines and
soldiers find it alike difficult to get on ; and too
often end as they began — but as curates and subalterns.
Even farming, as a business, requires more and more
capital to be fairly engaged upon ; and ti'ade of
almost every kind is beset with opposition. But a few
years since, to be sure, the famous Fitz-Boodle gave
to younger sons some further opportunities, which,
however, appear to have been scarcely appreciated.
We are still languishing for some eligible pursuit,
wherewith to employ the rising generation. As a
lelief — a sort of tributary stream to those already over-
crowded with traffic and commerce — is there none we
can embark upon? Is there nothing beyond Law,
Physic, and Divinity ? Or is there no opening to us but
what'emigration offers, or the fortune of war provides ?
If a lad is yet anxious to work his way in his own
country, is there really no other call for his services, or
no pursuit that might be turned to a better account than
it now is ?

Let us see. Our canny friends over the Border would
at least appear to think so. Very recently there has
been established, in Edinburgh, a new Veterinary
School, at the opening of which a well-known professor,
Mr. John Gamgee, delivered the inaugural address.
It is altogether above the level of such orations ; and is
especially remarkable for the bold and unbiassed view
Mr. Gamgee takes of his own profession, and the pro-
gress it has made. We are generally prone to con-
sider this as very satisfactory. The difference between
the intelligent educated veterinarian and the village
farrier, with his infallible drinks and messes, was
at once apparent. Perhaps " the college man "
has not always taken that position he miyht
have done ; but still every one felt he was
a change for the better, and we saw him prescribe
for a sick horse or prize ox with far more confidence
than we could have done had a grimy Vulcan or half-
drunken cow-leech yet been concocting his curious
s])clls before us. Nevertheless it would seem that the
art is by no means equal to what is demanded of it.
" Hundreds of thousands of pounds," says Mr. Gamgee,
" are annnally lost on British soil, which might be
saved if the veterinarian could be ibund wherever he
mS,y be in requisition, and if at the same time suitable
training had rendered him a useful man." Our
lecturer strengthens this opinion with a ready applica-
tion of what recently has occurred and is still occurring
amongst us. Speaking as to the investigation of morbid
phenomena in animals, he says: —

" The last few years fully prove, even with reference to the
epizootic diseases of Great Britain, how imperfect is our
knowledge respecting them, and how insufficient have been
the inquiries. It is impossible that a person, aware of what
should be the qualifications of a veterinarian, can unblushingly
read the reports which have spread from various parts of
the United Kingdom respecting murrain amongst cattle.
Those wlio read the dnily uewspapus might often be led to
ask. Have we no veterinarians in Great Britain? It is said
that a riczcn animals have died altogether on one farm, and
that in some districts the best part of a hundred valuable oxen
has been swept off, in a manner as quiclc as it has been myste-
nous, and there is no o:.e at hand to furnish the world with

anything like a correct account of the real facts of the ease. A
plague is spreading from the Russian steppes ; it is supposed
to have made a leap close to the west coast of Ireland, or in
the north of Scotland : we know nothing about the cause of
death there ; but we must go to Hungary, to learn what might
be learnt at home from books written almost centuries ago,
though certainly in a foreign tongue."

This is undoubtedly very hard hitting ; but if it is true,
we must all have been something more than apathetic.
Mr. Gamgee him^lf characterises the evil as chiefly
atti-ibutable to a want of hands. He, in fact, opens a
new profession to us. The veterinary art has not for
some years had anything like justice done to it. It
is not properly nor sufficiently studied, in the
first place; while in the next, there is a sad scarcity
of practitioners, even qualified as they now are.
In England we had certainly thought a veterinarian
was by this pretty generally within hail. In
Scotland, howe\er, with nearly 8,000,000 animals,
" we could count little more than 120 veterinarians.
Am I to understand that Scotland can only support one
veterinary surgeon in every 230 square miles of surface?
As might have been expected, there is a greater or less
congregation of these 120 practitioners in the larger
towns ; so that many considerable' districts, and even
entire counties, are unprovided with practitioners of the
veterinary art, obviously to the serious detriment of
the public interest. But, even where they are congre-
gated, their insufficiency is too mani lest; and the far-
mers in the three Lothians can give startling testimony,
if asked what kind of advice is to be obtained when
their animals are sick, and how far they have, in the
great majority of cases, to send for veterinarians. Ire-
land is still worse. Nevertheless, look at the value of
her stock ! Is it astonishing that unqualified practi-
tioners and blacksmiths swarm and prosper as they do
throughout the land 1"

We must be understood as taking this up altogether
as a farmer's question. There is none more important
to him, and no other ill from which he is so continual,
and as it would appear, so inevitable a sufferer. If this
can be remedied — if we can be provided with a more
efficient class of men — if the immense losses now sustained
from diseases of stock can be alleviated, then Mr.Gamgee
deserves the best thanks we can offer hitn. He certainly
takes very high ground. Ho quotes numerous in-
stances where the aid of the veterinary surgeon is now
altogether dispensed with, so little good has come of it.
He has himself gained more information from " spme
country blacksmiths" than from "many qualified
members" of his own profession. At the same time he
shows the immense advantage it would be, to have a
better organized and more reliable staff. We must
take one more extract, at least, suggestive of some
good to the agriculturist : —

"Our large herbivorous quadrupeds are peculiarly hable to
diseases of the digestive organs. These are very easily pre-
vented ; but as animals are badly kept, the prevalence of those
maladies is so great, tliat it is quite matter of surprise. As
I have elsewhere said, throughout Scotland devastation by
colic is devastation as by a plague. In Mid-Lothian, the loss
by colic, inflamed stomach, and inflammation of the bowels,
was at least 371 per cent, of the animals that died of disease
in 1851, about 28 per cent, in 1852, upwards of 40 per
cent, in 1853, nearly the same in 1854 and 1855, and up-
wards of 45 per cent, in 1856. Au influential farmer of
East Lothian, at a meeting of the Highland and Agricultural
Society, was alludirg to thr ravages produced by this disease,

TilE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

173

and of the utility of calling veterinary surgeons to attend the
suffering animals, or of following out the indications met with
in the popular treatises on veterinary medicine in the English
language. He believed animals died quicker when subjected
to treatment ; but he wished a prize to be offered for an essay
on the disease. Before, and since then, I have heard many
farmers express the same opinion ; but it is likewise an un-
doubted fact that, under proper management, instead of about
40 percent, of the animals that die of disease dying of colic,
there should be a per-centage of one or two."

We confess we shall be rather curious to see what
the members of Mr. Gamgee's own profession say to
all this. Undoubtedly he jiuts their present rank and

claims at a very low standard. It may yet remain to
be proved how far he is warranted in this, or of what
improvement the art is really susceptible. Had he
stood quite alone here, we might have hesitated as to
giving his opinions any further publicity. But many
think with him; and one of the most celebrated of
living veterinarians of the English school, Mr. James
Turner, has said : — " Of late the veterinary profession
has been seized with apathy; no weighty facts, to last
out all time, have been chronicled. The remedy and
grand requirement of the present crisis is fresh infusion
of energetic spirit for research."

THE WOOL TRADE OF THE PAST YEAR.

The publication of the annual wool circulars neces-
sarily directs attention to the course of trade in that
raw material during the past year, and the future
prospects for the wool staplers and manufacturers, as
regards this important animal product. Large as the
extension of sheep farming has become, and exten-
sively as pastoral occupations are now carried on in
old and new districts, they are far from commensurate
to the wants of Commerce. Side by side with the ex-
ploration and occui)ation of the squatter and sheep far-
mer, comes the rolling tide of population, as Emigration
proceeds to new fields, and the demand for food becomes
equally urgent with that for clothing, since the flocks
are more extensively bred and sacrificed for the carcase.
In Europe and the United States the number of sheep
reared scarcely averages one per head to each of the
population. It is only in thinly -settled districts, like
the Cape colony arid the interior African settlements,
Australia, and the River Plate districts, that there is a
large excess, and a yearly increasing extension in the ex-
ports of wool.

Glancing over the statistics of the past year, it is
highly satisfactory to note the large increase in our im-
ports of wool, which sets at rest the fears entertained, a year
or two ago, of declining supplies. Although the foreign
wools in this progressive increasp, compared with the pre-
ceding years, have pushed a-head, and show greater strides
than the colonial imports do ; still there is a steady in-
crease shown in the wool supplies from the colonies
each year, of five or six million pounds. The total im-
ports for the first eleven months of 1857 are equal to
those of the whole twelve months of 1856. Of the im-
ports, two-thiids were colonial wools, and one-third
foreign.

In the colonial wools there is a decline in the receipts
of upwards of 7, OuO bales from Australia. The Cape
show little alteration from the previous year's figures.
From India and China there have been increased receipts
to the extent of 10,000 bales. We firmly believe that
there is a large scope for increased supplies of wool
from India, Persia, and China ; and more attention will
doubtless be paid to the preparation of the fleece for
market. Some of these long-stapled wools are already
in good favour as a substitute for English combing wools.
Passing now to the European wools, we find an in-
crease of about 21,000 bales from Russia.

The production of wool in Russia might be indefi-
nitely extended. The Government has always fostered
this branch of husbandry. Hundreds of thousands of
acres of the unoccupied public lands have been given to
those who would establish sheep foldsonan extensive scale.
Too much attention is, however, paid in Russia to the
increase of the flocks rather than the improvement of
the breed of sheep. The washing and sorting of the
wool are also performed with the greatest slovenliness.

Lately the rearing of fine-woolled sheep has become an
object of increased attention, and out of the total num-
ber of about 50,000,000 sheep in Russia, one-fifth are
stated to be fine-woolled sheep.

There was an increase of 3,000 or 4,000 bales of wool
from Portugal last year, and about 2,000 bales from
Spain : these being chiefly forwarded to France. From
Germany we received more than 7,000 bales less than
in 1856. The production of wool there would seem to
be stationary, if not retrograding, and is by no means
adequate to the increasing domestic wants.

Remarks are freely made on a wretched practice
which prevails in some parts of Germany and Hun-
gary, and is also followed by the German and Dutch
settlers in Southern Africa, and the Western States of
America — namely, that of shearing twice in the year.
This is both injurious to the animal and to the quality
of the wool. Our South American supplies continue
beyond an average, and in some instances show an
excess : thus Peruvian and Alpaca wool is 8,000 bales
in excess.

A rather singular item is the receipt of about 1,400
bags of wool the domestic growth of the United States,
the first import of any extent for some years past ; and
this shipment probably arose out of the panic, and the de-
sire to realize in this market. This wool will probably
be reshipped with other supplies for the American mar-
ket. Considerable attention is now paid to wool grow-
ing in the United States. American wool even surpasses
many of the foreign wools for its felting properties, and
for its suitability for making light or heavy broadcloth.
Samples have been obtained from American flocks
which contained 2,522 serrations to the inch, while the
finest Saxony wools from Hungary will only contain
about 2,400 serrations.

The unlimited extent of pasture available, with proper
care and shelter, would ensure a large production of
wool ; but labour is dear and scarce, and large flocks
can seldom or ever be kept. Still the number of sheep
is greatly on the increase, and is computed at
29,000,000; while the production of wool must be fully
80,000,000 lbs.

Wool is much cultivated in the New England States,
especially in Vermont. The Ohio wool-clip last year
is estimated to have exceeded that of 1856 by at least
three million pounds. The counties in the centre of
that State are now as famous for their fine wool as they
formerly were for their great crops of wheat.

America, however, does not produce enough wool
even for home consumption. The alteration in the
American tariff, which admitted in July last wools be-
low lOd. per lb. in value, free of duty, further stimulated
shipments across the Atlantic ; although some of these
arrived at an inopportune time, during the prevalence of
the financial crisis,

\u

l-IE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Returning now to the trade circulars, v/e find tliat
the consumption of wool has greatly increased in every
quarter, and that the growth has not kept pace with it.
In Germany however the production is almost stationary.
From Australia there is a decline in the shipments, as
compared with 1856, of 8,000 bales ; and the quantity
to come forward for the next sales is also very small.
The manner in which prices have been supported, and
the fact that, during a period of such unexampled pres-
sure, a quantity of the value of one million sterling
could be disposed of at the last public sales in Novem-
ber, at such satisfactory prices, prove the great demand.
The home clip is computed to have been somewhat de-
ficient in quantity, partly the consequence of increased
demand for stock during the last two years, the im-
proved position of the labouring classes enabling them
to expend more in animal food. The con£umpti( n of
domestic wools has at the same time very materially
increased in the worsted districts. There has never (we
are told) been a period when the population has been so
fully employed, at such high wages, as during the past
year. Consumption of woollen goods has, consequently,
been unprecedcntedly large; and, underall circumstances,
there are reasonable grounds to hope this will continue
to a fair extent. The continued increase in shipments
for some years past has been very considerable ; and
although in the previous years they had reached a very
high point, there is no reason to apprehend any falling-
off. Notwithstanding the decline during the latter
months, chiefly to the United States, the exports for the
past year will greatly exceed any former period, and
during the present year, we venture to assert, will show
no diminution. A staple which, in its raw state, is
worth annually here i;7, 000,000 or ^"8,000, 000, and
of which we ship manufactures to the value of
^'12,250,000, is necessarily one of high importance in
an industrial point of view, and one in which many
hands and much capital are engaged.

CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.

SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION, 1858.

February 1. — The Necessity of a Uniform System of
Weights or Measure in the sale of Corn and other Agri-.
cultural Produce throughout Euglaud and Wales. Proposed
by Mr. Oweu WalHs, Overstoue-Grange, Northampton.

March 1. — The Cultivation and Storing of Mangel Wurzel,
and the best modes of using it for Feeding and other pur-
poses—Mr. R. Baker, Writtle, Chelmsford.

April 5. — The Advantages of Guano for Root Crops, and the
best System of applying it without injury to the Germina-
tion of Seed — Mr. W. Saiusbury, Manor House, West
Lavington, Wilts.

May 3. — Ttie Breeding, Rearing, and Management of Lambs,
as a successful means of providing against Pleuro-Pueumo-
iiia and Consumption — Mr. J. Marsliall, Riseholm, Lincoln.

June 7.— The Benefit of Pulping or Mincing Roots for Cattle,
Pigs, aud Sheep — Mr. T. Fordham, Snelsmore Hill, New-
bury.

November 1. — The Allotment System : its Uses and Abuses
—Mr. H. Trethewy, Silsoe, Ampthill.

December 6.— Stock Farming, on stiff retentive Soils —
Mr. R. Bond, Kentwell, Long Melford, Suffolk.

*** The Discussions will commence at half-past 5 o'clock, p.m.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The Sessional Examination of this Institution was brought
to a close on December 17th, when the followiog students ob-
tained the college diploma, and became thereby members and
graduates of the institution : —
John Aitken, Ayrshire.

John Dawson, Cragg House, Troutbeck, Windermere.
James F. Hawkesley, Bedfords, Havering-atte-Bower, Essex.
William M'Laughlm, Boraston, Tenbury.

We subjoin the names of those students who headed the

examination lists in Practical Agriculture, the various sci-
ences, &c. : —

Practical Agriculture. — 1st, Aitken; 2nd, Greenhill ;
3rd, Robertson ; 4th, Hills and M'Laughlin ; 5th, Dawsonand
Hawksley ; 6th, Duckworth, Horton, and Tomlin.

Chemistry (Organic). — 1st, Hawksley; 2nd, Aitken;
3rd, Foden ; 4th, Greenhill ; 5tb, M'Laughlin; 6th, Lloyd and
Dawson. (Inorganic). — 1st, Gardner ; 2nd, Lewis; 3rd, Corn-
wall ; 4th, Lamb.

Veterinary (First Division). — 1st, Hawksley; 2nd, Daw-
sou and Tomlin ; 3rd, Aitken ; 4th, M'Laughlin and Lloyd.
(Second Division). — 1st, Lewis ; 2ud, H. James ; 3rd, Lamb ;
4th, Gardner ; 5th, Nott.

Natural History (Botany). — 1st, Aitken and Hawksley ;
2nd, Dawson, Foden, Sayce, Lloyd, and M'Laughlin. (Agro-
nomics).— 1st, Cornwall and H. James ; 2nd, Nott ; 3rd,
Jearrad and Adkins.

Surveying and Engineering (First Division). — Ist,
Hills and Aitkin; 2ud, Tomlin and M'Laughlin; 3rd, Daw-
son; 4th, Gardner ; 5th, Hawksley. (Second Division).— 1st,
Gary ; 2nd, Lewis and Nott ; 3rd, Power aud White.

Prizes for Farm Books and Journals.— 1st, Gard-
ner; 2nd, Horton; 3rd, Lloyd.

Laboratory Prizes. — Classes 1 and 2, H.S.Morgan;
Classes 3 and 4, Lamb; Classes 5 and 6, Garratt. Highly
commended, R;x and Yarker. Commended, Cornwall.

Veterinary Hospital Journals. — 1st, Hawksley;
2nd, Marraek and Greenhill.

Anatomical Note Books.— 1st, Gardner •, 2nd, Crofts
a«d Lewis.

IMPORTANT DECISION IN THE COURT

OF QUEEN'S BENCH,

BEFORE LORD CAMPBELL, AND JUSTICES COLE-
RIDGE, WIGHTMAN, AND ERLE.

MOVEABLE STEAM ENGINES for FARMING
PURPOSES NOT LIABLE TO TOLL.

THE aUEEN V. MALTY.

This was a case stated by the Worcestershire Quarter Ses-
sions for the opinion of the Court, and which raised the ques-
tion whether a moveable steam engine exclusively employed
for the purpose of working thrashing machines was an " im-
plement of husbandry," and, as such, exempt from toll in
passing through a turnpike on a turnpike-road. It appeared
from the case that the engine in question was drawn by horses,
and was following a thrashing machine, also drawn by horses,
and both were going to a farm at Upton-upon-Severu, to be
employed in thrashing corn. The thrashing machine was
allowed to pass through the gate free of toll, but toll was levied
upon the steam engine, and the toll-keeper was subsequently
convicted for improperly taking toll.

Mr. Powell, in support of the conviction, submitted that the
steam engine was an implement of husbandry within the meaning
of the act ; and if not, that it was so necessarily associated
with an implement of husbandry that it came within the spirit
of the enactment, and consequently within the exemption.
The Turnpike Act exempted, from toll, among other things,
implements of husbandry. Under that statute considerable
doubt existed as to whether thrashing machines were imple-
ments of husbandry ; and the 38th of the 14 and 15 Vict.,
section 4, set that doubt at rest, by providing specifically that
they should be so deemed. Dr. Johnson said " implement"
was "an instrument of manufacture," aud he (the learned
counsel) contended that by virtue of the last statute the steam
engine in this case was an implement of husbandry within
that definition.

The court observed that the steam engine gave motive power
to the thrashing machine, and did not actually form a part of
it. The thrashing machine might be worked by the hand, by
horse, or by water.

Mr. Stretton, on the other side, contended that as the
steam machine could be used for giving motive power for
priQtingj_spinning, and many other purposes, the fact of its
simply going along the road to work a thrashing machine did
not make it an implement of husbandry.

Lord Campbell said the court could not be influenced by
their opinion of the justice or policy of exemptions in favour
of one class of her Majesty's subjects at the expense of another,

The FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

175

They were bound to give effect to the enactments of the legis-
lature, and to see what it intended. Looking to the 3rd of
George IV., he should have been inclined to think that'a thrash-
ing machine was an " implement of husbandry," and it it had
not been for the introduction of the preceding words, "ploughs,
harrows," &c., which applied immediately to the tilling of the
soil, no doubt it would have been so considered. But the 14
and 15 Victoria, c. 38, provided that implements of husbandry
should be deemed to include "thrashing machines;" and the
question was, whether a steam engine which was to be used
for working a thrashing machine, and for no other purpose,
was entitled to exemption from toll. Here the thrashing
machine and steam engine belonged to the same owner, were
going to the same hirer, ans! were travelling together. If they
had been united, and put into one cart, they would clearly
have formed an implement of husbandry ; and if the cart carry-
ing the whole was exempted, he thought that a horse drawing
a part must be exempted also. But he did limit his opinion
to the coincidence of circumstances in this case. He thought
that if the steam engine had been going by itself for the pur-
pose of working a thrashing machine belonging to a farmer,
it would still have been an implement of husbandry, and enti-
tled to exemption. It came clearly within Dr. Johnson's defi-
nition. It was immaterial to say that the steam engine might
be employed for some other purposes, because if those purposes
were unconnected with husbandry it would be liable to toll.
Looking to the fair construction of the Act of Parliament, and
what the legislature intended, he thought the exemption in
this case ought to be allowed.

The other judges concurring, the conviction was affirmed.

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

This month is generally very favourable for the
operation of ploughing, which must be pushed
vigorously in leys and stubbles, and in subsoiling.
If the weather be unfavourable, and frosts and
snows prevail, continue the work of carting, as
directed last month. Feed all live stock regularly
and amply, and thrash frequently, in order to afford
fresh straw.

In mild weather, pull and store turnips, which
are now used in the succession of green rounds and
swedes. Give oilcake to the cattle along v/itli the
turnips, and salt to the sheep.

Ewes will now require good shelter and juicy
food, as the lambing season will commence. Much
attention must be paid to young animals at this
season : feed the dam, and she will suckle her young.

Lay dung on grass lands ; when dry, bush har-
row and roll, and pick oiF by hand all stones and
rubbish. Spread mole-hills and tufts of dung, and
put gates and fences in order. Float meadows.

During the whole month, fell timber and cut
underwoods ; splash hedges, and plant new ones.
Plant all kinds of forest trees, and cut over those
planted last year, as the new saplings that spring
from the stems are very vigorous in growth, and
often replace a stunted vegetation. Cut open
ditches in plantations, and fence well against sum-
mer grazing. Fill vacancies in each year's planting
of trees.

Open the hills on hop-grounds, and apply strong
manures, as rotten dung, brines, and oleaginous
substances; dress the roots, and plant in beds the
shoots that are cut off, to come on for sets. Collect
and prepare all kinds of artificial manures.

In fine seasons, the sowing of grains will com-
mence in the early districts. Sow beans and peas,
oats and barley, and spring wheat; sow spring
vetches for horses and sheep feed. Sow, on warm

and vrell-prepared beds of ground, cabbage seed,
for plants to be set in the field in May and June
for a crop.

Vv^HEAT PRICES FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS.—
A correspondent writes as follows : — "As the wheat trade has
undergone considerable fluctuations during the last four years,
it is interesting to note the monthly changes in the official
average of prices. The following table exhibits these variations
at a glance :

Month. 1854. 1855. 1856. :857.

s. d. s. d. s. d, s. d.

January .... 80 1....72 5.... 76 6.... 58 7

February ..80 10.... 70 4.... 72 6.... 56 0

March .,..78 9.. ,.67 8.. .. 68 11.. .. 55 6

April 77 2.... 68 5.,.. 68 8.... 53 8

May 78 10. ...73 11. ...68 0..,,56 7

June 78 8., .. 76 11. . ,. 69 6.... 60 1

Julv 74 0..,.76 5.... 76 1.,,.63 5

August ,,,.63 7,. ..76 3. . .. 72 10.. .. 59 7
September .. 56 7.... 75 9.. .. 67 iO., .. 57 1
October ....57 11.... 77 0...,65 5.,,, '55 6
November ,.71 10,... 80 10..,. 64 1.,,.51 3
December ..73 1..,.80 1....60 3..,, 48 7

Average .... 72 7.. ..74 8.. .,69 3.. .,56 4

STORING OF TURNIPS.— A correspondent of the IiisJi
Farmers' Gazette writes as follows : " Having had occasion
to raise a quantity of swedes early in November, for the pur-
pose of sowing wheat, I formed a small pit, tapering to the
top, and thatched it securely with a quantity of barley straw,
enough to exclude all effects of rain, wind, or frost. The re-
mainder, about 50 tons, I formed in one large pit, about six
feet wide at base, four feet high, and three feet wide at top :
this remained exposed for a few days, when it received a light
coat of turnip leaves, which soon became decomposed, leaving
the roots in many places quite exposed. Now for the result.
In the pit, which was securely thatched, at least one-half of
the roots have decayed, and in that which was exposed to wind
and rain they are quite sound. In the latter case I acted
under the directions of a large farmer in this neighbourhood,
who raises all his turnips in November, and never covers them
save with a few of their o vvn leaves, putting them invariably
in an exposed position. My reason for touching on this sub-
ject is, that in all agricultural works we are advised to choose a
dry and sheltered locality for turnips, taking care to have them
securely thatched."

DEATH OF MR. STEPHEN MILLS.— It is with sincere
and heartfelt regret that we this day record the death of Mr.
Stephen Mills; and in this regret our readers generally, we
believe, will participate. There is no name more familiar to
the county of Wilts than that of Stephen Mills ; and there is
no man who is more universally respected than he was. Mr.
Mills was one of the most extensive agriculturists in England :
the farms that he occupied comprised nearly 4,000 acres; and
during the recent visit of the Royal Agricultural Society at
Salisbury, a large party of gentlemen from different parts of
the kingdom took the opportunity of inspecting those farms,
and acknowledged the high gratification they had received.
The party was afterwards munificently entertained by Mr.
Mills ; and the thanks of the Royal Agricultural Society were
given him for his liberality. Although possessed of much
wealth, and of great intelligence, he had no aspirations beyond
his station. Affable, friendly, and kind to all round him, his
pride and pleasure were in bis occupation, and he certainly
attained eminence as an English farmer. He possessed some
of the best qualities that can adorn the man ; and in the dis-
charge of the relative duties belonging to husband, father,
master, and neighbour, his conduct was most exemplary — his
numerous labourers sorrowing for his death as for the death of
an only friend. Above all, he led the life of a Christian — he
died the death of a Christian — and there is well-grounded
hope that he has gone to receive the reward of a Christian.
This, then, will be the highest source of consolation to his be-
reaved and afflicted family. — Devizes Gazette.

If6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR
JANUARY.

For the time of j'ear this has been a remarkably faae
month. Throughout the country rapid progress has been
made in all agricultural operations, which are now in a
more forward state than at almost any previous correspond-
ing period. Everywhere, the winter wheats are looking
remarkably well ; indeed, scarcely a complaint on this head
has reached us from any quarter. Thus far, matters are
satisfactory enough •, but when we turn to the question of
the value of wheat, we are compelled to draw rather an
unfavourable picture. That grain, notwithstanding that
our leading provincial markets have been but moderately
supplied W'ith home-grown produce, has met a dull inquiry,
and which has resulted in a continuous decline in value.
The cause of the present decline, however, is easily traced.
In the first place we may observe that, owing to the mild-
ness of the weather, the holders of wheat at Hambro' and
some other ports have been enabled to forward large sup-
plies, wiih orders for immediate sale. Apparently, there-
lore, the holders in the North of Europe have taken alarm
at the prospect held out to them as regards the future, and
are turning their produce into money, without waiting the
result of ourspring trade. Whether this is sound policy,
time alone will determine ; but our impression is that forced
lialesat the present moment are highly injudicious, more
especially as money in the discount market is unusually
cheap and very plentiful, and that prices have been run
down far beneath their ordinary level. In the next place,
holders of foreign wheat, both in London and at the out-
ports, have shown signs of uneasiness, owing to the heavi-
ness in the various markets in France, and the strenuous
efforts making by the French millers to induce parties here
to speculate in Hour. These efforts have as yet been un-
successful ; but it is a debateable question how long prices
either here or on the Continent will show a tendency to
decline. And here we may remark that much misappre-
hension exists in some quarters as regards the exports of
produce from France. Some persons have imagined that
they are wholly free of duty ; but such is not the case, and
we here give a practical view of the working ot the new
export scale of duties : When the average price of wheat
ill the markets of yaunier, Nantes, and Marans, which
establishes the duty for the third section of the third class
(say for all the ports between Nantes and Rochefort, in-
clusive), does not exceed 21f. per hectclitre on wheat, the
duty remains nominally as at present, say, 30c. per hecto-
litre on wheat, and fa'Oc. per 100 kilos on flour. Any
advance upon 21f. up to 2-2f. raises the duty 2f. 40c.
on wheat, and 4f. 80c. on flour: in a similar manner,
every subsequent advance of a franc increases the duty
by '2f. 40e. on wheat, and 4f. GOc. on flour. Thus, if
the average price at the markets named should be from 22f.
Ic. to 23f. per hectolitre, the duty would be 4f. 80c.
per hectolitre on wheat, and 9f. 60c. on flour. The
working is similar as respects barley, rye, Indian corn,
oats, and buckwheat, the only difference being the
price at which the nominal duty changes ; hence, any
steady upward movement in the quotations would
almost immediately lead to a stoppage to the export trade,
unless, indeed, prices iu this country were rapidly to advance
in proportion. Up to this time the quantity of grain and
flour received from France has been trifling, and whilat the
trade here continued heavy, any increase in the receipts can-
not be anticipated, more especially as our farmers now hold
an unuauslly large quantity of wheat of last year's growth,
and that, too, ot very fine quality. The failure of the potato
crop has ltd to an advance in the value of the best potatoes
to nine :,,:iinds j,ei ton. We perceive, then, that a second
quality i ; luod is now positively dearer than good and useful
flour, wl.ioh may be purchased at £8 per ton. From the
Coiitinent very few potatoes can now reach us, as the stocks

are nearly exhausted, and the supplies in the hands of the
growers, both in England and Scotland, are reduced to a nar-
row compass. Although the consumption of bread in our
manufacturing districts has somewhat decreased, owing to the
late severe commercial panic, we are of opinion that wheat is
now selling at prices far beneath its actual value. The barley
trade has been in an unsatisfactory state, and the quotations
have continued to give way, in consequence of large importa-
tions from the Continent, and the comparatively small supplies
taken by the distillers.

Our fat stock markets have ruled heavy throughout the
month, and prices generally have given way, notwithstanding
that the importations of beast and sheep from abroad have
continued trifling. The health of the stock in our leading
counties continues good, and the supply of winter food is
abundant. After a severe fall in prices, and a great depression
in the trade, wool has somewhat recovered itself. At present,
however, we have no advance to notice in prices ; but there is
every prospect of the demand improving, as the stocks held by
the manufacturers, both here and on the Continent, are un-
usually limited.

For good and fine hops, the demand has been rather active,
and prices have advanced from Ss. to 5s. per cwt. In all other
kinds, however, very little has been passing, at about previous
currencies. The supplies in the hands of the factors are very
large for the time of year.

Both hay and straw have come freely to hand, and we have
no improvement to notice in the trade. Meadow hay has sold
at from £2 10s. to £t; clover ditto, £3 lOs. to £5; and
straw, £1 Ss, to £ I lOs. per load. The quantities of hay now
on hand are by no means so extensive as they were at this
period in 1857.

The agricultural advices from Scotland are favourable. Out-
door labours generally are sufficiently forward, but the wheat
trade has sympathised with the demand in the south. All
spring corn has moved off slowly, and prices have given way.
The shipments of produce to the south have been tolerably ex-
tensive.

Throughout Ireland, wheat and moat other articles have
moved ott' heavily, on easier terms. The imports of foreign
grain have been liberal, and the exports to England small.
The stocks of produce at the various ports are only moderate.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH.

Notwithstanding that only moderate supplies of beasts
have been on sale in our leading cattle markets, and that
the imports of stock from the Continent have been on a
very limited scale, the beef trade has been in a most un-
satisfactory state throughout the month. The fall in prices,
however, has not been extensive; but evidently the
butchers have purchased with more than usual caution.
As regards sheep, we may state that the inquiry for all
breeds has continued restrictive, and that a fall of fully 2d.
per 81bs. has taken place in the quotations. Calves, how-
ever, have ruled steady ; but the value of pigs has con-
tinued to give way.

That the late commercial panic has led to a considerable
decrease in the consumption of meat in the manufacturing
districts, is evident from the enormous quantities of beef,
mutton, and pork which have lately reached Newgate and
Leadenhall markets from some of the midland coimties,
which, in some seasons, send large supplies to Manchester,
Birmingham, &c. The falling oft' in the demand for
butchers' meat in those marts of industry has compelled
those who slaughter extensively to forward to the metro-
polis. Large additions to the metropolitan supplies have
of necessity influenced the value of live stock in the other
markets, and prices in Newgate and Leadenhall have

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

i( /

been considerably more in favour of buyers than else-
where. Commercial distress, then, has allowed the pro-
duction of live stock to exceed the consumption; and,
although commerce is slowly improving, we see no
reason to look forward to what may be termed brisk
markets, or high prices for a considerable period. Against
any rapid improvement in the value of live stock, we may
place the low price of bread throughout the country ; and un-
til our operatives become fully employed, the consumption of
food must remain stationary. We thiuk that the theory that
production of late years has not kept pace with the demand
has wholly exploded : indeed, it would seem preposterous to
suppose that the high quotations at which both beasts and
sheep have been selling during the last two or three years
should not, eveo iu the usual course of trade, have stimulated
our breeders to increased exertions. In Holland there is, ap-
parently, a marked change in the system of rearing stock for
foreign markets — certainly for our own. Tnat country has,
apparently, been drained of its superfluous stock, owing to the
immense numbers of beasts and sheep purchased for France,
to meet the wants of the people during the last three or four
years. We believe, therefore, that prices here will be very
little influenced by the amount of supply which the Dutch
graziers will have to spare for us during the whole of the pre-
sent year. From Holstein, we shall, no doubt, receive our
customary supplies ; but, in a general way, they are not of a
quality likely to have much eff'ect upon the prices of good
stock. During last month, the following supplies were im-
ported into London from abroad : —

Beasts 432 head.

Sheep 1,307 „

Calves 603 „

Total .. 2,312

In January, 1857, the total arrivals amounted to 4,633;
in 1856, to 3,292; in 1855, 9,102 ; in 1854,7,919; in 1853,
12,847; and in 1852, to 10,567 head. Thus, it will be
seen that the arrivals last month were smaller than in the
six previous years.

The total supplies of stock exhibited in the Great Metro-
politan Market in January were as follows : —

Beasts 20,312 head.

Cows 572 „

Sheep 80,742 „

Calves 1,108 „

Pigs 1,759 „

Comparison op Supplies.
Jan. Beasts. Cows. Sheep. Calves. Pies.

1857.... 19,949 355 81,200 1,071 2,.'',55

1856.... 17,532 435 101,600 757 2,930

1855.... 19,717 500 120,470 962 2,625

1854.... 19,687 510 95,080 887 2,279

1853.... 20,717 480 96,800 2,148 2,360

Beef has sold at from 33. 2d. to 4s. 6d. ; mutton, 3s. 4d.
to Ss. 4d. ; veal, 4s. to 5s. 4d, ; pork, 3s. 6d. to 4s. lOd,
per 8 lbs. by the carcase.

Comparison of Prices.

Jan., 1854. Jan., 1855.

s. d. s. d. s. d. 8. d.

Beef, from 3 0 to 4 10.... 3 2 to 5 0

Mutton 3 2 — 5 4 34—50

Veal 3 4 _ 5 6 4 2 — 60

Pork 3 4 — 4 10.... 30—44

Jan., 1856. Jan., 1857.

s. d. s. d. - s. d. .s. d.

Beef, from 2 10 to 4 10 .... 3 4 to 5 2

Mutton 2 10 — 5 0 3 8 — 5 6

Veal 4 2 — 6 0.... 38 — 60

Pork .......... 38 — 5 0..., 33 — 52

The closing prices of last month show a decline of 6d. per
81bs. in the value of beef, of 4d. in mutton, of lOd. in veal,
and 6d. in pork, compared with Januaiy, 1857.

Last month the arrivals of beasts up to the Great Metro-
politan Market, from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cam-
bridgeshire, were about 9,000 Scots and shorthorns ; from
Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire, 4,000
shorthorns; from other parts of England, 1,550 of various
breeds ; from Scotland, 2,800 Scots ; and from Ireland,
1,340 oxen.

In Newgate and Leadenhall markets, which have been
abundantly supplied, the trade has ruled heavy, as follows :
Beef from 2s. lOd. to 4s. 2d., mutton 3s. to 4s. 8d., veal 3s. 6d.
to 4s. 8d,, and pork 3s. 2d. to 4s. 8d. per 81bs. by the carcase.

REVIEW OE THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

The first montli of the new year was character-
ized throughout by the almost total absence of rain.
The temperature has greatly varied ; four days at
nearly the commencement being very frosty, these
suddenly giving way to great mildness, which was
followed by cold nights, and eventually by a
thoroughly wintry aspect. The dryness of the
subsoil has preserved the well-grown wheat plant
in health, and the timely appearance of frost has
kept it from undue luxuriance, so that it is
generally agreed a very fair prospect is on the
ground. In the near and southern countries of
Europe, as well as on the African coast, the same
promise is reported. The first turn of the year
showed some tone in the markets, with a slight ad-
vance, and the frost led many to thresh freely ; but
the sudden thaw greatly deteriorating the condition
of the larger quantity on show, coupled with the
general prostration of trade produced by the late
severe crisis, has thrown the markets back to their
former dulness, and the balance of the month has
been against sellers about 2s. per qr. Future
prices must be influenced by foreign arrivals; and
these of late having been liberal, through the ex-

cessive mildness of the weather, which has kept
the Baltic and the northern ports open, millers
have had such an abundant choice of samples, that
they have partly been independent of English
supplies. The return of cold weather, may for a
time, lessen their amount ; but the universally good
wheat crop, and the general] monetary pressure
seem likely to renew the abundance in sprino',
and certainly abate the prospect of a much better
remuneration to English growers. The failure of
the potato crop is, however, likely to be then felt ;
and should any mishap occur to the growing crops,
there would be nothing to fall back upon but the
surplus growth of one favourable season. The
circumstance that the French markets rather decline
at present, is little to be depended on, for they are
not sufficiently low to leave a margin for profitable
shipments here, and France, with her numerous
population and large consumption, may require
much foreign produce before the new harvest.
From America some quantity may come;
stocks at New York having somewhat accumu-
lated, and but a small portion of the
western growth being used up ; but the

17S

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

markets are yet comparatively firm, and
the effects of the crisis seem passing away.
The follou'inf? quotations from foreign markets
show the relative difference with our own. The
price of fair wheat at Paris was 41s. 6d, to 42s. 6d.
per qr. ; but on the coast at Nantes, red wheat
was 43.S. to 44s. per qr. At Marseilles, African
hard was worth 50s. per qr. ; Polish, 36s. per qr.
Good red wheat at Antwerp was quoted 44s. to
453., white to 46s. per qr. Rotterdam quotations
were 35s, 6d. to 44s. 9d. per qr. At Hambro'
wheat on the spot was 45s. Qd., of good quality.
The rates at Stettin were 38s, to about 4'2s. per qr.
The best wheat at Dantzic was worth 47s. per qr.
Spain, with a much better crop than last year,
requires imports. Seville, after a heavy fall, still
quotes 55s. per qr. for native white or Blanquillo
v.'heat. The port of Odessa has continued open,
and with many vessels arrived, 40s. 6d. per qv. has
been made of Ghirka v/heat free on board, worth
in London only about 43s, per qr., after payment
of freight, dut)'-, and expenses. Soft wheat at
Constantinople vv-as quoted 41s. 6d. per qr. At
Berdianski, where the port is closed by frost, with
a stock of 40,000 qrs., the top price of red wheat
was 42s. 9d. per qr., worth 46s. to 47s. per qr. in
London, The inferior v/hite wheat of Egypt was
worth about 28s. per qr. at Alexandria, while in
this port the value is about 32s. or 33s. per qr.

White Southern wheat at New York was quoted
1 dol. 30 c. per bush., equal to 443. per qr., red 1 dol.
15 c, equal to 39s. 7d. per qr., on which 8s. per
qr. should be placed for freight, duty, and ex-
penses ; so that there is scarcely a foreign port
with v/hich a profitable business offers. Still the
love of adventure, and the pressure on holders
when buyers are wanting, may bring good arrivals.

The first Monday in London commenced on the
back of good foreign supplies, with but moderate
arrivals of home growth. The morning's show
from the near counties was small, and there being
every appearance of a frost, the best samples in
good condition, red especially, obtained Is. to 2s.
more money ; inferior sorts were, nevertheless,
neglected, though offered at former rates. In
foreign the sorts most in demand were new
Baltic and Hambro' red, which obtained an
advance of Is., other descriptions- being
without improvement. The country markets
generally responded fully to the London
advices ; Hull, Birmingham, and Gloucester
were Is, dearer; Boston, Lynn, Newark, and
Bristol, were severally Is. to 2s. per qr. improved ;
Sleaford, Gainsborough, and Spalding noting fully
2s. advance. The only improved market at Liver-
pool was that held on Tuesday, when quotations
were raised 2d. to 3d. per 70lbs.

The second Monday exceeded the first in foreign
supplies, with about an equal quantity of English
growth. From Kent the morning's show of sam-
])les was good, from Essex only moderate; but the
sudden return of a very mild damp atmosphere
greatly affecting the condition of the wheat, town
millers held aloof, and would only buy at lower
prices — say Is. to 2s. per qr. These offers were
generally declined at the Essex stands, but accepted
at the Kentish ; so that a good part was left over to

the chances of next day. The better supply of
foreign at such a time influenced some holders,
who accepted a similar reduction to clear their car-
goes ex ship. On the following day those factors
who had declined placing on lower terms agreed to
the abatement, and placed their samples without
gaining any advantage. Some of the country mar-
kets little altered their quotations, as Sheffield,
Newmarket, and Portsmouth, More conceded Is,
per qr., as Leeds, Gainsborough, Newark, a'ul
Bristol. Hull, Birmingham, and some others,
noted the same decline as London, and Wakefield
was fully 2s. per qr, down, Liverpool, on Tues-
day, gave way 2d. to 3d. per 70lbs , and on Friday
there was a further fall of id. to 2d, per 70lbs.

The third Monday showed increased arrivals,
and though the weather was less damp, and frosty
nights had set in, there was no reaction from the
previous dulness; for though Kent and Essex
made but moderate contributions towards the
morning's sujjply, about another Is. per qr. abate-
ment ensued, the sales of foreign being very limited
at a similar decline. Hull, Boston, Lynn, Leices-
ter, Bristol, and other country markets, were also
Is. per qr. lower; but Louth, St. Ives, and Mar-
ket Rasen did not quote changed prices. Shef-
field, Gloucester, and Portsmouth were down 2s.
per qr. Liverpool, on Tuesday, was 3d, per 70lbs,
cheaper, but evinced more tone at the week's
close.

The fourth Monday had less additional fo-
reign, but rather more English wheat generally,
though Kent and Essex combined showed but few
samples in the course of the day. The royal mar-
riage taking place this day had its influence on
trade, there being but a slight attendance; and as
town millers had agreed to lower the price of their
best flour, there was very little done. The Kentish
hoymen were willing to accept Is, per qr, less, to
clear their stands; but Essex factors scarcely
lowered their terms, the quantities on hand being
small. The prices of foreign were not changed :
but sales were entirely retail and partial. Liver-
pool on Tuesday did not alter prices, but Leeds
was Is. per qr. lov/er. The foreign arrivals during
the four weeks, into London, were 66,644 qrs. ;
the English, 13,618 qrs. ; giving an average
weekly supply of 20,065 qrs., which shows a
slight increase over the previous month. The
month's total exports were only 500 qrs, wheat,
161 qrs, oats, 20 qrs. beans. The foreign supplies
for the United Kingdom in Dec. were 486,299
qrs. wheat, 509,811 cwt. flour. During the four
weeks in .January, the imports into the principal
ports of Great Britain, in wheat and flour, were
344,716 qrs. The principal change in the flour
trade has been in the best quality town-made,
which, up to the fourth Monday, was 47s, per
sack, and then reduced to 43s, per sack. In Nor-
folks there have been slight fluctuations ; but the
total decline has been only Is. per sack, the month
commencing at 33a., and closing at 32s. Ameri-
can and French samples have been offering at
gradually easier rates, though the importation of
neither has been heavy. In country flour, the re-
ceipts of the four weeks have been 71,217 sacks :
in American barrels, 20,696; and in foreign sacks

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

179

(principally French), 9,570 sacks ; giving a weekly
average of 20,196 sacks 5,174 brls., which shows
some deficiency as respects last month's supplies.
In Paris, the fine four marks of the best makers is
quoted at 48f. 50c., = 31s. 4d. per sack English;
but the expense of transit to the coast, with freight,
and English and French duties, &c., leaves little
inducement to import, as 38s. here could scarcely
be depended on.

The barley trade throughout the month has been
heavy, with generally declining prices. The first
Monday opened cheerfully, with Is. per qr. ad-
vance on malting descriptions, and some im-
provement on secondary and grinding sorts ; but
this was the only market with the slightest anima-
tion, the second Monday losing the previous ad-
vance on fine descriptions ; the third still further
declining on distilling qualities ; and the last being
the heaviest of all, with a downward tendency for
anything but picked samples for maltsters. This
dulness has not arisen from overwhelming supplies,
as the receipts have been below those of last month ;
but the sale of malt being slow and difficult has
affected the best samples, while the low prices of
maize, oats, and beans have made the cheaper
descriptions less in request. It now seems too
late to expect any rally in malting sorts ; but as we
have never found the foreign importation beyond
the demand, as feeding sorts get scarce towards
the season's close, we think an improvement very
likely. The four weeks' supply has been in Eng-
lish sorts, 14,570 qrs.; in foreign, 39,536 — giving
a weekly average of 13,526 qrs.

The malt trade, as already noted, has been limited,
but prices have scarcely varied through the month,
70s. being about the highest quotation for fine pale.

Oats are the only article in corn which show some
advance in prices in the month's course, and this has
arisen entirely from the unusual smallnessof the sup-
plies. The balance of the month's fluctuation shows
Is. per qr. in their favour. The first Monday was
6d. per qr. dearer, having the smallest show of any
on board ship ; the [second also showed a further
rise of 6d. to Is. per qr. ; the third was quiet on
increased arrivals; and the last, with only an average
quantity, yielded 6d. per qr. on foreign, and Is. per
qr. on Scotch samples. There remain on hand
many granary samples of an inferior kind ; and till
these are cleared, moderate arrivals must have their
influence; but as the season advances we rather look
for higher rates than otherwise, from the extensive-
nessof the demand, and the deficiency of the English
and Irish crops as to quantity. The four weeks'
arrivals in London have been as follows : Of Eng-
lish, there were 3,659 qrs. ; of Scotch, 7,689 qrs.;
of Irish, 3,158 qrs.; of Foreign, 43,535 qrs. — in
all supplying an average of only 14,510 qrs. per
week, and being 6,400 qrs. weekly less than dur-
ing last month.

The bean trade has been heavy, from the mildness
of the season and largeness of foreign arrivals ; the
only change noted as to value was a fall of Is. per
qr. on the last day. The supplies have been 2,728
qrs. of English and 12,762 qrs. of foreign, showing
3,872 qrs. per week, or 340 qrs. weekly beyond
last month.

The supply of peas has been very short, with

prices unaltered ; the demand for boilers being
very limited, through the comparative absence of
frost and the high ra^es of duns and maples, lead-
ing to other substitutes in preference to paying
any further advance. Of English samples there
were but 1,710 qrs., of foreign only 243 qrs.,
giving an average of only 488 qrs.

Linseed, with moderate arrivals, having attracted
attention from the late decline, has rather rallied,
and an advance of Is. to 2s. in the course of the
month must be noted. Cakes, without being
dearer, have found a very ready sale.

The trade in cloverseed having approached its
season, has improved, and foreign, as well as Eng-
lish red, has commanded higher rates, though
buyers are neither numerous nor eager. In France
there has been no excitement ; but some advance
has taken place in Germany. Good new Bordeaux
red here, of which some has arrived, is worth about
65s. ; extra purple English, of which little has yet
appeared, 75s. to 80s. ; fine white is also inquired
for, and trefoil commands fully former prices.
Canaryseed has been dull, as well as mustardseed.
Hempseed, rapeseed, coriander, and carraway have
continued a slow sale, with little alteration in value.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillings per Qnarter.

Wheat, new, Essex and Kent, white 43 to 52 red 41 to 49

Norfolk, Line, and Yorks., red 41 49

Baeley, malting 34to37.... Chevalier, new 37 4(J

Distilling 32 35.... Grinding 26 30

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk 60 GG extra G8 —

Kingston, Ware, and town made..., 60 66 „ 68 —

Brown 55 56 68 —

Rte — — 30 34

Oats, English, feed 20 24 Potato 26 S3

Scotch, feed 20 25 Potato 25 32

Irish, feed, white 20 22 fine 24 31

Ditto, black 19 21 ,, — 24

Beans, Mazagan 32 34 Ticks ...... 33 34

Harrow 33 35 Pigeon 37 40

Peas, white boilers .. 40 44. .Maple .. 41 43. .Grey 89 41

FLODE,persackof2801bs., Town, Households. .383., fine 40 43

Country 33 34 Households.. 37 SB

Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship 31 32

FOREIGN GRAIN.

Shillio);s per Quarter.

WuEAT,Dant2ic, niixed..50 — high do. — — extra — su

Konigsberg 45 51 ,, — — —

Rostock .....46 — fine.... 50 — —

American, white.... 46 51 red.... 44 48 —

Pomera., Meckbg.,& Uckermrk, red 44 49 —

Silesian, red .43 48 wliite 48 50

Danish and Holstein 42 46

Russian, hard 42 48 French. i.... (none)

St. Petersburg and Riga , 40 40

Rhine and Belgium — 49

Barley, grinding 24 29 Distilling.... 32 31

Oats, Dutchjbrew, and Polaiids..2l 29 Feed 20 2G

Danish and Swedish, feed . ..21 25 Stralsund.... 22 20

Russian 20 23

Beans, Friesland and Holstein 34 gf)

Konigsberg 31 35 Egyptian .... 33 34

Peas, feeding ....S7 40 fine boilers.. 40 42

Indian COKN, white 34 35 yellow 34 35

Flour, persack French 38 40 Spanish .... — —

American.per barrel, sour..., 20 23 sweet 24 S7

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For the last Six Wheat.

Barley.

Oats.

Rye. 1 Beans

Pes^.

Weeks : j s. d.

s. d.

8. d.

s. |d. 8. d.

S. (1.

Dec. 12, 1857 .... 49 5

3G 5

23 3

34 1 41 1

41 2

Dec. 19, 1857 ....'49 3

37 0

22 8

35 7 40 3

40 5

Dec. 26, 1857 .... 47 5

35 11

23 2

31 6 39 7

40 9

Jan. 2, 1858 .... 47 7

36 6

22 3

32 1 39 3

39 4

Jan.; 9, 1858 .... 47 10

36 3

22 8

33 6 39 3

40 5

Jan. 16, 185S ....| 48 8

37 0

22 1

33 7 39 3

39 11

Agerregate averas©! 48 4

36 5

22 8

33 5 39 9

40 4

Same time lasty ear 59 5

44 3

23 10

40 0 42 0

40 6

180

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES— 1858-57.

From last Friday's Gaz. s. d.

Wheat 117,485 qrs., 48 8

Barley 104,286 .. 37 0

Oats 11,231 .. 22 1

Rye 7 .. 33 7

Beans 5,266 .. 39 3

Peas.

1,771

39 11

From Gazette ot IS57 , s. d.

Wheat 103,358 qrs., 59 4

Barley 98 323 .. 45 7

Oats 15,251 .. 23 4

Rye 117 .. 40 2

Beans 6,132 .. 40 5

Peas 2,531 .. 39 C

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.

Tabes, new, per bushel 5s. Od. to 5s. 9d.

MusTAEDSEED, per bush., new 15s. to 17s., brown 13s. to 15s.

CoRiAKDEB, per cwt 20s. to 30s.

C ANAET, per qr 80s. to 868.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s. to — s... crushing 60s. to 62s.

Linseed Cakes, per ton jEIO Os. to £10 10s.

Rapeseed, per qr fiSs. to 708,

Rape Cake, per ton £b lOs. to £6 Os.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &c.

T AEES, per bushel Os. Od. to Os. Od.

Hempseed, small, per qr — s. to 40a. ..Do. Dutch 42s.

CoRi ANDEfi, per cwt. 158. to 25s.

Cakrawat ,, 44s.to468.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 58s. to 593 Bombay 573, to 59s.

Linseed Cake, perton £9 lOs.to^ClO lOs.

Rapeseed, Dutch 763. to 80s.

Rape Cake, perton £5 Os. to £5 lOs.

HOP MARKET.

BOROUGH, Monday, Jan. 25. — We have rather less
business passing in our market ; prices are, however, firmly
Oiaiutaiued, and for the finest samples the tendency towards
improvement is still observable. Our currency is as follows : —

Mid and East Kents 7O3. to 903. choice 1203.

Weald of Kenta 568. to 638. „ VOs.

Sussex 523. to 583. „ 63s.

YearliDg3,&c 2l3.to 35s, „ 50s

Mease and Wild.

POTATO MARKETS.

SOUTHWARK WATERSIDE, Monday, Jan. 25. —
Daring the past week the arrivals coastwise have been fair,
but limited from abroad ; the trade has been more lively, and a
little more money has been made for fresh samples. The
followiug are this day's quotations :

Yorkshire Regeuts 1203. to 180s. per ton.

Lincolnshire do 1208. to 150s. „

Dunbar do I2O3. tolBOs. „

Do. reds 85 s. to 903. „

Perth, Fife, and Forfar Regents lOOs. to I2O3. „
Ditto ditto reds . . 7O3. to 80s. „

French whites 75s. to 85s. „

Belgian do 70s. to 75a. „

Do, reds 758. to 908. „

Dutch whites 703. to 903. „

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.

LONDON, Monday, Jan. 25.— Coastwise and by land-
carriage, very moderate supplies of Potatoes have come to
hand since Monday last ; and the imports from abroad have
been ralber limited — viz., 2 tons from Rotterdam, 516 tons
from Rouen, 30 tons from Antwerp, 107 tons from Calais, 3
tons from Oatend, and 247 tons from Dunkirk. Selected
samples are dearer, and other kinds rule steady in price.

York Regents I20s. to 180s. per ton,

Kent and Essex do lOOs. to HOs. „

Scotch 803. to 120s. „

Do. Cups 75s. to 853. „

Mi Idlings 503. to GOs, „

Lincolns 1208. to ISOs. „

Blues 65s. to 853. „

Foreign 653. to 958. „

PRICES OP BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c.

BUTTER, per cwt. I

FriesUnd 126tol28

Ki«l 126 130

Dorset , 112 124

Carlow 104 120

"Waterford — 94

Cork, , _ 1:4

Limerick 98 lOi

Stipo 101 112

FaK3H,i)er aoien,.13B.0d.to 16B.0d.

CHEESE, per cwt.: ■.

Cheshire 66

Cheddar 72

Double Gloucester 58

HAMS:
York po

Westmoreland 80

74

BACON : Wiltshire, dried 58
Irish, jfreen

WOOL MARKETS.
ENGLISH WOOL MARKET,
LONDON, Monday, Jan. 25. — Since Monday last there
have been iucreased inquiries for good and fine fleeces, at full
prices. All other kinds of wool continue dull in sale. There
is, however, every prospect of a steady revival in the trade, as
dealers geaerally hold unusually light stocks for the time of
year.

Per pack of 2401bs.

Fleeces— Southdown Hoss £13 Oto£13 10

Do. Half-bred Hogs 12 0 12 10

Do. Kent 13 10 14 0

Do, Southdown Ewes and Wethers 13 0 00 0

Do, Leicester do 13

Sorts— Clothing, picklock IS

Do, Prime and iiicklook 14 10

Do. Choice 13 10

Do, Super 12

Combing — Wether matching .. , 15 10

Do.
Do,
Do,
Do,
Do.
Do,

Picklock 13

Common... 12

Hog matching .... 16

Picklock matching 14

Super do, 12

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL WOOL

Per lb. s.

German, /^ 1st and 2nd Elect .... ..... 3

Saxon, ) Prima 2

and ] Secunda 2

Prussian. (Xertia 1

Colonial :- Sydney — Lambs 1

Scoured do I

Unwashed 0

Locks and Pieces 0

Slipe and Skin 1

Port Philip— Lambs 1

Scoured do.. 1

Unwashed 0

Locks and Pieces 1

Slipe and Skin 0

S. Austkalian — Lambs 1

Scoured do 1

Unwashed 0

Locks and Pieces 0

V. D, Land— Lambs 1

Scoured do 1

Unwashed 1

Locks and Pieces 1

Cape of Good Hope— Fleeces 0

Lambs 0

Scoured 0

Unwashed 0

MANURES.

PRICES CURRENT OF GUANO, &c.
PERtrVIAN GUANO,(perton,for30ton3)nominalj£13 5 0 to £ 0 0 0

Do. Do (under SOtons).... 14 0 0 0 0 n

BOLIVIAN GUANO none 0 0 0 0 0 0

ARTIFICIAL MANURES, &c.

0

14 0

0

16 10

0

15 0

0

14 0

0

IS 0

0

16 0

0

14 0

0

12 10

0

16 10

0

15 0

0

12 10

MARKET

d.

s. d.

4 to 4 6

4

a 0

0

2 4

8

1 10

H

2 li

44

2 8

H

1 6

10

1 9

4

1 9

4

3 ]

24

2 Si

e

1 (|

1

1 7J

H

I 6i

4

1 0

3

2 2

9

0 11

7

1 2

6*

1 11

5

2 8

14

I 3

U

I 6

11

2 0

11

1 10

8

1 10

7i

I 3

Nitrate Soda*)

(per ton)... J
NitratePotash >

or Saltpetre J
Sulpht.Amraouia 21 0 0
Muriate ditto... 27 0 0

S"J'^"^^»8pht. j 5 g J

Gypsum 2 0 0

Coprolite 3 15 0

£22 0 Oto*^'^ " -'
29 0 0 30 0 0

9 0 0

lent (

Sulph.olCop

-■ lU,

triol,forWhent

Bteepinjf

Salt 1

Bones, Dust,perqr. 1

Do. i-inch 1

Oil Vitriol,

concentrated,

per lb

Do. Brown.,.,,

£ s. d.
45 0 0 to 47 0 0

5 0
S 0
1 0

0 1

003

Ma

10 0 0

3 10 0

4 0 0
OIL-CAKES.

Marseilles (none) £0 0 Oto £0 0 0

Enjjlish 10 10 0 110 0

Ilape-cakesiprton 6 6 0 6 iU 0

) 5 0 0 00 I

John Keen, 35, Leadenhall-street,

(Late Odams, PicUford, and Keen.)
£6 10 0

factured by IIo(l;,'3.in & Simpson, Wakefield, and
Mattliews & Co., Driffield

Linseed-cakes, per ton
Thin American,') ^.m ik n^-ii in ft
inbrls.orbags/ ^'^ ** "^l' ^"^
Tliick do. round

i&Co.,24, Mark Lan

Ammonia-Phusphate and Nitro- Phosphate por ton £8

Superphosphate of Lime ,, 7

0 0
0 0

Agricultural Chemical Works, Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Prentice's Cereal Manure lor Coru Crops per ton £8 10 0

Prentice's Turnip Manure ^ 7 0 0

Prentice's Superphosphate of Lime ,, 6 10 0

J.Kn

Lancashire Manure Company, Widnes, near Warrington,
ght & Co.'s Nitrogenized Bone Manures perton£8 16 0

Manure Works, GIrOTehil), Beverley.
• St Co. s Celebrated Turnip Manures per ton £7110 0

Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 240, Strand, London.

IMPORTANT TO FLOCKMASTERS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMIST,
BT APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G., &C.

LEICESTER HOUSE, GEEAT DOVER-STREET, BOROUGH, LONDON,

Begs to call the attention of Farmers and Graziers to his valuable
SHEEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, which requires
no Boiling, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
effectually destroying the Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to the Flock, prerenting the alarming attacks of
Fly and Shab, and cleansing and purifying the Skin, thereby
greatly improving the Wool, both in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Chemist, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, although any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 20 sheep, price, jar included £Q

6 1b.

80

8 1b.

40

10 lb.

50

20 1b.

100

SO lb.

laO

40 lb.

200

50 1b.

250

60 1b.

300

80 1b.

400

100 lb.

500

(cask and measure
included)

Should any Flockmaster prefer boiling the Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will be found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loathsome and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and which may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons of the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon — sufficient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the virulence of the disease) ; also in
wine quart bottles. Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"Scoulton, near Hingham, Norfolk, April I6th, 1855.
•Dear Sir, — ^In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been replied to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

valuable ' Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 600 Sheep
were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the ' Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Show, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid to the flock by my shepherd after dressing according
to instructions left ; but notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the ' Agent for the
above Specific,' that the flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me theys hould
be at once seen to, but did not do so vmiXiJive weeks afterwards,
and in the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life ; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing them again, as one- third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an expsrienced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near. Being determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to you for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
following day ; and although the weather was most severe in
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in three weeks the Sheep were quite cured ;
and I am happy to say the young lambs are doing remarkably
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest and
best remedy now in use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,

" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addition to the foregoing, he has very materially Improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus ; and he would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ought now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 5 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 3 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials.
&c., to be had of all agents, or sent direct per post free.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD— SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.

Just published, the 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is., or sent, postopaid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debility, Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection ;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting Spermatorrhoea, and other urethral discharges,
by Microscopic Examination ; to which are added, Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L. CURTIS, Surgeon, 15, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till 3, and 6 to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1.

REVIEWS OF THE WORK.

" CtTRTis ON Manhood. — Shilling Edition. — 77th Thousand.— This is a truly valuable work, and should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years' experience as medical referee in the treatment of nervous debility, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably-written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday Times, 23rd March,
1856.

" Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the source of those diseases which produce decline in youth or more frequently premature old
age." — Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1856.

Curtis on Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea that can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, Ist Feb., 1851.

*' We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Society by whom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the relation of a parent, preceptor, or a clergyman.— fi'wn. Evening Paper.

Published by the Author; sold also in sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, Paternoster-row ; Hannat, 63,
Oxford-street; Maun, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, 11, Greenside-street, Edinburgh; Heywood,
Oldham-street, Manchester ; Howell, 6, Church-street, Liverpool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tyne;
Ashley, Post-Office, Newbury; Ferris & Score, Union-street, Bristol; Pierson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Braintree; Thbw, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester ; Lurcock, Maidstone; Cook, Ipswich ; Huscroft, Bury St.
Edmunds; Dove, Swindon ; Jearey, Bridewell Alley, Norwich; Smith, Cambridge ; Slattbb, Oxford;
and by all Booksellers and Chemists in the United Kingdom.

A VEGETABLE WHITE POWDER.

The importance of possessing A FINE SET OF TEETH is universally acknowledged by all who attach the
due value to Personal Advantages and the blessings of health. A regular, firm, and pearly row of teeth ever
insares favourable impressions, while the indispensable agencies which they fulfil in respect to the functions
of health, demand our utmost care and attention in their preservation.

Disorders of the Teeth, however slightly regarded, are inevitably attended with evils which affect the whole
system. Whatever renders mastication painful or imperfect, not only lessens our relish and enjoyment of food,
but also prevents that perfect comminution and mixture of it with the saliva, which is indispensable to perfect
digestion ; and hence arise an endless train of diseases of the stomach, while at the same time the body is
deprived of its wonted nourishment, and the whole system languishes in a state of discomfort and disease.

Perhaps, among all the disagreeable consequences that follow the fast decay of the Teeth, an impure breath
must be the most mortifying to its possessor, as it is the most generally offensive in society.

The Decay of tlie Teeth arises from various causes ; but, principally, it maybe attributed to early neglect,
ill health, or the use of Tooth Powders containing mineral and other deleterious acids, which give a jwomen-
tary whiteness to the teeth, while they corrode the enamel/ The extreme prevalence of this last cause is too
well known to need comment. To this fact, indeed, is principally to be attributed the long Botanical research
which happily terminated by the most felicitous discovery ever given to the world for the PrbsEryation of
tlie Tbeth, Gums, and Breath, viz.: —

' ODONTO, OR PEARL DENTIFRICE,

A WHITE POWDER, composed of the choicest and most Recherche Ingredients of the Oriental
Herbal ; the leading requisites of cleanliness and efficacy being present in the highest possible degree. It
extirpates all tartarous adhesions to the Teeth, and insures a Pearl-like Whiteness to the enamelled
surface. Its Anti-septic and Anti-scorbutic Properties exercise a highly beneficial and salutary
influence ; they arrest the further progress of decay of the Teeth, induce a healthy action of the Gums, and
cause them to assume the brightness and colour indicative of perfect soundness ; while by confirming their
adhesion to the Teeth, they give unlimited enjoyment and fresh zest to appetite, by perpetuating effective
and complete mastication. The Breath, also, from the salubrious and disinfecting qualities of the Odonto,
attains a sweetness and fragrance truly grateful to its possessor.

It speedily removes those ravages which children sustain in their Teeth, owing to improper use of sweet and
acid articles, which imperceptibly destroy them.

The^roprietors of this Dentifrice pledge themselves, that its efficacy in preserving and embellishing the
Teeth far surpasses anything of the kind ever offered to the public.

As the most efficient and fragrant aromatic purifier of the Breath, Teeth, and Gums ever known,
ROWLANDS' ODONTO has for a long series of years occupied a distinguished place at the Toilets of the
SOVEREIGNS and the NOBILITY throughout Europe ; while the general demand for it at once announces
the favour in which it is universally held.

Price 2s. 9d. per box.

CAUTION".— To protect the Public from Fraud, the Proprietor's Name and Address,
thus—" A. R01VI.ANB & SONS, 20, Ilatton Garden," are engraved
on the Government Stamp, which is affixed on each box.

Sold by them and by Chemists and Perfumers.
tm^ Ask for ROWXiANDS' ODONTO.

No. 3, Vol. XIII.

MARCH, 1858.

[Third Series.

THE

FARMER'S MAGAZINE

AKD

MONTHLY JOURNAL

THE AGRICULTUEAL INTEEEST.

IBetritateU

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY" ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 346, STRAND.

PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.

B00EB80H AKD TUKTOBD,]

[PBINTEKS, 246, STBAND.

MAEK LANE EXPRESS,

AND

IS THE

LARGEST AND THE LEADING FARMER'S AND GRAZ[ER S NEWSPAPER,

PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY EVENING, IN TIME FOR POST.

lose sight of that noble principle which the great Lord Leicester
so successfully followed; viz.i lliat liberal conduct torcards the
Tenant mill ever be found to be the noit beneficial to the
Landlord.

THE MALT TAX.— This is the only Farmer's Paper in London
which advocates the Eepeal op thb Malt Tax.

In authenticity and extent of Market Information, the Mark
Lane Express stands unrivalled. A REVIEW OP THE
CORN TRADE (British and Foreign) ftilly explains the Causes
which occasion the Rise or Fall in Prices, thus affording he
Grower and Speculator some grounds for anticipating the stability
or future tendency of Prices.

The Latest Reports of the Corn, Cattle, Provision, Wool, Seed,
Hop, Malt, and Commercial markets, appear with the leading
Country Fairs and Agricultural Meetings. Authentic Weekly
Advices are received from all the Important Markets in the
kingdom, our Colonial Possessions, as well as all parts of Europe
and America.

The object of the Proprietors of the MARK LANE EXPRESS
has ever been, to render it in every way the most efficient
organ of the Agricultural Classes, to direct and diffuse practical
and scientific information of all kinds relating to rural
affairs, to be a n edium for giving circulation to the
Proceedings of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,
the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the
Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, and of
every Agricultural Society and Farmers' Club in the kingdom.
All political and party discussions are carefully avoided, except
such as are purely Agricultural; since its establishment,
twenty-six years since, this course has been steadily adhered to,
and the result has been, "the accession of a numerous and
rapidly-increasing list of subscribers, comprising the most influ-
ential Agriculturists in the kingdom.

In times when the position of the Tenant Farmers has been
one of great difficulty, the MARK LANE EXPRESS has ever
been directed to the advocacy and support of the rights of
THE Tenant Farmers. In stating this, it is not intended to

Office of Publication and for Advertisements, 246, Strand, London. May be had of all Booksellers and
Newsmen throughout the Kingdom, price Sevenpence, or £l 10s. 4d. per annum.

BLAIR'S GOUT AND EHEUMATIC PILLS.

Price Is. l^d. and 2s. 9d. per box.

THIS preparation is one of the benefits which the science of modern chemistry has conferred upon
mankind; for during the first twenty years of the present century to speak of a cure for the Gout was considered a
romance ; but now, the efficacy and safety of this medicine are so fully demonstrated by unsolicited testimonials from persons
in every rank of life, that public opinion proclaims this as one of the most important discoveries of the present age ; and, in
testimony of its eflHcacy, Mr. W. Buroh, Chemist, West Bromwich, writes—" Nov. 8th, 1856. Gentlemen, The enclosed Testi-
monial was received by me from a customer residing in this town. Yours respectfully, W. Bdkch. To Messrs. Prout & Co."
Mr. Aekinstall, of the Lyng, West Bromwich, says :— " I have much pleasure in bearing my testimony to the wonderful effi-
cacy of Blair's Gout and Rheumatic Pills. Having been a great sufferer from rheumatic gout, I have upon various occasions had
recourse to them, and am happy to say that however acute and distressing the pain may be, I always receive relief in an almost
incx-edibly shoi-t time, even after taking only one dose. If taken in the early stage of the disease they dissipate it ; if later
they ease the pain and cure much sooner than any other medicine I ever made use of. I would not be without them on any
account."

FURTHER PROOF OF THE GREAT EFFICACY OF BLAIR'S GOUT AND RHEUMATIC PILLS.— Forwarded by
Mr. Reinhardt, Chemist, Hull. Sir,— Enclosed is a testimonial from a customer of mine, who is well known about here : he
speaks in the highest terms of Blair's Gout and Rheumatic Pills, and would be glad to give information to anybody. " To Mr.
Reinhardt, 22, Market-place, Hull. December 4th, 1855. Dear Sir,- 1 have been afflicted with rheumatism for 12 years, during
which time I have tried almost everything, both internally and externally, but could not obtain any permanent relief. A short
time ago I purchased a 2s. 9d. box of Blair's Pills of you, and before I had taken the whole of them I was more free from pain
than I had been for the last dozen years. You will please let me have another box, as I mean to keep them by me in case I should
again require them, and oblige, dear Sir, j-ours obediently, Jeeemiah Gamess."

These Pills require neither attention nor confinement, and are certain to prevent the disease attacking any vital part. Sold by
all medicine vendors. See the name of " Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, London," on the government stamp.

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE.— OUR ENGLISH ROSE; Song, the Poetry by J. J.Lonsdale,
Esq., the Music by W. T. Weighton. Illustrated with a beautiful Portrait of H. R. H. the Princess Rotal. Price 2s 6d

MUSIC FOR SCHOOLS AND THE COLONIES, &c.— The I7lst Edition.— HAMILTON'S
MODERN INSTRUCTIONS for the PIANOFORTE, 4s. ; Hamilton's Modern Instructions for Singing, lOth Edition,
5s. ; Hamilton's Dictionary of 1,500 Musical Terms, 51st Edition, Is. ; Clarke's Catechism of the Rudiments of Music 45th
Edition, 3s.
N.B. — Gratis, and post free, a Catalogue of new School Music. Also, a list of new and second-hand Pianofortes.
London, Robert Cocks and Co., New Burlington-street, W. ; and of all Musicsellers and Booksellers.

'O CAPITALISTS.— TO BE DISPOSED OF, the PATENT RIGHT for

MAKING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA for Agricultural Purposes, at the cheapest rate. This is an
ojiportnnity ranly to be met with. Principals only will be treated with.

Apply (in the first instance) to Beta, care of T. W. Clough, Esq., Solicitor, Huddersfield.

^rO FARMERS AND GRAZIERS.— Wanted, bj a Young Man, aged 21, who has

f J'^'^^e^''*' experience in Practical Farming, a Situation to Assist or Conduct the MANAGEMENT

01 a FARM, under the superintendence of a Principal. He is also qualified to keep the Accounts, being

acquainted with Farm Book-keeping. > &

Apply to G. W., at 30, Addington Place, Ramsgate.

^otrnnrieit iii| tire -^^-^^V^^^ f riuripl /nrmtrs
anftfrnmrsitt r^^fel^^^S tkHinglmni.

CUFF^S FARMER^S FRIEND.

One dose of this invaluable medicine will cure tlie SCOUR or LOOSENESS in Lambs, Calves, Sheep, Colts,
Heifers, Steers, and all Cattle, without leaving costiveness ; and given occasionally to Beasts whilst fattening
will promote a healthy and thriving condition. It will also perfectly cure the FRET, COLIC or GRIPES in
Horses. Price Is. 8d. or 3s. per Bottle.

CUFF^S FOOT-ROT POT\^DER

Is a cheap and effectual remedy for the FOOT- ROT or HALT, a single Packet of which will cure One Hundred
Sheep, and large Flocks may be soon freed from the Disease by its use. It has been extensively used and
highly approved of for nearly thirty years by large Sheep Breeders throughout the Kingdom. P:ice Is.
per Packet.

CUFF^S FLY, SCAB & MANGE OIL

Will very quickly destroy MAGGOTS in Sheep, and LICE or VERMIN in all animals. It will also cure the
MANGE, and SKIN DISEASES in Horses or Cattle, and effectually cleanse a Flock of Sheep from the
SCAB or SHAB. Price Is. 8d. and 3s. per Bottle.

THE BRITISH SHEEP VTASH

Is used for Dipping or Dressing Sheep and Lambs, without boiling, to prevent the Fly striking, and the Scab
or Shab from spreading, and effectually to destroy TICKS, LICE, and VERMIN in Sheep. Price 2s. 9d.,
5s., and 10s. per Jar j or 2s. 6d. per packet.

SHERIVOOD'S ORIGINAL DRIFFIELD OILS

Are strongly and confidently recommended for preventing GANGRENE or MORTIFICATION after Lambing
or Calving, and for Healing" CUTS, STABS, WOUNDS, BRUISES, STRAINS, SWELLINGS, &c., &e.. As
these Oils are in constant use by some of the most celebrated Breeders in the world, and have maintained a re-
putation about fifty years, it would be superfluous to enlarge upon their value and importance. Pints, 2s. 6d,,
Quarts, 5s.

Prepared by J. H. Cuff, No. 10, Smithfield Market, London, and sold by Drnggists and Medicine Vendors
None is Genuine unless signed by J. H. CUFF in writing.

" A SLIGHT COLD," — if its first symptoms are not arrested, too often lays the founda-
-L\. tion of a variety oi Pulmonary Complaints, including Winter Cough, Asthma, and other consti-
tutional derangements. The evil consequences of these disorders may be easily averted or subdued by keeping
at hand a supply of the above celebrated Lozenges, which have now stood the test of public experience for
upwards of half a century. The Testimonials to tbeir efficacy have been voluntarily given by the most eminent
of the Faculty, as well as by all classes of private individuals. Containing neither opiates nor any injurious
anodyne, they may be safely taken by the youngest child or the most delicate female.

VALUABLE TESTIMONIAL.

CURE OF ASTHMA OF SEVERAL YEARS' STANDING.

Cainscross, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Sir, — Having been troubled with Asthma for several years, I could find no relief from any medicine whatever,
until 1 was induced about two years ago to try a box of your valuable Lozenges, and found such relief from them
that I am determined for the future never to be without a box of them in the house, and will do all in my power
to recommend thtm to my friends.

If you consider the above testimonial of any advantage, you are quite at liberty to make what use of it jou
please. I am. Sir, your most obliged servant,

Thomas Keating, Esq. W. J. TRIGG.

Prepared and sold in Boxes, Is. l^d., and Tins, 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., and 10s. 6d. each, by Thomas Keating,
Chemist, &c., 79, St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Retail by all Druggists and Patent Medicine Vendors in the
world.

N.B. — To prevent spurious imitations, please to observe that the words " KEATING'S COUGH
LOZENGES" are engraven on the Government Stamp of each Box, without which none are genuine.

KEATING'S PALE NEWFOUNDLAND COD LIVER OIL, perfectly pure, nearly
tasteless, and free from adulteration of any kind, having been analyzed, reported on, and recommended
by Professors Taylor and Thomson, of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, who, in the words of the late Dr.
Pekeira, say that " The finest oil is that most devoid of colour, odour, a.n& flavour," characters tliis will be
found to possess in a high degree. Half-pints, Is. 6d. ; Pints, 2s. 6d. ; Quarts, 4s. 6d. ; and Five-pint Bottles,
JQs. 6d., Imperial Measure.

79, St, Paul's Chueohyabd, Lqndon.

NOTICE OF DIVIDEND.

OF DEPOSIT.

No 3, Pall Mall East, London, s.av.

Established a.b. 1844.

THE WARRANTS for the HALF-YEARLY Interest on Deposit Accounts, to 31st
Ducember, are ready for delivery, and payable daily.

PETER MORRISON, Managing Director.
Rate of Interest Six per Cent, till further notice.
Forms for opening accounts free on application.

RICHMOND & CHANDLER^S PRIZE
CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINES.

TINDER LETTERS PATENT,

■\rO. 57 NEW PATENT CHAFF CUTTING

J_>i MACHINE, price £S 15s., delivered at Manchester or
Liverpool.

PRESENT PRICES. £ s. d.

No. 57 Chaff Machine 3 15 0

No. lA Machine 4 10 0

No. 8b Machine 7 0 0

Pulley for power ex^ra 0 0 0

Change Wheels, to vary the length, per pair 0 6 0

Kni\es, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 4b Machine 10 0 0

Pulley for power, <!xira 0 9 0

Change Wheels, per pair 0 6 0

Kn\ves, extra /or each. 0 4 6

No. 5 Machine 15 0 0

Pulley for power , 0 12 0

Change Wheels ." 0 6 0

Knives, extra for eacJi 0 7 6

No. 1 Improved Corn Crusher 5 5 0

No. 2 Improved Corn Crusher 6 10 0

Pulley for power 0 9 0

No. 3 Improved Corn Crusher 10 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

No. 4 Improved Corn Crusher 14 0 0

Pulley for power .. , 0 15 0

Richmond & Chandler's extensive application of the most ap-
proved Steam Machinery in the manufacture of these Imple-
ments, afford increased facilities, together with greater mathe-
matical accuracy in every part, obtainable by no other means.

Address,
RICHMOND & CHANDLER, SALFORD;
Branch Establishment,
SO.UTH JOHN STREET, LIVERPOOL.

'■1^

la packets, 6 Balls, 3e.— 3 Balls, Is. 9d.

Unequalled for Worms, Swelled Legs, Grease,^
Impaired Appetite, Coughs, Colds, Inflamed Eyes, '
&c. Read the opinions of the following eminent
Trainers . —

" For getting horses into condition they are unequalled."
JOHN OSBORNE.
" In my opinion they are invaluable."— JOH N SCOTT.
"Tour condition balls are excellent."— SAMUEL ROGERS.
"Ihavanever used so elHcient a ball "— JOILN DAWS02I
Prepared bi/ T. TAYLOR,
Veterinary Surgeon, Burton- on-Trent,
and Sold by all Druggists.
N. tJ.— Any gentleman using the Balls may
^ consult the proprietor gratuitously,
either personally or
by letter.

ESTABLISHED 1812.

TURNIP MANURE. — This valuable
fertilizer has been used for the last twelve
years with great success by most of the eminent Agri-
culturists throughout England, and stands unrivalled
in the iveight and quality of the bulbs which it pro-
duces ; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain
Crops which follow, while Clover is rarely found to
fail after the first application. Some of the crops
produced by this Manure last year weighed upwards
of Thirty Tons per acre. GRASS, BARLEY, CLO-
VER, and WHEAT MANURES ; also BONE,
GUANO, and SUPERPHOSPHATE of LIME,
warranted of the best quality. Apply to —

H. & T. PROCTOR, Cathay, Bristol.

"I Birmingham,
PROCTOR & RYLAND J. Edmonscote, Warwick.

J And Saltney, near Chester.

N.B.— A Pamphlet on "MANURES, their PRO-
PERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded on
receipt of 12 postage stamps.

IMPORTANT TO FLOCKMASTERS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGKICULTTJRAL A^'D VETERINARY CHEMIST,
APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H, THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G.,

LEICESTER HOUSE, GEEAT DOVER-STREET, BOROUGH, LONDON,

&c.

Begs to call the attention of Farmers and Graziers to his valuable
SHEEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, which requires
no Boiling, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
effectually destroyingf the Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to the Flock, preventing the alarming attacks of
Fly and Shab, and cleansing and purifying the Skin, thereby
greatly improving the Wool, both in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Chemist, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, although any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 20 sheep, price, jar included .£0

6 1b.

30

8 lb.

40

JO lb.

50

20 lb.

100

SO lb.

150

40 lb.

200

60 1b.

250

60 lb.

300

80 lb.

400

100 lb.

500

(cask and measure
included)

1 17

2 5

Should any Flockmaster prefer boiling the Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will be found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loathsome and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and wliich may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons of the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon— sufficient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the virulence of the disease); also in
wine quart bottles, Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"Scoulton, near Hingham, Norfolk, April 16th, 1855.
'Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been replied to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

valuable ' Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 60O Sheep
were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the 'Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Show, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid to the flock by my shepherd after dressing according
to instructions left ; but notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the 'Agent for Ihe
above Specific,' th at the flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me theys hould
be at once seen to, but did not do so until _/jre weeks afterwards,
and in the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing them again, as one- third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an exprrienced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near. Being determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to you for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
following day ; and although the weather was most severe in
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in three weeks the Sheep were quite cured;
and I am happy to say the young lambs are doing remarkably
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest and
best remedy now in use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,

" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addition to the foregoing, he has very materially improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus; and he would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ought now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 5 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 3 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials,
&c., to be had of all agents, or sent direct per post free.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD— SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.
Just published, tlie 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is,, or sent, post-paid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debilitj', Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection ;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting Spermatorrhoea, and other urethral discharues,
by Microscopic Examination j to which are added, Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L. CURTIS, Surgeon, 15, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till 3, and 6 to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1.

REVIEWS OF THE WORK.

" Curtis on Manhood. — Shilling Edition. — 77th Thousand. — This is a truly valuable work, and should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years' experience as medical reieree in the treatment of nervous debility, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably-written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday limes, 23rd March,
1856.

" Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great baon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the source of those diseases which produce decline in youth or mere frequently premature old
sxge."— Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1856.

Curtis on Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea tliat can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, 1st Feb., 1851.

" We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Society by whom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the relation of a par* nt, preceptor, or a clergyman. — Sun, Evening Paper.

Published by the Author; sold also i7i sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, I'aternoster-row ; Hannay, 63,
Oxford-street; Mann, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, 11, Greenside-strcet, Edinburgh; Heywood,
Oldham-stieet, Manchester; Howell, 6, Church-street, Liverpool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tyne;
Ashley, Post-Office, Newbury; Ferris & Score, Union-street, Bristol; Piesson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Braintree; Thew, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester; Lurcock, Maidstone; Cook, Ipswich ; Huscroft, Bury St.
Edmunds; Dote, Swindon ; Jearey, Bridewell Alley, Norwich; Smith, Cambridge; Slatteh, Oxford;
and by all Bopkeellers ai^d Chemist? in the United Kingdom.

THE EAEMER'S

MARCH, 1858.

AGAZIJSTE.

CONTENTS.

Plate I.— SOUTHDOWN RAMS.
Plate II.— HOBBIE NOBLE ; a Prize Thorough-bred Stallion. page

Description of the Plates ....... 181

Weeds. — By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esa., F.R.S. .... 182

The Steam Plough ........ 184

Mr. Hall Maxwell and the Agricultural Statistics of Scotland . . 196

Choosing a Site for a House ....... 197

Uniformity in Name of the different Animals of the Farm . . . 198

London, or Central Farmers' Club. — Necessity of a Uniform system in the

Sale of Corn ........ 199

Halesworth Farmers' Club . . . . . . . 208

The Imperial Bushel the best Standard Measure .... 209

The Transfusion of Blood in the Horse ..... 210

Mr. Poppy, OF WiTNESHAM . . . . . . .211

Farmyard Dung : preparation and application .... 212

Kennington Agricultural and Chemical College. — Lecture XIII. on the
General Phenomena of the Earth, having reference to the Production and
Maintenance of Organic Life.— By Charles Johnson, Esa., Professor of
Botany, Guy's Hospital ....... 213

The New Power, and its further Application to Agricultural Purposes . 215

Air : how invaluable to the successful Husbandry of the Soil and its Produce,

Animal and Vegetable ....... 217

Gradual Improvement in the Thrashing Machine .... 219

Incrustation of Cereal and other Seeds ..... 221

Land Drainage — its Action and Effect ..... 223

Agriculture in China ....... 224

Implements of the Farm — to Improve or Invent .... 226

Inquiry respecting the quantity of Nitrates contained in the Soil and in the

Waters . . . . . . . . .228

Advantages of a daily Register of the Rain-fall throughout the United King-
dom, AND THE best MEANS OF OBTAINING IT . . . . . 231

Cleaning of Corn from the Straw ...... 232

Beans for Hunters. — By Harry Hieover ..... 235

Winfrith Farmers' Club. — Discussion on the Comparative Weight and Value

OF Large and Moderate-sized Roots ..... 236

Hexham Farmers' Club ....... 238

Labourers' Registration Offices versus Statute Fairs .... 240

Use of Gas-Lime ........ 242

Drilling of Crops ........ 243

Agriculture and Population ...... 244

Latest Patents for Ploughing by Steam ..... 248

Causes of the Decline in the Price of Corn ..... 250

Uses of the Snow ........ 251

Trunk-Draining ........ 252

Formation of an Agricultural Association in Essex .... 256

Trade and Commerce of Chicago in 1857 ..... 258

English and Foreign Corn Measures, and Irish Corn Weights . . . 259

The Recent Purchases of Improved Stock by the Emperor of the French . 260

A State of Transition ....... 261

Royal Agricultural Society of England : Proceedings of Council . . 262

Bath and West of England Society : Proceedings of Council . . 263

Cure for Colic in Sheep ....... 263

Present Price of Corn ....... 264

Tithe Commutation Tables ....... 264

Swing versus Wheel Ploughs ....... 265

How to Farm Clay Lands . . . . . . . 265

Mr. Rarey, the American Horse-tamer ..... 266

Simple Remedy FOR THE Pleuro-Pneumonia ..... 266

Agricultural Reports ....... 26/

Review of the Cattle Trade during the past Month . . . 26/

Agricultural Intelligence, Fairs, &c. ..... 26s

Calendar of Agriculture ....... 269

Review of the Corn Trade ....... 27o

Corn Averages and Market Currencies . , . , . 2^2

THE FAEMEK'S MAGAZII^E

5.

MARCH, 1858.

PLATE I.

SOUTHDOWN RAMS,

THE PROPERTY OF MR. JONAS WEBB, OF BABRAHAM, CAMBRIDGE.

At the Salisbury Meeting of the Royal Agricul-
tural Society Mr. Jonas Webb distinguished him-
self more than ever as a breeder of Southdown
sheep. In the shearling ram class there were be-
tween sixty and seventy exhibited ; and the Duke
of Richmond, Mr. Rigden, Lord Walsingham, Mr.
Overman, Mr. Ellman, Mr. Sainsbury, Mr. Far-
quharson, and Mr. Harding were amongst the
competitors. From these the judges sorted out
just half-a-dozen sheep. After much deliberation
they gave two of these the prizes, they specially
commended two more, and they highly commended
the other two. The three couple were the property
of Mr. Webb. In the aged rams he again stood
first and second ; with another highly commended.

The four rams in our plate are the four prize
sheep. The one at the extreme right of.the picture
is the first prize old sheep, a two-year-old when
shown at Salisbury. He was exhibited at Chelms-
ford the year previous, but not on that occasion
noticed by the judges. He is a splendid specimen
of the breed ; fine and full in form, and noble in
appearance. He begins with an exceedingly good
head, and the colour of his face, to which he is
much indebted, is just what Southdown breeders
so much fancy. His neck is full and well set in to
the head; shoulders and chine remarkably good
and wide, with a tremendous chest and good plaits ;
bis back very wide and full covered ; ribs correctly
springing, forming a capital rotund frame of great
depth. His girth is nearly five feet, his loin and hips
wide, but rump rather short, thighs not heavy, and
legs a little too upright. His wool is all that can
be desired, and plenty of it. — First prize of 25 sovs.

The second prize aged sheep is at the other ex-
treme of the group. This ram is yet more famous.
He was the first prize sheep at the Great Interna-
tional Exhibition in Paris, m 1856, and the second
prize yearling at Chelmsford in the same year.
Considerable discussion, it will be remembered,
ensued as to the latter award ; many contending
he should have been first. He has all the good
proportions of his companion, but with a some-
what darker face, a famous fore and hind quarter,
a first-rate rump, with twist, thighs, and flank ex-
ceedingly good. There has seldom been a more
complete specimen of the Southdown — so hand-
some, so widely proportioned, or so generally good .
— Second prize, of 15 sovs.

The centre sheep of the three standing up is the
first prize yearling ram. He is a very fine animal,
and quite worthy of the distinction .he obtained.
He is of great size, exceedingly well proportioned
throughout, and bids fair to make up into quite a
first-class ram. His deep frame, wide chine and
shoulders, everywhere well covered — his broad fat
back and springing ribs, with capital flank and
underpart, all denote this. — First prize, of 25 sovs.

The second, lying down, is scarcely inferior. He
has a very correct frame, broad chine and shoulder,
well covered, full rump, dark and wide full twist,
and unusually good thigh. — Second prize, of 15
sovs.

Mr. Webb has used all these rams himself; while,
as some further test of their merit, we may mention
that many other of the Southdown breeders
honestly admitted that they never sent out such
good sheep as they did to Salisbury.

PLATE II.
HOBBIE NOBLE;

A THOKOUGH-BRED STALLION, THE PROPERTY OF MR. THOMAS GROVES, OF PLOMPTON HALL,

KNARESBOROUGH.

Hobbie Noble, bred by Lord John Scott, in I vian, was the sire of many good horses, including
1849, is by Pantaloon, out of Phryne, by Touch- ; Satirist, a winner of the St. Leger, and Ghuznee,
stone, her dam Decoy, by Filho da Puta — Finesse, a winner of the Oaks.

by Peruvian. 1 Phryne, bred by Lord Westminster, in 1840, is

Pantaloon, by Castrel, out of Idalia, by Peru- i also the dam of Elthiron, Windhound, Miserriraa,
OLD SEKIES.] O [VOL. XLVIII.~No. 3.

182

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and The Reiver, all by Pantaloon ; of Rambling
Katie, and Blanche of Middlebie, by Melbourne ;
and of Katherine Logie, by the Flying Dutchman.
She has been from the first, and still continues, in
Lord John Scott's stud.

Hobbie Noble was somewhat renowned as
a race-horse. Indeed his two-year-old per-
formances were so good as to make him
first favourite for the Derby of his year, for
which he ran as Mr. Merry's, having been pur-
chased of Lord John Scott for the unheard-of-
price of six thousand guineas. It is not, however,
as a race-horse, but as " the best stallion to get
hunters" that Hobbie Noble's portrait appears
here. This distinction was awarded him at the
Salisbury Meeting of the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety, when he took the first prize of 30 sovs.
against Spencer (the second-prize horse), Theon,
The Knight of Gvvynne, Little Brownie, Lascelles,
Clumsy, Master Robin, The Circassian, Flagella-
tor, Stotforth, and others ; the entry in all reach-
ing to fifteen. Still, the award was all one way,
and just as any horseman would have decided
it — to the best known, best bred, and certainly
best looking horse of the lot. Hobbie Noble is in
colour a bright bay, with a great deal of power
and style about him, a good neck and shoulder.

capital deep barrel, strong quarters, but still
rather light in the thighs. Taken altogether he is
a remarkably fine animal, and a particularly well-
topped horse, with a somewhat wicked head, and
not, we fancy, to be trifled with. The family, in
fact, are not famous for the best of tempers, and
his own brother. The Reiver, was one of the most
savage horses ever stripped.

Hobbie Noble's career on the turf closed in
1853, and he stood for the next two seasons at
WiUesden. More recently he has been transferred
to th« North by his present owner, Mr. Groves,
who has always a good horse to show us at the
Yorkshire Meetings. Another of his, the Knight
ofGwynne, was also in the entry at Salisbury, and
selected as the second-best at the unprecedented
exhibition of thorough-bred stock at Waterford ;
while a third, a draught-horse called The Conqueror,
an animal of amazing size and substance, took the
extra premium at the great horse show at York,
in the same month.

Hobbie Noble has been let for the ensuing season,
to go to Ireland. None of his stock have yet ap-
peared ; but Mr. Groves himself has two or tliree
coming on by him, and there should be something
of his under weigh this spring.

WEEDS,

BY CUTMBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S.

There are few practical inquiries more likely to
repay the farmer than those which relate to weeds.
Their habits ', the vegetation of their seeds ; their
extirpation; their use, either uuburned or their
ashes, as manure — are all matters of the highest im-
portance to the cultivator. These were questions
which, in what are sometimes called — as if in deri-
sion— " the good old days of England," the farmers
but little regarded. The custom was then — as, in
fact, is yet the case in most newly or only partially-
cultivated districts — for the landholder to run away,
as it were, from enemies he was too ignorant or too
indolent to successfully withstand. When, there-
fore, he found his neglected and exhausted arable
land gradually becoming full of weeds, instead of at-
tempting their extirpation by fallowing, or hoeing,
or paring and burning, he took the easier course of
abandoning the field for a considerable period to
Nature's care. Thence soon came hosts of couch-
grass, thistles, and the other denizens of extensively-
exhausted arable soils. These speedily crowded
together, and formed a mass of herbage which, by
its copious growth, ripening, and decay, formed in
the soil a collection of organic matters, on which
better and moie daintily- feeding plants were gra-
dually (after seasons had elapsed) enabled to subsist.
And then, after a series of years had brought about
this state of things, the farmer was wont to again
briug his long-neglected field into cultivation.

It is true that the more enlightened, of those days,
denounced this indolent neglect of weeds. Land-
lords suggested improvements : even the Legislature

interfered, evidently, however, with little success.
The late Sir John Sinclair has given some amusing
instances of such enactments. It seems that, by au
old French law, a farmer might sue his neighbour
who, at the proper seasons, neglected to destroy the
thistles on his land ; or he might employ persons to
extirpate them, at the grower's expense. In Den-
mark, there is a law which is directed to the extir-
pation of the corn-marigold {Chrysanthemum se-
getum)'; and in Scotland, so far back as the year
1220, a statute of Alexander 11. provides for the
punishment of those farmers who allowed their land
to become foul. Like most of the old statutes of
Scotland, the law contains but few unnecessary
words. It merely declares that man to be a traitor,
"who poisons the King's lauds with weeds," and thus
introduces into them a host of enemies. It seems
that tenants who had the corn-marigold plant in
their corn were fined a sheep for each stalk ; and
that, under the authority of the law to which we
have been referring, a Scotch baron — Sir William
Grierson — was accustomed to hold Goul Courts, at
which all those persons were liable to be fined, on
whose land more than three heads of that weed were
discovered.

It is refreshing to turn from times when such
laws were deemed to be desirable, to days when, as
at present, the extirpation of weeds is eagerly
sought, and a constant and successful war waged
against them, without the aid of ParHament.

The labours of modern farmers, aided by the
"extirpators," "scarifiers," and other invaluable

TtlE FxiRMER'S MAGAZINE,

183

implemeuts, have accomplished great things iu this
war of extermination ; but vre all feel that still
greater advances are yet to be made . Science has
of late done good service in the cause. The men
•who grace the staff of tbe Agricultural College of
Cirencester have well led the way, of late, in the in-
vestigation. Professor Buckman has traced their
habits, and some of the effects of different modes of
cultivation on the growth of the weeds of different
soils ; aud, still more recently, Professor Yoelcker
(Journal Roy. Ag. Sac, vol. xviii., p. 350) has given,
amongst other valuable matters relating to the sub-
ject of this paper, the analysis of two of the more
common weeds of the cereal soils — the stemless
thistle aud the couch. His results will be read with
deep interest by many of my readers, who, as I de-
scribed iu this magazine for last month, are in many
places now collecting their weeds into heaps, and
reducing tliem to an enriching compost by copious
additions of common salt or lime.

Professor Voelcker tells us that he selected these
two weeds for examination, since they so very gene-
rally infest the calcareous clay soils and brashy
lands of the Cotswold Hills ; but many a farmer,
who will read the i-esult of his inquiries far away
from the oolite formation, is equally haunted by
these unwelcome visitors.

The stemless thistle (Cardims acaulis), when
examined as just gathered, contained from 25 to 26
per cent, of dry substance, and 74 to 75 per cent, of
water. When burnt, the plant yielded 9.6(5 per
cent, of ash. In 100 parts of this ash (aud this is
the important portion of the inquiry) was found :

Potash and chloride of potassium 27'40

Common salt "90

Lime 41*44

Magnesia 4"40

Oxide of iron and alumina 2'01

Phosphoric acid ,>.,.,, 5'36

Sulphuric acid. ..... 2'92

Soluble silica and sand .,.<,.... 3"50

Carbonic acid, and loss 12.07

The large proportion of lime which this ash con-
tains, the Professor considers, may account for the
fact that this thistle delights in the calcareous
formation of Gloucestershire. Tae amount of
phosphoric acid which it yields is by no means
inconsiderable; and this is evidently united with
lime, as phosphate of lime.

Of still more general interest to the farmer is the
analysis of the widely-diffused couch-grass, which
ever seems to haunt arable soils, and to follow, as it
were, the wheels of the plough. The couch exa-
mined in the laboratory at Cirencester, on being
burnt, furnishel an ash coloured slightly red by
oxide of iron, derived, no doubt, from the adhering
clay. These were found by Mr. Kensington to
contain, per cent. :

Potash 10-02

Soda 5-69

Common salt 3*34

Lime , . . . 5'58

Magnesia '04

Oxides of iron and alamina 12*40

Phosphoric acid. ...<, 9'38

Sulphuric acid ...,,,.. . . , , ........ 5*33

Soluble silica 24*92

Insoluble sihcious matter (chiefly sand) 17*50

Carbonic acid, and loss 5 80

These constituents, the Professor considers, are
probably united iu the couch-ash as follows : —

Per Cent.

Carbonate of potash 14'10

Potash in a state of silicate 0'27

Soda in a state of silicate 5'69

Common salt 3'34

Oxides of iron and alumina 12'4:0

United with phosphoric acid (equal to

bone-earth 2032) 9*38

Sulphate of lime - 9'06

Carbonate of lime 3'30

Magnesia in a state of silicate ........ 0"04;

Soluble silica 24-92

Insoluble sihcious sand 1 7*50

The ash of the couch, adds Mr. Voelcker, it will be
seen, differs iu several respects from that of the stem-
less thistle : the latter contained but little silica,
whilst soluble silica is the chief constituent of couch.
Again, the proportions of lime and potash in the
thistle are much larger than in couch ; an interesting
fact, en account of both weeds having been collected
from soils of a similar character. This is quite con-
sistent with our present information on the par-
ticular wants of dififereut families of plants. Thistles
are evidently lime and potash plants ; and couch
appears to require much soluble silica for its growth,
a fact which perhaps will explain its occurrence in
sandy, as well as in calcareous and clay soils. The
two last-mentioned soils often, it is true, do not con-
tain any silica, in the shape of sand, capable of being
mechanically separated from the constituents of
other soils ; but most clay soils are rich in alkahne
silicates, from which plants unquestionably can take
up soluble silica much more readily than from sand.

The large proportion of phosphoric acid iu couch-
grass, as the Professor adds, likewise deserves to be
specially noticed. United with lime, we have no
less than 20 per cent, of bone-earth in couch-ash ; a
circumstance which throws some light on the ex-
perience of many Gloucestershire farmers, who ob-
serve. That the fouler the laud is, the better will be
the crop of turnips, grown without any other manure
than the ashes produced by paring and burning the
land. " I remember," observes the Professor,
" having once walked over a very foul piece of laud full
of couch, and was not a little amused by the remark of
my agricultural friend who accompanied me, ' What
fine healthy coucli, sir ! It will give me next year,
I don't doubt, a splendid crop of roots, although I
do not mean to put a single load of manure on this
laud.' Indeed," concludes the Professor, " I have
ascertained that a much larger proportion of bone-
earth is brought within reach of the turnip plant, iu
the red ashes obtained on paring and burning, than
is contained in a heavy dressing of bone-dust."

These practical observations of the heavy-soil-
farmer, as to the fertilizing effects of a good crop of
couch-grass, I rather incline to the opinion, are well
worthy of far more extended investigation than they
have yet received.

The observation, that where there is a good crop
of couch, that there a good crop of turnips may be

0 2

184

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

produced, may, it is true, merely mean the same
thing as the well-known almost universal agricultural
remark, that where the soil is in a condition to pro-
duce luxuriant weeds, that there other and better
plants may be made to grow with equal success. It
probably may mean merely this : but this well-known
fact may be capable of other explanations. Does
the couch plant only collect together the phosphate
of lime already existing in the soil ? Would a por-
tion of a field kept fallow and perfectly free from
weeds for a given period, produce as good a crop of
turnips as another portion of the same field in which
the couch was allowed to grow, and was then col-
lected, reduced to ashes, and the ashes spread over
the soil, thus also well cleansed for the root crop ?
It is probable that by either mode of preparing the
soil about the same results would be obtained ; but
it might happen that the couch plant would be
found to collect the phosphate of lime with more
energy or from greater depths than in the case of
the ordinai-y cultivated plants. I opine that we
shall hereafter have our knowledge of the source
whence plants derive their food considerably modi-
fied and extended.

The valuable paper of Professor Voelcker, to which
I have been thus alluding, is chiefly directed to the
elucidation of the old farming process of paring and
burning — a practice which certainly needs a much

clearer chemical explanation than it has yet received.
It is an operation but ill-adapted to light soils; while
on many clays the application of fire is not only
attended with benefit to foul and long-neglected
soils, but is, in some considerable districts, repeated
over and over again, at but moderate intervals of
time, with almost continued advantage.

In this research, the labours of the eminent che-
mist, whose researches I have been tracing, are im-
portant, and will probably tend to the extension, on
suitable soils, of paring and burning. Some of the
conclusions to which he arrives, it is true, may
hardly be admitted as decisive; but, after these
drawbacks, I would commend his report to the far-
mer's careful study. He concludes that by paring
and burning, 1st, The inert vegetable matter of the
soil is made to yield valuable mineral food for
plants ; 2nd, That the mechanical condition of the
soil is improved; 3rd, That the process is not
advantageous for light soils.

The cautious way, however, in which the Profes-
sor addresses himself to the subject, is well worthy
of the farmer's careful imitation. The soils for
which that antiquated process is most desirable, are
certainly not very numerous ; and it is perhaps more
than probable that the further our knowledge of
weeds and soils is increased, the less occasion shall
we find for the employment of paring and burning.

THE STEAM PLOUGH

Mr. J. Algernon Clarke read a paper under this
title, at the customary weekly meeting of the
Society of Arts on Wednesday, February lOth,
W. Fairbairn, Esq., in the chair. Mr. Clarke's
Essay was written and forwarded early in 1857, in
answer tu an invitation from the Council for an
article on such a subject The medal of the
Society was subsequently awarded its author ; but
he was not called upon to read it until something
like a year after it was composed. There were
very few practical agriculturists present, but nearly
all those gentlemen now directly interested in the
further development of steam-power to such a pur-
pose. These included Messrs. J. Allen Ransome,
John Fowler, Smith, of Woolston, J. Howard, of
Bedford, Boydell, Roraaine, and Halkett. There
were also present Messrs. J. J. Mechi, W. Fisher
Hobbs, W. Bullock Webster, J. C. Morton, H.
Corbet, Bethell, and T. Scott. Mr. Clarke pro-
ceeded as follows : —

Steam-power having been successfully applied to what
may be called the mill-work of the farm, such as thrash-
ing, cutting, slicing, grinding, pulping, and preparing
the various products and " feeding stuffs," entering in-
to the economy of the farmyard, I take the present sub-
ject to be confined to operations in the field ; including
drainage, preparatory tillage of all kinds, sowing, weed-
ing, reaping, cartage of produce to suitable storing
places, and the distribution of manure. And, lest a
paper on these topics should extend to an unmanageable
length, it will be advisable to be still more restricted, so
that, waiving for the present a consideration of draining,
manuring, sowing, and the light after-processes of til-
lage, I come to the first operation of breaking up the

soil, and the mechanical preparation of a seed-bed, as
the main objects to be accomplished in steam cultiva-
tion.

Mr. Hoskyns, whose original views of this subject
have moulded the designs of many inventors, and first
fully awakened the agricultural world to the importance
of steam-culture, teaches us to look beyond our familiar
digging, ploughing, harrowing, scuffling, and rolling, as
the sole possible modes in which the new motive-power
may operate. We should analyze these processes ; see
what is the end attained by them, and then endeavour to
accomplish the desired result with a machine as spe-
cially adapted to steam-power, as the present horse and
hand implements are to animal-power. Investigating
the nature of preparatory tillage, he finds it to consist
in " comminution, aeration, and inversion," which it is
possible to effect at once, in a single act, and with a
simply-formed tilling instrument ; and from the fact of
horse-traction being horizontal, manual delving vertical,
and the " favourite motion" of machine-work circular,
he concludes (with an amount of argument and illustra-
tion which establishes and fortifies his deductions) that
some kind of " revolving cultivator" will ultimately be
found best for being driven by a steam-engine. Accord-
ingly, I am prepared to offer what, I believe, to be a
new principle of rotary digging by steam-power, calcu-
lated to fulfil the various conditions recommended by
theory or demanded by practice ; but as an essay solely
on mechanical tillage, so far advanced and a-head of the
times, would be of little more immediate practical value
than a history of past attempts and failure, I will first
consider the application of steam-power to our existing
order of implements.

In the outset let me remark that, although" the " fa-
vourite motion" of steam machinery is cicular, this is
no valid reason why we should reject without trial every

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

185

other kind of motion if suited to our purpose, seeing
that the steam-engine employs rectilinear motion, con-
tinuous and reciprocating, and, indeed, all conceivable
varieties of movement adapted to specific ends ; and of
all practical trials yet made, with the exception, per-
haps, of Mr. Romaine's cultivator, far more favourable
results have followed from applying steam-power to the
haulage of traction implements, than from setting it to
drive revolving cultivators. The wonderful rapidity
with which steam- thrashing has been accomplished, is
owing to the circumstances that there was really nothing
new to do ; the engine had to turn a sheave (to thrash a
sheaf) by means of a driving belt, just as it was
accustomed to do in thousands of factories, only it had
to be made portable. But working over so great an
area as the surface of a field is a novel operation for the
steam-engine, beyond the mere application of cog-
wheels, shafting, belts, and brasses ; and there is diffi-
culty enough in finding how to apply the motive-power
at all points of the surface in succession without staying
to devise, in addition, more perfect tillage implements
than we now possess.

To draw an implement such as the plough, which has
been tested, improved, and adapted throughout many
centuries, is a simpler and readier problem, than to con-
trive a new description of tool for performing a hitherto
unknown operation, involving, perhaps, a novel system
of cultivation altogether ; and as in thrashing, the im-
plement will doubtless be speedily improved when once
the new power has been applied to it. Again, there is
no doubt that intelligent farmers everywhere are prepared
to work traction implements by steam, whenever they
are convinced that the present ploughing, scarifying,
&c., can be done at less cost, all things considered, than
by horses. A steam-plough is capable of instant and
universal adoption, while a new tilling machine would
not only meet with mechanical difiiculties, but be along
time in achieving practical and pecuniary success against
customs and prejudices cherished for generations. It
will be wise to imitate those processes which are now
found to produce the best effects, even though this may
not be making the most advantage of the power that is
posiible.

In practice it is found indispensable that the staple of
the land should be occasionally inverted — to bury sur-
face weeds, stubble, sward, or manure, and bring up
root weeds for extraction ; also to fertilize the soil by
the chemical and mechanical efi'ects which follow both
the exposure of earth that has lain long buried, and the
burial of that which has been long treated by rains,
dews, winds, frosts, and sunshine. This inverting, in-
deed, may be said to constitute the heaviest labour of
tillage ; if we can perform this, we can readily master
any after-stirring of pulverization. Breaking-up, with-
out inversion, is gettins' into favour ; but experience at
Lois-Weedon and elsewhere shows that a tenacious sub-
soil should be exposed and weathered before being min-
gled with the staple. Mere granulation by scratching or
rasping, mingling rather than turning over the mass so
comminuted, has been proposed as the ideal operation
we should aim to accomplish ; but, however useful it
may prove in some cases, I cannot regard it as calcu-
lated to meet all the necessities of our present practice,
in which we find that, after certain crops and for various
purposes, the soil must be cut or broken into pieces
sufficiently large and tenacious to be turned bodily up-
side down. The pick or mattock may be a valuable tool
in some countries — working with a minutely pulverizing
effect, and, at the same time, securing a more or less
complete inversion — and the plough itself is in some
climates a mere grubbing or ribbing tool ; but with our
moist soils and weeping atmos}>here, our principal im-
plements for performing the fundamental process of

cultivation have been of necessity the plough that turns
a furrow-slice, and the spade that cuts and completely
turns over a spit, the plough modified into many shapes,
and the spade or fork made equally versatile in its
adaptation to deep, shallow, light, strong, or stony
land. Of these two implements the plough can be more
easily actuated by steam-power than the spade : all
hand tools being worked by several different motions in-
termittent and irregular, and so requiring complicated
mechanism to imitate their action, while traction imple-
ments, moving with a continuous rectilinear motion,
have simply to be drawn along, and with but little
modification needful in their present form ; hence, the
solution of the steam-culture problem lying nearest to
us consists in

Steam Ploughing.

On light land, and where shallow work alone is re-
quired, the breaking up and inversion of the soil is done
with great efficiency by the plough ; and when we see
the neatness with which leas are "tucked down" by our
first-class skim-coultered ploughs, precisely that tough-
ness being left in the slice which is so desirable on such
land, we cannot think that any better implement need
be there desired. On heavy land, where tillage makes a
larger item in the expenses of management, and a
cheaper motive power than that of horses will prove the
greatest boon, the plough seems to be used merely be-
cause the horses cannot dig. The sledging sole does
harm : the slices, not sufficiently subdivided, harden,
and make work for future dragging and reducing ; and
inversion is imperfectly effected, because a " harrow-
edge" is necessary for securing a good " mould." Deep
culture is also needed on most strong lands ; yet the
farther we dig below the surface, the more is our hori-
zontal traction at a disadvantage. A vertically-
descending tool appears to be required, rather than a
horizontally-drawn one ; and, perhaps, rotary diggers
will utimately be found as peculiarly adapted for pene-
trating and stirring up the subsoil from great depths,
as traction implements are for tilling the upper stratum.
Such lands will be grateful for a digging or trenching
machine driven (not dragged) by a steam engine, when-
ever it is practically brought to the field. Meanwhile,
the most effective implement for deep work on a large
scale, in which manual digging is precluded, is the
plough, with the subsoiler or trench- plough following.
However, in spite of Lois Weedon husbandry, and the
larger experience of the Tester farms, deep tillage is
not so much sought after at present as a more rapid and
economical method of performing ordinary ploughing.
Instead of the slow trenching machine (.although neces-
sary to the renovation of clay-land farming), everybody is
asking for steam machinery thatcan plough or equally well
cultivate, at comparatively small cost, a great area of
ground in a little time.

Steam ploughing is not only possible, but is being
actually done on a considerable scale ; and, without re-
citing the long history of inventions for the purpose, I
wish to consider the various plans now before the public
— the results, as far as yet ascertained — and then to
make suggestions for further progress.

The first point is. How to apply the power to the
implement ; and the next is. The construction of the
plough or ploughing machine.

As the material to be cut and turned over cannot be
" fed" to our machine, we must take the machine over
every part of the surface to be acted upon. Is the mo-
tive power, then, to be transported bodily over the
whole area, as horses are ? or is it to be transmitted from
a distance ? The idea of a locomotive power was the
earliest, and certainly the most natural, from observing
horse-labour, besides being a corollary from the inven-
tion of steam-carriages. And, though it may at first

186

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

sight seem ridiculous to harness an engine to an Imple-
ment, as though its strength, like that of a horse, lay in
its legs, yet we have the example of the railway locomo-
tive, which exerts all its power by means of its (rotary)
legs, yokes itself in front of a carriage, and pulls with
traces, as a horse does. Working on a level and smooth
roadway, the locomotive can drag a train of carriages
more economically than a stationary engine can haul it
with rope ; and, allowing for the difference between a
galloping railway speed and the sluggish pace required
on an arable field, analogy would lead us to expect a
like superiority of the locomotive, whether in pulling
ploughs or vehicles. I need not enumerate all the at-
tempts at locomotive engines for traversing arable land,
but shall notice two only — one "theoretical," the
other practical.

The great weight of a steam-engine, with its water
and coal, forms the chief obstacle to its transit over a
soft or rugged surface ; why not, therefore, employ a
pneumatic locomotive ? In 1839, Mr. Henry Pinkus
patented a most ingenious method of applying an atmos-
pheric vacuum, or else compressed air, as an auxiliary
for conveying motive-power from a stationary engine to
travelling implements. Now, without adopting his pro-
posal of laying down air main-pipes about an estate, and
distributing power (as Mr. Mechi does manure) from
steam-pumps at the central homestead, might we not
take his plan for connecting a light travelling pneumatic
engine with air-pumps attached to a stationary portable
steam-engine .' A flexible tube, coiled on a cage-drum
upon the pneumatic locomotive, is paid out as the loco-
motive recedes from the steam-engine, and wound up as
it approaches. By passing and repassing the sieam-
engine, a length of 200 yards may be ploughed with
only half that length of pipe ; and as this is merely laid
down and rolled up again, very little wear from friction
is incurred.

All doubt as to the effectiveness of pneumatic power
applied in this way may now be considered as dispelled
by the success of a compressed air-engine at Govan col-
liery, near Glasgow, which has been working for more
than six years, without requiring any repairs or adjust-
ment. The air-engine is situated half-a-mile from the
steam-engine and compressing-pump ; yet, as the pipe
conveying the air is of large diameter, viz,, 10 inches,
the pressure of the air is diminished only lib. per square
inch in passing through it. However, there is so much
nicety and complication necessary in the compressing
machinery, and in the apparatus for neutralizing the
great development of heat occasioned by the jirocess of
obtaining air at only 201bs. pressure to the inch, that 1
think the principle must be abandoned, and we must
give up, at any rate for a long time, the advantage of
possessing such an extremely light as well as powerful
locomotive power in our fields.

For making the steam-engine itself an agricultural
locomotive, we have Mr. Boydell's "endless railway
engine." I need not describe in detail this admirable
working-out of an old idea By bridging over hollows
and forming inclined planes over obstacles ; by stepping,
as it were, instead of rolling, and laying down smooth
even iron rails on which the wheels run ; and still further,
by bearing with flat platforms instead of curved wheel-
tires upon soft ground, the shoes or rail-pieces mar-
vellously ease the progress of a ponderous machine.
And thus the "traction-engine" can climb considerable
gradients, as proved at the Salisbury Agricultural Meet-
ing ; and whether we adopt the particular form of engine
there exhibited, or Mr. Burrell's appliance of the rails
to common portable engines, or Messrs. Tuxford's
compact and manageable engine on" three wheels, in
which both the main travelling. wheels are driven.
Whether turning a curve or proceeding in a straight line.

or Mr. Collinson Hall's enormously high-pressure locomo-
tive, with its peculiarly-shaped boiler and steam-chamber
maintaining the water-levels always above the tubes,
it is now clear that the farmer's engine may be indepen-
dent of his horses, that it can draw from farm to farm
the heavy thrashing-machine it works, and pull home
the harvest-sheaves or lead out those loads of farm-
manure which now tax the power of our teams so many
weeks in the year. From the many experiments made
and published, it is certain that the " steam-horse" can
drag implements on moderately level land at a very ex- <.
peditious and cheap rate, which is not surprising when
we consider that the engine brings the implements, and the
coal and water enough for the day's use, into the field
with it ; that no tackle has to be laid out and fixed, or
taken up and shifted ; that the amount of manual labour
required is very small, and the time lost in turning and
removing comparatively trifling.

How long a traction engine will last in constant field
use I am unable to say; but everybody knows how the
rough journeys of common portable engines tend to ""

damage and deteriorate them ; and though the rails pre-
vent much of the shock and strain which w^uld be other-
wise felt, continual travelling over a hard and rugged
surface like arable land must have an injurious effect
upon a ponderous boiler and miichinery. The wear of
the rails is also a very serious item. The objection that
the great weight is calculated to injure a strong soil by
undue consolidation, applies to the traction engine as
well as to horses, but not with greater force. For an
engine of 8 or 10 tons traversing a field weighs but little ^
more than the number of horses requisite to pull the ^
same implements ; and their feet penetrate and injure
the ground more deeply than the broad plalform rails.

It appears that a momentary emergence of the tubes
above the water level in the boiler is not dangerous; but
for maintaining a nearly horizontal position upon long
inclines, might not ordinary boilers be supported about
the middle of their length, and raised or lowered at one
end by means of an adjusting screw ?

I am very hopeful of the extensive adoption of the
traction engine upon very level land, for ploughing or
scarifying whole ground ; but fear it would be impracti-
cable for working land already ploughed, so much of the
motive-power being wasted in carrying itself over rough
and yielding furrows or large clods.

It is to be regretted that the adaptation of the ploughs
to the traction engine has hitherto been so unfortunate
as to prevent the accomplishment of a high quality of
work. Mr. Smith, of Woolston, has just patented an
improvement in the yoking of the implements.

Before quitting the subject of locomotive engines for
traction, I ought to mention Mr. Halkett's recently-
proposed system of " guideways," or rails laid 50 feet
apart over the entire surface of the land, for the convey-
ance of the engine and tilling machinery. The advan-
tages promised on clay soils are prodigious, but I believe
not the less reasonable and likely to be realized ; and I
would dwell longer upon the mechanical merits and
economy of the plan, did I not believe that the first
outlay, of £2^ to ^£""30 an acre, effectually debars its em-
ployment to the tenant farmer, while there are but few
estates, I suppose, on which landowners are likely to apply
it, or on which a public company might obtain power
to operate. And I prefer to notice schemes of steam
culture for tillmg our fields as at present laid out, as
more immediately practicable and available than those
requiring the complete remodelling of estates.

For ploughing, and scarifying, &c., in a hilly country,
we must have recourse to the windlass and rope as the
best means of transmitting power from the engine to the
implement ; and it is a question whether this or the
traction engine principle is best even for level districts.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

187

Of several plans which have come before the public for
working implements by a stationary engine and windlass,
only one now survives. Mr. Fowler, having tried one
method which wasted too much time in shifting the an-
chorages, and another which, though with these self-
shifting, required a great length of rope, has adopted the
system of moving both engine and windlass along the
headland. Mr. Smith, of Woolston, adheres to the sta-
tionary engine and windlass ; for though it involves the
use and wear of wire-rope laid all round the field instead
of once up and down it, and loss of power also in passing
the rope round four anchored pulleys instead of only one,
it enables him to employ a very compact form of wind-
ing-machine or capstan, and relieves him of the difficulty
of moving the heavy machinery along the headland.
The anchors at both ends of the work are removed at in-
tervals into holes dug for them by hand labour, and a
man is necessary to guide the rope into proper coils on
the drums ; so that with the engine-man, and a man and
boy with the implement, five men and a boy are engaged
in working the machinery, beside the horse and hands
fetching water. The working cost of deeply breaking-up
the soil, at 5 acres a day, including the shifting of the
tackle, is 5s. 2d. ; and of trenching and subsoiling (3
acres a day) 8s. 8d. per acre ; the wear and tear being taken
at Is. 6d. per acre more. The price of the tackle and
implement adapted to a common portable seven-horse
engiue is £220; and the experience of several farmers
seems to show that it is worth while to lay out this sum,
and then expend the above amount per acre for autumn
cleaning and other preparations, even though ploughing
itself may be left for horse-labour.

Mr. Smith's method of turning the implement at the
end of its course, by simply having it yoked to the ropes
by a " turn-bow" or hook in front, is the simplest and
readiest possible. I shall refer to liis system of tillage
by-and-bye; ordinary " ploughing" not being included
ia it.

But may not this hauling by wire-rope with a sta-
tionary engine be pushed too far .' When a very great
length of running rope is out, the friction of the slack
portions of the rope on the ground (the tight parts rest-
ing on friction-rollers), that of the pulleys or snatch-
blocks on their bearings, the bending of the rope round
the pulleys, and other conditions, consume a very con-
siderable amount of power, besides occasioning a large
amount of wear • and our object should, therefore, be to
place the engine as near its work as may be consistent
with no undue loss of time in shifting anchorages and
turning the implement at the ends. This was the prin-
ciple acted upon in the earliest practical trials of steam -
ploughing, a medium between the travelling and fixed
motive- power being chosen, by arranging the engine with
its winding mechanism upon the head-land, and shifting
it so as to be always opposite the ploughing. If we have
two engines with coiling-drums, one at each end of the
field, and two implements moving in opposite directions,
the ploughs will be at the least possible average distance
from the motive-power. However, the very great prime
cost, the cumbersomeness and difficulty of moving so
much heavy machinery from field lo field, the time lost
in adjusting the two implements at the end of their work,
and other considerations, are unfavourable to the scheme,
except when ploughing is undertaken on a scale of great
magnitude, and the engines are constructed so as to be
perfectly capable of steaming their own way from farm
to farm. A better plan (indeed, the first ever brought
into actual operation) is to employ one engine and wind-
ing-gear on one head-land, and an anchorage and pulley
on the other, both being shifted along as the work pro-
ceeds, and a single frame of ploughs being hauled up to
the engine or pulley alternately. This is the plan
adopted by Mr. Fowler I and, for comparing the saving

of power efi"ected, suppose a plot to be ploughed is 200
yards square, with a stationary engine and windlass the
average length of rope running at once would be 600
yards, and the average distance of the implement frora
the windlass 300 yards; with a shifting engine and wind-
lass, the average length of rope out is 400 yards, and the
average distance of the implement 200 — that is, one-
third less. There is a further economy of power in
having a direct pull upon the plough with one rope, and
round only one pulley with the other, instead of round
two pulleys with both ropes, as in the stationary wind-
lass method. There is, therefore, no doubt that Mr.
Fowler could haul Mr. Smith's implements with greater
results than have yet been attained by the latter gentle-
man's rectangular method of working the rope ; so that
it is the simplicity and lightness of machinery and appa-
ratus, rather than economy in working expense, which
form the favourable points of the Woolston system*
One advantage of Mr. Fowler's plan is also that an un-
limited extent of land may be ploughed with the same
length of rope, fewer removals of the engine and tackle
by men and horses being therefore required. I need not
describe his ingenious anchorage, which propels itself
onward, with its cutting disc-wheels always in the soil,
forming a perpetual holdfast or purchase, or the well-
known engine with coiling-drums underneath, which also
slowly creeps forward along the headland. A portable
engine, by its inherent weight, forms such a capital ful-
crum or resistance against the strain of the hauling-rope,
that it was well to use it as such ; but until we have the
combined engine and windlass able to transport itself
up-hill and along ordinary farm roads, I must view it as
too ponderous and unwieldy for common farm use.
One material point should be considered, namely, that
to be immediately useful and successful, and patronized
by the farmers generally, a steam-plough ought to be
adapted to our present portable thrashing engines, now
distributed by perhaps ten thousands throughout the
kingdom. Mr. Williams, of Baydon, connects a wind-
lass on wheels with a portable engine by means of a
strong framing ; and though he has not been able, I
believe, to work his ploughs without horses assisting,
this portion of his plan is on precisely the principle I re-
gard as most feasible, and likely to meet with general
favour. Mr. Fowler has adopted a similar method of
enabling the farmer to avail himself of the engine he
already possesses— the windlass-frame, mounted on
large wheels, being so constructed as to embrace an or-
dinary engine like a pair of shafts, one end of the boiler
being supported on this frame, and the other remaining
upon its own travelling wheels. It does not take much
time to unite or separate the engine or windlass ; when
joined, they propel themselves forward on the head-land
as one machine, and when separated, three horses can
take either part from place to place.

At the trial at Stirling, Mr. Fowler's machinery, ma-
nufactured by Messrs. Ransomes and Sims, ploughed
heavy land 5| inches deep, at the rate of 6| acres a-day,
for a total estimated cost of about 8s. per acre, which
by horse-labour would have been 15s. per acre. On
milder soil, 7 inches deep, at the rate of 9^ acres a-day,
for about Gs. per acre, which by horses would have been
8s. per acre ; and the trenching implement going
].2| inches deep, ploughed at the rate of 6 acres a-day,
at say lis. per acre, work which would need 6 horses
for accomplishing only one acre in a day. The saving
in the cost of ploughing we may reckon 35 per cent, on
the loamy land, 40 per cent, on the heavy land, and say
60 per cent, in trenching ; and it is here observable that
the economical advantage of steam over horse-power
is in proportion to the difficulty of the operation,
whether arising from the stubbornness of the ground, or
the depth of the tillftge. The superior quality of t)ie

188

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

work, and the great b&njfit of turning over the furrow-
elices with a rapid motion, and with no damaging pres-
sure either by the plough-soles or by horses' hoofs, were
points equally well demonstrated on that as on many
other occasions.

The adoption of a shifting engine and windlass, I view
as one of the best steps taken for cheapening the opera-
tion of steam-ploughing, a step that economizes power,
saves time, curtails labour, diminishes wear and tear, and
lessens the first cost of machinery and tackle. For
working scarifiers and other implements taking a great
breadth at once, perhaps it would be well to employ
Mr. Smith's removable anchors, instead of the self-
shifting one.

Mr. Fowler's latest advance has been to triumph over
one of the defects hitherto found in the coiling of the
ropes upon the drums. He has dispensed with the man
for regulating the winding on, and escaped the wear
caused by the grinding and sawing action of the coils of
rope upon each other, by giving up winding altogether,
and leading the rope round grooves in the drums. He
is thus enabled also to keep every portion of the rope
sufficiently tight to be htld off the ground by the friction-
roller barrows, so that the wear is amazingly reduced.
The total length of rope is also lessened by one-third,
and is now less tliau half that required for a field of
given size by the rectangular method. Only 800 yards
of rope are required for ploughing 400 yards' length of
furrow, and the price of the entire apparatus for a seven-
horse engine is £2SQ. The hands required are only two
men and three boys, beside the water-carters. I should
also add here, that scarifier tines have been adapted to
the plough frame, so that either ploughing or grubbing
can be effected by the same implement ; and, of course,
any traction implement whatever, as, for instance, Mr.
Smith's subsoilers or scarifiers, may be worked by the
same tackle.

There are many distiicts in which the fields are gene-
rally too precipitous for the easy passage of an ordinary
engine from side to side, much less to admit of a locomo-
tive traction engine climbing over all parts of the surface.
In such cases we must fall back upon the stationary en-
gine; and we may adopt the direct hauling from a fixed
capstan, ropes laid out in a rectangular form, and an-
chorages self-shifting like Mr. Fowler's, or removed by
hand in Mr. Smith's manner, or we may save the wear
of wire-rope, and secure a light apparatus, by employing
the travelling windlass of the Messrs. Fisken. In this
arrangement the wire-rope is fixed, being fastened to
self-shifting anchorages at the ends of the work, and the
windlass, with implements attached, winds itself along
the rope from end to end, motion being communicated
from the engine in one corner of the field to the rigger,
gear work, and coiling drums on the windlass, by an end-
less hemp cord mounted upon frames with friction rollers,
while, in order that this cord may be very light, it is
driven at a high velocity. There are many advanta-
geous points in this invention— the complete control
which one man has over the windlass and implements,
so as to stop or return at pleasure without signalling of
any kind, and the facility with which the tackle can be
removed from place to place, being among the number ;
and it is to be much regretted that we no longer find it
in a practical form before the public.

The hemp rope (manufactured so as to be impervious
to wet) is so convenient for transmitting power, and I
believe not liable to the rapid wearing out that we might
suppose, that I will now offer a suggestion for its appli-
cation in steep districts, where a shifting engine may be
inadmissible ; and here I would observe, that this paper
is intended to be suggestive of mechanical improvements
rather than a narrative of the achievements and perform-
ances of particular inventions. I believe that ideas are

wanted, and beg to submit for your consideration a num-
ber of proposals with the diffidence becoming one who
propounds methods deduced from theoretical considera-
tions, from observations of the schemes of others tried on
a great scale, and from mere working model and garden
experiments of his own.

Suppose a windlass mounted on wheels not to travel
up and down the field, but simply to shift itself along
the headland as required, and hauling an implement by
wire-ropes and an anchorage, as in Mr. Fowler's plan.
Let there be cutting discs (like those in Mr. Fowler's
anchorage), to prevent the windlass from slipping side-
ways, and let an endless hemp-rope transmit motion to
a large grooved rigger on the windlass from a similar one
on the engine at one corner of the field. I think a wind-
lass with drums on a horizontal axis would be most com-
pact and simple, and in order to permit of ploughing at
various angles to the direction of the headland, the tra-
velling wheels of the windlass frame might be capable
of being more or less locked, so that it could advance as
it were in an angular or diagonal direction, while the ^^

axes of the winding drums still remained at right angles
to the line of ploughing. Mr. Fowler's grooved barrels
would, however, be still better.

In re-modelling and modernizing this essay, which
was written a year ago, I am gratified to find that one
of my principal suggestions has now been superseded
by Mr. Fowler's simple method of temporarily uniting
portable windlasses with an ordinary engine. I will
merely state briefly that my proposal was to connect
such a shifting and independent windlass as that just
described with a portable engine, by means of a beam ^^

or bar fastened to the windlass-frame at one end, and to
the axle-trees of the engine at the other, provision being
made for slightly locking the front wheels of the engine
when required for steering. This beam was to be in
two parts, with a right and left hand screw for altering
its length, so as to regulate the distance of the engine
from the windlass, and maintain the proper tension of
the driving belt or rope. And the engine might be
either shod with the " endless rails," or, more clumsily,
travel upon a couple of short planks, laid down before W

and taken up behind it by hand labour, as in Lord
Willoughby d'Eresby's plan.

I will now ask whether we may not relieve the an-
chorage of most of the present strain, and so have it of
the lightest and simplest form, employ much less heavy
rope, avoid the delays and hazards of " signalling," and
save time at the ends by making the whole operation
more automatic than at present. Suppose we give up
the to-and-fro work with a single implement, and use
two implements, ploughing always one way, namely, up
to the windlass, one implement going backward empty
while the other is in work. That part of the rope pass-
ing round the anchored pulley having only the draught
of an implement out of work, and one length of slack
rope to haul, may be very light indeed, and the anchor-
age correspondingly light and portable. No time would
be lost in directing the implement into a fresh course,
as each implement is steered as it travels backward pre-
cisely into the position from which it has to start. Di-
rectly one implement arrives at the windlass the other
is ready to commence its journey, and perhaps the im-
plement might itself " reverse" the winding drums by
coming in contact with a lever connected with the
clutches for this purpose, so that the change of motion
might be almost instantaneous, and the ploughing per-
petual and continuous. When it is considered that we
now lose an hour or an hour and a-half in a day in
changing, &c., at the ends of the work, the advantage
of this plan is obvious. It is most applicable to plough-
ing in " lands" or " stetches," the track of one imple-
ment alwavs the breadth of one bout from that of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

189

other (as will be presently adverted to) ; but for flat
work, ia which the furrows are all thrown one way,
crossing of the ropes would occur. This, however,
merely requires the slack rope to be lifted over the
plough in work, and the plough returning empty to
cross over the tight rope. For accommodating the
length of the small rope passing round the pulley to
the varying lengths of the furrow in different parts of a
field, it must be shortened or let out from time to time
by means of a few reserve coils carried upon the ploughs.
It would be an improvement upon the present mode of
hooking the draught ropes to the implement if a " clip"
were made use of, which could be instantly released by
the ploughman ; or if the ropes wrapped round a small
barrel, held from rotating by a catch, and allowed to
revolve when the pull or draught may be required to
be stopped, in consequence of a stone, root, or other
obstacle suddenly arresting the progress of the plough.

I now come to the second point — the construction of
the plough or ploughing machine. And in the outset I
would observe that we require a ploughing machine, and
not merely a means of yoking separate ploughs held by
men as before. When there no longer remain any ani-
mals to drive, and we have a steady, uniform, unflag-
ging draught-power, why are we to retain the workman
in a mechanical employment, and thus perpetuate our
dependence upon his unskilfulness, carelessness, or
fatigue ? When once relieved from the co-operation of
horses, having voluntary movements and wills of their
own, ploughing becomes a strictly mechanical operation.
The attention and directing judgment of the ploughman
are no longer necessary to overrule the animal power,
and accommodate the implement to its movements ; and
therefore I regard as incongruous and objectionable all
projects for steam culture with ordinary horse-ploughs
held by hand. They are also expensive in labour, re-
quiring more workmen than a jloughing machine does
for the same number of furrows ; and they are awk^iard,
owing to the diflSculty of conducting a succession of
ploughs close up to the headland, and turning or shift-
ing them for the return course. Contrivances for
meeting this difiiculty I cannot but look upon as wasting
ingenuity in a wrong direction.

Mr. Williams, Mr. Fowler, and other inventors, have
practically demonstrated that several plough-shares and
mould-boards united in a single frame may not only
make very good work, but also be of considerably
lighter draught than single and separate ploughs, taking
an equal number of furrows. Not only is the draught
less, but power is gained in another way, by combining
a considerable number of ploughs together. A rope
pulling three ploughs, at a speed of three miles per hour,
is dragged twice as far in the same time as a lope haul-
ing six ploughs at 1^ miles per hour ; that is, the power
wasted in dragging the rope itself is double in the former
case what it is in the latter, for the same quantity of
work turned over, to say nothing of the double amount
of wear. There is also a saving of time. If a three -
furrow plough traverse the field in three minutes, and
waste one minute at the end, one quarter of the day is
sacrificed out of wofk ; whereas, if a six-furrow plough
perform the journey in six minutes, the one minute at
the end amounts to only one-seventh of the day. Let
these considerations be borne in mind, while we proceed
to notice various forms of ploughing machine used or
proposed.

They are of two kinds — one for flat work, in which
the furrows are all thrown one way ; and the other for
making " lands" or " stetches."

Turnwrcst, one-way, or flat ploughing is adapted for
light land, and may be practised also upon well-drained
strong soils. The most successful steam-ploughs have
hitherto been those constructed for this description of

work, the advantage attending it being, that an imple-
ment, taking three or more furrows at once, can be
worked without requiring to be turned round at the
ends, and with anchorages gradually shifting along the
headlands ; whereas in ridge and furrow ploughing such
an implement must be moved across to the other side of
the " land " or " ridge," and the anchorages shifted a
considerable distance forward or backward at every
bout ; while laying out the slack rope in the next track
so far from the plough is also a difficulty. The imple-
ment having a simple to-and-fro motion, and the fur-
rows all thrown the same side, it would appear at first
sight very easy to fix two or three, or more, of Low-
cock's turnwrest ploughs (with shares pointing both
ways, and self-adjusting mould-boards) in a frame, after
the manner of the common double-furrow plough. But
the difficulty is, that the ploughs must change their
position sideways at each end of the work, in order
to "track" rightly in going opposite ways. Lord
Willoughby has displayed great ingenuity in providing
for this necessity, but the space required for allowing the
ploughs to pass each other places one so far behind
another, and time lost inadjusting them is so considera-
ble, that the principle is objectionable. There seems no
other course than to have duplicate sets of ploughs
pointip-g in different directions, one carried in the air
while the other is in work. Messrs. Fiskeu attach the
ploughs to the ends of their windlass framework, travel-
ling upon two pairs of wheels, one set at each end, and
both pointing towards the carriage. The set out of work
precedes, while that in work follows the windlass-
carriage, the ploughs in each set being just far enough
apart to allow the furrow- slices to turn over without
danger of choking. Each plough-body is afiixed to a
separate lever, answering to the common plough-beam,
and by very simple mechanism is raised or depressed at
pleasure. Thus, instead of the ploughs entering or
emerging from the soil simultaneously, they do so in
succession, so as to plough square up to the headlands.
In the system of direct -hauling by wire-rope, in which it
is indispensable to avoid unnecessary mechanism, in
order to have the implement as light and simple as pos-
sible, we can hardly expect such niceties as this ; and,
instead of an arrangement of levers, chains, screws, and
sockets for lifting and lowering the ploughs individually,
I can imagine no better principle than that of balancing
two sets of fixed ploughs upon a single pair of wheels,
as adopted by Mr. Fowler. The frame, hung midway
upon the wheels, with a set of ploughs at each end, is
tilted so as to bring the hindmost set into work ; and
when arrived at the headland, the attendant has simply
to pull down the other end, and steer the implement in
its next course when the rope begins to move it onward.
The two sets of ploughs are immovably fixed upon the
framing, pointing toward each other; the wheels, one
running in the bottom of the furrow, left open at the
last course, the other on the unploughed land, regulate
depth and width of work, like the wheels of a horse-
plough ; and, by means of screws working in vertical
standards, the frame can be adjusted upon the axletree,
according to the depth of ploughing required. The
steerage is accurately efi'ected by slightly "locking"
the wheels with a regulating screw, under the command
of the ploughman, who rides upon the tail of the frame.

I attach great importance to the saving of time at the
ends ; and this is one reason for approving of the simple
construction and aclion of Mr. Fowler's plough. One
of the main advantages of this implement is the light-
ness of its draught. From numerous experimentswith
the dynamometer, it appears that the draught of com-
mon horse-ploughs, when out of work, is 30 to 35 per
cent, of their draught when ploughing an ordinary fur-
row. No w, in Mr. Fowler's implement, this sliding of the

19tf

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

weight of the ploughs on the furrow bottom is entirely
avoided, the ploughs at one end of the frame balancing
those at the other, so that the entire weight is carried
upon the large patent-axled travelling wheels. I have
tested the draught of the four-furrow plough running
empty upon the surface of the land, and found it to be
only 3 cwt. ; the draught of 472 yards of wire rope
dragging along the surface of a clover lea was 3 cwt. ;
the total draught of implement and rope being no more
than that of four common ploughs drawn empty on the
same surface. Of course, with the rope supported upon
friction rollers, the actual draught is much less.

I would suggest as an improvement, that this plough
should be constructed say with two beams of T iron
shorter than the present wood beams, and with two
diagonally placed beams at each end, made of tubular
or angle iron, on which the plough skifes or the scarify-
ing tines may be adjusted by clasps or bolts and screws,
for different widths of furrow.

This implement, which, by ready alterations can
plough ordinary farrows, trench two furrows deep with
effect equal, in dry weather, to that of the spade, break
up either whole or ploughed ground by cultivator tines,
or pare with broadshare, seems to me just the converti-
ble valuable implement we need in connection with
steam-hauling machinery, as this versatility so mate-
rially reduces our first outlay,

I now pass on to a consideration of ploughing in lands,
ridges, or stetches.

Steam-tillage ought to prove of greatest assistance to
the heavy lands, and not only to light lands, which may
claim the reaping machine as their gift from the me-
chanic, it being specially adapted to their upstanding
crops; and from the restricted area of permanent
subsoil-drainage yet in existence, as well as other cir-
cumstances, the great majority of farms on our sirong
wheat-soils are undoubtedly ploughed, and I fear
must for many years be ploughed, in ridge-and-furrow
" lands."

It would be possible to form a land with Mr. Fowler's
plough, first going two courses (that is, once up and
down the field) on one side of the ridge, and then, with
considerable loss of time, turning the plough end for
end, and going two courses to complete the other side ;
but, still better, the ploughs at one end of the frame
might be left-hand, and the other right-band ploughs,
the implement then not being turned round. The slack
or return ply of the rope following the plough would
have to be laid out sometimes half a land's breadth aside
from the track, and a guide wheel running along the
last open furrow would be necessary to regulate the
parallel distance of the next ridge. The anchorage, I
think, would simply need to be shifted half a land's
breadth at a time. But there is one objection. When
we consider that one of the chief points of good plough-
ing is to form the sectional contour of the land in a pro-
per curve, so that every furrow-slice shall be lower in
regular gradation as we recede from the ridge (in order
that the harrow edges of all may be equally prominent) ;
and when we remember that a skilful ploughman secures
this form by adjusting the width, depth, &c., of each
furrow according to its distance from and relation to the
ridge or water furrow, and according to the previous
shape of the ground, we perceive that no implement
ploughing all its furrows one unvarying depth and
breadth can be well calculated for this description of
work. Perhaps Mr. Fowler may improve his ploughing-
machine for stetch work, by giving the workman power
to alter the depth of either side of the frame without
stopping for the purpose.

Mr. Williams suspends his single set of ploughs upon
levers capable of working vertically in a carriage-frame,
each plough being independently j-aised or lowered, but

the machine has to be turned round at each end of the
work at every course, and taken across to the other side
of the land — a difficulty which I believe Mr, Williams
has not yet overcome without the use of horses — and
the alterations of depth, &c., necessary for different
courses, must occasion considerable delay. But it is un-
necessary for each plough to have a " swimming " motion
independent of the rest. There appears to be no practical
obstacle to the employment of a considerable number of
ploughs rigidly fixed in a frame, but, on the contrary,
the lightness of framing and adjustments in proportion
to the breadth of ground operated upon (so important in
lessening the load to be drawn) is in favour of such an
arrangement. We might take half a " land " at a time,
if the machine would not be too cumbrous, so that when
the ploughs are once "set" (with regulating screws, &c.)
to their proper depth and position, according to the form
of the surface to be ploughed, no alteration whatever
would be necessary. But a frame of six or seven ploughs
following each other would be too long and unwieldly ;
therefore, let us turn half the furrows one way and half
the other, the ploughs being in two sets, placed abreast,
instead of following one another. The six ploughs will
thus occupy only the same length of frame as three ;
the machine, indeed, with wheels in front and behind,
will be of much the same dimensions as a scarifer. Mr.
Coleman exhibited at Chelmsford a ploughing machine
of this desoription, in which the ploughs were arranged
in a V form, like a flock of wild-fowl. Suppose we
attach the ploughs to the bars or beams of the framework
by a fastening somewhat similar to that of Bentall's
broadsharer, so that they can be adjusted to different
depths and widths, according as the ground may be
level or in ridge and furrow. By raising the fore-end of
the frame upon its carriage wheels (with a wheel-and-
screw dr lever movement), the ploughs are run out of
work of their own accord, and by depressing the front
they are pointed in. Let there be two implements,
ploughing only up to the windlass — in accordance
with the method of hauling, described in a previous
part of this paper. One is to "gather," or turn
its furrows inwards, forming a ridge in the middle ;
the other is to " split," throwing its furrows outwards,
leaving an open water-furrow in the middle ; that is, the
first implement makes " ridges," or " feerings," of a
certain distance apart, and the other " makes up " the
intervals, forming complete lands or stetches. Carriage
wheels follow in the last furrows to sustain the weight
of the implements, and for them to travel upon as they
run backwards out of work. The manner in which the
two implements would be worked, with a minimum of
time lost at the ends, and a saving of power in several
respects, has been already sufficiently described. I need
merely refer now to the advantages of making the ploughs
in each frame turn half their work opposite ways, and
to the possibility of lightening the draught by avoiding
sledging and sliding action as much as possible.

From numerous dynamometric experiments, it appears
that in a heavy soil, if the whole draught of a plough in
work be taken as 100, then, with the mould- board re-
moved, it will be 90, drawn along an empty furrow it
will be no less than 35, leaving 55 to represent the
power required for cutting the slice. Much of the 35
per cent, may be saved by supporting the implement
upon three or else four carriage-wheels, and shortening
the sole as far as it can be done without causing the
share to make a ragged uneven furrow-bottom. The 10
per cent, due to the action of the mould-board may also
be reduced ; for though the weight and friction of the
soil upon the upper surface of the mould will remain,
the weight lifted (several stones) may be mainly sus-
tained by the travelling-wheels, instead of borne by the
sledge formed of the sole and the heel of the mould-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

191

board. The 55 per cent, due to the operation of the
share and coulter must not be supposed to arise merely
from the dividing of the soil by their cutting edges ; the
share has a considerable weight of earth resting upon it,
not only occasioning great friction upon the upper sur-
face of the share (which cannot be obviated), but greatly
adding to the pressure and friction of the under-side of
the sharf: upon the farrow-bottom. By fni-ming the
ploughs in our machine so that no part shall touch the
furrow-bottom, except a small portion of the share-
edges and soles, and by bearing the entire weight upon
wheels of considerable diameter and broad peripheries —
or, perhaps, applying the " endless-rails" to prevent
sinkiog — a very large proportion of the friction, cohesion,
&c., of the horse-plough may be dispensed with. There
is also another consideration. A common plough exerts
a great side-pressure against the upright land-side of
the furrow, owing partly to the reaction of the furrow-
slice in turning over sideways, but principally occasioned
by the diagonal direction of the share's cut. If the
cutting-ediie of the share make an angle of forty-five
degrees with the direction of the plough's advance, there
will be a pressure against the side of the furrow equal to
that needed to overcome the resistance directly in front
of the share. But when we fix two sets of ploughs in a
frame, half having right hand, and half left hand shares,
instead of any side-thrusts being taken with a sliding
action upon the face of the furrow, the side-pressures of
all the ploughs neutralize each other. By proper atten-
tion to these points, I conceive that an economy of
power would result.

I have not time to detail the simple steerage by
slightly locking the axle of the front wheels, the adjust-
ing of the hind wheels to make them act partially as
" soles" to the ploughs, or the short coil of reserve rope
and the clip by which it is held. I need merely add
that all the arrangements might be very simple, and that
the implements would travel with their wheels partly
running on the unploughed ground, but chiefly along
the smooth and clean furrow-bottoms, and only for an
instant cross over the ploughed land. Of course the
draught of a large implement taking six furrows at once
must be heavy, but the load is sustained by the windlass
and not by the anchorage. Perhaps the chief objection is
the difficulty of making furrows of equable depth on
uneven land by an implement of such great width.

Having now concluded my review of the subject of
steam-ploughing properly so-called, and offered various
suggestions for its better accomplishment, I must briefly
allude to

New Processes, Rotary Forking and Digging.

First. Implements operating ly Traction. — Mr.
Smith, of Woolston, is very successfully carrying out a
novel system of tillage, by means of trenching, sub-
soiling, and grubbing implements, without using the
common plough except for turning over clover lea and
sward land, and this, indeed, he thinks to be hardly
necessary. He combines subsoiling tines with the
double mould-board plough, and follows with the single
subsoiler, so that the land is left ploughed up in " drills"
or "ridges," the subsoil at the bottom of the open fur-
rows and trenches, broken up and exposed to the atmos-
phere, while the strips of ground covered by the up-
turned furrow-slices are also stirred and disintegrated.
On all soils that are not thin or light, this must be a
remarkably effectual fallow process ; the partial inver-
sion and complete stirring exposing such a large pro-
portion of the staple and subsoil to atmospheric action.
The subsoiling tines are exceedingly efficient, somewhat
resembling spades, or square fluked anchors, in shape,
and so sloped as not only to enter and pulverize deeply
the entire breadth of a furrow each, but also to raise a

considerable portion of the subsoil for admixture with
the upper staple. And the various cultivators used
(manufactured by Messrs. Howard, of Bedford) are
remarkably simple, strong, and effective, and possess
very admirable contrivances for steering, raising and
lowering, and turning round. My paper being con-
fined to mechanical methods of applying steam-power
to tillage, rather than referring to tillage itself, I say no
more here, except that Mr. Smith's land and crops
testify to the soundness and value of his husbandry
upon very heavy and also upon some other qualities of
land ; and his experience, fortified by that of various
agriculturists, shows that there is economy in expedi-
tiously breaking up ground by these implements at a
total expense of 6s. 6d. to 10s. per acre.

We have been long familiar with the revolving har-
row, forker, or scarifier, as brought before the public by
Mr. Gibson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Mr. Samuelson,
of Banbury, and other inventors. And I believe the
decision of practical judges respecting them to be that,
while they may be admirable in certain cases for stirring
ground already tilled, they are not able properly to break
up and invert unploughed land. However, I do not
quite despair of this form of digger for effecting the first
and principal operation of tillage. Mr. Smith, of Lois-
Weedon, has contrived an implement of this kind which
answers perfectly well for pulverizing and lifting up the
subsoil from the bottom of the trenches previously
ploughed along his "intervals," casting the furrow-
slices of staple underneath, and depositing the subsoil
upon the top. The tines (of proper cycloidal curve),
instead of being arranged upon separate discs, forming
a set of independently-revolving rowels, are all fixed
upon one barrel ; as the machine advances, the earth is
crumbled and raised bodily by the teeth, and while it
hangs momentarily suspended in air before being cast
off by fixed scrapers, a couple of small mould-boards
gather the upper soil (previously turned by a plough)
on each side into the bottom of the trench, the earth
from the digger falling upon it.

Could not a simple implement of this character be
made for ordinary husbandry, in which the whole sur-
face has to be cultivated ? Suppose a similar digging
cylinder or wheel, to take only the width of a common
furrow, preceded by a couple of skim-coulters or small
ploughs, that would pare the stubble or sward, and cast
it into the furrow left open at the previous course ; then
the earth raised by the digger might be diverted as it fell
by a sloping mould-board, and laid upon the top of the
thin slice deposited by the skim- coulters. In this way
a perfect inversion and burying of the surface would be
secured, while at the same time there would be a tho-
rough comminution of the soil, and no pressure or
sledging upon the furrow bottom. I think the draught
of such an implement would be comparatively light, as
the weight would all be supported upon the axis of the
digging-wheel, and help to force the tines into the
ground. The implement would also be very convertible ;
for, by taking off the mould-board we should have a
rotary subsoiler instead of a trencher, the soil being
mixed instead of inverted ; and by adding other digging-
barrels on each side, we might have a wide grubber or
cultivator. For the purpose first mentioned — that of
ploughing or trenching better than the plough — perhaps
it would be equally efficient with the combined imple-
ment, jtroposed I believe by Mr. Fowler, in which a
furrow-slice is ploughed the full depth, turned precisely
upside-down, and then broken by the points of Nor-
wegian-harrow rowells following upon it.

Hanson's potato forker is another form of rotating
pulverizer. Could not Mr. Fowler apply the revolving
blades or tines to cut the furrow slices of his plough
crosswise ? Motioti might be derived from one of the

192

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

travelling wheels, and thus ploughing and pulverizing
would be accomplished in a single act.

Leaving now the traction principle altogether, which,
in the case both of ploughing and scarifying by steam
must be now pronounced fully successful, let us inquire
into the merits of

Machines actuated independently of
Traction.

I dismiss without notice multitudinous contrivances
for imitating the motions of manual digging, partly be-
cause they would demand more space than I feel at
liberty to devote to them, and partly because I prefer,
for simplicity and practicable character, machines having
a continuous circular motion and few working parts ;
and indeed, I believe, that ultimately the highest order
of results which steam-culture will ever attain, will be
by a revolving tiller, because, theoretically, it is best
adapted to the new motive-power.

The idea of Mr. Hoskyns, that a cylinder of claws,
tines, or cutters, should be attached behind a locomotive
engine, and driven at a more or less rapid speed by the
motive-power, notwithstanding the success of steam-
traction implements, never promised better than it does
now. I do not know what has become of Mr. John
Bethell's revolving forker, but, at any rate, Mr. Ro-
maine's machine in the hands of Mr. Alfred Crosskill
has at last achieved considerable success, the velocity
of the digger, however, being greatly moderated from
that originally proposed. A rapidly revolving scratching
tool may serve tor superficial slicing and mincing as a
substitute for paring; but in order to invert the soil
completely, and perform the best kind of work required
by the farmer in deep culture (for which digging ma-
chines seem most suited), I am of opinion that the soil
must be cut or broken into pieces of sufficient bulk to
be turned bodily upside down, and these must not be
left to fall at hazard in any posture, but laid in their
proper position by the machine, in order to make perfect
work. This operation necessitates a slow rather than a
quick rotation of the cutters ; accordingly Mr. Usher's
rotary steam-plough, in which a series of curved plough
bodies are attached about a horizontal axis driven by
gear work, behind a locomotive engine, was a near ap-
proach to what we required, and had the tilling machi-
nery been combined with a modification of the endless
railway engine, or the difficulty of locomotiou been
otherwise better overcome, this invention would proba-
bly have given us a cheap, though not very perfect, order
of tillage. But Mr. Romaine's cultivator is a decided
success. A digging-cylinder, 6 feet wide, is attached
behind a twelve-horse engine, mounted on a pair of very
large broad felloed wheels, with two steerage-wheels on
castors in front. The machine is perfectly independent
of horses for travelling from place to place over mo-
derately level roads or arable fields, though its weight is
10 tons, and it will turn short round, or in an area of
its own length. Parallel connecting-rods, like those
coupling the wheels of a railway locomotive, are used
for driving the digger with a speed of forty to fifty revo-
lutions per minute, allowing it to be readily raised or
lowered while in motion. The cutters, fastened by
bolts and screws upon the plate-iron cylinder, resemble
scarifier paring-shares in form, and, as the engine slowly
advances, slice and dig up the soil from either 3 or 4
inches to 10 inches deep, as required. Having seen the
work done, I can bear witness that tenacious soil is
thoroughly broken up and subdivided, the surface-
stubble, &c., buried sufficiently well, and the subsoil
largely upturned and intermingled with the top staple —
in fact, the work has much the appearance of that of
the digging-fork. The successive operations of plough-
ing, dragging, and harrowing strong land are equalled
by a single course of this macliine, and at far cheaper

cost, the amount of work done being from four to seven
acres a-day, according to the description of soil and
depth of work, at an expense of 5s. or 6s., up to 9s. or
10s. per acre. The price, I believe, is about ^^800. It
is a matter for experience to determine how far the
weight may prove injuriously consolidating on stiff clays,
and whether the farmer can keep in order so many
wheels, running bearings, and working-parts. The cul-
tivating cylinder, however, promises to become all that
the farmer requires; only, for working on ground al-
ready ploughed or cultivated, on hilly fields, and on wet
clay soils, I hope means will be found to actuate it by
ropes from a shifting or stationary engine.

In searching out and studying all the proposals I can
meet with for digging or deeply trenching, I have con-
cluded that the simplest, easiest, and most practicable
idea, is that of a cutting-blade attached by an arm or
stem to a horizontal axis, and curved concentrically, or
nearly so, with the circle it describes, wtich entering the
soil downwards, shall cut a curved spit of earth from the
lace of the semicircular trench formed by its action, and
emerging upwards on the other side of the trench, leave
the spit in an inverted position, as represented in the
annexed woodcut.

A number of these cutters are to be aflSxed by radial
arms to the shaft, but in order that they may not impede
the delivery of the pieces of soil from each other, I propose
that they should be placed at an angle with the plane of
the circle they describe, and let the machine advance at
right angles to the direction of their revolution, the
axis being longitudinal instead of transverse, just as in
Hanson's potato digger, and Huckvale's turnip thinner.
The digging-disc (supported and actuated in a way to be
presently noticed,) proceeds sideways, as it were,
along the trench, slicing off spits from the face or
edge as a workman does with a spade, and carrying
and leaving them on the opposite side inverted and
turned end for end. The arm or bracket to which
each cutting blade is attached acts as a coulter to divide
the portion to be cut. Suppose the blades to be of 9
inches breadth, then one blade must enter the ground for
every 9 inches travelled by the machine ; and with six
cutters followinfj; one anotiier (somewhat after the man-
ner of the knives in Gardner's turnip slicer) the revo-
lutions per minute will be only 29, for a progression of
1 J miles per hour. The " bite " or thickness of the spit
may be, say 7 inches, when the depth is afoot ; thus, for
a single digging disc, the extent of land dug would be at
the rate of one and l-5th acres per day ; but, of course, I
propose to have several diggers on the same shaft. Work-
ing at less depth, the speed might be increased. Forgoing
12 or even 15 inches deep, the disc need not be of greater
diameter than say t hree, or at most four feet. And it
is to be noted, th.it though of small diameter, as the
digger works always in the trench, a spur-wheel of con-
siderable size may be hung on the same shaft to drive it.
I propose that the machine should traverse up and
down the field, without turning at the ends, the digging
disc always remaining in the trench and revolving the
same way. The only change necessary is to point the
cutting blades at a different angle when the machine is
to travel the reverse way ; and this is done by setting
each arm or stem in a socket, and connecting the six
arms so that they are turned round simultaneously. The
blades are double-edged, in order that they may be
turned round so as to bring the arms into operation as
coulters, whichever way the machine may be moving.
But the form of cutter proposed is also adapted for re-
volving upon a transverse shaft or cylinder like Ro-
maine's.

Motion may be communicated to the digging-wheel
in several ways. It may be affixed to a locomotive en-
gine. But I should prefer to drive it by an endless

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

193

A A Position of digging-blades on entering and on rising out of the soil, cutting a spit say 8 inches thick and 9 inches wide,

with the trench 15 inches deep.
B B The stems or arms supporting the blades are sharp at their edges, so as to act as coulters, for severing the side of the

spit from the whole ground. The blades are set diagonally across the plane of the circle there described, so as not to

track after each other; and are turned round in sockets C C, when required to point the other way, for the return

course.
D Size of the wheel by wh'ch the digger is driven.

rope, supported upon friction rollers, in connexion with
a stationary engine, or an engine shifted along one end
of the field — a modification, in fact, of Mr. Atkins'
and Messrs. Fisken's method. For a single digging-
disc, perhaps there would not be too great a resistance
to be driven by wheel-work from the travelling-wheels
of the carriage-frame, on the principle of Hanson's po-
tato-digger : the wheel having teeth or cogs upon its
felloe to give it a firm hold of the ground, might travel
along the bottom of the trench, and so partially operate
also as a sub -pulverizer, breaking up the hard bottom ;
and as the digging-disc is adapted to a pace of two miles
per hour, horses might work it if required. I would
suggest, however, that in case the bite and resistance
thus obtained were found insufficient for very deep work,
a couple of wire-ropes wound upon the drums of the
machine, and fastened down at both ends of the field by
shifting anchors, would cause the drums and connected
gear-work to revolve by the simple advance of the ma-
chine ; though this travelling windlass would involve
considerable weight and complexity.

My description of this rotary digger is very general
and devoid of details, the rather rude drawings accom-
panying this paper merely giving some idea of the cir-
cular cutting and inverting of a movement I advocate,
and, in fact, it is not the particular form, but the dis-
tinctive principle of action involved, that I wish to
bring before you.

In conclusion, let me hope that at least some of my
suggestions with respect to working traction implements
by steam-power, and the construction of new tillage

machines, will prove useful to some gentlemen who may
be practically grappling with the mechanical difficulties
in the field, and that the principle I have introduced to
your notice for deep-digging and perfectly inverting the
soil, with the least possible waste of power in raising the
cut pieces, will meet with your consideration and ap-
proval.

On the conclusion of Mr. Clarke's paper the Secre-
tary read the following letter :

Sir, — In the Journal of this Society for February, 1856,
are a few remarks I then made on the subject of ploughing
or land cultivation by steam-power. These impressions were
arrived at, and forced upon my mind by the importance of the
subject, and by frequently witnessing the various methods
(ingenious and persevering) by which the desideratum was,
sought to be accomplished. I would now frankly have re-
nounced my ideas, and cordially have congratulated any in-
ventor who had, by this time, made the progress then hoped
for, and which their great efforts have really deserved ; but
feeling, as I do, that so little improvement has been made in
the art by any of the methods during these two years, I am
more convinced we are not yet in the right path to the
possession of an implement such as would generally supersede
the good horse plough, and which the enterprising agriculturist
would hail with pleasure and readily adopt. Sincerely feeling, as
I do, how very ungenerous and hard it may seem to these ener-
getic pioneers to dwell on theirunrewarded efforts, I wouldgladly
adopt any course of remarks or argument which would avoid
allusion to a failure or touch a disappointed hope, and would
therefore briefly state that from all I have yet seen or heard
of improvements and trials of the now existing means, I am
forced back to the conclusion I had arrived at in February,

194

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

1856, that the thorough and practical steam cultivator is to be
wrought out of such a construction of machine as I then
sketched. It may with seeming justice be asked, why I dis-
approve of all existing plans, and still do not produce my own
idea in a competitive form. My answer is, that during these
years I have, through impaired health, been compelled to re-
linquish, in a great measure, the practical management of
our somewhat large manufacturing business, and those left to
do so find their heads and hands full enough in grappling with
the large and small details of works requiring increasing atten-
tion.

The machine I had sketched in 1856 I still think well
worth the consideration of one or more possessing the ability
and bold determination of some of the gentlemen I have
alluded to; and should success be theirs, I will be satisfied
with that which is only due to me, for having pointed to the
outline of an implement for so desirable an object. I would
very shortly repeat that the machine I proposed wa3 in the
form of a portable engine, not much exceeding in weight and
size that now used to work a combined thrashing machine; the
addition and difference would consist in a frame containing a
number of digging spades, and the application of the engine's
power to the up and downward motion of the spades and
turning over the pieces of soil they lifted, much in the same
way as a man does with a spade. I think I may fearlessly
assert that no plough has ever equalled the spade in the be-
neficial results to the soil and its productions; the ex-
pense and insurmountable difficulty of having the work
done within the necessary time by men being the objections ;
and, if so, then the implement we really require is some twenty
or more spades worked by the uncomplaining giant steam, so
obedient and untiring. The arrangement of the spades, and
their required motion, are not insurmountable difficulties in
the science of mechanics, while the engine's weight, instead of
being a drawback as at present, would be the intermediate
power by which I would force the spades into the ground, and
these spades would act as so many levers, by which the ma-
chine would be moved step by step. No apace, whether the
field was large or small, would be left untilled any more than
in the case of the best ploughing, and the digging would be
deep or shallow at the option of the attendant, or as the frame
had been set for him. No power would be misspent ; the
whole apparatus would be as free from derangement as the
portable engine and thrashing machine now are, and quite as
portable ; for when the work was done, the spade frame would
either be lifted clear of the ground, or disengaged, and the
travelling wheels left free for locomotion. In common with
so many, I long to see an efficient machine for such a great
work ; and if my ideas should now fall into genial soil, my
object is served. I am, &c.,

RiCHAKD Garrett.
Leiston Works, Saxmundham.

The Chairman said this was a most important sub-
ject, for he thought we were in a state of transition as
regarded the cultivation of the soil. He had no doubt
that, in process of time, the ingenuity of this and other
countries combined would bring steam-ploughing, as well as
reaping by machinery, into general use. More attention was
required to the machine itself than to the engine which was to
work it ; the latter might be considered as having been brought
almost to a state of perfection. He had an opportunity, at
the Paris Exhibition, of witnessing the operations of from
twelve to fifteen different steam reapiug-machiues, and he had
reported upon them to the Government of this country.
Throughout those experiments, it struck him very for-
cibly that more was wanted from the farmer than from
the engineer, inasmuch as a great deal depended upon the
land leing brought into a state fit for the application of ma-
chinery. Untd attention was paid by the farmer to this
point, it was in vain for engineers and inventors to bring for-
ward machinery for the cultivation of the soil. It appeared to
him that, in good cultivation, the first step was to carry off the
surplus water by a complete system of drainage, to increase
the depth of the staple, and to bring to the surface portions of
the subsoil. He believed, if those necessary preliminaries
were carried out, they might apply machinery to the cultiva-
tion of the soil with good effect, and at a cost which would
be within the means, not only of the gentleman-agriculturist,
but also of the tenant-farmer. He saw many practical men

present, and would be happy to hear their observations on
this highly interesting subject.

Mr. J. J. Mechi was of opinion that steam-cultivation
would, ere long, become the custom of the country. He
would mention that two years ago Mr. John Fowler ploughed
a quantity of land for him, and he could assure them of the
marked superiority of the crops on the land so treated, as
compared with that subjected to the ordinary horse-ploughing.
There was a difference in the crop of wheat, of at least a quar-
ter per acre in favour of ploughing by steam. The superiority
was apparent from the first appearance of the crop, and was
maintained up to the time of harvest. The depth to which
the land was ploughed was considerable, and, in addition to
this, subsoil ploughing was also employed. The work was al-
lowed, even by the labourers, to have been done with much
greater regularity than could be effected by horse-ploughing,
and fresh soil was brought to the surface which had never before
been disturbed by any implement. It was true the work was
done some little time before the crop was sown, and no doubt
the action of the air upon the raw subsoil was very beneficial.
He thought they would all agree as to the superiority of steam
over horse-power, wherever it could be brought to bear. An
acre of ploughing per day was considered fair horae-work, and
that would be done by 2 o'clock in the afternoon, at which
time the horses returned to the stables, and remained there
eating and sleeping till 6 o'clock the next morning. lu the
summer months especially, an immense amount of time was
thus wasted, and the horses must be kept and fed whether they
worked or not ; so that all experience tended to show that
horse-power in the cultivation of land was but a make-shift,
and must, he thought, ultimately succumb to mechanical con-
trivances. His impression, some years ago, was that Ro-
maine'a engine would be very effective, and he had spent some
£700 in experiments with that machine. Since then he be-
lieved £10,000 bad been expended in experiments, and with
very important results. He had no doubt larger sums yet
must be spent before they arrived at perfection, and every year
would witness large improvements in the application of steam
machinery to the purposes of agriculture, as was the case with
regard to manufactures. He hoped the farmers of the country
would be sufficiently alive to the importance of adopting these
appliances when they were offered to them. It was certainly
not the duty of the tenant farmers to lay out their money in
making these experiments, but at the same time they ought
to be willing to pay a fair remuneration to those who afforded
them the means of carrying on superior cultivation at a cheaper
rate. By the facilities of inter-communication afforded by rail-
ways, many local prejudices had been abolished, and districts
which formerly prided themselves that they were in the van ia
agricultural matters, discovered how much they were behind-
hand. After all, depth of cu'tivation after good draining was
the true manure. Let the subsoil be brought into contact
with the air, and they would find a treasure which had never
before been developed. He had every year increased the depth
of cultivation on his lani, and had always been rewarded for it.
Recently he had a field dug all over with the steel digging-lork,
and he had found it more economical in its results than
ploughing with horses. There were five horses ploughing in
one field, and in another field four men fork-digging, and he
found the latter cheaper at £2 per acre, the men earning 23. 6d.
per day, than the work of five horses and two men in ordinary
ploughing. The more he saw of horse-power, the more con-
vinced he was that it was the worst and most costly power that
could be employed, but at present the use of it was unavoidable.
Mr. J. Allan Ransome said, that the very able paper
they had heard was certainly a most accurate record of all that
had been done in the application of steam machinery to agri-
cultural purposes up to the present time, and many of the
suggestions put forth, he felt, were extremely valuable. On
the two previous occasions on which he had attended discus-
sions on this subject, practical progress in this direction had
been shown to be extremely limited. With the exception of
a little work carried on in one season on Mr. Smith's farm,
nothing had been practically done when the subject was first
discussed in that room — at least so as to induce others to fol-
low in the same steps. Since that time great improvements
had taken place in the three leading plans referred to in this
paper, namely, first the locomotive traction engine drawing an
implement after it ; secondly, the steam-engine employed to
give motion to rotary machinery ; and thirdly, the employ-
ment of traction ropes with a fixed engine. He had already

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

195

expressed au opinion in favour of traction by means of sta-
tionary engines. His attention had been principally directed
to the latter system, from the belief he entertained that the
best practical results would be derived Irom it. Looking
at the results of Fowler's method of steam-ploughins:, it
had up to the present time been found very effective. This
was shown bj' the fact of a twelve-horse engine working
five ploughs during the week, at the rate of an acre per
hour. To accomplish the same work with horse-power,
would take sixteen horses. The number of men in the one
case was five, and in the other eight. In the one case they
must be all skilled ploughmen ; whilst in the other they re-
quired onl}' one person competent to drive an engine, an-
other able to guide the ploughs, and the remainder could
be done by boys. It was further to be remarked that,
during the necessary period of rest and feeding both for
men and horses, the steam engine might be employed in
other operations on the farm. He would now speak of an-
other class of implements. The plough was universally
admi*ted to be inferior to the spade. Why was that so.^^
There .nust be some detrimental effects produced in plough-
ing whith must be set sgaiust the good done to the land.
In the tirs^ place, there was the treading of the horses'
feet; and, in the next place, the hardening of the soil b}''
the action of thb broad bottom of the plough. He regarded
the implement which had a tendency to break up and com-
minute the soil as the nearest approach to perfection ; and
where the steam plough had been introduced, with the
avoidance of friction, and where the soil was broken up by
an implement following in the wake of the plough, he be-
lieved it was quite equal to the process of digging ; aad he
thought this might be effected by the traction rope and
fixed engine. At the same time, he thought that a lighter
description of engine might be adopted, which could be
used as a rotary travelling engine. But, whilst there was
work sufficient for each manufacturer in his individual line,
he thought ploughing by traction had been almost brought
to perfection ; but, with regard to a thoroughly practical
digging machine, he feared that the probability of
success was rather remote. The necessary com-
plication of such a machine would stand in the way
of its success. He lamented as much as any one that the
state of his friend Mr. Garrett's health had delayed his
further progress in that direction, but his friends might
console themselves that he had thus been released from a
matter which would certainly have occasioned him a great
deal of anxiety ; and in the event of Mr. Garrett's restora-
tion to health, he (Mr. Ransome) would advise him not to
expend his energies upon the invention of a digging imple-
ment to be worked by steam.

Mr. J. J. Mechi mentioned, as a proof that Fowler's
method of ploughing was coming largely into use, that a
contract was taken for ploughing 200 acres by this plan on
a farm in Essex. This showed that it was in large
practical operation, and he bad no doubt that it would
answer.

Mr. Newton, althougli not a practical agriculturist,
would venture to differ from some of the views expressed by
Mr. Ransome. He did not think ploughing — taking the
plough in the form in which they were acquainted with it —
could be beneficially carried out to any great extent in this
country by means of traction power. Whether the imple-
ment was capable of modification, so as to obviate the hard
under surface occasioned by the sole of the plough, he could
not saj'. Every agriculturist would admit that ploughing
was not so beneficial an operation in the preparation of the
land as hand labour with the spade, but this was so expen-
sive as to be out of the question. He thought the applica-
tion of traction by ropes to the plough involved great waste
of power, and the friction of the rope on the ground occa-
sioned an amount of wear and tear which formed a serious
item of expense. Nor was that the only objection to
ploughing by steam under the method adopted by Mr.
Fowler. There must be great waste of time, especially
in small fields of six or seven acres, in arranging the
anchors and windlass, and also in the lateral shifting
on the headland. It was stated in the paper in some in-
stances to occupy 25 per cent, of time throughout the
whole of the day. That formed a serious item. If they
had large fields, such as were seen on the continent, the case
might be different, and in fields of 100 or 150 acres Mr. Fow-

ler's plan could probably be carried out with advantage. They
must, however, take the case as it stood in this country. They
could not remodel estates.

Mr. Me cm said this must be done.

Mr. Newton very much questioned whether the landlords
as a body would allow their tenants to grub up the hedges,
and cut down the trees, to form open lands on their farms.
Keference had been made to Romaine's cultivator. That ma-
chine could be taken to any field where the gateway was wide
enough to admit it, and every foot of the land could be culti-
vated by it, without any further operation being requited ; be-
sides which, it was capable of beicg adapted to all the purposes
for which the portable steam-engine was employed upon a
farm. The cost of that machine was stated in the paper to be
£700. It ought, however, to be borne in mind, that an imple-
ment of that kind dispensed with a considerable amount of
horse-power. He believed it was not generally known that the
horse-power for agricultural purposes in this country con-
sumed from one-fifth to one-sixth of the whole produce of the
land.

Mr. Mechi said, on small and moderately cultivated farms
it would amount to one-fourth. On well-cultivated lands it
would be about one-fifth.

Mr. Newton added that such an item in the expenditure
on a farm was very serious. He repeated his belief that the
system introduced by Romaine would ultimately be found to
be trtost successful in the cultivation of the land, from the fact
that all the necessary operations were effected at once.

Mr. Meciii wished to explain, that in stating the consump-
tion of the horses on a farm to be, in some cases, one-fourth of
the produce, he did not mean one-fourth in value, as of course
horses were not fed upon wheat, but the produce arising from
one-fourth of the extent of the farm.

Mr. John Fo^vler had listened with great interest to
the able paper of Mr. Clarke, which he regarded as a most
excellent resume of what had been effected in steam culture
up to the present period, and an extremely fair criticism
upon the merits of each invention. With reference to the
remarks of Mr. Newton, although he agreed with him in
the belief that rotary cultivation in some shape or other
would be ultimately brought to bear, yet they could hardly
assume that it would do all that was required. It was pos-
sible that rotary cultivation might effect the overturning
of the soil, and he believed there was no very great diffi-
culty in bringing it to bear for that purpose on level and
firm soils, but upon very uneven surfaces the power ex-
pended in taking the machine over them must be very great.
Of course there were many improvements in detail which
might be made in such a machine ; and he should be glad
to see the gentlemen-agriculturists of England, for it was
not the place of the tenant farmers to do it, appropriating a
small portion of the income which they derived from the
land to experiments in rotary cultivation. With regard to
himself, he ventured to say that the system of ploughing he
had introduced was a step in the right _ direction. He
thought there could be no question that it was a really
practical plan, inasmuch as it performed the ploughing at
half the cost of horse-power, and the work was better done.
He was happy to have the testimony of Mr. Mechi in its
favour, though it was by no means the first he had had.
Seven acres of sandy soil, in the neighbourhood of Ipswich,
had been ploughed by steam, and the result was, even on
land which had no rich subsoil to be turned up, that a
yield of a quarter per acie more in the crop was ob-
tained. The people in the neighbourhood suggested
that the difterence arose from the depth of the til-
lage having prevented the drought from attacking the
wheat. He admitted the superiority of hand-spade cul-
tivation over even steam ploughing, but it was too expensive
in practice, and he v/as prepared to say that, on heavy clay
land, steam cultivation, equal to spade labour, could be done
for 12s. an acre. With regard to the wear and tear of the rope
under his system, a misapprehension existed. Upon clay land
he would guarantee the wear of the rope at sixpence per acre ;
he believed it would not exceed threepence per acre ; but if the
work was done upon gravelly soil abounding with sharp flint
stones, greater care was necessary with regard to the rope,
although in such cases he believed the expense would not be
greater ; but if farmers used the rope in the careless mann e
they frequently did their steam engines, of course they must
be content to bear the expense of theii negligence. Judging

196

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of what he had seen of rotary cultivators, he believed that they
would occupy a prominent position in a few years, and no
pains should be spared to bring this about. There was one
point which bore materially upon steam cultivation. The mo-
ment they were prepared to do all the cultivation on a farm by
means of machinery more advantageously than by horse-power,
horses themselves would only be required for the carting, and
would have to stand idle a large portion of the week. This
showed the importance of bringing about a perfect system of
steam traction. Mr. Boydell had gone far to develop that.
He (Mr. Fowler) believed that a smaller class of that descrip-
tion of engine — say, of four-horse power — could be used for the
work of a farm more economically than horses. He thought
it ought to be fairly tried. Who was to try all those experi-
ments ? Were the inventors to bear the whole brunt of that
which was in fact a national benefit ? The landlords hitherto
bad done little. The Royal Agricultural Society had given no
help. He could only state that the trial of his system at Salis-
bury was appointed to take place on a steep hill, resembling
the roof of a house, and the decision arrived at was, that the
steam plough would not answer. Notwithstanding all this, he
was prepared to prove that he could plough at half the cost of
horse power. It was plain they would get no assistance from
the public or from the landed proprietors, who would, after all,
derive the greatest benefits in the improved rental of their
estates. As far as steam ploughing was concerned, he con-
sidered his task was done ; but it was for such men as Messrs.
Romaine and Boydell to carry their experiments further in
another direction, and he was strotgly of opinion that the pub-
lic at large ought to help them in their work.

Mr. Smith (of Woolatun) avowed his determination not to
receive any assistance from any society or any individual. He
would state his reasons for not usiug the combined plough ior
the inversion of the soil. la January, 1856,* he stated bei'ore
this Society what he had done in the way of steam tillage up
to that period, and he would now state what he done further
since that period. He would not speak of bis own plough, but
would refer to the machinery employed for laying out the land,
and the mode in which he effected it, as upon that he consi-
dered the success of his system of tillage mainly depended. In
the two experiments refened to by Mr. Clarke in his paper,
one at Chelmsford and the other at Woolston, he (Mr. Smith)
had not space enough to show properly how he set out his
work. Mr. Smith proceeded to explain the details of his plan,
particularly describing the mode of setting out his machinery
and tackle. (This, however, would be unintelligible without
the plans and sketches to which he referred.) Mr. Smith went
on to remark, with reference to steam culture, that all farmers
would admit that the first month after harvest was worth all
the other months of the year put together. There were, in fact,
only two months which were really valuable to the farmer for
ploughing. Those were Sept. and October. The engine which
he recommended was the common eight-horse engine, but he
had found a seven-liorse engine sufficient for all his work,
upon a farm of about 200 acres, 110 of which were arable ;
and the engine could do all the thrashing, grinding, cutting,
&c. The tackle to be attached to it, he contended, was
paid for in the first season it was used. He had found in
his own experience and that of liis brother-farmers, that a
quarter per acre more in the yield of the crops resulted
from his system. Mr. Smith next proceeded to contrast
the system of anchorage and rope traction adopted by Mr.
Fowler with his own plan, and pointed out the important
reduction he had made in the number of horses he had em-
ployed previously to the introduction of his system of
steam cultivation. In the first year he steam-ploughed a
field twice over; and the yield was 41 bushels of peas per
acre. The succeeding crop was barley ; and the yield of
that was 7 qrs. 1 bushel per acre, from land which formerly
only gave a yield of 5 qrs. per acre. Upon an average, he
employed his steam machinery in culture 39 days in the
year, consuming 14i tons of coal, at a cost of £14 10s. The
only additional cost was in increased labour; for during
that period he had allowed his men sixpence a day extra.
Mr. Smith then read letters from Mr. llandell, of Chad-
bury, near Evesham ; Mr. Bright, of Tcddesley ; Mr. J.
Whiting, of Stoke Goldington ; and Mr. George Taylor, of
Mentmore, speaking of the successful working of Mr.

See Journal, vol. iv. p. 175.

Smith's system of steam cultivation on land in their occu-
pation or under their management.

The Chairman regretted that the time had arrived for
closing this discussion, more especially as he saw present
several other inventors — amongst them Mr. Halkett —
from whom he had hoped to hear some observations on this
highly important subject. They would, however, all
agree that Mr. Clarke was entitled to their best thanks for
his able paper.

A vote of thanks was then passed to Mr. Clarke.

MR. HALL MAXWELL AND TOE AGRI-
CULTURAL STATISTICS OF SCOTLAND.

At Inverury, and within the Kintore Arms Inn there, the
sixth day of February, Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Eight ;
at a numerously attended meeting of Enumerators and mem-
bers of committee connected with the Statistical Inquiry for
the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray :

On the motion of Mr. Copeland, Haddo House, Mr.
Geddes, Orbliston, enumerator for Morayshire, was called to
the chair ; and Mr. Murdoch Huntley was requested to act as
clerk to the meeting. •'

The following resolutions were moved by Mr. Harvey, of
Tillygreig, seconded by Mr. Jopp Seggat, and unani-
mously agreed to, viz. :

" 1. That the enumerators and members of committee pre-
sent were induced to take charge of the Statistical Inquiry in
their several districts and parishes, from a firm conviction that
it would confer a great benefit not only on agriculturists, but
on the community at large, and they had the more confideuce
in doing so from the fact that it was conducted under the
auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot-
land."

" 2. That the meeting having had ample opportunities of
admiring the great tact, zeal, and ability displayed in con-
ducting the inquiry by Mr. Hall Maxwell, the secretary of the
society, to whose indefatigable exertions the success which has
hitherto attended it is mainly due, have observed with much
regret that the requirements of Government from that gentle-
man have been such as to render the withdrawal of his services,
and the consequent dissolution of the Highland and Agricul-
tural Society's connection with the statistical inquiry neces-
sary. "

" 3. That the meeting, referring to the growing interest ^

taken in the agricultural reports, are satisfied that the measures
adopted by Mr. Hall Maxwell for collecting the statistics —
embracing as they do popularity, correctness, and economy —
have obtained the greatest confidence among all classes con-
nected with the inquiry, and produced a mass of such accurate
and valuable information as could not otherwise have been
readily procured."

" 4. That the meeting having felt the utmost satisfaction in
co-operating with Mr. Hall Maxwell in preparing the statistics
during the last four years, though the employment as enu-
merators and members of committee was altogether unsoli-
cited on their part, trust that matters may yet be arranged so
as not to deprive the country of a system so thoroughly or-
ganized, and which, though apparently of an inquisitorial
nature, has never been felt as such."

" 5. That the Chairmau be instructed to forward these reso-
lutions to the Highland and Agricultural Society, and to send
copies thereof to the Lords-lieutenant of Aberdeen, Banff, and
Morayshires, to the Members of Parliament for these counties
and burghs connected therewith, to the Right Honourable
Lord Kiunaird, and to Sir James H. D. Elphinstone, of Logie
Elphinstone, M.P." Jas. Geddes, Chairman.

NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.— In conse-
quence of the decision arrived at by the late annual meeting
witli regard to the reserved fund, the premiums in all classes
have bfeen augmented to the extent of about £40. The classes
of pigs are to be divided into the large and small breed. A
new prize is to be offered for the best dairy cow of any breed,
not being a Shorthorn, Devon, or polled coir. The money
prizes for implements are to be given to collections instead of
single implements. And medals will be awarded to newly-
invented or recently-improved implements. The annual exhi-
bition will, it is expected, be held at Norwich, Friday, June 18.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

197

CHOOSING A SITE FOR A HOUSE.

In selecting a site for a country farm house,
many things are to be taken into consideration.
The question of healthfulness is of the first im-
portance. Such situations as the border of a
sluggish stream or of a stagnant marsh should be
avoided. Soils retentive of moisture, and which
draining cannot render dry and warm, should not
be chosen. In such situations, desirable as they
may be in other respects, the air is raw and chilly,
the dampness rises through the walls and apart-
ments of the house, discolours the paper hangings,
spoils the food, diffuses a musty odour through
every room, depresses the spirits, and injures the
health of all the occupants.

Convenience and comfort should be considered.
Fine prospects are fine things, but everything must
not be sacrificed to obtain them. It would be folly
in a farmer to perch his house on the highest peak
on his estate, regardless of convenience of access
to and from the highway, market, church, post-
office, &c. Poets and " men of genius " may do
such things, but ordinary mortals must have an
eye to the common wants and comforts of life.
Hence, we would set our house within easy reach
from the road. It should not, indeed, stand close
to the street, exposed to noise and dust, and to the
prying curiosity of every passer-by. There
is no need of crowding one's house upon the
roadside. We beg pardon for saying it, it looks
stingy to do so, and it looks as if the owner were
excessively anxious to see and to be seen. Far
better is it to lay off a liberal space in front and on
the sides of the house, where trees and grass may
grow undisturbed, and where the members of the
household may enjoy themselves without undue
exposure from the highway. Home is much less
home if it have no privacy, if every opened door
and window lets in the gaze of street-goers. We
pity the members of that family who have no
resources within themselves; who cannot find
happiness in books, papers, company, music, trees
and flowers, domestic labours and amusements, but
must be for ever pining to learn the thousand little
occurrences and gossip of the neighbourhood. Yet
we would not go to the other extreme. Man is a
social being, and it is very pleasant to see the faces
and hear the voices of those who live about us. It
is pleasant, especially for invalids, confined most of
the time within doors, to be able to see from the
windows of the house who are coming and going,
and what is transpiring in the street. Then, in
winter, it is very laborious to keep open paths to
the highway from a house situated far from the
road. We would, therefore, drive our stakes at a
moderate distance from the street, leaving room
enough in front of the house for lawn, trees and
flowers, and yet so near the road as to be easy of
access.

An elevated site is desirable, on many accounts.
It affords facilities for drainage. The air is purer,
drier and more bracing. The prospect afforded

of the surrounding scenery is worth more than is
generally paid for it : scenery is a gallery of pictures
painted by the Great Artist. It is not all poetry to
say that such a situation tends to inspire its
occupants with an elevation of thought and feeling.
Yet it must be borne in mind that such sites are
exposed to violent winds, that in winter they are
often blocked up by snow-drifts, that one must
toil up and down the hills all his life, and that his
loaded teams must daily be dragged up hill, or
struggled with in going down. By no means
should one take a calm, summer day to examine a
hill-top for this purpose; let him rather choose a
season of unpleasant weather, and if it bears exa-
mination then, it will be likely to prove satisfactory
at other times. Most hill-tops are bleak, yet one is
not sure of escaping severe winds by building in a
low situation. Gales often sweep up and down
valleys with great violence, with a sort of wildness
and madness unknown on the hills. Blustering as
is the winter weather of hilly regions, the actual
cold, as measured by the thermometer, is seldom
as great as that of the valleys, and late frosts
seldom do as much damage in the one case as in
the other. A sheltered situation is undoubtedly
preferable to one open on all sides, and such a
situation can hardly be found on a hill, yet much
can be gained even on the most elevated spot, by
planting belts of trees, chiefly evergreens, on the
sides most exposed to the rake of the« winds. In
respect to elevation, our own choice would fix
upon a gentle slope raised just above the damps
and late frosts of the valley, and protected from
the north winds by tree-clad hills.

It is often recommended to chose a site already
clothed, more or less, with forest trees. There are
advantages, certainly, in having such a basis for
ornamental operations. It is a great saving of
time and labour to buy your shade-trees already-
grown. All you have to do in such cases, is to
cut out roads and walks wherever they are wanted,
to open up a prospect here, and plant a denser
thicket there, and so to smooth out the tangled
locks of nature as to develope her finest charms.
This is all very well where it can be done ; but
such situations cannot always be found, combining,
also, the other important features to which we
have just alluded. And where they cannot be
found, we would select one possessing the other
desirable qualities, and then proceed at once to
plant the ground with the best trees and in the
best manner. With careful treatment, such trees
will grow rapidly and develope a greater beauty
than the tall, naked denizens of the forest ever
present. Whether one lives to see his trees attain
great size or not, is really of no consequence.
There is more enjoyment in planting trees and
watching their yearly improvement, than in sitting
idly under trees already grown. A thousand
associations spring up from year to year, and
cluster around such trees. They are your trees :

198

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

you selected them, planted them, nursed them in
their feebleness, defended them from their enemies,
rejoiced in their prosperous growth, and now you
gaze upon their spreading boughs and thickening
shade with a sort of paternal pride and affection
which you feel towards no other trees. Indeed,

for our own part, we should shed few tears on
being obliged to take a site without a tree upon it,
— so far superior do we consider the pleasure of
creating an attractive place of residence, to that of
buying one already made. But tastes differ.
—Country Gentleman. A. D. G.

ON UNIFORMITY IN NAME OF THE DIFFERENT ANIMALS OF THE FARM.

A considerable discussion is now going on through-
out the country, relative to uniformity of weights and
measures, The time, therefore, may not be inappro-
priate to introduce the subject as named above, embrac-
ing the multifarious and incongruous names as applied
to the different farm animals, of the same age, kind,
and character, in various parts of the country ; a
synopsis of which I give below. It is true that no great
benefit is to be derived from adopting a uniform series
of names to designate the same animals in different
districts ; but it seems to be very desirable for general
information, and to give more simplicity to our farm
designations. To foreigners, reading our works on
agriculture, it must be very perplexing ; and in our own
country, our agricultural readers are often at a loss to
understand the common and varied terms applied to the
same animal in various localities, these terms by no
means being descriptive of the animal, often the very
contrary. Who would suppose the term " Hog" meant
a sheep of one year old ? Then, the terms " Chilver"
and " Tiddlin," as applied to lambs ; or Dinmont,
Twinter, Gimmer, Theave, Hoggerill, Teg, Wether, as
applied to older sheep ; or again, the terms Kebbet,
Guill, Eild, Guest, Shots, Crones, Crocks, as applied
to the female sheep. What an inconsistent medley !
many of these terms being unknown elsewhere than the
locality where they are in common use. I might also
instance many absurd names as applied to other animals,
i. e., Qiiey or Whye-caif, Wennel, Weanling, Stirk,
Stot, Bud, Burling, Steer, Cuddock, &c., as applied to
young cattle ; or again, Drape, .Dry, Gast, Gelt,
Forra, Eild, Lease, Veer, Yule, as applied to cows;
the meanini^ of which is almost unknown out of the re-
spective districts where they are in use. Ofhorsesand pigs
I might give equally absurd names, but refer to my
synopsis btlow. I have also thought it not inappro-
priate to couple witlx this subject the terms used in the
driving and directing horses when in work. These are,
if possibli^ still more unintelligible, not to say bar-
barous. Tiie only remark I would make upon this point
is, that it is highly important that one set of terms only
should be in use upon the same farm, otherwise the
horses are confused by a medley of sounds, and the won-
dering clodpole is astonished to find the horses do not
comprehend him, and therefore frequently lashes them
severely for his own fault. I am not about to suggest
an alteration of this order of things by Act of Parlia-
ment, as in the agitation of the subject relating to
weights and measures; but I would suggest a more
uniform adoption of the best and most suitable terms
by every intelligent agriculturist, by every agricultural
writer, and by every agricultural journal or report. In
this way, by continued perseverance, much may ulti-
mately be done, and, as the intelligence of farmers is
promoted, such relics of the oldea time will fall into
disuse. If I am asked who is to decide the precise
terms to be adopted, I would reply that our great agri-
cultural societies have mainly settled that question in
their programmes and prize sheets. These terms 1
would adhere to with great pertinacity, so far as they
are applicable: the many minor ones will, I think,
eventually follow.

The following imperfect synopsis is taken from various
sources ; —

1st. —Names and designations relating to sheep, as
used in different districts.

The raale sheep ia called a ram and a tup, almost

universally.
The female sheep— a ewe (often pronounced yoe), almost

universally.
The male lamb — a ram-lamb, a tup-lamb, weder-lamb,

generally ; and a pur-lamb, in the West of England.
The female lamb — a ewe-lamb, a sheder-laoib, very gene-
rally; a gimmer-lamb, in Scotland and the North of

England ; and a chilver, in the West of England.*
The male at one year — a lamb-hog, hog, a tiip-hog, hogget,

hoggerill, wether-hog, teg.
The female at one year — a ewe-hog, a gimmer-hog, a evre-

teg, a sheder-hog.
Lambs brought up by hand—a cade-lamb, in Lincoln, &c, ;

and a tiddlin, in Wilts, Gloucester, &c.
The male at oae and two yeavs — a shearling, a shearing, &

3hear.hog, a shearling-wether, shearling-tup ; a dinmout,

iu Scotland ; and a twinter, in Stafford and North of

England.
The female sheep at one and two years — a shearling-ewe, a

two-toothed-ewe, a theave, a gimmer, a gimber.
Older sheep— a two-shear, a four-toothed, or a three-shear,

a ais-toothed-ewe or wether.
The female missing lambing — a barren-awe, guile-ewe, eild-

ewe, guest-awe, tup-yeld-ewe.
The female having slipped her lamb — a kebbifc ewe, cast-ewe.
Aged and rejected females— a euU-ewe, cast-ewe, shots,

crones, crocks.
2nd. — Names and designations relating to cattle as
used iu different districts :

The male is called a bull, quite universally, i.e., short-horned

bull, Devon bull, Hereford bull, &c., &c.
The female— a cow, quite universally, short-horned cow,

Devon cow, Hereford cow, &c, c&c.
Th? male calf — a bull calf.

The female calf— a heifer calf, a quey calf, a whye calf.
The male castrated calf IJ- years — a yearling, a stiifk, a

weaned calf, a vreanling, a burliisg, a bud, a stot.
The female calf I4 years — a yearhug heifer, weaaed heifer,

wennel heifer.
The male above 1^ to 3 years — a steer, ah;i a hi (Scotland),

two-year-olds, three-year-old steers, cuddocks.
The female above IJ to 3 years — a heifer, a two-year, or a

three-year-old heifer.
The barren female — a dry cow, eild cow, forra cow, drape

cow, gaat cow, gelt cow ; or having missed calf, lease cow,

veer cow, yule cow.
Cattle not having horns — a coost ox, dodded ox, faammelied

cow or OS, mailed cow or ox, mui! cow, mullock cow, not

cow, powley cow or ox.
3rd. — Names and designations relating to horses as
used in different districts :

The male is called a horse, a stallion, A cooaar, a stoned

horse, au entire horse.
The female — a mate, a nag mar«;, a cart mare, &c.
The young male— a colt foal, a yearling colt, a hog coU, a

stag colt, a two-year-old colt, a three-year-old colt, a four-
year-old horse, a gelding.

* I have not named a tithe of the districts where marij' of
the same terms are in common use, nor have I enumerated Rl!
the U9mes so used,

THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE.

199

The young female— a filly-foal, a yearling-filly, a two-year-
old filly, a three-year-old filly, a four-year-old mare.

4th. — Names and desigaations relating to pigs, as used
in different districts :

The malt is called a boar, a brawn, a hog-pig.

The female— a sow, a yilt.

The youQg male, castrated — a store pig, a gure, a shot, a yolk

The youn? female, spayed — a spayed sow, a clean cut sow,
a sow pig.

The youug female— a gilt, a young sow, a hilt, a gelt.

The birth of pigs— a litter of pigs, a fare or farrow of pigs,
a farth of pigs, and pigging.

The smallest of the litter — a reckling, a krute, a rut.

The general terms are— bacon pigs, porkera, breeders, store
pigs, grunters, piglings, &c.

5th. — Terms used in different districts in driving and
directing horses in work, &c. :

To the right.
Hupp !
Gee!
Haup !
Hep !
Weeoh !
Gee back !
Gee-hoor woal
Height or
Hoite !
Woot !
Gee woot !
Woag!
Woi-hi !

To the left. To go on. To stop. To hold hack.

Hie ! The name Wo ! Hoi back ! ;

Come ather !of horse. Whoi ! Cou back !

Wyud ! Gehup ! Stand ! Hold back !

Vane ! Go on ! Who-ho ! Woa-back !
Vine! Coupcoep! Whoi and Back!

Half! Gee! the name. i
Halfback! Isht!

Woa back !
Come agin!
Haw!
Hauve !
Coom-yeh !
Woi!

Hauve woi !
Come hither !
Aue-woi !

Wey!

Woal -.

Woi-ope ! t;

Holt ! S

THE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.

THE NECESSITY OF A UNIFORM

The first monthly meeting of the members of the Club, for
the present year, took place on Monday evening, February 1st,
at the Club-House, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars.

Mr. Thomas Owen, of Clapton, Hungerford, Berks, presided
as Chairman for the new year, supported by Messrs. H.
Trethewy, J. Marshall, Owen Wallis, S.Skelton.B. P. Shearer,
R. Baker, T. C. James, N. G. Barthropp, J. B. Spearing, C.
Howard, W. Gray, J. Wood, J. Wood (Croydon), J. Creasing-
ham, Robert Smith, E. Little, G. Smythies, W. Bullock Web-
ster, H. Shotter, T. Congreve, M. Reynolds, J. L. Morton, L.
Pearman, J. Tyler, John Thomas, G. S. Harrison, S. Sidney,
J. Marsh, junr., H. H. Tatam, W. Eve, W. Cheffins, T. Ham-
mond, J. G. King, C. Gorton, W. Brown, E. B. Acton, T. G.
Dagg, &c., &c.

Mr. Owen Wallis, of Overstone-Grange, Northampton, un-
dertook to introduce the subject for discussion : — " The neces-
sity of a uniform system of weights or measure, in the sale of
corn and other agriculvural produce, throughout England and
Wales."

The Chairman said, in occupying the chair for the first
time, he begged to ask the indulgence of the Club, while he
continued to preside over its proceedings ; and he hoped he
need acsrcely say that lie should use his best endeavours to
promote the interests and prosperity of the Club (cheers). He
trusted that the discussion of that evening would be carried
on in that friendly spirit which had hitherto marked their
proceedings. The subject on the card was one of great
interest, not only to the Club, but to th<3 community at large,
and he hoped that they would be enabled to arrive at a
decision which would guide the Legislature in a matter in
which some alteration had long been required. He would now
introduce Mr. Wallis, who would proceed to open the. discus-
sion, only adding, in conclusion, that he felt great diffidence in
filling the chair which had been, during the last year, so ably
occupied by that gentleman ; but that he hoped, with the sup-
port of the members of the Club, to be enabled to perform in
a satisfactory manner the duties which had devolved upon
him (cheers).

Mr. Wallis then rose and said : In appearing before
you again at so early a period after quitting your chair, I
feel that some explanation, if not apology, is necessary.
On several occasions after our discussions last year, 1 called
the attention of the Club to the anomalies existing in the
weights and measures by which corn is sold in the diiferent
markets of the kingdom. My object in doing so, I nee"d

SYSTEM IN THE SALE OP CORN, \

scarcely say, was to enlist the co-operation of this influential
body ; and by means of the publicity given to its proceed-
ings in the agricultural press, to call the attention of the
farmers, corn merchants, and millers to the evil, and by
their united means ultimately to procm-e a remedy. A
good deal of discussion ensued, and a committee W£ts
appointed to consider what steps should be taken by the
Club in reference to the subject. At our meeting in June,
it was thought very desirable to obtain the opinions of the
public on so important a matter ; and, with that view, a
circular letter was placed at the head of the report of the
discussion for that month, and in that way sent to the
members of the Club. It was also forwarded in another
form to all the boards of guardians, district farmerb'
clubs, and chambers of commerce in the kingdom, and.
replies to the questions contained therein requested. To
this letter numerous answers have been received ; and it
was thought desirable that the substance of the opinioils
thus collected should be brought before the Club in a con-
densed form, and the whole subject again discussed, not id-
cidentally, as during last year, but primarily, in order that
a full report of the views and opinions of the Club may be
circulated throughout the country. Having been instru-
mental in bringing the subject to your notice, I was re-
quested to introduce it on this occasion ; and though I felt
assured that there were many members of your body mere
competent than myself for the task, I felt that I ought ndt
to refuse, and thus impose upon another a duty I had mjj-
self declined. It was also thought desirable that the dis-
cussion should precede the regular meeting of Parliament,
in order that the conclusions at which we may arrive should
receive any consideration they may deserve, in case b
measure for the establishment of a uniform standard df
weights or measure for the sale of corn and other agri-
cultural produce should be introduced in the House (jf
Commons during the coming session. On that account it
was placed first on the discussion card for the year, and i|t
is for that reason I again appear so quickly before you. Ih
accordance, therefore, with the expressed wishes of this
Club, I have placed in a tabular form, which will be
printed with this paper, the opinions of the different gentle-
men who have been good enough to reply to ouf questions,
and I pledge myself that they are, as far as I can gather
them, a faithful transcript of those opinions (see page3_20|)
and 201).

?2

200

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ti

pi

m

H

Y,

P4

PS

c —

•^ o

§g^

^

1^1

-S.

SB

p<

o

« m t»

.9

■4J .S^

OJ

e»

l^g

^

o

■2S2

c<

1

•S o
=■ S fj

o

>
•o
«1

s
'c

■a

e

c

c!

o «

<«

i^.

s

•?■=

Oi - o

ca 3

^1-

a)

ill

..Q

o

IS

c

-M .H

. &

§S5

•a

to CS
« 'E

So ^-2

o

as O-

o ■"

X!

M

"S.^

2

O

"32
Si

t».

■5's.5f2

%

C

a

3

2^

rt

o
o.

O

"u >»

•E "S fe •="

rt ?

^^

b'^S S 00 .

c

= = o C »

el

rt

- <2

5 =

<2 -^

~-^T3i2 to

d

!i

^

00 °

t>.*j

tS

'Z. ^

-3 S

= s

tS

3

fi

o

a.T3

^i

^c

3

be

—

"m

M

ho

03

j:

fe

^

3

si

3
o

%

»

■^

S

^-

cj

*

"-■ ., ®

~ o .5? cs ^

■«!0<J O —

30

-S -a •- ^ 5

■5 a, _! a »■
^ ^ *"- S ^

^ » -O — J3
2 1J 0) a)

O O « O O

•afH

:i91JBa

•}B3HAi

I I

I I IS

O I 00 s*

I I I I I

O ©J 04 ■* O
»0 li^ 1^5 O »0

CC ?D CO CO ^

ISr

:c CO I CO «
CO as 1 <c CO

I I I I I I

00 I O lO

I I

I I

o I — in

10 I 10 o

I I O I -^ «■

•pajBjs jqswAl. iBJnj
-Bu mtAi ajnsBaro joj

I I I I I

I I I- 11

•ujoo

•X[uo
9jnsrBanI iBuadoij joj

I I I 1- I

•qnio .sjatuauj iBJjuao
q)tA\ ajBaado-oo ni^i

I

-tndmoa apBoi aq ox

I I

■ijimjojiun pajjad joj

• £ £ is S o o 2 S

1 ■« *^ -O -w w ."tS T3

, o j= "S ■- 5 o 5 -c

- » o §

o c~ I g;

3 S S

u

p-a^^

feS£.

) -n ipH P^ ^ fe ^

■D d a c o ■" t^ •

I- C H o 3 CiD f^*f

l^-C-^ « be— ^ ^

oJ ^ bC^ 'O TIJ 2; ^

~ S .5 s 'C 'c !i> 3

'C J3 .C ts ''

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

201

bn O

•ss
a s

a «

00

<2 S"-

.2P a
a) •-; .
S'S £

a; « e

n. £ 'O
S '■*- T3

I 21

3 CD .2

o3 o

E^

£

* z

■0

«

■e =

giS

c

S

ita

UJ

fl

1.^ ta turn >.

'd ^ >>.

'-= 2^-

t- = «

* i

— > c

■3.2

■«9

« 0; o o ^

8=2S^a!f .

p ^ a> i» «3 ^ "^

■S S - rf rt ^ £

0) ■- *? «- fc. « 3

fc- C « Qj QJ tn <»

*»^ a ,^ ^ d «« A

ij C ^ a s o ^

a ^:

A-o

x: 3

I IS I I

m ©J o 00 e>

;0 CO CO O CD

I I I- i

I I-'

I I

I i

I I

I I

tblcollaslollll

» I » t^ j CO 1 CO

I I

M S = ? §
5^ Q) o a, 3

fc. I- «- w

o p .° >

^ p:^ Pm |>

00

I I IS IS I

0101 I <e I 10 >n I j^
CO I Co I I «: I coco I <o

IS I

S I !§ II M ! I M M I I I S I I I M 3 I I I i I I

TO W 00 W I — 10

CO ■^ « -^ It!* 1 -rj<

I I

o m o >Q I la "

IS I I

CO CO IS Co I CO I CD

I- I II I I 11 I I I

W I ri" so I CO

I CO I I Tp I -^ I

O I U3 O I O

IS

CO I CO CO CO CO

I I

M I I I I I II

I , l«„ l« , , I I 1^ ,- , I I l„ ,„ , I

0^ =

0

sgg

s

§>«» 1

Co

£ S S

s

o2=° 1

-

i: CO 53

g

£^0

^ »> o»

S CO CO

I I — I I

I I I-* 1 1

l«« ,

! bt'h s

: c JO o .;

: 73 fcij to"

_:-=

= "-«■&

^^^»0.SS3£30 >.£ fertO*Jwui*j*.

■g =

3 c
^1^

■sgss

(fi33e-iE-i

e

Qi U <ii

cjsis

cs 3

.- .- c > -^
j= x: a g g

JSA

3

0

0

0

"Vi

3

1

S

iM

0)

ti.

S

0

JO

0

0

PSOQ

202

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Tli« -retetis- are from eight members of this Club, twenty
local farmers' clubs and agricultural societies, and sixty-
four boards of guardians •, and on reference to column No.
1, it will be seen that there is an entire unanimity as to the
desirabilitj^ of abolishing the great diversity of weights
and measures at present existing, and of establishing
a uniform standard. This, though very gratif3'ing, is only
what might have been expected. Indeed, the present
system is altogether indefensible ; and it seems perfectly
marvellous that it has been tolerated so long. Time has
been, when this mj'stification of the many was doubt-
less to the benefit of the few. That, however, has already
passed, or is rapidly passing away; and as all concerned
are inconvenienced, and very few profit by it, the desire
for an entire change is rapidly gaining ground. It seems
almost needless to dwell on this part of the subject, further
than to place on the records of the Club a list of weights
and measures by which corn is sold; and if it is instrumen-
tal in bringing about their destruction, and in establishing
one only as a standard, it will not have existed in vain.
The measures for wheat are as follows: The last of 10
qrs. ; the load of 5 qrs., 5 bush., and 3 bush.; the quarter
of 8 bushpls-; the coomb of 4 bushels ; the bag of 3 bushels ;
the boll of 4 bushels and 2 bushels. The weights for
wheat are as follows : The bushel of 801b., 751b., 721b.,
701b., 67flb,, 651b., 641b., 631b., 621b., 611b., and 601b. ; the
load of 4?81b., 2801b., and 2611b.; the boll of 2401b. ; the
bag of 12 score, 11 score and 101b., 11 score and 41b., and
n score; the barrel of 2881b. ; the windle of 2201b.; the
hobbit of 1681b, ; also by weight of 40 stone, 3(5 stone, 20
stone, and 14 stone ; also by 4801b., 2241b., 1901b., 1401b.,
and 1121b. The measures for barley are — the quarter of 8
bushels ; the coomb of 4 bushels : the bag of 3 bushels ; and
the bushel of 39 quarts and 38 quarts. The weights for
barleyare— 4161b., 1121b.; the boll of 3201b.; the barrel
of 2241b. ; the hobbit of 1471b.; 32 stone, 30 stone, and 12
stone ; the bushel of 601b,, 551b., 541b., 52ilb.„501b., 401b.,
and 38lb. Oats are sold by the qr, of 8 bushels ; the bag
of 3 bushels; the load of 196 quarts and 192 quarts : also
by the following weights — The boll of 2641b.; the load of
2401b. ; the barrel of 1961b. ; the hobbit of 1051b. ; the bag
of 8 score ; the cwt. ; the stone ; and the bushel of 451b.
and 401b, ; and by 24 stone. Beans by the qr. of 8 bushels •
the load pf 5 bushels, and of 144 quarts ; and the bag of 3
bushels: also by the following weights — 3201b,, 2801b,)
2201b., and H21b.; by 10 score ; by 38 stone ; the windle
of 2201b. ; and the bushehof 661b. and 631b. Peas by the
(jr. of 8 bushels ; the bag of 3 bushels ; the bushel of 631b. ;
q.nd the boll of 2801b. Rye by the qr. of 8 bushels, and
the bag qf 3 bushels ; and by weight of 3201b. Tares by
the qr., Ijhe bag, and the bushel. Flour is also sold liy the
^ack of ?801b.; the pack of 2401b, ; the barrel of 1961b. ;
and the ?tone of 141b. Indian meal by the load of 2401b ,
and the barrel of 1961b. Oatmeal by weight of 2401b. and
J.r21b. Indian corn by the qr. of 8 bushels ; and by weight
of 4801b. and 1801b. Malt by the qr. of 8 bushels, and the
load of 6 bush. Such are the weights and measures by
yvhicb cofn, meal, and malt are now sold in the different
markets of the United Kingdom, as far as I have been able
to ascertain them ; but there are, doubtless, many others.
Those enumerated amount to a goodly number, being, for
wheat alone, no less than 41; for barley, 20; oats, 14;
beans, 13; peas, 4 ; rye, 3 ; tares, 3; Indian corn, 3 ; malt,
2; flour, 4 ; oatmeal, 2; and Indian meal, 2. They are, as
a whole, a disgrace to the country in which they exist ;
pnd I hope shortly to hear the last of them, eicept as histori-

cal curiosities. I am not acquainted with the weights and
measures of other civilized countries, but should fancy that
ours can have no parallel. We have so far considered the
question as effecting com, meal, and malt only ; but there are
a host of weights and measures for meat, butter, cheese*
potatoes, fruit, hay, straw, &c., alike perplexing and incon-
veuient, and therefore objectionable. Having pointed out the
evils, we must now consider what is likely to be the best
remedy ; and I hope the members of this Club will be ready
and willing to set an example to their brother-farmers and mer-
chants throughout the kingdom, by showing an earnest dispo-
sition to submit to a temporary iaconvenience in order to at-
tam a great public good. There can be no such changes as
that we are now contemplating, without a considerable amount
of personal inconvenience ; but prices would immediately ad-
just themselves to any given standard, and in a very short
time we should find the new one quite as convenient as the
old : and, by being of general, instead of only local use, it
would be infinitely more satisfactory. The greatest obstacles
to be contended with will be local prejudices. Each district
thinks its own custom the right one, and makes a desperate
stand for its retention. There are, as I have shown to you,
more than forty different weights and measures in use for the
sale of wheat alone; and if there are to be as many battles in
the endeavours of each locality to secure the future use of the
one it has been accuatomed to, how small will be the chances of
a beneficial result ! Rely upon it, the change at which we are
aiming can never be accomplished until those interested in its
attainment are unanimous in their desire for it, and ready to
make sacrifices in order to obtain it. They must also make
that desire known to the Government in terms most unmis-
takable, for I believe no really beneficial change will ever be
made till the Government takes the matter in hand. And
now let us consider what that change should be. The first
point to be decided is this : Are we to have a measure of
capacity ? or, are we to have one or more of weight ? or are we
to have a combination of the two ? If a measure of capacity,
the imperial bushel will answer every purpose ; but if we adopt
weight, we shall then have to consider what it shall be, or
how far it will be right to use weight and measure together.
In our endeavours to select a new standard of measure by which
the sale of corn and other agricultural produce shall in
future be conducted, we must be especially careful to
select one on which perfect reliance can be placed for its
unerring accuracy. Unless we do so, no Act of Parlia-
ment will ensure its adoption, and no amount of fines make
its use compulsory. Now, does the bushel measure fulfil
that necessary condition ? I say most emphatically that it
does not ; and hence its use, except in name, is rapidly
declining. It is by no means an accurate test of quantity.
It was, in times past, the best available measure ; but that
is no longer the case. Its invention was probably coeval
with the flail and the winnowing-fan ; and it would be just
as wise to revert to those implements for the pui'pose of
thrashing and dressing all the corn we grow, as it will be
to continue the bushel measure for the purpose of ascer-
taining the quantity of it. With the bsst possible inten-
tions of doing right, the man has never existed who could
measure up a quantity of corn with it, however uniform the
bulk might be, without their being variations in the weight
per sack, when tested bj- an accurate weighing machine ;
and it is very easy so to measure it that very large differ-
ences will be the result, and j'et a person overlooking the
operation could make no objection to the measure. In
trying the experiment the other day with oats, we made as
much as 3| lbs. per bushel differeace, and in no instance

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

203

could we get two bushels exactly'alike in weight. I have
been told by a corn-merchant that it is not at all uncom-
mon to have corn delivered varying as much as 7 lbs. the
sack of 4 bushels ; and hence, I repeat, its almost general
disuse. I would not dwell on this point, but from the cir-
cumstance that the imperial bushel has still many advo-
cates. Judging, however, from the answers to the circular-
letter issued by this Club, they are greatly in the minority,
as will be seen by reference to the table of returns which
I have drawn up. From this it appears that of the mem-
bers of this Club four are for measure alone, three for
weight alone, and one for measure and weight combined.
Of the local farmers' clubs, three are for measure, ten for
weight, and four for measure and weight. Of the boards
of guardians, twelve are for measure only, thirty-six for
weight only, and ten for measure with weight declared.
The totals will therefore be — for measure alone, nineteen ;
weight alone, forty-nine ; and measure, with weight stated,
fifteen. This last is, in fact, selling by weight ; for if the
corn which is bought on these terms is delivered in ac-
cordance with the weight stated, and of the quality
of the sample, no questions are asked as to the
correctness of the measure. I contend, therefore,
that the advocates of weight alone, and those for
measure with weight staled, ought to be added together. The
totals will then be 19 for measure, agaiust 64 for weight. If
we take this as a fair expression of public opiuiou — and I
think we cannot do otherwise, collected as it is from all parts
of the kingdom — the question of measure as against weight
may be considered as settled in favour of the latter. We will
next consider the propriety of selling corn by measure, but
stating its uatural weight. That this plan is very convenient
to mauy gentlemen engaged in the corn trade, I have no
doubt; indicating, as it does in some degree, the quality of the
corn they are buying. But on this point I cannot do better
than quote the opinions of the members of theWirral Agricul-
tural Improvement Society, as expressed in their very valuable
report on this subject. They say, " That weight simply,
without such au indication of the specific weight as is
afforded by a statement of the weight per measure, affords
no indication of quality, your committee unhesitatingly
admit. But on the other hand, they must affirm that the
proper purpose of weight or measure is not, and never has
been, to indicate quality ; that the mere specific gravity of
corn cannot, in an average of cases, be taken to prove its
value, in point of quality, within ten per cent ; and that, in
practice, neither corn nor other agricultural produce is ever
bought without being seen and handled, either by the buyer or
his agent." In this opinion I entirely concur ; and further, I
contend that the sellers of corn ought not to be called upon to
incur the double expense of measuring and weighing. But
there is a still greater objection to this plan. Quotations of
prices can never fulfil their proper intention, and be of any
real value, till they refer to fixed and definite quantities, and
these we can never have with an ever-varying standard. We
see a price quoted as to wheat in a distant market, but we do
not know whether it has reference to sample weighing 54 lbs,
or 66 lbs. per bushel, or any intermediate weight. The quo-
tation is therefore valueless, and that consideration alone is, I
think, an insuperable objection to such a standard. This ob-
jection applies also, with equal force, to measure without
weight. We come last to a standard of weight, and we shall
have to consider whether it will be best to have a variety of
weights, one suitable to each variety of corn, and fairly repre-
senting an imperial bushel of each ; or, whether we shall
adopt one weight for the sale of all corn and other agricultural

produce. If we are perfectly free to choose between the two —
and I think it will be found that we are — I am strongly of
opinion that it will be much better to adopt oue standard than
several. As between the buyer and the seller, it must be a
matter of perfect indifference what the quantity is, so that it
is fully understood; and the more I have thought of the sub-
ject, the stronger has become my conviction, that it will be
an immense convenience, and greatly to our advantage, to sell
all corn and other agricultural produce by oue weight only.
If corn and meal of all kinds, bran, pollard, oilcake, lin-
seed, locust beans, hay, straw, roots, &c., were each sold
by one weight, any one wanting to buy for feeding
purposes would see at a glance which was best worth
purchasing, without the necessity of troublesome cal-
culations. The adoption of one weight only, is
strongly advocated by the Wirral Agricultural Society, the
Association of tbe Liverpool Corn Trade, the Corn Exchange
Association of Hull, the Markets Committee of the Town
Council of Edinburgh ; and I have also received several letters
from gentlemen residing in different parts of England, advo-
cating such a standard. Some suggest 100 lbs. as a desirable
weight, having in view future decimal weights and measures :
others think the cwt. better, having no faith in the establish-
ment of either decimal weights or coinage in our day ; end to
this opinion I also incline. Having all the necessary weights
in use for carrying out a standard of 56 lbs. or 112 lbs., I
should prefer one of these, if practicable. It v/iil, I know, be
urged that for the purposes of the tithe commutation and the
corn rents, it will be absolutely necessary either to adhere to
the imperial bushel, or fix upon a standard of weights that
will fairly represent it, with respect to each variety of corn.
I cannot imagine any great difficulty in this latter point, if
fairly and honestly set about. There are numbers of millers
who have the weight of every load of wheat they have pur-
chased ; and there are corn merchants and others, who can give
similar evidence. The weight per bushel being settled —
making that the datum for other calculations— I can scarcely
think taere can be any insurmountable difficulty in preparing
a new set of tithe tables, showing what rent-charge shall be
paid according to the average price of corn, upon a fixed stand-
ard of 56 lbs. or I12lbs.,or whatever it may be. I may possibly
be wrong, and we may have to fall back upon weights repre-
senting a bushel of each corn. Should this be the case, I
think it will be a matter to be regretted ; but even that will
be an immense improvement upon the present state of things,
which I trust will no longer be tolerated. In conclusion, let
me urge upon you, and all others, the necessity of thoroughly
agitating the question in every part of England, and let each
market in England send petitions to Parliament on the sub-
ject, or rest assured there will be no beneficial change. Let
one and all leave self out of the questiou, not minding a little
perplexity in having to sell corn by the cwt., or some other
such standard of weight. It has been the custom of Ireland
for ages ; and what is perfectly convenient there, can be
attended with no very great difficulties in England, Scotland,
and Wales. With respect to the sale of barley by weight, I will
read the following remarks from a correspondent of the
Economist newspaper : " I perceive with satisfaction that
others as well as myself are directing their attention to the
fact that corn, like many other commodities, should be sold
throughout the United Kingdom by weight alone, and not ac-
cording to the present system of selling by dry measure. The
superiority of the scale, in point of accuracy and impartiality
between buyer and seller, cannot be questioned ; and the in-
consistency of our buying coals, &c., by pounds avoirdupois,
and corn by cubic inches, must be equally apparent. Allow

20-1

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

me, sir, as one who feels some interest in this question, and
who earnestly wishes to see the bushel measure superseded by
the scale and balance wherever practicable, to suggest that it
would be most desirable for maltsters to buy not only their
grain by weight, but that the Excise oflSeers, in computing the
duty, should be guided by weight alone — or in other words,
that the maltster should be charged according to the weight
of raw grain which he intended to use, and not upon the
gauge of the malt in the process of making. It is needless to
dilate on the justness of such an assessment as I here propose,
or to dwell upon the advantages which must result from so
fair and simple a practice. The maltster would be spared
much vexatious and unnecessary injury to his grain •, the Ex-
cise officer would be relieved of half his labour and full three-
quarters of his vigilance ; and her Majesty's revenue be greatly
benefited — first, by reason of the extreme simplicity of such a
system ; secondly, by the ease with which fraud could be pre-
vented and Excise regulations enforced ; and thirdly, by the
extra amount of duty that would accrue to the Government on
a large quantity of lighter barley which would under such an
arrangement be certainly made into malt, but which under
existing statutes could not be so employed, because it would
entail only loss upon the manufacturer. I do not advocate
the instant abrogation of the law as it now stands with respect
to malting, and far less do I desire to abolish the heavy list of
penalties, from which the fair trader has nothing to fear, for
it is a protection rather than otherwise ; but I think if her Ma-
jesty's Board of Inland Revenue could be induced to consider
the subject, we might in a short time see maltsters paying
their duty by the weight of barley to be wetted, and not by
the uncertain and clumsy method of the gauge, and still more
uncertain calculations of the exciseman, from whose decision
there is little or no appeal." If this view of the question is a
correct one, its adoption would be a great boon to the
growers of second-rate barley, by causing a demand for it, for
malting purposes, which does not at present exist. It has
been suggested by the Louth Agricultural Society, and also
by others, that this Club should agree upon a petition to the
Legislature, and forsvard copies of it to other agricultural clubs
for their adoption and use. I think this a desirable plan. I
will not trespass longer upon your patience, further than to
again urge the absolute necessity of a general and decided ex-
pression of public opinion in favour of the change we are ad-
vocating, as the only probable means of its accomplishment.
Let me just add, that since I came here this evening I have
received a letter from Mr. Bailey Denton, requesting me to
•call the attention of the Club to the irregularities of measures
which prevail with regard to land. I have also received a com-
munication of a similar nature from another gentleman. A
land-agent residing in the neighbourhood of Liverpool says
that within five miles of his own residence, no less than three
kinds of acre measurement, are in common use. First there is
the statute acre, of 5J yards to the rod ; next there is the
Cheshire acre, of 7 yards ; lastly there is the Derby acre, of 8
yards. Of course, such a state of things is very perplexing,
and urgently requires attention. Having made these remarks,
I sit down, thanking you all for the patience with which you
have listened to me (cheers).

Mr. R. Baker (of Writtle) said it could not be disputed that
if one uniform system of weight or measure prevailed it would
be much preferable to the variety which now existed through-
out the kingdom. The question then was, whether weight or
measure was ths better of the two. Mr. Wallis had argued
that if weight were established it would be a criterion of
the value of grain that might be estimated by persons at a
distance merely reading the report. He (Mr. Baker) differed

from that opinion, for this reason, that weight had nothing to
do with value; that quality entered more into the computation
than either weight or measure, and that whenever a bargain
was made the two must always operate upon the mind of the
buyer. In Chelmsford market a bushel of wheat was generally
estimated to weigh 62 lbs., whether it was red or white wheat,
but the value was essentially dependent upon the quality ;
and there were many instances where wheat, grown in parti-
cular districts of the country, invariably made as much as Gs.
per qr., or nearly a shilling a bushel, more than wheat which
was grown in other districts. Besides, measure had always
been the established mode by which corn had been sold in
this kingdom for ages past. The Winchester bushel was for
a long time the bushel of the country. That was increased to
the imperial bushel, amounting to one thirty-second part more,
and that bushel was now the standard measure of the kingdom
at large. Upon that measure the tithe commutation, corn rents,
and duties of import were based; and wherever any other mea-
sure existed, whether of weight or capacity, or of weight and ca-
pacity combined, it was in contravention of the law of the land.
The act of parliament directed that the imperial bushel should
be the universal measure; but very unwisel}' a provision was
tacked to one of the clauses, which permitted the continued
use of local measures in districts where they had long existed,
and exempted them from penalties. This left a loop-hole for
employing the measures and weights of various districts, in the
same manner as if the act had never been passed ; but it was
not to be supposed, therefore, that the Legislature would re-
trace its steps and enact that certain weights, or measures and
weights combined, should supersede the measure established
by law. With regard to the difficulty of delivering by
measure, all he (Mr. Baker) could say was that he himself
delivered by measure all the year round, and had never had
any complaint from the miller ; indeed, there was no reason
why there should be, where people were accustomed to put up
corn. If a person measured a buahel of oats, as Mr. Wallis
had stated, upon a shaky floor in a granary or mill, or did
not take due precautions, then it was not improbable that it
might make a difference of 3 lb. in the bushel. But it could
not alter the quality whether it was sold by measure or weight.
He held, then, that every farmer who went into the market
could previously ascertain the weight per bushel of the corn
he had to sell. It might be thought that that was an advan-
tage which the seller had over the buyer ; it was not so, how-
ever. Buyers could compute corn to the greatest nicety, aa
the following anecdote would sufficiently show : A certain
miller made a wager that he would compute the weight of a
sack of wheat nearer than ten farmers could weigh it, and he
won the bet. The fact was, that each farmer weighed it in
his own particular way, some with bad scales and others with
steelyards, and the results could not be depended upon. The
miller's judgment was so good that he computed the weight
within 2 lbs., and that was nearer than the farmers could
arrive at with their scales and weights. This showed that
notwithstanding all the skill that the farmer might possess,
the dealer on account of his great practice had an advantage
over him in this respect. As representing in that Club the
eastern district of this kingdom, where measure of capacity
was universally adopted, he felt bound to state that the opin-
ion of the farmers in that district was, that measure was the
established principle on which corn should be bought and sold,
and that their desire was to continue its use. If the system
of weight were adopted, he had no doubt that the farmers of
the eastern district tvould as easily fall in with it, as a farmer
of the west could adapt himself to measure ; but it should be
recollected that they who did not possess weights would have

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

205

to incur considerable expense in order to procure them ; whilst,
on the other hand, the purchase of a measure would be a very
trifling affair in comparison. The existing law having been
enacted so recently, he did not think that any resolution
which this Club might come to would induce the Legislatture
to alter it. fti fact, he had arrived at the conviction, after
maturely considering the question, that there was no necessity
for an alteration, or any reason why the imperial bushel should
not be the standard by which all weights and measures of corn
should be adjusted (Hear, hear).

Mr. Skelton (of Sutton Bridge, Wisbeacb) said, having
had considerable experience with regard to this subject, both
as a farmer and as a corn-merchant — an experience extending
over more than 30 years — he was desirous of making a few
remarks. The necessity of having a uuilorm system was no
longer disputed ; they all felt that the crude and manifold
modes of selling corn, which had hitherto prevailed in various
parts of the kingdom, required immediate alteration. As re-
garded the practicability of attaining uniformity, he really saw
no insuperable difficulties, though he must admit that penalties
were not agreeable either to farmers or to the public at large
(Hear, hear). What was spoken of on the card was " a uniform
system for England and Wales." He could not understand
why Scotland was omitted ; in his opinion there ought to be
uniformity throughout the kingdom (Hear, hear). Moreover,
he thought the principle of uniformity should be applied not
only to all the corn grown in the United Kingdom, but also to
all the corn imported from abroad, so that the comparative
value of the two might be ascertained through the same
medium. Mr. Wallis had alluded to the local prejudices
which were opposed to any change of the existing state of
things. Having a very extensive circle of acquaintance con-
nected with the coin-trade, he had been in correspondence
with several gentlemen on the question under consideration, and
the result was that persona who had been in the trade many years
had pronounced the object almost impracticable. They referred
to France, in support of their view, and remarked that in that
country the government, uotwithstanding all its arbitrary
power, had hitherto failed to establish a uniform system. la
the opinion of those gentlemen as to the impracticability of
the object he did not concur, believing as he did that if the
matter were duly discussed, were talked over at market ordina-
ries, and well considered in private, they would be enabled to
arrive at a practical result. He could not help here remarking
on the importance of having an amended system of taking the
corn averages (Hear, hear). A friend of his, Mr. S. Sandars,
who had had a very long and extensive experience in the corn
trade, and well up to all the bearings of this subject
had suggested that no buyer should be required to make a re.
turn of any corn except that which he had purchased from the
grower ; the reason given by him for this suggestion being
that the same corn had frequently been sold two or three times
over, on a market day, the charges upon it being thus con-
siderably increased. Under the existing law, the buyer was
compelled to make a return of all the corn bought by him, with-
out reference to the place where it came from, or the expenses
which might have been added to it ; and this was an important
matter for thoae who had to pay the tithe rent-charge, or corn
rents. He trusted that whenever a uniform system of selling
corn was established, the subject of the mode of taking the ave-
rages would not be overlooked. As regarded the question more
immediately before them, it should be borne in mind that the
tithe rent-charge was based on returns made by measure, that
the corn-rents were based on measure, and that import duties
and freights were also founded on the same principle. With
respect to weights, he thought it would be very difficult to ar-

rive at a sound conclusion as to what should be the fixed
weight for all seasons, for all soils, and for all districts (Hear,
hear). They all knew very well that the seasons made a great
difference (Hear, hear). In the year 1852, his shipments were
generally made at from STlbs. to 581bs. per bushel ; while in the
year 1844, they were made at from 63 lbs, to 64 lbs. Such
was the effect of the difference of seasons. Then, again,
they all knew that different soils gave different weights; and
hence he concurred in the remark of Mr. Baker, that weight
did not always represent quality. It was well known that
some soils yielded a thin-skinned wheat, which though supe-
rior in quality to the coarser wheat of other soils, was not
equal to it in vreight. He fully agreed with Mr. Baker in
reference to the amount of ability and skill displayed by
many persons who were engaged in the corn trade as
millers and merchants ; but he maintained that as it
was an object with the seller and buyer to carry ou
their business to mutual advantage, in order that they
might come together a second time, it was necessary when
wheat was not in good condition that the seller should name a
given weight; otherwise how could the buyer form a correct
judgment? It was impossible that he could do so from a
sample shown in the market, when the corn was out of con-
dition ; and it was but fair, therefore, that in such cases the
seller should name a weight. Mr. WaUis had spoken of the
double expense of weights and measure. In Norfolk, also
around Wisbech, &c., it was the common practice, after the
corn was dressed, to order the men to measure four bushels ;
and the weight of these having been ascertained, no further
measuring was required ; the farmer vs'ent to market,
stating that he had so much corn to sell of that
given weight. Now, he had received various sugges-
tions with reference to this subject; some to the effect,
that corn should be sold by the cwt., others in favour
of the imperial measure, and others of a different nature. He
should be very glad to see a uniform system, more intelligible
and convenient than the present state of things ; but the great
question was to what it should be. The words on the card were
" a uniform system of weight or measure." He should greatly
object to the re-opening of the question of the tithe rent-charge,
which had been settled to the satisfaction of all parties ; and if
it were re-opened, there could be uo doubt that the clergy
would, and he must say very properly, come forward to defend
their rights; while many landlords would also become alarmed ,
His own opinion was that the imperial measure should be re-
tained ; but its use should be enforced universally, not only
throughout England and Wales, but also in Scotland and
Ireland, and that all foreign corn should be included in the
operation of the law.

Mr. Tatam observed that foreign corn already paid duty bv
measure.

Mr. Skelton continued; His own observation and ex-
perience were in favour of adherence to measure; and he
would recommend that Parliament should be petitioned to
enforce uniformity by the Imperial quarter of 8 bushels.

Mr, G. Smythies (Marlow, Leintwardine) said he entirely
concurred in the able address of Mr. Wallis ; he did not recollect
a single word in it from which he dissented. In his own
county he was in the habit of attending three markets, and at
those three markets he was obliged to sell by different weights.
It was all weight, not measure; and from his experience on the
subject he was quite sure that in those districts where weight
was already established, no legislative enactment for carrying-
out the principle of measure could be enforced. Weight was
so muce preferred to measure by those who had tried it,
that he felt certain that the imposition of penalties could

206

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

never induce those who bad habitually used the former
to adopt the latter in ita stead. He did not believe
were a dozen farmers in his district who had there
departed from the old system of selling by weight since the
last enactment first came into operation ; so supei'ior had
selling by weight been found in practice to selling by
measure. There seemed to be a genei'al desire, not only in
that room, but throughout the countrj^, that some uniform
standard should be adopted. The question to be deter-
mined was what the standard should be ; and, as selling
by measure had been tried and found wanting, he thought
all parties must soon follow the plan of selling by weight.
He doubted whether the country was yet ripe for the
adoption of either weight or measure as a universal system,
but he was confident that the discussion of the subject
would ere long lead to a satisfactory decision. Sale
by 58 lbs. or 100 lbs. would be a very convenient mode of
selling. Either of those weights would form a very suitable
load for one man, whereas it was impossible to assert any-
thing of that kind with respect to 4 cwt.

Mr. H. Teethe wy (Silsoe, Ampthill) said it appeared
that whether they adopted a resolution in favour of weight
or one in favour of measure, they would equally offend the
prejudices of many districts of the country (Hear, hear).
They were told by Mr. Baker that in Essex measure had
been adopted and acted upon for many j'ears, and had
proved perfectly satisfactory ; while, on the other hand, the
last speaker said, in effect, that in his part of the country
parties would not listen to a proposal to sell by measure.
It was quite obvious, therefore, that whatever course might
be recommended by that Club, the recommendation would
meet with great opposition in certain districts. It was of
course very desirable that some specific course should be
followed ; but he must confess that the question appeared
to him an exceedingly difficult one. If they had to start
afresh, weight would no doubt be generally preferred to
measure, as being the most easy and practicable sj'stem; but,
on the other hand, when all commercial regulations were, so
far as corn was concerned, based on measure, it was ex-
tremely questionable whether weight could be universally
substituted for it. When this subject was first mooted in
the Club, the tithe rent-charge seemed to him to present a
great obstacle to any alteration ; and the more he had
thought on the matter since, the more had he felt the force
of that objection. The tithe-rent being based on a bushel
of wheat, if the bushel were required to co itain so many
pounds, in districts where the wheat was light the farmer
would have to pay an increased tithe-rent ; and, in like
manner, the producer who paid a corn-rent might, under
certain circumstances, be made to pay a higher rent than
the landlord was fairl}' entitled to receive. These ap-
peared to him very great obstacles to anj- alteration which
was to be carried out every where ; and he entertained very
strong doubts whether the Legislature could be prevailed
irpon, through any resolution which they might adopt that
evening, or on any future occasion, to retrace its steps
(Hear, hear). The imperial measure now appeared so
natural — all the calculations connected with corn were so
much based upon it— that in his opinion it would be im-
possible to upset it. He cordially concurred in many of the
remarks made by Mr. Wallis ; but he saw much greater
obstacles to the establishment of a uniform system than
appeared to have presented themselves to the mind of that
gentleman (Hear, hear).

Mr. H. Tatam (Moultan, Spalding) must remind the
meeting that the imperial bushel consisted legally of so

many square inches of water, which was to be of a certain
heat ; so that when they went back to the primarj' state of
affairs, they found that a bushel of wheat was constituted
by weight. He did not believe there would be any diffi-
cultj'- in arriving at a fair average weight for the whole
kingdom, or in prevailing upon the Legislatur^o establish a
uniform system.

Mr. S. Sidney (of Peckham) said there could not be the
slightest doubt that the question under discussion involved
difficulties, but he saw no reason why they should not attempt
to grapple with them. A few years ago every county had
a metropolis of its own, and the farmers living in it never
dreamt of sending their corn to the London market ; but a
great change had since occurred, and it was absurd to
think of adhering to a system, simply because it had pre-
vailed among their ancestors. Here was corn sold in half-
a-dozen different ways in different districts, so that be-
tween weight and measure it seemed almost impossible
to understand the operations of the corn trade. Under
these circumstances the question was, how they could
best attain uniformity. They certainly could not attain
it by each dwelling on the particular plans followed in
their respective counties, and contending that theirs was
the only plan that could be carried out universallj'^ (Hear,
hear). It was an important fact, that wherever a ten-
dency had been exhibited towards change, it had been
in the direction of weight (Hear, hear). That was a fact
which the advocates of measure could not deny, and the
inference from which was obvious. They had before them,
as it were, that evening, the measure system on the one
side, and the weight system on the other ; and he hoped
they were not going to separate without having taken a step
towards telling the Legislature which of these systems they
thought best for the whole country (Hear, hear). They
might depend upon it that if they did not contribute to the
settlement of the question, it would be settled without
them. No one could imagine that the present absurd state
of things would continue very long. If a resolution were
adopted in favour of some uniform system of weights, the
wide extension of the educational movement would secure
th^requisite knowledge for carrying it out in the schools
scattered throughout the country,

Mr. TnOiViAS (Bletsoe, Bedfordshire) said he re-
garded the question under consideration as a question of
weight or measure. He entirely concurred in the remark that
from 2Ibs. to 31bs. more or less might be put in a bushel by one
person than by another, according to the mode in which
the thing was done ; and, when that was the case, wh}'', he
asked, should the imperial bushel be adhered to.' For a
considerable tim^e he was not able to deal with a particular
miller, because the miller said his bushel was not large
enough (great laughter). Under these circumstances he
offered to send his bushel to the county town, to be tried
by the regular tester, with the condition that he should
forfeit £5 if it were not true, and the further condition
that the miller shoirld send his bushel also to be tested, and
forfeit £5 in case that were found defective. In point of
fact, he sent his own bushel, and it proved to be perfectly
correct. The miller then refused to imitate him in that
I'espect, and the dispute was terminated over a bottle of wine.
It was then agreed between them that his (Mr. Thomas's)
bushel should in future represent a certain weight ; and after
that principle had been adopted, he sold to his friend a large
quantity of corn, and they went on very amicably. He men-
tioned this merely to illustrate the difficulty there was in
always making the same weight with the imperial bushel

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

207

(Hear, hear). He found that there were variations 'in the
sacks, which sometiraea amounted to as much as two or three
pounds. He maiutaiued, therefore, that the imperial bushel
was not a fair staadard, and that there should be some weight
to represent the imperial bushel, as nearly as poasible, through-
out England and Wales, auJ also throughout Ireland and
Scotland. It was admitted, he thought, on all hands, that
there was no fairer test thaadead weight. Why, then, should
not the imperial bushel be represented by a certain dead
weight ? Whether the standard weight should be sixty, sixty-
one, sixty-two pounds, or more, was of course a matter for
consideration ; but he thought that, on an average of years,
sixty pounds would be found the nearest to the mark. Since
the subject was discussed last year he had taken the trouble
to make inquiries of his neighbours, and of other persons in
various localities, as to their opinions in reference to this mat-
ter, and he found that a decided majority of them were in
fiYOur of having some uniform weight, representing as nearly
as possible the imperial bushel. He quite agreed with Mr.
Wallis, that this difficulty of ascertaining the VBslue of wheat,
from the quotations of customary local weights or measures,
was ordinarily far greater in the case of the farmer than in that
of the corn-merchant and the miller. The latter always had
their Ready-reckoners with them, and could soon arrive at a
correct estimate of value — a matter often of considerable diffi-
culty to the producer. For these reasons, he was of opinion
that the establishment of a uniform weight would be the best
settlement of this vexed question.

Mr. Dagg (Hatfield, Herts) observed that, with the ex-
ception of the last speaker, no person who had taken part in the
discussion bad stated whether he had himself bought or sold by
weight or by measure. When he first went to Mark ]jane to
buy corn, he asked the weight per bushel, but could never get
any one to tell it ; and this was an impediment to transac-
tions. For the last seven years he had never bought in any
way except by measure, with a guaranteed weight ; and he
was of opinion that measure should be retained, it being left
to the buyer and seller to make their own bargain with re-
spect to weight (Hear, hear). In fifty quarters of oats he
had deducted as much as six shillings and sixpence for sixty-
aix pounds of deficient weight. The Norfolk plan seemed very
fair dealing, and on the whole, he thought the use of the im-
perial bushel, accompanied with a guaranteed weight as be-
tween buyer and seller, was the best system that could be
adopted ; and he believed that, practically, such a system
would not interfere with the tithe rent-charge, the duty on
importations, or any existing arrangement.

Mr. Little (Landhill, Chippenham) said, having adopted
the plan just described by Mr. Dagg, he begged to say he had
found it very advantageous to him as a farmer. In bis own
county — Wiltshire — it was very much the practice for farmers
to combine a guaranteed weight with the imperial bushel, and
it was a practice which had generally proved very satisfactory
to all concerned. He really believed that it was the best sys-
tem that could be established as a uniform system, and the
best compromise that could be effected.

The Rev. C. T. James said it was important to remem-
ber that the tenor of the act of Parliament was decidedly
against weight, and in favour of measure. It was only by
an addendum, as it were, to the act — an addendum which
seemed to have been introduced inadvertently — that farmers
were enabled to sell by weight. He should be heartily glad,
if it were practicable, that all corn was sold by weight, be-
cause in the arrangement of our animals, we should then
more largely feed by weight ; but he could not overlook the
manifest intention of the Legislature. The 5th and 6th Will .

IV. abolished the use of all local and customary measures.
This was done in the 6th clause, as follows : " And be it
enacted, That from and after the passing of this Act the
Measure called the Winchester Bushel, and the Lineal
Measure called the Scotch Ell, and all local or customary
Measurea, shall he abolished; and every person who shall
sell, by any Denomination of Measure other than One of
the Imperial Measures, or some Multiple or some aliquot
Part, such as Half, the Quarter, the Eighth, the Sixteenth,
or the Thirty-second Parts thereof, shall, on Conviction, be
liable to a Penalty not exceeding the Sum of Forty Shil-
lings for every such Sale." Those words he could easily
understand. But then came a proviso in the same clause,
which was inconsistent with what preceded it : " Provided
always, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the
Sale of any Articles in any Vessel, where such Vessel is
not represented as containing any Amount of Imperial
Measure, or of any fixed, local, or customary Measure
heretofore in use." Thus the second part of the clause
nullified the first, and gave a sanction to selling hx weight,
which was not contemplated, probably, when the act was
passed. The 8th clause, which was also a very important
one, was as follows : " And whereas some Articles hereto-
fore sold by Heaped Measure are from their Size and
Shape incapable of being stricken" — the use of the word
" stricken" was very significant, as showing that Parlia-
ment intended all sales to be made by measure — "and from
their Nature and Quality may not be conveniently sold by
Weight : Be it therefore enacted. That all such Articles
may henceforth be sold by a Bushel Measure," &c. Again,
in the 16th clause, Parliament said: " And be it enacted.
That in Scotland, from and after the passing of this Act,
the Fiar Prices of all Grain in every County shall be struck
by the Imperial Quarter, and all other Returns of the
Prices of Grain shall be set forth by the same, without any
Reference to any other Measure whatsoever ; and that any
SheriflF Clerk, Clerk of a Market, or other Person who
shall offend against this Provision shall forfeit a Sum not
exceeding Five Pounds." Notwithstanding this enact-
ment, the greatest diversity still prevailed in Scotland.
He (Mr. James) had himself resided and occupied land
within reach' of four market-towns, in every one of which a
distinct system of purchase and sale prevailed. Such di-
versity was very inconvenient and injurious to the seller,
was very perplexing to the merchant, was fraught with evil
consequences to the miller and the baker, and was in nu-
merous instances very unjust and distressing to the hard-
working and meritorious poor (Hear, hear). He held in
his hand a letter from a miller, which appeared to him
deserving of attention. The writer said : " There is a
general complaint that farmers do not deliver as sample.
Wheat weighs from 65 to 521b. per bushel ; and, in conse-
quence of its being 7nade a certain weight, it is impossible
to discriminate. The buyer is deprived of the best guide,
the natural weight. The argument that disputes would
arise, is not a business view of the question : we have
abundant cause of dispute now. It is evident that bargains
bjr weight make the seller careless and the buyer less
strict. If the seller deliver the bulk inferior to sample, of
course the buyer is prejudiced. It is most decidedly an
indirect permission to do so, if the corn is made a certain
weight : it is a premium for slovenly management. I see
farmers generally make the sheaves too large ; and in two
or three days, the corn is removed to the barn or rick.
The consequence is, the first six months after harvest,
English wheat will not make a good sack-flour ; and millers

208

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

are obliged to have recourse to strong Baltic or other fo-
reiga wheat, at a cost of generally 5s. to 15s. a quarter
more than home-grown. The winnowing also is generally
very carelessly done. Now, I believe this carelessness is
induced in a great degree by the selling by weight, which I,
therefore, protest against as an injury to the miller, more
so to the baker and the public, and a national disadvantage.
The imperial bushel, with a guarantee of the natural
weight, is the best guide ; and if the weight is not stated,
we use our judgment; and, if foolish enough to over-
estimate the quality or weight, it is no fault of the seller.
We should then buy inferior quality at its relative
value ; and the tithe would be fairly charged, with
a uniform measure throughout the kingdom. " In
these remarks he entirely concurred. In conclusion, he
would observe that, so long as such an anomalous clause
as the 6th clause of that act continued on the statute-book,
there could be no uniform system; and,ia his opinion, they
should, at all events, petition the Legislature not to con-
tinue to stultify itself by a clause so inconsistent with the
manifest intention of the act.

Mr. Acton (of the Temple) said, there could be no doubt
from the turn the discussion bad taken that measure was the
prominent mode of selling corn in the Eastern and Western
counties, whilst weight seemed to prevail in the Northern and
Midland districts, and although he agreed with Mr. Sidney that
there ought to be some uniformity in Londcn to guide other
markets, owing to the rapid advances of steam transit, he
should vote with Mr. Baker and the ivise men from the East
for an improved measure. We had lately heard much of one
great social evil, which was very difficult to deal with ; but not
so with another one which hinged on this question, viz., the
prostitution of common honesty towards the poor and needy, in
many of the districts aroundLondon, and especially in the one he
resided in — Camberwell. Now, if a deputation went up to the
Government in this matter, he would suggest that a more
general supervision of weights and measures should be enforced
than at present, and that the fair day's wages for a fair day's
work which that Club wished to enforce, should not be frittered
away by the iniquities which now daily took place in poor neigh-
bourhoods.

The Chairman said he had only a few words to offer in clos-
ing the discussion. Like Mr. Baker, he was very sorry to differ
from his friend Mr. Wallis ; but he must declare that he was
certainly in favour of measure which had prevailed in his own
county (Berkshire) for a very long period. He had no wish,
indeed, to deny that what Mr. Skelton advocated, namely,
measure with a guaranteed weight, might be an improvement
on measure alone, and he thought such a system would be
generally acceptable in his own county. Having, however,
made numerous inquiries in the district to which he belonged,
he was convinced that while there would be no objection to
the system which Mr. Skelton advocated, there would be the
stongest objection to the simple use of a standard weight.
Not only are the tithe rent-charge and corn rents, but
all the valuations which took place throughout the country
were based on measure, not on weight ; and he was sure that
valuers would have the greatest difficulty in arriving at correct
conclusions if weight were substituted for measure. Moreover
thrashing and other operations of the farm were regulated by
measure ; and he thought the establishment of measure as a
universal rule would interfere far less with all existing cus-
toms than the establishment of a standard weight. He quile
agreed with preceding speakers as to the desirableness of
adopting, if practicable, some uniform standard for the sale of
corn (Hear, hear).

Mr. WallIvS then replied : Notwithstanding, he said, all
that he had heard to the contrary that evening, he was still
of opinion that weight was far preferable to measure aa a
uniform system ; and if there were to he any change at all, it
was of course desirable that it should be a change to the best
system that could be adopted. The majority of persons in-
terested in the matter were manifestly in favour of weight,
which was in very many places entirely superseding measure.
What Mr. Skelton advocated was, in fact, selling by weight.

Mr. Skelton observed that it was a uniform weight that
he objecled to.

Mr. Wallis continued: The bushel varied with almost
every sample; and to call it a standard, therefore, was altogether
a mistake. It was quite certain that the country could not
now go back from weight to measure, and therefore if there
were to be a uniform system it must be based on weight.

Considerable discussion ensued as to the form in which the
question at issue should be submitted to the meeting.
Ultimately,

Mr. Wallis proposed, and Mr. B. Webster seconded,
the following resolution : — " That it is the opinion of this
meeting that a standard of weight is preferable to a standard
of measure."

Mr. Skelton moved, and Mr. Little seconded, the follow-
ing amendment : — " That all sellers and buyers of corn in this
kingdom should come to the conclusion to petition Parliament
to enforce a uniformity of measure of 8 imperial bushels,"

Tbe amendment, after having been seconded, was put from
the chair, when 13 hands were held up in favour of it, and 13
against it. The chairman then gave his casting vote in favour
of the amendment, and the effect of this was of course to carry
it. As the original resolution involved the same question aa
the amendment, and had virtually been negatived, it was not
submitted to the meeting.

On the motion of Mr. Wood, seconded by Mr. Thomas,
of Bletsoe, thanks were voted to Mr. Wallis as the introducer
of the question which had been discussed.

Mr. Wallis, after acknowledging the compliment, ex-
pressed his regret that the decision of the Club on the subject
which he had brought forvpard was not in accordance with the
opinions of the majority of farmers and corn merchants, adding
that he was not without hope that the time was not far distant
when a very different view would be taken of the matter, even
in that room.

On the motion of Mr. Grey, seconded by Mr. Wallis, a
vote of thanks was given to the Chairman ; and, after a brief
response from that gentleman, the meeting separated.

HALES WORTH- FARMERS' CLUB.— The members of
this Club have been engaged in an interesting discussion on
the " Principles of Katinij." The question was introduced iu
an able speech by Mr. J. Howlett, of Wisset; and the dis-
cussion which ensued extended to considerable length. We
must content ourselves with recording the following resolu-
tion, which was unanimously adopted : " That the principles
of rating having undergone a lengthened discussion, it is the
opinion of the members present that, in order to secure one
uniform rate, as prescribed by Act of Parliament, the several
boards of guardians throughout the country should be vested
with full powers of correcting not only any inequalities which
may be presumed to exist as between parish and parish, but
also as between their respective unions ; and further, that all
poor-rates should hereafter be levied and made by the authori-
ties so constituted, instead of by the different churchwardens
and overseers."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

209

THE IMPERIAL BUSHEL THE BEST STANDARD MEASURE.

The difficulties to be encountered in arriving at any
uniform system of Weight or Measure in the sale of
corn were very forcibly illustrated at the February
meeting of the Farmers' Club. Of course, the great
advantage of a central body like this is, that it combines
the opinions and experience of almost every part of the
country. The uses of such a power could never be
more apparent than when applied to the consi-
deration of the subject here brought under dis-
cussion. Any merely local Society — be it a district
Club, a Board of Guardians, or a Corn-market
Committee — would, and have, most probably,
madd very short work of such a question.
They would just resolve and recommend in accordance
with their own habits and practice. Let the uniform
standard be their own ; let everybody come round to
this, and then we shall do very well. At the London
Club, however, nearly every man represented a dis-
trict, and, more or less, a system of his own. Indeed,
we really believe that, when at last a definite motion
had to be put, there was scarcely a member present but
who, had the opportunity been allowed him, would
have proposed, amended, or suggested something a
little different from that of his neighbour — A neighbour,
be it understood, sitting in the next chair to him at the
meeting, but coming from quite another quarter of the
kingdom. It is, we must repeat, such component
parts as these which give peculiar value and importance
to the proceedings.

Under these circumstances Mr. Owen Wallis' well-
arranged tables and careful series of results told by no
means so strongly as might, perhaps, have been ex-
pected. It appeared to signify very little what the
Dolgelly Union or the Arundel Farmers' Club thought
about the matter, as everybody came manifestly pre-
pared to think for himself. Mr. Wallis, in fact, did
not read the digest of evidence we give in our report.
With very sound discretion he contented himself with
stating what the tendency of this was, and how thorough-
ly he agreed with the majority. Everybody, as a rule,
insisted on the necessity of uniformity, either of
weight or measure ; while a far greater number
of the opinions thus collected were recorded
in favour of sale by weight. In the discussion, on the
contrary, the preponderance was the other way. The
two most able and suggestive of all the speakers who
followed the introducer of the subject were Mr. Robert
Baker and Mr. Spencer Skelton, and both these advo-
cated a measure of capacity ; or, in other words, the
more general recognition of our present standard, the
imperial bushel. There is no doubt, either, but that
the addresses of these two gentlemen had considerable
effect upon the audience, and that they are mainly
responsible for the conclusion arrived at. Figures and.
tables do not go for much, on occasions like these ; but
a good plain argument is sure to make its way.

When the Central Club, during the past year, took
up this question, certain of the leading members re-
solved themselves into a special committee. The open-
ing of Mr. Wallis' address will show what steps they
took to put themselves in communication with the
country, while his paper may be regarded as embody-
ing the sense of this correspondence. Previously, how-
ever, to issuing their circular, the committee started
with two propositions, which they severally moved,
passed, and eventually embodied in their public
etter. The first of these formally declared, " That
I

a uniform system of weight or measure for the
sale of corn is desirable." The second stated more
definitely, " That this Special Committee feels justi-
fied, from the communications I'eceived, as well as from
the opinions expressed, in recommending the sale of
corn by weight as the best means of establishing uni-
formity of system in the sale of agricultural produce."
Now, it will be found from the conclusion arrived at
on Monday evening, that a general meeting of the
members have corrected this opinion of their com-
mittee. In the face of the increased evidence in favour
of weightj a majority, with the Chairman to head it,
have declared themselves in open council for the im-
perial bushel. This is pretty sure to be regarded in many
different ways — as stultifying what has already been
done — opposed to the general feeling of the countrj',
and so forth. There was some little demur as to the
order in which the resolutions were put ; but consider-
ing that Mr. Skelton's amendment was clearly car-
ried, we do not see much to complain* of. It should
be explained that many members had left before the
division took place ; not that we think, had this been
asked for earlier, would there have been any other re-
sult.

We shall venture even a little beyond this, in saying
that we see nothing whatever to complain of, in such a
termination to the proceedings. We consider it to have
been the most practical determination that the Club
could possibly have arrived at. We believe that,
if in our generation, we are to have any uniformity of
system, it will be accomplished only by the imperial
bushel. We have some reason for thinking that if the
Government does interfere, in answer to the wishes
of the country, it will be only to more rigidly en-
force its own standard. We are very sanguine that
by such a means the object is feasible. On the other
hand, a measure of weight is positively hedged in with
obstacles. The Government will not merely have to
ignore the principle it has so far maintained, but to
upset and revolutionize with this many a subsequent
measure engrafted upon it. There is the Tithe Com-
mutation Act, riding easily and pleasantly at last — all
to be done de novo. There are our corn rents, and so
forth, all to be fresh arranged. And there are the many
districts — in the majority, as we imagine — which are
now accustomed to the imperial bushel, and the fact of
eight bushels making one quarter, to be untaught, and
then schooled over again, by the same master !

It is not our purpose to go very minutely here
into the merits of the two systems. The de-
cussion will show that much may be said, for
and against either. A farmer's man, according to Mr.
Wallis' experiment, cannot measure up a bushel of
corn twice alike — so much for measure ; while by Mr.
Baker's story, a miller can guess nearer to the weight
of a sack of corn than ten farmers can actually weigh
it to — so much for weight. Perhaps, afler all, the
better plan would be, as is now often done, to combine
the two, and deliver a bushel of corn of a certain
iceight. Call this what we may, a measure of capacity
or of weight, it has the recommendation of going for
its fixed standard to the already acknowledged one
of the country. By such a path we might hope to
find our way out of this difficulty. By any other we
fear we should only become involved in a labyrinth
that few would care to help us to explore.

In the hands of our rulers this resolution of the

210

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

Farmers' Club should, in short, be a strong and ready-
weapon. The whole country demands uniformity ;
and when you gather together the delegates of the whole
country, who offer you evidence quite as valuable as
that you would obtain by the slow, tedious process of a
committee, what do these ask you to do ? Is it the
dangerous or costly experiment of a new system ? Is
it something that the people know little of, and that
they will take to with proportionately little liking ?
Nothing of the kind. The buyers and sellers of corn
simply request that jou will be good enough to
stand by your own act. You have said there should
be an imperial bushel by which all such transactions
should be regulated. Granted. We are willing to
obey the law if you are only ready to enforce it. There
is aa old joke against a certain county member '

who drew up a most meritorious measure, but who
forgot to insert any penalty for its non-observance. In
this instance the framers of the bill would appear most
carefully to have " provided always" that people should
not use the imperial bushel without they cared to.

We shall obtain no uniformity by such half-measures
as these. 'Vv^hat the country simply wants is " the Bill,
the whole Bill, and nothingbut the Bill." Let the question
be argued as it will, there is no doubt but that we are
becoming more and more accustomed to the imperial
standard; and its general enforcement would be attended
with little inconvenience or annoyance. Comparatively,
there is no other such a means so ready to our hand ;
and we cannot help thinking that the Farmers' Club
resolution will stand as a tolerably good finger-post.
It points to the safest way and the shortest.

ON THE TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD IN THE HORSE.

By Mk. James Fakeell, V. S. to the Lord-Lieutenant and Constabulary force in Ireland.

During the autnma of 1856, and spring of 1857, an
epidemic prevailed in and about Dublin ; indeed, I believe, ali
over Ireland, to a greater or less extent ; which at its outset
presented the leading features of influenza, but of a low
typhoid character ; it was much toore prevalent along the
eastern coast than on the western, or in the midland counties.
lu Dublin it was very fatal, and in most of the cases which I
Was called on to see I found intense debility, which in some
instances had come ou within a few hours after the disease had
first manifested itself. Horses were seen to eat their food iu
the morning with every appearance of health and good spirits,
aad before evening they were found resting against the side of
their stables for support; so rapidly had debility followed the
first symptoms of the disease.

With all these cases the principal difficulty was to support
the strength, watching at the same time closely the symptoms
which manifested themselves as the case progressed. Some-
times the urinary organs bec>irae affected, and repeated evacua-
tions caused the patient to sink rapidly. Iu others the bowels
were involved, and to such sn extent as to resemble bad cases
of cholera in the human subject; but the worst forms of this
disease that I witnessed v,'eje those in which the animals had
been bled previously to my having seen them. With those
cases which had not been bled, I had, in treating them, an
average amount of success; but in moat of those that had, I
am bound to admit, I was by no means so fortunate. I found
that everything I could do to restore the vital powers was, in
the majority of cases, useless, and, save iu the instance of some
young, vigorous horses, collapse set in within a few hours ufter
the abstraction of the blood.

I gave a fair trial to all the usual remedies. In cases where
influenza had assumed a typhoid form, and iu which the lead-
ing symptoms were a feeble, thready pulse, quick and laboured
breathing, cold extremities, clammy mouth, drooping eyelids,
utter prostration of strength, and, in short, the usual symptoms
of collapse, especially such aa had been reduced to this state
by loss of blood, or by excessive purgation, I was generally
unsuccessful. Discouraged by repeated failures, I determined
to try the effect of " transfusion," believing it to be a not un-
natural restorative, especially in cases where the improper
abstraction of blood had superinduced the symptoms above
alluded to.

To enable me, therefore, to give this operation a fair trial,
I commenced a series of experiments, so as to discover the
simplest, safest, and most effectual method of conveying blood
from one animal ir.to another : I first tried the transfusion
syringe, which has been used by medical practitioners for this
purpose; but, whether from want of skill in its use, or from
some defect in the instrument (which had beeu recommended
to me as one of the best), or from some other cause, I cannot
tell, but certain it is I was in no case so successful with it as I
was with a more simple apparatus. I fancied that the blood
lost much of its vitality by being exposed to atmospheric ac-
tion, »acl el§9 by its being forced and eomMressed withiw the

cylinder of the instrument. These impressions as to the cause
of failure induced me to undertake several experiments, with a
view to the construction of an iuatrument which would fulfil
the requisite indications, viz., to allow the blood to pass freely
from the vein of the healthy into that of the diseased subject
without coaling in contact with the atmosphere, and without
alteration of its temperature. I at length adopted aa exceed-
iugly simple apparatus, which may be described iu a few words.
It consists of an india-rubber tube some two-anda-half feet in
length, aud three-eighths of an inch in diameter — that is, about
the calibre of the vein in the adult horse. To either end of
this is fitted a silver tube, curved somewhat like a syphon, so
that the end, which is slightly rounded at the poiut, might be
paased easily into the vein, both tubes being exactly alike. A
narrow zinc or tin trough is required to contain hot water, in
which two-thirds of the lube should be immersed during the
time that the blood is flowing. This completes the apparatus,
aud, being prepared, aud the hotaea ready, held by assistants,
the jugular vein of tie healthy horse, from which the supply is
to be taken, may be opened, and into it one of the silver tubes
carefullj' passed, point upwards, so as to receive the current of
blood as it flows back from the head ; the operator holding
the other end, aud, having previously opened the corres-
ponding vein in the patient, ha should wait till the current
is passing freely down the tube from the healthy horse, and
then bring it iu contact with that which is now flowing slowly
from the patient ; he should pass the end of the tube carefully
iato the vein, point downwards, by which means the possi-
bility of any air getting into the tube is avoided. The quan-
tity to be transfused is readily ascertained by watchiug the ex-
pression of the eyes, aud noting the pulse carefully. So long
as there is no dilation of the pupils, and so long as the heart's
action is not very much affected, the blood may be allowed to
flow ou uninterruptedly ; but as soon as the pupils become
dilated, it is necessary to lessen the supply gradually, by com-
pressing the tube with the finger and thumb. It the dilata-
tion disappear after a minute or two, the blood may be again
allowed to flow; but if it increases, further transfusion must
be stopped, or otherwise injurious consequences will result.
In the cases of two aniruals which I purchaatd for the purpose
of experiment, I purposely allowed the blood to flow after the
dilatation of the pupil had manifested itself iu order that I
might see the result ; and I found it to increase : and in one
of the eases, after winking both eyes three or four times in
rapid succession, the horse reared up, and fell back. In the
other case, I forced t'le blood in from an india-rubber enema
bottle. The pupils first became still more dilated, the breath-
ing very quick and difficult ; the eyes assumed a wild,
agonized look ; and the animal, with a sudden bound forward,
fell dead. I had my flujier on the artery during the entire
time, aud observed a great unsteadiness aud fluttering of the
pulse, which increased in frequency until the instant before he
fell. In the first of these cases I did not force the blood into
the vein, but allowed it to flow until I perceived the injurious

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

311

effects oa the horse. He tottered auJ fell, but in a short
time recovered, and was walked back to his stable. He died
in the course of the night ; aud, on examining his head next
day, I found considerable congestion of the brain. The tube
used for these experiments transferred about three quarts of
blood in eight minutes — at least,- so might be inferred from
the fact that, when used as a syphoa, it passed three-and-a-
half quarts of water (and a little less of oil) from one vessel
to auother in that time.

In one of my successful cases, phlebitis supervened both
iu the healthy and diseased horse. I think I am correct in
saying that this disease is by no means so likely to occur in
horses as iu human beiugs, and is certainly not so formidable ;
but, nevertheless, I am quite sure that it may happen as a
consequence of the operation, if the instrument be not kept
scrupulously clean, aud also if great care be not taken in its
introduction into the vein. Having, from these and other
experiments not necessary to detail, determined on the mode
of operating most likely to be successful, I shall now proceed
to state the result of four cases in which I have operated, and
which I think I may look upon as having been followed with
entire success. In three of the cases, the patients had been
bled a short time previous to my having seen them, aud were
so much weakened that they could scarcely walk. In the
fourth case, a drastic purgative had been administered,
causing super-purgation and great prostration of strength.
la each of the four cases, the condition of the patient
was so similar, that the description I have already given
may answer for all. Having selected a healthy young
horse, from which to obtain the blood to be transfused, I
opened the jugular vein in the patient aud in the healthy
subject ; and having inserted the tube, as before described,
into the vein of the healthy horse, I placed the Inida-rubber
tube in the tin trough containing the hot water to maintain
its temperature, and the other curved tube into the descending
portion of the vein in the patient. As soon as the current
from the healthy horse had completely expelled all atmos-
pheric air, the instrument being thus arranged, the blood
flowed freely from the vein of one horse into that of the
other in an unbroken current. The average quantity of
blood transfused in each of these cases was about three
quarts. I observed no particular symptoms to follow from
the transfusion, until two quarts or more had passed from
the healthy to the diseased subject ; but as soon as about that
quantity had flowed, there appeared to be produced an
amount of stimulation indicated by an increased action of
the heart ; at the same time the pupils began to dilate,
and the countenance evinced an anxious expression. My
former experiments led me to watch with great care the
progreasive dilatation of the pupil, and I deemed it expedient
in each case, when this symptom was well developed, to
compress the tube so as to diminish the current and allow
the transfusion to proceed more gradually' and slowlj^
Occasionally I almost completely interrupted the current
until the subsidence of this symptom ; and I found that,
when about three quarts had been transfused, any addi-
tional quantity was followed by unpleasant symptoms,
which indicated the necessity of stopping the operation.
On i-emoving the tube and closing the vein, all symptoms
of irritation gradually subsided ; and the pulse, from being
rapid and irritable, became slower, stronger, and fuller,
gradually approaching the healthy standard.

In each of these four cases the reaction was steady and
progressive. The natural warmth of the extremities was
gradually restored ; and in the course of ten or twelve
hours the patient presented other equally unmistakable
symptoms of amendment, such as returning appetite, more
quiet and steady respiration, cheerfulness of countenance,
and a willingness to move about : from this point there was
a gradual improvement, and in a short time they were pro-
nounced cured.

I ^have been induced to submit these few remarks, much
less with a view to record any little success I may have
had in performing the operation myself than with a hope
that others, far more capable, will take up the matter and
test it thoroughly ; for whatever obstacles and objections
there may be to its performance in the human subject, there
are none "to prevent its becoming a most valuable agent in
veterinary science.— Dublin ^Quarterly Journal of Medical
/Science,

MR. POPPY, OF WITNESHAM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IPSWICH JOUKNAL.

Dear Sir, — The letter which I enclose was addressed to
me at the Grundisburgh Farmers' Club, on Monday last, and
read at the meeting. The members who were present were
unanimously of opinion that a subscription should be imme-
diately entered into, in behalf of Mr. Poppy, and they thought
it advisable that his case and claim to the sympathy of the
agricultural community should be made known through the
columns of your Journal, the /Suffolk Chronicle, and the Marh
Lane Express,

I fully concur in the statement made by Mr. Biddell, and I
earnestly hope that steps will be immediately taken to assist
the worthy promoter of agricultural progress.

I am, dear Sir, yours truly,

G. D. Badham,

The Sparrow's Nest, Jan. 27, 1858.

My dear Sir, — May I beg of you, as president of the
Grundisburgh Farmers' Club, to lay before the meeting the
present position and circumstances of Mr. Poppy, of Witne-
sham, and his claims to the sympathy of those who have been
interested in the prosperity of agriculture.

Forty-five years ago, and long afterwards, no man did more,
nor hardly any half so much, in proportion to their means, as
he did, to promote the general cultivation of Swede turnips
and liiaHgcld wurtzel — proved now to be the most valuable
roots introduced iu farming within living memory. I remem-
ber the exertions he made, year after year, to convince farmers
of the value of beet roots. He set the example of growing
them iu his fields. He induced peraous (myself amongst
others) to send stock upon his land to eat them, to prove their
value. He distributed seed in several counties, and wrote
about them in pamphlets and newspapers ; and I believe the
general growth cf swedea and beet in this county was many
years earlier on account of Mr. Poppy's exertions to bring them
into notice. I never heard of the white Belgium carrots till
they were brought from that country (or France) by Mr. Poppy
many years ago (probably upwards of thirty). His experi-
ments and publications on securing Swede turnips from flies,
procured him a gold medal from an eminent distant agricul-
tural association. Upwards of thirty years ago, he urged the
advantages likely to ariae from country farmers' clubs, and was
chairman and principal manager of the first established in this
county — that at Ashbocking — from whence arose, directly or
indirectly, those of Framlingham, Haleaworth, Harleston, and
others, which had the advantage of his correspondence. His
experiments and writings to preserve young turnips from flies,
and his examination of expedients that have been tried to
effect that purpose during the last thirty or forty years, de-
serve notice ; but particularly his recently proving (so far as
two or three years are proof) that drilling only two or three
rows of thick mustard will effectually preserve a whole field of
young turnips from flies. This discovery is entirely Mr.
Poppy's ; and, assuming it to he effective, is of incalculable
value to the farming interest. He has never had an interested
motive in what he has done, beyond the wish that others might
profit by his experience.

Under these circumstances may I beg that you will propose
to the meeting some moderate subscription for him, and pro-
mote that object in any way you may think advisable. Mr.
Poppy is now at the age of eighty-five, and his wife nearly
eighty. They are living in a cottage, respected by all who
know them, upon very small, precarious means, insuflicient for
the common requirements of comfortable humble life.

My state of health prevents my rendering you any assistance
in forwarding the object I have mentioned, but I shall be happy
to receive any contribution which may be forwarded to me for
Mr. Poppy's benefit. It is much to be wished that some of
your influential friends may co-operate with you in getting up
a subsciiptiou as the reward of merit for Mr. Poppy, iu a wider
circle than the respectable club over which you preside.
I am, my dear Sir, with every respect.
Yours sincerely,

Playford, Jan. 25, 1858. Arthur Biddell.

[We need not say that we shall be happy to do anything in
our power to promote the object of Mri BiddeU'a letter.—
Editor Tar, Mag,],

212

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

FARMYARD DUNG: PREPARATION AND APPLICATION.

No subject in the varied course of agriculture ob-
trudes a more general notice, or deserves a more im-
portant consideration, than the application of farmyard
dung. The article is produced on all lands on which
grains grow and animals are kept, and is the most
efficacious of all manures that are yet known. It is a
mixed body of straws and excrements, urinary and solid,
possessing the quick action of the latter substances, and
the more durable qualities of the former materials. All
other manures are brought from foreign places, and
purchased by a ready cost ; farmyard dung is daily pro-
duced, and of a constant repetition. The use is varied
and of a great value, and the application is no less im-
portant.

An approved and long-continued mode of preparing
farmyard dung prevails in the celebrated turnip-growing
Border counties, of placing the contents of the cattle
yards in square piles about six feet in height, in the
corner of the fields to be planted with green crops.
The yards are concave or dish-shaped, retaining and
spreading the moisture equally over the mass, and sup-
plied with straws that absorb all the moisture from rains,
snows, and urine. The contents are carried out at two
different times during winter, and no pressure is allowed
on the piles, except the weight of one or two persons to
spread the materials evenly and thinly over the heap.
In this condition, a fermentation reduces the heap into
a gaponaceous mass for use in May and June, and in a
condition that is easily divided by hand-forks, well
moistened, and from which the heat of fermentation has
in most cases nearly altogether vanished. Much bulk
is lost by this mode of preparation, but it is reckoned the
best for the use of green crops.

Having been educated under the above system of
preparing farmyard dung, I practised the mode with
the usual success in various parts of the kingdom. In
later years I adopted another mode, from the observa-
tion of a very large loss of bulk, and from a wish to
use a fresher condition of the dung. At any times of
convenience during winter, the contents of the yards are
carried to the green-crop fields, and laid in aheap slop-
ing at both ends, over which the carts pass to deposit
the loads, and over which the materials are spread evenly
and thinly, in order to mix the substances, and that no
part remain in a dry state. The consolidation from
the pressure of the carts prevents the fermentation of
the hea]), which is formed at convenient times, frcm
November to the month of April, and later when the
yards are duly moist and the straws thinly used. Pota-
toesare the first- planted green crop ; and about ten days
before the dung is required for use, the heap is turned
over with forks, laid loosely together, and the lumps well
broken, and the dry outside of the heap thrown into
the middle of the new aggregation. A very active fer-
mentation immediately commences, which is prevailing
during the deposition of the dung in the drills, which
are immediately reversed and the seed sown. This
mode produces fully equal if not superior results to the
first- mentioned preparation: it affords a larger bulk, and
more convenience in forming the heaps at different times ;
while the former requires to be done at one time, or not
at distant periods.

Por some considerable time past, I Lave doubted the

fermentation of farmyard dung, having had freshly-
voided fseces, carried from the cowshed, laid into drills
for turnips, which were a superior crop to the parts of
the field treated with fermented dung. This result hap-
pened on several occasions, constituting a fact, from a
majority of similar results. In order to facilitate the
application of fresh dung, I have long ago recommended
that all straws for litter should be cut into short lengths
by the thrashing machinery, and that the dung be mixed
with the prepared turnip-lands by contrary workings of
Finlayson's harrow, and raised into ridglets by one
furrow of the common plough, in which the seeds are
sown by the common two-drill machine, or with a por-
tion of bones or guano by Hornsby's drop drill. This
practice will supersede the fermenting heap of farmyard
dung, and remove the objection of long straws not
covering into the ground, by cutting into short lengths.
The faeces and short straws will be convenient for
Chandler's liquid manure drill, when Mr. Kemp's
theory has advanced into a more general notice.

The application is most excellent of farmyard dung as
a top-dressing of young grass seeds ; and for that pur-
pose, the fresh, strawy condition is preferable. The
crops of clover are largely increased, and also the fol-
lowing crops of wheat. I have long ago suggested that
the farmyard dung generally applied on bare clay
fallows, for wheat, be applied as a top-dressing on the
young wheats, in March, by means of moveable timber
railways placed on the ground. But, most unfortu-
nately, now-a-days, no opinion, theory, idea, or
suggestion meets with any notice, except it emanates
from a society or a club. Individuals languish in ob-
scurity, and are held in insignificance.

The use of food being to produce caloric to plants and
organic bodies, the chief consideration is, how to apply
the manures as food for that purpose, and, in order to
yield that element in the least expensive manner and
most ample quantity. I wholly dissent from chemistry
— that rotten dung is more efficacious than fresh dung :
weight for weight, and quantity for quantity, the latter
must prevail in the abundance. The many statements
made, of chemical agencies and transformations, are of
small account.

With regard to covered and uncovered feeding-stalls,
the former may suit in certain places ; but in the ma-
jority of situations, the straw could not be reduced
without the rains and snows that fall in the yards ; and,
under the covered sheds, the want of moisture produces
a dry putrefaction. Even with the present open yards,
much difficulty is experienced in reducing the straws
into an impregnated condition with rain and urine.

I have not the pleasure of an acquaintance with Mr.
Baker, of Writtle, nor do I know his appearance from
sight ; but I have ever admired the sound and enlight-
ened judgment displayed by him on all practical sub-
jects, and the strong sense that he brings to bear on the
reveries of cognate auxiliaries. These aids are but
puny, shallow, and evanescent ; apt to dazzle and de-
ceive, to bewilder and mislead ; and often noisy as the
tinman's trade. An enlightened practice must lead and
confirm. J. D.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

213

KENNINGTON AGRICULTURAL AND CHEMICAL COLLEGE.

XiECTURES ON THE GENERAL PHENOMENA OP THE EARTH, HAVING REFERENCE TO THE

PRODUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF ORGANIC LIFE.

BY CHARLES JOHNSON, ESO., PKOFESSOR OP BOTANY, GUY'S HOSPITAL.

Lecture XIII.

While the miuuter forms of the Alga are continually em-
ployed in preparinf^ their aquatic abode, whether sea or river,
lucid lake or turbid pool, for the development of higher grades
of vegetable life, parallel creations on the land are equally
active to a similar end, working alike unseen, and even un-
suspected in the earliest fulfilment of their functions. These
are the Lichens, the first in our classification of terrestrial
plants, and the natural precursors of the groups which follow
on the scale. The cause of their first appearance, in any par-
ticular locality, is as much of a mystery to the human observer
as is that of their aquatic brethren ; though, as in the case of
the latter, their after-propagation is the result of laws, the
action of which is generally recognized in vegetation of a
higher grade, however insufficient theory may yet have proved
to its elucidation.

Let us examine the history of Lichen production and suc-
ceasional development —not critically, and under the influence
of philosophical prejudices, which too often tend to lead us to
false conclusions, but, as it may be read on the page of Nature.
A newly-bared surface of rock, or sand, or soil, a brick or tile,
nay, even a pane of glass, exposed to air and light, becomes
the resting-place of myriads of microscopic atoms, which en-
large and multiply their kind ; that kind is the simplest
organism imagined or recognized by human senses : it is the
cell again ; the cell is the plant itself, developing the cell its
germ, its beginning and its end the same. Such is ever vege-
tation in its earliest appearance, where organic elements are
wanting for the production of a higher or more complicated
frame ; and our microscopic atoms are the first colonizers of
the hitherto barren spot of earth — the pulverulent Lichens.
We may pause awhile, to speculate as to whence they come.
The minuteness of the germs — (seeds we will call thera, though
the botanist may cavil about the term) — cf these little plants,
is such, that the lightest movement of the air may dislodge,
and bear them to incalculable distances ; and, without
exaggeration, we may assume that, like the moisture which is
mingled with the atmosphere as viewless vapour, they may be
constantly present throughout its whole expanse, be inhaled
with our breath, and distributed with every wind that blows.
I am not, in this assumption, violating the compact just made,
at the commencement of the present paragraph, to avoid for
the moment all mere theory, and examine fact as it exists, alone
and without bias. The origin of a living being is required ;
and when we note the successors of such being making their
appearance under circumstances of universal operation, we are
justified in seeking a corresponding source for itself. The
doctrine, ascribing the apparently spontaneous development of
individuals, belonging to the lowest classes of vegetation, to
this constant presence of their seeds floating in the atmos-
phere, cannot be proved to demonstration ; but when we learn
that certain of the simpler forms of fungus, as mould, &c., are
found in the diseased tissues of living animals, and only upon
such as are exposed to contact with the air, as upon the sur-
face of their bodies, or in the air-cells and tubercular cavities
in the lungs, as well of mankind as of the inferior animals,
their origin surely is too evident to admit of misconception :
wherever seen, they are the produce of such air borne germs,
which require only a resting-place to commence the career of
growth and reproduction.

Linnseus, comparing, in a fanciful mood, the aspects and
functions of the individuals composing the great natural fami-
lies of the vegetable kingdom with the several grades of human
society, bestowed the Latin title of Vernaculi, or bond-slaves,
on the Algse ; under which denomination he included both the
plants so called by modern botanists, and the Lichens, the re-

lative structures of which seem to have been prefigured in his
mind at a period when microscopic research had yet done little
or nothing towards the elucidation of such resemblances. The
title is, as observed by the late Professor Gilbert Burnett, of
King's College, London, peculiarly appropriate to the Lichens,
" which are, as it were, chained to the soil they labour to im-
prove for the benefit of others, though from it they derive no
nourishment themselves." The latter assumption is, in most
instances, probably incorrect, as may appear from our coming
inquiry ; a circumstance, however, that does not greatly inter-
fere with the justness of the comparison.

The modern system of farming by rotation crops, supersed-
ing the antiquated process of fallowing, is only the adoption
of principles constantly in action under the government of
Nature ; and the history of the little plants before us strongly
exemplifies a fact, of which our stubborn ancestors, and even
many of their less-informed successors, were long in becoming
convinced, namely, the influence of the unseen and intactible
upon the visible and tangible. The necessity of accumulating
the proximate elements belonging to the higher forms of life,
before the introduction of the latter upon the face of the
world, has been already remarked upon, in one of our previous
lectures ; and where are the constituents of these compounds,
the true elements, to be found ? whence are they to be elaborated,
but from the rock, the air, and the watei, each in itself incom-
petent to their necessary elaboration ! Life must precede
life. This is the grand law under which organic being, once
produced, can alone be maintained; a law enunciated when
creation was an act, and which has remained such since that
act was fulfilled No chemical manipulation of the inorganic
atoms of the fire-tempered granite or greenstone produces
the required compounds of animal and vegetable substance ;
the vital principle alone being capable of adjusting their pro-
portions, modifying their affinities to such a purpose, and
eliciting the mysterious combinations. The modern practi-
tioner in that glorious art, which seems to sport with the ele-
ments of simple matter, bidding them unite and separate at
will, fails in this. True ! he can arrange and disarrange the
organic atoms, force them to assume a different form, and, so
long as they remain organic, control results, even as he acts
upon the mineral ; but he has no producing power. He may
call forth the starch, the sugar, that did not exist as such be-
fore ; nay, even the odours of the rose and of the violet, where
no flo j^ers are at hand to yield them. But, the products of
organization, that are here his playthings, are only compelled
into action under their own affinities with surrounding
matter; and those affinities, once overcome, once unbound,
his power over them as organic elements ceases, and a re-
newed subjection to the laws of life alone can restore them to
their former condition.

In contributing to this recurring change and recomposition,
every member of both animal and vegetable kingdoms is con-
stantly and actively employed, as a necessary consequence of
its existence. But, their mutual operations are too compli-
cated to admit of separate examination, beyond the point of
commencement, and a few stages upward upon the scale. On
the land, the lichen is, as heretofore remarked, the earliest
perceptible agent. But it may be inquired. What is a lichen ?
The question is as simple and pertinent as might be, What is a
grass, a flower, or a tree? hut is less easily answered so as to
be satisfactory to the uninitiated. The botanist defines a
lichen to be a " perennial plant, often spreading over the sur-
face of the earth, or rocks, or trees, in dry places, in the form
of a lobed and foliaceous, or hard and crustaceous, or leprous
substance, called a thallus, &c., &c." Will this definition

2M

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

answer our purpose ? As it is to be feared not, we will try again.
Tlie licheas I have before described 83 constituting a numer-
ous and diversified tribe, and no general definition will convey
an idea of what they are in the ai;gregate. Their simplest
forms are seen in the several species of Lepraria, so termed
from the Greek lepra, scurf or leprosy ; and the most common
and universally distributed of these, is the green powder, that,
in all parts of the country, makes its appearance upon the walls
of old buildings, park-paling, and the trunks aad branches of
trees. A magnifying glass shows it to consist of minute globular
or oval grains, closely clustered together. These are the sin-
gle microscopic cells of which mention has been already made ;
and the uncertain limits of the lower groups of vegetable life
are instanced in the fact that this Lepraria viridis has been
referred alternately, by different botanists, to the alga3 and to
the lichens. It is a point of little moment, so far as our pre-
sent purpose is concerned, to which group it really appertains,
as both it anditsbrethrenof similar simple structure and habit
are equally pioneers of vegetation. Conspicuous on the objects
and in the situations just mentioned, they are no less common
on the ground everywhere, where their propagation proceeds
more rapidly on exposed and newly-turned soil than among
growing crops. To the student of Nature, who thus observes
them, it would be an absurdity to deny that their appearance
is associated with a function : our common parent admits of
no sinecures, no superfluous offices, under her government ;
whatever is, must act or cease to be ; presence is inseparable
from need ; and ths living microscopic atom must work, or die
and become the medium of support to others.

The powdery lichen, unseen by the cultivator, or unregarded
and despised as is the dust on which he treads, is truly a
valuable bond-slave, pursuing a slow, but unintermitting toil
for his benefit, aad elaborating the first organic compounds of
hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, that are destined, on its decay,
to become the basis of a higher vegetable form. But it is not
within the limits of au agricultural district that we are to ex-
pect to see any striking manifestation of the lichen fulfilling
the purposes of its existence. We must ascend the mountain
towards the verge of perpetual snow, examine the smooth
worn surface of rocks recently abandoned by the sea, or walk
over the scarcely-cooled lavas of some volcanic region, to trace
the progress of primeval plant-development, and learn to ad-
mire, and estimate at their true value, the operations of these
its hardiest pioneers. The investigator of earlier lichen his-
tory must set aside all previous views of vegetable growth,
as associated with the necessary presence of soil and root-
extensiou. The barest, nay, almost polished surface, to
which adhesion would seem scarcely possible, yields a suffi-
cient resting-place : the imperceptible moisture of the
driest atmosphere affords the required medium of suste-
Hance. Many of the tribe appear in the form of a white or
grey powder only, and bear so little resemblance to orjeanie
Bubstance, that a person unaccustomed to the study would, in
most instances, mistake them for casual stains upon the sur-
face of a flint or a saline efflorescence on a mass of granite ;
indeed it often requires no small degree of familiarity with the
general structure of the family, and a glass of high magnify-
ing power, to distinguish some of them from the rock or earth
on which they grow. The decay of these minut? and obscure
kinds, howevtr, affords a thin stratum of soil sufficient for the
habitation of other species of more complicated organization,
larger size, and more interesting appearance. Some of the
higher grades of lichenaceous plants are remarkable for their
bstiuty, elegajce of outline, and diversity, as well as brilliancy,
of hue.

The remark of an author previously quoted — that, while
lichens improve the soil for the benefit of other plsnts, they
derive no nutriment fi omit themselves — is appareiftly opposed
to circumstaaces attending their developmeut, different
species being found on different substances. This fact is
especially instanced in those which are most conspicuous,
giving colour to rocks, trunks of trees, walls, and buildings ;
many of them ranking among the highest forms of their
order: abd the practical botanist is well aware of the prefer-
ences they exhibit. The various primitive, secondary, and
igneous rocks yield resting-pUces to particular species; and
so invariable is the aitachment of certain kinds to peculiar
media, that the geological collector may often determine, by
the hue of its surface, clothed with a thin coating of primeval
vegetation, the nature and composition of the rock he is ap-
proaching. Granite, slate, sandstone, limestone, trap, &c., are

each likely to be thus distinguished ; and in a similar man-
ner the greater number of the epiphytic lichens, or those which
grow on the bark of trees, are not indiscriminately scattered
upon the stems of different species constituting the forests of
the same climate, but vegetate exclusively upon the surface of
those which afford them the necessary texture to which
Nature has adapted their powers of adherence. A skilful
landscape-painter, observing the effect thus produced, adapts
his colours, accordingly, to the tf auk of any particular kind of
tree he may be desirous of representing. He sees that of the
oak invariably differing from that of the beech in the hue of
its humble dependants, that of the elm from that of the wil-
low, and so on of others ; and so perceiving, his picture be-
comes a transcript of reality.

This preference of the lichenaceous plant for specific
liahilats is without doubt associated with difference of tex-
ture ; but it is no less unquestionably attributable to other
causes likewise. The lichen, as a cellular vegetable organism,
derives much of its subsistence by absorption from the atmos-
phere, in the same manner as the alga does from the water in
which it is submerged ; but the elements held in solution by
the former are insufficient to supply certain principles which
are invariably present in the plants now before us. They must
be obtained from other sources ; aud the succession in which /

the species appear, following each other always in a corre-
sponding series, is a further and unmistakeable manifestation
of the fact. Metallic oxides (that of iron especially), earthy
and alkaline salts, are present in all of the higher forms; and
the bases of these proximate principles exiating in the sup-
porting medium, whether earth, rock, or tree, their separation
from it by organic action might be anticipated. Again, if wa
examine closely the attachment of many of the more minute,
and even of the larger, crustaceous kinds (understand by thia
latter denomination, those which adhere like a crust to the
substance ou which they vegetate), we shall find that their _

under- sides are not superficially adherent only, but actually *

imbedded. This is the case with some which grow upon the
hardest siliceous rocks and stones, and even on the glass of
old windows ; and it probably arises from the elaboration,
during their growth, of oxalic and other vegetable acids,
which, however we&k aud powerless in their action on such
substances when mechamcally applied, overcome the cohesion
of their atoms during the slower process of organic assimila-
lation. By whatever means, however, such au effect may be
produced, its importance is the same ; aud the ministry of the
lichen, commencing with the modification of the mineral ele-
ments of the fluid-water and viewless atmosphere, is succeeded ''
by a correspondiug action upon the solid crust of the earth.

The more conspicuous and complicated species of these
plants, though they may often be observed covering spaces of
considerable extent, to the apparent exclusion of all others,
are, individually, only so many grades in the grand natural
scheme of fertilization. In describing one of the most beauti-
ful of the series, the Stereocaulon paschale of botanists. Sir
James E. Smith, mentions having observed it coating the
lavas of Vesuvius, which looked, at a distance, in mauy parts, as
though they were covered with snow, owing to the abundance in
which it vegetated there ; but this species, chiefly.if not entirely,
confined to volcanic and plutonic rocks, only appears upon them
as the successor of many others, which have from time to time
vegetated and decayed to form a soil fitted for its develop-
ment ; and the same may be affirmed of its equally or more
distinguished brethren. Mere microscopic specks, like
grains of impalpable powder, commence the mighty opera-
tion, solidify the air and moisture, soften and abrade the
rock ; broader and denser, and at length leaf-like, expan-
sions follow in their turn, survive tlieirtime, and decaj'-, un-
til the deepening soil is prepared to receive the green moss,
the grass, and the herb, and eventually becomes clothed
with an exuberant vegetation. The course of changes under
which the fertilization of a world has been produced has
attracted the attention of an English poet, whom, as a cor-
rect observer of nature, a naturalist may venture to quote —

" Seeds, lo our eyes invisible, will find
On the rude rock the bed that fit"! their kind.
There in the rugged soif they safely dwell,
Tiil showers and snows the subtle atoms swell,
And si)read the enduring fotiase ; then we trace
Tlie freckled flower upon the flinty base.
Tliese all increase, till in unnoted years
The stony to'.ver as grey witli age appears :

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

215

With coats of veffetation thinly spread,

Coat above coat, ihe living on the dead;

These then dissolve to dust, and make a way

For bolder foliage, nursed by their decay.

The long-enduring ferns in time will all

Die, and depose their dust upon the wall ;

Where the winged seed miy rest, till many a flower

Shows Flora's triumph o'er the falling tower."
The lichens being the first purveyors of soil, it might
be naturally supposed that these plants — whose invisible
seeds seem to be ever at hand to fulfil their allotted func-
tion— would exist on all parts of the earth ; and it is so.
Their tissues are so little affected hj the extremes of heat
and cold, that the same apparent species is sometimes found
occupying climates the most adverse, situations the
most dissimilar in this respect ; and regarding the
order, or group, collectively, it may be stated as
being distributed from the poles to the equator, and from
the sea-level to the highest mountain summit, where cer-
tain species clothe the perpendicular rocks, amidst snows
and glaciers, in the regions of ever-during frost. In these
lofty alpine districts and lands, far beyond the Arctic circle,
vegetation does not advance beyond the production of thsee
obscure plants ; but they are forming in such situations the
basis of a soil which, under some future condition of our globe,
may be hereafter destined to the support of vegetation of a
higher cast. Thus circumstanced, they seem to constitute
the first step between death and vitality; thej^have been
called " tliC first heralds of life," but it is of a life which
here commences and terminates with themselves.

The number of known species of lichen it is difiicult to
estimate with any approach to correctness, on account of
the variations in aspect induced by difference of climate,
exposure, and other circumstances. According to the enu-
meration of Fe'e, there exist between two and three thou-
sand, but not more than half that number has been hitherto
accurately examined and described ; and of those which
have been subjected to this ordeal, many are, doubtless,
mere varieties of well-authenticated species in different
stages of development.

Taken in the aggregate, the lichens present a structure
and appearance too much diversified to admit of any general
description devoid of the technicalities of botanical science,
or, even if so encumbered, without illustrative figures. But
we may take the green powder, already spoken of under the
name of Lepraria viridis, as an example of one of the simplest
forms of the tribe. An examination of the sides of a chalk-
pit or open stone quarry will make us acquainted with a
higher series, in the condition of minute black or coloured
specks scattered over those parts which have remained for
a few months undisturbed. A lens or magnifying-glass will
be requisite to detect their organic character; but many of
these are of beautiful and complicated structure, and in
noticing them we have made, not one step, but over-strided
many on the scale of vegetable creation. Patches, often
circular in outline, of white, yellow, brown, or grey occur-
ring on the walls of ancient buildings, rocks, stones, &c,,
lead us a few grades further. Some species, again, of thin
leathery or papery consistence, overrun the ground in
woods ; others are clustered in bunches round the branches
of trees, or hang from them like rags or hair ; while several

of equally varied aspect vegetate among the slender grasses
and heaths on our moors, some branching like tufts of white
coi"al, others spreading over the soil as a grey crust, and
sending up numerous little greenish-grey stemmed cups or
miniature goblets, bordered with studs of the most vivid
crimson. Such are some of the more conspicuous members
of the lichen family.

Highly valuable in the economy of nature, these plants
are — like their aquatic parallels, the algae — of comparatively
small account in that of man. Consisting chiefly of a proxi-
mate principle allied to starch, they are generally more or
less nutritive; a circumstance that, in cold climates, renders
some of them useful articles of subsistence.

The species which has most attracted attention in this
respect is the Iceland moss of our druggists — Cetraria
Islandica of botanists — a plant that has long been a popular
remedj' in consumption and diseases of the chest. Thous;ha
native of North Britain, all that is used here is imported from
Iceland and Norway. In Iceland, it is a common and much
prized item in domestic economy, and is collected in large
quantities for winter use as food ; and the inhabitants of
that barrea and uncultivatable land, have a current expression
that "the bounty of the Almighty gives them bread out of the
very stones ;" the lavas and volcanic stones on the western
coasts of their island being covered with it. Previous to using
they steep it in cold water, which extracts a bitter principle
found in many of the lichens in their natural state; it ia
afterwards dried and reduced to a powder resembling meal or
flour, which ia either kneaded into cakes, or boiled with milk
and eaten as porridge ; in the latter state it is said to con-
stitute one of the most wholesome and palatable articles of
Icelandic diet. Some other species belonging to the genus
GyropJiora, and growing abundantly on the rocks of Arctic
America, are eaten by the hunters of Canada and of the Hud-
son's Bay Company, under scarcity of more nourishing food,
being known among them by the name of rock-tripe or Tripe
de Roche. Another lichen is the favourite food of the rem-
deer : this ia the Cladonia rangiferina, or rein-deer moss ; a
species which, in Lapland and other high northern regions,
attains the height of a foot or eighteen inches, and supplies
the place of grass ; covering the ground, according to Linnaeus,
over hundreds of miles in extent, and presenting to the eye of
the traveller the appearance of a vast tract of snow during the
summer.

Several of the lichens yield valuable dyes : of these archill
or litmus, prepared from a maritime species Roccella tinctoria,
and cudbear, obtained from Lecanora tartarea, a crustaceous
kind, common on our mountains, are the principal.

A few species are said to be poisonous, but the repute is
doubtful.

With few exceptions our hardy vegetable pioneers are left
undisturbed by their fellow-beings of the animal kingdom, from
the insect to the man, that the work so essential to the welfare
of every grade of existence may be fulfilled without stint or
measure ; and wise indeed has been that dispensation under
which their earliest and nxost important functions are con-
cealed from human eye, and placed beyond the control of
human judgment, allied as are all its actions with human
caprice and blindness to future results.

THE NEW POWER, AND ITS FURTHER APPLICATION TO
AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES,

In drawing attention to the plough, we have pur-
posely avoided referring to a defect, which, according
to many, is productive of the greatest practical
evil in working — we allude to the padding or poach-
ing of the soil by the horses' feet. Although it is
necessarily an evil always attendant upon the plough,
it is but right to admit that it is one which is shared in
by all cultivating implements, rotary or otherwise,
which are dragged, or proposed to be dragged over the
land by the power of horses. It is an evil attendant

upon the mode of working the plough, but has no
direct reference to the plough itself; it is simply a
necessity of the mode of working it. It is obvious that
this evil can only be got rid of by the introduction of a
new power, which shall be able to di*ag the implement,
ofwhutovc. k..id omployed, on and through the soil,
without in any degree interfering with the state of
its surface, that the soil which the implement has to
contend with shall be its natiu-al state ; and that the
very means employed to work it shall not, as in the

q2

216

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

case of the horse with its poaching feet, bring about a
state or condition which shall require the implement in
some measure to do away with this if it be possible.
Everything around us tells us that this new power
must be steam. We have bound this power to be our
willing slave, with its might that can shatter an oak,
yet be controlled by an infant's hand ; and have set it
to whirl the wheel, drag the car, and propel the ship ;
and shall we, in view of the giant aid it affords us in
those things, doubt of its capacity to till the soil and
reap its products for us ?

But in endeavouring to avail ourselves of a
new power, it is of the utmost importance that
we should consider how, and in what manner, we
can most economically make use of it. It by no
means follows that we do all, if we simply try to adapt
the new power to an old and established implement or
system of culture. On the contrary, sound philosophy
no less than common business pi-udence, leads us to
consider whether a new implement or a new mode of
culture will not probably be required before we can
take advantage of the capabilities of a new power. If
we look at what has been done in manufacturing
machinery — and the best amongst us need fear no
shame, or will incur no chargeofinefficiency, by taking
a lesson from our brother mechanicians who dwell
amongst the " cotton men" — we find that this pi'in-
ciple is almost invariably acted upon : new machines
with new processes, on the adaptation of a new power.
It would be as easy as we hope it is unnecessary
to cite numerous exemplifications of the truth of
this. There is, indeed, everything to induce our agri-
cultural mechanics, on the one hand, to think well as
to the best means of availing themselves of the capabili-
ties of this new power by the adoption of a new imple-
ment ; and our agriculturists, on the other, on the intro-
duction of a new method of preparing land for the
operation of this new implement ; but of this latter
consideration more hereafter. There is no such degree
of perfection in the work performed by the plough, or
such economy in the doing of it, as to induce a belief
that our successors will be as much wedded to it as
we are ourselves; on the contrary, we have shov. a
that it possesses defects acknowledged by allj and
that these, in place of being overcome, may be
aggravated by the application of a steady power like
that of steam. If the plough is to be retained with
steam as the traction power, those defects must be
overcome if we wish to attain economy in the working
power as well as efficiency in the work performed.
But even granting that with these defects overcome, the
work performed shall satisfy the cultural requirements
of the question, there are many who think that sound
mechanical reasoning inevitably leads to the conclusion,
that a machine on a principle distinct in its operation
from that of the plough will be required, to satisfy at
once mechanical as well as its cultural require-
ments. Modifications of its mechanism may make
the plough do good work ; it is questionable whether
steam-power will enable it to do as cheap work as
would be done by steam working an implement
expressly designed to aid its peculiarities. There
are at all events many reasons for supposing that
the plough is not adapted to the new power ; hence
before much further outlay is made in the direction of
applying the new power to the old implement, it will
be as well to consider in all its bearings the important
question. In what direction must efforts be made to
avail om-selves of the power of steam for the cultivation
of our lands ? Too much stress cannot be laid upon
the injunction— common-place enough, doubtless, but
too often lost sight of, probably from being so very
common-place— that the direction in which we are to

go must be decided on before any true progress can be
made. He would be deemed but a poor navigator
who set out from one port to reach another, without
providing himself with charts, or information as to the
shortest way of reaching his proposed destination. It
is not to be wondered at, therefore, that not a few
amongst us look upon all plans for stea.m.-ploughmg,
and for substituting the direct traction of a locomotive
for that of the horse, as movements by no means in a
philosophical direction, although gladly enough ad-
mitting their value as transition plans, tending gradually
to an appreciation of the capabilities of the new power;
forcing our train of thought out of the grooves in which
it ordinarily runs, and showing to thinking minds what
might be done, not so much from what those plans do,
as from what they cannot do.

Leaving then the question as to what the mechanic
has to do to bring about the application of steam-
power to the culture of land in this transition state, to
which the discussions and projects of the last few years
have brought it, we proceed to proffer a few remarks
on what must, we think, be the duty of the agricultu-
rist in aiding the mechanic in his important task.

If it is true that in certain branches of our manufac-
tures the adaptation of a new power necessitates the
invention of new machines, it is not the less true that
these new machines necessitate on the other hand in-
creased care in the preparation of the material on which
they have to operate ; hence we find processes of pre-
paration as well as realization or finishing. It is, we
believe, an axiom in mechanical operations, that to
make the application of steam power pay for the outlay
and the cost of maintaining it in operation, this
opei'ation must be continuous. If the process which
it is designed to aid be subjected to a series of annoy-
ing stoppages through any intei-nal fault in the con-
struction of the machine which carries it on, or through
the bad slate of the material on which it operates^ then
a continual drain on the capabilities of the working
power is kept up, and much of the advantages| lost
which render it, in cases where it is working under fair
circumstances, so superior to manual or animal labour.
There must be a nmtual adaptation of material and ma-
chinery ; the machine must be fitted to work the ma-
terial into the final condition which is desiderated, and
the material must not present any peculiarities which
will prevent the machine giving its best and its quickest
work. It is not giving a machine a fair trial to bring
it to do work under circumstances presenting obsta-
cles which it was never designed to overcome. And yet
this is what has been done by many of our farmers.
They have asked our mechanists to invent machines ;
and when they have been brought out, designed to do
work under certain circumstances, they have failed
because these circumstances have not existed, and have
been blamed for a fault which did not originate with their
designers. The manufacturer, in asking a mechanic
to devise a machine, informs him of the process through
which the material is to be put, and the mechanic
adapts his mechanism accordingly ; but it is on the
understanding that the material is prepared to suit its
action ; and this preparation of material is effected by
machinery or processes possibly as expensive in their
first construction and operation as those destined lor
the finishing of the article ; and yet he who grudged
these processes of preparation would be laughed at ;
they form part of the manufacture, and can be no more
left out than the part of the Dane in the play of
" Hamlet." It will be seen then to what conclusion
we are evidently drifting. If the mechanic has his
part to do in the invention of a machine or implement
to till the land under very different circumstances from
those existing under the old system, the agriculturist

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

217

has no less bis duty to attend to, in the preparation of
the land, so as to aid to the utmost the adaptation of
this new power, and the working of the new implement.
There is a position held by many now, namely,
that culture of the soil by the power of steam, whether
this be eflfected by the plough or by any other machine or
implement, must be a process subsequent to another or
others, this or those having for its or their object the
preparation of the land so as to aid the cultural opera-
tion. If the fields are cramped in dimensions by
hedge-rows or ditches, the one must be remorselessly
pulled down, the other unhesitatingly filled up; if hil-
locks or hollows impede the progress ofthe machine, the
redundancy ofthe one must be cut down to afford mate-
rial to fill up the vacancy of the other ; if huge boulders
threaten to stop, or,ifnot to stop, to damage or injure the
mechanism of the implement, these, at whatever cost of
time and trouble, must be exterminated. Every obsta-
cle, in short, must be removed, which can tend to im-
pede, and every facility be granted which can tend to
aid the progress of the steam-worked cultural imple-
ment. We do not say that it will pay to do all this;
this is obviously another consideration which belongs
to the province ofthe farmer himself; but taking sim-
ply and solely the mechanical view ofthe question,
there can be little doubt that if the steam-dragged
plough, or the steam- impelled cultivator, be expected to
do all the work of which it is undoubtedly capable, this
previous preparationofthelandmustbegoneinto. There
can be no doubt ofthe truth of this position, whatever
doubt there may be as to the paying capabilities of this
thorough system of operation. Half work may pay
better than whole ; but if whole work, which — to be
truthful — is the only real work, is ultimately judged the
most expedient to be carried out in the cultivation of land,
the whole preparation must also be made. The loco-
motive without the rails would not attain the lightning
speed it does, and the rails would be an expensive in-
vestment if horse traction was to be used ; the line and
the locomotive both, are required to perfect the railway
system. So in steam cultivation: there must be a
mutual adaptation of the power to the material, and
vicj versa. In stating these views, we but echo
the opinions of many gifted and far-seeing agricultu-
rists and mechanicians ; and we are glad to avail our-

selves ofthe opportunity here presented to us, by giv-
ing, as closely relating to the point, the opinion of Mr.
William Fairbairn, one of the most eminent of our en-
gineers; the remarks were made with special refer-
ence to reaping machines ; but they have, as will be
seen, a close bearing upon the question which
has occupied our attention. *' There is, however,
another element equally important and essential to the
efficiency of the process of reaping, and that is the
preparation ofthe land ; and, in fact, before we can
look forward to ultimate success, the surface must be
levelled, and the present injurious system of ridges dis-
pensed with. To a casual observer it is obvious that
our present state of culture, as pursued in most parts
of Europe, is not calculated to afibrd the necessary
facilities for ensuring a successful progression into
machinery. To supply machines successfully to the
labours of a farm, the land must be prepared, not for
hand, but machine labour ; and the successful intro-
duction of reaping machines will chiefly depend upon
the preparations that are made for their reception.
The system of ridges may be tolerated and overcome
by the sickle ; but to give to the new process of reap-
ing by machinery its full effect, a totally difierent plan
of operations must be pursued, and the fields laid down
with a perfectly smooth surface. The larger desci-ip-
tion of stones and other obstructions should be removed,
and in place of the superfluous water not required for
the nourishment of the plants being allowed to flow
between the ridges on the surface of the field, sweeping
in heavy streams, as it now does, everything before it,
the new system of drainage will require to be adopted,
and the water carried under in place of running over
the surface.

To make a machine, such as a i-eaping machine, work
well, everything must not be left to the machine ; the
agriculturist must do his duty as well as the engineer ;
and that duty once performed on both sides, a certainty
of action will be secured, which will solve the problem,
and effect satisfactory results. Having arrived at these
happy results, we may then, and not till then, rea-
sonably look forward to the crops being well and quickly
gathered by machinery, to the exclusion of a laborious
p rocess, effected with difficulty and often imperfectly
by the human hand."

AIR: HOW INVALUABLE TO THE SUCCESSFUL HUSBANDRY OF THE SOIL
AND ITS PRODUCE, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE.

In our former observations on this subject we directed
attention to a general view of it, promising to notice on
a subsequent occasion the individual case of soils, plants,
and animals, under the different atmospheric circum-
stances in which they are found. We now propose ful-
filling that promise.

In doing so, let us examine wheat, grass, and turnips,
grown in different soils, climates, and under different
systems of cultivation.

Under the first, as to soil, the practical question at
issue may be thus stated, How far does the atmosphere
affect the quality of wheat on any individual soil ? That
the nature of the soil and its atmosphere influences the
composition of both the grain and straw of this cereal, is
a fact with which farmers have been familiar from time
immemorial. To what extent, therefore, is tUis de-
pendent upon atmospheric phenomena ? Calcareous
soils, for example, and others abounding in organic sub-
stuucjs, yield wheat containing a larger proportion of
gluten or nitrogenous matter, than do soils of an oppo

site quality. How much of this nitrogen is due to the
nitrogen of the atmosphere, and how much to that of
the manure incorporated with them ?

In the case of a calcareous soil, the decomposition of
lime by means of air and water obviously works up the
oxygen of both the latter, liberating their tiitrogen and
hydrogen ; while they, uniting together under favourable
circumstances, form ammonia (n I + h 3). In this
manner 82.545 lbs. of nitrogen, and 17.455 of hydrogen
wouldmake 100 lbs. of ammonia, requiring the decompo-
sition of 107.2 lbs. of common air and 167 lbs. of water.
Now, as this quantity of ammonia is a sufficient dose
for two acres of land, yielding an ordinary crop of
wheat, it will readily be seen that the decomposition of
this quantity of air and water over such an area, the
liberation of this quantity of nitrogen and hydrogen,
and their uniting together, is the most likely source
from whence the growing wheat plant derives a large
portion of its nitrogen.

Pure ammoma, however, cannot thus be formed in a

218

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

calcareous soil, as it always combines with other sub-
stances ; but this does not in the slightest degree affect
the question at issue, for it signifies little what salt of am-
monia may be formed, so long as it is formed and con-
sumed by the plant.

In soils, again, rich in animal and vegetable matter, a
similar result takes place during the process of decom-
position. As in the case of calcareous matter, air and
water are necessary to effect this change, during which
the oxygen of both produces, with the vegetable matter,
carbonic, ulmic, and other acids, while the nitrogen
and hydrogen liberated form ammonia.

If, however, we suppose such a vegetable soil impro-
perly drained, so that decomposition takes place in the
absence of air, or a sufficient supply of it, then the
vegetable matter and oxygen form the carbonic and
other acids; but the hydrogen now unites with the car-
bon, forming carburetted hydrogen, or the gas of low-
lying marshy lands— a gas alike injurious to animal and
vegetable life.

Wet marshy soils of this class are, perhaps, the worst
for wheat culture of any, being deficient of ammonia to
supply nitrogen for the manufacture of gluten. For the
successful growth of this cereal, proper drainage and
aeration are essential requisites. A certain degree of
moisture is, no doubt, necessary to supply hydrogen ;
but in our moist climate, few crops require so little rain
as wheat, while none require a larger supply of atmos-
phere, beans and peas excepted.

On sandstone and clay soils, naturally deficient of
organic matter, and where the inorganic is less subject
to decomposition, on the contrary, wheat seldom yields
very abundantly, while the quality of the flour is inferior,
owing to the small per-centage of gluten which it con-
tains.

This deficiency of crop, and the inferiority of quality,
are thus accounted for : In the first place, the inorganic
matter being less subject to the action of oxygen than
limestone, the decomposition of air and water is conse-
quently also less, so that the supply of naturally manu-
factured food, both organic and inorganic, is insufficient
to supply the wants of a healthy and luxuriant vegeta-
tion. And in the second place, the decomposition of air
and water being less, the manufacture of ammonia is
also less, and, hence, the formation of gluten.

In the case of grass crops again, results are similar,
the produce of dry calcareous or vegetable soils being
better for rearing and fattening stock, than that of others
of a diff'erent quality not so subject to the decomposing
influence of the atmosphere. We might quote many
examples from the rich grazins; districts of England and
Ireland, in proof of this proposition, were it necessary.

In low-lying, marshy grass-lands, however, the exam-
ple is widely different from that of wheat-land, in more
respects than one. In the first, for example, luxuriant
crops of an inferior quality are often produced by this
class of soils ; and although not equal to straw as food
for cattle, they make nevertheless excellent manure.
As such we have used immense quantities, both in a
green state and dry, for littering stock, and always had
fine crops.

For pasturage they are not well adapted ; the marshy
gases arising contaminating the atmosphere, and thus
injuring the respiratory functions of stock, or otherwise
affecting their health. la corroboration of this, we
shall mention two examples : In the first, large tuber-
cular swellings break out, principally about the neck
and chest of cattle, the malady generally terminating
fatally. And not only are they affected thus when
grazing, but also when consuming in the straw-yard,
alike in summer as winter, the produce of such lands,
as turnips, hay, and straw. In the second example,
cattle never thrive well ; while they change their colour,
whatever it may be, to a " dirty dun."

Some low-lying wet grass-lands, we must observe,
are exceptions from the above examples, the produce
being rich in quality and abundant in quantity. This
is owing to the water not being stagnant, but rising to
the roots of plants by capillary action, and bringing a
sufficiency of lime, alkaline, and other salts, in solution,
to counteract acidity and supply the necessary quality
of food which otherwise would be wanting. The grass,
however, owing to the decomposition of air being less
(and consequently the produce of naturally-formed am-
monia), is generally deficient of nitrogenous element, and
therefore is better adapted for yielding butter than
cheese or butcher-meat; but in practice this deficiency
is easily supplied by the addition of a little pea or bean-
meal and cake.

Like grass, the turnip delights in a rich, well-drained,
calcareous soil, or one full of vegetable matter, with a
moist climate, both top and bottom having a liberal
supply of air. An abundance of pure air is essential for
the growth of this invaluable plant ; for without plenty
of room, a well-pulverized soil, and an atmosphere free
from deleterious matter, a heavy crop cannot be grown.
At the same time more water appears to be assimilated
in the process of vegetation than nitrogen from the
atmosphere ; thus proving that as the turnip is a large
consumer of ammonia — a great decomposer of air and
water — nitrogen-gas must be given off from its leaves.

With regard to climate, it is much more diversified
than is generally imagined. In common conversation
we talk of the north, south, east, and west, as cardinal
distinctions ; but when we come to examine the details
of even a single province, let it be situate where it may,
how different is the atmospheric circumstances of one
farm from that of another ! and how unlike are the
results on animal and vegetable life !

Such diversities are to be attributed no less to geo-
logical than geographical causes. When we enter the
field, may it not be said, How little is yet known of the
"chemistry of common life!" for here the undivided
labours of the farmer are directed to one continued
process of decomposition ! as if man had but one grand
object in view — viz., to pull down as fast as Nature
builds up the animal and vegetable kingdoms ! Nor are
results to be measured by his own individual efforts ; for
mechanical appliances without number are now being
brought to bear upon the soil, exposing it more effec-
tually to the decomposing influence of the atmosphere,
in order to increase both produce and consumption.

This decomposition of the soil and its produce must
affect the contiguous atmosphere less or more, and hence
the quality of the crop. The smell of newly-ploughed
land is sensibly felt, for instance, on entering the field,
and from different qualities of soil it is equally different.
From time immemorial, ploughmen have experienced
certain localities more healthy than others ; and the dif-
ference is obviously to be attributed to climate, as
affected by the volatile matter given off in the process
of decomposition.

We might here enter into a large amount of detail,
quoting examples from different geological formations,
did our limits permit ; but this blank we shall leave our
readers to fill up themselves. If they take up a clod
and break it, they may easily detect what the smell or
volatile matter given off into the atmosphere is com-
posed of. Or if they can analyze it, they may also be
able to say what will be liberated in the process of de-
composition. All that we shall add is this — Were every
farmer in possession of the analyses of the different
qualities of soil he cultivates, and volatile matter given
off in the process of decomposition, it would prove an
interesting source of information to him ; and when a
few sovereigns would obtain it, why should it not be had .'

The atmosphere, again, is sensibly affected by differ-
ent crops, and that differently at different stages of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

219

their growth. Who has not felt, for example, the in-
toxicating aroma of peas, beans, and clover in iiower 1
— the fragrance of the meadow during hay-making ? —
the pungent smell of turriips when growing rapidly ? —
and that of a field of barley behind the reapers or reaping
machine in harvest ? These, although prominent ex-
amples, are only a few of what experience is familiar
with, and which might readily be quoted for the .<ake of
illustration.

Our next topic is cultivation. How does it affect the
influence of the atmosphere upon the soil and its produce ?

With regard to the soil, it is only when accompanied
with a sufficiency of moisture that the atmosphere can
enrich it. If divested of water, the scorching effects of
a summer's sun would render our fields as barren as the
deserts of Arabia ; but with the requisite supply of this
invaluable fertilizer, the rays of the sun are powerful
auxiliaries to the enriching of them. To "keep in the
sap" and " out the drought," and yet admit the free
circulation of the atmosphere, has long been acknow-
ledged one of the cardinal points in good farming.

Deep culture and drainage, again, by increasing the
capacity of the soil for holding air, add greatly to the
means of enriching it. Probably more of the success of the
Lois-Weedon system depends upon this, than to the
mere fallowing of the "intervals" between the
beds of wheat or other kinds of crop ; so that
the question may yet be raised whether equally deep
culture, with proper attention to seeding the ground
uniformly, may not produce equally beneficial results.
But be this as it may, the chemical effect of air and
water in a greater depth of soil is manifest from what
has already been said ; for the decomposition of the soil,
air, and water (and hence the formation of soluble
matter and ammonia) will be directly as this depth —
twice the depth of ordinary cultivation by the plough
producing twice the quantity of fertilizing matter, whiie
from the greater depth there will be less escape or waste
of volatile substances.

The free circulation of air, again, access of light, and
rays of the sun, among growing crops, are questions of
equal importance. In this respect wide drilling is
highly advantageous, while intervals may produceamore
healthy and free circulation. But much of this will de-
pend upon special circumstances ; for clean flinty straw
on the wide-drill system may admit of a freer circula-
tion than coarse flaggy straw deficient of silica with wide
intervals.

Many exceptions may no doubt be taken to the
wholesale manufacture of ammonia, as advocated, from
the nitrogen set free in the decomposition of air, uniting
with the hydrogen of water when undergoing a similar
process ; but granting them to be true, the practical
question in the field is obviously to reduce exceptions of
this kind to the common rule. This may be done in various
ways — as by draining ; deepening the soil ; adding clay,
calcareous, and vegetable matter to sandy lands, to re-
tain moisture and produce decomposition ; sand, vege-
table, and calcareous matter to clay lands, to promote
the free circulation of the atmosphere, and its decom-
position along with -that of water ; in short, anything
which will promote the decomposition of air and water
in the soil, so that the nitrogen and hydrogen set free
shall be united so as to form ammonia. We see no
other way of accounting for the extraordinary fertility
produced by improvements of the above kind, than by
working up the nitrogen and hydrogen set free in the
process of decomposition into ammonia, or some of its
compounds, as food for plants. The decomposition of
farmyard manure in the soil, and eyen clean straw in
clay lands, obviously works up the nitrogen of the at-
mosphere and hydrogen of water into matter more ferti-
lizing than their own constituent elements will satisfacto-
rily account for. The advocates of exclusive liquid
manuring overlook the economy of decomposing vegeta-
ble matter in the soil, and the additional supply of am-
monia derived from this source by means of the nitro-
gen and hydrogen liberated in the process.

THE GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE THRASHING MACHINE.

" Portable thrashing machines," wrote Loudon
twenty-five years ago, " are very common in Suffolk ;
it being not unusual for an industrious labourer, who
may have saved thirty or forty pounds, to own one
worked by three or four horses. Reaping-machines
and steam ploughing-machines will probably in a few
years be owned and let out for hire in a similar man-
ner." After more than " a few years," reapers and
steam-ploughs have not yet attained a similar position
with itinerant thrashing-machines, although rapidly
coming into extensive adoption by large farmers. How-
ever, thrashing-machines themselves have taken a
form that our author never anticipated : the portable
steam-engme, and that marvellously compact piece of
mechanism, the combined thrashing, shaking, win-
nowing, and finishing-dressing " drum," "barn-works"
or " mill," having completely raised the character of
agricultural machinery, and as a necessary consequence
multiplied mechanical knowledge among farmers and
their workmen. Directly it was proved that steam
power could be advantageously conveyed from farm to
farm, not only a higher velocity of the drum, and a
greater amount of work in a given time was achieved,
but the operations of straw-shaking and winnowing,
previously confined almost entii-ely to thrashing ma-
chinery erected in buildings, were now added to the
portable machines. As far as mere knocking out of
the grain is concerned, we have now comparatively

little to wish for, and may expect only slight Improve-
mentsin augmenting the quantity done, economising
the motive-power, avoiding splitting, and accommo-
dating the beaters and concave to all conditions of
" stuff." In the apparatus for separating the corn,
chaff, and straw, considerable advances may yet be
made; and as next July will try what our inventors
and manufacturers can do for us in this department, it
may be well for farmers to devote some consideration
to it beforehand.

One of the earliest ideas in connexion with thrashing'
by machinery was that theseparation of corn, chaff, and
straw, should be effected, as well as mere shelling out
the grain from the ear. Thus Michael Sterling, more
than a hundred years ago, applied the principle of
flax-hulling to beat out corn, in a machine consisting
of a vertical shaft carrying arms or blades revolving in
a cylinder — the corn being fed in at top, and the straw
and grain separated by riddles and fanners under-
neath. This was thirty years before the invention
of the drum and beaters by Meikle. In 1789, three
years after Meikle's first machine was constructed,
with a drum of four scutch-beaters and a pair of
feed-rollers, the first machine having a circular rake
attached for shaking the straw, and fanners below for
cleansing the grain, was erected in Northumberland.
In 1795, Wigfull, of Lynn, in Norfolk, patented a ma-
chine in which the corn falling from the drum was

220

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

carried by means of a shaking screen and rolling-
cloth or endless web to the blast of a fan, where it was
separated from the chaff. Of course our space will not
permit us to chronicle here all the successive improve-
ments in thrashing machinery; but these instances
show how ancient is the addition of shaker, riddle, and
fan, which we are still labouring to improve. The
straw- shakers of the old Scotch machines are generally
known as being large drums, armed with rakes, re-
volving above fixed curved racks or screens, over which
they pass the straw; some machines having one of
these drums "overshot," and furnished with brushes
as well as rakes or forks. The separating apparatus
consisted of a couple of winnowing-machines under-
neath, similar to those made for hand-power, catching
the grain and chaff from the drum and shakers by
means of a large deep hopper.

The parallel-motion shaker, so much in favour now,
appears to have been invented in 1840, by Mr. Morton,
of Whitfield Example-farm, and erected as part of the
steam-thrashing machinery there by Mr. Clyburn, of
TJley Works. It consisted of parallel spars of wood, 6
feet long, and three-quarters of an inch thick, with
three-quarter inch spaces between them ; these being
joined together in two alternating sets, were jumped
by double cranks on two revolving shafts, as our pre-
sent box-shakers are. This was about the first time
that straw was subjected to a real " shaking." Other
parts of this machinery were equally ingenious. The
corn fell before the blast of a fanner, then down be-
fore another ; the light grain and short straws thrown
out by this fir?t winnowing being taken up by an
"elevator" again to the feeding-board of the drum.
The winnowed corn was carried up by other eleva-
tors to another winnower, or rather two, one under
the other, with two fans, and was finally again ele-
vated to the sacks, or j^assed through a "barley-
hummeller." An endless web was tied at the mouth
of the drum, to carry the unthrashed straw gra-
dually to the beaters. Since that time, this web
has been abandoned ; another first winnower has been
added, fed by an endless web beneath the drum and
shaker ; and the corn after falling before the first blast
is sifted sideways into the hopper of the two lower
dressing-machines; and a horizontal cylindrical sieve
or " separator'' was also applied. The idea of adapting
winnowing apparatus to portable thrashing-machines,
carried into effect by the Lynn machine-maker, in
1 795, was revived just half a century afterwards. Earl
Ducie exhibited at the Southampton Meeting, in 1844,
a " recent and scarcely completed machine," the inven-
tion of Messrs. G. Parsons and R. Clyburn, which
Mr. Miles reported as being '• truly original." At
Shi'ewsbury, in 1845, this machine was driven by Dean
of Birmingham's portable engine, itself a great novelty,
and awarded a prize of £10. It thrashed, cleaned,
and finally sacked the grain ; and Mr. Parkes in his
report said, " It is a powerful machine, and possibly
adapted to the very large rather than to the moderate-
sized farm." In 1846, at Newcastle, a thrashing-
machine was exhibited by Cambridge, having a reci-
procating rake attached, for the purpose of collect-
ing and passing the straw from the drum without har-
bouring the grain ; and the lower part of the machine
was inclosed so as to form, a box or receptacle for the
grain to fall into. But up to a year later than this
period we find that imjjrovcd horse-power machines
without dressing apparatus occupied the most prominent
place in the catalogues of the great makers; while
hand-power thrashing machines were much in request
as novelties. At Northampton, in 1847, Hornsby
showed a thrashing-machine with a revolving shaker ;
Cambridge one also with, a shaking apparatus at-

tached; and J. Cornes, jun., of Market Drayton, a
thrasher with straw- shaker and elevator, the shaker
six feet long; Hayes, of Elton, had a straw-shaker ;
and Clyburn exhibited a horizontal cylindrcal " sepa-
rator." Ryland and Dean, of Birmingham, however,
showed a complete machine for thrashing, winnowing,
and bagging the grain. At York, in 1848, Hornsby
had his improvement of Clyburn's shaker ; Summers,
of Wold Newton, a rotary straw-shaker ; Scott, of
Belfast, a revolving-rake shaker; Humphries, of Per-
shore, a thrasher with winnowing appraatus and
shaker ; Garrett, a thrasher with straw-shaker and
jogging screen for separating the colder and refuse from
the grain ; while Abbey, of Dunnington, exhibited
a horse-power thrashing-machine with blowing-case,
riddles, and elevators which filled the sacks with corn ;
and Burrell, of Thetford, gained a silver medal for his
portable thrashing and dressing machine with parallel-
bar shaker, invented by W. Palmer, of Southacre,
capable of thrashing five or six quarters per hour, and
delivering the corn, chaff, straw, and siftings or short
straws in separate places. The price was only ^"'75,
yet the machine was at that time supposed to be
very cumbrous for ordinary farm use. At Norwich,
the next year, Clayton andShuttleworth produced their
box-shaker, three feet wide, and fourteen feet long;
Crosskill, also had a shaker, '■ on a new principle" ;
Hornsby showed a double-cranked or jumping straw-
shaker; and Sargison, ofWisbeach, a shaker having
sieves or riddles of perforated galvanized-iron, which
propelled the straw and pulse forward, while the grain
sifted through. In addition to Burrell's thrashing and
dressing machine, Cambridge showed one invented by
Humphries, for thrashing, winnowing, and weighing;
Holmes, of Norwich, a horse-power machine with a
newly-invented jog colder riddle, and a new straw-
shaker; Garrett, a thrasher with chaffing apparatus;
and Ferrabee, of Stroud, a machine with double-crank
shaker, and an endless band for delivering the corn and
chaff to and elevator which cari-ied it to an ordinary
winnowing-machine. And it is noticeable that the
manufacturers felt it necessary to call attention to the
fact that their portable machines for doing all this work
at once did not require to be removed from the car-
riage-wheels on which they were mounted. In the
Farmer's Almanac for 1850 appeared the first en-
graving of a portable combined thrashing-machine,
viz., Garrett's ; the shaker consisting of spars with
spikes rotating upon cranks at the inner end and vibrating
on rockiog-bars at the other. About the same time came
out Clayton and Shuttleworth's portable combined
machine ; the shaker-boxes having a parallel motion,
by means of wheels and spindles connecting the
crank-shafts, instead of connecting-rod and cranks as
before ; and there was a vibrating trough extending
the whole length of the machine. Tuxford's table
shaker- off was also introduced ; at first having a
rotai'y jumping movement by means of mitre-wheels
and a spindle connecting two crank-shafts underneath,
instead of hanging on slings as at present.

It is only six or seven years, therefore, since we ob-
tained the portable thrashing-machine in its present
form ; that is the vital parts which are now being im-
proved and altered (but still generally adhered to) in
every possible form. We may mention as one of the
greatest and most extensively-adopted improvements,
Humphries' divided and reciprocating trough or shoe ;
and as vai'iations from the common form, Ransome's
revolving Brinsmead shaker, and Hornsby's worm or
screw for feeding the riddles.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

221

THE INCRUSTATION OF CEREAL AND OTHER SEEDS.

By F. R. de la Trehonnais

Formerly, when science was still in its infancy, expe-
rience to a certain extent, but routine especially, were
the only guides of agriculturists in their modes of pre-
paring the ground for the reception of the seed. Farm-
yard manures and bare fallows were the only means
of restoring the spent energies of the soil ; and these
were then, and are even now to a great extent, indis-
criminately resorted to, without any regard to the che-
mical constitution of the soil, or the requirements of the
plants that are to grow upon it. Analytic science, and
the wonderful discoveries of vegetable physiology, have
of late years thrown a great deal of light upon the sub-
ject of manure, its mode- of application to the soil, and
its assimilation by the plants. And yet, practically,
little progress has been made. We have superphosphate,
it is true : we see a great many kinds of artificial manures
daily advertised in our agricultural papers; but, after all,
the progress we have accomplished is by no means ade-
quate to the strides which science has made in the analytic
knowledge of manures, in the exact appreciation of
their fertilizing qualities, and their action upon vegeta-
tion in various plants. We still cart away to our fields
the same ponderous loads of farm-yard dung, a large per-
centage of which is of no earthly use, and can only be
regarded as the liuge vehicle of a very minute proportion
of ammonia and alkaline salts. Even gugno and super-
phosphate of lime are encumbered with a large propor-
tion of useless ingredients, all of which are costly to
purchase and cumbersome, and therefore expensive to
carry. Besides, what a large proportion of the manure
which we lay over our fields is utterly lost to the crop we
want to grow ! what a large per-centage is eaten up by
noxious weeds, or disseminated through a part of the
soil untouched by the ramifications of the roots, and
therefore immediately useless ! On the other hand,
we know, from clear demonstration, what the sub-
stances are which each kind of crops draws from the
soil ; we know to a fraction the quantity of each of those
substances respectively; and when we come to compare
their aggregate weight at per acre, with the quantity of
manure which we have laid over that extent of ground,
we are astounded at the difference in bulk and weight.

II.

If a plant is dried and burnt, the little pinch of ashes
that remains, after complete combustion, represents
the amount of mineral substances which the plant has
drawn from the soil. The rest, which has evaporated in
the air by the process of combustion, represents those
constituent parts which the plant has derived from the
air. Chemistry tells us exactly what substances the
ashes contain, and in what proportionate quantities. It
is then obvious, that either the soil or the manures put
on it, or, as is more generally the case, both combined,
have supplied those substances to the plant, without which
it could not have arrived at maturity. But here we may
well pause, and ask ourselves whether, in order to ad-
minister to the plant so small a quantity of matters —
another and a more simple mode cannot be found ; for
that quantity, though it be multiplied by the number
of plants in an acre of ground, still remains compara-
tively minute in the extreme, when we compare it with
the bulk and weight of the 20 or 25 cubic yards of dung
we have laid over it, besides the pulverulent artificial

manure or guano we have drilled with our seed.
Again, if we calculate the cost of that manure and the
value of the labour which its use has necessitated, we
find that the little heap of ashes which has been the
result, has cost us an immense sum of money ; in fact,
a much higher sum than the pure chemicals of which it
consists could be bought for in the trade.
III.

Hence, the general tendency of efforts on the part of
both scientific men and practical agriculturists towards
concentrated manures, that is, diminishing the bulk of
useless substances, serving merely as vehicles to the
really fertilizing element, in order to render them more
portable, and more energetic, proportionately with their
bulk. Abstractedly, this is evidently the goal of our
progressive ideas in agriculture ; that is, the simplifica-
tion of all the means, either in labour or manures — the
one by concentration of fertilizing energies ; the other by
means of ingenious machinery, and especially the use of
steam-power in field as well as barn operations. It is
true to a certain extent that, apart from the primary
purpose of restoring the exhausted fertility of the soil,
stable and other bulky manure have other advantages,
mechanical and thermal ; for instance, in dividing a
stiff soil, and imparting to it a higher temperature
by decomposition from fermentation. But, with tho-
rough drainage, these advantages have become less
depending from the action of stable manure; and I
have no doubt but, as we progress with time, the corn-
growing farmer will no longer be obliged to have recourse
to the present troublesome and expensive mode of manu-
facturing his manure. A more definite delineation will
divide the operations of the corn-growing from those of
the breeding and grazing agriculturists, by which the
pursuits of the farmer will become less complicated,
demanding a smaller capital, diminishing his risks,
and materially adding to his gain. Every farmer in
England knows well that the lean stock he is obliged to
feed on his farm brings him no immediate profit ; and,
were it not for the manure, he would incur a positive
loss — setting for nothing the labour, anxiety, risks of
mortality, and the locking up of capital, which the
feeding of lean stock entails.
IV.

From the foregoing preliminary observations, we are
naturally led to ask the question, How are these disad-
vantages to be removed ? How are we to turn scientific
discoveries to a practical account ? How are we to
concentrate our manures, and simplify their fertilizing
constituents, so as to reduce them to the bulk of the
amount actually assimilated by the crop ; and, having
succeeded in this, how are we to apply them ?

A few weeks ago I communicated to this paper the
translation of a very remarkable memoir upon the nutri-
tion of plants, by the celebrated Boussingault, describing
a series of experiments which clearly demonstrated the
possibility of enabling a plant to accomplish all the phases
of its existence, viz., its germination, normal growth,
bloom, fructification, and maturity, in pure calcined
sand, in which were introduced pure phosphate of lime,
vegetable ashes, and nitrate of potash, which contain the
mineral constituents of the plant selected for the experi-
ment — Helianthus argojjlnjllus. Here, it is very
obvious that the soil was essentially used only as a

•223

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

vehicle to the plant wherein it might strike its roofs,
and also to the ingredients which were added as food for
its development and maturity. So it matters not how
destitute of every nutritive element a soil may be,
if it do not contain any substance noxious to vegeta-
tion— provided it can be supplied with the constituents
of the plant which is to grow from it. If those con-
stituents may be so placed in close proximity to
the roots that they may be all absorbed by the plant
in the course of its development, there is no necessity
of placing in the soil a larger quantity than will be
assimilated by the plant. In other words, if the analysis
of the ashes of the plant shows that it has absorbed, say
ten grains of the various elements added to the soil, and,
in respective quantities, if it were possible to introduce
those substance in so close a proximity to the roots that
the whole might be integrally assimilated, there is no
doubt but the mere addition of exactly ten grains of the
mixture, in the same proportion as found in the ashes,
would be quite sulHclent to insure the normal develop-
ment of the plant.

It must be admitted, however abstract the foregoing
proposition may be, that if the principle it propounds
could be practically applied, it would be the very .limit
to which progress can attain ; and as I have already re-
marked, it is impossible not to perceive that it is to that
concentration and simplification of means that we are
now directing all the efforts of our skill, knowledge, and
ingenuity.

Boussingault, in his recent experiments in the pro-
duction of what he calls a iimil plant, has proved that
the seeds of many plants contain the necessary quantity
of nitrogen, not only for the germination of the plant
and the nutrition of the nascent stem and leaves before
the radicles have been sufficiently developed to draw a
supply from the soil, but also to the production of a
perfectly organized plant, though exceedingly reduced in
its dimensions. In fact, such a plant — after several
months' existence in the open air, or even in a confined
atmosphere — has been found to weigh but very little more
than the seed from which it sprang. This clearly shows
that the extent of the organism of that plant was limited
by the quantity of the nitrogenous principles contained
in the seed ; but as soon as he applied to the soil (ex-
clusively composed of calcined quartz sand, not contain-
ing a particle of decomposed matter or mineral manure)
a small quantity of phosphate of lime, nitrate of potash,
and vegetable ashes rich in silicate of potash, the plant
immediately sprang up from its torpor, and grew luxuri-
ant and strong, bloomed, and brought forth matured
seed as well and as rapidly as another plant of the same
kind had done upon a garden-strip richly manured.

This experiment clearly shows that the soil upon
which the plant grew exercised no immediate influence
whatever upon the growth of the plant, as far as its nu-
trition went, but merely as a vehicle for heat and mois-
ture, as well as the holder of the plant and of the pure
mineral salts upon which it lived and developed itself.
This naturally leads us to ask the question, whether,
instead of incurring great expense and trouble in ma-
nuring the soil thoroughly with heaps of dung contain-
ing but a small percentage of fertilizing matter, which
is still reduced and less available to the plant by being
disseminated over a larger surface than the roots of the
plant can possibly compass, it be not possible to manure
the seed itself, that is, surround it by a crust formed of
the very mineral substances which are necessary to its
growth, in the same proportion as they are found to exist
in the seed, and in a sufficient quantity to represent exactly
the weight of the aggregate mineral substances which
are abstracted from the soil by the well-matured normal
plant } This crust could then be considered as the mere
extension of the seed to a larger bulk ; and as the seed

contains what is necessary to feed germination, and even
to form a complete plant, though limited in weight to
the extent of food contained in the seed, so the seed
being increased to any required number of times its size
and weight by the agglomeration of substances, such as
phosphates, nitrates, and silicates, would be enabled to
supply to the growing plant the necessary elements of
normal growth and perfect maturity.

VI.

This is indeed no new theory, and many have been
the attempts even in times of remote antiquity to realize
it in a practical manner. Many are the inventors of
wonderful liquids, in which the seeds were to be steeped,
and thereby imbibe all the required elements of nutri-
tion and fertility. All these have failed, not because the
principle was not a sound one, but because it was not
properly applied. For it is obvious that a liquid
manure, however rich in fertilizing elements, could not
fix these round the seed in a sufficient quantity so as to
increase its store of nutritive matters — this can only be
done in a solid form. Then, until very recently there
was also the insuperable difficulty arising from ignorance,
science not having yet shed the light of its discoveries on
the mysteries of vegetation ; and the wonderful action
of phosphates, nitrates, and silicates upon vegetation, al-
though practically known, had not been determined with
sufficient minuteness and accuracy to lead to anything like
an authentic formula of proportion and quantity. But
failures, however complete they may be, in carrying out
great ideas, are no arguments against a renewal ofefi'orts;
and when those failures, as in the case of steam-engines,
railways, reaping-machines, or the application of steam
to the cultivation of the soil, are found to act rather as in-
centives to the ingenuity of men, instead of damping
their energy and the buoyancy of their hopes, we know
it from the experience of the last thirty years that it is
a sure sign that the idea is good, and will be ultimately
carried out.

VII,

But there are objections to this system. What sys-
tem is free from objections ? Some say that the mineral
matter with which the seed is enveloped, on being dis-
solved in the soil, will settle immediately around the
neck of the roots, which will naturally dive away from
it, and it will then become useless to the progress of the
plant after it has attained a certain development. I be-
lieve that this objection is more specious than real ; for
every one must have observed that when a seed has fallen
upon a manure heap, and there germinated to a plant, if
that plant be pulled up, it is found that the roots are
very short and shaggy, and do not seem to have pene-
trated beyond a very limited area, the number of rootlets
making up for the deficiency of their length. This
seems to me easily accounted for ; because the roots,
finding in their immediate vicinity a sufficient supply of
nutritive elements, have no inducement to dive at any-
great length in search of them. The instinct displayed
by the roots in search of food is truly wonderful, and
many examples of their astounding sagacity might be
adduced. I have read somewhere the instance of the
radicle of a plant diving to the depth of many feet, and
fixing itself into a bone that was buried there, and in
search of which it had evidently dived at so unusual a
distance from the surface. It is not, therefore, un-
natural to surmise that the roots of the plants, finding
within their immediate vicinity all the nutriment re-
quired for tiie plant whose mouths they are, quietly settle
in that spot, and contentedly relinquish their erratic
propensities.

VIII.

However plausible this and other objections may be,
the best test, after all, is the test of experience ; and that
system, which I have called, for want of a better word,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

223

the incrustation of seeds, must live or die by tliat great
test. A French gentleman has recently come to this
country, to submit his invention of a machine for pre-
paring the seed, and the formulas regulating the nature,
proportions, and quantities of the mineral substances to
be used, to the verdict of English practical farmers ;
and I am in a position to state that his appeal has been
favourably received, and experiments are being made in
various parts of England with the view of testing the
value of that gentleman's discoveries. Messrs. Burgess
and Key have been entrusted with the construction of
the simple machine for the incrustation of the seed.
This machine consists in a hollow cylinder, suspended by
two leather straps from a pulley, to which a rotary
motion of about forty revolutions in5a minute is imparted,
either from a steam-engine or any other motive-
power. In the cylinder the seed is introduced mixed
with an agglutinous mixture, itself rich in nitrogen ;
and then the mineral substances, reduced to a fine

powder, are added, and from the rotary motion of the
cylinder adhere to the seed in a regular coating ; this
is repeated until the entire quantity has been tixed. In
order to prevent the humidity of the agglutinous mixture
from acting upon the seed, and causing it to germinate
before it is put into the soil, an hygrometric substance
is mixed with the mineral powders, which abstracts
all the excess of humidity from the glue, and besides
dries up the crusted seeds almost immediately.

Previous to his coming to this country, Mons. D'llliers
has satisfied himself by numerous experiments of the
value of his discovery; and at the late sowing season, a
large area has been sown with his prepared seed in
various parts of France, so that at the time of next
harvest I shall be enabled to give an authentic account
of experiments tried both in France and in England,
under every variety of local circumstances of soil, cli-
mate, and modes of husbandry.

Norwood, Jan. 8, 1858.

LAND DRAINAGE — ITS ACTION AND EFFECT.

In a former article we pointed out the discrepancy of
opinion that existed upon the practice of draining,
and we concluded our observations by stating a few
leading principles that appertain to the subject. We
may pursue these with advantage a little further.

As a surcharge of water in any description of cul-
tivable soil must at all times be injurious, it becomes
absolutely necessary that it be discharged as quickly as
possible ; and as the amount of rainfall is different in
different portions of the kingdom, the means applied
must have relation to the quantity to be discharged by
the drains. Consequently, in districts where the rain-
fall exceeds 30 inches annually, the means resorted to
for its removal must be in relation. The permeability
of the soil also forms a strong consideration ; the more
retentive it is, the nearer together must the drains be
placed ; and vice versa the greater the porosity of the
subsoil. The depth of the drains will depend upon the
nature of the upper soil and substratum : if exceedingly
retentive, and only slightly permeable, then the depth
of the drains must be compensated by the distance be-
twixt them. On such soils drains of 30 to 36 inches in
depth will be found sufficient, the distance between
vai'ying from 15 to 20 feet ; but when the substrata
become more permeable, the depth of the drains should
be increased, and the space between them extended.
It rarely happens, however, that any soil affected by
surface water requires drains more than 48 inches in
depth, or will allow a distance of more than 30 feet
apart. This may be accepted as a principle necessary
in application, upon soils affected only by what is termed
top luater, or such water only as is supplied from
above. Upon the permeability or impermeability of
the substratum the application must invariably depend;
but as many drainers contend that all soils are more or
less permeable, it may be well at once to advert to
that point. To a certain depth it undoubtedly is the
case; but frequently at a depth of 18 inches some of our
strongest clays become impermeable, unless for short
periods after excessive drought, when, by their having
shrunk, fissures have been formed by which water
becomes freely admitted, but which, when again
saturated, become impervious to the further admission
of water. Or, as is the case in many tenacious clays,
small veins of silt exist jn stratified order, and accom-
plisli the object of allowing the water to pass off slowly
by their assistance. Professor Ansted, in speaking of
the London clay, says, '* It is tough, and of course

impermeable ;" and this has been proved over and over
again to be correct.

Much of late has been advanced upon the benefit to
be derived by not allowing any of the rain water to be
carried off by surface drains, but that the whole of it
should be admitted, and pass through the soil to the
drains below. The argument advanced in favour
of such a practice is assuredly carried too far. It
is true that rain water contains some fertilizing
properties, more especially as regards the ammonia
and nitric acid that become combined with it, but
which, at all times minute in quantity, during very
rainy seasons exist in the smallest perceptible propor-
tions. Whenever these enter into and become com-
bined with the soil, they are by their affinity immediately
taken up by it, and retained to be given out to plants
vegetating upon its surface. The greatest amount
of injury sustained by soils surcharged with water
arises from the exclusion of air and the lowering
of its temperature, as well as by the admixture
of mineral ingredients with it, which become injurious
to vegetation. Air contains substances equally be-
neficial to vegetation as those contained by rain
water; those properties in the latter, before referred
to, being taken up in its passage through the air
as the rain-water descends to the earth. After long
periods of drought, when the air has become highly
charged with those substances, the quantity brought
down by the first shower that falls is far greater in
amount than what is brought down by the next and
succeeding showers. In long continuous seasons of
rain it ceases altogether. As it is during such seasons
that a surcharge of water to the soil becomes most
injurious, it is at once apparent that, if a large portion
of this matter can at once be carried off from the sur-
face, the necessity of an increased area of drainage below
may be dispensed with, especially in districts where the
amount of annual rainfall is greatest.

Water in a state of evaporation from a surface dis-
charges the heat also; and, therefore, if no other
means exist whereby water can be discharged from the
soil, it must remain until sufficient heat is produced by
the rays of the sun, or by increased temperature of the
atmosphere upon the surface to again convert it into
vapour. During this process the heat of the soil be-
comes diminished, especially at the immediate surface ;
and a soil of a' district of naturally higher tem-
perature is reduced to the temperature of one of

2U

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

higher latitude or elevation. This effect has, how-
ever, been greatly exaggerated. It has been recently
computed that the heat lost in the process of eva-
poration by the sun's rays an inch-fall of rain would
be sufficient to reduce the temperature of the soil,
to a depth of ten inches, no less than 99 degrees!
The more porous the soil, the more rapid is the evapo-
ration ; and consequently we have an explanation why
crops upon gravelly subsoils become most affected in
the early spring months, and at the same time arrive
at a remedy in relieving them from surjdus water by
drainage. The radiation of heat from a surface coming
into contact with vapour discharges the heat at the im-
mediate point of contact, and explains the cause of hoar
frost when the thermometer shows, at a few inches from

the surface, no frost actually existing. The drainage of
land, therefore, by lessening the amount of evaporation
from the surface, consequently lessens the discharge
of heat from its surface, and thereby benefits vege-
tation.

The thii'd point to be referred to, is the injury sus-
tained by plants whenever mineral substances, entering
into combination with water stagnant in the soil,
rise to the surface, and become injurious to vegeta-
tion. This more especially takes place upon soils
highly charged with peroxide of iron, which most soils
in a greater or less degree contain, especially those
wherever iho subsoil is of a red colour. To such an
extent does this frequently exist, as to tinge the water
passing through it with this red colour, and its deposit.

AGRICULTURE IN CHINA.

HONGKONG, November, 1857. — A revisit to the
scenes of the Canton River has impressed me still more not
only with the extraordinary beauty of the scenery upon its
banks, but also with the singular geological formation of
the country. Upon a first view, especially if the attention
is absorbed by warlike operations, one does not observe the
general coincidence in character between the district of the
Pearl River and that of the Yang-Tse. We are struck
rather by the points of difference. In the one the eye meets
at every point ranges round-topped granite hills ; in the
other the vision wanders unchecked over a dead flat. Yet
both are enormous deltas of alluvial soil, through which the
internal waters descend in one large river and a thousand
streams. In the north the deposits were spread upon the
level bed of a great sea, and silted it up into a solid plain ;
in the south the rich mud was brought down into an archi-
pelago of granite islets, drove out the sea, and produced a
region of rich valleys intersected or dominated by granite
mountains. The crops we see upon the banks of the Pearl
and upon the banks of the Wangpo owe their luxuriance to
the same alluvial qualities of the soil. On the Canton
River they are just now gathering their second crop of rice,
the bananas are still clustered upon the trees, and the
patches of sugarcane look green and reedy. I should have
been glad of an opportuniti' of examining the agriculture of
the south more nearly. Three Englishmen at Hongkong
resolved, in the spirit of Chevy Chase chivalry, to hunt, or
rather to shoot for three days upon the enemy's territory.
I was to have accompanied them, but was drawn away by
the more imperative duty of accompanying the reconnais-
sance up the river. On my return I found they had accom-
plished their vow. Bristing with revolvers and accompanied
by five Coolies to each man, they bad landed at Mirs Bay,
passed through several villages, beat with pointers and
beaters the hills overhanging the battlements of a walled
city, and, in spite of angry looks and muttered maledictions,
had returned with whole skins and a bag of 16 pheasants
and some quail.

The best way to see the agriculture of a country is to
shoot over it. A landlord who shoots over his estate knows
the rotation of crops in every field, and his tenant will not
wisely be too persistent in his straw crops. With a view
to this same sort of minute acquaintance with the agricul-
ture of the flowery land, I employed some of my enforced
leisure at the north in little expeditions after the China
pheasants. I used to take a Soochau boat, and go away up
the rivers and creeks, some 20 or 30 miles, and anchor off
some likely spot for the night. Next morning my servant
went to the nearest village and hired three peasants with
long bamboos, and we went forth scouring the country.
There is no game law in China. The land is free to all, and
consequently the result was not great sport. Moreover,
every inch of ground was covered by some standing crop,
and I had no dogs. Hospitable as the Shanghai folk are,
they do not like lending their dogs, and I sighed in vain
for my faithful four-footed friends. The only resource was
to try whether the habits of the wild pheasant of China,

which has cost no one a guinea to preserve, are the same as
those of their more costly brethren of England, I used to
steal in early morning, and again just before sundown, to
the sides of the bamboo plantations. The ground round
these plantations, which are always attached to houses, is
cultivated in lands, like allotment grounds in England— a
land of cotton, another of peas, a tliird of indii;o, a fourth
of white turnips, and so on. But in China, as in England,
the pheasants are not easy to approach at feeding time, I
seldom got a shot at less than 70 yards, and if I brought
down my bird " a runner" he was lost to me and my heirs
for ever. The fields were all alive with sharp-eyed ijidi-
genes, who watched the course of the wounded game, and
followed it up when I was gone. In the daytime I had a
very numerous following of spectators, and I shot many
birds of curious plumage for their amusement and for the
satisfaction of my own curiosity. It was verj' critical shoot-
ing. It was scarcely possible to point your gun without
finding a Chinaman at the end of your barrels; and if you
peppered one of these spectators or cotton-pickers by acci-
dent, you would be bound up in bamboo thongs and sent to
Shanghai in a cage. Altogether, therefore, the October
shooting in China is not quite worth following for itself
alone. But for the exercise, and as an excuse for exploring
the country, it is greatly to be cultivated, and the birds,
when you do get them, are very handsome. All the cocks
have the white ring round their necks, and, strangely
enough, the cocks get up more freely before you than the
hens.

After investigation carried on with these opportunities, I
am convinced that England has nothing to learn from China
in the art of agriculture. It is true the Chinese have no
summer fallows; but then they have nostiff clays. They have
no couch grass, no thistles contending for the full possession
of the land, .as we see in Wales ; no uninvited poppies, no
straggling stalky crops, the poverty-stricken covering of an
exhausted soil. At rare intervals we see a large rich-coloured
cock's-comb flaunting himself among the cotton ; but, gene-
rally speaking, there is not a leaf above the ground which
does not appertain to the crop to which the field is appro-
priated. Rice and cotton are the staples of the great dis-
trict of which I am now speaking. These crops often ex-
tend in unbroken breadth over tracts of thousands of acres.
The peas, and wheat, and indigo, and turnips, and bringalls
lie in patches round the villages. The ground is not only
clean, but the soil is so exquisitely pulverized that after a
week's rain I have sometimes looked about in vain for a
clod to throw into a pond to startle the water-fowl.

We may be accustomed to mark the course of agriculture
throughout the breadth of our own land — the light loams
of our Lincolnshire wolds, the turnip and barley lands of
Norfolk, the strong flats of Suffolk ; then westward to the
rich pastures of Leicester, the mixed dairy and arable farms
of Derbyshire, across the coalfields to the successive and at-
tenuating oat crops on the shores of Bala, and down the
valley of the Tivey — j'et we shall see nothing like the cul-
tivation of this great plain of China.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The art is exercised under different conditions. The
Chinese cultivator is not asked for milk, or butter, or cheese,
or mutton, or beef. The Chinaman does not object to a
little buffalo or goat's milk with his rice; and if some curious
accident should have brought buffalo flesh into his basin, he
will eat it. But he rarely or never buys it. In his recent
voyage of discovery up the " Great Junk" or " Great
Western River," Commander Elliott and Captain Edgell
saw droves of buffaloes upon the uplands to the north of
Canton, and we know that milk and mutton are common
food in Tartary ; but I am speaking of those parts of China
where agriculture is supposed to reach perfection, not of the
mountain pastures. Pork, poultry, and vegetables, and the
creatures that swim or crawl about his rivers and canals, are
the Chinaman's natural dainties. Stall feeding, therefore,
would not pay even so moderately (taking sale of stock
only into consideration) as it does withjus, and grass is only
seen growing rank on graves. One or two buffaloes to turn
the irrigating wheel and plough the paddy fields, two or
three goats, a breeding sow, a quantity of those ugly, long-
legged fowls so ignorantly called " Cochin-Chinas" in Eng-
land, and a flock of ducks and geese— such is the live stock
of a Chinese farm which maintains a hundred labourers.

Stable-j-ard manure, therefore, is scant. Nor is it much
coveted. Human ordure is, in a Chinaman's opinion, the
only perfect fertilizer. This is collected with the most op-
pressive care. In the cities and in the neighbourhood of
cities enormous dark open earthenware pans offend the
senses at every town, poisoning the air, inviting, and too
often receiving, the contributions of the passers-by. The
privilege of collection is sold for a large price, and the Can-
tonese have a proverb that a fortune every day passes iu
that form out of their gates. In the suburbs every cottage
has its open earthenware cesspool. In the country every
house has its public latrine, ostentatiously placed with its
open doorless entrance to the public path. In these temples
the Chinese worship with a deliberate solemnity which sa-
vours of the ostentatious performance of a religious rite.
The numbers and suffocating effluvia of these opposition
manure-traps are to an Englishman a never-ceasing horror.
They constitute his first and last impression of the country.
Like everything else in China, the favour awarded by law
and custom to the collection of manure is used as a contri-
vance for extortion. At Ningpo two immense pans lie op-
positeto the entrance-door of the first native merchant in
that city, awaiting the payment of 2,000 dollars, which is the
price of their removal. The boats which convey this pro-
duce through the inner waters will bring up close to you at
night, and will remove only for a consideration. I knew
an Eaglishman at Shanghai who was obliged to pay 30 dol-
lars upon one occasion of this kind; but then he, in Britan-
nic fashion, had knocked the extortioner into the midst of
his liquid cargo.

These details of the " sordida rura" are not pleasant to
write ; at all times " difficile est proprie communia dicere,"
but if the object be to depict or to comprehend China,'they
must be written and read. This manure is sprinkled over
the plant. It is too precious to be worked into the ground.
The straw and the burnt hulm of the cotton plant are re-
turned to the soil — that is all. The Chinese transplant
every root of rice by hand, just as we should transplant
young trees, and each has its little blessing of liquid ma-
nure as it is sown. This homoeopathic system would not
do, I apprehend, with our hungry clay lands.

The art of agriculture is, I repeat, exercised under dif-
ferent conditions in China to what it is in England. Give
an English farmer a thousand acres of vegetable loam of an
unexplored depth— a reticulation of waterways, which en-
ables him to flood at pleasure every acre of his soil — an
unfailing supply of manual labour at 4d. a day — and cheap
communication, by tidal creeks, with large markets ; give
him also periodical rains, perfect drainage, and abundance
of quickly ripening sunshine, and see what crops of corn
and pulse and pot-herbs he would produce. I say nothing
of tea, and cotton, and mulberry leaves ; for our friend
Giles would have to scratch his head a little before he could
start on a race to overtake these Chinamen, who are 4,000
years of practice a head of him.

But then, per contra, it must be recollected that this park
of Ceres is infested by poachers. These happy fields are

overrun by extortionate mandarins, pillaging soldiers, ma-
rauders, who in small bands are called robbers, and in large
bands aspire to be rebels and to be led by " kingSj" river
pirates who levy blackmail, and occasional swarms of locusts
which darken the sun. Simple folk may chatter about the
horrible injustice of coercing the governing powers of Chi-
na : but a Government which exacts and does not protect
is only a badly-organized brigandage. 1 see no act of duty
in rescuing a fly from a spider or a sparrow from a hawk,
yet I do not regard either deed as unlawful. Quite sure I
am that the larger interest of humanity would be subserved
by any train of circumstances which should bring the Chi-
nese population to comprehend not only our Western no-
tions of probity and honour, but also our Western habits of
working those notions into practice.

A curious instance has just occurred of the promptitude
and ingenuity with which the Chinese seize upon occasions
for extortion. Rumours had reached the ears of the Ad-
miral that some Chinamen were levying contributions in the
towns and villages on the banks of the river, and that they
were doing so in the name of the English fleet. Com-
mander Fellowes, in the Cruiser, accompanied by Mr. Wade ,
chief of the interpreter staff, were sent to inquire into this.
These officers, with a small force, landed and proceeded from
village to village, prosecuting their inquiries under much
discouragement, for the suspicious inhabitants apparently
imagined that the collectors of the barbarian tribute were
come among them. It was only by slow degrees that Mr.
Wade gained some credit to his declarations that he was
not come to " squeeze." Then the quick eye of the Com-
mander detected a rowboat, built to imitate a man-of-war's
boat, but having points of difference enough to show a sea-
man that it had been constructed by Chinese hands. Soon
afterwards Mr. Wade's attention was attracted to a notice
posted in one of the more remote villages, and purporting
to proceed from the honourable English nation. This pro-
clamation stated that some of the husbandmen had not paid
the regulated grain-tax due to the English fleet for protect-
ing their crops, and threatened the defaulters that if the
amount were not paid upon a certain day the ships would
commence firing upon the villages. Following up this clue,
the exploring party at last found that there was a society
calling themselves the " Hall of Patriotism and Peace,"
who were in active collection of this tribute money ; and
that they actually had a prison well filled with victims
within musket-shot of the ships. Of course, the prisoners
(six of whom were found loaded with chains) were set at
liberty ; and the Admiral has circulated a notice in Chinese,
disavowing any connection with such exactions. It was
believed, however, that the Chinamen who contract to sup-
ply the fleet with provisions were at the head of this so-
ciety ; and subsequent inquiry discovered that there was a
small fleet of row-boats, some got up to imitate English
boats, and others having Chinese equipments and mandarin
banners, which lurked by day in the creeks and came out
at night. These boats all belonged to the " Hall of Pa-
triotism and Peace," and they levied contributions alter-
nately in the name of each of the belligerent Powers. The
grand master of this lodge has been treated to four dozen
lashes, and has had his head shaved ; but he is no China-
man if he will not incur a similar flogging for a similar ob-
ject to-morrow. — Times.

FUNNY RAT TRAP.— A correspondent of the Ge-
nessee Farmer relates the following funn^ way of catching
rats : — " I build my corn crib on posts about eighteen inches
high, made rat-proof except at one of the back corners.
Here, where they will like it best, make a nice hole with a
spout five inches long on the outside, where they can go in
and out and eat at pleasure. Then, if I think the rats are
too numerous, I take a bag, after dark, and slip the mouth
over the spout on the outside of the granary. Then send
" Ben" in at the door with a light, and the rats and mice
will run into the bag. Then slip the bag off the spout, and
slap it once or twice against the side of the granary. Turn out
the dead, and in an fiour or two repeat the process. After
all are killed, stop up the hole till new recruits arrive,
which catch the same way."

326

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE IMPLEMENTS OF THE FARM— TO IMPROVE OR INVENT.

With reference to the implements succeeding the
plough, which still further pulverize the soil, and
which finish its surface, as the clod-crusher, the Nor-
wegian harrow, and all the varieties of this important
class, it is difficult to estimate in what direction further
improvement must he made in their arrangement or
construction so as to produce better work. What
they have to do is done with admirable precision, so
that although minor improvements may be made, no
great revolution in their style of working can be rea-
sonably expected. The remedy may be found yet
further on. We are quite aware how ungracious is
the task of "finding fault;" and having apparently
done so much in this way already, if we still con-
tinue doing so, we shall doubtless be set down as
utterly and in all things heterodox, and as con-
tinually indulging in dreams Utopian. But at
the commencement of our articles, the task we
set ourselves was one which had for its main object
the endeavour to point out the probable direction in
which agricultural mechanism was likely to progress ;
and to trace the impulses, if any, which tended to
drive men's thoughts out of the long-maintained track
of wont and usage. In following out this task, we
have not been desirous so much to set before our
readers our own notions on the subject as those of
others. We have, in truth, been mainly attempting
to become the exponent of what " men have been and
are now thinking" on the all-engrossing subject of
agricultural progress, and our remarks therefore must
be considered in this light, rather than as the result
of personal convictions.

To come, then, to our rather startling conjecture —
namely, that this class of implements now under con-
sideration may be, at some period more or less remote,
rendered unnecessary. It may seem strange to some
to doubt that clods and hardened nodules of soil are
natural concomitants of the cultivated soil. Some do
doubt this nevertheless, holding that these defects in
cultivated soil are simply caused by defects in the sys-
tem by which it is cultivated ; so that if the soil was pro-
perly prepared, these defects would have no existence.
Mr. Stephens, in his work explanatory of the " Yester
Deep Land Culture," has the following : — "Many of
the most costly implements employed on farms, such
as Norwegian harrows, Crosskill's clod-crushers, grub-
bers, rollers, are only used for pulverizing the soil.
The occupation of such implements is gone in the
Yester deep land culture. The subsoil trench-plough-
ing, by the double operation, effectually and perma-
nently pulverizes not only the soil, but the subsoil,
to the depth of 19 or 20 inches; and the Tweed-
dale plough itself afterwards maintains the soil in
a state of pulverization to the depth of 15 inches,
having still a stirred subsoil of 4 or 5 inches be-
neath a really unusually deep furrow. Experience
has fully established that from the pulverized
state of the soil in spring, no other implements are
wanting for the cultivation of the soil than the plough
described above, together with the common harrow with
long tines." This is sufficiently suggestive. There can
be no doubt that the Yester system is a great fact, and
has resulted in an established success; moreover the
result of the closest investigation into its peculiarities
can discover nothing which prevents its adoption in
other districts. Indeed, the facts established by it
afford the strongest argument in favour of the plough

—when philosophically used — as being in reality the
best and cheapest implement which can be used for
the cultivation of the land. Nothing, in our opinion,
would tend so forcibly to lead away many minds from
attempts to supersede the plough, as the wide adop-
tion of the Yester, or some similar system, which seems
to afford the best work of which the plough is capable ;
and gives the deeply-pulverized seed-bed with inverted
furrow, so strenuously insisted upon by all thinking agri-
culturists who advocate its use. We are glad to see that
attention to this system is becoming widely spread. It
certainly does not seem to follow — at least there is no
reason to conclude— that these clods and hard nodules of
soil should be an invariable concomitant of some, if not
the majority, of cultivated soils. One prolific cause, in
heavy clay soils, of these clods, is the stirring of the soil
while in a wet state. Now in the Yester deep land cul-
ture there is a complete cessation of ploughing " from
the autumn cross ploughing of the stubble, to the mak-
ing up of the land for turnips in spring." The soil re-
maining in a pulverized state, the farmer is in a mea-
sure independent of the weather both in winter and
spring, " as the land can wait for the best weather."
There seems then a probability that good thorough
cultivation will put and mamtain the land in such a
state, that many implements which are now considered
— and are indeed — essential, may be entirely disused.
There is no doubt also that the power of steam applied
to the working of cultural implements will tend greatly
to prevent the formation of clods and a hardened sur-
face, by doing away with the poaching and puddling of
the horses' feet. An eminent man once remarked to us,
that in view of the simple elementary implements, the
plough and the harrow, which were for so long a period
considered the only ones essential to secure good
cultivation, the long array of complicated machines
to be seen at our great agricultural shows was really
very puzzling, and was calculated to make one wonder
whether they were really all required or not. It will
be odd indeed if experience in cultivation brings us
back again to the use of these two implements only,
the plough and the harrow ; the experience of the
Yester system points at all events to this result.
There is such a thing as a variety of machines being
necessitated solely by the badness of a system of pro-
cedure.

Broadcast and drill-sowing are now known as re-
spectively the " old and the new" school of procedure.
There is something thoroughly sound and satisfactory
ia the principle of a corn drill; and something as
sound in the mechanism by which it is carried out.
The " swing lever" was just the thing wanted to take
the machine out of the category of doubtful, and place
it in that of accomplished pieces of mechanism. But the
" drill," looked upon by many as the ultimatum of sow-
ing machinery, beyond which no progress can be made,
is perhaps destined to be rivalled by another machine
acting on a different principle. A rising class are now
advocating the " dibbling" system as pi'oductive of in-
finitely higher results than even the drill ; that it is, in
fact, as much above this machine in efficiency as the
drill is above the broadcast system. If these opinions
with reference to the value of the dibbling system gain
ground — and there is apparently too much soundness
in the principle to allow of its dying away, without
gaining a wider trial than it has yet met with— a
wide field iu which to exercise their ingenuity will be

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

237

opened up to our mechanicians. The problem to be
solved, in the perfecting of a dibbling- machine capable
of a higher rate of working and economy than has yet
been effected, is, however, a much more difficult one
than may at first si-iht be imagined. Unfailing de-
posit of the seed, uniformity of depth in its deposition,
and undeviating regularity of operation, m-ist all be
attended to. The weight of evidence is apparently in
favour of the deposition of several grains in tlie hole
rather than in that of one or a " single" grain only.

It is obvious that steam-power, if brought into re-
quisition for cultivating the soil, will be made to aid in
succeeding operations — in our sowing, and in our har-
vesting. In view of this extended application of the
new power, considerable modificatious will be neces-
sitated in tlie management of our " drills." To obtain
the full economy and efficiency of steam, its operation
must be as continuous as possible : once set in motion,
the machine which it operates must or should go on
until its work is performed : all stoppage to arrange or
modify its mechanism is just so much loss, and must
* therefore be avoided. Hence with steam-drawn drills

a higher class of workmanship, with mechanism cal-
culated to make the machine meet its own wants vvitli
as little human interference as possible, will inevitably
be required. We fear that the attempt to apply the pre-
sent machines — admirably adapted as they may seem,
and indeed are, to our present system — to steam-))ower
will only result in disappointment, with loss of time
and money. As we have before said, the new power
will necessitate the use of new imj^lements and ma-
chines ; not necessai'ily new in the principle of their
operation, bat new in mechanical arrangements, suited
to the vastly different circumstances under wliich the
processes they are designed to serve, will be carried
when the new power is predominant.

The same remark applies to hay-making machines
and reaping-machines.

Wliile examining with a pardonable wonder the
curiously complicated, but withal most efficient ma-
chines used in the various branches of our manufac-
f tures, as the cotton, the wool, or the silk, we are apt to
think it strange that the same facility of mechanical
adaptation has not been observable in agricultural
machinery. But, while far from ignoring the fact
that comparatively little has been where much might
have been done, we should remember that the diffi-
culties surrounding all attempts to adapt finely con-
stituted mechanism to agricultural operations are much
greater, indeed generally of a totally different kind,
than those which surround similar attempts in manu-
facturing mechanism. On this point, we venture to
quote a few remarks given elsewhere : — " In many of
the processes of our manufacturers, however much
we may be astonished at the precision with which
operations are carried on by the aid of machinery alone
— operations which seem to demand some share in
the human will — the obstacles which presented them-
selves in adaptingmechanism to carry on these have been
of a nature comparatively easy to be overcome. The
nature of the material to be operated upon is generally
unvarying 3 or at least, where changes do occur, they
are of such a nature that simple mechanical arrange-
ments obviate all inconveniences resulting therefrom.
Not so, however, with reaping-machines. The material
to be operated upon is continually changing ; and the
difference between a rainy day and a dry one — between
hilly ground and level — between laid grain and stand-
ing— is just all the difference that is required to make
the material either that which affords facilities to these
machines in cutting, or, on the other hand, of
throwing such obstacles in their way as to render
it almost an impossibility to cut it at all. But

the capability of merely cutting corn under all
circumstances of time, place, and condition, is not
the only work which a reaping-machine has to per-
form. The gathering-in and distributing of the corn
after being cut, ready for the binders, is an equally im-
portant part of its duties. Nor, in fact, does its mission
end here : a perfect reaping-machine should be capable
not only of cutting the corn with undeviating regu-
larity, but of arranging it into bundles of defined and
unvarying size ; leaving, as the only labour to be per-
formed by the hand, the tying of these bundles, and
the placing of them in the field in the form of ' stooks.'
Performing this wider range of duties, the machine is
better distinguished by the American term of ' Har-
vester.' As in machine-spinning, so in machine-
reaping, the less there is for human hands to do, the
more perfect the machine. J5ut herein lies the diffi-
culty of effecting machine-reaping : as we have shown,
the material on which, and the circumstances under
which it operates, are varying in character, and do not
piesent that uniformity which opens up much hope
that with our present system of culture, we shall be
able to rival the automaton performance of our manu-
facturing mechanism."

In this department of agricultural mechanics
the implement-maker must be aided by the farmer,
and exactly in the way we have indicated when
treating of the application of steam-power to cul-
ture. If the preparation of the land previous to
the operation of the cultural-machine is, as we have
endeavoured to show, essential to the full perfecting o
the steam-working system, it is no less essential we
conceive to the perfect working, or at least greatly in-
creased efficiency, of the reaping-machine. And here
comes, in full force, the opinion of the gifted mechani-
cian whose words we quoted at the conclusion of
a recent article, and to which we again refer the
reader. If, then, the agricultural mechanic can ob-
tain fields calculated to aid the operation of his
machine, rather than to retard it and throw difficulties
in the way of its performance — as too many fields do
now ; if, moreover, by the more extensive adoption
of that system of sowing which, as its advocates say,
gives us thick strong straw, little liable to be laid by
winds and rain, there can be little doubt that our
reaping-machines will soon be brought to that state of
mechanical perfection which will enable them to carry
out those complete operations that will be demanded of
them should the power of steam ever be adapted to
their working. What these complete operations are we
have endeavoured to show.

SIZE OF FARMS IN AMERICA. — In the wheat
region, south of Lake Ontaria, the farms are usually from
150 to 200 acres in extent, though many are much larger.
The farmhouses are roomy and comfortable, impressing one
favourably with the condition of the occupants. The female
members of the family have ample employment in the clean-
ing and cooking departments, and the table at the difi^erent
meala is loaded with a profusion of dishes. House servants
are dispensed with as f^ir as possible. Butcher-meat ap-
pears at breakfast, dinner, and supper. The Americans no
doubt eat a vast deal too much of such stimulating food.
Indeed, I do not think that any class in England consumes
so much butcher-meat as all classes do here. It is a re-
marliable circumstance that farms have a tendency to de-
crease in size more rapidly where the land is poor than
where it is rich. — North America; its Agriculture and Cli-
mate, By Robert Russell.

228

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

INQUIRY RESPECTING THE QUANTITY OF NITRATES CON-
TAINED IN THE SOIL AND IN THE WATERS.

[translated from the FRENCH OF THE "JOURNAL d'aGRICULTURE PRATIftUE."]

In a former paper I endeavoured to demonstrate that
saltpetre acts directly upon the development of plants.
I mentioned the experiments made upon the employ-
ment of nitrate of soda of Peru in extensive farming,
and called to mind that nitrates had been detected, for a
great length of time, in arable lands possessed of a high
degree of fertility, by Bowles, Praust, and Einhoff, in
the waters of brooks, rivers, and springs ; in meteoric
waters by Bergmann and Berzelius ; and, more recently,
by the remarkable labours of Messrs. Bineau, Henri
St. Claire Deville, Brandes, Liebig, Bence Jones, and
Barral.

In the researches I have had the honour to lay before
the Academy, I proposed to myself to extend the inves-
tigations of my predecessors, by determining what, at a
given moment, is the quantity of nitrates contained in a
hectare of arable land, a hectare of meadow, a hectare of
forest land, and a cubic metre of river and of spring-
water.

The nitrates have been found in forty samples of
earth ; but, before presentinfj the result of these dis-
coveries, I must first make known the circumstance
which has induced me to undertake the work.

I had had occasion to observe that the plants brought
from the kitchen-garden of the ancient monastery of
Liebfrauenberg contained considerable quantities of
nitrates. Beet-roots, which I had cultivated in 1854 at
the request of M. Peligot, contained also so large a
proportion, that it became nearly impossible to ex-
tract the sugar from them.

Each year the kitchen-garden received in autumn a
heavy manuring with rotten stable-dung. The soil is
light, being a disintegration of the sandstone of the
Vosges, and other motley kinds. The water is not re-
tained in it, because the porosity of the earth descends to
a considerable depth.

On the 9th of August, 1856, after fourteen days of
drought, accompanied with great heat, we took some
vegetable earth from a bed, and to one kilogramme of
that earth, dried in the sun, we applied the equivalent
of 0.211 grammes of nitrate of potash. The litre of dry
earth, weighing 1.500 kilos., we have 516.05 grs. of
nitrate to the cubic metre ; so that on the 9th of Au-
gust we might estimate the saltpetre contained in a hec-
tare of the kitchen-garden at 1.055 kilos., taking 0.33
inch as the mean depth of the vegetable mould.

Such a proportion of nitrate, in a soil very
heavily manured, has nothing surprising in it;
in fact, to incorporate a soil well mellowed with
stable-dung in an advanced state of decompo-
sition, with either ashes or marl — to dig it thoroughly,
so as to mix and let in the air to the whole mass
—to form trenches to prevent stagnant water from
accumulating, is, in fact, equivalent to manuring,
and prepares a field to yield abundant harvests. Well,
a little reflection will show us that this is exactly
the process we adopt when we form an artificial nitre-
bed. The only difference lies in that, in a moist cli-
mate, the nitre-bed ought to be sheltered, in order to
preserve in the earths salts so soluble as nitrates ; and
that, however little continuous it may be, the rain does
not fail to draw, or at least to penetrate into, the ad-
jacent subsoil. Thus, from the 9th to the 29th of

August, it rained every day at Liebfrauenberg, and they
measured in the udometer 0,053 in. of water. The
29th of August, immediately after the rain had ceased,
we collected earth in the same bed from which we had
taken it on the 9th : after drying, 1 kilo, of this earth
yielded 0.0087 grammes of nitrate ; consequently, in 1
cubic metre, the equivalent of 0.13 kilos, of nitrate of
potash, or 45 kilos, per hectare: the greatest part of
the saltpetre had, therefore, disappeared from the sur-
face of the earth.

In the month of September it rained fifteen times,
and there fell 0.108 in. of water. On the 10th October,
after fourteen days' drought, the soil of the kitchen-
garden, under the influence of a continued wind, had
lost its excess of moisture, and had become dry enough
to require watering. From earth taken from the foot
of a wall breast-high, after having been dried, was ob-
tained 0.298 grammes of nitre per kilo., or 447 grs. per
cubic metre, or 1.490 kilos, per hectare, which rather
surpasses that obtained by the dose on the 9th of Au-
gust. The alternations of drought and moisture the
soil had undergone, explain the enormous variations
that we have noticed in the proportions of nitrates
found in the soil. As to the great quantity of these
salts, it proceeds, beyond a doubt, from the prodigality
with which we manure, at all times, a kitchen-garden—
the true type of intense culture. It is proper, there-
fore, to apply doses of saltpetre to soils which never
receive manure, such as forest-lands, or which are only
slightly manured, as lands tilled under a normal culti-
vation.

I have examined seven samples of forest-soil. The
earth taken on the 27th October in a forest of pines
near Ferreste, in the Upper Rhine, furnished no indica-
tions of nitrates.

The earth of a pine-forest, situated on the summit of
a mountain of the Vosges, and in such a position as to
be watered only by the rains, contained, on the 4th of
September, the proportion of 7 grammes of nitrate of
potash per cubic metre.

Sand taken on the 15th October, in the forest of
Fontainebleau, contained per cubic metre the equivalent
of 3.27 grammes of nitrate of potash.

In a heath soil collected on the 15th August, in the
forest of Hatten (a short distance from the Rhine), we
found the equivalent of 12 grammes of nitrate.

In meadow-lands, taken in September and October
on the banks of the Saiier, in a valley of the Vosges,
and a pasturage situated near Roedersdorf (Upper
Rhine), the proportion of nitrate of potash has varied
from 1 to 11 grammes per cubic metre of earth.

Of nineteen samples of arable earths, of good quality,
taken in September and October in the valleys of the
Rhine, the Loire, the Marne, and the Seine, four
yielded no nitre. The lands which contained the least
were taken from a field of maize at Hoerdt (Lower
Rhine), from the vineyard of Liebfrauenberg, and from
a field of beetroots on the banks of the Saiier. The
cubic metre of earth did not contain, respectively, more
than 0.8 grammes, 1.28 grs., and 1.35 grs. in equiva-
lent of nitrate of potash.

I had not waited for this last result, in seeking nitrates
in the calcareous amendements which are applied to the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

229

soil in large dressings. The shell-marl formed, as we
are aware, of the debris of cockles, had become incor-
porated with the earth we are about to speak of, in
consequence of an application of 70 cubic metres per
hectare. In 1 kilogramme of this shell-marl, recently
taken from the pit, I was not able to detect the least
trace of nitrate.

A very white marl, from La Chaise, near Louzouer
(Loiret), examined immediately after its extraction,
contained the proportion of 7.2 grs. of nitrate of pot-
ash per cubic metre. In the marl of the same deposit,
extracted in 1853, and which, since that time, had re-
mained in a lump on the edge of the marl-pit, we ob-
tained from the same volume 19 grammes of nitrate. A
very argillaceous marl, from the hills of Chaumont,
contained 25 grammes.

The chalk at Meudon is extracted from thrive overlying
workings. The limestone taken from the upper stratum,
in a cutting actively worked at a point where the quar-
riers were engaged, contained per cubic metre the
equivalent of 16 grammes of nitrate. A fact worthy of
observation is, that we have found no nitre in the infe-
rior (lower) beds of chalk. When we know what is the
mass of calcareous matter we incorporate with the soil
in a dressing of marl, we can understand that, in spite
of the weak proportion of nitrates they contain, they
must be sought for, since they may form part of the
substances which are held enclosed in the marls in only
very minute quantities, but which at the same time are
not less efficacious, such as phosphates of lime and al-
kaline carbonates.

With some exceptions, we have met with saltpetre in
the earths examined in sufficiently weak proportions.
But we ought not to forget that the experiments have
been executed during a rainy autumn, and that the
rain tends to take away, or at least to displace the ni-
trates. We have ascertained, in fact, that the nitre of
a cubic metre of earth from a kitchen-garden has varied
from 316 to 13 grammes, according as they were ex-
tracted before or after the occurrence of the rainy days.
What is, above all, necesssary to observe in the results
obtained, is the fact of the frequency of saltpetre in
vegetable earth, whether it belongs to the forest-soil,
situated at such a height above valleys, that it receives
as manure nothing else than the rain, or makes part of
a tilled soil to which the most intense manuring is ap-
plied.

As water tends to dissolve the nitrates, we should
expect to find a stronger proportion of these salts in a
soil moderately manured, kept sheltered from the rain.
I have, in point of fact, met with very remarkable quan-
tities of saltpetre in the soil of hothouses, which has
more than one analogy with artificial nitre-beds.

In one kilogramme of earth of a hotbed in the Jardin
des Plantes, 1 found the proportion of 6 centigrammes
of nitrate of potash, or 89 grammes per cubic metre, A
kilogramme of earth, taken from another hotbed in
the same establishment, has yielded the equivalent of 6
decigrammes of nitrate of potash, or 804 grammes per
cubic metre.*

Our learned contemporary, M. Moquin Tandon, hav-
ing readily authorized me to take from the hothouse of
the botanic garden of the College of Medicine the sam-
ples which I required, I have been enabled to detect, in
1 kilogramme of the light black mould from the surface
of the frame, the equivalent of 0.121 grammes of nitrate
of potash, or 161 grammes per cubic metre.

In one kilogramme of strong earth, taken at the depth
of 30 centimetres below the light mould, we obtained
the equivalent of 0.107 grammes of nitrate of potash, or
185 grammes per cubic metre. It will not, perhaps, be

* These earths had not the same density ; but I report from
memory the weight of ihe litre of each earth examined.

useless to observe here, that it is precisely in this same
hothouse of the College of Medicine that M. de Luca
has made his interesting experiments upon the nitrifica-
tion of potash by the elements of the atmosphere.

Whether the nitrates, of which I have given the large
dose in the soil of hothouses, have their origin in
the atmosphere, or that they may be formed as the re-
sult of modifications which the organic matters in ma-
nure gradually undergo, in presence of alkaline or
earthy bases ; or, still further, that they result simply
from the successive accumulations of nitrates brought
by the water emplo;ted in watering it; or, lastly,
from these various causes united ; it is still clear
that their continuance in the earth depends essentially
on this circumstance, that the pluvial waters do not
carry them away. Setting aside also the favourable in-
fluence of the temperature of humidity, everything leads
us to believe, that it is in a hothouse that a manure pro-
duces its maximum of beneficial effect. On this subject
I may be permitted to offer some reflections.

In the actual state of our knowledge it is natural to
attribute the azoteous principles of vegetables whether
in the form of ammonia or of nitric acids, regard being
had to the question of ascertaiinng if the azote of the
acid does not pass into the state of ammoniac under the
influence of vegetable organism. The azote of albumen,
of casein, and of fibrine of plants, has very probably
formed part of a sal ammoniac or a nitrate. Perhaps
we might add to these two salts a brown matter which
we obtain from manure. But even with the adjunction
of this matter, still so imperfectly known, it remains an
established fact that every immediately active element of a
manure is soluble, and, consequently, that a manured soil,
when exposed to continued rain, loses a portion more or
less strong, of the fertilizing agents which have been given
to it ; besides, we constantly find in drainage waters the
true lixiviate of the land — nitrates and sal-ammoniacs.
And if it be true that the summits of mountams and
elevated table-lands have no other manure than the
mineral substances derived from the rocks from which
they are found, and the meteoric waters, it is not less
so that in the most ordinary conditions of cultivation, a
soil strongly ameliorated yields to the pluvial waters
which pass through it more fertilizing principles than it
receives from it. In giving to the soil a coat of manure
in a slightly advanced stage of decomposition, containing
by that means, rather the elements of ammoniacal pro-
ducts and nitrates, than of those salts themselves, the
inconvenience resulting from the action of protracted
rains, is less than if they gave it rot! en dung, in which
the soluble salts already predominate. Besides, amongst
the incontestable advantages arising from the application
of liquid manures, I think we ought to place in the first
rank, that of bringing to the plants cultivated, only
matters properly modified to be absorbable, offering
them to the plants only in proportion to their wants ;
the true dressing bearing a certain resemblance to the
most delicate proceedings of experimental physiology,
and which preserves the manure from the dissolvent ac-
tion of the rain waters.

If the meteoric- waters over which the agriculturist has
no command, produce often an effect unfavourable to his
cultivation, by their abundance and, above all, their un-
seasonable intervention, it is not thus with spring and
river waters, brought by irrigation ; or those which are
held by absorption in a valley in a suitable state of
moisture. These waters, when we measure them to the
soil, yield to it the entire of the useful substances they
hold in solution or in suspension ; calcareous and alka-
line salts, carbonic acid, organic matters, &c., and in
order to show in what large proportion these dissolved
or attracted substances are introduced, I shall recapitu-
late that in a series of experiments which I had under-

R

230

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

taken in order to determine the volume of water neces-
sary to irrigation in our climate during summer, I was
able easily to produce an absorption per hectare on land
strongly seeded with trefoil, ninety-seven cubic metres
of water every twenty-four hours. This was, after all,
not more than a watering to the extent of 9.07t. of
liquid per square metre. It was casting upon the soil
a covering of water of less than 0.01 in. thickness.

Amongst the salts useful to vegetation conveyed by ir-
rigation to the soil, we ought to distinguish the nitrates,
the fertilizing effects of which had not escaped the saga-
city of M. Henri Sainte-Claire Devilie in the classic
work he has published on the composition of potable
waters, and from which he has deduced as a consequence,
that the waters of springs and rivers are for meadows a
powerful manure by the silica and alkalies they bring
and by the organic substances and nitrates, in which
the plants find the azote indispensable to Iheir organiza-
tion.*

It is not necessary to insist upon the intei-est that
might be attached in detecting in the waters so active a
manure as saltpetre; the results at which I have arrived,
by showing to what an extent the proportion of that
element varies, justify besides the opportunity of exe-
cuting similar researches.

Thus I have scarcely been able to ascertain the nitrates
in those enormous masses of water contained in the
mountain lakes of the Vosges.

The water of the Seven Lake with the same valley, a
little below Lake Stern, and from whence flows the
Doller, has yielded per litre the equivalent of .07m. of
nitrate of potash.

The pond at Soultzbach, near Woorth (Lower Rhine),
formed by the dam of the little river of Soultzbach, is
surrounded with mountains of sandstone of the Vosges,
In a litre there was but .03m, of nitrate.

Spring Waters. — I have examined the waters of
fourteen springs. The poorest in nitre were those of
Liebfrauenberg, and of the ruins of Fleckenstein. Both
proceed from the sandstone of the Vosges, and the litre
contains from 0.03m. to 0.14m. of nitrate of potash.

The spring waters in which I have found the most
saltpetre are those of the Ebersbronn (Lower Rhine), and
of Roppurtzwiller (Upper Rhine), which yielded re-
spectively 14 and 11 grammes of nitrate. These waters
are used for irrigation.

Waters of Rivers. — Of the river waters analyzed the
least charged wiih saltpetre are those of the Seltz and
the Saiier, tributaries of the Rhine, which respectively
yielded 0.07m. to 0.08m. per cubic metre.

Those which contained the largest proportion of ni-
trate are the Veste in Champagne, and the Seine ; the
water of the former holding 12 grammes, and that of the
Seine 9 grammes per cubic metre. This last result is
deduced from six determinations made between the 29th
of November, 1856, and the 18th of January, 1857.
In 1846 M. H. Sainte-Claire Devilie detected in the
water of the Seine, in nitrate of soda and magnesia, the

* Annales de Cliimie etde physique, 3rd Series, v. 23, p. 52.
The following ia the summary of the labours of M. Sainte-
Claire Devilie. "These analyses establish, 1st. The im-
portance of the portion of silica in potable waters, which M.
Payen had previously found in great quantity in the water of
the wells of Greuelle. 2ad. The part which thia agent, in
connexion with the azoteous matters of the waters, takes iu
the fertilization of meadows. 3rcl. The sio'ilar part which we
ought to ascribe to nitrates iu the action of water as manure,
and consequently the importance of the nitrous elements in
many cases. (1.) Water taken the 22Dd October 1856. I men-
tion the dates, because iu the Niaters, aa in the earths, the pro-
portion of nitrates is not at all periods the same. (2.) Water
taken the 25th October, 1856. (3.) Water taken the 24th
Auf!U8t, 1856.

equivalent of 18 grammes of nitrate of potash per cubic
metre.

At low water the Seine delivers at Paris per second
75 cubic metres, and during the average waters 250 cubic
metres. In adopting 9 grammes for the nitrate, we find
that at low water, in 24 hours, the stream carries to the
sea the equivalent of 58,000 kilos, of nitrate of potash,
and the medium waters 194,000 kilos.

If, now, we consider that the volume of waters of the
Seine is far inferior to that of the generality of the large
streams which furrow the different continents, we shall
comprehend how immense is the mass of saltpetre con-
tinually borne away to the hydrographic basins ; and
with what incessant activity the phenomena which deter-
mine the nitriiication must act on the surface of the
globe.

Water of Wells. — I have generally found more ni-
trates in wells sunk in villages and rural workings than
in springs and rivers ; but here again the proportions
have been most variable. For example, the water from
the well of Bechelbronn, which indeed is not exempt
from some traces of oil of petrolium, contains only indi-
cations of nitrates; whilst the water of the wells of
Woerth and Freischwiller (Lower Rhine), sunk in the
lias marl, exhibit from 66 to 94 grammes per cubic
metre. But it is in the wells of the great cities that we
find the largest quantities of nitrate. This fact has long
since been known, and M. Henri Sainte-Claire Devilie
has found in water raised at Besan9on the equivalent of
193 grammes of nitrate of potash per cubic metre. The
proportion of nitre that 1 have met with, in the waters
proceeding from 40 wells selected in the twelve arron-
dissements of Paris, is still larger. The experiments have
been executed by two processes which 1 have employed
comparatively — the decoloration of indigo, and the in-
genious method we owe to M. Pelouze. The well waters
in which there was the least nitrate came from the fol-
lowing places ; —

Nitrate of
Potash.
Rue Guerin-Boisseau, in which we detected per

cubic metre the equivalent of 200 gr.

Rue Saint Martin ■ . 225

Rue Saiute Georges 238

Rue dea Petites-Eeuries 258

The waters which have yielded the most nitrate were
those from the wells in the most ancient quarters. In
the water of a well in

Rue du Fouarre, we found per cubic metre the

equivalent of , 1,031 gr.

Rue du Foiu Saint- Jacques 1,500

Rue Saint-Landry 2,093

Rue Traversiue 2,165

In two wells on the grounds of market gardeners in
the Faubourgs, the cubic metre of water contained
1.268 k. and 1.546 k. of nitrate. It is thus seen that
100 cubic metres of these waters, exclusively destined
for watering the grounds, convey to them from 120 to
125 kilos, of saltpetre, the utility of which as a fertilizer
cannot be disputed, especiallj' when we know that in
summer a hectare of market-garden ground absorbs from
30 to 40 cubic metres of water per day.

The large proportion of nitrate found in the water of
the wells of the capital is undoubtedly due to the modi-
fications to which the organic matters with which the
soil is constantly impregnated are subject. The purity
of the air and the water, the effects of which manifest
themselves so powerfully upon the public health, must
be deeply affected with it. I have shown at another
period that the rain, after having swept, in crossing, the
atmosphere of a large city, holds in solution or in sus-
pension much more ammoniacal and putrescent organic
principles than when it falls at a distance in the country.
To-day I have shown that the water of wells, after being

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

231

filtered through a soil similar to a nitre-bed, is tainted
with substances evidently injurious. So true is it that a
condensed population carries in itself the germs of insa-
lubrity.

At Paris, by reason of the geological medium which it
passes through, the water collected in the wells is not
drinkable ; nor is it drunk, or made use of in the pre-
paration of food. According to that, we might suppose
the population completely sheltered from the inconve-
niences which it would produce. This would be an
error ; for it is easy to prove that every inhabitant takes
every day the whole of the substances dissolved in a cer-
tain volume of that water.

First, we are convinced that within the city walls
the lixivium (coupages) of the heavy wines and alcoholic
drinks are mixed with the water of the wells ; and it is
asserted that the bakers employ no other in making the
bread.

One thousand kilogrammes of flour, in making into
bread, require for the different leavens and dough 617
litres of water.

For produce they obtain 1,375 kilogrammes of bread,
containing necessarily all the soluble substances of the
617 litres of water.

In 1 kilo, of bread there is therefore all that is found
in 45 centilitres of well watei-. Let us next see which
nitrates this water introduces.

The well water of the Hotel Scipion, the bakery of
the hospitals, contains per litre the equivalent of 0.31
gr. of nitrate of potash : this is one of the waters least
charged with salts.

One kilo, of bread prepared with this water should
contain O.I5 gr ; and 1 kilo, made with the water of
the well of Rue Saint Landry contains the equivalent
of about 1 gramme of nitrate of potash.

In these weak proportions it is doubtful whether
the nitrates are unhealthy ; but what renders their
presence in the bread unpleasant is, that it is the indi-
cation of organic matters, evidently proceeding from
suspicious sources : from domestic waters for instance,
or the infiltrations that escape from the 60,000 privies
sunk below the soil. We must not forget, also, that
every year, by the rising of the Seine, the subterranean
inundations put in communication the inferior with the
upper strata of the soil, in the latter of which are the
receptacles of the night-soil, &c., and that the waters in
washing the soil convey, in what they draw, spores of
cryptogamic vegetation — those mouldinesses always
hurtful, and so much more to be dreaded that their
organism, apparently so frail, resists nevertheless the
temperature of the oven in baking bread, as laid down
by M. Payen, and more recently by M. Pagiale.

In a memoir read before the Academy in 1852, I have
already spoken of the disgust inspired by the well water
when we know, and no one is now ignorant of it, that
they are employed in the bakeries. Already, if I am
well informed, the administration of the hospitals have

made arrangements for procuring the water of the Seine
to the bakehouse of Scipion. This is undoubtedly an
example that will be imitated ; for we cannot compre-
hend why, at Paris, they should persist in preparing
bread with impure water.

From the whole of these investigations we may justly
conclude that with regard to the fertilizing principles
they bring to the earth by irrigation or absorption, the
waters which circulate onthe surface, or at a slight depth,
act much more by the saltpetre than by the ammoniacs
which are found in them. In my paper ou the ammoniacs
of the waters I have shown that river water rarely holds
above 0.2 gr. and spring water 0.02 of alkali per cubic
metre ; now the results hitherto obtained indicate in a
cubic metre of the same waters the equivalent of 6 to
7 gr. of nitrate of potash, answering, as azoteous manure,
to 1.10 gr. of ammoniac. These numbers are very
nearly the same as those deduced by M. Bineau from
his chemical studies on the waters of the basin of the
Rhone.

The geological constitution of a country has likewise
the most decided influence on the proportion of salt-
petre. This influence, which is stated by M. Bineau, is
above all revealed in the course of this work. Thus, in
the lakes hollowed in syenite the waters exhibited only
traces scarcely appreciable of nitre ; those which proceed
from the red or quartzose sandstone of the Vosges appear
not to have more than 0.5 gr. per cubic metre ; whilst
in the calcareous lands, as they belong to the trias, to
the jurassique country, to the cretaceous group, or to
the tertiary deposits above the chalk, the spring and
river waters have furnished the equivalent of 15 gr. per
cubic metre of nitrate of potash, and the proportion has
varied from 6 to 62 grammes.

If in the springs and rivers there is generally more of
nitrates than of ammonia, the contrary seems to exist in
rain and snow water and dew.

From experiments continued for six months in 1852,
we established that meteoric water, collected from a
great distance from inhabited places, contain on an
average 0.74 mgr. of ammonia per litre. Since then
Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert have found a number nearly
similar, by observations during a whole year, at Rot-
hamstead.

In the summer and autumn of 1856 I have examined
ninety samples of rain collected at Liebfrauenberg. In
seventy- two of those waters it was possible to detect the
nitrates, which agrees with what M. Barral has stated ;
and the quantitative results to which I have arrived,
although leaving perhaps something to wish for, never-
theless authorise me in believing that rain, when it falls
in the middle of fields in the proximity of extensive
forests, contains much less nitric acid than ammonia,

BOUSSINGAULT,

Member of the Academy of Sciences, and of
the Central Society of Agriculture.

THE ADVANTAGES OE A DAILY REGISTER OF THE RAIN-EALL THROUGHOUT
THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND THE BEST MEANS OE OBTAINING IT.

That the advantages of an accurate register of the
rain-fall would be abstactedly useful, no one would
for a moment dispute. We would even say that for
certain practical purposes — such, for instance, the use
of water-courses as a motive-power, the regulation
of flood-gates in flat districts exposed to inundations,
or even for the purposes of irrigating and-warping —
such an accurate register as Mr. Denton advocates
is indispensable, if certain success be aimed at, and
nothing left to hazardous and reckless speculation ;

but we certainly difier from him, when he attempts
to attach to this accurate and universal register a
necessary action and influence over the drainage of land.
It is evident that drains ai'e not meant for a constant
and ntv.:-J : -o action. Their use is to discharge
water when there is an excess of water to discharge.
Where much rain falls upon the surface they underlie,
their action is more frequent than in districts where a
less quantity of water falls from above; but on account
of that more frequent use, provided the outlet they

b2

232

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

oiFei" to the supply of water be sufficient, no one would
think of laying them at closer intervals or at greater
depths than in soils of a similar nature, but situated in
less rainy districts. The nature of the soil itself— the
more or less retentive texture of its constituents — the
topographical position and plane of the surface, are
the objects of iiiucli more immediate and indispensable
considerations for the regulation of depth and intervals
than the quantity of rain that may generally fall during
a whole year. A rain gauge, even assuming that the
instruments now used are accurate — and Mr. Denton
tells us that upon this important point there is a con-
flict of opinions — can only give us the quantity of rain
that directly and perpendicularly falls over a plane
area; but it does not register the quantity of water
which, in addition to that direct fall, flows over
underlying lands from neighbouring hills, or surface
undulations, and other causes, in which case, the regis-
ter of the rain-gauge is of no earthly use. Again : it
often happens, even in those districts where the rain-
fall is the least, that at any moment showers, such as
frequently accompany thunder-storms, will rush upon
the land, and in a fi;W moments pour upon its surface
a large quantity of water, which of course the drains
must bo capable of discharging.

It is very obvious that in wet climates the drains are
brought into more constant use than in drier ones. But
we contend that this is the only difference, and that
difference can hardly be practically taken into account
in the laying of drains ; for however small the yearly
average fall of rain may be, the drains may be called
upon to discharge at any given moment quite as large a
quantity of water, although less frequently, as in lands
situated in more rainy districts. We cannot, therefore,
understand what practical use in drainage the accurate
register of rainfall can be ; for the only local circum-
stances we know of, that must regulate the depth and
intervals between the drains, is, as we have said : the
nature of the soil itself, and the topographical position of
the land in respect to the supply of surface water that
may flow from adjacent rising grounds, to a much
larger amount than that given by the rain-gauge, and
of which that instrument cannot give the most f; Mo-
tional idea. Besides, whatever the fall of rain may be,
or, in other words, however often the drains may be
called upon to act, this cannot interfere with the inter-
vals and the depths at which the drains should be placed ;
for the extent of those intervals is exclu<^ively determined
by the nature of the soil, and should be limited only
by the point where the action of the drains ceases to act
laterally — the limit of the action of one line of drains
ending where the action of the next line begins.

The phenomena exhibited by the movement of liquids
are ever the same. If a shower falls over the great
desert of Sahara, where rain is seldom seen, its descent
downwards through the soil, sandy though it be, is re-
gulated by the same opposite forces of gravitation and

capillary attraction as when falling in countries where
rain falls more frequently. It is true drains would be
more useful in one case than in the other ; but surely
an accurate register, such as Mr. Denton advocates, is
not necessary for ascertaining that plain fact, the ex-
perience of the most ignorant old inhabitant of a dis-
trict being amply sufficient. In all cases where thorough
drainage is aimed at, drains must be laid under every
variety of circumstances, at sucli a depth and at such
intervals that the limit of the action of one line termi-
nates where that of the other begins, whether that action
is to be exercised only one day in the year, or two hun-
dred days.

When we say that there are districts with a rainfall
of 50 inches, and others with only 25, we do not mean
that every shower falls with twice the intensity upon the
one as upon the other : we only mean that rain falls twice
as often, or, in other terms, that the drains are called
upon to act twice as often in one case as in the other ;
but to all intents and purposes the quantity of water
which they must evacuate in a given time is pretty
much the same.

Then, there ai-e other circumstances which have a
direct influence upon drainage, which the rain-gauge
cannot reach; and these circumstances, as regards that
influence go far to compensate the difference of rainfall
between the western and the eastern districts of this
country — we mean the fall of snow. It is a well-
known fact that snow is a rare occurrence in Cornwall
and Devonshire, whereas it accumulates sometimes to
a great depth in the eastern counties. When that mass
of snow comes to thaw, with all its accumulations
against every obstacle, what becomes of the land, in
the spring of the year, when a high temperature and
dryness of soil are necessary for the purposes of vege-
tation, if, on account of the register of the rain-gauge,
a deviation from the general rules of drainage had
been ventured upon? It strikes us that no rain-gauge
has yet been constructed so as to give anything like an
accurate datum of the quantity of water brought down in
a fall ot snow, drifted as it generally is by a high wind.

As regards the means of effecting the general register
of rainfall in this country, at a cost of some ^26,000,
as advocated by Mr. Denton, we are pretty confident
that no Cliancellor of the Exchequer will ever be found
to debit his budget with such an item as this, even if it
were admissible that sufficiently diligent and careful
individuals could be found to undertake such a task for
the remuneration of five pounds per annum !

Apart from this anxiety of Mr. Bailey Denton to
prove too much, and to overstretch the importanre of
the measure he advocates, his paper is replete with in-
structive facts, and shows a great accuracy of observa-
tion, and wonderful ingenuity in arranging the results
of his experience. His tabular records of the Hinx-
worth drainage are certainly the best arranged we have
ever seen.

THE CLEANING OF CORN FROM THE STRAW.

Knocking, scutching, or rubbing out grain from
the straw, is an operation in which comparatively
little improvement is required. With a thousand
or twelve hundred revolutions per minute almost
any " drum " will now beat or strip out every
grain from sheaves properly opened and "led"' to
it. Much ingenuity having been applied to the shaping
of new " beaters " (some of them, indeed, being no
improvement upon the old square ones), and to the
contrivance of » better " screen, or concave," we have

now patent beaters, of different sorts, that may be said
to perfectly extract corn from the ears without splitting
or breaking it. They are adapted to damp, as well as
dry stuff; and also save power, by being of a more or
less wedge form, and so cleaving their way through the
air, instead of driving it like a fan. At the Gloucester
Meeting in 1853, and at Lincoln in 1864, about two-
thirds of the combined-machines thrashed clean, or
nearly so; and about the same number did their work
without breaking the grain. At Carlisle, in 1855,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

233

all the machines thrashed perfectly clean : two-thirds
completely avoided splitting ; and two other machines,
out of the nine tested, were nearly as mei'itorious in
this point.

As regards the state of the straw, at Gloucester two-
thirds, and at Lincoln not half the machines, delivered
the straw whole ; and at Carlisle only two machines
were considered perfect in this respect; while four
others out of the nine nearly equalled them. But
breaking tlie straw is a fault or an advantage, accord-
ing to the purpose lor which the straw is intended ;
and in districts where it cannot be sold, and is con-
sumed as fodder or litter for cattle (and unless it is
being thrashed for thatching), farmers prefer to have it
well broken. Altogether, the performance of the
strictly thrashing part of the machines left little to be
desired in regard to the quality of the work ; and in
two years and a-half since that time, various improve-
ments have been introduced. The time and power re-
quisite for thrashing a given quantity of corn varied
very much in (liflterent machines; and no doubt we
shall find a great advance in these particulars, when the
dynamometer is applied, between the engines and ma-
chines next July.

The processes of extracting the grain free from straws,
ears, or chaff, delivering the clean straw by itself, and
separating the chaff and pulse, colder or cavings, are
not yet conducted in the most desirable manner. At
Gloucester half the machines were thought to shake
the straw perfectly clean, and one nearly so; at Lin-
coln three machines performed clean shaking, and
seven more out of fourteen nearly equalled them ; but at
Carlisle there were only two out of nine machines which
carried absolutely no grain over with their shakers,
four others being only slightly defective ; while there
was plenty of room for improvement in the rest. So
far good, PS respects the two "perfect " shakers; but
a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes' time of work-
ing is not long enough to detect the liability of the
slats, screens, bars, or meshes of the shakers to collect
choking straws, and gradually impede the passage of
corn through them ; for what are at first considered
good shakers will sometimes be found to foul them-
selves in hour after hour of jumping underneath such
stuff as straw and broken cavings of all imaginable
lengths, bent in all possible forms, tossed in all postures,
and traversing across the area of the shakers in every
sort of direction. Freedom from liability to choke
is a particular, however, in which many advances have
lately been made. Another important consideration is,
that this continuous clean-shaking shall be effected
by simple mechanism, avoiding as far as jjossible all
shock and unsteadiness to the machine framing, and
excessive wear of brasses or working parts. Now, as
the effectiveness of the process of shaking depends upon
the most complete and repeated tossing or striking,
as well as thinly distributing, or drawing out the bulk
of straw, so that it may give the enclosed corn and chaff
every chance of dropping out, some of the most
thorough shakers are objectionable in their motion ;
while, on the other hand, some of the smoothest and
easiest running imperfectly perform their work. How
smooth and beautiful is the action of the rotary shaker,
which dances the straw over a succession of revolving
rollers armed with curved rakes or teeth ! Yet, simple
as are the means by which motion is communicated to
these rollers, how many parts and small bearings there
are ! and the effectiveness of the work (at any rate at
Carlisle) was far from perfect. But so important is the
steadiness which it gives, the absence of shocks, and
consequent smallness of wear and repairs, and freedom
from gulling brasses and bi-eaking shafts, that the prin-
Qiplo Id worthy of all attempts to increase the efficiency

of its action on the straw. Box shakers appear to be
the most general favourites with machine makers. The
original parallel-motion spars thoroughly extracted the
grain and chaff by their blows underneath the straw ;
but something more resembling a riddle or screen was
required to prevent straws from dropping through
lengthwise ; and when boxes with wire meshes or per-
forated sheet-iron were found to catch and block up
with straws, or else let them through, ingenuity devised
slats of various forms to let through the corn, chaff, and
pulse only. Then we had rocking-bars or slings at the
outer end, thus relieving us from one of the crank-
shafts, with all its wear and annoyances. However, if
you diminish the tossing action of the boxes at one end,
you must increase it at the other, either by greater
speed or a further rise and fall, or else keep the sti'aw
longer upon the shakers in order to receive its due
amount of blows. This latter plan is effected by pro-
longing the boxes beyond the vibrating bars; but in so
holding back the straw, it is of course crowded closer
together than if it had free passage over, and this prin-
cipally at the point where it most of all needs opening,
scattering, and dancing as lightly as possible — that is,
just where the last few kernels are to be let fall out of
the whole mass of straw. As a compromise between
the parallel-motion, with crank-shaft at each end, and
the vibrating at one end and rotating at the other,
there is the plan of having half the boxes rock at one
end and half rock at the other. Four boxes are the
most common, but three have been tried, and we have
seen two worked with admirable effect, though of
course requiring a rapid speed. But the table shaker —
that is, a screen all in one piece the whole breadth of
tlie machine — is capable of turning out the best samples
of long straw and cavings, as there are no apertures (as
between boxes) where straws can get down, and nothing
can pass except through the meshes. When con-
structed like a wire screen, however, straws will en-
tangle and collect in it ; and, if made with slats of wood
or hoop-iron, the weight would become an obstacle to
its jumping movement. Tlie peculiar motion secured
by the short slings on which it swings is precisely that
well adapted for keeping the straw "llightened up" and
loosely tossing, and as severely chucked and bounced at
one end or one part of the shak' r ;!s it is at another.
Now, cannot this be retained, and yet the shaker
divided, so as to give a smooth and regular compen-
sating movement, one half rising while the other is
falling, and without additional slings (tiresome things)
or additional complication? Suppose it made in two
parts, not side by side, but one following the other, and
each extending the same breadth as at present. Retain
the present slings, one pair supporting the inner end of
the first screen or table, and the other pair supporting
the outer end of the second. Where the two shakers
meet half-way, the first is to overlap the second, and
both are to be hung upon cranks or eccentrics on a
shaft placed across underneath, as for driving box-
shakers. We should say that this arrangement would
obviate the chief objections which the table shaker is
now open to.

Separating corn from the chaff and cavings as they
come from the thrashing machine must necessarily
proceed on a different principle to the shaking of the
straw in order to extract these products. Pulse, calder,
cavings, chafBngs, or whatever you call the short bits
of straw and empty ears, can be divided from the grain
and chaff by screening, sifting, or straining away the
latter through a riddle ; but as pieces of straw can
penetrate endwise through an aperture large enough to
pass chaff and corn, the aim must be to keep them
horizontal, and avoid any tossing motion that might
turn up ears or straw into an inclined or upright posi^

334

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

tion above the holes or meshes. The holes in a shaker
may be small, yet the straws dropped through are many
inches in length. In riddling, all these straws must
be prevented passing through holes large enough for
the corn ; and this can be done only by causing them
to travel across the screen without jumping and falling
upon it as they do in a shaker. Revolving riddles,
desirable as their even regular motion may be, cannot
answer, unless, by means unseen at present, they are
made to avoid the rolling and tumbling of the pulse
upon the meshes or slat apertures j and contrivances
for drawing or pushing the stuff across fixture riddles
are also completely objectionable, from their heaping
and gathering of the corn within lumps of the cavings,
instead of thinning all out as much as possible, in order
to facilitate the escape of grains and chaff. We cannot
imagine anything for the purpose better than the hori-
zontal jogging motion given to our present riddles, the
riddle itself being slightly sloped so as to give every
particle of stuff upon it a tendency to travel in one
direction over its surface. If all the bits of straw, &c.,
were of one length, and all traversed the riddle in the
same posture, lying either lengthwise or crosswise, it
would be easy to shape slats or other divisions of the
riddle into apertures that would be bridged and slipped
over by the straws while admitting the corn and chaff
to pass through. But the difficulty is, that the stuff
lies in all directions, and is of innumerable sizes.
The aim must therefore be to form the apertures of a
shape — say round, square, or but slightly varying fi'om
these figures — so as to present equal impediments to
the entrance of the straws or ears in every direction.
A wire screen with square or hexagonal meshes, or
sheet metal perforated, might answer the purpose very
well for a short time — that is until it became clogged
with caught and doubled straws — provided that no
straws dipped and poked their ends beneath the wires,
and so became gradually jogged underneath (that is,
through) the riddle, instead of being conveyed over the
top. Hence it is indispensable that sloping walls or
partitions should be given to the apertures, at any rate
on that side opposite to and meeting with the advance of
the stuff, in order to hinder the passage of straws in a
downward direction, and by their inclined surface raise
up any dipping-ends on to the riddle again. This is a
most important point in the riddling apparatus ; and
we advise purchasers of combined thrashing machines
to be very particular in their choice ; for when the rid-
dles have any tendency to clog and block up, and con-
tinual attention is needful in clearing them, not only
time is lost in frequent stoppages, but waste of corn is
inevitable. Now, for passing off the straws endwise
without any poking through, and at the same time for
presenting apertures that no mass of chaff and corn
can by any possibility choke up, we have the slat rid-
dle, resembling a Venetian or louvre shutter, with the
slats inclined say at 45 degrees. This form was origin-
ally intended also for having a blast underneath, which
blowing up through the spaces, and meeting the corn
and chaff, should separate the latter, as well as tend to
lift and throw off the pulse above. But we do not ap-
prove of this principle, preferring (as we shall hereafter
show) to separate the pulse by simple straining or
sifting, and reserve the whole force of the blast for
chaffing in a different manner. To prevent straws
from dropping through transversely, wires were intro-
duced, passing through holes pierced in the slats. To
gain more aperture space, and obtain the raising ac-
tion of the inclined slats on the opposite side of the
spaces, angle-bars, with their edge ui^permost, have
been adopted ; and another application of the princi-
ple of a sloping passage, or a'perture, is seen in the rid-
dle, made by boring round holes in a slab of hard wood,
the holes slanting toward the blast, and widening down-

wards, so as not to choke. But, seeing that corn may
possibly ride over this latter riddle upon the thick,
though tortuous, interstices or partitions, although no
pulse can penetrate through, and that straws may cer-
tainly drop between the angle-bars "of the other riddle,
or lodge across the wires between the slats of that first
mentioned, our readers will be willing to receive our
special approbation of a slat-riddle constructed as fol-
lows : The slats are to be of hard wood, half- inch stuff,
before planed up, and say one and three-quarters inches
deep ; make them into a riddle, by letting their ends
into a rectangular deal frame as wide as the machine
will allow, and of sufficient length (to be noticed pi'e-
sently) ; the slats lying square across the frame, and
inclined at an angle of about 45 degress ; the distance
apart, measuring from middle to middle of the
(parallel) slats, is to be one and a-half inches at the
inner end of the riddle, and gradually less till it is one
and a-quarter inches at the outer end. Thus far we have
simply a slat-riddle, made slightly to vary in the size
of aperture, according to the bulk of stuff upon it
at different parts, this being of course much less to-
ward the outer end, when most of the corn and chaff has
been parted with, than it is when first entering upon the
riddle. But now fix wires (rather fine), lengthwise of
the riddle, upon the top of the slats, crossing them at
right-angles, fastening each wire to every slat by small
wire staples; the wires to be one and a-quarter inches
apart. This improved form of riddle, contrived by a
mechanically-gifted farmer in Cambridgeshire, and
since adopted by some great manufacturers (in one
case strips of cane being substituted for the rusting
wires and their tiresome staples) works to perfec-
tion, or comes very closely to it, whether for wheat,
barley, oats, or peas. It is just possible that im-
provement may yet be made in avoiding still fur-
ther the wear, or liability to damage, of a riddle
rather tedious and expensive to make, and rendering
it utterly impossible for short ears to drop through
or catch under the wires at the corners. At
present there are a few refractory bits that will make
their way through, and require to be arrested by the
smaller chaffing riddle to which the corn, &c., is next
conveyed. And we may say here, that no riddle must
ever be expected to be absoluttly perfect in its action,
and that therefore we ought not to trust to a single
riddle, but employ a second (of smaller dimensions and
diminished apertures) to rectify the occasional omissions
of the first, besides the extra facility we may thus get
for chaffing. We have alluded to the length of the
riddle. It is a common error to have them much
too short, and adapted pretty well perhaps to a steady
and regular supply of stuff. But the supply is often
very irregular, partly owing to sudden thrusting in of
whole shtaves at once by the man feeding, partly to
the gathering together of lumps of stuff (especially
when damp) either upon the riddle or on the way to
it ; and we ought to provide for such extreme and ex-
travagant amounts of stuff at any instant, if we would
prevent waste and produce a pure sample. The farmer
above-named has his riddle 4J feet long, and would
like to stretch it another foot at least, to make it equal
to every emergency. His chaffing riddle, which stops
the escaped odd pieces of pulse, is about 2 feet in length,
made with slats at similar intervals to the other, only
the wires are f inch instead of I5 apart. Instead of
crowding the stuff upon a restricted surface, let the
principle be to spread and open it out as much as pos-
sible, by causing it to pass quickly over the riddle, and
hence a considerable length is necessary in order to give
it due time for letting fall the chaff and com. Another
point to be borne in mind is, that corn may ride upon
or within a knot or braid of doubled or intertwining
straws, and so be carried over with the cavings ; there-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

23c

fore it is well to make the riddle in two or more suc-
cessive steps, say of 1§ or 2 inches fall each, to break
the masses of stufi", and present fresh surfaces, as it
were, to the action of the riddle. Of course there must
be a part of the riddle free from holes immediately

under the fall, in order to receive the stuff and transmit
it in its newly-arranged posture by horizontal sliding
(produced by the jogging of the riddle) to the apertures
further on, as any falling or jumping upon the riddle
is likely to pop pieces of the cavings through.

BEANS FOR HUNTERS.

As regards the propriety of giving hunters beans with their
oats, I do not consider they should be given indiscriminately
to all horses in any way ; and, to such horses as may require
them, most certainly not with the oats. Most horses are ex-
cessively fond of the taste of beans; and thus habituating
them to get this addition to their oats is very apt to make
them refuse a feed without them. The way I recommend
beans being given is with three or four double haudfulls of
chaff, ^nd that wetted so as to hold any small particles of the
bruised beans — for some such will always be found. The chaff
prevents greedy feeders from swallowing the beans without
proper mastication, and, being given as a distinct feed, does
not habituate the horse to their taste with his oats. I hold it
a bad plan to accustom a young healthy horse (reasonably
worked) to beans. They may be necessary when the stomach
becomes weakened and inert from age or over-work ; but strong
stimulants to the stomach, unless taken medicinally, are bad
for biped or quadruped. The strong healthy young man of
twenty may like his bottle of wine a day ; so may the five-
year-old horse his beans; but if accustomed to them, what will
the one want at the age of fifty and the other at twelve ?
Beans might be necessary to hunters when they were at cover-
side at daybreak, and probably did not get home till the same
hour they now usually do when hunts meet at half-past ten or
eleven. In such days a fox was hunted to death ; now he is
raced into. Horses' were then absolutely wearied out with a
day's hunting ; now they are blown and exhausted for the
cime being, but usually recover themselves ere they reach their
homes. Horses refusing to feed after hunting was much more
frequent (as I have heard) in those days than it is now. A
pedestrian, after a long fatiguing match of sixty miles, walking
against time or a competitor, will feel all his energies pros-
trate ; nor can we wonder if his stomach becomes so also ; but
the runner of five miles, though more blown and exhausted
than the other when he stops, recovers in a quarter of an hour,
and is quite ready in half a one for whatever you may put be-
fore him. The case is somewhat parallel aa regards horses,
unless their powers have been so overtaxed as to produce abso-
lute illness. Post-horses, in former days, consumed a good
many beans. Well might horses want them, who frequently
were taken two, sometimes three, journeys a day, of twenty
miles each. Coach-horses wanted them, that in former days
were driven sixteen or seventeen mile stages over roads like a
ploughed field. In my remembrance, the old Bath and Bristol
Blue drove such stages. Horses undergoing such labour re-
quired beans, as the coal-porter requires porter. Beans for-
merly were in common use in training stables. Those were
the days when the trainer had the majority of his string (five,
six-year-olds, and aged horses) running heats, and those often
four miles. Here direct lasting stamina was wanted, and the
old platers required their old hearts kept warm by stimulants;
but the case is altered now. If a trainer has a four-year-old
in his stable, he is " the old horse," and all the remainder of
his lot are juveniles. Except in the case of a particular colt, a
trainer would never dream of giving a two-year-old beans. He
would hold them as the forerunners of colic, flatulency, con-
stipation, and eventually fever. In former days grooms kept
the bowels of horses more or less in a constant state of consti-
pation, and judged the hardness of what a horse voided as a
proof of condition. Formerly, even with a hunter, when he
found occasion for evacuation necessary, he stopped short if
permitted to do so. It was an effort he could hardly make
while walking ; it was all but a painful act. And this was
held condition. It was a state in which, if I saw a horse of
mine, I should immediately resort to the bran-bin.

Horses going a journey is now a thing spoken of aa one of
the straage acts performed by our ancestors and their horses.
It was then ten miles and stop ; ten miles again, the stoppage
repeated ; ten miles and a long stop to lunch or dinner ; and
then another ten miles brought horses and travellers to their
resting-place for the night. Horses subjected to the profuse
sweats a heavy carriage and execrable roads produced, and
then perhaps saturated with rain, required their insides kept
warm. But in these days a man owning horses and carriages
takes them with him by the railroad, as naturally as he takes
his hat and gloves when he intends walking. Well, these peri-
patetic stables, coach-houses, and sitting-roo'jis are extremely
conveuiect. Gentlemen and ladies have not the trouble of
rousing themselves to look at the country as they speed
through it, not being enabled, if they wished it, to see much
more of it in their carriage than their horses in theirs.

Mais d Hos moatons. Bruised oats have been brought before
the public eye with the paramount recommendation of saving
— in short, the vendors of oat-bruisers understand their busi-
ness, and they understand the reigning feeling of the public.
They would rarely sell a mschine if their recommendation only
went to show that brniaed oats were better for the animal than
whole ones ; but they show their use is better for the man, by
stating that instead of giving five feeds of whole oats, bruise
them and you need give but four. Now, if they could prove
that the horse cut off with four feeds could actually do more
work than the one with five, this would be a saving with a
vengeance, in two ways. Why, in that case we should not
find a carpenter or wheelwright unemployed ; they would be
all making oat bruisers to satisfy public demand. But it lor-
timately, or unfortunately, happens that bruised oats cannot
effect miracles ; for I roundly assert that four quarterns of
bruised oats will not produce the same nutriment aa five given
whole ; that is, if the five are properly given. I conceive that
the best oat-bruiser ever invented is the grinders of the horse.
Some say, and indeed with truth, that greedy horses will swal-
low much of their corn whole; granted, but mix a few hand-
fuls of chaff with the oats, he cannot then swallow the mix-
ture without thoroughly and properly masticating the com-
pound. Greedy feeders will swallow bruiaed oats without
masticating them, as fast or faster than whole ones. I should
not give them a chance of doing either, or rather the chaff
would not ; for I hold it just as judicious au adjunct to bruised
oats as to others. I have heard people say, " A horse
swallowing bruised oats does not signify; he gets the benefit of
the meal." I should beg to observe, in reply to such opinion,
that a horse has not the reputed stomach of the ostrich ; he
cannot digest his shoes, nor can he oats merely bruised. If
ground to meal it would be a different affair ; but an oat does
not remain long enough in the stomach of the horse to as it
were dissolve, unless first formed into meal by the grinders of
the animal, and properly saturated with saliva. I consider
bruised oats, on the whole, as good enough, if you prevent
waate, and bruise them at home ; for I hold a sack of oats sent
out for this purpose does not always come home as immaculate
as it went out. It is surely enough, if bruised oata convey
more nourishment than whole ones ; but do not cheat your
horse in measure, and thereby cheat yourself, by fancying all
people say of bruised oats as fact. Let me feed my horse as I
like on five quarterns of whole oats, and you give yours four
quarterns of bruised ones, and give them both similar work; I
think I can prophesy which at the end of three mouths will be
in the best condition, to a far greater certainty than any man
can prophesy who will win the Derby, much more the Leger,
— Harry Hieover, in Field,

236

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

WINFRITH FARMERS' CLUB.

INCIDENTAL DISCUSSION ON THE COMPARATIVE WEIGHT AND VALUE OF LARGE AND MODERATE-SIZED ROOTS.

The anniversary dinner of this Club was given on Wednes-
day evening, the 20th January, in the Black Bear Inn, at
Wool, under the Presidency of Mr. J. A. Damen; Mr. T. H.
Saunders occupied the vice-chair.

AWARD OF PRIZES.

The President had no doubt that the most interesting
part of the evening's proceedings would consist in the Secre-
tary's reading the award of prizes, which he, the President, had
just broken open, as given under the hands and seals of the
judges, Messrs. Henry Symonds and George Caines,

The Secretary accordingly read the awards. They were
as follows : —

1. For the best ten acres of Swedes, the prize of £5, offered
by J. B. Lawes, Esq., awarded to Mr. Charles Besant.

2. For the best root crop, Ufon oue-sixth part of an acre of
land, occupied by ihe competitor, the like prize of £5, offered
by Messrs. Cardus and Dixon, awarded to Mr. J. Reader.

3. For the second-best ditto, ditto, ditto, awarded to Mr. T.
H. Saunders.

4. For the best ten acres of turnips, the prize of £2, offered
by Joseph Weld, Esq., of Lulworth, awarded to Mr. J. A.
Damen.

5. For the best five acres of Swedes, another prize offered
by Joseph Weld, Esq., awarded to Mr. J. Sly.*

6. For the best crop of Mangel Wurzel. No competition.

7. For the best five acres of ditto, prize awarded to Mr. J.
Reader.

8. For the best acre of ditto, prize awarded to Mr. J. Sly.
These last-mentioned prizes were offered, we believe, by Mr.

Robert Damen.

The Judges also highly commended Mr. Reader's Swedes,
Mr. Clarke's Mangel Wurzel, Mr. Thomas Randall's Swedes,
and Mr. Saunders' Mangel Wurzel.

The Secretary, in connection with these awards, read
over the printed rules of cumpetition adopted by the society,
which appeared to have been acted upon by the judj^es, with
exception of that part of them which required the prices and
quantities of the manures used to be stated, bat this it appeared
had not lately been observed.

Mr. Robert Damen proposed the healths of the success-
ful competitors, which he had much pleasure in doing, and, at
the same time, in congratulating thera on their success. Those
who had not succeeded in this instance would, he hoped, not
be dejected. That the rule requiring the manure which had
been used to be stated had not been acted up to, he thought
a pity, for it seemed to him that it would be interesting to
know how those great and weighty roots which had gained the
prize had been grown — a mere estimate might have been given
of so interesting a fact (Hear, hear). He begged leave to pro-
pose "The Successful Competitors. " All the honours.

HOW TO GROW HUGE ROOTS.

Mr. J. Reader, in returning thanks, said that he bad ex-
pected that Mr. C. Beaant, who had gained the first prize,
would have responded in the first place ; but as the second prize
was very nearly equal to the first (laughter, " They are both of
the same amount"), he must say that he felt pleased at fip.din<>-
himself a successful competitor, when he had to meet such

* Mr. Sly has since favoured us with the following note: —
" Manure used for Swedes per acre— 3 loads of a mixture of pig-
dung and asiies, 2 cwt. of Spoorier and Bdiley's superpliol-
phaie, and one-sack of hali-incli bones. For mang-el baulked —
15 load (put) of mixed horse, cow, and pi^ dung, aj cwt. of salt,
2.^ cwt. of Spjoner and Biiley's mangel manure, sown by hand
on the dung in the baulks before covering up; alongside of this
used 2 cwt. of the best Peruvian guano per acre. When the
roots were taken up we could not tell any difference, therefore I
am now convinced that we tan do much better without using
any of the coithj foreign stuff, until the price comes to be equal
with our own countri/'s manvfiichirc, particularly if our land-
lords wdl only lend us a hand lo erect sheds, not costly ones, to
graze different sorts of stock in."

competitors as their friend the vice-chairman, who was almost
the champion of Dorsetshire — for, having carried off Mr. Wil-
liams' prize some years ago, he might be considered as having
become some years ago the Champion of the County ; and he
was in fact acknowledged to be as as good a farmer as any in
the county. And not only was he there, but there was, more-
over, another person who was present to compete with (a laugh),
who, if he had not the deepest laud, had as essential a thing ;
he had Mr. Weld's pocket to go to, and also those piggeries
and feeding-stallsyielding that first-rate manure which was alike
essential to good farming and essential to the growing of roots.
He felt convinced he should never have grown the roots he had
done, had he not manured them with first-rate farm-yard ma-
nure as well as with artificials. He had manured with the
dung of fattened beasts, fed ou corn and afterwards with arti-
ficials, lu the first place, he had given from 30 to 40 tons of
farm-yard manure per acre, and good too ; and then, from
a-half to three-quarters of a hundred weight of guano, and the
same quantity of superphosphate. The greater part of his
roots had been thus manured; but seven baulks had been
manured with Messrs. Spoouer and Bayley's mangel manure
(applause), which he at first thought to be done at a dear rate,
for he did not expect the same weight on those baulks, although
quite the same quantity of manure had been used on them.
In this expectation, however, he had been deceived. He had
thought that the guano and superphosphate would have beaten
— but it was not so. Where he had tried bones on these baulks
he did not expect the same benefit from them as upon the
hills ; but when he got farther into the upper part of his farm
he used a quarter of bones per acre ; and, on the other hand,
he had now tried guano and superphosphate mixed together,
aud had tried the mangel manure against it. He had forgot to
tell them that he hadusedalaoof salt about 6 tons on 16 acres.
So satisfied was he of the efficacy of salt as a manure for
maugel, that he should continue to use it for years to come :
he did not think that it bewefited Swedes ; but as for mangel
he hoped to use it, as he had said, for years to come. [Mr.
Robert Damen : " Have you weighed any part of your roots ?"]
He had not weighed the whole ot his produce, but he had
found that where the mangel manure had been used he had
obtained 40 tons 2 cwt. per acre; where superphosphate,
45 tons 2 or 3 cwt. per acre ; aud on the upper part of the field
49 tons per acre. These facts he had ascertained by weighing
in each instance a square rod, topped and tailed, cleau.

COMPARATIVE VALUE OP LARGE AND MODERATE-SIZED
ROOTS.

Mr. Bone, of Avon, said he attended there that evening
as a matter almost of course, because he always attended the
anniversary of the Winfrith Farmers' Club, and not being
at that moment in the best of health, he ought rather to have
excused himself, could he have done so with any sort of grace ;
but the knowledge that both Mr. Spooner and Mr. Blundeil
were suffering from severe illness, had weighed with him as an
additional reason why the members of local farmers' clubs in
the neighbourhood should attend there, in order to keep up
the intercommunication which they had from time to time held
with that club. Such were the reasons that had induced
him more particularly to attend on that occasion. He was
extremely well pleased to find the Club going on, doing good,
and progressing. The utility of such clubs was begiuuini,' to
be every year more and more discerned. Every year the ne-
cessity for discussion was coming to be felt more than before
agriculture had tHken up that prominent pos'tion it had done
since former years. As agriculture ebbed aud flowed, discus-
sions ought to be taken over and over again ; papers ought to
be re-read aud discussed anew, iu order that they might revise
and alter conclusions which they had come to on previous
occasions. He need not illustrate this from any otlier matter
in agriculture beyond root crops. They all found that
the turnip crop was no longer to be depended upon ; they also
found ra.Tngel wurzel becoming of the greatest use in agricul-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

237

ture ; and they also foutid that great stress was laid by agri-
culturists upoa growing the largest possible roots. This he
was inclined to think a great mistake. He had just read
a very able paper by Dr. Wolf, the principal of an agricultural
college in Germany, ia which he stated that ou their experi-
mental farm, there had been a piece of newly broken-up laud
planted with the sugar beet, which was used for the purposes
of distillation ; and it had produced a magnificent crop of large,
beautiful, and luxuriant roots ; but after they had been grown
they had been found to be quite useless, for the sugar manu-
facturers would not take them at all. Now, it was a well-known
fact that sugar produced fat ; yet it was not that principle ia
the feeding materials of roots, or any other thing, but nitrogen,
that possessed the greatest feeding value. Well, as regards
nitrogen. Dr. Voelcker had performed a recent experiment on
fusty clover hay, and found that it showed more nitrogen when
fusty than sweet hay did. No practical man would believe
this •, at least they all knew that sweet hay was better than
fusty (a laugh) ; they were not all scientific men, but scientific
men might meet with practical men at the clubs, and find that
they had arrived at conclusions such as these. He trusted his
friend Mr. Reader's large roots would not turn out the same

n as Dr. Wolf's; it would be a bad affair for him after the Uberal

allowance he had given them, and it was a question whether
they ought not to keep to such aa amount of roots per square
acre as not to produce them of an over large size. They were
aware that large roots did not possess that amount of nutri-
tion {hat small roots did. Mangel wurzels of over 10 lbs.
weight when cut open were generally found to be hollow and
insipid. If that were the case it was impossible they could
contain the same amount of nutrition. In conclusion he
expressed himself pleased and proud to meet them all, and
to see the Club flourishing, and he hoped that they wo\ild
^ all again have the pleasure of meeting together and learning

^-' that the Club derived benefit from its intercommunication
with others.

LANDLORD AND TENANT.

Mr. T. H. Saunders, in responding to a call made upon
him, expressed himself extremely obliged to his excellent
friend Mr. Randall, and to the company. One thing Mr.
Randall said with especial truth, and that was, that whenever
an experiment had been made by him, he had always given
the advantage of it to the club. He had told them ia what
he had failed, and he believed he had told them too in what
he had succeeded. He had been happy and proud to belong
"^ to the club ever since it had been established in 1846, and he

hoped that it might continue to flourish for many a year to
come. Mr. Bone had alluded to the benefits introduced by
the club into the neighbourhood, to which it had been of the
greatest advantage ; for if they took the line of hills that be-
longed to the district, no man could fancy the extent of that
advantage unless he had previously seen them in their original
state. It was not good for a farmers' club if every man in it
did not speak out whatever he knew. It did no good to come
there and say nothing. Yet a great many members came there
and never spoke out at all. Nor was there any good in adhering
merely to one side of a question. Agriculture could go much
ftirther than it had yet gone. He thought that it might
assist the landlord as well as the tenant. Mr. Calcraft had
alluded to the propriety of his admission to the club, because
Mr. Calcraft was a landowner, and at first sight the club ap
peared to be merely a farmers' club ; but what did that mean ?
It meant a club devoted to the benefit of agriculture at large—
to the benefit of the landlord, the farmer, and the labourer, all
of those three interests being bound up in one. They
should be happy, therefore, to see the landlord amongst
them, if he came to meet the tenantry, and to hear
their discussions month after month. The tenant could
not go on single-handed ; and if the landlord came in
that spirit, they would be happy to see him, that he
might see in their discussions what it was that they really
required ; but if he came not in that spirit, he ought to be
expelled the club. If he came to them as Mr. Calcraft had
come that night— let him come. If the landlord and the
tenant went hand-in-hand together, England might defy
the world. He was happy to'see Mr. Calcraft becoming a
member of the club, and hoped he would continue to be one
for some time to come. The advantages of such clubs were
too numerous to relate ; but in a few words he had given
the heads of his opinion regarding them ; and he hoped that

he had not said anything that might be disagreeable to any-
one on the subject of landlords entering the club. His
(Mr. Saunders's) was only one opinion ; everyone had a
right to his own opinion. If the landlord came there to
see what was wanted, he would find that they wanted only
a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, that they only wanted
interest upon their capital; but if he did not come, he might
think that the results of farming were double -what they
really were. He would find that the farmer did not get
more money than was his due. Look at the manure bills.
Good crops were not all profit: but, if the landlord was
willing to spend a shilling, the farmer was willing to spend
a shilling too. He had omitted to say that he hoped the
young members of the club would, more generally than
they did, take up subjects and introduce them for dis-
cussion, and thus the opportunity would be given to the
elder members of setting them right. He thought that in
this view of the matter the clubs were good schools for

young men.

manuring roots.

Mr. Fowler said he would observe in regard to the
subject of their discussion that evening, but without at-
tempting to detract from the course that had been pursued
by Mr. Reader, in using so enormous a quantity of manure
for his roots, that he coincided with his friend Mr. Bone.
They might draw an inference from what occurred
in managing grass lands ; when they placed manure
upon grass lands the stock did not thrive so well.
On a field of his own, some large swedes were
grown on a spot where there had been a dunghid ; and he had
been curious to ascertain whether a solid inch cut from these
large swedes weighed as much as a solid inch from the ordinary-
sized swedes in other parts of the field ? He tried this, and
found that the solid inch from the ordinary swede consider-
ably outweighed the other : he did not go to grains and
minutiae, but the fact was so. He did not wish to raise a dis-
cussion on the point of Mr. Reader's largely manuring ; but he
agreed with his friend, Mr. Boue, that they might gather some
practical information by considering the difference in value
betwixt large and ordinary-sized roots.

Mr. Reader said : With regard to the size of roots alluded
to by Mr. Bone, he (Mr. Reader) never meant to compare a
large root grown, say in a bog, with a root of the same size
grown on strong land ; for he was convinced that, if they grew
large roots ou bog-land, they woidd not prove of equal quality
with roots grown ou stronger land. But, still, they were not
very liable to err in that way. They rather erred, he was
afraid, the other way ; and, for one mistake they made in
growing roots large, they made fifteen in growing them too
small. The largest he had raised this season had been given
to his running store pigs, and that was a pretty good test of
their feeding qualities : he assured them that these piga had
had nothing else this fall (Hear, hear), and that the sows in
farrow had had nothing but the trimmings of the roots. He
was glad to say that there were not a few of them that were
not hollow ; in corroboration of which he should refer them to
Mr. Watt, who had cut them. A square inch, cut from a
root which had grown in a " mixen," was hardly a fairly sample
of a field; for it was seldom that they made a "mixen" all
over a field. But, no doubt, were they to take a square incli
from a root grown on strong land, and another from a root
grown on boggy land, they would find the square inch grown
on the strong land considerably the heavier. If, however, the
error alluded to did occur, it was seldom on the strong laud of
their hills, where there was acid enough to dissolve the bones,
and not a particle remained in a short time ; for the land ate
all up,

Mr. Darby, of Lytchett, in an able speech in support of
Mr. Bone's view, said that it was better to grow medium-sized
than large roots, which, before they were pulled, began to
decay ; and related an experiment in which he had succeeded
in rendering fusty hay edible by steaming alone, without the
aid of salt.

Mr. Randall took up the point, into which he said
the question raised by Mr. Bone resolved itseK : whether
turnips had better be sown in 18-iuch drills 9 or 10 inches
apart, or in 2-feet drills 14 or 15 inches apart ? It was, in
bis opinion, the 18-inch drill, yielding a moderate-sized
turnip, that gave the most crop and the best feed for stock,

238

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

He also alluded fco a peculiarity of the club. He had scarcely
ever kooiva one member of the club carry off the best prize fur
two years running, the successful candidate being almost al-
ways sure to be beaten next year.

Mr. Clarke only rose on being loudly called for, and gave
the following very interesting account of his produce. He had
grown upwards of twenty acres of roots, not very large, but,
as Mr. Syraouds, who was the judge, could tell them, tolerably
good. Hia system was a tour-course one. His first sowing
liad been on the 10th of May, his next 14th May : to the
baulked-up land he had applied 12 cart-loads of dung, pre-
pared in the field, and spread upon the baulks 3 cwt. super-
phosphate and 1 sack of bones, and it had been his intention

to use 1 cwt. of guano wheu using the horse-hoe ; but he had
not had aa opportunity of using the guauo, the season fceiug
so dry that it seemed like throwing it away. Taking up 4
square rods of mangel, he had honestly divested them of all
tops and roots, put them on (he weighing-machine, and, al-
though he had not been asked the weight, he should state it :
it was 39 tons 18 cwt. The roots were regular, uniform, and,
notwithstanding that the season had been so dry that at one
time there was scarcely a leaf to be seen on them that had cot
withered away, they had turned out a very good crop, and
would keep his stock for the winter.

The conviviality and discussion were kept up till 10 p.m.,
when the company dispersed.

HEXHAM FARMERS' CLUB.

The annual meeting was held at The Grey Bull, Hexham,
on the l"2th of January. The following were appointed the
ofHcers of the society for the ensuing year : Secretary, Mr.
Lee; President, John Grey, Esq.; Vice-Presidents, W.
B. Beaumont, Esq., M.P., .John Errington, Esq., Mr.
Nicholson, and Mr. Brown : Committee — Messrs. William
Trotter, Goodrick, Dodds, Plarle, M. Stephenson, Cook,
and R. E. Ridley.

At half-past two about seventy of the members sat down
to dinner.

The chair was occupied by John Grey, Esq., Dilston
House.

The Chairm.an gave in succession the loyal toasts. He
then called upon the secretary to read the folIowiBg

" Report.

" In presenting the twelfth annual report the committee
have again the satisfaction of stating that the society con-
tinues to increase, and has now 164 members, with a
balance of £35 Is. lid. in the hands of the treasurer. The
committee have to express their thanks to those members
who have so ably introduced subjects for discussion. The
monthly meetings during the past year have been well
attended, at which discussions took place on the following
subjects:— Jan. 13, 'The landlord's interest in a lease,
and its tendenc}^ to promote good cultivation ;' introduced
by John Grey, Esq., Dilston. February 10, ' On farm
accounts ;' introduced by Mr. J. Lee. March 10, ' On the
prevention of diseases among farm stock;' introduced by Mr.
Woomack, Shildon Hill. April 18, ' On hajMnaking;'
introduced by Mr. William Trotter, East Acomb. Oct. 13,
' On the prevention of diseases among cattle and sheep;'
introduced by Mr. Woomack, Shildon Hill. Nov. 17, ' On
the selection of agricultural seeds;' introduced by Mr. C.
Reid, Hiunshaugh. Dec. 8, ' On liarvesling corn, and the
advantages of mowing over reaping ;' introduced by Mr.
Harley, Mill Hills. The premiums given by the club for
the different operations in harvest-work excited great com-
petition ; there having been 44 entries for mowing, 10 for
binding and stooking, 21 for taking up and sheaving corn
afttr the mowers (by women), nearly the whole of which
work was done in a most satisfactory manner. Only two
reaping machines were brought into operation ; that of
Burgess and Key attracted great attention, and did its
work remarkably well. The committee beg to suggest
that premiums be again offered for the best mowing, taking
up corn, &c."

On the motion of Mr. Stephenson, the report was
adopted.

on THE DESTRUCTION OF WEEDS.

The Chairman then said it was now hia duty to brina;
before them the subject of the day's discussion, and he begged
their forbearance. That he had not put pen to paper on this
subject, and that he had been able very little, indeed, to
consider in what manner it ought to be brought forward, he
begged them to believe was not out of any disrespect to the
club, or from auy want of cordial feeling towards its rules,
but merely that his time had been of late very constantly
and very anxiously exercised ; so that he had come there
with the mere purpose of opening to them a subject which he

believed was so familiar to them all as to be rather one which
must be dealt with in conversational discussion thau in the
mauuer of any lengthened lecture. It was not one of those
subjects which was very irapoaing, as embracing any parti-
cular or high principle connected with the legal tenure of
land, or with the rights of landlord and tenant. It was,
however, notwithstandiug this, one of the very greatest im-
portance in all the round of agricultural practice. That any
man of common sense should expend mo'iey in purchasing
and applying manure to hia land for the purpose of growing
weeds, was too great an abuurdity io be for one moment
eatertained ; and they knew that the perfection of cultiva-
tion was to have the land they were occupying in such a
condition as to grow merely that crop which they intended
to produce, and to grow it to the greatest perfection. It
would be unreasonable and absurd in any man to think he
would employ cultivation and manure upon a field which he
had sown with wheat, and then to let it expend one-half of
its fertility in producing docks and thistles. It would be
equally absurd for any farmer to give such encouragement to
the noxious weeds which were grown as if he were to sow
them for the purpose of rearing them. It happened to him
about two years ago — at least the last time he was requested
to take any part in the proceedings of the Royal Agricultural
Society of Ireland— to have remarked, m passing through that
country, amidst many luxurious crops, a very great proportion
of weeds, of course taking away from the bulk of the crop in
the first place, and considerably injuring the sample of corn in
the other. He was called upon on ttiat occasion, in the presence
of the Lord Lieutenant and many of the aristocracy, to give
an address to the people of that country upon some subject
which he thought might be beneficial. The show of that
day was a very magniticent one, and he might have taken a
laudatory strain, and have praised the people of Ireland for
the great exertions they were making, and the great success
they had achieved in the breeding of stock ; hut be took that
very subject which happened to be the subject of their discus-
sion that day — the absuraity of allowing their land to be
drained by noxious weeds ; and in consequence of that address,
some discussion had been going on in that country lately, and
a paper had been sent to him, from which he read an extract.
Now, if there be any truth in this (he continued), that by a
clean system of farming in Ireland, one-fourth, or even much
less than that, of the produce would be increased, how well
must it be worth the while of the cultivator of the land to
do all he could for the destruction of the weeds ! It was
very true that the man who might expend something in
cleansing his own field of weeds was not very much advan-
taged if his neighbours all around him allowed theirs to go to
seed, and even if the road-sides — aa he was sorry to say was
too often the case in this country — were allowed to grow
thistles and docks, the seeds of which were spread about by
winds, and carried down ditches by floods, and so deposited
on the lands below. There were various kinds of weeds which
required very different treatment ; some, such as the dock,
thistle, and others, planted their roots in the ground, and
could not very well be extirpated except at great pains in ex-
tracting them individually as they grow. This was an expen-
sive and slow process, yet it was well worth their while to do as
much in this hue as they could. There were other weeds which

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

239

they had most to conieud witli, aud the process of fallowing
well, and careful hoeing, aud cleariug the drills of the growing
crops, was perhaps the only true mode of overcoming these their
anuual weeds, sunh as wild mustard and chickweed, and worst
of all, that enemy to cultivation, couch grass. The first step,
as he conceived, in obtaining an entire clearance of weeds of
this description, is to have the land properly drained ; for
draining was the great cardinal virtue of agricultural progress.
If they happened to be going over a farm, as was often his case,
and saw a spot ia a field more brown and less fertile and more
productive of weeds aud couch than another, they were told,
" That is a wet spot : we can't get it well worked." But then
there was such a thing as draining to extract the wet ; and in
other cases they found that if a portion of a farm was very foul,
the excuse for this was, " It was a wet summer when it was
last in fallow, and we could not get it cleaned." There was
great truth and reason in these things ; but the only way to
overcome them was to take the wet out of the soil aud to
make it uniform in its surface, so that the same manner of
work and the same kind of croppiog will be equally suited to
the whole of a field. These were subjects that he hardly need
detail to a company like that, because they were matters of
practical knowledge that were before them, and they were
subjects of everyday experience ; at the same time, it was
perfectly allowable, when they were met together to cadeavour
to improve the raanagameut of a district and its farming aud
general produce, that these things should be taken under their
very serious consideratioa. Another subject — that of fallow-
ing, which was one of the greatest possible importance — had
lately been very much discussed, and great recotnmeadation
had been given to autumn fallowing. It had been said by
very good judges that if they wished them to judge of teiisntry
let them look over their farms in autumn, and that the best
tenant would be seen by the cleanness and style in which the
fallowing had been done; he did not mean bare fallow alone,
but a fallow which consisted of green crops, put up in such a
way that horse hoes, band hoes, aud all the implements used
for such purposes, could be employed. Last autumn gave a
good opportunity, which he was happy to see made available
by many farmers, for cleaning the land and advancing the work
for the ensuing spring. The spring might not happen to be
so favourable as was the autumn. He bad, in his small way —
it was too small lor him to presume to set himself up as an ex-
ample of good farming — but still, if there was safety, economy,
and advantage upon a small scale, that advantage and economy
must tell in the same proportion upon a larger scale. It hap-
pened to him that he had oa'y a small patch of ground, in which
was about ten acres of turnips each year, and he had only one
pair of horses to do that, carry his coal, and everything he
wanted. It therefore required him to economiae the labour ;
some part of his land was rather strong and heavy, not very
congenial for turnip soil, although he had a portion of that too,
though if it were worked and laid flat ia the common way in the
spring, and then should get a very heavy fall of rain, it would
run together in such a way that his poor pair of horses could
never again overcome it, or put it into such a condition as they
all kne^v was necessary for the production of a turnip crop,
because the small seed of the turnip would not vegetate, and
could not grow well if the soil into which it was put was not
equally minute in its particles, and as near in a state of powder
as might be ; but if land with a little dampness or tenacity in
it requires to be worked up late in the season, he needn't tell
them, practical farmers, what a difficulty there was in over-
coming that loss of lime, and in getting a crop of turnips.
The plan he had followed — and he hoped they would not think
it presumptuous in him to name it to them, and they could
follow it or not — was this : He began, as soon as the crop was
stored, or as soon as possible, with skim-ploughing the sur-
face, harrowing and raking it together, and carting it ofl", put-
ting it into the fold-yard to be the nucleus of the manure heap
for next year. Hs then gave the land a deep ploughing, har-
rowed it, and put it into drills ready for the manure. When
the manure was put in he reversed the drills, and so it lay,
and nearly one-half of his turnip land was now in that condi-
tion, drilled, manured, and exposed to all the changes of the
atmosphere during the winter. It came to be found in a mellow
condition in the spring, and the turnips were sown upon this ;
whereas, as he told them before, if the land required to be worked
up in a damp state, he could not make turnips of it at all, and
for the few years he had practised this, he had never failed in
finding that the turnips sown npon that portion of the laud

came quickest into leaf, and overcame m the shortest period
that great difficulty of rearing a good crop of turnips — that of
coming quickly to the hoe. He ascribed it to this reason :
the land upon the top of the drill was exceedingly mellow
and fine ; the manure had been undergoing — not the fer-
mentation which it got when thrown into great heaps, where
it dispersed its ammonia into the air, and wasted much of
its best virtues — but it underwent the slow and quiet pro-
cess of fermentation throughout the winter, covered up with
soil ; and tliej'^ found in the spring all the soil contiguous to
the manure in a soft and broivn condition, having inhaled
much of the virtue which the manure had given off. It was
generally the practice to use some kind of ex:traneous matter
with that from the fold-yard ; the manner of doing this was
only to run the drills over with a light harrow of any kind,
but more especially with those little concave harrows of
which they had seen specimens — one horse drawing two,
and doing two rows at one time. This puts the top of the
drill a little on the bite, and the guano, bone-dust, or other
manure sown was set up to a top of the driil by passing a
double mould-board plough through it. The seed was sown
upon this portion of the soil ; and he believed Mr. Lee and
other neighbours that might have seen his process would
bear him out in saying that the produce had not only been
very quick, but very good. He thought this a matter im-
portant to be considered, because the quantity o' turnip land
in this and other countries was much increased, and natu-
rally so, from the introduction ot extraneous and foreign
manures, which, together with draining, allowed farmers to
go over a much larger surface, if, then, by such a process as
this there was an economy of labour, and if that economy
was at the same time connected with success in the produc-
tion of a good crop, it coukl not but be a subject worthy of
their consideration. He invited discussion, and said he
should be very glad to answer any question relative to the
subject. On that and all occasions he should be most happy
to do his humble endeavours to promote the welfare and ad-
vancement of the agriculture of Tyneside.

Mr. DoDDS had always followed the practice recommended
by the Chairman, of getting his fallow clean in the autumn;
aud the mode he took to do so was very simple. If tae land
was light, he simply put the grubbers through it, and com-
menced harrowing and hoeing, aud if necessary raking. If
the land was at all stiff, he took an ordinary plough — several
had been invented, but they only added a great many imple-
ments to the farmer's stock, and were expensive to obtain —
with a few broad shares, and it could be used with or without
the mould-board. He got out the tvvitch with great facihty
by simply cutting the roots with the mould-board of the
plough ; but a little bit of sheet-iron instead of the mould-
board would make the twitch come out much more readily
than if turned over altogether on its back, or left lying. After
going over it once with grubbers and hoes and rakes he
grubbed it again. The land cleaned much more easily in
autumn than if the tools were left to ramify during the winter.
If they set to work immediately after harvest, especially on
dry lands, to get out the twitch, the work would be greatly
lightened in spring.

Mr. LoRAiNE wished to impress the importance not only of
destroying the weeds, but of destroying them at the proper
time. The greatest enemy to the farmer was the thistle — a
weed whose seeds blew far and wide caused an immense ex-
pense, and caused the corn to reap badly. When thistles
were not cut till they were a certain height, they ripened, and
the seeds were blown in all directions. He asked Mr. Grey to
suggest the right time for destroying thistles.

Mr. Bird said he had about seventy acres of land, ten of
which were in turnips. The great seminarium of twitch grass
was the seeds. On dry lands he pushed on his seeds as well
as he could, with a little assistance from nitrate of soda ; he
cut them before they were well seeded, aud then he afterwards
got a crop of turnips. Then came barley and seeds, and he
took care to cut them before they were shedding their seeds,
and in time also to get a very good crop of turnips. Then he
came with barley afterwards, and sent his work-people to see
if any weeds were left ; they found very few left ; and after
he had had four years' experience of this practice, he had no
necessity to gather a weed, because the land was clean. A
farmer, having a sixteen-years' lease, could save the expense
four times over before the lease was out.

Mr. Lee found no difficulty in letting grass remain two

240

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

yeara and having the land clean. He did not find " quickens "
so great an enemy as wild oats and muatard. In a crop of
barley there was a difference of four bolls an acre -where mus-
tard grew and where it did not. A few years ago he had a
loss of £3 ao acre where wild oats and mustard grew in afield
of fifteen acres of wheat. Weeds were a great nuisance, and
took a great deal of nourishment from the turnips.

Mr. Cook showed that the practice in the valley of the
Tyne would not work well on the hills.

Mr. Smith had tried for a good many years a system of
laying manure in the back end of tlie year, and drilling up the
land ; he found it entirely fail ; but his land was on the hill-

side, and the storms broke up the furrows, and washed the
beat soil to the bottom of the hill. He quite agreed with Mr.
Grey, that the manure should be laid on fresh.

The Chairman believed there was a time when they might
destroy thistles, but it was neither at their earliest growth nor
when too ripe, but when the stem near the ground was so far
matured as to be a little hallowed, so that the firat rain fell
into it and rolled it down. He believed there were no means
of eradicating wild oats or mustard but by first allowing them
to vegetate and then pulling them out. Wild oats might be
one hundred years m the land, and still vegetate when brought
to a certain distance of the surface.

LABOURERS' REGISTRATION OFFICES versus STATUTE FAIRS.

In the agricultural discussions of the past year, a
paper by Mr. John Marshall, of P.iseholme, Lincoln-
shire, on the maintenance of farm-servants, occupies
deservedly a very prominent position. Himself a
practical man, residing iu one of the best- cultivated
districts of the kingdom, Mr. Marshall spoke more
especially to his own experience. This would appear,
indeed, to have had only one drawback — it was almost
too good. The hinds of Lincolnshire were certainly
the happiest race of peasantry under the sun,
while rumour went on to say they were also the
best servants. They really showed some return
■when well cared for. In detailing his practice
Mr. Marshall went on to say how he paid
his men, and where in accordance with the custom of
the country he obtained them. He referred of course
to the district Statute or Hiring Fairs. He stated at
what times his people were permitted to attend them, for
the purpose of finding fre-h places. And he did all
this without in any way denouncing the means which
lead to such an end. On the contrary, it would come
rather as part of a system, which as a whole was
proved to work remarkably well. In the autumn of
this same year the reverend Mr. James read another
paper on much the same subject, and at the same
place — the Central Farmers' Club. In the course
of this, the latter took occasion to directly de-
nounce these Statute Fairs as " the labourer's curse" : —
" Let us consider that dangerous age when our lads
think themselves their own masters and beyond control ;
when they leave the roof of their parents, or first em-
ployers, and sauntering forth perhaps to a statute fair
(which is, I maintain, the labourer's curse), let them-
selves out for a mere twelvemonth to any master who
may engage them; at the expiration of that time
setting off again to meet with another master, a new
home, and new companions, hardened perhaps in crime
and villany, considering themselves mere migratory
beings, with now little or no religious character, no
sense of Sabbath duties or Sabbath observance, and
nondescript in feelings, habits, and views, instead of
the upright, handy, diligent, skilful, trustworthy
servants of which we talk, but take so little pains to
produce." Now there is ])alpably a great deal of this
in direct opposition to what Mr. Marshall had already
told us. He showed us that lads and men hired at
statutes might be, and were, steady and diligent; that
they did attend church ; and that, perhaps, in no other
M'ay were they so certain of becoming skilful and trust-
worthy labourers.

It is only right to say, however, that Mr. James, as a
clergyman, by no means stands alone here. Indeed,
the two classes seem very much inclined to join issue
on the subject. The clergy say these hiring fairs arc
most terrible evils, conducive "to all kinds of vice, and
that they ought accordingly to be done away with

The farmers, on the other hand, see no great harm in
them — and maintain, moreover, that it v/ould be diffi-
cult and inconveniei.t to do without them. This very
argument is now being discussed in Mr. Marshall's own
county. At the instance of the clergy, a meeting has.
been held within these few weeks, in Lincoln, with the
object of establishing a " Servants' General Registra-
tion Society," that is to say, a register-office which shall
embrace equally in its operations domestic servants and
farm-labourers. The Bishop of Lincoln opened the pro-
ceedings. After speaking to the defective education of the
poorer classes, his Lordship went on to say, " There is
another disadvantage to which our farm-labourers are
subject— the early age at which they leave home.
I do not mean simply the early period at which they
are sent out to work ; but the youthful age at which
they are put out to service at a part of the county very
far from their home, so that long before their character
is formed they are removed from the reach of those in-
fluences by which character ought to be formed — not
only from their parents, but from those to whom they
have been taught to look up — and they are often thrown
in contact with bad characters, whose influence begins
to act upon them. Added to this is the great dis-
advantage, as I must think it, though it is to a great
extent perhaps inevitable, of the annual changing of
situations. This, I am aware, cannot, to any great
degree, be obviated, because as the boy's or girl's
labour becomes of greater worth in jiroportion as they
grow older, and as their mastei-s or mistresses may
not require just that kind of labour, they must
seek to better themselves elsewhere. But I have
reason to believe that the almost universal prac-
tice of these changes arises in a great degree
from the custom of the country, and from the will
of the children themselves, who seem to consider it
quite right that every year they should remove to a
different situation. However this may be, I believe
that this practice, conjoined with that of not requiring
character at these hii-ings, is the cause of an almost in-
calculable evil. It results from this — and I beg you,
gentlemen, to mark my woi'ds — it results from this,
that a good character is of little or no value to a farm
servant. We know that in the case of ordinary domes-
tic servants, their good character is their capital. It is
that on which their success in life depends. They know
that if they lose it they must be content, perhaps for
the whole remainder of their lives, to put up with
worse situations, both in point of comfort and remune-
ration. But our farm servants are without those
motives. Hired without any inquiry into their cha-
racter, they feel that it is of no consequence to them to
acquire a good character in their present situation,
because they leave it at the end of the year, and it is of
no greater advantage to them in their future situation,
because in all probability it will never be asked for,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

241

I have to add to this the subject which is more imme-
diately befoi'e us at the present meeting — the evils of
statute-hirings — or, it would be more correct to say,
the evils of the statutes at which our farm servants are
hired ; for there could be no objection, of course, to
liiring at statutes were it not for the sights and scenes
to which these young people are exposed on such oc-
casions. Those you know better than I do; I will
only call to your mind that at the annual statute these
young men and women — or rather, boys and girls —
have their one great holiday in the year, when, re-
lieved from their labour of the past year, they are
excited and more liable to impressions from without
than at any other time ; that they meet together in
crowds in one of the towns, without the eye of their
parents or friends upon them, surrounded with temp-
tations which the publicans and others put in their
way, and without any check upon them, or very little,
for the fear of losing their character, or the wish to
maintain one they have already obtained. You are
well aware that it is scarcely possible to pass through
a town, or a road in the neighbourhood of a town
where these statutes are going on, without seeing
enough to show how much mischief and immorality
they must occasion ; and I believe there is many a
man and woman who has had to rue to the end of
their lives the evil which they have learned there,"
The Bishop concluded by thus summing up the assumed
advantages of the new plan : " It gives a value to
character (and that is a very great point) ; it renders
unnecessary, at any rate, the hiring at statutes ; and it
encourages — indirectly certainly, but still it does en-
courage— the servants to remain more than one year in
the same situation."

The next speaker was one of the best farmers in the
county, the well-known Mr. William Torr of Aylesby.
It will be impossible for us to follow him
throughout the whole of his very telling address, but
we may give the chief points in answer to what had
already been advanced : — " The hiring of farm servants
was a different thing to the hiring of domestic servants.
In the first place it was positively essential that the
farmer should see the men he wanted to hire. In
order to do this, there could not be a better arrange-
ment than having a day when both classes should
meet and have a choice. The Bishop said that cha-
racters were not reckoned of any consequence on such
occasions; but he (Mr. Torr) believed that characters
were generally inquired about in the case of the better
class of servants. He was free, however, to admit that
characters had not been sufficiently attended to, but that
was not the fault of the statutes ; it was the fault of
the masters, who did not attend the statutes, and
who were consequently not there to speak to the cha-
racter of the servant who was looking out for another
place. Now, supposing registration offices were es-
tablished throughout the county (though he did not be-
lieve them to be practicable), how would a farmer be
able to make his selection ? Say there were two names
down — one William Smith, who had lived 19 years
with Mr. Brooks, and the other James Brown, who had
lived 19 years with Mr. lies, both wanting situations as
waggoners, and having good characters. He (Mr.
Torr), wanting a waggoner, might pitch upon William
Smith ; and when he had an interview with him might
find that he was knock-kneed, very weak in the back,
with an excellent character, but not an atom of use as
a waggoner, while he had lost the chance of obtaining
the other man Brown, who was a strong active fellow,
and just the man he wanted. Such a system would
never do. But in the statute you could pick your man
out. It might be called a white slave market ; but he
maintained that it was the best way of doing it. A

man had a right to make the best bargain he could —
the master in getting his labourer, and the labourer in
disposing of his services ; and both of them had the
best chance in these statutes, where a large number of
them met for the purpose. He thought that the sta-
tutes had been overtaxed with an enormity of crime.
He was free to admit the immorality that prevailed on
such occasions, but he meant to say that whenever her
Majesty's subjects met together in large crowds, there
was the same sort of thing — whether it was a statute,
or country fair, or an excusion train (which he believed
presented the worst scene of all), or at Epsom or Don-
caster Races."

Then, again, as to what certainly looks at first like a
weak place in the system, Mr. Torr explained that —
" The changing of servants was a matter of necessity
rather than choice on the part of both masters and ser-
vants. He found, as a master, that if he hired a boy
to mind a pair of horses, and kept him a second year,
when he would have to mind four horses, he was not as
well served ; so he gave him a character, and tlie boy
got another place, and the change was better for both
parties. He (Mr. Torr) would be sorry to do anything
that would tend to lower the agricultural status of this
county, believing that f hey had an excellent lot of la-
bourers now, and that i-egistration offices would by no
means improve them. He had the lowest possible
opinion of the existing registrati(m offices." Mr. Skip-
worth had also "a very poor opinion of registration.
It would be impossible for a man to hire all his la-
bourers in that way : he would be travelling two months
in the year to select his servants. As to character, when a
youth conducted himself well, the master or his foreman
was there at the statute to say so, and a more truth-
ful character was obtained in this way than could be
procured by any registration-office. The remedy pro-
posed was totally impracticable," There were other
speakers for and against, but the argument is almost
altogether embraced in the speeches of the Bishop and
Mr. Torr. As the feeling of the meeting was seen to
be going against the proposal, an attempt was made to
show that in the establishment of register- offices there
was no desire to abolish the hiring fairs. If, however,
the movement meant anything, it must have tended
directly to ignoring the latter. And the farmers, to
whom, as the Bishop admitted, the consideration of
the subject most properly belonged, would not have
the proposition on any terms. The formal resolution
to establish a "Servants' General Registration Society"
was met with an amendment that the institution be
rather called "The Lincolnshire General Servants'
Amelioration Society" — and the amendment was
carried by a very large majority, the numbers being
thirty-one to seven.

We confess that our opinions go very much with this
majority. There has been a vast deal of overstrained
sentiment about our " white slave markets" — Where
Will stands with a bit of whipcord in his wide-awake,
or Jack mounts a curl of wool from his last place ; and
Mary comes in hopes of getting a better place than she
ever would in her own hamlet. Beyond this, we do not
quite see the sin or danger of a boy or girl going a little
way from home. It is well known that our domestic
female servants never do better than when they are out
of reach of the meddling influence of " mothei'," or
the continual promptings of some neighbour Busybody.
We are not so sure, either, but tliat boys may become
sharper, quicker, and abler men fi'om the same change
of scene — one, that in a higlier station of life is consi-
dered almost a necessary part of their education. Of
course they ar.e never left entirely to their own control,
and we cannot but refer again to Mr, Marshall's
essay as to how they do really fare and prosper.

242

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The immoralities of the Statutes might, as was
suo-gested, be corrected ; although even these we fancy-
have been a little overcoloured. Moreover, if Jack and
Gill are not suffered to go to " a statty" they will go
to a pleasure fair, or have their holiday out some way
or other. These wholesale attempts to interfere with or
revolutionize the habits of the lower classes have never,
so far, resulted in much good. The Statute fair may
be made more orderly, but for either master or man it
is about the most just principle that has ever yet been
devised.

Perhaps of all districts Lincolnshire was the last
in which we might have expected to have wit-
nessed such an agitation. The county has long been
proverbial for the excellence of its agricultural ser-
vants, the good terms on which they stand with
Iheir employers, and the liberal manner in which they
are treated. As Mr. Torr said, and said well, too :—

'• He had had the good fortune to visit nearly every
part of Her Majesty's dominions, and he had taken a
special interest in the rural population of the three
kingdoms; and he could say, ' without fear, favour, or
affection,' that the Wolds of Yorkshire and North. Lin-
colnshire possessed a peasantry equal, if not superior,
to that of any other district. The only place he could
point out as their equal in such a respect was the north
part of Northumberland, where the cottage system
existed in its perfection. He should be sorry to see the
north of Lincolnshire copying from the south of Eng-
land, where there were no statutes, but where the
labourers were in a most miserable condition. The
farm servants of North Lincolnshire were, however,
comfortably housed and really well kept."

Is it not rather dangerous to interfere with the cus-
toms of people doing as well as these are ?

USE OF GAS-LIME,

[In all our larger towns where gas is used for lights, there
is a considerable quantity of waste lime thrown out from
the gas-houses, lime being used for passing the gas through
to purify it. We have various reports from farmers who
have tried this, some in favour, some that it has no effect,
while others have condemned it as rank poison to crops.
Several inquiries have recently been addressed to us, one
of which, from F. S. Hawley, of Binghampton, N. Y., we
forwarded to Prof. S. W. Johnson, of the Yale Analytical
and Agricultural School, requesting an opinion. His reply
will throw some light upon the subject.]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST.

The various contradictory opinions held among practical
farmers, with reference to the value of gas-lime as a manure,
are justified by the extreme variableness of its composition.
When perfectly fresh from the gas purifiers, it is in general
a rather dangerous appplication to any growing crop, or in
contact with seed. Mr. Solomon Mead, of New Haven,
Connecticut, informs me he once applied it in the hill to
potatoes, and they never came up. A gentleman in Wal-
iingford, Ct., applied it to grass land and to the roots of
peach trees. The trees were destroyed, and the grass
severely scorched, so that it did not fairly recover until the
ensuing year.

It may be used in the fresh state upon naked fallows,
especially when it is desirable to free the soil from slugs,
injurious worms, or couch grass. What its action is upon
vermin may be inferred from the fact that when fresh it
contains a substance (sulphide of calcium) which is the
actual ingredient in the depilatories and cosmetics, which
are articles employed for removing hair. There is an
account of its being thrown into a hog-pen with the intent
that the swine should incorporate it with the compost heap.
This was effectually accomplished, but at the expense of
the bristles and hair of the hogs, which were, in a great
measure, removed by the operation.

It is thought, too, that the odour of the coal-tar, which is
mixed with the gas-lime in greater or less quantity, serves
to dislodge insects and vermin ; and it is sometimes sown
in small quantity over young turnip-plants to prevent the
attacks of the turnip-fly. In Scotland, it is largely applied
to moss-land which it is intended to reclaim.

The quantity of easily soluble matters (sulphide of calcium,
sulphite and hyposulphite of lime) is so variable, ranging,
according to analytical data, from 2^ to 15 parts in 100,

tliat we may readily comprehend how some gas-limes may
be quite harmless if applied in moderate doses even to
growing crops, while others, rich in these soluble and
deleterious matters, destroy all vegetation.

It has been supposed that fresh gas-lime is valuable on
account of the ammonia it contains. When the gas-lime is
emptied from the purifiers in which it has been exposed to
the gas, it has quite a pungent odour of ammonia; but the
quantity, though enough to affect the nostrils, is in reality
quite too small to have any great manuring value, and quite
disappears after a few days' exposure to the air. Mr. Twi-
ning, of this laboratory, found in a specimen of perfectly
fresh gas-lime, from the New Haven gas-works, but eight-
tenths of one per cent, of ammonia. In a gas-lime from the
gas-works at Waterbury, Ct,, which had been exposed to
the air for one week, he found but about four-one-hundredths
of one per cent.

Fresh gas-lime may be advantageously used in compost-
ing swamp muck, &c.

By full exposure to the atmosphere, as when scattered
over fallow-ground, after a time it becomes innocuous.
The soluble caustic ingredients are converted into no less
valuable a substance than gypsum (plaster) ; and then,
after its odour and bitter burning taste have disappeared,
it acts precisely like a mixture of lime and gypsum. How
rapidly these changes take place, I have no means of know-
ing witliout making actual trial ; but should presume that
if a dressing of gas-lime be incorporated thoroughly and
uniformly with the soil one week before sov/ing or planting,
no harm could result to the crop.

In conclusion, your correspondent is recommended to use
it, if he can get it more cheaply than other lime, at the rate
of fifty bushels per acre on heavy soils, or ten to twenty
bushels on light soils, making one application in three or
four years. If fresh it should be put on the bare soil, and
not on a crop. In case of corn or potatoes, it may be
scattered between the rows, and worked in at hoeing time.
If the gas-lime is white and tasteless after exposure to air
for a time, it may be sown like gypsum.

It should be remembered that a wet soil will not be much
benefited by lime, nor by any manure, unless in a dry
season ; and that a light dry soil is soon spoiled by lime,
unless a good supply of organic matter be maintained in it,
by means of stable manure, muck composts, or green-
manuring. Lime and plaster, too, are at the best, even
when they exhibit their most extraordinary effects, but
partial fertilizing agents. S. W. Johnson.

Si %.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

343

DRILLING OF CROPS.

It was observed by the late Earl of -Leicester, better
known as Mr. Coke, of Holkham, that the Scotch far-
mers were most excellent cultivators of the soil, in that
they drilled every root crop, as he had adopted that sys-
tem from them ; and at the same time they were the
very worst imaginable in sowing the grains in broadcast,
for he had used the drilling in rows of the culmiferous
crops. The same very enlightened and patriotic indi-
vidual strongly advocated leases of twenty years, and
continued the threshing of grain by flail. The judicial
Lord Kames of Scotland, who lived about 1770, very
strongly recommended leases-^of twenty years, and as
strongly urged the superiority of the ox over the horse
for farming purposes, wondering all the while that a
wilful blindness of daily growth seemed to prefer the
horse, which 'was superseding the ox. ~ The'quick per-
ception and powerful intellect of these gifted and en-
lisrhtened individuals filled to rid the prejudice that
threshing machinery diminishes labour, and to see that
grain crops only>eap the benefits of the root crop pre-
paration, and do not confer any benefit on the land.
The same organ which established the very large benefit
of twenty years'/ leases, iailed to perceive that nature
has decided the superiority of the horse over the ox, for
farming purposes, in the muscular formation of the
animal, and that quick motions are in almost every kind
of operations more effectual than sluggissh actions of
distant repetition. The late George' III. farmed for
thirty-two years at Windsor for the express purpose of
showing that oxen were superior to horses, and the very
contrary was proved ; just as the chemists discover new
things, or contrary things, in the progress~towards an
object which was intended. When prejudices surround
and encumber such minds as have been mentioned, no
wonder need be made that the common cultivators are
tied and manacled by apathy and mental servitude.

Tiie question between thrashing by machinery and
flail is soon settled : the very object of machinery is to
diminish labour on non-productive points, and to apply
it to the increase of production, and not to the cost of
manufacture, than which there can be no greater blunder
in social economy. It relieves manual labour from the
most brutifying performances, and leaves to it the nicer
operations that are beyond its sphere of application ;
for machinery has its limits prescribed. The question
of leases needs no discussion, but the drilling of crops
may admit some useful notices.

The drilling of root-crops at the distance of twenty-
six to thirty inches is certainly the most eligible
practice that has yet been devised for the purpose of
cleaning and pulverizing the ground, destrojing the
weeds, applying the manure, and preparing the land for
the future crops. The drills are opened by the common
plough, the dung is spread evenly along the hollow
intervals, the drills are split by the plough, and reversed
over the dung, when the seeds are immediately deposited
in the freshly-stirred soil. This mode is most admirable
in Scotland and the North of England, where the
climate afi'ords frequent rains and many dews, and
where the soils are cool from being fresh-water loams of
alluvial formation, that are superimposed on the primi-
tive rocks. Over the southern half of England an arid
climate succeeds, and a totally different geological series
of deposits ; marine clays, oolites, chalks, and green-
sands afford a most varied mixture of soils, which re-
. quire very different implements and courses of cultiva-
tion. The soils are in many cases very open in the tex-

ture, and easily dried, and crumbly 'and cloddy from
clay, and easily penetrated by drought. The Scotch
mode of twice drilling the ground, by opening and
reversing the drills, has bf,en found to dissipate the
moisture, by exposing the land so much during the driest
season of the year ; and on this moisture the success of
the turnip crop almost wholly depends.

It has been adopted to sow, on the flat and drilled
ground, the artificial manures with the turnip seed, by
means of machines with lengthened coulters, which make
ruts in the soil at stated distances to receive the con-
tents of deposition. This method sows the seed in a
parched dust on the top of the ground, which is always
made during dry weather on tilled lands, and the rows
being flat, the equal opportunity is not afforded, with
ridglets and hollows, of cultivating the intervals with the
horse-hoe. But on the lands above-mentioned, it is
preferable to exposing the land by being twice drilled.
All light lands are best sown with artificial manures,
which may be best used in drills 27 inches apart, made
with one furrow of the common plough, and the seed
being immediately sown, and the drills rolled, nearly
a flat state will be produced, and a fresh tilth will be
enjoyed by the seed, without exposing the land to
drought by lying in open drills. Two common ploughs
will employ Hornsby's drop-drill, which splits the ridg-
lets, and deposits the seeds deeply. It is an excellent
implement. Light lands may be wholly prepared from
the winter furrow by means of Finlayson's harrow, and
being reduced by grubbing and rolling, and never turned
up to exposure, the moisture of winter will be retained,
and do much to secure the crop. The farmyard dung
may be mixed with the land by the grubbing of the
implement, and the ground drilled and sown as above-
directed.

The root crops used in Great Britain are, potatoes,
turnips, cabbages, and beet-root, which grow in roots
in or close to the ground, and do not rise to height and
impede the cultivation in pulverizing the soil and
clearing the land from weeds. The horse-hoe can work
during the whole season of summer and autumn, and the
hoe and the hands of the weeders can be employed over
the matured growth of the plants in cutting and pulling
the weeds that grow upon the land. This admission
of the tools of cultivation, throughout the season, con-
stitutes the great value of these plants, as the soil is
thereby thoroughly pulverized and cleaned by the ope-
rations. Beans allow a partial cultivation in the early
summer ; but the plant soon rises to height, and ex-
cludes the implements. The crop is, therefore, only a
half-fallow ; and the best use of it, in the county of
East Lothian, in the south of Scotland, does not form a
substitute for the bare wheat and turnip fallows. The
drilling of peas and vetches is excluded, by reason of
the plants quickly growing over the intervals, and pro-
hibiting any cultivation ; and the use of the plants con-
sists in a close crop, thoroughly covering the ground,
and smothering every vegetation below the shade. The
land is mellowed on the surface, and freshened with
moisture, and enriched with the decomposition produced
by the exclusion of air and retention of moisture.

The very decisive advantages of drilling root-crops
arise from the plants growing close by the ground, and
thereby allowing the most complete fallowing of the
intervals, and the cleaning of the whole ground from
weeds. When the luxuriance of the crop does cover
the intervals of the drills, there is still a liberty of hand-

244

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

pulling the tall weeds, which, with the previous scarify-
ings and hand-hoeings, finishes the process of fallowing
and cleaning the land. These facts are so undisputed,
that no further comment is necessary.

The benefits of drilling grain crops rest upon a very
questionable foundation. The rows are narrow, and 12
or 14 inches distant, and do not allow the horse-hoeing
in any effectual way : a very slight action only can be
done. The operations of the hand-hoe are equally in-
effective, by reason of the scuffling of the intervals
being too shallow to admit the works of the hoe : the
surface-weeds are cut, but no pulverizing effect is per-
formed. The plants quickly rise into a height that ex-
cludes all subsequent operations behind a scarifying by
the horse-hoe and one or two operations of the hand-
tool. These slight processes effect no beneficial pur-
pose, beyond slightly checking the small weeds that rise
first in the spring. All later growths remain undis-
turbed, as the tall grains prohibit any work being done.
The season of performing what can be done is much too
short to produce any benefit.

Green crops are cultivated to obtain the roots as the
valuable part, and without maturing the seed— a pur-
pose very widely different from the use of grain crops,
which are sown for the express object of obtaining the
matured seeds as the value that is desired. The latter
plants derive the benefit that has been conferred on the
land by the cultivation of the root crops. The very
opposite nature prevents any similar benefit being con-
ferred by the plants on the land, and the idea of drilling
corn had arisen with the minds that evaded the solid,

and fastened on the superficial. No decisive proof has
been recorded from a majority of similar results, that
the produce of grains and clovers is larger from drilled
land than from broadcast sowing ; and until this proof
be made satisfactory for more than one year, on a field
alternated in equal spaces of ground with rows and
broadcast, the drilling of grain must be held as an
effusion of fancy, which has no substantial evidence
for its support. The farmers of the Border counties
made trial of the row cultivation, but soon relinquished
it, finding no benefit from the additional expense, and
that close luxuriant crops of grain produced by the root
crop fallowing and manuring were more effectual in
smothering weeds than any hoeings of the intervals
that could be done. It is an application of labour to an
object which cannot derive the benefit of the intention,
and therefore the expense is misapplied, and produces
no remuneration.

The evidence is much more ample of the superiority
of thrashing by machinery over the flail, than of drilling
grain being more advantageous than sowing in broad-
cast; and yet the boasted Holkham farmers, and many
other cultivators of repute, persist in applying labour
to non-productive points in using the flail at five times
the cost of machinery, and in adding the expense of
drilling grain to produce no result — a weakness of
intellect almost incredible in these days of inquiry, when
the torture of the rack is unsparingly applied for the
behoof of agriculture, on every point of tangible ap-
plication, J. D.

AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION.

[translated FKOM the FRENCH OF " LE JOURNAL D'AGRICULTURE PRATIQUE."]

The Academy of Moral and Political Science directed
M. Le'once de Lavergne, one of its members, to institute
and prosecute an inquiry into the actual condition of
the rural classes in France ; and, in order to execute his
commission, that learned economist has completed a
series of investigations which, in these late times
especially, have attracted the attention of the most
eminent publicists.

Amongst these studies there is one which presents
itself foremost as an essential basis of the researches
of M. de Lavergne, namely, that of the statistics
resulting from the census of the population, as have
been published officially in 1856. This administra-
tive document states two facts, both important and
characteristic for our epoch ; first, in respect to the
preceding quinquennial period, a relaxation in the in-
crease of the population during the period from 1851 to
1856 ; and again — and this possesses a higher degree of
interest with agriculture — a manifest depopulation of the
country districts, in favour of some large cities, and
especially Paris. Consequently, it was very natural that
in a study of the condition of the rural classes, such
facts, stated officially, should stand out in strong relief :
public opinion had previously conjectured it, and the
statistic surprised no one, when it came to be exhibited
in figures.

We thus see a country (France), abandoning its
old traditions, and inclining towards English organization,
in the predominance of the urban over the rural popula-
tions. Is this a symptom of progress? or is it a symptom
of decay ?

There are to be found writers who, in their optimism,
have looked upon this change of class in our populations
as the undeniable evidence of progressive civilization.

Starting upon the idea that the more agriculture
advances towards perfection, the more it replaces
manual labour by machinery, they are happy to find
that the origination of great public works in cities has
found employment for the rural populations for which
agriculture has no further occasion.

The book that M. de Lavergne has recently published,
entitled " Agriculture and Population," is, we may say,
a true protest against these fatal tendencies of our rural
populations to desert the village. Tracing to their
origin the causes of this desertion, the author places in
the first rank the inclemency of the seasons, and the
centralization of expenditure in cities. The first has been,
he says, the chief determining cause of the general de-
population of France, and that of the rural districts in
particular ; but (and this deserves the greatest atten-
tion) it is at the moment in which agriculture has the
most need of all its resources, to struggle against the
fatal infiuence of the seasons, that, in aggravation, it is
seen to be simultaneously deprived of arm and capital
by war and luxury — two causes to which are necessarily
attached the centralization of expenditure iu cities.

The war ! it would be out of place to speak of it here,
otherwise than to render homage to those rural popu-
lations, which, in that great trial of the country, have
furnished so largely their contingent of men and money.
But luxury ! the centralization of expenditure in cities !
that is another thing ; for at the last analysis it is
beyond dispute that amongst the causes that have
attracted our rural populations into the cities, we must
assign a chief place to this respective position of our
cities and rural districts. In the latter, the insuffi-
ciency of the harvest, the only resource of the inhabi-
tants, has produced misery, and closed the workshops of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

245

private labour. In the former, the insufficiency of the
harvest has been counteracted, more than elsewhere, by-
ingenious combinations, tending, on the one hand, to
sell bread below the normal price, and, on the other, to
create public works upon a scale till then unheard-of.
Bread and labour assured, what more was required to
attract the populations ? They have only too well
responded to the appeal, and it is thus that in the five
years from 1851 to 1856, the total population of France
increased only 256,194, whilst that of Paris, taken alone,
has increased to the enormous extent of 305,354 inhabi-
tants. From whence, then, arises this excess of the
Parisian population, if not chiefly from the contingent
made up of the deserters of our agricultural depart-
ments ?

But this is not all; for we must not only look at the
figures in this question of depopulation of the country
districts : we must look also, and above a!!, at the quality
of the emigrants. Now, it has been found that the re-
quirements of war have exacted the formation of a
numerous army ; here is at once an enormous tribute
levied chiefly upon the most eff'ective portion, the most
productive of our rural population. But we must not
speak of this, for glory is the consummation of the
tribute. Let us speak of another portion of the emigra-
tion— that which has recruited the army from amongst
workmen, masons, carpenters, navigators, and other
building workmen. Can we believe that the desertion
of these has not been more sensibly felt in our rural
districts, in that, generally, it acts upon those men in
the strength of life, and such as in regard to intelligence
and activity might justly pass for the elite of the work-
ing population of our villages .-' Truly such questions
are quite common-place ; for there is no one who does
not know that in the actual state of popular prejudices
it is those who are the least favoured by Nature and
education who are left in our villages.

The arm of ridicule is very powerful in France, but
frequently it is only the shaft of wit against good sense ;
and such is the course of things that, sooner or later —
too late, unfortunately — good sense carries the day. A
day will come, therefore, in which public opinion will
do ample justice for that strange accusation launched
against those writers who, in our day, have blamed the
extravagant luxury of the cities. They have been repre-
sented as false puritans, as men who do not comprehend
the necessities of our civilization ; as pessimists, who,
for example, would wish to see Paris laid in ruins. This
is, in reality, the disastrous war. It is not necessary
that Paris should cease to be embellished : the whole
question is, to hold an even balance between the expenses
which may concur in ameliorating a residence in cities,
and those which have for their object the amelioration of
the rural viability, the clearing of the downs and moun-
tains, the management of the fluvial waters, &c. We are
beginning to engage in this course of reparation towards
the poor districts ; and M. de Lavergne properly quali-
fies as a good law that, by virtue of which the State
charges itself to execute the work of planting on the plains
of Bordeaux to the extent of a sum of 6,000,000 francs.

A deputy of the Legislative Corps, M. Guillaumin,
justly remarked, in the discussion on the expenditure of
the Budget of 1858, that out of a sum total of
1,716,986,190 francs, the budget for public agricultural
works figured simply to the amount of 1,850,000 francs;
appropriated to the rendering healthy or renewing the
forests of Sologne, Doubes, Gascony, Brisse, and
Corsica — all countries in which fevers decimate the
population. Certainly, looking at these sums, the first
so large and the second so small, we cannot say that the
rural population have taken the lion's share. And yet,
at a period in which sanitary questions, so interesting to
the working classes, have assumed so much importance,

what work can be more beneficial than that of rendering
healthy the unfortunate countries which up to the
present time have known little of our civilization except
from the tax-gatherer and the recruiting-serjeant ?
What unknown miseries exist in these countries ! which,
after all, demand of the State only what it has done for
the richer ones— namely, roads for traffic and sanitary
works.

As a general principle, M. de Lavergne is not one of
those writers who demand on all occasions the inter-
vention of the State in matters of interest, either agri-
cultural or manufacturing. He does not wish the State
to do too many things ; for he knows that that system
might be construed, to the great detriment of agricul-
ture, into an increase of taxes and functionaries. He
prefers much that the country acquire the habit of
doing by itself, so far as possible, its agricultural and
industrial affairs ; for he is persuaded that it is, above
all, by the exercise of individual exertion, that a nation
learns to conquer and preserve all ^that gives riches,
power, and stability. We can only applaud such doc-
trines, being those of a good political economy. They
teach the love of labour, and divest governments of the
terrible responsibility imposed upon them by contrary
doctrines, especially in what concerns salaries and the
question of sustenance. To this extent, therefore, it is
desirable for all, governors or governed, that the doctrine
of individual initiative, thus understood, should pene-
trate into all social circles. The result would not be
that the State would have nothing to do for agriculture ;
it would still be at least evident that the public expen-
diture ought to bear only upon objects with which the
citizens, whether separately or in association, cannot be
employed. Now in the actual state of things, it is cer-
tain that many great agricultural works, and operations
of public utility, such as the replanting of mountains
and downs, or the rendering healthy insalubrious coun-
tries, constitute in the highest degree works executed at
the charge of the whole country. Compelled to become
a manufacturing and commercial nation, we have for a
length of time already concentrated the strongest part
of our public resources in the improvement of the
richest districts ; and it is time that the poor ones, the
disinherited countries, should, in their turns, also have a
place in the budget of public works. To say that these
poor districts will never reimburse by their own riches the
advances of the budget, is to view a great question on
its weakest side, and to forget what those countries, now
provided with roads and openings, were themselves,
before they became the theatre of great public works.

M. Guillaumin, the deputy of whom I have spoken
already, said again, in the Corps Legislatif, in continu-
ing his idea of public agricultural works: ''Suppose
that a capitalist, entering upon a healthy soil, com-
menced by making costly constructions, by furnishing
his stables with selected beasts, by establishing from
them splendid teams — by creating a museum of perfect
instruments, without reserving capital to purchase
manure, carry out the drainage, marling, irrigations,
&c., which are, in cultivation, reproductive expenses ;
should we not have a right to say to that capitalist,
' You have badly arranged the employment of your
funds, and have neglected the expenses productive of
riches' ? "

Well ! it is not necessary that a State that is called
France should subject itself to the same reproach. In
other terms, that the expenditures of luxury and utility,
for the embellishment of cities and those dispersed over
wealthy territories, should at the same time overlook
those great blots called La Bresse, La Sologne, and many
other countries. In these there are productive expenses
to be incurred. It does not simply consist in increasing
our grain and cattle, but to carry labour to the hand of

246

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the workman in the field; in a word, to enable those
who remain in their native country to find something else
there than fern and buckwheat-bread, unhealthy pond-
water, and, true penance of Tantalus, immense lands to
cultivate, but no labour. And then, when this work of
reparation shall have been accomplished, we might,
without reverse of the medal, be justly proud of our
country. Instead of progressing towards the English
organization in what relates to the repartition of the
populations, we shall have preserved our old and strong
French organization — the predominance of the rural
populations over the urban, the scattered populations
over the agglomerated.

Undoubtedly the progress of mechanical agriculture,
like that of mechanical manufacture, tends to the sub-
stitution, so far as it can, of the work of machinery for
that of men. But does it follow that this desirable
substitution has been, up to the present time, one of the
causes to which we are allowed to attribute the depopu-
lation of the country districts ? Have we a right to
say that the thrashing-machine, the drill, the horse-hoe,
the steam locomotive, the haymaking machine, &c., &c.,
have in any degree whatever diminished on our farms
the demand for hand labour ? To maintain such affir-
mations would be to forget, in my opinion, that the
more agriculture is improved, the greater its need of the
arm — and let us mark well this fact — the arm of Intel-
ligence. This is what appears to have escaped the
notice of many writers, who, on this question of popu-
lation, have spoken of the wants of agriculture in men,
and who understand manufacturing much better than
rural economy. More familiarity with this last science
would have taught them that amongst the elements that
determine the choice of systems of cultivation, it is
necessary, before all, to accord a very great importance
to the amount of the labouring population. Show us the
least populous country, and forest and pastoral agriculture
reign there ; ascend a ladder, and you find arable culture
mingled with fallows and pasturage ; see, in short, a
country well peopled, and you are in presence of in-
tensive culture, culture without fallows, culture with
stabulation of cattle, and predominance of roots, artifi-
cial forage, manufacturing and garden 'plants, &c. It
is quite true that machines are multiplied in proportion
as the earth is better cultivated ; but as, on the other
hand, the demands of consumption increase, it happens
that, up to the present at least, the increasing fertility
of the soil causes the extension of manufacturing and
gardening cultivation, which implies also a greater need
of hand-labour. And not only are more hands neces-
sary, but, what is more important for the working
population, the rural labour formerly concentrated upon
the harvest season has become better distributed over
the whole year. Thus workmen are required for spring
tillage, for the autumn harvests, and for winter works
in the agricultural districts. Hence, less stoppage, but
a more equally-balanced labour, better sustaiuedj and
better remunerated.

Such is the truth of the case. Machinery has in
no respect occasioned the emigration of the rural popu-
lation ; since agriculture, otherwise in presence of larger
outlets, has never had such extensive need of hand-
labour as since the period of the improvement of
machines. It is therefore not true that the attraction
of the cities over the rural populations can be a good
thing ; nor is it true that this attraction is a sign of high
civilization. On the contrary, this unclassing of the
populations is a fact not to applaud, but to combat with,
in its exaggerations. Let us not forget, as a last
analysis, that it not with French as with English agri-
culture. This latter, whether it be from its markets or
from the nature of the soil and climate, employs itself
little except upon forages, corn, and cattle. The former.

much more complex, unites to the production of alimen-
tary commodities, those of vines, mulberries, olives,
fruit trees, manufacturing and horticultural plants, in
the open fields. The small culture therefore predo-
minates over our territory ; and the small culture
signifies the rural population in the greatest number.

All these ideas have been developed by M. de
Lavergne, in several chapters which he has devoted to
the special study of cattle, machinery, agricultural and
forest products. Written under the impression of the
visits made by the author to the Exposition of 1855,
these chapters are not simply a technical description of
the objects that the several nations had sent to the great
gathering at Paris. Much higher is their bearing, for
they are in truth a study of the whole of European
agriculture. Thus, when the Exposition terminated,
the author, always pre-occupied with the condition of
the rural classes, takes, at setting out, many of those
ideas which, with more or less opportunity, have been
thrown into public discussion.

In many of these ideas appears commercial free-
dom ; that is to say, the suppression, or rather the pro-
gressive reduction of customs' duties exacted at the
frontiers of each nation. I will not enter into the dis-
cussion of this so-much controverted question ; and
besides, there is not a single reader of this journal who
does not know that M. de Lavergne does not in any
respect believe that our agriculture is efficiently pro-
tected by the sliding-scaleand other fiscal arrangements.
I will only say that, in opposition to many ancient
organizers of free exchange in France, who explained to
us, as was done in England for the agriculture of that
country, that French agriculture was enriched at the
expence if the consumers, M. de Lavergue has clearly
shown that enormous difference which, in this respect,
exists between the agricultures of the two countries.
In fact, the free-exchangists of Outre-Mauche might
justly support themselves upon the excessive dearness
of agricultural products, and by that argument organize
a league against the import duties on cereals. But in
France to talk of the excessive dearness of commodities,
and of the illegitimate profits of agriculture, was in
truth to place the spirit of system above the reality of
facts ; to discredit political economy ; and at all hazards,
to ruin the doctrine of free-trade in public opinion.
Ileal science, or that which is based on the study of
things, ought therefore to be pleased that M. de
Lavergne has re-opened this question, and placed it upon
its true foundation. Such men advance the sciences
slowly : it is not necessary to repudiate them because
they sometimes deceive themselves ; but when a principle
is badly advanced, it must be replaced.

It is impossible that M. de Lavergne should notknovsr
his own opinion on a measure that would tend to no-
thing less than the re-establishment of an order of
things incompatible with our present habits. Listen to
certain reformers, and they charge the subdivision of
the land with the backward state of our agriculture ; they
consequently demand that we introduce into our legisla-
lation the illimitable liberty of willing property at death,
and the right of entail. What does M. de Lavergne
think on this subject? A partisan of free competition,
he admits only one means of disallowing the sale to the
small proprietor, that is, to do better than he, as may
be done in certain situations. In the background, there-
fore, are those superannuated combinations, which,
powerless to reascend the course of time, would be useful
only in raising new storms, "The law of equal division,"
says our author, " is the flesh and blood of France, We
cannot touch it without danger, at least in its essential
dispositions." This is saying plainly that M, de La-
vergne does not push the fanaticism of this law of equaj
division to a disregard of the inconvenif^nces of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

9A7

826th article of the Code, which allows to each of the
heritors to demand his part in Mnd, of the furniture
and fixtures of the succession. This regime of absolute
equality has conducted us straight to that of instalments,
of enclosures of pieces of landj that is, a regime that
multiplies inordinately the ditches, fences, rights of
passage, &c. ; which hinders the reform of bad dis-
tribution of crops, and the execution of great works
connected with drainage, irrigation, &c. Here, then,
there is something to do ; and M. de Lavergne thinks
that, for example, one of the heirs should be authorized
to take possession of fixtures exceeding in value his
share, on payment to the others of three per cent, interest,
and two per cent, redemption, with the power of repaying
the whole on the principle of a credit-foncier.

With regard to the soil, the principal element of
agricultural labour, M. de Lavergne demands the re-
duction, and even the suppression of the rights which
involve tlie real property mutations. This is well
spoken, and it was moreover the advice of M. Gasparin ;
these rights are, in fact, one of the first causes of the
enormous debt of the proprietary. They bar the idea
of all improvements ; and one of the best means of en-
couraging agriculture will unquestionably be to facilitate
the mutations.

Again, with regard to the soil, M. de Lavergne has
met with a publicist who places the existence of com-
munal property in the list of the most efficacious
means for ameliorating the condition of the rural
classes. Upon this, a protest is urged by M. de L»j-
vergne, who knows very well that the land that is every
body's is nobody's, and who, in that frame of mind,
reproaches the communalities when they go beyond a
certain proportion with the population, for the main-
tenance of poverty, idleness, ignorance, and thought-
lessness.

After the soil come capital and labour. Here agricul-
ture is, it may be said, in presence of two deserters, who
have given notice of passing over to the enemy. The
enemy ! that is undoubtedly the true expression, when it
is intended to point out those manufactures which do
nothing for the soil, whilst they consume nevertheless its
produce.

Once more we must not be misunderstood. Manu-
facture and agriculture cannot be enemies under a reign
of free competition ; but their productiveness may be
singularly changed in a social state in which the urban
populations have remained longer protected than the
agricultural population. Indeed, such is the primitive
idea, resulting from the economic studies of M. de La-
vergne. Centralization has so far ruled our situation
in France, that almost all causes have combined to de-
velope the riches of the cities rather than those of the
country. Thus professional instruction occupies itself
with recruitment of the army, with medicine, with the
bar, with the arts and manufactures, rather than with
that of agriculture. So again, the majority of the great
families reside in the cities, where they find life more
agreeable. And we are astonished that capital and la-
bour desert the fields, when they have so high an exam-
ple set them. We are astonished that the peasants, sur-
rounded with lands which should be the best investments
for rural savings, have become the holders of railway
shares and debentures of French and foreign stocks !

O progress of the age ! Formerly, when the country
notaries made out inventories of inheritance, what did
they find in the house of the easy peasant ? Good clo-
sets furnished with good linen, and granaries well fur-
nished with corn. What do they find now ? Papers
and public deeds negociable at the Exchange. It is the
fulfilment of the proverb, "Other times, other manners. "
It remains to be seen which manners are the best.

But what can be done to alter all this ? On this ques-

tion M. de Lavergne shows himself faithful to all his
economic antecedents ; that is to say, that his advice is
not of those who would upset all social order. He has
interrogated thescience of political economy. He knows
on what conditions capitals are created and manufactures
prosper. He has confidence also in the good sense of
our rural populations, who, in times of great crises, have
always known how to get us out of them. He hopes,
too, that more than one prodigal son will return sooner
or later to the village ; for, after all, it is there that
France will always reckon upon the most labourers, and,
at need, the most soldiers.

On the other hand, it behoves us to prepare for this
future. Agriculture will become what agriculturists
themselves become : like as in all the social circles, high
as well as low, these should be able to treat on a footing
of equality with the representatives of other professions ;
and then not one measure of general interest will be taken
without the agricultural interest receiving full satisfac-
tion. All depends on that ; it is necessary that agricul-
tural France should be able to constantly enlighten the
Government, for there are no more certain means of
rendering it stable and powerful, to the profit of the
country. Large culture and a large property, above
all, have much to do, to march on an equality with the
small proprietor and small culture. We may say that in
this respect we are not in equilibrium as a nation.

If the number of cultivators were sufficient for suc-
cess, or rather, to place the agricultural element into
position amongst the other elements of national power,
it is evident that French agriculture, the employment of
twenty-five out of the thirty-five millions of inhabitants,
would be in a position to make the rural spirit predo-
minate in the public mind ; and, with the rural spirit,
all the principles of order and progress which it com-
ports. But we are not deceived there. If the rural
spirit exists in our country, let us admit, at least, that it
is much more alive in the subdivided districts than in
those of aggregated culture. It is not, therefore, sur-
prising that it should experience ideas, manners, and
aspirations of the intellectual level of the dominant
population, of which it is the representative. This is
why we find in it, in so high a degree, that love of
family and property, and all those domestic virtues,
which, in a word, are, without dispute, one of the
most solid bases of our social order. But by way of
retaliation, it is not amongst these laborious populations,
almost constantly bowed down to the soil, that we must
seek for those connected ideas, that knowledge of gene-
ral interests, and that superior education which our
modern society requires. Consequently it is no longer
there that we must seek for that useful counterpois,
which, amongst the English, places the defence of agri-
cultural interests under the protection of men who can,
know how to, and will, cultivate them.

It is, therefore, essential that we should not confound
the rural spirit of large culture with that of small cul-
ture. The latter guarantees order in this respect, that
small workmen have neither time nor even desire to
employ themselves with anything but their harvests,
cattle, sales, and purchases. The former, quite as
strenuous for order, more particularly guarantee pro-
gress in this sense — that, sharing in the movements of
general interest, it can give the impulse to public
opinion, and does not conform itself to receiving the
word of command. In a word, if there were in a state
only small cultivators, the big-wigs of finance, manufac-
ture, and commerce would easily gain the ascendancy;
which would be a misfortune, for it would be the abso-
lute reign of certain interests.

It will not be thus : science and capital come to the
fields; and, thanks to these levers of progress, there is
amongst OCT rural society a class of men who, without

s 2

248

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the rights of seniority, majorats, or estates in tail, will
know how to prevent the excessive sub-division of the
soil. To this class of men we may address the language
of M. de Lavergne ; for, precisely because it loves the
truth and disdains false complacency, because it desires
employment for the workmen and preaches by example,
there are none, who better than they, have the right of
not being suspected of a bad spirit, when they raise their
voice in favour of useful reforms, and point out certain
dangers to the citizens. M. de Lavergne has found an
echo in this part of the population. It is, I think, an
excellent proof that he has in his writings known how
to unite moderation of language with firmness of
opinion. Let us not, however, consider him exclu-
sively as the advocate of large culture : that would
be to forget all that he has justly said in favour
of small culture, for which he professes, with
truth, a very particular esteem. So alsoin what

regards manufacture, it is unnecessary to suppose
that he has placed it in antagonism with agricul-
ture : far from it. A man of profound views, he has
arrived through political economy at rural economy,
through the whole to the part. That is to say, he is
not exclusive, and loves all the branches of human
labour. He has been, I repeat, struck with the depo-
pulation of our country districts ; he seeks by the light
of science, and in the domain of individual energjC rather
than in the intervention of the State, a remedy for this
public danger. In short, M. de Lavergne has made
once more one of those good books, which displays to
us all the grandeur and utility of the part that agricul-
ture is called upon to play in France, and that to the
advantage of our population, whom it behoves to pre-
serve its rural character. E. Lecouteux,

Former Director of the Cultures of the
Agronomic Institute of Versailles.

THE LATEST PATENTS FOR PLOUGHING BY STEAM.

The next patent machine for tilling and preparing
and, adapted to " steam traction," which we have to
notice, is that of William Smith, of Little Woolstone,
Bucks. (Patent dated September 7th, 1853. No. of
patent, 2,121. Price of specification, G^d.) The in-
vention claimed in the patent is the manner of com-
bining implements, such as the patentee has before used
as subsoil ploughs, into one. The implement repre-
sented in the drawing is in general appearance like the
cultivator or grubber. The tines, or " implements" as
they are designated in the specification, are three in
number. Of these, the central is the only one pro-
vided with bandies ; the frames or bodies of the other
two are in all respects similar to this central implement.
Two cross-beams {a a) are provided for combining the
three into one. The fore parts of the beams or bodies
of the implements are connected with a bar (ft) which
runs parallel to, and some distance before, the cross-
beams {a a). At each end of the bar (6) a vertical
screw, with an eye at its upper end, is placed ; through
the eyes of these rods the draft chains fixed to the stems
of the cutting implements are passed, and extended
forward and attached to the whippletree connected with
the bar {b). The whippletree is inclined, as required,
to either side, by chains attached to each end : these
are taken up and hooked at points in the handle of the
central implement, so as to be within reach of the at-
tendant. Wheels are provided, one to each of the two
outer implements ; and in some cases, on stiff land, the
patentee states that each implement has its own wheel.
The height of the wheel and of the implements are ad-
justed in the frame in manner similar to the coulter
and wheels of the plough. The tine, or cutting part of
the implement, resembles in form the tine of the ordi-
nary grubber or cultivator.

The patent next in chronological order which we
propose to notice under the present division of our sub-
ject, is that granted to John Allen Williams, of Bay-
don, Wilts. (Patent dated 17th of June, 1854. No. of
patent, 1,325. Price of specification. Is. 6d.) This
invention relates to an arrangement of plough or culti-
vating apparatus for working land, " Whereby," says
the specification, " a much superior cultivating effect
is obtainable than is possible with the common or other
existing forms of ploughs or cultivators." The culti-
vating implements represented in the drawings attached
to the specification resemble closely in arrangement and
detail the ordinary plough, with its share, mouldboard,
and coulter. The peculiar feature of the arrangement

is the method by which various adjustments can be
given to these ploughs : they can, for instance, be lifted
vertically out of or adjusted to any distance from the
soil in which they worl<, the ploughshares being at-
tached to a series of horizontal bars (a) running from
end to end of the framing of the machine ; these bars
being provided with eyes sliding up and down on verti-
cal guide-bars (&) fitted to the back of the framing.
Three of these plough bars or beams (a) are stated by
the patentee to be a convenient number. To the front
of the framing, vertical guides (c), corresponding to (b),
are fitted : these are provided with block pieces (d)
which slide up and down. To projecting rings or ears
made on these block pieces (rf) the extremities of the
horizontal plough bars {a) are jointed, the ends of the
plough bars being furnished with a double eye or fork.
By this arrangement, if obstacles present themselves to
the ploughs while in operation, the ploughs give way
to the obstacles ; the plough bars (a) rising behind,
and turning on the jointed block pieces {d) sliding on
the front guide bars (c), the plough bars, with their
attached ploughs, arc lifted simultaneously out of con-
tact with, or adjusted to any distance from, the soil by
the following means. At each end of the framing car-
rying the guide bars (b c) a set of loose pulleys (e) are
hung ; chains connected with the plough bai'S (a) at
each end pass over these pulleys; the chains (/) at-
tached to the ends of the plough bars at the back of the
machine being at once connected to lever handles (g)
placed within the reach of the attendant. The chains
attached to the front end of the plough bars (a) pass
over their corresponding pulleys, and are connected
with rods or links which extend along the framing, and
are connected at their opposite ends to the chains (/)
connected with the lever handles (g). By depressing
these handles (g) both ends of the plough bars are
raised simultaneously. Tlie lever handles (^) work in
segmental slides provided with holes, through which
pins pass, and are made to regulate the extent of " lift"
of the plough bars {a). Each plough bar is also capa-
ble of being lifted up independently of the others, by
means of a small handle fixed to the back end of the
bar. The vertical guide bars (c) are capable of being
slightly inclined, so as to give a corresponding lateral
inclination to the coulters and turn-furrows of the
ploughs, and to enable them " to turn the furrows more
efficiently when ploughing a hill-side or sidelong
ground." The lateral traverse of the frame which gives
the inclination to the guide bars (c) above referred to,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

249

is effected through the medium of a handle situated at
the back of the machine, within the reach of the at-
tendant. This handle is fixed at the end of a rod
reaching from one end of the machine to the other, and
provided at the further extremity with a pinion working
into a rack fitted on the hind bar of the sloping
wi'ought-iron frame carrying the guide bars (c) work-
ing in slots attached to the main framing of the
machine. The whole apparatus is supported in a long
rectangular framing, of length corresponding to the
number of plouglis employed. This framing is sup-
ported by two large wheels, running loose upon separate
axles, placed at different levels to suit the depth of fur-
row to be made in the inequality of the surface over
which the machine travels. A support for the framing
is obtained at the back end by a smaller wheel set upon
a swivel centre capable of lateral adjustment. In
ploughing, the ofi'-side front wheel runs in, and is
steadied by the furrow cut by the previous traverse of
the plough, whilst the corresponding wheel runs on the
unploughed ground. This arrangement involves the
necessity of having the near side-wheel higher by the
depth of the furrow than the off side, this being attained
by a nut and screw in a rack and pinion adjustment.
The ploughshares or cutters are set one behind the
other, as regards the direction of the plough's traverse ;
so that the off or right-hand plough begins to cut first,
the second one next, and the near one last : the hind
wheel, following immediately in the newly cut furrow
on the near side of the plough, receives a guide from
the last formed furrow.

Although not exactly in chronolgical order, we may
here notice a second patent granted to Mr. Williams
(date of patent Dec. 7, 1855; No. of patent 2,7fi6;
price of specification 9d.), for a ploughing or cultivat-
ing machine, the general arrangements of which closely
resemble that which we have above described; the
plough or cultivator bars being supported and adjusted
by the same mechanism ; the framing is, however, sup-
ported] on a pair of small swivel wheels in front,
and by a pair of larger wheels at the back of
the machine. An important claim in the patent is
for " a peculiar share." This consists of an ordinary
plough share, with a left-hand pin formed in it. " A
small turnfurrow of a peculiar construction is fitted
to the plough body, and consists of a steel plate, fitted
or formed with a knife or cutting edge, at right angles
or thereabouts to its surface, working under the furrow,
and severing the same, so that one portion of the fur-
row slice will be cut and laid over the other part, thus
leaving an uneven surface for the harrow teeth, in the
subseqxient operation of harrowing, to lay hold of."
The central beam is the longest, and has its cutting
implement nearest to the front of the framing, which
is angle or pointed, so as to suit the different lengths
of the beam. By the arrangement adopted, the two
implements on each side of the central beam come
into operation successively. The pins of the shares are
made broad enough to intersect each other's course; in
this way the entire surface is operated on. A claim is
also made in the patent for a combination of imple-
ments in one frame, to act as a rafter frame and a horse-
hoe. The ploughs in the ordinary machine can also
be taken out, and " drag" tines substituted.

The last patent machine or implement, coming
under the present division of our subject, is that
of Richard Coleman (patent dated May 28, 1855 ;
No. 1,222; price of specification Is. lOd.) The
patent is for improvements in the construction of
land rollers, and an implement for ploughing and
breaking up, or scarifymg the soil. That part of the
patent which refers to the latter class of implements
is for " a method of combining a series of ploughs in

one machine, for turning up or otherwise tilling the
land." Two, three, or more ploughs are mounted on a
frame, in a position diagonal to their direction of
motion, so that one acts in advance of the other, and
breaks up and turns over a breadth of land equal to
the number of ploughs employed. In the machine
shown in the drawing four ploughs are employed.
The ploughs are provided with parallel-faced stems,
which slide in sockets, made in the main framing. This
framing is supported in front by two swivel wheels,
which are free to turn round on the vertical axis,
supported by the front of the fi-aming to the axle of the
wheels. Near one end a rod is jointed; this is carried
along the front of the framing, and jointed to the
short arm of a hand lever, placed within reach of
the attendant. By turning this handle the rod acts
upon, and causes the axle of the wheels to move out of
the line, so that the machine may be guided as desired.
The centre of these wheels is also adjustable, so as to
bring it nearer to or further from the ground, by a lever
jointed to the upper end of the vertical one attached
to the axle of the wheels. The framing is supported at
the back by two large wheels, which are capable of
adjustment, by means similar to that employed in the
well-known " cultivator" of the patentee. The plough-
frames are fitted to sockets in a second framing ; this
is placed above the main framing, and moves in vertical
guides attached to the main framing, and also by rods
sliding in vertical guides made in a bar or tie, which is
placed across the lower framing. To the upper frame
the coulters are suspended in the same way as the
plough-frames; the upright stems of the coulters, as
also of th plough, slide in sockets made in the lower
framing. The upper frame, with its plough-frames
and coulters, is elevated and depressed at will by an in-
genious system of levers. A cross shaft (a), fitted with
a lever handle, by which it can be turned on its bear-
ings, is supported in bearings fitted to the main or
lower frame ; and carries at each extremity bell cranks
or levers, with two arms, one of which is horizontal.
These horizontal arms are connected by jointed rods to
the middle of the upper framing carrying the plough-
frames, while the other arms of the bell cranks are
jointed to the lower arms of a second series of bell
cranks. These second bell cranks ai-e fitted to studs
in the lower frame, the other arms of these bell cranks
being connected to the upper frame by levers. The
upper frame is thus entirely supported by jointed rods,
connected with a series of bell cranks. By moving the
lever on the cross shaft (a), the whole system of cranks
and levers is operated upon, and the upper frame
lowered or raised as required.

In a modification of this apparatus, also described
in the specification, the upper moveable frame is dis-
pensed with, and the plough-frames and coulters are
raised by a rack-and-pinion motion.

THE ARTIFICIAL MANURE aUESTION. — At a
meeting of the Oxford Farmers' Club, on Wednesday, Jan. 14,
the following resolution, proposed by Mr. Mein, and seconded
by Mr. Coggins, was carried unanitnously : " Tiiat this Club
coDsiders the use of artificial manure is still too much limited ;
that Peruvian guano, as a standard, is the best top-dressing
for corn crops ; farm-yard manure, guano, nitrate of soda, and
bone-dust for grass land ; that mixed manures are the best for
root crops; and that without a liberal use of artificial manure
the present extent of land in this country could not be kept in
cultivation, as there is nothing that has tended more to assist
high farming than the introduction of artificial manure ; and,
finally, that this Club does not consider that the decay of the
root crop is attributable to the lavish application of manures."
At the same meeting, Mr. Thomson, of Culham, was ie-electe4
Chairman of the Club for the ensuing year.

350

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINE IN THE PRICE OF CORN.

The continued decline in prices of grain, but espe-
cially wheat, has begun to alarm the agriculturists,
some of whom consider it the prelude to a permanent
range of prices below what it can be produced at.
There are, however, many causes operating at the pi'e-
sent time to occasion this decline, which are not likely
to continue ; nor, some of them at least, to occur
again; and to these we are about to direct the atten-
tion of our readers, with the view of relieving their
minds from apprehensions which have little foundation
in facts.

First. The wheat crop of 1857 was, beyond a doubt,
above an average one, probably to the extent of one-
fifth, taking the usual produce at 16,000,000 quarters.
This would make the produce of the last harvest
19,500,000 quartei'S, or about one-and-a-half million
quarters below the average consumption. A very large
portion of the crop was thrashed out in the first four
months of the season, so that although the American
supplies of both wheat and flour were withheld during
that period, there was an ample supply of native-
grown wheat, and importations enough from the Bal-
tic and other near ports of foreign wiieat to supply any
deficiency that would otherwise have arisen from the
non arrival of the produce of the United States.

Another minor cause is the state of the potato crop,
which on account of the prevalence of the disease, and
doubt of their keeping good in store, have been brought
to market freely, and as largely consumed by the small
growers instead of bread. This has materially affected
the consumption of the latter article since harvest;
but as the potatoes are rapidly being used up, the work-
ing classes will soon have recourse to bread again as
the only farinacious food, and now cheaper than pota-
toes.

Thirdly, the state of the money market, which has
afiected every other market in the kingdom, especially
that of corn, not only as having diminished consump-
tion by throwing a vast number of hands out of
work, and thus reducing their means for procuring food,
but also by inducing the millers and dealers to contract
their purchases to their immediate requirements, and
thus checking whatever disposition might otherwise
have existed to retain stocks of wheat and flour.

Fourthly, the rescinding of the French decrees against
the exportation of grain. We have left this to the last,
not because of its unimportance, but because it de-
mands a fuller explanation than any other question
connected with the subject. That the late decree has
had a material and very natural effect upon the price
of wheat and flour is evident, from the course prices
have taken from the very day it was promulged on the
corn market; and f7i«# effect is easily accounted lor.
If any produce market is amply supplied, a smallex-
cess in permanent opei'ation will tend to lower prices,
as a small permanent deficiency will have the contrary
effect. Now, the quantity of French wheat and flour
imported, and in process of being imported, into the
United Kingdom, is trifling compared with the con-
sumption, but it is in excess of the demand, and con-
sequently takes the place of so much native wheat, also
being/;-es/t and of good quality. Whether the French
will be able to continue exporting even to the present
small extent is a question that remains to be solved.
Certain it is, however, that their own production and
consumption will not leave room for such an export

trade as to make up to us the loss of the American sup-
ply ; and, if we may judge of the future by the past, we
should say that even this season they cannot continue
to export, without leaving themselves bare of wheat.
The following statement will bear us out in this
opinion.

By a reference to the French official returns of ex-
ports and imports of grain for the last twenty-five years,
we find the quantity of wheat, reduced to English mea-
sure, to have been respectively as follows : —
qrs. qrs.

Imports.... 18,485,387 or 739,415 per annum.

Exports 10,504,913 422,996 „

Excess of imports 7,920,474 316,419

The whole of these statistics are a bagatelle compared
with those of the United Kingdom; but they are im-
portant to us, as proving that, at present at least,
France cannot grow wheat permanently for exporta-
tion. Even if we take the last eleven yeai's, which are
considered by the French writers on the subject to have
been seasons of great agricultural prosperity, we find
the excess of imports to average still more than for the
above twenty-five years, being 337,764 qrs. per annum.
Either, therefore, the quantity grown is smaller, by a
contraction of the area of cultivation, or the consump-
tion of wheateu bread has increased in France. We
believe that the former has [been]the case, for the fol-
lowing reasons.

First, the continual subdivision of the land under the
present law of inheritance, has a manifest tendency to
withdraw cultivation from cereals, and multiply
the kinds of produce. This is, by some of the French
economists, considered theglory of the system, as afford-
ing subsistence to a much larger population. But,
on the other hand, the most far-seeing men in that
country deprecate the system as forming a direct
barrier to all agricultural as well as social improve-
ment, whilst it keeps the whole agricultural population
in a normal state of poverty incompatible with the
well-being of the state. A proof of this may be foimd
in the statistics of the population, which in five years,
from 1851 to 1856, has increased only to the extent
of 256,194, or rather less than three quarters per cent.
But the most remarkable feature in the census is, that
whilst the whole of France has increased only 256,194,
the population of Paris has increased 305,354 ; from
which it is evident that in the agricultural districts the
i:)opulation is rapidly decreasing,* Paris being only the
type, in regard to population, of the other large cities
of France ; and the same process is going on in all the
rural districts. It appears also, by the accounts of
well-informed men, that it is not the very poorest of
the rural population that are thus fleeing from their
native villages, but the most intelligent and well-to-
do of the peasantry and mechanics of all kinds. Nor
is it from the increase of agricultural machinery that
these men are driven to emigrate, for improvements of
all kinds find enormous difficulties in penetrating into
the interior of France. Nor are the French peasantry
as a body able, in a pecuniary point of view, to adopt
such improvements, or any measures for the ameliora-
tion of the soil or increase of their produce. In this

* See the article on Agriculture and Population in another
columD.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

251

respect they are ia a noi'mal state, from which they can
never be galvanized by the Government; and nothing
less than a complete alteration of the law of inherit-
ance will produce that change.

Under present circumstances, therefore, the Eng-
lish has nothing to fear from the competition of
the French farmer. Both countries were blessed last
season with a productive harvest, and low prices are
the consequence, aggravated by other and temporary
circumstances, which can hardly occur agaiu in a
simultaneous combination.

It is a great alleviation to the present state of the
corn-trade that meat and all animal produce continue
at remunerating prices. In this, neither France nor

any other country can injure us. It is true, by the
system pursued by the French Government in its inter-
ference with the several trades, and the butchers
amongst the rest, the retail price of meat is kept down
to a certain standard, like that of bread; but the con-
sequent increased consumption has raised the price to
the butcher beyond what would pay a profit upon an
export-trade to England ; so that our graziers have
the market pretty well to themselves. We much ques-
tion also whether, with our improved system of agri-
culture and the use of machinery, wc cannot compete
with any corn-growing country in the world, when the
expences of transit, commission, &c,, are taken into the
account.

USES OF THE SNOW.

Pleasant as ia the revolution of the seasons^ with the maui-
fold aspects they present, one can hardly observe the approach
of winter vrithout feelings of regret and sadness. This is the
case especially with those who delight in the observation and
study of Nature, or are devoted to the pursuits of agricuituve.
The tourist finds little pleasure in excursions amid beautiful
scenery, if meanwhile he is frost-bitten ; the landscape painter
must fold up his sketches with beniimbed fingers, and hasten
homeward ; the botanist — where are the flowers be loved so
well ? — the geologist, entomologist, and indeed the student in
almost every department in natural science, finds his sphere
of observation reduced to very narrow bounds ; the gardener
must cease his delightful labours, and the farmer can no longer
sow and reap, and gather into barns, but must witness for
many months an exhausting drain upon his stores without any
replenishing streams.

But is there no bright side to this picture ? While our
gardens and fields are buried in snow, and our roads are blocked
up by drifts, are there no benefits in this winter covering which
make up a pattial compensation for its admitted evils and dis-
comforts ? We think there are ; and such as most concern
the man (the farmer) who seems most to suffer from it. It is
this aspect of winter we now propose briefly to consider.

The old proverb that " snow ia the poor man's manure," is
believed to have its basis in scientific fact. Chemists tell us
that analysis reveals a larger per-centage of ammonia ia snow
than in rain. This, at least, is true, that snow is a powerful
absorbent, purifying the air, and returning thos6 impurities as
fertilizers to the soil. Melt in a clean vessel a mass of snow
which has lain a short time on the ground, and the taste will
detect foreign elements in the water. This is most manifest
in the neghbourhood of large towns. The harshness and dry-
ness produced in the mouth by drinking snow water, and the
unpleasant effects on the skin by washing in if, are ascribed to
the impurities it contains. The disease called goitre, prevailing
in Alpine regions, is also attributed by some to the use of snow
water. A certain writer illustrates the absorbent power of
snow thus : " Take a lump of snow (crust answers well), of
three or four inches in length, and hold it in the flame of a
lamp ; not a drop of water will fall from the snow, but the
water as fast as formed will penetrate or be drawn up into the
snow by cspillary attraction. It is by virtue of ttiis power that
it purifies the atmosphere, by absorbing and retaining its noxi-
ous and noisome gases and odours."

Furthermore, it prevents exhalations from the earth, and
having absorbed them, returns their fertilizing properties to
the son. Hence, marshes and stagnant pools become inodor-
ous in winter, and the unwholesome efliuvia of vegetable
matter everywhere decaying, is retained, and with the melting
of the snow in spring, is taken up by the soil, So much as
this, at least, we fully believe— that "the poor man's manure"
is as good as some of the " patent" fertilizers of the day.

Snow helps the springs and mill-streams in winter. Were the
ground naked from fall to spring, and frozen meanwhile several
feet deep, the springs would give out, and water-wheels of all
descriptions stand idle. As it is, however, the snow prevents
the frost from penetrating to a great depth — especially in the
wooded hills, the fountain heads of springs and streams— and

by their gradual melting keep up a supply of vrater for mto
and beast.

Not the least important use of snow is the protection it af-
fords to tender vegetation. Even in northern latitudes, there
is a multitude of tender and half-tender indigenous plants,
which require more or less protection in winter. Nature pro-
vides for them most wisely. She hangs over them the branches
of neighbouring trees and bushes, gathers about their roots a
many-folded blanket of dry leaves, and last of all, spreads over
them a fleecy mantle of snow. With this covering they pass
through the severest winter safely ; but were they transplanted
to exposed situations, they would die at once. But besides,
our gardens and fields are stocked with plants and grains which
are the natives of warmer climates, and need protection still
more. Sweep off the snow from our wheat fields and meadows,
and at least a portion of the crop would be winter-kiUed.
Some of the choicest herbaceous plants in our gardens, brought
from milder regions, will pass unharmed through our coldest
winters, if only they are covered with snow. So of many
tender shrubs. With their branches fastened to the ground
so as to be covered with snow, they hyberaate in Canada about
as well as at the tropics. We have seen the English yew,
several feet high, come out in spring well browned above the
snow-line, while all below was green as emerald. The Japan
quince, by no means a tender shrub, thedeutzias, Spirea pruni-
folia, Forsythia viridisshna, the scarlet-flowering currants, &c.,
&c., frequently lose their flower-buds, if not their branches,
above the snow, while all underneath is unharmed. The buds
of peach-trees are often killed in severe winters ; but if a few
branches happen to get bent under the snow, they produce a
splendid show of fruit. Scientific travellers in Siberia have re-
corded instances in which, with the temperature of the air above
the snow at 72 degs. below zero, that below was 29 degs. above
zero, showing a ditference of 100 degs. Dr. Kane, m his
"Arctic Expedition," mentions finding underneath the snow, at
lat. 78 degs., " the andromeda in full flower, and saxifrages and
carices green under the dried tufts of last year. Here, too, the
silene and cerathrium, as well as the characteristic flower-
growths of later summer, the poppy and sorrel, were already
recognizable." * * * "Few of us at home," he con-
tinues, " can realize the protecting value of this warm coverlet
of snow. No eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked
in more kindly than the sleeping dress of winter about this
feeble flower-life."

When the snow falls early in winter, and remains until
spring, the ground is seldom frozen at all. And if it becomes
frozen a few inches deep before the snow falls, the heat of the
subsoil thaws out the frost above it, and the superincumbent
snow prevents another freezing, so that in early spring the
ground is soft and ready for the plough and spade.

The aid which the snow renders the farmers in clearing up
swamps and getting out muck in winter, and in hauling wood
and lumber to market ; the peculiar brilliancy of the snowy
landscape when lighted up by the sun ; the sport of shding
down hill fox the boys, and of sleigh-riding for children of
larger growth, are considerations not to be omitted in number-
ing up the uses of snow.— Country^Gentleman.

252

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ON TRUNK-DRAINING.

A trunk is the body without the head and limbs, the
main stem without branches and ramifications. It is
the chief part of an organized growth, the foundation
of an artificial structure, and the base of any o])cra-
tions : it forms the support on which any structure
rests, from which it receives the formation, the exist-
ence, and its value. The trunlv is the largest member
of any production, and the body of any congrfgation of
parts : the use of it receives the adhesion of other parts,
and renders to them its own assistance.

By trunk-draining are understood the water courses
that receive and convey the discharges of water from
the small drains, which intersect and ramify any entire
superfices of ground, and under the general designa-
tion are comprehended rivers, brooks, rivulets, arti-
ficial open cuts, and the large covered drains that are
placed along the lower end of fields and lands for the
purpose of carrying the water from the under drains.
These conveyances perform the same offices with the
body of a man, and the trunk of a tree : they com-
municate with the branches, and uphold the existence
by administering support and relief. The functional
parts of organized bodies would be surcharged and
suffocated with excrements and exudations if the vent
by the trunk was not provided to relieve the super-
fluities that arc cast off. The voidauces find an egress
by which to discharge the dregsof the process of ela-
boration. The small drains, of the branches of the
performance, collect the water from the land, and find
by the trunk an exit by which the water is relieved,
and their function progresses without stop or interrup-
tion. The connection of the small drains with the
trunk must be intimate and free in the action. The
latter must be ready and sufficient to receive and convey
the discharge of the small drains, in order that the
utility be not impeded, nor the operation disturbed.
Nature has shown the essential purpose of a trunk, or
principal stem in all its organized productions; the
bole of the tree supports the ramifications and the
foliage; the stem of the herb upholds the stalks of the
leaves, and the fruit, and the universal provision in all
cases exhibits a base or support for every composite
erection. The inorganic world is similarly composed :
the river receives and conveys the waters of the smaller
streams, and discharges the whole contents into the
general reservoir of the sea ; the rivulets receive the
washings of the surface of the ground, and the harder
materials of the globe are seen to uphold the softer,
not only as a base on\\hich to rest, but as a source
from which to draw the reservation and increase of
the composition. Without a trunk, main support, or
principal stem, no production or operation can be le-
gitimately entertained or executed.

A river being the discharge of collected waters
into the general reservoir of the sea, is the trunk which
relieves all the subordinate agents of the burden in-
curred by the discharge of the functions of office. The
bed of rivers is naturally in low grounds in which the
waters have scooped a channel that is very considerably
lower than the surrounding surfaces. The fall towards
the sea of all countries affords a descent for the waters,
that is more or less rapid according to the declivity
of the surface, and the obstacles that are encountered.
In most cases, the descent of rivers constitutes a con-
veying trunk for the collected waters thai effectually
relieves the smaller collections, and aff'ords a ready
outlet to the contributions. Low grounds and alluvial

flats are the only occurrences which may be insuiH-
ciently accommodated by the trunk of the river as a
conveying channel for the collected waters of the sur-
face of the ground; heavy falls of rain will flood the
river, and cause an overflow cf the water above the
banks, and over the adjoining grounds ; during which
time the discharge will be stopped of the conductors of
water into the river. To keep the river within the
banks, and prevent the overflow of water on the lands,
grassy mounds of earth are raised along the course of
the river, in a line back from the water's edge, so as to
allow ample room for the increase of flooded waters
without unduly confining the stream to compel a vio-
lent breach of the embankment. During the time of
low waters the descent will be sufficient for the escape
of the waters that are discharged : during floods the
escape will be stopped, and a reflux of the waters will
stagnate into any opening or hollow that can be found.
It is this effect that has to be guarded against on low
grounds over which tlie waters flow, and in several cases
the difficulty is not small of remedying the evil. A
floodgate may be placed in the opening of the embank-
ment, through which the water is discharged into the
river, which will be shut by the outside pressure of the
swollen river, andhinder the reflux of any water behind
the embankment. But the usual discharge of water
will be prohibited from making its escape, and will
stagnate and overflow if it has not room for expansion.
This stagnation, by flowing backwards, will hinder the
usual discharges of the smaller contributions, impede
the action, and inflict damage, until the decrease of the
swollen rivers, by lessening the outside pressure on the
flood-gate, enables the water collected in the inside to
force it open, and find a discharge. This plan is some-
times the only adoption that can be used, circumstances
prohibiting other recourse ; and the attendant evils
must be borne. The collections of water that join the
flat course of the river should be led into it at the
sharpest possible angle of divergence, so that, when it
joins the chief curi'ent, no backward pressure is felt,
\iut a willing reception is found into the general move-
;nent in one and the same direction. In many cases this
direction may be impossible ; but, whenever in any way
to be attained, the advantages of it are very large.
During the time the river is flooded, the damage done
by the water itself would not be of much moment ;
but earthy solutions are held in suspension by the col-
lected waters of the country, and, being stagnated and
introduced backwards into the smaller drains, a sedi-
ment is deposited which the weak discharge from the
small drains is unable to remove, and it becomes firm
ground, and fills up the drain. It is even forced up-
wards among the filling materials of the drains, leaves
an earthy residuum, which remains and impedes the
reception of the surface-water. The largest open cuts
cannot prevent this consequence, as the extent of ca-
pacity will be overpowered by the body of waters.
iVTuch ground will also be occupied by many of these
excavations, which should be confined to one main-
leading cut that remains uncovered. The conveying
direction of this cut along the stream of the river, and
joining it at a very sharp angle, will best serve the pur-
pose, if at all available. Flood-gates are liable to the
heavy objection of congregated waters inside the em-
bankments, which remain during tlie time of the
floods, and inflict damage. When a very slanting
direction is effected, the backward power of the water

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

253

ia the river is almost none : it continues in being lost at
every step from the right angle to the point of no angle
at all, when it entirely ceases. This method must be
used in every possible case of adoption, and will prove
more generally useful than flood-gates, for the reasons
that have been given.

The alluvial flat which the river traverses will
often be bounded by high lands on both sides, that
have a hollow ground along the base, and which is
often low as the river, or below its level. This
situation is often very appropriate for an open cut, into
which much water will flow, from the high ground on
one side, and from the flat space between it and the
river. In the case of a small drainage, the discharge
of the ramiflcations will open into this cut, which will
run a parallel course with the river, and join the cur-
rent at a sharp corner, when the river inclines to that
side of the valley, and impinges against the high
grounds. A flood of the river will stop the current of
water in this cut ; but the extent of it being capacious,
and the flowing of it along with the rivers, will make
the damage less formidable than in any other way, as
the depth of bottom will be considerably below the
level of the small drains. At all events, the backward
force will be less than in any other arrangement.

The descent of rivers is often much accelerated, and
the discharge of water increased, by cutting off the
corners of its course, straightening the line, and thus
lowering the level of the water. Where a straight
line cannot be got, the rounding of corners will re-
ceive the conflict of waters with the obstacles of its
course, put the eddying mass into motion, and increase
the onward progress. Jetties of stone-work will be
required at the sharpest turnings, which being placed
to receive the current of water at a sharp angle of inci-
dence, will throw it off" at a similar angle, and direct it
into the mid-stream of the channel, when it will move
quicker from the agitation. "Very sluggish movements
of water in alluvial flats may be accelerated in this
way, the level deepened, and a conveying-trunk ob-
tained for the small drains.

The other case of rivers affording an insufficient
trunk for the discharge of waters collected from small
drains occurs on extensive lowlands, fens, and marshes,
through which the streams meander in a devious
course in search of the sea, and having little or no
onward fall, and the bed raised by the sedimented
mud, to or above the level of the surrounding
grounds. Embankments are in this case the very
first resort, with openings through which may pass
the tributary streams that flow from the country
on both sides of the river. When these minor streams
are of considerable size embankments must confine
these waters also, and conduct into the main river.
The streams being joined, the same level of waters will
be preserved, and the same flow of current will prevail.
These collections of water afford a very bad trunk
for the purpose of draining ; but modern discoveries
have tended wholly to remove the evil. Slanting
courses are to be adopted, as has been mentioned, and
every outlet sought at which a stream can be intro-
duced into the main current. When no outward pas-
sage can be found the water collected into the open cut
from the "small drains is led by the same conductor
to the lowest corner of the ground, and immediately
behind the embankment a deep pond is formed, from
which the water is raised by the pump of a steam-
engine, and thrown into spouts, which convey it over
the bank into the river, from whence there is no
return. By this means the collected waters are re-
duced to the lowest level, and no overflow or stagna-
tion ever happens. The mighty power of steam has
in this case overcome all perplexities, and has reduced

into a nutshell the trunk draining of the low lands that
are below the level of descent. It is certainly the
extreme application, when all other propositions fail,
or are seen to be impossible; and it had better be at
first adopted, than alter a large expenditure has failed
to reach the object. It is a sure agent and an effectual
operation in every case of its power,

Brooks are a trunk of the same kind as rivers, re-
ceiving and conveying waters that have been collected
by the smaller currents. In oi'der to favour the quick
passage of the water the courses will, in many cases,
require to be deepened and straightened — especially
the last — and also widened, where the quantity of the
collected waters is found to be too large for the room
that is contained within the banks. The natural chan-
nels that have been excavated at random will be in-
sufficient to answer the modern purposes of drainage;
widening will be the best alteration, and always with a
depth below the bottom level of the small drains.
When the quantity of water is the largest in the brook
its top level should be below the di-ains, or, at least, not
impede the discharge. Allowing waters a wide extent
of course is much better than deepening the bed : ex-
pansion of the volume diminishes the depth and, cor-
respondingly, its force, and being spread in width
below the level of the drains, no stoppage can happen
from the water rising to the orifices. A wide water-
course of medium depth forms the best trunk for drain-
ing— the depth has little impinging force against the
banks, and any swell of the water is lost in the width
of the course. The bed is hollowed in the middle,
where the ordinary current may flow, to prevent the
wandering of the water from bank to bank, and alter-
nately impinging against and tearing the confines of its
course. A depth in the centre and a sloping shallow-
ness on the sides and below the banks, on which the
flood can spread and roll along, constitutes the most
eligible course for all small streams, as brooks and
rivulets, always allotting the extent of the bed to the
quantity of water that has been found to prevail at all
times and occasions. Circumstances may not allow this
adoption in the full extent, but the performances of the
kind may be made to tend in that direction. The
bottom level of the small drains may be on the top
of the slope of the side of the course, which the highest
flood may never reach, and the opening of the drains
never exposed to damage. Gentle elevations of surface
will readliy allow this arrangement which may be used
in many modifications.

The improvement of brooks, as trunks for draining,
is done as for rivers, when the courses run through flat
ponds and level countries. The means must be adopted
of widening, deepening, and cutting straight the
courses and rounding the corners, by which to accele-
rate the discharge of the water, and quickly re-
lieve the small drains of the contents. The top
level of the water in the brook must be below the
bottom level of the small drains, so that the
discharge of the latter is always to be seen, and the
highest flood of the brook must not exclude the view,
except for a short time. The ultimate efficacy of
brooks as a trunk drain depends upon the main river,
of which it is a tributary, at least in the near approaches
of its ccurse to the bed of the river. Here the ground
is generally flat, and the course of the water may be-
come sluggish, and rise to the small drains, when the
object becomes apparent of having the river's course
sufficient to recei\e and convey the additional bulk that
comes to be admitted. The brook is a river in minia-
ture, and must be adapted by the means that have been
mentioned to receive and convey the discharge of the
smaller drains in the like manner that the river has
been altered and improved in its course, to admit and

254

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

carry away the contents of the brooks and smaller
streams of water: the river is the chief trunk, and
upon it all the ramifications depend.

Rivulets are currents that are inferior to brooks in
the quantity of water, and in summer many of these
streams are wholly dry or reduced to an amount that
scarcely forms a current of any kind. When the bed
of a rivulet constitutes much the most eligible trunk
to receive the small drainage of contiguous wet grounds,
the natural depth may be too shallow to receive the
water from the bottom level of the small drains; in
that case a wholly new channel will be cut, following
the old course in all proper directions, and traversing
new ground in order to find a preferable situation for
the intended purpose. This performance will be often
much more eligible than repairing an old course into
an imperfect channel, by reason of an originally wrong
direction in the natural current of the water. A
straight or moderately-curved line of course will thus
be procured in many cases, where the old channel will
not afford a more efficient performance in every re-
spect. Eivulets are seldom sufficient by the natural
formation to receive the contents of drainage— the
depth is too shallow, and the course too much blended
and tortuous to evacuate the small drains, and aff'ord a
quick and ready passage of the water from the places
of collection. New cuts must be made to suit the sur-
face of the ground, and the intended purpose of^access
from the small drains, when a much more advantageous
course will be obtained, and a double purpose effected.

Watercourses will most frequently show the position
of trunks for the conveyance of water, which seeks the
lowest grounds in which to flow, and which must be
used for a similar purpose. New cuts will chiefly
deviate from the old channel in passing througli the
corners and angles of the bended course, lessening dis-
tances and producing straight lines — the same ground
will be traversed, and the same point reached at last.
When rivulets are flowing streams during the whole
year, with a considerable quantity of water, and the
course meanders over a flat alluvial country, the
management is the same as of brooks, as the terms are
nearly synonymous. A near following of the old course
is to be preferred in opening a larger passage for water
along a hollow ground: the surface water naturally
falls into it, and the lowest position is generally marked
by the natural search of the water when left to its
own performance. In draining the new cut, the
essential must never be omitted that the course
runs in the lowest position, and on no account
must leave this most proper and indisjiensable place.
Whatever line the course may exhibit, straight, bended,
tortuous, or curved, this position must be strictly
preserved : the discharge from the small drains will
reach the trunk with every facility, encounter no
obstacle, but have an uninterrupted descent from the
extreme first end of the formation, into the last
conveyance that relieves the current, and finisheij the
purpose.

Here this rule admits no exception, of placing trunk-
drains, or conveyances of water, in the lowest positions
of the ground. Water must be ever descending, and
never stagnate, and far less be directed to the smallest
acclivity, as when the trunk-drain leaves the lowest po-
sition. In draining of every kind, there must be a
drain in every lowest position ; and the rule is equally
unexceptionable in the smallest case, on the varied and
undulated surface of ground, as with the trunks that
convey to the rivers the discharges of water from the
small drains of the field.

Artificial Open Cuts
Are made to answer the purpose of brooks and rivulets,
to receive the water from the small drains, and convey

it so a trunk or general conductor. A river traverses a
country, and receives the water of many districts ;
brooks and rivulets pass through landed estates, and act
as trunks for several farms ; while artificial open cuts
serve the purpose only on one farm, and for several di-
visions of land, and probably only for one field. The
proper position is in the hollow places to which the
water runs and flows over the surface during floods,
and where no natural bed has been made by the water.
In these places, the first performance is to excavate a
cut of extent sufficient to receive and convey the water
that will be directed into it by the small drains, and
with a fall, to induce the regular descent. The cut may
receive water on both sides of its course from the sloping
grounds, when it will constitute a trunk of the proper
kind. The width will be settled by the quantity of
water that demands a passage ; and the depth must not
be under four feet of vertical height. This depth will
receive the water of the small drains from the bottom,
and permit a constant current in the cut, without
stopping the orifices of discharge. This open cut some-
times constitutes the boundary or division of fields of
land, when the size will be made sufficient for that pur-
pose, and have the necessary fail to discharge the water.
This excavation is an artificial brook or rivulet, and
must be made on the plan that has been previously de-
scribed. Large quantities of quickly-flowing water will
tear the banks of soft alluvial earth, which must be
guarded by rows of stakes driven into the ground, and
backed with large stones, laid among gravels or coarse
earths. Rapid descents of water will hollow the
bottom and vmdermine the banks, when the bed must
be pitched with stones flat in shape, or edged as curbs.
This consequence shows the necessity of making the
channels rather wide than deep, allowing the water
room to spread, and thus destroying the power of its
force. When a heavy current impinges against a bank
on either side of the cut, the stream must be directed
into the mid-channel, and guarded to flow in it.

Artificial cuts being destined to remain as trunks
for conveying water, and in many cases to be the
boundaries of divided fields of land, the excavation must
be done on permanent grounds, by which to drain the
adjoining lands, and effect the purpose of a dividing
fence. The banks will be guarded by hedges of thorns
or by a paling-fence on each side, and so far from the
bank as not to be sunk by any slip that may happen.
In other cases, the banks will be wholly open and un-
protected, when the cut will form the fence, and must
be deep and wide for the purpose. The banks are
gently sloped, according to the nature of the soil, and
best when the small drains are on a level with the highest
flood that has been known.

Large Covered Drains
along the lower ends of fields and lands are placed for
the purpose of receiving and conveying the water from
the under-drains. The most general position is along
the inside of the fence, and as near to it as the founda-
tion will allow ; the excavations are covered on the very
just principle that no open drains remain within the
fences of a cultivated field of land. Open side- drains
cause a loss of ground, an awkward ploughing of the
headlands, and prevent the animals that graze the field
from getting close to the fence for shelter, which in cold
climates is a matter of considerable attention. The
depth must be 3j feet or 4 feet of vertical height, 3 feet
wide at top, and 2^ feet wide at bottom. The small
drains will run into it at a right angle or some smaller
incidence, and the water must flow into a body of ma-
terials in the larger drain that are open to receive it.
Where stones can be got, the best provision is a culvert
of about a foot square, built with sides and cover of
durable workmanship. The depth of one foot of broken

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

255

stones is laid over the culvert, an inverted grassy turf
covers the stones, and the loose earth is levelled to the
top of the ground. In alluvial countries, where tiles are
used for the purpose of draining, the culvert is formed
by placing two longitudinal rows of large tiles made for
the purpose, whicti are covered by the usual fillings of
the drains. A large tile is turned to receive each small
drain, and with stones an opening is left in the side wall
to receive the water from the small tributary drains,
which fall a few inches of declivity from their own bot-
tom to the large drain. This declivity ensures a free
discharge from the small drains, so that no stoppage can
happen.

Few fields of drained land will discharge more water
than can be contained in a square culvert of one foot,
and when the large drain has a fall to keep the water
running, which is done by a very small declivity. The
covered drain will discharge the water into a brook or
rivulet, of which the depth must freely receive the water
that comes to be admitted, which must not rise above
the top of the culvert of stones or of large tiles. Each
trunk drain that receives water must be fitted for the
purpose of receiving the contents of the smaller provi-
sions of draining. The whole systematic value depends
upon this aptitude being adjusted and continuously up-
held. Any breach destroys the connection, and makes a
hurtful disruption. In every case a declining level must
be got and maintained throughout. The damage ceases
when water is delivered into a channel into which no
small drains are discharged ; the course may then be
more interrupted, and the waters move more slowly;
but where a general drainage occurs, every point must
be free and uninterrupted.

In many cases the water from the small drains, after
escaping from the orifices, will traverse, before reaching
the river, all the intermediate trunks that have been
mentioned — brooks or rivulets, open cuts, and covered
drains. The last-mentioned conductor will convey the
water from the field where it is collected by the under-
drains, and discharge it into an open cut or brook,
which may immediately receive an adjacent small drain-
age into its current. The formation must be capable
not only of receiving a collected stream of water, and
conveying it along, but of reducing the top of the cur-
rent below the level of the adjacent small drainage, to
admit the contents freely and without impediment. It
is best that all small drainage of waters be collected by
a covered drain or open cut, and discharged by one mouth
into a brook or rivulet. The covered drain being firmly
erected no derangement can happen, and there is only
one orifice to be attended. This mouth of discharge
must have a very free outlet ; and if it joins the receiving
current on a level, the direction must be turned to the
line of the main stream, and join it at a sharp angle. In
this way the currents are joined in the flowing of the
waters, and no pressure is exerted which can stop the
continuation of the moving fluid. When a brook re-
ceives the contents of small drains throughout the whole
course from the mouth of covered drains to the passage
into the main river, the importance is most evident that
the trunk affords a ready acceptance and uninterrupted
conveyance to the collected burdens, which must not be
allowed to stagnate or lose the onward progress. When
the upper portion of a brook in its course is a receiving
trunk, and the lower part a conveyance of water, the
passage of the fluid will be less regarded in the latter
part ; the stream may be deeper, and the movement
slower and more sluggish. A depth of water will not
stop any discharge of small drains, and therefore the
course may be less regarded ; but in the upper part,
where the special purpose consists in the trunk receiving
and conveying water from the under-drainage of wet
lands, a most vigilant attention must be exercised to keep

the current of water in constant motion, and the highest
level below the bottom of the drains, in order that a
free discharge be secured to every orifice of water. This
chief point is ever to be pushed forward for attention.

The drainer who knows his business, on having deter-
mined the line of the small drains of any ground to be
perforated by cavities below the surface, will seek the
lowest point or points to which the collected waters will
fall, and look for the outlet by which the discharge must
issue. Having found this point, the examination will
proceed along the rivulet or brook, and ascertain the
efficiency of these trunks to receive and convey the
water ; if insufficient, the beds mu^t be improved as be-
fore directed ; and if the course be distant from the point
of the collected waters, an artificial open cut must be
made, to act as a connecting trunk. When a cut or
brook, or any secondary channel or water, reaches
another property of land, and finds insutficient out-
let, that property must provide a proper discharge for
the current, and transmit the water that comes for ad-
mittance. Water is a burden that must be received from
higher grounds by the lower situations, and conveyed
over the extent of the latter, not only without injury to
itself, but also to inflict no damage on the property from
which it descends. Every landed estate incurs this re-
sponsibility.

Having reached the main outlet by which the collected
waters descend from the small drains to the river or
chief conveying trunk, the examination proceeds along
the rivulet or brook, observes every defect, and suggests
the remedy by marking every proper position. When
the river is reached, beyond which no inspection is re-
quired, the level of that receiving trunk is accurately
taken ; and if the backlying country is flat, the spirit
level is applied to denote the rise of every progress from
the river, in order to ascertain the descent that can be ob-
tained. In this way the descent is traced to the mouth of the
covered drain which discharges the collected waters of the
under-drainage, and the cutting of each excavation accu-
rately determined along the whole course. The downward
progress from the highest-drained lands to the lowest
receiving trunk observes and inspects the courses of
water as they are presented to view, and satisfies the
inquiry of necessary outlets. The retracing of the steps
adjusts every connection of the streams, and puts the
whole arrangement into working order.

It is advantageous that the trunk drainings that have
been mentioned are done for a time previous to the exe-
cution of the small drainage that must discharge the col-
lected waters into the channels of conveyance. In all
situations where the fall that can be got does not amount
to a descent of running water, but barely moving or
slightly removed from stagnation, the previous perform-
ance of the trunk drains will afford an inspection of the
sufficiency of the executions for the intended purposes.
If the regular descent is anywhere interrupted, and a
stoppage is perceived, the whole line of conveyancemust
be again very accurately surveyed, and the levels ascer-
tained, by what means and in what places the remedy is
to be applied, in order to remove the deficiency that ex-
ists, and to promote the intended object. Deepening of
the beds of water-courses can only be done in summer,
when the quantity of water is small and the channel
nearly bare ; hence the intervention of one summer at
least is necessary in such cases, that an opportunity may
be given of deepening the bed of any brook, rivulet, or
open cut that has been seen to be too shallow during the
floods of winter. At least one year should elapse from
the execution of trunk drains to the performance of small
drainage ; and both purposes beiitg done in summer, a
winter will intervene to show the capability of the con-
ducting channels, and the rectification can be performed
during the summer of the small draining. An elevated

256

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

ground of under- drains may not be any way affected by
the non-efflciency of the trunk or trunks; the stoppage
may not reach the height of the situation, nor be large to
infiict damage anywhere. But in many situations of
several fields of small drainage delivering the contents
into open cuts, rivulets, brooks, and even into rivers,
the least degree of insufficiency in the trunks of convey-
ance will rise into damage. Tn these places a small fault
may cause a large damage, and spread a wide devastation ;
in higher situations a large deficiency may do little hurt,
or none at all, by reason of the circumstances of the po-
sition. But in every case of high or low grounds, of flat

or elevated positions ; the immediate receiving trunk of
the small drains must be in the top level of its water,
below the bottom of the ramifications, in order to convey
away freely the discharged contents. If the current
does not flow from the orifices in a purling stream, any
stagnation must not rise to cause a reflux into the small
drains. This is the chief accident to be prevented, and
it forms the main purpose of trunk drains. The atten-
tion paid to it is equal to the care of small drainage, and
it must precede any operation of the latter kind. The
object is twofold — the collected water is received and
carried away, and stagnations are removed.

FORMATION OF AN AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION IN ESSEX.

A meeting of the committee appointed on the 18th of
December to cousider the best means of applying the £336 —
part of the surplus subscription for the Royal Agricultural
Soeiety's Meeting in 1856 — to the advancement of the agricul-
ture of the county, was recently held at the Shire Hall, Chelms-
ford. C. Du Cane, Esq., M.P., presided ; and there were pre-
sent—W. M. Tufltnell, Esq., Colonel Brise, W. F. Hobbs, Esq.,
Mr. J. Clayden, E. Round, Esq., J. W. P. Watlington, Esq ,
J. O. Parker, Esq., J. S. Thompson, Esq. ; Messrs. Christy,
R. Baker, K. Viall, Burrell, Page, &c.

The Chairman having read a letter from Sir John Tyrell,
in reply to an invitation to attend, and another from Mr. Gur-
don Rebow, expressing their approbation of the proposal to
establish a county society, said he thought it would be uaneces-
sary for him to make any lengthened introductory remarks on
the object for whicli they were assembled, as they must be all
aware that in consequence of the liberal response made by the
county of Essex in aid of the great meeting of 1856, a surplus
fund of £540 remained. At a meeting of the general com-
mittee held on the 13lh of December last, it was resolved,
after some discussion, " that the surplus funds, &c,, after ap-
plying £200 for the erection of a pedestal for the Sebastopol
gun, in the High Street of Chelmsford, be devoted for the ad-
vancement of agriculture, and that a committee be formed for
carrying it into effect." It was also resolved that a number of
gentlemen named should be a committee for carrying out that
object. As chairman of that committee, up to the commence-
ment of the present meeting, he had power to make additions to
it, and accordingly he had added the names of Mr. T. Kemble,
Mr. T. B. Western, Mr. Cornell, Mr. Mechi, and Mr. Perry
WatUiugton. Now they were assembled here again to day, to
discuss and decide upon the application of the surplus of £336
to agricultural purposes ; and if he for a moment thought
there was likely to be any difference of opinion as to the method
of applying it, he might be inclined to leave the suggestive part
of the business to others, and sit down ; but as he was in hopes
they would all be unanimous, and believing that all thair
thoughts ran in the same channel, he ventured to take the
initiative, and to state at once that he thought the possession of
this sum, contributed for an agricultural purpose, presented
them with an excellent opportunity for the institution of that
which was a desideratum in the county — an agricultural asso-
ciation (Hear.) Considering the size and importance of the
county, the high rank it held amongst the agricultural counties
of England, the great names to be found amongst its agricul-
tural men, he might say renowned throughout England for
agricultural and practical skill, he thought an association of
this kind could not fail to be a great boon to the county at
large. Of course it would not be his province to enter into
the details of such an association. These would be matters
for serious consideration on subsequent occasions. But perhaps
he might state the kind of association he had in his mind's eye.
It was founded on the model of those he saw established and
working successfully in Suffolk and Norfolk, meeting once
a-year for the distribution of prizes for agricultural stock and
implements, and such other branches of agriculture as might
be determined on by the committee. He also thought there
was another point which would be material— that was, that the
annual meetings should itinerate to the different towns in the
county, Buch towns being selected as might be hereafter named

by the committee. He was aware that objections might pos-
sibly be urged to the course he recommended them to adopt.
It might be urged that the experiment had been tried, and had
failed ; that not long since there was an agricultural society in
this neighbourhood, which, after dragging on a lingering
existence for a few years, died a natural death. But he would
say to those who adduced this argument that 14 years ago
and the present time were two very different periods in the
agriculture of the county. We had witnessed great changes^
great progress had been made ; and in nothing had this taken
place more than in the agriculture of the United Kingdom,
Therefore he would hope that an agricultural association, esta-
blished at the present period on the basis named, would meet
a very different fate from that of its predecessor, and would
probably enjoy a long and prosperous career of general utility
(cheers). There was, however, another objection of a more
serious character — that the establishment of one grand county
association might have the effect of checking the career and
cramping the means of the numerous Labourers' Friend Socie-
ties established throughout the county, and now pursuing so
useful a course. He should be losth to recommend a plan that
would in any way retard the career of those societies, convinced
as he was of the great practical good they effected amongst
the labouring classes ; but he thought by confining themselves
in this great society to the branches of agriculture he had men-
tioned, and steering clear of those branches of husbandry
which it was the province of the Labourers' Friend Societies to
foster and promote, they should indirectly, if not directly, con-
fer on them a great benefit ; for the higher the perfection they
arrived at in agricultural implements, the greater woidd be the
demsud for well-skilled labour, and the more would he valued
that industry and sobriety amongst the labouring classes
which it was their object to promote (Hear). Such was an out-
line of the scheme he proposed to them, and he should be happy
to receive their suggestion?, assured that at whatever end they
arrived, it would be creditable to themselves as a committee,
and conducive to the cause of agriculture in general (Hear).
Mr. J. Clayden (of Littlebury) said he came from a
distant part of the count}-, and having taken pains to
inquire the' feeling upon the subject in his district, he
thought there was a prospect of fair and continued support
for an association of this kind, and if well formed it would
certainly be likely to succeed. They had had in their dis-
trict a good society, which was certainly defunct, but its
machinery still remained, to promote the object of an
association of this kind. Much, however, would depend on
the support of the landed proprietors ; and he wonld sug-
gest that they issue a few circulars, canvass the different
districts of the county, and adjourn to March, when it
should be seen what support they were likely to receive ;
for they would require a tolerably good sum, £500 or £C00
a-year he should say, to support an association of this kind.
If the proposition met the support of the landowners, the
fanners, he believed, would respond to it heartily, and he
earnestly wished to see it carried out. Perhaps Essex was
not so much a breeding county as some others ; but with fat
and store stock united he thought they might have a good
show, and a good society ; he should say, let it not be too
circumscribed (Hear). He moved "That the surplus fund
of £33Gj arising from the subscriptions to the meeting of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

257

the Royal Agricultural Society, at Chelmsford, in 1856, be
applied to the formation of a County Ajjricultural Associ-
ation, for the aid and advancement of agriculture, and the
promotion of enterprise and emulation amongst the owners
and occupiers of land,"

Mr. R. Baker said he had great pleasure in seconding
the motion ; he felt that Essex was standing far behind
other counties in regard to agricultural societies at the
present moment. They had had one at Chelmsford, one at
Colchester, and one at Saffron Walden, all flourishing for a
time ; but it happened with local societies that after a time
competition ceased (Hear). Therefore travelling from town
to town would perhaps be the best mode of embracing the
stock of the whole count}'. Still he thought there should
not be more than three or four towns at which the meetings
should be held, for transporting stock was an expensive
concern, and the places selected should be those most con-
venient for the railway, or they would find their shows
would be deficient. The benefits of these societies on a
large scale had been and were fully appreciated ; those
little societies prepared the way for larger ones ; and thus
the shows of the society would prepare the county better
for the Royal Agricultural Meeting (Hear). The details,
however, of the association would be matters for serious
consideration ; but let them once establish the principle,
and the details would follow, and he believed they should
go on successfully.

The Chairman put the resolution, and it was adopted
unanimously.

Colonel Bkise said he did not think there was much differ-
ence of opinion as to the objects for which they were met, aud
he was happy to think there was to be an association of this
kind eatabliahed, Essex having men eminent in agriculture
^ throughout the kingdom, who would give them the benefit of

their experience and ability. The association, he believed,
would be the means of promoting to a great extent the agri-
culture of the county ; nor did he thick, after the appropriate
observations of the cbairmau, that it would interfere with the
Labourers' Friend Societies ; whilst it being an itinerating
association, going from place to place in the county, would in-
stil a Utile competition into all parties (Hear, hear). He
thought a subscription ought to be opened at once, and that
the matter should be left till they ascertained the opinion of
the county on the subject. He moved —

" That a meeting of the association be held annually at such
towns in this county as may hereader be named, for the exhi-
bition of stock and implements, and the distribution of prizes in
those and such other brancheis of agriculture as may hereafter
be determined upon by the committee."

Mr. W. Fisher Hobbs said he was glad to find that the
view he took of this matter on a former occasion had met with
the unanimous approbation of this meeting; he must also ex-
press his satisfaction at the observations of the chairman in
opening the meeting, whicli he had no doubt would have the
approbation of the landed proprietors and the tenant farmers
of the county generally. The remarks of Mr. Ciayden and
Mr. Baker proved the feelings of the farmers on the subject,
and he would reiterate their statements as to the feeling of the
agriculturists in his own neighbourhood. His object, however,
in rising was to suggest that they should not bind themselves
as to where they should go in different years. Let them admit
the principle of itiaerating, but he should rather suggest that
the towns should be left to invite the society ; not that they
should ask the towns to allow them to hold their meetings there.
With this understanding, he should be happy to second the
resolution. Before, however, they could get the society in
working order there was a great deal that was required to be
done, and much would depend on the intelligence and activity
of the secretary (Hear, hear). He must be a man known to,
and mixing up with, the agriculturists, so as to be at all times
able to communicate with them and solicit their subscriptions.
They would also require a good working committee, not a large
one, for the purpose of framing the rules of the society ; and
it would be necessary to meet day after day before anything
could be prepared for the general meeting. It was a question,
too, whether there should be one general meeting or two in
the year. They had tried both in this county, aud sometimes
they had succeeded and sometimes not. There bad been a
spring meeting for store animals and the sale of wool, and
then at Christmas a fat stock show. He thought at first they

had better not attempt too much ; they should have a good
meeting once a year, either in May or June, or perhaps in
September, when they could have an annual ploughing match
and a show of good roots, and where seed corn would be ex-
hibited and competed for. He thought Mr. Baker would
agree that, as to seed corn and roots, they had not the compe-
tition they used to have. There were other points, too, not
usually taken up by societies of this description, which he
thought might be dealt with in a manner beneficial to agri-
culture.

The resolution was put, and unanimously agreed to.

Mr. Perry Watlington moved —

" That the Society consist of president (to be elected
annually), vice-presidents, a committee (of which the vice-
presidents shall be ex officio members), and members : and
that a yearly subscription of five guineas entitles a subscriber
to the rank of vice-president, aud of half-a-guinea and upwards
to become a member of the association."
He was no practical agriculturist himself, but he had taken
some interest in the various Labourers' Friend Societies, and
he felt no fear at all that such an institution as had been
suggested to-day would do any injury to these societies in the
different localities (Hear). In a grand society of this sort,
carried out in the way which had been stated, he saw nothing
that could interfere with them,

Mr, J. Christy, jun., seconded the resolution, which was
adopted.

Mr. W. M. TuPNELL said he thought there could be no
possible doubt that an agricultural society, based on such
principles as would command universal support, must be of
great benefit to the county. He confessed that whatever mis-
givings he might have had on the subject, they had been very
much removed by the feeling he had heard expressed to-day
(Hear), and he was quite sure the best way of promoting the
success of such an association would be by all putting their
shoulders to the wheel, and havingalongpull together (cheers).
He was glad to see present gentlemen of great practical
character iu agriculture fiom all parts of the county, as this
was more satisfactory than if they were all from one locality ;
and he thought they should take such measures as were neces-
sary to prevent by their subscriptions the society falling into
decay. Mr. Clayden, who was as well qualified to give an
opinion as any man in the county, said they must have £500
to support such a society, and therefore he was glad to see
the subscriptions had been fixed at half-a-guinea, as it ap-
peared to be the opinion of practical men they should thus
obtain a larger sum than if it were double the amount. With
respect to Mr. Hobbs's observation as to the time of holding
the meeting, he did not wish to criticise that gentleman, but
he thought they should take the most popular feature in the
agricultural field, and then there would be a large show of fat
stock. Therefore he should like to see the meeting fixed at a
time when the largest quantity of fat stock would be brought
together. He moved —

"That the Chairman be requested to write to gentlemen in
various parts of the county, asking for their individual cc-
operation with the association, and requesting that they will
ascertain what support will be given to the establishment of
such an association by the owners and occupiers of land in
their own immediate neighbourhood ; and that Mr. Burrell be
invited to act under this committee until such a time as a
regular secretary be appointed."

Mr. J. O. Parker said, as to the small societies, the cause
of their failure had been pointed at ; the petty jealousies of
these societies had led to their failure, but here they took a
large field and aimed at great results. He looked on these
societies as following in the steps of the Royal Agricultural
Society, their objects being to confer some benefits on agri-
culture ; and he would rather not see any fat stock, for breed-
ing was the great object, and he believed Essex was growing
into its place as a breeding county. In a remote part of this
county the other day he saw some good home-bred stock
stalled, a fine home bred bull in a corner of the yard, petted
by the occupier, aud a number of home-bred animals on the
farm. This showed what was doing ; and he thought that
they ought to promote the breeding of stock on the Essex
farms, and that as a society they should have nothing to do
with a ploughing iuatch or a wool fair, or anything of thaC
sort. If they introduced anything connected with the
laboiuerp, they should trench on the objects of those local

258

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

societies, which they were so auxious not to infringe on.
(Hear).

Mr. Clayden said he thought the latter end of May
wouid be the beat time for holding the meetiug, and he should
say put breeding stock in the first rank ; but at that period
of the year much fat stock had often been held over, the
weather was not too hot, and they would no doubt have a
good show of fat stock at that time.

Mr. Fisher Hobbs called attention to the importance of
holding out encourajtement to the production of good agricul-
tural implements, Essex had a number of small implement-
makers as well as large, and they were rising up year by year,
having, through the meetings of the Eoyal Agricultural Society,
an opportunity of competing with the leviathan makers.

Mr. R. Baker could not but think something might be done
for the agricultural labourers, that they might have something
for the prize-man recommended by each local Society. He
thought the greatest encouragement should be given to neat

stock and sheep. If they had the meetuig in the summer they
would have but little fat stock, if in winter but little breeding
stock ; but in May they would have sufficient fat stock to give
eclat to the show, though they could not expect a great quan-
tity. The great object, however, should be the improvement
of breeding stock. In the old Society he brought the subject
of breeding before the committee, for at that time he had not
seen a calf weaned in the county ; now breeding was carried
on to some extent,and if they introduced a good breed, and good
short-horhs were spread over the county, they would soon see
a different state of Essex breeding.
The resolution was carried.

A general committee consisting of sixty influential gentle-
men was appointed.

Thanks were voted to the Chairman, which Mr. Du Cane
acknowledged; and the meeting adjourned to Friday, the 26th
of February.

THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF CHICAGO IN 1857.

We again avail ourselves of the information for-
warded us by the comtiQercial editor of the Chicago
Daily Press, in his Sixth Annual Review of the
Trade and Commerce of Chicago for the Year 1857. A
year of more than ordinary calamity, in which some of
the old and wealthy cities on the Atlantic seaboard have
been obliged to succumb to the financial crisis, but that
has left this city of Chicago, which is only the growth of
the past dozen years, as sound as ever in its commercial
relations, and with a vigour and elasticity which
promises to be equal to any and every emergency.
True it is that the trade of Chicago, being dependent
on the produce of the surrounding agricultural country,
poured into its stores and wai-ehouses along three thou-
sand miles of iron road, was on a more solid basis than
many of those other cities which bore the traces of the late
commercial ruin. Still, we were prepared to see in its
returns symptoms of the general stagnation in trade ;
while we find the fact to be, that the prudence displayed
by the bankers and traders of Chicago, aided by their
solid capital — the accumulations of the energy and suc-
cessful commerce of the last twelve years — has preserved
her credit, and enabled her to achieve a commanding
position amongst her sister-cities of the Union, The
report says :

" Though some of our country banks were forced to close
their doors, and all the banks in Illinois and Wisconsin,
except the Marine and the Chicago Banks of this city —
which, to their honour be it said, paid the coin on demand
for all their issues — virtually suspended specie payments,
yet our bankers received at par the bills of all the country
banks, and thus saved the business of the city from
utter stagnation and ruin. The position which our bankers
assumed towards our business men, and that of business
men towards eacli other, was not one of hostility, but
of mutual forbearance and support; and never, in commer-
cial as well as in all other matters, was the motto more
beautifully illustrated — ' In union there is strength.' "

The consequence of this "union" was that, during
the worst weeks of the panic, the ghipments of wheat
v/ere one hundred thousand bushels per day, and of all
cereals averaged nearly two hundred thousand bushels.
By a reference to the commercial tables, we find that
the exports last year, in spite of the low prices which
prevailed, have not materially fallen of. They have
exported more wheat, packed more beef, and shipped
more cattle than in the previous season ; and a large
surplus is reported in the country for this (the coming)
season's business. The prospects of this year are staled
to be such as will far outstrip that of any previous one.

The grain trade of 1857 has been active, and, contrary
to all expectation, shows but a very slight falling-ofF as

compared with 1856, and an increase over 1855. Grain
is the most important branch of the trade of Chicago.
The receipts in the year 1857 was 21,8.56,206
bushels : this shows an advance over 1855, which was
only 20,487,953 bushels, yet 1857 wanted about
3,000,000 bushels of being as large as 1856. The ship-
ments of grain and flour, reduced to its equivalent in
wheat, was, for 1857, 18,032,768 bushels, or 2,818,618
bushels less than those shipped in 1856; but it is
2,000,000 over the quantity shipped in 1855. These
numbers give the general totals of all cereals ; but if we
look at the great staples (wheat and flour), we find that
the increase of shipments of 1857 is over that of 1856.
Thus, of wheat they exported 9,485,052 bushels ; or,
1,147,632 bushels more than in 1856, and 3,286,897
bushels more than 1855. In flour likewise there is the
large increase of 40,000 barrels more shipped than in
1856, the numbers being, for 1857, 259,648 barrels.

The provision trade of 1857 shows also an important
increase over 1856 ; the number of cattle slaughtered
in the past year being 19,127, or 4,000 over 1856. It
is stated that before the scarcity of money occurred, the
packers calculated on 30,000 head as being the quantity
required. The quantity of live cattle shipped was
25,000, or 3,000 over the business of the previous year.

The figures p;iven above will show our readers the im-
portance and the rising position of this vast grain empo-
rium. The grain trade of this prairie city, and its rise
and progress, to those who have seen it in its infancy,
appear a miracle. In 1838 it commenced by the ship-
ment of 39 bags of wheat. In 1857 (not twenty years)
it has attai;ied the magnitude of over 20,000,000 bushels
of all kinds of grain. Yet this is as nothing to what the
position of Chicago promises at its full and future deve-
lopment. It is yet but in its infancy. From its situa-
tion— " the key and natural outlet of the great north-
west"— it must become the mightiest interior commercial
port of America, As the railways creep up still more
north and v/est, so will the trade of Chicago increase,
and that from the actual producers of the soil ; so that
to the merchants of the old world it must become the
cheapest and best supplied market. The reviewer
proudly says —

" The grain trade of Chicago, it must be remembered, too,
in this connection, has a much brighter future than most
people dream of. As a mere depot for the grain trade of
the East, Chicago will not long remain. The markets of
Liverpool, Glasgow, Hamburgh, and the whole Continent of
Europe are fed by us ; and it is not natural to suppose that
we will remain an inland port when a canal of about fifty miles
in length will carry our ships of a thousand tons burthen
laden with grain to the St. Lawrence, and thence into the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

259

broad waters of the Atlantic. No; Chicago— the commercial
emporium of the entire Northwest — will, before many years,
be placed in as direct communication with Liverpool, Havre,
and Glasgow, as New York now is. When this shall have
been accomplished — when our railroads have reached the
valleys of the Missouri, the Platte, the Big Sioux, and the
Red River of the North — then will the grain trade of Chicago
begin to shape itself into a legitimate magnitude and im-
portance."

The following receipts of flour and grain, with the
shipments for the four past years, will show the import-
ance of this city as a primary grain port:

1854. 1855. 1856. 1S57.

Wheat, bush.. 3,038,955 7,535,097 8,767,760 10,554,761

Corn 7,490,753 8,532,377 11,888,398 7,409,130

Oats 4,193,385 2,947,187 2,219,897 1,707,245

Rye 85,961 68,068 45,707 87,911

Barley .... 201,764 301,805 128,457 127,689

Total.... 15.01 1,540 17,284,648 23,050,219 19,886,536
Flourinto wheat 792,875 1,203,310 1,624,605 1,969,670

Total .... 15.804,423 20,487,953 24,674,824 21,856,206

The following is a table showing the shipments for the past
four years :

Shipments of all kinds of Grain daring the past Four Tears.

1854. 1855. 1856. 1857.

Wheat,bush.. 2,206,725 6,208,155 8,337,420 9,485,052

Corn.. 6,837,899 7,517,625 11,129,668 6,814,615

Oats 3,229,987 1,899,538 1,014,547 416,778

Rye 41,157 19,318 509

Barley .... 148,421 92,082 19,051 17.993

Total .... 12,364,185 15,816,718 20,501,276 16,734,438
Flourmtowheat538,]35 817,095 1,081,945 1,298,240

Total .... 12,902,320 16,633,813 21,583,221 18,032,678

One thing only is wanted to crown Chicago as the
greatest port of America ; thai is, a ship canal. What
are its merchants and traders about, that the project is
not undertaken ? The St. Lawrence is the natural
outlet to the world — a ship canal to the St. Lawrence
would complete the fortunes of all interested in the
welfare of Chicago. Is there no company to be formed
to carry out this work? By the Georgian 'Bay and
Toronto is the best route. If this were accomplished
we could join the reviewer in asking — " What will its
future be ?" and answer — " What Nature by the com-
manding position she gives Chicago has destined." To
the north-west are the lovely valley of the Saskatchewan
and the Red River of the north. Illinois, Iowa, and
Wisconsin are but new countries half developed ; whije
Kansas, Nebraska, and Minesota have but yet com-
menced an existence. Ten years ago what were they ?
Ten years hence what will they be ? The completion of
a ship-canal from Chicago to the St. Lawrence would
answer both questions, and open to the old world a
greater and cheaper source of supply of human food
than we can now even dream of, and that in a direct line
of transit from the producer to the consumer.

ADULTERATION OF FLOUR.— At the Castle of Exeter,
on Friday, before a full bench of county magistrates, John
Manley, a miller of Erwick, near Exeter, was charged with
having mixed alum with his flour for the purposes of sale. A
large piece of alum, weighins; a hundred pounds, and some
sprouted wheat and oats with small bits of alum in them,
were produced. The latter had been seized whilst in process
of being ground into flour. The defendant pleaded guilty,
but said that he had adopted the practice of mixing only six

ounces of alum with every sack of flour, in ignorance of the
law. The wheat seized had been imported from America. It
was dark and sprouted ; and in order that the baker might
make the bread rise and be able to " draw the batch," it was
necessary to mix a small quantity of alum with it. He had
been in the habit of selling the flour produced from this mix-
ture as " seconds," and when it was made into bread his family
had been in the habit of eating it. The bench convicted de-
fendant in the penalty of £20 and costs.

ENGLISH & FOREIGN CORN MEASURES,
AND IRISH CORN WEIGHTS.

The English value corn by measure, the Irish by weight.
The former use a measure called a quarter, containing 64 im-
perial gallons ; the latter use a weight called a barrel, which for
wheat contains 20 stories, for oats 14 stones, and for barley
16 stones, each stone 14 lbs. It is manifest, therefore, that no
exact relation does exist between the English measure and the
Irish weight; a practical approximation, however, is obtained,
by weighing a quarter of wheat of. medium character, which is
actually found to be 480 lbs. avoirdupois. In the same man-
ner a quarter of medium oats is found to be 328 lbs. avoirdu-
pois, and a quarter of medium barley 416 lbs. avoirdupois.
By this means we reduce an English quarter of wheat, oats,
or barley, to barrels of wheat of 20 stones to the barrel,
to barrels of oats of 14 stones to the barrel, and to barrels of
barley of 16 stones to the barrel, respectively, as in the follow-
ing table, in which quarters of wheat are turned into barrels of
wheat, quarters of oats into barrels of oats, snd quarters of
barley into barrels of barley :-^
Eng. qr.

of wheat. Wheat.

Oats.

Batlev.

oats, or

barley, brl. st. lb. brl. st. lb. brl. st. lb.

1 = 1 14 4 or 1 9 6 or 1 13 10

2=3 8 8=3 4 12= 3 11 6

3=5 2 12=5 0 4=5 9 2

4 = 6 17 2 = 6 9 10 = 7 6 12

5=8 116=8 5 2=9 4 8

6 = 10 5 10 = 10 0 8 = 11 2 4

7 = 12 0 0 = 11 10 0 = 13 0 0
8= 13 14 4 = 13 5 6 = 14 13 10

9

15 8

15. 0 12 = 16 11

10 = 17 2 12 = 16 10

18

9 2

100 = 171 8 8 = 167 4 12= 185 11 6

From an inspection of this table, it appears 7 quarters of
wheat are equal to 12 barrels of wheat, 7 quarters of oats to 11
barrels and 10 stone of oats, and 7 quarters of barley to 13
barrels of barley.

The French value corn by the hectolitre, which is a measure
containing 2 bushels 3 pecks and 1 pint imperial measure. By
this hectolitre corn is principally bought and sold on the Con-
tinent. Three hectolitres make 1 English quarter of corn, and
2 gallons and 3 pints over. According to the principles be-
fore enunciated, a hectolitre of medium wheat is equal to 11
stones and 12 lbs. avoirdupois, or to half a barrel 1 stone and
12 lbs. of wheat. A hectolitre of oats weighs 8 stone and 1 lb.
avoirdupois, and a hectolitre of barley weighs 10 stone and 4 lbs.
avoirdupois. By this means we reduce hectolitres of wheat,
oats, or barley, to English quarters, into Irish barrels of wheat
of 20 stones to the barrel, barrels of oats of 14 stones to the
barrel, and barrels of barley of 16 stones to the barrel, as in
the following table :— ■

Hecto- Wheat. Oats. Barley.

litre, qr. bh. pk. pt. br. st. lb. br. st. lb. br. st. lb.

1= 0 2 3 1= 0 1112= 0 8 1= 0 10 4

5= 1 5 3 5=2 19 4=2 12 5=3 3 6

10 = 3 3 2 10 = 5 18 9 = 5 10 10 = 6 6 12

100 = 34 4 2 4 = 59 5 10 = 57 9 2 = 64 4 8

Note. — A Scotch boll is equal to 6 bushels, therefore 4
Scotch bolls are equal to 3 English quarters, — Pardon's Irish
Farmers' and Gardeners' Almanac.

260

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE RECENT PURCHASES OF IMPROVED STOCK, BY THE
EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.

However deeply we may feel for what has befallen
the Emperor Napoleon, we cannot but rejoice that an
all-wise Providence has so carefully watched over him,
and preserved to his country one, who has certainly dis-
played no ordinary power or perception as the
governor of so great a people. So much has been
said and written on the late dastardly attack,
that it scarcely comes within the pale of our duties
to enter further into this painful subject— beyond
the expression of our firm belief of there being
scarcely an Englishman who does not sympathise with
us in our joy at Napoleon's deliverence.

Happily for ourselves and our readers, we can turn
to a more pleasing picture. When the Emperor and
Empress paid a visit to our shores, and became the
guests of Queen Victoria, they were naturally enough
made acquainted with the course of English farm-
ing, as practised not only on the Eoyal Farms at
Windsor, but also at Osborne, and where the most ap-
proved agricultural implements and machinery
of this country were exhibited before them,
and the finest specimens of stock also brought
specially under their notice. The Emperor of
the French, with that ability which is admitted to
be so characteristic of him, has now resolved to
apply himself to such a course of proceeding,
as shall, in an agricultural poir.t of view, be
most likely to prove of the greatest advan-
tage to his own people. In furtherance of
this object we have within this day or so had the op-
portunity of making an inspection of a fine collection
of Short-horns, selected with great care and judgment,
by Mr. Wilson, who, as many of our readers are aware,
has under his care the royal farms at Windsor. We
were gratified to learn that, in the purchase of this
stock, together with some South Down Sheep from the
Duke or Richmond and Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr. Wilson
has met with the greatest possible liberality on the
part of breeders generally, and that every possible
facility was afforded him in carrying out the instruc-
tions he had received from the Emperor. We trust
that the great national object sought to be attained
herein may, for the benefit of France, be in this wise
fully accomplished, and that our neighbours may
ultimately possess themselves of a breed which cer-
tainly takes the very highest rank in our own country.

The stock now about leaving England has been in
course of collection for some time past. It contains
specimens from many of the most distinguished
breeders, from whose sorts we doubt not ere long as

fine a herd will be reared in France as must gradually
lead to the general establishment of the breed. It
would be invidious to mention specially the name of
any particular breeder where all have co-operated so
handsomely with Mr. Wilson in carrying out so useful
an object — increasing the food of the people. The
stock going out will be located at the model-farms of
St. Cloud and Versailles. They will be accompanied
by Mr. Knowles, the agent of Captain Gunter. His
convoy is thus registered:

COWS AND HEIFERS.

Venus . . Bought of Mr. E. Lawaon

Iri3 Lord Hill

Golden Drop Mr. Terr

Elegant , . Sir C. Tempest

Harp Viscount Hill

Syllabub Mr. Fawkes

Alma Colonel Kingscote

Heresy Viscount Hill

Memorandum Mr. Torr

Ballet Dancer Sir C. Tempest

Q,ueen Flower Mr Torr

Maid of Lorn Mr. Fawkes

Lady Geraldine Mr. Fawkes

Victoria Mr. R, Lawson

Lady Amelia Mr. J.Wood

Lady Anna Mr. J. Wood

The Brown Kerchief . . Mr. Fawkes

Ellen 3rd Mr. J. Emmersoa

Janetta 4th Mr. J. Robinson

Juice Mr. J. Robinson

Winter Nelis Mr. J. Robinson

Camellia Mr. T. Chrisp

Sweet Vaentine Mr. Torr

Summer Sun Mr. Torr

Eugenie Colonel Towneley

Autumn Rose Captain Gunter

Millicent Lord Feversham

Clara , ., Mr. Thompson

BULLS.

Prince Alfred Hired of Mr. R. Booth

Master Butterfly 4th .. Colonel Towneley

CALVES.
In addition, there are eight calves the produce of some of the
cows mentioned above.

Prince Alfred has been used at the Home Farm,
Windsor. Master Butterfly 4th is a son of the re-
nowned Master Butterfly (sold for 1,200 guineas), and
from a daughter of Colonel Towneley's celebi-ated cow.
Beauty, the winner of the first prize at the Lincoln
Show of the Royal Agricultural Society.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

261

A STATE OF TRANSITION.

The steam-plough would appear to be nearer a
realization than many might suppose. The Salisbury
failures are already forgotten, or satisfactorily ex-
plained. Mr. Smith, of Woolston, has now, it is said,
upwards of thirty of his implements in use. Mr.
Fowler still continues to work by contract; while Mr.
Romaine is in better heart than ever as to the suc-
cess of his scheme. The great test of such a process
■ is becoming practicably susceptible of an application.
There is to be economy in every possible way — a saving
of money, labour, and time. The work, too, is to
be better done, and the results proportionately greater.
Mr. Smith, Mr. Mechi, or Mr. Fowler will either of
them testify to a quarter more per acre, where steam-
power has superseded that of horses. The improve-
ments of late have been, in fact, so striking, that we
are told to look upon the experiment as accomplished.
Mr. Smith has sold his cart horses, and talks not only
of what he himself, but what his " brother farmers,"
are doing. Mr. Fowler is yet more decisive in his
dicta : — "as far as steam-ploughing was concerned, he
considered his task done."

In a matter of this kind we look more especially to
"the latest intelligence;" and this certainly goes far
to support Mr. Fowler in what he here asserts. His
more recent trial at Stirling was unquestionably a
very triumphant one, backed as it was by the full
premium of the Highland Society. Mr. Smith, of
Woolston, again, offers us proof of equally high cha-
racter, although coming, perhaps fortunately, through
less public channels. Gentlemen who have worked
his plan, not for an hour or two on a show day, but on
their own farms and with their own men, volunteer
him testimonials of its practical efficiency. Even be-
yond this the two most famous of all our plough-
* makers are directly concerned in this new branch of
business. The Ransomes have Mr. Fowler's inven-
tion in their keeping ; and the Howards are manufac-
turing Mr. Smith's implements.

There must be something in this ; and both landlord
and tenant may look to it a little closer than they
hitherto have done. Of course it would never do for a
tenant to be engaging in every new speculation brought
out for his benefit, or in trying every experiment for
that of other people. We believe that, as far not only
as regards useful, but even promising discoveries, the
farmers have of late years quite done their share of the
good work. It is a serious matter, however, to ask a
man to give four or five hundred pounds for a piece of
Machinery, or to lay out five-and-twenty or thirty
pounds an acre in putting his land in order, before he
is quite sure that either process may answer. This has
been the case with our agriculturists. They have not
treated the many plans for ploughing by steam
with neglect or indifference, but have simply waited for
something really practical and serviceable. It is only
within the last few months that such a consummation
has been arrived at.

Indeed, we never remember to have seen the subject
so boldly faced as it was at the recent meeting at the
Society of Arts. With one notable exception, there was
not a speaker but who looked on ploughing by steam as
very near its realization. The occasion was the reading
of a paper by Mr. Algernon Clarke, that we give in full
elsewhere. Himself somewhat of an enthusiast in the
cause, Mr. Clarke still scarcely appeared to the advan-
tage he might have done. His essay, in short, was written

and sent in a year since. His able summary or history
of the different processes for applying steam to the culti-
vation of the soil had consequently been very much anti-
cipated— amongst others, in our own columns. His
suggestions for improving the most successful of these
inventions shared much the same fate — as in the
instance of Fowler's plough, they have already been
acted on. Nevertheless the paper wiil always have a
value, as the impartial summing up of one who unites
something of the mechanic's taste and skill with the
education and the habits of the farmer. Mr. Clarke
concluded by submitting a plan of his own. However
this may succeed, it shows the soundness of his deduc-
tions that the very amendments he would propose have
been adopted. Mr. Clarke could scarcely have desired
a higher compliment.

The discussion that ensued should have been one of
the most interesting of the season. The meeting em-
braced all the component parts for such a purpose. As
we expected, from the time fixed there was scarcely a
tenant-farmer present, although many far better pre-
pared to speak to the point. There was Mr. Fowler to
answer for his plough, and Mr. Smith for his. There was
Mr. Romaine to tell what he was doing, and Mr. Halkett
to declare what he wished to do. There was Mr. Boydell
to offer his aid; Messrs. Ransome and Howard to keep
the amateurs straight and fair; and Mr. Mechi to
prove what cart-horses cost, and steam-ploughing had
done. Unfortunately only three or four of these had a
hearing. The discussion opened with the reading of a
letter from Mr. Garrett, who " felt little improvement
had been made in the art by any of the methods during
the last two years," and who consequently still inclined
to an undeveloped scheme of his own for a steam dig-
ger ! Then Mr. Mechi dwelt on the marked superiority
of ploughing by steam : — " There was a difference in
the crop of wheat of at least a quarter per acre in
its favour." The excellence of Fowler's work, the
money (upwards often thousand pounds) spent in per-
fecting Romaine's machine, and the advantage of fork-
digging, formed the chief features in the ex-sheriff's
address. Mr. Ransome, also, bore testimony to the
results of Fowler's method of ploughing ; the supe-
riority of the spade to the plough, and the damage
done by the horses' feet. He was followed in turn by
a Mr. Newton, who declared himself " not a practical
agriculturist," and who did not appear to be a practi-
cal mechanic. He might well have left the dis-
cussion to those so much better qualified to carry
it on. Mr. Fowler "ventured to say the system
he had introduced was a step in the right di-
rection. There could be no question that it was
really a practical plan, inasmuch as it performed
the ploughing at half the cost of horse-power, and the
work was better done. Seven acres of sandy suil in
the neighbourhood of Ipswich, ploughed by steam,
had a yield of a quarter per acre more in crop." After
admitting the superioi'ity of hand spade cultivation
over even steam ploughing, and bearing witness to
what Mr. Boydell had done for steam traction, Mr.
Fowler asked, " Who was to try all these experi-
ments ? Were the inventors to bear the whole brunt
of that which was in fact a national benefit ? The
landlords hitherto had done little. The Royal Agri-
cul'.ural Society had given no help. He could only
state that the trial of his system at Salisbury was ap-
pointed to take place on a steep hill, resembling

262

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the roof of a house, and the decision arrived at was
that the steam plough would not answer. Notwith-
standing all this, he was prepared to prove that he
could plough at half the cost of horsepower. It was
plain they would get no assistance from the public or
from the landed proprietors, who would, after all,
derive the greatest benefits in the improved rental of
their estates. As fur as steam ploughing was con-
cerned, he considered his task was done; but it was for
such men as Messrs. Romaine and Boydell to carry
their experiments further in another direction, and he
was strongly of opinion that the public at large ought
to help them in their work."

Mr. Smith, of Woolston, in answer to this, would
receive no aid— neither from a society nor an individual
— but stand or fall on his own merits. Mr. Smith's
speech, which promised at first to be amusing enough,
ended by becoming insufferably tedious. With an un-

pardonable want of discretion he fairly talked his
audience out of the room ; and when he came to
reading long letters in his own favour, the effect pro-
duced was precisely similar to that of reading the Riot
Act — '' the crowd at once dispersed" We regret this
the more, as Mr. Boydell, Mr. Romaine, and Mr.
Halkett should all have had the opportunity, wnd
were all, we believe, prepared to say something. The
Society, however, has a very excellent rule of closing
the proceedings at ten o'clock; and at a few minutes
past that hour Mr. Fairburn left the chair, with Mr.
Smith still, of course, in possession.

As the Chairman himself said, we are now clearly
" in a state of transition as regards the cultivation of
the soil;" while the result of this meeting would point
to the more general introduction of steam power in
this wise : — The union of the common portable farm
engine with either Fowler's or Smith's system.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Monthly Council was held on Wednesday, the
3rd of February : present, Lord Berne as, President,
in the Chair ; Lord Southampton, Lord Portman, Lord
Feversham, Right Hon. the Speaker, Hon. William
George Cavendish, M.P., Sir Watkia W. Wynn, Bart.,
M.P., Sir Archibald K. Macdonald, Bart., Sir John V,
B, Johnstone, Bart,, M.P., Mr. Dyke Acland, Mr.
Raymond Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Barthropp, Mr.
Bramston, M.P., Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Caldwell, Colonel
Challoner, Mr. Druce, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr.
Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. James Howard, Mr.
Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. Jonas, Mr. Lawes, Mr. Law-
rence, Mr. Milward, Mr. Pain, Mr. Pope, Mr. Silli-
fant, Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. Banks Stanhooe, M.P.,
Mr. Thompson, Mr. Torr, Colonel Towneley, Mr.
Turner (Barton), Profess ir Way, Mr. Jona.^ Webb,
and Mr. Wilson (Stowlangtoft)

The Rev. Henry John Ingilby, of Ripley Castle,
Yorkshire ; and the Rev. Archer Clive, of Whitfield,
Herefordshire, were elected governors of the Society.

The following new members were elected :
Aatbury, John Steadman, Oulton House, Milwich, Staffs.
Bates, George, Blackhall Hall, Wickham-Market.
Bushel, Christopher. Hinderton, Nestoii, Cheshire.
Butterfield, Rev. G. B. B., Great College-street, Westminster.
Crane, James, Shrawardine, Shropshire.
Davies, D. R., Mere Old Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire.
Dodweil, Joseph, Manor Farm, Long Crendon, Thame.
Gould, John, Hyde Hall, Deuton, Lancashire.
Grantham, Stephen, Paragno, New Kent-road, Surrey.
Lloyd, John, Belsize, Hampstead, Middlesex.
Malcolm, Matthew, Manor House, Kiueton, Warwickshire.
Neame, Percy B , Solestreet House, Feversham, Kent.
Norris, John, Fully, Shrewsbury.

Paxton, Robert, Marsh Farm, Lower Winchenden, Aylesby.
Paddock, Henry, The Trench, Ellesmere, Shropshire.
Peel, Edmund, Bryn-y-Pyas, Wrexham, Denbighshire,
Shaekleton, John, Leeds, Yorkshire.
Smith, Michael, Cefn, Isla, Usk, Monmouthshire.
Thomas, Rev. I.^wis, St. Hilary, Cowbridge, Glamorgan.
Thomas, Thomas, St. Hilary, Cowbridge, Glamorganshire.
Warner, Charles Borham, Jewin-crescent, Aldgate, JiOndon.
Williams, Rev. Edm. Turberville, Mount Balam, Chepstow.
Villiers, Hon. Fied. W. C, Sully Hall, Northamptonshire.

Finances.— Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented the report on the
accounts of the Society, from which it appeared that
the current cash-balance in the hands of the bankers
was £-454. He laid on the table the usual quarterly
statement for the inforiaation of the members, and re-

ported that the authorities of Chester had transmitted
Exchequer Bonds to the amount of £1,800 (payable on
the 8thi May next), as their contribution towards the
expenses of the Chester Meeting in July next. The
Council ordered, agreeably with the recommendation of
the committee, that a circular letter should be addressed
to such members of the Society as were in arrear of
their subscription.

Editorship of Journal.— Mr. Thompson, Chair-
man of the Journal Committee, presented the following
report, which was adopted by the Council :

L That the Council be recommended to appoint a paid
Editor, but that the Journal be published, as hitherto,
under the general superintendence of the Journal Com-
mittee.
2. That the Journal Committee, or such other Committee
as the Council may appoint, be requested to make such
inquiry as shall enable them to report to the next monthly
Council the name of some competent person or persons
to undertake the duties of Editor; and also to report the
amount of salary which they think adequate to the re-
quirements of the office.
On the motion of the Right Hon. the Speaker,
seconded by Mr. Jonas, the very cordial and grateful
thanks of the Council were voted to Mr. Thorr.pson,
Mr. Dyke Acland, and Mr. Wren Hoskyns, for the
manner in which they had performed the laborious and
responsible office of Joint-Editors of the Journal.

Consulting Chemist, — Sir John V. B. Johnstone,
Bart,, M.P., Chairman of the Special Chemical Com-
mittee appointed at the previous Council, presented the
following report, which was also adopted.

1. That the fixed salary of £300 per annum hitherto

given to Professor Way be given without alteration
to the person who shall be selected to fill the vacant
post of Consulting Chemist to the Society, for which
he will he expected to make analyses for members,
on terms approved by the Chemical Committee ; to
give three lectures annually, if called upon so to do ;
and to attend the meetings of the Council whenever
required. Also, that £200 per annum, allotted to
specific subjects of investigation, be, as heretofore,
oifered in the first instance to the Consulting
Chemist.

2. That Dr. Augustus Voelcker, Professor of Chemistry

to the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester,
be recommended, to fill the vacant post of Con-
sulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society
of England.
Chester Meeting.— Lord Portman, Chairman of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

263

the General Chester Committee, made reports, and en-
tered into detailed statements connected with the
arrangements of the Society's ensuing Chester meeting,
to be held in the week commencing Monday, the 19th
of July next. Those details had reference chiefly to the
requisite inquiries to be instituted, and reports to be
made to the Monthly Council in March by the General
Committee, in conference with the Local Committee, on
the accommodation afforded at Chester for a dinner of the
Society, and on the plan to be adopted for the show-
yard subsequently to the personal inspection and report
of Mr. Manning. The Council adopted the recommen-
dation of the committee, founded on Mr. Brandreth
Gibbs's report, on the purchase of wheat and barley in
the straw, for the trials of machinery, and the selection
of land for the trial of the steam-cultivators. They
also ordered that a clause should be introduced into the
Prize-sheets, stating that all certificates received after
the Ist May for implements, &c., and the 1st June for
live stock, should not be accepted, but returned to
their rei=pective senders. The Secretary reported that
the principal Railway Companies had signified their
willingness to grant the same concessions in favour of
the Society's Exhibition at the Chester Meeting, as on
the occ ;sion of former country meetings.

Poultry-Show. — On the motion of Lord Portman,
seconded by Mr. George Turner, the resolution was
passed (of which Mr. Milward had given notice), that
there should be no Show of Poultry at the Country
Meetings of the Society after the current year.

Member of Councii.. — On the motion of Mr.
Georee Turner, seconded by Mr. Dyke Acland, Colonel
the Hon. Alexander Nelson Hood, of Cumberland Lodge,
Windsor, was elected one of the General Members of
Council, to supply the vacancy credited by the transfer
of Viscount Eversley co the class of Vice-President,

Standing Committees. — The standing committees
for the year were appointed.

Frpcnch Show of Horses and Cattle. — The
Earl of Clarendon transmitted to the Council a copy of
the note addressed to him by the French Ambassador,
enclosing copies of a notice issued by the Emperor of the
French, having reference to an intended meeting to be
held at Alengon from the 17th to the 20th of May next,
for the exhibition of horses and cattle, with the view to
the improvement of their several breeds. This show
will be confined to animals bred in the district, and the
property, for three months previously, of the exhibitors.

Card of Meetings. — Mr. Frere transmitted a form
of card of meetings, which he suggested should be an-
nually forwarded to every governor and member of the
Society not in arrear of subscription.

Weekly Meetings. — Mr. Morton transmitted, on
the part of the proprietors of the Gardeners' Chronicle,
an application for reporters to attend the weekly
meetings.

The consideration of these two communications was
postponed.

Tiie Council adjourned to the 10th inst.

A weekly Council was held on Wednesday, 10th of
February ; present, Colonel Challoner, trustee, in the
chair; Hon. C donel Hood, Mr. Alcock, M.P., Mr.
Raymond Barker, Mr. H. B. Raymond BarUer, Dr.
Camps, Mr. Dent, M.P., Mr. Gray, Mr. Fisher Hobbs,
Mr. Tull, and Professor Way.

Communications were received — 1. From Professor
Hartstein, of Bonn, enquiring the present state of pub-
lic opinion in England respecting the application of
liquid manure; 2. From Dr. Lyon Playfair, asking
for information on the subject of wool; 3. From the
Minister of Agriculture of France, a collection, on the

part of the Government, of agricultural works pub-
lished in his department since the former collection
presented to the Society three years ago ; 4. An appli-
tion from the Mexican Company for a collection of
seeds, which the Council referred to Messrs. Thomas
Gibbs & Co., the seedsmen to the Society ; 5. From
Mr. Bandel, of Baltimore, specimens of his Wyandotte
Prolific Indian Corn, grown from seed obtained from
the Wyandotte Indians in 1863 ; with a specimen of
the stem raised from a single grain. — Mr. Alcock,
MP., called the attention of the Council to the advan-
tages which he thought Mr. Halkett's system of land-
cultivation might probably be found to possess on fur-
ther inquiry and experience of its capabilities.

The Council adjourned over Ash- Wednesday to the
24th of February.

BATH

AND WEST OF

SOCIETY

ENGLAND

FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OP AGRICULTURE,
THE ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND CO:iIMERCE.

A numerously-attended meeting of the Council of this So-
ciety was held at Waghorn's Railway Hotel, Taunton, on
Saturday last, the Right Hon. Lord Coartenay in the chair.

The Cardiff Meeting, 1858. — Mr. Iohn Widdi-
COMBE, the Director of the Show- Yard, reported that the ne-
cessary notices had been issued inviting tenders for enclosiog
the Show- Yard, and also for supplying the dinner and re-
freshments in coutiection with the forthcoming meeting at
Car^liff.

The Barnstaple Meeting, 1859. — A deputation
from Barnstsple, consistiug of Lord Viscount Ebrington,
F. Maunder, Esq. (Mayor), aud Mesass. Avery, Har-
ris, Gilbert, and Laugdon, waited upon the Council,
aud represented that the local committee formed for
inviting the Bath and West of Eoglaud Society to that town
next year had obtained subscriptions to the required amouut
(£800), and, in addition to ttiat sum, the deputation were pre-
pared to guarantee on the part of the inhabitauts a large
number of special prizes for local purposes out of the surplus
funds. The deputation elicited from the Council iuformaiiou
as to the nature and extent of the ground that would be re-
quired for the site of the show-yard and the trial fields ; f.nd
the Council nominated a sub-committee to visit Barnstaple on
Thursday, the 25th of February, to confer with the local com-
mittee on the amount of accommodation offered, and to inspect
the sites.

New Members. — Rev. W. Beaver, Cowbridge, Glamor-
gan ; Messrs. R. T. Crawshay, Cyrfilla Castle, Merthyr Tyd-
vil ; C. F. Williams, Tregullow, Cornwall; H. T. Smith,
Devouport ; F. Pitts, Alphiugton, Devon ; G. Radmore, Thor-
verton, Devon; J. Beaviss, Dorchester ; W. Partridge, Dul-
verton; W. Hobbs, Lechlade, Gloucester; E. Spender, Manor
Mead, Plymouth ; G. May, Modbury, Devon ; T. Strong,
Dunchideock ; W. Farrant, Wellington ; Fred. Sharland, J.
Collier, J. Knowlman, J. Broom, W. Steer, Culmstock; J.
Doble, Bucklaud St. Mary; J. F. Matthew, Hemyock.

CURE FOR COLIC IN SHEEP.

Sir, — Will you allow me a small space in your columns,
that I may communicate to your agricultural readers the fol-
lowinj particulars ?

I have a number of sheep feeding on Swede turnips with
cut hay. An unusual number having been attacked wi'.h
colic, and every case proving fatal, I determined to try the
following remedy : " Ten drops of laudanum, tea drops of
essence of peppermint, one tea-spoonful of the spirits of tur-
pentine, and one table-3poonful of sweet oil." I have in no
instance found this fail to produce a cure within a couple of
hour', although the sheep have been perfectly paralyzed, and
unable to stand.

I shall be glad if this suggestion should prove of use to
others, aud I remain, your obedient servant, J. F,

T 2

26i

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE PRESENT PRICE OF CORN.

The prices of agricultural produce vary more than
those of any other description of natural production?.
Price and value being two distinct results — the first
liaving relation to the amount produced at market —
the second to the cost of production.

The rapid decline in the prices of grain, meat, and
farm produce of this country at the present moment
are not dependent either upon our home production or
consumption, or upon both conjointly ; but rather upon
large importations, and the checking the ordinary trans-
actions of merchants, manufacturers, and traders atone
and the same instant, by the derangement of our
monetary system ; and thus the effects operating;
upon the corn and meat markets of the metropolis
are transmitted to every other local market of the
kingdom.

This centralization of the corn markets of Europe,
as exhibited in Mark-lane, is transmitted instantly to
all the other ])arts, and consequently value as defined
by the cost of production, has no relation whatever to
it in the result. So long as a large supply of foreign
wheat and grain continues to reach our ports, prices
will continue to fall, until the average minimum price
of the whole of the imports is attained, and vice versa,
if a diminished supply falls so low as to produce a
scarcity— then and not till then will prices again ad-
vance— probably to an extent far beyond the value.

These sudden fluctuations affect the farmer more
than any other class of producers, his operations ex-
tending over a larger space of time than appertains to
others will not allow him to expand or contract his
operations accordingly ; and it mostly happens that
whenever the price of his productions fall to their
lowest point, the cost of producing has been carried out
at its highest rale — especially as regards rent. To the
rent-charge and labour at least a moiety of the whole
cost remains unaltered for a long time after prices have
so declined — and more especially the tithe rent-charge,
which from being based upon an average of the seven
years last expired, rises to the maximum point as at
present, and so for a time continues whilst grain is at
its minimum price.

Tithe rent-charge, by the present arrangement,
entered upon for obtaining its averages, acts very in-
juriously to agriculture; and as it in reality produces
no beneficial result to the receiver, there cannot be
any reason adduced why an alteration should not be
made in the mode of deducing the averages — and the
merely reducing them from seven to three years would
at once effect an object, so desirable and to be attended
with equitable and beneficial results to both payer and
receiver.

When we review the i^rincipal causes of fluctuation
in the marketable value of farm-produce, it becomes
apparent that not only tithe rent-charsie, but rent also
ought to be subject to a like adjustment. But bene-
ficial as such a change might be, little doubt exists
that it would not only be objected to, but be absolutely
refused by themajority of occupiers, so adverse are tliey
to any change, however beneficial it might be to their
future interests. Indeed, when we refer to fluctuations
that have occurred in the last ten years, it is matter of
astonishment that such prejudices should exist; the
reason, probably, arises from the human mind in-
variably viewing past events as not likely again to
occur. Hope leads everyone to expect a change for
the better, and therefore the chances of an advance on
prices, without having to make a corresponding ad-
vance on rent, far outweigh the probability of a decline
in prices attended by a corresponding reduction in the
quantum of rent.

In the year 1846 wo find that prices ran from a low
range suddenly to a high one, the extremes being fully
100 per cent.; in the following year they again fell in like
ratio, continuing with slight fluctuations until the war
commenced with Russia, in 1854, and then gradually
rising until the year 1857. Thus they remained until
the autumn following, when they again fell to fully 50
per cent.

The fluctuations during the present century have
amounted to 400 per cent, and upwards. Wheat has
reached ^10 per imperial quarter, and has fallen
below £2 per quarter, and other produce in nearly
equal proportions. " What has happened since may
happen again" — if not to the same extent, still suffi-
ciently to require us to guard against the contingency.

In commencing this article we adverted to the
effects produced thi'oughout the kingdom by the fluc-
tuations in prices upon Mark-lane, and the influence they
produce upon prices in local markets. It ought now
to be borne in mind by all agriculturists that the sup-
ply of English grain will, during a time of peace, have
but little influence upon prices. Mark-lane has now
become the empormm of Europe for all descriptions of
grain, and the avei'age prices in that market will be
governed by the average prices of the continental mar-
kefs, subject to the addition of cost, freight and profit.
But inasmuch as the supplies may far exceed the demand
at certain periods, the losses attendant up^n importation
will be extended to the profiucers of this kingdom, and
will so continue until a reaction is produced, and sup-
ply and demand have changed their relative positions.

It, therefore, behoves the British cultivator to weigh
these remarks as they deserve. It is now quite certain
that the prices of agricultural produce must depend
upon the quantity imported; and that the prices of
English grain cannot, under the most favourable cir-
cumstances, in future far exceed tliose of the continent of
Europe. Whilst, upon the other hand, a large influx
of foreign wheat upon the market may cause them to
descend far below their intrinsic value, even to such an
extent as to prove most ruinous to our home pro-
ducers.

TITHE COMMUTATION TABLES.

Mr. Willich, the Actuary of the University Life
Office, has lately published his Annual Supplement to
" The Tithe Commutation Tables." The value of
tithe rent- charge depends on the septennial average
prices of wheat, barley, and oats. As it may interest
our readers, we insert from one of Mr. Willich's tables
the annual average prices per imperial quarter during
the last seven years, viz. :

Wheat. Barley. Oats.

s. d. s. d. s. d.

1851 .... 38 6 .... 24 9 18 7

1852 .... 40 9 .... 28 6 .... 19 1

1853 53 3 33 2 21 0

1854 72 5 36 0 27 11

1855 .... 74 8 34 9 27 5

1856 69 2 .... 41 1 25 2

1857 56 4 42 1 25 0

The Quarterly Averages for 1857 may interest our
agricultural friends who have let their land at corn
rents.

Wheat. Barley. Oats,
s. d. s. d. s. d.
Lady-day Quarter, 1857 . . 56 10 . . 45 8 . . 23 5
Midsummer „ ,, ..56 9 . . 42 6 . . 24 9

Michaelmas „ „ ,. 59 11 •• 40 2 .. 27 3

Christmas „ ,, . . 52 0 . . 40 1 .. 24 7

THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE.

265

SWING versus AVHEEL PLOUGHS.

It has beeu long acknowledged that in the multitude of
agricultural implements to be met with on the south of the
Tweed, there are many which, if not absolutely valueless,
can, at the best, be only designated as expensive toys. At
the present moment, the writer has an instance before his
mind, of a gentleman who is undoubtedly the leading agricul-
turist of the county in which he resides, and in whose lum-
ber shed the array of cast off implements (many of them
brought out by first-rate makers) would form uo mean ad-
junct to the attractions of a moderately strong agricultural
exhibition. A prejudice has hence arisen in the minds of
many Scottish farmers against the use of any English manu-
factured implements. Now, there are amongst us thrashing
machines, haymakers, drills, manure distributors, cultivators
— nay, even ploughs, which, we hesitate not to say, would be
a decided acquisition, if freely used by the go-ahead agricul-
turists who can afford to pay such long rents on the other side
of the Border.

It is with the last-named implement that we have at pre-
sent to do. Often have we, in days bygone, when living at
the foot of the Grampians, heard it sneeringly observed by
Scotch ploughmen, with reference to their English brethren,
that " they needed wheels to make their ploughs go staight."
Now, there is a mistake here ; practice shows that there is
such — for actions speak louder than words. We have known
Scotch ploughmen in several English counties ; but we have
ever seen that they speedily appreciated the value connected
with the easy adjustment and guidance of a well-made
Howard's, Ransome's, or. Ball's wheel plough. We have
known several cases of Scotch ploughs being imported to the
midland and western counties, though we know not one of
them now seeing actual service. In Warwickshire, the fa-
vourite plough is that manufactured by the eminent firm,
Messrs. Howard, of Bedford. At the last county ploughing
match, niueteen-twentieths of those entered were of this
make ; and we question whether, in the best districts of Scot-
land, under equal circumstances, better work could have been
accomplished. In Class 3 were boys that in the north
would not be regarded as fit to do more than rake after a
couple of scythes in harvest, or feed the cows on a small
farm in winter. These were ploughing, and ploughing well.
Now, we do not here enter into the question as to whether
it is desirable to employ such ploughmen or not. That would
involve several considerations. We only ask whether such a
turn-out could have been made with swing ploughs ? We
think not. This then — for the work was well executed —
proves their ready and efficient adjustment. And is not an
implement the better, and the more manageable for being
readily and easily adjusted?

In the matter of draught, we are unable to refer to any dyna-
mometrica! results, and have only personal judgment to goby.
Our belief is, that in drawing a good wheel plough, well set,
there is less labour expended than with the swiiig plough. Then
there is the fine level bottom, or floor, obtained for the fur-
row— " a point in which many Scotch ploughs are sadly defi-
cient." Also that moat useful adjunct, a skim-coulter, to aid
in burying clover, grasses, or other vegetable matter. Again,
the excellent tastening to the coulter, so decidedly superior to
the stone-and- wedge system. Likewise the case-hardened
share, which, by having its upper surface softer thau its under
one, naturally continues sharp by the act of wearing, and thus
saces many a journey to the smithy. Any of the wearing parts
of the plough are readily renewed by a common country black-
smith, the fittings being obtained from the manufacturers.

It will be observed that these remarks have chiefly referred
to the Bedford ploughs, though they are not, assuredly, in-
tended as derogatory towards others. We speak from no
personal feelings ; the Messrs. Howard we are unacquainted
with, and we have only written as to what we know of their
implements. Still, a false delicacy need not prevent us saying
to Scottish farmers, " Give Howard's ploughs a trial — a fair
and honest trial it will be, for the Scottish maxim is, ' A fair
field, and no favour ' — and we doubt not but the results will
be satisfactory."

lu conclusion, we would quote the words of one who knows
the subject well, and who says, " With many, particularly the
Scotch, the wheels are a fatal objection ; their plea is, that they

are an unnecessary complication, and that the weight and
draught are thereby incrensed." With regard to the latter, it
was shown at a late meeting of the Highland Society of Scot-
land how ill-founded was the prejudice, for the only English
plough competing was proved to draw one-third or one-fourth
lighter than the best Scotch plough exhibited, besides per-
forming its work in a very superior style. How can it be, ask
some, that a wheel-plough can take less power than a swing,
whilst you have so much more weight to draw ? This has
been a vexed question for years, whilst the thing lies in the
smallest possible compass. All ploughs are constructed with
a certain iuclination to go down into the soil. In a wheel-
plough this tendency to draw into the soil is regulated, or ob-
viated, by the wheels, which turn the weight thus thrown upon
them, relieving the friction on the point and sole. On the
other hand, the swing-plough is kept from entering the soil too
deeply by the ploughman, whose whole weight is often re-
quired upon the handles to maintain the proper depth. It
will at once be seen that this weitrht at the end of so long a
lever throws much additional friction on the sole, which is of
itself suSicient to account for the great difference in draught.
The objection with regard to complication is purely ideal, the
wheels being readily adjusted to any required depth and
width, and in the midland counties of England we have seen
mere boys using them, and making most beautiful and uniform
work. Thos. Bowick,

Kenilworth, Jan. \ilh, IS58.

HOW TO FARM CLAY LANDS.

Sir, — " Lucus a non luceudo" is, I believe, something like
a dark lantern, and is well represented ia the phrase of "car-
rying coals to Newcastle."

I ventured last year to give some general advice to one o
your correspondents, who was burdened with 500 acres of clay
land ; now, strange as it may appear, I, then an oracle, wait
for a response on the very same subject. The question I now
beg to propose for consideration is how to farm clay land of
inferior quality at a profit, with wheat at alow price, and every
probability of a still farther decline in its value. Many valued
productions I have read, offering all sorts of profitable sys-
tems and suggestions for the cultivation of clay soils; and in
many cases I have felt convinced that the writers on the sub-
ject kuow very little practically as to the capital needed to
effect the utter change, both on the part of landlord and te-
nant, which their advice would require.

First, I wish to explain the nature of the clay soils, for
the profitable cultivation of which I should be glad to receive
suggestions, based on practice, conveying a system which any
tenant farmer with fair average means may safely adopt. The
soil I refer to, is met with in large tracts in the Midland coun-
ties amongst others, is about five inches deep, with a yellow
subsoil, and rubble or clay stone below, generally full of water.

Secondly, I must state that, as far as my experience goes,
" circumstances over which there is no control" or "urgent
private aft'airs" seem generally to be pleaded as excuse for that
indispensable article in expensive cultivation of this descrip-
tion of land — viz., "capital."

A tenant with large capital will seldom engage in such an
undertaking, except with a long lease and at a very low rent;
and often a landlord's " burdens" prevent him indulging in the
improvement of his property at the expense of his mcome.

Hence, for a tenant with ordinary capital, say £10 per acre,
farming this sort of land and drained in an effectual manner,
with buildings and accommodations usually met with, advice
is respectfully asked, from some of those who in the time of
low prices, found they could work with a profit. Tor final
particulars, broad clover, except with the interval of many
years, cannot be grown with certainty ; beans also have not
depth of soil sufficient to insure a crop. There is one plant,
however, always present to give a relish to the crust — thewi'd
garlic or crow onion.

If no kind friend comes forward to solve doubts and ques-
tions that are raised, I must fain hereafter trouble you with a
few facts drawn from costly practice, and for proof substanti-
ating say " Expeito crede."

Yours obediently, G.

266

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

MR. RAREY, THE AMERICAN HORSE-
TAMER.

When the sportsman or the horseman, who has studied the
animal all his life, and knows too well his freaks of temper and
easily alarmed disposition — when such a one is told that the
worst-tempered brute that ever was handled, or the greatest
savage that ever was put into a bos, can be conquered and
quieted in five or ten minutes — when simply by leaving with
him, for some such space of time, an unassuming youug man,
all the vice is effectually taken out of him — and when he hears,
moreover, of there being no perceptible means by which this i?
accomplished, but that the thing is merely " a secret" — When,
we say, a sportsman reads or is told of all this, what in niiiety-
nine times out of a hundred will he do ? With a pleasant
smile, and a slight shrug of the shoulders, he will most likely
answer at once that "it must be humbug." Or, if he does
not say so, he is sure to think so, which comes to very much
the same.

Now there is just one step beyond this. He must exercise
another of his senses before he quite condemns the discovery.
By this, thanks to The limes and other channels, he has no
doubt heard a good deal of the horse-tamer ; but if our friend
is a practical man, as we will take him to be, he will go a step
farther, and see him. He will judge for himself, as many have
already. He will go something more than sceptical as to what
is to be palmed- off on him, and he will come away convinced,
at least, ihere is a great deal in it. We state this as the gene-
ral impression left on all who have hitherto seen the effects of
Mr. Rarey's system, and we f;ive it as our own. Horse-tamers
and Whisperers are, or have been, by no means unknown
amongst us; and we walked into Mr. Anderson's yard quite
ready to assure ourselves that we were going to witness some
clever trick, or some individual exhibition of personal power
of baud or eye, that mi<;ht be as curious and amusing, perhaps,
as a scene in the Circus, and that would be all.

We found the exhibiter, a young well-made American, just
recognizable from the tone of his voice as a States-man, in an
inner yard in company with a goodish-looking bUck horse.
In one word, he was doinsf just what he pleased with this ani-
mal. And there stood Mr. Anderson and Mr. Rice ready lo
assure you that a week since they, with all their knowledge of
their business — Georjje Rice with all his fine tenper and fine
hands — couid do nothing at all with him. He had been sold,
and returned as restive and unmanageable, and there was no
help for it but to take him back. He was one of those sad
brutes, that with all the look and power of two or three hun-
dred Kuiuea horses, sink down into street cabs sheerly from the
impossibiluy of ever being able to trust them. Mr. Rarey
wanted a patient, and here was one that promised to try all his
art. He requested only one quarter-of-an-hour's conversation
with the unreasonable creature ; at the end of that time the
black horse was black only in colour. His nature was changed,
and the de»il rairly gone out of him. We saw what we write.
We saw this violent-tempered animal that had been, stand
quietly in the middle of the yard, with a plain hard-and-sharp
in his mouth, and the rein hanging loose on his neck — and
we saw the American wheel a heavy barrow straight up to hia
head and round him, without the horse flinching in the least.
Then the horse-tamer cracked a carriage-whip over his head, and
still the animal stood as placidly, and, apparently, as uncon-
cerned as ever. Mr. Rarey next proceeded to mount him, and
here perhaps to a sportsman was the most pleasing part of the
■whole performance. With the rein still loose on his neck, the
horse moved and turned, just as the rider moved his hand. We
have all seen a " wonderful pony" in the Circus stop and twist
round in obedience to the promptings of a tolerably well-
pointed whip. But there was nothing of this sort with Mr.
Rarey. There was no effort on his part, and there was no-
thing anxious or nervous in the look of his horse. In fact, he
was so calm, his eye so steady and so much at ease, that it
was difficult to imagine he ever could have been the vicious
obstinate brute too many could speak to. " The manner" of
the horse gave one more the notion of an old family pony, not
so much subdued, as won over by kind treatment and long
usage. You got on him " any-how," and gut off him "any-
how." One old sportsmen mounted the horse with his half-
cigar in his mouth, and slid down again over his tail. A week
since the same horse would have kicked hia brains out, could
any man have been found fool-hardy enough to attempt such
p 8Gt. Mr. Rarey concluded this dempnatratiou of his powe?-

over the horse by taking him into a stall, and lying down by
his side — knocking his hoofs together — pillowing his head on
his quarters ; with similar feats, not quite so seemly to look at,
although all tending to prove hia complete subjugation of the
animal.

The horse-tamer declares his means are simply rational and
kindly treatment. He denies the use of any drug, or appliance
that can in any way injure the proper spirit or true nature of
the horse. He maintains his secret can be imparted to others,
and can be as effectually used by them as by himself. And he
guarantees that a horse once conquered is conquered for ever.
It is only fair to say that the recent performances before her
Majesty and the Court all tend to confirm this. Lord Alfred
Paget, to whom the secret has been entrusted, has already
appeared as a successful practitioner of the art, while the horses
operated upon have shown no disposition to return to their
former evil ways.

We must repeat there is a good deal in this — more than
many a man who has been contending all his life with vicious
ani restive horseS will like at first to admit. It is suggestive,
however, a', least, that no one who has seen the effect of what
is done, but has gone away with a very different opinion to that
he entertained on only hearing of it. Mr. Harry Hill, who
strolled in to witness the experiment with very doubting eyes,
ended by asking if his colts could not be broken on such a
principle? Of course they can. Horses shy of water can be
made to face it, and, indeed, to do a vast deal more than we
mean to tell of here, purely because we do not want to have
our word questioned. On the first available opportunity let
every one go and judge for himself. Mr. Rarey is accompanied
by Mr. Goodenough, who, we will answer for it, Irom our own
experience, will treat every application made to him with all
proper courtesy and respect. — Sporting Magazine for February.

SIMPLE REMEDY FOR THE PLEURO-
PNEUMONIA.

Sir, — Being a constant reader of your valuable paper, I
have seen several remedies recommended for that fatal disease
called pleuro pneumonia, which is now so prevalent amougst
cattle and sheep, in all parts of the country, to the great loss
a id almost rum of many stock masters ; and which I think
may be, in many cases, prevented by a little attention and the
following treatment, winch I have app'ied for many years, with
great success; indeed, I never knew it to fail, if properly
carried out; and I have had some little experience, haviig had
the management of stock and sheep for many years in different
counties. The pleuro-pneuaionia visits us at all seasons, but,
generally, most in the autumn or winter — no doubt from the
loggy and wet state of the atmosphere, which affects the lungs,
particular of those that are pre-disposed ; therefore, about the
last week in October, when the stock are generally taken into
the yard, I give lo each beast, recording to size and age, from
half-a-pound to a pound of Stockholm tar, and a handful or
two of salt, mixed ; taking care, at the time, to rub it well
into their nostrils. This I repeat once a week, if the disease is
prevalent near us, only in less quantity ; if not, I repeat it
once a mouth, and at all times, when I buy in a fresh lot of
beasts, give them a dose of tar and salt. When I first heard
of the disease, we had about 90 head of cattle, and had a two-
yr old heifer attacked, which died in four days. The disease was
very destructive all around the neighbourhood ; I gave all the
other stock a dose of tar and salt, and we had no more taken.
I then recommended the same dose to my neighbours, and had
the pleasure of seeing the same result. Tnere is no doubt
about the disease being contagious ; I therefore advise all per-
sons who keep cattle, to be particular in keeping the houses
and sheds clean, and lime-washed once a year at least. For
sheep, I give about two table-spoonsful of the same, with the
like result. Any gentlemen who may think proper to try this
simple preventive, will find themselves amply repaid for their
trouble, and if they will please to make known to me the re-
sult, I should be greatly obliged. What I have stated is from
my own practical experience ; and if you think it worth a small
space in your valuable pages, I should take it as a great com-
pliment to myself, and hope it would prove a benefit to all.
I am, sir, your humble servant,
R. Mayston,
Bailiff to Mrs. Dixon, Stansted Park,

Emsworlh, Hants.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

267

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR
FEBRUARY.

This has been a remarkably' fine month for all oul-door
farm operations. In most parts of England they have pro-
gressed steadily, and are now quite as forward as in the ge-
neral run of years. Thus far, matters are satisfactory ; but,
if we turn our attention to the state of the grain trade, we
shall find matter for serious consideration. Not that the
fall in the value of produce since we last wrote has been
extensive —indeed, the fluctuations in prices have been com-
paratively trifling — but in various quarters gloomy antici-
pations have been indulged in as regards the future. Wheat
is now about the cheapest article of consumption, and pre-
sent appearances of the trade certainly indicate future de-
pression, notwithstanding that the manufacturing industry
of the country is recovering from the late panic, that money
is very abundant and cheap, and that consumption has
somewhat improved of late. There are, however, influences
at work calculated to preveat any upward movemeutin the
quotations. In the first place, the stocks of wheat in the
hands of our farmers are unquestionably large for the time
of }'ear ; in the second, the French markets continue to be
heavily supplied with all kinds of produce ; and, in the
next, we have as yet received but a limited quantity of
wheat from the United States, the growth of 1857. In that
year the yield was an unusually fine one, both as to quan-
tity and quality ; but the movement to the shipping ports,
owing to the commercial panic, was very small during the
last tnree months of the season. For instance, since the 1st
of September the shipments of wheat were only about
3,000,000 bushels, against over 7,000,000 bushels in the
corresponding period in 1856 ; hence, present stocks in the
United States are very large, and prices continue to rule
low. In France, too, nearly the same state of things pre-
vails, and the fall in the quotations since the 1st of July
hasheen forty-one per cent. ; nevertheless, with open ports,
or nearly so, present prices are eagerly accepted by the
growers. The fact is that the French agriculturists and
millers have been dissappointed as regards the etfects of the
new law permitting the export of produce. They, at one
tinie, looked forward to considerable excitement in the trade
and consequently to higher prices, as the result of the per-
mission given to ship grain and flour; but they appear to
have overlooked the fact that the growth of corn last year,
in all the grain districts of the world — and especially in
this country— was the largest on record. True, the partial
failure of our potato crop might be taken as a proof that
more grain would be consumed ; but as the growth of po-
tatoes on the continent has turned out very large, and as
immense quantities have been shipped to this country during
the last two months in fair condition, the losses have been
thus partially met by the foreigner. But even on this im-
portant matter much might be written, and, if our informa-
tion be correct, it would now appear that the actual losses
have not turned out soextensive as they were at one time sup-
posed. At all events, there is no actual scarcity of English
potatoes, though we admit that their quality is not sucli as
to command what may be termed a ready market. What,
then, shall we say in reference to the probable future range
in the value of wheat and other articles ? It must be ad-
mitted that there is no scarcity of supply either here, in
France, or in the United States. The supply, we are of
opinion, will be found more than equal to general consump-
tion, and if the system — still persevered in to an unusual
extent, more especially in reference to the importations from
the north of Europe— of selling at any price, be continued,
it is impossible to say at what figure the downward move-
ment in wheat will stop. But even with present abun-
dance, it appears to us that it is absolute folly for the foreign
growers to inundate our markets with more produce than
the demand can take off. Fortunately, our farmers have
ftded upon the defensive principle ; in other words, they

have declined to thrash out larger quantities of wheat than
the local millers are able to take off ; still, there is one im-
portant element wanting in the trade, viz., speculation,
which, with moderate arrivals, might again be in the as-
cendant, and give an additional, perhaps an important, tone
to the trade.

Barley continues to be in fair request, and the quotations,
compared with wheat, rule somewhat steady, although the
exports of grain-spirit to the continent have fallen off to
some extent. Most other kinds of spring corn have sup-
ported previous rates tolerably well, yet the currencies of
inferior oats have had a drooping tendency. From Ireland
the shipments of oats and other articles have been on a very
moderate scale; but from Scotland, large quantities of
wheat, barley, and oats continue to be forwarded to the
south.

The cattle trade has been in a depressed state both in
London and in the provincial markets, and prices generally
have given way. The supplies of live stock exhibited in
the metropolitan markets have not increased in number,
though there has been a decided improvement in the weight
and condition of the beasts •, still the great falling-off in the
consumption of meat in Manchester, Birmingham, &c.,has
had the effect of inducing many parties to foiward unusu-
ally large quantities of meat to Newgate and Leadenhali.
These supplies have been disposed of at low prices, and con-
sequently the consumption of London has been chiefly met
by country-killed supplies.

Although the supplies of hay and straw have not in-
creased, the demand has fallen off and prices have given
way. Meadow hay has sold at from £2 10s. to £3 16s.;
clover do., £3 10s. to £4 16s. ; and straw, £1 4s. to £1 Ss.
per load.

For all kinds of foreign and colonial wool the demand has
been in a most unsatisfactory state, yet the decline in prices
has not been extensive. English wools have met a slow
inquiry on former terms. The present stocks of colonial in
London are 28,175 bales, viz.: 5,186 Sydney, 7,834 Port
Philip and Portland Baj', 390 Adelaide, 7 New Zealand,
and 14,758 Cape. In addition to these supplies, there are
in warehouse 1,145 bales East India and 297 China. It is
a remarkable fact that not a single bale of Van Diemen's
Land wool is on haud.

The root crops are lasting well, and very large quantities
are now offering at low prices. In some parts of the coun-
try large patches of turnips are offered for sheep-feeding
free of expense.

In Ireland and Scotlandthe wheat trade has ruled heavy,
and prices have continued to give way ; spring corn, how-
ever, has supported previous quotations. For stock-feeding
the weather has been favourable.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH.

Notwithstanding that the metropolitan market has been
very moderately supplied with beasts and sheep, more espe-
cially with the latter, during the whole of the month, trade
generally has been depressed, and a fall of from 2d. to 4d. per
81bs. has taken place in the quotations. Even at that amount
of depression, the butchers have purchased cautiously, and
wholly for present wants. This state of the trade has induced
the opinion in some quarters that consumption in London has
greatly fallen otf. Such, however, we believe is not the case,
since we find that the receipts of meat from our provinces, as
well as from Scotland, have been considerably in excess of
most corresponding periods of the year. No doubt consump^
tion in our manufacturing districts has seriously declined, and
this fact has induced those who have been in the habit of sup-
plying Birmingham, Manchester, &c., somewbat liberally, to
turn their attention to Loudon, and the lov charges by the
variovia r^ilws^ companies for thfi coiiveyaupe of meat, vi?..

6S

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

One penny -fer Ion per mile, have had the effect of increasing
the s.ipphes to a considerable extent. Then, again, we must
not forget that wool, bides, and skins are worth more in some
parts of the country than in the metropolis ; so that, although
meat in Newgate and Leadenhall has been sold at very low
prices, there haa been no actual loss, in a comparative sense,
in the present increased mode of supplying the wants of
London.

In Holland, and on some other parts of the continent, stock
is now relatively dearer than in England ; consequently the
importations into Loudon have exhibited a further decrease.
Last month they were as follows : —

Beasts 7l4head.

Sheep 822 „

Calves 784 „

Total 2,.320head.

Same time in 1857 4,720 head

„ 1856 3,087 „

1855 2,839 „

1854 10,683 „

1853 12,433 „

1852 9,123 „

„ 1851 11,828 „

Thus it will be seen that we have received an unusually
small importation, the falling off, compared with February,
1853, being over 10,000 head.

The total supplies shown in the great Metropolitan Market
have been as under : —

Beasts 18,276 head.

Cows 466 „

Sheep 69,070 „

Calves 1,091 „

Pigs 1,559 „

Comparison of Supplies.

Feb. Beasts. Cows. Sheep. Calves. Pigs.

1857.... 17,629 457 74,430 1,172 1,975

1856.... 19,642 495 99,950 673 2,614

1855.... 17,436 385 91,180 596 2,705

1854.... 20,091 520 92,441 1,023 2,279

1853.... 19,308 470 86,910 2,098 2,420

This comparison shows that the supply of sheep disposed
of haa been smaller than during the last five years.

From Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, 10.020
Scots and shott-horns came to hand during the month. From
other parts of England the receipts were 3,850 of various
breeds, from Scotland 2,340 Scots, and from Ireland 1,012
oxen and heifers.

About 1,200 shorn sheep have made their appearance in the
market, and which have sold at from 6d. to 8d. per Slbs.
beneath those in the wool. It is to be regretted that shearing
should be commenced et so early a period, because it frequently
happens that the loss upon each head is fully 2d. per 81bs., as
the butchers are never disposed to purchase stock out of the
wool during inclement weather. Wool may be worth more
in some parts of the country than in the metropolis ; but our
impression is that the flockmasters lose money by early shear-
ing— that is to say, if the sheep are intended for immediate
sale.

Beef has sold at from Ss. to 43. 6d.; mutton, 33. 2d. to Ss.
2d. ; veal, 4s. to 53. ; pork, 3s. 2d. to 48. 6d. per 81ba. to sink
the offal. In the corresponding month iu 1857, the best beef
realized 53 , the best mutton 63., the best veal Ss. 8d., and the
best pork 5s. 2d. per 81bs. The fall, therefore, compared with
last season, is a serious ore, and many of the graziers who
bought store animals at high rates are now losing money.

Nearly 40,000 carcases of meat have been received up to
Newgate and Leadenhall markets during the month. The
trade generally has been in a most depressed state at drooping
currencies.

Beef has sold at from 2s. lOd. to 4s. 4d. ; mutton, 3s. to
4s. 6d. ; veal, .3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. ; pork, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 6d.
per 8 lbs. by the carcase.

Letters from Holland state that the supphea of stock likely
to be shipped to this country during the present year are still
limited, that prices rule high, and that purchases of both
beasts and sheep still continue to be effected ou French
account. In the north of Europe the gupplies have rather

increased, but in France meat is still ruling high. Apparently,
therefore, there is no prospect of our receiving large importa-
tions between this and the end of the year ; indeed, it is
possible that we shall have to report even a further decrease
in them. The demand, therefore, will be chiefly met from
home sources, and it occurs to us that the late fall in the quo-
tations will be shortly recovered, though we admit that prices
during the coming season are likely to rule moderate.

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE,
FAIRS, &c.

APPLEBY HORSE FAIR.— A few very good animals
were shewn, and for some, good prices were obtained.

BANBURY FAIR.— The supply of beef and mutton, of all
kinds, is very good, and although sales are complained against
by a few, yet the trade done may be considered satisfactory,
prices being much the same as last fair. The quality of the
cattle is really excellent, and best things met with a speedy
sale.

BEDALE FAIR.— We had a thin show of fa*, stock, which
sold readily at rather higher prices. In lean stock and in-
calvers there was also a short supply, but they sold well, and
prices remained unaltered. Beef, 6s. to Ts. per stone ; mut-
ton, 5d. to 6d. per lb.

BEVERLEY FAIR had a good attendance of buyers. A
limited supply of first-class horses had ready sale ; a good
show of medium and inferior ones had dull demand and prices
low. A very limited number of cattle had slow sale, and
prices still lowering.

BRIDGNORTH FAIR was very depressed, the supply of
stock being very Bmall, and the attendance of dealers smaller
than usual. Sheep sold from 7d. to Tjd., and some fine ewes
went as high as 7id. Cows sold from fid. to fi^d. Cows aud
calves were about the same as last fair. Pigs continue low.
The horse fair was ill supplied ; and what stock was there was
in very bad condition. The highest price fetched for small
waggon horses was 30^.

BROUGH FAIR.— There was a large show of well-bred
beasts, and a number of influential buyers and jobbers, but all
seemed inclined not to give the prices asked, which sooa
caused a different aspect, aud the market became flat, and was
much down compared to the fair held in January ; except
calvers, which went off well. Groups of cattle were unsold.

CARLISLE HORSE FAIR.— The display of horses on
(his occasion surpassed anything of the kind for the last thirty
or forty years, both as to numbers and quality, the market
being quite full. The number of saddle horses was not very great,
neither was the quality of this class first-rate. We do not
remember having seen a smaller number of old and low con-
dition animals on a similar occasion. The amount of business
transacted was not so extensive as might have been expected,
and price had a downward tendency.

DEVIZES FAIR.— The show of worked-off oxen, suitable
for grazing purposes, was large, and sold at about £2 in £20
less than last year ; at this reduction a fair trade was done,
although a few lots were taken away unsold. Barreuers, in-
calvers, aud milch beasts were in short supply, and sold at
about £1 per head less money. Beef, from lOs. to lis. per
score. The great feature at this fair was the worked-off oxen ;
and it is admitted, we believe, on all hands, thr.t a few years
at the plough is decidedly beneficial for grazing, and improves
the flavour of the meat if not worked too long. As regards
the horse fair, we cannot say much. Mr, Edmonds, of
Wroughton, sold two or three good cart horses, and we heard
of one or two uae'ul nags being sold in the stables; in other
respects little business was done.

DORCHESTER FAIR was scarcely so large as on
previous occasions ; but business may be fairly said to be
brisk, and on every description of stock prices were good,
and a more than average amount of business was done.

DUMFRIES HORSE FAIR— The number of horses
was at no time greater than 300, or about a fourth less than
the number brought forward last year, aud, as usual, they
were almost entirely draught horses. The general proportion of
very good horses was not great, and the fall in that class was
not more than 15 per cent, from the rates of last February.
On secondary stock the reduction was at least 20 per cent. ;
on third class about the same ; while for lower grades there

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

260

was no demand. Mr. Foster eoIA 10 on Monday to another
dealer at prices varying from £40 to £50 ; and he was asking
£60 for a fine draught mare, for which he could have got up-
wards of £70 last year. Messrs. Teenan and Clarke sold a
grey mare for £52 ; a powerful horse for £53 ; another mare,
a splendid animal, for £56, ttie buyer in the latter instance
having been a farmer from the neighbourhood of Kirkcud-
bright ; and they also disposed of 4, about £50 each, to a
purchaser from Peeblesshire. Mr. Brown, Hardgrave, sold a
pair of beautiful draught horses for £100 ; and Jlr. Carruther?,
Broklehirst, sold another siniiUr animal for 50 guioea=. Such
are some of the transactions iu the beat class of horses ; for
other kinds a degree inferior the prevailing rates were from
£30 to £40 ; and a considerable proportion of good animals
for farming labour changed owners at £25 and under.

EGREMONT HORSE FAIR was very thinly attended,
both of horses and purchasers.

EXETER FAIR was numerously atteiided by farmers aud
dealers, and well supplied with cattle of the primest quality.
Perhaps the number of dealers present was greater than
butchers or consumers wished to see. There was no alteration
in prices. The best lat beef realized from 9a. 6d. to lOs. 6d. ;
' barreners. 73. to 8s. per score ; cows and calves, £12 to £43.

'^^ GLOUCESTER MONTHLY MARKET.— The supply of

beef was large, but of inferior quality, and a flat sale ; of
mutton the supply was good, and the whole was soon disposed
of. Beef. 6d. to 6.id. ; mutton, 7d. to 74d. per lb.

KELSO FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.— There was a good
show of fat cattle, and several of the lots were of excellent
quality. There was a good attendance of buyers, with a brisk
demand, and nearly the whole were quickly cleared off at
prices a shade better than our previous market. Beef may be
quoted at Gs. 3d. to Gs. 9d., and a few superior brought about
73. per stoue. There was a small supply of sheep, which sold
^ readily at Gjd. per lb. A fair show of cows, which were selling

at from £10 to £16.

LEDBURY FAIR.— The supply of stock was rather
short. Some prime fat cows were offered, which realized
good prices. Bu3'ers were numerous, and most of the stock
offered was sold at an early hour. Fat cows, 6Jd. to 7d. ;
ditto sheep, Gjd. to 7d. ; store ditto, 26s. to 38s. each ; fat
pigs, 8s. Gd. per score ; store ditto, 283. to 36s. each.

LEOMINSTER FAIR.— There was not a large quan-
tity of fat beef; the highest figure was about Ggd. per lb.
Best wether mutton brought 7d. per lb. There were many
buyers of stores, and good barrens brought full prices.
NEWTON STEWART HORSE FAIR. — There wfis
- scarcely the average number of horses, and very few sales took
place, farmers wishing to obtain the prices of the last two or
three years; but any sales which took place were from 15 to
20 per cent. less. There were very few dealers present.

NORTHALLERTON FAIR.— A thia show of all descrip-
tions of stock, with plenty of buyers. Lean beasts sold at
lower prices. Beef, 6s. 3(i. to 73. per stone. The number of
horses shown was very great, and dealers from all parts were
numerous. Several first-rate hunting and carriage horses were
readily sold at high rates, and inferior ones 20 to 30 per cent,
lower than last year. Draught horses were in demand, at
good prices.

OXFORD GREAT MARKET.— There was a short
supply of good beef and mutton, and as the demand was
rather considerable all went off at prices quite as high as
last market — beef, 4s. 4d. to 4s. 8d. ; mutton, 5s. to 5s. 4d.
per stone. Store cattle and sheep were not so plentiful as
on former occasions, and a dulness prevailed, very few
changing hands. The pig market was unusually dull with
a short supply — good English hogs from 8s. Gd. to 9s. ;
porkers 9s. to 9s. 6d. per score.

PENRITH HORSE FAIR.— There was a tolerably large
show of farm horses, and a quantity of old hacks. The busi-
ness doing was very limited, and prices much below those of
last year. For a very superior animal we heard of £40 having
been offered.

RUGBY FAIR.-There was a good supply of beef, at
from 5^d. to G^d. ; a short supply of mutton, from 6d. to 7d.
Store beasts easier to bny. A short supply of horses, at low
prices.

SHREWSBURY FORTNIGHTLY MARKET. — The
best fat heifer beef sold from 6d. to 6^d. per lb. ; fat calves,
6d. to 6^d. per lb. ; useful store cattle selling at fair prices;

also good cows aud calves at high figures. Fat wether sheep,
7d. to 7id. per lb. Fat pigs, 5d. to S^d. ; store pigs still very
low.

TEWKESBURY FAIR was very well attended, and
a large supply of stock, mostly fat. Demand limited, and
sellers had to dispose of their stock at very low prices.
Beef sold at 5^d. to 6d. ; mutton, 6d. to 6-Jd, The horse
fair was thinly attended, and what sales were made were at
very low figures.

YORK FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.— Calving and dairy
cows, and all kinds of graziu? beasts, had fair sale, at former
rates. A moderate supply of fat beasts sold at Gs. Gd. to 7s.
per stone. A fair show of mutton sheep went at Gd. to GJd. ;
superior ditto, 7d. per lb. A good supply of grazing sheep
had fair demand: hog sheep, 22a. to 43s. per head. The
market is a little on the improve.

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

Sow oats and barley on dry and early lands
during dry weather ; also spring wheat, vetches,
peas, beans, and flax-seed. Sow lucerne on well-
prepared ground, trenched or very deeply-ploughed
and richly dunged. Sow carrots and parsnips on
good warm sandy loams, that are in good condition
from previous treatment, without the present appli-
cation of fresh manure : steep the seeds in leys of
urine, and dry them with lime. Sow sainfoin, and
dress the young plants with gypsum. Apply arti-
ficial manures and top-dressings on young wheats,
barleys, and clovers — as soot and salt, malt combs,
rape-dust, nitrate of soda, pigeons' dung, and gyp-
sum. Sow cabbage seeds for summer plants,
and lay composts on grass lands.

Plant hops, and make the hills si.x feet distant
each way. Use well-rotted dung, and put four
sets in each hill, one in each corner, and cover
them lightly with earth, leaving the upper end of
the set just in hght of day.

Continue the planting of forest'trees and of young
hedges, but cease if dry weather sets in. The
cutting of underwoods will now be finished.

Watered meadows may now be stocked with
light animals. Set traps for vermin, and spread
molehills.

Plough fallows for green crops, and also clay
lands for bare fallows, if the weather be dry. Shut
up the fields that are intended for hay, and finish
laying composts on grass lands. In wet weather
thrash grains, and carry dung from the yard to the
heaps in the fields.

In many situations ewes will drop lambs very
largely in this month. Feed with juicy succulent
food, as beet, cabbages, and turnips, and provide
a warm shelter, which is equally necessary with the
food itself. The shelter sheds must be dry, and
frequently littered with short straws and chaflFs.
Remove the ewes and lambs from the paddock to
the pasture field regularly, as the lambs get strong.

Keep the poultry-houses dry and warm, and set
all kinds of eggs for hatching. Feed amply, and
provide clear spring-water.

Finish the killing of hogs for bacon, and keep
all young pigs for summer stores, and for early
feeding next winter.

The latest fattening bullocks must now be sold,
or pushed forward by superior feeding. The long
days will now require a greater supply of food, as
daylight always induces animals to eat more.

270

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

The indications of wintry weather which were
given at the close of January, after some rapid
fluctuations and a moderate fall of snow, were
verified in the progress of the past month, which
closed with great sharpness. Still, as it has re-
mained on the whole unusually dry, we do not find
the promising aspect of the growing wheat abated
in this country ; but in America the absence of a
snow-covering has left the autumnal wheat too
much exposed, and it is in some localities present-
ing a sickly appearance. On the other hand, there
were recent complaints from parts of Spain that
the crop was impeded in its growth for want of
rain, which has since fallen, but not in sufficient
plenty. It will not be safe, therefore, to make too
sure that another heavy crop will follow the last,
as the most critical periods have all to be passed
through. The wheat trade has, however, not re-
vived, an ample six months' stock being yet in
growers' hands, and foreign supplies being good,
notwithstanding the fact that nearly all are either
sold to a heavy loss, or placed in granary to pre-
vent it. The money market has indeed passed
from scarcity and " high pressure," to a burden-
some abundance, with very low rates of interest;
but trade and confidence have not yet returned.
The month opened with complete depression, and
markets have generally declined 2s. to 3s. per qr.,
and though an impression has been lately gaining
ground that the " minimum" price has been about
reached, with the country pointing upwards, the
sudden overthrow of the Palmerston Ministry may
again unhinge the minds of capitalists, and prevent
speculative purchases, notwithstanding a fall in the
averages to 45s. 8d. per qr. The least probability,
however, of a war with our present allies would
soon change the face of things, and the plenty
now offering in the markets be materially reduced.
Lord Derby or his successor will doubtless en-
deavour to prevent such a calamity, but Orsini's
projectile may yet be the occasion of a general
flame.

Potatoes have held out better than expected ; but
as flour is comparatively lower, there must be a
larger consumption, and millers keep low in stock,
and proportionately dependent on events. Foreign
quotations by last advices were as follows : —

France, somewhat improving, quotes the price of
good wheat at Paris about 4J?s. per qr., and flour
Sis. per sack, or Is. per sack below Norfolks. At
Seville, flour 50s. per sack ; mixed wheat 53s., hard
58s. 6d. per qr. Cadiz : Flour, 50s. 6d. per sack.
Marianopoli wheat, at Barcelona, 45s. 9d. per qr. ;
worth the same here. Ghirka wheat at Odessa was
quoted 423. to 44s. 8d. (selling here at 46s.), hard
to 553. per qr., with a fair business doing against
the opening of the port. At Leghorn, native wheat
was 48s. 6d. per qr. ; Genoa quoting 50s. for Ber-
diauski. Saidi wheat at Alexandria was quoted
27s. 4d.; selling here at 3l5. 6d. per qr. The

Baltic ports, which are closed except to steamers
cutting their way at great expense, show a range of
prices nearer to oar own; good red at Stettin being
procurable at 40s. per qr., fine high mixed at Danzig
46s. 6d. per qr. ; but the stock there of all sorts was
at present only about 28,000 qrs. Rhenish wheat
in Holland was worth 46s. 6d., and iu Belgium,
good quality ranged from 43s. to 44s. 6d. per qr.
New York has a large stock of flour, wliich was
looking down ; but wheat was buoyant, white
Southern being quoted at 1 dol. 40c. per bush.,
equal to 48s. per qr. ; red I dol. 22c., equal to 42s.
per qr.

The first Monday opened with moderate supplies of
both English and foreign wheat. The morning's sup-
ply from the near counties did not exceed an average,
the weather being again frosty ; but there were
many samples left over from the previous week, and
a large fleet of foreign vessels being reported off the
coast, there was an unusual depression, so that it
was necessary to submit to a reduction of 2s. to 3s.
per qr., to make any way. Foreign was equally
difticult to place ; but holders were not so ready to
make an equal concession. This account had its
effect in the country, but generally the reductinn
was not so heavy, some places only noting a diffi-
culty in sales ; Sheffield and Birmingham making
the decline only Is. per qr., but there wts almost a
panic at Leeds, at 3s. per qr, less money. Liver-
pool, on its first market, gave way 2d. to 3d. per
70lbs., without any quotable reduction on the follow-
ing Friday. Saturday's markets generally noting a
fall of Is. to 2s. ; but Friday, in London, was the
dullest day known for some time, and a good deal
of fine Kentish was sent back unsold.

The second Monday, as respects the addition
of foreign samples, was much below the ave-
rage, with only a moderate quantity of English.
This morning, there was a fair show from Kent,
with less from Essex. The day was clear and
frosty, and highly favourable to the condition of the
samples ; and those millers who did not avail them-
selves of Friday's depression, found, for picked
samples, they had to pay the prices of the previous
se'nnight : but, though more tone was evinced by
all holders, it was a poor day as respects business, a
good many parcels of English being left on the
stands. The tone of the trade improved in London
as the week closed, Friday realizing an occasional
advance of Is. per qr. for picked parcels of English
and foreign. The country reports varied. Some of
the early markets in Lincolnshire showed progress
with the downward movement ; but the general ten-
dency was to advance. Hull, Louth, York, and
several other places, made no change ; Birmingham,
Boston, Wolverhampton, Peterborough, Derby, and
Lincoln were all Is. per qr. better; Norwich,
Leicester, and Grantham noting an advance of 2s.
per qr. Liverpool, on Tuesday, was dull, holders
refusing to accept lower rates. On Friday, 3d, per

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

271

701b. more was realized, but only ou good American
red qualities,

Tlie tliird Monday commenced on moderate
arrivals, both English and foreign, with not many
additional samples, in the course of the morning,
from the near counties. Factors began by asking
about 2s. per qr. more money, and in some instances
there were sales at improved rates; but as the day
wore, the buoyancy ceased, and wliere any clearance
was effected, it could only be said that fully the pre-
vious rates were made for home-grown wheat.
Picked foreigu red, like Rostock or Louvain, was
taken at quite Is. per qr. above the rates of this day
se'nnight. The country markets generally were un-
altered or rather dearer. Derby, York, Leicester,
Grantham, Peterborough, Louth, and Birmingham
were firm ; Boston, Lincoln, and Lynn, as well as
Chelmsford and Gloucester, were Is. per qr.
\ higher; Market Rasen and Market Harborough

^ quoting an advance of Is. to 2s. per qr. Liver-
pool, on Tuesday, kept the previous market's
advance, but on Friday gave way id. per 701b.,
though on the same day in London, Is. per qr.
more was occasionally made.

The last Monday in the month exhibited a
better supply of foreign wheat, though the near
counties sent up a very moderate quantity. The
weather remained clear and frosty, and the condi-
tion was improved, but the change in the Ministry

*" seemed to exert a sinister influence, and the rates

of the previous week were with difficulty sus-
tained, the market being only saved from a decline
by the scanty show of English samples. Leeds
and Liverpool on Tuesday tallied with the London
report.

The supphes into the port of London in the four
weeks have been 16,1 47 qrs. English, including some
Scotch, with 33,969 qrs, foreigry making the weekly
average 12,529 qrs., against 20,065 in January ; the
decrease being chiefly in the foreign arrivals. The
foreign imports into the United Kingdom in the
month of January, were 342,841 qrs. wheat;
304,688 cwt. flour. The averages have declined
from 4Ss. 8d, to 45s, 8d, in four weeks ; the Lon-
don averages in the same time have receded from
50s. Sd. to 46s, lOd., showing a difference of 3s,
Bd. per qr.

The price of Town - made flour com-
menced at 43s., and remains unaltered. In Nor-
folks there have been some changes, the second
Monday showing a decline of Is., which was re-
covered on the third, American and French sam-
ples have given way fully Is. per sack and barrel.
The supplies in four weeks were 75.621 sacks
English: 6,611 sacks, 7,134 barrels foreign ; show-
ing a deficiency as compared with January to the
extent of 3,391 barrels, the sacks being about equal.
The fluctuations in the barley trade have been so
slight that prices have scarcely changed, but the
averages show a decline from 37s, to 36s, 3d,
The finest quality of malting has continued scarce
on the London market ; the middling sorts have
been less abundant ; and the lower kinds from the
East, which have occasionally arrived in large
quantities, have been finding vent by the low prices
accepted as horse food in mixture with light oats,
which in moderate proportions have been found to

answer well. Of this there was a large supply in
the second week of the month, influencing this
description fully Is. per qr. down, but the closing
Monday was more cheerful in its aspect for all
sorts, the supply of home-growth being small.
During the four weeks the receipts have been
11,382 of our own growth, and 43,523 qrs. foreign,
giving a weekly supply of 13,726 qrs., which only
shows a shght decrease on the previous month.
There were imported into the United Kingdom in
Januar)', 94,154 qrs. The lower kinds of this
grain may improve as stocks get exhausted, but
the lateness of the season is against any advance
in fine sorts, though picked parcels for seed went
off well at the month's end.

The trade in malt has been heavy through the
month even in the finest qualities, inferior de-
scriptions having sold at lower rates.

The oat trade, with below an average supply
throughout the month, has continued declining,
prices having receded about 2s. 6d. per qr. As
noted before, the liberal use of inferior barley, at a
less proportionate price, has reduced consump-
tion ; while the quantity yet remaining in store,
though not heavy now, has served to keep suffi-
cient samples in the market to prevent any brisk
inquiry. The first Monday noted a decline of Is.
per qr. An equal fall was noted on the second, and
the two other Mondays were rather cheaper. Irish
supplies, though almost wanting since the first
Monday, have been made up by larger receipts
from Scotland, in better condition ; and foreign
arrivals on the last day were beginning again to
appear, being shipped in the mild weather. The
arrivals have consisted of 5,403 qrs. Enghsh,
19,196 qrs. Scotch, 15,737 qrs. from Ireland, and
32,510 qrs. from the continent — making the
weekly average only 17,204 qrs. The averages,
however, of this grain show an increase of 8d, per
qr., proving that prices have not so declined in the
country. The total imports in January were
61,528 qrs.

Beans and peas in the London market, though a
heavy sale throughout the month, have undergone
little change. New samples of the former first de-
clined Is, per qr,, and then recovered. Peas, es-
pecially boilers, have been excessively dull, and the
sudden set-in of frost has not at all sent them up.
The arrivals of beans during the month were 4,184
qrs. English and 3,340 qrs. foreign, or 1,881 qrs.
per week against 3,872 qrs, in January, Of peas,
the total foreign receipts were 204 qrs. and the
English 1,730 qrs,, or 533 weekly against 488 qrs.
per week last month. Hog peas have only retained
their value by their scarcity and the absence of
foreign.

The linseed trade has been steady, only expe-
riencing Is, per qr, decline ; but sales have been
slow. Cakes retain their favour, and find a free
placement as cattle feed.

The seed trade has commenced, but without
briskness, and the first prices of foreign imports
have not been sustained, a large supply of inferior
English having appeared before the demand came
thoroughly on, and there is not much appearance
of high prices either for red or white cloverseed
this season. Trefoil has been steady. Canary and

272

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

hempseed have maintained their value, and the
non-appearance of foreign spring tares in quantity-
has greatly enhanced their value. Reports say the
crops abroad have failed ; but we think the prices
now paying (7s. per bushel) will draw supplies,
Mustardseed and rapeseed have been firm ;
coriander and carraway almost without variation,

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE,

Shillings per Qnarter.

Wheat , new, Essex and Kent, white 43 to 62 red 40 to 48

Norfolk, Line, and Yorks., red 40 48

Baklet, malting 34to37.... Chevalier, new 37 40

Distilling 32 35.... Grinding 26 30

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk ,5S G6 extra G8 —

Kingston, Ware, and town made,. ., 58 66 ,, 6S —

Brown 54 S6 — —

Rye ,.. — — 30 34

Oats, English, feed 20 23 Potato 25 32

Scotch, feed 20 25 Potato 24 31

Irish, feed, white 20 22 fine 24 30

Ditto, black 19 21 ,, — 24

Beans, Mazagan 32 35 Ticks 33 34

Harrow 33 36 Pigeon 37 42

Peas, white boilers .. 40 44. .Maple .. 41 43.. Grey 39 41

FLonE,persackof2801bs., Town, Households. .389., fine 40 43

Country 33 34 Households.. S7 38

Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship 31 32

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

For the last Six Wheat. Barley

Weeks ; 1 s. d.

Jan, 9, 1858 .... 47 10
Jan. 16, 1858 ....' 48 8
Jan. 23, 1858 ....! 48 9
Jan. 30, 1858 ....1 47 6
Feb 6, 1868 ....: 46 9
Feb. 13, 1858 ....| 45 8
Aggregate average 47 7
Sametimelastyear 68 0

s. d.

36 3

37 0
37 6

36 10
45 7

Oats.
s. d.
22 8
22 1

22 4

23 1
23 0
22 8

22 8

23 5

Rye. 1
s. d.
Z3 6

33 7
32 0

34 10

31 2
30 9

32 8
39 8

Beans
8. d„

39 3
39 3
39 4
39 5

38 11

39 3

39 3

40 4

Peas.

s. d.

40 5

39 11

39 5

40 4
'41 0

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES-1 858-57.

From last Friday's (?a«, s. d. From Oazetteo{ \8b7. s. d.

Wheat 91,399 qrs., 45 8

Barley 82,258 .. 36 3

Oats 14,649 .. 22 8

Rye 189 .. 30 9

Beans 7,739 .. 39 3

Peas 1,641 .. 41 1

Wheat 1 00,932 qrs. ,56 5

Barley 71,957 .. 44 11

Oats 17,662 .. 23 6

Rye 28 .. 44 4

Beans 6,571 .. 39 6

Peas 1,749 .. 39 7

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.
Clovekseed, red 40s. to 70s., extra — s., white 50s. to Ifs.

Trefoil 18s. to 23s.

Tares, Winter, new, per bushel Ss, Od. to 68. Od.

Mostardseed, per bush., new los. to 173., brown 133, to 15s.

Coriander, per cwt 20s. to 26s.

Canary, per qr 80s. to 86s.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s.to — s... crushing SOs. to 62s,

Linseed Cakes, per ton £10 Os. to £10 lOs,

Rapeseed, per qr 683. to 70s.

Rape Cake, perton £6 lOs.to £6 Os.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &c.

Cloverseed, red 52s. to 703., white SOs. to 75s,

Trefoil „..,. 17s. to 22s.

Tares, Spi-ing, per bushel Ts. Od.to7s. 6d.

Hesipseed, small, per qr Dutch 42s. to 47s.

Coriander, per cwt . » 178. to 268.

Carraway ,, 44s. to 46s.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 58s. to 593 Bombay 67s. to 69s.

Linseed Cake, perton £9 10s. to £10 lOs,

Rapeseed, Dutch 76s. to SOs.

Rape Cake, perton £5 08. to £5 10s.

HOP MARKET.

LONDON, Monday, Feb. 22.— The business of our
maiket is very limited ; but, from the few recent samples on
offer, prices have been maintained with tolerable firmness.
Our currency is as follows :

Mid and Eaat Kents 703. to 903., choice 120s.

Weald of Kents 568, to 63a. „ 70^.

Sussex 523. to 563. „ 62a.

Yearlings &c 21s. to 353. „ 503.

Me ASK & Wild.

POTATO MARKETS,

SOUTHVVARK WATERSIDE, Monday, Feb, 22,—
During the past week our arrivals, both coastwise and Irom
foreiga ports, have been very considerable. Pi ices have been
with difficulty maiutained in most inatances. The following
are this day's quotations: —

Yorkshire Regents 140?. to ISOs. per ten.

Lincolnshire do 1209. to 1603. „

Dimbardo HOs. to 170s. „

Do. reds SOs. to 85s. „

Perth, Fife, and Forfar Regents llOs. to]"5s. „
Ditto ditto ledi ,, GOs. to 85s. „

French whites 90a to — s. ,,

Belgian do 80s. to — s. „

Ditto reds SOs. to 100s. „

Dutch whites 8O3. to lOOs. „

COUNTRY POTATO MARKETS. — York, Feb. 13:
Potatoes sell at 12d. per peck, and 3s. 4d. to 3s. 6d. per bushel,
Leeds, Feb. 16 : A fair show of potatoes, which sold at 13d.
to 13^d. per 211b3. wholesale, and lid, to 15d. retail. Selby,
Feb. 15: Potatoes, 'Jd, to lOd. per stone. Richmond, Feb.
13: Potatoes, 4s per bushel. Sheffield, Feb. 16 : Potatoes
sell at 10?. to I63. per load of 18 stones. Manchester,
Feb. 18: Potatoes, lis. to 18s. per 2521bs.

PRICES OF BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c

BUTTER, per cwt.! b. s.

Friesland lS8tol34

Kiel 126 130

Dorset 116 130

Carlow 104 I'in

Wuterford — 91

Cork, — 114

Limerick 90 100

81i|ro 104 112

FaESH,per dozen,. 13s. Od.to 16».0d.

CHEESE, per cut.: «.

Cheshire 66

Cheddar ?2

Do\ible Gloucester 68

HAMS:

York 80

Westmoreland 80

Irish ..

BACON : WiitBhire, dried
Irish, ^reen

WOOL MARKETS.
ENGLISH WOOL MARKET.
LONDON, Monday, Feb. 21. — Since our last report,
there has been a moderate inquiry for fine short wool?, at full
quotations. In all other kinds, the supply of which is only
moderate, only a limited business is doing on former terms.
For export to the continent nothing is doing.

BRADFORD WOOL MARKET (Thursday).— There has
been a tone of quietness in our market during the week, and
little business has been done. Spinners having supplied their
immediate necessities, pause at the advanced prices now
asked. For noils and brokes there continues a (air demand,
and prices are firm. Y'arns : The export houses continue to
buy up anything olTering " under the market," l)ut as yet are
not prepared to pay the advance now sought, and the spinner?,
from the difficulties in the way of buying wool, are very stiff
in price. Cotton yarns are dearer. Pieces : There has been
a fair attendance of merchants, but not much business has
been done. Several foreign buyers are over, but their pur-
chases are chiefly confined to fancy goods.

LEEDS (ENGLISH AND FOREIGN), Feb. 19.— The
demand for English wool has somewhat diminished, whilst that
for colonial has not fallen off. There has been a little improve-
ment in the demand for low foreign, and prices are without
alteration,

LIVERPOOL WOOL MARKET, Feb, 20.
Scotch Wool. — There continues to be a moderate de-
mand for Laid Highland, but consumers buy still only for
immediate wants. White Highland is still ii,quired for, but
wanted at very low prices, which holders are not inclined to
meet. Cheviots and crossed of a good class are in fair dc-
maud, but only in small parcels to supply immediate want

s. d. 8, d.
Laid Highland Wool, per 241bs. .... 11 fito 12 6

White HUhlaud do 15

Laid Crossed do. .unwashed .... 14

Do. do. .washed 15

Laid Cheviot do. .unwashed 13

Do. do. .washed 18

White Cheviot do.. washed 30

Foreion. — There is now a decidedly better feeling in the
trade, and there are a few inquiries, and business doing to good
extent, particularly for fine wools: low kinds move more slowly,
but all have an upward tendency.

Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, Ljndon.

0

16

0

0

15

0

0

16

0

6

17

0

0

20

0

0

32

0

CHEAP SUNDAY AND WEEK-DAY READING FOR THE PEOPLE.

Now Publishing

Cj^e €i)utci) of €nslm^ Musn^int,

A VERY CHEAP RELiaiOUS PERIODICAL,

Containing ori^nal contributions by several of the Bishops and I Intending subscribers are requested to send their orders trithout
many other distinguished Diyines ; Narratives ; Sltetches of Na- delay, as the back volumes and parts are now becoming vbkt
tural History ; Biography, Missionary Proceedings, Juvenile scarce.
Beading, Poetry, &c., with a Register of Ecclesiastical Intelli- j

genee; the whole combining amusement with instruction, in a
Btyle suited for all classes of readers.

A series of Parish Churches, with Illustrations of a superior
kind is in course of publication. This series which will be of a
very extended character, will be found of particular interest.

As the Magazine enjoys a circulation far exceeding that of any
other church periodical, and is read by all classes of society, it
will be found a very eligible medium for Advertisements, which
are conspicuously printed, and inserted at the most reasonable
rate.

Vol. XLII., Imperial 8vo., Embossed Cloth, 480 pages, with highly- finished Illustrations of Parish Churches, price 58. 8d.
London : Published in weekly numbers, price IJd., and in monthly parts, price 9d., by William Hughes, 11, Stationers' HaU Court;

and sold by aU Booksellers.

PRICE ONE SHILLING BACH,
Neatly printed in foolscap 8vo., each Volume containing from 130 to 160 pages of Letterpress, with numerous illustrative Engravings,

m.

NEW EDITIONS, REVISED AND ENLARGED.
RURAL ARCHITECTURE; a Series of Designs for Rural and DOGS : their Origin and Varieties

other Dwellings.
THE AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTOR; or Young Farmer's

Class Book.
DOMESTIC FOWL ; their Katural History, Breeding, and

General Management.
THE FLOWER GARDEN.
HORSES : their Varieties, Breeding, and Management.

PIGS : their Origin and Varieties.
COWS : and Dairy Husbandry.
THE HIVE AND THE HONEY BEE.
PESTS OF THE FARM.

LAND DRAINAGE, EMBANKMENT, AND IRRIGATION.
SOILS AND MANURES; with Instruction for their Improve-
ment.

London: Pipeb & Co., Paternoster Bow; Dublin: J. McQlashan, Upper Sackville Street; and all Booksellers:

THE LEADING SPORTING PEPJODICAL.

A MONTHLY JOURNAL OP

IN ALL THEIR VARIETIES.

Nineteen years ago this work was started for the purpose of
giving to the National Sports of this country an organ worthy
their importance and popularity. It took the field with a corps
of contributors — veterans of experience and skill in tlie departments
to which they attached themselves. For the first time the details
of the chase were treated of by masters of hounds; members of
the Jockey Club wrote about the Turf; the most eminent of our
amateur sailors discussed yachting ; the leash— the trigger — all
our rural pastimes were dealt with by men of acknowledged
authority. Under such auspices its apprenticeship was passed ;
and the public voice has bestowed on it the character of a " good
and faithful servant." In that capacity it discharges the grateful
duty of ofi'ering its acknowledgements for favours heretofore
received; and ventures to hope for a continuance of that success
which it will be its earnest effort to endeavour to deserve. No

periodical in any branch of literature is more characteristically
represented by those who contribute to its pages ; no journal is
more beautifully embellished — none more carefully constituted
with reference to the treatment of popular and seasonable subjects.
In the course it has so long run, its race will be continued. It
will l<eep a steady pace— ever make play when fitting opportunity
occurs. On the first of every month it will be found at the post,
as its trainer brought it out from the commencement of its career,
sightly to look at, with plenty of good stufl about it — sound wind
and limb — and eager to strain every sinew for the prize of public
approbation.

N.B— Vol. XXXVII., with 1.3 Steel Engravings, is just out, price
16s. 6d., handsomely bound in cloth, and may be had of every
Bookseller in the Kingdom.

Published monthly, price Half-a-Crown, at the " Sporting Review Office", 246, Strand, London ; where all communications for the

Editor, and Works for Reviews, should be addreseed.

Under the Patronage of

and Royal Family
the several Sovereigns

Her Majesty "The Queen,"

of Great Britain,

and Courts of Europe,

AND UNIVERSALLY PREFERRED.

ROWLANDS' MACASSAR OIL

Is universally in high repute for its successful results during the last half century in the GROWTH, RESTORATION, and

IMPROVilMENT of

THE HUMAN HAIR.

It prevents Hair from falling off or tui-ning grey, strengthens weak HAIR, cleanses it from Scurf and DandrifT, and makes it

BEAUTIFDLLY SOS'T, CURLY, and GLOSSY,

In the grmvth of

THE B&ARO, "WHXS&BRS, iiXTB IVIUSTACBZOS

it is unfailing in its stimulative operation. For CHILDREN it is especially recommended as forming the basis of A
BEAUTIFUL HEAD OF HAIR.

Price 3s. 6d. ; 7s. : Family Bottles, equal to four small, 10s. 6d, ; and double that size, 21s.

iii:po»TA:srT cautiow.

To prevent the substitution of Spurious Imitations for the genuine
article by unprincipled shopkeepers, A. R. & Sons here add a small
copy in'outline of their Label(as it appears round the bottle) from th«
burin of Messrs, Peekins, Bacon & Fetch, the eminent engravers,
of London.

Another portion bears the Signature of the Proprietors, in
Red Ink—

" A. EOWLAND AND SONS."

ROWLANDS' KALYDOR,

AN ORZEN-Ta.:^ BOTAn'ZCA& PBSPARA.TZON

FOE IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE COMPLEXION AND SKIN-

It eradicates all REDNESS, TAN, PIMPLES, SPOTS, FRECKLES, and DISCOLORATIONS, and renders

THE SKXSJ SOFT, FAIR, and BXiOOXMCXirGi

It obviates all the effects of Climate on the Skin, whether with reference to cold and inclemency, or intense solar heat'
and affords immediate relief in cases of sunburn, stings of insects, or incidental inflammation. Gentlemen after shaving will
appreciate its softening and ameliorating properties. — Price 4s. 6d. and 8s. 6d. per bottle.

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Kaltdob are on the "Wrapper, and their signature," A. Rowland & Sons," in

red ink, at foot.

A GOOD SET OF TEETH

Ever insures favourable impressions, while their preservation is of the utmost importance to every individual, both as regards
the general health by the proper mastication of food, and the consequent possession of pure and sweet breath.

3

@^,

^fw^m^i

f

Compounded of the choicest and most recherche ingredients of the ORIENTAL HERBAL, and of inestimable value in

PRESERVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE TEETH,

IMPARTING A PEARL.LIKE WHITENESS,

STRENGTHENING THE GUMS,

A nd in rendering

THE BREATH SWEET AND PURE.

CAUTION.— The words Rowlands' Odonto are on the Label, and A. Rowland & Sons, 20, Hatton Garden, on the Govern-
ment Stamp affixed on each box. — Price 23. 9d. per box.

Sold by A. ROWLAND & SON, 20, Hatton Garden, London, and by Chemists and

Perfumers,

•»* BE\(rAR£ Ol* SPVBXOVS ZMXTATIOirS 1 1

1

1

1

— — — —

No. 4, Vol. XIII. 1 APRIL, 1858. [Third Series.

I
1

1
i

THE

i
1

FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

1

ANB

1

1

1

1

MONTHLY JOURNAL

i
i

• TFTE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST.

1

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM,

LONDON :

PUBLISHED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 346, STRAND.

PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.

E0OEB8ON AMD TUXFOED,] [PRINTKSS, 246, 9TBAH1>.

THORLEY^S FOOD FOR CATTLE,

AS USED IN HER MAJESTY'S STABLES,
And also on His Royal Highness the Prince Consort's Farm, Windsor.

IMrOMOTATIfT TO EVEKY MAlf

WHO KEEPS A

THE FIRST AND ONLY PRIZE

EVER AWARDED FOR FOOD FOR CATTLE IN A CONDENSED STATE WAS GIVEN BY

THE CIlE§Hi:»E ACHtlCUIiTUKA.!:. SOCIETY XW 1S5^,
TO JOSEPH THORLEY, ESQ.,

THE INVENTOR AND SOLE PROPRIETOR OF

THORLEY'S FOOD FOR CATTLE !

THIS FOOD is now receiving patronage from all parts of the kingdom, including
His Grace the Duke of Richmond, His Grace the Duke of Athole, the Eai'l of Wilton, the Earl of
Eldon, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Bessborough, the Earl of Aylesford, the Earl of Lisburne, the Earl
Rosslyn, Viscount Strathallan, Viscount Dillon, the Right Hon. Lord Willoughby de Brooke, the Right Hon.
Lord Londesborough, Lord Lurgan, Lord Macdonald, Lord Saltoun, Lord Greenock, Lord Hatherton, Lord
A. Russell, Sir John Cathcart, Bart., Sir John Ribton, Bart, Sir Wm. Payne Galway, Bart., Sir
David Cunynghame, Bart., Sir Montague Cholmely, Bart., Sir John Seymour, Bart., Sir Charles Payne,
Bart., Sir Thos. Erskine, the Hon. D. Astley, the Ven. Archdeacon Freer, H. Drummond, Esq., M.P.,
E. Holland, Esq., M.P., Gerrart Sturt, Esq., M.P., General Wyndhara, Col. Ames, Col. Cartwright, Colonel
C. Hunter, Lieut.-Col. Candley, Lieut. VYilliams, Lieut, and Adjutant Holland, and many others too numerous
to mention.

CoMTert^ tlie coiiiiBioite^t of ^tT^ft^v Into » superior

ProveiMler.

It is requisite you should notice the Inventor's Signature on each package or feed, as inferior sorts are
often substituted.

BINGLEY HALL CATTLE SHOW, BIRMINGHAM,

30th November, 1857.

Class X.— FIRST PRIZE.

FED OM THOMIrEY'S }P001> FOK CATTTI-E.

DEVON STEERS.

See Catalogue, No. 88.— The property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Aylesford.

SECOND PRIZE.

The property of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.

The above are a few of the many Prizes obtained through the use of this invaluable Compound, which ii

adapted for all kinds of Stock, and now in use throughout the world.

Sold in Cases, containing 448 Packages— each Package one feed— at the cost of 56s. per Case j also in

Casks, containing 448 feeds, with measure included, price 50s. per Cask. Carriage paid to any Railway

Station in the United Kingdom.

None are genuine without the Signature being affixed
to each Package or Feed.

inventor and sole proprietor.

Central Depot. -77, NEWGATE STREET, LONDON.

THE

MARK LANE EXPRESS

AND

AaRICULTUHAL JOUEI^AL

IS THE

liAEGEST AND THE LEADING

FARMERS' AND GRAZIERS' NEWSPAPER,

PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY EVENING IN TIME FOR POST.

The object of the Proprietors of the MARK LANE EXPRESS has ever been, to rendorit in everyway the most efficient organ
of the Agricultural Class, to direct and difl'use practical and scientific information of all kinds relatin? to rural affairs, to be a
medium for giving circulation to the Proceedings of tlie Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Highland and Agricultural
Society of Scotland, the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland, and of every Agricultural Society and Farmers'
Club in the Kingdom. AH political and party discussions are carefully avoided, except such as are purely Agricultural; since its
establishment, twenty-six years since, this course has been steadily adhered to, and the result has been, the accession of a
numerous and rapidly-inereasi-ng list of Subscribers, comprising the most influential Agriculturists in the kingdom.

In times when tlie position of the Tenant Farmers lias been one of great difficulty, the MARK LANE EXPRESS has ever
been directed to the advocacy and support of the rights op the Tenant Farmers. In stating this, it is not intended to
lose sight of that noble principle wliich the great Lord Leicester so successfully followed ; viz., that liberal conduct towards the
Te)iant will ever be found to be the most beneficial to the Landlord.

THE MALT TAX.— This is the only Farmer's Paper in London which advocates the Repeal op the Malt Tax.

In authenticity and extent of Market information, tlie Mark Lane Express stands unrivalled. A REVIEW OF THE CORN
TRADE (British and Foreign) fully explains the Causes which occasion the Rise or Fall in Prices, thus affording the Growers
and Speculator some grounds for anticipating the stability or future tendency of Prices.

The Latest Reports of the Corn, Cattle, Provision, Wool, Seed, Hop, Malt, and Commercial Markets, appear with the leading
Country Fairs and Agricultural Meetings. Authentic Weekly Advices are received from all the Important Markets in tlie king-
dom, our Colonial Possessions, as well as all parts of Eutope any America.

Office of Publication and for Advertisements, 246, Strand, London.
May be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen throughout the Kingdom, price Sevenpence, or £1 lOa. 4d. per annum.

ON THE PRESERVATION OF NATURAL MANURES. — A LECTURE
delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Bakewell Farmers' Club, January, 185G ; afterwards at the City
Hall, Perth, by Alexander McDougall, 12mo, price Gd,, sewed.

London : Whittaker & Co., Ave Maria Lane. Manchester : E. Slater.

sanacr moj)aI

patronage*

PERFECT FREEDOM FROM COUGHS IN TEN MINUTES,

AND INSTANT RELIEF AND A RAPID CURE OF

ASTHMA ASTB CONSUMPTION, COUGHS, COI.DS,

AND ALL

Disoi'flei's of tlie lireatli an«l Iiiingr«>

ARE INSURED BY

Cure op a Long-standing Cough.— Glasgow, No. 2, Trongate..." Sir, — Miss Jemima Livingstone,
aged 18 years, residing at the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, was for a long time afflicted with a very severe cough
and irritation of the air passages. Both internal and external medicines were used, but with little effect,
until, as a last resource, Dr. Locoek's Pulmonic Wafers were tried, and we are happy to say with best results.
We may mention, as further recommendation, that the young lady's father is a medical man, and administered
the Wafers to her himself. Your?, &c., J. R. & M. Allen.

The particulars of many hundreds of Cures may be had from every Agent throvghotit the Kingdom.

To Singrei'S aiid PMl»Iie Spealsers they are invaluable, as in a few hours they remove all
hoarseness, and wonderfully increase the power and flexibility of the voice.

Tliey have a pleasant taste. Price is. l|d., 2s. 9d., and lis. per box. Sold by all
Medicine Vendors.

BE'WARE OF IMITATIONS.

It has been discovered that unprincipled persons— Chemists and others — prepare counterfeits of this
valuable remedy. The Public is thtrefore cautioned not to purchase any medicine of the kind
■WITHOUT EXAMIWiarO THE OOVEHaTMEMT STAMir,
which is outside every box ; and seeing that the words

APPEAR IN WHITE LETTERS ON A RED GROUND IN THE SAME,

Without which all are Counterfeits and an Imposition.

HOBEUT AND JOHN HEEYES,

BR AT TON, WESTBURY, WILTS,

BEG to call attention
to their useful Imple-
ment,

REEVES'S

DRY MANURE

DISTRIBUTOR,

which is equal to any for top
drilling with all kinds of man-
ure, and is superior to all o'hers
for putting in Soot.

PRICE £10,

Three Peizes were award-
ed to it last year — at the Bath
and West of England Society,
Newton ; at the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England,
Salisbury ; at the Yorksliire
Society, at York.

" The Dry Manure Distri-
butors furnished one of the
most interesting trials of the
wliole meeting. Who ever has
witnessed tlie effect of hand-
sowing guano on a dry windy ^_^_ _

March day will not refufc the epithet humate, as well as eioiioinicai, to Uiesc inventions. Chambers, Holmes, and Reeves, &t the
descending scale of 20 gs., ^14, ai.u .£10, .we the names and tlie corresponding prices that offer themselves; that of Mr. Reeves, at
the lowest sum, being introduced first to the Society at thismeeling. The machinery of the two dearer ones is most ingenious, and
almost inevitably exact in their steady delivery of the manure, whether damp or powdery. But Mr. Reeves' lower-priced imple-
ment is a positive boon to the labourer as well as the i&Tmer." —Tieport on Trial of Implements at Salisbury Meeting, by C. fV.
Hoskyns.

CHANDLER^S PATENT LIQUID MANURE DRILL,

After the test of Ten years, is still acknowledged to be the most simple and eflBcient.
R. & J. BEEVES have made arrangements with Mr. CH.iMBERS to Manufacture his PATENT LIQUID DROP COULTER, so
Ihat those who prefer the bunching system can now have the most complete Drill that has been yet ottered to the public.

REEVES' PATENT ECONOMICAL DRILLS,

For Drilling all kinds of Artificial Manure with Roots or Grain, in their pure state, without the expensive system of mixing them
with a large quantity of ashes. They will Drill from 2 to 20 Bushels per Acre, and will be found very useful wlien water is too
scarce to use the Liquid Drill, and also on light dosvn land. Prices from id to £14. They gained Two Prizes and a Silver
Wedal last year (being their first year).

REEVES' PATENT HAND DRILL,

For Gardeners, Market Gardeners, and small Occupiers, will Drill or Bunch Onions, Parsnips, Carrots, Peas, Beans, Wheat, or any
other Grain ; will drop Mangel Seed in Bunches at different distanc s, and will be found very useful for persons accustomed to thin
seeding, as they will drop 2 or 3 corns C^nly) in Bunches at 6 inches apart.

Price List and particulars sent post free on application.

BRATTON IRON WORKS, March 27. 1858.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD— SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.
Just published, the 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is., or sent, post-paid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debihty, Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection ;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting Spermatorrhoea, and other urethral discharges,
by Microscopic Examination j to which are added. Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L. CURTIS, Surgeon, 1-5, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till .3, and fi to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1,

REVIEWS OF THE WOUK.

" Curtis on Manhood. — Shilling Edition.— 77ih Thousand.— This is a truly valuable work, and should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years' experience as medical referee in the treatment of nervous debility, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably- written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday Times, 23rd March,
1856.

" Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the souice of those diseases which produce decline in youth or more frequently premature old
age." — Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1866.

Curtis on Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea that can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, 1st Feb., 1851.

" We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Socitty by whom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the lelation of a parent, preceptor, or a clergjman. — Sun, Evening Paper.

Published by the Author; sold also in sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, I'aternoster-row; Hannay, 63,
Oxfoid-street ; Mann, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, " 11, Gieenside-street, Edinburgh; Hetwoop,
Oldhara-street, JManchester ; HoweLl, 6, Chiirch-strect, Liveipool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tyne;
Ashley, Post-Officp, Newbury; Fekkis & Score, Union-street, Bristol; Piehson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Braintree; Thew, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester; LtiRCOCK, Maidstone; Cook, Ipswich ; HtjsCROFT, Bury St.
Edmunds J DoVb, Swiaidon 3 Jbahmy, BrIdeW'Gll Alley, Norwleh; §MITH, Cftmbridg«5j| StATtJBtt, Oxford j|
hnd by all BoekoeDefs mA Chewlsts [n the VnlXaA Kifigrtem.

THE LEADING SPORTING PERIODICAL.

A MONTHLY JOURNAL OP

nm iriumi

IN ALL THEIR VARIETIES.

X

Nineteen ye'^rs apo this worlt was started for the purpose of
giving to the National Sports of tliis country an organ worthy
their importance and popularity. It took tlie field with a corps
of contributors— veterans of experience and skill in the departments
to which they attached themselves. For the first tine the details
of the chase were treated of by masters of hounds; members of
the Jockey Club wrote about the Turf; the most eminent of our
amateur sailors discussed yacliling ; the leash— tlie trigger — all
our rural pasiimes were dealt with by men of acknowledged
authority. Under such auspices its apprenticeship was passed ;
and the public voice has bestowed on it the character of a " good
and faithful ser>ant." In that capacity it discharges the grateful
duly of oft'ering its acknowledgements for favours hrretofore
received; and ventures to hope for a continuance of that success
which it will be its earnest effort to endeavour to deserve. No

Published monthly, price Half-a-Crown, at the " Sporting Review Office", 246, Strand, London

Editor, and Works for Reviews, should be addressed.

periodical in any branch of literature is more characteristically
represented by those who contribute to its pages ; no journal U
more beautifully embellished — none more carefully constituted
with reference to the treatment of popular and seasonable subjecls.
In the course it has so long run, its race will be continued. It
will keep a steady pace - ever make play when fitting opportunity-
occurs. On the first of every month it will be found at the post,
as its trainer brought it out from the commencement of its career,
sightly to look at, with plenty of good stuft about it— sound wind
and limb -and eager to strain every sinew for the prize of public
approbation.

N.B— Vol. XXXVII., with 13 Steel En;favin?8, is just out, price
16s. Gd., handsomely bound in i^loth, and may be had of every
Bookseller in the Kingdom.

where all communications for the

EICHMOND & CHANDLER^S PRIZE
CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINES.

UNDER LETTERS PATENT,

NO. 57 NEW PATENT CHAFF CUTTING
MACHINE, price £3 i5s., delivered at Manchester or
Liverpool.

PRESENT PRICES. £ s. d.

No. 57 ChaflfMachine . . 3 15 0

No. 1 A Machine 4 10 0

No. 3b Machine 7 0 0

Pulley for power extra 0 9 0

Change Wheels, to vary the length, per pair 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 4b Machine 10 0 0

Pulley for power, exira • 0 9 0

Change Wheels, per pair 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 5 Machine 15 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

Change Wheels 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 7 6

No. 1 Improved Corn Crusher 5 5 0

No. 2 Improved Corn Crusher 6 10 0

Pulley for power 0 9 0

No. 3 Improved Corn Crusher 10 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

No. 4 Improved Com Crusher 14 0 0

Pulley for power 0 15 0

Bichmond & Chandler's extensive application of the most ap-
prove'd Steam Machinery in the manufacture of these Imple-
ments, afford increased facilities, together with greater mathe-
matical accuracy in every pirt, obtainable by no other means.

Address,
KICHMOND & GHANDLEH, SALFORD;
flil4l»Ctt EsTABtisJiJJgjr'r,

ESTABLISHED 1812.

TURNIP MANURE. — This valuable
fertilizer has been used for the last twelve
years with great success by most of the eminent Agri-
culturists throughout England, and stands unrivalled
in the loeight. and quality of the bulbs which it pro-
duces; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain
Crops whit;h follow, while Clover is rarely found to
fail after the first application. Some of the crops
produced by this Manure last year weighed upwards
of Thirty Tons per acre. GRASS, BARLEY, CLO-
VER, and WHEAT MANURES ; also BONE,
GUANO, and SUl^ERPHOSPH ATE of LIME,
warranted of the best quality. Apply to —
H. & T. PROCTOR, Cathay, Bristol.

} Birmingham,
Edmonscote, Warwick.
And Saltney, near Chester.
N.B.— A Pamphlet on "MANURES, their PRO-
PERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded oa
receipt of 12 postage stamps.

REMOVAL FROM ARGYLL PLACE.

DR. CULVER WELL'S last New Works.
No. 1.
HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND LONGEVITY;
On Debility, Nervousness, Dyspepsia, and Indiuestion,
with Dietaries for both Sexes, and Analysis of ail Food.
What to eat and drink, and what evils to shun,
To attain the good age of four-score-and-one.
No. 2.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE.
Their Obligations, Happiness, and Disappointments.
Love and other Matches. Infertile Unions, their
causes, &c., &c.

Too late to grieve when husband and wife,

The die is cast, and is cast for life.

No. 3.

THE CASE BOOK,

A Treatise on

SPERMATORRHCEA,

100 Cases, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment, Con-
fessions, Cauterization, Galvanism, &c , &c.
Price Is. each; by Post, Is. 6d.
To be had of all Booksellers, or direct from the Au-
thor's new Residence,
3, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, REGENT
STREET,
where all letters are to be addressed.
Dr. C. may be consulted daily from Eleven till Five ;
Evenings, Seven till Nine. Sundays till One.
I«ra (80ftag«iei» icuii tfee old Istabliihrneatt

COLEMAN'S PATENT PMZE CrLTITATOE.

FOR Spring work this Implement is most effec-
tual and economical, thoroughly breaking up and pulveriz-
ing the surface witliout turning it over, and at one-third the cost
of ploughing.

Its strength, convenience of management, and ease of draught
are unrivalled.

The Public are respectfully reminded that besides a large num-
ber of FIRST PRIZES given by the Royal and other principal
Societies in the Kingdom, the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land, at their Triennial Competition, at Chelmsford, awarded
Coleman's Cultivator TWO FIRST PRIZES, as the best Culti-
vator, and the ONLY FIRST PRIZE FOR PARING.

Manufactured by

COLEMAN & SONS, Chelmsfobd,

Of whom Prices and Testimonials may be obtained post free.

Also,

COLEMAN'S PATENT PRIZE EXPANDING

HARROWS,

AND

COLEMAN'S IMPROVED HANSON'S PATENT
PRIZE POTATO DIGGER,

Of which Implement COLEMAN & SONS are Sole Manufactur-
ing Agents for England and Wales.

In packets, 6 Balls, 3s.— 3 Balls, Is. 9d.

Unequalled for Worms, Swelled Legs, Grease,,
Impaired Appetite, Coughs, Colds, Infiained Ejes, I
&c. Read the opinions of the followinij emiueut
Trainers . —

" Forgetting horses into condition t

" In my opinion they are invali

"Your condition balls are excellent.'
'I have never used so elTlcient aball "— JOUN DAWSOJ?
Prepared by T. TAYliOR,
Veterinary Surgeon, Burtan-ou-Trent,

and Sold by all Druggists.

N.U. — Any geiiUeinaa using the Balls niay
consult the proprietor gratuitously,
either personally or
by letter.

HOLMES AND SONS'
IMPUOYED PRIZE MANURE DISTRIBUTOR

WILL Distribute, in a most perfect manner, either broadcast or in rows, from Two to Twenty
Bushels per acre of any description of Artificial Manure, whether in a moist or dry condition.
For the above Machines Messrs. HOLMES & SONS have received tiio following awards : —

AT SALISBURY, 1857 The Prize

AT SWAFFHAM, 1857 The Pkize .j^fX^^SSSLs^^^®-

AT NEWTON ABBOTT, 1857 The Prize

AT NORWICH, 1856 The Prize

AT CARLISLE, 1855 the Judges Commended If*^/^

AT NORWICH, 1854 The Prize Wx/f

AT BATH, 1854 The Prize

AT GLOUCESTER the Judges Highly Commended,

AT TAUNTON The Prize

AT THE GREAT EXHIBITION;London..No Competition
AT EXETER The Prize

For Prices and Particulars see Ihtjstkated CATALOOrES, which v^ill be sent free by post on application to

HOLMES AND SONS,
PROSPECT PLACE WORKS, NORWICH.

I

^o^^.^-^^^6J^j'^y6'_ '^.ce^ M^ii-euz^J^/H^'/SSS'.

IjndcK.FvllLsk^d iu Rco erjcK & Tusfard..24S Strand.ISSS

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1858.

PLATE I.
MATCHLESS;

A LINCOLN CART STALLION, THE PROPERTY OF MR. T. B. T. HILDYARD, OF FLINTHAM HALL,

NEWARK.

This horse took the first prize of 30 sovs., as the best of all the stallions for agricultural purposes,
at the Salisbury Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. He was entered and shown at
Chelmsford the year previous, but drafted out, as it was said, from not being a good mover. His
action since then has been wonderfully improved, and certainly at Salisbury there was not a horse in
his class at all equal to him in his paces. He stepped as light and lively as a pony. Matchless has,
however, other strong recommendations — a splendid head, neck, and shoulders, good old-fashioned
quarters, and extraordinary size and substance. His legs, perhaps, are not quite so clean as they might
be. But the greatest of all his attractions, to the common run of sight-seers, is a most beautiful mane,
fine in quahty, and extraordinary for its length. As a show horse it certainly gave him a most imposing
appearance ; and as a picturesque noble-looking animal, the Suffolks and other mere utilitarians had
no chance with him.

Matchless, bred by Mr. Haytoe, of Simperingham Fen, near Folkingham, in 1851, is by the King
of the County, out of a Champion mare.

PLATE 11.

THE LATE MR. THOMAS KIRBY, OF YORK.

This well-known dealer and sportsman, whose name has for nearly sixty years been connected with
Enghsh stock, was born at Osbaldwick, near York, in the August of 1770. As he was born and brought
up a Catholic, the parish register contains no entry of his birth, and owing to the lapse of years, he has
forgotten the exact date. From his very boyhood, " the current of his being set to" horses ; and when
he was barely 21, he made his first voyage to Russia in charge of a cargo of them, and entered the ser-
vice of Count Poltrowsky, who had upwards of 100 brood mares in his paddocks. For a long series of
years his life consisted in perpetual Russian voyages, sometimes twice in a summer, and occasionally
with two ship-loads of horses. His two sons as well as himself had once a very narrow escape from
being " washed away in the flood" at St. Petersburgh, when every horse but one in his stable perished,
and that was floated into a sort of garret, from whence its exit was of the most precarious kind. So
great was the favour with which the Grand Dukes regarded him, that one of them entrusted him to
smuggle over some English porter, and he was wont to carry it by a bottle at a time to the palace, when
he went ostensibly to chat with them about horses. On one occasion the cork came out with a rush,
and if the sentinel had not good-naturedly accepted his explanation, as to its being " frisky beer," he
would, as the Grand Duke laughingly told him, have been sent off for a certainty to Siberia, for a
season's wholesome meditation on " Barclay and Perkin's entire."

Orville was the first blood horse he ever purchased, 2,000 gs. being the price, and he proved a most
successful venture. Lottery, whom he sold for £ 1,600, to go to France, was another immense favourite.
Bourbon also came into his hands from Lord George Cavendish, for 1,100 gs., Brutandorf for 500 gs.,
Muley Moloch for 1,500 gs., St. Giles for 1,000 gs. (sold to the Americans for just the same price),
General Chasse for 2,250 gs.. Van Tromp for 2,000 gs., and Lanercost for 3,000 gs. Otterington's price
OLD SERIES.] U . [VOL. XLVIII.— No. 4.

274- THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

was 800 gs., and he put him by for a Tyear, and then finding his form was gone, sold him to Lord
Jersey and Sir John Shelley, in whose stable he broke his thigh. He also purchased Phoenix from
his lordship, and sold him to Mr. Ferguson, of Harker Lodge, near Carlisle; and it was to Lord Jersey
that he eflfected his most successful sale of a yearling by Lottery out of Tambourine for 800 gs. His
prices for yearlings seldom exceeded £200, and he generally sold the produce of his five mares at Don-
caster. In his hey-day he engaged them pretty deeply, but he was very much sickened of breeding for
the turf by the difficulties he encountered in making the vendees pay up the forfeits if the purchases
turned out badly, or the contingencies when they won. Hernandez, whom he sold into France with
Lanercost, was his last blood-sire purchased.

Mr. Kirby died at York of old age, on Sunday the 2Sth of last February. Two sons by his first mar-
riage survive him ; and about fourteen or fifteen years ago he had married the widow of Mr. Sykes, the
well-known trainer. The Post and the Paddock will speak further to the adventures of this old English
worthy, especially in his deahngs with the Emperor of all the Russias.

BARLEY

BY CUTHBEET W. JOHNSON, ESQ., P.R.S.

in this the time of barley sowing, at which we
are again arrived, we can hardly direct our attention
to a more useful agricultural theme. It will be to
our advantage in several ways if we spend an April
evening in such an enquiry. This will be the more
practically useful since there are now several emi-
nent chemists who have lately published the results
of their valuable and most laborious investigations
on the barley plant. These true friends of their
country have examined, not only the produce of
barley grown on the same soil for a series of sea-
sons (both unmanured, and also manured with vari-
ous fertilizers), but they have extended their re-
searches to the varying composition of the seed of
barley produced on different soils. It will, happily
for the better understanding of our subject, be un-
necessary to do more than epitomise the invaluable
matter of reports, which ever and anon almost seem
intended by their cloudy verbiage to test the farmer's
ability in deep diggings.

The reader will, in the paper to which I am about
to refer, find abundant materials of the highest
practical value. He will ever, in commencing such
studies, feel assured that although in the majority
of instances the chemist's labours elucidate the cor-
rectness of long-established practices ; yet in others
they shadow forth new objects for the agricultural
student's cautious trials ; and, in any case, he will not
forget the great truth, that although we have long
been steadily increasing our knowledge of the habits
of barley, yet that there are many questions, with
regard to this plant, that yet remain to be explained
— mysteries, which when hereafter made clear, will
probably give rise to other equally valuable and in-
teresting practical researches.

The growth of barley on the same land for a series
of years is an importaut question, which has for

several years past occupied the attention of Messrs.
J. B, Lawes and Gilbert "Jour. Roy. Ag, So." vol.
xviii, p. 454).

They set apart for these peculiar trials, which
commenced in 1852, about five acres of ground at
Rothamsted, in Hertfordshire. These were divided
into nearly square plots, of about one-fifth of an acre
each. The land had grown clover in 1849, wheat
in 1850, and barley dressed with sulphate of ammonia
in l85l. It was, therefore, as the reporters remark,
"in a somewhat exhausted condition, as far as the
after-growth of grain was concerned, and it was hence
in a suitable state for testing the effects of different
manures on the barley crop." In these trials two
plots, one at either of the experimental land, were
left unmanured, and it is the mean result of these
that is given in the subsequent little tables.

The farm-yard dung employed was from the open
yard, and not from highly-fed animals. The " mixed
alkalies" comprised per acre :

300 lbs. of sulphate of potash.
300 lbs. of sulphate of soda.
lOO lbs. of sulphate of magnesia.

The superphosphate of lime was composed per
acre of

200 lbs. of calcined bone-dust.

150 lbs. of sulphuric acid (sp. grav. 1.7.

The " mixed minerals" consisted of a mixture of
the superphosphate and the " mixed alkalies." The
seed, the Chevalier, was always drilled at the rate
of 2^ bushels per acre in 1852 and lS53, and 7
pecks per acre in 1854-5-6 and '7.

In the following report the produce is given in
bushels and pecks. First, then, the produce of the
soil entirel yunmanured was,

1852. I 1853. I 1854. I 1855. I 1856. I 185/.
27 3i I 26 0 I 35 0 I 33 1 I 14 1 | 29 1
Annual average per acre 27 bushels 3 pecks.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

275

The plots with miaeral manures only yielded as
follows :

1852

1853

1854

1855

1856

1857

Annual average
per acre ....

Mixed

Alkalies.

Bush.

Pecks,

26

0

27

2

36

2

34

3

16

2

32

0

28

3

Superphos-
phateofJjime.

Bush. Pecks.

28
33
40
36
17
33

31

Superphos-
phate and

Mixed
Alkalies.

Bush. Peck
32 3

35
42
37
19
39

34

The plots with nitrogen per acre equal to about
50 lbs. ammonia, with and without direct mineral
manures, yielded as follows :

1852

1853

1854

1855

1856

1857

Annual average per
acre ....

275 lbs. of Nitrate
of Soda.

Bush. Pecks.
0 0

34

49
50

28
47

42

100 lbs. each of
Sulphate and Muri-
ate of
Ammonia.

Bush. Pecks.

36
38
47
44
25
38

38

100 lbs. each

Sulphate and

Muriate of

Ammo' iaaud

" Mixed

Alkalies."

100 lbs. each
Sulphate aud

Muriate of
Ammouiaand

Superphos-
phateofLime.

Bush. Pecks.
38 2
40 0
60 2
47 3
29 0
56 2

45 2

100 lbs. each
of Sulphate
and Muriate
of Ammonia
Superphos-
phate & Mix-
ed Alkalies.

1852

Bush. Pecks.
36 0
36 2
50 0
44 2
28 1
42 1

39 2

Bush. Pecks.
40 3

1853

1854

38 1
60 2

1855

1856

1857

48 1
33 3
57 1

Annual average
per acre ....

46 1

The next question examined by Messrs. Lawes
and Gilbert was the effect produced by doubling the
amount of nitrogen applied in the last-described
series of trials. lOO lbs. per acre of ammonia were
therefore employed in the following experiments,
and with results slven in the next table.

1852

1853

1854

1855

1856

1857

Annual average
per acre .....

I 200 lbs. of I
550 lbs. of Sulphate and |2.000 lbs. of
Nitrate of Muriate of [ R^pe-cake,
Soda. Ammonia.

Bush. Pecks
0 0

53
37
49
42

58

47

Bush. Pecks. Bu«h. Pecks.

44
40
56
48
36
49

2

3

2i

Oi

1

H

46 0

39
39
60
48
36
64

48 0

200 lbs. each

200 lbs. each

200 lbs. each

of Muriate

Sulphate aud

Sulphate and

and Sulphate

Muriate of

Muriate of

of Ammonia,

Ammouiaand

Ammoniaand

Superphos-

" Mixed 1

Superphos-

phate and

Alkalies.

phate of

Mixed Alka-

Lime,

lies.

Bush. Pecks.

Bush. Pecks.

Bush. Pecks.

1852

41 3
41 1
51 2

43 3

42 1
63 1

45 0

1853

44 2

1854

62 3

1855

47 1

50 1

49 2

1856

25 1
49 3

31 2
66 2

37 2

1857

64 3

Annual average

per acre ....

42 3

42 2 1 50 3

2000 lbs. of

2000 lbs. of

2009 lbs. of

Rape-cake &

Rape-cake

Rape-cake

Superphos-

and Mixed

aud Super-

phate, and

Alkalies.

phosphate.

Mixed Alka-
lies.

Bush. Pecks.

Bush. Pecks. Bush. Pecks.

1852

33 2
35 1
56 2

36 2 38 0

1853

36 Of 40 0^

1854

60 2|

60 1

1855

48 31
32 2^
60 1

53 1

51 3

1856

37 Oi 35 1|

1857

62 li 62 1

Annual average

per acre ....

44 z

47 2

48 0

In studying these very valuable results, the far-
mer will not fail to remark the great influence of
different seasons in modifying the profitable results
obtained by different dressings. Our reporters
allude to this, when they observe that from the
pervading influence of season, by which the produce
may be double one year that of another, even
with the same set of conditions supplied by the
farmer, and which moreover, when unfavour-
able, the crop most highly manured suffers most,
it results that the amount of produce obtained for a
given outlay in manure may be only half as much in
some seasons as in others. Then, again, it is evident
that some of these nitrogenous fertilizers were ap-
plied in excessive proportions. The reporters, in-
deed, observe, " The unmanured, and the only mi-
neral manured portions, as a rule, stood up till the
time of cutting. The crops with nitrogen equal to
50 lbs. of ammonia per acre were generally more or
less laid, as were also those grown by farmyard ma-
uaure. Those having nitrogen equal to 100 lbs. or
more of ammonia per acre were invariably laid, aud
in every year excepting in 1857 very much, aud in-
juriously so, the crops being too heavy to bear any
moderate amount of rain about or after the time of
heading." The effect of these manures in influencing
the period of ripening is also a material considera-
tion. The " mixed alkalies" it seems, whether used
alone, or in admixture with nitrogenous manures,
invariably somewhat retarded the ripening. Super-
phosphate of lime, on the contrary, whether used

U 2 -

276

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

alone or iu combiuatiou with other mauures, always
promoted early ripening. The effect, Messrs. Lawes
and Gilbert add, was most striking. So much so,
indeed, that latterly it has been thought desirable to
cut ihe crops at different times, as they came ripe ;
those dressed with superphosphate of lime, or with
farmyard manure, coming to the scythe more than a
week earlier than the others. It will presently be
seen, that the superphosphate had a marked effect
on the quantity of produce also, and especially on
the tendency to corn.

The general conclusions at which these scientific
cultivators arrive, will accord pretty well with those
of the farmers who carefully study the above tabu-
lar statements, viz., 1. That the use of exclusively
mineral manures, and especially those containing
phosphoric acid, annually increase the produce of
barley. 2. That with barley grown continuously on
the same land, nitrogenous manures have a much
more striking effect than mineral manures. 3. That
by the annual supply of nitrogenous manures alone
(nitrate of soda or ammoniacal salts) larger succes-
sive crops, both of corn and straw, were in these ex-
periments obtained, than by the annual use of four-
teen tons of farmyard manure, 4. That within cer-
tain limits, even on the comparatively exhausted soil
emploj^ed iu these experiments, nitrate of soda,
ammoniacal salts, and rapecake, all increase the
produce of barley approximately in proportion to
the amounts of nitrogen they respectively supplied.
5. That the effect of a given amount of nitrogen, if
not excessive, is considerably increased by the ad-
dition of certain mineral manures, especially those
containing phosphates.

The composition of barley (examined chiefly with
regard to its nutritive properties) grown on different
soils, is an interesting branch of the inquiry that has
recently engaged the attention of Professor Anderson
{Trans. High. S'oc, 1858, p. 287). He tells his
reader the objects which he chiefly had in view in
instituting his experiments, when he observes, that
every one who has directed even a limited attention
to agricultural chemistry must be familiar with the
subdivision of the nutritive principles existing in
plants, and required for the food of animals, into
two great groups — of albuminous and respiratory
principles ; the former serving to produce the flesh or
muscular fibre of the animals, and the latter being
partly consumed in the system in the process of
respiration for the purpose of maintaining the animal
heat, and partly accamulated as fat to form a re-
serve against the temporary deprivation of food from
want or disease.

A few of the mean results obtained by Dr.
Anderson will be found iu the succeeding tables : —

The water per cent, in Chevalier barley was, in
the specimens examined —

From a gravelly soil (57 lbs. a bushel) . . 14'52

„ a rich, dark loam' (56 lbs. do.) .. 14"82

,, a red loam (54 lbs. do.) 14'85

,, a sharp gravel (55J lbs. do.) . . . . 12"76

,, a light sandy soil (55 lbs. do.) . . 14-08

The albuminous compounds in the same specimens

of barley were, iu that from

A gravelly soil 7 09

A rich dark loam 6 91

A red loam 10-30

A sharp gravel 8'22

A light sandy soil 8"10

The amount per cent, of respiratory compounds

in these specimens were, in that from

A gravelly soil . . . . .*. . . 66-43

A rich dark loam 66-57

A red loam 65-75

A sharp gravel 70-57

A light sandy soil 65-15

The proportion per cent, of woody fibre and ash
in these were as follows, viz., from

Fibre. Ash.

A gravelly soil . . . . 8-28 3-68

A rich dark loam .. .. 8-57 3-13

A red loam 8 00 MO

A sharp gravel . . • • 5-94 2-51

A light sandy soil .. .. 10-28 2-39

From three varieties of common barley he ob-
tained the following results : — In this table, column
I. gives the composition of a specimen of barley
(weighing 55 J lbs. per bushel), grown on a thin
clay soil ; II. that of the same kind of barley (53^
lbs. per bushel) from a sandy soil.

I. II.

Water 14-60 12-47

Albuminous compounds 8-97 9-39

Respiratory principles . . 64-14 70-33

Fibre IMO 5-25

Ash 1-19 2-56

In comparing the value of barley with other grain,
as Dr. Anderson concludes, it is obvious that it
bears a high nutritive value. In the proportion of
albuminous compounds it stands on a level with
wheat grown in this country, but naturally from the
presence of the husk it is below it in the quantity
of respiratory elements ; the relative importance of
these two groups, however, in a nutritive point of
view, has not yet been clearly decided.

These chemical examinations of the composition
of barley, and of the effect of various artificial dress-
ings, I repeat, will well repay tlie farmers for their
most careful consideration. The reader should, in-
deed, ever banish from his mind any lingering suspi-
cion that science has already achieved all the aid that
can be rendered to the cultivator of the soil. Let us
all rather feel well assured of one certain fact, that
many a mystery in the phenomena of vegetation is
yet to be explained by the chemical philosopher, that
will, perhaps, to the end of time, steadily add to the
power and stimulate the efforts of still more en-
lightened agriculturists than even those of our age.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

277

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the
24th of February : present, Mr. Raymond Barker, Vice-
President, in the Chair; Mr. George Raymond Barker;
Mr. Bosanquet; Dr. Camps; Mr. T. T. Clark; Mr,
Dent, M.P. ; Rev. L. Vernon Harcourt ; ftlr. Fisher
Hobbs ; Rev. James Linton ; Mr. Thomas Scott ; Mr.
Clark Thornhill; and M. de Trehonnais.

Communications were received : 1. From the Earl of
Clarendon, enclosing dispatches from Captain Vansittart
of H.M.S. Magicienne, reporting, as the result of a
search made during a recent visit to the Gallapagos
Islands, that deposits of guano do not exist there in
iufficient quantities for practical purposes. 2, From
Sir Charles Lyell, a collection of works, received by

»• him from various sources, having a bearing more or less
immediate on agricultural science and practice. 3. From
M. Andreas von Kiss, of Pesth, desiring the opinion of
the Council on a question of exhaustion of land under-
let by him to peasants, and of which the Austrian laws
took no cognisance. 4. From Mr. Murray (of Albe-
marle-street), requestiog on the part of the Baron von
Rosenkrone, of Bergen, information for a committee
appointed by the Norwegian Government on the best
system of inclosure to be adopted for estates in that
country.

- The Council adjourned to their monthly meeting on

the 3rd of March.

A Monthly Council was held on Wednesday, the 3rd
of March : present — Lord Berners, President, in the
Chair ; Lord Feversham, Lord Portman, Hon. Colonel
Wood, Hon. W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Sir Watkin
WilliamsWynn, Bt., M.P., Sir Chas. Gould Morgan, Bt.,
Sir Archibald Keppel Macdonald, Bart., Mr. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Barnett, Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Brandreth,
< Mr. Caldwell, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Druce, Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr, James
Howard, Mr. Hudson (Castleacre), Mr. Jonas, Mr,
Lawrence, Mr. Millward, Mr. Paget, M.P., Mr. Pain,
Mr. Shuttleworth, Professor Simonds, Mr. Thompson,
Mr. Torr, Mr. Vyner, and Mr. Jonas Webb.

Thomas Mills, Esq., of Tolmers, Hertfordshire, was
elected a Governor of the Society.

The following new members were elected : —
Body, Kichard Barnard, Hyde End, Shirfield, Reading.
Bromley, James, Cockerham, Lancaster.
Buckworth, Theophilua Russell, Cochley-clay Hall, Swaffham,

Norfolk.
Cotton, Lt.-Col. Hon. Wellington H. S., Cherry Hill, Malpas.
Davies, Robert Craddock (Banker), 187, Shoreditch, London.
Fanton, Edmund, Hill Farm, TorringtoD, Devon.
Hagen, Jacob, Roplay, Alresford, Hampshire.
Hall, Thomas, Duke's Oak, Brereton, Congleton.
Hodge, Henry, St. Levau, Penzance, Cornwall.
Lee, Thomas, Brown Edge, Congleton, Cheshire.
Lichfield, Earl of, Shugborough, Staffordshire.
Perry, Sir Thomas Erskine, Bart., West Court, Berkshire.
Simonds, Thomas, Marske, Redcar, Yorkshire.
Seals, Charles William, Leigh-Delamere, Chippenham.
Smith, John, of Sevenhampton, Gloucestershire.
Starmer, Charles, Hogsthorpe Rectory, Alford, Lincolnshire.
Taylor, William, Pool House, Groby, Leicestershire.
Walker, James, Bigbrook Hall, Kidlington, Oxon.
Watney, Drniel, Reigate, Surrey.
Wheeler, E., Kyrewood House, Tenbury, Gloucestershire,

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented the monthly report on

the accounts ; from which it appeared that the current
cash'balance in the hands of the bankers was ^"'612.

Journal. — Mr. Thompson, Chairman of the Journal
Committee, reported recommendations : (1.) That
Mr. Miles's article in the last Journal on horse- shoeing
should be reprinted in a separate form, and sold at 6d.
each copy to the public, and at the rate of 2s. 6d. per
dozen to members of the Society. (2.) That a
bound copy of the Journal should be presented to the
library of the Harpenden Laboratory, in acknowledg-
ment of the numerous and valuable contributions made
by Mr. Lawes to the Society's Journal, and of the emi-
nent services conferred by him on British Agriculture.
On the motion of Mr. Jonas, seconded by Mr. Torr,
the discussion of the questions of the amount of salary
to be given to a paid editor of the Journal, and the
person or persons who should be appointed to discharge
the duties of that office, was postponed till the next
monthly meeting.

Lectures on Milk.— Mr. Raymond Barker, Chair-
man of the Veterinary Committee, reported that Prof.
Simonds, the Veterinary Inspector of the Society, had
stated to the committee that his paper for the next
Journal, embodying the substance of his lectures de-
livered before the members on the Anatomy and Physi-
ology of Milk-secretion, was far advanced towards
completion, and would be delivered to the Journal
Committee by the 15th of next month.

Prize Essays. — Numerous essays and reports,
competing for the prizes offered this year by the Society,
were received.

Trustee. — On the motion of Mr, Fisher Hobbs,
seconded by Mr. Milward, Mr. Thompson, of Kirby
Hall, and Chairman of the Journal Committee, was
unanimously elected one of the trustees of the Society,
to supply the vacancy created by the decease of Earl
Spencer.

Members of Council.— On the motion of Mr.
Milward, seconded by Mr. Torr, Mr. Humberston, of
Mollington, and Mayor of Chester, was unanimously
elected one of the general Members of Council, to sup-
ply the vacancy created by the decease of Mr. Simpson ;
and on the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by
the Hon. Colonel Hood, Mr. Francis Sherborne, of
Bedfont, Middlesex, was elected one of the general
Members of Council, to supply the vacancy created by
the decease of Mr. Stephen Mills.

Chester Meeting. — Lord Portman, Chairman of
the General Chester Committee, reported recommenda-
tions on the acceptance of Mr. Manning's contract for
the works at Chester, and of the Mayor of Chester's
arrangements for a dinner for 500 persons in the Music
Hall ; also on the accommodation of the Judges, and
the sale of substantial refreshments at a cheap rate to
the labouring classes during the period of the meeting.
The Committee also recommended that a Special Com-
mittee should be appointed to report, before the selection
of the place of meeting for next year, the best arrange-
ments to be made in reference generally to the show-
yard works.

On the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by
Mr. Paine, a Special Committee of Show-yard Works
was appointed.

Mr. Barnett's suggestion that application should be
made for the refusal of extra land, should such be re-
quired, for the trial of the steam-cultivators at Chester,
was adopted.

278

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Mr. Hudson (of Castleacre) suggested that the general
question of the Society's purchasing a suitable pavilion,
to be retained as its own property, for the purpose of
the great dinner of the Society at its successive country
meetings, should be referred to the special conamittee
on show-yard works.

Additional Special Prizes offered by the Chester
Local Committee were accepted, and ordered to be
included in the Prize-sheets of the Society.

On the motion of Mr. Jonas, seconded by Lord
Feversham, Mr. Milward, of Thurgarton Priory, was
unanimously elected one of the stewards of the cattle-
yard at the country meetings of the Society.

On the motion of Lord Portman, seconded by Lord
Feversham, it was decided that the Stewards of the
Stock-yard be requested to report to the Council, at
a Special Council to be held as soon as possible after
the entry of stock, the number of Judges required for
stock.

IMetrgpolitan Meeting.- — On the motion of Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, seconded by Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the
Council decided that it was desirable that the Society
should hold a Metropolitan Show, provided a suitable
site could be obtained ; and on the motion of Lord
Portman, seconded by Lord Feversham, that the Show
should not be held until after the year 1860, when the
circuit of districts for the country meetings of the
Society will have been completed, but in the first year
afterwards that might be found practicable. The ar-
rangements connected with this subject were referred to
the Metropolitan Show Committee.

Dates of Entry. — Lord Feversham adverted to a
misprint in the last part of the Journal, which might
mislead persons who were not aware of the standing
dates at which entries had for many years been made
for the shows at the country meetings. It occurred in
the last page of the appendix, where, under the head of
" Dates of Entry," Live Stock had been misprinted for
Implements.

Card of Meetings, and Admission of Re-
porters.— The Council did not adopt Mr. Frere's
suggestion for a " Card of Meetings/' and they de-
clined to grant Mr. Morton's application, on the behalf
of the Proprietors of the Gardener' s Chronicle, for
the admission of Reporters.

Steam Cultivator. — A lithographed circular ad-
dressed to the Council, and requiring special informa-
tion on the subject of the Society's prize for a Steam
Cultivator, was laid on the table ; and the Council
ordered that Mr. CoUinson Hall, Mr. Fowler, Mr.
Burrell, and Mr. Williams, by whom it was signed,
should be referred to the printed rules for trial, to
which the Council would adhere.

The Council adjourned to their weekly meeting, on
March 10.

A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the
10th of March ; present : Mr. Raymond Barker,
V. P. (in the chair), Mr. Dod, M.P., Mr. Gatty, Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, Rev. L. Vernon Harcoutt, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Allen Ransome, Mr. Thomas Scott,
Mr. P. Simpson, Professor Simonds, and Mr. George
Wood.

Mr. Bailey Denton made an application in reference
to his intended draining operations abroad. — Mr.
Eddleston alleged his discovery of a cure for Pleuro-
pneumonia and Potato disease, and his willingness to
communicate it to the Council under certain terms of
remuneration. — Mr. Spencer Trower, of Stansteadbury,
presented a foetal foal, 46 days in embryo, taken from a
mare 21 years old (a specimen which Professor Simonds

considered to be interesting as showing the early de-
velopment of the foetus). — The Committee of Council
on Education presented copies of an Almanac prepared
by the Science and Art department. The Rt. Hon. T.
F. Kennedy presented a copy of Mr. Spence's work on
the practical consideration of the Coal, Smoke, and
Sewage questions.

Adjourned to March 17.

A Weekly Council was held on the 17th of March ;
present. Lord Berners (President) in the chair; Mr.
Alcock, M.P.,Mr. Fuller Baines, Mr. Raymond Barker,
Mr. Body, Mr. Caird, M.P., Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr.
Holland, M.P., Mr. Langston, M.P., Mr. Majendie,
Mr. T. Scott, Mr. Vyner, Mr. Burch Western, and Mr.
Sutton Western, M.P.

Communications were received — 1. From Mr. Stal-
lard, of Redmarley, Gloucestershire, suggesting a prize
to be offered by the Society, for the best-constructed
moveable shade for sheep during the hot months of the
year, especially on the red warm sandy soils, for the
purpose not only of comfort to the animals themselves,
but of preventing their damaging the under part of
fences, and their losing flesh during the period of hot
weather. The President had fou nd simple awnings con-
structed of four upright poles, open at the sides, but
covered at the top with faggots or brushwood, answer
the purpose very well. 2. From Mr. Alcock, MP.,
suggesting that the Society should offer a prize of £100
for the largest amount in value of agricultural produce
(serving as food for man or beast), in one year, from a
single acre of land, provided a fair profit be shown by
the cultivator ; the application for the prize to be ac-
companied by a detailed account of the cost, value of the
crop, and mode of cultivation, and notice given to the
Secretary by any person intending to compete. — These
communications were referred to the Journal Committee.

Adjourned to March 24.

NOVEL APPLICATION OF HORSE-POWER.— >•

The Montrose Standard directs attention to the " perform-
ance of a new method of applying horse-power to drive
machinery, which Major Rennie Tailyour, of Borrowfield,
has introduced at his steading at Newmanswalls. The
apparatus, which is very simple in its design, differs en-
tirely from the mode hitherto in use. Instead of moving
round in a circle, and drawing the end of a lever attached
to an upright shaft, the horse remains stationary, fastened
in a stall, and the flooring on which he stands passes back-
wards under him, as he appears to step forward. The
flooring consists of a series of stout hoards, lying across the
stall, and resting on and made fast to two endless chains
stretched round a couple of drums, one at the head and the
other at the foot of the stall, thus forming, as it were, a
iirm but flexible belt, on the upper surface of which, as on
a moveable floor, the horse stands. The drum at the head
of the stall being somewhat more elevated than at the foot,
this moveable floor is slightly inclined ; and the weight of
the horse causes it to descend towards the lower drum,
carrying the horse backward along with it. As, however,
the halter by which he is tied in the stall obliges the horse
to maintain his position, he is compelled to step forward
continuously as the floor recedes under him ; and the revo-
lution of the drums thus produced drives whatever ma-
chinery it is intended to propel. At Newmanswalls it is
successfully applied to driving a thrashing machine, a
chaff-cutter, and a machine for bruising oats. No driving
or watching is required ; and we wei'e informed that a
horse might work at this species of treadmill without dis-
tress or latigue for eight hours." [The practice is common
throughout the United States and Canada. In fact, the
wood at every minor railway station is sawn in this
manner.]

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

379

THE AGRICULTURE OF FRANCE.

At the height of what might have been so delicate a
crisis, it becomes us to be especially careful as to what
we say of our neighbours. With the notoriety of the
Fleet-stx'eet Forum byway of a warning, we should be
more than usually nice in our parts of speech. There
should not be a phrase to quarrel with, or even a word
to cavil at. It is difficult, then, to imagine an orator
vehement in his denunciation of what is going on over
the other side of the Channel — how the hijiher classes
in France are bought and sold with honours — how the
monied men are rotten to the core — how the improve-
ments in Paris are made at an un'air expense to the
country — how those who would do good have no
power — and so on. And yet it has been our fate to

^ hear lately a great deal in this strain ; not, how-
ever, at a gin-and-water parliament in the City, nor
from the over-excited aspirant of a debating club. On
the contrary, no less august a body than the Society of
Arts gave its countenance to the occasion. Further
than this, the reader has only to associate the staid de-
corum of its discussion-room with the wild Irishman or
headlong patriot who rejoiced in so unexpected an op-
portunity of having his " fliug."

This would make the offence complete ; but luckily
the Society is saved the more serious part of the charge.

k It is no wild Irishman who talks like this; no ferocious

CuiFey bound on re-organizing, not merely his own
country, but all the world over. For the very reverse,
take a plump, really contented-looking gentleman,
who speaks with an accent so decidedly foreign that it
is difficult to follow him — who announces himself as a
landed proprieter in Normandy — and who, in fact, is a
Frenchman, just giving his opinion on the political
economy of his own country. The Society of Arts is
inexpressibly relieved, and the "reading" proceeds
with far more equanimity than had Brian Boru or

^ some home-bred Hampden been in possession of the
chair.

Strangely enough, the text-word of this address was
Agriculture. Now if there is one thing more than
another that we Englishmen should be inclined to
regard with a feeling of satisfaction, it is the effort
France has lately been making in this way. If there
be any one cause that has induced more than another
to kindly intercommunication between the two coun-
tries, it has assuredly been this desire to improve the
cultivation of France. The international shows are still
fresh upon our recollections. The manner in which
the English were received, and the way in which they
endeavoured to return the compliment — the individual
courtesies of the Emperor to men distinguished amongst
us in the pursuit — His evident sympathy with the art —
the prices he gives for stock — the example he is setting
in farming — when we come to reflect on all these re-
cent manifestations, one might suppose a glance over
the agriculture of France would surely by this time
turn to the sunny side of the picture.

Stranger even still, perhaps, there was no one,
who by his antecedents stood better recommended
to read a paper on French farming than the in-
troducer of this subject. One of the first points in his
favour was that he waswell known to English farmers;
another, that he had a natural taste for the occupation;
and, a third, that he is now pursuing it in France.
Monsieur Trehonnais was just the man to have made
a practical comparison between the cultivation of the
two countries. With his intimate knowledge of either.

it should have been his peculiar province to have
directed the excellence of ours to the wants of his own
system. Unfortunately he did not dwell enough upon
this very essential matter. The first part of a long
address was devoted to the agriculture of France,
traced as far as three hundred years back, and of course
dependent upon the authorities of those times. The
second section, which touched more upon the present
condition of the country, partook rather of an essay
upon political economy than one directly referring to
agriculure. In fact, the subject itself was little more
than incidentally touched on, and what was said of it
was tinged with something very like, utter despondency.

According to Monsieur Trehonnafs, the larming of
France is asbad as it possibly can be — worse than it
was three hundred years ago. This would appear to
be mainly attributable to two grand causes — want of
labour, and want of capital. France, be it remembered,
is essentially a military nation ; and the continual drain
of able-bodied men must of course tell upon the culti-
vation of the country. The two arts never yet
flourished together. Monsieur Trehonnais further at-
tributes this scarcity to what he considers the present
injudicious centralization in towns. The embellish-
ments of Paris, for example, are made at the expense
of agriculture. The 300,000 additional inhabitants of
a few years chiefly consist of mechanics and labourers
removed from the country. The want of capital na-
turally follows. He speaks of the amount of treasure
lavished on the city — the disproportionate expenditure
for public works in Paris compared with the whole of
France. The chief cause of this want of means for im-
proving the land — at least, the one generally received
as such amongst us— he will not admit. He believes
the evil influence consequent on the division of property
to be more apparent than real. At the same time he
allows that share for share does take place : the daugh-
ters receiving an equivalent in money, and the land re-
maining with the son. Under such a system, it is
almost impossible to imagine anything but the soil being
continually mortgaged with these "equivalents," and
left without a franc for its own improvement. In this
country no man now does so badly as the one who just
hangs on to his own bit of land. With the small oc-
cupier, either owner or tenant, no great progress can be
attained ; and France is overrun with these small hold-
ings. Monsieur Trehonnais thinks it only right they
should be thus limited in accordance with the means of
the people. He must remember, however, that nothing
can be done without capital, while the greatest bar to its
use is the perpetuation of these little properties. Men
in such a position can never command it. If we needed
any illustration of this, we have only to look to Ireland
as it was, and as it is. It is hard to suppose that the
agriculture of France can be materially advanced
without some more decided action of the law of pri-
mogeniture.

Monsieur Trehonnais himself unintentionally sup-
ports this view of the case. He will have everything
depend upon individual exertion — a sound conclusion
enough, although he rather over-impresses it. It strikes
but harshly to hear the recent efforts of the Emperor
characterized as worse than useless :— " But, I may be
asked, has the French Government done nothing to
revive agriculture? There is a Minister of Agricul-
ture; there is a large and influential staff of agricultu-
ral inspectors ; there are innumerable Governrnent

280

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

model farms, agricultural colleges, breeding establish-
ments, where tlie best English cattle are kept ; there
are shows, both local and general ; there have even
been some called universal and international. We
have heard of a vote of £4,000,000 sterling for drain-
age ; there is a bank of credit fonder; very large
sums of money are ppent from the consolidated funds
and from local resources, in liberal prizes and encou-
ragement. Surely all these must have exerted a con-
siderable influence upon French agriculture, and given
an extraordinary impetus to its progress."

Surely, at any rate, say his hearers, the effort is a
noble one ; and if such encouragement does not effect
sometldng, it ought to. But what says Monsieur ? He
answers us with a very terrible simile : —

"We have all heard of — and some of my audience,
perhaps, have seen — a strange and somewhat awful ex-
periment performed by means of a galvanic pile upon a
corpse. A wire is put in communication with the
spinal marrow, and life, movement, and action are re-
stored to the muscles ; the corpse will stand erect, open
its eyes, move its arms and legs; its livid lips will
quiver as if they were going to speak, and to all appear-
ances death has been conquered, and the corpse lives :
but only interrupt the mysterious current from the pile,
and the lustre of the eyes will vanish, the arm will
fall inert, the jaw will hang, the eyelids will close, and
the ghastly corpse will fall to the ground, once more a
helpless mass, on the verge of decomposition. In like
manner the action of the French Government props up
a show of activity, a show of vitality, in the French
agricultural interest ; but it exists only on the surface.

Who are those who exhibit at the shows ? They are only
a few amateur fancy farmers ; and the specimens they
exhibit very often constitute the totality of the stock
they have on their farm, and are by no means a sample
of the agriculture of their districts. The farmers, with
very few exceptions, are not only not exhibitors, but
not even visitors. The schools have been productive
of very little good. As farms, they have been lamenta-
ble failures, and the peasants point to them as instances
of the folly of modern ideas; in fact tliey do not pay,
and as model farms they ought to pay."

And so on. But Monsieur Trehonnais should bear
in mind that a whole people do not take to a business
like this on the instant. It was some years, even, be-
fore our own great agricultural show came to be ap-
preciated, and for many it had to bear up against
all kinds of abuse and ridicule. We really believe that,
whatever the Emperor may have done for France in
other ways, his laudable attempts to advance the agri-
culture of the country have been both judicious and
effective. We may — indeed we must, wait for such a
result; but it will come nevertheless.

We could wish to have concurred more fully with the
tone of this paper. Somehow or other, however, it
was scarcely suited to an English taste, and there was
not a speaker who followed Monsieur Trehonnais but
that dissented from his deductions and opinions. As
these were chiefly friends of his own, this expression of
feeling is the more remarkable. The last tew years
have given many the opportunity of seeing something
of French agriculture, as well as of what the Emperor
1 is doing for it.

THE GAME LAWS.

INJUKIOUS EFFECTS OF UNDUE PRESERVATION OF GAME ON OUR HOME SUPPLIES.

At a recent meeting of the Milborne St. Andrew Farmers'
Club, Mr, Richards opened a discussion on this subject. Mr.
H. Fookes in the chair.

Mr. Richards proceeded — Although the circumstance of
my hringini^ before you the subject for our discussion this
evening originated from a passing joke, yet permit me to
say that I consider it a very grave and important subject, and
one which deserves our most serious consideration. I say then,
gentlemen, it is au important subject — and why ? My answer
is, because it involves the question of a most serious loss to the
country at large, and a perfectly ruinous one to individuals.
You who know what quantities of agricultural produce are
anriually destroyed by rabbits and hares, will not be surprised
to hear me say that my opinion is, it would be possible to show
that the preservation of game lessens our home produce to
nearly the extent of our importations. I would not have
you understand me to say that food to this amount is eaten by
rabbits and hares, hut that our produce is lessened in one way
and another to this extent. I would now proceed to show in
what way the preservation of rabbits, hares, and game gene-
rally may be said to lessen our produce; to consider the effect,
direct and indirect, to individuals, and to the public ; and to
suggest a means by which an equal amount of sport would be
afforded, without the objectionable consequences which now
exist in many cases. First, then, in what way is agricultural
produce bo lessened by the preservation of game ? And here
I may be met with the objection that rabbits are not game,
and therefore it is unfair to consider the damage done by them
under this head. To this I would aaswer that, in preserving
game, the increase of rabbits is almost a certain consequence ;
and although they may not, strictly speaking, constitute game,
yet to kill them is an offence punishable under the game laws,
and an act which, on the part of a tenant, would displease a
game-preserving landlord. It may be said — "Why, it will
only take so much to keep a rabbit, and so much a hare, and
therefore the consumption cannot be so great." But you do

not need to be told by me that it is a case which admits of no
such rule of calculation. Could farmers by any means confine
these animals, cause them to feed where they would choose,
and make them eat their way clean as they go, then it may be
possible to arrive at something like a correct estimate of the
value of keep. But this you know to be impossible. What,
then, are the facts ? Take first the swede crop, which, as you
are aware, is raised at a heavy outlay, and which, probably,
the grower intends as a provision for his sheep in the spring,
and on which he may be solely dependent for food at that
period. What, then, are his disappointment, inconvenience, and
loss, when he finds that instead of twenty tons per acre which
he had on his land in November, he has, in the mouth of March,
not more than ten ? and, probably, of the ten tons lost, not
more than two or three have been eaten, or even less than this,
as you well know that when turnips are bitten they decay, and,
for one ton actually consumed, five, or even more, may rot in
the ground. And now, gentlemen, how shall we estimate the
loss arising from such destruction ? The answer of some may
be, " Why, you lose so many tons of swedes, the market value
of which is so much." That I admit is your first direct loss;
but, where a flock of sheep is kept which have to be fed on thftt
farm, who shall say what the loss may be on that flock ? And
this is only a mere beginning of injuries ; for, if you have but
one-half the amount of keep to feed on your land, you leave
on that land only one-half the quantity of manure which
would have been left had you fed your entire crop. I need
scarcely ask you what will be the effect on your next crop ?
Where hares and rabbits have eaten swedes they will also visit
barley ; and, as by the loss of bo large a portion of your turnip
crop you have been unable to leave much manure, your corn
crop grows sparingly, and the consequence is that it requires
a large breadth to furnish food for these nightly visitors ; and
at harvest you may make up your mind to be content with, it
may be, less than half the crop that you would have had but
for the ravages of these vermin. I do not intend to attempt

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

281

to trace these effects to their end, but I cannot stop yet. I
would next inquire, what are the results of a deficient corn
crop ? Not only are you deprived of your fair returns from
this branch of your produce, but the amount of straw is also
lessened ; consequently you have not the quantity to convert into
manure to return to your land again, which you ought to have,
and your future crops must suffer. Some may say one good arises
from a light crop of barley, which is, that your clover and grasses
do better. In some measure this may be true ; but, remember,
before you reap much benefit from this crop you have to pass
through a winter ; and I would inquire what is your experience
of the effect of incessant close feeding through a winter on a
clover crop ? I venture to assert that no crop, whether sain-
foin, red clover, or any other description of clover, is proof
against the continual feeding of a lar^^e stock of hares and
rabbits, and that consequently the destruction of your clover
crop is as certain as that of your com crop. Your laud, in its
turn, comes to wheat, aud this being an autumu-sown crop
gives a long period, at a time when food is scarce, for game to
feed on it. Aud here, too, as you well know, if too closely fed,
its destruction is certain ; and if not really killed, is so checked
by repeated bleeding, that it will not grow until a late period
in the spring ; aud the consequence is that you get scarcely
" any corn in your straw, and, what little you have, of most in-

ferior quality. Rabbits, as you are aware, feed on and keep
down a certain breadth, whereby the injury is perceptible at a
glance; whereas hares cut roads in all directions through corn,
leaving those roads completely covered with ears cf corn ; and
therefore, unless a close inspection is made, it would a'most
pass uLobserved, but although the damage is less apparent, it
is, I believe, greater in amount. You are aware, gentlemen,
that all I undertook to do was merely to launch the subject
for you, in order that the various members may have an op-
portunity to express their opinions, and I think what I have
said is sufficient for that purpose, as well as to show that the
actual destruction by hares and rabbits is very considerable.
But it is not to this alone that I attribute the deficiency on
our home produce. Consider the many thousands of acres of
useful land at this time made available for nothing but for the
preservation of gaoie. Look, again, at the additional thou-
sands which, although not actually incumbered and forming
preserves, are but very imperfectly cultivated from their con-
tiguity to game preserves. Consider, then, the increased
amount which may be grown were all these lands well culti-
vated and uoue of the produce consumed, aud say whether
you do not think that England may be made to feed her own
I population ? Next, then, as to the effects of this destruction.

To the individual who suffers the direct loss it is most ruinous.
No consideration of rent can compensate for it, and I believe
it would not be difficult to trace to this cause the ruin of many
a man of capital. There is a maxim, not unfrequently quoted,
that " The man who makes two blades grow where only one grew
heretofore, isabenefactorto his country." May it not with equal
truth be said that he who imposes an obstacle to the full deve-
lopment of the resources of our soil is an enemy to his country ?
It appears to me that there can be no more genuine source of
national wealth than the produce of our soil, particularly as it
furnishes the chief necessaries of life ; and whether the food
for our population be raised on our own soil, or whether a large
proportion be purchased in foreign countries, at a cost of many
millions sterling p;r annum, is a question of no small amount
to the country at large. I think the farmers of England may
say — " Allow us fair scope for the application of our capital,
our skill, and our energies, and you shall have little occasion
to go to foreign shores for human food." Are we, then, to
curtail the rights of our aristocracy to their sports ? I would
be the last man to make such a proposition, and I am quite
sure there are none among yon who would not be pleased to
show your landlord and his friends a fair amount of sport ;
aud I think this could be done without the present system of
game preserviog, aud at a much less cost to the landlord. I
should hope there is enough of principle among the agricul-
turists of the present day, to entitle them to a little confidence
from the owners ; and I would say, make every tenant keeper
over his own farm ; give him at least an unrestricted right to
kill rabbits and hares, and you shall find an equal, if not an
increased amount of legitimate and fair aport ; for every far-
mer would feel a pride in showing his landlord and his friends
good sport ; he would take an interest in the preservation of
game, whilst he would have it in his power to protect himself
from the injuries of the rabbits and hares. He would

overlook a little damage done by hares rather than not have
enough of them to afford a fair amount of spoit. We all
know the difference between a voluntary and a compulsory loss;
and whilst a man would bear cheerfully with the one, he would
feel the other to he a gross injustice. Give a man an interest
in the game, and he at once feels responsible for its preserva-
tion, and becomes as jealous over it as over his own stock. He
would discountenance poaching, and thereby prevent breaches
of the law, which sometimes lead to more serious crime.
No man has the same influence with the labourer as the
master, and no man so likely to know his habits and character;
and who cau doubt that when a man is suffering severe losses
by game, and dares not defend himself against them, nor in
any degree participate in the sport of destroying it, he will
sometimes shut his eyes to acts of poaching, and that, too,
without feeling that he is really countenancing a breach of the
law ? Gentlemen, 1 feel I have occupied a full share of your
time, although I have but feebly and imperfectly discharged
the duty I undertook. Having been bred a practical farmer,
my education and early associations have not fitted me either
for an author or an orator ; but of this you may rest assured,
that the little expeiience I have gained by my intercourse with
the world is ever at your service, for I feel that we are linked
together by bonds of no common order, our object being not
our individual benefit, but the common good of all. When I
have heard the remarks of the members present, aud should I
find their views accord with mine, I shall be prepared to sub-
mit a resolution to the meeting.

Mr. DowDEN said, although he agreed with Mr. Richards'
arguments, he was happy to say he did not suffer from an ex-
cess of the game nuisance at the present time. The evil had
been put down to a great extent, as he was at liberty to kill
hares, rabbits, &c., on his farm. He, however, remembered
the time when he could have shot one hundred and fifty couple
of rabbits iu one day. This species of game he regarded as
more destructive than any other ; as, wherever they assembled
in numbers, they poisoned the soil, and ruined everything
that came after them;

The Chairman (Mr. H. Fookes) could not agree with Mr.
Richards as to the loss inflicted by the preservation of game
iu England. No doubt, however, rabbits did a great deal of
mischief to the crops and herbage. He considered that the
farmer was a better preserver of game than the gamekeeper ;
for the privilege to shoot gave him as much interest iu pre-
serving it as any other man. He had not much confidence in
gamekeepers generally, though there might be some respect-
able men amongst them.

A conversation took place respecting the means adopted to
snare rabbits by traps, so as not to hazard the lives of other
game. The Chairman expressed an opinion that this sine qua
non was altogether delusive, and said that the same trap which
caught rabbits could snare all other game.

Mr. Richards, in reply, said he thought more members
of the club would have expressed their opinions upon the sub-
ject. With regard to the Chairman's comment on his remark
as to the quantity of produce consumed in England by game,
he would reply that the damage done in this county was less
than in any other. In other counties the damage was infinitely
greater ; the game being more strictly preserved. In many
instances also it was deemed disrespectful for a tenant to make
complaint to his landlord against a gamekeeper, and the con-
sequence was that there were no greater poachers anywliere
than gamekeepers. Mr. Richards then submitted the follow-
ing resolution to the approval of the club : Resolved — " That
it is the opinion of this club, that tiie manner in which game
is preserved iu some districts is most objectionable, inasmuch
as it impedes the advancement of agriculture, subjects the
tenant farmer to serious losses aud inconvenience, and in many
cases is the cause of disagreement and ill-feeling between land-
lord and tenant. And whilst we do not wish a repeal of the
game laws, or in any way to infringe the rights of property,
we consider that if tenants were allowed the right of sporting
over their own farms, to the extent of killing hares and rabbits,
they would insure to the landlord an equal amount of sport
to that which he now enjoys, and in most cases the chief
cause of complaint would be removed."

The Chairman said he fully coincided with the re-
solution, and on being put to the meeting, it was carried
unanimously.

Mr. RoBT. Fookes moved, and Mr. Dale seconded, a
vote of thanks to .Mr. Richards.

282

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

MEETING OF HOP-PLANTERS FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DUTY.

Oa Friday, March 18, a large and highly iufluential meeting
of hop-planters and others was held at the Sussex Hotel, Tiin-
bridge Wells, for the purpose of promoting the repeal of the
excise duty on hops. There were between 300 and 400 pre-
sent.

On the motion of Mr. Moses Body, chairman of the com-
mittee, Mr. Rutley (Wrotham) was called to preside.

The Chairman said it would be his first duty to inform
them that the meeting had been convened by bills drawn up
by the committee appointed at the Robertsbriiige meeting. As
to the object the society had in view, he could only repeat the
advice which he gave the planters at the Robertsbridge meet-
ing, namely, that if they wished to secure the public attention
and interest in their cause, they must proceed boldly upon a
broad principle, and persevere consistently iu one course. It
was a matter of very great congratulation that so many per-
sons bad assembled. He took the circumstance as unmis-
takable evidence of the wide-spread depression — he might
say distress, which they saw around them, and which had
aroused them to public action. If he understood the objects
of the meeting aright, it was not, however, merely to assert
their distress and proclaim their losses, but to state publicly
that they believed themselves to be unjustly subjected to a
heavy and butthensome duty, and to devise the best possible
means to get rid of it— to assert that the hop duty in its
apportionment was unjust and unequal as a tax. There was
no other tax like it upon any industrious class wliatever in the
country. He was well aware, however, and he did not wish to
ignore it, that there were even hop-growers who would prefer
that the duty should remain as it was, rather than that it should
be repealed. That desire arose from the circumstance that
those growers had many peculiar advantages of soil and situa-
tion, and did not feel the pressure to the extent that the majority
of growers now experienced. That was the reason why they
found those persons were in a position to pay the duty. But
he could not consider the mere fact of one particular set of
planters in a certain district desiring to maintsiin the duty was
any argument in its favour ; indeed, he should rather say no
further proof was necessary that the duty was unjust and un-
equal, because one set of men were anxious for its continuance,
whils the majority were oppressed by it, and wished for its
repeal. The persons who were anxious that things should
remain as they were, asserted that hop-growing always had
been, and alwajs would be, a lottery; that it was a great
speculation, and that all who entered into its cultivation ought
to be prepared to meet its contiagencies. They had been told
that if they were patient the market would rise again, and
they would have more years of profit. He well knew that
they had had such years, and that they might occur again,
even under the present system. But upon what circumstances
would that improvement arise? It would be the very conse-
quence of their present ruin, and the evils which had been
already inflicted by the duty. Planters had been driven to
grub their hops, and cease from their cultivation altogether,
and it was at such a cost and sacrifice that any temporary
prosperity would be secured. The attendance around him per-
suaded him that they were no longer inclined to submit to this
uiijint imposition.

Mr. MosE.s Body then rose to propose the first resolu-
tion, which was, '• That the excise duty on hops is most op-
pressive to the grower, unequal in its pressure, most uncer-
tain ill the amount of revenue derived from it, and most un-
just, hops being the only agricultural produce subject to
taxation in the hands of the grower, upon which the duty
is k'vied irrespective both of the value of the article and the
cost of production." He did not stand before them as an
advo"ate of free trade in hops, for he did not know that they
could grow hops under that principle. Some told them
that the duty was a tax upon the consumer, and that it did
not press much upon the grower; but they well knew that
they had very recently been selling hops at 17s., 18s., and
20s. per cwt., and he should like to know who had paid the
duty on those, if the grower had not. It was very clear it

was not paid bj' the consumer (Hear, hear). It was also
said that they could grub their hops if they found the culti-
vation of them did not pay, and thus relieve themselves of
the burden. He had no doubt they all knew, being practi-
cal men, that there was some difficulty in that matter; they
were aware that they had a large amount of labour upon
their hands. He, for one, had latelj', and perhaps most of
the large planters had, grubbed a portion of their hops ; but
they could not get rid of the labouring population. That
hung upon them in some way or other, and they must be
maintained ; and he had himself set on many extra hands,
because many were literally starving. In fact, he had more
hands than he knew how to employ ; but in the country
districts it was not so easy to be disengaged from them, and
that was one reason whyit was so difficult to get rid of their
plantations. If a man took a farm of some 200 or 300 acres,
of which 20 were planted with hops, a large proportion of
the valuation was taken upon the hop ground, perhaps £20
or £30 an acre. Therefore a man's capital became locked
up in that way ; and if he grubbed his hops, he by that
means destroyed his property. Another reason why they
could not grub their hops so easily as was supposed was that
it was always after a heavy crop that they wanted to grub,
because there was a larger produce than they required ; in
fact, they could not regulate the supply. With malt it was
just the reverse — they made as much as was wanted. But
they could not manage the hops in that way, as the}'' did
not know wliat produce there would be ; but, after all, so
flir as grubbing was concerned, the greatest drawback was
the duty itself. A man had got perhaps ten or twenty
acres, prices were very low, and the tax something like £20
per acre, if he grew a ton an acre. He grubbed his hops and
covered the land with corn, and probably got a profit of £3
or £4 an acre, but the succeeding crop had to pay the tax
upon the previous 3-ear's produce (Hear, hear); therefore,
if a man had £300 or £400 duty to pay upon twenty acres
of hops, it ruined him. He must not, therefore, grub.
Those were strong reasons, he thought, why they should
get rid of the duty ; but he had no doubt thej' all knew the
matter as well as himself. He had been a grower for the
last twenty-five years, and during late years at a consider-
able expense. He had found it a most unprofitable specula-
tion ; and he was persuaded that, unless they got lid of the
excise duty, they could not continue to grow hops in these
counties. If that were so, he would ask, '' What would be-
come of the labouring population in the hop districts ?'''' He
was himselfat a loss to know.

Mr. Parker (Tunbridge) seconded the resolution, which
was carried unanimously.

Mr. John Simes rose to propose the second resolution,
which was as follows : " That it is the duty as well as the
interest of all hop growers and others resident in or connected
with the hop districts to take all the means in their power to
procure the immediate abolition of this unjust tax." He was
in the habit of making valuations, and he had been struck at
the number of farms that had lately been stripped for payment
of the hop duty. He was also in the habit of receiving rents,
and had therefore had opportunities of noticing the difficulties
with which those payments were met, and in many cases could
not be met in consequence of the tenants having had to meet
the hop duty. He was well aware that there was a difference
of opinion upon the subject, and he was very sorry that it was
so. It was only a few, however, who objected to the present
movement, and they were only those who were seeking to re-
tain a monopoly : they were trying to drive the industrious
classes out of the market. If they made a fair calculation
they would find that in the Weald of Kent and Sussex they
had been paying something like 35 or 40 per cent, more than
the Mid-Kent people. There lay the question. Let the Kent
people, who were so bigotted in their opinions, and who tried
all they could to drive others out of the market, have 40 per
cent. put. upon them. How would the question appear then,
he should like to know ; he was sure that they would soon be

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

283

rowing in one boat, and all would go hand and heart together
in the endeavours to get the tax removed. All they wanted
was a fair stand up fight. At present he was quite satisfied
they were labouring under free-trade prices, and had at the
same time a heavy duty hanging over them, and they need not
expect to get anything during the next two years in the shape
of new profit. The duty consumed them more than free trade.
If any of them had anything to say on the subject he hoped
they would do it manfully, and let the public know that they
were unanimous. They must give a '' long pull, a strong
pull, and a pull altogether, " until the tax was laid under their
feet.

Mr. J. Kenward (Uckfield) rose to second the resolu-
tion. It might not, he said, be deemed prudent on his part
to do 90, as he had been on the opposition side, but he now
found that he had been travelling on the wrong road. He made
it his busineis, however, to attend that day, and render his as-
sistance in endeavouring to get rid of the tax.

Mr. J. WiBLEY (Sevenoaks) said he was a grower of high-
priced hops, but he heartily agreed with the two resolutions
that had been proposed. He was an old free-trader, and did
not fear the importation of foreign hops in the least. He
thought the high-priced men in Mid Kent and East Kent
would benefit more from free-trade than any part of Sussex or
the Weald of Kent ; the consumption would increase accord-
ing as hops were lowered in price. Why should they be
ruined in their prosperity year after year, merely to be pro-
tected £1 63. from foreign hops? it was a complete bugbear;
it was all very well when hops were eight guineas a cwt.

Mr. Body begged distinctly to state that the society they
had formed was not establishei in any respect as a free-trade
society, upon free-trade principles. They had nothing what-
ever to do with free-trade. He had made those few observa-
tions from fear that some wrong impression might go abroad
upon the matter.

Mr, Whibley said he did not think anyone would volun-
teer to go to Government for a repeal of the Customs' duty;
they did not ask for the repeal of that duty, but the question
was one of a free trade character.

Mr. Thirkell said he was a large grower in the Weald of
Kent. He trusted they would wake out of their sleep, and
make vigorous exertions to obtain the repeal of so unjust a tax.

The resolution having been unanimously carried.

Mi. Nash (Rochester) said he had been called upon to
move — " That a society having been formed to promote the
repeal of the duty upon hops, this meeting pledges itself to
take the most active measures to support that society in
the attainment of its object." He stood before them as a
Kent planter of more than twenty j-ears' experience ; he
had grown hops in the hill district as good as most
men grow, at least they had fetched as good a price — and
he must say that he did not wish to see any gentleman grub
his hops. He had been to Somerset-house and made
extracts from some of the books. He would have them
clearly to understand that there were altogether three
duties — the old duty, the new duty, and the 5 per cent.,
and he would tell them what had been the amount of each for
every year. In 1711 the old duty of Id. in the lb. was put
on ; 1778 the Id. per lb. was continued, and the 5 percent,
was put on ; in 1780, 10 per cent, was added; in 1783, 15
per cent, was added; and in 1786, Ifd. and 2-20ths was
added; in 1801 it was 2|d. ; in 1806, it was reduced to
2d. ; in 1 840, when all exciseable articles were taxed, 5 per
cent, was laid on ; nearly all the latter tax had been re-
moved, the only articles on which it remained being paper,
malt, and hops : he believed that was a fact. He had taken
the three years 1855-6-7, and he would give them the re-
turns for those years, as he had taken them from the House
of Commons. The amount of the new dut}'' and war tax in
1855 was £294,643 10s., and the additional 5 per cent, on
that was £34,661 10s. 4Ad , making £329,305 Os. i^i. The
planters had been called upon to pay that above the Id. per
lb, duty. Those were startling items, but correct ones. In
1856, the new duty amounted to £197,869 2s. 4Jd.; and
the additional 5 per cent., £23,267 Is. 35d. ; making
£221,136 3s. 8d. In 1857, the new duty was £168,999 13s.
lOfd., and the additional 5 percent. being £19,879 15s. 6^d,
making £188,879 9s. 5d. The total of the last three years,
of what he would say they were called upon to pay in
excess of the Id. per lb. was £739,320 ISs. S^d. If such a

statement as that, of which he vouched for the truth, would
not make them active, he did not know what would. Allu-
sion had been made to the customs duty, which he did not
think they had any right to have ; for what had they to be
afraid of, when he told them that the customs duty upon
hops sent into this country year before last, and charged at
45s. per cwt., only amounted to £22,546 .' It did not
amount to £10,000 of their duty, and were they willing to
pay £417,526 to keep that £10,000. He recommended they
should call a meeting in every parish, and get up subscrip-
tions in every possible way. He for one would pledge
himself to get subscribers to the amount of £50. Many
people he was aware agreed with Mr. Dodson, M.P., that
members of parliament did not know very much about the
subject of the hop duty; but he begged to assure them that
from many interviews he had bad with those gentlemen
they did know something of the subject and were taking a
lively interest in their welfare. He was happy to tell them
that he had received many promises from members that
they would vote for the repeal (renewed cheers). He
hoped therefore the planters of Sussex would set a first-
rate example, and they might depend upon it that others
would follow them, for they were all beginning to feel the
pressure and would be glad to work alike. He had gone
the length and breadth of the three kingdoms ; and knew
the general feelings of the countr3\ If the planters would
help themselves, everybody else was ready to assist them.

Mr. Barclay seconded the resolution. He observed
that let him go where he might, and the subject of the hop
duty was mentioned, people who knew nothing about it
frequently said, "What did it signify to the planters? They
got their prices for the hops, which included the dutj% or
they would not grow them." That was a point to which
they should turn their particular attention. The growers
knew and felt that they paid the duty, and that in many
instances they never got back again any sum of money
which at all represented it. There were too many of them
held hops of 1855, and there was very little doubt that a
large proportion of them would never be sold, and the
growers would therefore not see the duty, to say nothing of
the expense to which tWey had been put. What they had
to do principally was to show, as nearly as they could, the
situation in which they were with regard to the duty. They
were called upon to pay it whether the hops were sold or
not, and under any circumstances ; if the hops were spoiled
the duty must be paid out of their pockets. But the
business in which they were at present engaged was as im-
portant a matter as any hop-grower could undertake, for
they ought to get rid of the excise duty if they could by
any possibility ; for he was sure there were very few farmers
who did not feel that heavier than any other payment. It
was asked for in large sums, and at a time when they had
sold the article for which it was claimed. If they did not
care for the duty, and he believed there were a few in that
situation, he would say, don't subscribe ; but if they did,
subscriptions would enable them to get rid of it.

The resolution having been carried unanimouslj^

Mr. Barclay proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman.

The Chairman acknowledged the compliment, and the
meeting separated. — (Abridged from the Sussex Ejrpress.)

LANGUAGE OF INSECTS.— I have frequently ob-
served two ants, meeting on their path across a gravel walk,
one going from and the other returning to the nest. They
will stop, touch each other's antennae, and appear to hold a
conversation ; and £ could almost fancy that one was com-
municating to the other the best place for foraging. This
Dr. Franklin thought they have the power of doing, from
the following circumstances; Upon discovering a number
of ants regaling themselves with some treacle in one of his
cupbo.ards, he put them to the rout, and then suspended the
pot of treacle bj' a string from the ceiling. He imagined
he had put the whole army to flight, but was surprised to
see a single ant quit the pot, climb up the string, cross the
ceiling, and regain its nest. In less than half an hour several
of his companions sallied forth, traversed the ceiling, and
reached the depository, which they constantly re-visited
until the whole of its contents were consumed. — lessees
Gleanings in Natural History,

284

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

COMPOSITION OF FISH MANURE AND SOME SORTS OF

ANIMAL REFUSE.

Although the importance of all sorts of animal
matter as a manure has long been familiar, and has
been frequently insisted on, both by science and
practice, the immense quantity of such refuse has
hitherto become very partially available. The main
difficulty which has stood in the way of their pro-
fitable application has been the want of a good pro-
cess by which they can be converted into a portable
form. The enormous quantities of fish refuse
annually produced in Newfoundland, and even on
some parts of our own coasts, has been frequently
pointed out as a source from which agriculture
might derive valuable assistance. Considerable
interest was excited, some time since, by the pro-
posal of various methods by which the desirable
oljject of rendering fish offal portable might be at
tained, and very important results were anticipated
from them. As yet, these anticipations have not
been fulfilled, material difficulties having been en-
countered in carrying most of the processes into
operation on the large scale, some of the plans pro-
posed having proved too expensive in practice,
while others are so obviously unpractical that no
one has been found wilhng to invest capital in
carrying them out. The error, in most cases, has
lain in the employment of expensive machinery,
which the conditions under which such a manufac-
ture must be carried out may be said to preclude.
It is probable that the quantity of fish offal to be
obtained at any one spot will not generally be very
large, and will be chiefly collected at one period of
the year, so that the machinery would require to be
sufficient to work up with rapidity the whole of the
offal produced, and would lie idle during the rest
of the year. It is in some such way that most of
the plans have hitherto failed ; but I have recently
analyzed a sample made by a patent procees, which
is said to be simple and inexpensive; and should
the manufacture yield, on the large scale, a material
of uniform quahty, and equal to that I have ex-
amined, it will undoubtedly prove a very important
addition to the list of ammoniacal manures. The
manure was in the form of a yellowish powder, in
grains about the size of fine oatmeal, remarkably
uniform in appearance, very dry, and almost devoid
of smell. Its composition was : —

Water, . . . . 8.00

Fatty matters, . . . 7.20

Nitrogenous organic matters, 71.46
Pnosphate of lime, . . 8.70

Alkaline salts, . . . 3.80

Sihca, .... 0.84

100.00

Nitrogen, . . . .11.25

Equal to ammonia, . . 13.68

Phosphoric acid in the alkaline

salts equal to 1.41 phosphate

of lime .... 0.65

There can be no doubt that, if fish manure, of
equally good quality, can be produced, a large de-
mand for it will soon be created. It is, in fact, a
very valuable manure, and its price may be esti-
mated very readily, according to the mode em-
ployed for Peruvian guano, by taking the com-
mercial value of each of its important manurial
constituents as derived from other sources. The
values usually adopted by chemists have been at
the rate of fd. per lb. for phosphate, and 6d.perlb.
for ammonia ; or, expressed in tons, £6 for the for-
mer, and £56 per ton for the latter. Upon this
plan, and taking all the phosphates under one cate-
gory, we estimate the value of 100 tons of the fish
manure as follows : —

13.63 of ammonia at £55 . . . £766
10.11 of phosphate of lime at £6 . . 60

Value of 100 tons

£826

or almost exactly £8 5s. per ton ; and this will
probably be its average value. At the present time,
however, owing to the high price of bones and
ammonia, its value would considerably exceed this.
Sulphate of ammonia is now selhng at £16 per ton,
and at this price ammonia is worth £64, and phos-
phate of lime can scarcely be reckoned under £10
per ton, bones at present selling as high as £6, or
even £6 10s. If these data be taken for calculation,
the value of the fish manure comes to be —

13.68 of ammonia at £64 . . . £875
10.11 of phosphate of hme at £10 . 100

Value of 100 tons . . . £975

or £9 15s. per ton. In connexion with this subject,
it may be well to observe, that there are many
sources of animal matter which must, at the present
moment, be entirely wasted, although they might,
with a little management, be turned to good ac-
count. Of these, perhaps, the most prominent is
the blood, and other offal of slaughter-houses, in
our small towns and villages. In the larger towns,
the blood is collected, although not very carefully,
and finds its way to certain classes of manufactories
in which it is employed ; but in country places it
is, for the most part, allowed to escape. It would
be a matter of some interest to ascertain the annual
value of the blood and offal thus lost, which is un-
doubtedly very large, and a great part of which
might easily be saved by a very small expenditure
of care. Such, however, is the carelessness of the
workmen employed in slaughter-houses, that I
have been informed, that, even in the large towns,
it is with difficulty that they can be persuaded to
save the blood, although its price is really consid-
erable. Fresh blood contains nitrogen, equal to
about 3 per cent, of ammonia, and is worth about
2d. per gallon, or nearly £2 per ton; and any far-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

285

mer, living near a smalltown, might advantageous-
ly contract to take the whole of the blood at this
price. There are many other sources of animal
matters which will at once occur, available for
manures. Of these, we may paiticularise the
refuse of glue and oil-boiling works, which yield,
annually, a considerable quantity of nitrogeous
otFal ; and the two analyses of seal and glue refuse
which follow will show that, even when they are
prepared without much care, they may become
useful manures : —

Seal Refuse.
Ash . . . 36.81
Organic matter 41.85
Water . .21.34

Glue Refuse.
. 53.18
. 38.60

8.22

100.00 100.00

Ammonia . 2.24 . . 2.00
The large quantity of ash in these cases is due to
the admixture of earthy matters, for the purpose of
drying up and rendering portable the animal mat-
ter ; and, though this has not been done in the
most suitable manner, the value of the manure is
about five times as great as that of good farmyard
manure.— Professor Anderson, in the Trans-
actions of the Highland Society..

GRINDING FEED.

Experimental farmers have long urged the im-
portance, and even necessity, of chopping or
grinding hay, as well as other food, for cattle and
horses. The lazy drones have had a hearty
laugh over the idea, and called it " Book Farm-
ing" .

Now the theory of chopping and grinding food
is based on a principle which lies at the foundation
of animal physiology. Rest is essential to the
accumulation of muscle, as well as fat. If we wish
to increase an animal in flesh or fat, we do not
" work hina.

Now a cow wants one-thirtieth of her own
; weight in hay a day, to keep her in good order ;
I and we may thus calculate the amount of labour re-
•^ quired to masticate the food, and fit it for the
/ stomach. The labour of chopping or grindinec
/ twenty-five pounds of dry hay a day, is no small
/ item. This excessive labour is performed by one
I set of muscles — the jaws ; but, by sympathy, aflfects
I all the other muscles ; causes the blood to circulate
V quicker, the breath faster, the consumption of
food greater ; and still the growth of the animal is
retarded.

If a machine was invented to grind hay, the
ground article would approximate, in value, to un-
ground oats, in producing fat and muscle. Chop-
ping hay and stalks is valuable just in proportion
as it approximates to grinding, and relieves the
animal of the labour of grinding it. An animal fed
on ground or minced food may perform an
amount of labour equal to grinding it fit for diges-
tion, and fat as fast as another which does not
labour, but grinds its own food.

Prematurely grey whiskers and beard, while the
hair is still black, show the relative amount of labour
performed by the jaws and the head.

LIME, AND ITS CHEMICAL CHANGES.

Lime is not, as it was once supposed, an element, but consists
of the metal calcium united with the gas oxygen, and is pro-
perly an oxide of calcium, just as potash, soda, and magnesia
are oxides of potassium, sodium, magnesium. It is never found
pure in nature, except occasionally in the craters of volcanoesj
but is usually united with carbonic acid, for which it has a
strong attraction. In this state it is neutral, and insoluble in
pure water. When limestone or any other form of carbonate
of lime is exposed to a sufficiently hi^h temperature with
access of air or moisture, the carbonic acid gas is driven off,
and the lime which remains is called quick or caustic, from its
strong alkaline re-action. When such lime is plunged into
water for a short time, or water is poured upon it, heat is
evolved, the lime swells, cracks, gives off much watery vapour,
and finally falls to a powder. This powder or slaked lime is a
hydrate of lime, water being chemically combined with it. In
this state it is still caustic, though somewhat milder than when
fresh from the kiln.

The rise of temperature is so great when large heaps of good
lime are suddenly slaked, as to enflame gunpowder and scorch
wood; it certainly exceeds, according to Pelletier, 500° ; and
when the operation is performed in a dark place, light is also
evolved. All sorts of imaginary causes have been assigned to
account for these phenomena. They are referable, however,
to a very simple and universal law. All substances during
their change from a gaseous -to a liquid, or from a liquid to a
solid state, evolve heat, and vice versa. The intense cold pro-
duced by liquefying ice or snow by admixture with salt is a
familiar instance of the latter ; and the heat evolved in solidi-
fying carbonic acid under intense cold and pressure is some-
times dangerous evidence of the former — the expansion of air
consequent on the sudden liberation of heat from the carbonic
acid in the moment of congelation not unfrequently shattering
the vessel to atoms.

Lime in slaking will absorb one-fourth its weight of water;
but the slaked lime is not more moist than before. The water
unquestionably, therefore, is chemically combined with the
lime, and becomes solidified ; and it is simply owing to this
solidification of the water that heat is evolved.

Caustic lime has a strong affinity for water and carbonic
acid. When kept in a dry place it gradually slakes, cracking,
splitting, and crumbling to powder with the evolution of heat

which, however, is not so perceptible on account of the

length of time during which the process is extended— just as
though it had been slaked by pouring on water. In this case
the lime has obtained from the atmosphere the 25 psr cent,
of water it needs to slake it. There is this difference, how-
ever, between air-slaked lime and that which is water-slaked :
the former is slaked precisely as the latter, by the absorption
of water, but it also absorbs carbonic acid from the air, and
instead of being simply a hydrate of lime as when water-slaked,
it is a definite compound of hydrate and carbonate of lime,
42.6 per cent, of the former, and 57.4 of the latter. Air slaked
lime, therefore, is far from being so caustic as water-slaked,
upwards of one-half of it being reconverted into the same
chemical state as it was in before burning.

After the lime has absorbed sufficient water and is completely
fallen to pieces, carbonic acid is absorbed much less rapidly,
especially in damp situations. In fact, though there is a con-
stant tendency in lime to return to the state of carbonate in
which it existed previous to burning, yet, by mere exposure to
the air, it doea not attain this state in any assignable time.

286

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Iq some walls 600 years old the lime has been found to have
absorbed only one-foutth of the carbonic acid necessary to
convert the whole into carbonate; in others, built by the
Romaas 1800 years ago, the proportion absorbed has not ex-
ceeded three-fourths of the quantity contained in natural
limestone.

When slaked in the ordinary way, by the application of
water, lime falls to pieces without the absorption of but little
if any carbonic acid ; but when slaked and exposed to the air,
the absorption of carbonic acid is at first very rapid, but it
gradually becomes very slow, and probably the same definite

compound of hydrate and carboiiate of lime is formed as in the
case of air-slaked lime.

The original limestone, or any other form of carbonate of
lime, then, is perfectly mild. By driving off the carbonic acid
by heat we get lime which is very caustic : by slaking this
with water we get a less caustic substance — hydrate of lime :
by allowing it to air-slake we get a still less caustic compound
— a defioite compound of hydrate and carbonate of lime : and
by exposing it to the air for a sufficient length of time we
ultimately get the whole reconverted again into its original
mild form — carbonate of lime.

THE OLD AND NEW SCHOOL,

The true criterion of farm-management will be
found in the result ; and when we see different systems
producing nearly similar results, it is worth inquiry
how they have been brought about. We generally have
two classes of farmers in every district — the first, as
he is called by his modern neighbours, " one of the
old school" ; the second, as he is termed by the other,
"one of the new school" — both titles expressive of
their modes of proceeding.

As regards the first of these, we have one who acts
methodically : he adopts a system, and pursues it,
v.ithout in any way divQj'ging from it. His ex-
penses are reduced to a certain standard, and from
year to year are almost without variation in
amount. His returns differ only as seasons or
prices dictate, the proportions in acreable quantity
being always the same; and whether he iidoi^ts the
four, five, or six-course shifts of husbandry, his pur-
suing it for years together, without the slightest altera-
tion, enables him annually to estimate the result, so far
as external operating causes will permit him to do so ;
while the varying success or failure, in a single year, will
necessarily depend upon circumstanceswhich he cannot
control. Upon a farm of 400 acres of arable we shall
find regularly 100 acres in wheat, 100 in barley and
oats, 100 peas, beans, or clover, and 100 acres green
or fallow crops — such as rye, vetches, turnips,
mangolds, or rape. By pursuing this uniform
system the quantum of labour requisite for the
cultivation of the fai'm is invariably the same; and,
that being the case, all other proportions of expendi-
ture necessarily follow ; so that year by year the varia-
tion will scarcely be appreciated, excepting, as already
stated, when it has arisen from circumstances alto-
gether beyond his power. The prices may vary, but
the measure will remain the same : thus rent, labour,
and seed-corn continue in the same proportion ; pa-
rochial charges, tradesmen's bills, and tithe rent-
charge fluctuating only to a limited extent, but never
materially affecting the general result; and house-
keeping and personal expenses rarely vary more
than from five to ten per cent. Thus each year has
its fixed expenditure ; the farm thus striking, as it
were, its own annual balance of profit or loss as it
proceeds.

On the other hand, we find the experimental farmer
adopting every theory as it arises : he pursues no
stated system. In some years his various descriptions
of grain crops far exceed those of others ; he has learnt
to autumn-fallow, and his principal exertion, if it
may be termed such, is to farm as little without it
as he may be able. He produces roots rather as sue-

cessional than principal crops, adopts autumnal fal-
lowing as his system, purchases manures ad libitum,
produces grain crops in successive seasons on the same
land, abolishes every previous rule of rotation, and
consequently in some seasons his acreable quantities of
grain will far exceed those of others. His expenditure
also in labour varies greatly, but is generally materially
increasing in amount, both as regards horse and
manual. His outlay in implements, cattle, oil
cake, and cattle food is so large, he becomes subject,
to a great extent, to the fluctuations that attend
trade. His returns are doubtless increased; but his
outlay is in like ratio; and what perhaps is worst of
all, the current year does not exhibit its profit and
loss sufficiently clear to demonstrate to himself what is
the actual profit or loss, or how things are really pro-
gressing.

It is not our intention to deprecate improvements or
high-farming ; but our object is to exhibit to farmers
that a methodical system, when carried out, is most
advisable, and generally most conducive to success;
for just so far as a farmer strikes out a new path, he
becomes also subject to greater risks, and which,
without corresponding talent and adequate capital, is
not likely to lead to any beneficial results. Whatever
is done well continuously carries its own reward ;
but an indiscriminate application of capital, without
a corresponding increase of skill and perseverance,
will be almost certain to lead to disasters ;
and we therefore caution experimental and ardent
cultivators to pause as they proceed;' for although
we are quite aware that a large retuim of any particu-
lar description of produce can be sometimes obtained,
still there are certain limitations, to which, upon an
average, it must be reduced ; and even then much will
depend upon the skill used in arriving at such an end.
We have lately read of a very large expenditure about
to be made upon an estate, very fai- exceeding the value
of the fee. We have before heard of this in other
quarters; and whether it be as example or experi-
mental farms that they come before our notice, it is not
sufficient to inform us that the production has been
doubled, if the investment and expenses have been
doubled also. The clear profits, after all, must become
the test by which the speculation has been carried on.
It is an old adage, but a true one, that we see the ships
only that arrive in port; those which have gone
down are forgotten. The successful agriculturists have
mostly been found amongst the class first named ;
and when we consider the operating causes producing
such results, we feel we shall be only anticipating the
conclusions of our readers that this must ever be so.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

287

THE CLASS OF PLANTS MOST LIKELY
TO ENRICH THE SOIL.

Sir, — There is too general an idea abroad amoug farmers,
especially our moderns, that he who buys the most manure,
artificial or otherwise, is, and must be, the best farmer. I
happen to think differently, and consider that he who gets the
greatest return for the capital expended displays the most
wisdom. The sorts and varieties of plants grown have, I
think, much to do with profit, with the same management.
It is a well-received opinion that plants absorb a considerable
amount of material from the air, as carbon, &c. New, if the
leaf of the plant, as philosophers tell us, be the medium of
conveyance of matter existing in the air, what is the natural
inference but that we ought to grow those plants which pre-
sent the greatest surface to its influence? Take, for instance^
the turnip plant — how is it that with the same appliances
we get one quarter of barley more per acre (with a certainty)
after a crop of globe turnips than where swedes have been
grown ? The thing is clear to our mind ; and as matter can-
not spring out of nothing, so no more can a good or more
superior crop come without a cause. I have grown most
varieties of the turnip for many years, and have always found
that sort to give the best return which had the greatest top or
most leaf. Some yearj ago there was, and with some even now
is, great anxiety displayed to get that kind of turnip which had
the largest bulb and the very small top. The after-corn re-
turns disappointed that choice as a natural consequence, be-
cause the nitrogenous medium had been curtailed. We should
aim at a bulb as large as possible, and a top as nearly resem-
bling the cabbage as may be.

It does not follow, as some may suppose, that an increase of
top tends to injure the quality of the bulb ; far otherwise.
The large leaf supplies the bulb with the flesh-formicg mate-
rial it could not otherwise obtain ; and in winter affords to
that bulb a natural protection pleasing to behold. What
farmer at all observant, on a cold frosty morning, has not seen
the providential adaptation of the leaf to the bulb wheu that
leaf has succumbed to the cold? lam not recommending
the globe variety, or the swede, but that in either case the
leaf should be as large as possible.

As regards the manurial properties of the leaf, I consider
them always worth as much, in the early winter, to plough in
as to eat. The same reasoning holds good with other plants.
A field of rape, because of its immense leaf, stands first as an
improver. Last year the writer had a field sown with it, and
at the same time seeded down with mixed grasses, and it kept
and fatted ten sheep to the acre during the summer. The
practical farmer will know what the high after-condition of
that will be; and this spring it will afford, from the stems
left, fine early food for sheep.

On all inferior worn-out lands nothing can equal the fertil-
izing power of the rape plant. Let the land intended be well
autumn-cleaned, ploughed early in the winter, manured aud
limed in early spriDg (not ploughed after keeping both on the
surface), and sown with rape, about 71bs. to the acre; and at
the same time seeded with mixed grass seeds for two years
after grazing ; and no soil, I think, will refuse the benefit. As
regards the cereal crops, the same rule holds good ; the more
flaggy it is, as it is called, the less exhausting the crop.

The variety called Scotch oat stands pre-eminent in this re-
spect : in itself quite a favourite with the miller, from the oily
nature of the grain, and consequently high mealing qualities ;
and the straw so good, that it stands next to bay as fodder,
full of flag, and easily consumed by cattle ; while the Ameri-
can, Poland, Zealand, short white oats, and similar varieties

with clean flinty straw, draw strongly on the soil, and the
straw is but of little value.

Barley is appreciated because of the little injury it does to
the soil, and is more flaggy than wheat. Wheat, when the
crop has fine clear straw, is, to every observant farmer, more
exhausting than the mildewed field. Beans, peas, and other
leguminous plants, are considered fertilizers from the same
cause— that the quantity of leaf-surface presented absorbs
carbonaceous aud nitrogenous matter from the air ; and con-
sequently they gain more than they lose. And if the principle
be true, that in the process of combustion the same elements
return to the air which had been absorbed from it by the plants
or otherwise, the effort of the farmer (when confirmed by prac-
tice) should be to produce and cultivate those plants the agency
of which would profit without the direct aid of manures, in
many cases too costly.

The subject is one of importance to the farmer, and these
few hints may lead abler hands to investigate it, and see
whether science and practice in this respect agree ; then, per-
haps, we may not object to a drum-headed-cabbage turniptop,
and kettle-bottom-sized. S. G.

Normanton, Alfreton, March 16, 1858.

FIARS' PRICES.

We give below a table of the fiars' prices of grain as struck
up to Saturday, for purposes of comparison between counties.
From the various methods taken in striking the fiars, it can-
not be expected that a near approach to equality can be
reached. Some counties take the purchasers and others take
the sellers of grain, and one or two add to or deduct from the
prices after the averages are ascertained. In looking over the
various prices, the fiars of oats, beans, and meal appear to run
nearly ou a par and with no great difference iu value, but the
wheat and barley prices vary in a surprising degree. The
general average of wheat appears to be £2 Is. 2d. per qr.;
and while Dumfries is 7s. 4d. above this, Edinburgh is 43.
3d. under it — in fact Edinburgh is within 8d. of being the
lowest wheat fiars' price; aud, in like manner, take the price
struck for barley in Wigtown, SSs. lOd., and the Edinburgh
averages of the three prices struck, 24s. lid. — making Edin-
burgh for barley Ss. lid. below Wigtown. The first class
barley average in Edinburgh is stated at 27s. 3d.; the second,
253. ; the third, 223. 6d. ; while during same period the ave-
rage of all kinds sold in Edinburgh stock market would reach
283., or thereby, while first-class barley would certainly be
above 293. 6d. to SOs. of average : —

fiars' prices— crop 1857.

Shire.

Wheat.

Barley.

Oats.

Beans.

Meal.

£ 8. d.

£

8.

d,

£

s. d

£ s.

d.

£ s. d.

Dumfries .

2 8 6

9

6

0 10

1 19

5

0 17 3

Renfrew . .

2 5 0

9

8

1 8

2 0

10

0 17 10

Inverness .

2 3 6

6

3

1 10

2 0

0

0 18 10

Nairn ....

2 4 6

6

0

*

2 0

2 0

0

0 17 9

Wigtown .

2 1 6

13

10

0 8

1 18

0

0 16 11

Ayr

2 3 2

10

8

18 9

2 1

0

0 16 3

Dumbartn.

2 2 1

7

5

1 6

1 19

0

0 17 9

Elgin ....

2 5 5

11

1

2 7

1 9

3

0 18 4

Lanark . .

2 3 0

6

9

19 7

1 19

5

0 16 3

Roxburgh .

1 17 10

8

7

3 0

1 18

8

0 16 8

Linlithgow.

1 18 9

9

5

2 0

1 17

3

0 17 1

Berwick , .

1 18 3

7

2

2 0

1 16

0

1 0 1

Clackman-

nan ....

2 2 2

7

3

0 5

1 16

9

0 16 6

Selkirk .,

1 18 0

7

3

1 0

2 0

0

0 15 10

Stirling ..

1 19 7

6

9

19 10

1 17

4

0 16 9

Edinburgh

1 16 11

4

11

1 6

1 17

3

0 16 5

Fife

1 16 4

6

10

1 0

1 13

4

0 17 3

Perth ....

1 16 9

5

4

0

19 S

1 14

10

0 16 1

Total ..

37 1 3

25

4

8

18

19 5

33 18

4

15 9 10

Averages .

2 12

1

8

0

1

1 C

1 17

8

0 17 3

—Scotsman,

28S

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE SPANISH OR MERINO BREED OF
SHEEP.

[communicated by lord WILLIAM LENNOX.]

Prejudice founded on system, devoid of experience, is
the greatest and most insuperable bar to improvement in
every art and science. It was through false impressions
thirs imbibed, that although the fine-woolled sheep^f Spain
had been long ago found to retain their valuable qualities
in countries still more unfavourable to them than Great
Britain ; such as Sweden, Denmark, Saxony, Prussia, and
Holland : yet it was not until seventy years ago that
George III., guided by his own good sense and the most
patriotic motives, gave orders for the importation of Merino
sheep, for the improvement of British wool. In 1791 his
Majesty received a small stock of four rams and thirty-six
ewes from the Negrette flock, and about ten years after
another importation of two thousand from the Paular flock,
deemed the best in Spain, of which only fourteen hundred
ewes and a hundred raras survived the voyage and the sea-
soning in this country. Prejudice for awhile opposed the
improvement of fine-woolled sheep as an innovation. The
breeders fancied that the quality cf the fleece depended on
the climate, soil, and pasturage of their native country, and
that the Spanish sheep would not thrive in our island, or
would decline, and only yield wool of an inferior quality ;
in fact, they maintained the erroneous opinion that the
British sheep sent to Spain would, by the same advantages,
become equal to those of the latter country ; and that the
Merinos imported to England would soon become similar
to our own breeds, even without any crossing or inter-
mixture. It required all the influence of the King, the late
Duke of Bedford, Lord Somerville, Dr. Parry, Mr. Toilet,
and various others of the most enlightened gentlemen and
most scientific breeders, to combat this dangerous opposition ;
and it was only by proof the most in-efragable that it
began to decline; audit is now admitted that Spanish
sheep, with nothing more than the common care administered
to our own flocks, will not only maintain their natural su-
peiioritj-, but will confer the same qualities to other breeds,
if due precaution is taken to preserve the strain in its
purity. The chief and only obstacle that remained, was
the article of expense to the small farmer or grazier. The
woolstaplers and the butchers also raised some objection to
the newlj'-naturalized animals ; but it having been ascer-
tained that the wool of the Anglo-Merino is equal, if not
superior, to that imported from Spain, and that tlie flesli,
as an article of food, is also of a superior quality, their
clamours have also subsided, and reason has taken the place
of unfounded declamation.

The advantage of the Anglo-Merino strain being thus
acknowlediied, the only thing that remained was to con-
sider the best method of bringing the improvement into
general practice. It had been ascertained that not less
thin four removes from a pure Merino would ensure all that
was required ; and the breeder therefore, having purchased
the best Merino ram, persevered in breeding in-and-in to
the fourth remove, when he found himself the possessor of
a pure breed, without anj- danger of retrograding, jiropcr
care being taken to prevent commixture with any less pure
strain. The result was most satisfactory, for from actual
experiments made by Dr. Parry the Merino-Ryeland carried
more than three times the value of wool on the same living
weight of carcase than its Ryeland ancestor did ; almost
four times as much as the Southdown and Lincoln, and
nearly five times and a-half as much as the New Leicester.
It appeared moreover, from Lord Somerville's trials on the
Ryeland and Merino-Ryeland breeds, that the value of the
wool on the latter is as five to two of the former— an
increase which more than compensated for any additional
expense or trouble. To those who are interested upon the
subject of Spanish sheep, we recommend a perusal of a very
clever trealise by Monsieur Lasteyrie, an intelligent
Frenchman, which has been translated into English. He

defended the system, which brought George III. under
the lash of ridicule of Peter Pindar, viz., that of feeding
sheep on horse chestnuts. Monsieur Lasteyrie thus writes :
" In Saxony great care is taken to collect the horse chest-
nuts, which are regarded as a wholesome aliment, and a
specific against the rot. These are given to the sheep in
autumn, when the green food ceases. The chestnuts are
cut into pieces, which it would be dangerous to omit, as
they might otherwise stick in the throat of the animal,
and cause its death. Sheep, as well as cattle, refuse at first
to eat this food ; but, when accustomed to it, they seek it
with avidity, and even like to eat the prickly husk in
which the nut is enveloped."

One of the first toasts at sheep-shearing feasts used
to be —

" The glorious memory of George the Third,
Who first to Britain Spanish sheep transferred."

In the Consort of our Gracious Sovereign we have one
who possesses the good sense, sound judgment, and patriotic
spirit of her royal grandfather, and who, as a practical
farmer, will exert his influence to improve the breed of
cattle, pigs, and sheep, by never rejecting without a trial
any rational hint ol improvement.

ORDER UPON THE FARM.

It has been very correctly said that order or method is the
secret of success of many wealthy men of the mercantile class.
The above being true, the ru'e is equally applicable to the
farming classes. What we mean by order is, " a place for
everything, and everything iu its place." By everything, we
mean all that a farmer uses in his business. A farmer should
see that every rail and board about his premises is in its proper
place ; that his fences are in condition to prevent the entrance
or exit of his own or other people's cattle without his consent.
Every one who neglects this neglects his peace of mind, as
well as subjects himself to- losses that must be repaired by
means that could have been otherwise profitably employed.

I have known cultivators of the soil to succeed well ia
maturing crops, but by neglecting to keep their fences in order,
lose the most valuable part of their labours. But I am glad
to state that such cases are not frequent in these times. In
the next place, the farmer should not allow his cattle that are
used in the farm-work to be scattered indiscriminately over his
fields, as much time is lost in getting them to their places, and
as " time is money," it should be economised as much as pos-
sible. He should be careful to have his harness all in using
trim, his working cattle near his harness house : then but a few
minutes are required to prepare for his day's plougbing and
hauling. His implements, of every description, should be kept
near his dwelling, that no time be lost in repairing those things
that are out of order. Many persons will say that they caunot
find time to do all these things. Stop, dear reader; I know
you can, because whenever you see a rail missing from your
feuce, go and put it back immediately, for then is the right
time. In case the rail should be destroyed, appropriate the
first idle one you come to ; if you should have no idle ones,
lose no time in procuring some ; for if you do not, nine chances
in ten you lose more by neglect than if you stop the plough
long enough to make them. Whenever you have done using a
plough, hoe, rake, hay fork, thresher, reaper, or anything else,
take it immediately to the barn — make this an invariable rule,
and let all your men know it : the result will be, that when
anything is wanted, the person sent for it will know where to
find it. I would have every farmer have some of the most
necessary tools used in making and repairing his implements
of husbandry, for I know every one who is able to own a farm
is able to have such things. The rainy season, in which much
could be done in the way of making and repairing, is always
lost to most farmers, because they have not the implements of
manufacture. During such times he might put all his farming
utensils in excellent working order ; whereas if it is neglected
until fair weather, he has scarcely had it done before another
rainy season overtakes him : thus, all fair weather, in which
he might have ploughed, passes in repairing. To conclude —
Farmers, preserve order in everything, and peace, prosperity,
and health will accompany you through life. — Watchman and
Reflector.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

289

THE DIFFERENT BREEDS OF STOCK.

In the infinity of agricultural topics we are now
continually discussing, it is curious to notice how rarely
we touch on our different breeds of stock. We of
course learn the individual excellence of animals from
their positions in the show-yard, and occasionally test
the merits of a herd by the prices it will bring at the
hammer. There is many a man, too, ready and anx-
ious enough to cry up the sort he himself is interested
in ; but what wo want is, that these opinions should be
brought into rather more direct comparison. At this
very moment there are two or three beasts that make
"the best butcher's meat" — the Scot, the Welsh runt,
and the Devon. Then the Short-horn is good to feed,
but bad to milk; or, on the other hand, he Is as useful
for one purpose as llie other. The very essence of dis-
cussion is difference of opinion, and licre we should be
sure of it. Still we scarcely remember a single occasion
on which the object of a meeting has been to consider
which are the best kinds of stock. The Highland
Society certainly gave an evening some two years ago
to the assumed advantages of crossing; and the London
Club has two subjects on its card this season on the
management of stock. We repeat, however, that the
great question itself is seldom or ever put : — Which is
the best beast — a Hereford, a Short-horn, or a Devon ?
Which is the best sheep — a Southdown, a Leicester,
or a Cotswold ? And which the best horse — a Suffolk,
a Clydesdale, or a Lincoln ? We do not say it would
be possible to pass any very definite resolution in
answer to such queries ; but nevertheless a great deal
of interesting information might be obtained by such a
means. At present we would almost seem to agree
with Mr. Mechi in regarding our flocks and our beeves
merely as necessary nuisances, and so saying little or
nothing about them.

A comparatively young association in the North of
Scotland has within these few weeks taken the bull by
the horns. Mr. Home, the Chairman of the Stirling
Farmers' Club, has opened a discussion "On the various
Breeds of Cattle." In doing so, he naturally dwelt
chiefly on such kinds as he himself and his brother-
members were best acquainted with : — " I speak of our
well-known black cattle, which, although reared in
many parts of our country, are yet shown to greatest
advantage and perfection in the county I have named,
Argyle. It cannot fail to be observed that good spe-
cimens of our black cattle possess almost every point
that the breeders of cattle of England and elsewhere
are endeavouring to produce. We all know their fine-
ness of hide, straightness of legs, length and breadth
of liind-quarters, fine development of breast and chest ;
and we know that that breed which is most highly
esteemed, so far as we can compare a large beast with
a small one, is almost exactly the same. The quality
of their flesh is considered wholly unsui'passed, there
being a fine degree of marble mixture of fatty matter
which cannot be surpassed. It is well known that the
nobility and gentry of England get up our Scotch
kyloes as their finest beef. They are in a half-wild
state, and must be fed fat upon grass, for the Highland
ox takes as long to get accustomed with a byre as
another to be fed fully fat in it. As milkers they do
not excel in quantity ; but the quality is shown by the
manner in which they suckle their calves."

This is more than commonly well put, and certainly
so far our Northern friends have no fault to find with
their champion. He proceeds to what he terms " a

peculiar breed"; but a better known one amongst us,
that reared in Galloway, Aberdeen, Kincardine, and
Angus. " How that breed has come to be what it is,
forms a difficult question — whether they be a species of
the West Higlilander somewhat changed, and having
lost their horns, I don't know; but there is a pecu-
liarity regarding them. Those in Galloway are larger
and thinner from the hook to the tail, though not so
broad as others ; while those in Aberdeen are broader
over the back. It may be mentioned that the latter
county has at this time the honour and glory of supply-
ing what in the London market is called pure Scots,
and they carry the highest price for beef in the Lon-
don market. In regard to their milking properties, I
have the authority of Mr. M'Combie, of Tillyfour, that
they are excellent milkers ; and he scouted the idea of
an Ayrshire being compared with (hem in Aberdeen-
shire. I may mention that his place is by no means a
garden of Eden, being without shelter, on the top of
a hill ; and yet there are to be seen some of the
most magnificent animals you can conceive. Long
may the Aberdeen folks have the credit of producing
the best Scots for the London market."

So that even in Scotland there are two or three varie-
ties which make "the best London beef." We have,
then, the Fife breed, " few in number," and according
to another speaker, " coarse in quality, and not to be
recommended." The discussion from this point as-
sumed a more general tone, as it touched upon the
merits of two sorts of which we have all more or less
some experience. These were the Ayrshires and the
Shorthorns — animals that would appear to be not only
bred, but reared, and cultivated for diametrically oppo-
site uses. The over- feeding of the Shorthorn, so that he
shall do nothing but make flesh, is an old story. Mr.
Home dwelt upon it at some length : — " I am far from
thinking that if you keep them according to the present
English rules you will be greatly benefited by them.
Some of the means at present adopted go to deprive the
animal of its milking powers, and render it unnatural in
its inclination to take on fat ; but if they are made to
keep in a good, fair, growing, breeding slate — in fact,
in that state of exuberant health which makes them
suitable for breeding — the country would greatly benefit
by their introduction. Unfortunately, the great run
has been upon shape only, to the neglect of milking
and breeding qualities. I may mention, in confirma-
tion of my remarks about the fattening of the Short-
horn, that I was at the Newcastle show of the English
Society some years ago, and was going round the yard
with Mr. Booth of Killerby. He was reckoned the
first breeder of fat stock in Yorkshire, and was only
equalled by Mr. Bates, whom he never liked to meet,
so close was the competition. Mr. Booth's cattle were
very high fed ; and one cow he had at that show
(Necklace, I think, was her name) was as magnificent
an animal as one could wish to behold. But then she
had, as it were, pillows of fat sewed on to her hind
quarters and along her back. I remarked that the
calves of such an animal must be very valuable. He
answered, ' I am sorry to say I have been rather unfor-
tunate in that respect — the calf died.' After expressing
my regret, I said, ' Do you not think she is rather
fat?' He said that perhaps she was a little."

The Ayrshires are to be condemned for the very
reverse of all this. " It is a breed generally allowed
to be superior to all others for quantity of milk. The

X

290

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

Ayrshire breeders have, for many years, been driving
at that point — namely, good milking qualities, and I
regret to say that I fear they have done so to the neg-
lect of the feeding qualities. A recent writer, speaking
of Ayrshires, says, that one cause of the pleuro-pneu-
monia is that they are bred too fine, and I am of
opinion that there is some truth in this. The same
■writer also said, that if a breeder has a first-rate bull,
he was put to his nearest relations, to his own mother,
daughters, or cousins, thus breeding too much in-and-
in. Whatever causes operate to produce the effect, I
do not pretend to say ; but it is an acknowledged fact
the Ayrshire breed are deficient in beef and growing
qualities. They are, generally speaking, narrow in the
chest, and cannot have a large development of lungs,
so that they may be predisposed to take injury or catch
cold."

The difference between the two is yet fur-
ther demonstrated. If the Shorthorn is fed tip
the Ayrshire is as systematically fed down, Mr.
Gray, of Bearside, was once leaving the house
of a friend where he had been to buy
a bull, when he saw an Ayrshire calf which could
scarcely move about. He asked what was the matter ?
" Nothing," said his friend, " only we must starve the
calves the first year to make them fine, or they would
grow up large coarse animals."

The point of the debate was, nevertheless, all in
favour of the Shorthorn. As a cross for almost any
kind of Scotch cattle there is clearly nothing equal to
them. '■ Mr. Bates, of Kirklevington, once told me
(Mr. Home) he had got a lot of West Highland heifers,
and put Shorthorn bulls to them ; thus producing
the most admirable animals he ever saw — pictures of
many of which he had hung on his walls." Mr.
Stobie, of Ballochneck, not only confirmed this, but
went on to mention that he exhibited two cross-bred
heifers at the recent show of fat cattle at Glasgow —
one of which gained the first prize, and was out of a
small Ayrshire cow, by a pure Shorthorn bull ; it was
a very fine animal, and admired by every one. " He
had no hesitation in saying the Shorthorns, and first
crosses were the easiest fattened breed, and in times
like these, when the farmer must get his goods quickly
to market, they were the best." Mr. M'Nellan had
found the Shorthorn the easiest fed, and a cross be-
tween the Shorthorn and Ayrshire exceedingly useful —
in fact, as easily fed as the Shorthorns ; and, while
he had reared this class to 50 stone, he could not rear
an Ayrshire to more than 35. And Mr. Chrystal was

of opinion that a Shorthorn bull with Angus cows would
make an excellent animal ; but, if such were done,
he would stick to the first cross, and never cross again.

The Chairman, in his reply, even took up the
cudgels for the Shorthorns on their weak point : " The
milking qualities of the Shorthorns were fully equal to
the Ayrshire. All the daii'ies in London were filled
with Shorthorns, and the Londoners were pretty well
up to the way of getting most value for their money.
He had known one Shorthorn cow that gave 18 Scotch
pints (36 quarts imperial) of milk per day, and the
amount of butter he did not recollect, but it was
something immense ; while at Keir he believed there
was a Shorthorn cow which was a most magnificent
milker. All this went to show that the Shorthorn
breed contains all the good milking properties, but
they had been destroyed by endeavouring too much to
get a monstrous fat beast." There is a great deal of
truth and sound sense in all this. Indeed, we must
especially compliment Mr. Home upon the manifest
justice with which all his remarks were made, as well
as upon the great attention he has clearly given to his t

subject. Cattle are not merely fed too highly for
breeding purposes, but even it is said for that of con-
sumption. A London surgeon has recently been alarm-
ing the town by a declaration — founded upon post
■mo>-tem examination — that there was scarcely a beast
exhibited at the Smithfield Club Show but was so
grossly o^ er-fattened as to be unfit for human food !
Without going quite so far, the abuse at our summer
stock shows is altogether indisputable. Scotland itself
affords a very recent and striking example of this.
The famous " John O'Groat," the first-prize bull this ^

year at both the English and Scotch national meetings,
and one of the grandest Shorthorns ever seen, has since
died. Mr. Home, " for one, however, was not alto-
gether unprepared to hear of such an event. If an
animal is fed up to a state quite unlike healthy nature, as
the rage is at present, what else can be expected ?" This
may not be very palatable to some of our triends, but a
home truth may do them more good than they may at
first be willing to admit.

We have followed out this discussion with much
interest and satisfaction, and hope ere long to have to *
chronicle some such similar inquiry on this side of
the Border. The new number of the Royal Agi-icul-
tural Society's Journal has a very able paper on the
Implement Show at Salisbury, but not one word as to
the live stock. And yet our "different breeds of
cattle" is no so unimportant a thesis, after all.

THE CONDUCT OF THE PARIS MEAT TRADE.

We recently referred to the price of cattle in France
and England, showing that the British grazier had no
reason to fear a competition with our French neigh-
bours. We now publi.sh, on page 292, of this num-
ber, a paper on the production and consumption of
meat in France, and the effect of the present law upon
the price of meat, in Paris particularly, and generally
throughout France. We are sure that this paper will
not only be perused with interest by tlie English gra-
zier, but it will excite some surprise at the clunisy
apparatus set to work for the regulation of the
sale of meat by the French Government, to the
destruction of all competition, and the encourage-
ment of every species of fraud and peculation on the
one hand, and unmerciful exaction of dues necessary
to support the system on the other. Between the pub-
lic taxes and the private plunder— the latter connived

at by the functionaries specially employed to protect
the public interests — both the producer and the con-
sumer are robbed right and left ; whilst the only persons
benefited by the system are the butchers, who make
enoru'ious profits. In tlie mean while, the production
and grazing of cattle decrease in France, and. the qua-
lity of what is produced is deteriorated by the operation
of the law, and the ruinous deductions between the
grazier and the consumer; and the consumption is
checked by reason of the high price of meat, the
consequence of the prohibitory exactions, amounting to
about 34d. per kilo, on ox and cow beef, 42d. on veal,
and G^d. on mutton; or on an average from If d. to S^d.
per lb.

The enhancement of price, however, is not the only
evil of the system. By the law, the butchers are bound
to make four kinds or classes of meat, and also to sell

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

291

cow beef, as such, at a lower rate than ox beef. But
they have found a means of evading the law in both
respects so effectually, that although it is notorious
that a vast proportion of cows — generally old and past
working and milking — are slaughtered in Paris, 7io coio
beefh ever to be seen upon the stalls; and on the other
hand, no beef of the fom'th or most inferior class, and
very little of the third class, is exhibited for sale. The
just infei-ence therefore is, that both the cow beef and
that of the inferior classes of meat are transferred and
merge into the first and second classes, to the extra
profit of the butcher, and injury of the public.

To these evils of the present system must be added
the enormous quantity of dead meat (la viande a
la main), generally diseased, slaughtered clandestinely
bevond the barrier, and brought into Paris. This in
1846 amounted to 4,560,000 kilos. ; but in 1856 it
rose to 17,151,000 kilos., or nearly 50,000 head of
cattle. We admit that our London market is liable to
the same species of imposition, and that large quantities
of diseased meat are clandestinely brought thither for
sale. The supervision, however, of the officers appoint-
ed by the City, to prevent its sale, have no temptation
to forego their duty, on account of the free competition
which exists, and that renders it dangerous and
difficult, without detection, to offer such meat for
public sale. The consequence is, that we continually
read, in the public journals, of butchers being fined for
this offence; and the proportion, therefore, sold to the
public, is small compared with the general consump-
tion.

The first and most palpable result of this system is,
that the entire consumption of beef in Paris, which is
but the type of all the large cities of France, is reduced
to about 87 pounds per head per annum, whilst that
of London amounts to about 104 pounds ; the meat
of the latter being almost wholly good wholesome ox
beef, whilst that of the former consists of a large pro-
portion of diseased and cow beef and veal, the cows
being usually both milked and worked until they are
past use for either. In the above statement, no account
is taken of the sheep and pigs slaughtered in London,
which would add at least from 38 to 40 pounds per
head per annum to the general consumption.

But a more serious consequence of this system of
the butchery of Paris is not generally appreciated,
because it lies in the back-ground of the picture.
This is the effect upon the general health and longevity
of the population. By a comparative view of this
question, as relating to Paris and London, it appears
from official documents, that whilst in the latter city
the mortality is gradually decreasing, in the former
it is as steadily increasing. Thus, in London,
the average proportion of deaths in ten years
(from 1846 to 1855) has been 25 per thousand ; and in
1856 it was only 22 per thousand. But in Paris, the
average from 1831 to 1840 was 26 ; from 1841 to 1850,
28i; and from I85I to 1855, 31 1 per thousand! and
this decrease in the duration of life is ascribed by the
writer to the diminution in the consumption of animal
food, the result of the present system.

Surely, if anything will open the eyes of the present
astute ruler of France to the evils of the system pur-
sued in Paris, it is a statement like the one we have
given. We believe he has the welfare of the French
nation at heart, and the cities of France, especially
Paris, have engaged his anxious attention. How it is
that he has adopted the present fatal system we cannot
tell ; but with the abundant evidence before him of its
disastrous woi'king, both upon the producers and the
consumers of meat, we cannot believe that he will long
suflfer it to continue. The evils are too palpable to be

overlooked, and the proofs of them too strong to be
refuted. Both demand the immediate and serious
attention of the French Government. The high price
of meat alone, is enough to show that a change is
necessary, both on account of the prosperity and the
health of the population.

We have now before us a work devoted to the
subject, * which estimates the general consumi^tion of
meat for all France at 7 kilos, (or 15J lbs ) per head.
In Paris the proportion of neat cattle slaughtered is
stated to be 78,000 oxen, 18,000 cows, and 74,000
calves. For all France, in 1840, the estimated numbers
were 492,000 oxen, 718,000 cows, and 2,478,400
calves; the latter being nearly the double in number
of the two former. The reason ascribed for this
destruction of animal food at the vei'y source, is the
extreme poverty of the farmers, which compels them
to convert their produce into money ss quickly as pos-
sible. Vi'^e leai'n that the same system is still pur-
sued, and the consequence is that few calves are
reared, and the production of meat is continually
declining, whilst the price of meat advances,
and the consumption proportionally diminishes.
The author also accounts for the inferior quality of the
cattle sent to Paris by referring to the state of the law.
" Under the system of a tax per head the butcher
purchased by preference the finest cattle, finding it to
his interest to do so in spite of their high price rela-
tively as live meat. Now, on the contrary, his interest
compels him to purchase only animals of the second or
third quality. He pays the tax on the iveight, and
receives no advantage from the form or sti'ength of the
animal he purchases. On the other hand, the tax
being uniform, as he finds in an ox of 500 kilos, as
many pieces of each class as in an ox of 300, and as he
cannot sell the meat proceeding from the first at one
single centime more than that of the second, he has an
evident interest in purchasing only animals of inferior
quality, which cost him less alive, and afford him a
better profit. He neglects, therefore, beasts of superior
quality, or does not offer a price for them adequate to
what they cost ; which tends to discourage the breed-
ing of finer races, and lowers the quality of the meat
consumed on the great market of Paris. Under this
regulation the consumption of cows continually in-
creases, to the decline of that of oxen ; and the mean
weight of the latter, as well as their mean value, as
continually diminishes."

Such is the state of butcher's law in Paris; and
its effefits upon the most important branch of good
husbandry in general, and upon the health of the in-
habitants of Paris in particular. Efforts are making
to induce the agriculturists to adopt a better system ;
but until the law is altered or abolislied altogether, it is
impossible that any beneficial change can take place.

In the meanwhile France will become an importer
instead of an exporter of cattle ; for it is impossible
under the present system either to improve the breeds
generally, or to prevent decline in the production of
cattle. All writers on the agriculture of France agree
on this subject, as well as that the farmers of France
are more disposed to invest their savings in iresh pur-
chases of land, or in railway and other public stock,
than in the imjirovement either of the soil or of the
breeds of cattle. There are undoubtedly exceptions to
this, but it certainly applies to the large body of far-
mers in that country, and is the bane of its agricultural
prosperity.

* " Question dea Subsistances — solutioa, le pain k soixante
centimea les deux kilogrammea ;" &c.

S2

293

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ON THE PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL FOOD.*

[translated from the FRENCH OF " LE JOURNAL D'AGRICULTURE PRATIQUE. "]

No one disputes the importance of the bovine race of
animals, in connexion with the slaughter-house ; nor, on the
other hand, does anybody appear to doubt that we have
taken a wrong course in that great question— the produc-
tion of meat.

Both the consumption increases and the price advances
continually. People are uneasy at this, and inquire the
reason, which is very simple : Production remains station-
ary, and is not in accordance with consumption ; and it has
remained stationary because it is not sufficiently profitable
to the agriculturist.

The remedy for so serious a state of things is not easy of
application ; for, in some degree, it requires the co-operation
of every one, and, above all, the vigorous support of au-
thority, which should have the sole power of effecting a
reaction in the tendencies of the market.

The most liberal encouragements lavished upon the
breeders of cattle would not be too much, at this time ;
and they should, undoubtedly, bring the consumption to
modify itself to something like what it is in England,
which is at once more profitable to agriculture and to the
public health than what is taking place in France.

In France, the number of horned cattle amounts, in
round numbers, to ten millions ; that of cows being four
millions, and of calves three millions. Of these latter they
kill two-and-a-half millions per annum, which do not yield
more than 30 kilogrammes of meat (about 66^-lb.) per head.
We slaughter, besides, 1,500,000 head of large cattle; and
this total of four million head yields four hundred million
kilogrammes (88G,070,0001b.) of meat.

In England, with eight million head, they slaughter only
two million ; and that number yields five hundred million
kiloCTammes (or l,107,5o7,5001b.) of meat.

les : in France, four million head yield four hundred
million kilogrammes; and in England, two million yield five
hundred million kilogrammes of meat. The cause is that, in
England, they kill neither so many calves nor so many old.
oxen ; and it is this correct and skilful proportion that
gives them an economic position much superior to that of
France in this respect.

The first and most important of the encouragements to
be given for the production of cattle is, an entire change in
the present customs of the slaughter-house. " Freedom," they
say, is about to succeed monopoly in the great market of
Paris, and to respond to the incessant and just complaints
of the consumers ; which is good news. 'J'he freedom of
the slaughter-house is as useful to agriculture as to the
consumer ; for it will suppress a part of those intermediaries
who absorb too large a share of the price, and cause the
consumer to paj' too dear for the meat, whilst the producer
sells it too cheap, and is, coasequently, disgusted with the
market produce.

Let U3 judge of this by the following statement, which is
taken from ofKcial documents, and which shows that the aver-
age price of an ox weighing 350 kilogrammes (7751b.) of net
meat is 314f. (£13 Is. 8d.), or per kilogramme 89c. to 90c
(or about 4d. per lb.) Certainly, there is a considerable dis-
tance between this price and the selling price of meat ; and if,
as ought in justice to be the case, the greatest part of it
accrued to the grazier, his advantage would be a powerful en-
couragement to production. But, besides the indispensable
intermediation of the butchers, there are others of all sorts.
There is the Pay Office of Poissy, which charges, besides an
interest of five per cent, upon the loan granted to the butcher,
a municipal right of 3c. ; which led M. Chale to say, in his
deposition before the Parliamentary Inquiry made in 1851 :
" The Pay Office of Poissy is an instrument with which the
city of Paris takes l,400,000f. from the pockets of the agri-
culturists, under the pretext of ensuring their payments, which

■* Taken from the second eJilion of "The Principal Rovine
Races of France, England, and Switzerland," hy the Marquis
of Dampierre.

they do not ensure at all." Next, there is the town due of
2c. per kilogramme, and the abattoir tax of rather more than
7c., making in all 15c. 3^ milles.

But still this is not all. There is, in consequence of the
law which makes it imperative to bring all the animals to the
markets of Sceaux and Poissy, intended for the supply of
Pans, at least one purchaser at first hand, who forms the
groups of cattle, and conducts them to the privileged market;
but there are more frequently two, three, and even four inter-
mediate dealers, whose exactions are not less than from 10c.
to 15c. per kilogramme each. There are also the commis-
sioners near the same markets ; the guides, to show the
way from Sceaux to Poissy, and from Poissy to Sceaux; the
hay-merchant ; and the lodging-house-keeper : and all these
people have their share of the benefit that the consumer ought
to pay to the producer. It also raises the price of meat from
6c. to 8c. per kilogramme, on the average.

I am aware that all these middle-men cannot be suppressed,
but they may be considerably reduced in number ; and they
ought to be placed on a well-understood footing. Nor can
the production of cattle make any important advance whatever
until the agriculturist shall be fully satisfied and secured in
this respect.

Light breaks in on every side, and the most interesting
publications are applying the torch to those questions which
the mterest of the Paris butchers hold in voluntary obscurity.
Documents abound; and we can obtain from them a know-
ledge of abuses of all kinds, which ignorance alone of the facts
has suffered to exist to the present time.

It is to the parliamentary inquiry commenced in 1851 —
which the political events of that period prevented from being
completed — to which is due the merit of the deep investiga-
tion of this question. The documents collected at that period
are the basis and starting-point of all the publications which
have .since been issued. They display such a character of
honesty and truth, that we have felt secure in quoting them ;
and they are found continually under the pen of every writer.
One of these, amongst others, M. E. Blanc, in his " Mysteries
of the Butchery," supports by that authority the result of his
personal works. M. Blanc does not draw conclusions in favour
of freedom ; he would substitute one monopoly for another.
But h's statements are, nevertheless, interesting and instruc-
tive; and I shall borrow from him some of great importance.
The price of beef at Paris, in 1820, was from 55 to 60 cents,
per pound ; in 1841, according to the report of M. Boulay
de la Meurthe to the Municipal Council, 70 cents. ; and it has
successively risen from that time to 100 and 104 cents, (or
lOd. to lOd. l-25th per pound) — an increase of 90 per cent, in
thirly-six years, and that in spite of all the efforts of the Ad-
ministration to reduce the price of meat, and a multitude of
opposite measures contradictory Dnd incessantly reviving,
with the view of remedying the evil. " He has been assured
that the butchers of Paris could sell meat retail at 10 cents,
less per kilogramme than they purchase it, on account of the
skin and other proceeds," — [Parliamentary Enquiry (French)
of 1851, vol. i. p. 32). Now, the mean course of the ave-
rages of the markets this year (1857) quotes meat at 1 franc
40 cents. (Is. 2d.), and this price is imaginary — " because the
butchers have an interest in raising fictitiously the price of
live cattle, in order to justify them in selling dearer by retail."
— [Report of M. Boulay de la Meurthe, 1841.]

Let UB, however, accept the quotation of 1 franc 40 cents. ;
the average retail selling price has been 1 franc 98 cents., or 58
cents. (Sjcl.) more than the cost price, instead of 10 cents, less.

The following is, under another form, the butcher's
amount : — f. c.

Cost price of meat 1 40

r Retail price. ... 1 98 '
Selling price. . < Skin and other

L proceeds .... 0 34 ,

2 32

Profit 0 92cta.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

293

But this is uot all : we must now state the leas palpable
profits which accrue to this return of 2 francs 32 cents.,
namely —

1st, The coarse meat imposed upon the purchaser, in spite
of the regulations of the Prefecture of Police, amounting to
one-fourth, and more frequently to one-third of the weight ;
say 40 cents, per kilogramme.

2nd. The substitutions of one class for another, or the
deviation of the general amount from the classes, 40 cents, per
kilogramme.

3rd. The sale to the tallow-melter of the fat from the
carcase (about 15 kilogrammes per beast) ; of the loose fat
and skin, charged according to custom, at the price of the meat
(1 franc 98 cents, per kilogramme),'aud thrown into the basket,
then sold a second time (about 10 kilogrammes, at 1 franc 20
cents, per kilogramme). Total, 25 kilogrammes. Making a
profit, on an average, of 49 francs 80 cents, per beast, or 1
franc 45 cents, per kilogramme.

4th. The sale of 20 kilogrammes of bone allowed to the
butcher upon each bullock, and reckoned by the Prefecture of
Police at 20 cents, per kilogramme, and which they sell at the
price of meat (1 franc 98 cents).

5th. The kidueys and false-chines, the normal weight of
which is 20 kilogrammes ; to which must be added 20 other
kilogrammes, taken from the first, second, and third classes.*
The whole sold at 3 francs per kilogramme.

6th, and above all, we must reckon the skill with which
the meat is managed, so that there never remains a mor-
sel for the fourth class, and but little in the third ; by
which it is estimated that they gain 1 franc per kilogramme
on the fourth class.

Now, there is still the substitution of cow beef for that of ox ;
the difference in the price being from 48 to 50 cents. All the
butchers kill cows, of which, on an average, 25,000 per annum
are killed in Paris ; and they are tight in doing so, for that
meat, although we say it, is as good, and often as fine, as that
of ox beef, depending on the quality and health of the animal.
We never, however, find any cow beef amongst the butchers ;
they scout, as an iusult, the inquiry for it. The reason is,
that cow beef is transformed into ox beef as soon as it ap-
pears upon the stall, and this fraudulent substitution consti-
tutes an average net profit of 149 francs 54 cents per cow (or
£6 4s. 2d.) on all that are killed.

With all these enormous profits, what are the expenses to
be deducted? They are as follows : —

fr. c. m.

The cost price 1 40 0

The municipal duties 0 12 34

The expenses of the stall 0 8 50

1 60 84

These results are so important, that the skill of the butchers
has been exercised successfully to conceal them up to the pre-
sent time. It is high time to give a complete statement of
them ; for the profits accruing from them ought to be shared
by the graziers, who, up to the present time, have been simple
enough not to lay any claim to this fifth quarter {cinquieme
quartier), which nevertheless amounts to 126 fr. 90 c. per
head, or 36 c. 78 m. per kilo., upon 345 kilos, of ox beef ;
75 fr. 90 c. per cow, or 3 c. 45 m. per kilo., on 220 kilos, of net
meat; 29 fr. 30 c. per calf, or 45 c. per kilo., on 68 kilos, net
meat; and 11 fr. 60c. per sheep, or 64c. per kilo., on 18 kilos,
of net meat.

This mysterious fifth quarter does not amount to less than
from 18 to 20 millions of francs profit per annum to the
Parisian butchers alone. Judge then of its importance to the
grazier !

The calculations which attribute an average profit of 34
cents, per kilo. (S^d. nearly) as the result of this fifth quarter,
are based upon the average of 1856. Those of 1857 are
higher, and exhibit an increase of 22 fr. 10 c. per ox, 14 fr.
95 c. per cow, 6 fr 33 c. per calf, and 2 fr. 22 c. per sheep.
They consequently increase proportionally the profit, estimated
too low at 34 c. per kilo, raising it 36c. 78 ra. for ox beef,
34 c. 5 m. for cow beef, 45 c. for veal, aud 64 c. for mutton.

lu order to complete this useful information for the graziers.

we give the prices in the actual returns of the aeveral parts of
this calculation.

fr. c.

Ox Beef — The skin, average weight 47^ kilos 58 90

Tallow and fat „ „ 50 kilos 56 0

Offal (lights, liver, spleen, brain, tongue, gall,

and paunch) 12 0

Total , 126 90

Cow Beef. — Skin, average weight 35 kilos 45 50

Tallow „ „ 20 kilos 22 40

Offal (as before) 8 0

Total 75 90

Calf. — Skin, average weight 7i kilos 16 50

Tallow „ „ 4 kilos 4 80

Offal (head, tongue, brain, sweetbread, pluck,

and stomach) 8 0

Total 29 30

Sheep. — Skin in the wool, mean value 6 0

Tallow, average weight 3 kilos 3 60

Offal (head, tongue, brains, feet, kidneys, and

stomach) 2 0

Total

11 60

* By the law in France, Ihe butchers are bound to divide their
meat into four classes, and selJ it, according to the quality, at a
certain price, iixed by tlie Prefecture of Police.— [Translator.]

All these figures are taken from authentic sources. Let us
consider what an enormous bearing they have upon produc-
tion. We would wish that in this point of view it may attract
serious attention; and that, when once delivered from the
monopoly, means may be found to make the butchers pay for
all those parts which have a value as high and real as the meat
sold to them.

Let us now see what influence the price of meat has upon
consumption, and especially on the qualities consumed. An
English work, " The Night Side of London," has published
some very interesting statistical documents on the consump-
tion of London. There are eaten in that city annually 277,000
oxen, 30,000 calves, 1,800,000 sheep, 35,000 pigs, &c. On
this statement M. E. Blanc makes the following reflections : —

" If we refer to the consumption of Paris, we find that that
annual average consumption, for a population which amounts
to only half that of London, is 88,000 oxen (only one-third of
the consumption of London), 77,000 to 80,000 calves (nearly
two-thirds more than are consumed in London), and from
20,000 to 25,000 cows, &c.

" Now, reducing these classes to kilogrammes, we find the
following differences between the alimentary conditions of the
two capitals : —

" The 277,000 oxen of London, superior in weight to those
of the French oxen, and weighing in net meat a minimum of
400 kilos., allow for the 2,360,000 inhabitants of that city
47 kilos, per head ; and the 30,000 calves, a food destitute of
all nutritive qualities, 86 grammes only.

" The 88,000 oxen of Paris, on the contrary, weighing on
an average 345 kilos., allow to the 1,200,000 inhabitants of
that city only 25 kilos. 300 gr. per head ; and the 77,000 calves
5 kilos. ; which makes a difference in favour of the population
of London of 24 kilos. 70 gr. of beef per head, and a difference in
favour of the population of Paris of 4 kilos. 14 gr. of veal — the
former being substantial, and the latter unsubstantial food.

" These statements explain why the work of which we
speak thinks itself authorized to say, that ' London is the city
in the world where they live the longest. In ten years the
average of deaths has been "25 per thousand ; and in 1856 that
proportion teas reduced to 22 per thousand.'

" If, in order to complete the comparison, we consult the
mortuary statistics of Paris, we find in them, by the state-
ments of the English work, a sad contrast in the constant
progression in the deaths, the average of which was, in 1831
to 1810, 26 per thousand ; in 1841 to 1850, 28^ per thousand ;
and in 1851 to 1855, 31-2 P^"^ thousand.

" Perhaps the price of meat at these different periods will
explain to us the cause of this deplorable mortuary pto^
gression."

" From 1831 to 1840 meit sold at the stall from 60 to 65

294

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

cents. (6tl. to 6^ci.) per lb. It rose from 1841 to 1850, to
from 70 to 75 cents.; and we have aean, from 1851 to 1855,
and afteriTards, it has attaiued a rate assumiug from day to
day more of a prohibitory character.

" Is it not expedient here to recall that fearful declaration
made before the Commission of Inquiry of 1851, and quoted
in page 101 of this work, that luhen the consumption of meat
decreases, the Mortality increases in an analo-
gous PROPORTION?"

We have here certainly matter for serious reflection, and
motives for endeavourin": to bring back the production and
consumption of cattle, that source of public health, to con-
ditions equitable for all.

Could agriculture produce meat in a profitable manner, by
producing more, and at the same time considerably diminish-
ing the price to the consumer ? Certainly yes ; but, in my
opinion, three conditions are necessary, in what relates to the
butchery of Paris, and these measures would have an imme-
diate and decided influence upon the butchery of the rest of
Frat ce, which, without reaching the impositions of the Paris
butchery, tends to copy its proceedings in its own. These
three conditions are as follow :

1st. Free-trade for the butchery— that is, competition. A
vigilant authority may, by measures more efficacious than
those which now exist, survey more closely the quality of the
meat. It could not make the matter worse, in any case, bow-
ever evidently disposed to do so j for fraud has been intro-
duced everywhere, and the existing monopoly lives only by the
violation of the laws and regulations which govern the matter.

2ndly. The suppression of all the middle-men and all the
duties which are placed between the producer and the con-
sumer. Let there be only the butcher, and the municipal and
abattoir charges, reduced to 5 or 6 centimes.

Sfd'y. The creation of one market only, withiu reach of
Paris, and thereby the suppression of the 8 or 10 centimes
which tax the meat of animals usually driven from
Sceaus to Poissy, from Poissy to Sceaus, or from Sceaux or
Poissy to Paris, to the great injury of their health, their
weight, and ths quality of their meat. By this arrangement,
again, we might look for a more strict and real attention than
that which a director of Abattoir intimated in the following
terms in the Legislative inquiry of 1851 ; — '' It is certain that
the inspection of the markets is completely illusory ; for the
inspectors inspect nothing at all. They do on the market just
as they please, and the public find in it no guarantee. There
come animals in the most deplorable condition; the inspectors
never see them ; and then even if they did see them, it is a
question whether they would prevent the sale of them."

The establishment of a single market, and within reach of
Paris, might involve other desirable measures ; for instance,
the verification of meat, which every one declares to be of a
quality frequently wretched ; and by this means the pre-
vention of the entry into Paris of dead meat, or that of
animals killed beyond the Barriers, most frequently diseased,
and killed clandestinely. The consumption of meat under
such circumstances assumes a frightful proportion ; for in 1856
it reached the amount of 17,150,000 kilos., being a third of
the consumption of meat proceeding from the Abattoirs ;
whereas iu 18 18 it was only 366,000 and in 1846 4.653,000 kilos.

All meat which has not passed under inspection alive ought
to be proscribed : it is the only means of insuring a healthful
alimentation.

Such is the state of this great question of the butchery, so
important in all points of view for agriculture, and so worthy
of engaging the attentiou of all reflecting men.

E. DE Dampierre,

PRESENTATION OF PLATE,

TESTIMONIAL TO MR. R. T. BECKETT, OF TARPORLEY.

On the occasion of the rent-day in December last, in con-
nection with the estates of Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton,
Bart., M.P., a general feeling was expressed by the tenantry
that some mark of their appreciation of the honest, courteous,
and exemplary conduct of Mr. R. T. Beckett, the agent, was
called for ; and no aooner was the sentiment expressed, than ar-
rangements were made for brioging such good wishes into a
tangible shape. A committee to obtain subscriptions and
arrange details was formed, consisting of Mr. J. Vernon, of
Willington (chairman), and Messrs. Warburton and Barnes,
of Eaton ; Messrs. J. Barker, Finchett, and H. Siddon, of
Eushton ; and Mr. Kigby, of Fenna Wood. Mr, William
Vernon was appointed secretary. The intentions of the com-
mittee were at once announced, and tenants on the Oulton,
Broxton, Astbury, and Upton and Chester estates, all came
forward with their contributions from £2 to Is,, to pay a
tribute of respect to the man who for 23 years had discharged
the onerous duties of laud-agent with fidelity to his employer,
and at the same time with benefit to the tenantry. So uuani-
mous was the feeling, that in a week or two £140 was sub-
scribed; and to add to the general gratification, Sir P. Egerton
expressed bis hearty approval of the whole proceedings. Af-
ter some little consideration, the committee determined that
the testimonial should consist of a handsome, but useful col-
lection of silver-plate. The articles comprised a dozen silver
table forks, a dozen dessert ditto, a case containing a dozen
dessert knives and forks, four silver tablespoons, two gravy
ditto, massive soup ladle, salt cellars, knife rests, cruet stand,
liqueur frame, bread basket, cake basket, a richly chased flower-
bordered salver, an elegantly embossed kettle aud stand, a
dozen Queen's pattern teaspoons, and a splendid gold watch
and chain. A purse containing 30 guineas was also added to
the above-mentioned articles. Accompanying the present was
a beautifully emblazoned and engrossed list of the articles, and
also the names of the various subscribers to the testimonial.
On the kettle, salver, and watch, the following inscription was
engraved—" Presented, with other pieces of plate, by the
tsnantry of Siif Philip Pe Malpas Grey Egertop, Bart-, M.P,,

to Mr. Richard Trim Beckett, as a token of their admiration
of his courteous conduct, aud of their high regard as an honest
and efiicient agent for the last twenty-three years. 10th
February, 1858." The ladle, spoons, &c., each bore some part
of the inscription, denoting that they formed portions of the
testimonial.

In order that the tenantry generally and the friends of Mr.
Beckett might have an opportunity of paying their personal
respects on the occasion of presenting the plate, it was decided
that a dinner should be held at the Red Lion Inn, Eaton, near
Tarporley, on V/ednesday last. Early in the day, the inde-
fatigable secretary, Mr. V/m. Vernon, had tastefully set out
the articles of plate in a small room at the Red Lion, where
they were inspected by nearly 300 of the ladies, gentlemen,
and labourers living in the neighbourhood. At two o'clock

THE DINNER
took place in the large room of the inn, when about 90 of the
tenantry sat down. Amongst the company present we noticed
Mr. John Vernon (chairman), Mr. R. T. Beckett, Mr, Beckett,
and Mr. W. Beckett, Northwich ; Mr. Moss, Shaw Farm ;
Mr. Hicklin, Chester; Mr. Brown. Broxton; Messrs. Bad-
deley, Leadbeater, Robinson, and Bivy, Astbury; Messrs.
Bitheil and Beecroft, Upton ; Messrs. R. Taylor, Rigby, and
Hyne, Little Budworth ; Messrs. W. C. Warburton, Barues,
Law, Ruscoe, Finchett, and Barker, Eaton; Messrs. Bebbiug-
ton and Siddon, Broxton ; Mr. Shrigley ; Mr. Johnson,
Egerton Hall; Messrs. Hitchens and Bretley, Rushtoo ;
Messrs. Ellwood and Rowe, Kelsall; Mr. Davies, Egerton ;
&c., &c.

After the dinner had been disposed of, the Chairman pro-
posed the usual loyal and complimentary toasts ; after which
the health of Sir P. Egerton (the landlord) was drunk with
three times three.
The testimonial was theu placed by Mr. Butt in front of
The Chairman, who rose and said— Mr. Beckett, the
committee formed for the purposa of providing aome jubstftn-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

295

tisl memorial to mark the high estimation in which yo'i are
held by the tenantry of Sir Philip Egerton, have done me the
honour to appoint me their chairman, in which capacity I now
stand. Proud I am of the duties entrusted to me, though
very far from being able to discharge them in a manner that I
would wish ; but I am quite sure you will excuse me when I
say you must take the feehng of the heart for the will of the
mind. During the time you have been amongst us, which
now extends over the long period of twenty-three years, we
have had very many opportunities of witceasing the unremit-
ting care and attention with which you have discharged your
important duties as agent to our worthy landlord. I can say
from experience, when you have seen it needful you have not
been backward, with the kind consent of your beuevclent mas-
ter, to render us every assistance in your power; and now,
sir, on behalf of my brother-tenants, whose names are herein
written, I beg your acceptance of the accompanying testi-
monial as a mark of the esteem we bear towards you, and also
as a small return for the many acta of kindness you have done
us, and for the uniform good feeling and gentlemnnly manner
with which you have treated us; and we hope and trust that
your valuable life may yet be spared many years to us and to
your esteemed wife and family, and that you may be permitted
by a gracious Providence to p\irsue your career of usefulness
in the enjoyment of every blessing this «orld can bestow. And
when declnung years come on, may you view that tribute of
rtspect with delight, and say " I have won those for an example
to a rising progeny and ages yet unborn ;" and when it pleases
God in his infiuite mercy to call you hence, "may you die the
death of the righteous, and msy your last end be like his."
And DOW, gentlemen, I call upon you to show your further
wishes to our worthy guest by filling a bumper to his good
health, with the honours due to a hearty good fellow.

The toast having been drunk amid enthusiastic cheering and
musical honours,

Mr. Beckett rose and said: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
I rise with no ordinary feelings of gratitud's and pleasure to
receive from your hands this valuable testimonial, as a mark of
the estimation in which you hold my conduct and services as
land-agent to Sir Philip Grey Egerton. More than 23 years
ago I entered upon that appointment with the highest gratifica-
tion, and I soon found that I had to work with an intelligent
and inoproving class of farmers, who only required confidence
and encouragement, not dicta; ion. I also found, as I expected,
the nobleman whom it was my duty to serve and represent, to
be a most liberal-minded landlord, whose greatest desire and
happiness was to improve the condition of his tenantry, to
make their homes comfortable and condition prosperous. I
further found in Sir Philip Egerton'a professional agent, Mr.
Humberston, the present Mayor of Chester^a most gentlemanly
and agreeable adviser, easy of access, and always at my right
hand whenever I required advice. Under such circumstances,
and with such advantages, it was no difficult duty for me to
sail smoothly with you in all matters connected with a land-
agency. My course has been as smooth as an unruffled sea. I
am proud to say that I have never had to encounter a head-
wind or a stiff gale ; nor do I yet see any breakers ahead, ex-
cept the chance of a break-down in my attempt to acknowledge
your great kindness on this occasion. While the brilliancy of
your magnificent testimonial dazzles my eyes, my heart throbs
with gratitude which I cannot fully express. I value it for its
intrinsic worth, but still more because 't comes from a respect-
able disinterested tenantry, with whom I have had the honour to
act for so many years. I little thought when I entered upon my
stewardship, that the Ist October, 1834, would be the harbinger
of such a day as this. I thank you all most sincerely. I thank
also my absent friends, the tenantry, who have contributed to
this testimonial, which I shall endeavour to hand down to my
children as unsullied as I receive it at your hands. May health
and happiness attend you and your families, and may the te-
nantry of the House of Oulton always be as united and pros-
perous as their warmest friends can desire ; and believe me
that amongst those friends you have none more sincere than
Sir Philip Egerton your landlord, and your humble servant his
laud-agent. Mr. Chairman, I beg leave to thank you indi-
vidually for the kind and flattering manner in which you have
been pleased to present thij testimonial ; also to you, gentle-
men, for the patient hearing you have given me, to enable me
most inefficiently but most sincerely to acknowledge the high
compliment which you have paid me.

The health of Captain Egerton wa3 next drunk.

Mr. HiCKLiN, in a speech expressive of the pleasure he ex-
perienced in seeing so good a feeling existing between landlord,
agent, and tenantry, proposed " Success to the Flail and the
Plough."

The healths of Mrs. Beckett, the Vice-Presidents, the Com-
mittee, the Secretary, the Press, of Mr. Butt, and thanks to
him for his exertions to obtain so handsome a testimonial, with
other toasts, were proposed and duly responded to, the entire
company enjoying the occasion in a happy, convivial manner.

THE GUANO TRADE A MONOPOLY.

As a convention of the Peruvian Legislature is now sitting
at Lima, as to the future disposal of guano, whether it is to
be continued as a monopoly in the hands of the present con-
signees, Messrs. Baneda Brothers for the United States,
Anthony Gibbs and Son for Great Britain, and the agent for
France and the continent, or opened for free sale at the islands,
it may be interesting to know a little of the trade and of the
immense profits made by the consignees. The shipments to
this country and England for 1854, being in round numbers
163,000 aad 200,000 tons (those to the continent not in-
cluded), will show the great interest the consignees have in
continuing things as they are, and the necessity of our citizens
and the English exerting themselves to open the trade to the
public : —

SOLD IN THE STATES IN 1854.

dolls >
163,000 tons at 55 d., 8.965,000 d. ; com. 5 per cent. 448,250
„ freight 20 d, 3,260,000 d.; com. 2^ „ 81,500
The consignees get this on all charters, no matter
how many ship-brokers are interested in the
other half.
Estimating 163 vessels as loaded, and that 3,000 da.
were drawn for disbursement, the profits on ad-
vances of Peruvian dollars, worth about 75 c 125,000

654,750

Messrs. A. Gibba and Son, in proportion, would

amount to 813,000

There are other commissions on advances,
storage, &c.

Memorials had been presented by the British landowners,
farmers, shipowners, and merchants to the government, to use
their influence to hsve the monopoly so injurious to the public
good done away with ; but hitherto their exertions with the
Peruvian government have been unsuccessful. However,
there is now a hope, as the Peruvians think a change ought to
be made. The ministers of both countries should render
their assistance for so desirable an object.

Though freights have fallen considerably since 1854, the
price of guano has been raised from 55 dols. to 62 dols.

When at the Chincha Islands a few years ago, Mr. Elias had
the contract for shipping, at nearly a dollar over the tender of
Mr. Lloyd, though backed with good security. This would be
a charge extra of 400.000 dols. a-year to the farmers, esti-
mating the annual shipments at that amount. The vessels
were then delayed a month, by having to enter and clear at
Callao.

In 1851 the price of guano, with higher freights than at
present, was 45 dols. This year the English agents attempted
to raise the price to 70 dols., being 8 dols. over the rates here,
though the charges were the same ; but it failed, owing to the
Blark Lane Express calling the attention cf the farmers and
the trade to its injustice. 500,000 toois could be annually
shipped from the islands, which at 20 dols. would give a
revenue to Peru of 10,000 000 dols. (less the shipping charges),
and with 20 d..ls. freight would make guano stand 40 dols.
afloat, instead of 60 dols., as under present management.

This is a question of importance to the farmers of the world,
—Hunt's (American) Merchants' Magazine.

296

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE CULTURE OF SHEEP.

A LECTURE BY MR. ROBT. SMITH, OF EMMETT'S GRANGE, SOUIH MOI.TON, DEVON.

Ou Monday evening, Feb. 22, a lecture was delivered by Mr.
Robert Smith, of Emmett's Grange, South Molton, Devon, in
the new lecture-theatre of the South Kensington Museum, on
" The Culture of Sheep," being the last of a series of six ad-
dresses to working-men, and intended to explain the collections
of the animal kingdom in the museum. The aUendance was
very large, there being at least 500 persons present. The lec-
turer produced a great number of pictorial sketches of the
various breeds of sheep, English and foreign, which added ma-
terially to the interest of the lecture ; they being frequently
referred to in elucidation of the subject.

After some introductory observations — in which Mr. Smith
spoke of the advantages offered to working men ia that institu-
tion, and observed incidentally that in going over the museum he i
had found that the collection of specimens relative to the culture j
of sheep was incomplete, and that he would do what he could to
supply the deficiencies — the lecturer proceeded to bring before
the audience the subject of his lecture. The culture of sheep |
was, he said, a branch of their rural and national economy j
which had not as yet received that degree of public attention
which was due to it. As a rural occupation it was the founda- i
tion of all good husbandry, and in a national point of view
they looked to it as a means of employment for thousands of
their artisans, and as an important source of food and raiment
for an increasing population. They found from history that
sheep had existed at the earliest periods in every quarter of the *
globe, from Iceland to the regions of the torrid zone; but
they had been most cultivated in Europe — especially in Ger-
many, Spain, and Great Britain ; and not only had the culti- [
vation of sheep in this couctry recently outstripped that of
every other country, but they were daily witnessing a new and
important auxiliary in the culture of sheep in the British
colonies. As he had already intimated, sheep were found in
every quarter of the globe. Thus they were to be met with
in every variety of climate, adapting themselves to the vicissi-
tudes of heat and cold. In each country they were cultivated
according to the wants and tastea of the people, whether for
food, clothing, or the uses of commerce ; but when left to
themselves, under the operation of Nature's laws, they repre-
sented every form of carcase and clothing which corresponded
to or fitted them for the particular climate and country in
which they existed. Sheep when in a wild state preferred to
range at large on open plains, and displayed considerable sa-
gacity in the selection of their food. They herded together in
small flocks, and were in general active, swift of foot, and
easily frightened by dogs or men. When completely domesti-
cated, the sheep appeared as stupid as it was harmless ; but
when left to depend upon itself for food and protection, it ex-
hibited a more decided character. Under such circumstances
a ram had been seen to attack and beat-off a formidable dog.
On the approach of storms they retired for shelter to the spot
which they knew from experience to be most adapted to afford
it. Of all the domesticated animals of Great Britain, the sheep
was of the greatest consequence both to the farmer and to the
nation — to the farmer, because it was raised with ease and in
situations where other animals could not exist, and generally
made a better return for the quantity and quality of the food
cons-uni".'i tbm any other aisimal ; to the uahloD, because it

supplied a staple article of food and raiment, and at the same
time afforded employment to an immense number of artisans.
The culture of first-rate sheep was a "science blended with
practice ;" and consequently a proper knowledge of Nature's
laws, more especially as regarded the effect of climate and
situation on their character, had led to important improve-
ments in their form, quality of flesh, and general management.
It must not be forgotten that the sheep of the present day
were, in fact, the production of man's skill and enterprise in
their propagation from their original wild state. From this it
might be inferred that were the breeders to relax their
exertions, leaving the animal again to Nature's course, the
various flocks would soon degenerate. Let them fancy for a
moment such a state of things. Where then would be the
advance of commerce or the increasing production of meat for
an increasing population ? Happily for the English nation,
however, there was no cause to fear that this picture would
ever become a reality. In every point of view " the culture
of sheep" deserved to be esteemed one of the principal
branches of rural economy, and claimed the attention of the
artisan, the manufacturer, and the State. Now he must con-
fess at the outset that he was not so familiar with foreign
breeds of sheep as he was with English breeds ; and therefore
on that part of the subject he must call in the assistance of a
very able work by Mr. Youatt. He should afterwards speak of
what he himself was familiar with. The sheep which was handed
down to us from time immemorial was a horned sheep. [The
lecturer here referred to a picture of the original breed.]
As he had before intiniited, sheep were transforrr.ed in the
process of propagation, by means of certain rules which were
known to the breeders, and that the original breed should
have been transformed into the sheep of the present day
[pointing to specimens of the latter], showed how great an
art was the culture bf sheep. He was indebted to Mr. Davis,
the Queen's artiat, of Church-street, Chelsea, for the paintings
and pictorial specimens before them ; and when he told them
that gentleman had executed the whole of the sketches
since 11 o'clock that morning, they must feel he had lost no
time. After referring to a representation of the Russian
sheep, the Wallachiau sheep, and the fat-rumped sheep, as
affording illustrations of the original breed, and also to a picture
of a black-faced Scotch sheep for the same purpose, he alluded
: to the fat-tailed sheep of the Cape, and remarked, in passing,
1 that the tail of this sheep was esteemed so great a luxury in
' its native country, that it often sold for more than all the re&t
of the carcass. He then mentioned the Cyprus sheep, known
, by its spiral horns, and the Moufflon sheep, which inhabited
j Iceland, and resembled our deer. There were also the Asiatic
I argalia, the American argali, and more particularly the
' Merino sheep, of which he would speak at a future period of
1 the lecture. Before he proceeded any further, he said, he
i ought to remark that the fine-woolled sheep were produced in
! dry warm countries, while strong-coated sheep were produced
in wet cold countries ; the coat being, in fact, adapted to the
climate. From this it followed, that if the finesf-woolled
animals were introduced into this countrj^ they would die
away ; while sheep of the opposite description might be ex-
pected to thrive, After illustratiag and explaining the foreign

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

297

breeds, their localities and habits (which was an interesting
part of the lecture), he would not trouble the audience with
any further remarks on foreign sheep, but would proceed to
speak of their own sheep. Of course England in the earliest
periods of her history resembled all other countries under
similar circumstances. There was nothing but bleak hills
undrained plains, and wild commons ; and over these unculti-
vated lands were found no animals but such as were in
a corresponding condition. But in the course of time
desolation gave way to improvement ; the hills and plains were
cultivated, drainage was to a certain extent effected, and
with the improvement of agriculture there was a corresponding
improvement in the breeds of sheep. He would first speak of
the native horned sheep as originally known in this country.
That picture [pointing to one] represented the old black-faced
mountain sheep of Yorkshire. That animal had disappeared
before the plough, and the farmers of that part of England had
placed on their lands a much better kind of animals. There^
again [pointing to another specimen], was the Dorset long-
wooUed horned sheep. Generally speaking, all the inferior
breeds had given way to the better breeds ; but here was an
exception — the Dorset sheep remained, and the reason of this
was that the lambs were produced two or three months earlier
by that breed of sheep than by any other. The inferior Dorset
sheep were preserved in order that the luxurious might have
lamb out of season (laughter). They had no doubt all heard
a great deal about the Welsh sheep [pointing to a sketch of
this breed] ; those sheep were fed on the waste hills of the
Principality. If the hills could be cultivated, there would be a
proportionate improvement in the breed of sheep ; but as there
appeared little prospect of that, the animal would no doubt con-
tinue in its present condition, and he need scarcely say that the
Welsh sheep were altogether a naked lot (laughter). He now
came to the Old Norfolks, the sheep improved by the late Lord
Leicester, better known in those days as Mr. Ccke. When
Lord Leicester first began his career as an agriculturist, in
Norfolk, he found nothing buc sand3r downs and a race of
hardy and inferior sheep ; but now the sandy downs had be-
come fertile fields, and there was no part of the country which
exhibited greater improvement, whether as regarded the culti-
vation of the land or the breeding of sheep. The aheep of
which he had spoken had now disappeared, having been
supplanted by the improved South Down of Sussex. Then
as to the horned sheep. These were peculiar to the dry
lands of England, it being on the moist pasture of the
country that that description of animal did best. If the
cultivator could get enough within five or six years from
the wool and the price which lie ultimately obtained for the
carcase of his " old mountain wether," he was generally
satisfied. He had now to refer to what were once the
marshy districts of England, but which were now reckoned
among the most fertile agricultural and grazing districts of
the country: he referred especially to the Lincolnshire
marshes. That county might be regarded as one of the
best pasture districts in the kingdom. The sheep there
were exposed to the eastern winds, as they fed on the low
grass lands ; and consequently the animals which were
most adapted for that district were robust animals — animals
which had a large amount of bone and fleece. He was able
to speak on this subject with the greater confidence, because
Lincolnshire happened to be his native county, and he
resided there lor a considerable portion of his life. The
old Tees- Water sheep was almost a fac-simile of the Lin-
colnshire sheep. [The pictures of both were referred to in
support of this statement.] There [pointing to a picture of
(I group pf sheep] was a representation of the Merino.

It was a sketch made by Mr. Davis, of some Merino
sheep which were introduced into England by George
the Third, with a view to their propagation. Notwith-
standing the king's patronage, the farmers of the day
would not have these foreign sheep thrust upon them ;
the carcase not being one that would pay, and almost the
sole use of the animal being the production of fine wool, to
be mixed with the coarser wools. There was a fac-simile
of this breed of sheep on Exmoor Forest; and this suggested
to him that though the Spaniard had propagated this
animal chiefly for his wool, it might have come originally
from the mountain. The Merino was a very hardy animal,
its wool was remarkably thick and fine, and it was alto-
gether a very respectable sheep (laughter). It had occurred
to him that the Exmoor sheep might be mixed with the
Merino to advantage; not that English farmers would consent
to admit the Merino in order to improve their own sheep; but
he thought their sheep would improve the Merino, by giving
them more lean meat and length of wool. There [pointing
to a picture] was a brown animal called " the Syrian sheep,"
which was a sort of Cape sheep with a long tail This re-
minded him of a very interesting fact, namely, that the sheep
of the earliest ages, besides being horned, were in many cases
coloured. In tracing the records of history, relating to this
subject, he found mention made of black sheep, brown sheep,
speckled sheep, mottled sheep, and so on. So also in the pre-
sent day, agriculturists sometimes saw among their flocks black
aheep, grey-faced sheep, grey-legged sheep ; while there
was also an occasional appearance of horns. Now he felt
that he had not said enough about the Merino sheep. The
Spaniards and the Germans had propagated the Merino on
account of the fineness of its wool. It is this kind of sheep
that has been found to be most suitable for our Austra-
lian colonies. The Southdown sheep had been tried there,
but had not been found to answer so well, because it was, in
fact, a wild mountain sheep. In Australia, land being for the
most part of little value, and rents merely nominal, an im-
mense quantity of sheep were kept ranging over vast tracts of
country ; and up to a recent period, if the shearing from time
to time fulfilled the expectations of the grower, he was amply
repaid. Since the discovery of the gold diggings, however, and
the vast increase of population, there had, of course, been
people to feed as well as fine wools to be produced. In fact
the people of Australia bad already found themselves rather in
a dilemma for want of mutton ; and it might be worthy of
consideration whether it would not pay some Australian agri-
culturists to come over here, and pay him (the lecturer) a good
price for specimens of his mountain Exmoor sheep (laughter.)
Now among the old EngUsh breeds that remain, there was the
Dorset sheep, which was preserved, as he had stated, on account
of the early lamb; the Welsh sheep, which did not
appear at all likely to be improved ; and the Scotch
black-faced Sheep. This last sheep resembled the Rus-
sian sheep, and belonged, no doubt, to the same
family. It was a very useful animal, chiefly for this
reason that it lived and throve where no other breed of sheep
could do so. Then there was the Exmoor sheep, which he
begged to say had not disappeared (laughter), but, on the
contrary, was as thriving as ever. Next there was the old
Scotch white-faced horn, which, in consequence of the improve-
ment of the black-faced sheep, and the very rapid march of the
Cheviot sheep, was altogether out of date. Then there were
the old Ryelands, natives of Worcestershire, Herefordshire,
&c. On this subject he remarked, that it was not unlikeiy
that the late Mr. Bakewell received considerable aid from
the Ryelnnd sheep. Mr. Bakewell never explained to Eng-

29 S

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

lisb breeders the course which he pursued, as they could
have wished him to do, by leaving as a legacy to future gene-
rations the descriptive art of producing such a newly estab-
lished breed as Ms Leiceaters. He thought he obtained them
originally from the Ryelends sheep. In fact [pointing to pic-
torial sketches of Ryeland and Leicester sheep] there we have
the portrait of a Ryeland ewe, and another of a Leicester, as
first improved by Mr. Bakewell. I must say, I think them so
alike, that I was about to say I see no difference. A repre-
sentation of one of Mr. Bakewell'a sort of sheep was given
in the Farmers' Magazine, published by Messrs. Rogerson
and Tuxford, of the Strand. Many breeders thought that
animal — a ram bred by Mr. loskip — an exceedingly good
one, and many ventured to assert that there never was so
good an animal before, and never would be so good a one again.
Mr. Bakewell produced a particular kind of animal— an ani-
mal suited to his own particular taste. At the outset he bred
his sheep for form and symmetry, quality of flesh, fineness of
wool, but regardless of weight. After a few years, when he
had arrived at a certain state of cultivation, however much he
might be admired by his friends the Leicester breeders, there
were others who did not view the matter in the same light.
These persons did not feel that the head required to be made
smart, or the wool fine, or the bone less ; they therefore re-
sisted the new theories, and, as is stated by Mr. Youatt in his
book, Mr. Bakewell was at first unsuccessfnl in the letting his
sheep ; but in after years it happened that men's minds began
to change : lest the whole cultivation should be monopolised by
that gentleman, a society consisting of eight breeders was
formed to obtain the first pick of his flock. In the fall of
the year each of these gentlemen selected a male animal, so
that Mr. Bakewell's sheep were distributed as it were over the
country. There was another breed of sheep which he had not
mentioned, namely, the Romney Marsh sheep. This was
a wild, bony, coarse animal, and he believed it had
disappeared. There was another sheep, of an intermediate
character, called the Devonshire Nots, a variety between the
Exmoor horned sheep and the Leicester, and a very hardy ani-
mal. This was found among the high hills of North Devon
and West Somerset : it was an animal which was about half
way between the highly-cultivated sheep and the mountain
races, and, occupying an intermediate position, was exceedingly
useful in certain districts of the country. He now came to
the short-wooUed sheep. A black-faced short-woolled sheep
was found scattered over a great many of the southern coun-
ties. Here, for example [pointing to a specimen], was a black
Norfolk sheep. This afforded an illustration of what he had
said before with regard to the influence of climate. Here they
had changed the Old Norfolk for the Southdown sheep in the
dry eastern counties of England. Then they had the South-
down on the dry southern soils, and distributed over many
intermediate spaces of dry and healthy sheep-lands — which the
lecturer explained, grounding every argument upon climate
and improved cultivation. The Leicesters inhabit the midland
counties and intermediate lands between the extreme dry and
extreme moist climates of our island, the long-wooUed sheep
being exposed to the colder aspects, where the short- wool or
pure Leicester could not exist. The localities and habits of
the several breeds were then enumerated by reference to a map
of England and Wales, which had been prepared by the autho-
rities of the Institution for the purpose of illustrating the lec-
ture. In turning to Scotland, he would remark that such was
the effect of altitude that he would illustrate it in this way, by
reference to a hilly district : for instance, at the foot of the
hill was to be found the cultivated Leicesters, then the mixed
Leicester and Cheviot, a stage further up they found the Che-

viot sheep, then the mixed black-faced and Cheviot cross, and
next we find the black-faced ewe, and lastly the black-faced
wethers, which it v/as said no weather could destroy, unless
blown over by a tempestuous gale (laughter). Tracing the
course of the different breeds ou the map, he observed that
they had here long-wools, middle-wools, and short-wools. The
loDg-woola were to be found in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Kent,
the Cotswold-hills, and some parts of the midland counties ;
the middle-wools were to be found in Dorsetshire, Devonshire,
Leicester, Rutland, Nottingham, &c. ; while among the
short-wools were the very popular Southdowna, West
Couutr^'-downs, Norfolk-downs, Hampshire-downs, and
Shropshires. The latter breed, he might observe, had
come very rapidly into public favour, and he must confess
that as an old breeder he was astonished to find them cultiva-
ted to so high a pitch, and carrying off, as they had done,
prizes at our national shows. In like manner (and this is
extremely interesting) there was now a new breed of sheep,
called the Oxford Downs. Thus, it would be observed, were
agriculturists in various districts endeavouring to propagate /
sheep which were peculiarly adapted to the climate and situa-
tions of their several districts. This was very important as
bearing on the state of the sheep culture at the present day.
The truth was that there had been eminent breeders of sheep as
well as eminent men in other departments of industry ; we
have had our Ellman, Grantham, Bakewell, Ceilings, Culley,
the late Duke of Bedford, Lord Spencer, Lord Leicester, &c.,
of the past age, who did their duty in thus handing down to
us our present established breeds — breeds that have been cul-
tivated from these indigenuous and mountain race? here [point- -<
ing to the pictorial sketches]. This stage of improvement
was received by men of the present generation, who have
succeeded to admiration in carrying on this great work of art
by propagation. Our country stands indebted to such men as
Jonas Webb, the Duke of Richmond, Overman, Sainsbury,
Rigden, Grantham, &c., for cultivating the South Down ; to
Sandy, Pawlett, Creswell, Turner, Spencer, and others for the
Leicesters ; while the long-wools have been remodelled by the
Clarkes, Kirkhams, Casswells, Richardsons, Brices, &e., in
Lincolnshire ; and by Large, Hewer, Game, Wells, Handy, '
Brown, and Ruck, on the Cotswold and neighbouring
hills. There are many other breeders who had long dii-ected
special attention to the improvement of their breeds of sheep ;
and, looking at the transformations which had been effected,
[here the lecturer pointed to the original and the improved
breeds represented in the pictures], he must say, that if credit
was due to improvers in other departments of art and of in-
dustry, equal credit was due to the breeders of sheep for the
ingenuity and talent which they had displayed in their voca-
tion (cheers). Much of the improvement was due to the
Royal Agricultural Society, which had offered prizes for the
best specimens of sheep. But let it be remembered, that
Mr. Ellman took in hand the improvement of the South
Downs about a hundred years ago ; and Lord Leicester, Mr.
Bakewell, and some few others, achieved immense success before
numbers were at all aware what they were doing. This, of
course, had a close bearing on the production of the estab-
lished breeds of the present day, early corrections being thiis
early stamped by their males. It must not be supposed that
the race of attempted improvement was all sunshine. He
could give the names of a dozen or perhaps twenty breeders
who had not succeeded, especially in the breading of rams. It
was no easy matter to blend science with practice. He had
already mentioned the failure of the attempt made by George
the Third to introduce merino sheep into this country; and
he had recently learned, from the pul'lished report of an

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

299

Australian agTicultural body, that its sheep-breeding opera-
tions had proved bj' no means satisfactorj-. He then pro-
ceeded to speak more particularly of the breeding of sheep.
Adverting to what he had said about the early lambing of
the Dorset sheep, he remarked that lambs were dropped
according to the uses and requirements of the several
counties, as regards climate, food, and after-management to
be pursued for realizing in the markets, and at what age
they were to be sold. The mountain races, of course, did
not drop their lambs until the cold season was gone by, so
that the lambs could eat the early grasses as they first
sprang up. He had not j'et referred to the Cotswold sheep,
which was a magnificent animal [Pointing to a portrait, he
said, That is a draught of a Cotswold ram, belonging to Mr.
Lane, which took the first prize at the Lewes Meeting] .
Alter giving some local details of this breed, he stated that
the lambing of this sheep occurred about March ; so also
did that of the Leicester sheep ; but he might say again
that the period generally depends on situation, climate, an,j
the supply of food. One important fact was, that at the
present time sheep were, in some of the best districts, sen
to market at the early age of twelve, fifteen, or eighteen
months. Formerly, scarcely any sheep were sent under
three or four years of age ; and therefore the public had to
wait for their mutton (laughter). The truth was that in
many grazing counties it was formerly, and even now,
difficult to provide food for fattening them in the winter
season : hence, the farmer fed his sheep on the richest pas-
tures he could give them during the summer months, in
order that he might be able to send them early to market
in the autumn. Another very important matter in relation
to the culture of sheep was warmth. He had before re-
ferred to this, in effect, in speaking of climate ; but the
subject of warmth was so important as to require special
mention. On this point, he would read an extract from a
lecture which was delivered by Dr. Lyon Playfair before
the members of the Royal Agricultural Society, in the year
1842, the subject of the lecture being, "The application
of physiology to the rearing and breeding of cattle."
He must confess that, as a farmer and breeder, he listened to
that lecture at the time, as no doubt many others did, with a
predisposition to set down everything as mere theory ; but
subsequent experience had convinced him that what the doctor
said was true. Dr. Playfair set out by saying, "It would be
presumptuous in any scientific man, however exalted his rank
in science, to endeavour to instruct an assemblage such as this,
or to recommend illustrations in the practice of an art which he
has learned in the closet and not in the field." He must say that
that was his feeling at the moment. " But it may be per-
mitted," added the doctor, " even to the most humble culti-
vator of science, to examine the practice which you yourselves
have perfected, and to point out the laws of nature upon which
that practice depends." Dr. Playfair afterwards went on to
tell them, in regard to warmth, that it was up to a certain point
an equivalent for food. He said, "The average temperature of
the bodies of our cattle is about 100 degrees, or more than
40 degrees higher than the ordinary temperature of this
climate. Hence there must be some provision in the animal
body to sustain the heat which is absolutely necessary for the
performance of the organic functions. The air, being so much
colder than the body, must" constantly withdraw from it heat,
and tend to lower its temperatare. Whence, then, comes the
fuel for the production of the heat?" What the doctor said
was, in other words, that the heat required by the animal's
body being 100 degrees, when the temperature was below that
the exchanges were against the animal. If the bodily heat was

only 60, it must be made up to 100 by fuel. What fuel?
Why food. Surely, then, breeders ought, for the sake of
economy, to keep up the animal heal. The doctor quoted
Liebig in confirmation of his views. " Were we," said Liebig,
" to go naked like certain savage tribes, or if in hunting and
fishing we were exposed to the sf^me degree of cold aa the
Samoyedes, we should be able with ease to consume ten pounds
of flesh, and perhaps a dozen of tallow candles into the bar-
gain, as warmly clad travellers have related with astonishment
of these people. We should then also be able to take
the same quantity of brandy or train-oil without bad
effects, because the carbon and hydrogen of these sub-
stances would only suffice to keep up the equilibrium between
the temperature of the external air and that of our bodies."
Dr. Playfair himself afterwards said : " The only use of
clothes, in the abstract, is to economize food. They assist in
retaining the heat of the body, and render less food or fuel
necessary for this purpose." To this he (the lecturer) would
add another illustration. If a man who had led an active life,
and had been accustomed to exposure to cold, retired from
business, and confined himself almost entirely to a warm room,
he would get fat, simply because there would be nothing to
lower the animal heat. After the publication of Dr. Playfair's
lecture, in 1842, a prize was offered by the Royal Agricultural
Society for the best essay on the management of sheep. He
was himself fortunate enough to be the successful competitor;
and at the end of the essay, which was published in the eighth
volume of the Society's Transactions, would be found the re-
suits of twenty experiments which he tried in animal-feeding,
which confirmed Dr. Playfair's views in reference to warmth.
He would not trouble them by entering into any of the details
of the experiments, but he would observe that the experiments
all hinged upon the relative value of the different kinds of food
which were given to animals. For instance, there was a com-
parison between the common white turnip and the swede
turnip. They all knew that the common white turnip con-
tained a very large quantity of water. In September, while
the sun was still powerful, he found that the sheep would
thrive very well on a given quantity of that vegetable ; but
when the sun's rays had become more oblique, and the
temperature of the atmosphere was considerably lower,
so that as the animal inhaled the surrounding air the
exchanges were against it, he found that the animals
fed on the white turnip made no progress; the fact being
that such food did nothing but just suffice to keep up the ani-
mal heat. At this period, however, that was about Christmas,
came in the swede, which contained a smaller proportion of
water. Less of this was required to keep up the bodily tem-
perature, and with care on the part of the farmer, the animal
went on pretty well till the spring, when there was no longer
any difficulty. He might further observe, that he put eight
sheep in summer into two pens, four in each pen, and besides
giving them all clover, he supplied one pen with a pint of
beans per day, and the other with a pint of peas. It might be
supposed that there would be little difference between the two
as the result of this variation of diet ; whereas in fact, the
sheep supplied with the peas did very well ; while those that
had the beans, like horses that were overfed with the same
kind of food, soon exhibited symptoms of inflammation, the
beans being too hot for the body at that period of the year.
At the conclusion of his essay he said, "Thus, after many
anxious reflections iipon the 'principle' which 'science'
has dictated, "practice" has shown it to be one of great mag-
nitude, and to develop the mysteries of past ages by pointing
out those elements of the vegetable creation best adapted to
Nature's laws under the varied temperature of the seasons."

300

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

While he advocated warmth, he was very far from saying that
animals should be shut up in places where the atmosphere was
at 100 degrees, or where there was no adequate provision for
ventilation. What he wished to point out was, that warmth
had an important and necessary connection with the food
which was given to animals. Having now said enough with
regard to the breeding of sheep, he would say a few words
with regard to sheep required aa food for man. There was no
other animal so important in this point of view as the sheep.
Mutton constituted the grand staple food of this country ; and
hence, as he had before remarked, the improvement of the
breeds had a close connection with the increase of
population. The Royal Agricultural Society and the
Sraithfleld Club had both exerted themselves in the field of
improvement, by offering prizes and holding exhibitions
periodically; and great success had attended their
efforts. Similar exhibitions had recently taken place
in France ; but the result thus far was that the English
breeders and graziers who exhibited sheep swept away the
prizes, and, pocketing the money, walked away with it
(laughter). As regarded the distribution of the meat, some
preferred early lamb, and others preferred saddle of mutton
with a black foot, and had to pay for the luxury ; while
others, again, having less money to spare, made a different
choice. The whole thing was beautifully arranged, and the
culture harmonized well with the variety in the public de-
mands. Having been at Smithfield market early on Monday
morning, he had observed that the butchers from the West
End had the first choice of the market ; then came the pur-
veyors for the mass of the middle classes; and, last of al', came
those whose business lay chiefly with the working-classes, and
who said they must have a great lot of meat for their money
(laughter). A very remarkable alteration had taken place of
late years with regard to the conveyance of sheep to market,
and the return to the seller. When he was a lad, living in
Lincolnshire, his father's sheep and capital were a fortnight
walking to the metropolis, and they each lost eight or ten
pounds' weight of meat on the way. Of course no one got
the meat that was expended on the route— it was so much ab-
solute waste. Now, sheep were conveyed from Lincolnshire
to London in a few hours, and within thirty hours after they

left the farm the animals were not only sold, but the farmer or
dealer had his money for them, and could thus employ it at
once. Tills was a very great improvement ; in fact, one of
the great facilities afforded by the railways. It was not ne-
cessary that he should say anything with regard to the dead
meat markets, as they were all familiar with them. Here,
again, how ever, was a comparatively new state of things. Meat
was now brought from Scotland and other distant parts of
the kingdom, which did not come formerly ; and rapidly as
people from various districts had located themselves in the
metropolis, the supply of meat had followed them in the same
ratio. The use of artificial manures had a close and interesting
connection with this subject. By using such articles the far-
mer was enabled greatly to increase his growth of turnips, and
before it was necessary for him to pay for the manures, he
had an ample return in the extra quantity of sheep which
he was thus enabled to keep and send to market. He must
now conclude. He had told the commissioners that it was
quite impossible for him, within a single lecture, to exhaust
the whole question of the culture of sheep. The wool pro-
duction he had not yet touched, and he believed it was to
be entered upon by a gentleman from the North of England
familiar with manufactures, who would take up the subject
where he (Mr, Smith) had left it. The wool collection in
the museum was by no means complete ; and as he had be-
fore intimated, he should, after his return home, do every-
thing that might be in his power to supply the defects.
The great importance of sheep, in relation to their wool-
bearing properties, was daily increasing. Beyond our
own growth the imports of wool from x\ustralia, in 1807,
amounted to only 2451bs. ; whereas in 1855, the latest
period up to which the returns extended, tlie ioiportation
was 40,810,1 371bs. In 1833 we received from India
3,7211bs,, in 1855 4,S94,5201bs, The total imports of wool
from all places, in 1855, amounted to S9,300,4461bs.

The lecture occupied one hour and three-quarters, the
whole of which being given from notes, made it the more
interesting to the audience. The lecturer concluded by
thanking the audience for the patience with which they had
listened to him, and on retiring he was loudly cheered.

ON PIGGERIES.

Swine are filthy animals in the cleanest condition in
which they can be kept, and enoit an offensive smell that
is very disagreeable to other animals, as to cattle, with
which the nearest association is placed in the arrange-
ment of being reared and fattened. The manufactory
of pigs is best located in a separate position from the
farmery, but closely adjoining it, as the purposes are
combined, and require a juxtaposition of utensils with
which to work in unison. The site of the farmery, and
the elevation of ground, will very much dispose the
arrangements. The piggery may stand in the front range
of either wing, in a small distance removed, and with an
open front to the most benign aspect. The walls of the
erection being low, the position in front of the farmery
will not much exclude the sun from shining on the
farm-yard behind, and a space of twenty or thirty
yards being intervened between the piggery and the
front of the farmery, no inconvenience will happen from
the respective situations. As in all cases of the kind,
circumstances will direct the arrangements.

The exterior shape of the piggery is best in a long

square, differing in a third or fourth from the true
equality of rides. The shortest sides are placed to form
the back part and open front, the former being divided
into a cooking-house, and sheds for the boar and brood
sows ; the extent being always proportioned to the size
of the farm, and the number of swine tljat can be kept.
An end door in the food-house affords a passage along
the front of the breeding sties, and a ready access with
food and litter. A front door in the centre of the house
leads along a paved road between two rows of feeding
sties, in which the bacon hogs are confined, in two to-
gether, aad provided with sty and shelter-shed of the area
of about 100 square feet. A light four-wheeled waggon of
thin iron carries the food along the passage, and the swine
are fed on the right and left with much convenience
and facility. The two rows of sties,^and a centre pas-
sage in width, occupy the length of the food-house on
large farms; on less extents, one row of sties will be
p'aced, and an end-door will serve the feeding and
breeding departments. The front of the breediog sties
in width, the short side of the piggery, minus the length

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

301

of the cooking house, extends to the open front of the
whole erection, and forms a yard for store pigs, from the
age of being weaned, till drawn into the feeding sties,
according to the forward condition. Shelter sheds are
placed along the side-wall of the store -yard, and low in
the roof, in order to preserve warmth, that is so essential
to the welfare of swine. The young pigs are placed in
this yard immediately on being weaned, are fed for a
time with wheys and milks, mixed with meals, and
gradually entered into the food of vetches and clovers
during summer, and raw potatoes and turnips during
the winter. Ample litter of straws and chaffs is supplied
to this yard, and the best is the strawy litter from the
stables, which being warm in the dung of the horse,
supplies warmth to the pigs ; and being mixed with their
saponaceous excrement, a manure of great value is
formed. The refuse of the green vetches and clovers
adds to the mixture in the varied composition. In this
yard is shown the great value of swine, as manufacturers
of manure. The green food of summer, in clovers and
vetches, induces a large discharge of urine, which im-
pregnates and renders soluble the woody fibre of the
refused stems, and the straws that are used as litter ;
the cold saponaceous excrement is mixed with the
warm fseces of the horse ; while the noses of the animals
being constantly employed in searching for food among
the litter, turn over and mix the whole mass of sub-
stances in a very beneficial manner for the purpose of a
vegetable compost. The yard must be frequently
covered with litter, and thinly and evenly spread:
the different substances must be mixed in the layers,
in order to produce a similarity of composition
and condition in the mass when it is carried to the
manure heap in the fields, and placed in the layers of
alternate qualities. This attention is necessary to every
preparation of manure in the farm-yards — a level sur-
face, frequent coverings with litter, thinly and evenly
spread, and a thorough impregnation of every part with
the urinary moisture of the animals. If any part is
seen to be too dry, it must be laid level, and covered
with moist substances ; if too wet, the dry litter of the
stable must be strewed over the place, and each part of
every yard must be thoroughly treated with moisture in
the proper quantity. A regular attention will prevent
any deviations from this essential rule.

The season of curing bacon extends from October
to the end of March, and during that time there may
be preserved two fattenings of hogs in succession. The
pigs in the store-yard, that are of the proper age and
most forward in condition, are placed in the feeding-
sties, in two together, by the first of October, and will
be ready in the beginning of January : a second lot is
drawn into the sties from the store-yard, and will be
ready in March, which concludes the season of curing.
The management after that time is wholly in the breed-
ing-sties and store -yards. Brood sows are best re-
stricted to two litters of pigs in a year, and an
average of eight in a brood will afford a full supply of
animals to be manufactured. More litters may be got
in a year, but the vigour of the pigs becomes puny, and
the sow is much exhausted by the severe employment
of suckling. A less frequent propagation produces a
more vigorous progeny ; and not only in swine, but in
every animal whatever ; and if the system were adopted
pursued, the result might wholly reproduce the animal
organization.

It has been very satisfactorily ascertained that swine
are benefited by cooked food in a very large degree j
w^ile other animals, as horses and cattle, show a pro-
motion that does not compensate the labour of prepara-
tion. The physical constitution of the pig, and its
delicate intestines, may account for this differential
benefit. Bacon pigs are fed twice a-day, by break of

morning, and in the early evening before sunset, with
cooked food, in steamed potatoes mixed with meals of
any kind, moderately thickened, and given in a milk-
warm condition. This preparation is done in the food-
house before-mentioned, which contains the steaming
apparatus and the meals in readiness. It is two storeys
high, and the second floor is dry for the meals, which
are kept there for use. The daily allowance to the pigs
is ample to the full satisfaction, but none to remain in
the troughs to become cold, and produce a nauseating
effect. The quantity the animals can daily consume is
soon ascertained, and regulated accordingly. During
the last month of fattening, one daily meal is given of
uncrushed grains, as oats and barley, and especially of
beans, which contain the tannin principle, and impart
a muscular firmness to the flesh, and the whiteness that
so much recommends the quality of the bacon. This
firmness is a chief point by which the flesh is judged.

Brood sows are constantly fed with liquid substances,
as milks and wheys mixed with meals, which promote
the secretion of milk for the hard task of suckling.
Dry food for a time, after the pigs are withdrawn, much
encourages the salacity. Weaned pigs are treated for a
time with warm gruels of meals and milk — thin and
warm at first, then gradually thickened and used luke-
warm into a cold condition, when the animal becomes
a gradual consumer of clovers and vetches, and raw
food.

It is very advantageous that a few small pigs from
weaning have the liberty of wandering over the feeding-
yards at pleasure, and to sleep and nestle in some chosen
corner. A hole in the lower part of the gates lets the
animals in and out the yards, in which they eat the
crumbles of the turnips, and search for pickles of grain
among the straws of litter. The surface of the yards is
turned and tossed about by search with the noses, and a
beneficial mixture is effected of the different substances.
Pigs, in a limited number, are brought forward in this
way in a very fresh condition for the feeding sties, and
when assisted with light grains laid on dry ground, the
full fattening is done as well as in fattening cribs. The
meat may not be so large in quantity, but the quality is
superior both in texture and firmness.

The mode of rearing and feeding swine now detailed
may be done on any farm according to the extent, from
one brood-sow to four, which will afford fifteen to sixty
pigs yearly. The intervening numbers will fill the dif-
ferent extents of occupation. Every method must be
systematic — large or small, the performance must be
regular and orderly, with a constant adhesion to the
rules that are adopted. The buildings must be provided,
and the food allotted ; the care must be bestowed, and
the attention unceasing. From want of systematic regu-
lations, there constantly happeus desultory and languid
performances, which fail to produce any valuable results,
and sink into weak and unprofitable establishments.
Swine yield more flesh from the food consumed than any
other fattened beast : the quality is very nutritious : it
takes the salt more readily than any other flesh, and,
from the smaller quantity required on that account, the
cured article is not so salt in the use as other flesh from
animals. It enters very largely into the consumption of
naval stores, and for domestic use the flesh is very ex-
tensively entertained both in a fresh and cured condi-
tion. No other animal food enters so largely into
general consumption ; yet in some few cases only has
the manufactory of the flesh been reduced into system,
as with sheep and cattle — food is grudged, and attention
withheld, and the animals wander about the farmery
despised and unvalued. No farm is established without
an arrangement for swine, than which no animal will
yield so much flesh for the food consumed, or is fattened
with so little cost. J .D.

302

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE USES OF A DEAD HORSE.

The first, or iutroductory lecture on the Commercial
Products of the Animal kingdom, in course of
delivery at the South Kensington Museum, was
delivered by Professor R. Owen, who gave a resume
of the economic uses of animals generally to man,
interspersed with much interesting information on
anatomy and physiology, in that pleasant and popular
style for which he is characteristic.

The second lecture was delivered on the 25th Feb.,
by Dr. Lyon Playfair, C.B., on the use of refuse animal
matter; and it is this addi-ess to which we would chiefly
call attention, as affording much curious detail.
Taking as his text, the uses and value of a dead horse,
the lecturer went over the whole range of seemingly
waste products, detailing their processes of re-conver-
sion, comparative value, and resulting products;
thus proving that if we but follow the example of
Nature, all substances, however apparently noxious
and useless, are re -convertible into other and very im-
portant comiTiercial products.

We shall confine ourselves, in the present instance
however-, to his main illustration — the carcase of a
dead horse.

What the mortality may be of the equine race in the
United Kingdom we have no means of ascertaining.
Indeed, we have no correct data for estimating
very j)recisely even the total number of horses in the
United Kingdom, We have returns for Ireland and
Scotland, and the agricultural statistics for these
countries for 185G, gives the number at 753,170.
Those in England and Wales must be guessed at.
Sixteen or seventeen years ago Mr. M'Culloch esti-
mated the number of horses in Great Britain at
1,400,000 to 1,500,000. Now this guess must have
been somewhat wide of the mark, for there are scarcely
more than this in the whole kingdom at the present
time, at least judging from the most careful calcula-
tions.

Three or four years ago Mr. Braithwaite Poole, in
his " Statistics of British Commerce," took some pains
to arrive at the true figures; and his estimate, based
upon parliamentary returns and carefully-conducted
enquiries, brought out the numbers at about one
million and a-half, classified as follows : —

Paying duty (of which 1,530 were race-horses) 320,982

Exempt from duty 413,028

Partly exempt from duty 77,827

Horses in Ireland 488,908

Young horses, ponies, '&c., &c. — Scotland aud

Wales . . . '. 200,000

1,500,745

Now this is much below the number at the present
time; for in 1847 the number of adult horses in the
Unite-l Kingdom was given at 805,458, of brood-mares
4,246, and of horses used in husbandry 900,000; and
a pai'liamentary return of 1854 showed that there were
432,746 horses paying duty. We have also, of late
years been importing largely from the continent —
especially from France aird Belgium. For the four
years, ending with 1856, we 'received 18,293 horses
from the Continent.

With the large traffic carried on in the metropolis
by omnibuses, cabs, pleasure horses, brewers, carriers,
travellers, and other draught animals, the numbers in
London must be very considerable. There are at least

7,000 public conveyances plying for hire, and the omni-
buses alone employ about 13,000 horses. The number of
vehicles passing along the principal thoroughfares in an
ordinary day of twelve hours, is about 126,000.

Having dealt with the statistics of living animals, let
us now look to the commercial products of the dead
horse. From 250 to 300 horses die weekly within a
radius of five miles from Charing Cross, and the flesh
of these is chiefly consumed by dogs and cats within
that area.

Firstly, then, we have the hair, which may weigh
about l^lb., aud which sells for 8d. to Is. Horse-hair
we know is applied to many purposes ; it is made into
hair-cloth for seatings, coloured hair damasks, bags for
crushing seed for the use of the oil-crusher, cidei'-
makers, and others. A consumption of 800 tons of
horse-hair a-year, of home aud foreign production,
valued at about £^QS)QO, shows the value of this one
item.

Next we have the hide, weighing — say SOlbs., and
worth possibly 8s., for converting, when split, into the
finest Cordova leather; or, in its full thickness, for
covering the large board-room tables of offices, &c.

The ttndons weigh probably 6Ibs., and are converted,
like other animal tissues, into fine glue, or gelatine.

The flesh will weigh about 224lbs. boiled, and may
be used as meat for men, dogs, poultry, &c. .

Smile not, gentle reader, at the banquet offered — of
viands which are just now in high repute on the con-
tinent. A society of economists, naturalists, and hardy
gourmands in Paris, aim at the introduction of horse-
flesh in the category of butcher's meat. They set the
example themselves, and this example is spreading. It
is argued^ that the horse ought to contribute to the
nourishment of the human race, as well as the ox, the
sheep, and the pig. That it does so already in our own
metropolis to a great extent, in the shape of nominal
smoked " ox-tongues" from Russia, and chopped so-
called "beef" sausage-meat in Westminster, White-
chapel, and other suburban localities. But the penchant
for roast and boiled horse-flesh has found adherents
even here, and our esteemed contemporary, the
"Journal of Agriculture," of Edinburgh, has come
out strong in a recent number in its favour.

M. St. Hilaire, the champion of this new addition to
our food resources, reasons in this fashion —

" Horseflesh baa long been regarded as of a sweetish dis-
agreeable taste, very toiigh, aud not to be eaten without diffi-
culty. So many diffeteat facts are opposed to this prejudice,
that it is impossible not to recognize its slight foundation.
The free or wild borae is hunted as game in all parts of the
world where it exists — Asia, Africa, and America— and for-
merly, aud perhaps even row, in Europe. Tlie domestic horse
itself is made use of as alimentary as well as auxiliary — in
some cases altogether alimentary — in Africa, America, Asia,
and in some parts of Europe.

" Its flesh is relished by people tlie most different in their
manner of life, and of races the most diverse — negro, Mongol,
Malay, American, Caucasian. It was much esteemed up to
the eighth ceutury among the ancestors of some of the greatest
nations of western Europe, who had it iu general use, and
gave it up with regret. Soldiers to whom it has been served
out, aud people iu towns who have bought it in markets, have
frequently taken it for beef. Still more often, and indeed
habitually, it has been sold in restaurants, even iu the best,
as venison, and without the customera ever suspecting the
fraud or complainiBg of it.

" And, further, if horseflesh has been often accepted as good

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

303

under a false name, it has also beeu pronounced good by those
who, to judge of its qualities, have submitted it to careful ex-
periment, and by all who have tasted it iu proper condition —
that is, when taken from a sound and rested horse, and kept
sufficiently long. It is then excellent roasted ; aud if it be
not so acceptable as houilli, it is precisely because it furnishes
one of the best soups — perliaps the best that is known. It is
good also, as experiments prove, made by myself as well as
others, when taken from old horses, not fattened, whose age
was sixteen, nineteen, twenty, and even twenty-three years —
animals thought worth no more than a few francs beyond the
value of their skia. This is & capital fact, since it shows the
possibility of utilizing a second time, for their flesh, horses
which have already been utilized up to old age for iheir
strength ; and, consequently, of obtaining a further and almost
gratuitous profit at the end of their life," after they had well-
nigh paid the cost of their rearing and keep by their labour,"

So much for the great champion of horseflesh.

Having disposed of the flesh, we come next to the
blood, heart, and tongue, weighing about 60Ibs. The
former is used, like the blood of other animals, as a
decolorizer, for manure, and for making, with other
animal substances, the well-known salt, prussiate of
potash. The disposal of the heart and tongue v.e will
say nothing about, as there is somewhat of mystery
resting upon their appropriation.

The intestines of the horse, weighing about SOlba.,
are converted to several uses. When cleaned, they
serve for covcing polonies and sausages ; or they are
twisted into bands or strings for bowing cotton, or for
other purposes.

There is seldom much fat to be got from the horse :
probably about 201bs. may be obtained; aud this is
used, after being distilled, for burning in lamps. We
import horse grease largely from the River Plate,
but we get better at home. The grease is also worked
up by the soaj) and candle makers in common with
other fats, while the entrails and remnants are given to
hogs, to make food for home consumption — at least this
is so in the United States, where the porcine race are
less daintily fed than our own store-fed pigs.

The bones come next ; and these weigh, say about
1601bs., and are sold at the rate of 4s. 6d. per cwt.,
either to convert into knife-handles, or for making phos-
phorus, and superphosphate of lime. They will not do
for animal charcoal, because horses being usually killed

when aged, the bones contain too great a proportion of
phosphate of lime, and too little animal matter.
Ground into dust, or crushed into half-inch bone, they
make excellent manure ; while other special manures
for turnips, &c., are made from the blood, flesh, and
bones combined.

The Kensington Museum catalogue, compiled by Mr.
P. L. Simmonds, lets us into the secret of a ready way
of cleaning the bones and divesting them of putrid
flesh, &c., so as to fit them for use in manufactures.
To take off the flesh by hand is a tedious and difficult
operation. An ingenious Frenchman solved the diffi-
culty. He noticed that rats were very fond of horse-
flesh ; so are fowls— other arguments in favour of M.
St. Hilaire's reasoning of the wholesomeness of the
food. Our Frenchman advised the authorities to
colonize the dead horse-pound with rats. This com-
mon pound is an enclosed area of about ten acres, sur-
rounded by a stone wall, to which all carcases, &c. are
taken, and among the rest the 400 horses which die or
are killed in a week in Paris. The catacombs fur-
nished rats by thousands; and now a dead horse put in
over night is picked beautifully clean by the morning,
and the bones are ready for the bone -dealer. A grand
battue is also periodically made, to keep under the
rats, and they are utilized by making their skins into
gloves, and possibly their flesh into pies or ragouts.
We have nearly done with the economic uses of our
worn-out hack; there remain but his pedal extremi-
ties to deal with. The hoofs, weighing aloout 6 lbs., are
worth 8s. to 10s. per cwt. for gelatine, or for making
prussiates. They are not adapted to pressing into the,
so-called horn buttons, which are made from ox-bo<ifs,
but possibly may turn up polished in the shape of a
snuff-box, capped with silver. The shoes will work up
into shoes again, or sell for old iron ; and the nails are
much esteemed for making gun barrels.

We have now used up our " old horse," and this is
merely the example of many other animals whose car-
cases are turned or might be turned to ■various useful
purposes. Such a history points a moral that nothing
should be despised, for out of many waste substances
money is to be made; and the large profits of scavengers,
knackers, and dust-contractors are evidences of the
utilization of offal and sweepings.

FURZE AS FOOD FOR HORSES.

Sir, — As j'ou now and then receive some little matters
written by me, and are so courteous as to give them a place
in the Farmers^ Gazette, I now send another, in the hope
it may promote your object in being of benefit to
those who read your paper. It has been too much the
practice of horticulturists to introduce and recommend new
plants and flowers, and to let the old pass into oblivion.
Thus the beautiful moss-rose, the cabbage-rose, the York
and Lancaster, the double white-rocket, with others, which
fifty years since were the delight of the cultivators, some
are now never seen, and others, like poor relations, are left
to take the lowest room, and new or scarce plants and flow-
ers, which bear no comparison in fragrance or beauty, are
the ornaments of the garden. In the same way, in improved
agriculture — though there are few who join more in heart
and hand in the introduction of new plants aud new prac-
tices to this land — though there are many of the old I long
to see exploded, such as poorly-paid, badly-fed, and, as a
certain consequence, badly executed labour, small, weak,
badly-fed horses, and consequently light and inefficient
ploughing, and therefore scanty produce — still there are
others of the old school I regret to see neglected —
" 'Tis right to be off with the old love,
Before v/eare on with the new."

I shall now make some remarks on the most valuable of
those old practices which are too much neglected — feeding
cows and horses on furze (whins), the florin grass, and irri-
gation. I have been for fifty j'ears and more feeding my
cows and horses on furze; and I can say, from that long ex-
perience, that it is the cheapest and the best food for the
autumn and winter months. I saw it in constant use at the
residence of the late Rev. Horatio Townsend, the author of
the statistical survey of this county, who strongly recom-
mended it. I followed his example, and never have re-
gretted doing so. 1 have had my horses, getting neither
hay or oats, in more beautiful condition (sleek as mice) than
any of my neighbours, though they had costly grooms, the
horses fed with best hay, oats, and beans, aud warmly clad.
Mine were, perhaps, not as fit for the race-course or the
hunting-fields ; but for road-riding, carriage-work, or the
work of the land, they were most tit, although fed only on
chopped furze and steamed swede turnips ; and I rejoice
to see that this valuable food has been brought under the
notice of the agriculturists.

On arranging some papers lately, I found a letter, dated
Jnue, 1840, from one of the best practical agriculturists I
know. He states, " The most profitable crop I have planted
is furze. With an acre and-a-half I fed five horses up to the

304

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

first of June. I have twelve tons of hay for sale, which I
never had before. It would be much easier to induce the far-
mer to cultivate furze than to grow turnip ; and I believe it
is more profitable. Land inaccessible to the plough, of which
we see so great a proportion, would yield great crops of furze;
and land remote from manure could not be better disposed of.
We are in the infancy of knowledge as to what ground is ca-
pable of, or what plants are best suited to the varieties of
soils. The florin is a plant that never got a fair trial in the
south of Ireland. I think the time will come when all the bog
and low lands will be covered with it. If you look out about
the latter end of June you will meet it at every step." The
old practice of preparing furze was tedious, and comparatively
expensive— by a block with transverse knives, sometimes w.ith
a long handle, and better with a chain, hooked on what is
kaow^n by the name of a turner wattle, or by a straight spade,
sometimes by thrashing. The great desideratum has been
hit upon by Messrs. Richmond and Chandler, in their power-
ful straw-cutters, varyiug in price from £7 to £10.

I have just now attended my machine bought from Mr.
Thomas M'Kenzie, Cork, for £7, a man cutting, and a boy
feeding it, the furze ready, and in 17 minutes they cut 17
buckets full. The bushel contains oh gallons. This is fully
sufficient for four horses for 24 hours instead of hay ; hay
is spread on the top of the furze, and cut with it ; it improves
the cutting, saves the boy's hands from the prickles, and is
an advantage in the feeding. When ready it is wetted with
water, which makes the mastication easier. The expense
of the man and boy is Is. 5d. a day — say 10 working hours,
and working little once a quarter-hour or [the one-fortieth
of 17 pence for the labour of preparing food for four horses, or
about three-eighths of a penny a-head. A tenant of mine who
lives in Carberry told me he feeds his horses entirely, and his

cows mostly, on it all autumn and winter ; he mows it every
second year, and has abundance for them from a piece of land
which cannot be ploughed, and which would produce nothing
else ; he cuts it with the straight spade, and it takes a man
for the entire day to prepare sufficient for six horses. Now
that Richmond and Chaodler have brought out such a machine,
there is no excuse for it not being in general use ; and though
furze will grow well on atony and rocky land (I have seen the
roots several feet down in the chinks of a quarry), the best
arable dry land will produce a far better and more abundant
crop, and a more succulent shoot. Three acres of such land
appropriated to the growing of a plant which is perennial, and
requires no further culture (though, I doubt not, it would be
still better for annually opening the ground and digging or
forking in manure), still an everlasting winter meadow, of no
comparison better food than hay, is no slight benefit now that
the difficulty of its preparation — the great obstacle — has been
overcome. Cattle will not hove with it. They are always
sleek, an indication of health. It is in a fit state from October
to May, inclusive. It improves the wind ; a thick-winded
horse becomes a free breather ; broken- winded have no ap-
pearance of their being so ; and I have seen horses cured of
cough by feeding with it. I dare say many who know not its
value, and who are of those who deprecate any innovation or
change, will say all this is hyperbole ; this was often said of
florin and of turnip culture ; but when the failure of the
potato compelled turnip culture, they then saw that the new
was better ; and I pledge myself that any who henceforth use
furze, as directed, will fully agree in every word I say. Di-
rections for sowing the seed in fields would be very desirable.
Yours, &c., William R. Townsend,
Aghadda Rectory, Rostellan,
Co. Cork, Feb. 12, 1858.

ON THE ACTION OF NODULES OF PHOSPHATE OF LIME ON
VEGETATION IN GRANITIC AND SCHISTOSE SOILS.

[translated from the FRENCH OF THE "JOURNAL d'aGRICULTURE PRATIftUE."]

In according its kind approbation to my last researches on
the solubility of fossil phosphates of lime, and in deigning to
encourage me, through the organ of its reporter, M. Payeu, to
follow them up, the Academy of Sciences has marked out for
me a course in which I have proceeded with the anxious desire
of noticing in it some facts interesting both to physiology and
to agriculture. I propose to detail the first results to which
my experiments have conducted me.

I was desirous, in the first instance, in spite of the unfa-
vourable season, to make in May some prelimuiary essays on
the culture of wheat. For that purpose I commenced opera-
tions upon a piece of land cleared only a few days previous to
the experiment, and on which I have comparatively employed
nodules of pulverized phosphates at the rate of 55 per cent.,
and animal charcoal (black) in small j:;rain3, 72 per cent, of
richness. The earth, rich in humus and acid principles, pos-
sessed the best conditions for dissolving the phosphates. The
dressing was employed at the rate of G hectolitres to the hec-
tare, and the results observed were as follow : —

In the pieces which were planted with wheat there was no
appreciable difference between the produce of the animal char-
coal, the fossil phosphates slightly animalized, and the same
phosphate mixed with very porous charcoal. There was a very
marked superiority, which I was far from expecting, in another
piece in which the nodules, simply reduced to very fine powder,
had been employed comparatively with animal charcoal in
small grains. In all these essays in other respects the produce
was moderate, whatever was the dressing adopted, in conse-
quence of the very recent clearing of the land.

Two pieces of land were sown with oats, and dressed, one
with powdered nodule, the other with animal charcoal. In
both cases the produce was fine, but there was still no appre-
ciable difference observable, either in quantity or in the ap-
pearance of the crops.

In spite of the unfavourable conditions in which these pre-
liiniuary essays took place, I must confess I was struck with

surprise on seeing my anticipations at fault in regard to the
action of the fossil phosphates employed alone, and hi the state
of fine powder. My researches in the laboratory on some co-
efficients of solubility in carbonic acids, the laws of analogy,
and, I must also add, the ignorance of actual science as to the
modifications the nodules uudergo in presence of the air con-
tained in the arable soil — all this led me to regard these
manures as slowly assimilable, deserving on this account to be
classed far enough from bone charcoal. Nevertheless the agri-
cultural experiments seemed to contradict my preconceived
ideas. We shall see, as we proceed, that this contradiction
manifested itself afresh in more conclusive essays.

My second series of experiments were made on the culture
of buckwheat, which in the west absorbs enormous masses of
animal charcoal. The surplus of the quantities assimilated by
this plant remain in the soil, in which its action is subsequently
felt upon the winter wheats.

In order to place myself as much as possible beyond the in-
fluences, multiplied and unequal, of experiments on a large scale,
I resolved to make my experiments in pots, on substances ex-
actly weighed, and in presence of elements of irrigation and
exposure perfectly identical.

Eleven pots were filled with earth extremely poor, and de-
rived from the disintegration of schistose rocks. The earth
was minutely mixed in each pot with 10 grammes of manure
and two seeds of buckwheat, which were sown from the 25th
of June to the 22nd of September, when the experiment was
completed. The watering of the pots was performed twice a-
day with rain water. Vegetation proceeded well, except in
the cases in which earth was used without manure, and with
nodules treated with 20 per cent, of sulphuric acid. In these
two instances the plants were poor and weak, and the produce
insignificant. We must not forget that the poverty of the
earth employed was extreme. Humus existed in it only in
very minute proportion. Its aptitude to "retain water and
condense the gases was as feeble as possible,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

305

At the end of three weeks, it was easy to perceive the fa-
vourable effect of the phosphoric acid upon the buckwheat.
Where the superphosphate of lime, of animalized phosphates,
and of the mixture of blood and powdered nodules were used,
the vegetation was both luxuriant and precocious. The anioaal
charcoal was distanced, and owing to the poverty of the earth
the pure phosphate of lime gave wretched results. The follow-
ing, however, is. the complete summary of the observations,
made with the greatest care : —

y Q O O'Ti'TJ

o" » 5 p= s »

• EL '- £.05 »
' ? 2 "re ^*S r" S '^

.P^O <wrt-co

a

" o2,i« 2.

n

-5

o- a-

Si '^ ^^

g o i

O tti 3.

O »

s- .. s- s-_, o
o g o o "O "

•a S'-a ►tS o —

9S P p ?0 ^ ~

(t fca' (^ *^ P O

3 S. p 5" " "S

^ o <« B

(W

o o o

Hi- O 1— i

ooo

I-"

l-<

o o

05 Ol o
C>3 >^ to

05
09

CO

05 en
^5 00

o o

^ CO

pop M

^ ^ 00 J-"

CJI 00

00 o

p l-"
--a en

0> lb-

*- oo

03 >-•>-'

O O
to CO

-* en

poo
CO CO (o

o o

05 O

fT. I re

I 1

HI O

Z o

W

W ;:;

&d t)

d g

In examining these figures it is important to state that they
clear up a particular point of the question, without constitut-
ing on that account a scale of return applicable to the condi-
tion of an extensive cultivation. Indeed it is very evident that
the impulsive action produced by the azote was not applied
\ere to the phosphate of the animal charcoal as to that of the

nodules mixed with blood. I would, however, remark that the
experiment No. 3, the results of which are very fine, were pro-
duced under the influence of weak doses of animal substaucea.
Had the porous vegetable charcoal in this case a condensing
action immediately utilized ? It appears very probable.

Let it therefore be well understood that the figures ex-
pressed in this table are applicable only to the special circum-
stances of the experiment, and it is requisite, in order to study
more completely the action of the nodules, to make new essays
in which the organic matter of the soil determined will perform
a part which is wanting here. Under these reserves I think I
am able to establish the following facts : —

1. The nodules of phosphate of lime of the Ardennes, re-
duced to fine powder, and exposed some mouths to the air,
are assimilable by vegetables.

2. Their favourable action on granitic and schistose soils, in
the clearings of lands and heaths, may be variable according as
we employ them alone or associated with organic substances.

3. As this is also remarked in the employment of the phos-
phates of charcoal of clarification, and charcoal powder of the
filters, there is agreement sometimes in associating organic
substances with the nodules in fertilizing poor soils by dis-
solvent agents, and sometimes, on the contrary, in employing
them alone on clearings in which vegetable substances abound.

4. The addition of blood to the powdered nodules gave ex-
cellent results in the triple point of view, of return in grain, of
vigour of the straw, and of precocity,

5. The employment of the action of acids, in order to pro-
mote the assimilation of phosphates, will only take place in
lands and cullures in luliich the superpJiospJiate is actually
found useful by the agriculturists. In all cases, on the con-
trary, in which bone-black in grains is rapidly dissolved, tlie
nodules finely powdered will themselves be assimilated.*

6. Lastly, and as a consequence useful to point out, it is
once more established that from the search for co-efficients of
solubility in the laboratory, to the agricultural verification,
there is all the distance that separates an extremely simple
effect from one extremely complex.

Adolphe Bobierre.

BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY.

A Monthly Council was held on Saturday, Feb. 27, at
Waghoin'a Hotel, Taunton, John SiUifant, Esq., in the chair.
The Cardiff Meeting. — Mr. Widdicorabe (Director),
brought up a report on the subject of the tenders received from
the various contractors for the erection of the hoarding, for the
show-yard, offices, and works for the meeting at Cardiff in
June next. The tender of Mr. George Pollard, builder, of
Taunton, was accepted. The report of the committee (under
the guidance of Mr. Goocb, the consulting engineer of the
society), on the terrr:s upon which steam-engines would be per-
mitted to exhibit in the show-yard, was introduced and dis-
cussed. The report was adopted, and ordered to be printed
and circulated among intending exhibitors in this department.
The Meeting in 1859.— The deputation appointed to
visit Barnstaple reported that they went to that town on
Thursday last, and inspected three sites offered for the ex-
hibition next year. They now recommended a piece of land
about a mile from the Barnstaple Station, on the North Devon
Railway, in every way suitable, provided the requirements of
the society were complied with. It was also reported that eli-
gible fields for the trial of implements would be offered to the
council on advantageous terms.

New Members. — The following new members were
elected : —

Mr. R. F. Jenner, Winvoe Castle, Cardiff

Mr. Blackburrow, Tower Head, Banwell

Mr. N. Cook, Ayshford Court, Somerset

Mr. F. T. Allen, West Kington, near Chippenham

Mr. J. Spurway, Spring Grove, Milverton

Mr. J. P. Spurway, Spring Grove, Milverton

Capt. F. Spurway, 2nd Somerset Militia.

* This is, on the whole, what practice has already demon-
Btratcd iu the last harvest with the greatest clearness.

306

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

MR. POPPY OF WITNESHAM.

Respected Friend, — Herewith I send thee an extract
from the Suffolk Chronicle, giving a brief outline of the life and
labours of our valued old friend and father of farmers' clubs,
Charles Poppy — thinking it probable it would be interesting
to the readers of the Mark Lane Eipress, some few of whom,
who were readers of the agricultural periodicals sixty years
since, will probablj' recollect his early efforts to promote
the practical interests of agriculture. To him we owe in
this district the earliest introduction of swede turnips, as of
a crop of mangel wurzel, and of Belgian white carrots ; the
most successful prevention of the ravages of the turnip fly ;
the invention of the scarifier, which was the original tj'pe
of those now in use ; and the introduction of the system of
farmers' clubs. Well do I recollect visiting, in company
with my highly-esteemed friend, John Morton, one of the
monthly meetings of the primitive club, held in the long
low-room of the village inn at Ashbocking, when, seated as
president at the end o-f a long table, covered with gigantic
roots, interspersed with glasses of steaming mixture, and
pipes with well-waxed ends, he gave us, in his own ge-
nial and unobtrusive manner, interesting anecdotes of his
successes and his failures, of his temporary discouragements
and his ultimate rejoicing in the triumph of successful at-
tainment. At a shortly subsequent period, two or three of
those warmly interested in agriculture in the neighbourhood
of Yoxford visited the Ashbocking Club, and the rapid
establishnrent of similar clubs in Yoxford, Halesworth,
Beccles, Wrentham, Harleston, Framlingham, and Wick-
hara Market, was the result. Through the kindness of the
editors of the Mark Lane Express the reports of the pro-
ceedings of these various little societies were published, and
the practical usefulness of their discussions thus obtaining
wide circulation, institutions of a similar character were
speedily formed throughout the length and breadth of the
land.

About this time, the late William Shaw with two or three
of his friends, conceived the idea of centralizing these by
the establishment of a club in London, and hence the com-
mencement of the Central Fiirmers' Club.

Surely amongst the thousands who have through so long
a period benefited b}' the disinterested labours and
researches in which he has spent his long and useful life,
there must be many who will rejoice in the opportunity to
contribute to the promotion of his comforts and that of his
a^ed partner for the few remaining years that may yet be
allotted to him, now that the day of his working for others
—at the age of 85 — is well nigh passed.

His old friend and co-worker for nearly 50 years, Arthur
Biddell, of Playfcrd, has organized the plan of obtaining
sufficient funds for the purchase of an annuitj' on the joint
lives of the worthy pair ; and if thou coiildst suggest that
subscriptions should be received at the oflice of the Central
Farmers' Club, there is little doubt the object would be
speedily accomplished.

With kind regards and pleasant memories of other days,
I remain, mj' dear friend, sincerely thine,

Ipswich, 2nd Month 22. J. Allen Ransomb.

SUFFOLK WORTHIES AND PERSONS OF
NOTE IN EAST ANGLIA,

CHARLES POPPY, THE AGRICULTURIST.

Among the many men in Suffolk who have achieved a
name and reputation by the practice of agriculture, few
could be mentioned who have so deservedly won a claim for
distinction among SufJblk farmers as Charles Poppy, of
Wituesliam. This venerable agriculturist, the correspon-
dent and contemporary of Arthur Young, Sir John
Smclair, George Webb Hall, and others— a man whose
numerous experiments and lengthened experience on the
crops and soils of this district render him pre-eminent

among the occupiers of land in Suffolk — is justly entitled to
a niche in the temple of agricultural fame.

Charles Poppy was born in the parish of Withersfield,
in the year 1773. At eight years of age he was sent to be
educated at Tilney School, Harleston, Norfolk, where he
remained seven years. Thomas Pallant,|the meteorologist,
was a schoolfellow of his. When he left school he was
placed with Mr Candler, of Linstead, near Halesworth,
for instruction in farming. There he profited but little,
for his master was not a strict one, and, as many of
Charles's schoolfellows lived in the neighbourhood, he had
the run of many farms ; and this suited a mettled lad of his
age better than work. It was a dairy farm, and he re-
mained there two or three years. Candler was a regular
old-fashioned farmer, but hearing that a new-fangled
system of draining had been tried on a farm at Cooklej'', he
took his agricultural pupil with him to look at it out of
curiosity, and here it was that our future experimentalist
saw, for the first time, an arable field o f six or eight acres
subjected to the system oithorough drainage.

From Mr. Candler's he went to " Frendze Hall Farm,"
Scole, Norfolk, an arable and grazing farm of upwards of
four hundred acres. There he remained four years, and
thei'e he learnt to work. There it was that he made the
acquaintance of Mr. Kent, who was steward to George the
Third, which led to an interchange of correspondence upon
agricultural subjects. There it was that he first saw Swede
turnips grown. Thomas Avb, Esq., steward to the Duke
of Norfolk, occupied the farm adjoining " Frendze Hall,"
and he was at that time trying to grow swedes, the root
being then unknown in the East Anglian district. Mr.
Avis raised them in his garden and then planted them out,
and he continued this practice for several years.

As the fourth j'ear drew to a close our young farmer
began to feel himself able to practise the art of a'^riculture,
and he therefore engaged himself as assistant to Mr. Wythe,
a land valuer and agent at Eye, who occupied the " Park
Farm," and two others iu the immediate neighbourhood.
Having procured some seed from his old neighbour in Nor-
folk, Mr. Avis, he proceeded to try the experiment of grow- ^
ing swedes. There was a bailiff at the farm, but such
scarce and valuable seed he could not trust in other hands
than his own, and he therefore sowed it himself. This was
the first known instance of Swede turnips being sown for a
crop in Suffolk. The seed, however, was put in too late,
and the crop proved very poor, too small to feed cattle, lest
they should choke themselves ; in fact, they were like
Bloomfield's description of the rinds of Suffolk cheese :

" Too big to swallow, and too hard to bite."

After remaining four years with Mr. Wj'the, he resolved
upon farming on his own account. He took a farm at Oc-
cold ; but at the end of three years the owner wanted it,
and Mr. Poppy had to quit He then entered into the seed
business, and travelled over Suffolk, Norfolk, and part of
Cambridgeshire. Being a keen observer, his travelling
gave him a good opportunity of making himself acquainted
with the soil, culture, and vegetable productions of the
districts he visited, and this he did not lose sight of. The
line of life, however, did not please him, and before the end
of twelvemonths he was again engaged by Mr. Wythe to
undertake the sole management of his farms, that gentle-
man having removed to West Norfolk.

Mr. Poppy, desirous of being on his own footing, next
took a farm at Wetherden. Here a new phase of life
opened to him. He married Frances, the youngest
daughter of the Rev. John Gibbs, rector of Occold, and
vicar of Yaxley, by whom he has had five children ; three
of them are now living in the United States, one, a
daughter, is living at West Ham, and one is deceased.
When he began married life he thought he was comfortably
settled : prices were good ; his farm of 160 acres was, to all
appearance, one of average quality; his house was sub-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

307

stantial, and moated round in the old style ; and he had
a partner to share his joj's and his sorrows. But barberry
bushes were dotted here and there in the hedges all over
the farm, and to this he attributed the fact of his corn
having suffered greatly from mildew. At the end of four
years he had to quit, in consequence of the sale of the farm,
and Thomas French, Esq., of Cranley Hall, Eye, gave him
the offer of a farm at Witnesham, of 180 acres, at £40 a
year less rent than what he was then paying, and, in addi-
tion, an offer of a lease for 21 j'ears. This offer he em-
braced; he took stock and crops at valuation, and in 1807
took possession of the land, which he continued to cultivate
for ■ nearly forty-five years. When he came to thp farm,
although 160 acres of arable land, there were but two acres
of white turnips grown : they were very small, and this
was about the average proportion grown by the farmers in
the parish. The mode of cultivating swedes was then un-
known in this neighbourhood. Mr. Poppy found the white
turnips almost useless on his heavj'-land farm ; the roads
were so bad that carting them home was difficult, so that in
sharp winters they sometimes rotted in the field, and in
mild ones ran away so earlj' that there was no feed left for
the spring. This led him to turn his attention again to the
.^' cultivation of swedes, for which, and his experiments with
the t-'.rnip fly, he afterwards became celebrated. The im-
portance of these experiments may be judged of from the
fact that one of the best agricultural authorities, Mr. Macro,
has estimated the loss bj' the fly to amount to one year's
crop out of five or six.

When, in 1827, the g Id medal was presented to Mr
Poppy bj' the Duke of Sussex, in the Haymarket Theatre,
for his endeavours to prevent the ravages of the turnip fly,
Sir John Sinclair introduced himself to the Suffolk farmer,
and did all he could to make known the nature of Mr. Pop-
P3''s experiments.
' Unfortunately for him, the promised twenty-one years'

lease of the Witnesham farm was never executed. Mr.
Poppy kept on farming and improving, prices were increas-
ing almost every year, and in a few years he paid a heavy
penalty for neglecting the affair of the lease. The owner
of the farm and a friend visited him, and the next rent daj'
the alternative was to Mr. Poppy either to pay an advanced
rent or to quit. It was in vain that he pleaded his agree-
ment : there was no written contract. He had himself be-
come a family man, had expended a considerable sum in
improvements, and it was not likely that another farm
) could then be obtained, and he had therefore to submit to
the demand. His case is one among many of the folly of
making improvements without sectmty.

About this period he entered into a correspondence with
Arthur Young about the " scarifier," and he sent a model
of the instrument he had invented to the Board of Agri-
culture, at the time Sir John Sinclair was President; botli
Arthur Young and Sir John highly approved of the model
implement, and felt sure of its getting ultimately into
general use. Young, however, advised Mr. Poppy not to
take GUI a patent, and the result is, that at the present day,
scarifiers, of which his was the original type, may be seen
on almost every farm in this district.

White carrots were introduced into this district by Mr.
Poppy. He brought the seeds from France in 1828.
Sauntering about Calais prior to embarkation, he saw some
strange roots lying on the stalls of the market-place, that
"looked like a hybrid between a parsnip and a carrot," and
heat once bought some seed to try their growth in East
Anglia. He was incessant in his labours to introduce man-
gold wurzel, but he for a long time met with great difficul-
ties in persuading farmers to grow this valuable root, and
he distributed seed, published pamphlets, and wrote letters
to the public journals, with the hope of getting the root
into general use ; and there cannot be a doubt but that his
exertions were of great value. Mr. Collett, ofClopton, had
succeeded in growing the root, but his want of knowledge
in storing them caused his crop to spoil. A labourer from
that parish brought one to Mr. Poppy as a curiosity, say-
ing, he '' din't know what that was ; if 'twas a carrot 'twas
a stamming great un." Mr. Poppy has also been zealous
in promoting the cultivation of "millett" as a useful stall-
feeding plant for storing, and as a substitute lor clover.

Mr. Poppy, in connection with a few friends in his

neighbourhood, established the first organised Farmers'
Club (the Ashbocking) for the exchange and record of the
results of their practice. Of this club he was appropriately
chosen chairman, and he was especially the guiding spirit of
the club. His great natural abilities, extensive experience,
and generous disposition eminently fitted him for the duties
he undertook. By these meetings he connected himself
personally and by correspondence with men of intelligence,
activity, and industry— that portion at least of the agricul-
tural body whose general knowledge and energy were far
in advance of the great majority of farmers of that day, and
thus, directly and indirectl3-, he greatly aided in proptlling
onward the art of agriculture in this county. After the
establishment of this club, the system of Farmers' Clubs
became rapidly established throughout the kingdom. Mr.
P(ippy is not what is generally termed an educated man,
but his mind is one of no common calibre, and its strength
and rugged energy have to a great extent supplied the want
of educational tact. His practical suggestions have ever
been deservedly esteemed by those who did uotfear to
travel out of the beaten tracks. He adhered to his plans
with a degree of steadiness which some called obstinacj',
but he was always determined that his experiments should
have a fair trial, and all parties admit that his observations
are acute, correct, and judicious.

In 1850, our experimentalist, being nearly eighty years
of age, left the farm, and retired with his aged partner to a
small cottage that overlooks every field on the farm, the
cultivation of which he had so long superintended. The
time at which he quitted his occupation was a bad one,
stock and crops sold at very low prices, thereby greatly re-
ducing even the limited means which this aged couple had
to depend on for subsistence during the remainder of their
days.

Charles Poppy is not like Tull, a gentleman of ancient
family ; nor like Stillingfleet, the grandson of a bishop ; nor
like Arthur Young, a Fellow of the Royal Society ; but he
is a practical agriculturist, who, in proportion to his means,
has done more, by experiment and correspondence, to ad-
vance the agricuftural art in this county than any other
man living, and as such is worthy of all honour.

THE PROPOSED ESSEX AGRICULTURAL ASSO-
CIATION.—The adjourned meeting of the committee appoint-
ed to promote the establishmeat of an agricultural society in
the county of Essex, took place on Friday, March 26, at the
Shirehall, Chelmsford ; Mr. C. Du Cane, M.P., in the chair,
Mr. Bramston, M.P., one of the other county members, and a
considerable number of gentlemen connected with the agricul-
ture of the district, were present. The hoa. chairman stated
that 34 vice-presidents at £5 5s. each, 39 members at £2s. 2s.
each, 15] members at £1 Is. each, 24 members at £1 each, and
269 members at IDs. 6d. each, had been enrolled, in all 517
gentlemen. The surplus arising from the local fund raised
lor the Chelmsford Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society
was about £315, and there was, therefore, a sum of £850 avail-
able for the inauguration and establishment of the association.
With regard to the rules, the chairman further stated that he
had prepared them, having previously received copies of those
governing the Suffolk and the Bath and West of England
Societies. The hon. gectleman's code, which he read, was
adopted, with a few slight alterations. It provides for the
management of the association by a committee of 24 members,
chosen equally from the northern and southern divisions of the
county, and that no political discussions shall be introduced
into the society, which is to be devoted exclusively to agricul-
tural objects. The meeting resolved on the appointment of a
secretary at a salary of £50 per annum, and Mr. W. Tutfnell
undertook to act as treasurer. It was also determined, after
some discussion, that the first exhibition of the association
should be held at Chelmsford, on Tuesday, June 15, and the
meetiug adjourned to March 26, for the reception of a schedule
of prizes to be prepared in the interim, and to be then sub-
mitted for approval

t2

308

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

MANURES FOR GREEN CROPS.

At a numerously attended meeting of the Wes-
tern District of Mid-lothian Agricultural Associa-
tion, held at Mid-Calder, on Tuesday, the 1st
December last, Peter M'Lagan, junior, Esq. of
Pumpherston, in the chair, the following able
paper on the " Manures best suited for the Turnip
Crop" was read by Mr Rowat, Currievale :

The results of a few experiments with different
kinds of manures are all I have to lay before you. I
have no historical account of the various manures
now in use ; nor have I anything to say of their
chemical properties. There will doubtless be a
difference in the opinions of many here as to the
comparati\-e merits of different manures ; but I
think you will agree with me as to the necessity of
applying manure of some kind if we expect to raise
a prolific green crop. We all know that in carry-
ing away from the land a crop of any kind, whether
cereals or root crops, we are robbing the soil
of chemical properties which must be returned to it
again in one shape or other, if we would maintain
the land in high condition; and perhaps one of the
most difficult problems for an agriculturist to solve
is the one now before us — What is the kind of ma-
nure which, at the least cost, will raise the largest
green crop, and at the same time leave the land in
the best condition for the succeeding rotation ? A
thrifty housewife, on one occasion, presented a
friend who had called with skim milk cheese, bread
and butter, by way of refreshment. He deliberately
spread a slice of cheese with the butter, saying, " I
restore unto thee what was feloniously taken away ;"
and if we wish to raise luxuriant crops of potatoes
and turnip, we must restore to the land the chemi-
cal properties which previous crops had carried off.
Manuring land is no modern practice. It is quite
true some agriculturists in the present day profess
to grow a succession of crops for a series of years
on the same land without applying manure of any
kind — and the evidence that this has been success-
fully done seems so complete that we cannot dis-
pute it. Still, I think you will agree with me when
I say that even in the Lothians, which has been
styled " the garden of Scotland," we must apply
manure, and that, too, with no niggard hand, if we
expect to raise a crop that will cover seed, labour,
aud rent. In the wheat-growing districts of Cana-
da, where the soil is so rich that the farmers for
years did not require to give it manure, now, in-
stead of carting their manure to the river side as
the easiest mode of getting quit of it, they collect it
carefully and apply it to the land. Chemical
science has done much for agriculture in analyzing
soils, testing the manurial qualities of various sub-
stances, and thus guiding the practical farmer to
the kind of manure best adapted for the respective
soil and crops to which they are applied ; and yet,
withal, agricultural chemistry may be said to be yet
in its infancy, although it has attained to the ordi-
nary span of human life. Yet it seems to have re-
ceived no attention from practical agriculturists

until Liebig published his work on the " Applica-
tion of Chemistry to Agriculture." This work pro-
duced a considerable impression at the time
amongst farmers, some of the more sanguine
imagining that a new era had dawned upon agricul-
ture. Greatly increased crops were to be raised by
new manures, adapted to each description of grain
and root crop, at one-half the former price. But alas !
we all know to our cost that ever since, notwithstand-
ing all the aid of chemistry, manures of all kinds
have been gradually rising, till last season we paid
a higher price for them than we ever did at any
former period. Let me not be understood as
speaking lightly of the aid which chemistry ren-
ders to agriculturists in judging of manures. So
far from it, I believe that we may on good grounds
cherish the hope that this abstruse science will yet
discover for us more plentiful and consequently
cheaper supplies of artificial manures. Years of
patient analyses and experiments maybe necessary.
Let us be patient.

Let us remember what chemistry has done in
supplying us with manures in time past. Thirty or
forty years ago, when turnips began to be more
extensively cultivated, all the farm-yard manure
that could be collected was found quite inadequate.
Bones were introduced, and with marked success,
esjiccially in sharp soils. Then by the aid of
chemistry these bones were dissolved, and the
quantity formerly reckoned necessary for an acre
was found amply sufficient for four. But even
with all this multiplication of the power of manure,
it was found insufficient for the land under green
crop. Then some sixteen or seventeen years ago
guano was introduced, which met the desideratum
for the time ; and now, when farm-yard manure,
bones, dissolved bones, guano, &c., &c., are all
found unequal to manure the vast extent of land
under green crops, I doubt not some substitute will
be forthcoming in the time of need. To chemistry
all eyes are at present directed, and I trust they
will not look in vain. It is but a few months since
that wonder-working science resolved the gas con-
tained in our Torbanehill coal into a liquid, which
I know some of you are pouring into your lamps,
and obtaining a good light for a half-penny a night;
while a wick the length of your finger will last you
a twelvemonth. If that eagle-eyed science which
detected the liquid gas in the dark coal-beds of
Torbanehill, and made it equal if not to the light of
day, at least, to a gas light more brilliant than any
light these dark December days can boast, is it too
much to expect that she will unlock the vast store-
houses of Nature's laboratory, and bring forth the
many rich fertilizers iying dormant, whether it be
from the enormous beds of nitrate of soda in South
America, or the deposits of fossil remains of whales,
sharks, and other gigantic monsters of the deep
that in some remote period of the earth's history
seem to have sported their short-lived day in our
seas, and had their bones deposited in the south of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

309

England for the use of the British agriculturists of
the 19th centurj^?

To make use of a Yankee expression, I believe in
chemistry, and it its power to guide us in the choice
of manures. But I have still stonger faith in ex-
periments, although these are not always safe
guides. There are so many circumstances to be
taken into consideration — the character of the soil,
climate, period of sowing, the season, &c., &c.,
that implicit confidence cannot be placed in any
one experiment ; but if year after year we make
trials of manures on different kinds of soils, and
carefully ascertain the results, we shall be able to
arrive at general conclusions on which we may de-
pend as safely as any chemical theory, however
beautiful.

Farm-yard manure, guano, ground bones, charcoal
manure, and dissolved bones, are the manures I have
made the experiments with, the results of which I
now beg to lay before you. In the season of 1856
I tried six different lots of three drills each. The
First was manured with 5 cwt. Peruvian guano per

Imperial acre, and yielded — 21 tons 1 cwt.
Second, with 5 cwt. dissolved bones — 17 tons

1 cwt.
Third, with 5 cwt. charcoal manure — 12 tons

9 cwt.
Fourth, with 24 cwt. each guano and dissolved

bones — 18 tons 15 cwt.
Fifth, with 2| cwt. each guano and charcoal

manure — 21 tons 1 cwt.
Sixth, with 1^ cwt. each guano, charcoal, and

dissolved bones — 20 tons 2 qrs.

I ought to explain that the turnips were not
sown till the 19th of June, quite too late to sow
green top yellow, especially in such a season as
1856, and hence the crop was a very small one. I
also weighed the same lengths of 3 drills of the
same variety of turnips sown on the 24th of May,
and manured with about 30 tons of farmyard dung,
ploughed in December, and Ij cwt. each dissolved
bones and guano, applied in the drills, which
yielded 27 tons per imperial acre.

This season I had a trial of seven different lots,
manured as follows : —
First, manured with 6 cwts. of Peruvian guano,

weighing 26 tons 19 cwts.
Second, manured with 6 cwts. Patagonian guano,

cost about 10s. — 26 tons 13 cwts.
Third, manured with 9 cwts. dissolved bones —

22 tons 18 cwts.
Fourth, manured with 6 cwts. do. from the same

manufacturer, but much drier — 25 tons 11 cwts.
Fifth, manured with 6 cwts. dissolved bones, from

another manufacturer — 22 tons 19 cwts.
Sixth, manured with 10 cwts. do, — 22 tons 10

cwts.
Seventh, manured with 3 cwts. Peruvian guano

and 3 cwts. charcoal manure — 25 tons 18

cwts.

These weights are all per imperial acre. I may
state that Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cunningham were
kind enough to assist me in measuring the land
and weighing the turnip.

I tried another lot, manured with about 30 tons
farmyard dung and 1 cwt. each guano, charcoal
manure, and dissolved bones, which yielded 33

tons. The turnips in this last were Swedish
variety ; the others were all green top yellow.

I have been in the habit of making a few ex-
periments with different kinds of manures every
year. Up till last season I always found dissolved
bones to yield as large a crop, or nearly so, weight
for weight, as guano, and certainly the largest crop
for the money value of the manure, while its effects
on the land were more lasting. Whether the defi-
ciency the last two years arose from the wetness of
the season or the quality of the manure, I know
not. I dissolved the bones myself previously, but
I had them from a highly respectable party, and do
not beUeve they were in any way adulterated. I
was in the habit of using bone meal, or the rid-
dlings from the bones, to assist in drying them
The addition of a portion of dry bone may perhaps
account for the different result. Dissolved bones,
I have observed, give a great stimulus to the young
turnip plant, and by sending it rapidly on, it is
sooner beyond the reach of that horrid enemy of
the turnip plant— the fly. In this respect it excels
all other manures except guano. You will observe
one remarkable result in the lot with 10 cwt. of
dissolved bones; the yield is no greater than with
6 cwt. This would not have surprised me had
guano been the manure, but with bones it is to me
altogether inexplicable. In making a calculation
of the cost of various manures used in these experi-
ments, Patagonian produced the largest weight of
turnips for the money cost, but inferior guanos are
not to be depended on, with this exception. Half
charcoal and half guano produce the next greatest
weight of turnips for the money, reckoning the
charcoal manure at 5s. 3d. per cwt. and the guano
at 14s. Dissolved bones are the next cheapest.

Perhaps it may be expected I should say some-
thing of the manures best adapted for potatoes. I
am not a large potato grower, seldom having more
than eight or ten acres, and therefore leave that
subject to another. I may state that I this year
used 1 cwt. each of charcoal, guano, and dissolved
bones, with farmyard dung ploughed in in autumn.
A small portion of the field had 3 cwt. of guano,
without charcoal or bones, and I could observe no
difference in the produce. One word as to the
Edinburgh Police Manure. I have found it suit
well on stiff soil, but on hghter land I would de-
cidedly prefer the one-half quantity of farmyard
dung. I know this does not correspond with the
experience of some of the most intelligent farmers
of the district, who compare it with other manure
in the proportion of three or two. One serious
drawback to it is, you have even on this calcula-
tion three tons to load, cart, and spread, for two of
the other, and it will take nearly double the time
to fill and spread it. If liquid manure could be
applied to turnips, I believe it would surpass every
other manure for that crop. Some time ago, in
transplanting some Swedes, I took urine from the
tanks, and applied it after the turnip was trans-
planted, and its effects were very powerful.

The Chairman expressed thegreatsatisfaction he
had had in listening to the very able and sugges-
tive paper of Mr. Rowat. It had brought out
prominently a most important point, which was
well worthy of our best consideration, viz., the most

510

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

■profitable quantity of manure to apply to our crops.
Every one present acknowledges the principles of
high farming — we must be liberal to the soil if we
expect it to be liberal to us. But within the last
two or three years there are many instances in the
best-farmed districts of Scotland in which these
principles have not been judiciously carried out.
Owing to the high price of farm produce, and the
facilities afforded of obtaining manures, the error
with the best farmers has been rather over-manur-
ing, producing an over-luxuriance of the cereals,
very much to the loss of the farmer. By all means
let as much manure be applied as will give the
most profitable return to the farmer ; but having
ascertained the quantity that will produce that
effect, let care be taken that it be not exceeded.
Were the cost of a ton of turnips to be counted up
on some farms of particular kinds of soil, and
where large doses of manure had been applied,
considerable astonishment would be felt at the ex-
pense. In some cases which came under our ob-
servation this season, we found that the cost of
raising a ton of Swedes was 12s. Now, turnips
seldom pay more than 6s. or 7s. per ton when used
for feeding, and this year there are not many feed-
ers that wiJl make more than half that sum. These
remarks have been suggested by an experiment of
Mr Rowat's, where 6 cwts. of dissolved bones per
acre gave as large a crop as 10 cwts. of the same
substance. It will be said that the 10 cwts. will
tell upon the succeeding crop. True; but why apply
the extra 4 cwts. to the turnip crop. The money
paid for it would have been much better lying at
interest in the bank, or applied in some other way
for a year till the next crop was sown. But we
maintain besides that there is considerable loss in
the manurial value of the superphosphate by apply-
ing it to the soil a year before it is required.
Another important fact stated by Mr. Rowat is that
charcoal manure, which possesses by itself a com-
paratively inferior manurial value, is found to pro-
duce as great an effect when mixed with Peruvian
guano as an equal weight of guano. We can
account for this in no other way than by attributing
the effect to the property which the charcoal has of
fixing the ammonia of the guano. But though we
have tried before now other substances which had
the same property, we have never obtained such
favourable results. The success attending Mr.
Rowat's experiments certainly warrants a trial of
the same substance used by him. The following
are two experiments performed by me, the one in
1856, and the other in 185/. In the first experi-
ment, the whole field was manured with good farm-
yard dung at the rate of 20 tons per imperial acre,
and all the substances were applied at the rate of
26s. 6d. per imperial acre. As there was consider-
able variety in the condition of the soil in the fiekl,
I thought it better to make a series of experiments
over the field instead of one equal portion of land
being taken in each experiment, and the produce of
adjoining ridges weighed—

First Experiment.

Tons, cwts
Dissolved bones and Peruvian guano gave 6 2 '

Ton?, cwts.

Second Experiment.
Steamed bones and Peruvian guano . ,
Dissolved bones alone

Third Experiment
Dissolved bones alone
Steamed bones alone

Fourth Experiment
Leone guano alone
Leone and Peruvian

1

7

171
19i

n

12i

Steamed bones

do.

Last summer a small quantity of guario from the
West India islands was sent in for experiment by
the Messrs. Cunningham. Turnip sowing was
nearly over when it reached me; but still I deter-
mined to try the experiment on a portion of a clay
field in not first-rate condition.

Tons. cwts.
4 cwt. of Peruvian guano per ^4 0 of tops.

imp. acre, gave i 13 11 of roots.

8 cwt. of West India guano per ^2 15 of tops.

imp. acre, gave ill 10 of roots.

2 cwt. of Peruvian and 4 of ^ 3 7 of tops.

W. Indian per imp. acre gave ij; 15 1 of roots.

Messrs. Glendinning, Hatton Mains ; Allan,
Clifton; Walker, Kilpunt; Black, Newyearfield,
also took part in the discussion, detailing the ex-
perience of the application of different kinds of
manure. Two experiments mentioned by Mr.
Rowat gave rise to considerable discussion, viz, '^

those in which it was found that 8 cwt. of dissolved
bones produced as large a crop as 12 cwt. of the
same substance, and where 4 cwt. of guano, mixed
with 4 cwt. of charcoal, at a cost of £3 l6s. pro-
duced as large a crop as 8 cwt. of guano alone, at
a cost of £5 12s. The opinion of the meeting ap-
peared to be that every farmer should ascertain for
himself, by experiment, the proper and most
profitable quantity of manure to apply per acre on >,
his farm according to the condition of each field, T'
so as to raise the fullest crop; and that having as-
certained that quantity, it would be injudicious to
apply more, as a larger crop of turnips would not
be raised, while there was a risk of injuring the
succeeding grain crop.

The Chairman concluded by moving a vote of
thanks to Mr Rowat for his excellent paper.

HOLLY (Ilex aquasfolia) — Coramon holly — is one of
the very best shrubs or trees we possess, displaying
either character, according to situation, age, and appli-
cation of art ; it is found (according to Loudon) in most
parts of Europe, in North America, Japan, and in
Cochin China. In Britain it is found congregated in
natural woods and forests : but for the purposes of this
article (viz., in hedges) the holly stands prc-emioent. It
will not be necessary here to describe the somewhat
tedious practice of raising the plants by seed ; we will
suppose that a hedge is intended. It is always necessary
to well-trench the soil, and prepare a space sufficiently
wide to receive the plants. That their roots ramify by
adding to the original a portion of well-decomposed
manure, or rich compost would be aswell. Then say
in September or October, or in April or May, select
from some respectable nurseryman plants that have been
repeatedly removed (this point is of great importance to
insure success), of such size as suits the taste or means

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

311

of the purchaser ; but we will start with a plant one
foot high, which should, when well established, receive
proper pruning by cutting in, to the required breadth,
such irregular or luxuriant shoots that project beyond
the li mit allotted to them : this concentrates all the energies
of the plant to the purposes intended — the forming a
good hedge. After two or three years, it may be found
necessary, perhaps, to stop a few of the most naked and
strongest leaders, should they start beyond an ordinary
growth ; otherwise there might be hollow places found,

which would spoil the general effect of an even outline.
It would, under every circumstance, be advisable to use
a knife, and not the shears, as they rather mutilate the
plants ; in fact, it is a barbarous practice at all times, to
apply the shears to good evergreen hedges. Beyond an
occasional top-dresssing or a little mulching, the work
is done, and the extra pains taken in the early growth of
hollies will amply repay the planter for his trouble,
and he may in after-years look with pride on his
handy work.

THE GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT OF WOOL.

At a late monthly meeting of tlie Haddincrton
Ajjfricultural Club, Mr. Gaukroger, wool merchant,
of Haddington, said he had been called upon so
unexpectedly to preside at that meeting, and had

k latterly been so much engaged in buying and
packing wool, that he had no time to prepare a few
remarks anent the growth and management of that
staple commodity. It might be assumed, however,
that anyone practically acquainted with that branch
of commerce could not be at a loss for a few words
on the subject. The first step incumbent upon
those aspiring to become growers of first-class
wool, is to be particular in obtaining a clean,
healthy, and pure stock. Take for instance the sort
of wool most in demand at the present moment —
half-bred hogs — in order to obtain the extreme
prices now going, there must be no infusion of
blackfaced blood. Let it be as remote as you like, it
will show itself in a greater or less degree, and,
wherever prevalent, seriously deteriorates the value
of this class of wool. They shall be crossed for
years, and crossed again, till not the slightest
symptoms canbediscovered in the head or legs of the
sheep ; but to a judge the tinge of blood is at once

♦ detected in the wool; it is heavily britched, and
hardly ever free from kemps — a vile, thick, dead
white hair, that all staplers and manufacturers have
a great repugnance to. In a pure stock this
objectionable hair is sometimes found, but generally
in aged sheep ; old ewes, for instance, that are
draughted from breeding stocks, and sold to lov/
country farmers, who make them and that year's
lambs fit for the butcher. To produce a sound-
stapled wool, it is necessary that the sheep be
regularly fed ; what I mean is, that they be not
allowed to go back in condition, for where this is
permitted, it shows itself no less in the wool than
the mutton ; moreover, the wool can never after-
wards recover its strength, and at that point where
they have been pinched of meat, the wool will be
tender, and break, and will not comb, but only fit
for weft or carding, and is consequently not so
valuable as sound combing wool. The stronger
you feed, the wool will be the longer and heavier,
but not the finer haired — medium feeding is best
for combining quality with a fair sound staple.
The North British Agriculturist of May 20th, in
speaking of salve or laid wool, strongly approves of
not clipping the sheep till the wool is again greasy
with its natural secretion. I believe this to be a
good plan for laid wools, but for white wools it is
not; the sooner the sheep are chpped after the

wool is thoroughly dry the better— buyers don't
like to see greasy, "yolky" wool, and wont give a
top price for it. Provided the weather is favourable
for drying, 4 to 6 or 8 days is long enough, and
not 14 or 20, as some people might think.
Another important feature, although a very simple
one, is the winding up, or what is termed in York-
shire the " lapping." This is too often neglected ;
the servant, in many instances, is careless, and
does not clean the fleece of all dung, dirt, tar, straw,
&c. I believe this is never done with the know-
ledge of the master, but they cannot be too particular
in cautioning their servants in this respect.
There is a law passed for the protection of manu-
facturers and wool-staplers, making this a serious
offence, and punishable by a fine upon every fleece
so falsely wound, as well as the entire forfeiture
of such fleeces, and the case to be disposed of in a
summary way before a magistrate. It is, perhaps,
not out of place my alluding to this. I don't
think it has ever been acted upon in this country.
I am sure no one would like to take abvantage of
the servant's mistake, as the farmers would not be
cognizant of it, and are a courteous, gentlemanly,
and hospitable class, which of itself even would
debar any one from going to such " straits."
Some districts have deservedly a better character
than others for the growth of the wool. East
Lothian cannot and never could compete with the
border — Roxburgh and Berwickshire. These dis-
tricts are famed in Yorkshire and Fiance for what
is termed Northumberland wool (which includes
the wool of Northumberland, Roxburgh, Berwick,
East and Mid-Lothian), and always brings higher
prices. This is to be attributed to the soil and
chmate of those districts being better adapted to
the growth of wool, and being more what is termed
a wool-growing country, greater attention is paid
to it. In this county there is the greatest difference
possible — some places grow much better wool than
others ; go down to the low country and near to
the sea, and then to the parishes of Salton, Giff"ord,
and Bolton, and you will find a startling superiority
in favour of the latter; — the former wants that
bright rich colour and full wholesome appearance
of the latter, and has a dull," reeky", unkind aspect,
and is wastier. I must state, however, that in
spite of soil and climate, and the keeping of
" flying stocks", there are some praiseworthy
exceptions in the northern division of the county.
It does not follow that the richest and best corn
land produces the best wool. 1 can understand a

512

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

farmer supposing that ; but such is not the case.
The best Cheviot laid is grown in Sutherland, and
some beautiful half-bred wool in Caithness, whilst
the best Cheviot white is grown" on the Cheviot
hills and district. Again, East-Lothian wool is, I
believe, preferred to West-Lolhian, Fife, and other
places. In this age of competition, and when wool
is so very high in price, it is the interest of those
who wish good prices to give this matter their con-
sideration. Wool is not "penny pies" now: prices
will vary considerably for the same description, as
it is the best wool that is wanted, and buyers prefer
paying at all times a good rattling price for a
superior article, to a shabby price for a slovenly got
up one. A good lot, when bought, is half sold to
the consumer, but a bad lot sticks long, and it is
up-hill work to quit it, and frequently spoils one
for a future transaction. I have been taken so
much at unawares that nothing else occurs to me at
present, but shall be glad to hear any member's
opinion on the subject.

Mr. Dowell (of Dowells & Lyon) wool broker,
Edinburgh, having been introduced to the meeting
by the chairman, said — From the exceedingly
courteous invitation of Mr Harper to appear here, I
considered it would have been most unbecoming if
I did not cheerfully respond to his wish by giving
a few remarks in extension of our circular, the
Etiore particularly as it touches the most important
product of our island; and in following this up, I
might justly be accused of arrogance, if I did not
at the outset declare it was not from personal
practical experience that these remarks were foun-
ded on, but what is more valuable — from the
experiences of many who have enthusiastically de-
voted their energies in the furtherance of our native
manufactures. In conversing with practical men,
both producers and consumers, more particularly
the latter, one feels thoroughly convinced there is
still a vast field open for improvement in the getting
up of the wool ; and let it not be considered I am
running away with the harrows too fast, when I
assert that in wool there is as much room for im-
provement as there was in days not long gone by,
when guano and artificial manures were unknown
in agriculture; nevertheless, it must excite a pleas-
ing sensation in the breast of every well-wisher of
his country to observe the gradual, but marked
attention, which has of late years been bestowed on
rural affairs. To men of all ranks of society,
agriculture seems now to be the favourite study,
not only of the landed proprietor and practical
farmer, who are more immediately interested in its
improvements, but also of the philosopher or man
of science, who, instead of wasting his time and
talents in useless metaphysical disquisitions, now
devotes them to agricultural researches, which, re-
dound to the benefit, not of a few individuals only,
but to the community at large. When we consider
the wool of this country alone warms almost every
class of society, gives emjjloyment to thousands in
its manufacture, and engages whole fleets in its
exportation, it should excite within every one of us
a lively interest in its progress ; and in a national
point of view, it must be gratifying to know that
the tartan and the tweed are eagerly competed for in
every clime ; and it aiFords us no ordinary pleasure

to notice that the managers of some of the largest
charitable educational institutions of our country
have at length seen the propriety of clothing their
youngsters with the becoming garb of Scotch
tweed. Little does a careless farmer know of the
trouble occasioned to a manufacturer from ill got
up wool; and if he would but for a moment reflect
on the vast amount of capital involved in machinery,
it should prompt him to be more careful ; and when
we read of, and daily hear of, hill farms increasing
in rent from 12 to 45 per cent., surely it is but
hopeful that every improvement should be attempted
to increase the value of the crop, whatever it
may be. This I humbly submit, can only le done
by care in selecting the stock ; and as we are
particularly on wool, the careful washing is of the
highest importance to the manufacturer, inasmuch
as it yields more weiglit of yarn, enables him to
put a greater quantity through the carding process,
as it does not clog up the cards speedily. Its free-
ness not only makes it spin more sweetly, but
makes a better thread ; hence it is more valuable to
the manufacturer in many respects, and he well
knowing the qualifications of well washed wool, is
ever desirous of acquiring it even at a considerable
advance. Bright-haired wool is much desired and
eagerly sought after by the manufacturer, being far
more valuable to him than wool tinged with the
yellow hue; the production of a pure white wool
free from all tendency to clamminess is what wool- A

growers cannot be too ambitious to attend to, and
the attainment of this object depends very much on
prompt attention being paid to early chpping after
the sheep has been thoroughly washed and dried.
Wet or unsettled weather may interfere with such
an arrangement ; but, generally speaking, the delay
is attributable to the idea that farmers entertain,
that they gain by weight when shearing is post-
poned. In this they are greatly mistaken, for they
sacrifice the beautiful white appearance of the fleece, ¥'
a quality which cannot be too highly estimated,
and which the manufacturer invariably keeps in
view in the advance of price. Considerable loss is
often experienced in the deterioration of wool, by
allowing a flock after washing to be turned into a
place where sand or moss rubs are prevalent ;
great care ought to be exercised in avoiding such,
and in procuring the best place till the clip is
finished. Of late years complaints have been on
the increase from the French buyers, who have
been large competitors, that kemphairis far too
often found in flocks ; this should be particularly
studied, and every experiment adopted to devise
the means of eradication. Allow me now in a few
words to draw attention to the advantage of dispos-
ing of the wool by auction, and let it not be con-
sidered I am too one-sided in this opinion, but be-
lieve me it is from an honest conscientious convic-
tion that I am advising for the best : established
usage, old connections, and an indifference to
change, makes the task to prove the fact all the
more difficult ; but can the enlightened farmer of
the 19th century not see that when wool is collected
into a well- lighted store, placed in competition
with others of a worse or better sort, and when the
direct competition of some 40 or 50 bidders come
into play, each sort receives its just reward accord-^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

513

ing to the care it has been got up with ? How
infinitely better then is this plan, compared to what
we hope some day to see entirely exploded, viz., of
accepting from the old dealer his idea of the value,
and the giving of the same price in localities, let
them be ill or well washed. In saying this, let me
not be misunderstood by a highly intelligent and
gentlemanly class of dealers, who have long occu-
pied the wool field — that I wish to take the butter
off their bread, and perhaps their bread as well. I
wish even to show them that sales would decidedly
be to their advantage, and why. Look at the
enormous expense they are put to, in travelling the
country; whereas at sales they would get what they
required, with a tithe of the trouble and no expense ;
they would thereby be better remunerated by re-
ceiving a commission for so buying. Have we less
intelligence than our American and Australian
neighbours, who have long seen the advantage of
sales? Certainly not ! Still we are only waking
up to appreciate what they have long enjoyed and

benefited by in purse. Sales are now springing up
in all quarters ; but unless one general central
market be adopted, it is easy to predict the issue;
and another fallacy is the frequency of the sales.
To suit all, more particularly the buyers from dis-
tant parts, set periods, such as the London practice,
should be adopted, and we will ever endeavour to
advance with the times in lending our aid to im-
prove every method that will tell to the benefit of
the grower. In conclusion, allow me to thank you
for this opportunity of expressing my opinions, and
as I was an aspirant to the enviable position of an
agriculturist under the able tuition of Mr. Steedman
of Boghall, I am proud of the opportunity of meet-
ing so many intelligent cultivators of the soil.

The following members also took part in the
discussion — Mr. Douglas, Athelstaneford ; Mr. R.
ScotSkirving, Campton; Mr.Durie, Standingstane,
&c. The discussion ultimately was adjourned till
next meeting, so that Mr. Harper's views on the
subject might be obtained.

THE MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LAND.

1. The best mode of Laying down Land
TO Permanent Grass, &c.

In laying down land to permanent pasture, the
first point to be attended to is its thorough and
efficient drainage; for without this all-important
preliminary, no matter how the other operations
are conducted, disappointment will finally ensue.
AVe need not enter into any lengthened account of
the manner in which draining is performed, for
the details are generally well known ; but this
much we must say — the drains ought not to be
less than four feet deep, and, as a general rule, not
more than 21 feet apart. We are aware that there
are many persons who do not consider it necessary
to drain pasture land, or what is intended to
become such, as 'closely as they would do land
intended to be under regular cropping ; but we
consider this to be mistaken policy. Unless the
land is naturally dry, it must be rendered so
artificially ; for if this is not done, coarse grasses
will displace those finer descriptions which may be
sown, and coarse grasses are always innutritious.

Taking it for granted that the land intended to
be laid down in permanent grasses has previously
been under a lengthened course of rather severe
cropping, combined with, perhaps, careless general
management, we would beg to detail the steps
which we have in many instances of this kmd
ado])ted, for the purpose of preparing and finally
laying down the land to grass.

After draining, and when the surface soil is
shallow and the subsoil retentive, it is of the
utmost consequence to deepen it by subsoiling.
We have had experience of land being laid down
to grass both with and without subsoiling ; and in
every instance where it was omitted, if the subsoil
was of a retentive character, we have invariably
been led to attach a greater amount of importance
to this operation. We have deepened land by

means of the subsoil plough, and also by manual
labour ; and although in the latter case the expense
was considerable, still we found it^ remunerative.
Generally speaking, however, the subsoil plough
wdl be found sufficient to answer the purpose.
Subsoiling must in no case whatever be put in the
room of or used as a substitute for draining, as it
has been done by some persons. This would only
lead to disappointment, and very likely to under-
valuing what is in reality a most important opera-
tion when properly performed) and in its proper
time and place.

The eradication of weeds is indispensably neces-
sary, and it is impossible to be too careful and
minute in conducting this preliminary operation.
When the land is very foul it may be necessary to
resort to a bare fallow, particularly when the grass
seeds are to l/e sown in autumn. At the same
time, even very foul land may be cleaned during
the preparatory operations for a root crop, and in
the summer culture of the same. By this, we
mean turnips or mangel wurzel, drilled or (as it is
denominated in manyparts of England) ridged,from
twenty-seven to thirty inches apart: any closer
intervals will not permit the horse-hoe and grubber
to act efficiently. When a root crop is grown,
the grass seeds cannot be sown until the following
spring. In the case of potatoes, indeed, the crop
may be removed in time to permit sowing in
autumn ; but unless the land is already tolerably
free from weeds, potatoes do not answer well as a
preparatory crop, so far as the eradication of the
weeds is concerned, because the potato must be
planted at so early a period in spring as to prevent
a thorough cleaning of foul land. When the
autumn cleaning of stubbles can be carried properly
into effect, preparatory to growing a crop of
potatoes, then such a crop will be found very
favourable indeed to the growth of sown grasses.
In whatever mode the eradication of weeds is

314

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

performed, whether by bare fallowing, or in the
cultivation of root, or, as they may be more cor-
rectly designated, fallow crops, the operation must
be done effectually, and not hurried or slurred
over. The couch-grass rake, which is used in
many parts of England, will be found a useful
auxiliary in the earlier stages of the business, but
it ought not to depend altogether on this, but must
be followed by careful hand-picking. Joints of
couch-grass, small dock roots, and various other
weeds, will escape the rake, and these can only be
effectually removed by the hand. Hand picking,
no doubt, adds to the expense ; but it is neverthe-
less absolutely necessary, if it is desirable to lay
the land down in a proper manner.

It is of no use attempting to lay down land to
permanent grass if it is in poor condition, or what
is called out of heart. When potatoes are the
preceding crop, and autumn cleaning can be
carried into effect, the manuring ought to take
place before the land is rough-ploughed previous
to winter. This manuring ought to consist of not
less than 25 to 30 tons of farm-yard dung, and it
is not necessary that the manure be fully decom-
posed. By the spring it will become incorporated
with the soil, and there is a greater probability of a
sound crop of potatoes than would be the case if
the application of the manure was deferred until
the planting season. In the spring, and im-
mediately previous to planting, when the manure
was ploughed down in autumn, is the proper time
to apply lime. The quantity necessary depends on
the nature of the soil ; but in the case of loams of
a medium character, that is, neither a heavy clay,
nor a light, moory, or sandy soil, we have been in
the habit of using from 120 to 150 bushels of lime
per statute acre as it comes from the kiln. If it is
not convenient to apply it in spring, the operation
may be deferred imtil the removal of the crop. In
this case we would sow eight to ten bushels per
statute acre of half-inch bones broadcast, previous
to planting the potatoes. In all cases which have
come under our observation, we have seen that
bones are almost an indispensable necessary when
laying down land to permanent grass. We maybe
permitted to mention one case in particular as an
illustration. In laying down a field of rather stiflF
clay loam, which had been previously heavily limed,
to a part of the field bone-dust was apphed, whilst
the remaining portion was laid down after farm-
yard manure. The honed portion was in the
middle of the field. Ten years afterwards the
boned land could be plainly distinguished from the
rest of the field, even at a considerable distance ;
the turf was closer and greener, and always closely
eaten by whatever stock was grazed in the field,
but especially by sheep.

After the potatoes are removed, say early in
September, the land must be harrowed, and all
weeds carefully removed. After this apply the
lime, or bones, if not done in spring, and then set
the two-horse grubber to work, stirring up the soil
thoroughlj', both across the field and lengthways.
Taking for granted that the land is either naturally
or artificially dry, it will be best to lay it down to
grass in a level state, that is, without furrows ; and
the action of the grubber ought to be quite suf-

ficient to make an excellent seed bed. The seeds
are then sown and the land harrowed, but not
rolled, unless in the case of very dry, sandy,
or sharp land. We shall afterwards refer to the
kinds and quantities of seeds to be used.

When turnips or mangel are the crops which
precede grass, the liming ought to be done imme-
diately after the removal of the previous grain
crop, before the land receives the winter furrow, so
that it may be thoroughly incorporated in the soil
before the application of manure for the root crop.
The farm-yard manure, not less than 20 tons
per acre, in combination with bones, will be applied,
of course, immediately before sowing the turnip
seed. As turnips do not perfect their growth until
it is too late to sow grass seeds, and very likely
being either wholly or in part consumed by sheep
(if so, so much the better), the sowing of the grass
seeds must be deferred till spring. In this case,
as soon as the turnips are removed or consumed,
the land must be ploughed in very broad ridges or
lands, say fifty or sixty feet wide (still taking
for granted that the land is dry), and even wider, if
convenient. In this state it will lie until spring,
when, if the crop has been entirely removed, and
not consumed either altogether or partly by sheep,
after the land has been thoroughly operated upon
by the grubber, 2 cwt. per acre of Peruvian guano
may be harrowed in, the grass seeds sown,
harrowed, and rolled.

If the land is bare fallowed, preparatory to being
laid down to permanent grass, we would stron<j;ly
urge the necessity of being most particular in con-
ducting the various operations of ploughing, har-
rowing, and weed picking, because we have not
unfrequently seen bare fallows which could only be
called fallows by courtesy. The land certainly was
not in crop ; neither was it, properly speaking, in
grass ; but it was bearing a luxuriant crop of couch
and other weeds ; and instead of attempting to
remove these, their growth was merely retarded for
the time by an occasional ploughing. We have,
indeed, known in more than one case a crop of
couch-grass hay to be taken off these so-called
fallows. " Thorough " must be the motto,
whether it relates to draining, manuring, working
of the land, or eradicating every vestige of the
weeds by which it is infested.

The kinds and quantities of grass seeds to be
sown are regulated by the nature of the soil. On
soils of medium quality, the following mixture will
be found advantageous : —

Perennial rye-grass, 10 lbs.; Italian rye-grass,
4 lbs.; Timothy, li lbs. ; Cocksfoot, 5 lbs. ; Mea-
dow Foxtail, 2i lbs. ; Rough-stalked meadow grass,
2 lbs. ; Hard fescue grass, 2\ lbs. ; Meadow fescue
grass, 3^ lbs. ; Perennial red clover, 0 lbs. ; White
or Dutch clover, 4 lbs. ; Alsike clover, 2 lbs., per
statute acre.

In dry lands intended chiefly for sheep pasture
omit the timothy and the rough-stalked meadow
grass, and substitute 3 lbs. of sheep's fescue and 2
lbs. of common parsley, both of which are greedily
eaten by sheep. In heavy or damp soils double the
quantity of timothy as given in the above mixture;
and whilst allowing only one-half of the hard
escue grass, add the quantity deducted from this.

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

315

or ijlbs., to the rough-stalked meaJow grass.
Half-a-ponnd to one pound per acre of sweet-
scented vernal grass may be added or not, in
all soils, as pleasure dictates. It is not a valuable
pasture grass ; but, from the sweet smell it imparts
to the hay with which it is mixed, it is to a certain
extent useful on this account.

In the great majority of cases grass seeds are
sown in spring along with a cereal crop, which is
allowed to ripen its seeds ; but when permanent
grass is the object, the best plan is to sow them
alone ; that is, any of the cereals sown along with
them, for the purpose of shelter, should not be
allowed to ripen. When grass seeds are sown in
autumn, a bushel of rye per statute acre should be
sown at same time ; and when the sowing takes
place in spring, a similar quantity of any of
the cereals will answer the purpose. Rape is
an excellent seed to sow along with grass seeds,
jj, whether they are autumn or spring sown. From
3 to 4 lbs. an acre, sown broadcast, may be used ;
it shelters the young plants, and affords a most
valuable amount of forage for sheep when pastured
on the young grasses.

When grass seeds are sown in autumn, they will
in ordinary cases have advanced sufficiently by
April to admit of being lightly stocked with sheep.
W^e are not partial to the system adopted by some,
in such cases, of stocking so heavily as to eat down
the young grasses to the root ; for we consider that
by doing so many of them are entirely destroyed.
It is, no doubt, a great temptation to a man who is,
perhaps, short enough otherwise of grass for his
ewes and lambs^ when he has a field of young
grasses forward; but it is better to remove the
sheep for a week or ten days at a time, after being
grazed, so as to allow the young grass to shoot out
afresh. In like manner, spring-sown grasses must
be stocked as soon as they are sufficiently advanced
k,,~ to afford a full bite. Cattle must not be allowed to
graze on the newly sown lands. In many districts
the land is full of small stones, and all which
would interfere with the scythe ought to ba
removed at any early period when most con-
venient. Some do this as soon as the grass seeds
are sown ; others defer it until after they have per-
haps been eaten down for the first time. In either
case, broad- wheeled carts ought to be used to
. carry away the stones, so as to prevent the forma-
tion of ruts, as will be the case when narrow
wheels are employed. The frequent use of the
roller is highly advantageous in smoothing and
consolidating the surface.

Although the production of hay should be an
object which it was desirable to attain, the grass
ought not to be mown the first year, but entirely
consumed by sheep. The second year's grass may
be mown, but as soon as the hay is removed, let a
wet day be selected to top-dress the field with 1
cwt. of Peruvian guano and 1 cwt. nitrate of soda
per statute acre, after which, when the grasses are
sufficiently grown, "stock again with sheep. The
aftermath ought on no account to be mown,
neither should a hay crop be taken two years in
succession. In the after-management of the land,
should a crop of hay be taken, top-dressing imme-
diately afterwards either with guano and nitrate of

soda, or with farm-yard manure in winter, must not
be omitted. A large extent of naturally excellent
grass land has been ruined by a two frequent repe-
tition of a hay crop, accompanied by a neglect of
top-dressing.

2. The Renovation of Inferior and Worn-
out Pastures.

In attempting the improvement of inferior pas-
tures, drainage must form the preliminary operation
in this as in the previous case. We know many
instances where thorough draining alone has acted
like magic in effecting a vast improvement of in^
ferior pasture lands, v/here the grass has been
changed through the influence of the drainage from
being of the coarsest kind, and greatly disliked by
stock, to sweet, fattening pastures, from which it
was almost impossible to keep out either cattle or
sheep if an open gate or a hole in a hedge could be
found by them. In a case to which we would par-
ticularly allude, the soil was a very tenacious clay,
and had been tile-drained at one time about two
feet deep, the drains running across the slope. The
grass, however, was never good; but when this
land was drained four feet deep, the drains running
up and down the slope, and only seven yards apart,
in the first year afterwards a great change for the
better was manifest, and each succeeding season
added to the value of the pastures. To expect to
improve inferior pastures which require draining
without that operation being carried into effect, is
simply to expect an impossibility ; and we may be
permitted to remark that there are more pastures
requiring drainage, and the want of which is the
primary cause of their inferiority, than many appear
to be aware of. One thing we may be certain of —
that as long as there is a single case of rot in sheep,
we may rest assured that the thorough-drain has
not been called upon to lend its aid in eradicating
the evil.

If the land has become fogged, or covered with
mosses, the harrow may be used with good effect;
and afterwards let the opportunity of a damp morn-
ing be taken advantage of, to sow grass seeds over
the parts which have been most scarified by the
implement.

The application of bone-dust, at the rate of say
twenty bushels per statute acre, is, we need scarcely
say, a most efficient mode of improving inferior
pastures. Instead, however, of putting them on
the land in their natural state, another method may
be adopted, and which we believe to be the better
plan. When grass land is drained — pipes being
used as under-ground conduit — let the filling of
the drains be finished neatly, without laying the top
sod on the surface. Collect these sods, and after
chopping them in pieces, form a heap, upon each
layer of which spread a quantity of bones, and also
coarse salt. There will be thus — first a layer of
earth, next a covering of bones and salt, then earth,
again bones and salt, and so on, until the heap is
say four feet high. The uppermost layer must be
of earth. The bones to be at the rate of 20 bush,
an acre, and the salt 5 cwt. The former will de-
compose rapidly, and become absorbed in this heap
of earthi It may be apphed to the land a month

516

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

after being mixed, observing to turn tbe heap care-
fully over before drawing the compost out on the
field. If it is in the power of the farmer to saturate
the heaps with the liquid drainings from his farm-
yard, the value of the compost will be greatly
increased.

A compost of earth, lime, and salt is an excellent
top-dressing for pastures, and very effectual in
improving the quality of the grasses. Let the heap
be made in layers as above described, but in this
case, after being made up, it must remain untouched
for at least six months. Then let two men com-
mence at one end of the heap, and turn it over,
'carefully intermixing every portion of it, and add-
ing a shovel-full of lime where it may appear to
have been passed over lightly at the first mixing.
The heap will be permitted to remain for two or
three months longer, then turned again, beginning
at the opposite end from that which was begun
upon the first time. A compost of this kind is
better to lie twelve months before being applied to
the land, so that the particles may be allowed to
be thoroughly intermixed, and also to permit cer-
tain chemical changes taking place which the lime
and salt will effect in connection with the organic
matter contained in the earth, and by which the
fertilizing effects of the compost will be increased.

Calcareous manures alone, when used as a top-
dressing, will effect great improvements in the cha-
racter of pastures. We have often applied marl to
poor heathy pastures, and the result was that the
heaths and coarse bents became eradicated, their
place being supplied by natural white clover and

other sweet grasses. This practice of using marl
alone in the improvement of poor grass lands is
common in some districts with which we are
acquainted; and shell sand got on the sea shore is
also employed for the same purpose, and with pre-
cisely a similar effect. Even common sand will be
found to improve the pasturage on poor clays. We
had on one occasion a very striking proof of this
being the case. A field of poor, ungrateful clay
was laid down to permanent grass, and although it
had been previously treated liberally, the grass
still was always very thin, and of extremely
indifferent quality. A considerable quantity of
fine sand was drawn and spread over the worst
parts of the field, and from that time the sward
began to improve, becoming thicker every year, the
bare spaces being filled up by sweet herbage,
which did not exist previously.

All pastures which are eaten down by cattle ought
to be frequently gone over, and all the droppings
carefully scattered. This prevents the grasses from
growing in tufts, as in the case where this precau-
tion is not adopted, besides helping to improve the
pasture generally.

An unremitting warfare must be waged against
weeds, and the most effectual mode of removal is
by digging them out. Cutting them down regu-
larly at an early stage of their growth will weaken
them so much that in course of time they will die
out; but this is apt to be neglected until they per-
fect their seeds, wlien it is too late, and we therefore
prefer recommending digging out instead of merely
cutting down. — Irish Farmer's Gazette.

THE BEAUTIFUL IN AGRICULTURE

Both the art and the science of agriculture are
sufficiently advanced in this country to enable its
citizens to study and practise the Beautiful in
planting, and in all farming operations, with entire
success. Beauty in rural objects and scenery is
not confined to embelhshments, but is attainable in
all that relates to plants and their culture, to do-
mesticated animals, forests, parks, fields, orchards,
and gardens. Nature kindly favours, and often
suggests agreeable features to such as have an
eye to see and heart to feel the charms of beauty.
She aids in a thousand ways to quicken into life
and activity the dormant taste for the Beautiful
placed in every bosom by a beneficent Creator.
To develop and cultivate this latent and prolific
source of enjoyment in mankind, is one of the
highest duties of educated persons. It should
prompt all to investigate the elements of beauty
in natural objects and in rural arts, v/hether they
relate to the vegetable, animal, or mineral king-
dom. With each of these grand departments of
Nature the cultivator has much to do; and he
should learn her processes and laws, from which
he v/ill at length fully understand that Beauty and
Utility are integral parts of any wise system of
farm economy.

If beaiity in a country residence, in farm build-
ings of whatever kind, or in tillage, were incom-

patible with anything that is useful in agriculture
or important in household affairs, the fact would
excuse the general neglect of this principle in
nature. But so far from being hostile to the
creation of wealth, or to its accumulation in the
hands of the owners of the soil. Beauty is one of
the most reliable elements of money value in
every species of property. In proof of this,
we cite the facts that a beautiful horse often
sells at from £70 to £120, where an ugly
one of the same weight and muscular power
will bring only a fifth of the sums named. A
beautiful plantation has equal advantages over
one quite vlestitute of pleasing and attractive fea-
tures. As society advances, and the popular ap-
preciation of lovely and captivating expressions
becomes more acute and refined, it is obvious
that Beauty must appreciate in cash value. In-
deed, not one in a thousand knows how to turn to
the most profitable account the intrinsic power
and the solid merit of the Beautiful in agricul-
ture. It is not, as many suppose, a mere ideal
matter, having no foundation in things substantial
and enduring ; but it is a material part of that
perfect economy which owes its existence to the
Supreme Architect of the universe. Hence, as
planters and husbandmen, it is a part of our
highest wisdom to cultivate that faculty within us,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

317

which happily discriminates in the varied fruits of
the earth, in its ever differing inherent fertility,
and its wide range of really valuable plants and
animals. We should study to multiply delightful
objects and scenes around our homes, and improve
such as Nature has scattered with a liberal hand
over all our acres, whether few or many.

Let us consider what it is that renders land
beautiful for tillage.

Consider the first and most obvious wants of all
cultivated ground, and it will be seen that fn/itful-
ness is the function most needed. It is, however,
no more necessary to successful agriculture, than
expressive of natural beauty. A rich soil clothes
itself with noble forests ; and if these be removed,
as on extensive prairies, with the most luxuriant
and nutritious grasses. Fruitfulness of the earth
being an essential element of rurul beauty, to im-
pair the fertility of land is not merely to diminish
its money value for the growth of crops, but to
transform a landscape that once inspired universal
hope, confidence, pleasure, and industry, into a
barren waste, which, when fairly tilled, promises
little reward to honest toil, and actually yields less
than it promises.

Under such circumstances, it is fortunate that
Science teaches us how we can best change a
sterile field, or an impoverished estate, into one
distinguished alike for its elegance and productive-
ness. Science also tells us that it is easier and
better to jireserve the natural resources of land, than
to restore them when removed in crops, or washed
away by many heavy rains falling on shallow-
ploughed fields. To avoid loss in this particular,
it is important to know the precise things jn the
soil that form agricultural plants, and how these
things are both lessened and augmented in all
farming operations. With this professional know-
ledge, the cultivator may profitably increase the
beauty and value of every rood of land on his
plantation.

Having a critical knowledge of the constituents
of soils and their products, how is one to make a
truly beautiful landed estate ?

This depends mainly on the circumstances with
which he is surrounded. He should examine these
with the utmost care, with a view to learn what is
practicable, not in itself, but to a man of his means,
acquirements, family ties and duties, and powers of
execution. Farm buildings and fences of some
kinds are indispensable ; and in their construction
and arrangement his taste and skill will inevitably
be revealed to his neighbours and the public. A
cultivated tas'e may be seen as well in the erection
of a log cottage as in that of the most costly
mansion. Nature displays the Beautiful not only
in the lowly and humble violet, but in plants and
animals too small to be seen by the naked eye.
Wisdom in the designer may be shown as effectively
in the arrangeinent and structure of little things as
in large ones. Dwelling-house architecture, whether
in cities, villages, or strictly country residences, is
susceptible of great improvement, judging from
the habitations of the million. These rarely
possess either convenience or beauty, or any other
merit to recommend them. Even in cheapness,
they fail as much as in other respects. The amount

of money thrown away by the rich, and those who
would fain pass as such, on expensive buildings,
shows how little our taste in such matters has
been improved over that of savages. Fortunes are
often squandered in a few years on misshapen
palaces and villas. Some, less extravagant in
outlay, are more outre in architectural folly,
adding to the residence of a private family, by way
of ornament, what would appear to be massive
columns, but which are generally made of wood, in
the ridiculous ambition of appearing to live in
something like a Grecian temple. In costly public
edifices, columns are appropriate, to aid in sup-
porting the gieat weight of a marble, granite, or
other structure ; but nothing is more like an
eagle's feather stuck into the matted hair of a
savage, than the frail plank pillars or columns,
painted white, so ostentatiously stuck out in front
or at the sides of a dwelling-house. A worse taste
can hardly be imagined. Simplicity, neatness, and
quietness ever indicate contentment, gratitude to
(lod, and the promise of a long happy life.
Whereas, the straining for effect always suggests
unfavourable thoughts, and not unfrequently pro-
vokes remarks expressive of contempt rather than
of admiration.

Whatever contributes to the comfort of a family
at a rural home, adds to its beauty, if properly
placed and constructed. Thus, a well-arranged
kitchen, with a wood-house, cement cistern for
holding rain water, and many other conveniences,
are not only matters of interest, but really increase
the attractiveness of a family residence. It is the
judicious planning, combination, and management
of all the aflfairs, both in doors and out, on a farm,
that make the farmer's life happier than that of
most other men engaged in different pursuits. He
has the constant assistance of those wonderful
powers known as vegetable and animal vitality, to
multiply his agricultural wealth and beautify his
plantation. Groves of forest trees, orchards of
fruit-trees, as well as all the benefits of the garden,
are at his command. Parks,4awns, and pleasure-
grounds he and his children may indulge in, if
their tastes appreciate and enjoy such improve-
ments ; and it is better to cultivate a taste in this
direction, than that which seeks amusement by
visiting distant watering-places and the gaieties of
cities. To the owner and cultivator of the soil,
Jiome should be the most agreeable place on earth.
There his best thoughts and efforts, his money
and his ambition, should find full employment.
Absenteeism is fatal to the Beautiful in agriculture.
A farmer should not only stay, as a general rule,
on his farm, but live there, in the best sense of the
term. This idea does not conflict with a reason-
able amount of travel, either for recreation, or to
obtain additional knowledge. Good books are now
so cheap and abundant, that a library composed in
a large degree of works on agricultural and
horticultural subjects, is found to yield both
amusement and instruction on better terms and
of a better quality than the planter can obtain from
any other source. It is quite as easy to acquire a
taste for agricultural reading, as for tobacco, tea, or
coffee. Man is a creature of habit; and the best
way to avoid bad habits in our children, is to fix

318

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

early in their constitutions pure tastes, the
gratification of which will ennoble, not degrade
them. To cultivate the Beautiful in rural life has
an elevating influence on society, and thereby pre-
vents vice and crime, poverty and suffering.

Nature being the source of Beauty, we are to
study her admirable processes as they are made
known in the Katural Sciences. Chemistry,
Botany, Geology, Vegetable and Animal Physi-
ology reveal to the human understanding a thou-
sand charms in the perfect harmony that pervades
every form and condition of matter, and thus
perpetuates all the beauties and blessings which
call into activity both the gratitude and the reasons
of man. The pov/ers within him, and the elements
that surround him, act in concert to force his
growth in morality and knowledge, that he maybe-
come in each succeeding generation at once a hap-
pier and a wiser being. In connection with our
moral and intellectual development, so natural and
so desirable, a higher degree of social and phy-
sical comfort is clearly both attainable and suscep-
tible of full enjoyment. It is not every person, in
whatever condition he may chance to be, in refer-
ence to culture, who is capable of appreciating
either the Beautiful in Agriculture or in Nature.
Hence, in all nations just emerging from bar-
barism, husbandry, tillage, architecture, and all
other arts, are prosecuted in the rudest manner.
Some rise more rapidly than others in every attain-
ment; but time is necessary to the growth of every
art and the perfection of every science.

It is humiliating to our pride as a free, self-
governing people, to know that in ancient Greece
the Beautiful in agriculture and architecture was
far in advance of our highest achievements. A
thousand years before the birth of our Saviour,
Homer describes, in the fifth book of the Odyssey,
a landscape in which four fountains of white
(foaming) water, each springing in succession, in
perfect orderliness, sends the life of vegetation
through a meadow in different directions. At that
early period, agriculture was sufficiently advanced
to have irrigation and meadou's properly appre-
ciated by the most civilized nations. We wish we
could say as much for the agriculture of our own
sunny South. But all must admit, that, with us,
neither irrigation nor meadows are regarded as
worthy of public attention. It is true, we know
the value of hay, and consume many a bale from
the North, for which we pay at least twice what it
it is intrinsically worth.

Who needs to be told that luxuriant meadows,
pastures, and fine stock, add largely to the beauty,
interest, and value of a plantation ? Irrigated
meadows and pastures are an inexhaustible source
of maTiure for enriching the tilled lands on a farm.
Where Nature periodically irrigates river bottoms,
the plough never exhausts the soil. Running wa-
ter being Nature's grand restorer in tillage and
cropping, why not use it to rejuvenate our old
fields, and thus render them at once both attrac-
tive and profitable ? None of them are so elevated
that water does not fall from above them, and run
off their surfaces. Properly considered, all th
moving water on continents is rain water. It cre-
ates, as well 9,8 transports from one place to another.

the fertility of properly-irrigated lands. The fer-
tilizing influence of water, when judiciously applied
to the earth, is well known. It is, therefore, in
skilful hands, an invaluable element of fruitfulness
and beauty. More knowledge and higher art will
one day use water in this country as successfully
in agriculture as was ever done in Greece, Italy, or
Egypt.

Next to irrigation, we regard the planting of the
seeds of all the more valuable forest trees and fruit
trees that will grow and prosper in our climate as
the most commendable practice, with a view to
promote the Beautiful in agriculture. Land is
now cheap ; and there is a certainty, as population
increases, that the demand for lumber and timber,
for fruits of all kinds, and for fuel, will increase in
an equal, if not a greater ratio. By skilful planting,
one may unite beauty and profit in an eminent de-
gree. Black walnut planks are now worth, in all
northern cities, from four to seven dollars per 100
feet. With due care, the tree grows rapidly, and
its fruit possesses considerable value. A forest of
this and other well-known trees would add an
interesting feature to any plantation, while the ex-
pense of it would be a mere trifle. There is ge-
nuine poetry in trees — in their beautiful foliage,
their charming blossoms, their delicious fruits,
their cool and soothing shade, their stately trunks,
waving tops and graceful outlines ; and all speak to
the eye and soul of man in a language not to be
misunderstood. It was in the light and shade of
groves that man first erected his most elaborate
temples, and there his ascending devotions sought
comimunion with the Creator of all. No wonder
that grfcves were often held as sacred to God, and still
oftener made seats of learning — the chosen schools
where sages taught, and thousands studied the pro-
found mysteries of the universe. If the history of
our race shows anything good in man, it may be
stated, to his credit, that noble trees, of whatever
kind, inspire something akin to piety in his heart
and in his thoughts. Call this, if you please, an
oriental feeling : it has been too general and too
long continued, not to have an abiding place in the
human soul.

It is the crowning beauty of a farm or plantation,
to express, in its every feature,°both tranquillitv and
happiness. Disquietude and pain will sometimes
come to the best of men; but their continuance
should be as short as possible. It is monstrous to
suppose that our nerves are made sensitive that
they may feel more suffering than pleasure during
our existence. Pain and distortion are exceptions ;
enjoyment and beauty are the true, the natural
status of all sentient beings. When health}'-, and
properly fed, the young of all animals are beautiful
and happy. Such is the law of Nature; and hence
good husbandmen improve their flocks and herds
in symmetry of form, in elegance and elasticity of
movement, by simply having them always in the
enjoyment of suitable food and shelter. These
expel deformity in a few generations, and develop
Nature's highest beauties. The same principle ap-
plies to the feeding and care of agricultural plants.
Starve and wither them by ill-usage, and your seed
will soon degenerate, your crops fail, and your
success in planting be no better than your practicci

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

319

Nature's beauties, whether in plants or animals, are
fed liberally j and in this regard she teaches the
cultivator to feed generously his soil, his crops, and
his stock. By so doing, his land and all its pro-
ducts will be the best of their kind, assuming good
common sense in the primary selection. Fences,
buildings, and farm implements should be made of
the most durable materials, that everything may
indicate the settled purpose of the owner to have
such an estate as will support a family in affluence
in all time to come. Permanency of occupation
and durability of improvements are material ele-
ments of agricultural beauty. A witty Englishman
has remarked, that in travelling through the United
States, most of the houses appear to have been put
up Saturday evening, with the expectation that they
were to be taken down Monday morning ! Much

of our farm improvements are of the same frail and
ephemeral character. We must learn to do our
work better, or we shall greatly damage the State
in which we li^e, by increasing its old fields, and
perhaps provoke the curses of our own posterity.
To injure the soil over millions of acres is a wrong
of fearful magnitude. Would to God that we could
see some evidence that the evil will be any less during
the life-time of the writer. The error is too old and
deep-rooted for that. For a little immediate gain
in cotton or grain, our natural and valuable forests,
the soil, and the best interests of society are all
sacrificed ; as if to desolate the earth were man's
highest profit and greatest good ! Who will try to
remedy this obvious social disease, and foster the
study of the Beautiful in Agriculture. — American
" Southern Cultivator."

PLEURO- PNEUMONIA.

At a late meeting of the Probus Farmers' Club,
Mr. William Trethewy in the chair — Mr. Karkeek
delivered an able and instructive lecture on
" Pleuro-pneumonia."

Mr. Karkeek commenced by saying that
he felt it was unnecessary for him to make any
apology for introducing the subject; for although
Cornwall had been, comparatively speaking, free
from this dreadful murrain — in consequence of
Cornish farmers having been for the most part ex-
porters, rather than importers of live stock, and
therefore having but little intercourse with infected
districts — yet within the last few months the
disease had appeared in this county. He believed
he was correct in stating ihat the few cases which
had occurred in Cornwall might clearly be traced to
the introduction of cattle from some eastern coun-
ties, and might rightly be regarded as isolated
instances. It sometimes, however, happened with
respect to epizootic diseases, that there was a fulfil-
ment of the old proverb — " it never rains but it
pours;" and he could safely verify the fact that
some of the disease which had affected our horses,
cattle, and sheep of late years, had come, not, as it
were, in single drops, but in a complete down-
pour. This had been particularly the case with
the "influenza" in horses, and the "vesicular
epizootic," a disease characterised by the formation
of vesicles on the tongue, lips, and feet of cattle
and sheep. The " variola ovina," or sheep-pox,
was another instance. This disease %vas imported
from foreign countries, and wherever it had ap-
peared it had killed its thousands. Fortunately
for Cornish farmers, it did not cross the Tamer.
He mentioned these cases in order to warn his
hearers that, although the murrain known as
" pleuro-pneumonia " had not yet visited Cornwall
to any great extent, yet it behoved them to be
watchful and fearful, for epizootic diseases of all
kinds appeared to be borne on the wings of the
wind, and it was inpossible to say whence they
came or whither they were carried. In those coun-
tries in which the disease had prevailed, it had been
found extremely difficult to track its course. So

uncertain was its appearance, that it frequently
broke out without the introduction of strange
beasts, or any other assignable cause; and in a
few weeks it spread like wild-fire. In such cases
the atmosphere was regarded as the medium
through which the disease was conveyed. That
this disease existed on the continent for several
years before its appearance in England, was an
undoubted fact; and hence arose the question —
Hov/ did it reach England ? Was it by direct impor-
tation of foreign cattle ^ or was the disease wafted
on the air, as had been the case with Asiatic cholera
and other similar pests ? In every instance of the
disease that had come under his own observation,
it was clearly traceable to direct importation of cat-
tle from other districts. But, as he had before ob-
served, the malady had been known frequently to
break out without any such direct and immediate
cause. Thus much of the disease, however, was
known — that it had prevailed in England, to a
greater or less extent, since 1842 ; that it had been
raging in Ireland for some twelve months before
that period ; that it was brought to the English
side of the channel by some half-starved Irish cat-
tle, and in a very short time it found its way into
Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Middle-
sex ; that its ravages had been the most extensive
on marshy districts and in ill-ventilated crowded
cow-houses; and (a fact well deserving notice)
that the wide spread of pleuro-pneumonia was
occasioned by persons sending their beasts to
markets and fairs on its very first outbreak on
their premises. From the peculiar incubating
character of the disease, it was obvious that it
might be conveyed long distances during its forma-
tive stage. This was consistent with the sup-
position entertained by some medical men, that
malignant epidemics are the result of parasites —
vegetable or animal — each, after its own kind,
disturbing in sundry ways, the functions and the
structure of the bodies on which they subsist ; and
that the germs of disease thus caused may exist
for some considerable time before the appearance
of its outward symptoms. In pleuro-pneumonia it

320

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

is supposed that ten or even fourteen days may
thus elapse after the period of infection before the
disease becomes outwardly apparent. This parasite
theory, Mr. Karkeek observed, received some sup-
port from the little that was known concerning the
properties of parasites : and this was a subject of
much practical importance to the farmer. In the
first place, such sources of infection were destroyed
by a temperature above 120 degrees Fahrenheit,
and also by strong chemical agents, especially
chlorine. Their activity was also impaired by cold
and by free ventilation. On the other hand,
warmth, closeness, and filth, increased the virulence
of the contagion, and became as it were a nursery
of pestilence. Nothing tended to promote the
spread of an infectious disease, such as pleuro-
pneumonia, more than the crowding together of
cattle which were affected by it. Each of those
animals was a separate source of contagion, and
the air would be contaminated in proportion to
their combined action. It might be asked, how
the empoisoned air produced its morbid results ?
He answered — not by direct irritation of the lining
membranes of the air passage, but by specific
action on the blood; which fluid, thus acted on, did,
by its changed condition, virtually, though not
immediately, affect the pulmonary tissue. In proof
of the assertion that vitiated atmosphere does not
act as a direct irritant to the pulmonary tissue, or
mucous membrane of the air passages, Mr.
Karkeek remarked that the usual symptoms of
catarrh or bronchitis are never the precursors of
pleuro-pneumonia. And again — if vitiated air
acted as a direct irritant of the pulmonary tissue,
both lungs would be equally affected ; whereas it
was well known that the disease was very partial —
affecting more frequently the right lung than the
left. Hence, pleuro-pneumonia could not be con-
sidered as an inflammatory disease, in the strict
meaning of the term. It might be asked why this
aerial poison affected only the lungs ? This was a
question not only easily answered. This much
was known, that the choleraic poison acted on the
intestinal canal, the poison of small-pox re-acts on
the skin; that of glanders on the mucous mem-
branes of the nasal cavities, while the poison of
pleuro-pneumonia acts on the lungs. He had
already stated that pleuro-pneumonia could not be
considered an inflammatory disease, in its origin ;
and of this, the absence of all ordinary symptoms
of pneumonia was proof; but there could be no
question that inflammation was one of the results
of the disease. It was more frequently regarded
as a dropsical, than as an inflammatory disease.
Evidently the empoisoned air produced consider-
able debility of the vascular part of the lungs, and
serum was effused almost immediately; hence the
dropsical character of the disease. As it progressed,
inflammatory action was set up, accompanied by
congestion, with effusion of lymph and serum into
the interlobular structure of the lungs and the
cavity of the chest. He was of opinion that this
serous effusion took place before the animal's
health was observed to fail. Proprietors of cattle
should therefore be early and late with their stock,
when pleuro-pneumonia prevails in a district,
narrowly watching the slightest indication of ill

health. The usual symptoms he described were : —
A slight, but husky cough would be occasionally
observable about this time, and perhaps the breath-
ing would be with increased effect, as if the animal
had undergone some unusual exertion. In milch
cows, besides the above symptoms, there would be
a diminished supply of milk. As the disease ad-
vanced, the cough became more troublesome and
husky ; the respiration became hurried, the pulse
increased and oppressed, the appetite diminished,
rumination suspended, bowels constipated, and the
surface of the body chilly. The disease still ad-«
vancing, the respiration became more difficult,
laboured, and painful; the poor animal was fre-
quently found lying, the head protruded, the mouth
covered with frothy saliva, the muzzle cold, rigors
frequent, and the pulse rapid and indistinct. Ap-
proaching death was shown by moaning, grinding
the teeth, loathing of food, coldness of the extremi-
ties, wavering pulse, distressed breathing, liquid
stools, and distention of the bowels. From this
description of this terrible disease, it must be
evident that blood-letting could be useful only at
its commencement ; bleeding should be early, or
not at all ; at the very beginning of the disease it
might do good, but at its later stages bleeding
would but hasten its fatal termination, since in
proportion to the extent of dropsical effusion
would be the debility of the patient. It was sup-
posed by Mr. Simonds, of the Royal Veterinary
College, that early bleeding might withdraw a por-
tion of the vitiated fluid that had laid the founda-
tion of the disease. Another remedy frequently
adopted was the use of purgative medicines. In
most diseases affecting the ox tribes, it was found
that gentle aperients were beneficial ; but in pleuro-
pneumonia, strong purging should be avoided.
Diuretic medicines might be useful, as in dropsical
diseases, for stimulating the kidneys to increased
action. He had little faith in sedative medicines or
diaphoretics in this disease ; but diffusible stimu-
lants and tonics were valuable remedies, at the
commencement of the disease, after the operation
by purgatives. In the latter stages of the disease,
vegetable and mineral tonics would be found useful.
A veterinary friend had used creosote with con-
siderable success ; he (Mr. Karkeek) could be dis-
posed to try its effect when opportunity offered.
After speaking of the necessity of occasional re-
laxation of the bowels, in connexion with the use
of the above medicines, Mr. Karkeek further
recommended the application of a seton to the
" dew-lap," and of blisters to both sides of the
chest. In conclusion Mr. Karkeek remarked that
there should be no specific for this disease ; and
that he who should undertake its treatment without
a knowledge of its nature, and of the structure and
functions of the organ it affects, would act like an
ordinary artisan who should set about the repair-
ing of a watch, the wheels and levers of which he
had never investigated. Inattention to contagious
diseases had occasioned much mischief and loss of
property ; and there could be no doubt that, if
proper precautions were taken on the first appear-
ance of pleuro-pneumonia in any neighbourhood,
its ravages might be considerably mitigated. On
the outbreak of a disease of this kind on a farm.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

321

the first thing to be attended to is the removal of
the infected beasts to some suitable place far from
the other cattle, where they can be watched and
receive medical aid, without endangerinnf the
healthy animals ; and these too should be carefully
inspected daily. Finall\% he would impress upon
his hearers the strong necessity for judicious feed-
ing, proper drainage, ventilation, and cleanliness

generally, as rendering cattle impregnable, to some
extent, against-infectious diseases. A striking
proof of this was exhibited in the well-known fact
that the high-bred cattle generally of England had
been comparatively exempt from pleuro-pneu-
monia ; the obvious reason being that more atten-
tion was paid to their health and general comfort
than was paid to ordinary cattle.

THE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.

THE CULTIVATION, STORING, AND USES OP MANGEL WUKZEL.

The usual monthly meeting of the Club was held on Mon-
day evening', March 1st, at the Club-houae, Blackfriars.

In the unavoidable absence of Mr. Owen, the Chairman for
the year, Mr. Henry Trethewy, of Silsoe, Beds., took the chair,
supported by Messrs. Owen Wallis, William Bennett, T. E.
Pawlett, L. A. Coussmaker, J. Tyler, James Thoma?, W.
Gray, S. SkeltOD, W. Shaw (Coton), J. Wood (Sussex), J.
Wood (Croydon), J. Cressingham, H. Gibbons, G. S. Harri-
son, Ibbott Mason, J. A. Clarke, J. Ekin, Hammonr), W.
Eve, R. Peacey, W, Banwell, C. J. Brickwell, W. P. Lamb, E
Purser, G. Wilsber, J. A. Williams, J. Miles (Wexcombe),
T. Stagg, T. Chandler, J. B. Spearing, S. W, Squier, J.
Odams, &c., &c.

The subject fixed for discussion, at the instance of Mr.
R. Baker, of Writtle, was stated in the following terms: —
'' The cultivation and storing of mangel wurzel, and the
best modes of using it for feeding and other purposes."
Mr. Bakei brought with him from his farm a number of speci-
mens of the root in question, that he referred to, several
times in the course of his introduction, and which were gene-
rally admired for their development and freedom from preva-
lent defects.

The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, remarked on
the importance of the cultivation of mangel wurzel, and ob-
served that the feeling of the committee on the subject was
shown by the fact that roots were set down for discussion, in
one form or other, no less than three times daring the present
year.

Mr. Baker said : Of all our root crops the most important
is mangold wurtzel, of which we may say, as its name im-
ports, that it is " the root of scarcity ;" in other words, it is
the root to be depended upon during a scarcity of other food,
and, with the exception of the Swedish turnip, there is un-
doubtedly no other description of root either so serviceable or
productive, whilst in many particulars it is far superior even
to that. In combination with the swedp, in feeding, it fills a
place which that root has failed to supply, and it is especially
adapted for feeding late in the spring, after the turnip has lost
most of its nutritious qualities. It is also more certain to plant
well. It is less liable to injury from excess of drought or
moisture. It can be stored during the autumn with less
injury to the land than follows the removal of a turnip
crop during the winter month?, and under the improved
system of management can be applied to the feeding of
neat stock and sheep throughout the whole of the year.
Independent of these numerous advantages, it is also more
productive than any other description of root ; it can be grown
with advantage upon almost every description of soil, espe-
cially strong loam or clay — totally unfit for turnip cultiva-
tion—and during the winter, when severe frost* prevails and
turnips become almost useless, it can be used with equal ad-

vantage as at other seasons, provided due care is taken in
storing to keep it from the action of the frost, from which,
like the potato, it is liable to become injured, and even
rendered useless, ahould it happen to become entirely frozen
Within the last five years both the Swedish and common tur-
nips have deteriorated to such an extent as to have become
(upon soils on which they had been repeatedly grown for
several years in the ordinary rotation) almost useless. lu
addition to the disease called " fingers and toes," which has of
late been very prevalent, another disease has appeared, in a
certain degree similar in its efi'ects to that which has proved so
destructive to the potato, and which in the present season es-
pecially has rendered the turnip-crop almost worthless through-
out the kingdom. At the same time, however, mangold-
wurtzel has produced a crop unprecedented for weight and
quality; nor does it deteriorate like the turnip, by being
grown upon the same soil for many years successively, as in-
stances can be adduced where it has been grown on the same
land for many years together, without in any way becoming
depreciated in quality or quantity, but has rather improved
year by year the longer it has been grown (Hear, hear). The
application of guano and superphosphate of lime to the turnip-
crop is equally effective for mangold-wurtzel, and afl'ords the
cultivators of strong clay soils an opportunity of growing it at
a reduction of expense previously unknown, and with an ad-
vantage that can scarcely be sufficiently estimated. It is, how-
ever, best adapted for, and is most generally grown upon, ten-
der and strong loamy soils, as the difficidty which sometimes
arises in wet seasons of carting the roots from the field ren-
ders the removing them from strong tenacious clays a hazardous
process at all times, and in some seasons impossible to be ef-
fected unless by employing men to carry them to the sides or
the fields in baskets, which cannot be accomplished at a less
expense than from 203. to 25s. per acre. This valuable root
has been grown successfully in Essex within my knowledge
upwards of 40 years. The long red variety was at first the
only one cultivated ; the globe varieties of both red and orange
were subsequently introduced, and at a later period the long
orange. Little improvement has taken place by cultivation in
the long red variety ; indeed, I consider that it was as good, if
not better, 30 years ago, than at the present period. Great
care, however, was then taken to select it for seed whilst
growing, and ultimately to change it from a heavy to a
light soil, as it has always a tendency to become too fine
and slender in the form of the root if grown successively upon
light soils, too thick and short upon heavy soils, and in a few
years, unless properly changed, it would degenerate alike in
the form, character, and colour of the roots, upon which the
quality and productiveness of the crop greatly depend. The
crown of the root should not rise in any material degree from
the base. The foot-stalks of the leaves should partake of the

322

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

colour of the root, a light red, and not be too many in number,
but branching gracefully from the base. There should also be
a similarity ia all the roots, which in their form ought to be
nearly alike, ending below in a single tapering tap-root of
small dimensions, without any fangs branching from them, to
prevent their being easily drawn from the soil, without the
assistance of an implement to effect it, but yielding at once
easily on the slightest application of force being made. This
desideratum cannot be obtained when the seed has been grown
from small plants raised in the previous autumn, but only by
carefully selecting the roots one by one from the field whilst
growing, and rejecting those which when pulled have not the
requisite qualiScations of colour and shape, especially at the
crown and root. The difference ia the cost of producing seed
from roots thus selected, and from plants as before stated,
varies from 300 to 400 per cent. Seed from plants is apt to
run off with a seed-stem in the first year, whilst that produced
from full-grown roots is less likely to do so. Planting very
early likewise produces the same tendency, and it is "in a
general way not advisable to plant before the middle of April
uor after the middle of May. The system of cultivation as
carried out by myself is to plough up the land intended for
this crop immediately after the previous grain-crop has been
removed. The land best adapted for the purpose is that upon
which wheat has succeeded clover. The land in the first
instance ought not to be ploughed beyond the ordinary depth,
until, by repeatedly scarifying and harrowing, the couch and root
weeds become extirpated. About the middle of October the
soil should be stirred an extra depth, which can be easily
effected by the ordinary plough, followed immediately by a
skeleton-plough or grubber, furrow by farrow, until the whole
is stirred from ten to twelve inches in depth. Ridges should
then be formed two feet eight inches wide, in the contrary
direction of the field, and a grubber be passed up each of the
furrows the full depth of the ploughing. If opportunity will
allow, the ridi^es may be re-ploughed, and the operation of
grubbing the furrows repeated as before. This process may,
however, be thought too expensive, but the improvement of
the mangold wurtzel and succeeding graia crops will become
too apparent to leave any doubt as to its beneficial application,
and it will be found to answer far better than if the dead
subsoil had, by an excessively deep ploughing, been brought
up by one operation only to the surface. If farmyard manure
is to be applied, it should be first moderately decomposed by
fermentation, and carted on at any time in the winter or
spring, when it can be accomplished with least injury to the
tillage of the soil. As soon after it has been spread, the
artificial manure should be sown by hand upon it in each
furrow, and immediately ploughed in, taking care not to
make the attempt unless the weather and state of the soil
are both suitable, and never venturing to bestow the arti-
ficial manure unless it can be directly ploughed over. The
land should then be suffered to remain until the time of
drilling or dibbling in the seed ; by no means, if possible,
stirring it near that time, so as to allow the moisture to
evaporate. It ia by adhering strictly to this principle that a
plant can with certainty be secured ; whilst, on the contrary,
by continuously stirring the soil until late in the spring up to
the time of sowing, it will probably be lost, unless frequent
showers happen to fall at that period. Upon the strong clay
homogeneous lands of Essex, which can scarcely be exceeded
in tenacity, very fine crops of this valuable root are produced.
The practice pursued is, soon after the wheat crop is cleared,
to plough in deeply, by one ploughing, about 20 cart loads,
36 bushels each, of good farmyard manure ; the long dung
direct from the yard, being preferred. The land then

remains untouched until the mouth of April, when
it 13 scarified and harrowed (not again ploughed), and the
seed is drilled in three rows, upon stetches of 6 feet 6 inches
each in width ; and under this simple mode as fine crops as I
have ever seen are produced. Tiie wheat eddish selected for
the purpose is, as before stated, where clover had been taken
in the previous year, and the after-cultivation of the land is
principally carried on by the horae-hoe. The difficulty, how-
ever, in carting off the crop in wet seasons is very great
upon such soils, and various modes of removing it have been
resorted to, sometimes by panniers and horses ; but the cheap-
est mode is by carrying it off in baskets, which it is stated
can be accomplished for one shilling per ton, when stored at
the sides and ends of the field, and sometimes in a conti-
nuous row also in the middle, it can be afterwards removed
duriug a frost, or as best can be effected when opportimity
offers for employing the teams to advantage. Although it is
at all times necessary to produce a fine tilth at the surface, a
considerable degree of firmness ia requisite to ensure a full
crop. To fully effect this object the land ought to be rolled
down with a roller sufficiently heavy to consolidate the soil
without kneading it, but this ought not to be attempted until
it has become sufficiently dry to accomplish the work saftly.
If, on the other hand, the weather continues moist, the
rolling will be best effected by a roller of a lighter description,
such an one as is used for turnips being sufficient. Planting is
best performed by the drill, taking care that the seed is never
deposited more than one inch in depth. If the land is in a
very moist state at the time, and the weather showery, it is
better to leave it untouched, after depositing the seed by either
harrows or drill. A light bush-harrow may, however, under
such circumstances, be adopted. If the weather is dry and the
surface of the land also, an extra rolling should then be given
immediately after the seed ia deposited, which by some culti-
vators is previously soaked from 24 to 36 hours. This is, not-
withstanding, at all times a hazardous practice ; for if the land
is moist, the soaking of the seed will not be of any advantage;
and if nearly dry, the moisture remaining not being sufficient
to facilitate vegetation the seed will be likely to rot or mould,
aud fail in vegetating. Again, if the seed be new, which ia
the main object to secure success, little doubt can exist
that success will follow; for although seed will continue to
vegetate until three or four years old, it never does so freely,
unless a superabundance of moisture is already present, and the
weather continues mild and showery. The process of dibbling
ia so simple as hardly to require description. The dibbler pro-
ceeds with a wooden dibble, having a rather blunt point,
and turned with a shoulder, to prevent its entering the soil
more than one inch. From two to four seeds are deposited in
each hole, and afterwards covered in by the dibbler himself, or
by a boy following, who with the back of a hoe punches in the
soil firmly on the seed. This, however, may be varied, by the
man proceeding with the hoe, and removing a little of the
soil, by drawing it with the blade of the hoe towards him-
self; a boy on the opposite side of the row drops the seeds on
the space from which the mould has been withdrawn. The
man then immediately pushes the mould back over the seed,
and gently presses it down ; and as each capsule contains from
two or three seeds, they by this process become more dispersed
than when dropped into a small hole, and can be more easily
singled out afterwards. From 3 to 4 lbs. of seed per acre is
found to be sufl^cient, provided, as before stated, the whole of
the seeds are of the previous year's growth; which is however
very rarely the case, unless the seed is purchased of persona
upon whom 'dependence can be placed. It is also frequently
spoiled by mice extracting the seeds, with but apparent little

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

333

injury to the cupsule, and which inexperienced periona would
not be likely to detect. I am induced to draw particular at-
tention to these facts, as I believe that the causes of failure
depend mainly upon defective seed being used ; and I do not
recollect a single instance iu which I have failed in obtaining
a plant when I knew that the se«d was new and had been well
preserved, which, if perfectly dr)', may be done by keeping it in
casks, or suspending it in sacks from the roof of a building. If
a quantity of seed, however, is left exposed in granaries in-
fested by mice, in a few weeks they will extract every kenie
from its outer case. The distance at which I plant my roots
is 15 inches apart in the rows, and 32 inches apart from row
to row. As I now use my roots as early as the mouth of Au-
gust, I, for that purpose, have them left about ten inches apart,
and by withdrawing each root alterustely but little loss ensues
to the main crop. This is a far better practice than that of
removing part of the leaves, which is very injurious to the
after-growth. By the middle of August in the last year, I was
enabled thus to obtain from 12 to 15 tons per acre of roots and
leaves together, without any material loss in the crop. As soon
as the young plants appear, which in favourable seasons takes
place in a few days, they should be inspected ; and if it is ap-
parent that they decrease, the land ought to be again rolled.
The wireworm is sometimes very destructive, especially when
land in the previous autumn was covered with grasses; and if
seedling weeds are found to spring up abundantly, the ground
ought to be at once carefully hoed, and the weeds eradicated
from the close vicinity of the plants ; for if they become once
ch.ked by weeds at this season of their growth, they rarely
recover the check thus received. As soon as the plant arrives
to three or four inches in height, they should be singled out by
Laud, taking care to secure the best plant first iu the left hand,
and then to pull out the superfluous ones with the right ; but,
if drilled, the plants should be set out first with the hoe, and
afterwards singled by the band, as in the former instance. After
the plants have been singled out and the tops of the ridges care-
fully hoed, a horse-hoeing should follow, which, from the land
having been previously subsoiled, will bs easily effected ; but, if
the land has again become consolidated in the furrows, another
process of gtubbing, or subsoiling, should take place, to enable
thehorae-hoetoenterthesoilreadiiy. Subsequent hand and horse
hoeings will also become necessary, and should be frequently
applied ; and, as the plants advance in growth, the hand-
hoeing should be so managed as to draw the soil /rom the roots
towards the furrow, so that at the expiration of the season the
land will have become nearly level. Great care should be taken
to have every plant standing singly, and at all times kept per-
fectly clear from weeds. All plants that run up with a seed-
stem ought to be instantly pulled up and conveyed to the live
stock, as they never afterwards form a good root, but greatly
impede thegrowthofthose that stand uearestthem. The manure
best adapted is guano and superphosphate of lime combined ;
an admixture is invariably found to answer best. This root
is a gross feeder, and can hardly be supplied too abundantly
with manure ; so that, after the land has been properly pre-
pared, it becomes a matter of calculation to what extent
manure can be applied, to afford the greatest return of profit
in the ensuing crop. As this plant is of marine origin, salt is
necessary to its full development. I have generally applied the
salt at the time of subsoiling, between the ploughing that pre-
cedes and the second ploughing that follows, so aa always to
bring the subsoil into immediate contact with it; from two to
four cwt. per acre is sufficient. I have used the latter, but have
lately found that a repetition of that quantity within two or
three years is too much, two cwt. being afterwards quite suffi-
cient for the succeeding dressings, I usually apply from 8

to 10 tons of good, partially decomposed farm-yard manure,
upon which, when deposited in the rills, I broadcast four cwt.
per acre of rapecake, pulverised and mixed with two cwt, of
guano and one of superphosphate. If the land is not very
good, I add another cwt. of guano or artificial manure. At the
time of drilliug-in the seed I drill-in one est. of superphosphate
of lime with it, to force a quick growth of the plants in the
first instance. By this mode I usually obtain a good crop, and
in using auy substitute for the rapecake or farmyard-manure
adopt some sort of artificial manure containing a large amount
of animal matter. By increasing any of these substance.
I feel convinced, from practice, that a larger quantity than
three cwt. of guano cannot be applied with advantage ; equal
to adding, in point of expense, an equal value of some other
description of animalized manure. Fish and blood manure
are both well adapted, and near the sea-coast, wherever
fish can be procured, it may be applied in preference to any
other description. Thousands of bushels of star-fish and sprats
are'annually used for this purpose, which are purchased at
about 6d. per bushel, and, iu point of cheapness, surpass moat
descriptions of artificial manure. It is usual to plough them
in preceding the winter, merely scarifying the surface after-
wards at the time of sowing. During its growth it is
seldom interfered with by insects. Slugs and wireworms
attack it in its early stages of growth, as well as the com-
mon turnip-fly; bat the latter only injures it to a certain
extent. By sowing early, however, it sometimes becomes
greatly injured by frost, and is sometimes killed if the frost
is more than usually severe. Besides, as before mentioned,
it has a disposition to run to seed, which induces me to sug-
gest that about the middle of April is the proper time for sow-
ing the main crop. Much, however, of a successful result de-
pends upon the weather that follows, and a due preparation
of the land previously. Hot and dry summers especially pro-
mote its growth. It rarely suffers from drought ; whilst ou
the other hand excess of moisture and a low temperature com-
bined retards it greatly, and the quality becomes also depre-
ciated in like proportion. After the crop has arrived at ma-
turity it is carted from the field to the homestead, or is stored
near to the spot on which it has grown, as the farm-horses are
in greater request at this season than at any other portion of
the year. It is usual to secure it &h near the field as possible,
keeping in view the contiguity of a good road, as necessary
for its after- conveyance to the homestead. Having deter-
mined this point, it is usual about the middle of October to
commence pulling and storing it. The roots are pulled up,
and the leaves merely twisted off. The former are throws at
once into carts, and removed to their destination. The usual
price is Ss. per acre, inclusive of unloading the roots and pack-
ing them. The drivers are found by the owner. This amounts
to about 4d. per ton, but the price paid depends in some mea-
sure upon the state of the weather, the weight of the crop,
and the quality of the roots ; for if of a bad sort, they will
require to be grubbed up by some implement, in which case the
cost might be doubled or even more. It is advisable to com-
mence stacking the roots upon a base not exceeding three yards
in width, but from 6 to 7 feet is better. The roots should be
packed with the crowns outward, in the form of a roof, di-
minishing upwards until they arrive at a narrow ridge at top,
rising from the base from 6 to 8 feet in height. If a wider
base is selected it will be necessary to introduce a fagot up-
right in the middle of the heap at about every 6 feet apart, so
as to carry off the heat ; for should fermentation set in, which
in some seasons it is apt to do, unless due precaution is taken
to prevent it, the result would be to spoil the roots. When
the clamp or row is completed, it should be well covered over

z 2

324

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

with straw, about 6 inches in thickness, and then with the soil
dug up immediately around to the thickness of about 8 inches,
leaving an opening over each fagot secured at first partially
from frost by a wisp of straw only. It is, however, thought
advisable by some cultivators to defer earthing the heaps to
the top for about 2 feet downwards, until a later period, and
all hazard of fermentation is over. When it is stored in a build-
ing made secure from frost for the purpose, but little fur-
ther care is necessary, as I have never known an instance of
its being injured by fermentation, provided the top of the
heap on remain uncovered. In my storing bouse I frequently
cart in from 400 to 500 tons in one heap of 20 feet in width.
The walls are formed of the earth excavated ; a roof with a
thick coating of thatch covers the whole, and the carts enter
by folding doors at one end. It may be safely packed to any
thickness and height, if afterwards protected only with straw.
For this purpose barley straw answers beat, and is packed
round about three feet wide, and well trodden down, and after-
wards thatched over down to the surface. lu pulling the Toots
preparatory to removal it is necessary to take due precaution
against injury arising to them by the action of frost, a very
slight degree of which will, if they are exposed after being re-
moved from the soil, cause them to rot. That portion of the
root which has previously grown beneath the surface being ex-
tremely liable to injury when exposed above it, the better way
is to pull and carry them direct from the field to the store,
and there will be no necessity to remove the soil from the
roots further than it can be effected easily, as it readily parts
from the roots after storing, whilst by remaining upon them
it tends to keep them from fermentation, which however never
injures them if the heat is not confined in the heap by the
earth applied as a protection from frost. This root is pecu-
liarly adapted to heavy and moory land. It will also flouriah
upon all loamy soils, upon which Swede turnips succeed well.
In most cases it will produce from 18 to 22 tons per acre, but
with extra cultivation and management about 10 tons per acre
more. The quantity per acre can be easily ascertamed by
weighing one load carried by each cart employed ; and by fill-
ing the carts alike the quantity may be obtained. Me'sur-
ing a single rod, and computing the weight per acre by it, at
all times is a fallacious mode. Great errors are sometimes
made by it, as much as 25 per cent, leas having been arter-
wards detected by computing by this method,. A row taken
and weighed from two or three average portions of the field
would give a result sufficiently near. The weighing of a single
rod to ascertain the comparative weights of dififerent varieties
is, however, the beat mode ; as the quantity in imperial stones
per rod is equivalent to the like number of tons per statute
acre of 160 rods. There being 160 stones in one ton, this
mode is exceedingly well adapted to obtain the weight of the
produce per acre. The weights per rod grown by myself in
last season were as follows :—

cwt. lb

Eed globe strong loam, weighed 4 32

Long red ditto 3 96

Yellow globe ditto 3 90

Upon tender loam the yellow globe produced 4 cwt. 4 lb., the
other varieties not being weighed. In every other instance of
weighing in previous years, the long red variety was
invariably the heaviest. It has also other advantages, being
more easily pulled and stored. The quality I consider about
equal. Cattle, however, will select it from the orange-coloured
in preference, and harea and rabbits also. Some of my land
at one time joined a game preserve, and I then found that
during the early growth the orange varieties were not much
bitten, but that the long red, on the contrary, were always

very much injured. Having described the mode of pro-
ducing, I shall now advert to the hest mode of expending
this root, so far as my oAvn observation and experience en-
ables me, and having now used it forty years, I have no
hesitation in giving it the preference to every other descrip-
tion of root or vegetable, not only as regards the amount of
produce, but as to its general applicability. For fattening
neat stock it is superior to the turnip. For breeding sheep
and cows, however, I think the latter better ; but as the
season advances, the mangold wurtzel becomes greatly
superior, improving the longer it is kept in the spring,
whilst turnips depreciate in about equal ratio. Where
cattle have been accustomed to it early, they never become
affected by it afterwards ; but it frequently happens that
other neat stock and sheep, upon having their fill, at once
become affected. It apparently attacks the nervous system,
and produces stiffness of the joints, and they refuse to eat
it for a few days ; but all this may be obviated by feeding
them moderately upon it at first, increasing the quantity
daily, and always combining it with cut chaff or other dry
food. I introduced this mode on a former occasion to the
notice of this club, aud have since found it has been
generally adopted. The mangold root, when first drawn,
contains an abundance of water, and requires dry food in
admixture to counteract its effects upon the bowels of the
animals. It can be also adjusted better as regards the
quantity given per day; from 56 to 112 lbs. being fully
sufficient. About the middle of January the second vege-
tation commences, and the sugar it contains becomfs fixed,
and cannot be extracted. From that period, the fattening
properties become greatly augmented, and continue to in-
crease until the month of June. I use machines that pluck
it into small pieces ; these are mixed with a quantity of cut
chaff, composed one-third part of hay and two-thirds oat
or wheat straw, moistened by linseed meal, that has been
steeped in water forty-eight hours, at the rate of 3 lbs. to
each bullock. In addition, from 3 to 4 lbs. of barley or
bean meal are added at the time of feeding, each meal being
prepared twelve hours previous to using. For store stock
about 56 lbs (equivalent to one bushel) is given; for fat-
ting stock from 80 to 112 lbs. per diem. I keep a large
number of milking cows, which are fed upon it from August
to June following. Whenever the leaves can be used we
find an increased quantity of milk. They are invariably
cut up, and mixed with the roots and chaff, and are the
most valuable portion of the plant in its early stages. As
a manure, when ploughed in, they are also beneficial ;
but where much live stock is kept they can be applied
to a more beneficial purpose. In feeding sheep, as
well as cows, the roots are best when combined with
cabbages or turnips, but should never be given to either
without some degree of caution being exercised, as a sud-
den change of food is apt to cause considerable relaxa-
tion of the bowels, which can be mostly avoided by proper
management. For sheep before lambing and for sows in
farrow they cannot be recommended, and for very young
pigs they are also not well adapted, but are even injurious.
The roots produce great heat in the system, and even oxen
will during the most severe frosty weather be found in a
high state of perspiration in open yards, and young cattle
invariably fatten upon them far better in open yards than
when stalled. This may be accepted as an established fact,
having myself made several experiments to prove it. With
older cattle it is otherwise. There is one point, however,
quite certain, that cattle ' which have been longest accus-
tomed to mangel wurzel thrive best upon it, and for youn

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

33;

weaned calves of two or three months old it succeeds ad-
mirablj' ; still, whenever it can be combined with swedes or
common turnips, it is advisable to do so. I may appear
prolix in these descriptions, and to the experienced far-
mer much will appear to be a repetition only of his pre-
viously acquired information; but from the number of inquiries
I from time to time receive upon the mode of cultivation
and application, I am induced to believe that the public in
general are not acquainted with either. Indeed, in many
dist/icts it has not yet been introduced, whilst in many
others only recently, and but in few has it been extensively
brought into cultivation. The yield per acre will depend
in a great measure upon the means employed, the increase
being for the most part dependent upon the state of the soil
and the quantity of manure applied. It must, however, be
obvious that, after the land has been brought into the ne-
cessary state of tillage, the next question is to what extent
manure may be applied best to facilitate the object. It be-
comes merely a calculation whether an extra ton of manure
' will or will not produce a corresponding return in weight

of roots. So far as my experience has been confirmed I
have found that by an extra application of 1 cwt. of guano,
of the cost of 14s., from 4 to 5 tons increase of roots may
be produced, and so of most other descriptions of manure
in like proportion. Some curious particulars respecting it
a few years since were accidentally obtained. At a sugar
manufactory established in Essex it was found that the
sugar could not be extracted after the second vegetative pro-
cess had commenced in the root. This circumstance to
some extent explains why the roots at this particular period
are of a less laxative quality and greater fattening pro-
perty. Mangel wurzel contains about 5 per cent, of
sugar which has been extracted and manufactured pro-
fitably by the French for a long period of time, but recent
attempts made in this country have not been attended with
like successful results. The Silesian beet has been used
more especially, but it is a question, taking weight into con-
sideration, whether it would be more profitable for that pur-
^ poae than our orange-coloured mangold. Some years ago,
y* observing it in process of dryiug upon a kiln devoted to the
purpose of drying chicory, and doubtless as a substitute for
that root, it struck me that in this state it would produce good
beer, the dried root acquiring a malt taste, and the moisture
of the root being driven off by the process of drying. I made
various experiments, and have produced a good beverage, very
similar in colour and character to London porter; but I am
free to confess that the workmen in my employment, having
acquired a peculiar relish for malt beer (Hear, bear), cannot be
induced to accede to its adoption at seasons when they assume
the dictatorial position, especially during harvest (loud
laughter). The process, however, is so simple, that I will re-
peat it here, and offer you a sample whereby you will be able
to judge of its quality. The roots should be sliced with a
Gardner's, or other turnip slicer, about three-quarters of an
inch in thickness and about one and-a-halt inches in width.
These should be dried slowly upon a kiln, until quite crisp,
taking care not to scorch them during the process. Three
bushels of these dried roots are about equivalent to one bushel
of malt, and should when placed in the mash tub have boiling
water poured upon them, so that when drawn off it shall pro-
duce one hogshead of sixty gallons. This liquor should be
boiled from one hour to one-and-a-half hour. Then add hops
equivalent to 3 lbs. for each hogshead, and boil 15 or 20
minutes longer ; ferment the wort at 65 to 70 degrees, and
treat it exactly as in the case of malt liquor. Keep it at least
eight months before using ; but at 12 mouths it will be quite

ready for use, and will then keep 12 months longer with ad_;
vantage. Nine bushels of the roota will be equal to three
bushels of malt, and sufficient for one hogshead. The roots
will not be much deteriorated by the process of brewing,
cattle eating them with greater relish than before. The cost
per hogshead will be about 10s., or sufficient of the roots may
be cut into pieces and put into a copper until full. As much
water may then be added as the copper will hold. When it
has boiled long enough for the roots to become tender, the
liquor should be strained off, and sufficient hops added, and
again boiled one hour. Ferment and turn as before. Although
this plan is attended with less trouble, the former is far pre-
ferable, as the process of drying drives off the watery portion
of the root, by which an earthy flavour is got rid of,aud,the root
becoming malted, assumes the flavour and quality of malt pro-
duced from barley. Every one who has the slightest acquaintance
with the science of chemistry must be aware that any substance
that contains sugar will produce fermented liquor, as beer, which
upon distillation will yield alcohol or spirit. Sugar, however,
being presented to us in the form it has acquired by the pro-
cesses of manufacture, is scarcely reconcilable with the opinion
entertained of mangold wurtzel by the majority ; and it is
very probable that the sap or juice extracted from the
sugar-cane differs in its first stage but little from that ex-
tracted from mangold wurtzel. Be this as itmay, prejudice
can rarely be overcome, with the lower classes, in any
matters connected with their food and drink, however
great an improvement may take place (Hear, hear, and a
laugh). To those who may wish to grow their own seed,
it will be only necessary to state that, after the roots have
been properly selected, they should be protected from the
action of frost until the following March, when they should
be planted out about 18 inches apart, protecting the upper
portion of the root from after-frost by coal-ashes. The
shoots, as they advance, should be supported by stakes,
and carefully preserved from the attacks of small birds,
especially sparrows, which will, if seed is attempted to be
grown on a small scale, most probably destroy the crop
altogether. In concluding, I beg to observe that I have
adhered throughout to the broad principles of cultivation, as
carried out by myself, leaving to others particular sj'stems
for discussion; and I have avoided throughout introducing
anything but what has resulted from my own practical ob-
servations. Since I completed my paper, I have received
a communication from a correspondent (Mr. Stagg, of
Grafton, Wilts), who has grown and used this root largely.
He states that he believes it was not at one time much ap-
preciated ; but that the prejudice is wearing fast away,
since the application of it has become better understood.
He states that danger from overfeeding must be avoided ;
that the root should be treated rather as an auxiliary in
feeding than otherwise ; and that 56Ib. per day for store
cattle and 701b. for fatting cattle is saflicient; that in feed-
ing ewes he does not allow them more at once than they
will eat in three-quarters of an hour. For lambs and tegs,
he thinks about two bushels of cut root per score sufficient
for one day, increasing the quantity to three bushels per
score, and, as the spring advances, even more ; and he then,
in adverting to its feeding quality, states that its nutritious
propertj' consists of saccharine, which he erroneously sup-
poses to decrease as the season advances, because it cannot
then be extracted for making sugar. Upon investigation,
however, such does not appear to be the case. The sugar
undoubtedly remains, but becomes fixed, so as not to be
extracted by the usual modes. It ceases to crystallize
under the ordinary process ; but that it remains un-

526

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

(diminished in quantitj-, is certain. The root, during
the s'l-ring, loses a large proportion of moisture. The
quality becomes sensibly altered, and the sugar has
.also undergone a chemical change, which causes
it to act upon the intestines of the animal less
violently than in its early stages, and -which, as I before
stated, may be altogether avoided by combining it with dry
food, and giving it in mo?.erate quantity. Cattle, however>
that have been fed upon it from an early age, are never ob-
served to become afterwards affected by it. Some discussion
has taken place upon its being injurious to sows in farrow, and
to very young pigs, which, although not invariably the case,
ought to be obviated. I prevent it as much as possible by
seading them away to a jard where it cannot be obtained, but
for pigs from four to twelve months old it is highly beneficial.
I also object to giving it to the ewes in lamb, as I have some-
times found that it has been attended with bad results, and.
as a geueral rule, ought to be avoided ; but wherever it can be
combined with other descriptions of roots or cabbages it is
excellent. Horses can be fed upon it with advantage, and in
small quantities daily it may always be successfully used. By
a statement I received from an intimate fiiend, the result of
such a mode is given by him as follows. The horses I in-
spected, and they certainly appeared in healthy and good
working condition. Expense of keeping 8 horses for 18 weeks
at, per week, £2 63. Bd. 2i bushels each horse per day at 4d.
(the exact cost per bushel), or Sa. lOd. each horse per week.
One and-a-half bushel when at light work, 43. per day, £1 89.
per week, or on au average £1 178. 4d. per week. The roots
were given whole, and the horses had sufficiency of good oat
straw in addition, which, at Is. 6d. each, is 123. ; altogether
£2 93. 4d. per week. Eight other horses, at one and-a-hslf
bushels of oats each horse per week, is 12 bushels, at 3s., £1
16s. ; half ton of trussed hay ia addition, £1 lOs. ; average
per week £3 6s. ; so that the keep in one instance was £2
9s. 4d. per week, in the other £3 63. — in my opinion, not
sufficient profit to enable it to be adopted, especially upon
farms principally arable, where the manufacture of mauute is
of great consideration. Six oxen might have been maintained
in addition to the horses, which would have produced double
the quantity of manure, a point worthy of consideration as an
adjunct. However, i.i feeding horses, not exceediug 1 bushel
per week to every horse becomes beneficial iu the highest de-
gree to the health of the animals. Ik conclusion, I wish to add,
that upon a fair calculation, mangold wurtzel is a crop
that may be produced more cheaply than swede tur-
nips, or auy other description of cattle food. Upon
our light turnip soils it cannot be introduced with
advantage, nor will it ever in such situations be accepted
as a substitute for either the swede or common turnip, especially
as it cannot be folded off by sheep upon the field where it has
been grown ; but for yard feeding of sheep I believe it to be
superior to the varieties of turnip. Upon mixed soils and
strong clays, too heavy for the cultivation of the turnip, it has
opened a new system of cultivation, enabling the occupiers of
farms, upon which 30 years ago no cattle food was obtained in
the winter, to fodder out their straw and hay with great ad-
vantage ; and since the introduction of guano and artificial
manures it may be grown almost to any extent without de-
priving the farm of the ordinary manure. In the autumn, from
the beginning of October, the pulling and storing the crop may
be commenced whenever the leaves may be required, pulling
the roots no faster than they may be required. So far as toy
experience goes, I believe they may be estimated at from SOs.
to 2;. per acre. My mode is to cut them with hay, and the
short straw coming from the thrashing-machine at that time.

Large store hoga, with a moderate quantity of peas or beans
may be fattened to a certain extent upon the roots, so as not to
require much meal in addition afterwards ; but the meat will
not be of first rate quality if no meal is used in addition. One
word I wish to add upon the cultivation. The land cannot be
too frequently stirred, even if weeds are absent ; but in hoe-
ing, if the roots are cut with the hoe from inattention, it always
injures them, and frequently spoils them altogether. Another
very important point is the quality of the roots, and which
cannot be obtaijcd unless the seed has been well and carefully
produced. Cheapness is the order of the day, but in no in-
stance does a farmer pay more dearly than when be purchases
seeds of indifferent quality ; but in seeds from which our roots
are producad, which at most amount to only a few shillings per
acre, the crop has varied from 100 to 300 per cent. ; whilst in-
variably the soil is injured to a far greater extent by the worst
variety. Wheat appears to be the best crop to succeed, if the
land can be cleared with little injury. It will require, how-
ever, a light dressing of manure at the time of sowing, or a
top-dressing in the spring of 40 bushels of soot per acre, if it
can be procured, to be applied when the weather is open and
moist, early in the spring. The broad leaf, or red clover, suc-
ceeds better after it than after any other crop ; and I have
known iustauces of wheat and mangold-wurtzel being grown
in rotation for many years together, and probably with as large
profitable return as by any other system of husbandry. By
way of addendum, I will give the cost of brewing beer from it
exactly as carried out by myself, for the instruction cf those
who are desirous of making the experiment. Although brew-
ing from mangold-wurtzel has been referred to in the fore-
going description, I may observe that beer made from Sdesian
beet is far preferable, and more nearly imitates beer manufac-
tured from malt, and is not so liable to become flat after the
cask becomes partially drawn out, or exposure to the air takes
place, to which beer from mangold-wurtzel is liable. Five tons
of roots produce from 70 to 80 bushels of dried roots, and are
calculated to brew as much beer as 4 quarters of barley-malt.
A copper that holds 1-^: hogsheads will require about one-third
more water to obtain sufficient wort to again fill it. Put 1
hogshead at boiling-heat upon the roots, and mash well ; then,
as quickly as it can be obtained, add 1 hogshead more boil-
ing water, to be again mashed ; let it stand one hour ad-
ditional, and draw off clear; put ou about 1 hogshead of water
cold, and in about a quarter of an hour draw off. This liquor
should be put in the copper, and boiled for the next mash ;
take out the roots, and replace with a like quantity as before
for the second brewing ; boil the wort for one hour, then add
5 lbs. of good hops, and boil twenty minutes longer ; fer-
ment at from 65 to 70 degrees, as with malt-beer; tun, and
keep it eight months before using : it will, however, keep two
years, and continue to improve, from 6 to 8 bushels of the
roots being sufficient for each hogshead. The roots may, after
being used for brewing, be given to cattle or swine, with but
little loss in quantity, but certainly of improved quality. One
ton of roots produces about 15 bushels of dried roots ; the cost
gf drying being 5s., and slicing about 2s. more ; the whole cost
of the beer is lOs. per hogshead.

Mr. W. Bennett (Cambridge) regarded the subject,
however, of how best to grow, to store, and to use mangel
wurzel, as of paramount importance, more especially at
the present day, when in many parts of the kingdom Swedish
turnips had become almost an utter failure. This root
had long become the staple article for the fattening of
cattle in almost all parts of the country, but had of late
years become subject almost to endless diseases. He could
speak particularly of his native county (Bedfordshire), Herts,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

327

Hunts, and Cambridgeshire. The crop of swedes was not only
now blasted, by a great variety of insects, by the very frequent
occurrence of the disease called an-berry, or the fiuger-and toe
disease, but also by a complaint similar to the potato murrain ;
the bulb decaying most near the root, and at other times it
would commence at the very heart of the turnip. Nor was the
disease at all confined to certain uukiud lands for turnips, but
on the best convertible soils, and those under the very best
management. Our farmers could no longer depead upon any
part of those crops to draw off for stall feeding ; but sufficient
could not be grown even to furnish manure for the succeeding
crop of barley, where all the turnips were fed upon the laad.
It was that circumstance which rendered Mr. Baker's able
paper so much the more valuable, for it was a startling fact
that while they had rarely knowu a more wretched crop of tur-
nips, the maugold had proved this year splendid almost be-
yond precedent. Mr. Baker's remarks on the culture for
maugold were very judicious : his practice in some respects
was very similar to his (Mr. Bennett's). His own plan was to
plough deep in the autumn, often two furrows deep, or plough
one good deep furrow, the subsoil-plough following ; but where
the subsoil was at all strong and good, he preferred ploughing
two furrows deep, throwing the lower soil at top, for the
action of the atmosphere. For his own part he preferred
getting the land ultimately into Northumberland rirfges, al-
though he knew on the strong lauds of Esses and part of Suf-
folk our best farmers succeeded in growiag admirable crops
on the flat surface, by oue deep autumnal ploughing (cheers),
The great superiority of maugel wurzel over most other roots
was, first, that it might be grown on land uukind for the
growth of turnips ; secondly, such lands would bear a much
heavier crop ; thirdly, it was far more easily extracted from the
soil; fourthly, it might be kept much later in the season; and
last, though uot least, if fed judiciously with other food, it was
equal if not superior in its fattening qualities to the best kind
of turnips ^Hear, hear). The cultivation of mangold had
in fact opened a new era in clay land farming. There were
many farms in his native county, on the northern side of it,
where decent flocks of sheep were kept in summer ; but not
being at all adapted for turnips, the flock had to be disposed
of, in the winter, except a few half-starved ewes, which ran over
the grass land in the day time, and browsed the bean-straw at
night. By the cultivation of mangold, however, in these modern
times, fine flocks of ewes were now kept where scarcely
any could be kept before. Also on fen land, which was ad-
mirably adapted for the growth of mangold to the extent of
30 to 40 tons per acre, this root was now grown extensively,
and although not equal in quality to that grown on high land, it
was by no means depreciated in the same degree as were turnips
on this kind of laud. On all soils salt greatly improved the
quality of mangold, and he felt confident on none so much as
peaty fen land.

Mr. Thomas (Lidlington, Beds) said that Mr. Baker had not
alluded to a circumstance with which he ( Mr. Thomas) had some
slight acquaintance, viz., to the seeds being wrapped in capsules,
each of which contained three or four seeds. He should like to
know whether Mr. Baker had ever tried the experiment of
breaking up the capsules (Hear, hear). He (Mr. Thomas) had
done so ou a small scale in his garden, he had crushed the out-
ward coat through a bean-mill, and he had found, in conse-
quence, that the plants came to the hoe in one half the time
that those did which were dibbled in the capsules. One re-
mark which Mr. Baker had made was susceptible of correction.
That gentleman had stated that there was this difficulty with
regard to mangold-wuttzel, that it could not be fed off the
land in the same manner as the awede turnip. He (Mr.

Thomas) begged to assure him that so far was that from being
the case that in Bedfordshire it was becoming a very common
practice indeed to eat it off the land.

Mr. Baker : You could not produce a heavy crop, then?

Mr. Thomas begged pardon ; he had seen very heavy crops
of mangold ou light lands. He had seen this on sandhills
which had become sick and tired of growing swede turnipe.
Mangold- wurtzel could be eaten off the laad about the months
of March and April, and he believed it was more forcing and
nutritious than the swede itself at that time of the year.

Mr. Stags (Grafton, Wilts) said that, like Mr. Thomas, he
could not agree with Mr. Baker in all the views he had
enunciated on this subject. lu the first place, with regard to
mangold-wurtzel not being a proper food for ewes, lambs, and
pigs he himself had fed his flocks of ewes and sows for many
years past, from the month of November to the month of May,
upon that description of root, and he had had quite as good
lambs as any of his neighbours who had fed their flocks upon
turnips. Kis tegs also had fed upon aud done well thereon ;
so likewise had his sows to a great extent, and he should not
be afraid to shov/ them against those of any gentleman in Bed-
fordshire, They had had very good farrows, from ten to thirteen
at a time ; during the whole of last winter he never lost a pig,
and he believed he had about a hundred now. With regard
to storing of maugold, his practice was to store in heaps of
about a cart-load each, fir.9t cutting off the greens or tops
which are left on the land, and fed by ewes. About two-
thirds of the roots are then fed on the land by sheep, the re-
maining one-third (more or less as required) carted off wheu
convenient, and given to cattle or pigs in the farm-yards. The
ouly objection he ever found was the difficulty in preventing
servants over feeding with this root. The store-heaps are
covered with straw ia the same manner as potatoes. He had a
large field now in store of, he believed, fully 40 tons per acre, and
had never had a wheelbarrow-full of rotton mangold throughout
the whole of his experience.

Mr. Williams : You don't cut them near the crown ?

Mr. Stagg : No, not so near as to run the risk of injur-
ing the crown. With regard to mangel wurzel as a root
crop, he considered it most valuable for the farm. On one
part of his farm he had gi-ovvn turnips, but those were
to a great extent club-footed, and were what had not in-
aptly been termed fingers and toes (Hear, hear). Upon
heavy clay soils and upon sandy soils that would not grow
turnips, it was, in his opinion, quite a godsend to have man-
gel wurzel to resort to ; and he would repeat that he consi-
dered it a most beneficial crop for the farm. He had kept
600 sheep for the last 15 years, on the average, although
they had scarcely any other kind of roots than mangel from
November to March (Hear, hear).

A Member : What sort of a farm is yours .'

Mr. Stagg : A store and corn farm.

The Member : And what kind of mangel wurzel do you
prefer ?

Mr. Stagg: The red globes (Hear, hear). In conclusion,
he would merely observe that there was no more difHculty
in feeding oiF mangel than swedes (Hear, hear).

Mr. Gray (Courteen-hall, Northampton) did not presume
to set his production of mangel wurzel in competition with
that of Mr. Baker, but having had some j'eavs' experience in
the growth of this root, he would take the liberty of making
a few remarks with regard to the system he had pursued.
Of course, he grew it after his white grain crop. After
harvest, if the land wanted cleaning, he did what he could
to accomplish that object. He then manured with from 10
to 12 tons of dung per acre, leaving it spread upon the land

328

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

for two months, ploughed it up to a fair depth, and left it
until the spring. April was in his opinion the best time for
sowing. He set two ploughs to ridge it up, and dibbled
the seed in, employing four men for that purpose. Each
man carried a little bag of seed hanging from his neck, and
dropped in the seed as he went along. He made a compost
of turf ashes, malt dust, and pigeon manure, with three
hundred of superphosphate of lime per acre. This he
mixed up and left to lie a little while before he required
to use it, and carried it to the land in carts, and afterwards
along the ridges in wheelbarrows, putting a handful of the
compost over the seed, that being the covering it had.
He should also state that upon depositing the seed, he
applied a light roller. Since he had tried this system
his crop had never failed, but was always a very good one,
although it had failed under every other system. With regard
to the transplanting of mangel wurzel, they all knew that if
they did not get a full plant it might be desirable to trans-
plant. His own practice was to get a strong force of men and
boys, and on the first wet day send them out to transplant his
mangold ; but let it be observed that if the operation was per-
formed in the same manner as they treated the cabbage, they
would get no plant. He put in the little fibre? straight, and
pressed them down lightly with the soil ; for the lighter they
were pressed the better. During the present year, he had been
particularly successful. He bad transplanted more than at auy
former period, and finer crops he had never grown. The disco-
very of this fact he had made quite by accidect, and he was sure
it was worthy the consideration of the farmer. With respect to
horse-hoeing, they all knew the advantage of keeping the land
well and thoroughly cleaned (Hear, hear). When he took up
the roots for storing he set two men with common bean hooks
to cut the tops off, and he did not think that out of 10 acres
of mangold wurtzel last year he had a single decayed root.
This at all events showed that cutting off the tops was not in-
jurious. Then, as to storing, he set four men to fill the carts.
Boys were employed to drive the carta away, and it took
two men to put the roots in heaps. He thatched as rapidly
as the heaps were formed, leaving plenty of ventilation.
With reference to the value of the root, he thought it was
becoming more important every year. Certandy its feed-
ing qualities were unsurpassed by those of any other. He
once showed in Baker-street a Hereford ox, the only root he
had being mangold wurtzel, being the winner of the first
prize in class 2. Some remarks had been made about the
difficulty of growing mangold wurtzel on stiff soils. He
himself on one occasion tried the cultivation of it on as
stiff a soil as any in England ; and he should pity auy man
who was obliged to produce mangold upon that sort of soil.
The system which he adopted was to cultivate in the autumn
manure, ridge up, and then leave it. By adopting that plan
very good crops might be grown on such soils, and it was prac-
tised very extensively with great success ou the cold clay
lands of Huntingdonshire.

Mr. W. Bennett: Do you prefer large plants for trans-
planting ?

Mr. Gray : Not very large.

Mr. Bennett : Aa large as a cabbage plant ?

Mr. Gray : No.

Mr. Thomas wished to say one word with regard to feeding
ewes off mangold wurtzel. For more than 25 years he had in-
variably done it, and during the last month previous to yeaning,
had always found it to be most beneficial. After trying the
system for many years, he made a memoraudum of the result

of his practice to this effect — that there was no kind of food
so suitable for ewes during the last four or five weeks before
parturition as mangold wurtzel (Hear, hear). He could as-
sure every gentleman who grew mangold wurtzel, and pos-
sessed a flock of ewes heavy with lamb, that he had never
fouud the least injurious results from the practice, but, ou the
contrary, very great advantage in the production of fat and
milk at the same time.

Mr. Gray said that on one occasion, when he was not so
well acquainted with its feeding properties as he was now, he
had a considerable quantity of mangold down in the month of
July, and felt some difficulty in deciding how he should dis-
pose of it. At last he fetched in ten bullocks from the field,
and gave them the mangold, with a proportionate quantity of
hay, and the result was that he had never seen beasts do better
(Hear, hear).

Mr. CoussMAKER (Westwood, Farnham) said, as regarded
the cultivation of mangold wurtzel, he concurred in the opinion
of Mr. Gray, that it was desirable to plough deep once in the
autumn, and then leave it. Winter produced a tilth which no
power on earth could produce in the spring. The more they
stirred the soil ia the spring, the more they let the drought
into it. If it were left aloue, the soil retained a certaiu
amouut of moisture, and the seed vegetated quicker. With
regard to the stacking of the crop, he agreed with what fell
from Mr. Baker. He had used this root a good deal for
fattening beasts, and as food for milch cows. He had found
the orange globes produce the best kind of milk. He had
likewise found mangold wurtzel a most valuable food for store
pigs ; and, though he had never used it himself for that
purpose, he had heard that it was not at all a bad kind of food
for horses when mixed with a certain proportion of hay and
corn. The long orange was, he believed, a very superior root.
Some years ago, a gentleman took a farm near his own for the
express purpose of making beet-root sugar ; and the sort of
root which he chose for that purpose was the long orange.
As it appeared that there was an Act of Parliament under
which he might be compelled to pay duty on his sugar, he
dropped the scheme; but he was of opinion that he might
otherwise have cultivated the long orange with great advan-
tage for the manufacture of sugar.

Mr. J. A. Williams (Baydon, Hungeiford), said, occupy-
ing as he did some of that stiff land which had been spoken
of, he had not yet been able to cultivate mangel wurzel to
advantage; but he thought the cause was, that he had not
adopted the right method. He was more than ever convinced
of the utility of that Club, for he was satisfied, from the argu-
ments of Mr. Grey and Mr. Coussmaker, that to be successful
on very strong clays the cultivation must take place in the
autumn. He happened to have a good description of down
land, and having been told by practical men that such land
would grow mangel wurzel, he should be glad if any one
present could tell him from experience whether or not such,
was the case. Mr. Baker had spoken of the practicability of
distilling from mangel wurzel. He (Mr. Williams) thought
that with the prospect of having wheat at 40s. a quarter that
was a matter which was well worthy cf consideration ; but
Mr. Baker had raised an obstacle which, if it really existed,
would prevent such a desirable object from being attained, viz.,
that the landlords would not permit, and the tenants would
not like, the cartage of a large bulk of roots off the farm, as it
would be too much to draw the bulbs away, and the residue
back again for feeding purposes. Now he was pleased to tell
them that that obstacle was removed. They had all seen or
heard of the inventiou of Boydell's steam-horse, manufactured

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

329

by Mr. Burrell of Thetford, Mr, Burrell had told him (Mr.
Williams) that he had taken out a patent for a portable dis-
tillery to meet this very case. He did not think landlords
would object to the mere extraction of the spirit if the feeding
qualities of the roots were left on the farm ; and the steam-
horse and the portable distillery might go from farm to farm
extracting the spirit from the roots (laughter), and leaving the
bulk of the crop for feeding purposes or for manure, and pos-
sibly paying the farmer for the extract alone a considerable
profit beyond the cost of production. This appeara to me to
be a move in the right direction, for if we are called upon to
grow wheat at a low price, which we cannot do, it is worth
considering if it would not be wise to cease to a certain ex-
tent the growth of that article, and substitute a larger growth
of roots for distilling purposes.

Mr. Mason (Somersham, Huntingdon) said his experience
had lain entirey among black fen-land, and for fifteen or twenty
years he had been in the habit of growing mangel-wurzel on
land of that description. He agreed with Mr. Baker that, on
light soils, the use of the hoe for the purpose of pressure was
very desirable. The pressure which he had used, however, was
simply that of the heel. After setting the seed he used a
handful of blood-manure, and nothing else ; he then resorted
to the heel, to secure solidity ; and for some years past his
roots had thriven exceedingly well under that process. As
regards packing, it was of course very important to effect the
operation in such a manner as to prevent fermentation. The

system which he adopted was this. He invariably mixed his
seed, 41bs. being about the quantity. He used 21b3. of globe,
aud 21bs. of red ; and one advantage of this mixture was that,
if the one kind failed, as it frequently did, the other still re-
mained to produce the crop. Another advantage of the mix-
ture of the globe with the red was found in the packing of
the roots, there being less tendency to fermentation ; and, in
his own experience, he had sustained comparatively little loss
under that mode of proceeding.

Mr. T. Chandler (Aldbourne, Hungerford), referring to a
remark by Mr. Williams in reference to down land, said that
he had cultivated mangel wurzel on land of that description
with great success, while his turnip cultivation on the same
land was a failure.

Mr. Baker then replied. Adverting to the remarks made
with respect to the feeding of pigs on maugel wurzel, he said
he had tried it in the case of his own pigs, and the result was
not satisfactory. With respect to the crushing of the cap-
sules advocated by Mr. Thomas, no doubt the moisture would
reach the seed all the better for the external coating being
broken, but there was a danger of cracking the seed at the
same time. He was very glad that so much interest had been
manifested in the subject.

On the motion of Mr. Thomas, seconded by Mr. Harki-
SON, thanks were voted to Mr. Baker for his able paper ; and
a similar compliment having been paid the Chairman, the
meeting separated.

THE MANAGEMENT OF A FLOCK OF BREEDING EWES, MORE
PARTICULARLY IN THE LAMBING SEASON.

" Sheep," said Fitzherbert long ago, " is the most
prolitablest cattle that a man can have." Since his
day so much attention has been paid to the breeding and
general management of sheep, and with such encou-
raging results, that this old writer's statement is more
entirely realized than ever he expected.

In the following remarks upon the treatment of
breeding ewes I shall not confine myself particularly to
one class. I intend to detail the course generally
adopted ; and if specific treatment is noticed, the locality
where it prevails will of course be stated.

We will commence, then, with the selection of ewes
to put to the tup.

This selection is only necessary where a standing flock
is kept. Where the flock is a " flying one," since all
are disposed of, none obtain a preference. By a Jl>/-
ing flock is meant one that is purchased a little before,
or immediately after, the lambing season, the lambs be-
ing disposed of when weaned, and the ewes, when fat,
from coleseed, &c.

The aged ewes, and ewes with no teeth, are first drafted.
Some breeders expel every ewe that has had three
crops of lambs.

The flock-masters of North Lincolnshire get off
their ewes at their fourth year in prime condition, and
make topping prices.

But whatever variety of practice there may be, a ewe
with no teeth, or defective teeth, where turnips are
grown, ceases to he used for breeding, as she would fail
to sustain not only her progeny, but herself.

Should the breeder eject from the flock every ewe
having a disqualifying property, he might as well give
up breeding. Such drafting must, however, depend
upon the number oigood substitutes which the shearling
ewes or gimmers may supply, which, of course,

have in their turn to be subjected to a rigid examina-
tion. First determine the number of gimmers to be ad-
mitted, and then draft out of the old flock a correspond-
ing number of the worst animals. Beyond the disquali-
fications of age and bad teeth, there are some others
which I will mention : thimvool, hollow back, flat sides
(indicating a want of space for the foetus), diseased ud-
dtr, asthmatical affections, and diminutive stature.

This selection is very important, for with improved
form we obtain improved constitution.

Then if the flock is suflScicntly large to employ two tups
or more, the ewes must be divided into as many classes
as there are tups, the breeder designing to correct the
defects of the female by the excellencies of the male ;
and this course perseveringly pursued is always found
to result in a regular, sound, and proHfic flock.

As ewes are more prolific during their third and fourth
years than they are before or after, during which time
they generally produce single and weak lambs, it seems
that a " flying-flock," could it be obtained of the right
age, might be more profitable than a standing flock.
There are reasons, however, why such a course is open to
objection ; but I do not intend to touch upon them now.

The tup commences his work generally on the 11th
October, so that the lambs are expected about the 8th
to the 11th of March. The date of this operation is
varied according to circumstances. For in Scotland the
tupping season for Cheviots is from 15th to 22nd No-
vember, with the expectation of receiving the lambs in
April, when the weather is milder. In the South, where
breeders endeavour to supply the London market with
early lamb, arrangements are made by which they arrive
at Christmas, and from some classes of Dorsets two crops
of lambs are obtained within the year. In the north-
eastern counties, the north-eastern wind having cut

330

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

with such a keen destructive edge, during the last three
or four years, throughout the month of March, many of
the breeders in those districts have turned tlie tups to
the ewes at the end of October, or the commencement of
November. I very much question, however, the bene-
fit received from the change. One early lamb is gene-
rally worth tivo late ones.

Where high-prized sheep are employed, as in the
case of a ram-breeder, another plan is sometimes adopted,
for the purpose of obtaining the greatest amount of ser-
vice from the ram, and more regularity of procedure.
The rams are kept in pens, while a tenzer, or imper-
fectly castrated sheep, is turned amongst the flock, and
those ewes seen to be in heat are brought up to the
rams selected for them. They are then numbered with
a brand, and a note is made of the date, &c.

Ruddling. — It is well, that the shepherd may know
what the tups are about, to mark their breasts with rud-
dle for the first 17 days they are among the ewes, that
being the time of the periodical recurrence of heat, and
then to use soot. At lambing time the red-rumped ewes,
or those that conceived from the first copulation, are
brought into the fold, and the black-rumped ones after
the proper lapse of time.

Choice of Food. — About a fortnight before ewes are
put to tup, they are removed from the stubbles and bare
pastures, and put upon the freshest pastures the
farm affords, or better still on rape. Failing rape or
coleseed they may be folded upon white turnips, or
turnips may be carted to them upon grass. Mixtures
of white mustard and coleseed, or white mustard
alone, are fuund very advantageous at this season.
When this better fare has begun to tell in their improved
condition, the tups are turned amongst them ; for under
such circucastances the ewes come to heat quickly, and
are more likely to conceive twins. And this quickness
to receive the male is more important than at first sight
appears, since the ram should be removed in three or
four weeks from the date of his admission, because
lambs begotten so long after the rest will not coincide
with them, are often sickly, and suffer from neglect.
For this reason poppy-cake, bruised and served in
troughs, is used by some, and other stimulants are
adopted.

Ewes are then put upon moderate fare, care being
taken to avoid the extremes of fatness and poverty.
The poor ewe, if she lives through the season of parturi-
tion, dies with her lamb, from txhaustion subsequently,
while the fat ewe rarely escapes atacks of fever and in-
flammation, from which cause she sheds her wool, and
fails to nourish her lamb either before its birth or after-
wards. They do well run thinly on grass land, 1 or 1^
to an acre, with, when the frost sets in, a few turnips or
mangolds carted to them, and a rack filled with hay,
pea or barley straw, to run to. When the four-course
system is adopted, there is generally a necessity for
feeding ewes upon turnips, and they then follow the
fatting sheep, to eat up their scraps and shells. This
arrangement suits both lots, for Swedish turnips pro-
duce fatness on ewes more readily than other kinds.
As the lambing time approaches, the ewes should be re-
moved from the turnips to the grass or seed, receiving
there mangold wurtzel and a little oilcake or oats. It
may be remarked here that too much care cannot be
observed throughout the month of February, as to the
regularity in time of feeding, quantity and kind of food
given.

A scant supply for a day or two, or a total and sudden
change from turnips to mangolds, for instance, would
be likely to produce serious results in the crop of lambs.
Sufficient attention is not paid to this fact. The wool
suffers as well as the lambs.

Great care at this time should be taken to prevent the

intrusion of dogs ; any cause likely to startle a ewe at
this period must be guarded against. Unless the shep-
herd's dog is a very silent reliable animal, I advise that
he should be tied up at this season.

The shepherd must now look out for cast ewes ; for a
ewe to be long in this position may endanger her life,
or cause an awkward presentation at delivery.

Preparations for Lambing. — The Shepherd.—'
It may be thought curious that I start off, under this
head, with the shepherd ; but as upon his qualifications
depend so entirely the welfare of the flock, it is of the
greatest consequence that we have the right man in the
right place. There is no season like the lambiug season
for trying a man's tact, knowledge, and patience.
During that season only, the skilful attentive servant
may save his year's wages ; and the comparative results
between the skill and attention, and inattention or blun-
dering assiduity, during a precarious time, are truly as-
tounding. Mr. Price and Mr. Youatt, both writers on
sheep, seem to regard as natural and proper treatment
on the shepherd's part many things that would display
a lamentable amount of ignorance and incapacity quite
incompatible with the burden of such a responsibility.
One instance is given by Mr. Price, of a flock of 800
ewes out of which only 100 pairs were saved j but that
with more skill the number of pairs afterwai ds increased
to 200. The improved skill of one man then saved
200 lambs, which would come to be worth ^200,
equalling the wages of at least four good shepherds !
The shepherd's duties are no sinecure, and can be per-
formed by no ordinary man. Supposing him to have
attentively observed the tupping and registered the ewes,
and in conjunction with his master so regulated the
food as to have kept them in a healthy progressive state,
he has now to make all his preparations with a wise
foresight only to be gained by experience. The place to
lamb in is to be selected, and the time attended to.
Further, the requisite assistance, and no more, has to
be rendered at the proper instant of lambing, and the
lamb and the mother both assiduously watched for days
afterwards. Milk has to be given to lambs when
mothers are unkind or destitute of milk ; sickness of
various kinds has to be watchfully dealt v/ith, and great
judgment is required in the breaking of pains and
mothering of ewes. Beyond this the operation of castra-
tion has to be performed at the proper state of the
animal's strength, in the proper state of the weather.
Attention to these duties rests almost entirely,
and in many cases entirely so, with the shep-
herd. Supposing then that by performing his part in
a skilful manner night and day, until the lambing is not
only entirely completed, but the lambs are beyond
danger, he saves the lives of ten ewes worth 403. each
and of twenty lambs that would shortly be worth 20s.
each — no extravagant supposition in a large standing
flock of fifteen score ewes — it is clear that in so doing
he will save the amount of his wages.

It is found that skill is better worth having, in a shep-
herd, even though, as is commonly the case, it is com-
bined with indolence, than the most conscientious and
untiring exerti(m without skill. Under the latter the
condition of ewes not unfrequently becomes too high, and
inflammation induced, or undue anxiety to help in time
of labour, increases the danger to the ewe, and the loss
to the master. Mr. Stephens acutely remarks — " Evils
will be prevented by skilful attention, and cured by
attentive skill."

The man whose duty it is to shepherd a flock of Lei-
cester sheep or a flock nearly crossed with Leicesters,
will have more work than he who tends a flock of
Downs or Cheviots, simply because the e^res from more
frequently lambing pairs, or producing square-built,
big lambs, require more assistance than the sheep of the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

331

hill country. However well he has contrived to bring
the flock withia easy range, his eye and hand are con-
stantly in action, and the master will do well to render
him frequent assistance. At night, during a busy time,
an extra pair of hands may save many lambs.

Every breeding farm should have a paddock con-
sisting of two or three acres, well protected with a high
hedge, and situated near the shepherd's or the farm-
house. In lieu of such a permanent lambing fold, a
row of faggots, obliquely laid upon the sward, and
staked down, or a line of hurdles, wattled with straw,
cutting off a bit of the most convenient grass-field, can
be made to answer the purpose. Indeed the stack-
yard is often used, and with less expense. Set up
within the enclosure, in some warm situation against a
wall or hedge, roofed with straw, a row of pens, con-
structed of wattled hurdles or stubble. They
serve as a refuge for ewes that lamb in the night,
or at any other time of day, and require temporary pro-
tection from cold, wind, and rain. If possible the pas-
tures into which the lambed ewes are turned are pro-
vided with triangular shelters, or pens made of three
wattled hurdles.

The fold is intended to hold either the whole flock, or
those who by their marks are expected to lamb first,
and they are driven in at night-fall.

Those' ewes that have no lamb, termed generally
" guile," must about this time be selected and put with
the fattening sheep. Their blooming fleece and active
motions betray them ; and if a doubt exists, the shepherd
should examine the udder. If the teat upon pressure
yields no dark, thick viscid substance, the fact of no
lamb may be considered proved. Before the lambing
commences the shepherd must be supplied with brandy,
castor oil, Epsom salts, ginger, peppermint, spirits of
nitre, laudanum, one or two bottles for milk, a cord,
knife and hook ; with the most important of these he
must fill his budget, and the rest must be at hand. For
his nightly rounds he will need a lantern, and to facili-
tate the capture of individuals of his flook without run-
ning any, a crook is necessary.

Symptoms of Labour. — These are enlargement, and
reddening of the parts beneath the tail, drooping of the
flanks, impatient stamping, isolation, frequent stretch-
ing, shifting from place to place, lying down and rising
almost immediately.

Labour and its Phases. — The immediate preliminary
of labour is the expulsion of the bag of water from the
vagina, subsequent to which ensue violent pains, and
seeming desire of relief. But until the yellow hoofs
appear in the passage, with the mouth lying upon them,
the ewe should be left entirely to itself.

In case the ewe proves too weak to deliver herself,
the shepherd must deliver her, with the remembrance
that a hasty parturition superinduces inflammation.
Experience must guide him as to the proper time to
wait between the appearance mentioned and the assist-
ance rendered.

Where the shepherd is alone, the most sensible mode
of delivering a ewe is by gently laying her on her left
side. He then bestrides her body, kneeling, with his
right knee against her loin, his left heel against the lower
part of her abdomen, and, of course, his face to the
tail. Thus with both hands free, he proceeds to push
out from him, with both hands, one leg of the lamb,
and then the other, and seizing both legis above the fet-
locks with his left hand, he pushes them downwards
from the ewe's back. With his right hand he endeavours
to free the head of the lamb from the vulva of the ewe ;
which done, the action of the bands being simultaneous
with the strainings of the ewe, only heljnng not tearingf,
the operation is completed. Pains are taken to induce
the ewe to recognize the lamb ; it is placed near her

head, its tail is put in her mouth, and if she attempts
to run away, as many will do from their first lamb, she is
penned with her lamb, and if necessary penned in very
close quarters, so as to prevent her butting it.

If the ewe continues to lie and strain after the deli-
very, it may be supposed that she possesses a second
lamb, which may be delivered in the same fashion. It
not unfrequently occurs, however, that one of these two
lambs is dead, or misplaced. In case it is dead, and
has been so for a fortnight, it will be sufficiently rotted
to allow of being pulled away peacemeal. If it is not
so far decomposed, it must be cut away. When a false
presentation does occur, the shepherd must gently en-
deavour to rectify it, by introducinj< his hand, well
lubricated with fresh lard. And the less dogging and
disturbance of any kind the ewes receive during preg-
nancy, the less risk is there of unnatural presentations.
In case of twins there is danger of mistaking the legs.

Supposing the head to be bent back, it must be
brought forward ; and the legs, if bent, must be pushed
back and straightened. The presentation of a breech
sives rise to a difficult case, and renders the delivery
tedious and painful. The hind legs must first be brought
out, and the rest of the body must quickly follow, or the
lamb will be drowned in the liquor amni.

Or it may be necessary to rest the ewe on her
shoulder, raise her rump, and turn the lamb with the
hand in the v/omb, to its proper position.

There are many curious operations rendered neces-
sary by the delivery of malformations ; but it is not ne-
cessary to dwell upon them here. Before I pass on,
however, I will remind you that in case of twins the ewe
may be so employed with and fond of the first-born, as
to cause the pains of labour to cease for the second.
The unskilful shepherd may be misled by this fact, and
keen observation alone detects her true state.

To reproduce pains in such a case, or where fruitless
pains have been succeeded by apathy, two table spoons-
ful of ergot of rye, repeated as a second dose in a
quarter of an hour, will be efficient.

From the after-pains or reaction of the womb after
birth, great loss is often sustained. This malady mani-
fests itself sometimes immediately after parturition, or
not until the first, second, or third day. It seems to
be the effect of the great exhaustion of the nervous
system. If it continues twelve hours, the life of the ewe
may be given up. In severe cases a dose of two ounces
of laudanu/nmay he given three times a day. Inflamma-
tion of the womb after lambing is usually seen between
the first and fourth day. Its course is very rapid and
fatal. Bleedings, and purgatives of Epsom salts, are the
usual remedies. The true preventive is care not to
overfeed previous to lambing.

A little trouble is likely to be occasioned to the shep-
herd by a protrusion of the uterus in some of the ewes.
A stitch or two with a needle-and-thread to keep it in,
and a little laudanum to prevent paining, will generally
suffice ; but the ewe should never again be used for
breeding purposes.

It may be as well to mention here that the placenta
drops soon after delivery. It should on no account be
allowed to lie upon the lambing-ground. Indeed, the
pens and paddock cannot be kept too clean, or too fre-
quently bedded, as many losses occur to the slovenly
manager from the contact of rotting and impure sub-
stances, at this time, with the inflamed and lacerated
parts of the ewes.

Suckling, 8(c. — It is well for ewes producing twins
to be separated ; for if, left in the crowd, they lose sight
of one lamb, they often refuse to recognize it again,
even if the separation has not existed three hours. There
are endless repudiations and capricious partialities now
shown by the ewes, which try the patience of the shop-

332

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

herd. But, as a rule, the maternal affections seem to
be much dependent upon the flow of milk ; and the
shepherd, seeing that the well-filled udder is his best
friend, never ceases to tease the farmer into large grants
of cake and corn for the sucklers. Care should have
been previously taken to divest the region of the udder
of all wool ; for its presence in the stomach of the lamb
is a certain cause of death. Having exercised even
great care in this particular, I have lost many lambs.
The symptoms are, violent working in the body, with
frothing at the mouth.

The first aim of the shepherd is to ensure for every
lamb, as soon as possible after birth, a good drink of
warm milk : this once accomplished, he rapidly increases
in strength and ability to bear cold weather.

In the case of shearling ewes, who usually have a
scant supply of milk, cows' milk is resorted to. New
milk is supplied to them by means of bottles fitted with
a mouth-piece, through which the lambs suck ; or there
are other modes of administering the lacteal stream of
life : but the chemical constituents of cows' milk and
ewes' milk, meeting in the stomachs of lambs, certainly
do not agree well. Particularly they do not where the
cow from which the milk is obtained has calved recently.
Ewe-milk is poor in butter, but rich in curd ; which is
known to be the character of that of cows calved six
months, and not again pregnant.

Should a ewe show indisposition to allow her lamb to
suck, her udder should be examined. If it is hot and
hard, exhibiting tumorization, fomentations, with the
internal administration of Epsom salts, will be useful,
followed by the vigorous thumps of the lamb, dispers-
ing the tumour and promoting the flow of milk. Cam-
phor and spirits of wine and Castile soap are a stronger
remedy.

There is another troublesome piece of business for
the shepherd at this time — I mean the Mothering of
Lambs. This has to be done when a ewe dies, leaving
lambs ; when the lambs die, leaving a good flow of milk
behind them, for the benefit of the wee things that are
left destitute ; or when a fine ewe, with abundance of
milk, has but a single lamb, while a poor or young ewe
has twins ; the shepherd seeing it best to break the poor
ewe's couple, giving twins to her that has the best-
supply for them. If this is done when the lambs are
wet, there is no trouble involved ; but the effort to in-
duce a ewe to recognize a lamb that has been dropped
some days, is very trying to the patience. Various
methods are adopted to cheat the mothers, the shepherd
rubbing the body of the lamb to be received with the
body of the dead lamb, or (if in the case supposed last)
with the body of the live lamb. If this will not do, the
dead lamb is skinned ; and the stranger, invested iii its
tegument, deceitfully obtains, like another Esau, the
parental blessing. Close confinement is usually neces-
sary to render these arts effective.

Those lambs unsuccessful in this line of deception,
or, may-be, supernumeraries, depend upon the kind
attentions of the shepherd or the dairymaid.

Before I pass from this portion of the subject, I must
remember to say that, if the shepherd's house is not near,
he should have access to some outhouse or moveable
shepherd's house, with a fire, before which, wrapped in
flannel, he may put such lambs as require this attention,
as many do, during those cold stormy nights when
lambs usually arrive in greatest abundance,

I must also remark that, should a case of puerperal
fever occur, the shepherd must avoid touching the ewe
so affected. If he has done so, some other person must
take his accoucheur-duties for a few days, as the malady
may be communicated to numbers of the flock by the
shepherd's hand. Same one else, too, must do all the
skinning, &c., during the lambing time.

Castration and Docking. — Ten days to a month
after birth, all lambs not reserved for tups are to be cas-
trated. The parts have not at this age attained too
much rigidity, nor is the lamb so fat as to render fever
imminent from the operation.

Authority says " it is best done early in the morning,
in a fresh breeze, and by no means should the lambs be
over-driven and heated previously.'' The modus operandi
is as follows : The captured lambs are one by one placed
with their backs upon the right shoulder of a stout lad,
who doubling the corresponding fore and hind legs to-
gether in either hand, holds them steady in that position
for the shepherd, who simply forces up the testicle with
his finger and thumb, slits the purse, seizes the testicle
between his teeth, and draws it out till the spermatic
cord is broken, and so on. There are other plans, but
none so simple as these. When the parts get too rigid
to allow of the operation being performed with safety,
silk thread is tied very tightly round the testicle, and
circulation being cut off, they drop off in process of
time. This seems a less barbarous, but more trouble-
some mode than the former.

The opportunity is now taken to dock the tail, dividing
against the third joint. The object of this operation is
to keep the sheep clean behind, which cannot be done
when they wear long tails.

The lambs, after castration and docking, should not
be placed in hign lank grass, or on stubble, where the
parts can be irritated. Having surmounted these diffi-
culties and risks, the shepherd may now begin to cal-
culate his successes. Stephens says, " He should not
be satisfied with his exertions unless he has preserved
one-half the number of ewes with twin lambs; nor
should he congratulate himself if he has lost a single
ewe in lambing." " In regard," says the same writer,
" to the yield of lambs of the Cheviot breed, it is con-
sidered a favourable result to rear a lamb to each ewe ;
with Southdowns a little more ; with black-faced ewes
18 lambs out of the score of ewes is perhaps as favour-
able. Cheviots yield a few pairs, Southdowns more,
black-ficed ewes very few, while half the number of
Leicester ewes should have twin lambs."

After-management. — So soon as the lambs are
fairly a-foot, their dams are turned with them into the
most forward piece of seeds, or to rape, rye, winter
oats, or water meadow ; the great point being to have
abundance of succulent green food for the ewes as soon
as they lamb. The ewes bite very closely, and eat con-
stantly while lambs are with them, so that they shortly
trim-off the grass or seed in a season unfavourable to
vegetation. This fact renders the farmer much uneasi-
ness ; for when the pasture looks brown, he knows that
he must either remove the flock, or, by keeping it where
it is, impoverish the lambs, and so bite into the heart
of the grass or seed, that the summer will pass before
it recovers from the treatment.

The addition of a water-meadow to a farm is most
valuable at this season, for these will always have a sup-
ply of food when other pastures are bare. Matters
should so be arranged that there should be a succession
of fields for theewesandlambs, passing them on from one
to another, and so resting each piece alternately, which
will be found a more effectual method than that of
stocking all lightly, but continuously. In removing
lambs from a short to a full bite, caution is needed. It
should be accomplished, old hands say in dry weather
in the afternoon : else we have a flush of that
quality of milk which produces green-skit in lambs.
The premonitory symptoms of this malady are, general
dulness, watery eyes, and stiff joints ; half-an ounce
Epsom salts with half a drachm of ginger is the best
aperient remedy, to which may be added a table-spoon-
ful of cordial, consisting of equal parts of brandy and

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

333

sweet spirits of nitre. When the action of the stomach
shall have been stopped by the curding or coagulation of
milk, an alkali should be employed to dissolve the co-
agulum. The best to be so used is magnesia. Painful
heaving of the body indicates the cause of disease. With
respect to costlveness, half ounce doses of Epsom salts
repeated every six hours until relief is afforded, and
removal to a more succulent pasture, are the proper
remedies. Epsom salts will, too, generally relieveyefcr
in lambs at its commencement. This malady is Indi-
cated by quick breathing.

Medicine can only be resorted to in individual cases.
Where a malady prevails throughout a flock, it is best
generally to meet it by judicious dieting.

The ewes must be kept in a thriving condition, that
is, progressing all summer, and on the 20th of July or
thereabouts, the lambs should be removed to a good
clover eddish, at a sufficient distance from their mothers
to prevent the one lot hearing the bleating of the other.
I say that the lambs should be removed ; but it will be
better to say that the ewes should be removed, leaving
the lambs where they were, for a day or two before the
change is made. So that if they are to go upon clover
eddish, it would be well for ewes and lambs to go there
together for a day or two before the separation takes
place. Experience will show that too much attention
cannot be paid to such apparently trifling matters. It
is in assiduous attention to such trifling circumstances
that a farmer's profit consists.

I must not forget to state that when the ewes are
shorn, the lambs should be dipped in a composition of
arsenic : easily pre pared by boiling soft-soap, arsenic,
and sulphur together.

This is done that the "ticks" they possess may

be killed ; for being the only harbours for them now
their mothers have lost their wool, the lambs would be
so irritated as to render all improvement impossible.

In conclusion, to be really successful as a breeder of
sheep, the farmer must not be satisfied with a know-
ledge of his flock in the aggregate, but he must be inti-
mate with the members of that flock individually, and
their antecedents. This can only be obtained by going
down thoroughly and personally into the practical de-
tails, as very few breeders care to do. None know the
trouble, care, pleasure, and profit of such a course, but
such as practise it. Not a day should go by, without
the farmer passing in review evei'y sheep beneath his
eye ; and at least once a fortnight tliey should all come
beneath his hand, as the touch is the best test of condition
and comparative improvement that can be employed.
Such constant attention will give a power of discernment
to be obtained in no other way ; and it is the possession
of ihis power alone which constitutes the profit of the
flock ; for the unobservant and careless master will only
discover a malady when it has gone too far to be reme-
died, while the observant master will detect by a species
of anticipation, and prevent rather than attempt to cure.
To this homily I will append a remark made by that in-
defatigable general, the late Sir Charles Napier, when at
Cephalonia, and leave my readers to draw their own de-
ductions therefrom : — " How entirely all things depend
on the mode of executing them ! How ridiculous mere
theories are ! My successor thought, as half the world
always thinks, that a man in command has only to order,
and obedience will follow. Hence they are baffled not
from want of talent, but from inactivity ; vainly think-
ing that while they spare themselves, everyone under
them will work like horses." Eum^us.

WINTER FOOD FOR CATTLE.

Sir, — The importance of winter food for either
horses, neat cattle, or sheep, is so generally acknowledged,
that there can be no need for any apology in offering a
few hints as to the likeliest methods of getting up a
supply. The turnip, the carrot, and the beet, formerly
garden stuff', have all been long ago pressed into the
service of agriculture : even the tender exotics have
been forcibly taken possession of, and the cucumber
family itself has been taxed to feed the cows, in the
shape of gourds, &c. After such examples as these, let
no one be surprised at any botanical extravagance that
may hereafter be perpetrated.

The gourd, beet, carrot, and turnip require delicate
handling and a fine tilth, besides skill and capital, and
necessarily imply a considerable advance in shelter,
drainage, levelling, &c ; but there are situations of
mountain, moor, morass, crag, cliff, &c., where cul-
tivation of the above-named herbaceous plants is entirely
out of the question ; and as there are some thousands of
acres of waste that receive rain and sunshine in Eng-
land, and yet produce little return, it is time to try if
these unprofitable servants could not be set to work.
Most farms have some waste lands, and the following
experiments might be tried on a small scale on these
smaller wastes first, before attempting them on a larger
scale. To propose anything tender as a tenant of the
waste would be quite out of the question, therefore I
shall proceed at once to lay before the readers of the
Mark-Lane Express my reasons for suggesting the
adoption of shrubs instead of herbaceous plants into
the agricultural service.

There is a limit set by Nature to the culture of hardy
plants, viz,, the line of perpetual snow ; and if we wish

to know what tenants would suit our waste lands, bleak
and dreary as they may be, we should consult the plants
that have skirted the line of perpetual snow, and we
shall find them ready to volunteer into a better country,
and as we have no place so bad as the place they have
left, it will be seen that they are decidedly bettering their
condition, and thus all danger of growing them is at an
end. I need not enumerate the plants that do not con-
cern the farmer, for the lichens and other cryptogamous
plants are not to be cultivated by any ordinary tillage,
but the birch and the willow have their representatives
in the high hill-tops bordering the boundary line where
all vegetable life is wanting ; it is to families like these,
then, that we must look for the support we so much
want of winter fodder. The tops of the heather may
give a bite of green food for the " hill toether" to keep
in life till the return of spring, but the plant is not
adapted for a better place, and its rate of growth will
for ever fix it to the mountain. It is far otherwise with
the willow family. " Growing like a willow" is an idiom
of our language ; and when we see shoots of this tree
(for it has both shrubs and trees) six feet long in one
season, we cannot fail to appreciate the willow as a
valuable fodder plant as far as bulk is concerned.

Some years ago I bought a goat and a kid, to try
how many species of trees produced leaves and twigs
that the goat would eat. Suffice it to state, here, that she
ate the willow greedily ; and when I was showing theexperi-
ment to an English nobleman who had travelled a great
deal in the North of Europe, he told me that he had
seen hay made of willow, and that it made good winter
food. The willow has a great spread of foliage, and the
amount of cellular tissue in the leaves and bark bears a

334

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

very large per-ceiitage indeed to the woody fibre of the
green shoot. All immature leaves, by a law of nature,
adhere firmly to their shoots : when the leaf is ripe, it
cuts itself off, with a clean- healed wound, in a very work-
manlike manner ; therefore in making hay of shrubs the
leaves must be decidedly unripe in order to adhere to
the stems, I need not tell any one that the willow will
grow in any mud-bank at the level of the sea, and I
have already said that the Salix antarctica on the moun-
tain is a creeping shrub on the verge of perpetual snow.
This immense range, from undrained swamps to bleak
hill-tops, speaks volumes for the economical use of the
willow ; and if any one were to introduce a plant half
as useful as the willow, to our agricultural societies,
from some foreign country, he would be considered
a benefactor to agriculture. When goats and rab-
bits bark trees for food in winter, they teach us
an excellent practical lesson — viz., that the bark, and
even the wood itself, is not so bad an article of food as
we might have thought it to be ; and when we see a
person able to convert the woody fibre of an old shirt,
or even a heap of sawdust, into sugar, we find that it is
not without reason that the hares and rabbits have a
nibble at the apple-trees in winter : but I should de-
spair, after all this, of doing any good with such a
subject, were it not that I have already one link in the
chain, to weld this idea into — namely, the gorse, which
seems now fairly adopted into agriculture. Yes, it is a
fact that horses have actually been eating sticks, and
thriving r^eW on them. Thirty years ago, I saw the
whin-mill at work, reducing the prickly fodder of
the gorse-plant into food for horses ; and all evidence,
then and since, goes to prove its vast importance, not
only as a tenant of the waste, but even as a cultivated
plant for fodder.

After a very long acquaintance indeed with the plants
indigenous to our clime that are likely to prove of service
to us in cultivating what may properly be termed our
wastes, I find only three that seem perfectly at home as
slaves, or drudges, to do this dirty work ; and they are
— first, the willow, that is willing to grow in our osier-
beds, in that which has not even the name of " dry
land:" it will also thrive well anywhere else, for it is
propagated by cuttings merely stuck into the ground ;
and if there be only one joint in the ground and one
above it, the tree is planted. Willows are used by
planters as nurses for other trees ; and M'Gregor found

the black sallow particularly excelling as a screen against
the sea-breeze. My father showed me large willow-trees,
that were once the twigs used for tying up the bundles of
trees from the nursery ; and when he had planted the
trees, he cut these twigs iuto sets, and stuck them into
the ground : therefore, what I have stated about the
willow is no experiment now, but an established piece
of practical planting. Next in order comes the gorse,
as a plant for waste lands ; but of this I mean to say no-
thing, and pass on to the third slave or drudge, which isthe
ivy. This plant is one of our most beautiful evergreens,
and is well known to gardeners and planters as a very
bad character. It is so uncharitable as a neighbour to
other shrubs and trees, that it beggars the earth in which
they grow by its roots, and fixes the bark of even large
trees so tightly to their stems, that the trees are actually
choked by the network of ivy-shoots. All this merely
illustrates the fact of this important plant being out of
place. I have seen the same plant covering the grey
face of a huge rock, and have seen the birds flocking to
it for shelter ; and in winter, when scarcely anything
else was to be seen for snow, I have seen the shepherd
cutting his ivy, and the anxious flock waiting around
him for its downfal. The range of this plant, therefore,
in no way interferes with that of the willow or the
gorse ; for it has a region of its own. It is a most de-
termined grower. Wherever it can find a little vegetable
mould, it will stick on like a leech, and never misses an
opportunity of raising itself on any prop that comes in
its way. It grows freely from cuttings, and still more
freely from its berries, which, in good localities, it bears
plentifully. It has no prickles, like the gorse, to con-
tend with in its cultivation ; and it forms a scene of
singular beauty wherever it is cultivated. As a cover
for game, it is a plant of the highest importance, and
should never be planted where it has to be rooted out,
as it is very unwilling to be dislodged when once in
possession.

The limits of a newspaper will only admit of a hasty
glance at these matters ; but, as they will fall into hands
that only require reminding, and to whom the thinga
spoken of are no strangers, I must let them pass with-
out further comment.

I remain, Sir, yours I'espectfully,

Alex. Forsyth.
100, Quay-street, Manchester, Feb. 24.

A SUCCESSFUL METHOD OF RAISING DUCKS.

Believing it to be the duty of every individual
to contribute, for the benefit of society, any in-
formation he may possess, however small, and on
subjects ever so humble, and having for several
years past been in the habit of seeking recreation
during those hours which were not devoted to
sevei-er studies and labours, in a variety of experi-
ments on subjects of Natural History, I propose
giving you the result of some experiments in raising
ducks, were carried on during a number of years,
and which finally eventuated in complete success.
It is sometimes lieneficial to examine the causes of
our failures, and it affords me pleasure at this mo-
ment in retracing the steps by which, after many
disappointments, I gradually accomplished the ob-
jects to which my inquiries and experiments were
directed. As an account of the process by which I
arrived at these successful results may not be

uninteresting to those of your readers who devote
themselves to rural pursuits, and who pride them-
selves on having a well-attached poultry-yard, I
hope it may be no tax upon their time and patience
if I go somewhat into detail.

During many years I was struck with the gen-
eral want of success v/hich attend the raising of this
species of poultry. Not one-sixth of the young
wer9«ver raised; they appeared to be snbject to
innumerable diseases. Those that escaped were
stunted in their growth, and did not arrive at full
size till they were many months old. The general
complaint among farmers and planters was, that
this, the most valuable of our poultry, was a puny
bird, hard to raise, and subject to many diseases.
They could raise fowls and even turkeys, but there
was no certainty with regard to the duck. Desi-
rous of investigating the causes of a failure in

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

335

raising a bird which in its wild state is very hardy,
which although exposed to all the vicissitudes of
the weather, raises large broods of young, I pro-
cured several ducks, determined to pursue my
experiments in various ways till I should either be
successful, or be satisfied that in a state of domes-
tication there existed obstacles to their successful
rearing which no foresight or care could prevent.
At first I adopted the usual mode of giving them
access to as great a body of water as I could pro-
vide for them in the yard. I therefore had an
artificial pond made near their coops, to which
they could resort as often as they chose : where
they amused themselves at all hours of the day, in
dabbling around the edges of the pool, and in
swimming and diving in the water. But they did
not grow; they were subject to cramps and fits;
and one after another died, until I began to think
that water was not their proper element. I varied
their food ; gave them rice flour, corn grist, boiled
potatoes, hominy, bran, and many kinds of vege-
table food, but with the same results ; and of a
hundred young that were hatched, I scarcely raised
a dozen. I then began to mix with their food
various medicinal herbs, believing that this might
correct some deleterious properties of their food ;
but it was to no avail. I next procured the differ-
ent varieties of ducks for breed, thinking that per-
haps one kind might be better suited to the climate
and to the confinement of the poultry-yard than
another ; but I was soon convinced that my want
of success was not owing to my breed of ducks.
Several years passed away, and left me pretty much
where I began, and I was almost I'eady to abandon
any further attempts at raising the ducks.

The thought at last occurred to me that in the
food with which we usually fed this species of
poultry we departed widely from nature, and that
although the old ducks in their wild state fed on
rice and the seeds of various grasses that are found
along the edges of the rivers, brooks and ponds,
yet that at the spring of the year, when the young
wild ducks are hatched, there are few seeds ripe ;
and it is questionable whether at that early age
they feed at all upon grain or seeds. There appears
in the digestive organs of these young birds some-
thing unsuited to this kind of food ; it passes
through them without affording much nourishment.
I had ascertained by dissection that their gizzards
were filled not with vegetable food, but with the
fragments of small craw-fish, worms, and various
aquatic insects, as well as the spawn of fishes ; and
I determined in the following year to try the effects
of animal food. In due time my young ducks
were hatched ; beef was given them at first, after
having been chopped very fine ; this they devoured
greedily, and ate it in preference to all kinds of
vegetable food. The effect upon their health and
growth was immediate and surprising. Tlney ap-
peared to grow faster than any other poultry ; in a
few weeks they were out of danger, and in a few
months fit for the table. As beef was expensive,
I tried cheaper kinds of foods, such as the haslets
of animals, crabs, fishes, &c. The result was
equally favourable. I was now satisfied that in the
article of food the end is attained by simply follow-
ing Nature and giving the young ducks animal food.

But although my experiment was thus far favour-
able, I found that many of my young ducks died
after having been suffered to go in the dews and
water; and that after many showers of rain they
became thoroughly wet, and that when showers
were succeeded by hot suns they were subject to a
disease of some apoplectic character, or a coup de
soleil, which killed numbers. Here I was much
puzzled. I had succeeded in one instance by follow-
ing Nature; but I found that I could not carry my
theory through, and that water affected the domes-
ticated duck very differently from what it did the
same bird in its wild state. The fact was not
unknown to me that the down of young wild ducks
is almost impervious to water; they are exposed to
dews and rains, they dive to the bottom of pools
and streams, and live in the water; yet they always
keep dry. An oleaginous substance is spread over
their feathers, from which the water glides off
instantaneously, and leaves the birds dry during all
weathers. Not so with the young of the domesti-
cated duck. Owing either to the confinement of
numbers in a small space, where their down be-
comes ruffled and displaced, or to their not being
able to procure that kind of food which in the
wild state is favorable to the secretion of that
peculiar oil which is found contained in the glands
of birds, and which serves to lubricate their fea-
thers and protect them from the wet, the down of
the young tame ducks soon becomes thoroughly
wet; and when this is once the case, it is subject to
various diseases, and is difficult to raise. To
accommodate the young duck to that artificial
state into which it has been thrown by domestica-
tion, I found it necessary to adopt some mode by
which during the first few weeks of its life (the
only time in which it requires much care) it might
be preserved from the effects of that element which
in its native state is almost its only residence and
furnishes its subsistence,

A little reflection enabled me to guard against
the inconveniences and dangers which result from
this state of domestication. I had my coops built
pretty large and tightly shingled, so as to be im-
pervious to water. The young ducks were not let
out in the morning dews till the sun had dried the
grass ; and the vessels in which their water was
placed were railed over so that they could drink by
inserting their bills between those little raihngs,
but were prevented from getting into the water.
After following these simple directions with regard
to their food and shelter, I found that, by a little
attention of a servant, I could supply my table with
ducks the whole year round, that I seldom lost
one in twenty, and that they were free from all
diseases. I raised from 100 to 300 ducks per year,
and now found that they were the easiest of all
poultry to raise. I communicated the result of my
experiments to my friends. Those of them who
had the disposition, the patience, and industry,
followed my directions, and in every instance met
with the same success. I have their assurance
that they can raise ducks in any numbers, and some
of them have for the last two or three years sup-
plied our markets with from three to five hundred
ducks of the largest size and fienst flavour.

After having carried my readers through this,

336

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

perliaps to them, tedious detail of experiments,
which cost me much time and attention, but for
which I was more than repaid by the successful
result, I shall now proceed to give, under different
heads, such simple directions as will enable our
planters and farmers to supply their tables
with this kind of poultry, which might be an
object to those who are in the habit of supplying
markets.

1st. The Species and Varieties of Ducks best
adapted to the purpose of Breeding . — The only two
species of ducks that are raised in the United States
are what are commonly called the English Duck and
the Muscovy Duck. The Enghsh Duck is a
descendant of the wild duck that visits us every
winter in such numbers, called Mallard {Anas
Boschas) ; is found also in Europe, and breeds in
England. Although not the largest, it is certainly
among the finest-flavoured ducks in the world.
The flavour of the famous Canvass-Back Duck
{Anas Vallisneria) that is found so numerous in the
Chesapeake, and more recently in the Santee and
at the mouth of the Savannah River, is no doubt,
superior to it, but it is supposed that this is owing
to the peculiar kind of root on which that bird feeds,
believed to be the Vallisneria Americana, and that
were it fed on common food its flavour would not be
superior. The English Duck, which is so common
in our yards, has, from its long domestication, run
into a number of varieties which differ so much
from each other as to appear like different species ;
they are of different sizes, of a variety of colours and
some are tufted. The variety to which I have
usually given the preference, goes by the common
name of Madagascar Duck ; is distinguished by its
being of the largest size, having a pretty long neck,
and almost invariably alight streak above the eyes,
and usually a small streak extending from the lower
part of the upper mandible to below the eye. The
Muscovy Duck {Anas Moschata) is another duck
more recently introduced, but which is now very
common, and is welldeserving a placein our poultry-
yards. It was formerly, by most writers, con-
sidered as coming from the Eastern Continent;
but is now well ascertained to be a native of South
Amerca. This duck, in our southern climate, is,
perhaps, more hardy than the other : sets more
steady on its eggs, and lays in the spring and fall.
A mongrel breed between this species and the
English duck is easily produced, and has become
common ; but these, though they are good layers,
are unable to propagate their species. There are
other species of ducks, which the curious in these
matters have partially succeeded in domesticating.
I once saw a fine flock of the Gadwall Duck {Anas
Stropera) which an individual in the upper part of
the State of New York had succeeded in raising
from ducks which he had captured, and which bred
freely in his yard, and made no attempts at flying
away. Our beautiful summer duck (^reas Sponsa)
breeds freely in some parts of France and in the
Zoological Garden, in England. But it is very
probable that the two species above mentioned are
as well adapted to our purposes as any other, and
that for many years they will be the only ones
which will be generally kept in our poultry-yards.
One drake will answer for five or six ducks ; where

mongrels are to be bred, place in separate yards
one Muscovy drake to four English ducks.

2nd. The best mode of procuring an abundance
of Eggs, — When ducks are raised in the country
and have access to rice-fields, ditches, ponds, and
the borders of rivers, they find food best suited to
them, and generally lay early and freely ; but where
they are necessarily kept in yards, and do not
possess the above advantages, it will be necessary
to adapt their food to their situation. A mixture
of any kind of animal food with their rice-flour,
corn meal, or grist, given them regularly and plenti-
fully three times a day, will enable you to procure
a great abundance of eggs ; where this is neglected
your English ducks will lay but sparingly. I have
observed that animal food is not so necessary to
the Muscovy duck, but that they generally lay
freely on being fed on grain alone.

3rd. Sitting and Hatching the Eggs. — The
English duck, although a good layer, is very care-
less about hatching its eggs until late in the season.
I have invariably used the common hen for that
purpose ; and when the young ducks are removed,
as soon as they are dry their foster parent will sit
again on other eggs, and I have thus known a
single fowl to bring out three and even four broods
of young ducks in succession. In that case she
should be repaid for her faithfulness by being
richly fed. The young ducklings in this climate
leave the shell on the twenty-sixth day; the Mus-
covy sits a few days longer. A fowl of tolerable
size will cover from thirteen to fifteen eggs. After
the eggs have been four or five days under the hen,
you may in the evening examine the eggs by the
light of a candle or lamp. Place the eggs longi-
tudinally between the fore finger and thumb — if
the egg is likely to hatch, it will be of a dark colour,
with streaks of red frequently perceptible ; and the
cavity on the thick end will be somewhat enlarged
and transparent. If it is a clear egg, it will be .
wholly transparent, and it ought to be removed at
once; and if it has not been too long kept in the
nest, it is still fit for use.

In this way, when several hens have been set
nearly at the same time, it will frequently be
practicable to remove a sufficient number of clear
eggs, so as to place a fresh setting of eggs under
one or more of them. The Muscovy duck sits
faithfully, and may as well be permitted to hatch
her own young.

4th. Method of Destroying Fowl Lice. — The
insects which infest the sitting hens may be easily
destroyed by thoroughly sprinkling the nest and
wetting the fowl even to the skin with a strong
decoction, made by pouring hot water on a good
handful of common leaf-tobacco, mixed when
cold with a table-spoonful of spirits of turpentine,
and double the quantity of gunpowder'. It will
be well also occasionally to take away their
old nest, and make a new one of fresh hay or
straw.

5th. Duck Coops, Food, and manner of Rearing
the Young. — Let your coop be made pretty large,
say three or four feet in length and three in depth ;
let it be well shingled so as to exclude all water,
and have a good pitch towards the front; let it be
tight on three sides, and barred in front, with a

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

337

slide below the lower bar, so as to retain the ducks
in unfavourable weather. A space of 10 or 12 feet
square, formed of common boards set up edgewise,
will, when you have not much room in your yard,
suffice for fifty ducks. Keep making coops in pro-
portion as your ducks increase in numbers, and
endeavour to keep the different sizes separate. The
first brood, early in the spring, requires for a few
days the warmth of the hen's body ; and she should
not be made to take care of more than twenty or
thirty. A little later in the season, the young that
are then hatched do not require the service? of
their foster-mother, and may, from the beginning,
be placed in a coop by themselves, to the number
of fifty. Young Muscovy ducks may be treated
in the same wa}'-, and they and the mongrels and
Enghsh ducks may all be indiscriminately reared
together. As soon as your young ducks are
hatched, let them be placed together for a few hours
in a basket containing some warm inside lining ;
and when they have sufficient strength, place them
with the hen in the coops ; feed them with meat or
animal food of any kind, chopped fine with a com-
mon chopping knife ; for convenience I have
usually had it boiled ; a little rice-flour or corn
meal may be mixed with it, and the latter may be
increased if you have but little meat. Let this be
continued for three weeks, and they are ovit of
danger, and can be raised on any kind of food.

Still it is to be observed that ducks will, in all cases,
thrive better on animal food; and where this can be
conveniently obtained, it may as well be given
them. Those planters who live near our seacoast,
by running a tight board fence across any small
branch of salt water, and placing in the centre a
fish trap made of laths, can easily procure a
sufficient quantity of fishes and crabs to feed all
their young poultry. A man with a cast-net could
in half an hour do the same. I have known per-
sons in the interior of the country substitute
squirrels, rabbits, and even venison; and one
gentleman fed his young ducks on the flesh of
alligators, thus rendering that which was a nui-
sance subservient to his profit. When your young
ducks begin to be tolerable feathered on the sides,
which will be in five or six weeks, they may
then be turned into the common poultry-yard,
always bearing in mind that those which are
best feci and obtain most animal food thrive the
fastest.

I have not treated of diseases to which ducks are
subject, since by the above treatment I have
generally found them healthy. As this is a long
essay, and may be too great a tax on your readers
to peruse, I would give in a single line the sub-
stance of my directions for the successful rearing
of young ducks : Give them animal food, and
keep them dry. — American " Southern Cultivator."

HOW GOOD AND BAD HARVESTS COME IN SUCCESSION.

A lecturer upon astronomy the other day astonished
his audience by stating that the prices in Mark-lane
were greatly influenced by spots distinguishable upon
the face of the sun. These he went on to describe
as continuing to increase in number for the space of
upwards of five years together, until about three
hundred became observable, when in lilie manner they
•would again decrease through another period of time,
the tenaperature of the earth being diminished or in-
creased in corresponding ratio. This is pretty much
in accordance with the prevailing opinion that good
and bad crops are produced in cycles, which have how-
ever been ascribed to embrace periods of seven years
each, instead of five years' duration, as here stated.
Whether it be one or the other, or neither, remains yet
to be ascertained ; and this can only be accomplished
by comparing results extending over a number of years
together. It is quite certain that some operating cause
continues to produce several fine seasons in succession,
and bad ones inversely. This effect will most probably
be hereafter traced to electricity, which is acknow-
ledged to be the active agent directly producing atmos-
pheric phenomena.

Upon looking back to our journal we perceive that
1831 was the concluding year of a series of seven wet
and cold seasons preceding ; and 1832 the first of a
series of years unprecedented for productiveness, which
continued with but little variation until 1840 and 1841,
both of which were wet seasons, while 1842 was re-
markably warm and dry. And so likewise were 1846
and 1847 : in the former year the potato murrain first
appeared ; the crop up to the 27tli July had shown no

symptoms of disease ; but the temperature, which up
to that time had been very high, suddenly fell, accom-
panied by heavy rain. 1849 and 1850 were wet and
unproductive seasons, and 1855 variable, but mostly
backward, until 1857, one of tlie most genial and dry
seasons on record, and attended with great productive-
ness. Upon tracing still further back, we find the year
1816 associated with an extraordinary wet and late sea-
son and harvest; then 1817 fair; 1818 hot andunpre-
cedentedly dry ; 1819, 1820, and 1821, mostly cold and
moist; 1822 fine, and an abundant crop. So far we
have data; which, upon examining closely, we find
that taking seven years previous to 1832 the seasons
were wet, cold, and unproductive; from 1832 they
were mostly dry, and all of them productive ; ante-
cedent and subsequent to these periods they were
so variable that no continuous series can be traced
sufficiently to corroborate the theory we are investi-
gating. The winters most remarkable for severity are
1814, 1823-4, 1827, 1839-40, and the summers from
1824 to 1831 wei-e exceedingly wet and cold, especially
at the latter end of May and to the middle of June — all
of them being unfruitful.

So far it appears that the productiveness of our green
crops is mainly dependent upon the state of the weather
from March until the middle of June, and more espe-
cially upon the temperature during the month of June,
that is ironi the 1st to the 21st. A dry May is very
conducive to the formation of a full-grown wheat-
ear, and a dry and warm temperature in June for
bringing it to perfection. Whenever the temperature of
the weather is such as to bring it quickly forward at that

A A

338

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

immediate period, with a fine and dry state of atmos-
phere, but little danger need be apprehended of a good
yield. The subsequent weather throughout July being
of the same character, au abundant crop may be cal-
culated upon.

The injury sustained from insects is also almost
superseded in such state of auspicious weather, as it
has been found that the wheat- midge can effect but
little mischief, and that mildew is not extensively pro-
duced in such seasons.

So far as we are enabled to trace effects, we find
that the productiveness of our cereals is mainly de-
pendent upon a warm and dry atmosphere ; but that
such a state of weather can be foretold or be calculated
upon from the average of preceding years, we could
hardly venture to say. There is, still, a prevailing
notion of good and bad seasons following each other
in cycles of years.

The temperature undoubtedly is little changed for
several years in continuation, but not with such a
degree of uniform regularity as to establish any rule
therefrom. It has been observed that whenever the
general temperature is lower than ordinary, such
seasons are most generally rainy; and although we
cannot trace the immediate cause of rain prevailing

for long periods together, atmospheric phenomena
are undergoing such investigations as will probably
ensure an approximation to this. Certain known laws
affecting the cause and amount of rainfall in various
countries and districts have been already ascertained
and established. Rain is found to decrease in quantity
from tlie equator to the poles, and to increase in
quantity from the coast to the interior of Europe,
especially as we advance to the table-lands. But this
law is reversed in ascending steep and rugged moun-
tains. At Keswick, in Cumberland, it amounts to 67^
inches, while in Essex it is only 19^ inches. Also upon
our western shores the quantity of rain is treble in
quantity to that which is found to prevail upon our
eastern coast. This arises from the westerly winds
traversing the Atlantic, whilst the easterly winds come
over large inland tracts of the continents of both Eu-
rope and Asia ; consequently whenever strong easterly
winds prevail in the spring months, the weather is
generally cold but dry; but as dryness is suitable to
cereals, they advance with far greater rapidity as soon
as the weather becomes mild, with showers from the
west. It frequently happens, however, that but little
rain accompanies the westerly winds in the early por-
tion of June; and whenever such is the case, the season
is invariably auspici(ms and congenial to production.

FARM-SERVANTS AND FARM-H O RS E S— T WO RECENT CASES.

Few men achieve any great success in an occupation
that they have not some pride and pleasure in pur-
suing. It is a feeling that with us all should be espe-
cially encouraged. From the day a lad joins a class
at school, to the time he sets up for himself, there should
never be wanting such an ambition to excel. It is not
only our children, however, we should endeavour to
imbue with this becoming spirit of emulation and im-
provement. There are others under our control, who
may profit both them and ourselves, equally by this
same inward prompting. A servant who does not pride
himself on his work and his tools is seldom worth much.
It is in suchwise, in fact, that you gather the best evi-
dence of his character. The gardener shows his flowers
and fi'uit. The butler plumes himself on the condition
of his wine and the arrangement of his cellar. The cook
sends up a soup that will not even submit to anotlier
pinch of salt ; while neat-handed Phyllis' plate looks
as well as if you kept forty servants instead of four.
But, if there be one who, above all others, has a real
gratification in doing well what he does at all, it is the
horse-keeper. No matter whether it is the be-wigged
and be-plushed coachman of " the great people,"" the
hobby-de-hoy who look after his first four-wheeler, or
the carter who brings his team to market — as a rule,

" No mothers or nurses
Take more care of their babes than they do of their horaes."

It is rarely indeed that such a man forgets his charge.
The groom at the covert side daintily wisps his horse
over with his own silk handkerchief; the drayman's
"filler" would seem to get more stout even than
his driver; and the veriest man-of-all-work thinks of
" the nag" long before he does oi himself.

It is a pardonable and almost a national pride we
have. But it may be carried too far ; in instance of
which we may briefly tell two histoi-ies that have
been brought especially under our notice. They may
^ct as something of a caution with the one class,

and at the same time as something of a plea with the
other. There farms, then, at Westdean, in Sussex, one
Mr. Thomas Newman, who, until very recently, had in
his employment two men of the name of Gabriel. The
elder of these had been in this same service for so long
a period as fifteen years, and never, according to his
master's testimony, had he in that time robbed Mr.
Newman " of a sixpence." This is something of a
character at any rate. The other man, a son
or brother most probably, does not appear to
have been settled here so long; but we will as-
sume that he did not disgrace his relative or
his place. In an unhappy moment, however, these
two men have sacrificed every thing. They stand as
convicted thieves. The constables are sent for. They
are taken to prison, and in due course before the Bench
of Magistrates. The prosecutor would seem at last to
have even pleaded for them — for the elder particu-
larly, " who had been fifteen years in his service;
never robbed him of sixpence ; had a lai-ge family, and
a wife very ill." The Chairman of the Bench himself
admitted that " they had erred more from ignorance
than any dishonest intention ; they had not, it was
clear, appi'opriated anything to their own advantage."
Still the law must be enforced, and the two Gabriels
are sentenced accordingly to three weeks' imprison-
ment each in the Petworth House of Correction.

And what have these unfortunates, who erred more
from ignorance than intention, been doing ? Stealing
tail corn for their pigs ? Or getting a few apples out of
the orchard for their children ? Or making love to
Betty the maid, and getting beer and bacon for them-
selves ? No. A man with fifteen years' character is
scarcely as selfish or as culpable as this. The Gabriels
had been robbing Mr. Newman of his oats — to feed his
own horses with; or, as it is written in the local report
of the case, " it came out that the men had taken the
oats without their master's permission, to give to their
horses."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

339

jVo question they did wrong-. No doubt Mr. New-
man should not suffer from having his horses over-fed
and his corn wasted. But, surely, justice in such a
case might be tempered with mercy ! " Not a six-
pence" ere this had Mr. Newman lost by an old
servant with a bond of fifteen years between them. It
was clearly, then, a first offence. And was it worth
while for a first offence, and such an offence too, to
destroy this fifteen years' acquaintance, and drag off
poor Gabriel from his family and ailing wife to Pet-
worth gaol ? " To be branded," a correspondent
writes, "as thieves, and to associate, as I suppose, for
three weeks with thieves, to the great injury of their
own morals and future self-respect, the greatest safe-
guard against crime." "Did these poor men," we
must quote him yet further, " imagine they were
guilty of a worse act than a servant (with far more
opportunities of self-improvement) would admit
of, who had cut off a slice of meat from the joint
for the cat ? Or taken the dripping as her perquisite,
not to minister to her master's good, but to buy finery
for herself?"

We tell this story more as a caution to the farm-
labourer than anything else. At the same time we are
bound to confess that it sounds unusually harsh ; and
we believe that few farmers under the circumstances
would have proceeded to such extremities. The result
of such a course can only be irreparable injury to all
concerned. It was but on Monday evening last that
we heard a member of the Central Farmers' Club speak
to the value of mangel wurzel as food for sheep and
pigs. He bad only found one difficulty associated with
its use, and that was, the men would over-feed with it.
Now, did Mr. Staggever dream of giving his shepherd or
yard-man into custody for taking too many mangel ?
And, if not, why not? Did not the shepherd take

mangel for 'precisely the same purpose tlie carter did
oats ? There is a nice line to draw here, but no wise
man will draw it too finely.

The 'other case which arose from exactly the same
cause, the man's pride in his horses, occurred on the
farm of Mr. Ibbott Mason, at Somershara in Hunting-
donshire. Tlie ploughman here secretly administered
drugs to his horses — antimony amongst other things
— with the notion of making them look better,
and which he had openly purchased of a chemist in
the village for that purpose. Three good horses died
from the effects of this. The veterinary surgeon declared
on examination they had been poisoned. The mixture
was found in his stable. And, indeed, the man at once
admitted what he had done. The injury in this
instance was, of course, of a far more serious character ;
but the magistrates could see no malice iu the case,
and as the man had only erred from ignorance, he was
acquitted. At Chichester the chairman went so far as
to tell the Gabriels they too had erred from ignorance.
The law, however, in this instance, took a different
complexion, and they went to gaol for feeding horses,
while Mr. Mason's man gets no punishment for poison-
ing them. We do not go so far as to say he should j
the druggist certainly appears to be the more culpable
of the two. What we do wish is that we should have
had no occasion to make the comparison. A man
who has absolutely lost so much valuable property as
Mr. Blason did, must, as a moral duty, institute some
public inquiry ; but need we sacrifice an old servant tor
it sieve of corn ? Surely a reprimand might for once at
least have been sufficient ?

The more general publication of these two cases may
be useful to both master and man. We counsel the
former to let his labourers have the opportunity of
seeing them ,

THE FARM-HORSES.

In ordtr to include the fullest and most compre-
hensive view of this subject, I shall first consider the ex-
tent of the arable portion of the farm best adapted for
economising the labour of the farm horses ; as, however
desirable and beneficial it is to combine grass and arable
lands together in laying-out a farm, yet, so far as the
farm horses are concerned, it is only with the arable por-
tion thereof we have now chiefly to do.

The results of great practical experience in most parts
of the kingdom have demonstrated, that the efficient
culture of about forty acres of loam, strong loam, loamy
clay, or clay soils, will require the power of two good
farm horses, such lands being kept under cultivation,
and not subjected to the prescribed courses of husbandry
usually adopted on light soils. On these soils, where the
four-course or other shift is adopted, the same experi-
ence has demonstrated that a pair of active horses wil!
suffice for the efficient working of at least sixty acres,
because, as one-fourth, or more, is under a seed crop,
there remain but forty-five acres, or thereabouts, for the
pair to cultivate ; and the land being lighter in quality,
is worked with less labour proportionately, and will
allow a sufficient margin for a little extra cartage of
clover, hay, &c.. from the seeded portion of the farm.
It will also be found, from the results of the same prac-
tical experience, that the various kinds of farm-work,
such as cartage in harvest-work or in manuring land,
requiring a continuous succession of loads, or in any
work requiring a relay of horses ; or in seed-time, so
that the harrowing and drilling go on simultaneously ;
or in turnip sowing, so that the manure is deposited and

ploughed-in immediately — I repeat, it will be found that
not a less number than six horses can, on by far the great
majority of farms, keep up this continuous succession of
general labour so as not to impede the rfgular farm-
work ; but with this number of h rses, and the free use
of one-horse carts, the various kinds of cartage may be
economically performed : and, with good management,
also all the other various kinds of farm-work may be
carried on without let or hindrance. I hold it to be of
great importance that this should be the case. The
ploughman must not wait for the dung-cart, nor the
stacker for the harvest-cart ; but all must proceed re-
gularly and in order together.

In accordance with this statement, it will therefore
be seen that the farm should not contain a less quantity
of arable land, of a strong texture or character, than 120
acres, or of light land not less than 180 acres, respec-
tively ; but the larger, iu moderation, the more econo-
mically can it be managed.

To conduct the farm, then, most profitably, because
most economically, we require it to be of the extent, at
least, named above ; and to work it properly, we
require six useful farm-horses. What kind shall we
select ? How shall we procure them ? What course
shall we pursue to keep up the number .' It will be
foreign to our purpose at this time to enter upon the dis-
tinctions and qualifications of the various breeds of farm
horses ; I shall merely take this general rule — to select
powerful draught horses for the heavy-land farm, and
light draught horses for the light-land farm ; i.e., the
large Lincolnshire, Cleveland, or Clydesdale horses for

A a2

uo

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the heavy land ; the Suffolk Punch, the Norfolk, and
other lighter breeds of cart-horsps, for the light lands :
these will amply suffice. The usual course to be pur-
sued, in making this selection, and procuring them, is to
attend the most popular horse-fairs in their respective
districts, and to pick up individual specimens as re-
quired. Another mode is, to attend the various farm
sales within any reasonable distance, and purchase such
as are suitable. In the latter case, many admirable
animals may be found ; indeed, it is almost the only way
to obtain first-class mares for breeding purposes, as few
farmers will sell their best brood mares at any price. To
keep up our stock of farm horses, it will be right to in-
clude both horses and mares in our selection, and the
proportion should be four horses to two mares ; the
latter to be chosen with a view to breeding. If more
mares are taken on to the farm, it may occasionally put
the occupier to inconvenience, as in the event of all of
them producing foals in one season, the necessary rest
they would require of course impeding the farm-
work ; hence two would be found to breed a suffi-
cient number of young horses to keep up the farm
stock or supply, and for the occasional sale of
a cart colt — generally a valuable animal, and ever in
demand. I name this as a general rule ; but as we can-
not expect to obtain just the farm we want, either in
extent or proportions of arable or pasture lands, the
number of horses required will vary accordingly ; and

the extra number should, I think, consist of a larger
proportion of mares than horses, because if the mares
are not at all times fully required in farm work, they
may be profitably employed in breeding, and there are
certain seasons when they may be much better engaged
suckling their foals than in the work of the farm ;
moreover, in busy seasons, and when the farmer is hard
pushed for help, a little light work in cartage or the
like, so as not to over-work or over-heat them, will do
them or their foals very little harm, but foals should not
partake of feverish milk.

Another very important part of this subject is the
age of the horses we would select. I think they should
invariably be young, or from two to six years old, and
care should be taken to ascertain that tliey are sound,
and good workers. Occasionally older horses may be
purchased ; indeed as respects '' brood-mares" it will be
found desirable ; and as I have before said, they are
generally best obtained at farm sales ; and in such case a
good mare must not be missed because she is a year or
two beyond our prescribed limit as to age. It is but
seldom that really good and valuable cart-mares for
breeding purposes are exposed for sale in the open mar-
ket or fair. Every farmer has his pet mare. I would
on this point also suggest that it is always desirable to
have at least one horse on the farm qualified for riding
or driving, or as an occasional plough-horse : this
might constitute an extra horse for any emergency.

H ORSE-TAMING.

The Boston (United States) Journal has the following article
on Mr. Rarey's system of borse-tamii)g : — "We saw Mr.
Rarey in this city some two years since, and had a long and
interesting conversation with him in regard to his peculiar
mode of subduing wild and vicious horses. Mr. Rarey is a
small and rather spare man, the only peculiarity Bboiit his
person being a very keen blue eye. His method of managing
a vicious animal entirely precluded the use of force or fear,
and he represented that his power was obtained solely through
certain herbs and drugs, first subduing the desire of the horse
to injure him, and then by inspiring the beast with affection
and confidence, he is enabled to do whatever he chooses with
him. These herbs aud drugs are perfectly liarmless, and as
Sir Richard Airey says, 'there is nothing in the treatment but
what any horseman would approve of.' Mr. Rarey did not
communicate his secret to ua, hut we have no doubt his treat-
ment is substantially the same as that described iu the follow-
ing extract, which has been floating through the papers of this
country for several years : —

" 'The horse- castor is a wart, or excrescence, which grows
on every horse's fore-legs, and generally on the hind legs. It
has a peculiar rank, musty smell, and is easily pulled off
The ammoniacal effluvia of the horse seems peculiarly to con-
centrate in this part, and its very strong odour has a great
attraction for all animals, especially canine, and the horse
itself.

" ' The oil of rhodium possesses peculiar properties. All
animals seem to cherish a fondness for it, and it exercises a
kind of subduing influence over them.

" ' For the oil of cummin the horaehas an instinctive passion
• — both are original natives of Arabia, and, when the horse
scents the odour, he is instinctively drawn towards it.

" ' The directions given for taming horses are as follows :

" ' Procure some horse-castor, and grate it fine. Also get
some oil of rhodium and oil of cummin, and keep the three
separate in air-tight bottles.

" ' Rub a little oil of cummin upon your hand, and approach
the horse in the field, on the windward side, so that he can

smell the cummin. The horse will let you come up to him then
without any trouble. Immediately rub your hand gently on
the horse's nose, getting a little of the oil on it. You can lead
him anywhere. Give him a little of the castor on a piece of
loaf sugar or potato.

" ' Put eia;ht drops of oil of rhodium into a lady's silver
thimble. Take the thimble between the thumb and middle
finger, stopping the mouth of the thimble to prevent the oil
from running cut whilst you open the mouth of the horse.
As soon as you have opened the horse's mouth, tip the thimble
over upon his tongue, and he is your servant. He will follow
you like a pet dog. He is now your pupil and your friend.
You can teach him anythino^, only be kiud to him— be gentle.
Love him, and he will love you. Peed him before you do
yourse'.f. Shelter him wel', groom him yourself, keep him
clean, and at night always give him a good bed, at least a foot
deep.

" ' Iu the winter season, don't let your horse stand out a
long time in the cold without shelter or covering ; for the
horse is a native of a warm climate, and in many respects his
constitution is as tender as a man's.

" ' If you want to teach him to lie down, stand on his left
side ; have a couple of leather straps about six feet long ;
string up his left leg with one of them round his neck ; strap
the other end of it over his shoulders ; hold it in your hand,
and when you are ready, tell him to lie down, at the same
time gently, firmly, and steadily pulling on the strap, touch-
ing him lightly on the knee with a switch. The horse will
immediately lie down. Do this a few times, and you can
make him lie down w ithout the strap.'

" Mr. Rarey has subdued many vicious horses in different
parts of the country, accounts of which have frequently been
published. Among other cases was that of a horse in
Washington, which could not be handled. Under Mr. Rarey's
tuition, in an hour and a half he made the horse so gentle,
that he rode it down the open street without a bridle, beating
a drum while seated oa his back."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

341

AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS.

Sir, — In preparing an article for the columns of
your widely-circulated Journal, one feels considerable
delicacy in generally advocating or condemning any
particular system, as the exceedingly variable cha-
racter of the soil and climate of Great Britain, as well
as the general contour of the country, render necessary
a great variety of customs and systems of husHandry.
But there are certain standard axioms in agricultural
economy, as well as in every other science, applicable
to all circumstances, and to be observed under every
variation of soil or climate. Who, for instance, would
doubt the necessity and propriety of draining wet or
retentive soils, wherever they might be situated ? But
who is so absurd as to advocate a system of either deep
or shallow draining as being applicable to every descrip-
tion of soil ? or who will doubt the propriety of a rota-
tion of crops ? Who so unwise as to advocate the siime
rotation as being suitable for every district ? The places
of the luxuriant wheat and mangold Crops, upon the
calcareous flinty soils, and beneath the dry climate of
the East of England, are occupied by the verdant pas-
tures, the bulky oat, and rich alimenting turnip crops
of the loamy soils and humid climate of the West. It
is from being impressed with such feelings as these,
that I feel a nicety in taking up the question of Agricul-
tural Buildings in your widely-circulated Journal ; for,
whilst I feel convinced that all will agree with me in
saying that substantial, ample, and commodious pre-
mises are of paramount importance to agriculture, I am
at the same time aware that, within the precincts of the
circulation of your Journal, a diversity of opinions will
be found as to the amount of accommodation requisite,
and the best method of arrangement. The long and
severe cold of a Scottish winter renders it imperatively
necessary that more ample and comfortable accommo-
dation be there provided for the stock, than may suffice
in the more mild and hospitable climate of the South.
If I were to assert that this important attribute to suc-
cessful farming is overlooked by all landlords, or
neglected in every part of the country, I should be
making an unwarrantable assertion ; but if I ^ay that
few landlords attach to it that importance which it de-
mands, and that the great mass of agricultural buildings
throughout the country are in an unsatisfactory con-
dition, I feel that I am making no rash assertion or
uncharitable remark.

It is not my intention, upon the present occa-
sion, to enter into the minutiae connected with
the erection or arranging of farm-bui! dings; but
merely to throw out a few promiscuous remarks
bearing upon the subject generally, and to press the im-
portance of a much greater attention being paid to
Agricultural Buildings, than in many parts of the
country they have hitherto received. Next to long
leases (and the one is almost a certain concomitant of
the other), there is nothing more calculated to aid in
promoting good husbandry than ample farm buildings.
It is very possible that bad farming may be found where
such premises exist, but good and successful farming
can never be carried on with scanty and dilapidated
buildings. Where the necessary shelter and warmth
for stock are wanting, much of that nutriment which
should tend to improve the animal is spent in maintain-
ing that necessary degree of warmth which a comfortable
lodging should supply, and the inroads of disease and
death become more frequent ; and, with insufficient
accommodation, much loss and inconvenience is sus-

tained. Implements must remain unprotected from the
weather, a due regard to manure is often prevented, and
even a full development of the resources of the farm is
often rendered utterly impossible, or when the arrange-
ment is inconvenient, much loss of time and additional
expense in labour is involved. It has been computed
that to have the steading conveniently placed with re-
gard to the land, will upon a farm of considerable
extent increase its value from one to five shillings per
acre, and that an ample and convenient arrangement of
the buildings will diminish the amount of labour and
loss, &c., upon a similar farm to the amount of from
£""50 to £100 per annum. Theory at once pomts to the
centre of the farm as the best site for the steading ; but
here, as in many other instances, principles must often
give way to circumstances, and proximity to a good
road, an ample supply of water for general use, or its
acquirement as a motive power, are considerations to
which proper weight ought to be attached in selecting a
site for a farm steading. When the buildings are placed
at an extremity of the farm, the expense of labour
must then be raised to a maximum, and much loss and
inconvenience experienced ; the farthest fields are gene-
rally neglected for want of manure and their due amount
of cultivation, and to erect off-premises for the accommo-
dation of distant fields is a very slight mitigation of the
evil, if indeed any at all ; it is only incurring additional
expense in erecting and maintaining extra premises, and
after all attended with many inconveniences. Mis-
placed farm buildings are very frequently to be met
with in several of the eastern.counties of England; and,
although I am not at a loss to assign reasons for the
neglect of this important point, still I see no real cause why
more active and energetic measures should not betaken to
remedy an evil so prejudicial to successful agriculture.
One would have naturally supposed that in a level
country, intersected by excellent roads, there could ex-
ist no pretext for misplacing farm-steadings, and that
they would be found planted down with almost mathe-
matical accuracy. Quite the reverse, however, is more
frequently found to be the case; and I believe the origin,
as well as the continued existence of the evil in the
counties just mentioned, is to be traced to some or all of
the following sources, viz. ; small parishes, glebe lands,
charitable bequests, copyhold tenure, commons, yearly
tenancy, and an indifference on the part of landlords.
It may be thought that some of these can in no way in-
terfere with farm-buildings. I consider however that
all, more or less, have had, and still do exert, a baneful
influence, both with regard to the choice of a situation
and the provision of commodious and ample arrange-
ments. By the intersection and cutting in of glebe
lands, some farms are so detached that it would be im-
possible to point out a central situation ; and so much
negotiation is required with the lord bishop, the rector,
and attorney, that few are bold enough to encoui:iter the
troubles involved in an exchange of their lands. Com-
mons, too, whether as common or divided, produce the
same injurious effects ; and where parishes are small,
glebe lands, commons, and small patches are generally
found more numerous. Lands belonging to charitable
bequests also, being generally inalienable, have a like
prejudicial tendency to mar the compactness of farms,
and to preserve the boundaries of fields upon which they,
in common with glebe lands, &c., abut in that crooked,
irregular, and unworkable state, so fashionable in the
days of our forefathers, and for whose wisdom in this

342

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

respect we are quite at a loss to account. The serious
annoyance and interruptions to the managing and im-
proving of landed property from copyholds, manifests
itself in a variety of ways, well known to manyby dear-
bought experience ; but we look forward to almost an
entire abrogation of this evil through the instrumentality
of the Enfranchisement Act.

Then comes yearly tenancy exerting the same evil
tendency upon the melioration of farm-buildings that it
does upon every other agricultural improvement. Its
uncertainty encourages a system of patching ; it renders
it necessary for the landlord to undertake the onus of
keeping the premises in repair himself, so that there is
a constant patching-up, always doing, yet never done.
With some tenants a carelessness gradually steals on,
whilst others will have temporary conveniences, if they
should be at the first expense themselves, and for some
part at least they look forward to being paid by valua-
tion by the in-coming tenant ; and to such an extent
has this got in some instances, that it is difficult to know
what part of the premises belong to the landlord, and
what is claimed by the tenant. But in those parts of
the country where long leases have been a long-esta-
blished system, repairs are generally thrown upon the
tenant, and this item, duly taken into consideration by
him in offering for the farm ; but of course he does not
accept of the premises in that insuificient and dilapidated
state which satisfies the yeai'ly tenant. No ; before mak-
ing his bargain he thoroughly examines their condition,
stipulat. s what he considers necessary to be done, gets
everything put in good and substantial condition, agrees
to maintain tbem so during his tenancy, and to leave
them habitable and tenantable at the expiry of the lease,
under a penalty for non-fulfilment. Thus new buildings
are erected by the landlord, and kept in repair by the
tenant, who, being always on the spot, and using them,
is certainly, under a proper agreement, the most suitable
party to be entrusted with this duty. Indifference on
the part of landlords has also in many instances proved
a great barrier to efficiency in Agriculfural Buildings. It
must, however, be gratifying to all interested in the
prosperity of agriculture to observe tlie lively interest
which the nobility and landlords of England are now
evincing in the cause, and under their patronage I feel
convinced that nothing requisite to promote her pro-
gress will be overlooked ; landlords will no longer look
upon money properly applied in erecting ample and
substantial farm-buildings as being thrown away, nor
consider it any economy to withhold from their tenants
any accommodation requisite for the proper cultivation
of their lands, nor request their tenants to erect at their
own expense a temporary and beggarly-looking faggot-
shed, which at the best can only afford half shelter to the
starving kine. No : landlords are now awake to the
fact, that, to carry out successful farming, warm, well-
ventilated, and ample accommodation for the stock must
be provided ; that upon occupations of ordinary extent
machinery must be fitted up, and steam or water-power
applied to perform with economy and expedition the
various operations to which it is applicable.

And, finally, let us not forget the condition of the
labourer, setting out perhaps upon a journey of some
two miles before reaching the scene of his labours, and
after being heated to perspiration, or wetted by the
drizzling rain, he sits down in a cold out-house, or
under the shade of an aged tree, to partake of his cold
and scanty fare ; tired and weary with the labours of the
day, he again sets out upon his homeward journey.
This must produce its effects somewhere. A full day's
work cannot be got ; and premature old age must soon
consign him to some union workhouse. But the remedy
is obvious. Erect cottages, at least for the horsemen
find stockmen, at some convenient distance from the

steading, where the labourer will be at all times near to,
and ready for, his work, and sit down to his meals with
comfort by his own fireside. He will be free from the
contaminating influences of a village population, and
the corrupting effects of the alehouse.

Such, Mr. Editor, are a few of the ideas which have
suggested themselves to me upon the subject of Agri-
cultural Buildings. Some of the evils I have mentioned
may be unknown in some parts of the country, but most
of them will be found to exist more or less in almost
every district. A proper description of skill has yet
scarcely been brought to bear upon the subject. The
" old estate carpenter," and the majority of farmers,
have as yet little idea of arranging a farmery consistent
with the requirements of modern machinery, and the
principles of improved husbandry. In most parts of
England they still adhere to the old system of erecting a
great barn in the centre, with a few sheds and lean-toos
huddled around ; whereas the architect who, under the
encouragement of some nobleman, has brought to bear
his scientific skill upon this subject, has generally gone
to such expense with useless and ornamental fancies,
that a poor rate of interest can only be obtained for the
outlay ; and for this reason the man of calculation at
once sets it aside as impractical. Nothing ornamental
is required, but everything that tends to good arrange-
ment and substantiality ; and this being kept in view, an
outlay on agricultural buildings becomes a profitable in-
vestment.* There can be no reason why the establish-
ments in which are manufactured the staple commodities
upon which the millions of Great Britain are fed should
not be conducted and arranged in that same orderly and
systematic style which characterizes the manufacture of
the fabrics with which they are clothed. The subject
well deserves attention. Agriculture, as the sinew and
backbone of British industry, requires the removal of
every impediment calculated to mar her progress ; and,
looking to the British legislature, she requests their in-
terference, by affording every facility to the exchange of
lands, and the straightening and adjusting of boundaries
between adjoining proprietors, by rendering it compul-
sory upon the one on demand of the other, upon fair and
equitable terms. The introduction of steam ploughing,
and other modern implements, must ere long demand
this alteration, for it is utterly inconsistent to suppose
that the whims and crotchets originating, and perhaps
necessary, during the dark ages of feudalism should still
be allowed to exist, to impede the progress of enlightened
civilization. Yours, &c.,

Wm. Arnott.

Melton, Woodbridge, \&th Feb., 1858.

THE GREAT OWNERS OF THE SOIL
IN IRELAND.

Sir, — I have understood from the highest authority that
Ireland, take it all in all, is the finest country for land under
the sun, but it has been greatly neglected in the cultivatioa
of it. i^t the owners of the laud in Ireland give the culti-
vators of it a tenant-right, alias justice, for money laid out in
unexhausted improvements upon their farms, and then it would
tempt a vast number of first class farmers from England and
Scotland to cultivate well the il'.-uaed Irish soil, and would
soon cause the 4,000,000 acres of waste improvable land in
Ireland to be brought into a high state of cultivation, which
would be a fine example to all the world, there being in Ireland
2,330,000 acres of bogs, all drainable, all improvable.

Samuel Arnsby.

Mill Field, Peterborough, Feb. 24, 1858.

* The best models of agricultural buildings to which we can
refer are to be found in Lincolnshire, and the more northern
counties of England, and generally throughout the best agri-
cultural districts in Scotland.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

343

TO THE COUNCIL OF THE ROYAL
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Gentlemen, — We, the undersigned exhibitors of steam-
ploughs at Salisbury, are of opinion that the trial of those
machines at that meeting was of an unsatisfactory character,
and not such as was calculated to develope their merits, but
rather, by putting them into exceptional circumstances, to
injure them in the eyes of the public, and was not consistent
with the importance of the subject, or a fair return for the
large outlay incurred by us in exhibiting them there.

As the third offer of the Society's premium has again brought
the subject under our notice, and as we cannot but think that
the withdrawal of those schemes at present most prominently
before the public from competition would be prejudicial to the
progress of the invention, and would greatly detract from the
interest of the Society's meeting at Chester, we would respect-
fully request that the Council would consider whether such
terms and conditions of trial could be arranged and published
previous to the day of entry as would enable those intending
to exhibit to judge of the advisability of their incurring the
heavy expenses necessary to such a competition.

As we observe that the judges, in their report of the trial at
I Salisbury, express the opinion that " the wording of the pre-

mium can never justify a judge in giving a prize whilst a
plough is used," it is, we think, essential that it should be
clearly stated whether any or all those plans which we repre-
sent are excluded by the wording of the offer of the premium
from competition.

We would also suggest that to ensure such a trial of these
machines as the importance of the subject deserves, a much
longer time is neeesssry than can be given during the show
week by judges who have a great many other duties to attend
to, and that it would be of great importance that the judges
of this department should have their whole time at their dis-
posal for this subject, as no fair comparison with horse labour
can be instituted except by lengthened trial.

The leugth of time that elapses before the publication of
the judge's report and the adjudication of the prize also exer-
cises a very prejudicial effect on the business to be done at the
meeting. So much so, that, in our opinion, a machine known
not to be competing for the premium, stands a better chance
of obtaining orders on its own merits than one upon which a
report is expected in a few months, and for which the public
are likely to wait.

As, iu the opinion of the editor of your report on Salisbury
meeting, no adjudication need necessarily take place for some
'' years to come, we would submit that there is not much in-

ducement held out to us at present to compete at the next
meeting.

If the Society would conclude not to offer the prize, but to
expend a portion of the sum offered in a careful investigation
of the individual merits of each machine, to be published in a
report previous to the meeting, we should hail such a result
with pleasure ; but failing this, we would very respectfully
request :

1st. That an explanation be given of the wording of the
prize.

2fld. That arrangements be made for an extended and care-
ful trial, and an immediate publication of the report of the
judges.

3rd. That the adjudication of the piize should be fixed to
take place, if possible, at a special council meeting during the
week of the show, or at latest at the meeting of the council in
August.

CoLLiNSON Hall, Sen., Princesgate,

Navestock, Essex.
John Fowlek, Jun., 28, Cornhill, London.
Charles Burrell, Thetford.
John A. Williams, Baydon.

INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION UPON THE
CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL.

Sir, — What sculpture is to a block of marble, education
is to the human mind ; the figure lies hidden in the stone, and
the sculptor finds it : out of the rough stone he cuts a hand-
some figure. Education to the British farmer is a great
accomplishment, useful, profitable, and ornamental; it teaches

him how to calculate and to think for himself how he is to get
his land the best cultivated at the least expense, and to know
the value of labour upon a farm ; nay, what ought to be per-
formed by a certain number of men, horses, and oxen, in a
given time. The more you educate the farmers the better the
soil in England will be cultivated. Education leads a farmer
to make hot land colder, cold land hotter, light land stiffer,
and stiff land lighter; as in the Lincolnshire peat or fen land,
for instance, where they mis the peat with clay, to make the
peat stiffer. Education has brought forward all the new agri-
cultural machinery, which has struck every enlightened farmer
with admiration, and amazement to think what will follow.
Half a century back a vast number of farmers required more
cultivation than their ill-farmed lands, many of which grew
more weeds than corn ; nay, their land was half ploughed,
half manured, and half cleaned in the weeding season. A nig-
gard in labour is always a bad farmer. For the want of educa-
tion agricultural chemistry is so little known amongst farmers,
that many are greatly imposed upon by adulterated artificial
manures. A more extensive acquaintance with the valuable
articles which so frequently appear in the leading agricultural
journals would enable every farmer to combine " science with
practice."

Mill Field, Peterborough, Feb. 3. Saml. Aensby.

OXFORD FARMERS' CLUB.

The Monthly Meeting of this Club was held on Wednesday,
March 10, in the Committee Room at the Star Hotel, when
about fifty members were present.

The President (Mr. W. Thomson, of Culham) occupied the
chair, and was assisted by the Vice-President (Mr. James
Walker.i, of Begbroke Hill.

drill v. broadcast.

Mr. James Williams, of Northcourt, expressed his regret
that he should huve disappointed the members in not bringing
forward his subject at the last meeting, but at that time he
was confined to the house, and could not attend ; he thought,
therefore, that the best apology he could make was to intro-
duce it at this meeting. His attention had been drawn to the
subject of depositing the seed of corn crops in the land in con-
sequence of an article in the Mark-lane Express, in which the
writer condemned the drill system, and advocated sowing
broadcast. He (Mr. Williams) had used the drill for many
years, and was satisfied that it wa% the best mode of de-
positing the seed-corn iu the land ; but, as others might differ
with him upon that point, he was desirous of eliciting the
opinion of this Club upon it. Mr. Williams then noticed the
difference between the cereal and the leguminous crops, and
showed the analogy which exists between the animal and
vegetable creation. He then traced the history of the cultiva-
tion of the soil, and the modes adopted for depositing the seed
in the laud, from the time of the Goths down to the period of
Oliver Cromwell, who laid the foundation of a different state
of things, aud when artificial grasses and turnips were intro-
duced. He then noticed the system introduced by Jethro
TuU, and the success which had attended it. Mr. Williams
then entered into a variety of details explanatory of the modes
of sowing broadcast, drilling, and dibbling, and said that he
could come to no other conclusion than " That, as a general
rule, the best mode of depositing the seed of corn crops in the
land was by the use of the Suffolk drill," which he moved as
a resolution..

Mr. John Price, of Glympton, seconded the resolution.

Mr. Wing concurred with the resolution, with some quali-
fication.

Mr. Watson spoke in favour of the drill system.

Mr. J. P. Field agreed, on the whole, with Air. Williams,
but considered that in hilly districts the drill could not be
applied, and that dibbling by Newberry's drill, a very valuable
implement, was preferable.

Mr. Middleton preferred beans put in by hand to the
drill, and said that, as a general principle, the Suffolk drill was
the best, but not as a universal one.

Mr. CoGGiNS spoke in favour of the drill over broadcast.

After a few remarks from Mr. Osborn and the President,

Mr. Williams replied upon the whole question, and his
resolution was then carried unanimously.

The discussion occupied some hours

du

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

PATENTS TAKEN OUT FOR THE APPLICATION OF TOWN SEWAGE.

In a recent number of our Journal appeared a
resume of the patents whicli have been taken
out, from the earliest period up to the present
time, under tiie head of" Drain Tiles and Pipes." We
now propose to give a similar ?'csi<me of patents relating
to manures. For the present, we shall select ibr notice
those only which have special reference to town sewage
and thefcecal viatter of our town population, their
deodorization, and utilization as manures available
for agricultural purposes. And this narrowing of the
subject — leaving the consideration oi' other manures to
a future article — we are the more inclined to follow, as
our remarks will be usefully introductory to, or elucida-
tive of a review of two ofiicial reports which have been
recently presented to Parliament bearing closely on the
question of tlie disposal of our town sewage. This re-
view may be comprised in one or two articles which we
hope shortly to present to our readers.

To proceed with the immediatosubject of our present
paper, we find that the first patent having direct re-
ference to town sewage was granted to Lewis James
Arniand Estienne, Jan. 9th, 1802, for converting
" Imman excrement into a powder divested of all smell,
preserving at the same time all its fertilizing pro-
perties." This was effected by gathering it into tanks,
and allowing the liquid matter to be drawn off. The
solid matter thus obtained was next dried in the sun,
cither mixed or unmixed with lime. It was next stowed
away in heaps under a shed till it attained a tempera-
ture of 212 deg. Fahrenheit j it was finally crushed
into a powder, which went into small compass. [No.
2,570, price 7d.]*

The next patent, in chronological order, was granted
to Joseph Hehr Jerome Poitevin, July 17th, 1835, "for
preparing a powder which is applicable to the pur-
poses of disinfecting night-soil and certain other
matters, and facilitating the producing of manure."
Tliis powder he obtained by calcining, when properly
dry, mud of rivers or ponds, which contained animal
or vegetable matter, capable of i)roducing carbon by
calcination. Where earths did not of themselves con-
tain these matters, they were added previously to cal-
cination.

On Aug. 10th, 1842, a patent was granted to Dominic
Frick Albert, far a "manuring powder." This was
obtained by mixing in certain proportions a number of
substances together, as the ammoniacal liquor from gas
works, the spent urical liquor in the scouring of woollen
cloths, all sorts of animal refuse, cotton waste im-
pregnated with oil, and, in fact, the refuse of nearly all
our manufacturing or chemical processes. [9,442, 4d.]

June 23rd, 1845, is the date of a patent granted to
Micdiel Antoine Bertin Burin der Buisson, for new and
improved methods for the distillation of bituminous
schistus and other bituminous substances : the mixing
of some of the products of distillation with the residual
ash in the retort, yielding a manure, the azote in which,
the patentee stated, was considerably increased by
allowing it to absorb fresh or coagulated blood, or any
other soft animal matter, such as night-soil or brain,
or liquid, such as urine. [10,720, IJd.]

William Higgs, Apnl 28th, 1846, obtained a patent
for constructing tanks or reservoirs for collecting town
sewage, and for solidifying and drying the solid matters

* The number and price within brackets give the No. of the
patent and its cost.

therein contained. The patent also included buildings
to be erected over these tanks, in which the gases
evolved from the sewage were collected, and treated with
chemical agents — the ^alts resulting from which ci'ys-
tallized or rested on spars or bars peculiarly arranged.
Machinery and apparatus were also secured to the
patentee for distributing and depositing chemical agents
over the mass of sewage in the tanks. A fourth claim
was for chemical agents for precipitating the solid mat-
ter in the sewage, and for absorbing and combining
with the ga^es evolved I'rom it, and with the solid
matters precipitated. The substance used by the
patentee to precipitate the solid mattei's was " hydrate
of lime, commonly called slacked lime;" chlorine gas
being used by preference, to condense or combine the
gases evolved from the sewage, although hydrochloric
acid gas is mentioned by the patentee as also useful for
this purpose. [11181, lOd.]

The date of the patent granted to Edward Brown for
"disinfecting foecal substances," so as to preserve them
in order to be manufactured into manures, was Feb.
20th, 1847. The substances stated to be employed for
this purpose are, the " sulphate of iron, or the chlo-
rides of sodium (sea salt), or of iron and manga-
nese, or the nitrates, sulphates, and chlorides of lead,
copper, zinc and tin, or pyroligneous acid, or the
pyrolignites or the mother- waters arising from the manu-
facture of any of the before-enumerated substances, or
coal tar, or schistous and bituminous extracts." The
patentee also claimed tlic making of foecal matters into
manures by mixing them with an " absorbent powder."
This was made by incinerating in closed vessels "coal
or wood ashes, and earth, or street or road sweepings,
and vegetable, animal, and mineral rubbish, such as
sawdust, bone dust, and the waste matters of commerce,
cotton mills," &c. [11,587, 4d.]

William Bridges Adams and Robert Richardson
obtained, on M.iy24th, 1847, a patent for constructing
at railway stations, close cisterns of slate, &c., into
which the urine was designed to drain, and fur using
chemical ingredients to absorb the volatile alkali and
other gases. [11,715, 2s. Id.]

June 1st, 1848, is the date of the patent granted to
Jasper Wheeler Rogers, for improved methods with
machinery for the preparation of peat as a fuel, and
in combination with certain substances as a compost or
manure. For the latter purpose the peat-charcoal was
to be added to animal excrement, in such quantities as
to absorb the aqueous and volatile products, and to
destroy the effluvium. [12,169, 2s. 5d.]

A patent was granted September 27th, 1849, to John
Marriott Biashfield, for manufacturing manure from
mud, by subjecting it to artificial heat, treating it with
an acid, and embuing it with other fertilizing matters,
these latter consisting of quick-lime, gypsum, sulphate
of soda, nitrate of soda, or potash, &c., &c., these
being ground to powder before being mixed with the
mud. Sulphuric and nitric acids were employed.
[12,790, 3d.]

The date of the patent granted to Louis Napoleon
Legras was November 30th, 1849. The claims were
very numerous. One had reference to the construction
of water-closets, in which the solid matter was sepa-
rated from the liquid. Another claim was for a vast
number of substances to be used for disinfecting foecal
matters, and another for making a manure " resembling
guano in its fertilizing qualities." This consisting of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

845

" bestial dimg, road-scrapings, or street-sweepings,
marl, fcecal substances, the residuum from the manu-
facture of schistus, or of peat, or wood-charcoal ground
to powder, or of soot, marine salt, saltpetre, alumina,
sulphate of zinc, and water," intimately mixed together,
moulded into bricks, and dried ; after which it is re-
duced to powder, and spread upon the gi'ound when it
rains. [12,869, 4s. 8d.]

A patent for "deodorizing every species of excre-
tive foecal matter or urine, at the moment when it falls
from the body," was granted, June 4, 1850, to Paul
D'Angely. The deodorizing substance employed was
composed of fresh bark, rue, or wild mint, sulpliate of
iron, and pyrolignite of iron. Tire foecal matter of the
deodorization was converted into manure by being dried
in a chamber peculiarly constructed, and reduced to
powder, and iinally mixed with " dried or burnt peat
in powder, or with dried beasts' blood also in powder."
[13,097, 5d.]

To Thomas Wicksteed, oil Feb. 24, 1851, a patent
was granted for manufacturing " manure from sewage
water." This he effected by mixing it with milk of
lime, and drying the precipitated matter by centrifugal
drying machinery ; by whicli the whole, or nearly the
whole of the moisture was driven oiT, and the manure
remained in a state fit for transport." [13,526, 9d.]

Oct. 16, 185], is the date of the patent granted to
Kichard Dover for deodorizing sewage with an acid or
acids, and for obtaining certain products therefrom.
Amongst other substances, hydrochloiic or some other
mineral acid, iron filings, and chloride of sodium, are
employed. After deodorization the sewage is filtered
through charcoal, clay, gypsum, or peat, and is alone, or
together with the following material, mixed with refuse
animal matters, shale, marl, &c., to form '•' oiher
useful manures for fertilizing land." [13,755, 5d.]

Henry Stothert, in April 17, 1852, obtained a patent
for applying a combination of materials to precipitate
the solid parts of sewage to obtain a manure; and also
for converting night-soil into charcoal, to be used as
one of the precipitatory agents. The materials pro-
posed were " fresh-made caustic lime, sulphate of
alumina, sulphate or protoxide of zinc, compound ani-
mal and vegetuble charcoal, obtained by distilling the
precipitated matters of sewage waters, or by distilling
night-soil, cieosote oil of peat, peat-mould, tanner's
spent bark, burnt clay, old mortar, or mixtures of
such matters or other matters." [14,073, 3d.]

We conclude the subject by giving some mention
of the peculiarities of those granted under the Pa-
tent Law Amendment Act of 1852. Under this act the
first patent, relating to town sewage, is under date Oct.
6th, 1852, the patentee being William Armand Gilvee,
the object of the patent a deodorizing powder, and the
machinery or apparatus employed in manufacturing
the same. The deodorizing powder is stated by tlie
patentee to be prepared by the " combustion of the
detritus of forests, lignites, vegetables, marine plants, or
any ligneous substance, rags, and refuse of wool." The
carboniztd matters thus prepared are reduced to pow-
der, and mixed with wool shearings in certain propor-
tions. The foecal matter is converted into manure by
treating them with "decomposing powder, composed
of the following substances, mixed together in certain
proportions : molasses of sugar or the residuum thereof,
slacked lime reduced to powder, sulphate of iron or
zinc, and clayish magnesian earth" [No. 250, price
9^d.]

January 5th, 1853, is the date of the patent
granted to William Bardwell, for constructing build-
ings, in a close chamber, on the basement of which
a filter-bed is to be placed ; in this chamber
trays or shelves are suspended, containing sawdust or

other matter moistened with dilute sulphuric acid.
The sewage-matter, suspended by this agency from the
sewage-water, is to be mixed with other matters, suitable
for making manures [29, 8^^.]

Jacques Francisque Pinel obtained a patent, dated
March 8, 1853, for deodorizing sewage-water by adding,
in certain manner and proportions, sulphate of zinc,
potass, alum, chloride of sodium, and sand. The solid
matter thus obtained is again to be mixed with waste
tan, pulverized chloride of sodium, nitrate of potass,
soot, ashes, slacked lime, and muriate of ammonia [581,
2id].

On March 15, 1863, John Thornton Herapath ob-
tained a patent for precipitating the phosphoric acid
and ammonia of sewage, in a comparatively insoluble
state, by adding to it magnesia, or a niagnesian com-
pound. This addition is to be made at or about the
time when the deodorization of the sewage is eifeeted,
through the addition of some chendcal agent which will
not decompose ammonia or its salts; but which, on the
contrary, will combine with or absorb hydro-sulphuric
acid, such as metallic sulphates, or metallic chlorides,
or vegetable carbon [643, 2-2-d.]

To George Edward Doring a patent was granted,
March 28, 1853, for "applying the salts and matter
produced in the working of galvanic batteries" — gene-
rally treated as refuse, and thrown away — for disinfect-
ing and deodorizing fcecal matters, and to render them
available as manures [740, SJd.]

In the patent dated May 20, 1853, granted to Thomas
Isaac Dimsdale, a claim is made for disinfecting sewage
and absorbing its noxious exhalations, by the employ-
ment of "a peculiar kind of peat-earth containing a
salt or salts of iron or oxide of iron." Although no fur-
ther claim is made specifying the peculiar kind of peat-
earth, it is stated in the specification that " this know-
ledge of peat or bog-earth possessing those properties
has led to this substance being very generally employed,
particularly in Ireland, where it is a common practice to
use peat in its raw state, or air-dried peat combined
with ashes and peat-charcoal, to mix with manures, for
the purpose of fixing ammonia and other volatile gases
which are evolved from them" [1,252, S^d.].

James Alexander"Manning on November 29th, 1853,
obtained a patent for " defecating and separating certain
matters from sewage." For these purposes he employed
"animal charcoal, alum, and carbonate of soda and
gypsum." With the sewage precipitated thus, he mixed
" waste charcoal or carbonaceous matter of various
kinds, kelp, idctory waste, common salt, or the refuse
brine derived from the curing of provisions — gypsum,
or pho«phate of lime and horn-dust riddlings." In
these operations the patentee used a peculiar form of
precipitating vessel, and tanks with inclined bottoms

[2,780, 6id.]. _

A patent was granted, Dec. 10, 1853, to Allan Mac-
pherson, for purifying sewage and other foecal matters
by using combinations of substances, such as peats of
any description, whether in a high-dried natural
state, or carbonized, in lumps or coarsely granulated,
or finely powdered. Charcoal prepared from sawdust
or refuse wood is also named ; but peat charcoal is
preferred by the patentee. A. claim is also made for
arresting, purifying, and deodorizing noxious gases in
sewers, by placing in chambers made in the sewers, per-
forated trays or basket-work trays, with a mixture of
peat charcoal. Where the sewage is discharged into a
river, it is to pass through a barge, placed near the
mouth of the sewer, and provided with deodorizing
materials placed on gratings. The aqueous portion
passes off to the river much puiified, while "the con-
tents of these lighters will be found to be a rich and
powerful manure" [2,876, 4id.].

346

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

To Robert Angus Smith and Alexander McDougall
a patent was granted, Jan. 20, 1854, for improvements
in deodorizing and disinfecting sewage by employing,
alone or together, a combination of magnesia and lime,
with sulphurous acid and carbonic acid, " either in an
acid or all<aline state" [142, 3d ]

The date of the (second, third, and fourth) patents
granted to Thomas Wicksteed, is January 26th, 1854.
The first of these is for moulding the fertilized matter
of precipitated sewage into perforated bricks or
blocks, in manner similar to that employed in ordinary
brick-making— the hollow perforations facilitating the
drying of the bricks. The second of these three
patents refers to a method of precipitating the fer-
tilizing matter of sewage by mixing it with lime and
finely- divided charcoal : the two substances are mixed
in water, and a stream of it is made to flow into the
sewage-water, by means of a pump— another pump
supplying the sewage-water. The third of these patents
refers to the construction of reservoirs for the deposi-
tion of the precipitate from sewage-water. These are
arranged so as to cause an equal flov/ from all parts,
with (:he exception of a portion at the bottom which
receives the precipitated matter. The velocity is regu-
lated so as not to prevent the subsidence of the preci-
pitate. The water is thrown oiF the precipitate from
the bottom of the reservoir into a well by means of an
endless screw. The precipitate is raised by means of
an elevator or Jacob's ladder, in such a way that the
precipitate is raised without contact with the super-
natant liquid [192, 3d.; 193, 3d.; 194, Is. Id.]

The date of the (second) patent uranted to John
Thornton Herapath is March 17th, 1854, and it claims
the employment of coke obtained from the so-called
Boghead coal or Torbane-hill mineral, " either before
or alter the aluminous ingredient- of the coke shall
have been extracted by an acid or other chrmical."
This coke to be used either for dryijig up precipitated
sewage, or using a stratum of it, through wliich sewage,
&c., is allowed to pacs or percolate [638, 3d.]

The date of the (second) patent granted to James
Alexander Manning is March 27th, 1854; and is for
"improvements in the treatment of sewage." The

sewage is to be mixed with the " soft sludge" from the
alum works : the contents of the reservoir are to be
agitated, and during agitation powdered caustic or un-
slacked lime and animal charcoal are to be thrown in.
This alum "sludge" is the deposit during the first
boiling down of the rough liquor obtained from alum
shales in the manufacture of alum, and which deposit
consists essentially of basic and other sulphates of iron
and alumina" [709,3d.].

George Anderson, on December 23rd, 1854, obtained
a patent for purifying sewers from noxious exhalations;
and this he proposed to effect by using a pump, fan, or
other exhausting apparatus, to force the vapours in con-
tact with deodorising materials. The materials named by
the patentee are, "lime as used in the gas works, peroxide
of iron or other metallic salts, or dilute acids, or acids
held by peat, coke, gravel, charcoal, sawdust, or other
matter." The product obtained to be used as a manure,
or applied to other useful purposes [2,715, 3d.].

The date of the (third) patent granted to James Alex-
der Manning is August 7, 1855, and is for the employ-
ment of " alum slate, alum shale, alum schist, alum
ore, and other aluminous minerals and earths, as a
precipitatory and clarifying agent for cleansing sewage
matters. Tlie method to be employed in preparing the
shales is described. In addition to this alum liquor,
powdered lime and charcoal are employed. The sew-
age is stated to be greatly improved ui value for agri-
cultural purposes by the addition of the alum shales."
[1,786, 3d.]

Having thus reviewed very briefly, the various
patents taken out for the deodorization and utiliza-
tion of our town sewage, we shall be prepared to enter
into the consideration of the relative values of manures
prepared by some of the processes described, and the
chances— favourable or otherwise — of their being em-
ployed on the large scale. This consideration we pro-
pose to take up, in conjunction with the future pros-
■ pects of the application of town seivage to agricultural
purposes, in noticing two important reports recently
published, and to which we referred at the commence-
ment of the present papers.

LOIS-WEEDON" WITHOUT THE SPADE.

Lois-Weedon wheat-growing 1 How many years has
it been known to the public, and how many agricultu-
rists have adopted its advantages ? In seeking answers
to these inquiries, we have been compelled to reflect that
one of the farmer's chief faults is a scepticism in regard
to offered improvements, when they involve fundamental
changes in his practice ; and pioneers in farm mechanics,
or discoverers of new systems of husbandry, should have
fortitude almost like that of brave Bonnevard, of
Geneva, in order to "possess their souls in patience,"
through years of distrust, neglect, or opposition. Why,
can it be believed, the reverend Mr, Smith's pamphlet,
detailing his practice, its cost and profit, appeared eight
years ago ! and he had then sufficient experience to war-
rant his recommendation of the plan to others ; for he
had thrashed bis third harvest, grown year after year on
the same acre of land.

The first wheat crop on the now world-renowned
" clay piece" was sown in 1846; yet it was not until
November, 1849, that the talented and assiduous culti-
vator felt (with that modesty characterizing all his
works) that he would be justified in publishing his suc-
cess. Thus prolonged and tedious must agricultural ex-
periments necessarily be ! vSo lopg has the husbandman,

who sows neio seeds in hope, to wait ere the fruits of bis
thoughtful ingenuities in preparing the soil, and his pru-
dent nurture of the rising plants, reward him with more
than promise ! The first harvest was not measured ;
the second and third gave each thirty-four bushels per
acre. With wheat at forty shillings a quarter, and
straw at forty shillings a ton (for being grown without
manure the straw was sold), the tenant's profit was
found and proved to be at least four pounds per acre.

Now, it will be remembered that, in 1849, the gene-
ral feeling among farmers was that, under the circum-
stances of tire times, it was impossible to grow wheat
crops that would pay : and, again, there were a great
many unemployed labourers dependent on parish sus-
tenance ; and the new method of wheat culture by the
spade offered not only profit to the farmer, but to the
workmen employment and support. These considera-
tions prevailed upon Mr. Smith to break silence with his
simple and attractive " Word in Season;" " impelled,"
as he says, " in fulfilment of a duty which all owe to
their fellows, to make known, I trust not presumptu-
ously, what is no longer experiment, but experience, of a
most profitable system of growing corn." When we
infer a hasty conclusion from a single experiment, anc^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

347

urge it as a settled truth, we must expect to meet with
incredulous and closed ears ; but when you have quietly
tested a system for three long years, accurately booked,
weighed, and measured, and calculated your profit with
the certainty of demonstration, it is natural to suppose
that the proposal of a simple though novel series of til-
lage operations, promising so handsomely in a time of de-
spondency and bad prices, would be eagerly caught up,
and (with the best kind of gratitude, appropriation, and
imitation) at once tried in every province of the king-
dom, and applied with ready and clever adaptations to
all soils and varying circumstances. Now, Mr. Smith
has no "interest" in the extension of his husbandry :
he has never pushed it before public attention by any
form of advertising, but simply given us annually his
most telling, because most truthful, statement of the
facts of his management and success ; and it must seem
hard to him to find only a few instances of Lois-Weedon
husbandry here and there, after all these years of ad-
vising agriculturists for their own good. However, he
has persevered with his own cultivation with the hap-
piest success, and an ample profit ; and if others do not
choose to venture on the practice, they themselves are
the losers. Mr. Smith has not been obliged to dig
deeper for every succeeding crop ; but the last two
years' crops have been much greater than the previous
average, though the double digging had been discon-
tinued, and the fork worked only 10 inches deep. In
fact, there is not one of the numberless objections, sci-
entific as well as practical, raised against the system,
that has not been proved untenable. It remains true,
that wherever the plan has been found to fail, the rules
have been violated — unless we except Mr. Piper's case,
about which more particulars are desirable ; and we have
instances of success to corroborate the original testi-
mony. Mr. Jones, of Lois-Weedon, published the sa-
tisfactory results of his practice ; and Lieutenant
Goodiff, of Granard, in Ireland, also made known the
success of his trials on a small scale. In the winter
of 1854-5, Mr. H. Dixon, of Witham, Essex, was
double-trenching five acres for the purpose ; but whether
his wheat-growing answered, the world has not yet
heard. R. Calwell, Esq., of Belvedere, county Down,
tried 14 acres in the year 1854, and extended the
breadth to 29 acres in 1855, the firsc year's crop leaving
about ^3 10s. per acre over and above the expenses,
rent, profit, &c. In 1854-5-6-7 an acre of dry gravelly
land near Reading was under a modified form of the
Lois-Weedon system ; and, though found to yield three
quarters annually, would not have been remunerative
except for the high price of produce. One or two quarters
less than the land would grow in ordinarj'' good culture
is of course unsatisfactory ; but in this case, some of the
most important conditions of management were ne-
glected. Mr. Piper's lately-published results are very
unfavourable, as he got only five sacks of corn and half-a-
ton of straw per acre ; but the details of his manage-
ment are not at present forthcoroins:. Lord Rayleigh
has grown two acres of Lois-Weedon wheat, near
Witham, for five years successively, without manure ;
the average yield being 44 bushels. Mr. Lawes has
made the system fail at Rothamsted on a good loamy
soil ; but merely, we believe, in consequence of not ad-
hering to Mr. Smith's instructions. We remember to
have seen a large field of three-row wheat in Kent, last
year. In Lincolnshire we knew a cottage plot under the
same system ; and last spring passed a field by the road-
side where the farmer was rolling his triple rows with
the wheels of a cart, the horse walking along the fallow
intervals. A spirited agriculturist in Norfolk has for
several years grown wheat on a plan much resembling
that of Lois-Weedon. On a strong loamy soil he had
wheat in triple rows, wilh a row of potatoes planted in

each interval ; but this was too troublesome in cleaning
of couch, &c. His crops of wheat, with intervals fallowed
for bearing wheat the next year, have been very heavy
and productive ; and there is no doubt they are abun-
dantly profitable. He applies manure besides tilling the
intervals; and is so satisfied with the jiractice (having
tried it in portions of many different fields), that this
year, we understand, he has sown nearly all his wheat
land in three-row stripes. Accurate accounts of work
done, and other items of expense, he has not been at the
trouble to keep faithfully ; but the produce has been so
large and obviously remunerative, that his experience
and management ought to be described i;i detail for the
example of others. Let us hope he will come forward
with a letter or address on the subject.

No doubt many cases of Lois-Weedon husbandry are
known to Mr. Smith ; but the above list, together with
six acres in France, which alluded to belov/ includes all
we have yet heard of, with the exception, indeed, of a
piece begun last year by ourselves.

In the following extract, have we lighted upon a
foreign disciple of the Rev. Mr. Smith, of Lois-
Weedon? or a contemporary and independent expounder
of TuU's principles applied in the same manner to the
culture of wheat? In Mr. Musgrave's "Ramble
through Normandy," published in 1855, and describing
a tour made in the autumn of 1854, occurs this pas-
sage : " While on the subject of foreign husbandry, it
is worth noticing the fact that in the heart of Nor-
mandy 1 saw upon land of no very rich quality a
heavy crop of wheat grown upon a tract of six acres
that had not been ' mended' for nearly as many years.
The owner himself occupied it. He was not a needy
man ; but being a breeder of sheep and a grower of
fruit, he laid no great stress upon arable land, and cul-
tivated his grain crop scieJitijiquement . The science
lay in the preservation of a width of well-tilled unsown
intervals of three feet, marking out the corn ; and in
constant resort to spade labour, which, the wages being
low, had, in this instance, superseded the customary
employment of horses and ploughs. The horse-hoe,
spade, fork, and presser, turning up the clods to
crumble, year after year, under tlie action of winter's
wind, rain, and frost, had been followed up by supernal
aids in spring and summer ; for man having found
labour, his Maker had contributed softening dews and
balmy breezes, charged, as they must have been, with
the treasures of nitrogen, and penetrating deeply the
porous soil. Nothing but this winter and summer
fallow, under the advantages of depth and constant pul-
verization, and such aid from the stores of heaven,
could, in the absence of all manure, account for the
self-same breadth of land yielding successive white crops
in the abundance apparent in every part of it.

" I dare say the English tenantry would laugh at the
bare mention of land yielding abundantly without
manure ; and the proprietor's face would lengthen if he
surmised his broad acres were held by an occupier that
never sent a tumbril of dung into the stubbles. But
there is one party in the country who would be only too
happy to see the system perpetuated ; I mean the
labourers, who, being sent on to the ploughed field to
trench it with the spade, bury the exhausted top-soil,
and bring the lower stratum of fresh soil to the surface,
would throw all the worn-out loam to the bottom, and
bring clean, fresh, vegetative mould to the surface ; the
depth and quality of the active soil being hereby won-
derfully improved, and the number of hands erjployed
being triple of the average amount of labour. An aid
like this to ordinary tillage would reclaim the most un-
promising pieces. But, in our variable climate, the
process of cultivation must necessarily be expeditious.

348

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and two horses can do in one day the work of twenty
men. Hence the paramount obligation to use ploughs,
and not spades ; and to create, through the medium of
nourishing agents, the principles of new vegetation :
for, as we cannot replace every year as much as we re-
move from our fields, in the form of produce, and since
we exhaust the finest soil by repeated cropping, we are
bound to replenish with fertilizing substances, and to
bring into operation, by artificial applications, those
active elements (hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitro-
gen) which the Divine husbandry ahove-mentioned
would employ, were large and little farms exclusively
cultivated on the principle I have described. The
theory is most truthful, and for that reason I have ad-
verted to it ; but the practice is impossible, not only in
respect of cost, but of the climate ; and therefore the
healthful and refreshing ammoniacal aroma sent forlh
from a field well ploughed, harrowed, and manured, in
the most approved fashion, will be as acceptable to my
critical nostrils as ever."

The author appears to be unaware of Mr. Smith's
doings at Lois Weedon, and he seems to imply that this
Normandy fanner had practised the system ever since
the year 1848 or '9. If so, it will be exceedingly in-
teresting to find that two scientific cultivators, so far
apart, should have independently evolved identical

methods of growiag wheat in rows, and trenching and
horse-hoeing the fallow intervals ; for, though Mr.
Smith began operations in 1846, the methods and results
were not made public until the winter of 1849 50. It
may be, however, that had the above account been
more explicit as to dates, costs, and quantities, we
should have found that the " Word in Season," so little
heeded in our own land, crossed the Channel and went
at once to the heart of this Normandy husbandman,
who " cultivates his grain crop sclentifiquement."

At any rate, we have here a capital corroborative
experiment in the Lois Weedon system ; and we by no
means share in the author's opinion as to the impossi-
bility of carrying out the principle, owing to the great
cost of labour involved, and the want of time in our
climate to accomplish the digging. Mr. Smith has
already progressed a long way towards rendering him-
self independent of manual spade-work, by his inven-
tion of a rotary digger, used in connection with the
ordinary plough ; and, as we shall relate in another
paper, there are other methods of endeavouring to per-
form the requisite tillage by horse-labour. Let us try
to make ^rflc#«o«-implements suffice ; and then we shall
not only cultivate with the greatest economy, but steam
may be employed as the motive power, and machinery
be more largely our fertilizer instead of manure.

AN ENGLISH FARMER IN FRANCE.

Sir, — According to promise I will give you my im-
pressions on all here that is novel and interesting to an
Englishman. As a farmer of 30 years, perhaps some
account of |.lhe agriculture may be acceptable to your
readers; but I will not confine myself to that alone. I
hope I am unprejudiced, and can I possibly find any-
thing worthy of adoption I will not fail to note it. In
many parts of En^^land there are many things agricultu-
ral, which appear strange to a visitor from a distance,
but I make it a rule never to condemn too quickly.
The more ridiculous a custom appears the more certain
you may be there is some reason in it. In this frame of
mind will I view here all I see, and if any of my brother
farmers at home find amusement in my homely lucu-
brations, I shall feel repaid.

First, a few words to any who may like to do as I am
doing, viz., enjoying health, amusement, and I may add
information, at a small expense. By all means take
your passport first. I did not, and so had to go to our
Consul here for it ; the charge is 5s. ; but whatever
number form your party one passport is enough. I pre-
fer entering France by Dunkirque, because it is its most
northern part ; its richest in land, in population, and
in manufactures. I went on board the boat at the Tower
at 12 at night, by 12 o'clock next day, Oct. 16, I was
here. The sea was as smooth as a pond, and the sun
as brilliant as summer ; the cost 10s. for the boat, and
2s. for the steward. The coast of France in this part is
not very interesting, as all the country is as level as
Romney Marsh ; but still the first approach of a stran-
ger to a foreign part must always excite and interest
him. The moment I arrived no doubt could possibly
exist that this was not my native land. The men, the
houses, even the shipping was so unlike our Thames ;
one-third of all the men wear a uniform ; nothing pub-
lic can be done without it. Our first acquaintance, of
course, are the Custom-house people; there are 175
" douaniers," all dressed like soldiers, with muskets,
&c. ; the police in green clothes and cocked hats ! ! and
swords ; then the 800 soldiers, as a whole regiment, is
here always ; the priests in black gowns and hats, like

our Quakers ; the Sisters of Charity ; the gendarmes
in their most picturesque dresses and cocked hats,
looking like the soldiers of Frederic the Great ; and
all the women, except the highest classes, without bon-
nets ; all these odd costumes make the streets appear to
a stranger almost like a carnival. The overhauling of
your baggage is soon over, and you go to your hotel.
The two best in town charge Is. 8d. per day for your
chamber. Is. 8d. for the table d'hote, and Is. 3d. for
breakfast ; so your expenses you know at once ; if you
like to stay a month they will do it cheaper. Every-
thing is clean, people attentive, and the beds the best I
ever slept in ; they are differently stuffed to any in
England ; even the poorest have good beds of dried
leaves. On having arranged your room, you have a
cup of coflee and Cogniac, which always join company
here, and have a look at the town ; streets straight,
houses high, rooms all lofty, roads and paths paved a-
like, most unpleasant to the feet, plenty of public build-
ings, large churches, and last, though not least interest-
ing, the fortifications, which, of course, now only are of
use to enable a small duty to be collected on all eatables
and drinkables that enter the town. You return
to dinner at 5 o'clock, and find for your two franks
soup, fish, meat, poultry, and sweets and beer. Wine
is extra. Common red wine, not so good as our cider,
Ij franc per bottle. Cogniac is about 12s. a gallon;
and eau de vie, which is principally the spirit of the
beet-root, half the money. I like it, and it agrees with
me ; but it is not considered wholesome. So far my
friends would have been here twenty-hours, and have
seen the town itself. They would now begin to look at
other matters. The first thing that would strike the
eye of a farmer is the extraordinary waggons, and mode
of attaching the horses to them. The waggons of the
town are narrow, very long, and not a foot from the
ground : very convenient for the merchandize here. The
front wheels are not above 2 to 1\, feet high, with a short
axle, to enable them to turn in a small space, as they
are altogether in front of the waggon-body. The horse
is in shafts, and draws from a bar, like a chaise, to give

THE FARxMER'S MAGAZINE.

349

play to his shoulders ; and, except that we are astonished
to see one horse draw such heavy loads on such low
wheels, the whole thing works appropriate for its pur-
pose. But the country waggons are what excited my
surprise : long, narrow, and clumsy ; as they are liberal
of wood, but careful in use of iron. Small lock under
front wheels, with axle two feet shorter than the hind
one. Never painted, and loaded occasionally with six
or seven of our tons to three horses abreast. Two tons
per horse is considered a fair load ; but the horses and
roads are both excellent, and the latter without a hill
for many miles. In lieu of shafts, this waggon has a
pole half the length of a coach-pole, at the end of which
the horses are hooked on to wbipple-trees — three for
two horses, and five for three, as we have at plough
in some parts of England. So that no one horse can
draw more than the others, the driver walks at their
heels with one rein in his left hand, and his right on the
pole, as he has to guide it and assist in stopping it ; but
in passing bridges or other descents he screws up a
wooden bar, which catches both hind-wheels. The
horses are the most docile I ever saw, and certainly
these ungainly waggons follow well. The harness is as
simple as our plough-harness. I have endeavoured, but
uselessly, to find out the reason for this placing the
horses so far from their work. I believe it is that all
here are Flemish, staid, sober, money-making people,
who are satisfied to do as their forefathers did ; and the
only other reason is, that, the harness being all alike, they
are momentarily detached from one job to another, or
an extra horse added over a bad bit of road in their
fields. But from this strange combination of horses and
waggons two hints may be taken. Decidedly three
horses with whippletrees more equally divide their work
than with us, and more easily start a dead pull. I have
not seen one horse fret, and another hang back, as com-
mon at home ; and I see no reason why we should not
attach them in the same way. Some may think one-
horse might pull the other back till his hocks were on
the front wheel ; but if we had a pole (or two poles for
three horses), the pole pieces would prevent this. How
admirably these bars are adapted to the three-horse
omnibuses of London, as they 7nust all draw alike. As
regards the men, ours might imitate their sobriety,
cleanliness, and kindness to their horses. I have not
seen one horse struck ; they all (gentlemen's coachmen
too) crack their whips backwards and forwards, that is,
twice to our once, and are quite proud of the horrid
noise. Fancy a nobleman's coachman doing this in
Hyde Park ! The other hint we may take from their
collars : The hames are attached to them, and go all
round. They open at bottom, with a hinge at top, so
have no occasion to be thrust over the head. They are
quickly put over the neck. At the bottom each hame
has what I can only describe as half of a door-hinge ;
these are pressed together, and a pin inserted, and all is
done is most quickly. We all know the trouble in Eng-
land with colts and bad-tempered horses to get the
collar over the head. I must think theirs the better way.
All collars, whether nags or cart-horses, are the same.

The next attraction is the splendid asses ; I did not
know there was such a breed out of Spain — the Flem-
ish ass, over twelve hands high, fat, handsome, and good
workers. They never are shod, though they work on
the roads, and are of the value of £12 to £li. I could
not believe it, till all told me the same. The environs
of Dunkirque for three or four miles are devoted to
market-gardening, and principally managed by women,
who come into the town with enormous carts of vege-
tables drawn by these donkeys. They think nothing of
half a ton weight being drawn by one ; and I saw a man
riding on one with a barrel slung on each side of his
saddle. But the most picturesque thing is the sight of

acountry-woman riding to market on her donkey . She
has a saddle of sheepskin, with the wool on, reaching
from the withers to the tail. She sits sideways, and has
behind her, as on a pillion, a tub of butter, &c., most
beautifully clean ; and herself without a bonnet, but in-
stead a large cap as white as snow, completes as rural a
subject as artist would wish to sketch. The barges of
200 tons on the canals which traverse Belgium and
France I think complete the objects of greatest interest
in the town.

I should fancy no foreign agricultural subject can
be more interesting to your readers than an account of
the bette-raves, and the manufacture of them into sugar
and alcohol, as sugar and spirits we all consume. The
former, it is often said, is unprofitable to produce in our
West India colonies, and ought to be supplanted by
cotton. To say nothing about much of our imported
sugar being the result of slave labour, the spirit is doubly
a matter of anxiety now that the vines (though better)
are more or less affected by disease. It is a root well
adapted to our land ; and it does seem extraordinary to
me we have nothing of the kind. Whether we are pre-
vented by law I know not ; and if some of your corres-
pondents would inform me thereason, I would feel obliged

It is the main paying crop of the farmer here^ and a
most profitable one too, producing great weight, bearing
an unlimited demand (except at this moment), and fetch-
ing always a remunerating price. Just now there is a
complete panic in the trade, sugars having dropped in
price, but more particularly spirits, which have fallen
nearly half during the last six months, caused by the
great crop of beet, the bad quality of them, and the in-
creased supply of alcohol from the vine districts ; con-
sequently the roots, which for the last four years have
fetched from 14s. to 18s., and in October 21s. per ton,
are now a drug at 2s. 6d., and, after March, will be
worth nothing, as every month after Christmas they lose
some saccharine. So you may imagine the state of the
trade and the feelings of the producers.

But, first, as regards the cultivation. The land here
being all a splendid loam, is extremely applicable to the
production of these roots ; but, like our mangel wurzel,
they are suitable to clays. Indeed, French chemists tell
us that the most sugary roots are produced on clay with a
deep top-soil, and containing flint. I need not say, the
land requires to be clean : all here is always so. It is
ploughed very deeply in autumn, well dunged, and sown
from the middle of April to the end of May. The quan-
tity of seed required is about 81bs. to the acre, as it is
either drilled or dibbled, with the thumb, one foot apart.
The cost of it is about 5d. per lb. It is not liable
to be attacked by the fly; and a plant is nearly
certain. When the leaves are as long as the little
finger, it is singled out, so that each plant stands exactly
one foot apart each way ; as if thinner, they grow too
large. The smaller ones producing the most sugar, they
are refused by the manufacturer if weighing much more
than 41bs. each. During the summer of course it is
frequently hoed. The leaves are not taken off for cattle
during the progress of its growth, as is sometimes done
in England with the wurzel ; and in September, when
the tops droop and turn brown, it is time to lift them,
Tnis is often done by the acre, at 16s. I mention this
to show how well the farm- labourers are paid here ; but
it requires to be most particularly well cleaned, which
they do for this money, as also cut off the tops and
crowns (which contain no sugar), and throw the roots
into the waggons (carts are very seldom used here). The
crop is about 22 tons per acre ; often more. If not sold
at once, it is clamped, and well covered with earth.
Barns, cellars, and walls have been tried, but none do so
well as the clamps, which are left open for some
\ time along the whole ridge, to permit every particle

350

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of evaporation to escape. la the neighbourhood of a
factory whole fields may be seen covered with clamps,
the reserve stock of the manufacturers. There are
many sorts of hetteraves, but the two sorts in general
growth are the white Silesian, and a variety of the Sile-
sian with a red skin and white interior. It exhausts the
land more than potatoes ; but though sold off the farm
it has the good quality of returning to it as much ma-
nure, perhaps, as if wholly consumed on it (indeed the
latter would be impossible, as in its raw state it is a
dreadful scourer), as all the refuse after pressing— that
is the farinaceous part of the root— is eagerly bought
by the farmer at from 8s. 4d. to 13s. per ton for his
fattening bullocks, cows, and sheep ; to the first named
he gives 100 lbs. weight per day. Now, as we know a
bullock will eat 4 bushels of swedes in twenty-four
hours, we may calculate at all events that it stands as
2 to 5 superior in quality to raw roots. This refuse,
which looks like pressed rags, and is in flat pieces about
as large as the palm of the hand, has also the peculiar
quality of improving by keeping in clumps (well trod)
for two or three years, enabling the farmer to lay in a
store when a drop occurs in price, A great comfort to
a stock-keeper to know he has always a reserve of food
for all weathers and bad seasons. The crop that follows
is wheat ; hot summers suit it best.

It was a long time known to be a saccharine root in
France, but its usefulness was not developed till 1812,
when the Governnient passed a decree permitting the
growth to the extent of 250,000 acres, and exempted it
from all duties ; in three years it ceased to give this en-
couragement to the growth, but its prosperity pro-
gressed; in 1827 there were 89 factories, producing 8
million pounds of sugar ,> in 1836 more than 500, making
nearly 50 millions ; in 1837 they put a duty on it
of a halt-penny per lb,, and added another farthing in
1839. From thence to now it has continually advanced.

I introduced myself, one fine morning, at a factory
about a league from Lille, as an English stranger, ask-
ing the favour of an inspection of it. The owner most
politely acceded to my wish, first making me partake of
his dejeuner, the usual eleven o'clock breakfast of chops,
cofFee, and wine. This hospitality I felt the more, as
it was only the second time during my three months
stay I had the opportunity of enjoying it, as all classes
are' alike unfortunate in their ignorance of our truly
English custom of inviting all who cross our threshold
to take something, from a glass of beer to a seat at din-
ner. He then showed me his sugar and his distilling
processes ; it took three hours to go over it, and a most
interesting mass of machinery it was.

The commencement of the process is as follows : The
loaded waggons are weighed, as they enter, on a weigh-
bridge, and the empty vehicle deducted ; the roots then
well- washed by steam-power, and drawn into the ma-
cerating machine by an archimedian-screw ; after this is
very minutely performed, the pulp is pressed in
hydraulic presses, and the remains in the press bags are
instantly ready for sale to the farmer. 180 pints of
juice are extracted from 2 cwt. hetteraves, which goes
into a reservoir tolerably impervious to air (which is
detrimental) till wanted. It is then heated in boiling-
pans to 00 degrees (I am not sure if this means the
same as 60 degrees in England) ; and a solution of lime
is thrown in at the rate of 1 part to 20 parts of juice,
and a little sulphuric acid to neutralize any excess of
lime. It is then filtered with animal charcoal, which also
reduces the colour, and then passes into boiling-pans to
evaporate ; then a second evaporation and another con-
centration ; and then a third filtration with charcoal ;
then boiling, and at this stage it passes into coolers and
begins to crystallize. The remaining processes it would
be tedious to your readers to have described.

£. s. d.
One ton of roots will produce I5 cwt. sugar, brown,

worth, duty iucluded 310 0

Aod also -J cwt. molasaea, worth 0 2 0

And 2-|- cwt. of refuse for the farmer, worth 0 1 8

And 17 cwt. of juice.

£3 13 8

The duty here is ^wo-pence per lb., and it is usually
sold at 6d. (not no\r), which is considered a profitable
price.

We undersell the f rench in most manufactures ; so it
is fair to suppose we can in sugar, if we please. We
were told we were to have free trade, to be totally un-
shackled, whether it was sugar or tobacco we wished to
grow.

The molasses are distilled, of course, and some potass
made from the refuse.

Many distilleries are expressly for extracting spirit
from the root itself : a ton is expected to make 10 gallons.
The whole of the refuse from this is useless.

Beet-root sugar-refining is also carried on to a great
extent ; the decrease in weight by the process is one-fifth.

White sugar is retailed by the grocers now at 8d. to
9d. per lb. Remember I alioays tvrite in English
measures and weights.

It is allowed to be a most lucrative trade in all its
branches. It is carried on over the whole of this nor-
thern department. Valenciennes is the very heart of it ;
but much is also done near Paris, Marseilles, and on the
frontier near Switzerland.

The alcohol is sold for mixing with the Geneva cognac,
and also for making eau-de-vie ; also for varnish, and
many descriptions of manufactures requiring cheap
spirit. It has been sometimes exported to England,
but is not allowed at this time.

Spirits are sold by all grocers, Geneva and eau-de-
vie at 6d. to 7d. per pint; the licence for which costs
£2 Is. 8d. per annum.

I cannot finish this letter without remarking on the
cheapness of spirits here, and the general sobriety,
and comparing it with the contrary of both in Eng-
land. It cannot be that the climate is warmer, for
there is no hill between this city and the Polar Seas, and
it is indeed cold here. The unrestricted sale here, at all
events, does not produce drunkenness.

An English Farmer in France.

Lille, March ith, 1858.

QUICKS (CRATG/EUS OXYCANTHA) Commoa
Hawthorn — for general, or, more particularly, for
agricultural purposes, are not to be excelled. Their cul-
ture is too well known to require any particular com-
ment, did we not see so often erroneous practices carried
out; for instance, the planting upon high banks, which
dries them up, and, when crumbled down, leaves them
exposed to the inroads of cattle, &c. No better example
is taught us than those planted by the sides of railways —
the Great Western, for instance. There you see them pro-
perly planted, well cleaned, and properly sheared — in
fact, hedges worthy our best attention. We have often
heard Mr. Sharp complain to the unfortunate nursery-
man from whom he purchased his few thousand Quicks,
that many of them died, when perhaps, as is very often
the case, no care was taken in the first place to give
them proper accommodation. First, then, the soil
certainly, in every instance, should be trenched ; and if
manured, the plants will repay it. Always plant, if the
nature of the soil will permit, upon the same level as the
field, not upon elevated banks. Place a fence— con-
structed with piles about eight or nine feet apart,
with two horizontal rails— for protection. Then select

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

35l

two or three years' transplanted plants ; and when the
plants are well established, say the second year, cut them
down within sis or eight inches of the ground. The
following year cut them to about two or three feet,
according to their strength ; then the hedge is made.
Establishing a good bushy bottom is the principle to
aim at. It is a very bad practice to thrust large bundles
of bushes into decayed places or gaps : it makes the
place larger. It is far better to select strong trans-
planted three or four-feet trees to fill up with, and fjive
them temporary protection, and thus make up the slight
deficiency. Never allow the hedge to produce timber,
as you very often see ; for after it is cut down, bcRides
the sacrifice for one or two seasons, the old shoots gene-
rally throw up strong luxuriant thorny shoots, and
form a bad bottom in return. Should the above fence
not be practicable, a low bank might be made, putting
in plenty of plants between each layer of turf and soil ;
this last suggestion does not make so perfect a hedge
as the former described plan.

ECONOMY IN BREAD.— No. 5.
MAIZE BREAD.
Sir, — Maize may be considered as nourishing as wheat,
but will not rise like wheat into light bread ; and maize
flour raised with wheat flour is neither so pleasant in tex-
ture or flavour as wheat bread alone.

The maize requires first to be boiled to pulp, like rice,
and so made up with the wheat flour into dough. The fol-
lowing recipe has been much recommended : —

MAIZE BREAD,

To I5 lbs. of maize meal add a gallon of cold water (soft)
and stir it up well ; let it settle, and skim off the husk
which floats on the top. It should then be boiled for three
or four hours, if possible by steam, or the pan inserted in
another containing water, boiliog, which will prevent its
burning to the bottom ; and covered, to prevent drying
awaj''. If the meal be good, it will have absorbed all the
water that has not evaporated, and have become a thick
porridge; the produce of the Southern states of America
will take one- fourth more water than the produce of Europe.

This may be made up into dough with 14 lbs. wheat
flour as the rice in our last — yeast and salt added — and di-
vided into loaves as usual.

This has been tried here, but did not please so well as
that with Carolina rice. On the other hand, the Americans
themselves are very fond of" Mush," a sort of maize por-
ridge, made as follows : —

MUSH, xYMERICAN.

" This is made in different ways ; but the easiest mode is
that which resembles the making of starch or arrow-root.
Put five pints of water over the fire, in a pot or skillet;
then take one poirnd of Indian meal, well sifted from the
bran, and mix v/ith a little cold water so as to make a thick
batter ; add salt. As soon as the water boils, add the batter,
stir it well, and keep it stirred and boiling for at least
twenty minutes.

"It should be about the consistence of hasty pudding, por-
ridge, or stir-about ; and may indeed be made in the
same way. Take it up, and eat it with milk, butter, sugar,
or treacle.

" This is the most manageable and convenient of all the
preparations of maize ; it is used daily in a large number of
American families, and considered a most wholesome^ diet.
What is not used at one meal, is cut into slices and friedor
heated upon the gridiroir at the next meal, and eaten with
butter or treacle."

This worked up into dough with flour would be much
like the maize bread given above, requiring, of course, more
water to work in the wheat flour. And the proportion of
maize may be;much increased for those who like it. I have
a statement of SSlbs. of bread from 141bs. of flour with 71bs.

of maize. But for those who object to the maize flavour it
is to be corrected with rice.

Maize bread with rice, and the compound of the two
with M. Mege Mouries' improvement, to obtain the maxi-,
mum excellent loaf at the minimum cost, the object of all
these letters, are intended to form the subjects of our next.

I. Prideaux.

BUTTER-MAKING IN WINTER.

" Winter butter" has no very enviable reputation anywhere,
and compared with that made in June, seema an entirely dif-
ferent article. Of course there are reasons for this — let ua
enumerate some of theta.

1. The character of the food is changed from green and suc-
culent herbage to dry hay, or, more generally, cornstalks and
straw. There is really very little butter in the latter.

2. The season is changed froai mild and warm to cold, bleak,
and uncomfortable. There is a constant demand for fuel to
keep up the animal heat ; this is partly at the expense of the
butter product.

3. The management of the milk becomes difficult. If kept
in a cellar, and a little above freezing, the milk becomes bitter
before the cream rises ; if allowed to freeze, the cream rises at
once, but ia injured in quality, and will produce very white
butter ; if kept in the kitchen pantry, when very warm during
the day and cold at night, it does not rise well, and ia apt to
be bitter and acid.

Other reasons might be mentioned, but they will readily
suggest themselves to the reader. Let us see what can be
proposed to remedy the difBculties.

1. Feed well — not dry food alone — bat grain and roots, as
a substitute for grass. Carrots, turnips, beets, cabbages, etc.,
are all useful in ksepiug up the quality of the milk. Let their
fodder be cut, and some nutritious slops be provided, if roots
ar3 not to be had ; and it is well to cut the fodder in auy case.

2. The comfort of co<vs should be carefully attended to.
While they suffer from cold and filth, or foul air, they cannot
yield as good milk as when in warm, clean atables, or in well-
littered and sheltered yards. Water should also be provided —
it is the more needed when dry forage is consumed — and it
should be so arranged that every animal could drink at will.
A supply of salt is also necessary.

3. It ia difficult to get a proper temperature for raising
cream perfectly in winter. Some butter-makers scald their
milk when first drawn from the cow ; others let it stand twelve
hours, and then place the pan containing the milk in a larger
one filled with boiling water, and aliovfing it to stand twelve
hours longer, find the cream raised perfectly. It is said that
more and better butter can be made ia this way than in auy other.

Churning in winter, as usually managed, is often a serious
operation. The cream stands too long generally, becoming
very sour and bitter ; or, it is too cold and froths up, filling
the churn, but producing no butter though churned for hours.
Let the cream-pot ait near the fire for a few hours before
churning, stirring it occasionally that all may get warm alike,
and when it is at a proper temperature, 55° — feeling a little
warm to the finger— the churning will be an easy half-hour's job,
and the butter as yellow and hard as the season will admit of.

We have found that cows generally gave better milk when
fed on well-cured corn-fodder, than on second-rate hay, and
with " a mess" of roots, apples, or pumpkins, would yield
milk of very fa' r quality. Attention to securing a supply of
proper food for cows, and better care of them, would go far to
redeem the name of winter-butter from its present character.

' J. H, B.

352

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

MANURING ON THE SURFACE.

Surface manuring is no new idea ; yet if our
memory serves us, the practice is almost univer-
sally ignored by agricultural writers of the present
day, as a method of manuring. It is acknow-
ledged as a very good thing to preserve favourite
plants or newly-set-out trees from the effect o:
drought; but very little beyond this. " Those who
imagine," says the editor of the Working Farmer,
"they find good results from spreading of manure
on the surface, and leaving it for days, weeks, or
months before it is ploughed under, mistake the
action of the litter or longer portions of the manure
as a mulch, for the action of the manure on the
soil." "We so far differ from this and kindred
opinions on the subject, that we think manuring
on the surface, for ninety-nine farmers in a hun-
dred, the best general method of application.
We except all cases where the drill application
of compost is found desirable, and garden and
lot culture. Nor do we maintain that there is
not a more perfect method of preserving and pre-
paring all the elements of the manure heap, by
its careful husbandry under sheds, an occasional
treatment with diluted sulphuric acid, or some
other " fixer," a cistern to catch the drainings, and
a pump to pump them back upon the heap, and
patience and perseverance and constant watchful-
ness. A more perfect method still is that of Mr.
Mechi, who applies his manure only in a liquid
state, and for this purpose has his farm traversed
with iron pipes, to convey the fluid to the different
fields. He says it pays in England, and it may be
so, though his neighbours doubt it very much.
But on a Virginia farm, we think sensible -men
would account the Sheriff of London stark mad.
We maintain that this mode of manuring (viz., on
the surface) is in itself so little inferior to the most
perfect methods, that taking into consideration the
circumstances of our farming popluation, the ex-
tent of surface and high price of labour, the atten-
tion, and time and management that the mass of
farmers can give to this branch of their operations,
it is for them the most economical and the best.
It will pay better.

We ask now the reader's attention to the am-
monia theory. That ammonia is the element of
greatest value in stable manures, we do not ques-
tion. That it is very volatile, flies off and escapes
by exposure to the atmosphere, everybody knows.
Upon these principles is based the recommenda-
tion to plough under, immediately, manures which
yie\d ammonia, that the earth may absorb and
preserve it. Now let it be distinctly borne in
mind, that fresh manure of any sort does not
contain this volatile ammonia, but only nitrogen,
which is not volatile, out of which the ammonia is
formed; and that ammonia is generated only as
the nitrogen putrefies in the rotting manures. If
the manure accumulates in the stable, the warmth
and moisture of the daily additions soon bring on
active fermentation, and the pungent ammonia

which assails us is the result of the putrefaction
thus caused. Until this process of rotting com-
mences, ammonia is not formed, and the manure
not liable to waste, and it ceases to be generated
when the rotting is checked. Now, when we are
ready to remove our manure-heaps in the spring,
we find them usually rotting to some extent. Let
us follow, and observe the whole process. It is
taken up first, forkful by forkful, and pitched into
the cart; the ammonia, of course, all the time seek-
ing its freedom ; it is hauled, reeking and smoking,
a long distance perhaps, to the field ; now it is
dropped into small heaps, where it remains a week
or so, until you are ready to plough the land. It
you are ready, or when you are ready, these heaps
are carefully spread out on the ground, the more
perfectly the better, and then ploughed under— not
immediately, even under the most careful manage-
ment, but as soon as it can be done — with a delay,
ordinarily, of an average of some hours. Now,
with all this necessary opening and forking, and
tossing and spreading, our impression is that the
free ammonia is very much like the Frenchman's
flea, which when he put his finger upon it wasn't
there ; the point of time when we are ready to lay
hold of it, is just when we may as well save our-
selves the trouble : it is not there. But let it be
borne in mind that the ammonia we have been
dealing with, is that only which was generated in
the rotting heap before its removal. When the
heap was opened to the air, the process of rotting
ceased, and ammonia was no longer formed. Sup-
posing, then, this free ammonia is pretty well gone,
at any rate we have the remainder of the manure,
with its unchanged nitrogen (not ammonia) to deal
with. Plough this under to the depth of eight
inches, and for want of the proper temperature to
cause its putrefaction, it may remain unchanged
and unavailable until another ploughing shall
bring it up again to the influence of heat and mois-
ture, which will disengage the ammonia. It is a
frequent experience, that we plough under deeply,
for a spring crop, fresh stable manure, and receive
no benefit from it whatever until it is brought up
again to the surface, and the wheat crop following
reaps the advantage.

But suppose, instead of making a week or two
weeks' heavy labour of hauling out manure in the
spring, when the teams are at best not strong, and
there is a press of hard work on hand, you get rid
of this necessity of hauling cut and ploughing
under simultaneously, and hauling at your con-
venience, you throw the manure upon the surface
of the grass field, what is the result ? At the
worst, as we have shown above, there is equal loss
of \hefree ammonia when the manure is ploughed
under. In both cases, that is about all gone, be-
fore it can be with certainty taken possession of,
by any process. The mass remaining on the sur-
face, however, the work of putrefaction, which
made the free ammonia, and which was stopped by

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

353

the opening and exposure of the heaps, is now
recommenced and very slowly carried on by the
warmth and moisture at the surface. The ammo-
nia thus formed is absorbed by the litter above it,
and washed down by every shower into contact,
and combines chemically with the humus at the
surface, or with the soil itself. But bear in mind,
that when these frequent removals are made, we
never find the heaps in such a state of putrefac-
tion as when we postpone to some one allotted
time, and therefore never have so much free am-
monia to deal with. A very large proportion of

the manure never begins to rot before it is re-
moved. By this plan, moreover, we take favoura-
ble opportunities for hauling, and may carry out
much of the manure in damp or moderately rainy
weather, when the showers will wash the ready-
formed ammonia immediately into the soil.

We have thus undertaken to show that the
practice of manuring on the surface is not incon-
sistent with admitted chemical principles, when
properly applied ; and we submit the explanation
to the judgment of practical men, familiar with the
processes of farm management. — American Farmer.

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

The sowing of all grain crops must now be
finished as fast as possible, and also lucerne and
flax-seed. Finish the preparation of grass meadow
lands ; sow vetches and grass seeds on wheat and
barley tilths. The surface of wheat lands will be
rough and stale ; harrow it before sowing the grass
seeds, and again after the seeds are sown, and roll
with a heavy weight.

Prepare as quickly as possible the green crop
lands, and towards the end of the month sow beet-
root in drills well dunged, and twenty-eight inches
apart ; steep the seeds in weak solutions, and dry
with quicklime. Plant potatoes in drills thirty
inches apart, and well dunged with farm-yard
manure in a half-putrescent state ; use strong sets
of tubers newly cut, very rnoist manure, and in a
large quantity; cover the drills quickly, and roll
them down. Before the land is drilled, spread pul-
verized lime evenly on the surface, in two hundred
bushels to an acre, and harrow it immediately, or
strew the cinders evenly over the] ground, and the
subsequent workings of the land will mix the lime,
which will be powdered by the dampness of the
soil. This mode requires an earlier application
than the old way; but it must be more beneficial
by reason of the damp and moist exhalations that
will be evolved during the dissolution of the hot
cinders of lime.

Early crops will now require both horse and
hand-hoeing, as carrots, lucerne, wheat, beans, and
peas.

Paring and burning of lands will now proceed
vigorously. Burn the turfs moderately in a black
scorched mass, as in that state carbonaceous mat-
ter most largely abounds. It is the best method
yet known for bringing into cultivation all lands
that contain much fibrous, inert, and ligneous mat-
ters.

Burn, for application by the drop drill, rough,
earthy, and vegetable substances, found on road-
sides and on ditch banks ; also peat, and all com-
bustible matters; the ashes will raise crops of
turnips.

Rye, and watered meadows, winter vetches and
barley, will now be ready for soiling cattle in the
yards, and for being consumed on the ground by
ewes and lambs. The food is best used by being
cut and placed in racks, which are regularly moved
over the ground. Fold the sheep nightly on the
cleared space, allowing in the fold two square

yards to each animal, and two nights in one place.
All bare grounds and inferior grass lands may
be much improved by the folding of sheep upon
them.

The lambing season will now draw to a
close. When beet-root and cabbages fail as food
for the ewes, give oats, and bruised oilcake mixed,
and with a portion of salt. Remove the strong
lambs to the pasture fields.

Attend to the milch cows and to the suckling of
calves ; give the former an ample allowance of
juicy food, natural or prepared ; to the latter as
much milk as the animals can drink. When begun
to be weaned, at the end of sixteen weeks, give
them in racks in the calf-pens young vetches,
bruised cake, bean and barley meals boiled, and
linseed jellies. Place a lump of chalk and rock salt
to be licked ; the latter substance will quicken the
action of the digestive organs, and the former will
correct the crude acidities of the stomach.

The last remaining fatting bullocks will be sold
during this month; use oil- cake in finishing off
the animals : the most backward in condition must
go to grass.

The season of curing bacon being over, all pigs
on hand must go on for summer stores, and come
in for early winter fattening. The earliest fat
lambs will now come in for sale.

During wet weather, carry all the dung from the
cattle yard to the heaps in the fields, and litter
the yards afresh for the summer soiling of cattle
and horses.

Prepare by ploughing, harrowing, and rolling,
the fallows for green crops, keeping most forward
the portion to be sown with Swedish turnips next
month. Plough clay lands for wheat fallows, and
dung across the winter furrows with narrow slices.

SOAPSUDS.— In daj's that once were, the soapsuds
went to the gutter as regularly as the washing-day was
ended ; and there are too many who allow the plan to be
followed in the present day. All do not yet seem to have
learned that a tub^ill of strong soapsuds is worth as much,
as a fertilizer, as a wheelbarrow of good manure. Now
every bucket of soapsuds should be thrown where it will
not be lost. The garden is a good and convenient place in
which to dispose of it ; but the roots of grape-vines, young
trees, or anything^ of the sort, will do as well.

B B

S54

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE AGRICULTURE OF INDIA.

Removing my camp-stool to the opening of my little hil'
tent, I looked out into the fields, where I saw some men
ploughing. For the first time, duriug my travels, I was struck
with the appearance of the instrument which the natives use
for tilling the soil ; an instrument which, in fact, closely re-
sembles that used by the Romans, according to the directions
laid down in the Georgics :

" Curvi formam adcipit ulmus aratri," &c., &c.

—and, at first, I felt some surprise that an implement so appa-
rently ill-fitted for the purpose for which it la designed, should
answer ail the requirements of the cultivator. The substitu-
tion of the English plough for this native bur, has been several
times projected by gentlemen who were zealous in the cause
of agriculture, but without any success, or reasonable hope
thereof ; for when we consider the cheapness, and the great
amount of labour always available, the general lightness of
the soil, the inaptitude of the natives of India for great or
continued physiciil exertion, the inferiority of the cattle, all of
whicli are the marked characteristics of India, it would net
only ba undesirable, but impossible to introduce the English
plough, generally, as an implement of husbandry — an
implement requiring physical strength, manual dexterity,
and a superior breed of cattle for draught. Rude and
simple as the native bur is, or as it may seem to the
casual observer, cur.-.oii!y viewing the operation of ploughing,
it has stili maoy good qualities which render it peculiarly
suited to the genius of the ludiaa cultivator; and it is not in
any immediate endeavour to improve it, or alter it, that any
real benefit can be conferred on the cause of Indian agricul-
ture. All the efforts, therefore, that have been made in that
direction, have been time and trcuble expended to no purpose.
It has bsea said, that all improvement to be real, must be
spontaneous, or lake rise within itself ; and it would seem to
be more reasonable to improve such means and appliances as
the natives use and uuderstand, without running counter to
the ideas, and shockisg the prejudices, which they entertain,
by eu'leavouring to compel their adoption of European modes
of cu! lure, which, however well suited to the land of their
origin, have not the quality most necessary to their practica-
bility, that of being coaprebensible to the peonle of India.
The true end of agriculture :

" With artful toil
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil,
To give dissimilar yet fruitful lands
The grain, or herb, or plant that each demands,"
is best to be atlaiued by aiding and assisting the development
of those resources of tlie soil, which have already been made
visible by the people themselves.

Here it is that the duty of the Government begins. The
precsriousneas cf the laud tenure is one oi the greatest impe-
diments to the outlay of capital by the tenant in the improve-
ment of the land ; and as there is but little prospect of the
removal of this objection, the Government should fulfil what
would, were the case different, be the obvious plans of the
landholder, in developing the resources of the soil. Irrigation
and ma-iure are the two great points most deserving of atten-
tion. On both points the resources of the country are incal-
culable ; the advantages evident and immediate ; both require
syatciii and an outlay of capital, which the zemindar (native
landholJer) is often unable, and oftener unwilling to adopt and
incur— from want of confidence in the administration of the
law, and the law itself. With the ryot, or cultivator, the case
IS very different. The law, or the administration thereof
affects him in a very slight degree, compared with the zemin-
dar. The land tenure ojatters very little to him ; his ri^iits
have been secured ; he profits by the outlay of capital on^the
land. Risk, he has none. His advantage is immediate. But
he does i!'.t possess the means of improvement in any way.
He may bmW a well, dig a tank, or plant a grove to the me-
mory ul : d.pariiid ancestor, and, by so doing, enhance the
value of i.;u; l..ui to the zemindar; but he almost always

ruins himself by the act, leaving his debts to be paid by hia
.descendants, and the well, tank, or grove mortgaged to the
banke--, for the extra expenses incurred in its establishment !
It behoves an enlis^htened government to do for the people
and the country, what they are unable to do for themselves.
An inquiry, properly set on foot, and undertaken by competent
persons on the part of the Government, to investigate all par-
ticulars regarding the state of agriculture, would bring to
light many facts, which, if made fitting use of, would not only
greatly redound to the honour, but adduce greatly to the ad-
vantage and profit of the state. The information thus ac-
quired, and not founded oa the reports of native (government)
collectors, police-officers, and peaons (messengers), but ascer-
tained by the personal inspection of European officials, and
from the opinions of the zemindars and cultivators themselves,
would enable the Government to know and devise remedies to
obviate the evils arising cut of the gradual decline of the agri-
cultural classes in our earliest occupied territories. It would
show the Government many places where the expenditure of
four or five thousand rupees (four or five hundred pounds) in
the repairs or erection of a dam, for the obstruction of some
rain-filled nullah (a wide and deep ditch), would yield a return
nearly of equal amount, besides affording employment, and
the means of livelihood to hundreds of persons. It would
show where the opening of a road, or the building of a bridge,
involving but a siaall expenditure, would give a new life to a
part of the country hitherto forgotten, and render the inha-
bitants flourishing and happy, by throwing open to them a
market for their produce — a market at present cut of their
reach. It would prove incontestably that the means of irri-
gation— the true water-power of India — has been even more
neglected than the water-power of that (in comparison with,
the United States) sluggish colony, Canada. The initial step
once taken— the march of improvement once fairly set on foot
— private enterprise, duly encouraged, will follow in the wake
of the Government ; and capital once invested, land in India
will become intrinsically valuable, and thus obtain the atten-
tion it merits. Agricultural improvement would induce last-
ing and increasing proi?perity of the cultivating claaacs (the
bulk of the population) and of the country itself. — Household
Words,

AN AGRICULTURAL ODE.

BY WM. C. BRYANT.

Ear bat-k in ages

The plough with wreathes was crowned,
The hands of kings and sages

Entwined the chaplets round,
Till men of spoil
Disdained the tcil

By which the world was nourished,
And blood and pillage were the soil

In which their laurels flourished.
Now the world her fault despairs —

The guilt that stains her story,
And weeps her crimes amid the cares

That form her earliest glory.

The throne shall crumble.

The diadem shall wane.
The tribes of earth shall humble

The pride of those who reign ;
And war shall lay
His pomp away ;

The fame that heroes cherish.
The glory earned in deadly fray

Shall fade, decay and perish.
Honour waits o'er all the earth,

Througi rndless generations,
The art that calls the harvest forth.

And feeds the expectant nations.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

36d

NORTON FARMERS' CLUB.

Eeport of the Judges (Mr. L. Furniss and Mr. J. J. Rowley)
on the farms which competed for premiums ia October
last : —
"lu examining the farms contesting for the premiums giveu
by Messrs. Henry Ranjjeley, J. Dodsou, and Wm. Staniforth,
the judges had au ajcreeable and pleasing, yet difficult duty to
perform. They had pleasure in witnessing the industrial efforts
to cultivate and iiiiprove the soil of a district generally tena-
cious and frequently billy; and in a sharp contest, the> felt a
difficulty iu adjudicating according to the exact terms of the
premiums oifered. Having this difficulty before them— where
the merits of each are so nearly balanced — it seems only rea-
sonable and fair that the several competitors should have some
mark of distinction to show a degree of merit, so that, if one
competitor should win (to use a sporting phrase) by half a
neck, the judges might have the privilege of placing the se-
cond and third in the race. For the reasons above stated, we
recomineuded this arrangement to Mr. Rangeley, who gener-
ously consented to give us a discretionary power in awarding
bis premium of £5 fo be equally divided between the several
competitors — Mr. John Plant, of Birley ; Mr. William West,
of Windy House ; and Mr. Thomas Parker, of Bowshow.

" We commenced the inspection of these farms on Tuesday,
the 13th day of October, 1S57. There had been a similar in-
spection in the previous year, and the system of cropping and
general husbandry en these farms having been already de-
scribed and published, ifc c'oes not appear necessary on the pre-
Eent occasion again to notice it. But we have much pleasure
in recording our entire satisfaction in the cultivation of these
farms, as adapted to a locale immediately surrounding Sheffield,
aud not having any analogy to the cultivation of farms situate
in a district strictly rural. Hence the difficulty of prescribed
rules of husbandry aud the laying down of a code and system
of cropping:, which ought to vary aud will vary according to
circumstaucea and situations. Climate and soils will have
their effect ; the quantity of raiu falling, the proximity to
mountains and towns, all exert an influence on cultivation, and
give a wide scope for judgment in determining the course of
husbandry to be followed. We are witnesses to these import-
ant elements in the cultivation of land, and hope we may say
without vanity that, having had some experience in these
matters, we are privileged to make any remark of praise or
censure. Indeed, it may be expected that we should, in our
perigrinationa through the district, cast a farmer's eye, with
furtive glance, over hedges and acruss the stubbles, where grow
the stately thistle, the hardy couch grass, and the umbrageous
dock — giving unmistakable evidence that in the 19th century
these upas trees are cultivated in the parish of Norton, and at
au easy distance from the metropolis of Hallamshire. But the
cultivation of these plants is not the rule, it is the exception ;
and if there be much to condeccu, there is more to commend
aud applaud. Still they are cultivated ; their seeds are sown
by inattention and neglect, and by the ignorance of natural
laws bearing oa good husbandry. In truth, the growth of
these plants on the farm may be aptly stated as a disease of
the skin, which, as in men and animals, affects the whole body
corporate ; the best remedy for which is cleanliness, and the
application of purgatives, as administered by Dr. Beutall and
others celebrated at the present day for the cure and eradica-
tion of cutaneous poison plants. It is not, however, the plants
which are grown, to which we desire to call attention ; it is
the plants which are not grown, but which ought to be grown.
There is a similarity in leafy appearance between the dock and
the mangold. In the language of the ancient writer, we
•cleave to one, and despise ihe other.' The couch grasses and
ItaUan grasses are similar in genera, but their effects are dissi-
milar and wide as the pcles asunder. Like homoeopathic
treatment, as pvopounded by Dr. Hahnemann, a very small dose
of couch grass will drive out Italian grass, and establish a
cutaneous disease, that we imagine will run speedily over a
hed>;e, across a turupike road, or even a canal ; such are its
powers of contagion, or infection, or both. The thistles may
be a stately plant— it is a Scottish emblem —but to our notion.

we say, as appointed judges, it is the monkshood of Norton
husbandry. And we do most earnestly recommend the club
to abandon the growth of these exhausting plants, and substi-
tute instead some of the genus colewort, such as the branching
rape, the Scotch kale, and last but not least, the cow cabbage.
We admire the plants we have mentioned, but we saw few
or none. Some attempts to grow them were visiMe, but like
' angeh' visits,' they were ' few aud far between.' From Windy
Houaa to the Lees, from Birley to Bowshaw, these useful es-
culents were rare, and might really be looked on as exotics,
and supposed to require a glass-house to grow them. No such
thing ; we tell you that, like the daisy, they blossom anywhere
and everywhere. We tell you, wherevar the dock will grow,
so will the mangold; and it is a great fact that the rape and
the thistle will grow ou the same soil, but not at the same
time and place. If farmers wish to grow thistles, they ought
to be in rotation ; and part of the course of husbandry pur-
sued on the farm, and not at the same time and place as other
root crops or legumes. Thistles and docks might be grown ia
alternate rows with mangolds or colewort ; but we do not recom-
mend it ; and unless it could be proved that this course would
suit the balance sheet when stock ia tiken, we advise the club
not to patronise or follow it. Still, it is followed; and it may
be gathered from these remarks, that in the inspection of the
farms contesting for the prizes offered by the Norton Club
and its members, we complain that these beef and muttoii
producing plants receive but little or no attention iu the dis-
trict. They are to the farmer ' the Hebrew, Greek, and Latiu
of the school-boy.' But when understood and cultivated, they
are the classical as well as the practical and useful in husban-
dry. We have digressed, and must now leave the grumbling,
to notice other things more agreeable in our report.

••' In class 36, where the premiums are giveu by Messrs.
Dodson and Staniforth, for the best cultivated farms under 50
acres, we found three competitors— Mr. Hutton, of Ridgeway;
Mr. Joseph Wragg, of Norton Lees ; and Mr, George Rogers,
of Lightwood. These farms, considering the limited time we
had at our disposal, were carefully inspected, with a view to do
justice to the gentlemen who had generously offered the pre-
miums.

" On inspection of Mr. Hutton 's farm of 28 acres, we found
the land in a good state of cultivation ; the farmery well ar-
ranged and in good order ; the whole of a character creditable
to the occupier.

" Next iu succession in this class of farms we visited Mr. J.
Wragg's farm, of Norton Lees, consisting of 32| acres. Judg-
ing from the produce of this farm, the crops must have beea
very good; the roai crops exceedingly clean and well ar-
rano'cd, having been highly manured, as evidenced by the
weight'of the crops. The whole of the land on this farm is in
a high state of cultivation, the fences in a very creditable con-
dition, and present a neat appearance ; stock numerous and
good; farming premises very orderly, and every department of
the farm showing evident signs of presevering industry.

" Mr. George Rogers' farm, at Lightwood, consisting of 30
acres (20 occupied since March, 1856). Oa inspection of this
farm we were very much pleased with the substantial character
of the improvements effected by the occupier in so short a time,
A considerable sum must have beea expended. 15 acres ef-
fectually drained with pipe, tile, and stone. Depth of drain,
.30 to 33 inches, five yards apart. A considerable length of
old, neglected hedges plashed, the sides grubbed close up to
the fence. The root crops highly creditable, being very good
aud well arranged ; additional buildings put up at the farmery ;
the house renovated and much improved ; new gates intro-
duced. The whole of the operations carried out in a most de-
termined and skilful manner. Having seen this farm wheu
first entered on by its present occupant, it being then in a most
dilapidated condition, great praise is due to Mr. Rogers for the
many and great improvements made in so short a time.

" To conclude, we can only add one remark, and that will
apply to all the farms in this class. We saw proofs of good
husbandry, neatness, and cleanliness throughout. Capital and

B B 2

356

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

labour had been judiciously expended ; and when the contest
was sharp, and on nearly equal terms, we did not quite agree
iu our views and opinions. The matter in dispute was left to
the arbitration of one of the competitors, who generously de-
cided against himself, that Mr. Wragg should be No. 1, and
Mr. Rogers No. 2.

"In offering the above report and animadversions on what
we saw and examined, we trust that they will be received in
the same spirit in which the meu of the Norton Club always
receive good intentions."

SUFFOLK LENT ASSIZES.
BREACH OF CONTRACT.

GARRETT V. WOOLNOUGH.

This was a Special Jury case.

Serjeant Wells and Mr. O'Malley for the plaintiff, and
Mr. Couch for the defendant.

The action was brought for breach of contract.

Mr. O'Malley having opened the case,

Mr. Garrett deposed : I am the senior partner of the firm
of Garrett and Sons, Leiston Works. At first I carried it
on myself, and then took my sons in. The defendant was
formerly in mj- father's service, and continued with me
down to 1855. He occupied the post of foreman over a
small portion of the manufactory and salesman up to April,
1854. He had a salary of £150 per year and a house. In
November or December, 1853, the defendant reminded me
that the agreement terminated, and that he wanted an ad-
vance of salar}'. I agreed to advance him £50 per year.
He afterwards wished that the £50 should be paid fcr five
years in advance, to which I agreed, and an agreement was
drawn up. He suggested that it should be binding for ten
years, so that at the end of five years I should pay him an-
other £250. The £250 was paid on the 6th of April. On
the 31st of July, 1855, the smith's foreman showed me
some ironwork which Woolnough had sent back, and on the
1st of August, as I was standing at the counting-room door,
the defendant came up to me, and in abusive language said
he would not be humbugged any longer ; he was going
away. I turned round and said, " What's the matter ?"
He was in a passion, and I told him to go home and consi-
der the matter. I said, " There is an agreement between
us, you had better look to that." On the following day I
sent for defendant, and he came to my counting-house, and
I asked him if he had considei-ed what he said the day be-
fore, and he said " Yes, he was going." The 31st of July
was a critical period, being after the Royal Agricultural
Society's Show, and we had many orders, particularly in
defendant's department. After some conversation, I told
him he must pay me back the proportion of the bonus ; but
he laughed, and patted his hand on his pocket, and said he
should keep it. I suggested he should go and ask advice as
to that of some man of business. The day after he came
again, and said he had been for advice and found he must
return the money ; and he would pay it me if I would give
a receipt in full of all demands and cancel the agreement.
I refused to take the money on these terms. (The receipt
which Mr. Garrett proposed reserved to himself any rights
he might derive under the agreement.) He would not pay
the money on this receipt, and went away. The defendant
had a son-in-law named Sudbrook in the smiths' depart-
ment. The defendant had been of great use to me in the
sale department, and after he left me my sons were obliged
to attend to the getting proper foremen into Woolnough's
department instead of the general supervision. We tried to
get persons to suit us as salesmen, but could not, and we
lost very much commercially. I employ 6U0 or 700 hands,
60 or 70 of whom were under the defendant's supervision.
I would rather not state the loss, but I would have gladly
given another man a larger salary as a user and seller of
implements.

Cross-examined. — I don't think we received any damage
from his leaving us as foreman. We made better implements
without him than we ever could have done with him, but we
had to neglect the selhng department, and lost more by that.
It IS very difficult to replace a foreman to sell implements and
show them to the best advantage. He had been with me many

years as my assistant, but when my health failed I sent him.
Other men used to go with me to show particular implements.
On the 2ud of August he did not ask me to allow him to re-
main. I did not say that when he left the room he would no
longer be my servait. After we had made our arrangements
I understood from my son that he was desirous of remaiuing.
On the 4th of August I wrote a letter, in consequence of an
application from him, stating that " W. Woolnough knew R.
Garrett's views, and when he was prepared to fall in with their
views R. G. would see hiaa." Had not made any arrange-
ments for substituting him as a seller of implements, but as a
foreman. On the 4th of August he wished to le»ve, but iu
consequeace of his behaviour I could not allow it. I did try
to make an arrangement to keep him as salesman, but faded.
On the 10th of August defendant received a letter from my sod,
(The letter stated he could only be received back on R. Garrett's
terms.) The terms were that he should show the implements
and buy timber, and should have £50 a year (or buying tim-
ber and lOs. a day when he attended market. I thought I
should make his income as much as formerly. Mr. Neeve
came to me and asked me to take him back under the old con-
tract. We appointed three men the same day to take Wool-
nough's place as foreman. They were paid as common work-
men before, but their wages were advanced £1 and 10 j. a week.

Re-examioed : I received his letter on the Slst of July, but
did not proceed to make arrangements to fill his place until
the next day. I could not put the defendant as foreman over
a number of men after he had abused me before the men with-
out any cause whatever.

Mr. E. Cottingham, brother-in-law of the plaintiff, corro-
borated the previous witness as to the conversations which
took place between him and defendant on the 1st and 2nd of
Anguat.

Cross-examined : Mr. Garrett never said, " When you leave
this room you are my servant no longer." I advised Mr. Gar-
rett to give defendant the agreement and settle, but he would
not. I also advised the defendant to settle it.

James Kirrage deposed : I was in plaintiff's service in July,
and Woolnough said to me Ludbrook was the man to be put
foreman over the smiths' department. On the evening of the
2nd of August the defendant came to my house and said, " I
have left Mr. Garrett's service, that's certain, and will stand
no more of their humbug." I asked him not to be too fast.

Mr. Taylor deposed : I have been with Mr. Garrett thirty
years. On the 31st of July Woolnough came to me to settle
with him for his expenses to Carlisle. I refused ; and he said
he was off, he would have no more of it.

Cress-examined : I refused to settle the expenses, as I heard
there had been some unpleasantness between him and Mr.
Garrett. As the firm had advanced money to him I did not
know whether he had money to pay or receive.

This being the plaintiff's case,

Mr. Couch contended that no breach of covenant had been
proved.

His Lordship held that the defendant had not left the plain-
tiff's service ; but was ready to perform the agreement, only
he would not let him.

Mr. O'Malley objected and his Lordship reserved the point.

Mr. Couch was addressing the jury, when his Lordship sug-
gested that a juror should be withdrawn on the delendant pay-
ing the proportion of the bonus £184, Mr. Garrett promising
if any bilance was due to the defendant it should be deducted
from £184.

Mr. Couch applied for time for payment; but on Mr. O'Mal-
ley objecting, it was agreed that the money should be paid
under a rule of court iu a month.

Mr. O'Malley stated that there were three other actions
pending for infringement of patent, and hia client was willing
to refer the cases to any three respectable men.

Mr. Couch decli: ed to do so.

SIMPLE TEST FOR GUANO.— A bushel of guano, if
pure, weighs almost exactly 70 lbs. ; if adulterated with light
substances (which is rarely the case), it will, of course, weigh
less. If clay, marl, sand, &c., have been used, the weight will
be materially increased, and, so far as this test applies, gross
adulterations will be easily detected, — Cameron's Chemistry of
Agriculture.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

357

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR
MARCH.
Since we last wrote, the weather in nearly all parts of the
United Kiugdom has been very favourable for out-door farm
labour, in which, consequently, great progress has been made.
Much of the light wheats, and most of the spring corn, have
now been sown even in our backward counties, and the land
has been everywhere in fine condition for the reception of the
seed furrow. So far, therefore, everything is iu a satisfactory
state ; but when we consider the wheat trade, the continuous
decline in prices, and the future prospects of the growers,
there is reason to anticipate a state of things — as respects
wheat in particular — almost without a parallel. The effects of
the late severe panic in the commercial world — a panic that
has led to a decrease in our aggregate shipments during the
first two months cf the present year, compared with last sea-
son, of nearly four millions sterling — have, to some extent,
produced a decline in the consumption ; there is literally no
apecijlation going on, either in home or foreign produce, not-
withstanding that money is unusually abundant and cheap ;
and great anxiety continues to be shown by the holders of
foreign grain to sell at almost any price. The result of the
last year's wheat harvest in this country shows an enormous
yield, and an unusually large quantity on hand, both in barn
and stack. Throughout France the produce seems to be
equally large ; and the same state of things prevails in the
United States. The consequeaceis that we have had all sellers
and very few buyers, except for immediate consumption, and
forced sales of grain have continued, to the prejudice of the
value of home-grown qualities. Again, iu order to compete
with French flour — which may be had as low as 343. per
280 lbs., free on board, at Nantes — the town millers have re-
duced their top price lo 403 , and country marks have fallen in
an equal proportion. The value of wheat has, too, declined
fully 4s. rer quarter, and the question generally asked is —
When will the downward movement cease ? We can scarcely
assume that wheat can be much lower than it now is, because
it would be better for the wealthy growers to withhold sup-
plies altogether, and take the chance of future markets, than
sell at present quotations ; but, at the same time, it is very
evident that any advance cannot be anticipated at present.
The last otBcial averages show a fall in the quotations, com-
pared with the same time last year, of about 128. per quarter,
and, in the present tone of the trade, that diff'erence seems
likely to increase than diminish. From France, the north of
Europe, and from the United States, we are threatened with
heavy importations in the face of great abundance at home, and
there is not the slightest appearance of speculative investments.

The want of speculation has compelled ihe foreign houses to
sell on their own account ; consequently there has been no ac-
cumulation of supply in warehouse. However, there is no
question but that the downward movement must have a limit,
and that ordinary prudence oa the part of our farmers, and of
shippers generally, will have its accustomed influence upon the
demand.

The barley trade has continued healthy, and prices have
ruled steady. Oats, beans, and peas have likewise commanded
extreme, to rather advanced, rates; and these articles are likely
to sell well, and at full quotations, during the remainder of the
season.

A further advance, owing to their scarcity, has taken place
in the value of the best potatoes. We, however, continue to
receive large supplies from the Continent, in fair condition,
and which have changed hands at from SOs. to 105s. per ton.
Evidently, the extent of our growth last year — though we ad-
mit that a large portion of it has turned out unnt for human
consumption — has been much under-rated, as, even now, the
supplies on hand are extensive.

The result of the last Colonial sales is quite as satisfactory
as could have been anticipated, considering the dulness of trade
in our maaufacturing districts. Fine wools sold at Id. to l^d.
per pound more money ; but inferior qualities weut lower.

The English wool trade has been in a state of great depression,
and the fall in prices during the last six months has been fully
forty per cent. This decline arises, in some measure, from the
almost total absence of the usual Continental orders. This
year's clip is turning out unusually large, even in districts not
generally considered "crack" ones. Advices from Australia
bring great heaviness in the wool trade, and a fall of from Id.
to l^d. per pound in the quotations.

In the value of hay and straw very few changes have taken
place. Meadow hay has realised £2 lOs. to £4 43.; clover do.,
£3 lOs. to £5 ; and straw, £1 5s. to £1 10s. per load.

Throughout Scotland farming operations have progressed
steadily, and the wheat trade has ruled heavy, at drooping
currencies. Fat stock has likewise fallen in value.

In Ireland, the transactions in all kinds of produce have
fallen off, and prices have ruled in favour of buyers. The ship-
ments of grain to England have been very small for the time
of year.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH.

Notwithstanding that only moderate supplies of fat stock
have been on offer in the Metropolitan Market, the greatest
heaviness has prevailed in the trade generally, and a serious
decline has taken place in the quotations. The continuous
fall in prices has led to the opinion in various quarters that
the consumption of food in London is rapidly falling off.
Such, however, is not the fact, and the cause of depression
in the currencies may be easily traced. That an unusually
small amount of butchers' meat is now being consumed in
the manufacturing districts, is obvious from the enormous
supplies which have reached London by railway, and
which, in a general way, would have been sent to Manches-
ter, Birmingham, &c. These supplies— which, in some
weeks, liave amounted to twenty thousand carcasses — have
been overwhelming; so large, indeed, have the}' proved,
that the greatest difRculty has been experienced in effecting
sales on any terms. Had they been only moderately ex-
tensive, seeing that the consumption of meat in London is
still large, prices would not have run down to tlieir present
low point, and great losses, on the part of those who bought
store stock at high values, would have been prevented. On
the part of the foreigner there has been very little competi-
tion, as the surplus produce of both Holland and Germany is
still directed to France. In February there were imported
into that country 19,119 oxen and sheep, against 23,513 in
the corresponding month in 1857, and 23,050 in 1856. It
is true that these figures show a slight falling-off wlien
compared with the two previous years; yet they prove that
the production of live stock in France is considerably less
than the consumption. Our dependence upon the foreigner,
as will be seen by our statistical details, is now reduced to
a nominal amount, and the reduction in our importations
shows a steady onward progress in our prodnction, both as
regards number, weight, and condition. The high prices
prevailing in this country up to a recent period have, no
doubt, operated as a stimulus to production ; and our impres-
sion is that there is now more stock, both in England and
Scotland, than has been known for many years past.
Perhaps, however, our remarks may be more strictly ap-
plied to beasts, the breeds of which are now undergoing
changes of great importance. In Norfolk the shorthorns
have been more generally introduced, not only as a separate
breed, but they have been mixed with Scots, until the pure
breeds of the latter have become much less numerous than
formerly ; in point of fact, the Scots in Norfolk are not now-
kept up, as formerly, by direct arrivals from Scotland, owing
to the Scotch breeders keeping their store animals at home,
and the shorthorns have been more generally introduced
into that and the adjoining counties as fresh blood j hence,

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

of late years, noble-looking and heavy Scots, to all appear-
ance, have arrived from Norfolk ; whereas it has been re-
cently discovered that they are crosses Tvith the shorthorns.
The supplies of really pure Scots now derived from Scot-
land for the Metropolitan Market are oradually falling off:
the size of the stock is increasing, and yet no fault can be
found with the quality of the meat. Scotland, therefore,
arising from the steady increase in the growth of the root
crops, is now furnishing more meat than at any given period
during the present century. To some extent, these re-
marks may be applied to Ireland. The old Irish breed,
generally a slow feeder and a large consumer, is making
way for English blood. Crosses are now the general fashion,
and we are, consequently, enabled to draw stock from most
of the Irish ports during each month of the year. We will
not now stop to argue the question whether this comparative
neglect of pure blood will eventually reduce uur supplies of
food ; but, to all appearances, tlie system up to this point
has worked well, and greatlj- increased the amount of con-
sumable food.

Compared with the corresponding period last year, prices,
almost generally, show a fall of nearly Is. per 'd lbs., but we
see no reason to apprehend any further important decline.
True, we have bread at very low figure — viz., from 4^d,
to 7id. per 4 lbs. loaf; but, on the other hand, potatoes of
good and sound quality are very scarce and dear. It fre-
quently happens, however, that whilst the commerce of the
country is in an active state, and whilst the price of wheat
is low and drooping — such being the case at this moment —
the effect upon the value of other kinds of food is important ;
and it is just possible, even though the trade of the country
may revive, that both beasts and sheep will be selling at
rather low quotations during the next two or three months,
unless there is a considerable falling off in the ai'rivals of
dead meat per railway.

In nearly the whole of our grazing districts the health
of the stock has continued good, and very few losses have
teen sustained bj^ disease. The lambing season has passed
off remarkably well, the weather having been highly fa-
vourable for it, and the fall has been larger and stronger
than for many years past.

The following return shows the importations of live stock
into the United Kingdom during the past month : —

Beasts , 666 head.

Sheep 318 „

Calves 527 „

Total

1,511

Same time in 1857 5,419 „

„ 1856 1,842 „

„ 1855 2,10.3 „

„ 1854 8,409 „

1853 10,884 „

., 1852 6,747 „

„ 1851 8,.381 „

„ 1850 ,... 6,004 „

The above comparison shows that last month we imported
a smaller amount ofsupply than during the last eight years;
but this falling-off has been 7nore than made good by in-
creased production at home — a fact which appears to be
■worthy of special remark.

The total supplies of stock shown in the London market,
derived from all sources, have been as under : —

Beasts 17,821 head.

Cows 476 ,,

Sheep and lambs 74,410 „

Calves 704 „

Pigs 1,915 „

Comparison of Supplies.

Pigs.
2,230
2,140
2,765
2,780
2,780

The few lambs on offer have sold slowly, at from 6s. to,
in some instances, 7s. per 8 lbs. ; and the supplies of '

March.

Beasts.

Cows.

Sheep.

Calves

1857...

. 17,345

490

74,880

1,118

1856...

22,623

470

100,700

797

18.55.. .

18,644

380

88,790

835

1854.. .

. 20,588

532

93,060

1,091

1853...

. 19,228

360

85,680

1,614

out of the wool, have rapidly increased. The general quo-
tations have ruled thus :— s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 2 10 to 4 6

Mutton 3 0—5 2

Lamb 6 0—7 0

Veal 4 0—5 2

Pork 3 0—44

Comparison of Prices.

March, 1855. March, 1856. March, 1857.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Beef, from 3 4 to 5 0 .. 2 10 to 4 10 .. 3 4 to 5 0

Mutton .. 3 4 — 5 2., 3 2 — 5 2.. 4 2 — 6 0

Veal .... 3 10 — 5 4.. 4 10 — 6 0..4 4 — 5 8

Pork .... 3 2—5 4.. 3 4 — 4 8.. 3 6 — 5 2

The month's arrivals of beasts from Norfolk, Suffolk,
Essex, and Cambridgeshire have amounted to about 10,610
Scots and shorthorns ; from other parts of England, 2,600
of various breeds; from Scotland, 1,720 Scots and crosses;
and from Ireland, 1,350 oxen and heifers.

Immense supplies of each kind of meat have been on
offer in Newgate and Leadenhall. The trade generally has
ruled heavy in the extreme, and a considerable fall has taken
place in the quotations. Beef has sold at from 2s. lOd. to
4s. ; mutton, 3s. lOd. to 4s. 4d. ; lamb, 4s. 8d. to 6s. ; veal,
3s. 8d. to 4s. 8d. ; and pork, 3s. to 4s. 4d. per 8 lbs. by
the carcase.

The City authorities — under, we presume, the impression
that a change of day will improve the trade of the Metro-
politan Market towards the close of the week — have deter-
mined to change the daj' of holding the market from Fri-
daj's to Thursda3's. The continued falling-off in the supplies
of stock, when compared with Smithfield, and the enormous
sums lavished upon the new market, have rendered it ne-
cessary to double the tolls ; and now, [in order to attract
additional supplies and more buyers, a change in the day is
considered necessary. The authorities should bear in mind
that double tolls will have the effect of reducing the supplies
shown— that ever since the market has been removed a
smaller number of stock, taken in the aggregate, has been
brought forward— and that any change ia the day ought to
be taken into consideration by purely practical men. We
are told that the butchers require more time to get their
stock home and slaughter it for Sattirday's business ; but
surely every man at all acquainted with the trade must be
aware that the butcher — more especially as he has now to
travel several miles of additional ground— finds it necessary
to visit. Mi OHC day, not only the Metropolitan (or live)
market, but also Newgate and Leadenhall. Now, in hot
weather, this would be impossible; and it is quite clear to us
that the change — as was the case many years since — will
prove a complete failure, and that eventually only one mar-,
ket day will be held in each week, because unquestionably
the butcher's interest must be consulted, or he will turn his
attention to local markets, which are now rapidly increasing
in importance.

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE,

FAIRS, &c.

CARMARTHENSHIRE EAIRS.— Cattle fairs have been
held at Haverfordwest on the 20th, at Narbeth on the 22Dd,
and at Newcastle Emlyn aud Cross Inn ou the 23rd of this
month. The show of store beasts was considerably under the
average of former years, and the dealers purchased very
sparingly at from 12 to 15 per cent, lower than last year's
prices. Fat cows sold readily at from 5d. to 6|^cl. per lb., ac-
cording to quality, sinking the offal. The few cows with
calves shown, sold at highly remunerating prices. Horses
and colts were scarce, and sold at very high rates. The small
number of bacon pigs and porkers sold at from 5^^. to 6d. per
lb. dead weight. A fair number of store pigs were on offer;
those sold rather sluggishly at lower prices.

DERBY FAIB.— The horse fair was very small, and with
few exceptions the animals exhibited were of a middling cha-
racter. In horned cattle and sheep very little busineaa was

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

359

done. The attendance was unusually scanty, and the fair 13
described a3 being upon the whole " very poor."

DURHA.M FAIR. — Buyers were numerous. Colonel
Teasdale attended as a purchaser on behalf of the Govern-
ment. Superior horses sold at about 100 guineas ; army
horses, £25 to £30, and in acme few instances, £35 ; best
cart horaes, £30 to £35 per head; commoner animals were a
drug-. Prices are 10 to 15 per cent, lower than last year.
Dealers and farmers state that prices are yet likely to fall consi-
derably.

EAST RETFORD FAIR.— There was a good attendance
of buyers and sellers. There was a very large show of agri-
cultural and draught horses of a superior description. There
were but few hacks shown, and but little business done in
either description of these animals. Prices ruled, for really
useful sorts of draughts, from £33 to £40; hacks, £20 to £30.
As usual there were plenty of " offal" horses on sale. There
was a large supply of cattle, but very little fat stock on sale.
Drapes and steers readily sold from £9 to £14, according to
size and quality. Mrlkers and store beasts went off sluggish.
There were but few calves. Beef sold at 8s. per stone, and
mutton at 6|d. per lb. Hogs realized 37s. fully. Few sheep
were penned.

HELSTON FAIR. — Purchasers were not willing to give so
high prices as ruled for some time past. Towards the close of
the fair, however,- a good amount of business was done. A
fine lot of bullocks, five iu number, reared by Mr. John
Tyacke, of Merther, was sold by auction, and realized good
prices.

HEXHAM FAIR.— A moderately light show of cattle,
which met a brisk demand at good prices, excepting roilk
cows, which sold slowly at drooping prices. Horses a very
good show; demand slack, prices lower, and many left unsold.
Pigs a numerous show, at lower rates, and part left unsold.

HORNCASTLE HOG SHOW AND FAIR-Was the
largest that has ever beeu known, the reccut favourable altera-
tion in the weather haviug brought sellers of stock into the
market in large numbers, in expectation of a rise in prices.
Both beasts and sheep partook of the upward tendency, and
although the market was rather lower than was anticipsled,
the stock exhibited was gradually disposed of. There vras a
strong interest excited iu vhe competition for the silver cup,
given by Mr. Stanhope to the exhibitor of the best pen of he-
hogs ; the competitors being Mr. Parker, of Waims.uate, Mr.
Jos. Walter, of Edlingtoa, and Mr. Jos. Davey, of FuUetby.
Mr. Parker was again fortunate enough to bear off the prize,
and obtain a companion to the cup he won last year. The
judges were Jos. R Kirkham, Esq., Andleby, Mr, Harwood
Mackinder, Langton, and Mr. Mayfleld, Dogdyke.

ILSLEY FORTNIGHTLY MARKET.— There was about
an average supply, and a fair attendacce of dealers. The sheep
this season are in good condition, and handled remarkably well.
The trade was dull, but eventually nearly the whole was dis-
posed of at about Is. to 2s. per head reduction from that day
fortnight.

LEOMINSTER FAIR was well supplied with most de-
scriptions of stock, but the trade ruled rfull except for steers
and good barren cows, and those were in demand at high
rates. Cows and calves met with customers aad remunerative
prices. Beef averaged 6^d. ; and wether mutton, in the wool,
7jd. per lb.] Pigs were low. Really good horses in demand
at high rates ; inferior animals lower.

MUIR OF ORD FAIR.— 3,689 sheep, chiefly Cheviot
hoggs, were for sale. Last year the number on the same day
was 3,690. On this occasion the sheep were in fair condition,
but not equal to last yesr ; and ia estimating the fall of prices,
some allowance must be made for this fact. The want of keep
throughout the country, and the depreciation in prices, told
heavily on the market. Until about three o'clock o.ily two
transactions were reported; these were two lots, each of from
300 to 400 Cheviot wether hoggs, in good condition and well-
bred, which were sold at a guinea a-head — Mr. Scobie, Lochin-
ver, and Mr. Clarke, Eribole, being the purchasers. They
were reported to be the best lots on the ground. After three
o'clock Mr. Scobie gave the market a little activity by pur-
chasing several lots of hoggs, at from 18s. to 20s., which were
counted cheap at the money, and sold from want of keep at
home. Mr. Eraser, Mauld, bought a lot of Cheviot hoggs
from Mr, Ross, Fairburn, at 1 49. ; and another lot at the siuie

Hgore. Mr. Sim, Scotsburc, sold a lot of black-faced hoggs
at 13s. A fine lot of half-bred wethers, belonging to Mr. Mac-
lennan, Tomich, were intercepted on their way to t'nr Inver-
ness steamer, by which they were to be £eut to Edinburgh,
and were bought by Mr. Jackson at Sos. a-head. Mr. Mac-
kav, Cape Wrath, bought Cheviot wether hoggs at 19s ; Mr.
Mackenzie, Baluabeeu, sold the Mulcbaich shot Cheviot
wether hoggs at £16 per clad score. The market ou Thurs-
day was duller than on Wednesday, and at a late hour little
or nothiug had been done. Forty cattle were on the ground,
fifty horses, and seventy-ni pigs, besiues a Urge portion of the
sheep exposed on the previous day. A good many horses
changed hands, and most of the pigs ; but, so far as ne could
iearn, there waa not aa offer made for any of ihe lots 0! cattle,
and nothiug further was done in sheep. Horaea were greatly
down fromldst year, and pigs were selling at aomething like
20 per f-eut. less than at tlie corresponding luarket of 1857.

NEWARK FAIR.— There was a moderate supply of store
beasts, which sold as well an was expected, at prices consider-
ably below those realized this time last year. There was a
good supply also of milking cows, but prices were not so high
as at previous markets. We had a good show oi alitep, wiiich
sold off much lower than last year ; hogs fetched about £2
each. Not many lambs were shown at the stock market on
Tuesday; the show of sheep was good. Prices were 6d.
per lb. out of wool, and 7d. in wool. Beef realized 7s. to 73.
6d. per stone.

ROSS FAIR was not so well attended as it generally has
been. Beef fetched 7d.per lb., mutton 6|d. There were very
few horses offered, and the talcs were generally dull.

UPTON FAIR. — The supply of stock was larger than
usual. Useful cows and calves sold at from £13 to £14 a-
piece; barrens about £11 or £12 each ; wether sheep averaged
from 30s. to 40s. a-head. Store pigs were numerous, and
were disposed of at a considerable reduction in price from last
year's value.

WREXHAM FAIR was exceedingly well attended by
business men, but the tendency of prices for all kinds of stock,
with the exception of sheep, was downwards, aud in conse-
quence not a very large amou-jt of business was done. The
show of fat stock was good, but barrens fetched the best prices
comparatively. Sheep were scanty, both fat aod store, and
prices were firm. Of horses there was a larger show, especially
of cart-horses, amongst which there were many fiuc animals,
the prices ranging from £30 to £50. Pigs were plentiful, and
cheaper than ever kno*a in Wrexham.

YORK FAIR. — Very few lean beasts were shown, and
business trifling. A moderate supply of horses had slow de-
mand, at rates much below last Palmsuu fair.

IRISH FAIRS — Ballinakill: There was a
average display of stock. Prices ruled pretty much as during
the past month, and good stora stock were in demand.
Store pigs sold a shade^lower than previously. At Athlone
Fair there was large supply of prime cattle, for which
there was little demand, in consequence of the absence of
Leinster buyers. The supply of pigs was very large, but
the demand was slow, and prices were very considerably
down from the January fair. Carlow : There was a good
supply of stock, principally stores ; but there was a disincli-
nation on the part of graziers to purchase, unless cattle of
good quality. Fat stock manifested a downward
tendency — some prime lots brought good prices.
Mr. Joseph Fishbourne sold two three-year-old stall-
fed heifers for £17 per head. Major M'Mahon received for
a lot of fat heifers £13 5s. per head. A large lot of stores,
two and a half years old, were cold by Mr. B. B. Feltus to
P. Maher at £10 per head. Beef may in general be quoted
from 50s. to 55s. per cwt. for prime. Strippers and dry cows
were numerous, and those of a good quality sold we'l ; inferior
classes were not much in request, prices ranged from £13 to
£16. Mr. Browne, of Ballyraggan, county Kildare, sold a lot
of three-year-olds far £10 12s. 6d. per head'; and Mr. Browne,
ofCorbally,alotofthree-year-old bullocks, at £11 17s ;6d. The
sheep fair was thinly supplied, but some lots of excellent qua-
lity were exhibited. Mr. Thomas Dowse sold a prime lot (fat)
at £3 10?., the top price ; Mr. Peter Salter, a lot of wethers
at £2 7s. per head. ' The average price of hoggets was from
353. to 42s. Store pigs from 203. to 253., bonhams 73. to 123,
per couple.

-r^o

bi tic to ?c Si) can bt "^ to be S

be be ESiWi"'S_^

»o M ' — 1/5 CO "^ ca -

. • • P-s

, . • »f^ fi
"1, .". •=.~.'^.^-§

bctcbe^'bcbc bebBbcbBbBCjD

OrHOOOO OOOOOO

J5 j:

^ — Ol f

« 5f ° S > C -2 •

=. Mi ^

tl 0) C Eh

: :s

s s a g a ;S

:= a

••a .5 t->

^ C3 O CS t.

: s

_|-£Esg

^= "5 fe » fe g E S

If

£ -a

e -

c« g

5 ^

'b2 : 1

*2 CS 3 -a • be
t= S £ J3 ■- • K .

^ > o i s S

rt » >- 5 .^' -c
O 03 O E !5 H

o 3 S be CO J2

=• o 3 ^2 S

^ ^ O) & o ^

o

<!
to

K

f^
o
p^

J/}
o

I— I

<
1/2

•T3 -3 -3 '3

OS

:ai

fc

tA's -So :,

■£ S 2:J -'^ ! -

S r -^ br J '
Q & " 3 Z '

^ ID 5 O O

=2 -s -Q -
"2 o ^. "a o

n o in =^ 'f'

c c c

'SO

c a c
o o 3 o o c o

^ ;

J = "2

M ;

fa^ >

,as^

2 •

so_

•P J.! .C

rill

•Ot32 5 3 gS»

:««

c c c

'00000
^ & & & s

o 00 'OOOgO^OO

^' ^7: • CO CQ ^ '-«*^ 7? W O

c c ""

■ " O 3 O i . _
.... ^ - ^ ^

'- -.t>-H,-, t^,^ •'5)

■a •3T3'3-c-s'3-3-a'a-3-3

c3 cccjce53cflrfc:5c3rtn3

l> -«.>:c ;c

a 3 c c

3.r- 10

H = c

5. _s;__ __ O) — — ■

! -3 -a -3

J 13 CS =

! T3 '3 73

i rt rt 3

m

• • • • ° ° • J = 5"

■s

IL • ■ "

: £■

S ; : :

.:'•'. -

0

X

^

0 • t.^ : 3 3 • 3 p s

1 ill :Sg„|w1

w N ° 0 S V- c a, ° 0 c
^ c ■''SS ° s £ -fS 0

TO- 0 0 ci4^7:.= cd^

"5

s
0

01

•5 ^SS

<D 3

C • • t ■

0 t ; ! ■

0

■J
■a

C3 XI

0

a

J2

c
■5
0

'3
0"

a ^-g

(S

•3

3
p

0
0

:

£tS^ '^

. E ® i_

.h t^ ct £

n^ o*<

lilJ

■=00-3

e
0
1

3

1

^0

c 0

1 =

fe . ^ x: c f*^

JE-Sc^'l
"3 « .„ *^ c S

„ P E^ i^-s

0 5-g^ 0 s °

f-S 3 XI • ^

E ^<- S : 0

0 i5 0 2 - °

g CS 3 . t^ g

mill

Xi 0 «

'3 M "3
3 .i.g

3 ^ i:

%} A
S3 1 §

il II

:^ C-.!^t>,:».>.. !>,&.>>>>;^>>

>>;-,>> t-.

>-»&-.>>:*.>%>%

>.> >-.>-.

-3 ^ .£

^ .^ — X3

x^ ^

^ JS J3 J= ^ JD

to

-si

l^

tC— C»"t'l»t>t^CBt>«

^

00 to «o 1> 00 0

00 <o 0

^ « ^ ^ ^

"

; ^ ;;;;;; ^ ; ;

; : "

^

0

• 3 ^ e: • ■ ■z • c -5

_^

i<^ c •

.3.3..
. 3 ■ 3 . •

:::=': 3

>-> >.c^'TiO^>^0>^aJ>^0

^ « '^ ^

a-.^. :>. oS'Sxi-.

S-. X t>.

0

.0 ^ j:

-3

.c ^ u be

J3 J=

j3 0 be. 0 XI XI

.3 .3 XJ Xi J2 0

;;•;(->;;

3

l-S i i

• '.^

E

iJI ;P \

0
0

0 c a E
0 7",j<! 0

0 a 03

' 0 t^ ' c

3 •
0 ^

• ■ 0

2 »j 0

' -1

'<

ca
-a
0

£ = •= - — -3 S' 0 fr> 0 ^

0 'E 2

0. a
0 -

f -i^ = 3

£ a.
br-^

3 3 0 = be s

.3 St.

0 0 .-

£

od

<!

<1

^<j-<<;.3<-<-5;

■<K

sp:

K

fPWpqW

nn

vooo;.

> 0

00c

wnp

P

nfl

JS r-a

S UI&D to

o . . .

be bo be bD bo sc tie be bD CUD !3D

be be bo bo be
o ® o o o

-•a

be be HO

2^

tut) bC^ bJD be iB
»0 »0 S »i3 S ^

G^ rt 0*

&r ut bo be

»0 O CO «

bG bJD

CO 1/3

tJD be bO ^
O O (M ^

e (U en

sas §:

BO ^oo.<; 73-CD«aiB
CO _. " . .

o w

o o

IS CD

gga;

eife'a

ga

PS

Pi f.

:a i

! «

be

sa aa

5 fe =
fe a a r^ jj p^ s

gda

be.2

5 v5^

;2 3

5 °5

3 —
o s

Or/)

' rt . bo :

M £ 5 -~ '

^ .i '^ >^ ^ fl

•S3

s ^

we

JZCOZbd

o ^-
o _ 1

c a

:i; Hi 5

S S

g > - S

• g -^ O

: S =<2i

: « - S

g o - =: -M
o ^--^ =

5 O ^ >

' i: SO

. J5 S CO ^

.C/3

•a j3

^. 2 Hi 5 g I J

ir^ I S ^ 1? S

-tn ^ Sm ai^.=: a.

Ilil||^|=g|i||

o cQ 03 o -J aa a r/: W o ->->

= =

e £;.

•a T3 -3 -3 Ti -73 -o

C C C C C C fl

-3 '0,t3 t3t3 TS T^t^

>. £■-

< o i

^°-a

c = =

|g

la

:cci-l
: c c
3 o o

c c

• • ^

o

-« "cc

tS

(^ — "^

^

^><^

--^t

s

%7r/?.

-^1

Z«H&

^

o o o o

c c

5 §=2 c^ £

P.-a'S -eS-S
„, o g & ^ »

=:0 g^^O

c c ' c c a

o o 5 o o o

fc S - fe & 6

Q to
o hJ

c c
o c

O -ff*?^ iO iC rli

C "^ C
c - ~
fe ^

tf -rj Ti T3 T! "3 T3 -a 'a TJ

. C^ .C i-H • OS c^

i - S c T3 5 c '

p. :x —

50 O

■a -a

s c c c
o o o o

tS T* 'O '^ '^

C3 CS rf rt C3

CO ■*
•3 -a

' o o 5

O CO ■

c « -'
S o j;

c« CIS cj C3

': 5 <=' ct

a; qj q; Qj
5 s S 3

._, ^ j3

C6 f~ ^

o gQ

C5 ^

O O ■- O S 1

^ o >^ c- Q n

•^ - CD 5 = £?

3 5 2 ^ » 3

>> £^ t^ b% >.

S^ JZ X^ .Q J2

■S-2 J= • >.,=.

^ ,_, -. . CO S! — f -^ ^ >,

|^s.2at,^£i>.^

2 - ^ - !^ sT. t^ 'S M"^

'■♦J ^ ^ m P^C'*^^-7^.D
j^ =« O .- - S -^ « 3 O

° <= ° -^ - <_ S ° S o o
o o o^ .-g c o- « =

I-/) *J C -'-=' ™ r-^ O '^- ^ Tfi ffl

>^ n 5 -^ 3 -5 H f> M £ 5

C>-, t>^>^fc->>»>.>^>-»^X>-.

=3 3t3 cu
olol

s c2 1 ■-

i-=

PS o

a .

§^- - -^

Eh >^^ (^tJ
oTcc O ^ V.

3 S ^ S O

^ o _f^ o
p< ■" K • -

- s = ^§
" fc Z. S -s

3 O o O C3

= = «

Sffl 2 f^S

o

*^ rt ^ eta y
.2 55 X >. o o

-1 S c -

-f S 3 fe CIS 3
< C8 W « S

li'.

3 O O

oC o o

3^'
O 3

i 3 .i2

; .3 O

- 3 „ S t- -

- o s>. r "■

. . 0) •

.' : a b

: :S?i

^ • 01 CD

.2 : II
== ^^ =>

S fe iS °

5 s 2 cs

^isa

3 C3

3 ■ 5 -^

•a-^ 5 a

■S sa^

^, ° t. 3

S » - 2

O '=' ^ o

3 o g-g

^ c3 £:« 3 "C

I c3 « C3 CS O

PL,soOP5-

J= ^ j3 ^ ^

• -. c3 '"ois 'aj 'S o "3 S c3 n:: .i -3 r'? ^ S 2 5

rH 00 m

> UO

wcsicW'-'Coeoaoc

O aOt* C;l>,Ct»C2C^ COCOCD r^O OJCSt^ — l>05 OOrHI

X o >* t** o >»

JD X> J3-C^.O.SJ5.a-Q-C

-2 „- be
S. an

2"

o 2
botS -<

3 OJ 73

>•§ W Q o-o

? " . , TV O 03

o ca be bc+j fc,

^^ o C C ^ -^

x^

1 =

■3 S

3 g.C5

MMl-5

S^^ o
oo oSf- 2^ 3
•^ bo be be bo bo • '
2.S .S.S.SB=-g

3 O ^ _

So oS

^ U 3 O

a c ca a

C 3 ^ O

01 cd o a>

"S 60T3 &

^ 3 t: 3

:t: o o o

M te gi bf) tx es

M •* M « <N W

J= ji ji ^ j££

ja ^ J3 ^ J3 J=

•^ ^ far-

ffiSKSiJfl, HP, O

0 QC ^ bo

5 s ^^' g :? 03 a g ;

a Klg^^SH

Who w

. o o

■= £ ^ i^-g = .S
bs d j3 £ c b "j!.

OJ 'H

^■2.

S5

s " - ^

ca 3 o a> . t

t^SS 5 (S s i5 & m c

~ — £ " F c
^ 5 I S c S f c

oi ? to 2 S c "
2 p. *" — ^ S" ^
c5 tsea ^Eco o

:q ? p

_0 ' g r/.'
■ « e3 3 3 O £

) W :2 r,, e ci O

• H „ 53 JJ

= a

P^B

. o

C =8

■ -3

o oT

3 e

■Si

ri

CO

C30
I— I

o

JO

W
o

o
►J

02

'^■?§

T?'^ T3'UX!t3 'ri'3'^

.S N ei O m 3 .

c c c c c

:p:-a :

• • tn

m O. •

:|^l
■^s'^

£ -5 cu

. CO

U3

o o

C 3 C 3 C .33

ooooo -oo
6: & & E: S

3 "^^ /^ CD J C I

) z o W 55 ^x (5 1

2K> ^

^od

; -3 „ m

^.1° o
WccoS

a = c 3

' o o c o c o o
^ fe Is fc fe & fe

>H g g o - rt

HJ a. Q .2 ^^ O
rt ^ ^ ^ w -^

o 5 -s o £ ;,

3 C 3 C 3 3

O Qj

QO'^t^^»^^^co coo

C c 3 3 3 3 3
o o o o o o o

■B -s — i:; -a ^ -3

c^ ;o i>
3— p c c

t^ p,C^ -30 ,-t

•C "■« -a -73

"S * "S t^ ■§

rt nj rf C^ rt

C 3 3 3 -
o o c O

e fe & &

71 CC O •* CO (?»

3 3 3 3 3 C
O O O O O O

CO 51

;a> p.a5«cQt^.i>r-ii>

o <-^

T3 t3

03 c:

EH3

^ ' - c - ^ o

S S "S ~ tf) „ PL,

« 13 ° ^ > S 3

- := ^ -^ <=. O g

'^ O c; S qT-j fli

3 .a o g a^

e o^.

O

; ^ g

c 's i; 5 «"

sS «

i-

5§.o

■" to <=3 -5

3; H C8 »

= §•= 3.

2 * ;^ X^ ■ 3

•° !> 3 XS M 03

r- P IE CO CD « 3

■° 3'3^ o <!

^■=2-f g 3 i =

3 O

O a
■a .5

•)3 &

3 > cr!

a fl e ° =^
c H S ~^ 3

0, S t^■^•° P<

^5

3 «

S a> j3 pq _2

3'S^ i*^
5 cDra3 °
S If = ° . —

t; S CD -■ o 3

u

^If--- 3 3 ^^0^-2^3 3

30 0 o c-g-s!! c i«

^-■S cD-a;° ° o s »>
oo?o3.o2

o ct; -c -3 o

5 3

5 ~ -i

o-q

I fiH I?; CO B a ^
X >, X t*. >. X >. , .

XiJ3JDJD.Q-Q-3^

- .-a 2 2 t, - o^ ..

, _ '- t-. 3 3

5 &

3-S-"S.;:X33S.iCNa,a)g
osis^vceoo^ P.^ 3 j= j= g

r^ — ■ .y _C rrn m L_, CL^ tH TtT ^ rr- c^ Clj ^.'

J3 .i
Elo^^O 3

t*. 3 t-. !>. >-. b-, >> X 1*. (>-. X l>. S-. X !». X X X t>.

J ^ XJ

.« -

x.-s

f' pj

■"J

q

iSn

-1

0

0 S

3 c«

0 ?'n

H

t-o

:^s

i.^

°t^

i^-K

r-l

= °

-*-;

in

2 3

i a"

a
0

0

0

b2 =

-

,^r°

.- JS

t>

SB

too

X

S-. >^

x (->

^ -O j3^

^ ja .Q ja ^'x

(>t-l>I>01> — CO t^O <0 0)OI>»CO^C0C0[G005C0 CDt>OOCiQO"*^iOO»ai>t>.OOcO CO (>»0 i5S0»

^ E^-Si;

'■ .1 '.'.'. I '•'. c '•'• ^ '■ c3Je''''c33333 ' "3' J'

S ■-; cat«c3ajc3ce^,aic4taj3ca t.J=t--(Scoa3cai.x:j:j3X:J3 « .ca SjS
^ ■= JJ3^XlXlX)XJXJJ3X>tlXl X>OJSJDJ3X3J5^XJUO:aO^ X3 O^ ^3

T3^ S?S
oirtSa''3.'2So

as a

C J3

m "i .2 &

"cS C3

Pi|i,p,(iip,S^(SS|iro'I^WM W wS PhPi

J3^

4!^

tjD tn (

iO ^ooooooooo

6iD fci bo be bD tr be be i

tr bjD tf t£ bo

o r:;

c —

K ffit

Hli'

•-^ (/J >^ S h'

gfepiea aa ^gg ^gffiggd:^ ag£a=g gg

1^1

.2 2 ■ '. t>^

a -a

!- o

g-g p S j; g- o « cj &
0<:tC(§g-^wSK q

Sgg&gggSg g

^s'

>i= gnS

fc-55 -s-

" S C ")J

m S .b c —
o S f ~;S '

J3 o

S i^ (^ pq ^ <! E-c

c

^Ha

- 5 :•«

- g G . o

: s ^. s a

:2 > •«

: : a

• . J=

■ .' 3

~ ' - 3

« o j= ^ a, '

fi" ■ bn "t^ "2 -^ <; ^J-
&.-'?■= o 5 -a '^-' "

>-H a

«-S "".(

£ f^ ^.^

t^gaas

— C3

■a £; csT!

qj o

= S
5 S

G C C C C
3 3 3 3 3

o o

§"33 = =

of =^
,q o o

53 ?i 'i^ o" c5 5 C5 '

S n, S

IS s

g-^So '£2

3 2-^=; - ^.

Q Q O T» O E-i

c c G c a a

o o o o o o

fe fe & & fe fe

I 3

c C c

i^s^ (Si
>. 5; 3 S -iJ ■'

C 3 C C

^HO

3 3

-jTT ca >-< »

O w CO W 1^2 ^ ^

.S ee 3 5 3

B to m 'S «

•d -3

• TO o ;■- TO -* — '

oj 0 o o o 00

g & ^ & 5 S fe

^ 3 S S rt S 5

3 £

'TO -^ ot

3 3 3
000
fe & fe

— = — — TOOO'-TO-*

'3'T3t3'T3T3T3'3T:J'T3

og

S-o

■^ r^

« ^'^

Is

C5 §

•=2

^ S o .s fc. ,

?sa* = --

g cc C3 " o o
^-'C'S g .0

:5 3 « 3 o g

E^ S M Q O "^ C
>-. X t».

^ H^H

• • to • . ''^

■ "3 • • >,

J= 3 ^ 3 •■=

3 -I O -s = S

'^ »" b = ?,
^ -S -;3;-^

^ x; -o x> js'-Q

-.S 3- o ti^'-cw'S

^ O 3 _ >»^ 2 3 J3 o,

= 0.0^ qT3 so OS'S
^ n 3 3^^«*-. S'^

;°,r-3 °^^er^§

>S3 >tr=OCO
^ 3 "" "^ -^ 3 "S ^ °

5ra-g-S;S 5 ?;^ o-g »

i<l,3«^.gS§.-'^ =

:3o^'-3.eos^O

5 fi H o O w o H « o

c .a -a

,2 1>>

g-cpa

2o

00!^
^ t^ ^'^

B 3 o

• • • 3 c> -I

• • o g c .Ts
o ::3 .2 o - ~

- g « £ I --5 «

-"3 -3 HH t-j'u cS b*

CO

- 3 5i 3 J „ ;
"g gm ° „ -

_ _ 3 OJ

H3S^.'jSsli
gf g<S 3--5J

gij r

3 3 ci
-" O 3

3-S

■533

S •= s ^ .^

'I g ^ 3 I J3

o o'S

t; -S '3 '~ ■? ■" 2 = ° o
ci3;^3i;S---2 "1

.S- =s

2 C3

>OP

-O -3 X>

«= « in

I— P-H Oi ,-1

iraoO CDt-H t^0S3i>O«C0CDl»O lCOt>WI> 00O<N[ COOO— iCOoi^OOt^O — O CDw

. >-. o o >» o

p o >> t^ >»

^ ^ i ,0 J3

>. t>^ p >^ p O

.3) jD -3 iD 5 r:

M ° -°
,0 J3 ^

1^

ca
■3 3 !s

£i£«

H 2 2^ GHi o

H Hf fl< (U

S^ c 5-1=3 C;S cs

0 0 3c.

5 a tT-a T3

aM'XiajWMccoDHE-i HHE-1E-1-' ^r-t^f*

So

3C:

■3^ 3 3

Sb-5 .S- 5 o «

§g

0 5

364

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW or THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

The mouth of March has exhibited extraordinary
differences of temperature. The first fortnight was
a continuation of the sternness with which February
closed ; but immediately afterwards a brilliant spring-
time commenced, with a warmth occasionally op-
pressive, and an almost entire absence of rain. Field-
work was immediately resumed, and the sowing of
Lent corn, which had been interrupted by the severe
frost, has proceeded most favourably. " Whatever
damage was done to the wheat and other autumn-
sown corn by the cutting winds must soon be ap-
parent, but as respects the principal grain very little
harm has been yet reported beyond what might have
been expected on exposed and light lands, from tlie
want of a snow covering. The dryness of the whole
season, and the general appearance of the plants, are
favourable to future prospects. The uncertainty of
politics at the outset of the month seemed a check
upon business, but the renewed assurances of peace,
followed by the most propitious weather, and a
liberty to export wheat in the Papal States, have
combined, towards the month's close, to somewhat
reduce prices, and the value in the Loudon market
has receded about 4s. per qr. On all hands it is
allowed that good stocks exist throughout the coun-
try ; and if, with a steady importation from abroad,
farmers show an anxiety to sell, and overdo the
markets at a time when the spririt of speculation is
entirely wanting, there can be but one result, viz.,
a still lower range than what is now obtaining. One
thing is however certain, that the reduction in value
greatly increases consumption; and the largest im-
portations and lowest rates have invariably been fol-
lowed by scarcity and dearness, and the safety of
holding must be proportioned to the moderation of
prices.

In the Baltic the season was commenced with
empty garners, and the produce of 1857 in these
quarters is consequently reported to be below an
average; and should any drought occur this year
in tiiese fertile provinces, they may require au
importation : while Spain continues in this posi-
tion, and is likely to remain so till her new
crop is gathered. Neither Odessa or the United
States have yet shaped their course by the English
markets, though doubtless supplies will come
on thence for the chance of improvement here,
but not at the rates suggested by interest or appre-
hension, for old wheat has beconie a scarcity both in
the old world as well as the new one ; and while it
behoves us never to mistrust au overruling Pro-
vidence, it is well to remember that the blade on the
ground is not the sheaf in the barn. The importa-
tion from the Papal States is not permitted beyond
the end of May, and should prices rise materially
before then, would be suspended. In Southern
Europe and Algeria the wheat crop at present looks
well, but in the North some fears have been felt, as
the consequence of the great changes and exposure.

The following were the recent quotations of wlieat
in different foreign ports : — At Paris the finest quality
is quoted 41s., aud Antwerp notes 42s. 9d. per qr.
as a (op price. Polish wheat at Amsterdam brought
56s. per qr. The best quality on the spot at Ham-
burgh was held at 45s. The rate at Stettin was
40s. 6d., aud at Berlin 41s. 6d. Ghirka aud Polish
wheat at Odessa was stUl worth 43s. per qr. Low
Saidi wheat at Alexandria had sold at -275. 9d.
Berdianski quality, at Leghorn, was held at 44s. per
qr. At Alessandria, in Piedmont, top price was
41s. for soft wheat. Barcelona quotations were
still as high as 52s. 8d. per qr. New York, by last
accounts, was firmer ; the price of good red there
was 1 d. 25 c, equal to 43s. per qr. ; Southern white
1 d. 30 c. to 1 d. 521 p., equal to 44s. 8d. to 52s.
per qr.

The foreign importations into United Kingdom for
the two months ending February 28th, 1858, were
606,394 qrs. of wheat, and 613,860 ewt. of flour.

The first Monday commenced on a small supply
of foreign wheat, and a moderate one of English ;
from the near counties, during the morning, the
samples were but few. The weather was then ex-
tremely cold, and the condition being improved, it
went off steadily at the prices of the previous week ;
there was also a fair retail demand for foreign. In
the country there were but slight changes : Hull,
Manchester, Birmingham, and Bristol were firm; Ijin-
coln and Louth were Is. dearer, but a few markets
equally declined ;"Liverpool, being over-supplied with
French wheat, was 2d. per 70 lbs. cheaper. Friday's
market there underwent no farther change, and the
London trade remained quiet to the week's end.

The second Monday was still less liberally sup-
plied from abroad, aud what arrived was chiefly from
Antwerp ; of our own growth, the quantity was
moderate. The morning's supply from Kent
was good, from Essex insignificant ; the business
doue was effected slowly, but there was a pretty
general clearance, at full prices ; foreign samples
being unchanged. No particular change took place
in subsequent country markets : Leeds and Hull
were firm, but Birmingham scarcely obtained former
rates; Liverpool had but a thin attendance both
on the Tuesday's and Friday's market, and ]io al-
teration of quotations was noted.

The third Monday had an increased supply of
foreign, with rather more English ; the near coun-
ties also during the morning sent up rather more
samples, aud the weather having completely changed,
with some appearance of permanence, there was less
disposition to buy on the part of millers. Early in
the morning at the Kentish stands some choice
parcels were quitted at quite as good prices, but it
was afterwards difficult to place without a small
concession. The foreign trade was heavy without
change. Several of the country markets responded
to the London reports by accepting a decline of Is.,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

365

among them were Birmingham, Wakefield, and
Bristol, while Wolverhampton and Chelmsford
quoted a fall of Is. to 2s. No reports were cheer-
ful, the majority merely indicating a heavy state of
trade. French wheat was again rather cheaper at
Liverpool on Tuesday, but Friday's report only noted
a small attendance, and retail trade. Loudon was
then certainly tending to lower rates.

The fourth Monday occurring after a week's very
fine weather, with fair supplies both English and
foreign, did not require a laige quantity from the
near counties to make a heavy market, especially as
there was a liberal arrival of American flonr.
Though Kent and Essex scarcely sent an average
quantity, millers held off, and notwithstanding fac-
tors were willing to take a reduction of 2s. per qr.,
only a small portion was sold on these terms, an
apprehension apparently prevailing that the breaking
up of the frost would soon largely increase the arri-
vals from abroad. The foreign trade was in a state
of stagnation, sales being only possible in retail at a
similar decline. In the country about a similar
decline took jjlace : Hull, Lynn, St. Ives, Gainsbro',
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, and Bris-
tol were all Is. to 2s. lower, Louth giving way 2s.
to 3s. per qr. Liverpool, on Tuesday, was Id. per
70 lbs. cheaper, with a very small business ; but Fri-
day was dull, without change.

The fifth Monday had very short supplies from
Kent and Essex, but an extreme dulness prevailed,
and i)rices further receded 2s. per qr.

The arrivals into the port of London during the
five weeks referred to were 2^^,580 qrs, English ;
29,551 qrs. foreign ; giving a weekly average of
10,826 qrs., and showing a decrease as compared
with February, of 1,703 qrs. per week; the falling
off being only in foreign qualities.

The flour trade has been in keeping with that of
wheat; the top price of Town-made was reduced
on the 5th Monday to 40s. ; Norfolks were un-
changed till the fourth Monday, when they were re-
duced from the nominal rate, 32s. to 30s. per sack,
with a very limited sale at the quotations. French
and American also on this day receded fully Is. per
sack and brl. ; the arrivals of the latter being larger
than during any week since the lith of December,
1857. The closing price of Norfolk. was 29s. The
supplies from the country have been constantly large,
and have greatly interfered with the wheat trade,
London millers being thus undersold.

During the five weeks, the receipts have been
93,921 sacks of country made ; 8,311 sacks French,
&c., and 26,704 brls. American; giving a weekly
average of 20,410 sacks and 5,340 brls.

In barley throughout the month there has been
scarcely any alteration, London having been very
moderately supplied with really fine malting quality,
and the seed demand running through the month has
taken off all choice lots at full rates. From abroad
also less has come to hand, the heavy supplies of low
Mediterranean sorts having ceased, and those that
were previously stored having been partly worked
off in mixture with oats, as cheaper food. Our own
stocks of this grain getting reduced, there seems
every prospect that whatever foreign arrivals appear
they will find a sale, or not remain long in store.

The arrivals during the five weeks have been, in

English 17,087 qrs., in foreign 29,075 qrs., making
an average of 9,231 qrs. per week, against 13,726
qrs. weekly in February.

The malt trade has been little altered, fair sup-
plies being kept up, and about the same prices
realized from the beginning of the month to its close
for fine qualities.

The oat trade has been remarkably steady, on
short arrivals scarcely any quotable change oc-
curring, and the cause of this grain's not ad-
vancing can only be found in the quantity of Rus-
sian landed during former gluts, which have served
to feed the market in the absence of ship samples.
Had it not been, however, for increased supplies
from Ireland, it would have been impossible to keep
prices down, and even with their help cargoes of
sweet Riga and Petersburg qualities have been held
at rather more money. From Scotland as well as
from foreign ports the supplies have been reduced.
On the fifth Monday prices improved 6d. per qr.

The receipts during five weeks have been 5,317 qrs.
English, 6,503 cp. Scotch, 21,880 qrs. Irish, and
27,306 qrs. foreign, giving a total weekly average
of only 12,213 qrs., which is 4,991 qrs. weekly
below February arrivals.

Beans and peas, in the comparative absence of
foreign supplies, till the last week have rather im-
proved in value, especially the former, to the extent
of Is. to 2s. per qr. Boiling peas, which slowly found
favour in the cold weather, have again upon its
ceasing diminished in consumption: maples and
duns remaining scarce have commanded good prices
from retail buyers, who prefer them to cheaper sub-
stitutes. Of English beans the quantity received has
been 4,785 qrs., of foreign 4,593 qrs. Of foreign
peas there were only 105 qrs., and 1,663 qrs. English.

la linseed there has been little change : the first
Monday of the month noted a rise of Is., and at this
improvement the market has remained with a quiet
trade; but cakes all through have been much in
request, and notwithstanding some large supplies
recently received from the United States, they have
commanded about former prices.

The cloverseed trade, checked at first by the fiost,
on the return of fine weather did not meet the expecta-
tion of holders ; the season getting late, those who
have stocks of foreign have been uneasy at the slack-
ness of the demand, especially as it appears that the
first reports of the English crop were below the
reality. A good deal of red seed it now appears
was produced, but part of it being badly harvested,
the extent of the injury was exaggerated, the bulk
being fit for sowing, though discoloured ; and as the
farmers have not received high prices for their wheat,
they have been less disposed to buy too dearly. A
fair trade came at the month's close, however, at
lower rates ; and great prices are not now to be
looked for, either in red or white seed, or trefoD.
Cauaryseed had a start during the intense frost, but
with mild weather it seems likely again to recede,
as the Dutch ports must have some to spare at pre-
sent prices ; and Hambro', now free, is likely to send
some spring tares, which have been scarce and dear.
Ilapeseed has been a better sale, the plants being
reported abroad as partly injured. Mustard, hemp-
seed, carraway, coriander, &c., have very little varied
during the mouth's course.

366

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillings per Quarter.

WnEAT, new, Essex and Kent, white 40 to 48.^.... red 38 to 44

Norfolk JLinc. and Yorks., red....... > 37 43

Baelet, malting 35to38.... Chevalier,new 38 41

Distilling 32 35.... Grinding 26 30

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk 6S 66extra68

Kingston, Ware, and town made.. .. 68 6G ,, 68

Brown... ..54 56 — _

KrE ..,..— — 30 34

Oat3, English, feed .20 23 Potato 25 32

Scotch, feed ........ 20 25 Potato 24 31

Irish, feed, white 20 22 fine 24 30

Ditto, black 19 21 ,, — 24

Beans, Mazagan ,, 32 35 Ticks 33 3i

Harrow 33 36 Pigeon.. ..... 37 42

Peas, white boUers .. 40 44. .Maple .. 41 43.. Grey. S9 41

Flour, per sack of 2801b3., Town, Households.. 33s., fine 37 40

Country 30 31 Households.. 34 35

Norfolk and Sufl'olk, ex-ship » 28 29

FOREIGN GRAIK.

Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. .44
Konigsberg ........40

Bostook 42

American, white ... .42

ShiUiags per Quarter.

— extra — 51

— high do.
46 „

— ane.... 47 — _ _
48 red..,. 40 45 _ —

Pomera., Meckbg.,& Uckei-mrk, red 42 45 — —

Silesian, red ......40 42 white, o.... 41 44

Danish and Holstein ..,.,. 38 42

Russian, hard. .40 41 .. French. .40 42 white 45 —

St. Petersburg and Riga ,.....<. 40 43

Rhine and Belgium .,,,.,. ..,, — 45

Barley, grinding 24 29 Distilling,... 32 34

OAT3,Dutch,brew, and Polaiid3..2l 28 Feed 20 25

Danish and Swedish, feed, ..21 25 Stralsund.... 22 25

Russian , 20 22

Beans, Friesland and Holstein 34 35

Konigsberg..... 31 35 Egyptian.... 33 34

Peas, feeding .....S7 40 fine boilers.. 40 42

Indian Corn, white 34 35 yellow 34 35

Flour, per sack French 34 37 Spanish .... — —

American.per barrel, sour.... 18 20 sweet.. 22 23

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

Foe the last Six Wheat. j Barley. i Oats.' Rye. Beans.

Weeks : I s. d. s. d.

Feb. 13, 1858 .... 45 8 36 3

Feb. 20, IS.'iS ,...'44 0 35 9

Feb. 27, 1858 .... 45 0 35 11

March 6, 1858 ....1 45 G 36 7

March 13, 1858 ....: 45 3 36 6

March 20, 1858 ,...! 45 6 I 36 9

Aggregate average 45 3 I 36 4

Sametime lastyear 55 9 ! 45 8

d. s. d. 8. d.

22 8 30 9 39 3

22 10 31 3 38 2

35 0 38 4

34 0 37 11

31 3 37 11

31 9 37 11

32 10 38 3
40 3 39 5

22 4

23 4
23 3
23 4
23 0
23 7

Peas.
s. d.
41 1
40 2

40 6

41 0
41 2
41 0
40 10
39 5

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES— 1858-5/.

From last Friday's Gaa. s. d.j From 6'a2e«eof 1857. s. d.

Wheat 113,805 qrs.,45 6

Barley...... 68,271

Oats 14,162

Rye 94

Beans 6,151

Peas 1,432

36

23 4
31 i)
37 11
41 0

Wheat 100,868 qrg., 55 10

Barley 51,261 .. 46 8

Oats 15,095 .. 24 4

Rye 108 .. 38 10

Beans...... 6,695 .. 39 8

Peas 1,424 .. 39 2

FLUCTUATIONS inthe AVERAGE PRICE ofWHEAT.
Pbiob. Feb, 18. Feb, 20. Feb. 27. March 6 Mar. 13.1 Mar. 20.

4.5s.

8d.

4.'i8.

6d.

45s.

■M.

45s.

Od.

44s.

6d,

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.
Cloveeseed, red 40s. to GOs., extra — s., white SOs. to 75s.

Trefoil 18s. to 2.'s.

Tabes, Winter, new, per bushel 58. Od, to 6s. Od.

MusTAEDSEED, per bush., new 158. to 17s., brown 133. to 15s.

CoEiANDEE, per cwt 208. to 268.

Canary, porqr 848. to 948.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s. to —s.. .crushing Cls. to 63s.

Linseed Cakes, per ton JEIO Os.tojElO 10s.

Rapeseed, per qr 688. to 723,

Rape Cake, per ton ...X5 10». to jE6 Os.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &0.

Cloveeseed, red 50s. to 60s., white SOs. to 753.

Teefoil, „..,. 17s. to 22s.

Taees, Spring, per bushel 7g. Od. to 7s. 6d.

Hempseed, small, per qr Dutch 428. to 47s.

Coeiandee, per cwt 17s. to 26s.

CaeeawAT ,, .44s.to46B.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 59s. to GOs Bombay 58b. to GOs

Linseed Cake, porton £10 Os.to,£10 ISs

Rapeseed, Dutch 66s. to 72t'

Rape Cake, per ton £5 Ob. to £5 IOfJ

HOP MARKET.

LONDON, Monday, March 29.— The demand for Hops
continues exceedingly heavy, and where sales are effected to
any extent somewhat lower rates are submitted to. Our cur-
rency is as follows —

Mid end East Kents 70s. to 90s., choice 1123.

Weald of Kents 54?. to 608. „ 66a.

Sussex , 523. to 543. „ 6O9.

Yearlings &c 21a. to 35a. „ 50t.

CHICORY.

LONDON, Sattjkdat. March 27.— There is rather more
business doing both in English and foreign Chicory, and, interne
instances, prices have an upward tendency. The supply on offer
is only niorkrate.

ENGLISH, per ton £10 0 to £ 0 0

IIARLINGEN 10 15 11 0

BRUtJES 10 15 11 0

HAMBURG 11 0 11 10

ANTWERP £10 Oto £11 0

DACKUiM 0 0 0 0

(JtlERN.SEY .... 10 10 10 15

BELGIUM 10 10 11 0

HAY MARKETS.

Satciri>ay, March 27.— SMITHFIELD,- A fair average sup-
ply, and 11 moderate demand.

CUMBEIlL.A\'lJ.— Supply tolerably fjood, and trade rather dull.

WUITECHAPEt,,— Boih hay and straw moved otF slowly, at
our quotations,

AtperLoad of36Tiu6BeB.

MEADOW HAY
CLOVER DITTO
STRAW

SaiTHylELD.

503.to

708.

2-ls.

CUMBBaLAND.

to 84b.

. 100s.

30«.

WaiTKoaiPi L

60s. to H%.
703. lODs.

POTATO MARKETS.

SOUTH WARE WATERSIDE, Monday, March 29.—
Since our last export supplies have been light coastwise, but
heavy from foreign ports. Our markets having been pre-
viously pretty clear, there was a ready demand all last week
at much the s.ime prices as quoted on Monday the 22ad inst.
The following are this day's quotations : —

Yorkshire Regents 140s. to 190a. per ton.

Lincolnshire do. 1403. to 1603. „

Dunbar do 1403. to 180s. „

Do. reds 903. to 100s. „

Perth, Fife, and Forfar Regents lOOa. to 1453. „
Ditto ditto reds.... 90s. to lOOs. „

French whites SOs. to 95s. „

Belgiando SOs. to 903. „

Ditto reds lOOs. to lOSs „

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.
LONDON, Monday, March 29.— The arrivals of potatoes,
coastwise and by railway, last week, were moderate. The im-
ports were 1,005 tons from Antwerp, 826 tons from Rouen,
837 tons from Dunkirk, 47 tons from Osteud, 80 tons from
Tornenzeu, 265 tons from Ghent, 270 tona from Calais, aud
110 tons from Louvaine. Selected samples are firm and rather
dearer, and the value of other kinds is fairly supported.

York Regents UOs. to 2003. pe> ton.

Kent and Essex do 100s. to I6O3. „

Scotch I2O3. to ITOs". „

Do. Cups lOOs.tollOs „

Middlings 6O3. to 1203, „

Foreigu SOs. to lOOa. „

COUNTRY POTATO MARKETS.— York, March 20:
Potatoes Bell at 13d. to 14d. per peck, aud 4s. to 4s. 3d. per
bushel. Leeds, March 23 : We had a middling show of
potatoes, which sold at 16d. to 16^d,per 211b9. wholesale, and
17d. to 18d. rftail. Richmond, March 20: Potatoes, 43. 8d.
per bushel. Sheffield, March 23 : Potatoes sell at 128. to
I83. per load of 18 stones. Manchester, March 25:
Potatoes, 123. to 19s. per 2521b3.

Printed by Rogersoa And Xuxford, 846, Strand, London.

THE EAEMER'S MAGAZL^E.

APRIL, 1858.
CONTENTS.

Plate I.— MATCHLESS ; a Lincoln Cart Stallion.
Plate IL— THE LATE MR. THOMAS KIRBY, OF YORK.
Description of the Plates ......

Barley. — By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esa., F.R.S.

Royal Agricultural Society of England : Proceedings of Council

The Agriculture of France ......

Game Laws ........

Meeting of Hop-planters for the Abolition of the Duty
Composition of Fish Manure and some sorts of Aniaial Refuse
Grinding Feed .......

Lime, and its Chemical Changes .....

The Old and New School ......

Class of Plants most likely to enrich the Soil

Fiars' Prices

Spanish or Merino Breed of Sheep. — By Lord William Lennox

Order upon the Farm ......

Different Breeds of Stock ......

Conduct of the Paris Meat Trade .....

Production of Animal Food ......

Presentation of Plate to Mr. R. T. Beckett, of Tarporley

The Guano Trade a Monopoly .....

Culture of Sheep : a lecture, by Mr. Robert Smith, of Emmett's Grange
Piggeries ........

Uses of a Dead Horse ......

Furze as Food for Horses ......

Action of Phosphate of Lime on Vegetation in Granitic and Schistose Soils
Bath and West of England Society : Proceedings of Council
Mr. Poppy, of Witnesham

A.— Charles Poppy

Suffolk Worthies and Persons of Note in East Angli.'

The proposed Essex Agricultural Association

Manures for Green Crops

Growth and Management of Wool

Management of Grass Land .

The Beautiful in Agriculture

Pleuro-Pneumonia

London, or Central Farmers' Club. — Discussion on Mangel Wurzel

Management of Breeding Ewes, more particularly in the Lambing Season

Winter Food for Cattle

Successful Method of Raising Ducks

How good and bad Harvests come in succession

Farm-servants and Farm-horses— two recent Cases

Farm-horses ....

Horse-taming ....

Agricultural Buildings

Great Owners of the Soil in Ireland

Suggestions to the Council of the R. A. S. on the Prize for St

Ingluence of Education upon the Cultivation of the Soil

Oxford Farmers' Club

Patents taken out for the application of Town Sewagi

"Lois-weedon" without the Spade

An English Farmer in France

Economy in Bread

Butter-making in Winter

Manuring on the Surface

Calendar of Agriculture

Agriculture of India

Norton Farmers' Club

Breach of Contract

Agricultural Reports

Review of the Cattle Trade during the past Month

Agricultural Intelligence, Fairs, &c.

Stallions for the Season, 1858

Review of the Corn Trade .

Corn Averages and Market Currencies

eam Ploughs

page
273
274
277
279
280
282
284
285
285
286
287
287
288
288
289
290
29-2
294
295
296
300
302
303
304
305
306
306
307
308
311
313
316
319
321
329
333
334
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
343
343
344
346
348
351
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
357
358
360
364

. 366

IMPORTANT TO FLOCKMASTERS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMIST,
APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G., &C.

LEICESTER HOUSE, GREAT DOVER-STREET, EOROTJGH, LONDON,

valuable 'Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 6fl0 Sheep

Begs to call (he attention of Farmers and Graziers to his valuable
SHEEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, which nquires
no Boiling;, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
effectually destroyini; Ihe Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to tlie Flock, preventing the alarming attacks of
Fly and fhab, and cleansing and purifying the Skin, thereby
irreatly improving the Wool, bolh in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Clierai.^t, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, although any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 20 sheep, price, jar included £0

6 1b.

30

8 lb.

40

JO lb.

50

20 lb.

100

30 lb.

150

40 lb.

^00

50 lb.

250

60 lb.

300

80 lb.

400

00 1b.

."iOO

(cask and measure
included)

;o

2

0

0

3

0

0

4

0

0

5

0

0

10

0

0

15

0

1

0

0

1

3

6

1

7

fi

I

17

0

2

5

0

Should any Flockmaster prefer boiling tlie Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will be found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loatlisorae and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and which may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons ol the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon — sutBcient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the virulence of the disease); also in
wine quart bottles, Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"ScouUon, near Hingham, Norfolk, April 16th, 1855.
'Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been replied to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the ' Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Show, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid to the flock by my shepherd nfier dressing according
to instructions left ; hux notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the 'Agent for the
above Specific,' tl at the flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me theys hould
be at once seen to, but did not do so until_^«'e weeks afterwards,
and in the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing them again, as one-third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an exp- rienced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near, fleing determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to you for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
folluwitig day ; and although the weather was most severe in
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in three weeks the Sheep were quite cured ;
and I am happy to say the young lambs are doing remarkably
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest and
best rerae ly now "n use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,

" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addition to the foregoing, he has very materially improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus; and he would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ought now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 5 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 3 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials,
&c., to be had of all agents, or sent Jirect per post free.

NOTICE OF DIVIDEND.

BANK OF DEPOSIT.

No. 3, Pall Mall East, London, S.W.

Established A. I) . 1844.

THE WARRANTS for the HALF-YEARLY Interest on Deposit Accounts, to 31st
December, are ready for delivery, and payable daily.

PETER MORRfSON, Managing Bireetor,
Rate of Interest Six per cent, till further notice.
Forms for opening accounts free on application.

^O CAPITALISTS— TO BE DISPOSED OF, the PATENT RIGHT for

MAKING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA for Agricultural Purposes, at the cheapest rate. Thiaisan
Ojiportnnity rarely to be met with. Principals only will be treated with.

Apply (in the first instance) to Beta, care of T. W. Clough, Esq., Solicitor, Huddersfield.

-ORAMPTON'S PILL OF HEALTH. Price Is. 1|(]. and 2s. 9d. per box.-This excellent Family

77ry<>c^'^.'!^^''iT^TJ^'' °t }r\}"''^ '^^^^^ *° ^'^'■y •■^^''»t''^l for f'e foundation of good lealth, and

correcting a I Inso ders of the Stomach and Bowels. Two or three doses will convince the afflicted of its salutary ettecls. The
stomach will speedily regain its strength ; a healthy action of the li.er, bowels, and kidneys will rapidly take place, and renevved
HAm r"" 1 n ""'■"" i7"L' °I ta^'""' this medicine, according to the directions accompanying each box. PERSONS of TfULL
hetd shnT. d ,^Pver"vr^ , °n ffh • ^"^'^'"''f' drowsiness, and singing in the ears, arising from too great a flow of blood to the

i!fr.'nt f I 1 ./ f "l'''0"t Ihem, as many dangerous symptoms will be entirely carried off by their timely use. The following
extract of a letterjrorn Mr.Jhomas Province, of Winchmnre Hill, Middlesex, is another proof of the Invaluable MediciuEl Pro-

Sknrfincrea fn' di^^^H '.h?^ '•''? ''«««S'°"a'.«Pf i^nt is required, nothing can be better adapted. In consequence of the
address of ''ThnZ» pZt ooo Qr^^Pf'S""" 5*' "Stained permission from her Majesty's Co^.missioners to have the name and
address ot Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, LondoD," impressed upon the Government stamp affixed to each box. Sold by all Ven-

dors of JVIedicJne.

JJ,fS™'SC.r ar:hrrc'.n=.°T:m':,» peicy o.re ..,e .RET, COLIC „. GKIPES .n
Hones. Price Is. 8.1. or 38. per Bottle. -„ ^™ T.^lxr-rk-17 "D

CUFF^S^FOOTjROT POWD^^^

Is a cheap and effectual remedy for the FOOJ «^^ the l^isease by its use. It has been extensively used and

pe° Packet. FLY. SCAB & MANGE OIL

VVA* i^r<W)T«in Sh'eep andUCE or WERMIN in all auiraal.. It will also cure be
riN?'i\tdlKlT°DISEASE§?„'HSi?;,? Cattle, and effectnally cleanse a Flock of Sheep from the

SC..B or' SH.B. ^^ ^ ^ ^^j- ^"^^ gHEEP WASH , ^, , ,

6s,andl0s.per Jar; or 2s.6d. per packet. ^^^ ^ ^ -r^T» XTMT-IT^T TTfc ^fcl F W

cxTi7T?TirnnTi'S ORIGINAL DRIFFIELB piLrS

SH-bK VV Vy.w.p^mVd'^fVr^ventTnf^^ or MORTIFICATION after Lambing
Are strongly ^^d confidently recommend«ltoj^pr^e.^^^^g^ STRAINS, SWELLINGS, &c., &c . As
or Calving, and for Healmg ^UTS, b i A l^b, vv u u , '^^ .^ ^^^^ ^,^^^^ ^^^ l^^^e maintamed a re-
^Si?nrurfiryel"l:it ^ - emarge upon their value and importance. Pints, 2s. Gd.,
^"^'^''^'^TvT H Cuff No 10, Smithfield Market. London, and sold by Drnggists and Medicine Vendors
Prepared by J. H. Cxj^J^^No.^O,^^^^ ^^^^^^ .j^n.c^ by J. H. CUFF in uriHng.

A^JTirUTT rOLD "—if its first symptoms are not arrested, too often lays the founda-
SLlljrlli lull;, 11 ita ul.a^. J ^ iy.rA.-xWn^ Wintpr Couali, Asthvm, and other consti-
tion of a variety of P«Zm.n«rjCom^^^^^^^^^^^^ To^s'' t^^be e^ily a;crted or Subdued by keeping
tutional derangements. The evil ^"^^^^"^Jf/^ViES Sch have now stood the test of public experience for
at hand a supply of the ^b^ve celebrated L^^^ xnost eminent

upwards of half a centujT.lheT^^^^^^ Containing neither opiates nor any injurious

alod'yneX'r;:; belaSl/t'aken tthe you^est child or the most delicate female.
VALUABLE TESTIMONIAL.
CURE or ASTHMA OF SEVERAL YEARS' STANDING.

Cainscross, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.
S,K.-Ha,ln. been t^uhled with Asthma for .veraly^^^^^^^^
r I .rdSS'e^rtS.r S:crtXrho°S"oI of them la t£ house, and .1.1 do all in m, power

*° ;r;j;; "— Se'^vVStnial of an, advantage, yo-- ."'J-J 1^1^^^:^^^^^, °^' " " ''"
please. 3 ' J ^^ j, TRIGG.

Thomas Keating, Esq. tx . „„

^ r^j t CA on/l -IDo Rd pach bv THOMAS KEATING,

Prepared and sold in Boxes, Is. Hd. and Tms, 2^- 9d.' 4s f^, an^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ .^ the

Chemist, &c., 79, St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Retail by all JJruggisis d

^°''^*^' , . t, . tT,nt the words « KEATINQ'S COUGH

LO^ZE^GE^S''^ rnU:fon tirc^^^^^^^^^^ otSB":wilhout which none are genuine.

1^ EATING'S PALE NEWFOUNDLAND COD LIVER OIL^^^^^^^^^^
J\. tasteless, and free fi-om adulteration of any kind "^^T^^^^l^^^^S^^^lin the w'ords of the late Dr.
by Professors Taylor and Thomson, of Guy's and .f Jhomas ^ ^3' ^nA flavour;' characters this will be
Pereira, say that " The finest oil is that most devoid ^{^^f^^'Ql^^^'^ZuX 6d. and Five-pint Bottles,
fonnd to possess in a high degree. Half-pints, Is. 6d. ; Pmts, .ss. oa. , v^ ,
10s. 6d., Imperial Measure. ^^^ ^^^ p^^^,^ Chttkchyard, London.

Under the Patronage of

and Koyal Family
the several Sovereigns

Her Majesty "The Queen,"

of Great Britain,

and Courts of Europe,

AND UNIVERSALLY PREFERRED.

ROWLANDS' MACASSAR OIL

iBuniversally in high repute for its successful results during the last half century in the GKOWTH, RESTOEATION, and

IMPROVEItlENT of

THE HUMAN HAIR.

It prevents Hair from falling off or turning grey, strengthens v/eak HAIR, cleanses it from Scurf and Dandrifif, and makes it

BEAUTIFULLY SOFT, CURLY, and GLOSSY.

In the growth of

TKS SEARS, 'WKISKSRS, AirS MVSTACHIOS

it is unfailing in its stimulative operation. For CHILDREN it is especially recommended as forming the basis of A
BEAUTIFUL HEAD OF HAIR.

Price 3s. 6d. ; 7s. : Family Bottles, equal to four small, 10s. 6d. ; and double that size, 21s.

iiirostTA:wT CAUTi:©:ar.

To prevent the substitution of Spurious Imitations for the genuine
article by unprincipled shopkeepers, A. R. & Sons here add a small
copy in'outline of their Label(as it appears round the bottle) from the
burin of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Fetch, the eminent engravers,
of London.

Another portion bears the Signature of the Proprietors, in
Red Iiik—

" A. ROWLAND AND SONS."

ROWLANDS' KALYDOR,

ATT ORIESTTAIi 30TA.I8rXCA.Ii PRSPARATXON

FOR IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE COMPLEXION AND SKIN-

It eradicates all REDNESS, TAN, PIMPLES, SPOTS, FRECKLES, and DISCOLORATIONS, and renders

THE SH-IXtr SOFT, FAIR, and BXiOOAEISTGr^

It obviates all the effects of Climate on the Skin, whether witli reference to cold and inclemency, or intense solar heat,
and affords immediate relief in cases of sunburn, stings of insects, or incidental inflammation. Gentlemen after shaving will
appreciate its softfening and ameliorating properties. — Price is. 6d. and 8s. 6d. per bottle.

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Kaltdob are on the Wrapper, and their signature, " A. Rowland & Sons," in

red ink, at foot.

A GOOD SET OF TEETH

Ever insures favourable impressions, while their preservation is of the utmost importance to every individual, both as regards
the general health by the proper mastication of food, and the consequent possession of pure and sweet breath.

DS' ilDONTO,

©Kn [Pl/^[f^[L ©[ilMTfl[?KB@[

■9

Compounded of the choicest and most reclierche ingredients of the ORIENTAL HERBAL, and of inestimable value in

PRESERVING A. N D BEAUTIFYING THE TEETH,

IMPARTING A PEARL-LIKE WHITENESS,

STRENGTHENING THE GUMS,

And in rendering

THE BREATH SWEET AND PURE.

CAUTION.— The words Rowxands' Odonto are on the Label, and A. Rowland & Sons, 20, Hatton Garden, on the Govern-
ment Stamp affixed on each box. — Price 2s. 9d. per box.

Sold ly A. ROWLAND & SON, 20, Hatton Garden, London, and by Chemists and

Perfumers.

«»* S^-WILUTE OF SFVRIOVS £2«XTAT£OZ7S 1 1

"^^ ^J •■' ^^.■^^■

No. 5, Vol. XIII.

MAY, 1858.

[Third Series.

THE

FARMER'S MAGAZINE

AND

MONTHLY JOURNAL

OP

THE AGEICULTURAL INTEREST.

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 246, STRAND.

PRICE TWO SHIl-LINGS.

EOOEBSOK AND TTTXVOBOj

[PSINTEBS, 246, BT£AND.

>wi«ewB»»c»wii«gng'wgww>'paBewMMipw^^^Maw>ww<»»wt;B8^^ww»^!ii»»wi^tw«igwp^^ uijjj u<n.niiLn.i.jmi...iM.iim.-ii' ' ^'U-Hi-mi.iA

/

IMPOBTANT TO FIOCEMASTEBS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGKICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMIST,
BY APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G., &C.

LEICESTER HOUSE, GREAT DOVER-STREET, BOROUGH, LONDON,

Begs to call the attention of Farmers and Graziers to his valuable
SHBEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, wliich requires
no Boiling, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
eflfcctually destroyina: the Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to the Flock, preventing the alarming attacks of
Fly and Shab, and cleansing and purifying the Skin, thereby
greatly improving the Wool, both in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Chemist, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, although any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 20 sheep, price, jar Included £0

6 1b.

30

8 lb.

40

10 lb.

50

20 1b.

100

SO lb.

150

40 1b.

200

50 1b.

250

60 lb.

800

80 lb.

400

100 lb.

500

(cask and measure
included)

;o

2

0

0

3

0

0

4

0

0

5

0

0

10

0

0

15

0

1

0

0

1

3

6

1

7

6

1

17

6

2

5

0

Should any Flockmasfer prefer boiling the Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will be found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loathsome and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and which may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons of the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon — sufficient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the virulence of the disease); also in
wine quart bottles, Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"Scoulton, near Hingham, Norfolk, April 16th, 1855.
'Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been replied to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

valuable 'Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 60O Sheep
were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the 'Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Show, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid to the flock by my shepherd after dressing according
to instructions left; but notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the ' Agent for the
above Specific,' that the flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me they should
be at once seen to, but did not do so until^^re weeks afterwards,
and in the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life ; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing them again, as one-third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an expirienced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near. Being determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to you for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
following day ; and although the weather was most severe in
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in three weeks the Sheep were quite cured ;
and I am happy to say the young lambs are doing remarkably
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest and
best remeiy now in use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,
" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addition to the foregoing, he has very materially improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus; and he would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ought now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 6 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 8 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials,
&c., to be had of all agents, or sent direct per post free.

NEWEST VOCAL MUSIC.

INN A YE HEAR ? Anne Fricker. 2s. 6d. I'm Waiting for To-morrow. A. Foster.

2s. 6(1. A Psalm of Life. W. T. Wrighton. 23. The Young Recruit. Kucken. 2s. The Swiss
Girl. G. Linley. 2s. 6d. The Mountain Daisy. G. Linley. 2s. Tis the Moonlight Sleeping. Wrighton.
2s. 6d. Go, Lovely Rose. H. Kneller. 2s. Dinna forget, Laddie. Petzer. 2s. The Bridge. Miss M.
Lindsay. 2s, Gd. Maud, Serenade. Miss M. Lindsay. 2s. 6d. Handel's Messiah, complete. Is. 4d.
Bonny Eloise. J. Thomas. 2s. 6d. Thou art with Me. Ditto. 2s. Home they brought her Warrior.
Miss M. Lindsay. 2s. Dear Mary. Frank Romer. 2s. My Fairy Bride. Ditto. 2s. Last Night I
Woke. Ditto. 2s. Tapping at the Window. Minasi. 2s. 6d. Wait tilll put on my Bonnet. Ditto. 2s. 6d.
London: Robert Cocks, Co., New Burlington-street, and all Musicsellers.

BLAIR'S GOUT AND RHEUMATIC PILLS.

Price Is. lid. and 2s. 9d. per box,

THIS preparation is one of the benefits which the science of modern chemistry has conferred npon
mankind; for during the first twenty years of the present century to speak of a cure for the Gout was considered a
romance; but now the et^cacy and safety of this medicine are so fully demonstrated by unsolicited testimonials from persons
m every rank ot lite, that public opinion proclaims this as one of the most important discoveries of the present age ; and, in
testimony of its efficacy, Mr. W. Burch, Chemist, West Bromwich, writes-" Nov. 8th, 185G. Gentlemen, The enclosed Testi-
monial was received by me from a customer residing in this town. Yours respectfully, W. Bdkch. To Blessrs. Prout & Co."
Mr. ARKiNSTALL, ot the Lyng, West Bromwich, says:— "I have much pleasure in bearing my testimony to the wonderful efifl-

FURTHER PROOF OF THE GREAT EFFICACY OF BLAIR'S GOUT AND RHEUMATIC PILLS,-Forwarded by
JMr. Kemhardt, Chemist, HuU. Sir,-Enclosed is a testimonial from a customer of mine, who is well known about here : he

again require them, and oblige, dear Sir, yours obediemTyrJEKEMilH''GlMEsV """"'' "' " "*""" ""^ keep them by i

all inldieini vpXi-? ^tl^tl ^"«'^*^°" nor confinement, and are certain to prevent the disease attacking any vital part. Sold by

ail medicine vendors. See the name of " Thomas Prout, 229, Strand, L»ndon," on the government stamp.

THE ROYAL FARMERS'

A^MICUI^TUMAI. JL^ID C O MM EMCI A 1^

INSUB.AHCE: COMF^niT.

3, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.
RATES.

HAIL.— Wheal, BarJej', Oats, and other ordinary Crops, without limitation, as to quantity! p, r, r a
grown, J- • Pe

The last Bonus (1856) was upwards of 60 per Cent, to Insurers of the four previous years, and in propor-
tion to Insurers for a less period.

The Royal Farmers' is the first Office which introduced this additional means of protecting the interest of
the Farmers,

It should be borne in mind that no care whatever can prevent damage by Hail, and that there is no means
of protection other than that now ifFered.

Ihe losses by Hail Storms within the last few years in districts where parties neglected to insure, liave been
very severe ; and many persons were reduced from prosperous circumstances to the painful necessity of avail-
ing themselves of a public subscription — a necessity they mi^ht have avoided by the trifling payment of
Sixpence per Acre.

FIRE, — Fire Insurances of every description at moderate rates. Farming Stock without average, 4s, per cent,

LOSSES paid immediately after the amounts have been ascertained.

LIFE. — Life Insurances on moderate terms by Policies payable to tlie Registered Holders,

F'urther particulars may be had at the Chief Office, or of the Agents.

Additional Agent.'} Wanted, Application to JOHN REDDISH, Secretary and Actuary.

COLEMAN'S PATENT PRIZE CULTIYATOPv.

FOR Spring work this Implement is most eflfec-
tual and economical, thoroughly breaking up and pulveriz-
ing the surface without turning it over, and at one-third the cost
of ploughing.

Its strength, convenience of management, and ease of draught
are unrivalled.

The Public are respectfully reminded that besides a large num-
ber of FIRST PRIZES given by the Royal and other principal
Societies in the Kingdom, the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land, at their Triennial Competition, at Chelmsford, awarded
Coleman's Cultivator I'W'O FIRST PRIZES, as the best CultU
vator, and the ONLY FIRST PRIZE FOR PARING.

Manufactured by

COLEMAN & SONS, Chelmsford,

Of whom Prices and Testimonials may be obtained post free.

Also,

COLEMAN'S PATENT PRIZE EXPANDING

HARROWS,

AND

COLEMAN'S IMPROVED HANSON'S PATENT
PRIZE POTATO DIGGER,

Of which Implement COLEMAN & SONS are Sole Manufactur-
ing Agents for England and Wales,

CARSON'S

iPAinr

343.
per cwt.

Dabk Chocolate ,.

Briget and Dakk Red ..

Copper

Black

Invisible Green ,.

Deep Green

Bright Green

BiUE rfor Carts and Wagons)

Specially patronized by the British and other Governments, the Hon. East India Company, the principal Dock Companies, and
other public bodies, &c., is particularly recommended to the Nobility, Gentry, Agriculturists, Manufacturers, West India Pro-
prietors, and others, it having been proved by the practical test of more than seventy years to surpass all other paints as an
out-door preservative. It is extensively used for the protection of wooden houses, farm, and other out-buildings, farming im-
plements, conservatories, park paling, gates, iron railings, iron hurdles, copper, lead, brick, stone, old compo, and stucco fronts,
and tiles to represent slating. The superiority of the Anti-Corrosion to every other paint for out-door purposes may be easily
inferred from the simple fact, that its use has been always most strenuously opposed by Colour Manufacturers, Painters, Oil and
Colourmen, and others interested in the sale of common paints. It is also very economical, any labourer being able to lay it on.

Colors :

White Stone

Light Do.

Drab or Portland Do

Bath Do.

Light Yellow Do..,

Dark Yellow Do

Light and Dark Oak

Brown ) ggg

Light and Dark Lead T per cwt.

Light Chocolate V .„ ■ t, ■ ^ ■ ■• ^ , i.^ • ^ ^

In casks of 28, 56, and 112 lbs. each, and upwards.— Oil & Brushes.— The Original Anti-Corrosion Paint is only to be obtained of

^W A.ILi'H'liJlt CAEBSOlSf & SOST,

(Successors to the Inventors)
9, GREAT WINCHESTER STREET, OLD BROAD ST. (Near the ROYAL EXCHANGE) LONDON, EC.

who will show 700 most flattering Testimonials received from the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy, who have used the Anti-Corro^
sion for many years at their country seats.

A Copy of the Testimonials will bo sent on application,

No Agents.—All Orders are particularly requested to be sent direct.

303.
per cwt.

4Gs. per cwt.
5Gs. „
56s. „
56s. „

R E E Y E S,

WILTS.

nient,

ROBERT AND JOHN

BRATTON, WESTBURY,

BEG to call attention
to Iheir useful Imple-

REE *' ES'S

DRY MANURE

DISTRIBUTOR,

which is equal to any for top
drilling with all Icindsof man-
ure, and is superior to allo'hers
for putting in Soot.

PRICE £10.

Three Pkizes were award-
ed to it last jear — at the Balli
and West of England !?ocietj',
Newton ; at tlie Royal Asri-
cultural Society of England,
Salisbury ; at the Yorkshire
Society, at York.

"The Dry Manure Distri-
butors furnished one of the
most interesting trials of tl.c
whole mfetin ST. Who ever lias
witnessed the effect of hand-
sowing guano on a dry windy

March day will not refuse the epithet humane, aslwell as economical, toithese inventlons.^Cliambers,SHolmes, and Reeves, at"the
descending scale of 20 gs., £[i^ and £10, are tie nuii;es and the corresponding prices that offer themselves; tlut of Mr. Reeves, at
the lowest sum, being introduced first to the Society at this^mee ing. The machinery of the two dearer ores is most ingenious, and
almost inevitsibly exact in Iheir steady delivery of the manure, whether I'amp or powdery. But iVlr. Reeves' lower-priced imple-
ment is a positive boon to the labourer as well as the iitme:"— Report on Trial of ImplcJitoUs at Salisbury Meeting, by C. W.
Hoshyns.

CHANDLER^S PATENT LIQUID MANURE DRILL,

After (he test of Ton years,is stil! acknowledged to be the most simple and efficient.
R. & J. REEVES have made arrangements with Mr. CHAMBERS to Manufactu.e his PATENT LIQUID DROP COULTER, so
that those who prefer the bunching system cm now huve the most complete Drill that has been yet ottered to the public.

REEVES^ PATENT ECONOI^IICAL DRILLS,

For Drilling all kinds of Artificial Manure willi Kools or Grain, in their pure state, without the expensive syslein of mixing them
with a large quantity of ashes. Tliey will Drill frou 2 to iO Bushels ler Acre, and will be found very useful when water is too
scarce lo use the Liquid Drill, and also on light down lanl. Prices from £d to £14. Tliey gained Two Prizes and a Silver
JMedal last year (being their first year).

REEVES^ PATENT HAND DRILL,

For Gardeners, Market Gardeners, and small Occupiers, will Drill or Bunch Onions, Parsnips, Carrots, Pea?, Beans, Wheat, or any
otlier Grain ; will drop Mangel Seed in Bunches at diff'ennt distanc s, and will be found very useful for i arsons accustomed to thin
seeding, as they will drop 2 or 3 corns (enly) in Bunches at G inches apart.

Price List and particulars sent post free on apiilicalion.

BRATTON IRON WORKS, March i27. 1858.

RANKIN'S

CORN SCREEN AND SMUT MACHINE

NEW PATENT

MANUFACTURED SOLELY BY

R. & J. RANKIN, UNION FOUNDRY, LIVERPOOL.

rpHE very great improvements made in this new P.iTENl' SMUT MACHINE comprise an arrange-

_L ment by which (in addition to freeing and purifying the Wheat from all Smut, however badly it may be affected) all Sand,
Seeds, and heavy matter are extracted in one operation. The Machine has a Double Action upon the Wheat; and combines all the
imi'ortant advantages of the original (Grimes') Machine, with the addition of those of a Wire Screen. The following Testimonials
prove that the Machine is found to be the best of the kind in use : —

Messrs. R. & u. "ankin, Liverpool. [COPY.] Slane Mills, 14th August, 1856.

Dbar Sirs,— We havb much pleasure in saying that the Patent Smut Machine has given us every satisfaction, and fot so far
has not cost us one penny. The working parts — that is, bearings, &c., are just as good s: '»>e first day we put it to work, now
twelve months ago, and it has 'un nearly every working-diy since. Yours, truly,

(Signed) Wetherill, Powell, & Co.

Boston, 25/l/t July, 1857,

Gbntlemen,— Your Smut Machine I consider to be the best invented, and after working it seven years I find it to be as
effective in its operations as it was the first week it was erected.

I shall be happy at any time to render an account of it and its good qualities when called upon ; and I am. Gentlemen, your
obedient servant, (Signed) A. Reynolds (late Reynolds & Son).

RANKIN'S NEW PATENT BONE MILLS.

These MILLS are adapted for the use of Farmers and Manufacturers, and are made in all sizes.

They are a most decided improvement upon those in ordinary use, taking much less power to drive them, whilst they work far more
eflSciently. The Mills will Grind the largest and hardest Bones with ease to any degree of fineness that may be wished, there being
provision made to regulate their working as may be required.
Manufacturers will find this Mill to be much more durable, to Grind quicker, and to a greater degree of fineness than any other.

TESTIMONIAL. Amerskam, Bucks, November 8, 1855.

This Is to certify that Messrs. Rankin, of Liverpool, have fixed one of their Foi.'-horse Bone Mills for me, with which I am pei-
fectlv satisfied, not only as it regards the power taken to drive it, but also the fineness of the Bones when ground. The principle 1
consider superior In every resriect to the old ones. The work is exceedingly well done, not only as it regard* the Mill itself, but the
Horse Gear is of a very superior character. I shall be happy to show the Mill when working, or answer any enquiries.

•vr T, . , X, , . ^ (Signed) THOMis H, MoKTKir.

Messrs. R. & J. Rankin, Liverpool.

Apply to R. & J, RANKIN, SoM Makers, Union Foundry, Liverpool.

HOLMES & SONS, PROSPECT PLACE WOP.KS, NORWICH.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF
ENGLAND,

SALISBURY MEETING, 1857,

FIRST PRIZE CORN DRILL.

.Al.o at NEWrOX ABBOTTS, 18^7 ...The Two Fik^t Prizes

At TIVERTON, 1855 The Pkize.

By the DEVOXSIIIKE AGRICUL-
TURAL SOCIETY, 1854 The Prizk.

W rpHESE DRILLS now stand unequalled for sira-

S; L plicity, dnrabilily, and efficiency, and areof lit:li(er diauglit

ili;iii Other-'. The ra, idly increasing demand, aiid ihe position
ilii^y liave attained this year by taking Three t'lrst Prizes for
It.e be;:t Corn Drills at ihe most important AgtiruUural ,"?o-
"ieiies in England, are a good guarantee of their efftcienoy and
being approved.

RICHMOND & CHANDLER^S PRIZE
CHAFF-CUTTING MACPIINES.

UNDER LETTERS PATENT,

NO. 57 NEW PATENT CHAFF CUTTING
MACHINE, price £3 15s., delivered at Manchester or
Liverpool.

PRESENT PKIGES. £ s. d.

No. 57 Chair Machine . 3 15 0

No. lA Machine 4 10 0

No. 3b Machine 7 0 0

Pulley for poser ej;/r« .. .. 0 9 0

Change Wheels, to vary the length, per pair 0 6 0

Kn'wes, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 4b Machine 10 0 0

Pulley for power, extra 0 9 0

Changa Wheels, per (lair 0 G 0

Ji.n\\es, extra Jor each 0 4 6

No. 5 Machine 15 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

Change Wheels 0 6 0

Knives, extra for eadi, 0 7 6

No. 1 Improved Corn Crusher 5 5 0

No. 2 Improved Corn Crusher 0 10 0

Pulley for power . 0 9 0

No. 3 Improved Corn Crusher 10 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

No. 4 Improved Corn Crusher 14 0 0

Pulley for power 0 15 0

Bichmond & Chandler's ex ensive application of the most ap-
proved Steam Machinery in the manufacture of thrse Imple-
me ts, afford increased f:!Cilities, together with greater mathe-
matical accuracy in every pirt, obtainable by no otlu'r means.

ADDRT,S3,

RICHMOND & CHA.NDLER. SA.LFORD;

Branch Establishment,

SO|UTH JOHN STREET, LIVERPOOL.

'pWO and THREE HORSE POWER

PORTABLE STEAM ENGINES

WITH VEUTICA

For Working Straw Cutters
Thrashing IMachines, G

They will also answer
the purpose of a Steaming
Apparatus for Steaming
Food for Cattle.

PaicE.
Two- Horse Power £65
Three-Horse £35

Manufactured by

JAMES HAYWOOD, Jn.,

PHCENIX FOUNDRY,

and

ENGINEERING

WORKS, DERBY,

Descriptive Circulars sent
free on application.

ESTABLISHED 1812.

TURNIP MANURE. — This valuable
fcitiliz', r lias been t;scd for the last twelve
years with great success by most of the (minent Agri-
culturists throughout England, and stanils unrivalled
in the locight and quality of the bulbs which it pro-
duces ; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain
Crops which follow, while Clover is rarely found to
fail after the first application. Some of the crops
produced by this Mar.ure last year weighed upwards
of Thirty Tons per acre. GRASS, BARLEY, CLO-
VER, and WHEAT MANURES ; al^o BONE,
GUANO, and SUPERPHOSPHATE of LIME,
warranted of the best quality. A|)ply to —
IL & T. PROCTOR, Cathay, Bristol.

PROCTOR & RYLAND

Birmingham,
Edmonscoto, Warwick.
And S iltney, near Chester.

N.B.— A Pamphlet on "MANURES, their PRO-
PERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded ou
receipt of 12 postage stamps.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

MAY, 1858.

T. — A Rf.vikw

Root Crops

TH Pleuro-pneu

CONTENTS.

Plate I.— PORTRAIT OF MR. SAMUEL JONAS.

Plate II.— VICTORIA; A Short-iiorn Cow.

Description of the Plates .....

The Wandle Valley. — By Cuthbert W. Johnson, Esq., F.R.S.
Weeds and Weeding ......

Growth of Barley by different Manures, and its Position in Rotat

J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., &c., AND Dr. Gilbert, F.C.S,
Use and Abuse of Alum in Bread-makIng
Management of Farm Horses .
How TO Make the Most of a Horse
" Lois-weedon" without the Spade
Aeration of Land

Importations of Food in the last taventy years
"Evil Results of Over-Feeding Cattle. " — By F. J. Gan
Wool and Woollens. — Import and Export.
Spring Prospects ....

London, or Central Farmers' Club. — Use of Guano for
Trial of the Steam Plough, at Salisbury
Origin of Durham Short-horns
Present Position of the Farmer

IMP0RTAJ^IT TrIAL FOR SaLE OF CaTTLE AfFECTED WI

Verdict £1,000 ....
Labour and Wages ....
An English Farmer in France
Value of Furze as Food for Cattle
Accidents caused by agricultural Machines .
" God Save the Plough." — By Mrs. Sigourney .
Agricultural Value and Uses of Lime and Marl
Sea-Weed .....
Thrashing Machines ....
Royal Agricultural Society of England : Proceedings
Manures, and their Application

"A Treatise on Road Legislation and Management."—
Warehousing of Wheat
Green Crops for Manures
Lady-Day' Corn Averages
Summer and Winter Treatment of Calves
Rook Flights ....

Foot Rot in Sheep ....
Calendar of Agriculture
Agricultural Intelligence, Fairs, &c.
On the Practice of Paring and Burning in Dauphin

Trehonnais ....

Superior Lincolnshire Rams to be found in Letceste
Agricultural Reports

Review of the Cattle Trade during the past Month
Review of the Corn Trade .
Corn Averages and Market Currencies .

MONIA. —

of Council
A Review

g (France) — By F,

-By

page

. 367
. 369
. 371

372
381
383
385
386
393
394
395
396
398
399
404
406
411

412
415
417
420
421
421
422
423
424
432
434
440
441
441
442
442
443
444
444
445

R. de la

. 447
. 449
, 450
, 4.50
, 453

455-8

THE FAEMEK'^'

AGAZINE.

MAY, 185 8.

PLATE I.

rORTRAlT OF MR. SAMUEL JONA.S,

PLATE 11.

VICTORIAj A Short-horn Cow.

MR. SAMUEL JONAS.

There are few better representatives of his order
than Mr, Sam. Jonas, of Ickleton. A shrewd
judge and a spirited man of business, with every
ability to carry out his intentions, he brings the
character of the British farmer quite up to the
standard of our own times. With something of
the old school in his bearing and appearance, there
is no one more alive to the advancement and im-
provement the art of agriculture must achieve. It
is, indeed, from the experience of such men that
we gather the only reliable test of the progress we
are making. Theorists may write, and amateurs
may talk, but it is the practical man who works.
He flourishes or falls with the pursuit ; and makes
it his first duty to see what he can adopt and what
he shall avoid. The farmer shuts himself up no
longer in his own home and to his own prejudices.
On the contrary, you find him all the world over ;
a farmer still, learning and sifting out all he can
for the advantage of his profession.

" Sam Jones," as he is familiarly termed, is one
of these — known all the world over. You see him
at all our great meetings, busthng about either as
one in authority, or in some other way quite as
much interested in what is going on. It is not for
himself alone either that he is speaking or working.
On many an occasion ere this he has been one of
the best champions of his class. There is moreover
an independence of action and earnestness of pur-
pose in what he does that is always sure to tell.
Whether it be at a local meeting in his own county,

OLD SERIES]

or on a grand field-day in Hanover- square, there is
no farmer speaks up for his fellows with more
effect than Mr. Jonas. He occupies no ambiguous
position, but is thoroughly identified with those he
professes to feel for. And so when he says, the
farmers "must have this," or "they wont have
that," the Council know it is no idle boast or vain
prayer they are now hearing of.

Mr. Jonas — like his relative Mr, Jonas Webb —
is a native of Suffolk. He was born at Great
Thurlow, in that county, on the 27th of September,
1802, so that he is now in the fifty-sixth year of his
age. It is, however, with the county of Cambridge
that, until very recently, he has been more identi-
fied, having farmed for a number of years at
Ickleton. His doings even as a pubhc man are all
more or less associated with this district. He
wrote, for instance, the Prize Essay on the farming
of Cambridgeshire, for the " Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society" — the farming of his own
county, as it was then called. This paper was an
especial favourite with the late Mr, Pusej', the then
Editor of the Journal, and often cited by him as
an example of what such an essay should be.

More in connection — at least by its boundaries —
with his present residence, Mr. Jonas was instru-
mental in forming the Saffron Walden Agricultural
Society, of which it is almost needless to add he is
a zealous supporter. His sideboard gives evi-
dence with what success as an exhibitor.

Of the great national Society of the kingdom he
C C [VOT. XLVIII— No. 5,

36J

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

has been almost from the first a prominent mem-
ber. His name has been on the Council for no less
than eighteen years, while he has been actively
employed as a member of the sub, or really work-
ino- committees. His services have not even ended
here, as he has officiated as steward of the cattle-
yard at five of the great annual meetings. His
knowledge of his subject, unwearied activity, and
business-like tact have more than usually well
quaUfied him for such an appointment.

Some years since he was equally distinguished
as a leading man at the meetings of the Protection
Society — a cause of which he was a most energetic
and determined supporter. He v/rote a good deal
at the time, in maintenance of the principles he so
warmly advocated and so conscientiously believed
in. Although he fought a losing battle, he retains
the friendship of many good men he here first
became acquainted with. They saw and appre-
ciated how thoroughly ha was in earnest.

Mr. Jonas has been for soro.e years a Director of

the Royal Farmers' Insurance Institution ; and is,
in fact, ever ready to take his part in promoting
the interests and watching over the welfare of his
brother farmers.

Mr. Jonas has left Ickleton, and is now occupy-
ing about three thousand acres of land at Chrishall
Grange, near SaftVon Walden, in Essex. The
largest portion of this extensive holding, when first
engaged on by him, v/as in as exhausted and as
foul a state as it was possible to imagine. It was
truly uphill work. His proverbial energy and de-
termination have, however, brought it round ; and
we believe we are justified in saying that, for the
spirited manner in which he cultivates his land,
and the large sums he expends in food for stock
and artificial manures, Mr. Jonas ranks worthily
with Mr. Hudson of Castle Acre, and other such
eminent English farmers.

We usher him accordingly into their company ;
where his friend Mr. Webb first " sat" at our re-
quest, now some years since.

PLATE IL
VICTORIA, A Short-horn Cow;

THE PROPERTY OF LIEUT.-COLONEL TOWNELBY, OF TOWNELEY PARK, BURNLEY.

Victoria, a red roan cow, bred by Colonel
Towneley, calved October 30, 1853 ; got by Valiant
(10989), dam (Jenny Lind) by Bern (8831), g. d.
(Ruby) by Selim (8545), gr. g. d. (Lady) by the
Earl of Aylsford (6155), gr. gr. g. d. (Lily) by Sir
Robert r5l78), gr. gr. gr. g. d. bought at the Earl
of Aylsford's sale.

Victoria ranks amongst the most fam.ous of prize
animals. She has already taken no less than fifteen
first prizes, at meetings of the Royal Agricultural
Society of England, of the Yorkshire Society, the
Midland Counties Society, the Smithfield Club, and
others of more local repute. At the Chelmsford
meeting of the Royal Society, in 1856, she was
awarded the first prize as the best heifer in-calf,
which she produced in the September following.
At the Salisbury show, in 1857, she was awarded
the first prize as the best cow. In the December
of the same year she took the first prize as the best
of her breed, and the gold medal as the best of

all the cows at the Birmingham Fat Cattle Exhibi-
tion. The next week she was again declared the
first prize and gold medal covv^ at the Smithfield
Club. Never before this has any one animal been
so highly honoured.

Victoria is really a splendid cow — of most magni-
ficent proportions, perfect symmetry, and admirable
quality. Her head is neat, breadth great, and her
chine, chest, and fore-quarter wonderful — as, in-
deed, is she good all through. She had fed,
moreover, most evenl}', and was an extraordinary
specimen of what a fat beast should be. Victoria,
however, was not destined for the butcher, but re-
turned after her last triumph at the Smithfield Club
to Towneley Park. She was even said to be in
calf when exhibited— a declaration that, it will be re-
membered, caused some talk at the time. Victoria's
praises should be sung over the " Herd Book,"
and not in Mr. Jeffries' window.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

369

THE WANDLE VALLEY.

BY CUTHBEST W. JOHNSON^ ESQ., F.E.S.

The farming of the valley of the Wandle river
partakes rather too much of the character of the
other suburban districts. The high prices paid in
the metropolis for certain roots and household
vegetableSj and the ready access to almost inexhaus-
tible supplies of organic manure, enable most of
the holders of the land near London to cultivate
their ground in defiance of all rotations, regardless

, , of almost any other object than that of the highest-
priced produce. The farming of the Wandle
valley is not an exception to this rule. From its
commencement at Croydon till it terminates at
Wandsworth, the banks of this bright chalk
stream are hardly ever more than ten miles from
Westminster Bridge; the influence of London
upon the lands around it is therefore evident at
every footstep we advance along ail the rich vale

' through which it flows towards the Thames.

Still there are some things to be noted even here,
worthy of the attention of the farmers of other dis-
tricts of our island. The very geological situation
of the valley is worthy of notice. The Wandle, in
fact, traverses pretty closely, for a considerable por-
tion of its course, the line which marks the division
of the London and the plastic clays, from the great
southern chalk formation. As the traveller de-
scends the valley from Croydon, he will find the
clay hills of the London basin sloping down to
the northern bank of the river, and the chalk hills
bounding his view, and forming the soils of the
south side of the stream. From the base of these
considerable chalk hills issue forth the copious
bright springs Vt^hich form the Wandle river ; and
on their northern slopes rest the calcareous loam
soils, known in Surrey as " the marme lands" —
soils long since correctly described by Stevenson
as deep hazel loams resting on the chalk, and
varying in depth with the elevation : very deep at
the base of the hills, and thinning off to three or
four inches in ascending to the Downs. When
deep, there is no drawback to their fertility. When
shallow, pale, and inclining to clay they are consi-
dered to form backv/ard soils in the spring. They
are described by Mr. Trimmer as forming a narrow
band extending on the north-side of the chalk hills
from Croydon to Guildford {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc,
vol. xii., p. 488).

If the farmer, in his way, during the month of
May, from London to "The Derby," alights for an
hour or two atthe Carshalton station, he will find

himself on this marme soil. He will first see
around him extensive fields of lavender and other
scented oil-producing plants; and leaving them, he
will enter upon the marme farms, held by consi-
derable and enterprising holders. He will find
here the ordinary powerful Kentish turnwrest
plough chiefly emjiloyed ; and if he has not been
used to see it in operation, he will hardly fail to
note how much better it does its work than its first
appearance would lead the stranger to anticipate.

It was on these lands that, in the past month
of April, I found the powerful steam-ploughs of
Mr. Fowler. They were at work on a sainfoin
field of the hazel loam to which I have before al-
luded. Around these were assembled a group of
intelhgent farmers, with Garrett of Leiston, and
other zealous and scientific implement makers.
Here I had the pleasure of again noting the ex-
cellent work which these steam- ploughs accom-
plished, the evenness and depth of the furrows,
and the uninterrupted steadiness with \vhich the
machinery accomplished its allotted task.

Few spots could have been better chosen for such
trials than this field at Woodcote ; the soil being
of an even texture ; the field level and extensive,
and not altogether devoid of historical recollections,
which might serve to cheer on the skilful modern
implement maker in his difficult task; since, only a
few fields oflf, in the same hamlet of Woodcote, is
found the site of the old British, and afterwards
Roman Noviomagus, where it is pretty certain rude
old British, and Roman ploughs once merely
roughly- stirred the surface of the ill-cultivated land,
and where the ploughman could not venture forth
to his miserably-executed task without an armed
attendant to protect him and his team from the
robber. Strange advances these, from the old
wooden plough then employed, made by the
ploughman's own hands, and dragged slowly
through the soil by half-a-dozen ill-fed horses or
oxen, to the ploughs of the turnwrest, and of Ran-
som^e, and Howard, and Fowler !

Of the steam plough, I am v.'ell-disposed to
speak hopefully. Much has already been done
with it : practice and experience will in time as-
suredly do far more to render it practically avail-
able ; and this remark may apply not only to the
plough dragged through the soil by portable
engines, but to the too-much-neglected digging
machines, which have been hitherto only partially

C C 3

370

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

successful. The existing general feeling of the
farmers of Surrey, with regard to the steam
plough, is much the same as those which have
been pretty well described by Mr. C. W. Hoskyns,
in his report -upon the implements of the Salisbury
Meeting, where he observes {Jour. Roy. Ag. Sac,
vol. xviii., p. 424) : " It is remarkable, and may be
accounted for by those who can best explain the
alternations of public feeling and opinion, that at
Chelmsford, the year before, the one expression
heard on every side was, in various modes of ex-
clamation, to the effect that ' at last the problem of
steam-culture was solved !' while at SaHsbury,
where the preparations for this new class of trials
were on a scale far larger, and twice the number of
competitors were actually on the field (several more
having been entered), the general expression was
quite the other way. Not that the interest shown,
or the concourse of spectators, was less ; but a
feeling the opposite of anything like sanguine ex-
pectation, or the prospect of realized results,
seemed to have gained ground during the lapse of
the twelvemonth. Whether it was that there had
been time to reflect that, after all, there was no-
thing really new in ploughing by steam, except
perhaps in the subordinate ingenuity of improved
details in connecting the implement with the engine,
or in turning at the headlands, or whether simply
because the novelty of the thing as matter of com-
petitive trial had lost its first freshness, the eager
expressions of expectation heard before had sub-
sided into a tone and attitude of mere criticizing
interest, somewhat difficult indeed either to accom-
modate, or, in the language of the police, to ' keep
back,' so that the ploughs, and workmen attending
the machinery, might have room to act, but far
from exhibiting the ready and impulsive conviction
of a thing accomplished, that had been noticed the
year before.

" Of the actual trials themselves, at Salisbury, to
say much is impossible. Such a soil, on such a
situation, hardened to such a condition not only by
its own flinty nature, but by the long-continued
influence of one of the most extraordinary seasons
that has ever been known, were enough to render
any trial practicaJly abortive. But no one who
saw the work performed, even under these adverse
circumstances, by Mr. Fowler's plough, could
doubt that, in his case at least (not to the least
disparagement of the other competitors), steam-
ploiKjldnr/ , as such, had attained a degree of excel-
lence comparable in point of execution even with
the best horse-work. As to the relative economy,
there seems little reason to doubt that the calcula-
tions arrived at by Mr. Amos and others the year
before, at the adjourned trial at Boxted Lodge,
were suflSciently near the truth to leave a very in-

considerable difference in favour of horse-work.
And if this be true as a comparison, merely taking
acre for acre, or hour for hour, every one who
knows the supreme value of time in the autumn
months on clay soils, and the difference, in capacity
of day-work, between a horse and a steam-engine,
must be aware that a new multiplier at least of 2,
if not more, may be placed to the credit of the
steam-engine, regarded as an available power or
auxiliary when work is pressing, and when, ac-
cording to a well-known poetical authority, the best,
or rather only method to lengthen the shortening
days, is to ' steal a few hours from night.' "

On the right-hand side of the road leading
through Woodcote to Banstead, the traveller will
pass " The Oaks," once the beautiful hunting seat
of the Derby family, the early and powerful sup-
porters of the races at Epsom, whose former power-
ful influence there is still known throughout the
land in the " Derby" and the " Oaks." About
a quarter of a mile beyond this seat commences the
yet unenclosed portion of Banstead Downs, which
a few generations only since extended from Epsom
Downs to Croydon; and to the pedestrian or the
equestrian traveller on his road to Epsom, I com-
mend the open down to the right of the road as one
of the most picturesque routes he can select. He
will see here the farming of the most thin-skinned
chalk soils, intermixed here and there with fields of
stiffer soil, and of the diluvian alluded to by Mr.
H. Evershed in his prize report on the Farming
of Surrey {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. xiv., p. 395) ;
and, during nearly the whole distance between
" The Oaks" and Epsom Downs, the explorer will
traverse an elevated ridge commanding the finest
views of the valleys of the Wandle and the Thames,
backed by the distant hills of Middlesex and Buck-
inghamshire.

As is remarked by Mr. Evershed, in many in-
stances the natural herbage which clothes the sides
of the chalk ridge, producing alike an imposing
prospect and very useful sheep pasturage, has been
broken up and brought under tillage ; but the
change has seldom produced satisfactory results,
the unlevel position of the ground opposing a na-
tural barrier to its cultivation, while the scantiness
of the produce forms a very insuflScient return for
the necessary outlay. Under these circumstances
the Downs of Surrey will probably long remain
one of the most prominent features of a very beau-
tiful locality. The size of the farms in this district
varies from 200 to 600 acres, the average being
about 300 — the rental averaging about one pound
per acre. The course of cropping as we recede
from London is commonly the four or five-shift,
viz.: 1. Turnips; 2. Barley; 3. Seeds; 4. Wheat,
or 5, Oats. Sainfoin is extensively grown on the

TiBE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

371

soils having a subsoil of cliallc at a moderate dis-
tance. The irrigation system is not very exten-
siv^ely practised in the valley of the Wandle,
although its waters (which bubble out of the base
of the chalk in so many directions) are well adapted
for the purpose. It is water containing the same
foreign substances as those which irrigate the noble
meads of the valleys of the Itchen, the Trent, the
Wiltshire Avon, and the Kennett. The water of
the Wandle, when examined by Professor Way,
was found to contain in an imperial gallon —

Organic matter 1.74

Silica 0.45

Carbonate of lime , 16.00

Carbonate of magnesia ...... 0 47

Common salt 1.38

Sulphate of soda 0.98

Sulphate of potash 0.33

Total foreign substances

21.35

In this water, therefore — and the irrigators of
other districts will do well to ponder over the fact —
is to be found hardly any other substance of a fer-
tilizing nature for the grasses than carbonate of
lime. This salt is here held in solution chiefly by
the presence in the water of a considerable propor-
tion of carbonic acid gas. This is parted with by
the water when heated to boiling, and then nearly
12 grains per gallon out of 16 of its carbonate of

lime is deposited. A similar effect is produced by
exposmg the water in an open vessel to the action
of the sun's rays, and it is probable these pheno-
mena may in some degree account for the excel-
lence of the chalk formations' waters for the pur-
poses of grass irrigation.

Many of these things attracted the attention of
Arthur Young, who often visited this valley. It
was at the farm of Waddon Court, more than half
a century since, that he was frequently the guest of
the eccentric John Parker, who there farmed more
than 2,000 acres. It was here that Young used to
meet John Marshall, Grose (the antiquarian), the
Boscawens, and a few other enhghtened enquirers
after truth. The modern agriculturist who treads
over the same ground will proceed with far greater
advantages than those who, towards the close of
the last century, were thus accustomed to assemble
together. Such an explorer will have that advanced
science to aid him of which poor Arthur Young
was wont to so feelingly lament his deficiency.
The visitor in our day will moreover, be cheered
on by observing, many things accomplished here
of which the Surrey farmers of the last century were
unacquainted. Such an enquirer will feel assured,
after viewing even in the Wandle valley many other
good efforts besides the steam plough, that there
are as yet no symptoms of agriculture having at-
tained its culminating point.

WEEDS AND WEEDING.

The season is at hand when every good farmer is
keeping a close over-sight upon the various weeds which
infest the crops of his farm, and the land he is fallowing.
It is a very important season to a cleanly farmer, and
he is often sorely perplexed as to the best means to
adopt for eradicating these pests to good cultivation.
His first aim will be to clean his fallows ; and the greatest
pests he finds there are root-weeds, i. e., twitch, docks,
foal-foot, buttercups, combine, thistles, goose-grass or
pignut, toadpipe, horse-mint, &c., &c., &c. ; many of
these roots are very tenacious of life, and will require
his utmost attention and care to overcome their hardy
habits and to destroy them. Their varieties are very
numerous. The varieties in twitch alone have been stated
to reach seventy-three distinct specimens ; and the sorts
vary in the size and strength of their roots, from the
thickaess of a tobacco-pipe to the fine thread-like sort,
a short and almost interminable kind. The larger sorts
may with tolerable facility be worked up to the surface,
in fallowing, by a requisite number of scarifyings and
harrowings, from whence they can easily be got off and
burnt ; but the finer varieties are with very great diffi-
culty managed. The more you plough, scuffle, and
harrrow, the more sets you make ; and as every knot is
a set, they soon strike in fine mould, and are so minute

as to be almost undiscernible ; and unless the weather is
dry and sunny — indeed, so scorching hot as to injure
vegetation— this kind can scarcely be got rid of. To
effect this most desirable end, in fallowing the soils that
produce this sort, it is necessary to keep it constantly
stirred either by harrow or scarifier j the latter to be pre-
ferred. However, I am not speaking of the best mode
of fallowing at this time, but of the eradication of weeds.
The great end is to keep them on the surface in fallow
time, so that the sun's scorching heat may dry them up.
Docks, foal-foot, buttercups, thistles, pig-nut, horse-
mint, toadpipe or mare's-tail, as also combine and hog-
grass, have each hardy roots, and require the same kind
of management to effect their destruction. The safest
course, however, is to pick off most of these
larger roots for burning ; but the twitch may
be better got off by raking, or by the use of
the chain harrow. This is a comparatively new appli-
cation of this implement ; but in a dry season, and twitch
being abundant, it is probably the best appliance for
clearing the land we yet have had introduced. These
harrows act in a double capacity — by pulverizing the
surface, and at the same time rolling the twitch up into
irregular collections of various sizes, and quite as clean
as by the hand-rake. For rolling off the finer sorts of

372

TOE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

tsvitch it is a very effective impiement, and wortby the
adoption of liglit-iand farmers where such twitch
abounds. Phillips' poppy extirpator may also be ad-
vantageously used in lightening up this sort of twitch,
and freeing it from adhering soil. Howards and Ran-
somes have fitted these extirpating teeth to their horse-
rakes, with every prosp ect of great usefulness in working,
and of economy to the purchaser, A combined imple-
ment of this kind cannot fail to be advantageous, as it
is brought into such general requisition upon the farm
at different seasons. In the spring it is a poppy extir-
pator, in the summer a twitch and hay-rake, and in the
autumn a stubble -rake,

I am well aware that good clay-land farmers are apt
to scoff at twitch growers, and pronounce them to be
bad farmers; be this as it may, it is still the great bane
of every light-land farmer, and of not a few heavy-
lands men. Much has been written upon the best modes
of extirpating it, but to no great purpose ; and so long
as farmers will crop heavily (and why should they not ?)
they must expect a continuation of this pest. What
steam cultivation may effect I cannot say, but with our
present appliances I am without hope. The great thing
at present is to keep it in subjection, so as not to allow
it to injure any growing crop. The introduction of
steam culture will enable us to work our lands when
our horses are in full requisition in harvest and other
work, which is one great means to this desirable end ;
and much good will unquestionably arise, leading to
a further extension of our rotations in cropping : but
the pest still remains. I will, therefore, offer a few ob-
servations or suggestions as to the most effective mode
of subduing or suppressing it. The first attack should
commence immediately after the corn is cut. Wherever
there is a plant or bed of twitch, it should be broken up
either by fork or other more powerful implement. The
deeper the better, so as to reach the bottom of the roots:
the further spreading will thus be prevented. As soon

as opportunity serves, and the season is suitable, it
should be worked to the surface and be picked off.
Another excellent mode is to have all the green crops —
the fallow crops — looked over in the autumn, and have
every plant of twitch forked up and carried off : this is
taking the young plant before it has time to gain much
strength and spread its roots, " nipping it in the bud."
The broad-clover crops ought also to be looked over, and
every stray plant should be extracted. Every hedge-row
should be cleansed during the winter, so that neither
roots nor ripened seeds should be permitted to propagate
their stock ; finally, never let a plant of twitch stand
unmolested on any part of the farm where it can be got
at without damaging the crop.

As preventives, never sow any grass seeds con-
taining the seeds of twitch : this is one of the worst
and most pernicious things done by a farmer in the
whole course of his business, and is the great nursery of
twitch. A thorough determination to avoid this at all
hazards would ultimately cause the growers of rye -grass
seeds to be more cautious. Cheap grass seeds are
notorious intermixtures, and certain propagators of
twitch. Meadow-grass seeds abound in twitch seeds,
&c. Once in every summer at least, cleanse out or
^^ rode" every ditch, and do not permit the ditch-side
grasses to ripen their seeds, so that birds and stormy
winds may carry and deposit them over the lands
adjoining. Hedgerows should also be looked over in
July or August, and the detrimental grasses growing
here should be cut down. Constant laborious attention
will be ever needed to rid the farm of this most
obnoxious enemy, and no opportunity should be lost
whenever the land is clear, and in a state to be worked.
It is by long courses of cropping, by delayed cultivation,
or in resting the soil, that much increase takes place.
Let every farmer pay due attention to these minor
points, and then he will have the satisfaction to cultivate
a cleanly farm.

THE GROWTH OF BARLEY BY DIFFERENT MANURES CONTINUOUSLY ON
THE SAME LAND, AND THE POSITION OF THE CROP IN ROTATION,

By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., F.C.S., and Dr. J. H, Gilbert, F.C.S.

The original paper under this title, of which the fol-
lowing is an abstract, occupies nearly eighty pages of the
last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society of England (vol. xviii., part ii. pp. 454 — 531).
The results of extensive series of experiments are there
given, in much detail, in the tabular form. It is pro-
posed to give here only an outline of the plan of the ex-
periments, and an abstract of the conclusions arrived at,
with but little numerical detail, A main object of the in-
quiry was to ascertain the characteristic manuring re-
quired fur full crops of barley as grown in our rotations.
The results of three separate sets of experiments are
brought to bear on the question ; and others, of an earlier
date (1845), had given results consistent with those now
more fully considered. In the first set of the newer

series the crop was grown, after two previous corn-crops,
for six successive years on the same land with different
descriptions of manure, the same being applied to the
same plot each year. One or two plots were always
without manure, one with farm-yard manure, some with
purely mineral manures, some with ammoniacal salts
alone, some with nitrate of soda alone, some with rape-
cake alone, and some with mixtures of both the mineral
and nitrogenous manures ; in all, making about twenty
experiments each year. In a second field, barley was
grown for three years in succession, without manure,
after ten successive crops of turnips, which on some of
the plots had had no manure, on others mineral ma-
nures alone, on others mineral and nitrogenous manures,
and so on. Tn a third field, barley was grown experi-

THE FARMER'S MAG AZLNE.

373

mentally in the ordinary rotation of turnips, barley,
clover (or other leguminous crop), and wheat. In the
rotation experiments one plot was entirely unmanured
throughout each course ; a second had superphosphate
of lime only, and this for the root crop alone ; and a
third was well manured with mineral, nitrogenous, and
carbonaceous manure, for the roots commencing each
course. The produce of the barley of three successive
courses of each of these differently manured rotations
has been recorded.

The experiments on the successive growth of barley
on the same land with different manures come first un-
dtr consideraiion. And the point relating to them to
be first noticed is the very varyin result obtained with
one and the same manure, in the six different seasons
(1852 — 7) in which the trials were made. On this
point it is remarked —

" From the pervading influence of season, by which
the produce may be double as much one year as another,
even with one and the same set of conditions supplied
by the farmer, and by which, when unfavourable, the
crops most highly manured suffer most, it results that
the amount of produce obtained for a given outlay in
manure may be only half as much in some seasons as
in others." It resulted, too, that the higher the con-
dition of manuring, if beyond a somewhat even narrow
limit, the less was the proportional return of produce
for a given quantity of mauure.

Referring to the effects of the different manures,
notes taken in the field showed, that the crops grown
on the unmanured, and on the only mineral-manured
plots, as a rule stood up till the time of cutting. Those
having nitrogen in manure equal to about SOlbs of am-
monia per acre per annum (supplied by 2001bs. of salts
of ammonia,* or 2751bs. nitrate of sodat), were gene-
rally, more or less laid ; as also were those grown by
farmyard manure. Those having double this amount of
nitrogen in the manure, or more (supplied by 400Ibs.
ammoniacal salts, 5501bs. of nitrate of soda, or in
2,0001bs. rape-cake), were invariably laid, and in most
years very much and injuriously so. The produce with
this latter amount of manure was in fact far too heavy
to bear any moderate amount of rain about or after the
time of heading. Of the mineral manures used, the
''mixed alkalies," which consisted of a mixture of
the sulphates of potash, soda, and magnesia, whether
alone or in admixture v/ith nitrogenous manures, in-
variably tended to retard the ripeuing of the crop.
Superphosphate of lime, on the other hand, always
tended to early ripening. The superphosphate of lime
also always gave a notable increase of crop, whether it
was used alone, in admixture with other mineral manures,
or with nitrogenous manures. The nitrogenous manures,
however, increased the produce in a far greater degree
than any of the purely mineral combinations.

In the following table is given a summary of the
numerical results obtained, showing the average annual
produce taken over the six years of the experiments.

by each characteristic description of manure em-
ployed :

* An equal mixture of the sulphate and muriate of ammonia

of commerce.

t The comoiercial nitrate of soda,

I— 'O tO0O<J C35Cn^P'M^5^-'

fo ^3 M ^o m

O O O O CJI

c:: a coo

o o — _- _-

-„ ,-g crc-cr [_

o^ cr 5 ." p «! 5

•" •" g (t n> a g

» ==- g' g" ^

O O -I S ;?( P-'
O O Cn — ^ 2
„ — _ ft, g ci

■> O 10 p - o

! B C P „ C

» ,--^ IX a- E.
f 3 0 g S'b

•2,^^g o
; " £0 to S, 03
!'H-5 g £.■
:. o g B c3
? a 2 o :><;

B B = p

p °

M 5 £-

Be

p fo ss ii-

B B p'S

'a B S'-?-

O O 3?

p' S' 5.

'o~ £, 3

2 o

.£? B

ir

i-3

li^ ^ I*. ►[>. 1*^

03
CO >(^ M ^D *» S
00 ^3 H-i CO wi er-

p p

«6 6i

Ot OT O! tu en oi ot o; "^
(z:, c::i ^ i_j >_■ ^-. h-, ^^ -,►
^ to CO en to to to o g

— ' Oi ^1

p

OH

M

03 CO

CO CO CO
"h-' en O

to ^5

\n CO

K- hJ M

r

O

P"

3

03

to

CO ^i

CC C2

C»

W

s

03

CO

CO

M

v\

c-

rn

o

-Td

q

OS

05

CTS

tn Oi

tn

►ft. en
Vt to

CO CO ai

C5 CO "— '

?

p
^

g

tc

^f^

to I^

0^

05

^3

ux

Hi". CO 05

to o>

cw

,"

p

n

c

a,

f

H
Bo

X

ts

Tl

CO

Z

P-H

g

So

t-i

55

^

H

^

h-H

p

W

00

0

?J

0

CO

^

i-i

tl^

w

Ol

0

Cs

w

)^

2!

w

O

M

~a

K|

1

td

S

K^

o

«

jj

fq

^

-g

r-q

a

pa

fel

2;

7.

"3

o

H

g

>

P>

!^

■ti

0

-J

»

W

t/j

3:

e

W

a

S

2;

Q

r/2

X

0

0

^

w

M

0

C3

H

0

H

Fr"m a review of the whole of the results relating to

the action of the special manures upon the barley crop,

taking the average of six successive years of growth by

! each, on land in an agricultural sense somewhat ex-

374

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

liausted for corn-giowtb, the following conclusions are
arrived at :

" Tliat exclusively mineral manures, and especially
those containing phosphoric acid, annually increased the
produce of barley ; even doing so in the first year of
their application on land in the condition described."

" That with barley grown continuously on the same
land (as was the case with wheat), nitrogenous manures
had a much more striking effect than mineral manures."

" That by the annual supply of nitrogenous manures
alone (nitrate of soda or ammoniacal salts), larger
successive crops both of corn and straw were obtained,
than by the annual use of 14 tons of farmyard manure,
with all its minerals, and certainly more nitrogen than
either the nitrate or ammoniacal salts employed by its
side."

" That within certain limits, even on this compara-
tively exhausted soil (and it would probably be more
nearly so on soils in ordinary condition for the crop),
nitrate of soda, ammoniacal salts, and rape-cake, all
increase the produce of barley, approximately in pro-
portion to the amounts of nitrogen they respectively
supplied. Their comparative effects will, however, vary
somewhat according to season, the nitrate being gene-
rally more rapid in its action."

" That to obtain a maximum amount of increase in
proportion to the nitrogen given in manure, the barky
crop will, on the average of seasons, bear a considerably
less acreage amount of it than is required by the wheat
crop under similar circumstances."

"That the effect of a given amount of nitrogen, if
not excessive, will be considerably increased by the ad-
dition of certain mineral manures, especially those con-
taining phosphates. The action of the mineral manures
is very much increased under such circumstances ; that
is, their application gives very much more increase,
when there is present a liberal supply of available ni-
trogen within the soil, than when there is not."

" In other words, a soil brought by previous cropping
into a condition to require manure of some kind before
it will grow a full crop of corn, when afterwards cropped
year after year with barley, only yields full crops
when a liberal amovint of nitrogen is supplied to the
soil. Mineral manures, especially phosphates, con-
siderably increase the action of the nitrogen so sup-
plied ; but the effect of such mineral manures on the
increase of crop will bs extremely limited, without
there be a liberal amount of available nitrogen zvithin
the soil itself."

The next set of experiments to be noticed, is that in
which barley was taken successively from the same land
in the seasons of 1853, '4, and '5, after ten successive
crops of turnips, which bad been grown experimentally,
by different manures.

On one plot, the last seven of the ten preceding crops
of turnips had been grown without any manure what-
ever ; and this unmanured produce, leaf and bulb toge-
ther, averaged little more than two tons per acre per
annum. The second plot had received for the last eight
of the ten crops of turnips liberal supplies of mineral

constituenis, mostly in much larger quantities than they
were taken off in the root crops. Plot 3 had the same
mineral manures for the turnips as plot 2, and, in addi-
tion, during the six middle years of the ten, about
44 lbs. of nitrogen per acre per annum in the form of
ammoniacal salts. On the 4th plot there had been the
same mineral manures as on plots 2 and 3, and an aver-
age annual addition, during six of the years of turnips,
of about 95 lbs. of nitrogen per acre, in the form of
rape-cake. The turnips on the 5th plot had received
the same mineral manures as on plots 2, 3, and 4, and
in addition, during six of the years, both the ammoniacal
salts as on plot 3, and the rape-cake as on plot 4, which
together gave an average annual supply of about 140 lbs.
of nitrogen per acre.

The mineral-manured plot gave much larger crops of
turnips than the unmanured one ; and the addition of
nitrogen, and other organic constituents of manure, as
on plots 3, 4, and 5, always afforded a further increment
of increase. But in neither of the three cases was the
nitrogen recovered in the increased produce of the
turnips equal to that which was supplied in the manure.
It might be expected therefore that where nitrogen was
supplied for the turnips — unless it were evaporated or
drained in some form from the soil, distributed too
widely throughout it, fixed in it in an unavailable con-
dition of combination, or in some way dissipated during
the growth of the plant— that there would be some re-
maining available for the three succeeding crops of
barley. The discussion of the results of the three years'
growth of barley, after the ten differently manured
turnip crops, is prefaced as follows : —

" If the characteristic influence of a7'otation of crops,
upon the increased growth of the cereals, be at all ma-
terially due to the elfsboration in the soil, during the
growth of the other crops, of the necessary mineral sup-
plies for the white crop, it might surely be expected
that here, aften ten meagre, unmanured crops of turnips,
appropriating no amount of silicates, we should have, if
ever it were possible, a large produce of barley, de-
pending, with these rich stores of prepared mineral food
in the soil, upon atmospheric sources for its nitrogen?
If not after the many crops of unmanured turnips, surely
after those provided with a very large excess of other
mineral matters than silicates — the crop taking none of
the latter out — we should have enough elaborated and
conserved in the soil both of these and of all other
mineral constituents, to yield the fullest crop of barley
which it is possible to obtain by the conjoint influence
of a very rich mineral condition of soil, and the normal
season supplies of available nitrogen ?"

But the result was that, comparing the produce of
barley after the unmanured turnips with the unmanured
produce during the same three years, in the field de-
voted to the continuous growth of the crop by different
manures, the turnip land gave an average annual pro-
duce of not quite 19 bushels of corn, and the continu-
ous barley field nearly 32 bushels. The amount of
straw, too, was only about two-thirds as much afcer the
ten crops of turnips as in the field whence so much more
corn had been recently taken. In fact, a produce of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

375

scarcely 19 bushels per acre per annum of barley corn,
and little more than half a ton of straw — together, equal
to not a ton of dry substance of produce — will be ad-
mitted to be exceedingly small. The conclusion was,
that the condition of the land, after ten successive crops
of turnips had been removed, must have been, for barley
growth, at the lowest possible point.

" That a liberal supply of mineral constituents distri-
buted through the soil cannot restore this exhausted
fertility is seen by the produce of barley after the
mineral-manured turnips. After ten years of turnips,
the last eight of which were grown by excessive supplies
of mineral manure?, we have an annual average of 511bs.,
or 1 bushel of corn more, and 791bs. of straw less,
equal to 251bs. less total produce, than after the unma-
nured turnips."

The question is then — " In what constituent, or con-
stituents, had these unmanured and mineral-manured
turnips exhausted the soil, in so far as the after produc-
tion of barley was concerned, to a point even far below
that arrived at in the other field by the previous growth
of one crop of wheat, one crop of barley with sulphate
of ammonia, and one crop unmanured — that is, . three
white-straw crops in succession without mineral ma-
nure ?"

A comparison of the produce of barley on the plots
where the turnips had been manured with nitrogenous as
well as mineral manures, with that where they had re-
ceived mineral manures alone, throws some light on this
point. Thus, where ammoniacal salts as well as mineral
manures had been supplied to the turnips, the succeed-
ing barley gave an average annual increase of about 2
bushels, or 1021bs., of corn, and 941bs, straw, over the
produce where the mineral manures alone had been ap-
plied. Where, in the rapecake, a larger amount of
nitrogen had been supplied to the turnips, there was an
average annual increase in the barley crop of 5^ bushels
of dressed corn, or 3331bs. total corn, and 3811bs. of
straw. Lastly, where during six out of the ten years of
turnips their manure (in the form of both ammoniacal
salts and rapecake) supplied a still larger amount of
nitrogen, in addition to the mineral manurrs, the suc-
ceeding barley gave an average annual increase of nearly
5f bushels of dressed corn, or 3151bs. total corn, and
3311bs. of straw, over the produce where there had been
mineral manures alone.

"We had then, with a residue in the soil of merely
mineral manures, even a loss of produce of barley — due
to a greater growth, and consequent greater exhaustion
of other matters, by the turnip. We find, on the other
hand, a perceptible gain in the barley wherever the
turnips had received either ammoniacal salts or rape-
cake as well as the mineral manures. Even here, how-
ever, the produce, with this nitrogenous and full mineral
residue in the soil, was not equal to the annual unma-
nured produce in the other field, where the barley was
growing continuously.''

" That the beneficial effect of the residue of the rape-
cike was not due to the mineral constituents it supplied,
may be judged by the fact, that the residue of the direct
mineral manures had not any such effect. It was un-

doubtedly a residue of available nitrogen ivithin the soil,
that gave the increase of produce of barley where the
ammoniacal salts or rape-cake had been employed for
the turnips. If this be admitted, we have in the facts
at once a beautiful illustration of the degree of reliance
upon nitrogen in the soil, of the turnip ciop, and of the
utter incapability of rich supplies of mineral constituents
in the soil, to be of any avail in yielding agricultural
quantities of barley, unless there be at the same time
within the soil a liberal amount of available nitrogen."
If further proof be wanted that the necessary mineral
constituents were in abundance, and available in this
turnip-exhausted soil for very full crops of barley, pro-
vided only available nitrogen were also within the reach
of the roots of the plants, it is to be found in the
results of experiments, in which, in one of the three
years of barley after turnips, one portion of the plot,
where the residue of the turnip mineral-manures alone
had been unavailing to increase the produce of barley,
now received about 821bs. of nitrogen in the form of am-
moniacal salts, and another portion about the same
amount of nitrogen in nitrate of soda. They were as
follows :

" In 1854, those portions of the mineral-manured
plots left without further manure gave 19^ bushels.
But where now (in 1854), about 821bs. of nitrogen per
acre were added as ammoniacal salts,* we had, instead
of 192 bushels, 522- bushels of barley ; and where the
same quantity of nitrogen was added as nitrate of soda,f
54f bushels. The increase in the produce of straw was
in greater proportion still. By the addition of the am-
moniacal salts, the straw was raised from l,3971bs. per
acre to 4,3791bs. ; and by the nitrate of soda it was in-
creased to 4,781lbs. The total produce (corn and straw
together), was thus from 3 to 3i times as great by the simple
addition of ammoniacal salts or nitrate of soda." And
it may be observed, in passing, that here, as has been
noticed in other cases, the nitrate of soda was more
active than a quantity of ammoniacal salts containing an
assumed equal amount of nitrogen.

" It is very remarkable too, that although the pro-
duce after the mineral-manured turnips was little more
than half as much as the unmanured produce in the
field of continuous barley experiments, yet the addition
of a given amount of nitrogen gave very nearly iden-
tical results in both fields. Thus, after the mineral-
manured turnips, we had, with theammonaical salts and
nitrate of soda respectively, 7,3771bs. and 8,0051bs. of
total produce (corn and straw together) ; and in the
field of continuous barley experiments we had, with the
same amount of nitrogen, given as ammoniacal salts
(without minerals), 7,5481bs., and as nitrate of soda
fsecond year without minerals), 7,4001bs. of total pro-
duce. Again, in the same field of continuous barley
experiments, the mean result of direct mineral manures
and ammoniacal salts together, was 8,3201bs. ; and that
of even more nitrogen given as rape- cake (itself supply-
ing also mineral constituents, as well as carbonaceous

* SOOibs. sulphate and 2001b3. muriate of ammouia of com-
inerce.
t 5501bs. commercial nitrate of soda.

)7G

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

organic matter), with, in three out of four cases, direct
mineral manures also, was 8,1501bs."

" In the contrasts and coincidences afforded by the
results in these two fields, we have the clearest evidence
that it was in available niti'ogen for the barley ciop
that the i^reviously mineral-manured turnip soil, had be-
come deficient, as compared with the unmanured land
in the field of continuous barley experiments. It is
evident, moreover, that on the mineral-manured turnip
plots there was an abundant provision of the requisite
mineral constituents for an exceedingly full crop, within
the reach of the barley plant, provided only available
nitrogen were also within the reach of its roots. Lastly,
with the widely differing condition of the land in the
two fields vathout further nitrogenous manure, and the
approximation to equal amounts of produce when with
comparable other conditions, both are supplied with a
full dressing of such manure, again we learn how
marked is the influence of season on the productive
effects of our most active manures."

With the further light upon the " conditioyi" of soil
required by the barley crop, which the examination of
the produce obtained after ten years of turnips, and its
comparison with that in the other field, affords, the re-
sults obtained in still another field, under circum-
stances differing widely from either of the other two,
are next to be considered.

In 1848, three portions, of nearly an acre each, were
set apart for separate experiments on the chemical
statistics of rotations of crops. For all three of these
portions of land, the rotation chosen was — turnips, bar-
ley, clover, wheat. As was to be expected, however,
the clover, coming round after a lapse of only four years,
failed ; hence, in the second and third courses, half of
each plot was sown with beans, and the other half
fallowed, instead of the clover. None of the crops were
manured, excepting the turnips.

The plot of rotation No. 1 remained entirely un-
manured— even the turnips— course after course.

The turnips of rotation No. 2 were manured, each
time they came round, with superphosphate of lime
alone.

The turnips of the third plot (rotation No. 3) were
manured, each course, with superphosphate of lime, the
sulphates of potash, soda, and magnesia, 2,0001bs. rape-
cake, and lOOlbs. each sulphate and muriate of ammonia,
per acre.

There were, therefore, three parallel rotations with
the same crops ; one of these had no manure whatever,
course after course ; the second had superphosphate of
lime alone, once in four years ; and the third, after the
same interval, received a mixed manure, supplying
liberally to the soil phosphates and other mineral con-
stituents, and both nitrogen and carbonaceous organic
substance.

In each of the three four-course rotations, barley has
been taken three times — namely, in 1849, in 1833, and
in 1857; and, as from hilf of each turnip-plot the
entire prorluce, leaf and bulb, ^as carted-off, and on the

other half the roots were eaten by sheep, and the leaves
distributed over the land, the produce of the barley on
each turnip-plot was so subdivided, as to show the com-
parative effects of the drawiug-off and folding. The
turnips on the continuously unmanured plot averaged
only from 4 to 4.^ tons per acre, per course, leaf and
bulb together; the superphosphated turnips from 13 to
14 tons ; and those by the full mixed manure, over 20
tons.

The result was, that th3 produce of barley obtained in
rotation, even when the turnips were both unmanured
and carted-off, was considerably greater than when, as
in the field first described, the crop was grown annually
in succession on the same land, without manure. This
was even more strikingly the case in the third un-
manured rotation- course than previously. And it will
be remembered that the barley grown continuously in
succession was, in its turn, considerably more than that
after the series of unmanured turnip-crops as in the
second field considered. Consistently with this last
point, the produce of barley in ?-ci^«<iOTi was considerably
less after those carted-off turnips which were grown by
superphosphate of lime, than after those grown without
any manure whatever. This is explained by the fact
that much larger crops of turnips were taken from the
superphosphated than from the unmanured land. On
the other hand, as was to be expected, the fed super-
phosphated turnips gave larger succeeding crops of
barley than th&fed unmanured ones.

On the unmanured rotation-land, the folding of the
meagre crops of turnips did not increase the produce of
barley. On both the superphosphated and the mixed-
manured rotation-plots, the folding of the turnips did
much increase the produce of barley. The difference
in the amount of barley after the folding, compared with
that after the carting off of the turnips, was greatest on
the superphosphated plot; ia which case the exhaustion
of the land by the removal of the turnips was the
greatest, and the manuring from the folding was not
too high. In fact, on the highly manured rotation-plot,
the land after the removal of the turnips was still left
in good condition, and after the folding in too high a
one for the barley to stand the vicissitudes of season —
under which it was the more liable to injury when
manured beyond a somewhat limited degree.

It will now be interesting, for a moment, to review as
a whole, the various field experiments on the growth of
barley.

" It has been found, that the amount of produce
when grown afcer a succession of removed unmanured,
or even highly mineral-manured turnip crops, was far
below a moderate agricultural yield. It was seen that
by the simple addition of nitrogenous manure to
land in this condition, enormous crops were raised.
When barley was grown without manure year after year,
on land in a less artificially exhausted condition than
that where ten successive turnip crops had been grown,
the produce was considerably greater than after the
succession of turnip crops. Oa this land mineral
manures somewhat increased the produce. But, as on
the turnip exhausted land, nitrogenous manures did so

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

377

much more strikingly. la both fields, indeed, the
amount of available nitrogen supplied to the soil ruled-
the amouat of produce very much more strikingly than
did the supply of the necessary mineral constituents of
the crop. In growing barley in rolatlon, on land pre-
viously brought to that comparative state of exhaustion,
in which, under ordinary cultivation with home manuring
and ordinary cropping, the conclusion of a course will
leave it, the unmanured produce of barley throughout
three subsequent courses of an entirely unmanured ro-
tation was considerably greater than that where barley
was grown year after year ; and it was still further ia
excess of that obtained after a series of unmanured
turnip crops."

" Here then is a striking effect upon the produce of
barley by growing it in a rotation — even unmanured —
of turnips, barley, clover, wheat. When the turnips in
such a rotation were grown by superphosphate of lime,
and by it larger crops of the roots removed than with-
out manure, the produce of barley was less than after
the unmanured turnips. Here too, then, the produce of
barley is diminished after unusual exhaustion by turnip-
croppiug. But either the consumption of the super-
phosphated turnips on the land, the residue of a mixed
mineral and nitrogenous manure after turnips grown by
it had been carted off, or the consumption of these
turnips on the land, greatly increased the subsequent
produce of barley above that of the turnip-exhausted
rotation land. It could certainly not be the restoration
of mineral matters, to which, in these cases the increased
produce of barley was mainly due ; for the increase was
greater by the consumption on the land of the merely
superphosphated turnips, than by the residue of far
richer mineral (and organic) manure where the turnips
grown by it had been removed, taking away but a small
proportion of the supplied minerals ; and it was greater
still where these highly-manured turnips were fed on
the land, and returned to it a considerable amount of
nitrogen, in addition to the already relative excessive
amount of minerals. It was seen too, in the other
fields, that mineral manures were quite unavailing to
g've even moderate crops of barley, unless there were
available nitrogen ivithin the soil."

" It may be fairly concluded that a characteinstic
eifect of alternating the other crops with the barley, has
been to leave more available nitrogen from some source,
within the reacli of the roots of the latter, than when
either this same crop was groi?rn continuously in succes-
sion, or when a number of successive turnip-crops were
previously removed from the land. Barley then, like
wheat, requires characteristically wiiat may be termed a
nitrogenous condition of soil. It cannot, however,
under ordinary circumstances, bear such large amounts
of nitrogen supplied as wheat ; though what it does re-
quire, from the habit of the plant, and its usual limited
period of growth, should be more confined to the upper
layers of soil. For these reasons, barley may of;en be
taken with advantage after a previous white crop, by a
spring dressing merely, of chiefly nitrogenous manure.
Ia such cases the direct addition of mineral manures,
especially those containing phosphates, will have a more

striking effect than upon the wbiter-soivn wheat. The
effect of such mineral manures is not only to increase
the general growth, but to bring the crop more rapidly
to maturity. The more frequent alternative is, that
barley is taken after a root-crop, in part or entirely fed
on the land. The appropriateness of this course for
barley rather than for wheat, besides the advantage
arising froro the season of the year at which the land is
generally clear for the corn, rests mainly on the fact,
that the manure by folding, with the subsequent light
working of the land, is more confined to the superficial
layers of soil, in which, comparatively, the roots of the
barley play more freely.

" A disadvantage of growing barley after the folding
of sheep on turnips is, that with high farming the land
is apt to be thus left in too high a condition for the crop
to succeed well in the average of seasons ; whilst, on the
heavier lands, there is frequently much injury done to
the texture, rendering it difficult to get the fine tilth so
essential to the favourable growth of barley.

" Of direct portable manures for barley, Peruvian
guano, or salts of ammonia, or nitrate of soda — either of
them with a small quantity of superphosphate of liaie —
are the best. • Rape cake is also a good manure for bar-
ley, but it is generally too high in relative price. These
manures, as well as purely mineral manures, are most
advantageously applied before, or at the time of sowing,
so as to be somewhat distributed through the surface
soil by the mechanical operations. As a mere top-dress-
ing nitrate of soda is the best. Of the more exclusively
nitrogenous manures — salts of ammonia and nitrate of
soda— the nitrate acts somewhat more rapidly for a given
amount of nitrogen supplied. The action of the purely
nitrogenous manures is economised by admixture with a
small quantity of superphosphate of lime, or other
appropriate mineral manure. Other things being equal,
the later the barley is sown, the less should be the pro-
portion of nitrogen in the manure, and the greater that
of mineral constituents ; otherwise the crop is liable to
be too luxuriant ; and with a limited range of root in
the soil, it will probably not find mineral constituents
rapidly enough in the later stages of growth, for a favour-
able development and maturing of the seed."

Some additional remarks are here appropriate, on the
observed more marked effects of direct mineral manures
on the barley than on the ivheat cro^. A consideration
of the distinctive habits and usual circumstances of
growth in our rotations, of these two nevertheless much
allied crops will be found to throw some light on the
point alluded to.

The necessity of considering the various habits and
conformation of the different crops of our rotations in
relation to their resources of growth was prominently
insisted upon in previous papers, in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society, more than ten years ago.
Such considerations, the bearings of which are among
the first lessons taught by the progress of field experi-
ments, tend materially to modify the conclusions to
wliich a more purely chemical view of the offices and
province of the various constitusnts in a system of

378

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

manuring would lead. In order to verify and define tbe
more obvious conclusions of superficial observation on
some of the points here in question, the summer of 1846
was mainly devoted to the examination of the compara-
tive underground ranges of the various crops of our rota-
tions. In reference to the results of the experiments
then made, it maybe mentioned, that the relatively great
depth and extent to which several of the leguminous
crops, and also wheat and oats, penetrated, were very
remarkable. In defect of drawings of the specimens
then traced out, rough sketches taken in the case of
some recent experiments, in which, with another object
in view, wheat and barley had been grown side by side,
under somewhat artificial conditions, in pots, illustrated
the strikingly different distribution of the roots of these
two plants. The barley threw only a single fibrile to
the bottom of the pot. The wheat, on the other hand,
sent out such a mass of ramifications, that the whole of
the surface of the dish in which its pot rested was covered
with a thick net-work of roots ; as also was the bottom,
and, to a great extent, the sides of the inside of the pot
itself. The contrast here manifested is, indeed, pretty
characteristic of the two plants as grown in our fields.

Further on this point: — " When considering the
results of field experiments on wheat, we have directed
attention to the fact, that the success of the autumn-sown
crop was greatly dependent upon the progress of the
under-ground development during the early months of
growth. It was held that this was very much favoured,
other things being equal, by a liberal supply of available
nitrogen within the soil, and that thus, the range of col-
lection of the fibrous feeders of the plant was so extended
as to render available, when needed in the after-stages
of growth of the plant, the mineral constituents of a
much larger area of the soil than otherwise would be the
case. Very different are the usual conditions of the
growth of barley. Instead of winter-growth, and a com-
pressed soil, tending to increased depth and area of root-
distribution, we sow our barley in the spring, work the
staple shallow, and keep it as light and open as possible.
Under these circumstances of short time, rapid growth,
and comparatively limited depth and area of root-
development, we find the direct supply of some of the
rarer, but essential mineral constituents of our soils,
much more efficient with the barley crop than with
wheat.

" The mechanical conditions of soil, and the season of
growth of the barley crop, are in many respects more
like those required by the turnip ; and they are calcu-
lated to favour the distribution of a large amount of
fibrous root near the surface, rather than any consider-
able development in the lower layers. In our paper on
' Turnip Culture,'* it was shown how much this distri-
bution of surface root-fibres was increased by the use of
superphosphate of lime. The same is the case with bar-
ley. It is obvious, that with this multiplication and
more thickly-distributed net-work of root-fibres, the
greater must be the resources of the plant within its
comparatively limited period and area of growth. Thus
it is, that the increased supply of certain important con-

* Journal of the Rnyal Agricultural Society, vol riii., 18)7

slituents within a limited area, enables the plant to
provide itself more freely and rapidly with others it may
require." Again —

" Still referring to the action and province of mineral
manures applied to our crops grown on cultivated laud,
it has been shown on former occasions that, in a soil
brought to what may be termed a condition of agricul-
tural exhaustion — that is, at the end of a rotation,
when in the ordinary course of things it would receive
manure of some kind — the autumn-sown wheat was not
increased in produce by the direct application of mineral
manures, until so many crops had been taken from the
land as to exhaust it of mineral constituents more than
would happen under nearly a century of ordinary rota-
tion and home-manuring. It has now been shown, that
a very similar soil, certainly not more exhausted in an
agricultural sense, gave an increase in the produce of
barley, even on the first year's application of mineral
manures. Collateral experiments in the same field, as
well as those in other fields of very different, yet to a
certain extent known history of relative exhaustion or
fertility, showed, however, that mineral manures were
competent to yield, under these conditions of agri-
cultural exhaustion, but a small amount of increase
when compared with that obtained by nitrogenous
manures. The evidence has also led to the conclusion,
that the mineral manures, if at all, yielded increase in
an extremely limited degree, unless there were available
nitrogen accumulated by some means vjithin the soil ;
in fact, that the increase of produce, other things being
equal, was more in proportion to such available nitrogen
within the soil, than to any other supplied condition.
It has, however, recently been maintained in the Journal
of the Royal Agricultural Society, that our cha-
racteristic nitrogenous manures cannot De said to be
active in proportion to the nitrogen they contain."

In the paper referred to,* Baron Liebig states, that
ammonia alone, or nitric acid alone, has never been
used in agricultural experiments. His conclusion is ,
that the acids in combination with ammonia in ammo-
niacal salts, and the bases in combination with nitric
acid in the nitrates, have had their share in the results
obtained by the use of these salts. He also further
quotes experimental evidence to show, that the value of
manures cannot depend upon the amount of their
nitrogen, but must depend upon the substances com-
bined with tbe nitrogen.

In regard to the first mentioned statement, which was
one of fact, it might be observed, that the I'esults of
experiments made at Rothamsted had been published,
in which ammonia in combination with only carbonic
acid had been employed. Mr. Puscy had also given the
results of trials, in wliicli nitric acid, soda, and potash,
were each separately applied to grass. Of these results
Mr. Pusf y said : "In both trials the nitric acid acted
decidedly. The alkalies, neither of them produced
even a trace of effect on the colour or on the growth of
the grass." And again, "The question being whether
in saltpetre the alkalies or the acid contain the active
principle, we have found upon a given sod the alkalies

'■' IbiJ, vol. xvii,, part 1.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

S79

absolutely inoperative, while the acid has acted exactly
like saltpetre itself and like ammonia."

As to the general question here at issue, "it cannot
for a moment be denied that the state of combination of
the nitrogen in our nitrogenous manures, or their ad-
mixture with other substances, has some share of in-
fluence on the result. We have clearly shown that they
have an influence, fluctuating according to season, ex-
haustion, amount employed, and other circumstances.
It is, however, entirely inadmissible to attempt to draw
any conclusions as to the influence of the state of com-
bination of the nitrogen, or of the effect of substances
supplied with it, from the comparison of the results of
experiments in which unequal quantities of nitrogen are
employed to a given area, or which were made indis-
criminately in the same or in diff'erent seasons. Every
one, at all conversant with field experiments, will have
been early impressed with the very varying proportional
effect from one and the same manure, if used in different
quantities in the same season, in even equal quantities in
different seasons, and above all, in unequal quantities in
different seasons. But Baron Liebig founds his argu-
ments upon the influence of the varying chemical com-
bination of nitrogen, and upon the comparative effects
of ammoniacal salts used alone, or in admixture with
other constituents, upon experiments with nitrogen in
these different states, made indiscriminately with dif-
ferent quantities of nitrogen to a given area, and in
different seasons."

M. Kuhlmann indeed, upon whose results Baron
Liebig founds his arguments, called particular attention
to the influence of the various seasons in which his ex-
periments were made. The following statement must
further show, that the experiments cited were quite in-
comparable on the point in question. Thus, Baron
Liebig compares with one another the results of about
701bs. of nitrogen to a given area in the form of sal-
ammoniac alone in one year (1843); of about 176
parts in the form of sal-ammoniac ivith phisphales,
applied partly in 1844 and partly in 1846 and the in-
crease of produce taken over the three years, 1844, '5,
and '6 ; and of about |15 parts of nitrogen in the form
of guano applied only in one year (1844), and the in-
crease taken over that and two succeeding years ; and
upon the comparison thus made, ho founds conclusions
as to the effects of the different states of combination of
the nitrogen in the manures, or on that of its admixture
with other constituents. But, besides the experiments
above alluded to, in which Kuhlmann applied about 15
parts of nitrogen to a given area in the form of guano,
he made another, side by side, with the same guano, but
with double the quantity, yielding therefore 30 parts of
nitrogen to the same area. The result was, that where
the smaller quantity of nitrogen was used, 72 per cent,
more increase was obtained for a given amount of ni-
trogen than with the larger ; yet, it was the action of
the smaller quantity of guano applied in one year, and
acting over three, which Baron Liebig selects to contrast
with the large amount of nitrogen applied in different
seasons in other manures, attributing the difference in
wsult to the action of the associated mineral constituents

in the guano. In another of Baron Liebig's illustra-
tions on the same point, although 74^1bs. more nitrogen
were supplied with phosphates than were given without
them, he attributes the increase of produce in the one
case over that in the other, to the addition of the phos-
phates.

Further, Baron Liebig explains the efficacy of a
fi'esh supply of salts of ammonia, when a still unre-
covered supposed residue of nitrogen from previous
applications would be without effect, by supposing that
the mineral constituents have been exhausted by the
action of that portion before supplied which had been
active, and that by the action of fresh salts fresh
mineral constituents were set free from the soil, and
thus the conditions restored for the supplied nitrogen
to become effective. How far such an explanation is
probably correct, may perhaps be judged of by the
results which have been recorded on the growth of
barley after ten years of turnips differently manured.

" During the growth of the ten turnip crops, some
of the plots had received every year enormously more
of all the mineral constituents of the barley crop, except
silica, than the turnips removed. The latter removed
no silica. So that, besides the excess of other mineral
constituents, there was an accumulation during ten
years of available silica. Yet with all this unusual ac-
cumulation of the necessary mineral constituents, the
residue of nitrogen unrecovered in the increase of turnip
crop — amounting as it did in some cases to more than
the largest dressing we ever applied in one year to a
corn crop — gave us, where there was the largest amount
thus unrecovered, during three successive years of
barley, an average annual increase of only 5f bushels of
corn, and between 300 and 400 lbs. of straw per acre.
On the other hand, the addition of fresh nitrogen, in
the form of salts of ammonia and nitrate of soda re-
spectively, gave at once an increase of 33 and 35 bushels
of corn, and 4,903 and 5,531 lbs. of straw. And al-
though the addition of the fresh nitrogen in the form of
ammoniacal' salts yielded an increase of 33 bushels of
corn and 4,903 lbs. of straw, which together would con-
tain only about half the nitrogen supplied in the
manure, yet the remaining half, notwithstanding the
still enormous excess of previously supplied mineral
constituents, gave in the succeeding year only 6f bushels
increase of corn and 646 lbs. of straw. Are we then to
conclude, that, under the circumstances stated, the sup-
posed large residue of nitrogen supplied to the turnips ,
was inefficient only for the want of available minerals ?
and that the striking effects of the newly-supplied lesser
amounts of nitrogen were chiefly due to the action of
the acids of the ammoniacal salts and of the soda of the
nitrate, in rendering available the otherwise locked up
mineral constituents wiihin the soil ? The utter in-
efficiency of even a liberal direct supply of mineral
constituents, to recover, in the second crop of wheat
after nitrogenous manures, more than an insignificant
proportion of the supplied nitrogen not recovered in
the first, has been forcibly illustrated in a former paper."

By the concurrent testimony of field experiments of

3S0

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

very various kinds, the conclusion has been arrived at,
that full crops of barley cannot be grown unless there
be, by some means, available nitrogen provided within
the soil. In practice it is frequently convenient to in-
crease the produce of the barley crop by the ■direct
application of portable nitrogenous manures. It is very
desirable, therefore, both in a practical and scientific
point of view, to have some means of judging what is
the probable proportion of the nitrogen so supplied in
manure which will, on the average, or under given cir-
cumstances, be recovered in the immediate or successive
increase of crop obtained. The experimental eiidence
which has been collected bearing upon this point also
throws some light upon the influence of season and
manuring on the per-centage of nitrogen in the barley
crop, and upon the amount of nitrogen obtained an-
nually from a given area without manure.

Before speaking of the direct evidence which analysis
has supplied in the case of the experiments on the
growth of barley without and with nitrogenous manures,
the evidence and reasoning of others as to the proportion
of the nitrosi;en supplied in manure, which is recovered
in the increase of produce obtained by its use, may be
first briefly noticed. In his paper in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England, before referred
to (vol. xvii. part 1), Baron Liebig deduces from Kuhl-
mann's experiments on hay, that when ammoniacal salts
were used alone, there was an apparent loss of four-
fifths or three-fourths of the nitrogen employed ; but
that, when mineral constituents ivere also added, there
was no such loss, but a gain from natural sources. To
show this gahi, the instance is quoted in which Kuhl-
mann used about fifteen parts of nitrogen to a given
area in the form of guano. Adopting the same mode of
calculation, however, there would be a deficiency, in-
stead of a gain of nitrogen in the increase of produce,
where Kuhlmann applied it in the form of the very same
guano, but in just double the quantity to a given area,
as In the former instance. In another of Kuhlmann's
expeiiments, too, where a still larger proportion of
nitrogen was employed to a given area of land in the
form of sal-amraoniac, but mixed with phosphates,
there would be, still adopting Baron Liebig's mode of
calculation, a loss of more than 56 per cent, of the sup-
plied nitrogen. In fact, so far as the evidence and argu-
ments adduced bore upon the question, it appeared that
to attain the result of no deficiency of the supplied
nitrogen in the increase, but a gain over that supplied
in the manure, the farmer must employ it in quantity
which, in a practical point of view, was quite insignifi-
cant. The real bearing of the evidence which Kuhlmann's
experiments supply is not the question here. It is, too,
hardly necessary to reiterate an assent as to the essen-
tialness of a liberal supply of the necessary mineral con-
stituents of our crops. It has been frequently shown in
former papers, what, under an ordinary course of prac-
tical agriculture, with rotation, as it is, are the usual
circumstances of the removal and return of tlie mineral
constituents, and what the requirements for their direct
supply.

The experiments of Kuhlmann above alluded to were
made upon grass. The direct results to be now noticed
have reference, as already intimated, to the experiments
in which barley was grown for six consecutive years on
the same land, by different manures, of which the same
description was applied to the same plot throughout the
six seasons. More than one hundred nitrogen determi-
nations were made on the barley corn or straw, grown
respectively with and without nitrogenous manures.

Referring briefly to the influence of varying season
and manuring, upon the per-centage of nitrogen in the
produce of barley, it appeared from the results of the
few seasons over which the experiments extended, that.

so far as the crops grown without uitrogenous manure
were concerned (that is, those which ripened best), the
tendency was to give the lower per-centage of nitrogen,
the higher the character of the crop, and vice versa.
The same has been found to be the case with wheat ;
but, as with the latter, so with barley, the rule is not
without exception ; it seems only to apply, on the ave-
rage, as our seasons go.

When comparing the produce of the different seasons,
grown by nitrogenous manure, the rule just indicated
is not so clearly borne out ; but, as the influence of
even the smaller amounts of the nitrogenous manures
which were employed, was to produce over-luxuriance,
and depreciate the proportion and the quality of the
grain, that is, to be unfavourable to perfect maturation,
the apparent exception was rather a confirmation of the
assumption, that high maturation and low per-centage
of nitrogen were generally, with the average of our sea-
sons, coincident.

"That we should get the higher qualities of crop in-
dicated with the lowest amounts of produce per acre, Is
perfectly consistent with the practically admitted fact,
that the sample, particularly of barley, is, on the ave-
rage, the better the smaller the amount of crop. This
smaller amount of crop is coincident with the relative
deficiency of available nitrogen within the soil ; and,
with this higher quality of sample obtained with a low
relative provision of nitrogen in the soil, we have a ten-
dency to low per-centage of nitrogen in the most
valuable descriptions of the grain. But quality cannot
in practice be bought at so great a sacrifice of quantity.
And it is seen that, when we increase the quantity of
crop by increasing the rtlative amount of available
nitrogen in the soil, it is generally depreciated in the ad-
mitted characters of quality ; and at the same time the
per-centage of nitrogen is increased. Further, the ten-
dency to diminished quality and increased per-centage of
nitrogen on the one hand, with increased amount of crop
on the other, would appear to be the greater, the more
excessive the supply of nitrogen beyond that which in
the average of seasons can yield a well-conditioned and
healthily-ripened crop. Barley indeed, from its com-
paratively limited hold on the soil, and its small and
weakly straw in proportion to the weight of corn it has
to carry, is, so far as favourable ripening and good
sample are concerned, more sensitive to vicissitudes of
season and to high manuring than wheat ; and it is with
the greater variation in degree of maturation in the
former than in the latter, in one and the same season,
with different proportions of available nitrogen provided
within the soil, that we have, at the same time, a greater
variation in the per-centage of nitrogen in the produce
depending on the manure employed." It would appear,
too, that we cannot, keeping within the limit of healtiiily-
noatured full crops, increase the per-centage of nitrogen
in our barky grain much above a comparatively low
amount, as our seasons go.

The next point of interest is, as to the amount of
nitrogen annually taken from the land in the produce,
where none was supplied in manure. " The highest
amount of nitrogen thus stored up from the unaided
soil and season lesources was in 1854 — namely, 32;\-lbs.
per acre ; the lowest amount was 17-^-lbs., in 1856 ; and
the average annual yield, taking the mean of the six
years, was about 28jlb8. It may be mentioned, that this
latter amount is more than that annually deposited in
rain and other aqueous depositions, in the forms of am-
monia and nitric acid. Investigation — of which there
is at the present time much going on in reference to this
subject — has still to determine the source or sources of
this annual excess of assimilated nitrogen, beyond that
supplied in the combined form, in the measured and
analyzed aqueous depositions. Whether it be due to

THE FARMEH'S MAGAZINE.

3S1

exhaustion of previously-accumulated nitrogen in the
soil, to direct condensation by the latter of the nitro-
genous compounds occurring in the atmosphere, to the
formation of ammonia or nitric acid within the soil at
the moment of the evolution by chemical changes of
certain elements in the nascent state, to the accumula-
tion of combined nitrogen from the atmosphere by the
plant itself, or to its assimilation of the free nitrogen of
the atmosphere — whether, or in what proportion, these
several possible sources may take part in the result, is
as yet a great problem, open for solution."

With regard to the important point, of the propor-
tion of the nitrogen supplied in the manure, which was
recovered in the increase of barley corn and straw ob-
tained by its use, the general result, omitting all refer-
ence to detail, may be very briefly stated. In the
experi;icents in question, the analyses showed that, even
when the nitrogen supplied in manure was the less ex-
cessive, scarcely 40 per cent, of it was recovered in the
increase of produce, taking the average result of several
consecutive years. In some of the individual years, there
was nesrly, or even over, 50 per cent, recovered — that
is, when the tendency to corn was the highest ; in
others, there was less than 30 per cent, of the supplied
nitrogen recovered in the increase of crop obtained.

" In thus speaking of the proportion of the supplied
nitrogen recovered in the immediate increase of the
barley crop, our form of statement must be understood
as only representing the practical result, as measured
by the difference between the amount of nitrogen in the
produce with nitrogenous manures, and in that without
them. It must be admitted that we have not the means
of deciding whether or not the crop grown by nitro-
genous manure has assimilated the same amount of ni-
trogen from other sources, as that grown without it. We
cannot say, therefore, whether the soil has to render an
account of more or less of nitrogen than that indicated
by the column of the amounts unrecoveredi:: -he increase
of crop. The proportion unrecovercd in the imme-
diate increase is, however, obviously very large. It may
be supposed that this at first unrecoverert amount is
still available to after-crops. We may as alternatives

assume, that a portion is locked up in the soil in a prac-
tically-unavailable form — that it passes into states of
combination in which it can be drained away, or evapo-
rated from the soil — or lastly, that in some form or
other it is got rid of by the functional processes of the
growing crop. The actual or relative amounts of the
several influences, science is not yet able to determine."

" It is obvious that, at any rate, some of the apparent
loss to immediate increase of the supplied nitrogen will
be due to the unequal distribution of the manure, in re-
lation to the under-ground feeders of the plant. If
this were all, however, the unrecovered nitrogen in a first
crop should be sooner or later available to those which
follow. But one thing is certain, that, even taking
together the inci-ease in several immediately succeeding
after-years, the proportion then recovered, of the pre-
viously unrecovered nitmgen, is very much less than
the proportion of the whole supplied, which is recovered,
in the year or years of its application. This is even the
case when the provision of the necessary mineral con-
stituents is very liberal. Indeed, a much less amount
of nitrogen newly supplied in the form of salts of am-
monia or nitrate of soda alone, will give a greater in-
crease of produce than the larger amount of supposed
residual nitrogen, with direct mineral manures in ad-
dition. It cannot well be supposed, therefore, that the
amount of the supplied nitrogen unrecovered is simply
due to its greater distribution, or the exhaustion of
mineral constituents, though still remaining, so far as
state of combination is concerned, available."

" As a fact in practical agriculture, it must be con-
eluded, that the nitrogen supplied in manure for full
crops of grain, is not recovered in the increase within
any moderate period of time. We hope on an early
occasion to add to the statistical results in this and in
former papers on other crops, those relating- to the pro-
portion of nitrogen recovered in increase, to that sup-
plied in manure for grass. But even with all the evi-
dence which the facts of the field will be able to
provide, the problem will still remain — of the exact
explanations to be given by science, of the loss which
is experienced by practice."

THE USE AND ABUSE OF ALUM IN BREAD-MAKING,

Every now and then, of late years more especially,
we are terrified with some household cry. By some
means or another we are found to be slowly, perhaps,
but systematically killing- ourselves. We are livino; over
sewers ; have heavy curtains to onr beds ; or arsenic-
tinted papering to our rooms. We delight to season
our food with condiments that ai"e little less than rank
poison ; and cling to essences and sauces that, like the
fox of the Spartan boy, are eating out our vitals. Even
the plainest fare is not without its alloy. Water itself j
is declared to be impure ; the best meat to be diseased ; j
the finest bread " doctored," and the nicest beer I
drugged. It is not only Damocles in Grosvenor-place j
who sits down to dinner with this drawn sword of dan- |
ger hanging over him. Tradesmen mutually return
the compliment one on the other; while Hodge carves
a crust that, if he did not bake it himself may be as
much tampered with as anchovy paste or London
porter.

Indeed, the sins of the baker are a very old story.
There is scarcely a man but who knows too well how
even the best bread is manufactured — how it comes to
look so white, and so fine, and so " crummy." Like
the state prisoner, who believes his doom is a secret

death in his dungeon, he swallows every mouthful in
fear and trembling. Most probably there is something
wrong in it. Only when far removed from cities does
he breathe again. Over the home-made heavy brown
loaf of his country cousins can he eat, drink, and be
merry. As he cuts the solid slice from off it, lie ejacu-
lates mentally, or may-be distinctly enough, ''Ah ! this
is the thing ; there is no alum here I can see." When
Coleridge's taciturn friend greeted the dumplings as
" Them's the jockiss for I !'' he had, no doubt, been
suffering from an attack on baker's bread.

But after all, is alum this terrible curse we take it to
be? Are wo really justified — as happened ere now —
on finding its presence in our quartern loaf, in rushing
off to the baker's house, and pulling it, oven and all,
about his ears ? Or shall we, more reasonably, be content
to indict him, and fine him, and ruin him ? Dr. Odling,
at a recent meeting of the Society of Arts, actually re-
quests us to pause ere we do anything of the sort. In
a paper he read some fortnight since, on the chemistry
of bread-making, he discourses in this wise — He is
speaking of some secondary varieties: — "But these
flours, in proportion to their glucogenic tendencies, do
not make good bread, and it becomes an object with

382

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Ihe baker to oppose the glueogenesis as much as possi-
ble. Hence, in making bread from certain kinds of
flour, he finds it necessary to add alum, or lime, or
bean-meal, or some corrective substance which, from
experience, he knows will cause the flour to yield a
loaf presentable to the 03 e and agreeable to the
palate," ^

This has long been the popular, and, as it would ap-
pear, not erroneous opinion. It receives more confir-
mation a little further on : — " One very important use
of alum is to prevent any undue deterioration of the
starch during the jn'ocess of raising and baking. If we
mix a solution of starch with infusion of malt, in the
course of a few minutes only the starch can be no
longer detected, being completely converted into dex-
trine and sugar; but the addition of a very small quan-
tity of alum either prevents altogether, or greatly
retards, the transformation. The action of diastase
upon undissolved starch is very gradual, but here also
the interference of the alum is easily recognizable.
Bread made with infusion of bran or infusion of malt is
very sweet, sodden, brown- coloured, and so sticky as
almost to bind the jaws together during its mastication.
But the addition of alum to the dough causes the loaves
to be white, dry, elastic, crumbly, and unobjectionable,
both as to taste and appearance. I have found that
flour, which of itself was so glucogenic as to yield bread
undistinguishable from that made with infusion of malt,
could, by the addition of alum, be made to furnish a
white, dry, crumbly, eatable loaf."

The testimony of Liebig and Payen are both quoted
to warrant the use of alum ; and Dr. Odling thus sums
up in favour of the practice : — " In the absence of any
evidence, either fi'om fair inference or direct observa-
tion, that the introduction of small quantities of alum
into bread is prejudicial to health, it seems that the
practice is not so reprehensible as is usually maintained.
It certainly improves greatly the quality of bread made
from inferior flour, and, in a politico-economical point
of view, is important, inasmuch as it renders a large
quantity of flour suitable for human food in the form
of bread, which flour would otherwise have to be de-
voted to less important uses."

Still the doctor had it by no means all his own way.
He rather takes it for granted that we really know of
no ill effects arisinir from the use of alum. Dr. Snow,
on the contrary, "had many years ago come to the
conclusion that the practice of putting alum into
bread was a fruitful source of rickets amongst children.
It appeared to Iiim that rickets w'ere more prevalent
amongst children in London and the south of England
than was the case in the North or in Wales, where the
children were just as overcrowded and as deficiently
supplied with milk as in London. He believed that
for grown people the admixture of a little alum was
not very injurious, though for children it was so."

Then again, Mr. Pittard, " And many other medical
practitioners had a settled belief that alum in bread was
injurious to mankind. Sickly children had been found
to improve marvellously upon baked flour, whilst they
pined away upon soaked bread. The chemists spoke
slightingly of the medical men because they did not
pretend to know thechemistry of the question, and said
that they were ignorant that the alum was decomposed
in the making of bread. Even if that were so, it did
not prove that the alum was rendered innocuous ; if
alum was resolved into alumina and sulphuric acid, he
did not know whether alumina might not be injm-ious
in the body. It was a fact worthy of note that, al-
though alumina was one of the most plentiful substances
on the earth, yet it did not enter into the compo-
sition of any organic bodies whatever, whether
animal or vegetable. This alone was reason against

the introduction of alum into food. With salt it
was very different. They might be told that the
chemical effects of alum on the animal system
were not extraordinary, but there were chemical
effects to be c.msidered." Dr. Normanby, Mr. Varley,
Mr. Johnstone, and Mr. Malone also spoke to the
injury arising from the constant use of alum. But Dr.
Gilbert "suspected the truth lay somewhere between
the two extremes. He was not disposed to think that
alum could be, with advantage to the consumer, added
to really good flour, for the purpose of bread-making.
On a large class of constitutions he thought there was
medical testimony enough to show that alum, or -
alumina, in bread acted injuriously. With such it
induced constipation, and this was a fruitful source of
more serious disease. On the other hand, it was to be
remembered, that owing to the seasons, which we could
not control, a considerable ])ortion of the flour, which
must be consumed by somebody, was not in a perfect
condition to yield a bi-ead of good texture and
other requisite characters without the aid of some
extraneous matter; and if the bread were not of
suitable texture and condition, its digestion would be
imperfect, and if digestion, then assimilation also.
The question was then, so far as related to alum,
whether or not the benefits which it undoubtedly pro-
duced, so far as the physical and some other characters
of the bread were concerned, were greater or less than
the evils he believed it in many cases induced. The
subject required much careful consideration ; and if a
substance or method that would have the same effects
in retarding the chemical changes to be avoided in
flour and bread, and which at the same time was un-
doubtedly innocuous, could be generally adopted, few
would then uphold the use of alum. The suggestion
of Dr. Odling to use lime-water, as recommended by
Baron Liebig, was deserving the serious attention both
of bakers and medical men." Mr. Dugald Campbell
went more decidedly with the baker, and was "pre-
pared to say that such a quantity of alum as would do an
injury would render the bread unsaleable." And Mr.
Callard, himself a baker, confirmed this: — "Dr. Snow
had mentioned a quantity of alum as having been found
in bread that he (Mr. Callard) could not suppose to be
possible. Such bread could not possibly be eaten."

We regard the points of this discussion as not with-
out interest, and we present them accordingly to our
readers. The conclusion would seem to be that the
evil has been greatly over-rated. It is very certain
that some of the much- noised alum discoveries have
been made ujion tests anything but reliable. Dr.
Odling characterized the means ofien employed as a
disgrace to chemistry, and in showing up " the loose
speculation," and " groundless defamation" of gentle-
men " gasping for notoriety," had throughout the best
of the argument. Still the use of alum in any degree
is but at present a necessary evil. Mr. Callard, the
baker, in admitting it was extensively used, said the
trade would be glad if scientific men could point to
some less objectionable substance, and the public will
readily echo this request. We gather from what we
heard, that on the whole the common opinion as to
alum is a very correct one. It is injurious, and is
mostly to be found in the best-looking bread. Dr.
Snow has detected much less in the bread supplied to
the lower classes, though he had expected that what
were called cheap bakers used more than those who
supplied May-fair, but such was not in reality the
case.

It is a question, then, that concerns us all, and one
that we trust such men as Dr. Gilbert and Dr. Odling
have as yet by no means done with. They may " reform
it altogether,"

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

383

THE MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES.

It is not my intention to enter into any lengthened
disquisition upon tlie management of farm horses ; but,
in accordance with my usual limits, I shall confine my-
self to the simplest part of the question — their every-
day management whilst pursuing their regular work.

I will first notice the Stable or Shelter. Upon this
point great difference of opinion exists amongst the best
practical farmers. Unquestionably, if a horse is kept
in a ■uarm stable, he consumes less food ; but then he
is more liable to colds, and subsequent infiammaiions,
from exposure to the variations and inclemencies of the
weather in this fickle climate of ours : whereas, by being
fed in a comfortable stable or shed, and having the run
of a warm well-sheltered yard, he is kept in a more
hardy state throughout the winter or cold weather ; and
in summer, the cool grass-field or the shaded yard is far
more healthy after a heated day's work, and of course
much to be preferred to the hot, close stable, however
freely ventilated it may be from above, as the exposure
to drauahts of air from below ought most certainly to
be avoided.

On farms having a deficiency of grass-lands, I should
advocate the turning of the cart-horses, after their
day's work, during the hot months of summer, into a
cool paddock, there to be supplied with artificial
grasses, after their usual feeding. "The great aim should
be to keep them in an equable, healthy state ; and the
best judgment of the farmer will be constantly required,
to provide such food and shelter at the return of the
various seasons as tend best to secure such a desirable
end.

The most important part of the subject is the Feeding
and Food of the Farm Horses in the diff'erent seasons of
the year. Farmers perhaps err more upon this point
than any other, and in a great degree from their in-
ability, on many farms, to control ignorant or head-
strong farm-servants, to whom much of the produce of
the farm is frequently open, the waste of food and the
irregularity of management often trying the temper of
the most hearty and good-natured master. Before pro-
ceeding, I give the following extract. Spooner says :
" The stomach of the horse is comparatively small,
holding about three gallons ; whilst the ox possesses no
less than four stomachs, the first of which is consi-
derably larger than that of the horse. This diff'erence
shows — what, indeed, the habits of these animals also
demonstrate — that whilst, on the one hand, the ox is
constituted so as to consume a very large quantity of
food at a meal, the horse, on the other, is adapted to
consume a moderate quantity, and often. If such a
mass of food as is often found in the maw of the ox,
were contained in the stomach of the horse, it would be
impossible for this animal to perform those severe exer-
tions which are frequently expected from him, from the
loaded stomach pressing against the diaphragm — the
muscle of respiration — which would materially interfere
with its action. It should also be borne in mind that
the progress of chymnification is accomplished by one-
halt of the stomach only, thus affording an additional
reason why a large mass of food cmnot be conveniently
taken by the horse at one time." This extract contains
the true principles upon which the feeding of the farm-
horses ought to be regulated. It is manifest that it
should consist for the most part of " concentrated food,
such as grain ;" and hay, straw, and roots may be sup-
plied to the horse occasionally, but they are not his
natural food.

Feeding and Food. — The common every-day expe-
rience of farmers has, I think, decided the point as to
feeding. Every one adopts the system of manger-
feeding, and almost universally by means of chaff and
corn, followed by rack-meat consisting either of clover
or meadow-hay. The horse will, of course, more
readily supply himself i'rom partially-prepared food than
otherwise. Hence cut chiff' is so desirable, r.s also
split beans or bruised oats, and the like ; for they have
in this state the double advantage of requiring less
mastication, whilst at the same time the animal derives
liie greater nourishment. I need not s;iy that oats
and beans have long stood prominent as the best corn-
food (or horses ; and although many deviations have
occasionally been fallowed by practical men, they in-
variably come back to the simple food of hay and corn.
It is true that recently we have had various compounds
brought before us ; and, by an unlimited process of puff-
ing, much is brought into consumption as food for horses.
I am inclined to believe that these mixtures are good,
but they are abominably expensive, being chiefly made
from the meal of oats, beans, peas, barley, and Indian
corn, largely mixed with the locust bean, dried and pow-
dered, and sold at a price far above its original value.
The usual allowance of corn for a farm-horse in regular
work is generally in the proportion of one-and-a-half
bushels of oats to two pecks of beans per week, v;hich is
ample, given with wheat, chaff, or finely cut hay and
straw. My own practice is to grow for them a suffi-
cient quantity of oats ; and I give them an almost un-
limited allowance of chaff, cut from oat sheaves by
Cornes' machine. I am not prepared to say it is the
most economical course, but I do think it one of the
most healthy systems pursued, aided by a small supply
of clover hay at night during the winter, and in the
early spring by a few mangold roots, or Swedish turnips,
or carrots, daily. In the summer the same feeding of
chaff is given ; and thi y are either turned out to be
grazed in the grass fields at night, or are supplied with
artificial grasses in the fold-yard. Their general ma-
nagement should consist of careful grooming. Great
inattention is given to this point almost universally ;
anything will do for a cart-horse, if he is only ready for
the morning's work ; and galled shoulders, cracked heels,
contracted feet, with divers other sores and ailments, are
the result. Their stables and hovels should always have
a plentiful supply of litter in the winter ; and I think
they should have a cool yard, paddock, or grass field
for the summer. Their food should be supplied to them
at long intervals, i. e., a good feeding, as above, should
be given in the early morning, a slight refreshment at
noon— either by a nose-bag or a return to the stable, if
near — and a prolonged feeding in the evening. All
heating or injurious food must be avoided, or very
sparingly given — as tailing wheat, barley, bran, &c. The
artificial grasses should not be given to them in a fresh
state. Tares ought to be mown some hours beforehand,
as also should lucerne and sainfoin, both most excellent
grasses for horse-fodder. If given in their fresh state,
they should be passed through the cutting-box with good
oat, or wheat, or barley-straw as a corrective.

I shall now only notice one other important part of
the subject — it is the mode and time of <Torking cart-
horses. It is highly important that the horse should be
in as close contact with his work as possible ; the nearer
the work, the easier will he perform it. It is most re-
prehensible to see, as we sometimes do- three, four, or

384

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

eveu five horses yoktd in length to a common plough.
It is infinitely preferable, where it can be adopted, to
work them in pairs, or abreast; mine are frequently
worked four-abreast, in various fallov? work ; most soils
can be ploughed with two good horses abreast. The
gearing should be light and simple, and the practice of
driving at plough should be got rid of generally ; a pair
of horses, guided by either a single or double line, is quite
sufficient. The question of one-horse carts versus wag'-
gons — of varieties in ploughs, scarifiers, harrows, and
rollers— will very properly come into consideration in the
economical working of cart-horses ; but I cannot stay to
discuss it now, and shall merely notice the time of
working. It is customary in mariv parts of the kingdom
for the horses to be out at dawn during the winter
months, and at six o'clock in the summer, to return at
two o'clock, for the day's work. This is good; but it
is often attended with inconvenience in many season*
In fallow-time, it is requisite that the turnip-sowing
and manuring, &c., should go on simultaneously. In
these months they should be rested at noon, and then
worked till five or six o'clock, as required. Many
prefer two yokings generally : this is a great loss of time
on many farms, where the farmstead is distant. I
cannot say I experience much loss or inconvenience
from pursuing the practice of only one rather long
yoking of nearly eight hours, in summer, with a slight
rest at noon, and a mouthful or two of grass or clover,
and in the winter a yoking of seven hours, without
food ; but I do not recommend it. Great care should
be luken that the horses, when in work, should not be
allowed to stand too long exposed to cold or biting
winds. Most of the inflammatory diseases take their
rise from such exposure. They should be steadily
worked, and from their work be brought at once to the
stable, and their feeding and grooming at once proceeded
with. Practical Farmer.

THE MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MARK-LANE EXPRESS.

Sir, — In the very excellent article which appeared in
your last week's paper upon the above subject, by a
" Practical Farmer," there are one or two points which
I can hardly agree with, although I am aware that they
are customs generally tolerated in this country, and will
be approved by many. The first point to which I will
allude, is " the stable or shelter." Your correspon-
dent seems to approve of the plan of turning the
horses out into a yard after being fed in the stable.
Now, with the unsatisfactory state of many of our farm
buildings, this may be the more preferable of two evils ;
for I am quite convinced that nothing could be worse
than to keep horses tied up all night in a low, close-
roofed stable, yet exposed to sharp draughts of air from
defective weather-boarding, not divided from one
another by stalls, and standing perhaps upon a whole
week's accumulation of their own muck ; but when we
find a high, well-ventilated, brick or stone-built stable
partitioned off into proper stalls for each horse (which
not only tend to prevent draughts, but to prevent the
animals from kicking or disturbing each other), with the
floor properly formed, with a gutter behind the borsea,
and the manure regularly cleared out every morning, I
think there can be no question of this being preferable
to turning out into a yard, in the winter season, horses
that have been heated to perspiraiion during the day.
I am aware that as much liberty as possible is natural,
and congenial to the disposition of every animal ; but
when we transgress the inclinations of nature, by sub-

jecting the horse to the drudgery of work, a correspond-
ing regimen becomes requisite. Nature clothes every
animal according to the climate, and its natural require-
ments ; and I am persuaded that when a horse is every
night exposed to cold, that he becomes clothed with a
greater quantity of hair, and consequently more liable
to perspire when at work. I have also proved that by
keeping horses constantly tied up in such a stable as I
have described, that both accidents from each other, and
diseases, are much less frequent, and particularly acci-
dents, when new and strange horses are introduced
amongst them. The other point to which I would
allude, is the system of going one yoking a day, a
system which I very much disapprove,, consider-
ing it to bs quite inconsistent with justice to the
animals. The circumstances which I believe have
given rise to, and still teud to support the custom,
are inconveniently placed buildings, the unsuitable
distance of labourers' cottages generally from their
work, and the supposed saving of time, in not unyoking
and yoking in the middle of the day. Now under the ex-
isting state of things, much of this reasoning may be
quite plausible ; but there is no reason why such things
should exist. I consider it as unnatural an act as one
can be guilty of to take out horses at six o'clock in the
morning and work them until two o'clock without
tasting food as many do ; but the truth is they do not
work ; and the fact is, they cannot work constantly all
that time, but when at plough, &c., stand at the ends
at least one-third of their time. When horses are kept
constantly going — as when in harness they always ought
to be — there is less chance of their taking colds or being
exposed to inflammations. The men will tell you that
they plough an acre a day (which, however, they seldom
do), and that's enough, and that they cannot do more
by two yokings ; but I know that however much is to
be done by one yoking, more is to be done by two, with
greater ease to the horses. Upon some lands fromhalf-
an-acre to three-quarters will be a good day's work,
whercnS upon others an acre and-a-half can be done
with comfort. Men have just to consult their own
feelings in order to judge of those of horses, and know
whether more work is to be done in one yoking of 8
hours, without refreshment, or by working 9 or 9§
hours divided into two yokings, by 2 hours to feed and
rest in the middle. Some will urge the loss of time
going to and fro, yoking, and unyoking, &c. I am
quite aware that there is much more time spent thus
than is required, simply on account of the unwillingness
of the men to fall in with the two-yoking system ; with
activity very little time need be wasted in harnessing
and yoking horses. Your correspondent very justly
remarks that two yokings are also much more con-
venient, the afternoon being frequently the best time to
harrow for the destruction of weeds, &c. The stomach
of the horse, he also truly says, is small, and unfitted
for being overcharged with large quantities of food, at
long intervals ; and here again the propriety of the two-
yoking system. I have now only to add another re-
mark, and one of considerable importance. It is this —
that "custom is second nature;" and whether, with
regard to the question of " stable and shelter," or
that of " one or two yokings," custom will do a great
deal ; for we have often observed that by altering the
usual routine of treatment to which animals are accus-
tomed they will for a time suffer from the effects of
the alteration, however advantageous it may afterwards
prove, so much are we all creatures of custom, and
particularly the lower animals, which are destitute of
reasoning faculties. There cannot be a question, never-
theless, that however much custom may reconcile to any
particular plan, that can be no proof of the superiority
of the plan itself. Trial and observation have induced

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

385

me to arrive at the conclusions I have now set forth.
My desire is to avoid being influenced by prejudice on
any subject, I shall therefore read with attention the
views of any gentlemen who may choose to express

themselves upon the subject, and whom you may be
pleased to favour with a place in the columns of your
valuable paper. Your obedient servant,

W. A.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF A HORSE,

It is true that Mr. Smith, of Woolston, is gradually
getting rid of his cart-horses, and as certainly inocula-
ting his brethren with a mania for steam cultivation.
Mr. Fowler again declares his share of the good work
done, and only cements a union with Mr. Williams, of
Baydon, to render the process yet more perfect. We
are, in a word, to plough by steam as surely as we
thrash or travel by it. Nevertheless the horse is going
by no means out of fashion. Good grooms and able
veterinarians find places and practices as readily as
ever they did. There is, indeed, ju.-t now a strong
proof of the increasing value of horse-flesh to be seen
in the sights of London. A young American is taking-
ten guineas a-piece from four or five hundred gentle-
men to teach them how to treat their horses properly
and rationally. He numbers, moreover, in his list, not
merely princes, lords, and cavalry officers. The agricul-
turists have even given in their adhesion to him, and
Allen Ransome, and his neighbour Barthropp, are
going to school again — to learn how to deal with a clever
hack or a mighty Suffolk.

But ii there were further proof wanting of how
much agriculture still respects the horse, we may go
direct to head-quarters for it. By far the most popular
paper in the last number of the fc'ociety's journal is
devoted to his interests. There has been no article so
much quoted, and none wo should think so much
studied for a long time, as Mr. Miles's Essay on Horse-
shoeing. It is, moreover, a very model of what such a
treatise in such a place should be. It is well known
that half the contributions to the Journal are never
read, simply because they are too long to read. The
facility with which many writers can cover an almost
unlimited number of pages is ever fatal to their suc-
cess. Mr. Miles then starts under favourable auspices.
The most occasional of readers will not tire of him,
and the most careLss must learn something from what
he says.

There has been no such difficulty as the horse's foot.
Our own tight boots and throbbing corns sink to nothing
in the comparison. Old Bowler, with a heart like a
lion, takes another tug at a dead stand, and goes glo-
riously away with his load -only pulling three of his
shoes ofi" in the effort. The phaeton, wanted in a hurry
of course, to take the master to the train or the missis
to tea, is brought round by a cripple — that has been
just pinched in shoeing. And wh(,'n our friend does
manage to get his day with the hounds, he lands the
young horse in a new road to a warning cry of " You've
lost a fore-shoe !" Man meets with many a contrivance
to lessen his ovvn ills. He has better fitting-, softer
leather, and more general attention. But what atten-
tion does he give to the fit of his horse ? Is there one in
a hundred who does more than curse the smith, and
change one blunderer for another ? We may have a
fancy for a certain sort of bridle, or be pai'ticular as to
the sit of saddle, and give our own orders accordingly.
But the shoe is left all to the mercy of the village Vul-
can; probably because of its especial importance, and
the force of the truism " no foot no horse."

Let us start here. We have all in our day had to com-
Ijlain of these blundering blacksmiths. Mr. Miles says :

" I am often assured, when talking of shoeing, that it is quite
impossible to persuade country smiths to listen for a moment
to any new suggestion, or to adopt any new plan ; that they
are an obstinate prejudiced race, and nothing can induce them
to relinquish any of their old notions. I csa only say, in reply,
that this does not at all accord with my experience of them as
a class ; on the contrary, I have found them, for the moat part,
to be hardworking', paiustakiag men, evincing great interest
in their work, and anxious to do it as well as they could. I
do not raean to say that there are no exceptions, because I
knowthere are; but the exceptions do not disprove the rulp,
.... I have been sometimes surprised at the readiness with
which smiths have yielded their opinion to vne, as soon as they
found that I really knew what I was talkiug about, and that I
could not only give them directions, but show them exactly
how to carry them out in detail, and, if I had only possessed
the brawny ana which is necessary for such a purpose, that I
could have forjied the shoe and fitted it to the foot. Tiiey ail
feel that horseshoeing is open to improvement, and as a class
they are auxious for iuforfflation that they can depend on, but
they are naturally very shy of relinquishing plans which they
have been long accustomed to, for others which they do not
comprehend ; but any gentleman who will take the trouble to
acquaint himself with the principle and detaUs of the plan
which I advocate, will very soon become a welcome visitor at
the forge,and whi'e he is improving the condition of bis own
horses' feet, he will find that he is indoctrinating the whole
district, to the great benefit of his neighbours."

Of course a man must be prepared to encounter some
prejudice and leaning to conventional usage. Look,
for instance, at the very first point in this delicate opera-
tion—the knowing way in which the shoe is at once
wrenched off; as bad a practice as well can be. The
finish, however, in Mr. Miles' eyes is a yet greater'
offence : —

"I shall, no doubf-, astonish some persons when I assert that
nearly all the evils incident to horae-shoeing arc attributable to
the affectation and dandyism of the smith, who is not contented
to follow a necessary aud useful art, simple in its mechanical
parts, but calling for the exercise of some judgment in its ap-
plication ; but he must import into it dangerous difficulties and
mischievous ornataent ; for instance, he assumes that a deep
narrow fuller, with small nail-holes inclining inwards, and still
smaller openings on the foot surface of the shoe, present a
neat, trim appearance, and show that he is master of his art ;
knowing full well that nothing but long practice could enable
any one to navigate a nail safely through a channel beset by so
many dangers ; but he entirely overlooks the fact that the
power to do so has nothing to recommend it but the danger
and risk attending the performance. Again, he imagines that
a hoof carefully rasped all over imparts an air of fiuish to his
work, of which he feels proud, forgetting altogether that he has
removed a most important coveting from the hoof, for which
no amount of ornamental fiuish can compensate."

Vv^e shall not attempt to follow out the detail of Mr.
Miles' system, the advantages of which are, that his
horses are never lame, rarely throw their shoes, while
their feet appear to last for ever. His golden rule,
however, is that the shoe must be made to fit the foot,
and not, as is too often the case, the foot cut out to
the shape of the shoe. Further, the shoe " 7nust
he nailed to the hoof in such a manner as
will jjermit the foot to expand to the loeighf
of the horse ; this latterc ondition will be best com-
plied ■ with by placing three nails in the outer limb
of the shoe, and two in the inner limb between the toe

» » 2

386

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and the commencement of the inner quarter ; a larger
number than five nails can never be required in any
shoe, of any size, or under any circumstances, excepting
for the sole purpose of counteracting defective and
clumsy fitting."

The result of this is, that on the affirmative reading
of the " no foot no horse," the animal turns out to
be much longer lived than people generally suppose
him to be. In November last, Mr. Miles had in work
in his own stable six horses — the oldest of the lot, now
forty years old, he has had just twenty years. " He
would pass muster for nine or ten years old, " and ap-
pears only to have the slight failing of not allowing
any stranger to enter his box — Mr. Rarey, of course,
excepted. The next, twenty-nine years old, is " the
best hack" Mr. Miles ever rode. He bought him
seventeen years since, when on the point of being shot,
the smith having declared his feet so far gone that he
could not shoe him ! The third is twenty-one years
old, and has been in his present place sixteen ; the
fourth sixteen years old, nine of which he has been
with Mr. Miles ; and number five, at thirteen, has
passed eight years in the same service. The sixth was
recently destroyed at the age of twenty-six.

This question thus grows upon us in importance.
There is, perhaps, no other horse-keeper who could
say as much, simply because no other man has paid
equal attention to his horses. At ten or twelve years
old the animal is now frequently condemned outright ;
whereas witli only proper care there may be quite an-
other ten or twelve years' wear in him. We can say
from our own experience that the best horse we ever
had was fifteen or sixteen when we bought him,
and that after three seasons' good work, he sold

for more than double the price he came in at. But then
he was well cared for — shod in his own box by the
best man in the district, his feet regularly stopped,
and his somewhat battered legs soothed and saved — ■
especially at first — in every possible way. We must
let one more extract from the article before us tell how
this is still to be done : —

" If I were asked to account for my horses' lejfs and feet
being in better order than those of my neighbours', I should
attribute it to the four following circumstances : first, that they
are all shod with few rails, so placed in the shoe as to permit
the foot to expand every time they move; secondly, that they
all live in boxes instead of stalls, and can move whenever they
please ; thirdly, that they have two hours' daily walking
exercise wben they are not at work ; and fourthly, that I have
not a headstall or rack-chain in my stable: these four cir-
cumstances comprehend the whole mystery of keeping horses'
legs fine, and their feet in sound working condition up to ft
good old age."

There is no one, we think, who will say such a
paper as this is out of place in the Journal of an Agri-
cultural Society, On the contrary, we believe it will
be more read and better remembei'ed than almost any-
thing that has been published by the same channel.
It is a'ready issued as a shilling pamphlet; so that
such of our readers who are not members may readily
obtain it in this form. They must in no case be eon-
tent with our mere opinion of its excellence. The
essay is not distinguished as a prize paper, neither do
we gather whether it was a volunteer contribution or
written at the request of the editors. On any showing,
it is worthy of some especial distinction. To a horse-
rearing, horse-riding people like ours, a cure for lame-
ness and lost shoes is indeed a blessing.

"LOIS-WEEDON" WITHOUT THE SPADE.

Why have not farmers in every county tested the
system ot wheat-growing in triple rows, with fallow in-
tervals between ? Mainly, we believe, because of the
hand-labour digging it involves. It would require four-
*,;2n to twenty men, according to the nature of the land,
to trench the intervals upon a hundred acres in the
course of three months ; and where shall we find the
extra hands to do it? — not such as may always be had
in winter for steam-thrashing and odd jobs, but stout,
clever, and honest spademen. We say " honest" men;
for the difficulty of getting a number of labourers to
perform the task faithfully in every respect is a serious
obstacle, even were the right sort of hands obtainable
on such a large scale.

Are there no means, then, of modifying the system
so as to dispense with manual digging, and yet realize
the promised profit per acre ? How far Mr. Smith has
now advanced in freeing himself from dependence upon
the spade and fork we do not know ; but two years ago
his little volume on " Lois-Weedon Husbandry" pro-
posed to open a furrow by two turns with the plough in
the middle of each interval, subsoil the furrow bottom,
and after a winter's exposure, raise the crumbled sub-
soil and turn the pulverized furrow slices underneath by
means of a machine he has invented for the purpose.
This ingenious " rotary digger," drawn by horses, was
constructed, tried, and found to answer ; but to what
extent it has been employed in superseding manual fork-
ing we have not yet heard. In the absence of such a
machine, could uur ordinary ploughs, subsoUers, and
cultivators be n.n>le to fulfil the object in view—which
is, " to pulverize a certain small portion of the subsoil,
year after year, and then mix it with the staple "? We

thought it worth while to try, and accordingly com-
menced operations the year before last. Yet before we
describe our management, consider how important is
the experiment. For look at Mr. Smith's extraordinary
results. He lays out in total expenses (including £2 an
acre for rent) £5 I6s. per acre on the '' clay piece,"
and clears ^^5 I4s. net tenant's profit — tvfien wheat is
at forty shillings a quarter : and on light gravelly land
(clayed) gets £4 I4s. clear profit from an expenditure
of £& 1 6s. per acre. The average yield on the light
land is thirty-four bushels per acre, and on the heavy
land considerably more ; in both cases without
manuring . The straw is sold at forty shillings a ton ;
but as we cannot " dispose" of our straw at all, and
should find farm-yard manure a costly article were a
couple of sovereigns paid for every ton trampled down
as litter or eaten by our stock, we deduct considerably
from the above items, and take the prospective profit on
good land (neither clay nor gravel) at say £'6 10s. per
acre. That is, a hundred acres permanently under
wheat would gain us ^"'350 clear annual profit, when the
price is at the low figure of only 40s. per quarter; and
at 50s. a quarter, the same presumed yield of thirty-
four bushels is to bring us £b lOs. an acre, or ^^550
altogether. This was worth thinking about ; for we
doubted whether many agriculturists of our acquaintance
could show a clear annual income of either ^£"550 or
£?>bO from every hundred acres they occupied.

Let us see how the scheme would work. Take a
farm having three hundred acres arable, of very good
friable loam, producing four-and-a-half or five quarters
of moderately good red wheat per acre as a very fine
crop, and of courae less as an average ; rent, forty ehil-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

387

lings ; tithe, six shillings per acre ; and other burdens
not peculiarly heavy. Growing every description of
cropping, and in rotation almost at will — say, two-fifths,
or one hundred and twenty acres, are wheat every year.
As it is, this proportion of wheat, together with thirty
acres of oats for the horses, and also a little piece of
barley, is the largest breadth of white corn we can well
grow : that is, it is all that the necessity for alternating
white straw with green crops, &c., will permit and
enable us to prepare for it. But if wheat is to follow
itself year after year for any period of time whatever,
the extent of ground we can prepare by rotation is no
longer a limit to the breadth we may sow. Thus, uuless
there be other objections, we may have half, or more
than half of our three hundred acres in wheat every
year; and the remainder green and other crops,
according to the character of farming and live-stock
breeding or feeding that may be practised. If we
choose to cultivate only one hundred and twenty acres
of wheat as at present, this quantity of land will be set
apart to produce wheat in perpetuity ; while the other
one hundred and eighty acres maybe all in other crops,
as roots, artificial-grasses, and beans, peas, and oats, in
different and rather novel rotations. But for the sake
of simplifying calculation, let us suppose that one
hundred and twenty acres of the most suitable
wheat land is partilloiied off from the farm,
to be entirely self-sustaining and btar the three-
row wheat every year • while the remaining
one hundred and eighty acres is managed as if it
were a complete farm in itself — two-fifths of it under
wheat, and the rest green and other crops, as at present.
We shall thus have an auxiliary 120-acre wheat-farm,
as it were, not only yielding its harvest every year with-
out manure, but producing a large amount of straw to
manure and enrich what may be called the 180-acre
farm. And either the same fields may be permanently
kept under the three-row culture, or every year a cer-
tain portion may be given up to the general cropping,
and an eqiial breadth taken from the 180 acres ; so as
to travel gradually round the whole or any part of the
300 acres with the new system. The proposal is, that
on this 120 acres, independent of any green-cropping,
fallowing, or sheep-feeding, we are to get an annual re-
turn of ^1,140, by an outlay of £720 — that is, we
realize a clear profit or income of .£420 a year when
wheat is at only 40s. per qr., the gain rising to £660
when the price jumps up to 50s. This would be a good
interest for capital, at any rate, if not exactly equal to
the famous druggists' per-centage of " elevenpence-
halfpenny in the shilling."

We are supposing, of course, that the cost and results
will be similar to those of Lois-Weedon itself, with the
necessary allowance made for the lower value of our
straw. If it be found that we can thus raise our wheat
crop year after year without manure, we shall certainly
be drawing large quantities of manure (in the shape of
straw) from the 120 acres, with which to fructify the
180 acres. And how extraordinarily must this great
bulk of straw add to the productive power of the 180-
acre farm, to which it is every year carried ! Thus, by
adopting this system, we are not only to gain largely ia
pecuniary profit from two-fifths of our land, but at the
same time produce more corn, meat, vegetables, etc.,
from the other three-fifths : we shall raise the value of
the thus more profitable farm, and create additional de-
mand, and consequently better wages, for labour
required in the treatment and manipulation of our extra
crops and more numerous live stock.

There is something marvellous in increasing the total
fertility of an estate by means of a loheat crop acquired
mainly from the atmosphere ! For that it is so at
Lois-Weedon, let no one doubt. Mechanical tillage,

without an ounce of manurial dressing, there maintains
the productiveness of the wheat-fields, with so slight a
diminution of the fertile constituents of the soil itself
as not to be perceptible (we might almost think) in fifty
years or a century ; the land at present positively getting
better, instead of gradually worse. It is a fact that Mr.
Smith's twelfth year's crop is the heaviest and best he
has had ; and (let it never be forgotten) not only with-
out manure, but without his bringing up or making use
of an atom of fresh subsoil, only half the previously-
attained depth of digging having been practised during
the last three years.

" Well, but remember, Mr. Smith's results are ob-
tained by exceedingly deep culture with the spade."
Yes, on the stiff-clay piece ; but on the light four-acre
field, he only goes twelve or thirteen inches down with
his forking ; and it is possible to match this depth with
horse-labour. His average yield on this gravelly land
is thirty-four bushels, because, though unsuitable for
wheat, it was dressed some years ago with the substance
most required — that is, it received an application of
clay, the charge for which is spread over a number of
years. If we cannot get the expected amount of pro-
duce, owing to horse-tillage proving of inferior efficacy
to that of the spade or f>.rk, we may yet obtain, pos-
sibly, as large a surplus or i^i'ofit, because of the lower
cost of the horse- power, compared with manual opera-
tions; and" profit' is whatwewant. But we need not sup-
pose that our production of corn for the community would
fall short, by our thus reaping less yield per acre on the
Lois-Weedon than on the common plan ; because the
former bears wheat every year, and the latter only twice
in five years. Under the ordinary management, say,
that each acre of the one hundred and twenty yields
even the heavy crop of five quarters, that is ten quarters
of wheat in five years, then a yearly produce of only
two quarters from the new system will equal this amount
in the same period. But we must grow more than
this, in order to have a produce equivalent in value,
not only to the wheat, but also to the crops of the other
three years in the course. What crops, then, do one
hundred and twenty acres usually bear every year, with
a rotation admitting two-fifths to be in wheat ? The
quantities may be taken at forty-eight acres wheat,
twelve acres oats, sixteen acres peas and beans, eight
acres barley or potatoes, twelve acres clover, and twenty-
four acres roots, &c. What is the worth of all this
cropping ; and had all been wheat, what yield per acre
would have made a total produce of equal value ? Now,
without enteiing into minute figures, let us compare the
corn crops at present prices, and reckon the clover, roots,
&c., as worth, say £1 an acre ; the value of the crops
on the one hundred and twenty acres will be at the ut-
most about £1,200 or £10 per acre, and this is equal
to the value of four quarters of wheat per acre on the
whole area. So that, as far as mere worth of produce is
concerned, every acre of the new system ought to yield
at most some four quarters annually, in order that the
national markets may not suffer. But of course, the
principal consideration for the farmer is, will the ex-
pense of cultivation under the proposed system amount
to less than that of the present fallowirg, feeding, ma-
nuring, &c., and so leave a wider margin of profit ?
With Mr. Smith's expenditure, the yearly profit from
this yield would be (as we have already said) about £3
per acre, when wheat is at the low figure of only 40s.
The cost of our own operations by horse labour will ap-
pear in due course.

We have supposed that on a three-hundred-acre arable
farm, one hundred and twenty acres are set apart for the
growtli of wheat year after year on the triple row and
fallow-interval method ; the remainder of the farm (to
make our calculation easy) being managed as if it were

388

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

a separate and complete occupation. To reap a produce
equivalent to that of the crops, vrhich would otherwise
be grown, we raust obtain at most foui* quarters per
acre ; and the profit, if our expenses equal those of Mr.
Smith, will be ^3 per acre when wheat is only 40s. a
quarter. Thus much we educed in our last paper.
Land, such as we speak of, sometimes yields live quar-
ters an acre, and has been known to carry six quarters
as a remarkably heavy crop ; but much less than these
quantities on an average. We have no doubt, there-
fore, that Mr. Smith could get his average produce of
four-and-a-half quarters by his system of manual dig-
ging ; our proposed yield of four quarters thus allow-
ing a difference of four bushels for the inferiority of
horse-tillage to that of the digging-fork. We are not
at all sure that a sovereign expended in subsoiling and
scarifying by horse labour would not exert as great an
effect upon the crop as if spent in manual digging, &c. ;
as we may perhaps find the greater number of pulveriz-
ings and stirrings in the former case of equal efficacy
with the less frequent but deeper and more perfect ac-
tion of the hand-tool. But say that the same outlay in
horse-labour tillage will not bring so large a produce ;
nay, let us even assume that an amount of horse-tillege
costing as much as Mr. Smith's manual digging is insuf-
ficient to produce the four quarters we desire ; then wc
may moderate and reduce the proposal to grow manure
as well as corn ; and pay back the straw, instead of con-
suming it, for the advantage of the hundred and eighty
acres. Let the system be simply " self-maintaining."
Every acre of an arable occupation is entitled to
its share of the manure made at the farmstead ; and call
this quantity, on an average, 16 loads every fourth year —
equivalent to 4 loads yearly. The wheat land may not
lay claim to so much as a full average share of the ma-
nure consisting of its own decomposing straw, but in-
termingled, as it is, with enriching roots and oilcake,
corn and hay devoured by the cattle, and expensively
manufactured into its present applicable condition ; but
certainly it may receive manure of equal value to the
stmw it has furnished, and still be " self-sustaining."
Giving up, then, the idea of replenishing the other por-
tions of the farm (without cost) by our new vvheat-
growing, the 120 acres are simply to take care of them-
selves, consuming their own straw (or straw's worth)
as manure, and yielding in return for our tillage 4 quar-
ters per acre annually. The produce of straw will be
1^ or 2 tons per acre, which we may value to the farm-
yard at 10s. a ton; and hence there will be 15s. or 20s.
an acre to be annually spent in manure. The straw may
go of course to the 180 acres which are under general
culture, but must be paid for out of that portion of the
business. Now, what amount of produce may be ex-
pected to arise from this sum applied in artificial ma-
nure ? We might purchase 1 J- or 2 cwt. per acre of
guano, which (we suppose) would safely produce a gain
of 5 to 7 bushels ; or, rather, say a dressing of 2 cwt. of
salt and 20 to 30 bushels of soot, which would probably
gain much more. But remember that our crop stands
upon only half the land ; and the manure sown along
the triple-row stripes, and missing the fallow intervals,
would operate like an almost double dose, giving us
say an increase of 1 or H quarters beyond what tillage
alone would produce.

It comes, then, to this : that if we cannot get 4 quar-
ters an acre perpetually by tillage only, we can very
likely do so by expending i?l per acre in manure ; and
being content with £2, instead of £3, as our clear pro-
fit when wheat is at 40s. Hence there is a good prospect
for our 120 acres of Lois-Weedon wheat, few farmers
clearing .£^800 a-year off a four-hundred-acre farm
with such low prices in the corn market ; and, at all
events, the trial is worth making. Besides, judging

from Mr. Smith's experience, and also from the indica-
tions of our own first-year's practice, we believe that the
tilling, combined with the manuring, which is admissi-
ble, will raise more than the 4 quarters of wheat per
acre for many years, if not in perpetuity ; and that our
profit will consequently exceed, instead of falling below
that supposed.

There is another point in our favour, encouraging us
to attempt Lois-Weedon husbandry on a large scale.
While the crops in our district are occasionally bulky,
and measure well in the barn, the weight and quality of
the com are always deficient, the usual sample being
red wheat of 59 to 611bs. per bushel. Now, Mr.
Smith finds that his roomy unconfined crop, having a
stout straw, does not lodge and deteriorate when the
July rains come down ; the ears are ctdossal, and the
kernels bold andbeautiful, and being healthily-grown and
nourished, instead of luxuriously forced and pampered,
the wheat escapes pretty clearly from damaging
blight and mildew ; the result of all being that the
highest prices are realized in the market. There will be
a considerable gain, then, if we can make say 45s. per
quarter of our crop, when by the common method of
culture we could get only 40s,

And the system would leave blessings in its train ;
for suppose a field well cleaned and stirred, and worked
10 inches deep for say six years, bearing its successive
grain crops without impoverishment, and then turned
again to root and green-crop growing on an ordinary
rotation ; undoubtedly the abundant productiveness
would prove the eshaustless benefit of repeated crumb-
lings and atmospheric fertilizings, and the mangold and
turnips, beans, peas, and oats would seize with a profi-
table avidity their special mineral nutriments that had
lain unappropriated through so many years.

Perhaps we ought scarcely to mention the saving of
seed, though (with 3 instead of 7 pecks per acre) this
would amount to no less than 1 5 quarters ; or the greater
expedition in harvesting, the crop being what is called
" all corn," carrying an extraordinary quantity of grain
in rows so thinly covering the land. Neither need we
hint at the continual opportunity and facility afforded
for weeding, up to the very harvest day if we please.
However, the more we ponder the scheme, the more
adapted does it appear lor meeting every exigency of
the wheat plant. In winter, the furrow-slices laid up 5
or 6 inches high at every 5 feet, shelter the young plants
from biting blasts, our crops being fresh and healthy
when the blades on all other fields are purple and perish-
ing. The deep-stirring and shaking of the ground in
early spring stimulates the growth or bare maintenance
of vigour of the wheat in spite of nipping frost ; and the
land, from the deep pulverization, arrests and retains
moisture for the luw-burrowing roots, fortifying them
against the arid north-easters. The summer horse-
hoeing promotes the healthy growth of the crop, push-
ing it on in times when other wheats are at a standstill
or turning yellow. And the waving flag breathing
freely because of the open-air intervals, the stems grow
strong and sturdy, and ripen their grain for bread, in-
stead of falling as crowded stalks do, to dwindle their
food for the chickens.

Before detailing our method of wheat-growing on the
Lois-Weedon principle, but with traction implement,
instead of band tools, we wish to impress upon our
readers the considerations which led us to engage in the
experiment. The proposal to have 120 acres out of 300
arable set apart for this culture has been shown to be
highly jyro9wi»"iHgr in various respects ; and we shall as-
sume, lor the present, that the contemplated yield of
four quarters per acre can be annually reaped on our
good wheat soil by means of the horse-tillage we should
practise, aad by the application of 16s. or 20s. worth of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

389

artificial manure — due in exchange for tbe straw carried
away. This, as we said, according to Mr. Smith's ex-
perience, will give us at least £2 an acre clear profit
when wheat is at 40s, a quarter, and £4 profit when the
price rises to 503.

Let ns now inquire whether the scheme is " practica-
ble," taking for granted that it would answer. And,
first, are the cultural processes of such a nature, and so
timed, that a farmer's ordinary force of teams and
labourers could accomplish them at the proper seasons,
and do so without neglecting the requirements of other
crops or evading the general farm work ? For of course it
will be useless to test with a few acresa plan that, when
adopted on a larger scale, would set fast all our horses
and men at inconvenient seasons, and hinder us from
properly cultivating the rest of our land. Now, in
'' getting-in " 120 acres of wheat by our common hus-
bandry, there are say 50 acres to be ploughed, and 70
acres to be pared or scarified and cleaned as well as
ploughed; and all to be well harrowed (some rolled) and
drilled. These operations occupy fourteen horses (the
force kept on the farm), say twelve days in doing the 60
acres, and thirty days in doing the 70 acres; that is, the
whole preparation and wheat-seeding, from first to last,
takes up forty-two clear days. But potatoes and mangolds
having to be harvested, turnips stored, vetches got in,
stubble carted, sold produce delivered, &c., a much larger
period elapses in reality between the commencement and
the completion of wheat-sowing. However, if we can
get-in 120 acres of Lois-Weedon wheat by forty-two
days' work of fourteen horses, our wheat-sowing will
take no longer than at present ; and we shall not be en-
croaching on other indispensable labours of the farm.
Well, our present (second) crop of 10 acres was got-in
the first week of October. The horse-labour for clear-
ing the stubble and scarifying the intervals ready for the
seed was equivalent to ten horses for one day, and that
of harrowing, rolling, drilling, and afterwards grubbing
and cleaning the old stubble spaces, equalled thirty
horses for a day. This amounts to forty days' work ; so
that fourteen horses would have accomplished all in less
than three days : whence we find that 120 acres would
occupy them about thirty -four days. Here we have
eight days in hand — or, in other words, have sown our
wheat crop in one-fifth less time than is necessary under
the common system. And ''early sowing " being in-
dispensable to success, we should begin in September ;
so that there is no fear of want of time for putting in all
the wheat on a farm in this way.

Were we to farm on the Lois-Weedon principle,
having two-fifths of our land in three-row wheat, we
should have the remaining three-fifths under suitable
green-crops and spring corn ; but, for the sake of avoid-
ing calculations as to the apportionment of labour at dif-
ferent seasons among the crops in such a new order of
succession or rotation, we suppose the three-fifths to be
managed precisely as though it were a farm to itself un-
der the present husbmdiy. These 180 acres would
have two-fifths— that is, 72 acres — wheat, ploughed for,
&c., as at present, requiring eighteen or twenty days'
work of the fourteen horses. Our total seed-time will
be altogether ten or twelve days longer than before ;
against which we must remember that there will be less
of other work than formerly, owing to the diminished
area of the other varieties of cropping.

During the latter part of October, November, and
December — beginning directly the young wheat is well
up, and taking advantage of periods of dry weather — the
deep-working of the fallow intervals must be done. We
find that one set of five horses effects this on 10 acres
in the course of two days ; consequently two sets, or
ten horses out of our fourteen, would finish the 120 acres
in twelve days. The principal tillage operation on the

other portions of the farm that would be a little delayed
in consequence is only the ploughing of 72 acres of stub-
ble for pulse cropping or for fallow.

As we shall see when we come to describe our process,
only half of each interval is subsided ihe first time ; and
in January and February, or directly suitable weather
follows the snow and frost, the same amount of horse-
labour is required to complete the deep tillage which we
adopt in place of digging. This latter twelve days' work
for two-thirds of our horses come just at the time when
spring corn has to be sown ; but bear in mind that we
have 14 hoi'ses, the full allowance for 300 acres arable,
while (owing to the permanent setting apart of two-fifths
of the farm for Lois Weedon wheat) tbe breadth of
spring cropping is only that proper to a 180-acre farm
— that is, three-fifchs of the extent which would be
grown were the whole 300 acres in rotation. Instead of
90 acres of beans and peas, oats, and barley or potatoes,
there will be only 54 acres ; and the time saved by
having 36 acres less to get in, will go far towards sparing
the teams for the second subsoiling of our wheat.

Tolerably dry weather being a necessary preliminary
to each of these operations, not only for the purpose of
effectively breaking-up the subsoil, but also to avoid
" mauling'' the wheat-rows and puddling the surface
with the horses' feet ; it may be objected that the wea-
ther will preclude cur deep tillage, except in a re-
markably dry season. We have had only two winters'
experience ; the present one unprecedented for absence
of downfall and scantiness of water in ponds, wells,
and drains. But in November, 1856, our first opera-
tion was stopped by rain and then snow, after half-a-
day's work ; in December it was completed, though need-
lessly done when the ground was too wet. The se-
cond operation was performed in February, and this note
was made at the time — " Several fine days before, on
which the work might have been done ; and if postponed,
there were still several more fine days which would have
given an opportunity." This last winter the first ope-
ration was well done in December alter prolonged dry
weather, and the second was done in February after
many days in which the soil would have broken up equally
well, and succeeded by plgnty of bright open weather.
Supposing a heavy fall of rain to follow the wheat-
seeding and snow- blasts to occur, with other weather
unsuitable to the drying of the ground, there would ne-
cessarily be a delay in accomplishing the tillage ; but as
it is during a frost that the exposure c f the subsoil is
most desirable, we can very well wait until any " great
wets" are over. We shall have the range of at least
two-and-a-half months in which to get our first twelve
days' work, though on an average half the number of
days in these months are more or less " rainy ;" and
our second twelve days' work must be caught during Ja-
nuary and February when the weather is not at all more
propitious.

Rolling the wheat in March will take up very little of
the horse-power of the farm. Scarifying the fallow in-
tervals in April or May occupies three horses for two
days in doing our 10 acres, so that two sets of three
each would finish 120 acres in twelve days, or twelve
horses (working four implements) in six days. This will
not much interfere with the fallowing and other business
going on upon the 180 acres.

Horse-hoeing the intervals in May, again in June, or
whenever required, will be a short matter; for one horse
finishes our 10 acres within one and three-quarter days,
consequently four horses would hoe 120 acres in about
five days.

Hand-hoeing and weeding the wheat stripes may be
reckoned upon as demanding about the same labour as
a similar number of acres on the common system, the
wider spaces favouring the annual weeds, though there

390

THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE.

is less ground to be gone over. Employing a horse-hoe
would of course diminish both labour, and expense.

In yoking the horses so as not to trample the wheat,
in adjusting the scarifier so as to avoid casting clods
upon the plants on each side, in arranging theic^ipingof
such narrow strips of awkwardly-standing corn, there
are little exercises of judgment called for ; but our own
experience proves that the whole management from be-
ginning to end, is so simple that any good labourer en-
gaged throughout one year may understand and properly
execute the operations of the next.

For carrying ofi' heaps of rubbish that may be raked
or picked, and also for leading on manurlal top dress-
ings, &c., a "quarter cart" is necessary — that is, a cart
with shafts fixed in front of one wheel, so that the horse
" quarters," walking in the same track as the wheel, thus
making a road of the " intervals" only. And for rolling
the wheat rows or fallow intervals, as the case may be,
it is requisite to have a roller made in two short pieces,
arranged on one axle, but with a distance between them,
the shafts being removable, in order that the horses (in
length) may walk either in the middle or before one of
the rollers, as required Only these two n^'w implements
need be constructed for our Lois-Wcedon wheat-growing,
the ordinary plough, subsoiler, scarifier, horse-hoe,
ridge-harrow, and drill answering every other purpose.

Still further, as to the practicability of growing 1'20
acres of wheat, on the stripe system, upon a farm hav-
ing 300 acres arable, it may be observed that the pro-
posed mode of culture etFectually provides for the
eradication of couch and other creeping or perennial
roots. Bunches of couch, docks, thistles, etc., may be
dug out of the stubble after harvtst, or from the rows
of the growing crop ; and the fallow intervals (em-
bracing just half of the land) are stirred, pulverized, and
the root-weeds picked off. But should the surface be-
come thoroughly infested, in spite of all, the foulness
may be extirpated after harvest, by paring and scarify-
ing the whole breadth of the land, and harrowing
lengthwise and crosswise too ; obliterating the stubble-
rows, it is true, and so taking away the guide-marks for
the next drilling, but not preventing us (as we shall
see) from hitting the right intervals, with our method of
gauging the drill-row distances. But, seeing that each
portion of the ground is summer or bare-fallowed every
other year, no apprehension need arise of overmastery
by ill weeds.

One minor difficulty we have irot yet removed —
headlands at both ends of a field are indispensable, for
the horses and implements to turn on, in the winter,
spring, and summer tillage ; and no vegetable seems to
covet the frequent rough usage of such a situation. Are
we to try for a few stray ears of wheat, or plant pota-
toes with a coating of manure 1 leave the headlands to
themselves, with the exception of cutting up weeds ? or
lay them down to permanent seeds ?

So far, our pai)ers on this subject have shown, we
think, that growing the 120 acres of Lois-Weedon
wheat by our system, on a suitable soil, is perfectly
practicable; while the results, if at all in accordance
with those of Mr. Smith, will be highly profitable and
satisfactory.

In reply to a letter propounding our plan of horse-
power tillage, Mr. Smith advised us to " say nothing
about it till you have had two years' experience.'' This
sound caution we are not following exactly ; but, at any
rate, we have had two years' experience of our method
of deep-working the intervals by common imple-
ments, which was the chief practical difficulty to be
overcome. And we say that our three-feet intervals of
tough soil- have been broken up and crumbled, and
exposed to the atmosphere, to a depth of 9 or 10 inches,
and that this desired end has been attained without

ploughing up or otherwise damaging the wheat.
Cleaning the i^tubble, and preparing the intervals for
the seed, we have found to be simple and easy ; and
sowing the rows at the right distances apart has been
twice done readily and correctly by a common drill.
We have also kept accurate accounts of all the labour
bestowed, in each process, on our 10 acres ; and, having
already performed the heaviest operations twice, can
safely state what is the total cost of cultivation. Now,
every item shall be adduced before we close this series
of articles ; but just at present we are insisting upon the
feasibility and applicability of the system, and are
anxious to exhibit its promising character : so we will
only premise here that manual labour has been charged
precisely what was paid for it, while half-a-crown per
day is put down as the expense of a horse — certainly
not too little, amounting as it does to £39 a year.

The whole cost of the crop of 1857 was ^5 18s. 4d.
per acre — including £2 for rent ; 6s. for tithe ; 9s. lOd.
for rates, taxes, and 5 per cent, interest on the outlay ;
and £3 2s. 6d. as the expense of cultivation, in labour,
seed, etc. In future years, various savings will be
effected in the time spent in some of the operations ; so
that the total expenditure will never reach £6 per acre.
What amount of prodaca is needed in order to repay
this outlay .' Three qrs. at 40s., or 2? qrs. at 50s. ; the
value of the straw — say £1 — to be given back in arti-
ficial manure. And all the yield we get in excess of this
quantity will be our clear profit. Four qrs. annually,
we have said in a iirevious paper, fully equal in market-
value the acreage produce of the other portions of the
farm, and at 40s. would give us, it seems, a profit of
£2 ati acre. What was our actual yield of 1857, we do
not wish to state until the second (or cominij) harvest
has been thrashed ; but it gave us a satisfactory profit,
and enabled us to declare that if, after the course of
management the field teas j)reviousli/ under, so much
could be grown by means of tillage only, we are satisfied
that the produce in ensuing years might be raised to
more than 4 qrs. by the tillage and the sovereign's-
worth of manure.

What is the history of the field .' It is a strong allu-
vial loam, not particularly rich, but low-lying, flat, and
wet ; the underdrainage being effected in a shallow and
half-hearted manner, by means of several very old and a
few new thorn drains. The ro'i.atio.1 has been as fol-
lows : In 1850, red round turnips (fallowed and ma-
nured for, and fed off) ; 1851, oats ; 1852, clover (mown,
and then grazed) ; 1853, wheat ; 1854, beans (manured) ;
1S5-5, wheat (a heavy crop). It was now time to fallow
again, but was sown with barley instead, producing a
moderately light crop on one-half of the field, though
heavier on the other. This barley stubble we had to
commence operations upon, so late in the autumn that
no time was possible for cleaning that half of the land
which was foul with couch ; and the ground ploughed
up stiff, and would not be reduced into reasonable tilth.
Making haste to overtake the season that had slipped
by (for this was at the end of October; whereas the
Lois-Weedon law is, ''sow in September"), we drilled the
seed among large clods, the grains being finally covered
with not more than an inch of " mould. " Oa the best
of the land, after the mcst cm iching '' preparation "
crop in a "course," wheat badly got-in forebodes a
faminous product ; but following barley (after which
crop the more precious cereal is considered a lost crop),
nobody looked for a yield at all, though certainly the
field was ploughed an inch deeper than usual. Through-
out the summer the scanty crop struggled undismayed
against the couch matting one side of the field, and with
infesting wild buttercups and sharp thistles that sprang
up everywhere after the hoers with a hydra-like perti-
nacity of growth. Yet, in spite of all ill circumstance

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

391

and mischance, the deep culture and pulverization of
the intervals, combined with the free play of the winds
and sunbeams to invigorate and swell the harvest ears,
so that a small iick yielded, at tlirashinc;', an unparal-
leled measure of grain in proportion to the straw. The
yield, though not large, was sufficient to give a good pro-
fit per acre when sold at 50s. a quarter. Now, if a crop
so put in on such ground, upon a barley siubble — the
barley itself grown after wheat, without manure — paid
its expenses well, is ihere not a better chance for the
crop nosv coming up, sown as it was in a well-pulver-
ized moist seed-bed that had been bare-fallowed winter
and summer .' At any rate, the thickly-tillered plant
looks splendidly at present, and will doubtless spindle
into waving lu.xuriarce under the feeding influence of
the hoe. Here we have wheat after wheat, after barley,
after wheat, following beans, manured: a long while
back to the last manuring ; yet the third white-straw
crop was profitable, and the rows of a fourth shine green
and hope'ul, with brown stripes of fertility mouldering
their clods between.

Actual experience of only one year's crop, added to
the bright prospect for another, may not warrant our
advocacy of a revolution in wheat-growing such as our
system would prove if largely carried out. We do not
venture to recommend any farmer to sow all, or even
half, his next year's wheat on this plan ; but we do urge
all occupiers of suitable soil, and whose agents or land-
lords are not afraid of "exhaustion," to try a few
acres, and, our word for it, they will soon be willing to
stretch the rows a little farther. We are in a position
to say " the culture is cheap and easy, for we have per-
formed it two successive years ; there will be no loss
with the first crop, at any rate, so you need not be fear-
ful ; and the reward in many ways is so promising, that
the experiment is well worth your trouble, contrivance,
and risk."

In perusing the following detailed description of our
wheat husbandry, let no one suppose we are presuming
to stand between the Rev. Mr. Smith and the readers of
bis " Word in Season," or that we claim the
" originality" of cultivating grain on the stripe system
by means of horse- power instead of manual implements.
Our method is sianply a modification of that originated
at Lois-Weedon, and our directions conform to those
given in Mr. Smith's publications. Jethro Tull worked
the intervals between his wheat-rows with the plough
and " hoe-plough ;" Mr Smith has progressed very far
toward accomplishing his more perfect tillage by horses
and traction implements ; and we have simply contrived
a manner of common ploughing and suJisoiling between
the wheat triplets, without either injuring the plants or
defeating the end in view. And we trusi that when
the public learn how easily the thing is done, they
will no longer hesitate to make trials in every suitable
locality.

First, then, we would say, believe in the principle :
rely upon the fact that tilling the fallow iutervals does
really nourish and augment the growth and produce of
the wheat. Fur if uncertain on this point, you are sure
to select a field for trial in too high a conditiori ; the re-
sult being an early over-luxuriance and final failure of
the first year's crop. Land in conflition for producin;;
a heavy crop of wheat on the ordinary plan (as, for
instance, a bare fallow, a field of roots highly manured,
a bean or pea stubble, or a piece of seeds richly dressed
with dung or sheep-feeding) is too good to begin upon.
Rather choose an oat stubble, perhaps a barley or even
a wheat stubble — depending upon the known nature of
your soil, and its being in or out of " heart."

Also, make up your mind to sow earlier than you
would any other wheat, because there are less than
half the common number of rows on an acre ; which

with the same quantity of seed in each row, makes a
very thin seeding, and of course more than double the
usual averaue space between plant and plant — a con-
dition of thing- likely to end in mildew unless ypu sow
early to prevent it. And besides, the gre;;t distances
apart promote the stooling or tillering of the plants, the
branching of the root, and shooting up of additional
stems (which, indeed, forms one of the s'jcrets of a good
crop), and you will lose both in quantity and quality of
corn unless time be allowed for this process to transpire
before the advanced spring. So the preparation must
take place very soon after harvest.

Well, the " shack " being eaten off by sheep and pigs,
and the stubble (if after a straw crop) carried away, of
course you will autumn-clean thoroughly ; forking out
couch, if the land be only slightly tainted; but, most
probably, skimming, cross-cultivating, and raking off
weeds and rubbish. Plough say one inch deeper than
usual, in order to bring up 100 tons of fresh long-
undisturbed subsoil, to supply the crop with mineral
nutriment during the first year. Level and pulverize
with the harrow and roll ; carefully pick all root-weeds ;
and then comes the drilling. But mind one particular
point. " Plough dry and sow wet," as Mr. Smith says :
that is, do all your paring and ploughing, or ploughing
followed by scuffling, or whatever order of cleaning you
ai.opt, when the land is dry ; and wait for rain to make
a moist seed-bed, before you harrow fine and drill.
Getting-in wheat well is always a great advantage; but
is of far more consequence, one would think, when
there is no store of manure in the soil to make up for
defective tillage, and the preparation and treatment of
the earth itself is to be the sole support of the crop.
Therefore, be nice about the moisture as well as the fine
tilth of the ground into which you deposit the seed ;
and take especial care to cut-in deeply enough with your
drill coulters. A remark as to the desirability of having
a fine description of seed ("red") for the sake of
a bright silica- shielded straw, unless in a district famous
for white wheats without mildew), and the caution of
well liming, brining, or dressing with arsenic or vitriol —
according to your custom — need not be addressed to men
of business.

Now for the sowing. There is to be a stripe of three
rows at every five feet ; the " spaces" betweeu the rows
being 10 inches each (instead of Mr. Smith's "foot"),
and the " interval" between the stripes, therefore,
40 inches. You want neither the slow line and dibble,
nor a sort of parallel-rule wheel "marker" purposely
constructed; for a good 5 or 6-feet corn drill, either
with a " steerage," or with a " swing" coulter-bar and
a good man for " leader," can accomplish the feat.
Arrange four coulters on the drill thus : two at 60
inches apart, and, within these, two more at 40 inches
apart; making the distances in this order, 10 inches,
40 inches, and 10 inches. Each outside coulter will
make the middle row in a stripe of three ; and the
inner coulters will sow the rows next the fallow interval,
the horses (in length) walking alor.g this space left
midway of the drill. When arrived at the end, the drill
is to turn siiort, the outside coulter returning in its own
track ; and the seed is shut off from the pipe of that
outside coulter next the unsown part of the field, so
that the outside coulters act alternately as "markers"
and sowing-coulters. In this way, the drill marks out
its own work, without any difficulty after the first course
— which the drill-leader "draws" by simple eyesight.
Whatever swervings or bends may occur, the width of
the interval to be cultivated is always invariable.

The next year's crop will have to be sown along the
intervals between the ttubble-strips ; and the same mode
of drilling will suffice, provided the stubble rows remain

392

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

visible, at least iti some parts of the fiek!. How then,
do we manage to autumn-clean the ground ?

Having harrowed up the thickest of the stubble
(which must be left very short by the reapers), stir the
fallow intervals with Bentall's, Coleman's, or some other
scarifier set as narrow as required ; and harrow them
two at a time, by means of two out of a " set " of three
harrows — that is, the middle one removed, so as to miss
the stubble space. Rolling may be done over the whole
surface; or a roller made on purpose, in two short
lengths with a space between, may be employed. The
stubble being pretty plainly seen, is a sufficient guide-
mark for the drillmen, who cannot get far wrong when
the first stroke has been taken in the right place, and if
the land is in a fine state and dark with moisture. The
seed may be harrowed-in with harrows covering all the
ground. Should the stubble stripes be peculiarly free
of couch, perhaps forkinj^ out the tufts may suffice :
but we must be prepared for cleansing them when foul ;
and therefore have contrived how to pare or scarify
them without interfering with the drilling. When the
drill has begun to work, follow it with the broadsharer
set only about 22 inches wide — not in the track of the
drill, of course ; but breaking up the stubble lines
between the intervals just sown. We find that this
operation does not displace or root-up the seed ; and
after it any amount of harrowing and rolling, length-
wise and crosswise, may loosen and shake out the
root-weeds, without fear for the wheat in tolerably dry
weather. Only this must be done before the grains
have chitted ; or at any rate, before the germs reach the
surface.

The quantity of seed per acre depends, like the time
of sowing, upon whereabouts joufartn : being regulated
by the quality of your soil, its altitude and aspect, its
tendency as to weeds, its liability to worms and slug?,
the peculiarities of your climate, the character of the
particular season you may have, even the proximity of
your holding to harbours of birds and vermin. What
is early in one situation, may not be so in another;
what is thia seeding in one neighbourhood, is thought
thick in another. As an example, take our own case :
November being the great wheat-sowing month with us,
our present crop was got in the first week of October.
In ordinary husbandry we drill 6 to 10 pecks per acre,
the former quantity at the beginning of the season,
when every kernel will have a chance ; gradually in-
creasing the amount as the period of sowing gets later :
at the same time putting in more on poor than on rich
land. Mr. Smith tried only 1 peck, but ''for safety
and the sake of the sample" now uses 2 pecks an acre.
Our tillage being less perfect than his, and the plants
lying open to greater injury from horses' treadin<r, &c.,
we deemed it best to drill 3 pecks per acre. This ap-
pears but a small quantity; yet Mr. Smith's experience
with a thicker seeding has shown that the stalks are too
many and weak to bear up their bulky heads erect.
And consider, that as the average distance between our
rows (taken over the entire field), is 20 inches, we have
less than half the number of rows that common 9 inch
drilling gives us ; and thus our 3 pecks an acre puts as
much seed in every single row as about 7 pecks does in
plain drilling. In fact, we drill with the same cog-wheel
on the cup-barrel for both cases.

When your wheat is well up, and the triple-row
emerald stripes are beautiful from end to end, comes the
first really Tullian operation, namely, the ploughing along
the 40 inch intervals. With a common plough, and
horses "in length" (a boy leading the first horse),
plough a single furrow down each interval, going say 4
inches deep. Aiming to keep the coulter 6 inches from
the wheat-row on his left-hand side, the ploughman has
no difficulty la taking his furrow within 4 to 7 inches of

the wheat, a latitude of deviation from the true line that
must be allowed him ; and the upturned slice has just
room to fall over, short of the wheat on the opposite
side of the interval. Very few clods will be found to
roll and bury the young plant.

Break up the bottom of every furrow with a proper
subsoil, penetrating 5 or 6 inches, according to the
strength of your team. We use Bentall's broad-sharer
with the side-beams removed, a 6-inch share on the
heel, and subsoil point in front, this going at least 6
inches down with 3 horses. The total depth below the
surface is thus 9 or 10 inches. When the same intervals
come under operation again (that is, in two years time),
we may perhaps work still deeper, and it may be with a
double-tined instead of single subsoiler. The horses,
of course, are all harnessed in length, walking upon the
furrow bottom.

Leave the field thus treated (looking lengthwise like
a wheat crop, and cross-wise like a trenchtd-up fallow,
reminding me of those corrugated pictures presenting
two views at different angles), and let the frost and
snow, wind, rain, and drying sunshine exert their forces
upon it. And observe how large an extent of superfices
is exposed ; for not only can the atmosphere enter 9
inches down into the fubsoil, but the furrow-slices
thrown up at an angle, almost double the area of sur-
face in the intervals.

In January and February, taking the chance of
suitable weather, the same tillage is to be repeated, only
on the other side of each interval. The plough turns
back the pulverulent furrow-slice of the former opera-
tion, covering over the long-exposed broken subsoil in
the old furrow, and going 4 inches deep below the sur-
face level, casts up upon the top a new slice of stiff
unmellowcd soil for the weather to act upon as before.
The horses are obliged to walk along the old furrow,
treading down the crumbled subsoil ; but (as it has
become so friable), not inflicting much damage by
compression. The newly-opened furrow must be sub-
soiled as before, and left in this exposed state.

So far, your tillage has provided a supply of more or
less pulverized earth 9 or 10 inches in depth, on both
sides of every interval, and within a few inches' reach of
the wheat rootlets. And if you comprehend Jethro
TuU's teaching, you will understand that soil more or
less pulverized by atmospheric action must be neces-
sarily more or less "fertilized;" hence, your growing
plants will have close at hand a deep store of nutriment *
on which to feed during the summer. The difference,
you perceive, between our method and ordinary sub-
soiling, lies in the circumstance that every one of the
subsoiled furrows remains open and exposed, instead of
being immediately buried by a succeeding furrow-slice.
And it is not a mere deep stirring without inversion as
performed by the tines of a subsoiler or cultivator ;
neither is it a complete inverting of the staple and sub-
soil, as in doubble-digging or trench-ploughing, that
we practise. But the staple (that is, a 4-inch stratum
of it) is inverted, and removed by the plough off the
subsoil that lies beneath ; and the subsoil is then torn to
pieces, and submitted to the disintegration of our change-
ful English weather.

As far as you have proceeded at present, half the land
is in undisturbed possession of the wheat rows ; and the
alternate halves, or intervals, are deep-worked on both
sides. But as the plough opens a furrow having only 7
or 8 inches of clear bottom, and the subsoiler breaks
horizontally only a few inches further toward the centre
of the intervals, there will still be a ridge of unmoved
ground along the middle of the interval some 10 inches
in width. Therefore, in April or May, break up this,
and Elir the whole breadth of the interval with any
suitable subsoiler or grubber. We use Bentall's imple-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

393

ment, the central subsoiler, and two side-tires, without
shares ; the width altogether being 20 inches. The side
wheels are set so as to travel in between the wheat rows,
acting at the same time partially as rollers to press in
the wheat. The depth worked with three horses on our
soil is 5 or 6 inches, which moves the entire breadth of
the interval, levelling the high furrow-slice left by the
February operation, and mingling and incorporating a
considerable portion of the ameliorated subsoil with the
upper staple. And in this way, some of the previous
surlace-mould is replaced by portions of subsoil ; and
these kept upon the top, and subjected to all the scari-
fyings and horse-hoeings, the rain, dew, wind, and sun,
of a summer and autumnal fallowing, add so much
virgin soil to our field, and deepen its productive stra-
tum.

By way of further direction, we scarcely need insist
upon the watchful destruction of weeds that thieve the
nourishment provided for the crop, or urge the frequent
cutting of the incrusting intervals by the sharp-knived
horse-hoe, to promote the absorption of the atmospheric
gifts, and pulverize a rich surface'-bed for the spreading
wheat-roots to feed in. And of course, the wise
husbandman will time this stimulating operation accord-
ing to the obvious thriving or lagging growth of the
plants, and will narrow the width of the implement
as the season advances and the roots extend.

If possible, have the intervals in a state of powder,
say by the middle of June : as you should perform
another operation when the wheat is in full-ear or going
out of bloom, namely, earth-up the wheat rows as you
would potatoes, only with care and moderation. This
may be done with a ridge 'or double-mouldboard plough,
the horse being driven and guided by a lad walking
along the next adjoining interval. Owing to excessive
draught, our intervals last summer were too rough and
cloddy to admit of this process being done at all ; and
as the seed had been imperfectly put in the ground, many
odd stalks in the outer-rows were dashed down by the
July storms, bent an inch or two above ground, and laid
prostrate across the intervals. Gathering up these straws
made tedious work for the reapers, and the grain in them
was also light. Earthing-up slightly, Mr. Smith finds,
will prevent this, without injury or retarding the ripen-
ing of the corn. But the stems are stronger than in a

common crop, and though liable to twisting and whip-
ping by the winds, are rarely found to lodge.

You will probably be pu zzled about the best way of
harvesting : the three-row strips being too narrow for
mowing, and if reaped, the stubble when afterwards
mown, would be only scattered and dispersed by the
scythe. We paid our men extra to reap with hooks or
sickles rather close to the ground, and collect the many
stalks that lay athwart the intervals ; and thoy had to
leave separate " reaps" or handfulls along each stripe to
be afterwards gathered into sheaves.

The subjoined items of expenditure on our 10-acre
crop will give an idea of the cost of the operations now
described. Manual-labour is charged at the price paid
for it ; and horse-labour at half-a-crown a day for each
horse. The expenses, divided by 10, give ^er acre as
follows :

s. D.

Scarifying, cleaning, drilhng, &c 16 0

Seed, 3 pecks (at 56s.) 5 3

Bird-keeping 0 4

First ploughing and aubsoiling 3 8

Second ditto 3 8

Hand-hoeing wheat 1 10

Scarifying intervals 1 10

Hoe- weeding by hand 3 4

First horae-hoeiug intervals 0 9

Second ditto 0 10

Keaping 13 0

Surveying reaper's work. 0 3

Carrying, &c 1 H

Thrashing and dressing 8 1

Delivering at market , , 1 9

£3 2 6

Total working expenses

To which, of course, are added the rent, tithe, rates,
taxes, and interest on outlay. And this is the cost of
growing an acre of tvheat, and at the same timefal-
loioing that acre for next year's crop.

It now remains for us, in concluding this series of
papers, to urge the experiment upon all who are desirous
of growing wheat at a profit, in spite of low prices.
And should our second harvest corroborate the assurance
of the first, we shall be able to enforce the adoption of
the system on the largest scale.

AERATION OF LAND.

Whatever be the elements of the atmosphere by which
the earth may be acted upon, it is certain that the soil, if
freely exposed to such elements as present themselves in
the ordinary state of the atmosphere, has its fertility greatly
increased.

It signifies nothing what are the required elements, un-
less it be capable of demonstration that it is solely owing
to some particular elements, and that those particular
elements can be supplied to the soil at a cheaper rate by
other means than by exposure.

To effect this exposure, it has been usual to have frequent
ploughing, fallowing, drilling, &c , which conduced to this
purpose, and were otherwise useful by destroying weeds ;
hut I venture to suggest the following plan, not as a sub-
stitute for the ordinary means, but as an accompanying
measure, which is small in first cost, and in its action at-
tended with little expense :

Let drainage-tiles (perforated, if needful) he laid as
usual ; but let all the drains iu a field be connected. At the
lower end of the field, where the drainage is discharge^i,
let the ends of the pipes (not perforated) be well packed in
clay, and the ends of the pipes made like an inverted
syphon, so tliat drainage-water will lodge in the bend. In
various parts of the field — or one part, if that he found
sufficient — let there be large bell-mouthed funnels to gather

wind, so arranged, by means of a vane, as always to present
the open mouths to the wind ; and let these funnels be
connected by an upright pipe with the drains.

The pressure of the wind in the mouth of a funnel ^yill
cause an equal pressure through all the drains, it not being
able to escape through the ends, because of the water
lodged in the bend ; and air will, consequently, permeate
the soil at all times when there is a breeze.

It might in some situations be possible to use water-
power, or even steam-power, (or an occasional service, as
many well-drained farms now-a-days are furnished with
steam-engines, and the aeration through the ordinary
drain-pipes would be effective.

In steam-packets a long bag opened to the wind at the
side, near the top, forces air into the hold amongst the
cattle. Gas companies find that their gas permeates in
large quantities through the soil, although their pipes are
as tight as they can make them, and the gi-ound they are
laid in dense ; whereas, in the plan suggested, the pressure
would be in perforated pipes, and through a loose soil.

The plan would not interfere with the drainage, but
would he a second use for the same pipes, and be stimu-
lating the crops at periods when it would be otherwise im-
practicable to manure them. G. H. B.

394

THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE.

THE IMPORTATIONS OF FOOD IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS.

An official return has lately been laid before Parlia-
ment of the quantities of articles of food imported from
abroad in the last twenty years, of the same kind as
those produced at home, upon which Customs duties
are still levied; and as the subject is necessarily in-
teresting to our agriculturists — few of whom will see
the document — we will run over the details, to see
what quantities of articles we import of a like character
to those produced at home.

This parliamentary return does not include live ani-
mals, salted provisions, potatoes, fish, and such-like
articles, wliich come in duty free, but is restricted to
the chargeable articles, which bring in, on the average,
a net Customs revenue of about ^750,000.

The imported food may be ranged under three or
four groups, as grain and meal, fruits (raw and dried),
dairy and farm products, beverages or substances used
in their preparation, and a few minor items.

First, then, we have grain, the im ports of which liave
necessarily fluctuated largely in the series of years under
consideiation, consequent upon the vicissitudes of seasons
and the variable demand for food supplies, according to
the nature of our own and the European harvests. Thus,
while in 1830 we imported but lt;8,C47quartersofforeiga
wheat, in 1853 we received nearly 5,000,000 quarters ;
and tlie average importation of wheat in the last ten
years has been 3,500,000 quarters. To this has to be
added the wheat flour, and other grain and meal.

During the last ten years our annual impoits of wheat
and flour have amounted, on the average, to 5,000,000
quarters ; a very considerable part of which has been
derived from Russia and countries situated in the Bal-
tic, Turkey and Egypt, the United States, and Canada.

Our supplies of foreign wheat-meal or flour, which
from 1839 to 1845 scarcely averaged 1,000,000 cwt.
per annum, have since averaged about 4,000,000 cwt. ;
although last year there was a decline of nearly
2,000,000 cwt. as compared with the previous year's
imports.

Of Indian corn or maize, the imports may now
be taken at an average of 1,250,000 quarters per
annum unground ; and a yearly decreasing quan-
tity of the meal— in 1836, 4,000,000 cwt. Com-
pared with the enormous imports to supply the
Irish famine-wants in 1847 and 1848, the present im-
ports look very insignificant. For bread or human
food in any shape Indian cornraeal will, however, never
make any headway in this country ; the colour and
flavour being repugnant to the popular taste, which
demands wheaten bread as its mainstay, whatever be
the price. The consumption of maize here is, there-
fore, chiefly as food for live stock and the manufacture
of starch.

The imports of foreign barley fluctuate considerably,
ranging from only 100,000 qrs. in one year up to nearly
one and three-quarter millions last year. The imports of
barley meal are trivial, amounting to a few tons ; but
it seems strange why the 50 or 60 tons of pearl
barley could not be made at bome. About 1,000 or
2,000 quarters of here or bigg come in annually.

Of oats, our average imports of late years have been
about 1,000,000 quarters, although last year it reached
1,710,300 quarters. Of oatmeal, we seem to draw
larger quantities from abroad ; the imports averaging
1,000,000 qrs. Our foreign supplies of rye are very
uncertfiin : in some years we have imported 100,000
or 200,000 quarters; in others the supplies arc small,

amounting to but 1,000 or 2,000 quarters ; in 1856,
we imported 28,000 quarters. The figures for last
year are not yet made up. About 7,700 cwt. of rye
meal were also imported in 1856.

Of the pulses our foreign imports do not vary much,
at least of late years ; about 100,000 c(uarters of peas
and 350,000 quarters of beans are near the average.

Grain pays the duty of Is. a quarter, and meal 4Jd.
per cwt.

There are a few miscellaneous preparations of grains
and seeds which maybe mentioned. Firstly, an in-
creasing supply of semolina — a preparation from the
wheat of the southern parts of Europe. The best is
the fine hard parts of the grain, rounded by attrition in
the mill-stones, and made chiefly in Italy. We im-
ported 1,300 cwt. in 1856. In France, however, this
name is given to the large hard grains of wheat re-
tained in the bolting machine after the fine parts
have been passed through its meshes, and with this,
when ground, the fine white Parisian bread is made. Of
vermicelli and maccaroni, other Italian preparations
of wheat, Ave import about 5,000 cwts., subject to
a duty of Is. the cwt. An article termed '' manna
croup," comes in in small quantities. In 1853,
1,467 cwts. were imported; and in 1856, 453 cwts. were
received. Properly this name is applied to the seed of
the wild grass Glyceria fluitans, a very nutritious
grain, collected in streams in northern latitudes, and
much used in soups, or for porridge in Germany, Po-
land, and Russia; but that which we import is exclu-
sively a preparation from wheat, passing under (he
name and competing with semolina. What the
" mixed mustard" (which comes in to the extent of
150 cwt.) is, we scarcely know. It is not mustard-
flour, for there is a separate heading for that in the
return, and our home growth of mustard seems fully
adequate for the supply : it cannot be French
vinegar-mustard to this amount, and therefore it is
probably adulterated mustard-flour, rated at 5s. the
cwt. against Is. 6d. the cwt. duty on pure mustard-
flour.

Besides the foregoing enumerated articles, we re-
ceived 35,300 cwts. of biscuit and bread in 1856.

The imports of foreign butter continue steadily to
increase, but this supply would go a very small Way
towards buttering the bread eaten by our population,
to say nothing of the other culinary uses of butter.
Our imports of butter last year amounted to 442,837
cwts., and of cheese 394,749 cwts. ; but we managed
to export of these two dairy products 111,008 cwts. of
butter, and 28,000 cwt. of cheese ; so that with our
own dairy produce we could do iiretty well even inde-
pendent of Dutch butter or American and Dutch cheese.
Eggs, however, still form a large and increasing item
of import, and for these there is an enormous home
consumption. An increased supply of ten or twelve
millions a-year of French eggs comes in usefully for
the necessities of the cook and the manufacturer, there
being a large demand in many trades for eggs, exclusive
of our food wants. Last year the imports reached 127
millions !

Of beverages, and substances used in making them,
we imported in 1856, 11,500 callous of beer, and at
duty of £1 the barrel of 36 gallons.

The quantity of foreign hops received varies. In
1854 we imported 119,040 cwt. ; but since the duty has
been raised to £2 5s. the cwt. thequantity has declined,

^THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

395

the imports last j^ear being 18,712 cwts. The average
annual imports of hops the last three years have been
19,720 cwt.

A fair amount of roasted chicory sLill comes in, our re-
ceipts from the continent in 185G having been 24,0001bs.
— very greatly below, however, the large imports in 1853
of 134,6441bs. The principle of admixture with coffee
seems to bo largely ciiecked by the Excise regulations,
which compel the sale of chicory in separate packets or
labelled as a mixture. Whether the home growth of
the root has been interfered with, we do not know.

There is an enormous import of carrawayseeds, which
reached 12,485 cwt. in 1856, paying a duty of 5:i. the
cwt. One would scarcely suppose that, besides the
home growth, there should be so large a demand for
this aromatic seed for confectionary purposes, phar-
macy, and making an essential oil.

There is a large amount of fruit of various kinds re-
ceived from the continent and elsewhere, owing to our
variable nlimate being less certain and favourable for the
early production and ripening of many kinds. Thus
pears, apples, and cherries cnme in in considerable quan-
tities. For instnnce, in 1856, we received .531,291 bush.
of apples, 22,532 bush, of pears, 17,051 bush, of cher-
ries, small quantities of medlars, quinces, &c , besides

97,000 bush, of uaenumerated fruits. In addition to
these, there were 2,364 casks of dried apples, 32,642 cwt.
of dried plums, small quantities of dried cherries, peisrs,
&;c.,and 56,534 bush, of walnuts; 127,000 bush, of onions
may perhaps be included in this class. These, with
some vinegar, pickles, and sauces, makeup the category
of duty-paid ai tides competing v^ith home-grown produce.

There are, as we have beloi'O remarked, some few other
important food-products entering duty-free, such as
animals, salted provisions, and potatoes. Thus last year
-ye received 606,606 cwt. of salted meat, bacon, and
hams, 182,860 cwt. of lard, 955,057 cwt. of potatoes,
and 281,000 living animals for food.

But how trivial would these be, towards our home
demand ! And against these foreign imports we have
also to set off the large exports of home produce of
agricultural origin. For instance, last year we shipped
435,000 barrels of beer and ale, 110,008 cwt. butter,
28,000 cwt. cheese, 4,821,277 gallons of British spirits,
and pickles and sauces of the value of i,'355,496 —
making up for these few enumerated articles a total de-
clared value of nearly ^3,500,000, besides many others
of smaller gross amounts. Judging from the average of
years, our food exports may be taken at fully ^■'5,000,000
in value.

REVIEW.
THE EVIL RESULTS OF OVER-FEEDING CATTLE.—A NEW INQUIRY.

By F, J, GA.NT.— Churchill.

It is now just about twelve months since that we had
to call attention to a rather remarkable pamphlet on
the meat trade of the metropolis. The author of this,
Mr. Gamgee, showed that, despite our amended regu-
lations and improvements, the traffic in diseased flesh
was of itself a regular business. He found sick animals
openly offered for sale even in the new market at Isling-
ton; while he traced their carcases to Newgate, Leaden-
hall, and other public resorts. Whatever people might
think of it, there was really no mistake about the fact.
The lower classes, most likely, were the chief sufferers.
Indeed, Mr. Gamgee's argument went to this. Meat
unfit for human food was bought and sold clearly on
the understanding that it was to be had cheap. Per-
haps we were all very sorry for " the poor people," and
there was an end of the matter. We certainly never
heard that anything more came of it.

The story, however, is hardly told out yet. It may
he brought a little closer home to us all. Another
member of Mr. Gamgee's profession — another medical
man, that is — has also been pursuing his scientific
researches, and with this result — that what we
consider the best meat, he considers is the least fit
for consumption ! Mr. Frederick James Gant, sur-
geon and pathological anatomist to the Royal Free
Hospital, went, like all the rest of London, to the last
Christmas Fat Cattle Show, at the Baker-street Bazaar.
His " limited opportunity for examining them" still
enabled him to detect — a-* he says — a number of diseased
beasts, sheep, and pigs. What mostly struck Mr. Gant,
at the outset, was what has no doubt taken the atten-
tion of almost everybody else. It was, in his own
Italics, " the size of the animals compared with their
respective ages." Precisely so. One of the chief objects
of breeders, and particularly of such societies as the
Smithfield Club, is early maturity. That is to say, we
get a beast, bigger and better, at half the expense in time
and capital, you could have done with the old. unim-

proved races. There is hardly such a thing, now, even
as old mutton. But Mr. Gant looks at this in a very
different light, and is by no means willing to join in the
self-gratulation with which we have been greeting
each other : —

" When I contrasted the enormous bulk of each animal
with the short period in which so much fat or fleah hal been
produced, I naturally indulged ia a physiological reflection on
the high-pressure work against time which certain vital in-
ternal organs, aa the stomach, liver, heart, and lungs, must
have undergone at a very early age. Now with the best
method of rearing cattle, or that which is most conducive to
their health, the medical profession are only indirectly con-
cerned ; but of the dietetic value of animals so reared for food,
the profession are, or should be, the immediate overseers and
arbitrators."

In accordance with this conclusion, Mr. Gant follows
up many of these animals to their last homes, and,
thanks to the courtesy of Messrs. Jeffery, King, Gorton,
Sack, Sinkler, and others, sees most of them slaughter-
ed. Alas! the i)rime joints and noble carcases these
liberal buyers pride themselves so much on, would seem
to be little better than a delusion and a snare. Those
fine ribbons, Christmas favours, and first-prize decrees,
proclaim to science but little more than that such meat
is not fit to be eaten. The more distinguished they
appear to have been in the Show-yard, proportionately
the worse do the animals turn out in the slaughter-
house.

In a series of really beautifully got-up plates, the
first we come to is a coloured illustration of "a diseased
heart of a sheep by conversion into lat." This is found
to be a Gold Medal sheep, one from a pen of fat
wethers, the best of all the Short-woolled — his Grace
the Duke of Richmond exhibitor and breeder. Then we
have depicted the diseased lungs of a sheep, one of the
best of all the Long- wools — Lord Berners exhibitor and
breeder. On the same page is the portrait of a diseased

596

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

or unhealthy mutton-chop, from the loin of the gold-
medal Southdown. Further on we turn to " the dis-
eased heart of a Devon heifer, by conversion into fat" —
his Royal Highness the Prince Consort exhibitor and
breeder. There is only one grand moral example want-
ing, and that forms the illustration of a whole page —
" the diseased heart by conversion into fat," of the
gold-medal Short-horn — Mr. E. Wortley exhibitor and
breeder. There is no mistake, no shy fighting here.
In the first place, you are shown the heart of an animal
in the healthy state it should be, and then that of
one diseased by over-feeding. Let Mr. Gant's text
speak further to this. He is now going the round of the
yard:—

" My limited opportunity for examining them enabled me
to detect no esterual sign of disease, except in two Devon
cows, Class IV., Nos. 32 end 33, prize £5, each of which was
siifferina; from prolapsus varjincB. One of them looked very
ill, and laid her head aud neck fldt on the ground, like a £;rey-
hound. I pointed out tliese auitaalsto a mau who was driv/-
iog water, and I asked him if their condition was one of cooi-
mon occurrence. He said, ' I knowa nothing of them beasties
in p'ticler, bat it'a the case with many on 'em, I knows that.'
I passed oa to the iiigs. A pea of three pigs, belonging to
His R yal Highness the Prince Consort, happened to be placed
in a favourable light for observation, aud I particularly noticed
their condition. They lay helplessly on their sides, with their
noses propped up against each other's backs, as if endeavour-
ing to breathe more easily ; but their resi.iration was loud,
.auffocUing, and at long intervals. Then you heard a short,
catching sucre, wSiich shook the whole body of t!:e animal,
and passed with the motion of a wave over its fat surface,
which, moreover, felt cold. I thoiij^ht how much the heart,
under such circumstances, must be labouring to propel the
blood through the lung?, and throughout the body. The gold
medal pigs of Mr. Morland weie in a similar condition, if
anything, worse; for they snored aud </«spfd for breath, their
mouths being opened, as wtll as their nostrils dilitel, at each
iiispiration ; yet these animals, only twelve Eonthsi aud ten
days old, were marked 'improved Chilton breed.' They, with
their fellows just mentioned, of eleven mouths and twenty-
three days, had early coaie to grief. Three pigs of the black
breed were in a similar state at sevsm months, three weeks, and
five days ; yet such animals ' the judges highly commend.' "

This is very graphic, and almost amusing in its tone,
were not the injury said to be of so serious a character.
We shall not follow our author into the dissectuig-room,
of his labours, in wliich he gives furtimr and yet more
useful illustration. We must be content, the rather,
with the chief resnlt and its consequences : —

" Under the present system of rearing and feeding-, one dis-
ease is of most frequent occurrence, namily, conversion of the
heart into fat. I am supported in thi5 opinion by the invalu-
able testimony of Professor Quekett, of the Royal College of
Surgeons, who re exiimiued the hearts in question, and con-
firmed my observatioLS."

The consequences are —

"That in over-fed, corpulent animals of foiced growth, the
muscular substance of the most vital organ, the heart, is
pallid, soft, and greasy ; and toat its fibres then contain fat
instead of the fibrillffi, in which reside both the contractilij
power of muscle, and its nutritive value for human food. V/e
therefore say that such meat no longer retains its healthy

stractuae and nutritive quality, although when degenerated
into fat, it may still present the semblance of ordinary
muscle, aud thereby deceive both buyer and seller. We
should therefore expect in vain to replenish our own
muscles by the use of such food, nor should animals thus over-
fed be regarded as prize specimens of rearing end feeding. The
heart, being converted into fat, no longer retains its contrac-
tile power, but beats feebly and irregularly. The blood,
therefore, now moves onward in a slow and feeble current.
Hence the panting breathlessness due to stagnation of blood
in the lungs, which the heart labours (in vain) to remove,
while the skin and extremities are cold. Hence the stupid,
heavy-headed expression of a congested brain, and theifood!-
stained appearance of meat after death. The slightest exer-
tion to an animal, under such circumstances, might suddenly
prove fatal. Were a man, in this condition, to present him-
self at an insurance office, it would refuse to insure his life at
any premium. Yet, under similar circumstances, a sheep is
awarded gold and silver medals, and its feeder a prize of
£20 .' .'"

Mr. Gant's remedy — for we prefer that he should
speak for himself — is : —

" Instead of pursuing the present system of rearing cattle,
much as it may test the qualities of food, and other matters
of minor importance, let breeders, feeders, exhibitors, and
prize judges alike visit the slaughter-houses; let them do this
with a due knowledge of diseased appearances, aud let them
thus discover that system of rearing which is most compatible
with the health of cattle, and which produces the largest
amount of the moat nutritious food for man. Under the pre-
sent system the public have no guarantee, and are not insured
the best, if iudeed the cheapest food. The bulky withers of a
fat bullock are no criterion of health, aud its flait tubular back
may conceal the revolting ravages of di.-ease."

If we recollect aright, in the early days of the Smith-
field Club this was done. The judges inspected the
carcases of the animals after they were killed, and re-
vised or confirmed their decisions accordingly. As the
Society increased in influence aud numbers, no doubt
the practice was found inconvenient, if not altogether
impracticable. Still, the fact that this has been done
gives weight to the suggestion, and shows that Mr.
Gant asks nothing but what the Club itself has already
some precedent for. His pamphlet, originally the sub-
ject of a communication to the OZ*se?'uer newspaper, is
called "Evil Results of over-feeding Cat-
tle— A New Inquirx," and is dedicated to the
agriculturists of Great Britain aud Ireland. However
sound or unsound his deductions may be, we must do
Mr. Gant the justice to say that he has spared no trouble
nor expense in perfecting his work. The plates alone
must have been very costly, and for the original of one
— the diseased heart of the Shorthorn— ho paid no less
than half-a-guinea !

There is one reflection forces itself upon us here. If
animals intended for the butcher are really in tliis dis-
eased condition, what evils must follow from breeding-
stock being almost equally over-fed ? And yet our ex-
perience of only last summer recals pigs and sheep in
this panting, helpless state; while one of the prize fat
cows at this very Christmas Show was sent home again
in calf! To us it is very satisfactory to feel, that of this
branch of the evil we have long continued to complain.

WOOL AND WOOLLENS, — IMPORT AND EXPORT.

Incidental mention was made by Mr. Ashworth, in a
paper on cotton read at a recent meeting of the Society
of Arts, of the Increased Production of British Wool,
and he inferred that the increased consumption and
enhanced prices were mainly due to the introduction of

an admixture of cotton with wool in various fabrics ;
" the attractions of the article manufactured, together
witlr its comparative cheapness," according to his
dictum, having called for more wool, and, with this
increased demand, led to a greatly-improved price.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

397

Now, we are not prepared to admit to the full the
reason so plausibly assigned by the cotton advocate,
nor to place very great reliance on his statistics re-
garding wool. He states the British wool grown in
1857 at 143,04-2, 782 lbs. at 19d. a lb., which gives a
value of ^11,322,219. That grown in 1835 helixes
at 108,000,000 lbs. at 13|d. a pound, making an aggre-
gate of ^"(5,075,000. This change in the manufacture
from pure woollens to mixed wool and cotton fabi-ics,
he tells us, has been attended with an unexpected gain
to the British wool-growers, by an increase of trade
and higher price amounting to 5^ millions sterling.
The same increase of prosperity, and to a large ex-
tent (Mr. Ash worth adds), has been shared by the
sheep-farmers of Ireland ; but the accounts are not
clear, in consequence of large quantities of Irish wool
having been sold for shipment to France, Belgium, and
Germany."

Now, however well read he may be in the history
and statistics of the cotton trade and cotton manufac-
tures of the country, we fear Mr. Ashworth's views
and figurea respecting wool and woollens are less to be
relied on ; and we must, therefore, join issue with him
on several points.

France we know to be, like ourselves, a large im-
porter of foreign wool; but we are not aware that she
seeks specially that of Irish origin, and we doubt
whether the Irish wools do not, for the most part, go to
Liverpool, and, through the public wool sales there,
enter largely into the British manufactures. From
3,000 to 4,000 bales of Irish wool, we know, reach
Liverpool annually, the average import of the last six
years being 3.300 bales.

French buyers no doubt appear at our London sales,
as do purchasers from other parts of the Continent.
We have not the latest figures of the imports of wool
into Franco, but in 1853 France imported 4*3,400 OOO'.bs.
of wool. She has of late years been paying increased
attention to sheep-culture in Algeria, where there are
nowabout eight millions sheep, and about sixteen million
pounds of wool are piodueed there.

We next join issue upon the quantity of sheep in the
kingdom, and the British wool produced ; and here we
certainly enter upon very debatable ground. Un-
fortunately we have no return of the number of slieep
kept in Great Britain. Mr. Braithwaite Poole, in
1853, estimated the total annual growth or produce of
wool in Great Britain and Ireland at 32,000,000
fleeces, averaging 4 lbs. each; and taking the v/ool to
be worth Is. a pound, this would give a total value of
nearly £"'6,500,000. In the otiicial British catalogue
of the Paris Exhibition (1855), the estimated annual
produce of wool in the United Kingdom is stated to be
about 130,000,000 lbs.

It is easy to assume figures ; but estimates necessa-
rily differ ; and we would refer to Mr. McQueen's Sta-
tistics of the British Empire (p. 2i) — no mean authority
— vho estimated the production of British wool in
1835 at 246,700,000 Ihs., valued at £13,079,166, and
the foreign wool then imported at 46,500,000 lbs.,
valued at £3,750,000. If the number of sheep were
then 48,000,000 in the kingdom, although this may
have been too high an estimate, they must in twenty
years have somewliat increased. We know, by the agri-
cultural returns, there are in Ii*eland and Scotland at
the present time about 9,000,000 sheep, and in Fing-
land and Wales there cannot be less than 40,000,000 ;
and at 5 lbs. per head all round, the wool produce of
the United Kingdom would be 245,000,000 lbs.— no
increase, after all, uj'On Mr. McQueen's estimate.

But, then, these assumptions depend upon very un-
certain data, owing to the absence of precise returns of
the sheep in F.ngland, and the different average Vveight

of the fleece, which would not perhaps equal 5 lbs. per
sheep all round, now that short-woolled sheep are more
general than they were in form.er years, and making
allowance for lambs.

We now receive much larger supplies of foreign and
colonial wool than formerly, our imports having nearly
trebled iu twenty years, reaching in 1857 to 129^ mil-
lion pounds. And our shipments of woollen yarn
and fabrics to foreign states and our colonies are also on
a largely increased scale, owing to the increase of
wealth and population. While in 1835 our woollen
manufactures and yarn exported were only valued at
£7,000,000, in 1857 they reached £13,647,186.

But this was by no means owing to the extra-
ordinary ability or skill of the cotton manufacturers ;
for only £2,000,000 in value of the exports came under
the denomination of " mixed fabrics," and the homo
consumption of these mixed cottons and woollen goods
was certainly not so large as that.

We cannot i^ass over, in our consideration of British
wool, the increase in our Colonial production. Aus-
tralia and New Zealand, the Cape Colony, Britisli
India, and Canada have largely increased their num-
ber of sheep, and their yield of wool. In Australia,
in the two principal colonies, we find, in 1855, Vic-
toria had 5,322,000 sheep, and clipped 22,353,000 lbs.
wool ; New South Wales, 8,144,000 sheep, and clipped
17,671,000 lbs. wool.

The apparent anomaly in these figures is attributed
to two causes : the lighter fleece of the old colony, ancf
the fact that Port Phillip is of more convenient access
to the south-western district of New South Wales than
Sydney, and therefore receives the pastoral produce of
that locality.

But the considerable trade of those parts of New
South Wales and of the adjacent portion of Victoria is
now vigorously contested by a third party, the co-
lonists of South Australia, who have already navi-
gated the river Muri'ay as far as Albury, and conveyed
the wool by steamers and barges to the shipping port
of their own colony. The wool produced on extended
pasture runs in the northern runs of Australia, now
that the Moreton Bay district is to be formed into a
separate colony, will no longer swell the returns of
Sydney.

The export of wool from Port Phillip has slowly
increased in spite of the attractions of the gold dig-
gings. Only one year was it beaten back (1851) as
will be seen from the following table :

YEARLY EXPORT OF WOOL FROM VICTORIA BEFORE
AND AFTER THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

Years. Wool, iii lbs. Years. Wool, m lbs.

1846 .. 6.406,950 .. 1851 .. 13,343.000

18i7 .. 10,210,030 .. 1852 .. 20,247,000

18 J8 .. 10,554,663 .. 1833 .. 20,81^,000

1849 .. 14,567,003 .. 1854 .. 22,998,01.0

1850 .. 18,191,000 .. 1855 .. 22,353,000
The imports from the Australian colonies la<t

year fell back to about the produce of 1855, being
49,000,0001bs., having in 1856 exceeded 52,000,6001bs.
Various inducing causes, other than the trivial
reason assigned by Mr. Ashworth, must be looked to
as having stimulated the production of British wool at
home and abroad. The tide of emigration ; new and
extended pasture land in Australia, New Zealand, and
SouthernAfrica ; the progress of settlement in Canada;
the extension of trade with Central Asia (our imports
from India having risen to upwards of 19 millions) ;
the diffusion of wealth owing to the gold discoveries
and increased commerce, and the greater attention paid
to sheep culture, owing to the demand for food —
all these and other reasons might be much more truly
assigned for the existing prosperity and enhanced
demand.

398

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

SPRING PROSPECTS.

The past season has been a trying and an eventful
one to most farmers. We were comforting ourselves
vpith ideas of permanent prosperity, and cosingly ima-
gining ourselves snugly reposing in the virarm nest which
tlie past two or three years of " good times " had enabled
us to build, vphen suddenly a storm arose — a tornado in
the commercial vt^orld, and crash after crash gave
ominous sounds and unmistakable warnings. Soon the
flourishing tree upon ^vhich our hopes depended was
s'laken to its very roots, its leaves shed all driven and
gone, and its branches were broken and scattered by the
s'orra. Such was the sudden and unexpected turn of
affairs in the agricultural world consequent upon the
shock to commercial credit. It was incredible ; at first,
few would be induced to believe it. Failure succeeded
failure in rapid succession, and at length the general
b :-.dy of farmers were convinced that, for the present at
least, their prosperity had waned. A reaction was the
result, and needless alarm at once took the place of in-
credulity : hence the farmers began to pour supplies upon
the markets, and an unusual and unwarranted depres-
sion in prices has been the consequence. Now my ob-
jsct in this short paper is to try and stem this downward
course, and bid my brother farmers take courage. The
worst is over ; be patient : tigns of renewed activity in
the commercial and manufacturing departments of our
country's industry appear, and serve to show that
fpeedily you will feel the benefit of an increased demand
for your indispensable products. The trial has been a
severe one ; but I trust it has passed or is fast passing
away, without leaving distressing evidence of its effects ;
and, in reliance upon the energy, the enterprise, and the
vast resources of our astonishing country, I would urge
a renewal of every effort, as farmers, and the adoption
and practice of those safe and salutary improvements
which modern agriculture Las developed and confirmed.
Our mainstay and safety is in the improved practice of
agriculture, so that, "come what may," we can face
the world's markets, and no longer entertain such dread
of foreign competition. But to my text : " Spring
Prospects " — the crops.

The Wheat Chop. — There probably never was a
winter better adapted to uphold the security of the wheat
))!ant than the past. Throughout the whole season
scarcely any damage has been sustained, and the fullest
and most healthy pbnt ever known has been the result
upon the aversge of the country ; indeed, but (evr dis-
tricts have a thin plant. In fact, the plant is too
fall — too much crowded, if anything, to be more
than usually prosperous; a fault, if it be one, not to be
greatly deplored : we have often to complain of thinness
of plant, and but seldom the contrary. The wheat crop,
then, has an abundant plant; and we have every
evidence of its favourable ))rogression. The season for
rolling or compression has been most favourable, and a
good firm seed-bed has been obtained, which is
universally known to be so conducive to the safe
growth and prosperity of the seed-crop. Tiiere has also
been a sufficiency of cold and frosty weather to keep the
plant in check, so that scarcely any crops have become
winter-proud. Should the season continue favourable,
we anticipate an early harvest and a good crop.

The Spring Crops. — Beans, Peas, Barley, and
Oats. — These have all been put in under the most
favourable circumstances. The soil is in the finest state
imaginable to receive the seed ; they have been early
Bown, and every good grain may and must grow ; indeed,

in the majority of cases, the plant has made its appear-
ance, and looks remarkably well. The bean and peas
seed lay a somewhat prolonged time in the ground, but
came up safe and healthy-looking. We cannot, under
such favourable auspices, avoid coming to the conclusion
that theprospectsof our springcropping are also remark-
ably good. The land being in fine condition, we antici-
pate a rapid and full growth, t!ie oats most probably
requiring, on the best land, topping to retard their pro-
gress.

Potatoes. — The season for making preparation for
this crop has betn all that could be desired. The soil
is in a finely pulverized state, and the crop is for the
most part planted under every condition advantageous
to its growth. A large breadth, too, has been got in,
and being thus early, we augur a greater freedom from
disease, and a corresponding yield of marketable tubers,
the earlier settings generally producing the greater
quantity of large potatoes. We should greatly rejoice
to find that this unusually mild winter has tended to put
an end to the mysterious scourge we call " potato
disease;" it would indeed be a blessing most worthy of
a nation's gratitude.

The Root Crops. — We never knew farm work in such
a forward state : great progress has been made in fallow-
ing and preparing the land for the root crops ; a fine
tilth has in innumerable cases been already obtained ;
the fear is that continuous rains may set in, and prevent
the completion of the fallow : so far everything has been
favourable. Much land is in preparation for the man-
gold wurzel crop. This crop continues to obtain greater
favour with the agricultural public, and its culture is
widely extending. We are heartily glad it is so. It is
an invaluable crop, and ought to be grown by every
farmer who has stock to keep. The culture, manage-
ment, storing, and mode of consuming it is now so
patent, that every one may adopt it as a farm crop with
advantage.

The Grazing Department. — The grass-lands as a
whole do not correspond with the favourable state of the
arable-lands. The absence of snow, " the poor man's
manure," during the winter, is and will be felt. About
a month since they looked sadly, being brown and very
bare of grass. In the past week or two they have re-
covered their greenness, but are slowly progressing, and
will not be ready for the early stocking we were looking
forward to. This will be severely felt, as the winter
keeping (mangolds excepted) has for the most part
long been finished, and much difficulty is experienced
by flock-masters ia providing for their flocks ; this has
led to many forced sales, causing, a few weeks since, a
great depression in store stock. This, however, has been
recovered, and this kind of stock is now selling at a
remunerative price to the breeder, but at a rate not
likely to leave a fair margin of profit to the grazier.
Fears are also entertained relative to the healthy state of
the flacks, owmg to the very inferior quality of the
winter food they have been compelled to subsist upon.
This, I trust, is in a great measure unfounded, as the
general resort to corn, cake, and other artificial con-
diments would keep them in condition, and preventthe in-
jurious consequences arising fromunwholesome food. The
number of sheep to be brought forward will undoubtedly
be considi rable, as, owing to the fineness of the winter,
the casualties have not been very great. The only
danger is from the unwholesome character of the turnip

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

399

and coleseed crops upon which they were fed, and con-
sequently the absence of condition requisite to being put
to good grass : nearly all of these crops suffered from
mildew. From this cause also we anticipate a falling off
in the condition of the cattle brought forward. It is
true, abundance of cake may, in a great measure, com-
pensate for the absence of quality-in the turnip ; but
this abundance will not in all cases be given. Many
yards of cattle will come out in their usual splendid
state, the pride of their exhibitors, fit either for the
butcher or for further grazing ; but this class of animals
will form the exception, not the rule, this year. Nothing,
upon the general average, will compensate for a de-
fective turnip crop : it must be felt in the sunmer's

grazing. I therefore anticipate a short supply of well-
fed animals, both in cattle and sheep, for the grazing
department, and consequently a scanty supply of mar-
ketable meat for the first summer months ; this generally
leads to many animals being sent to market before they
are properly fatted, which tends strongly to depreciate
prices. One word relative to pork. The supply of
good store pigs has greatly increased ; and as these are
fatted as porkers, the tendency will be to produce a greater
reduction in the price of meat ; even at present, pork
does not retain its relative value in the markets. — I am
well aware these remarks are not of much worth; but I
am desirous to provoke inquiry, therefore they are meant
to be more suggestive than dogmatic.

THE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.
THE USE OF GUANO FOR ROOT CROPS.

The ordinary monthly meeting for discussiou took place
on Monday evening, Aprils, at the Club-house, Blackfriars.

Mr. Owen, of Clapton, as Chairman for the Year, presided.
In consequence of the meeting falling on Easter Monday,
the attendance was not large, but it included Messrs. R.
Baker, H. Trethewy, John Thomas, T. W. Granger, C. T.
James, L. A. Coussrnaker, W. Gray, T. F. Wilson, J.
Wood, J. C. Nesbit, T. Hatfield, T. B. Chapman, James
Thomas, E. Purser, J. Howard, J. G. King, J. Cressing-
ham, J. Wood (Croj-don), T. Congreve, S, Skelton, H.
Owen, G. S. Harrison, R. Marsh, W. W. Good, On'en,
jim, &c , &c.

The subject for discusaion assigned for introduction to
Mr. W. Sainsbury, of Manor House, West Lavington,
Wiltshire, was thus stated on the card : '' The Advantage
of Guano for Root Crops, and the Best System of Applying
it without Injury to the Germination of Seed."

The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, observed,
that the best method of growing roots must always bean
interesting subject to the farmer; and, knowing how great
Mr. Sainsbury's experience was in reference to it, he was
quite sure that gentleman would treat the topic in an
interesting manner. He was sorry that at the present
moment the article of guano bore such a very high price in
the market; bat he had no doubt that Mr. Sainsbury
would show that even with that price the use of guano was
attended with great advantage ; while, on the other hand,
as it was a most valuable manure, he trusted the day would
soon arrive when it would be obtainable at a far lower rate.

Mr Sainsbury said : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
the subject for discussion this evening is one, I think, of
the greatest importance to the farmers of this country. The
value of guano has been tested by many practical men, by a
comparison of it with a variety of artificial manures. I
have myself taken much care to give the thing a fair trial.
I well know how cautious I ought to be, in stating the result
of my experience, and I have no doubt there are many
practical men present who are much more capable than I
am of explaining in detail experiments in relation to this
subject. I do not presume to teach, or dictate in any way ;
I only wish to give an exact statement of what has taken
place on the farm iamy occupation, with different manures
in competition with guano ; and I regret that the subject

has not fallen, for its treatment, into the hands of some
member of this club who is more competent to expatiate on
it than myself. I consider that by increasing the weight of
roots per acre, we secure the means of keeping more stock,
thereby laying a foundation for good farming. (Hear,
hear ) It is mj' inconlion to state, on this occasion, the re.
suit of three years' experience respecting the different kinds
of artificial manures which I have used in competition with
Peruvian guano at the same expense per acre. In 1855 I
was induced to use as an experiment four different kinds
of manures for Swede turnips, three of which I purchased
from three eminent mmufacturers of turnip manures. I
shall classify them as No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. They were
all drilled at the same time, with Swede seed, and at the
same expense per acre, in competition with guano. The
swedes drilled with the three first-named came up, and
made equal progress up to the time of the first hoeing ; the
guano swedes, when they made their first appearance,
looked stunted in their growth, and anything but promising,
and were much more injured comparatively by the turnip-
fly, than those drilled with the three other manures. They
were not ready for hoeing fur at least one week after the
three first-named, which I attribute to the seed not having
come in contact with the guano, as a preventive from in-
jury to the germination of the seed. The result was that
in the month of August, the progress made by the swedes
with all four manures, was about equal in appearance; in
the latter part of November, No. 1 and No. 2 swedes were
about equal in weight ; No. 3 were not so good ; hut the guano
swedes were about three tons per acre more in weight.
In 1856, in order to test the relative merits of Peruvian
guano as compared with bones, a friend of mine drilled six-
teen bushels of hones per acre and I two cwt. of guano, the
land being about the same in quality. In the latter part of
November the guano swedes were full three tons per acre more
than those drilled with bones. In 1857 I wished again to try
the relative merits of the same (Nos. 1 , 2, and 3, and guano)
at an equal expense per acre. All these manures were then
used on pieces of land of the same value, and drilled in ro-
tation at the same time with rapeseed. The result was that
Nos. 1,2, and 3 took the lead at fii'st, and the guano rape was
not so flourishiag ; but after the first hoeing of the three
first-mentioned, the guano rape gradually overtook that

E E

400

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

drilled by the three otliei' manures, and when my slieepbe- I
gan to feed the rape in the latter end of July, it was quite
palpable that the guano rape was doing the best. After
my sheep had been feeding the rape about a fortnight, the
rape drilled with the three first-named manures began to
show mildew ; the rape with the guano was growing luxu-
riantly without being much affected by mildew, and at the
end of six weeks I considered that I had one-fifth more feed
per acre after the guano rape than after that manured with
Nos. 1, 2, and 3. In consequence of my wishing to try the
relative merits of guano in competition with farmyard dung,
my sheep fed a piece of early tares and were folded on the
land, after which I put a heavy dressing of farmj^ard ma-
nure. One part of the field was left for guano, which I
drilled at the rate of two cwt. per acre without farmyard
dung. The result of this experiment proved the guano tur-
nips to be much the best. The first time that guano was
used in its pure state without any mixture of ashes for
turnips, the crop was destroyed, in consequence of the seed
coming in contact with it, there not having been a sufficient
quantity of earth allowed to cover the manure previous to
the depositing of the seed. Having lost my crop of tur-
nips, which was a few acres only, I was induced to re-sow
the land with rape broadcast, the seed being covered lightly
with the hoes in preference to ploughing, as I wished to
keep the manure on the surface. The rape came up with
a good plant ; but I soon perceived that it grew iu rank,
just as the manure was drilled; and by the time it was ready
for hoeing', where there was no guano drilled, the rape-
plant died gradually away. I have mentioned this, because
I think it affords another striking proof of the great value
of guano. I am sure I may say that during the last tliree
years I have not lost an acre of turnips from the fly where
guano has been used ; nor have I sustained any injury from
the effects of guano, except on three or four acres where I
first drilled it in its pure state. Having now, I think, said
enough as to the advantage of guano, and shown plainly
that in every instance guano has had the pre-eminence, so
far as my own experience has extended, I shall now, gen-
tlemen, make a few remarks on the application of guano.
In reference to the best system of applying guano for root
crops, I certainly advocate the use of the drill in preference
to sowing guano broadcast, although on mauy farms that
method is adopted with success, as a means of preventing
injury to the germination of the seed— that is, on lands
where the ridge-system is practised. The farm in my oc-
cupation being best calculated for the drill-system on the
flat, I shall confine myself to that mode of application,
which, from practical experience, I have found to answer
the best. With regard to drills, we have a great variety in
use. Many of them I consider very good for drilling arti-
ficial manures ; but, as economy in horse and manual-labour
is a great item in the farmer's expenses, I wish to show
that the drill which I have been using, and which was ma-
nufactured by Messrs. Reeves, of Bratton Westbury, has
many advantages. In 1857 I used Reeves' patent drill
with great success. As respects economy, guano can be
used either with or without a mixture of ashes. At the
same time, I should recommend two bushels of dry ashes
mixed with 2 or2i cwt. of guano to the acre, which Reeves'
drill will distribute with a regularity quite equal to that
of any other drill that I have ever used with twelve
bushels of ashes. On a farm where the land is somewhat level
this drill will with two horses put in nine acres per day,
and the same horses will take the manure with the drill for a
day's work. I always give one turn with the harrows after

the drill, to cover the seed. I should state that the principle
of this drill is to deposit the guano, allowing a sufficient quan-
tity of earth to cover the manure before the seed is deposited,
which prevents the guano from burning the seed. This drill
may be used with equal advantage in drdling guano or super-
phosphate, either with or without ashes. Our friend Mr.
Nesbit, iu his admirable work on Agricultural Chemistry,
mentions that iu drilling guano for root crops it is necessary
that the guano should be raixed with four or six times its
weight of ashes, to prevent it from burning the seed ; but,
with all due respect for Mr. Nesbit's valuable information re-
specting the mixture of ashes with guano, I trust I have
shown plainly from my experience that two bushels of dry
ashes per acre is a sufficient quantity to be mixed with guano
or superphosphate. I hope I have aho shown that the drill
which I have used is most economical and advantageous. In
conclusion, I must confess that my object in introducing this
subject has been rather to glean information from the di=cu8sion
than to give the results of my experiments. I now thank you
for your attention, and I shall be happy to answer any ques-
tions you may feel disposed to ask me on the subject
(cheers).

Mr. J. Thomas (Blestoe) wished to ask Mr. Sainsbury
what quantity of ashes he had been accustomed to use to a
cwt. of guano?

Mr. Sainsbury said hi had beeu iu the habit of uaing
two bushels of dry ashes to 2| cwt. of guano.

Mr. King : What drill do you use ?

Mr. Sainsbuky : Reeves's.

Mr. CoussMAKER (Westwood, Surrey)wished tomakea few
remarks founded on his own experience. He had not used
artificial manures to a very large extent, having always acted
on the maxim, which he learnt a good many years ago, from a
gentleman in Northamptonshire, Mr. HildyarJ, that a good
farm, like a good joint of meat, oaly required bisti'jg with its
own dripping. Having kept plenty of stock, he had
generally been able to manure his farm with farm-yard
dung. He did not mean to deny that artificial raanures
might be used advantageously in many instances, and espe-
cially when a farmer took a farm which was not in good order ;
but when a farm had been got into good order, it would not, in
his opinion, require much artificial manure. With regard to
the relative merits of different kinds of artificial manure, he
quite agreed with Mr. Sainsbury, that guano was the best of
all (Hear, hear). He happened to live in the neighbourhood
of Aldershott, where there had been started a new manure,
derived from the camp — animal carbon, or whatever they
pleased to term it. He was induced to buy a certain quan-
tity of this manure for the purpose of trying it against guano
in money value. Having given £7 per ton for this Aldershott
manure, and £14 for guano, he used twice as much of the
former as of the latter, and the result showed that guano was
decidedly superior to the new manure (Hear, hear). His ex-
perience with regard to guano proved that, if they entirely de-
pended upon it, they would force the plant very much in its
early stages, and afterwards leave it in the lurch (Hear, hear).
He thought the best application was a half-dressing of guano
with a half-dressing of farm-yard dung. If he bad to manure
for roots, he would not apply farm-yard dung to half the land
and guano to the other half, but would put a half-dressing of
each on the whole of the land, experience having convinced
him that that was the beat mode of proceeding. Mr. Sainsbury
liad mentioned the drill system ; he (Mr. Coussmaker) had
always sown his guano broadcast. In so doing, however, he
had met with one great disadvantage, and he would be very
much obliged_,to any gentleman who would suggest to him a

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

401

remedy for it. Guano was of a very light and volatile nature,
and if, when sown hroadcast, there happened to be much
wind stirring, it was blown to a part of the land where
the farmer did not want it to be deposited ; or, if the locality
was near one of the extremities of the farm, it fell, perhaps,
on a neighbour's land instead of his own. He had mixed it
with ashes, and occasionally with salt, in order to insure a
more certain aad equable distribution ; but that had not al-
ways secured the object. He had thus been led to water it,
and he wished to know whether his doing so deteriorated the
quality of the guano. He had, in fact, never been able to
distribute guano as he wished to do.

Mr. J. Howard (Bed.''ord) observed that it was very evi-
dent that Mr. Coussmaker liad not a broadcast machine, as
that would have enabled him to drop the guano immediately
en the surface.

Mr. R. Baker (Writtle) said he had not many remarks to
offer on this subject, feeling, as he did, that Mr. Sainabury
knew much more than he himself did with re:;ard to the ap-
plication of guano. Still there were some points connected
with the use of guano which he would proceed to mention,
especially as it might easily be subjected to the test of experi-
ment. He had before observed ia that club that in his opinion
guaao should never be applied, either for turnip or for mangel
wurzel, immediately before the depositing of the seed. For
applying it for turnips he had ploughed it in immediately, and
let it remain for ten days or three weeks, or whatever time was
required : in the first instance he ploughed it in with a surface
ploughing and afterwards with a deeper ploughing, and by
that means it became thoroughly incorporated with the soil,
and acted ia the most beneficial and regular manner, none of
its constituent properties being lost. During the turnip-
sowing season he had frequently had indicated to him a piece
of land where guano was used by the smell a quarter of
a mile before he reached the spot. Of course where that
was the case a very large proportion of the guano was
taken up by the air, and entirely lost to the crop ; where-
as, if the guano had been ploughed in immediately after
it was deposited, and had thus become fixed in the soil,
none would have been lost. When guano had once be-
come incorporated with moist soil, no subsequent ex-
posure to the action of the atmosphere wou'd cause it
to evaporate. That was a very important point to bear in
mind. As regarded the beneficial influence of guano, experi-
ments were often very fallacious. The result of an application
of guano depended very much on the state of the weather at
the time when it was applied. If there were not sufficient
moisture to fix it in the soil at once, it was far less beneficial
than it would otherwise be. In reference to its application by
sowing or drilling, he must observe that he had not got a
broadcast machine ; but he sometimes sowed it with a manuie-
drill, and ploughed it in immediately, which prevented the
wind from blowing it about. When sown it should be incor-
porated with some other substance. He sometimes used de-
composed sawdust with it ; if salt was desirable for the' land,
he used it with that; and he generally combined it with wood
ashes, or some other substances, in order to prevent it from
being taken off into the air. It was well known that guano
was much more beneficial to land which comprised a large
quantity of loam or clay than to gravelly soils ; the reason
being that when it was incorporated with loam, it was im-
mediately fixed, whereas if used in gravelly soils, it was very
apt to be carried off. Having used guano for a great many
years, he must pronounce it to be, in his opinion, the cheapest
manure that could be employed — especially for root-crops.
Whatever might be the case with regard to corn-crops, for

turnips and mangel-wurzel it was undoubtedly the cheapest
manure they could use, notwithstanding the high price of it.
He hsd been led to the belief that a large portion of the
beneficial qualities of manufactured manures consisted of
guano in another form (Hear, hear). About a week ago, a
person a5ked him to purchase some manure, and in so doing
said — "We have two kinds of manure, turnip-manure and
corn-manure ; but the latter contains twice as much guano as
the former." The price of the one being £1 more than that of
the other, then what was the advantage of buyiug the cheaper
article, when you must apply two tons instead of one ? (Hear,
hear.) He wanted to get, if possible, a cheap manure ; but
so far as his experience enabled him to judge, there was, in
fact, no cheaper manure for root crops than guano. (Hear,
hear.) His opinion was, that for ordinary use there was no-
thing so cheap, and nothing so beneficial in the production of
root-crops, as guano ; but its beneficial application must, he
maintained, depend very much upon the state of the weather
and the soil, and upon the mode of application.

Mr. King (of Beedon) wished to know what amount of
guano he considered a suflScient dressing when he did not use
any farm-yard manure ?

Mr. Baker did not hesitate to say that guano might be
applied liberally for root crops, but when applied to corn crops
any quantity beyond 2 cwt. per acre produced comparatively
with the increased cost but little benefit. He thought
2 cwt. per acre was the maximum that should ever be applied
for corn crops, and that for root crops that quantity would
yield a better return in propovtion to the cost than any
additional quantity. Some years ago Mr. Vernon made some
experiments, the results of which were published in the
Gardeners' Chronicle. It was there shown that 2 cwt. was
all that could be usefully applied for corn crops ; that although
a larger applicatiou might yield an apparent advantage in the
foliage and so on, still when the produce was put in the bushel,
or weighed, the increased outlay was not justified by the resulti

Mr. J. Thomas (Bletsoe) said, he had been in the habit of
applying guano for several years past. He had invariably
applied it with farm-yard dung. He generally cultivated his
turnips on the Northumberland or ridge system, putting a
fair quantity of farm-yard dung, then sowing the guano broad-
cast, and reversing the ridges. He usually mixed about 2 cwt.
of coal ashes — having a steam-engine of his own he found this
mixture economical— with about the same quantity of guano,
and also about 15 or 16 tons of farm-yard manure. He had
on two occasions tested guano by a comparison of it with
blood manure, and on his turnips, produced with the aid of
the two, being weighed separately, he found very little differ-
ence in money value between blood manure and guano. He
did not concur, however, in the observations which had been
made to the effect that whatever might be the price at which
guano was sold, they must have recourje to it, and it alone;
for he thought that would depend on the price at which they
could obtain other artificial manures (Hear, hear). He per-
fectly agreed with Mr. Baker, that guano answered
better on clay land than on gravelly land. Having a portion
of each on his own farm, he had invariably found the greatest
effect from guano on the clay. Some allusion had been made
to bones. Now on grass lands he had used as a manure a
mixture of bouesi, guano, and salt, at a cost of 50s. per acre.
He had also used guano by itsefi, and bones by themselves, but
the mixture had answered best. In some counties it was quite
proverbial that bones were preferable to everything else ; but
in Bedfordshire he had found the best application to be a
mixture of bones, guano, and salt. In growing mangel-wurzel,
particularly on land recently broken up, or broken up within

E B 2

403

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ten years, an admixture of salt with guauo in the right pro-
portion was a very great idvautagf. During thelast two jcars
he had used an equal quantity of salt aud guauo, aud he had
in consequence found his produce coubiderably larger, and the
result more satisfactory in all respects than was the case before.
Perhaps on stiff aud heavy clay land such a mode of applica-
tion might be open to objection ; but where the land was
porous an admixture was, in his opinion, very beneficial.

Mr. J. Thomas (Lidlington Park, Ampthill) wished to make
a few remarks in reference to this subject. Pirst, with regard
to the maxim cited by Mr. Coussmaker, tliat a farm ought, like
a joint of meat, to be basted with its own dripping. It was true
that under certain circumstances a farm should be left to pro-
vide its own manure ; but if by an application of extraneous ma-
nures it could be cultivated more profitably than without them,
it ought not to rest contented with the course of pro-
ceedings followed in reference to a joiut of meat (Hear,
hear). It was a matter of calculation to the skilful
far.TQCr how far any outlay upon foreign manures would be
recompensed by the return which he would obtain for that
outlay. (Hear, hear). He had no wish to enter at any length
upon the use of guano for corn crops, because the question
stated on the card had reference solely to root crops ; but this
might be laid down, he thought, as a general rule, that if by
laying out £1 they could obtain £1 5s., the money would be
exceedingly well laid out ; whereas, if by laying out £1 they
could, in consequence of the low price of corn, only secure
153., the money would be very badly laid out. (Hear, hear).
If they expended an extraordinary amount of money in the
production of corn crops, it was, of course, ia the hope of
being remunerated in the sale of the crops. They all knew
that when the market formanufactures was glutted, the manu-
facturers, instead of continuing production at the same rate as
before, made their operatives work short time till the market
was relieved ; and so with regard to corn crops, it was, he
thought, unwise in the a^jriculturist to lay out his money to
increase his production when the market was already so
glutted that he had great difficulty in disposing of v.'hat he
had on hand. Dismissing, however, from his mind the sub-
ject of corn crops, he now approached the question on the
card, namely, " The advantages of guano for root crops, and
the best system of applying it without injury to the germina-
tion of seed." The first point which occurred to him was the
portability of guano— a very important feature in its applica-
bility to the land. This enabled the farmer to scatter manure
over the farm at the minimum expense for carting. The
farm-yard manure might be applied nearest home with
half a dressing of light manures, while the more portable
manure was conveyed to a distance. As regarded the best
mode of applyiug guano for root crops, he should not speak
without the book, having been a very large consumer
0( guano for many years. He had found it t^je greatest use
in the growth of mangel wurzel, and in Bedfordshire, where
the land had got so exceedingly sick of Swedish turnips that
they could scarcely rely upon them at all, it was becoming
more and more the practice every year to grow mangel wutzel
upon lands which were formeily under ordinary circumstances
cultivated for the turnip crop. He would now tell them what
course was adopted there, and it was a course by which he
had never failed to obtain a large crop of mangel wurzel. He
always endeavoured to get his land into good tilth, and this
object he secured by meaus of Coleman's cultivator, which he
believed to be the best. Havicg tiie stetches made 27 inches
apart, he mixei two .: vt. of guano with two cwt. of salt; or
whatever i;.igbt be the quantity of guano, he used an equal
quantity of selt, in order to prevent that distribution over the

neij^hb.iiirhood which had hern mentioned by a preceding
speaker (Mr. Coussmaker). What he was now about to men-
tion Hiight apptar a very operose proceeding, but it was
always fully justified by the result. He set a man to sow the
mixture of salt and guano under baud, as it were, dosru the
different stetches, in order that none of it might be carried .
away by the wind. After that the stetches were reversed,
being rolled down with a heavy iron roller. Experience had
convinced him that the more solid the land could be made for
mangel wurzel, the more reliance they could place on the sub-
sequent crop, and the heavier would be the weight per acre. He
believed, that all who adopted this method of growing' mangel
wurzel, using an equal quantity of salt with guano, sowing the
mixture under hand in the stetches, and afierwards reversing
the stetches, would secure a very large crop. He never used
any faroi-yard manure for root crops, it having been shown by
the experiments of Liebig, Mr. Lawes, and Mr. Nesbit, that
when this fertilizer was used for crops of corn the phosphates
remained f ( r the fature crop of roots without being at alldete-
ri'jrated. He trusted he should be excused for having stated
thus minutely his own practice — a practice which, he would
adJ, had always resulted iu success. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. Harrison (Clifton Hampden, Oxon) felt compelled to
differ to some extent both from Mr. Samsbury aud from Mr.
Baker : from the former, inasmuch as he advocated the appli-
cation of guav.o in its pure state to the soil, without mixing it
with any other ma'erial ; and from the latter, inasmuch as he
was iu favour of sowing it in its natural state broadcast. As
regarded Mr. Sainsbury's mode of ap; licatiou, he thought that,
as guano wis such a very powerful subatance, there was great
danger of its killing the seed if brought in such close contact
with it ; while as respected Mr. Baker's plan, he was of
opinion that, as guano was such a very expensive article, in-
stead of sowing it broadcast, they should endeavour to lower
the rate of cost by mixing it with other articles. His own plan
was to reduce by five or six times its natural weight, by mixing
it with sand or mould, and in that state to drill it iu with the
seed. He believed that, with the present price of the article,
that was the only mode of securing an adequate return.

Mr. Sainsbuky wi,shed to say one word in reference to
what they had just heard. He knew from experience that
guano could be applied unroixed with ashes without at all in-
juring the seed. One bushel of ashes to a cwt. of guauo
might appear a small quantity; but it was, in fact, an ample
proportion : he had used it jear after year.

Mr, E Purser (New Bridge-street, Blackfriars) said they
had heard that evening the opinions of several practical far-
mers : he appeared before them as a dealer in and manufac-
turer of manures. They wtre aU agreed as to the value of
guano as a manure for root crops ; but, as a seller of manures,
his chief busiaess from the mouth of April to the mouth of
June lay in superphosphates ; and he believed that for the
thinner and weaker soils superphosphates were extremely
valuable in combii atiou with guano. He was now giviug them
the experience of his office with regard to operations extend-
ing over nineteen years. Year after year he found superphos-
phates in increa-iing demand for roat crops, and for one ton of
guano he now sold three ton^ of superphosphate of lime. If
farmers used things that did not pay, it was not his fault ;
and, on the other hand, he would not pretend to set up his
own experience against the piactice of the gentlemeu present.
He had a very extensive connection with Ireland ; and in that
country, where rain was nearly always falling, superphosphates,
as an addition to guano, were found invaluable. In short,
these manures were making their way to a much greater extent
than the meeting appeared to have any idea of. They all con-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE

403

ta'.ned bones, in a soluble state. He had watched the action
of manures in the county of Sussex, where also he had a very
large connection, and he had found that for root crops the de-
mand in almost every instance was for bone manure, with an
addition of one cwt. per acre of guano cu the wealter soils.

Mr. Marsh (Sandwich, Kent) said, having sold a great deal
of manure, besides having been a farmer for many years, he
could fully bear out Mr. Purser's observations. Where he
had of late sold oue ton of gumo he had sold three or four
tons of superphosphate of lime. He sold a great deal of
manure in the neighbourhood of Dover, and any gentleman
who had seen the hills in that locality must feel how enormous
would be the expense of carting ordinary manure in that part
of the country. He had there found that a mixture of a small
quantity of guano with superphosphate was the best manure
that could be applied for turnips.

Mr. J. C. Nesbit said, be wished to make a few observa-
tions on this subject, especially as it was one which he had to
some extent studiecl. In the application of guano they must
have regard not only to the mole of application and to the
roots for which it was to be applied, but also to the quality of
the soil. The quality of the soil often made a very great dif-
ference as regarded the result. He thought that every prac-
tical farmer present would acknowled.'e that, as a general rule,
guano was much more valuable in soils which were deficient
in organic matter than in soils naturally rich in thai; materia),
or which had received, by feeding sheep or cattle, large quanti-
ties of oilcake, and other similar matters, and which had been
cultivated for a considerable time. Upon poor soils guano
acted most powerfully, not only yielding au increase of fifty to
one hundred per cent, in the root crop, but also leaving a large
amount of ammoniacal matter undecomposed for the subse-
quent crops. The idea was pretty general that guano, if sown
in a dry state, would not act. Thsy need not, however, be
particularly alartted about any loss iu their fields arising from
drought, or even from moisture, thouj^h the former might affect
the particular crop to which the guaao was applied. They
might lose as regarded a particular crop, but the guano would
still be in the soil, available for the next crop. As to the
effects of moisture, he had in two or three cases analyzed
specimens of the cargoes of guano vessels which had been
wrecked. In the case of a wreck which cccurred near Liver-
pool, the cargo was subjected to the influence of the tide for
five or six days, and on examining some of it he found that it
had only lost two per cent, of its ammonia. In another case,
which occurred at Falmouth within the last two months, a
vessel, with 2,400 tons of guano on board, having sunk in five
fathoms of water, some of the manure was dredged up, and
sent to him for analysis, and it gave ISi^per cent, of ammonia.
Guano, on the average, contained 16 per cent, of ammonia ;
and in the first case which he had mentioned the loss was
only 2 per cent , and in the second 2J per cent. With re-
gard to the application of guano for root crops, it would, he
believed, be found best to unite wiih it some other substance.
In a little work which he published some time ago, he re-
marked that, when guano was used alone, it ought to be mixed
with four or five times its weight of some other matter. The
first time that he ever saw a field sown with guano was in
1813. A friend of his, in Kent, then sowed twenty acres of
turnips with guano, and did not get a root, as the guano was
drilled with the seed, and killed it. It was subsequently cross-
drilled, and a good crop was the reault. My friend subsequently
altered his drill so a3 to deposit the manure about two inches
below the seed, and he then succeeded in getting good crops.
The guaao, however, was mixed with mould, or wood and peat
ftsbes. He believed that, aa a general rule, the best way of

using guano for roots was to sow it broadcast, and to harrow
it in. If the ridge system were adopted, as was recommended
by Mr. Thomas, it ought to be broadcasted over, and theu the
ridges formed (" No," from Mr. Thomas, of Lidliugton, and
Hear, hear.) He spoke iu accordance with his observation.
He had seen it applied in that way, the ridges being
flattened, and the turnip seed drilled with superphosphate
of lime; and he must say that, in his opinion, broadcasting
with guano, and drilling with superphosphate of lime, was
the best plan tliat could be adopted. There could be no
doubt that, for mangel wurzel, guano was preferable to
superphosphate; though, in that case, he should recom-
mend the use of 6 cwt. of salt per acre. He would also
recommend that a certain proportion of some superphosphate
should be drilled in with the seed, and at least 5 cwt.
of guano broadcasted per acre. The effect of the super-
phosphate was to bring the plants earlier to the hoe ; and the
guano supplied the subsequent noutiahment. If manure were
confined solely to the lines of the drills, the lateral roots did
not get their proper amount of nourishment. It could hardly
be necessary for him to refer to the use of guano for cereals.
Everyone knew that for them it was the best manure that
could be got. Ammonia must be had ; and there could be do
doubt that, even at present prices, guano was the cheapest
form in which ammonia could be obtained (Hear, hear). With
regard to rape, he had found that a fairly soluble super-
phosphate would do better than any other manure. It would
perhaps be recollected that about two years ago he lectured
to the club on the subject of superphosphate of lime.
On that occasion he was rather taken to task for main-
taining that the use of too large a quantity of soluble
phosphate of lime was undesirable for root crops. He
had been verj^ much opposed in that view by many parties.
Now he would take this opportunity ot stating that all the
experiments which he had made since, and all that he had
learned from others, confirmed him in the opinion which he
then expressed against the use of too large quantity of
phosphates in a soluble state. In many parts of Norfolk,
Essex, and some other counties of the same geological
character, soluble phosphates might perhaps be used in con-
siderable proportions, without any great disadvantage ; but if
they went westward, to districts where there was a smaller
amount of calcareous matter in the soil, they would find
that those manures which contained a proper proportion of
insoluble phosphate bore away the palm. He might men-
tion that even at Holkham some experiments had been tried,
the result of which was that the largest amount of roots
was produced by the manures containing the greatest pro-
portion of insoluble phosphates ; a manure which contained
nearly 28 per cent, of insoluble, and only 6^ per cent, of
soluble phosphate, produced the largest crop. One of the
most celebrated manure makers in the country came in only-
seventh in the race. He had thought it right to make this
statement, in order to show that the views which he before
expressed were not the result of mere hearsay, but were
formed from experience. They had, he believed, been cor-
roborated wherever their correctness had been subjected to
a practical test. The insoluble phosphate if possible ought
to be fine bone.

Mr. J. Howard said, having seen guano sown broad-
cast he must declare that he did not know a nastier job than
sowing it by hand, or an operation more likely to give
a mau the cholera (laughter). He had also seen it ap-
plied with a machine, and having no interest in broadcast
machines, being neither a manufacturer nor a vendor of them,
he must declare his belief that as regarded equability of dis-

404

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

tribution and freedom from loss by beiug blown away, the use
of a machine contrasted moat favourably with sowias by
hand. He was aware that a broadcast machine was not a
common thing on the farm ; but he believed that if the
gentlemen around him would inquire- carefully into its use, it
would soon become a standard implenaent.

Mr. T. W. Granger (Stretham Grange, Ely), said he had
used two machines, one made by Messrs. Garrett, of Saxmuacl-
ham, the other by Messrs. Holmes, of Norwich ; both of which
would spread in the most level and even manner from 3 to
100 bushels per acre. He thought so well of Messrs. Garrett's
machine at the Carlisle Meeting, that he purchased one, and
has used it constantly since to his perfect satisfaction.

Mr. Nesbit, adverting to the remarks of Mr. Coussmaker,
observed that it was very easy to mix guano with such au
amount of water as would prevent the wind from blowing any
of it away. Having seen the machines mentioned by Mr.
Granger at work, he could bear testimony that they distributed
manures beautifully, and in any quantity that might be re-
quired.

The Chairman, in closing the discussion, said he need
scarcely remark that he concurred in what had fallen from
Mr. Sainsbury with regard to the value of guano as a
manure. He thought, however, that very great risk
attended the application of it at different seasons and on
diflferent sorts of land. He recollected that the first time he
ever used guano it was in the second or third year after it
was first imported. He drilled 3 cwt. per acre with his
seed on the flat, and the consequence was that he lost his
crop ; that convinced him that drilling it was not the
most desirable mode of proceeding. The next year he
looked right and left among his neighbours for information,
and he then found that the best system was that of sowing
guano broadcast ; that system he had followed ever since.
He had always sown an equal weight of guano and salt ;
and had taken care to sow, if possible, on a moist day — a
condition ou which the ultimate benefit greatly depended.

On one occasion (a dry season) he sowed on a damp morn-
ing, expecting rain, which happened to be followed by very
dry weather, and the result was that he lost a considerable
portion of the manure. As regarded the application of
guano with the seed, the machine mentioned by Mr. Sains-
bury might comprise all that was required. He fully con-
curred in the opinion that a mixture of guano with some
other substance was the best application for root crops. In
conclusion, he would again express a hope that they would
soon see guano sold at a lower price.

Mr. J, Thomas (Lidlingtoa Park) said, he should be sorry
if it went forth to the world that they had then heard for the
first time in their lives of such a drill as had just been referred
to. A quarter of a century ago it was the common practice in
Bedfordshire, when a light dressing was used, to put the dress-
ing in to the depth of about three inches, after which there
followed the hoe or rake that covered up the manure, and after
that, again, the coulter that deposited the seeds of the mangel-
wurzel.

jMr. Sainsbury then replied : Adverting to the last re-
mark of Mr, Thomas, he said he did not dispute that there
was a drill in use five-au'l -twenty j ears ago ; but the drill
which he had described was of a different description : the work
was done without the assistance of a rake to cover the ma-
nure. He took it for granted that the drill to which Mr.
Thomas referred would not drill guano or superphosphate of
lime in a pure state ; whereas, that which he used would de-
posit 2 cwt. or 3 cwt. of guaao either with a bushel of ashes or
without them.

On the motion of Mr. Gray, seconded by Mr, R. Baker,
a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Sainsbury for his paper ;
and,

Ou the motion of Mr. Thomas, of Lidlington Park, se-
conded by Mr. Congreve, thanks were also voted to the
Chairman.

This terminated the proceedings.

THE TRIAL OF THE STEAM-PLOUGH AT SALISBURY.

People who would have had Milo make his first
essay with a full-grown bull— who teach infants their
first steps upon the debris of a hai-d-baked fallow — and
who think the earliest steam-carriage should have at-
tempted a miry clay lane — such reasonable individuals
are content for the steam-plough to break its shares
jimong the ungrnbbed roots of a felled forest, or strike
lire on the flints of Salisbury hill. But for our own
part, we would urge upon the Council of the Royal
Agricultural Society the desirability of selecting a tole-
rably level field of average friable loam or clay devoid
of big boulders, for the ensuing trials at Chester. Rely
upon it, the season in which the work has to be per-
formed will of itself operate against the action of the
implements so as to render the ploughing sufficiently
difficult.

If the Society defrayed all expenses of the exhibitors,
a trial like that at Salisbury would merely stultify the
inventors, disappoint the great concourse of visitors,
inflict the reproach of public disgust upon the whole
subject of steam-tillage, and egregiously waste the
funds of the members. But when the exhibitors are in-
vited to compete for the reward of their long toil and
ruinous outlay of capital, to bear very heavy expenses
in preparation and competition, and are then fixed in

a situation where no fair display of their capabilities is
possible, they may certainly consider themselves
hardly used. However, we are all willing to " let by-
gones be bygones," and to regard the Royal Agricul-
tural Society's business with a kindly spirit, only let it
treat us more considerately at the coming meeting.

Let us now record what the judges end stewards say
of the matter, in the Society's own Journal. Messrs.
Clarke and Owen say : " The ground was altogether un-
suitable ; the soil was very shallow and unusually flinty ;
and the summer's drought had so hardened it, that it was
with great difficulty that the ploughs in the upper part
of the field could be made to enter it at all. The site
also of the field, upon a hill of considerable elevation,
occasioned great difficulties and delay." The senior
steward, Mr. Wren Hoskyns, says : " Such a soil, in
such a situation, hardened to such a condition not only by
its own flinty nature but by t he long- continued influence
of one of the most extraordinary seasons that has ever
been known, were enough to render any trial practi-
cally abortive." And again: "It was upon this ele-
vated spot, accfssible only from a narrow road by a
still narrower turning, very steep, and partly over soft
fresh-cultivated ground, that the steam-ploughing was
to come ofl', if at least it could ever come on." Re-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

405

spectmg the question — Whose fault was it that such
gTouud was provided ? he adds : " The temptation of an
unenclosed space ofeight-and-thirty acres for these trials
can hai'dly be called the inducement of the Society to
accept the offer of such a spot, because there was no
other clwice ; but it is to be hoped that, in all future
negociations with the towns or localities at which the
summer meetings shall be held, the very ample
area required f .r this class of trials will be regarded as
a preliminary condition." And, after referring to the
abominably difficult road leading to the field, he con-
cludes : "Still the judge and stewards had no choice in
the matter; and it is only to be hoped that they may
never be called upon to exercise their duties under the
like circumstances again."

Mr. Smith, of Woolston, would not exhibit at Salis-
bury. Mr. Williams, of JBaydon, finding what sort of
place had been provided, objected to such a trial alto-
gether, and endeavoured, as we believe, to persuade his
brother-exhibitors to refuse to mock the public and
injure their own credit by entering upon a hopeless
task. Mr. Collinson Hall, Mr, John Fowler, jun., Mr.
Charles Burrell, and Mr. John A. Williams have now
addressed the Council on the subject, complain-
ing of the past, and offering suggestions for the
future. In considering this petition or manifesto,
let us bear in mind the official statements with regard
to their several machines, and the results of the trial.

Inadequate and faulty as the experiments were, Mr.
Hoskyns acknowledges "the admirable docility and
power of Mr. Boydell's (Burrell's) tradtioii-engine;"
and says further, " No one, who saw the work perform-
ed, even underthese adverse circumstances, by Mr. Fow-
ler's plough, could doubt that, in his case at least (not
to the least disparagement of the other competitors),
sieava-pIoughi7iff, as tuch, had attained a degree of ex-
cellence comparable in point of execution even with the
best horse-work. As to the relative economy, there
seems little reason to doubt that the calculations ar-
rived at by Mr. Amos and others the year before, at the
adjourned trial at Boxted Lodge, were sufficiently near
the truth to leave a very inconsiderable difference in
favour of horse-work.

Five of the judges report that Mr. Boydell "tri-
umphantly ascended the hill to the ground laid out for
ploughing, and fully proved his power as a traction-
engine. He shortly commenced ploughing ; but this
was not satisfactory, for nothing could keep the
ploughs in the ground." Mr. CoUinson Hall
is praised for the "strenuous and laudable"
efforts which — witli great cost — overcame the
shameful obstructions on the road, and " succeeded
eventually in bringing up his engine, and making
good work." Mr, Williams's system is " anything but
satisfactory ;" and his personal conduct described as
objectionable. We suppose in consequence of his being
unable to restrain his indignation, and manifest the
sublime patience which characterized Mr. Hall, in spite
of repeated vexatious accidents. The work done by
Mr. Fowler is declared to be "very good; but here
we must say we could not reduce the price per acre
below that of the Boxted trials. As far as ploughing
is concerned, we think Mr. Fowler's arrangement of
his ploughs is the best we have seen. As judges we
wanted very strict data to recommend the steam-
ploughing to the public 3 we are sorry we cannot do
this, though we think Mr. Fowler still stands pre-emi-
nent over any others. We cannot say that his ploughs
are ' economical substitutes for the plough or the
spade.' " Considering the great ability shown, and
the great expense incurred by Mr. Fowler, they re-
commend the Council to "vote him a medal."

Two other judges, in a separate report, say, " the

object to be accomplished was a more economical mode
of ploughing than could be done by horse-power.
For ourselves we were at once convinced that no satis-
factory decision could be arrived at Sufficient

was shown to convince us that Mr. Boydell's engine is
one of no ordinary merit, and capable of very useful
and extensive farm" service.. . . . Mr. Fowler's plough
performed its work very creditably, under all the cir-
cumstances of a hard soil and much obstructing com-
panj . The ploughing was effected in a truly husband-
like manner, and at a depth not generally reached on
such soils. The work was fairly laid, and worthy of com-
parison with that done alongside it by one of Howard's
ploughs in the hands of a first-rate ploughman." Mr.
Williams's ploughs, they say, did not work well ; and
" the compact form and most ingenious adaptation" of
Mr. Hall's engine met their approval. They conclude
that only " a proper time and suitable soil" are needed
to prove that the steam- ploughing can be accom-
plished in "an efficient and economical manner."

It appears, then, that the only ploughing which
was quite satisfactory in point of quality, was Mr.
Fowler's ; and, could the working expenses have been
estimated at a very small trifle lower, the work would
have been pronounced also " economical." As far as
they could tell, the judges made out the cost per acre
to be nearly, if nut quite, as low as by horse-labour.

Now, we have over and over again insisted that the
mere working at a trifle less expense per acre does not
constitute the main elmient of economy or saving in
a steam-plough; and it is here that we think the
judges have been shortsighted. Indeed, after all, the
public may conclude that Mr. Fowler's plough (on the
stewards' and judges' own showing) is an " economical
substitute'' for the horse-plough.

Everyone will surely admit that an " economical
substitute" for the plough is something that it will pay
us better to have, that can produce more valuable re-
sults for a certain amount of money. Well, if the
steam and the horse plough both work at the same
price per acre, there is the item of tune, the greater
extent of land ploughed in a day, which at once
makes the steam-plough the cheapest and best worth
having.

The main value of Mr. Smith's steam-scarifiers and
cultivators is not in the low price per acre, but in the
great quantity of land broken up and cleared in a short
time just at the critical season. And taking the acreage
cost of work by Fowler's steam-plough and the common
horse-plough to be about the same, Mr. Hoskyns says:
" If this be true as a comparison merely taken acre
for acre, or hour for hour, every one who knows
the supreme value of time in the autumn months
on clay soils, and the difference, in capacity of
day-work, between a horse and a steam-engine, must
be aware that a new multiplier at least of 2, if not
more, may be placed to the credit of the steam-engine,
regarded as an available power or auxiliary when work
is pressing, and when, according to a well-known poeti-
cal authority, the best or rather only method to
lengthen the shortening days is to "steal a few hours
from night." Yet the judges seem never to have con-
sidered that, when a sieam-plough can work for, say
7s. 2^d. an acre, and horse-ploughs for 7s., the steam-
plough may be better worth having (therefore "more
economical") than the horse-plough ; and this, indeed,
is one of the principal points in favour of steam-tillage
at all. There is also another element of considerable
consequence in the comparative economy between steam
and horse power cultivation. It has become matter of
experimental proof, upon certain classes of clay soil,
remarks Mr. Hoskyns, that "the liberty of a more
perfect selection of season, and condition of soil for cul-

406

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

tivation, and the absolute, and, so to speak, repeated
avoidance of the tread of horses, year after year, brings
about a permanent and ahuost constitutional channe of
character in the mechanical structure of such soil :" —
Besides, that the produce on steam-plou.'hed land has
been found in many cases to exceed that of gi'ound
ploughed by horses; not only the depth, but the very
shaking and disintegrating of the furrow-slices giving
a higher degree of pulverization, which promotes active
fertility.

We have repeatedly enforced these and other con-

siderations upon the attention of those called upotl
to weigh the merits of the steam against tliose of
horse ploughs ; and, seeing that a (supposed) very
minute excess of actual acreage cost has been allowed
by them to couuterbaltince all the great benefits ac-
cruing from rapid autumn-cleaning and unusually
deep working by steam-power, we do not wonder that
the above exhibitors feel constrained to appeal to the
Council for information as to how and in what light
their inventions will be judged next July. Their ad-
dress must receive some further notice.

ORIGIN OF DURHAM SHORT- HORNS.

Sir, — In your journal of the 22nd of March, alluding
to the salts of shorthorns about to take place and now
coming off, you say that at one of them, namely, that
to take place on the 21st of April, several animals will
be offered which are right line descendants through
females of the celebrated cow ' Favourite," bought by
the Messrs, Colling, of Mr. Maynard of Eryholme, and
by them christened " Lady Majnard." This mention
of " Favourite" and the CoUing's stock brings to my
recollection a discussion introduced a few weeks ago in
the agricultural article of the Economist, on the origin
of the improved Durham shorthorns, suggested by the
publication in a contemporary, the North British
Agriculluriit, of extracts from a journal of the late
Major Rudd, of Marlow, in Yorkshire, called " An
account of some of the shorthorn stock, late the pro-
perly of Mr. Charles Colling, of Ketton, in the county
of Durham."

As I think these extracts may be interesting to some
of your readers, and as 1 have not seen them elsewhere,
I have transcribed them, and have at the same time
ventured to send you some observations on the origin of
the improved Durham shorthorns. In reaking them, I
may be permitted to say, I do so as a Durham man,
with a perfect knowledge of parties and localities, my-
self for upwards of twenty years a breeder of shorthorns,
and one who has long and diligently investigated the
subject. I am especially induced to do this at present,
because I have of late frequently seen the matter dis-
cussed by strangers with an interest that may well put us
lukewarm natives to the blush ; but in which discussions,
as might perhaps be expected, we hear assertions made
that to us, who are " to the manner born," are not a
little astounding.

Speaking, then, in the character in which I have re-
presented myself to do, I have long since arrived at the
conclusion, wherein I entirely agree with the writer in
the Economist, that, in forming the improved Durham
shorthorns the Messrs. Colling proceeded, generally,
" by care and selection from the local breed of short-
horns which had already attained considerable per-
fection," and not by crossing distinct breeds of cattle.
I am bound, however, at the same time to say that he is
mistaken in alleging that "the story of the brothers
Colling having used a cross of Galloway blocd la the
improvement of their shorthorns has no foundation in
fact." It is indisputably true that Mr. Charles Colling
had recourse to such a cross in one family of iiis short-
horns, which is known, technically speaking, as " the
alloy ;" to which I shall take occasion particularly to
advert, and in so doing it will p; rhaps be seen why we
find " DO trace of such crossing in Major Rudd's
journal."

The following are the extracts from that journal to
which I have alluded j

No. 1. Old Favourite, was bred by Mr. John Maynard, of
Airyholme-upon-Tees. She was got by a shorthorned bull
belonging to a Ralph Alcock, who lived ucar Airy iiolme, which
bull was reniarkable for his nice handling. The dam was got
by a shorthoraed bull belonging to Mr. Jacob Smith, of Given-
dale, near Boroughbridee. Her grandam was a beautiful roan
cow, called Strawberry, bred by Mr. Maynard's fiither, and
got by a shorthorned bull belonging to Mr. Folly, of Worrall,
then held iu high estimation.

No. 2. Young Strawberry, was also bred by Mr. John
Maynard. Sae was out of O.d Favourite, and got by a short-
horned bull, bred by Mr. John Char;;e, of Newtoa, who sold
him to Messrs. Jjhn Maynaid and Duka Wetherill. This
bull went by the name of the Dalton Bull, and was esteemed
a first-rate bull at that time. Young Strawberry was of a
beautiful roan colour. lu the year 17a5, whea Mr. Charlea
Ceilings first turned his attention to the improvement of the
shortlionied breed of cattle, he was desirous to procure the
best cows and bulls, and such as had the greatest propensity
to fatten. Old Favourite, and her daughter Young Strawberry,
particularly attracted his notice, and he was desirous to pur-
chase them. He had some difficulty in prevailing upon Mr.
John Majnard to sell them, but he at length succeeded, and
they became his property.

No. 1. Hubback, when four years old, was purchased by
Mr. Robert CoUings, of Barmpton, and Mr. AVaistcll, of Alt-
chill, for the purpose of serving their feeling cows. He had
such an uuconuuon inchuatiou to fatten as to excite the par-
ticular attention of Mr. Charles Ceilings, who purchased him
of Mr. Robert Colliugs and Mr. Waistell, about the year
1785. The judicious seltctiou of Hubback, and of Mr. JVIay-
nard'a two cows, as before mentioned, may be called the origin
of the celebrated stock of Kttlon Shorthorns, which (di early
maturity, inclination to fatten, and to acquire the greatest
we'ght with the least oilil, are miequalled by any breed of
cattle in tl;e world.

The bull Hubback was descended from tbe stock of Sir
Janies Pennyman, Bart , of Orrasby, in Clpvelai\d, Yorkshire,
who, about the year 1770, paid much attention to the improve-
ment of the shorthorned cattle, and purchased the best bulls
aud cows which he could procure. lie puichased several cows
of Sir W. St. Qiiintii), of Scampton, who was then celebrated
for hij breed of sliorthorntd cattle. It is probable that Hub-
back may have been descended from their breed, but the fact
cannot be ascertaiued. Hubback was of a red and white colourj
the red i^jclincd toyellovt'.

No. 2. Foljambe, was out of a cow by Hubback, and was
got by a bull behjiigiiig to Mr. Richard Balier, of Oxuey Field,
near Daihngton, then m estimatiou as one of the best bulls of
that time.

Of these extracts the following corrections or ex-
planations suggest themselves ;

The name of the owner of the sire of Favourite's
grandam was Mr. Jolly, of Worsail ; not Mr. Polly, of
Worrall. The Dalton bull, better known as Dalton
Duke, was bred at Dalton by Mr. Charge.

The received version of Hubback's pedigree is, that he
was out of a cow belonging to Mr. Snowdon, of Hur-
worth, in the county of Durham, given to him by his

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

407

landlord, Sir James Pennyman, of Ormsby Mall, in
Cleveland, which Sir James had obtained from Sir Wm.
St. Quinlin, of Scampston, in the East- Riding of
Yorkshire ; that he was got by a bull belonging to
Snowdon ; that Snowdon's bull was by William Robson's
bull, Robson's bull being by William Pvlasterman's
bull, and Mastcraian's bull being by the Studley 'mil.
As Hubback appears to have been calved in 1777, and
is said by Mr. Youatt, in his work on cattle, to have
served cows but a short time owing to his propensity
to fatten, there seems an inaccuracy in saying that Mr.
C. Colling, when he was bcyinyi'mg as a breeder, bought
the bull at foiir years old, both these dates being
assigned to 1785.

The following somewhat amusing account of the pur-
chase of Hubback by Messrs. R. Colling and Waistell
is given by Mr. Youatt in the work already alluded to.
ilr. Waistell (from whom Mr. Youatt had this in-
formation, in October, 1832) used to admire this calf
(Young Hubback) as he rode almost daily by the
meadow in which it grazed, and at length he attempted
to purchase it from the owner. The price asked, ^8,
seemed much for a calf not a ycir old ; and the reputa-
tion of the shorthorns not being yet established, the
bargain was not struck. Still he longed for the you'ig
beast ; and happening tct meet Mr. R. Colling near the
place, he asked his opinion of the animal. Mr. Colling
acknowledged that there were some good points about
him ; but there was something in his manner of ac-
knowledging this which induced Mr. Waistell to think-
that Mr. Colling thought somewhat more highly of the
calf than his language expressed, and therefore he
hastened the next morning to conclude the bargain, and
paid the money. He had scarcely done so, before Mr.
Colling arrived for the same purpose ; and as the
farmers rode home together, they agreed that it should
be a joint speculation. Some months passed by, and
either Mr. Waistell's admiration of the calf a little
cooled, or his partner did not express himself very
warmly about the excellencies of the animal, and Messrs.
Waistell and R. Colliog transferred Young Hubback to
Mr. C. Colling, who, witli the quick eye of an ex-
perienced breeder, saw the value of the little beast,

Foljambe was got by Mr. Richard Barker's bull, of
Oxenfield ; not Mr. Baker, of Oxneyfield.

Shortly after the Durham shorthorns had acquired
the name of "improved" Durham shorthorns, a
vehement controversy arose as to the origin of these
same improved shorthorns ; or rather, as the Collings
had been the chief improvers, what the system was they
had pursued in their improvements, or what, in short,
they had bred from.

On the one hand it was miiintained that this system
had been that alleged by the writer in the Economist —
•' Careful selection from the local breed of shorthorns,
which had already attained considerable perfection," in
doing which they skilfully perpetuated excellences and
obliterated defects. On the other, that it bad been one
of crossing in the extreme sense of the term, namely,
the commixing of the bloods of totally different breeds
of cattle.

The maintainors of the latter position were two-fold,
who arrived from it at totally different conclusions.
The first of them, being owners of Herefords and other
rival breeds, asserted it to be a law of nature, that by
crossing from animals of distinct breeds, no third or
improved one could be obtained having the power of
perpetuating itself ; that the progeny always and shortly
reverted to one or other side of the parentage ; and that
the improved shorthorns, having been produced by this
kind of crossing, would speedily come to an end and
totally disappear.

Upwards of fifty years have, however, elapsed ; an

the improved Durham shorthorns still hold their own,
still continue to propagnte their kind, their offspring
snowing no fJepaiture from the long-established tyriii
and character of their ancestry; and either, therefore,
the theory of these objectors as to the effect of crossing
was erroneous, their arguments faUacious, or they were
in error as to the facts, tlie latter being undoubtedly
our opinion.

The other class of supporters of the doctrine of ex-
treme crossing were parties who, being owners of stock
having in it the Galloway cross or " alloy," contendt d
•hat this crossing was the system on which the Collings
had proceeded universally, and that it was, in truth, the
right mode of improving.

It may be here not unnaturally asked, how came it to
pass that this subject had become a matter of conjecture
and of controversy ? Was nothing l<nown as to the
system the Collings had pursued ? What were the facts ?
The brothers Colling appear to have been retired, re-
served men, little thinking that their cattle-breeding
proceedings wtre to become matter of public curiosity,
or were to provoke controversy. They kept no record
of their proceedings while they were in operation, nor
did they leave any at the last; and seeing, as we have
said, that the interests, or supposed interests, of various
parties conspired to make it expedient to mystify the
facts, it is not surprising that they were so mystilied to
a great extent. Now, however, that this mystification
is passing away, the facts are, in our opinion, abundantly
obvious. There had existed time out of miad, on
both sides of the river Tees, from Barnard Castle
downwards to Yarm, a peculiar breed of cattle —
the Teeswater or old-fashioned Durham shorthorns.
And long before the names of the Messrs. Colling hail
been heard, those of the following breeders and im-
provers of them had obtained celebrity, namely. Mil-
bank, Brown, dill, Wright, Charge, Maynard, Jolly,
Hutchinson, Sharter, and others. And long before
Ketton or Barmpton were known as shorthorn localities,
the following places were in repute, namely, Barning-
ham, Aldborough, Barton, Cleasby, Manfidd, Staple-
ton, Dalton, Newton, Morrell, Blackwell, Oxenfield,
Hurworth, Eryholme, Worsel, Sockburn, &c. This
being so, where was it likely the Collings (living in this
immediate neighbourhood), when they had determined
on becoming breeders, went for their originals, but in
the direction where a breed had long been in esteem,
and where they had ample materials from which to make
their selections ?

In reference to this, Mr. Hutchinson, the author of
the curious little history of the Sockburn shorthorns,
written nearly forty years ago, says, " The editor of the
Farmers' Journal, some time ago, asked whether the
improved shorthorns originated in select individuals, or
were obtained first by a cross .' To which let me
here answer. From individuals (I can hardly say select
as regards Mr. C. Colling's stock) picked up by that
gentleman at his own back-door, without trouble or ex-
pense : and no doubt he took the best he could come
at." Knowing, as we do, the skill and t'ct of these
gentlemen, we may f' el assured that whatever this
author may say of the absence of trouble or expense,
what they " took " in this way — " the best they could
come at " — were by no means despicable animals. In-
deed, he says, as an instance of their judgment in such
matters, that at the time they succeeded in buying " Old
Favourite" and " Young Strawberry " of Mr. May-
nard, they tried to buy one of the Sockburn shorthorns
bred by his great uncle, Mr. J. Hutchinson, but could
not succeed.

But though it may be fairly assumed that generally
they did go to their own back-doors — into their own
immediate neighbourhood — to get what they wanted in

408

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the way of native shorthorns, and the great majority of
their pedigrees conclude with a dam by Hubback, with-
out giving any pedigree to her dam, yet we have not a
few memorable instances of the pedigrees of their stock
going beyond this.

Assuming, then, that Durham shorthorns are an in-
digenous race, established time out of mind in the locali-
ties mentioned, of which further evidence will be ad-
duced, we have in the old-fashioned animal really a pure-
bred animal. And if, as often occurs at sales of pro-
fessed improved shorthorns, the pedigrees do not go
back more than four or five descents, a purchaser
may feel safe as far as purity goes. I by no means,
however, recommend such pedifjrees to persons begin-
ning breeding in earnest, but that, like the Colliags,
they should get " the very best they can come at."
And with a little diligence they may obtain stock de-
scended in a right line throuD;h females from the best
animals the Collings possessed, as well as others de-
scended in the same way from the stocks of those who,
as we have seen, were even their predecessors, namely,
the Milbanks, Hutcbinsons, and others.

With a view to aiding them in their search, I shall
mention several extant descendants in a right line
through females of some of the Collings' best known
cows, and also descendants of the same description from
the stocks of the other parties we have alluded to. I
take, in the first place, the descendants of those of the
Collings' cows, whose pedigrees go even beyond Hubback,
namely — 1, Favourite; 2, Princess; 3, Duchess; ai'd
4, Fortune. And, first, with regard to the descendants
of Favourite or Lady Maynard, who may indisputably
be taken as " No. 1" when treating of shorthorn pedi-
gree. Favourite had of daughters. Young Strawberry,
Miss Lax, and Phoenix. Young Strawberry was by
Foljambe, thedamof "Lord Bolingbroke," who was sire,
by the O'Callaghan Galloway, of the bull "Son of
Bolingbroke," who by " Old Johanna" vfas the sire of
" Grandsoii of Bolingbroke,'' wherein we see the origin
of the Galloway cross or "alloy," hereafter to be dis-
cussed. Phoenix having had by Bolingbroke the
celebrated bull Favourite, had also by " Grandson of
Bolingbroke" the cow Lady, from whom chiefly are
descended the branch of shorthorns having " the alloy."
Phoenix also had, by her own son Favourite, Young
Phoenix, who by the same Favourite had tha renowned
" Comet," the first, and for many years the only bull
sold for one thousand guineas. Of these two daughters
of Favourite, viz , Young Strawberry and Phoenix, I
am not aware of there being any right line descendant
through females ; and so proceed therefore to her other
daughter Miss Lax, who was, as well as Young Strawbeny,
by Dalton Duke. From her descended, through females,
No. 4 at the Chilton sale, and through her many other
animals at the same sale, several of which went to Ire-
land. Lord Spencer, then Lord Althorp, bought Nos.
13 and 55, esteemed amongst the best. They were both
daughters, as we have seen, of No. 4. — No. 13 being
by St. Albans of the " Princess" family, and No. 55 by
Monarch of the " Favourite" family.

During Lord Spencer's life, female descendants of
these cows were rarely if ever to be obtained. But by
the three sales of his stock at Wiseton they were dispersed.
The No. 13 line, belonging to Lord Spencer, seemed
at one time to have concentrated in Roguery by Mer-
cury who was a grand-daughter of No. 13. She, how-
ever, was very prolific, and had of cows, Zeal, Zinc, and
Zone, and of bulls Zadig, Zenith, and Zoroaster. Zeal,
a very fine cow, bought at the first Wiseton sale by Mr.
Wilkinson, of Lenton, had many descendants, both
while belonging to that gentleman, and previously
when belonging to Lord Spencer — Prophetess, Prudence,
Wiseton Lady, &c. The same, as to descendants, was the

case with Zinc, who had Teturia, Metal, &c. It ap-
pears that it is through Zeal and Zinc that there are
descendants of No. 13 to be offered at the sale you
allude to.

No. 55 had also many descendants who were brought
into the market at the Wiseton sales. Of these. Enigma
was purchased by Mr. Topham, and Florentiaby Lord
Ducie. From Enigma and Florertia there appears to
be, at the same sale, descendants of No. 55.

The Princess Family. — The pedigrees given of
Princess are not only various, but conflicting. At the
sale of Sir H. V. Tempest's herd in 1813, she is said
to have been by Favourite, her dam by Favourite.
The same pedigree is given in the 1st volume of the
Herd Book published in 1822. The 3rd volume of the
same book, published in 1836, gives her pedigree, as
being by Favourite, dam by Favourite, g. d. by Hubback,
gr. g. d. by Snowdon's bull, — by Waistell's bull, —
by Masterman's bull, — by the Studley bull. This is
to be found in the pedigree of her grandson St. Albans
(1412). Again, where the pedigree of the bull Belve-
dere (1706) is ^ivea in the same volume of the Herd
Book, she is said to have been by Favourite, dam by
Favourite, g. d. by Hubback, gr. g. d.by Snowdon's bull,
— by Masterman's bull, — by Haniion's bull, — bought
by Mr. Hall, of Sedgefield, of Mr. Pickering. Princess
was, as we have always heard, an extraordinarily fine
cow, and the late Sir H. V. Tempest, of Wynyard, in the
county of Durham, who was an admirable judge of the
points and excellences of the vshole animal kingdom,
from a race- horse or short-horn down to a game cock,
resolved, it seems, on being her owner at any price. It
was never known what he gave Mr. R. Colling for her,
secrecy on that head appearing to have been part of the
bargain ; but it has been said to have been as much as 700
guineas. Princess and her numerous descendants were
sold in 1813, after Sir Henry's deat'n. The late Mr. J.
Wood, of Kimblesworth, bought one of her daughters,
Nell Gwynne, then in-calf to Wynyard, and she after-
wards produced St. Albans. We believe the pedigree of
St. Alban'e, and consequently of Princess above alluded
to, to have been furnished by that gentleman, and we
are sure, from our thorough knowledge of him, with the
most perfect good faith. We cannot but suspect, how-
ever, that an error has crept into it, from a confusion of
the pedigrees of sires with those of dams — Waistell's
bull having been by Masterman's bull, Masterman's
bull by the Studley bull. At this sale Angelina, the
daughter of Anna Boleyn, another daughter of Princess,
was reserved ; and at a subsequent sale a daughter of
Angelina was bought by Mr. J. Stephenson, of White
House, Wolviston, a neighbouring tenant farmer. From
her descended Belvedere, who became the property of
Mr. T. Bates, by whom, we believe, the pedigree of
Belvedere, and consrquently of Princess, was furnished.
We have heard Mr. Bates say, speaking of the pedigree
of Princess, that such it certainly was, because her
dam was own sister to Mr. R, CoUing's white bull.
Yet, according to the pedigree of that bull, given in the
Herd Book, he would have been own brother to Princess.
Who shall decide when such doctors disagree .' We
feel, however, justified in assuming that Princess be-
lon|i;ed lo the class of those descended of cows belonging
to the Collings', which had a pedigree before they ob-
tained them, whether her first-recorded ancestress was
" bought by Mr. Pickering of Mr. Hall, of Sedgefield,"
or was by " the Studley bull." Of whom they obtained
her, it is not we believe known. Nell Gwynne, Mr. J,
Wood's purchase, became, as we have said, the mother
of the well-known St. Albans; and Mr. Mason, of
Chilton, having obtained of him St. Albans' services
for some time, he became thus, as we have seen, the sire
of No. 13 at the Chilton sale, the ancestress of Lord

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

409

Spencer's Old Roguery, aud her nuaierous progeny of
Z.'s. Nell Gwynne had but one heifer-calf having
descendants: this was by Layton(366). Mr. Wood
sold it to Mr. Troutbeck, of Blencoe, in Cumberland,
who had been his pupil. By Mr. Troutbeck this heifer
was christened 2ud Nell Gwynne. Of Nell Gwynne the
2nd many descendants in a right line of females have of
late years appeared in the market, and not a few have
attained show-yard honours. At one time, however, a
notion existed that Mr. Troutbeck had not been very
select in the choice of some of his bulls.

From Angelina, the granddaughter of Princess, de-
scended Belvedere, obtained, as we have seen, by Mr.
Bates, from Mr. J. Stephenson, and to this cross
with his Duchesses Mr. Bates always attributed
the greatest advantages. Those who knew his worth
knew also his strong prejudices, one of which
was against the " alloy ;" and a strong suspicion
exists that Lawnsleeves ought to have had a place in
the pedigree of Belvedere ; but a belief having existed
that, according to the Herd Book pedigree, Lawn-
sleeves had the alloy in it, he was accidentally omitted.
Some years ago the writer, when on a visit at Elmore,
the well-known residence of the late Geoige Baker,
Esq., the owner of Lawnsleeves, discovered, on refer-
ence to dates, that Lawnsleeves' dam could not have
been the daughter of the " alloy" George, but probably
by Mr. Mason's George, who was much nearer at hand,
that gentleman, moreover, being well known to Mr.
Baker. Had this been but sooner known, the discus-
sion need not have occurred.

Mr. J. Stephenson still has right-line descendants
through females of Angelina, though he is not easily per-
suaded to part with them.

Those which we have mentioned were considered for
many years the only right line female descendants of
Princess, but recently a new family has appeared from
Northamptonshire, claiming so to be, as to which we are
not prepared to speak authoritatively in the negative.

The Duchess Family. — Mr Bates's Duchesses,
they maybe called, being all of them, at one time, in his
possession, and being all christened by him Duchess,
with a numerical distinction. They descend from the
cow Duchess, bought by him at Mr. Charles CoUing's
sale, in 1808, and whose pedigree was then given as
being by Comet, dam by Favourite, g. d. by Daisy bull,
gr. g. d. by Favourite, — by Hubback, — by James
Brown's red bull. We are not aware whether the cow
by Mr. J. Brown's red bull was purchased or bred by
him. Assuming the former to be the case, which we
believe, she belongs to the class of cows having pedi-
gree when he bought her, though of whom he did so
we are also ignorant. It is generally understood that
the Duchesses were not going the right way, when Mr.
Bates bethought him of introducing the Princess cross
through Belvedere. Hearing of his existence, and of his
being the property of Mr. J. Stephenson, he went to
Whitehouse to have a look at him, and, as we have
heard him say, the door of Belvedere's house being locked
in the absence of Mr. J. Stephenson from home, he had
tis first inspection of him through a hole in the wall,
and the bull appearing just what he wanted, he too
seemed to have exclaimed Eureka ! eureka ! Having ul-
timately succeeded, as we have said, in obtaining him
from Mr. J. Stephensoiu from thence dated the fame
of the Duchesses. Since nlr. Bates's death they have
passed into many hands.

The Fortune Family. — The first recorded an-
cestress of this family was obtained by the CoUings,
from Mr. Maynard, as were Old Favourite and Young
Strawberry. The pedigree of Fortune is, that she -was
by Bolingbroke, her dam by Foljambe, g.d. by Hubback,

gr. g. d. bred by Maynard. She was the dam of many
celebrated animals, both male and female, namely B
(45), Irishman (329), Cripple (171), Trunnell (659),
St. John (572), Gaudy (p. 320), and Nell (p. 422). B
(45) was the ancestor of Portia (No. 2 at the Chilton
sale) who was the dam of Lady Sarah (No. 20), the
highest priced cow at that sale. No. 4 at the same sale
was a right line female descendant of Nell, and Nos. 35
and 51 were daughters of No. 4. There are still
right line female descendants of Nell, and we owe it to
that most distinguished breeder in another department,
Mr. Jonas Webb, to mention his name as being a
possessor of such descendants.

The Daisy Family. — Of the CoUings' cows
from whom right line female descendants are existing to
this day, but which cows have no pedigree assigned
them previously to their being in the CoUings'
possession, we believe there are but few. There
is one, however, well - ascertained family, which
must not be omitted, namely, that of Mr. C,
Colling's " Old Daisy." Her pedigree is — got
by Favourite, her dam by Punch, g. d. by Hubback.
She was own sister to the " Daisy bull," of whom
Mr. Bates always made especial mention when re-
counting the pedigree of his Duchesses, the Daisy bull
being one of their, in his opinion, most-valued ances-
tors. Of the right line female descendants through
females of Old Daisy, we remember to have seen two
or three at Mr. Jefferson's sale, at Fultbrd, near York,
last summer, which brought high prices, and there are
some, we see, at one of the sales this month — that of
the 21st.

Of the right line descendants, through females, of cows
belonging to breeders of shorthorns antecedent to the
CoUings, now existing, 'we have an instance in what
may be termed

The Milbank Family. — The Milbanks, of Barning-
ham, were amongst the very oldest recorded breeders of
shorthorns. One of their cows appears to have come
into the possession of Mr. Coates, and was by him
named " Milbank," from which there are existing right
line descendants through females at this day. At two
of the sales you allude to members of this family are to
be disposed of.

The Sockburn Family. — Another family of
this description is " the Sockburns," originally be-
longing to the Messrs. Hutchinson, of Sockburn, one
of whom, as we have said, wrote a history of them.
Either while in their possession, or as we believe
subsequently, the last of the Sockburns having right line
descendants through females was put to Major (397),
a son of Lady, imbibing thus the " aUoy." Notwith-
standing his antipathy to the " alloy," Mr. Bates became
the owner of one of her thus alloyed descendants—a
strong proof of its merits ; and from her he bred, using
Belvedere, and again one of his Dukes. From this cross
have descended animals of first-rate character at this
day, one or more having been purchased by Colonel
Towneley, and have distinguished themselves in the
show-yard.

It must not be thought that in having confined my-
self to the pedigrees of those famiUes of shorthorns
which can estabUsh right line descent through females
from cows having pedigrees at the time the CoUings
purchased them, and from cows belonging to their prede-
cessors as breeders, I in the least undervalue those
pedigrees which are computed merely from sires. It
was to establish and Ulustrate my argument, that Dur-
ham shorthorns of celebrity were in existence before
the Callings began their career as breeders, and that
there are at this day right line descendants through
females of the principal coivs they bred from, and

410

THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE.

from cows belonging to their predecessor's, that I
adopted this course.

Though shorthorn breeders compute the pedigrees of
their cattle, as do the Arabs their liorses, by their dams,
either animals are in fact as much descended from the
dams of their sires as from the dams of their dams ; and
thus in the pedigrees of shorthorns, containing such
names iis Foljiimbe, Bolingbroke, Favourite, Comet,
&c., those to whom such pedigrees belong are in fact
equally descended from Old Favourite, Young Straw-
berry, Miss Lax, &c., as those which trace their descent
from cow to cow.

I proceed now to address myself, as I promised, to
the subject of " the alloy." It originated, as we have
seen, from what has been unceremoniously called
O'Callaghan's polled galloway. Now, this same O'Cal-
laghan was Colonel James O'Callaghan, of the noble
house of Lismore, and a great friend of the late Duke
of Cleveland, one of whose boroughs he represented for
many years in the House of Commons. The Duke, as
Lord Lieutenaat, also made him Colonel of the Durham
militia. Having pitched his tent, in the decline of life,
at Heighington iu that county, he there ended his days,
as he had lived, a very popular character. Having
bought a couple of polled galloway cows, he had no
difficulty in getting Mr. C. Colling, his near neighbour,
to allow him to send one of them to his bull Boling-
broke. She produced a bull calf. It was a roan, in
due time had horns, and showed all the other
indicia of a true-bred shorthorn. Such was " Son of
Bolingbroke." Mr. C. Colling bought him and his
dam of Colonel O'Callaghan, and put his cow, old Jo-
hanna, to this son of Bolingbroke. She produced a red
and white bull calf, who, like his father, took in all
respects after the Shorthorns. • He was yclept " Grand-
son of Bolingbroke (280)." To him Mr. C. Colling
put Phoeniv, daughter, as we have seen, of " Old
Favourite," and she produced " Lady," as she had
before done, by Bolingbroke, the bull " Favourite," the
father of Comet ; and also (by her own son. Favourite)
Young Phoenix, the mother of Comet. Lady was the
dam of Washington (674), Major (397), George (276),
and Mr. Wright's Sir Charles (592), and also of Coun-
tess and Laura. At Mr. C. CoUing's sale, in 1810, this
alloy slock sold at very high prices — Major for 200
guineas, George for 130 guineas. Lady herself, at 14
years old, for 206 guineas ; Laura, her daughter, for 210
guineas ; Laura's daughter, Young Laura, at 2 years
old, for 101 guineas ; and Countess, the otlier daughter
of Lady, was bought of Major Rudd, of Marlon, for
400 guineas. When we meet, therefore, with descen-
dants of " Grandson of Bolingbroke," or of Major,
George, or Sir Charles, such as " Western Comet"
(689), Frederick (267), Keswick (453 and 1266), or
of Countess or Laura, we encounter tlie alloy. But
what do we therein encounter that is base or injurious ?
What is the meaning of alloy .' Here we have a cross
with a breed of cattle of first-rate character and quality,
and polled Galloway breeders might equally say they
had been alloyed by the Shorthorn cross We are satis-
fied, however, that in fact " the alloy" never took — that
it was utterly and speedily thrown out — and that, as did
the son of the polled Galloway by Bolingbroke, so did
all his descendants adhere to the Shorthorn side of the
house. I have never heard that any of them were with-
out horns, or exhibited the least trait of the polled Gal-
loway, except, it may be, in the analogous good qualities
of that breed. I incline to think there is truth in the
theory that, in crossing distinct breeds, the offspring
does take exclusively at once, or very shortly, to one or
other side of the house.

We appear then to have, in the instance of the alloy,
an illustration of M. Malingie Nouel's ingenious theory

of the difficulty of changing the type or characteristics
of a long-established breed, and that this difficulty is in
proportion to its purity of blood, or, in other words, to
its antiquity.*

If this be true, the non-infection of Shorthorns by the
alloy affords an additional argument in favour of the
ancient and indigenous character of the breed. But had
the first offspring of this cross partaken equally of the
bloods of its different parents, iu what proportion would
the Galloway blood exist in any modern Shorthorn ?
Seeing how early capability of procreation exists, and is
called into operation in that breed, and also how rapidly
generations of cattle pass away, I do not believe there is
an extant Shorthorn which has an appreciable particle of
the Galloway blood in its veins. I must say I think
this kind of crossing, or, perhaps, rather attempted
crossing, a mistake — a mere waste of time.

Take the case, well-known to greyhound coursers, of
Mr. Goodlake's bull-dog cross. Considering the posi-
tion the dogs thus " alloyed" hold as to their " public
performance," does any one think this cross has been
injurious, or can any one from their appearance discern
it ? Yet we think it was a mistake.

Being of opinion, then, that the alloy has done neither
good nor harm directly, I am not so sure that indirectly
it may not have done good. Those who had it in their
stock became less scrupulous on the score of pedigree,
and, unlike pedigree martinets, looked less to that
than to the good qualities of a bull. It may be thus,
perhaps, explained how it has come to pass that many
animals having in them this once dreaded bugbear, the
alloy, have taken the highest places in the show-yard.
I do not allude more particularly to these animals, lest
I should revive against them this stupid prejudice of
" the alloy,'' and a more stupid prejudice, a more com-
plete phantom cannot exist. Breeders, however, will
understand my allusion. We maintain it then to have
been Cbtablished by this narration that the Collings in
general, notwithstanding what Mr. Chas. Colling did
in a particular instance, formed the improved short-
horns hy careful selection from the local breed,
which had already attained considerable perfection.
That such is the antiquity and indigenous character of
the old-fashioned shorthorns, such its native purity,
that even should any commixture of ingredients of
another kind have taken place, yet like an infusion of
the same sort with the waters of father Tees, it has been
speedily thrown off without affecting its perennial purity.

The owners of our native shorthorns, therefore, may
snap their fingers at the ancient myths, as to " wild
cattle from Chillingham-park," and " Dutch or llolstein
cattle from across the German Ocean." Those who
have seen the wild cattle at Chillingham, will bear me
out in saying, there is not a single characteristic or
point of resemblance exhibited by them which is possessed
by the shorthorns, except that shorthorns are occasionally
white, but they are also sometimes red, \et no one has
ever ventured on that score to point to the Devon or
Sussex breeds as their original. As to the Dutch or
Holstein importation, of which one used to hear so much,
the writer happened some years ago to stumble on a
fact, tending to turn the tables ou the Holsteiners. It
seems, according to Anderson (in his treatise on Com-
merce), who quotes from Rymer's Federa, that Edward
IV. allowed a favourite sister, Margaret, Duchess
Dowager of Holstein, to export from this country
annually, and for many years into Holstein and the low
countries, great numbers of cattle and sheep, for the
purpose of improving the breeds of them in those
countries. Whence is it so likely they were exported, as

* See Vol, xiv., p. 214, of the Agricultural Society's Journal,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

411

from the ports of Hull and Newcastle across the German
Ocean ? And if it be true, as has been said, that -oine
centuries after, a herd of cattle was found tliere greatly
resembling our native shorthorns, whence may i'- not
fairly be assumed the originals came ? And when, as it is

said — for it rests only on tradition — some of these were
brought into this country, what was this but a
re-iaiportation, what was it but that England had lier
own again? I remain, Yours, &c.,

DUNELMENSIS.

THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE FARMER.

The farmer is proverbially prosperous. He lias a
conventional cliaracter to maintain for being well-to-
do, that has stuclc to him ever since " the war." Just
as tlie Jack Tar is joll^^, the lawyer learned, and the
soldier gallant, is he to be associated with tlie making
ot money. No matter liow much he may complain at
times, the world always knows bettter. Whatever
difficulties he has to encounter, we think only of what
wheat was fetching a few years ago. Tradition has
told us how, in eighteen hundred and i-oracthing, a
Hampshire man drove into his market ordinary with a
pair of horses to his phaeton, and we never lose sight
of them. In a word, we are always ready to take the
farmer's position at a premium. When he is doing
well we make the mnst of it, and when he is doing
badly we say nothing about it.

There are few, not directly interested in the pursuit,
who would care to think it was just now somewhat hard
times with farmers. On the contrary, the public remem-
ber nothing but the high prices of a year or two since.
Indeed, to their credit be it said, the tenantry them-
selves have not forgotten them. The turn they had
still enables tliem to hold on. Let tliere come a com-
mercial crisis, and people yield at once to the pressure.
It is only in the common course of things that Houses
should "go" right and left, notwithstanding what they
may liavc profited by previous speculations. All our
sympathies are witli them. We see and feel what they
have had to contend against, and commiserate with
them accordingly. But the mere cultivators of the
bnd come in for no such consideration. We only bear
in mind how dear bread was, and how much they ought
to have saved. And then, again, the weatlier has been
so much in their favour; another point we are always
ready to make the most of. " Fine weather for you
farmers," said a cockney tourist to a friend of ours he
met in one of his own fields lastautumn. " And not
very bad for you excursionists," was the apt rejoinder.
People are always patronizing liis prosperity.

But there is occasionally something far worse in
this making the most of it. Landlords, and land-
agents especially, are by no means loath to look always
on the sunny side. We hear, even very recently, of
rises in rent, consequent on the visitation of an ex-
perienced valuer. A correspondent recently referred
to several landlords wlio last year gave their
tenants notice to quit iir order to raise tlieir rents,
" th'3 comparatively high prices of the year or
two previous having made them uneasy." The ques-
tion is whetlier the present low rates will make them
feel more easy again ? Or, will it be the old story of
the boot-maker and his customer — "Well," said the
latter, "now tliey have taken the tax off leather I sup-
pose I shall get shod a little cheaper ?" " No, sir,"
was the answer, " I was just about to raise the price
when they did it, so we shall go on as before." Some
landlords, perhaps, who were about to raise the price
will now go on as before; but at most they must be
content with this.

After all, what is it the farmer has to fall back upon ?
Have the opportunities of the last few years been really
so great as the world at large would appear to imagine ?

The authority we have already referred to runs on thus :
" Let us consider what these high prices have been.
Wheat has been higher than other grain, the crop of
barley of '56 alone excepted. Now, will the average
of wheat for the last 10 years exceed oOs. per quarter ?
if not, there certainly can be no reason for a rise on
that score. The fact is, wheat was very dear in 1854-
55, from the very deficient harvest of '53, which of
course is no benefit to the farmer, to receive a high
price for a short crop. I heard of good wheat land
that year growing only 3 sacks, that usually grows 9
per acre. Landlords should recollect that high prices,
in such cases, are not so beneficial to the farmer as
good crops and lower ones." A short crop of wheat,
then, does not tell like a bad hop year, although some
peoi'le really argue as if it did. Even keeping to this
question of price, let us see how much the balance of the
good times has actually been in favour of the producer.
Let us date it from that golden age which came in with
Free Trade. In our last week's summary of the busi-
ness done, it is thus written : " In reviewing prices since
the last Corn Bill came into existence, we find the ave-
rage price for the whole eleven years amounts to 55s.
lOd , the extremes being 39s. 5d. per qr. in 1851, and
73s. Id. in 1856. As the last weekly averages were
44s. 3d., we are lis. 7d. per qi-. below this 11 years'
average. Now as only one year and a quarter has
elapsed since the highest range, the fall in such a course
of time is greater than lias occurred before in this short
period." We shall be bold to say that, if such a
change had occurred in the commercial instead of the
agricultural world, we should have heard a vast deal
more of its effects. As it is, we must not neglect the
signs of the times.

Amongst the most valuable intelligence, we cer-
tainly regard the monthly County Reports. We
are justified in announcing them as supplied by
the best men of their several districts. They appear,
moreover, invariably in that form in which they are
forwarded. No attempt is ever made to dove-tail the
opinions in one with that of another. They are, in
fact, the independent testimony of men fully qualified
to speak on the subject matter of their communications ;
and it may be well worth our wlrile to see what tlieir
latest advices offer on the state of the case. Let us take
them as they come, and begin witli Lincolnshire :
"As to our own supplies, hundreds thrashed their all
immediately after liarvest, and it is gone. Beef,
mutton, pork, and wool are all lower in price; the
latter not much in request. It is customary to compare
the early spring stock markets. We find upon the average
tlie difference in price as compared with the two pre-
ceding years, in cattle and sheep, is about thirty per
cent. This is a great depreciation in the value of agri-
cultural produce, and will ere long sliow itself in many
distressing cases of individual suffering. We have seen
so much of this class of trial and misfortune as to make
us tremble for one's friends and neighbours, each of
whom having suffered a loss of one-third of their pro-
perty in a few short months."

Northumberland endorses these fears with yet
more startling facts : — " The monetary crisis that

412

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

collapsed on the commercial interests of the country in
November has not failed to recoil on food-producers,
and wherever rash speculation or the most rigid
economy has not been observed, sequestration of effects
have since Christmas taken place over this once-
flourishing locality to an extent unprecedented, we
believe, since the first ten years of the present century:
confidence is shaken to the core, and every business
transaction worked out 'from hand to mouth.' We
have never disguised our opinion that the profit of the
i'arm would be Jiil. Then we lived in hope of quiet
reaction in trade : our markets, on the reverse, con-
tinue languid in the extreme ; every return shows a
downward tendency. Whenever reaction takes place,
the million will, for a time at least, be dependent on
foreign supplies of breadstuff. Granaried corn, we
believe, is unusually scant; and looking at the corn in
bulk, also considering defective yield from our last
crop, the quantity to be realized from the stack is cer-
tainly less than usual at this period of the year. Nor
can we say much in favour of the rising crop."

From Cambridgeshire we have but another echo
of the complaint : " The price of nearly all farm pro-
duce has gone down very much — indeed, too low for
the well-being of the farmers, very good wheat selling
at 5s. per bushel, the coarser sorts still lower; while
the stock of the farm has greatly deteriorated in value,
and the fattening of all animals has been this year a
desperately losing game. There appears a very heavy
cloud at present over-shadowing our agricultural pros-
pects ; and we take our mark amiss if those farmers
who have lately taken their farms at an advanced rent
do not find out their mistake. We have not an over-
weening- disposition to look at the gloomy side of the
picturejbut there is no mistaking the fact that the loss
of property by tlie British farmer within the last six or
nine months (in one foim or other) amounts to a most
frightful sum."

From Berkshire we have, more especially, intelli-
gence on the present price of stock, all to the same
end : — "The trade in beef is extremely depressed, more
particularly for inferior descriptions; the general dul-
ness of trade is also felt in mutton. Fat lambs are
scarce, and great activity in the trade has prevailed
during the last week. Porkers and bacon hogs meet a
sluggish demand, at receding prices. Veal is als'>
clieaper. The trade in store sheep is dull, and prices
have given way from 2s. to 33. per head. Prime cows
just calved sell fairly, but all other descriptions of
horned cattle share the general depression. Store pigs,
particularly the larger ones, are difficult to sell. Good
liorses of all descriptions sell readily, at about 20 per
cent, cheaper than last year; inferior sorts are neg-
lected. There is scarcely anything doing in wool. Hay
continues quite a drug. There is rather more inquiry
for straw. Potatoes hold out well, and early sorts for
planting have beenjn fair demand. The lambing sea-

son is now nearly over, and the increase is moderate ;
in some of the large flocks considerable mortality
among the ewes has prevailed.'' Warwickshire con-
firms this: — " The fairs have been well supplied with
fat stock, for which there is a slack demand." And
Durham adds: — " Our fat cattle markets have been
well supplied, and prices have had a downward ten-
dency. Grazing has not been remunerative; of cattle
that were bought-in in October and November, in many
instances their keep has been given away."

In a yet more noted district — Leicestershire—
" The price of all kinds of stock has of late been de-
clining, and is lower than this time last year; yet the
market for beef and mutton being depressed, the grazier
is very cautious of buying at present prices. Fat beef
is selling at 5d. to G^d., and mutton in the wool at 6d.
to 7d. per lb." And, " Wheat has receded in value till
it has reached a figure at which it is not remunerative
to the grower."

Yorkshire declares : " Fat is plentiful, and bad to
sell at anything like remunerative prices to those who
purchased feeders in the autumn."

The climax comes appropriately in the concluding
report of the whole number, that from South Shrop-
shire : " The worst symptom at present is the gradual
fall in the price of beef and pork ; mutton is also lower,
but not to the same extent. Instances are very nu-
merous in this part of the country where cattle have
been fed for five or six months, and sold out recently at
less money than they were bought in : indeed, we have
heard of instances wirere less than the cost-price has
been accepted, even though the animals had been kept
on the best food the farm produced. At our local fair
;it Ludlow, on Tuesday last, the top price of beef was
5|d. per lb., and a good deal changed hands at 5d., or
a trifle over, several oi the best lots returning home
unsold. It must also be observed that the quality of
the animals shown at the above-named town is first-
rate, being almost entirely of the Hereford breed."

A reference to the recent reports of the meat market
will show a still further decline. The trade never
looked so bad as it does at this moment.

Shall we sura all this up ? The average price of
corn is lower than has been known for many years.
Cattle and sheep never brought a worse return. Good
manures are unprofitably high ; and taxation quite as
heavy as ever. Still the farmer has made the most of
his opportunities. No one will deny but that within the
last few years the art of agriculture has greatly pro-
gressed. All we ask for it is fair-play; more parti-
cularly from those most interested in its advance. Let
u3 hear no more of "harsh cases." Let us have no
more sharp practice in raising rents, simply because a
bad man may be ready to outbid a good one. Let
land'ord and tenant pull together, and the Firm will
pull through.

IMPORANT TRIAL.— VERDICT £1000.

SALE OF CATTLE AFFECTED WITH PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.— VERDICT FOR THE FULL VALUE OF THE

CATTLE.
Kildare Spring Assizes. — Before the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
Malcolmson v. M'Donough.

Mr. M'Donongh, Q, C, stated the case for the plaintiff. It
became his duty to state the various facta and circumstances
from which he asked them to find a verdict of substantial
damages. The action was one of considerable importance to
the parties concerned, and the public in general. It was par-

ticularly important, as the defendant would seek to involve
the case in some difficulty, arising from matters, not of fact,
but of opinion. No question was raised as to the existence
of the warranty. It was a fact which the defendant could not
deny. If a single heifer were diseased, the party coidd bring

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

413

an action, and recover (kmsges for it ; but in the present
case the plaintiff sought large damages for the infliction of a
great wrong. The defendant should show that the cattle
were all sound, as warranted. The plaintiff would prove that
they were not sound ; and the case «ou!d eventuate in an in-
quiry as to the amount of damages. The plaintiff resided in
the county Carlow; he held several grass farms in the county
Kildare. lie possessed 1,500 acres cf feeding land. The de-
fendant, Mr. Walter M'Doucugh, lived ucarBallinasloe, county
Galway. He was one of the most extensive stock farmers in
the county. He held vast tr.'cfs of land in Galway, Roscom-
mon. Mayo, and the King';) County. In a great degree he
confined himself to the rearing of stock. Upon the 4th of Oc-
tober the fair of Ballinasloe began. Upon the 2nd of October,
1857, the plaintiff was at the fair of Moate, and purchased from
a Mr. Hudson ten large bullocks. Upon the 8th of October,
the day of tha sale of black cattle at Ballinasloe, he purchased
the heifers of the defeudaiit. It was desirable to purchase
cattle from one person whose respectability was a guarantee
for the soundness of the animals which he sold. The defendant
had his cattle separate and apart from others, under the great
wall of Lird Clancarty's deme3ne, in lots of 30 each. The
plaintiff had previously suffered in consequence of having pur-
chased unsound cattle, and on this occasion he adopted the
wise and prudent course of making particular inquiries of the
■vendors, and in every instance inai^ting upo.i enj^ageraents.
Accordingly, he proceeded to the lots of the defendant and
mide pari;icrdar inquiries whether they were sound. He was
informed that he might rest satisfied, as he (def^ridsnt) had
reared every one of them from calves, and he had not a single
case of distemper or disease amongst his various lacds for the
last two or three years. He was asked for aa engagement,
and he undertook and did give an undo'ibted warranty. The
plsintiff purchased two of the lot?, No. 7 and No. 8, each con-
sisting of 30 heifers, at £12 ISs per head. With these lots he
did not find fault, because he considered that the disease was
confitied to lot No. 11. The plaintiff was afterwards solicited
to insprect lots Nos. 10 and 11. The defenJaut pledged him-
self to their quality ; aa he said ever/ one of (hem had been
reared by himself, he (plaintiff) need not be afraid, as he would
engage every one of them, and if he wduU consent to take the
catile he might pay him in any way he thou'^ht proper. The
plaintiff was, accordingly, induced to buy lot No. 10 at the
rate of £12 153. per head, and to purchase eventually the re-
m-iining l:.t, No. 11. He likewise purchased ten bullocks from
Lord Ashtown. These heifers were brought to Carlow ; they
stopped at intervals along the road, and were taken care of by
a trustworthy servant. Upon the 12th October they stopped
at Mr. Johnsuii's, of Miltowu, !iear Athy, where they were per-
mitted to remain for the night. Mr. Juhnson observe! that
two of the lieiiers laboured under tlie disease; one o: them
being considerably worse thau tlie other, and he co.isidered
that the lot was distempered. The cattle were removed to a
farm of the plaintiff's, which was situate a few miles from Car-
low (Garry hindon), The plaintiff saw tl;e cattle in the morn-
ing, and he perceived that one of them was distempered. He
separated the diseased beast from the rest. She was so bad
that he sent her to Smithfield at once ; and instead of selling
ber, they were at once obliged to slaughter her. In a few days
another heifer in lot No. 11 exhibited symptoms of distemper :
170 beasts in all became infected withand displajed symptoms
of this latent infirmity ana disease. It appeared that the
disease, which first exhibited itself upon the continent, was ia
the year 1842 or 1843 introduced into Ireland. A post-
mortem examioation of the animal plainly demonstrated that
it was a disease which grew upon it day after day. The affec-
tion was this — the lungs adhered to the side, fastened, as it
were, by ligatures ; it was difficult to tear the lung from the
side, and became necessary, in fact, to tear them asunder. The
period of development ranged from three to six weeks, and thia
fact coincided remarkably with the present case. The learned
counsel then read several letters which passed between the
plaintiff and the defendant. In reply to a communication from
the plaintiff to the defendant, written oti the 20th of October,
1857, he (^defendant) stated " that he had no sickness amongst
his cattle for two or three years ; that lot No. 11 were not fed
upon the same farm aa the others had been ; that the latter,
which he had since, were yearlings, and had been fed in Ros-
common, where no sickness had been for three years; that lot
No. 11 had been bought last April with others which had been
sold only in September to the butchers at Ballinasloe, and that

there had not been any complaint from any quarter in' refer-
ence to them. The plaintiff' examined more closely lot No. 11,
and discovered that they could not have been reared by the
defendant. Some of them had different brands, and some
were not branded at ail. This lot he separated from the other?.
He kept lot No, 11 at the farm to \^hich they had first gone,
and he tcattered the rest among his other farms. The result,
however, was that the infection spread. On the 1st of Novcru-
ber, 1857, the plaintiff wrote to the defendant, stating that !;e
was sorry at being obliged to inform him that he had four cf
the heifers of lot No. 11 very bad with the lung di;temper —
that there must have been some disease iu that lot for a consi-
derable time, although he (defendant) might not have been
aware of the fact, and tliat he was preparing to send them by
a float, as the railway company would not take sick cattle ia
their trucks. The defendant did not cniwcr these or other
lefters. There was a complete examination of lot No. 11. A
Mr. Slia-jghnesay acted on behalf cf the defendant. The
plaintiff said that there must have been some disease amouist
the cattle. Shaughncssy was rather reserved in his manner,
but he said he was certain the defendant could have warranted
every lot from No. 1 to No, 10. It wonH seem that lot No. 11
wa3 a mixed lot, which had been collected for the purpose of
rapid sale. It was arranged that the cattle should be shipped
to Liverpool, and disposed of there. A proposition was mada
to leave tiie matter to the arbitiatioa of two respectable and
experienced gentlemen ; but this was not carried into effect.
On the 27th of November, 1357, "- letter was written by the
pl.<iiiitiff toMr.Shaughnessy.tellinghiin t.hathehad been obliged
to ship six of the heifers that day, and three of them on tho
previous day, iu all eleven ; and that " it was surely madness
in the defendant not to give instructions to him in reference to
what he desired to be done with the r?mainder, as the lo.<.s
would and must eveiituiilly fall upon him" (defendant). 0:r
the 28th November, 1837, another letter wss written by tV^i:
plaintiff to the defendant, to which there was not any reply.
Upon the 30th of November another letter followed, complain-
ing that six more of the cattle were ill, and informing him that
he should send them off that very night, requiting instructions
as to what he should do with the cattle, and expressing his
firm conviction that all of them ?vould die. After this tho
plaint. ff announced that three more of the beasts were sick of
the distemper, and (hat prompt mcsaures were required on the
part of the defendant, otherwise they could net be rescued
from the disease, and the loss consequent upon the distemper
could not be averted.

The p'aiutiff deposed as follows :— Heis an extensive grazier,
holdiiur about 1,500 acres of Isnd, chiefly iu Carlow and Kil-
dare ; he had knoan the defendant nearly three years; he
wa3 a large stock proprietor ; on the 2nd of August he houg- t
about ten bullocks from Mr. J. Hudson, at his place, near
Atbloue ; these were afterwards sent home along with the
catile purchased from the defendant ; the 8th cf October m as
the black cattle fair day at Ballinasloe; the defendant had a
particular stand by the boundary wall of the fair ground, ia
lots of thirty, so that they were completely separated from the
rest of the cattle ; the warranty given by the defendant was
to this effect; he said, "By my honour, my dear fellow, I have
not had a case of distemper or disease amongst my cattle for
the last two years ; I have had them almost from the time
they were calves, and I can warrant every heifer which I bare
in the fair as sound," and putting his hand upon his shoulder,
he said '• Now buy a few lots from me," witness purchased
lots Nos. 7 and 8, for £12 153. per head; required the cattle
with the view of selling them in the following summer; aftfr
he had made this purchase from the defendant, he went through
the fair and looked at several lots ; he bought lot No. 10 at
the same price; subsequently bought lot No. 11, and with
these alao the same warranty or engagement was given ; sent
lots of the cattle to his different farms, which were separate
and far apart in the county of Carlow ; the disease broke out
amougst the cattle in every instance ; the nearest farm to
Dublin upon which he had the cattle, except one farm, was
forty-four miles.

Cross-examined by Mr. Battersby, Q,.C. — One of the heifers
had slipped her shoulder, and she died upon the road ; wrote
to the defendant in reference to this, and he in a very hand-
some manner sent him a £5 note ; he considered that it was
a very handsome thing to do, as there was no warranty given,
and the defendant was not bouikd to act as he had done ; and
this he would say, he very much regretted having had any

iU

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ini.undei-s(ai)diug with the- clefetidant; had several " strip-
pers" en his Li.id iu Afgiiat kii; perhaps lie liad 50 or 60;
had no (.dd cows ; couia i.ot te'ii how iiiii;> huaJred hurued
caUle he had on hialand in that mouth ; liad several hundreds,
about 250; had these from the previous October; his man
ha 1 sold beasts to a butcher named George Hirley ; had only
tivo distsQipered cowi on his land before the 1st of October,
an 1 these he disposed of at ouce ; in the year 1847 he lost 125
head of cattle ; couhl not tell where be bought these, but could
B'vear positively that he had no distempered cow on his lands
for nine months before the fair at Ballinasloe ; about nine or
tvn years a^o a man of bis made an en^cagement about a horse
he sold to a party, and he (Mr. Battersby) defended him ; be-
fore he bought the cattle heard that there was a good deal of
riistamper in the fair; would not consider it safe to put sound
cattle upon land where there had been distempered cattle be-
fore three months ; thought there waa gr^at danger from the
virus, the saliva, distempered mucous, and droppings from the
mouths of diseased cattle remaiuiog upon the land ; the disease
VI 33 not pevceptible for one mouth to six weeks; detailed the
fv I'ptoms exhibited in the first week after its development;
thf? animal gets off its feed, has a cough and weeping eyes, &c.;
the disease is highly contagious, and he believed infectious;
the defendant said to hira that statemeufs were valueless ; he
w.^nt to a table, took up a book, and said, " So help me God
liie cattle were sou!id, and I had not a single dist-impered cow
upon ray land."

To Mr. Smythe — The hei.'ers (150) that did not take the
d slemper were separated from the defeudact's cattle ; some of
them were forty miles nauuder.

James Murphy examined by Mr, Mauasell — Was the plaiii-
tiifs herd; was present when he purchased the cattle from
tlie defendant ; had charge of the heifers ; took every care of
tliem ; drove theia six udles the first day, and nine or fen the
rext day ; delayed longer than usual, in consequence of the
multitude of cattle which he had to drive; when he saw Mr.
Johns'^'U on his own land he said that the cattle hdd the dis-
temper, and he pointed out two that had disease; on the ritxt
d ly wiicii the cattle were at Garryhiudon the herd said that
t^o of them were sxk.

Cross-eximined by Mr. Ball, Q, C. — Had the cattle on the
fi^jld of the hotel-keeper at Shannon Brid,'a ; there were other
cittlo en that land which had been sold at Ballinasloe ; the
rattle remained that night at Shannon Bridge ; they slept at
I'raukfor!; the next ii'ght ; on the third night they slept at
Tinnahinch ; paid for the grass ; there were no other cattle
there ; the cattle day, and the day before that at Ballinasloe,
were fine days.

To Mr. Maunsell — Prevented the cattle from mixing with
other cattle every night.

Mr. George Johnson examined by Mr. Byrne — The herd
brought th-2 cattle to his field after the fair; observed two of
them lyiiig do'.vii on t'.ie field, and expressed the opinion that
they bad tlie distemper.

Eobert llickey examined by Mr. H. Smvthe, Q.C. — Was of
the Dublin firm " Hickey and Hanberry ;" on the 19lh of
October sold a siek beast for the plaintiff for £7 ; she was
b idly affected with "pleuro pneumouia;" considered that the
disease was contagious ; the beast must have been sick more
tian a month ; sold other sick animals for the plaintiff.

Owen Dunne examined by Mr; Maunsell — On the 14th of
October brought a boiler of lot No. 11 to the butcher; ou being
opened that bea'it exhibited symptoms of disease ; the lungs
and other parts were a mass of yellow matter.

Joseph Kilbe? exaraii'ed by Mr. Byrne — Is a salemaster in
Liverpool and a grazier in Ireland ; several of the cattle were
sent to hiiQ which had the lung disease; his experience was
cou'iiderable ; the disease was latent about six weeks before it
exhibited itself ; was examined aa a witness before the House
of Comraoni relative to the disease ; witness made the sales
for the plaintiff ; the cattle, if sound, would have brought £6
per head more than they did.

To Mr. Baltersby — Saw the cattle in the fair ; did not ob-
serve thefii much, but thought at the time that they were sold
at a cheap rate ; considered that in a fat market, not a store
market, both buyer and seller could know that disease existed
in cuttle if they were thin ; Liverpool was a fat market — a
town market; Ballinasloe a store or fair market; cattle were
often sold as sound that were unsound; adhered to the evi-
dence which he had given before the committee.

Mr. Anthony Allen examined — Is a salemaster ; lives in

Wicklow; is an extensive grazier; the disease is highly con-
tagious; it did not devflope itself earlier tlmn six weeks; had
experience of the disease in cattle that had been sold to him-
self.

Patrick Maher — Is an extensive grazier in Meath ; the dis-
ease is contagious ; it takes a month or longer to develope the
disease; a beast whose lungs were a jelly on the 14th of Oc-
tober must have been infected before the 9th.

To Mr. Ball, Q.C. — Could not say whether the disease was
in the air, or was communicated by food or touch, or by all of
these ; but the general opinion amongst those with whom he
associated was that the disease was contagious.

Mr. Battersby, Q.C, stated the defendant's case in au able
speech. He knew it would be difficult to counteract the effect
that had been maiie upon their minds by the address of his
excellent and most plausible friend, Mr. M'Douough. There
was not any doubt that the plaintiff had sustained a loss : the
question was, who was to bear that loss ? Tne case for the
defendant was, that he had 496 head of cattle, in lots of 30
each, and that not one of them was diseased. The beasts sold
to other persons wen sound ; not a single one of them was
unsound. The defendant was not only an honest dealer, but
a liberal one also, and it would be a hard case if he were now
obliged to pay the plaintiff for cattle that had taken the
distemper after they left his bauds. There were 93 beasts that
had been bought in the mouth of April. The defendant did
not tell the plaintiff that all these had been reared from calves,
but he spoke of the first lot at which he looked. On the 24th
of August there was one beast that was diseased, but the rest
were perfect'y sound. Could it be held that a dealer was re-
sponsible for every head of cattle that might happen to die ?
The warranty was not confined to cattle : it w as given as to
horses, and even in the case of an insurance upon life. Sup-
pose a life, insured upon the 24th of Augutt, exhibited on the
14th of October the symptoms of a latent disease, would it be
an answer to the widow that there was an invisible germ of dis-
ease? The germ might exist, but this was not the disease itself.
When disease did arise it was perceptible from the first moment
of its existence. Tne" disease was, in fact, au inflAmmatiou
of the luugs, and could that disease in a horse be distinguished
from the same disease in a cow ? There was no law of science
or art to show the rapidity with which such a disease pro-
gressed, but it was palpable that when it existed it developed
itself. Tne fair of Ballinasloe was full of diseased beasts, and
a? the disease was contagious or infectious, there was an
abundant opportunity for contracting it at the fair, even if the
cattle hsd not been for several days travelling along the road
to the (arm of the plaintiff. What security was there if a man
could be held respousible for the breaking out of any imper-
ceptible " germ" ? The effect of such a stringent rule would
be, that every seller in Ballinasloe would have a board displayed
near his cattle with these printed words, " These cattle are not
warranted sound." Were they to trust to such a warranty as
that relied upon by the plaintiff, it would be a prolific source
of litiji;ation. " Germ, virus, warranty," would be three most
msgical, most potent words, to put money into the pockets of
the bar of Ireknd. If they sold a horse, and warranted him
as sound, any man who understood the subject could pronounce
an opinion as to its soundness ; but here was a case where
confessedly there was no appearance of disease when the cattle
were sold ; and because tliey afterwards got distempered, the
defendant was to be held responsible. It was a strange and
most dangerous proposition. The learned counsel thsn ca'led
evidence for the defence.

Walter F. M'Donough, defendant, examined by Mr. Ball,
Q,C. — Resided near Ballinasloe; grazed about 1,100 head of
cattle in the year ; sold three lots to the plaintiff at the fair ;
they had been brought from his farm ; 27 of the lot of No. 11
had been grazed upon the island of Innisshank, in the King's
County ; that lot consisted of 30 ; three ol the lot were fed in
Roscommon ; there were two cases of distemper on the island,
one in July, the other in August ; so'd two at the fair of Eyre-
court to a butcher for £25; that butcher, whose name was
Barrett, had gone to America; never had a sick beast since
that day anywhere; sold at Banagher60 that had been grazing
on the island ; they were perfectly sound ; sold 30 to Mr.
Eyre, and 30 to Mr. Malone.

Mr. M'Donough, Q.C, objected to this evidence. Would
Dycer in Dublin be permitted to give evidence that he sold 60
horses that were sound as an answer to an alleged breach of
warranty in the case of an unsound horse ?

THE far:v]er'S magazine.

41c

Mr. Batteraby, Q,.C., pressed the question.

The Lord Chief Justice ruled that the evidence was not ad-
missible.

Mr Battersby, Q,.C., asked his lordship to take a note
that he offered to give evidence that every head of cattle
on the island was sound, and that he refused to admit that
evidence.

His lordship said that the plaintiff could not be expected to
meet the case of the sales to other parties, but it was open to
the defendant to give evidence to prove that all the cattle
grazed on the island which were sold to the plaintiff were
sound, and to give general evidence that the cattle grazed on
the land were sound.

The defendant then said that all the cattle sold at Ballinasloe
were sound ; had seen the lots before the fair ; was present at
the drawing and lotting of them ; there were four lots ; all
were sound ; had not the slightest doubt of it ; there was no
question about his telling the plaintiff that the cattle were
sound ; when he bought the first lot, defendant told him that
he had reared them from calves ; it was not true that he had
said this in reference to lot No. 11 ; since the 24th of August
no beast had exhibited disease ; ninety head of cattle were
sent to the island, and mixed with lot No. 11, in the month of
September, and remained till December ; all of these were as
sound as a bell ; a book happened, unfortunately, to be near
him on the occasion of the fair; he put his hand upon it, and
said he had not given him an unsound beast at Ballinasloe ;
disease might appear suddenly ; could not say whether the
disease was communicated through the air.

Chief Jusiice — He would be a wise man who could.

Cross-examination of defendant — Looked at the lots gene-
rally ; did not examine their heads or feel their fat ; whose
brand but his would be on the cattle ? bought the cattle (30 of
them) at Eyrecourt upon the 24th of April, and the others on
the 7th of May, at Ballinasloe; could not say in which of
these places the lot was bought; the two distempered heifers
sold in July and August were of those bought in April or May;
made the sale to Barrett ; positively said that he did not
swear in the arbitration room that he had no distemper on his
lands for two years; looked into his books, and found that
nineteen months before the fair of Ballinasloe there was a case
of distemper in a cow ; in 1857 there were two cases of dis-
temper on the land.

Mr. Samuel Garnett examined by Mr. F. Johnson — Saw the
stock, and was of opinion that they were sound, and did not
know from whence the disease came, no more than the captain

of a vessel could say how the tempest arose , had known cattle
said to have been unsound turn out to be perfectly sound.

Mr. Peter Aungier — Is a salemaster ; cattle which he had
seen well at night, were in the morning reported as being ill ;
had known cattle when slaughtered exhibit disease, of which
the seller had no idea.

Mr. Patrick Leonard — Heard the defendant say to the
plaintiff, taking up a book (a registry of his), "As sure as that
is a Bible, the cattle I sold at Ballinasloe were sound;" always
thought a herd could at once detect the disease ; was of opinion
that the beasts were sound.

The Lord Chief Justice charged the jury. He said it was
not necessary for him to do more than occupy their time for a
few minutes, in stating the rights of the plaintiff and the
liability of the defendant. The que:tion was, whether the
heifers that were sold were at the time of the sale all sound,
or whether any of them were affected with any disorder ?
There was another issue — whether, if some of the cattle were
affected, they did not affect others ? If this were so, the party
was liable, not alone for the original damage, but also for the
consequences of that original damage. It was a case in which
the defendant had warranted that all the cattle were sound ;
it was in vain to say that the warranty was a puff. It was
admitted that the defendant had warranted them. The ques-
tion was, were the cattle sound agreeably to the warranty?
The effect of a warranty was this — it made a man responsible
for all defects known or unknown to the seller ; and it was no
defence for him to say that ia his conscience he believed that
the cattle were sound. He had given his warranty — he had
induced the buyer to purchase upon the faith of the engage-
ment that the cattle were sound, and he had guaranteed him
against any loss which might result from the purchase. It
had been said that if this were to be the consequence of a war-
ranty, every man at a cattle fair should put up a placard
intimating that he did not warrant the cattle. All that he had
to do was to hold his tongue and give no warranty at all ;
besides this, there were insurance offices that would willingly
insure cattle and protect the buyer from any loss consequent
upon the sale. In conclusion, his lordship said that the jury
should look to the gradual development of the disease in the
cattle of the plaintiff himself after they became mixed with
the cattle sold by the defendant, and consider whether, under
all the circumstances, the plaintiff was entitled to their verdict.

The jury retired, and in a few minutes returned with a
verdict for the plaintiff upon all the counts — Damages £1,000
sterling.

LABOUR AND WAGES,

Mr. James Howard, of the well-known linn of agri-
cultural implement makers, recently delivered a lecture
on this subject; to the members of the Bedford Working-
men's Institute. The address, vfhich did great credit to
Mr. Howard's powers as a lecturer, is too long for us to
give entire. The conclusion is, perhaps, the more appli-
cable to our columns : —

Wages vary in different trades considerably, and where the
work is equally laborious. How is this; is it an accident, or
is there any law which influences the rate of pay ? I think
there is. Why should an oak sell for more than a willow or a
fir, or even than elm and ash ? Simply because it costs mote
to produce : an oak takes generatioua to come to maturity,
therefore several lots of fir trees could be grown and sold on
the space occupied by the oak. I said before that the cost of
production rules the price of all commodities ; and as labour
is a commodity, it rules that also. How so ? Why, any
awkward fellow can sift gravel and very soon shoulder a hod,
but to be able to build a good wall, or turn a nice arch, re-
quires the labour of a practised bricklayer. It costs, therefore,
more iu time and money to produce a good bricklayer than to
make a slab— to produce a good smith than a hammer-man —
a good engineer than a stoker. An engineer obtains better
wages than a bricklayer or a carpenter ; for the same reasons,
the bricklayer gets better wages than the slab, i.e , it costs
more in time and money to make a youth a proficient engineer

Ihan it would do to make him a bricklayer. Pleasantness of
0 'cupation and freeness from risk are also elements to be taken
into account. A man won't go down into a coal mine and
work for the same price as he can get in the light of day.
Men don't leave pleasant employments for less agreeable ones
without hoping to better their condition. Occupations re-
quiring greater strength or bodily labour than others are also
better°paid. When men mow grass they get better pay than
when trimming a hedge. So with furnace tenders and rollers
of metal, where, owing to heat and exertion combined, a good
deal of sweat is lost, and a good deal of beer poured down to
supply the waste ; their wages are necessarily higher, for the
simple reason, it costs more to keep them up to the mark.
We could multiply such reasons at great length, such as con-
tinuous employment ; but I hope I have said enough to prove
that wages do not depend on chance, but are on the main re-
gulated by some general principle. There is one principle I
have not alluded to, but which all will do well to bear in mind,
for it not only influences wages, but leads to constant employ-
ment— I mean a good character. 'Tis said a "rolling stone
gathers no moss," and I do not know what is more likely to
make a man roll than a bad character. I intended to go into
the question of piece-work, but time will not permit, I like
the system, as it enables the workmen to earn higher wages,
and the master pays for no more and no less than is done. I
never had any difiiculty in letting a job by the piece. I
hear there are difficulties in other trades, but I think

F F

416

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

they would vauish wheu the s;yatem csme iuto opera-
tion. 'Ti3 worthy of remark and consideration, that those
trades have made the greatest progress where piece-work has
been the rule. It gives the industrious and skilful man a
great advantage over the lazy and unskilful one. It also sets
the energies of mind to work to find out readier and quicker
methods of getting over work ; and I hope to see the plan
more generally adopted in Bedford. I quite believe it would
answer in the building trades. I have no time to enter on
overtime. It may do with your slow day-workmen ; but 'tis
of no advantage to men by the piece. We have hitherto
spoken mainly of the labour of the hand : we will now turn to
another kind of labour, and this by no means the easiest kind.
I mean the labour of the brain, quite as important as the
other — to none more so than to the working classes ; for it is
by the labour of the brain that man's bodily labour is pro-
fitably conducted, new branches of industry opened up, new
material discovered on which to expend labour. Many of you
visited the Great Exhibition, 1851, and were doubtless im-
pressed, as I was, with this idea — What an amount of thought
and ingenuity has been expended in bringing our manufactured
products to their present high degree of perfection ? Why
were we before every other nation in the excellence and va-
riety of our manufacttires ? Simply because we had brought
to bear on them more mind, or, in other words, a greater
amount of reasoning and intellectual power ; and, mark you,
'tis only as we keep in advance of other countries that we
shall command the trade. If you could buy as good a saw
made in Bedford as in Sheffield, you would not send to the
latter place for it. So with the American — if he can buy as
good hardware in New York as in Birmingham, he will not
send across the Atlantic for it ; nor will the French, the Aus-
trians, the Russians, continue to send to England for agricul-
tural machinery, unless we continue to produce better than
they can get at home. So excellent as our manufactures
doubtless are, we must not stand still, but use every effort,
both men and masters, to make something still better. Im-
proved machinery has the effect of saving labour, and therefore
was supposed to diminish employment. I am aware that it
does so in particular instances ; but, as I will attempt to show,
the effect is but temporary. There is one very hackneyed
but very striking illustration. It ia nearly four hundred
years since printing was discovered. Great numbers of men
were employed in writing and copying books. Owing to the
amount of labour, books were very dear. A bible coat £30,
so very few people bad bibles. The immediate effect of this
discovery was, that these writers were thrown out of employ-
ment. Now suppose, for the sake of keeping these men em-
ployed, or for the love of clinging to old methods, the world
had destroyed the presses, can you estimate the loss which
would have been entailed on the world ? At all events, we
should not have wanted the army of printers we now employ.
Take, again, the cotton and woollen trades, now about the
most important branches of our national industry. On the intro-
duction of the power-loom and Arkwright's spinning machinery,
great distress resulted to the hand spinners and weavers of
Lancashire and Yorkshire. Suppose they had successfully
opposed, as they attempted, their introduction, and stuck
to the old method, what would have been the result.^
Why, not a single hand would now have been employed in
the cotton trade in those districts ; the machinery would
have been transplanted to America or the Continent. We
need not, however, travel beyond Bedford to prove that
although machinery may for a time be injurious to one clasa
of working men, that it is beneficial to the mass. Some of
you are aware that at Well-street foundry we have a new
system of making castings by machinery. The moulders,
of course, looked upon the machines at first with no
riendly eye, for with a machine one man can do as much
work as two or three could by hand. It did not do the
moulders much good, I confess ; nor, I think, a great deal
of harm ; but how did it affect the other branches.'^ In
this waj\ Last year we made 500 more implements than
we could have done without the moulding machines ; con-
sequently a great number of smiths, fettlers, fitters, painters,
and porters were benefited, whilst the machines only
aifected the interest of some half-dozen moulders. Again,
look at railways. Most of us remember their introduction,
and what a hue-and-cry was raised about the ruin they
would bring upon coachmen, guards, ostlers, innkeepers,
proprietors, and even farmers were dragged in, for we

should want no horses, and therefore no horse corn. Well
the country has not been ruined, if a few of the class I have
named did not do eo well as before. We should all be
sorry to go back to coach days : 129. to go to London on
the outside cf a coach in six hours, &c. Some of us re-
member the war waged by agricultural labourers against
thrashing machines, and how they broke them up and
burnt them ; but time changes men's ideas, and now these
very men refuse to thrash with the flail. Had it not been
for the steam thrashing machine after the harvest of 1856,
we should have had bread at famine prices, for the old
stock of corn was all gone, and we had to live upon the new
crop. The demand, therefore, for the new crop was so
great, that a'l the steam thrashing machines were kept in
constant work for months. I verily believe, if it had not
been for steam thrashers, the 41bs. loaf would have been at
Is. 4d, Machinery raises man's 'intelligence. I don't
believe in man's doing the work of brutes ; I look upon
man as too noble to be made a machine of. I remember he
is made in God's image, and I hope to see the day when
every description of labour which taxes the physical powers
of man, shakes his frame, blunts his intellect, and such as
is only fit for beasts of burden, will be performed by
machinery. Surely it will be better, as in the steam
thrashing machine, instead of employing man's brute force
in exceedingly laborious occupations, to overcome them,
his intelligence shall be employed in directing machinery
to perform it. It is a startling fact, that until the intro-
duction of machinery, especially the steam engine, the
progress and population of the country went on very
slowly ; but who can measure all the strides it has
since taken .^ In 1780, less than 80 years ago, just at the
dawn of the new era, when machinery came to the help of
labour, our population was about 8 millions, now it is above
20 millions ; while the increase from 1575 to 1750 was not
more than about I.3 millions. The rapid increase in the
number of the people, as well as their improved condition,
clearly indicate that the means of employment and sub-
sistence had been materially enlarged ; and I think you will
agree with me that this advance in population and wealth can
only be accounted for by the fact that the machinery, which
it was feared would diminish employment, has enormously
increased it. To oppose machinery, therefore, is to fly in
the face of the best friend the working men of England ever
had, and is about as wise as it would be to attempt to shut
out the light of the sun. Having endeavoured to show the
importance of labour, I shall, in bringing my subject to a
close, glance at the respectability and dignit}' of labour. If
we turn to sacred writ, we find the praises of industry
sounded throughout its pages. We read — " The hand of
the diligent shall bear rule." " Seest thou a man diligent
in business: he shall stand before princes; he shall not
stand before mean men." The patriarchs, the apostles, and
even our Saviour himself, by example, showed to their own
and all succeeding ages that honest labour was honourable.
There can be no question that some occupations are more
honourable than others; and every man who endeavours to
rise in life does well. Far be it from me to speak lightly of
social rank ; but I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that in
the present day there are amongst us some who set up false
standards of respectability — who look down with a stupid,
ignorant contempt upon ttie lower or industrial classes, I
am not sure that the ability to produce wealth is not as re-
spectable as its mere possession. I am not sure that honest
labour is not as respectable, and as honourable too, as
luxurious indolence. I would not confound those who,
raised by the industry of their fathers or forefathers above
the necessity of toiling for themselves, devote their lives to
honourable and useful pursuits; but I mean a class with
whom the moving, acting, working world has no sympathy,
and which laughs at the miserable, shrivelled gentility which
prides itself upon having had nothing to do with trade, and
can never embark in any pursuit for the benefit of their
fellow-creatures which might bring them in contact with
anything so degrading as manual or mercantile industry.
These idlers of society are not, however, to be confounded
with those of the upper classes who devote their time to
honourable and useful pursuits — happily for this country, a
class that is becoming more and more numerous. Yes, if
you want to find the real " friends of the peo})le," you must
not look for them among those who proclaim themselves

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

417

such, but among the long list of honourable, distin-
guished men who are always ready, with time and money,
to help forward any project having in view " the health,
the wealth, the happiness of the working classes." One
word in conclusion. If the working men would rise to a
position of greater respectability and influence in this
countr}', they can do so by becoming; more intelligent. We
are approaching a time when men will be respected accord-
ing to their knowledge and conduct ; and nothing can pre-
vent you from becoming more powerful than j'ou already
are, but from remaining less intelligent than the classes
above you. A long line of distinguished men has sprung
up from your ranks — men whom any class might be proud
to rank among their number. Watt, a mechanic, gave us
the steam engine ; Stephenson, a pitman, gave us the rail-

way. Here are two men, sprung from your ranks, v/ho
have done more for trade, and towards developing the re-
sources of this country, than all the mechanical men who
evei lived. And have you no men to boast of, who have
conferred benefits on mankind of a higher order ? Look
through the pages of the British Workman ; and j'OU will
be proud of what the world owes to working men. I could
enumerate them, but will only remind you of oue — a name
which will live as long as time lasts ; a man of whom the
working men of Bedford maj' feel justly proud, and wliose
works they will do v.'ell to study. I mean the immortal
John Bunyan. I\Iay you follow in the footsteps of that
noble man, and at last, when the labour of life has termi-
nated, enter into rest !

AN ENGLISH FARMER IN FRANCE.

Sir, — My last letter, on the growth of beet for sugar,
has rather interrupted my narrative ; but ! thought it so
interesting a subject to your readers, I could not for-
bear sending it.

Having seen the town of Dunkirk, the country next
became of course the object of attraction. As the popu-
lation is a trifle under 30,000, half a mile from the
centre brings you to any one of the nine gates, at each
of which is an " octroi" office, and a couple of men to
attend to it. I thought, perhaps, they might have
asked me for my passport ; but, no, that is one of the
duties of the gendarmes ; but I believe you may travel
from one end of France to the other, without being re-
quested to show it, unless you stop more than one night
at the same hotel.

Directly yoa are outside the fortifications it is the
country ; and I will endeavour to describe my first coup
d'wil of a foreign landscape, to me a most interesting
moment.

A straight and well-paved road and footpath ; a row
of stunted elms on one side, and willows on the other ; a
canal running parallel (the earth excavated in the
making it having evidently been used to raise the road
some feet higher than the adjoining land) ; half-a-dozen
windmills and some small white houses with only a
ground floor and a garret under the pantile roof ; the
land dotted with fruit trees, and divided into small
market gardens by narrow hedges full of willows polled ;
and here you have the view.

At the moment, two fine barges were passing, loaded
with coals from Belgium. They had a sail each, but the
first was assisted by three men and a woman, at the end
of a long tow rope, and both were guided by a woman
at each helm.

'Twaa market-day at Bergue, another old fortified
frontier town, 4J miles distant ; so I walked there.
As I proceeded, I was indeed surprised at the surpassing
richness of tJe soil. Round Dunkirk it is a blackish
sandy loam, which varies throughout this splendid
district of 100 miles south (and I am told over Belgium
and Holland), in all the gradations of colour and c >-
hesiveness of loam, with a top-soil of a yard in depth,
and a subsoil of brick-earth and marl, requiring no foot
on the tool which digs it. We have laad as fine in Eng-
land, but certainly not in such a continuous length.

The cultivation is most excellent ; leveller, straighter,
or deeper ploughing I never saw, and executed with a
pair of horses iu a most primitive drap plough, so siiort
in beam and handles that, had I not seen it, I never
could have believed it possible to have produced such
superior work. They go quite close to the ditch, and
the few inches left they dig ; so not an inch is lost. The
land is all as clean as a garden : even the old hedges are

hoed ; and we certainly might with advantage copy theif
mode of making them. All is alive. The stakes are
nine inches apart, three feet high ; and the plashes, at an
angle of forty-five degrees, are all tied with a small
willow twig at every place where they cross the stakes,
the whole being eithered at top, and that also tied to
every stake in same manner. It is often not more than
three inches diameter, and is the neatest hedge I ever
saw, quite impervious to pigs and sheep, and well
adapted to ariible land. Some may fancy the labour of
it expensive, but I think not more so than ours. It is
sometimes quick, but often elm ; the seed of which is
sown to procure the plants, which are inserted in a single
row.

Some grass orchards I have seen enclosed with a live
hedge, six or seven feet high, of hornbeam, as large as
your arm or leg, a very few inches apart, and the
branches interwoven and tied, as the other ; it is a fence
for a lion, and, like the other, taking but a little space :
both these are worthy of imitation.

One hundred acres are here considered a good-sized
farm : many are owned by the occupiers.

I gave you, in a few lines back, my first view of this
immense vale ; I will now, having penetrated some miles
into it, endeavour to depict its general appearance.

I expected to find the country have a very dotted
appearance, from its numerous subdivisions among small
owners ; but it is not so, the marks being small square
stones, half buried, and no " grass baulks" being left ;
and all now being ploughed for wheat or spring crops,
T could often fancy myself in a level parish in England,
under the (recently altered) old "common-land" system.
The land has the appearance of immense ploughed fields,
with occasionally smaller ones, of the richest grass,
nearly all water-meadows, the ditches on both sides
being thickly planted with willows. Sometimes ap-
parently unmeaning rows of tall branchless wych elms
are seen, and always on the sides of accommodation-
roads to the farms, and now and then in square clumps,
like Indian topes, giving an appearance in the distance
of a wooded district, which it is not. Windmills, barns
standing singly, small round ricks of corn, cottages and
square-enclosed farmyards — all combine to make a
pleasing landscape, for a flat one. You may consider
this a picture of the whole country.

They were wheat-sowing, and I saw one harrow
drawn bv two men, which may give you some idea of
the tenderness of the soil. They are excellent seeds-
men, seldom drilling the wheat, but generally sowing
five pecks an acre, and ploughing it in with one horse.
It lies usually in large lands, and the smaller pieces
seem often to have been ploughed many times one way,
so that no furrow is seen, and all slopes from centre to

F F 2

418

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

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 is —
betteraves; 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 har-
vested 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 ; con-
sequently it is all woefully made too much, put in little
stacks, and when sold at £3 IDs. 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 thsy 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-siep 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 Gs. per bushel.
The land is generally immediately ploughed, and sown
with white turnips (like our six-weeks' turnips), which
«ome 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 re-
turn 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
accumulati.ons in the purchase of land, which fetches an
enormous price. A highly- respectable notary informed
me 2| 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 white 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
waagon of corn themselves ; pitch it in the market-
place, 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 hero 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 pleuro-
pneumonia.

After a few days' stay at the principal hotel at Dun-
kirk 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, lOd. ; 661bs. of luggage is allowed
each passenger; all above is charged, but very mode-
rately. The grass grows between tlie rails, the station-
houses 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 ivomun 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,
upright, four inches apart, with two longer ones tied
together along the top ; and at every five feet an oak
post, of which a pole of six or eight inches diameter
would make four, the whole being tied together by three
double railn (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
than you would fancy, has stood seventeen years, and
with new posts will stand many longer. It is good
against sheep and hogs, and might often be economically
applied at home — a good protection to a young quick
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 (halfway). I saw
two or three small hop grounds, on ridges much nar-
rower 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 frold 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 entree of rail-
ways 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
couise all necessaries are found them ; and I am not at
all astonished at their predilection for military life :
they have little to do.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.'

419

In time I arrived at Lille, the principal manufac-
turing town in all France : its Manchester, with a po-
pulation, including a radius of two miks, 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 English-
men stop here, as all haste on to Paiis ; 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 iveek than in many parts of England for
£\. 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 catlle were shown was ornamented with a
profusion of tri-coloured flag^, and a pavilion was erected
for the notabilities who distributed the 38 prizes, which
amounted to £'342. Agriculture is particularly pa-
tronized 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 hetterave 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 baited 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 " 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
£2S, £24, and £20.

The second class consisted of three lots. The first
were Flemish bullocks, without reference to age; ihese
had three prizes of £I6, £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 somethin'^
like a very coarse Ayrshire ; the second prize, of £l2,
more like a Hereford ; and the honourably mentioned
was a little thick dun bullock, like a bad Highlander.

The third lot were 2 7 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, £8 —
in 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 priz^, of £10, was an English roan ; very good
also. Third, of £9, was a Dutch cow; fourth, of £S,
was half-Ena;lish and Flemish — very neat, but small ;
fifth, of £7; sixth, of £6; seventh, of £5 lOs. ;
eighth, of £5 ; ninth, of £4 lOs. ; 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, i:i 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 Sj months old ; nothing particu-
larly 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 w^ere shorn : the
last lot cut lOlbs, wool each (lOd. per lb.), and would
weigh 11 stone each. The 2nd class was divided into
two lots ; one without restrictions, and the other me-
rino 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 half-
Flemish 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. Short-legged, hardy, white hogs,
two prizes of £4 and £3 were given in class 1 (all
French breed), and three of £4, £3, and £2 in class
2 for cross-breeds. This concludes the list of cattle.

At 3 o'clock the Prefect of the Department, the Inspec-
tor-General of Agriculture from Paris, the Mayor of Lille,
their secretaries, and others, all in diplomatic blue uni-
forms, cocked hats, and sworda, 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 agri-
culture in the north, combining it with manufactures,
by feeding the cattle on their refuse, making Lille
an especial place (jf attraciion to all who had an
interest in land. He thanked all who had as-
sisted, and the many who had come from
distant parts to do honour to the meeting. The Go-
vernment was anxious to give every encouragement pos-
sible 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 ilie name of

420

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

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 AS FOOD FOR CATTLE.

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 Rich-
mond 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, Coach-
ford — " 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),

which was not half its value. My plan of culture —
sow 28lb. 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 turnip-
cutter, 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 sup-
porting 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 use-
less 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 prepariug
was, first the cutting spade and pounder ; l)ut 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.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

421

Six horses, one mule, four working bullocks,
and twenty heifers, were supplied every day. The
horses got three firkins well filled every day ; the
mule two; working bullocks three eachj heifers

one each; a few firkins to the milk cows; working
horses and working bullocks got a little hay also.
One man and a boy provided and prepared all this
food.

ACCIDENTS CAUSED BY AGRICULTURAL MACHINES.

It is but a short time since machines propelled
by horse, water, or steam power have been cm-
ployed to any great extent by farmers in this, or in
fact any other country, the great proportion of the
labour bestowed on land, and nearly all the work
of the whole farm, being performed by manual la-
bour, or the direct traction of draught animals.
With the advent of the application of machinery
have come the dangers resulting from its use, in-
volving the loss of life and limbs to its operators.
These accidents can, however, be prevented to a
very great extent, by care and prudence. When
machinery was first extensively used in manufac-
tures, accident:? were of every-day occurrence.
Limbs were cut and torn from the body, and even
the whole frame mangled in the worst manner.
But at the present time such agonizing scenes sel-
dom occur, and when one does happen, it is often
in using some new machine with which the work-
men are unacquainted, or, what is more generally
the case, the victim is a new hand, often a few
hours only since he first entered the building.
Now froni these facts we may understand that the
principal cause of such accidents is either careless-
ness, or ignorance of the dangers resulting from
the use of machinery. At the present time, ma-
chinery for manufacturing purposes is built with
reference to obviating any danger which might
arise from its use. Wheels are guarded and belts
placed in positions least liable to come in contact
with the dress or persons of those in attendance,
or in many cases entirely boxed in ; and in all
well-regulated factories, every precaution is taken
by which life and limb can be protected. The
workman also has a set of rules by which he is
guided in all necessary handling of his tools or
machine, and the young beginner, who is not wise
enough to profit by the experience of his seniors,
soon learns a lesson which he will never forget,
impressed upon him as it has been in blood.

Our farmers are at present in the condition of
the manufacturing operatives of twenty-five or
thirty years ago, in as far as ignorance of the
manipulations of machinery, and they have to learn
in the same manner those have done. But much
of the experience of the latter class can be profit-
ably applied by the former, and with great ease.
We will give a few hints on this subject, which will
be found of practical utility.

1. Greater care should be taken in handling
machines driven by horse power than is necessary
when steam or water power is used, the motive
power in the former case being more liable to start
when not wanted, and that in either direction.
The animal should therefore either be detached, or
the machine locked when it becomes necessary to
hflindle the working parts, With a properly con'

structed steam engine or water power, this is never,
or at least seldom the case.

2. In putting on or taking off belts, be sure and
have your feet firm. Never put your thumb or
fingers between the belt and the pulley. The safe
handling of belts cannot be performed by a mere
novice ; practice is always essential.

3. Never pass before a mowing machine to put
anything to rights. If you stand at the back or
upon the machine itself, there is little danger,
otherwise much ; as several serious and fatal acci-
dents during the past season give evidence.

4. Study the details of all your machinery with
an eye to the liability of danger to yourself or ser-
vant, and devise means by which it can be avoided,
and you will confer a benefit on the whole farming
community.

5. Give prefei-ence to machinery that, combined
with other good qualities, is constructed with
reference to the avoiding of injury to the person
who has it in charge. Along with the observance
of this advice, never allow a person under the in-
fluence of liquor to come near any kind of ma-
chinery. The whisky jug is often the cause of
much suffering in. this way as well as in others.
If the reader will remember these hints, they may
prevent many sad accidents.

" GOD SAVE THE PLOUGH."

BY MRS. SIGOURNEY.

See how the glittering share
Makes earth's bosom fair.

Crowning the brow ;
Bread in its furrow springs.
Health and repose it brings,
Treasures that mock at kings —

God save the plough !

Look to the warrior's blade.
While o'er the crimson'd glade

Hate breathes its vow —
Wrath it unsheathing wakes,
Love at its flashing qiiakes,
Weeping and woe it makes-
God save the plough !

Ships o'er the ocean ride.

Storm wrecks their bannet'd pride.

Waves whelm their prow —
While the untroubled wain
Garneth the golden grain.
Gladdening the reaper train —

God save the plough I

Who are the truly great?
Minions of pomp and state.

Where the crowd bow ?
Give ua hard hands and free —
Cultures of field and tree —
True sons of liberty —

GoiJ BBve tlie plough I

432

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE AGRICULTURAL VALUE AND USES OF LIME AND MARL.

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 ex-
tremely 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 in- !
fluence which often acts favourably in improving
the texture of the soil. In order to use lime with i
any degree of certainty as to its effects, a partial
knov/ledge of its chemical and mechanical uses is ■
absolutely necessary. It is obvious to all, that this
substance on different farms produces the most j
contrary effects. While, used with discretion, on
some soils it produces the most astonishing results,
it is known to be attended with really ruinous i
effects when applied to marly and calcareous soils,
without they have jn-eviously been very much re-
duced, 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 \Vhich 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
mixtui'e 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 fer-
tilizing 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 en-
abled them for a time to raise good crops, even-
tually reduced the soil, and thus has arisen the
old saying which was cited l)y Barnaby Goorge, who
wrote so long ago as the middle of the sixteenth
century, that "lime and marl are good for the father,
hut bad for the son." But this saying, like many
others of ancient date, is evidently an error wlien

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

As the value of marl is computed by the quan-
tity of lime vt'hich it possesses, that value can be
roughly ascertained by the effervescence which en-
sues 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 crojis,

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 be-

' comes more than ever important not to decrease the

I use of other manures. All this extra labour and

I expense bestowed on this system of cultivation will

j be doubly repaying; for if there is any profit in

j raising medium crops on a farm, this profit rapidly

[ swells when the same land is made to produce large

, and abundant returns.

I Most marls need to be drawn out and exposed
to the action ofthe weather for some months before
it is intended to use them, that they may be pul-
verized 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 inac-
tive 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 fieing reduced to
a powder, is more beneficial to all lands, with the

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

423

exception of the above, as it does not exhaust the
vegetable matter in any greater quantity than is re-
quired for the growth of the crop. The tritling
saving which might be gained by the immediate
apphcation of caustic hme would never pay for its
injurious eflfects on all soils, excepting those which
contain large quantities of organic matters requiring
to be dissipated. Besides, caustic lime should not
be used in contact with seeds or herbage; and
when applied to chys for the purpose of improving
the texture of the soil, it frequently causes quite the
contrary effect, as it unites in a mortar with the
clay, causing it to harden and form cakes. In
most all cases, we think it is self-evident that lime
should be applied after air-slacking, in its mild
(carbonated) form.

We are frequently asked whether lime will
benefit soils associated with limestone rocks. Such

soils frequently contain lime in sufficient quantities ;
but this is not invariably the case, as soils some-
times resting on limestone, or abounding in loose
limestone and shells, are frequently devoid of lime
in such a form as to be useful. We can only ac-
count for this phenomenon by supposing that the
soil was originally derived from some other source
than these rocks, or that the firm texture of them
has prevented their crumbling enough to benefit
the land. Thus it often proves that liming is bene-
ficial on what is called limestone land. We should
advise its use in small quantities at first on such
lands, without the owner is perfectly satisfied by
analysis that his land is totally deficient. By
pouring muriatic acid or vinegar on a small portion,
i he can at least tell if it contains lime to any con-
i siderable degree. — G. T. H. in the " Country
Gentleman."

SEA- WEED,

This is a valuable manure for almost any descrip-
tion of soil, from the light sands to the heavy and
viscid clays. No one, who has experienced the bene-
ficial results attending its application, will doubt its
value, especially when applied as a top-dressing to
lands in grass. The most proper season for remov-
ing and spreading it, we are informed by those ac-
customed to its use, is immediately after haying ; or
if it cannot be conveniently done at that time, the
work may be deferred till after harvest. It is a
judicious plan to mix this weed with loam or muck,
forming it into a sort of compost. The mass should
be frequently turned. If convenient, ashes, lime,
plaster, and clay may be added, depending consid-
erably upon what kind of soil the mass is to be ap-
plied to; but it should not be permitted to decay in
a heap by itself, as in this case the limited amount
of fibrous or ligneous substance contained in the
mass causes it to decompose almost "to nothing" —
a slight residuum only being left after decompo-
sition, and this of a very weak character, and not,
perhaps, of sufficient vakie to warrant its applica-
tion to the soil.

Muscle shells, and the rich, unctuous and viscid
sand abounding along the coasts and on the shores
of creeks, are other important and valuable elements
of fertiUty, and when spread upon soils of every de-
scription, produce highly beneficial results. This
sand is composed principally of animal and vegeta-
ble substances, intermixed with the exuvia of testa-
ceous and crustaceous insects, saline particles, and
an extremely fine sedimentary substance deposited
by the waters of the ocean, together with carbonate
and hydrate of lime, animal matter, and earth. The
intermixing of these several substances constitutes
that highly efficient fertilizing mass denominated
sea mud, or "flats."

When a farmer can obtain a sufficiency of this
article with which to dress his lands, he need not
fear the failure of his crops for lack of manure.
Sea-weed, and sea mud, or " flats," constitute an

excellent substitute for animal excrement and com-
post, and almost supersede the necessity of the lat-
ter, in ox'dinary husbandry. If the weeds and mud
should be taken out after haying, and placed in the
barn or compost yard, with common muck, mould,
and vegetable matters of a succulent and perisha-
ble character, or thrown into heaps with forest
leaves, straw, vv^eeds, &c., it would decompose, and
by the next spring furnish an invigorating manure
for every description of crop.

There is abundant testimony of the value of sea-
weed as a manure, in the books. Many years ago,
the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
charged an intelligent committee with the labour of
investigating its composition and value, and their
report is highly favourable. Dr. Holland, in his
"Survey of Cheshire," says, "The ground thus
manured not only gives a larger produce of pota-
toes, but is in a state of excellent preparation for a
succeeding crop of either wheat or barley." In a
work by the Rev. Philip Falle, upon the island
of Jersey, whence we obtain the famous .Jersey
cattle, he says that " Nature having denied us the
benefit of chalk, lime and marl, has supplied us
with what fully answers the end of them in husban-
dry— it is a sea-weed, but a weed more valuable to
us than the choicest plant that grows in our gar-
dens. * * * Being spread thin on the green turf,
and afterwards buried in furrows by the plough,
it is incredible how, with its fat unctuous sub-
stance, it ameliorates the ground, imbibing itself
into it, softening the clod, and keeping the root
of the corn moist during the most parching heats
of summer."

We are aware that our friends on the sea-shore,
who have access to this plant, value it highly. We
suggest whether it has not sufficient value to justify
its being collected away from our immediate shores,
and landed up the creeks, and in such places as to
bring it into the vicinity of a large extent of farm-
ing country.

iU

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THRASHING MACHINES

The monthly meeting of the members of the
Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland was
held on Wednesday, the 24th March, 1858. The
Right Hon. Sir John M'Neil, K.C.B., in the
chair.

Mr. Hope, Fenton Barns, said — In introducing
this subject, perhaps a slight sketch of their his-
tory might not be uninteresting, particularly as it
enables us to review the progress that has been
made in mechanical science, the great saving of
labour, both human and animal, that has been
effected, and the large additional quantity of food
produced, by the more perfect manner in which
grain is now separated from the straw. In early
times this separation was performed by laying
down the straw with full ears in a narrow circle,
named in holy writ "the thrashing floor," and
treading it out with the feet of oxen. It was one
of the benevolent edicts of the divinely commis-
sioned Jewish Lawgiver. " Thou shalt not muz-
zel the ox when he treadeth out the corn." This
method is still followed in Eastern countries; and
even at the present day, as we learn from the
latest authorities, in some of the States of America,
a large proportion of the grain is trodden out by
horses. With grain easily raised, and cheap in
comparison to the wages of labour, and in hot and
dry climates, which renders grain more easily
shaken from the straw, this manner of performing
the work may not be so unsuitable as might at
first be supposed ; still, under every circumstance,
there must be great waste of the blessings of divine
providence. It is believed thatthe Jews possessed
instruments which may be described as thrashing
machines; but these were only heavy pieces of wood,
sometimes shod with flints, sometimes revolving
cylinders or teethed wheels, and being dragged by
the oxen over the grain, in a manner multiplied the
number of their feet in contact with it, and, con-
sequently, the work was done in less time. I
believe it is not known when that simple imple-
ment the flail was first invented or used as a
thrashing machine. It was well known to the
ancient Romans, and at present is in general use
throughout the continent of Europe. Even in
some districts of England it is still a common
implement on large farms, at least it was so before
the repeal of the corn laws. In Scotland it has
long been restricted to the Highland crofters.
Early in the last century there are various accounts
of attempts made to construct more comphcated
machines to save labour in beating out the grain.
One, if not the first, of which there is any record,
was by Mr. Michael Menzies, an Edinburgh advo-
cate, who resided in East Lothian; his brother
being proprietor of Letham, near Haddington, and
also sheriff of the county from 1718 to 1725. A
patent was obtained for Mr. Menzies' machine in
1732, and it was declared by the Society of Im-
provers in Scotland, '^ to be likely of great use to
farmers, both in thrashing the grain clean from the

straw, and in saving a great deal of labour." It
was on the principle of driving a number of flails,
which were made to revolve round a cylinder, by
means of water power. But from the force with
which it was wrought the flails were soon broken
to pieces, and the invention proved a failure.
Another thrashing machine was invented about
1758, by Mr. Michael Stirling, a farmer in the
parish of Dumblane, Perthshire. This machine
was similar to the flax scutching mills of the day.
It has been described as a vertical shaft with 4
crossed arms enclosed in a cylindrical case 3^ feet
high, and 8 feet diameter. Within this case the
shaft and its arms were driven with considerable
velocity. The sheaves of corn being let down
gradually through an opening on the top of the
box, the grain was beaten off by the arms, and
pressed, with the straw, through an opening of the
floor. The grain was separated from the straw by
riddles shaken by the mill, and then cleaned by
fanners, also driven by it. It was reckoned the
great defect of this machine that it broke oflF the
ears of barley and wheat instead of beating out the
grain. It succeeded better with oats, and was
used by Mr. Stirling himself, and also by some
others for several years. It was driven either with
water or cattle. A few years after Mr. Stirling's
machine came into the partial use it attained, mills
of a similar construction were introduced into
Northumberland by Mr. Edward Gregson, only
they were worked by hand power. Some time
after this, or in 1772, Mr. Oxley erected a thrash-
ing machine at Flodden, moved by horses. The
corn was fed in betwixt two jiuted rollers, and
struck by switchers, placed at 3 inches distant, on
the cross arms of an open drum : the scutchers
were made of wood, and attached by leathern straps,
or hung on hinges, as they were described. There-
after, or in 1773, Mr. Ilderton erected two thrashing
machines, one at Ilderton, and another at Hawk-
hill, both near Alnwick. They were worked by
horses, and were made to rub the grain out by
projecting pieces of wood (on the circumference of
a large cylinder) rubbing against several fluted
rollers. He used these machines many years, but
it was frequently necessary to put the straw twice
through before it was perfectly clean. Sir Francis
Kinloch, of Gilmerton, v/ho was a man esteemed,
in his daj', for his mechanical knowledge, had seen
Mr. Ilderton's machine, and also the common flax
mill. He endeavoured, by combining the two, to
produce a workable machine. Sir Francis had a
large model made ; and as it could not be wrought
by hand power, he sent it to Mr. Andrew Meikle.
miller, and maker of barley and flour mills, at
Houston Mill, Prestonkirk, that its eflPects might
be ascertained by the water wheel of Mr. Meikle's
barley mill; but in making the trial the model was
torn to pieces, and a like, fate befel a machine of
full size, which Sir Francis erected a few years
afterwards for one of his tenants, How far Mr^

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

425

Meikle himself was indebted for his ultimate suc-
cess to the sight and knowledge of Sir Francis'
machines it is impossible to say. It is evident
that approaches had been made by others to the
principle which he was finally successful in carry-
ing out, but none can deny him the high merit of
being the first to construct a really serviceable
machine. Sir Francis' efforts might have stimu-
lated him ; but it is well known that for years
before, Mr. Meikle had made various attempts to
construct a thrashing machine. There is a letter
from sis respectable farmers subjoined to the 3nd
volume of Wight's State of Scottish Husbandry,
published in 1778, describing a trial of oue made by
him on the principle of Mr, Meuzie's machine, to
which I have already alluded. His family possessed
a hereditary right to genius and invention. It was
his father, James Meikle, who went to Holland in
1710, in consequence of an agreement witli the well
known Fletcher of Salton. Meikle's object there
was to learn the art of making pot barley, and also
of erecting barley mills. He not only accomplished
his design in a perfect manner, but after he re-
turned, constructed the first fanners for winnowing
grain that were ever seen in Scotland. However,
to return to Andrew Meikle, he resolved to attempt
thrashing by means of a rapidly revolving cylinder,
with raised beaters parallel to its axis, standing out
from its surface. This cylinder or drum was
covered on the top by a concave surface, at some
two or three inches distant from the circle described
by the edges of these revolving beaters. A feeding
board extended radially and horizontally outwards
from the cylinder, and when near it terminated in
two feeding-rollers, which revolving in towards one
another, not only rapidly drew the straw forward,
but held it from going too fast, which under the
action of the beaters it would have been liable to do.
The beaten straw, with the chaff and grain lying
loose amongst it, was delivered on the floor behind
the cyhnder, and the operations of separation by
fork, riddle, and fanners, were accomplished after-
wards by hand. This is a description of the work-
ing model which he completed in 1785. It was
driven by water, and first tried in that year at
Knowe Mill, near Prestonkirk, a short distance from
Houston Mill. It was found to do the work admi-
rably, and completely answered his expectations.
His son, George Meikle, being at Kilbegie, the resi-
dence of Mr. Stein, agreed to erect a machine, after
the above-mentioned model, for that gentleman, upon
condition of Mr. Stein furnishing all the materials
and paying him for the work, "only in case the ma-
chine answered the desired purpose." This was
agreed to, and the machine was completed in
February 1786. It was found to work exceedingly
well, and the only diiference betwixt it and the
original model was the substitution of fluted rollers
for plain ones. Another was shortly thereafter
erected for Mr. Selby, at Middleton, Northumber-
land. Mr. Meikle then applied for a patent, which,
after some opposition, was granted in April 1788,
for 14 years, and for England alone. Though Mr.
Meikle obtained this patent he never acted on it,
and when 10 years of it had expired, some of his
friends stood forward and endeavoured to put it in
force ; but there was then such a number of ereo-.

tions by others that the design was abandoned. The
late Sir John Sinclair, when President of tlie Board
of Agriculture, strongly advocated Meikle's claims
for a public reward as the inventor of the thrashing
mill as then constructed. Through him and the
Earl of Haddington a general meeting was held on
29th December, 1809, in the county town of Had-
dington, at which resolutions were unanimously
passed, approving of Mr. Meikle's claims. A com-
mittee was formed, and subscriptions to the amount
of £1500 obtained for behoof of Mr. Meikle and his
family. After Meikle obtained his patent, thrashing
machines were rapidly erected throughout Scotland
and the north of England, with various improve-
ments, such as mill fanners and rotating rake or
rakes over circular frame-works for shakers. The
invention of this shaker was claimed by Mr. Bailey
of Chillingham, Northumberland. Much was done
in the way of adding elevators and other improve-
ments by a person in Kirckudbrightshire, but the
machine itself and all the apparatus connected with
it has continued almost until now in the same state
that Meikle left it, for he readily seized and tried
every alteration that occurred to himself or was
suggested by others. Notwitlistanding the total
change of the moving power from sweating horses
to the untiring and unvarying stroke of the steam-
engine, the characteristics of a Scotch mill continue
now in the same heavy drum, rotating rakes for
shakers, and noisy wheels and pinions for putting
the whole in motion. Dressing- fanners, in order to
render the grain fit for the market, have beeu fre-
quently added to the thrashing machine ; but from
the necessary irregularity in the quantity of grain
thrashed per minute, and the difiiculty of adjusting
the fanners properly, complete success has been
rarely attained. The best dressed grain I have ever
seen done by machinery, and as thrashed on the
beater principle, was on the farm of Mr. llislop of
Prestonpans. The grain as it came from the mill
fanners was taken up by elevators, and then carried
several feet by an Archimedean screw before it
reached the dressing-fanners. This screw partly
divides the grain and tends much to the delivery of
a uniform quantity ; again there are fixed across the
hoppers of the fanners pieces of strong leather,
which act like springs, opening when there is an
additional quantity behind them, and contracting
when the quantity diminishes. These simple but
ingenious contrivances ensured, or very nearly so,
the fanners having a steady and regular supply of
grain at all times, and I believe it was mainly owing
to this that the dressing was so perfect. When
examining Mr. Hislop's barn machinery, I was
particularly struck with the mode which he had
adopted for carrjnng off the dust, and ventilating his
barn. There was a large circular opening in the
ridee of the roof, covered vfith a hood or cowl, which
turned with the wind, the same in form -and con-
struction as those placed on the top of kilns for dry-
ing grain. The dust from the straw barn and chaff
hole was conducted to it by means of thin boarding,
enclosing a gradually narrowing space as it ap-
proached the aperture ; of course, there was a large
opening to it from the barn loft. It seemed to suit
admirably, as the air was quite fresh and sweet, and
on looking up to the hood cut of doors, I was

42R

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

astonished to see the dust flying from it like thick
smoke. This is the first aud only instance of which
I am aware of anything having been done to pro-
mote the health and comfort of the work-people
when engaged in this often most disagreeable, if not
actually unhealthy employment. I consider it alike
creditable to Mr. Hislop's head aud heart, and I
mention it here in hopes that he may soon have
many imitators.

Before the application of steam power to the
thrashing machine, it never was practicable to do
more than blow the chaff from the grain, and even
that very imperfectly accomplished. The first
thrashing mill driven by steam in Scotland, or I be-
lieve anywhere else, belonged to the late Mr.
Aitchison of Drumore. At the close of the last
century, he had got a steam engine put up by Bolton
and Watt at his distillery at Clements Wells. It oc-
curred to him that as the steam engine could do the
work of the distillery, there was nothing to prevent
it driving the thrashing mill. He accordingly had it
attached, at wliat exact period I cannot say, but it
was certainly previous to 1803, However, he was
so doubtful or afraid that something would happen
to prevent its continued use, that he kept up the
horse wheel attached to the mill for several years. I
am not aware of any steam engines having been
erected, solely for the purpose of thrashing corn,
previous to ISIS, when the late Mr. Sked, Dunbar,
put up one at Westlield, near Haddington, for Mr.
Ai-chd. Dunlop. Either in that or the following
year, Mr. Sked erected other two — one for my late
friend Mr. Reid, Drem ; the other at Liuplum.
Thereafter, condensing engines were speedily to be
seen on all large farms where there was a sufficient
supply of water. It is singular that the engine at
Drem, after 40 years' use, should look as well, aud
be as efficient, as the day it was erected. In 1834
and 1835, high-pressure engines came into vogue.
In a few years they multiplied rapidly ; and now
there is scarcely a farm of 100 acres in extent that
has not got its steam engine. It is almost impossi-
ble to over-estimate the benefits we derive from
steam power; at least, I am confident that no man
who has ever been in possession of an engine, would
again submit to see his horses toiling and straining
in the weary course of a thrashing mill. I believe
we have not yet taken full advantage of this wonder-
ful power. It has been simply attached to machines
contrived for horse labour, but it is eminently fitted
for instruments of a far higher class. At the end of
the last century, thrashing mills were considered by
agriculturists as the great invention of the age. The
saving of manual labour of a most laborious descrip-
tion, the more perfect and expeditious way in which
the grain was separated from the straw, and the
facilities they afforded for managing large farms,
certainly entitled them to be so considered. But
notwithstanding the great advantage we derive from
the possession of steam power for propelling them,
and the length of time that has elapsed since their
first invention aud general introduction, few will
deny that there is a strong feeling of dissatisfaction
at the way in which a great proportion of the ma-
chines in use perform their work. It seldom re-
quires any great examination of the straw before it
must be pronounced "rather imperfectly thrashed."

If you shake up a quantity of the chaff, the chances
are you find grain at the bottom. Is the straw barn
empty, it will surely pay to sweep the corn from
the floor for the sake of the pigs. And the rank
vegetation often seen on the top of manure heaps
demonstrates too clearly that we have in the end
failed to reap the whole reward of uur previous ex-
penditure of time and money. Again, choked hop-
pers, overloaded fanners, and the barn in confusion,
by a complete mixture of chaff and grain, are not
such uncommon events, that any farmer would dream
of losing his temper, or even of speaking a sharp
word. These disagreeables and mischances are
coolly set down as belonging to the nature of the
machine. And when you hear complaints of the
slowness of railway trains, and the stoppages at
stations, we may be excused a little grudging aud
grumbling if, after two days' thrashing, it takes four
days, as it usually does, to dress grain fit for market,
and to clean up the barn. At this period of our
history, and advance in mechanical science, we are
surely entitled to look for something more expedi-
tious and perfect.

Throughout the greater part of England matters
have proceeded somewhat differently than in Scot-
land. From a supposed redundancy in the popula-
tion, aggravated by the poor laws and the law of
settlement, it is only within a recent period that
thrashing machines have gained a footing there. In
Mr. Boy's agricultural survey of Kent, published I
believe at the close of last century, that gentleman
states that his own thrashing mill was the only one
in that flourishing county. He states ; " I find there
is a saving of nearly one-half of the expense of
thrashing, besides the advantage of getting the corn
out cleaner from the straw. There is, however, no
small inconvenience attending so large a quantity of
straw, chafl^, &c., being got out at one time, when
perhaps it is not wanted ; and by that means it is
either wasted or spoiled by neglect, before it comes
to use." A commentator, in 1801, considered this
disadvantage as imaginary, or at least easily obviated,
" being convinced from trial, that if carefully and
closely packed a/ the instant, straw receives no man-
ner of damage from keeping, particularly if not much
mangled or broken. But they who apprehend the
contrary may secure themselves by cutting it into
chaff forthwith, in which state we have Mr Young's
authority that it will keep, undergoing a gentle
fermentation. This process may be forwarded, by
now and then tlirowing a little water on the heap,
which, however, must be laid in a brick or stone
building, having proper ventilation in the roof."
Whether it was the failure of this plan of keeping
the straw, or, as I suspect, the more potent reasons I
have already mentioned, there can be no doulit tha
until lately thrashing machines never found much
favour in tiie midland or Southern districts of Eng-
land. In my first journey to the south I was aston-
ished to find that the whole of the grahi was thrashed
by flails, on several large and otherwise well man-
aged farms. I remember even in 1851, of a gentle-
man who farmed part of his own estate in Essex,
showing me a small thrashing machine driven by a
man, and which he looked upon as a very great im-
provement. A Scotchman has difficulty in compre-
hending this state of matters, However, the ma-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

427

chines iu use ia Euglaud have risen from a broader
origin, and exhibit much more diversity in their
structure than the Scotch ones. It would be need-
less to go over all the improvements real or supposed
that have from time to time been patented and
brought before the public. 1 may mention shortly,
that Mr. H. P. Lee, of Maidenhead Thicket, first
introduced the principle of feeding virithout rollers,
and his machine is supposed to contain the germ of
the best English thrashing machines of the present
day. The peg drum machine was invented by Mr.
Aitkinson, of Masham in Yorkshire ; it likewise has
a high speed drum, but it has not obtained the suc-
cess at first anticipated from it. Rubbing, bolting,
or high speed drums have always in England been
more in favour than those on the beater principle.
Eor long the thrashing mills in general use there,
have been carried about from one farm to another,
and let out for a time to those who required them ;
they used to be only made for thrashing, and had
seldom either circular rake or fanner attached, the
want of which enabled them more easily to obtain
the requisite speed for these drums. A few years
ago they were all propelled by horses ; but now steam,
with improved machinery, which not only thrashes,
but dresses, sacks, and weighs the corn ready for the
market all at one operation, has completely banished
these horse machines. Of course, men who make a
livelihood by going about with thrashing machines
are iu a very different position from Scotch farmers,
who consider it absolutely necessary to have a fixed
machine on every farm. When the latter erect a
mill, they expect it will rerve their sons after them,
and that it should thrash tolerably clean is all that
has hitherto been expected from it. But a machine
that is made to be let out goes at once to the wall,
if another appears in the district with a single point
of superiority. The introduction of portable steam
engines gave the means of workiug a higher class
of machinery, and the possessor of one improved
machine compelled the purchase of many, which
must have created a large demand, and accounts at
once for the spring that has been lately made by the
English makers, and the perfection to which their
machines have so suddenly and recently attained. It
w"as only in] 842 that the first portable thrashing
machine on wheels driven by steam was made by
Messrs Tuxford of Boston. The first combined
thrashing machine was also brought out by them in
1844 for Mr. George Holland of Carriugton ; the
combination consisting in this case of only one part
besides the thrashing drum. They were speedily
followed and improved on by other firms and makers ;
and doubtless Messrs. Tuxford's machines are now
something very different, and their originals will
long ago have been thrown aside as useless lumber.
In 1854, Messrs. Clayton & Slmttleworth of Lincoln
constructed portable machines, which dressed the
corn twice at one operation, which was considered a
great stretch, until in 1855 the machine was made
to dress and finish it for market. In describing
these improvements, I have no intention of singling
out particular firms as being superior to others ; in
fact, I know too little of the construction that dis-
tinguishes the machines of many eminent makers, to
be able to draw comparisons. But having been for
a long time much dissatisfied with my thrashing

machine, and thinking of having a new one, I paid
some attention to the portable machines at the
Iloyal English Agricultural Society's Show at Car-
lisle, and was much struck with their perfoiinances.
Several of Clayton and Co's machines having
been put up in Scotland, I took an early opportunity
of inspecting the one obtained by my friend, Mr.
Gulland, at Monktonhall. I was so pleased with it
that I was resolved to have one of the same con-
siruetion. Accordingly, Messrs Clayton, Shuttle-
worth & Co. fixed one for me last summer. It is
driven by a six-horse engine, erected by Mr. Sked,
in 1S3G. I have got a new boiler 18 feet long, and
3tV feet diameter ; the old one, being barely 12 feet,
was considered too small. I find 1 have abundance
of power, and now consume considerably less coal
thau formerly. This machine gives me entire satis-
faction. I have now thrashed nearly a whole year's
crop with it, and we have never had any breakage
or the slightest trouble with it, and it continues to
go as smoothly and efiiciently as the day it was
started. It thrashes and dresses white corn equal
to the average samples in Haddington market ;
beans come from it rough, but it thrashes them well,
only requiring the concave below the drum to be
thrown well back. I generally put the grain through
the hand fanners previous to measuring it up, as this
equalises the sample ; and though previously well
cleaned, every practical man knows that grain is well
dressed indeed, if you cannot blow or riddle some-
thing out of it. I will now attempt to give you a
short description of this machine. There are no
feeding rollers, but the opening to the drum is
rather below the centre of it. and the straw or grain
is put in crossways, for it does not signify whether
the heads come first or not, and they pass below the
drum, in place of above it, as in the Scotch drum.
This drum is styled Goucher's patent, with Clayton's
improvements. Both it and the concave below it,
through which a great part of the grain passes at
once, are made of wrought iron. The drum is 4 ft.
6 in length, and 1 ft. 10 in diameter. It presents a
rounded surface to the corn, grooved in an oblique
direction ; one arm is grooved obliquely from right
to left, the next from left to right. The drum
makes 1000 revolutions in a minute. The straw is
thrown by its rapid motion at once on the shaker,
which is termed Goods' Patent Shaker. It is di-
vided into five boxes, three of which are on rocking
arms at the receiving end, and two at the delivery
end, which causes three at the delivery end to re-
ceive a jerking action, and two at the receiving end
the same; the cranks being placed in the centre,
cause an equal upright jerking movement through-
out. As the one set of boxes ascends the other set
descends, by which means the straw receives a suc-
cession of sharp blows, which effectually shakes out
all loose grain. This succession of blows also car-
ries forward the straw from the drum, and makes
room for the succeeding portion. Except this
shaker, which has boxes below it requiring to be
tilled with grease once a day, all the other bearings
or parts requiring to be oiled are outside the ma-
chine. A great part of the corn falls at once
through the concave on to a plain board, which ex-
tends also below the shakers. This board has a
reciprocating action on an inclination, which carries

428

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the corn, chaff, aud cavings or short straw to the
first riddle, which separates the coru aud chaff from
the cavings, and delivers the latter outside tlie ma-
chine ; the chaff and com fall on another inclined
board, which carries them to the second riddle,
and subjects them to the first blast, which takes out
the greater part of the chaff. A second inclined
board takes the grain to a third riddle, to take off any-
thing larger than coru. The coru passesfrom thethird
riddle over an inclined screen (which takes out small
seeds) on its way to an elevator. This elevator takes
it up to the barley hurameller, where a spout admits
of the grain being put into sacks, or passing on
through the hummeller, which, by having the slides
open, acts as a carrier ; it may again be delivered
into a sack, or it passes down, and the operations it
received on the second and third riddles and blast
are repeated, constituting the second blast, and
fourth and fifth riddles. On leaving the fifth riddle,
it reaches the second elevator, and is carried up and
subjected to the third blast, where it can also be
taken out as it passes on to the rotary screen,
with Palmer's separator blades, which sizes the
grain and finishes the operation. I may sum up, I
am afraid, this rather vague description witli repeat-
ing that the grain is five times riddled, thrice blasted,
once screened, and once sized. As there are no
toothed wheels in the machine, the whole being
driven with belts and pulleys, it is not liable to
breakage, and the chief noise is the loud hum of the
drum, whicli sounds at a distance like a huge French
top. It is extraordinary the quantity of work it
will do, the difficulty being to get people to carry off
the straw fast enough. It tlu'ashes clean, and
shakes the straw admirably; however, with very
thick feeding, a small quantity of grain maybe found
under the straw-heck. Of course it requires soaie
knowledge to set the concave properly in relation to
the drum, to thrash clean, and at the same time not
to injure the grain ; with a little experience this is
soon obtained by a workman of ordinary intelligence.
The chaff is deposited at one end cf the machine,
and the straw at the other. This latter comes out
so unbroken that it might almost be again tied up
into sheaves. I think this a matter of some import-
ance, even for littering cattle ; it remains longer dry
than broken straw, and it is incomparably superior
for thatch. Before last harvest I was thrashing
some wheat stacks at Fenton farm with an excellent
Scotch mill put up 12 years ago, and I wished to
make the straw into thatch; but it came out so bro-
ken as to be quite unfit for that purpose. I there-
fore drove the unthrashed grain to Fenton Barns,
put it through the English mill, and sent the straw
back tied up into excellent thatch. I had the Scotch
mill completely overhauled at the same time last
summer that the English mill was fixed, and having
used both regularly since then, I thought it would
be well to test the one against the othei. The first
trial was with wheat. Two carts were placed beside
the stack, and sheaf about was regularly given to
each ; then other two carts were loaded in the same
way, thus giving two loads to each machine. The
carts having been previously weighed, were again
weighed when loaded. The weight of the grain and
straw sent to the English machine was found to be
30 cwt. 1 qr. 8 lb., and to the Scotch mill 29 cwt.

3 qr. 14 lb., making a difference of 44 ib. of addition-
al grain and straw sent to the English mill. This
latter produced of wheat, including best and light,
12 cwt. 14 lb. The Scotch mill gave only 11 cwt.
2 qr. 1 lb., being 69 lb. less. If 17 lb. are deducted
for the extra weight of grain and straw in carts sent
to the English mill, it will leave 52 lb. as the net
gain on 1289 lb., or rather over 4 per cent, in its
favour. Tile time taken to tlu-ash these quantities
was, by the English mill, 25 minutes, and by the
Scotch mill 40 minutess. The straw that bad been
thrashed by the English mill was then put through
the Scotch machine, and 10 lb. of wheat were
obtained ; and tlie straw from the Scotch machine,
on going through the English one, produced 14 lb.
The wheat was excellent quality, had been secured
before the rain, and having been cut by a reaping-
machine, there were few or no heads at the bottom
of the sheaves, so that the circumstances were highly
favourable for the Scotch machine. The next trial
was with oats. When weighed, the oats from the
English mill were found to be 431b. per bushel,
while from the Scotch mill they were only 42J lb. ;
but there, was an extraordinary discrepancy in the
quantity in favour of the Scotch mill, which made
me doubtful of its accuracy. At least it did not
appear the grain was left in the straw, for on put-
ting what came from the English mill through the
Scotch one, literally nothing was got ; while, when
the straw from the Scotch mill was put through the
English one, 12 lb. of oats were obtained. This
experiment not having been conducted altogether
under my own immediate superintendence, and the
person who weighed the grain admitting it was pro-
bable he might have been mistaken with regard to
the weights, I resolved to make another trial with
oats. On this occasion the weight of the grain and
straw thrashed by the English mill was 25 cwt. 18 lb.,
and by the Scotch 25 cwt. 841b., thus giving the
latter G6 lb. of additional grain and straw, though I
saw sheaf about given to each cart, whicli shows the
necessity of weighing if perfect accuracy is required.
The English mill produced 9971b. of best oats,
weighing 43^ lb. per bushel, 81 lb. of grey, and 7 lb.
of thirds. The Scotch mill produced 932^ lb. of
best oats, weighing 42i lb. per bushel, 95 lb. of grey,
and 221b. of thirds — making altogether 10495 1b.
Thus the English mill produced 35^ lb. more corn,
or oh per cent., and that without any allowance for
the larger weight of straw and grain sent to the
Scotch mill, or for what forms a most striking fea-
ture in the experiment, the greater value of the oats,
from their being IJlb. per bushel heavier, from hav-
ing passed through the open hummeller in the
English machine. The time taken by the English
mill was 26 minutes, and by the Scotch one 47
minutes. The oats were the Sandy variety ; they
had been cut by the scythe, and though particularly
tall and rank, they had been well handled, and no
rakings were given to either machine, though to the
English one it does not signify whether heads or
tails go first. I attribute the great additional time
taken by the Scotch mill to the extreme length of
the straw. As every part of this experiment was
done under my own eyes, I feel perfectly certain of
its entire correctness. I have no hesitation in say-
ing that before I made these experiments I preferred

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

429

the working of these high speed drums when pro-
pelled by steam. It was evident they did the work
much quicker, and I felt sure it was also better done,
whicli these trials have confirmed, and again, the
straw being unbroken, was more useful for many
purposes.

The people employed at the steam-engine and this
thrashing mill are usually three men and nine women
and boys. Two horses are also required for driving
the grain from the stack to the barn.

The men's wages may be reckoned s. d.

at 2s. 6d. per day, or 7 6

9 women and boys at 1 s 9 0

2 horses ,.,, 7 6

Coals, oil, &c G 0

£1 10 0

Forty quarters of wheat may be counted a fair day's
work at eight hours' thrashing ; this makes the ex-
pense 9d. per qr., but exclusive of the interest of
capital invested in buildings and machinery.

Machines are being put up by different English
makers in various parts of Scotland, and in many
instances the bolting drum is being substituted for
the old Scotch beater. In my own neighbourhood
this is very much the case ; my neighbour, Mr.
Bridges, of North Berwick, has already changed a
considerable number. He does not consider they re-
quire more power, though an enlarged boiler is general-
ly necessary, as they are more dependent for complete
success on a high uniform rate of speed. In new
machines Mr. Bridges also adopts the horizontal
shaker, though, from its lifting only at one end, I
should scarcely think it so efficient as that used by
Messrs. Clayton, Shuttleworth, and Co. He has,
however, ingeniously contrived to put three blasts
into his mill fanners, to which the corn is subjected
before being lifted by an elevator to the finishing
fanners, which have two blasts. Thus, with only
one elevator, the grain is exposed to five blasts,
besides being put through or over five riddles and a
shaking screen, I mention these facts to show what
is doing, that Scotch engineers see the necessity of
marching with the times, and that they are deter-
mined not to yield without a struggle to their
southern rivals. But we Scotch farmers, neverthe-
less, owe a deep debt of gratitude to our English
friends for the vast improvements they have already
accomplished, and we may trust to be still more
benefited by their wholesome influence. A^iewing
these English machines as portable ones, I consider
them very near, if not altogether perfect. While I
am more than pleased with my own new one, it
would be too much to say that, as a fixture, it is
unimprovable. The straw and chaff are deposited
at opposite ends, which is better than having them
together ; but I would prefer a side delivery for the
chaff; in fact, I have a strong leaning to the old
Scotch plan of having the whole dressing apparatus
set across the barn ; it suits our buildings better.
This jaew dressing apparatus does remarkably well,
but it always appears to me too confined. You can
only see the effect ; you cannot see how it is done ;
and if any part requires attention, it takes some tine
to discover where the particular point is. I would
prefer seeing the grain finished off by our old Scotch

fanners, and desposited in them by Archimedian
screws, carrying forward and regulating the feed, as
Mr. Hislop has done. Again, from the general
height of our buildings, it appears to me greater use
might be made of the hopper or inclined plane, to
run the grain to the blasts, without the intervention
of reciprocating or other movements, which require
to some extent an increase of power, besides extra
attention and greater expense for wear and tear.
But whether right or wrong in these remarks, which
I offer with great diffidence, I believe you will aU
agree with me in thinking that the Highland Society
Las done Avell in offering an increased premium for
thrashing machines to be exhibited at the Aberdeen
Show, and 1 hope a still more handsome one will be
allocated next year for the Edinburgh meeting. The
rules which should be adopted in testing these ma-
chines require some consideration. I consider the
first and greatest point to be clean thrashing, or
the perfect separation of the grain from the straw.
This can best be ascertained by the self-acting test
of weighing quantities of similar straw and grain
for each machine, and then weighing the produce.
The second point I consider to be the state of the
grain as it comes from the machine and the number
of separations made in it. This test might also be
made self-acting by passing each separation through
a dressing machine, and ascertaining the proportion
of tail corn left amongst the good, and also the good
amongst the tail. The third point might be the un-
broken state of the straw. The fourth, the sim-
plicity of construction, strength, finish, and non-
liability of the machine to get out of repair. Fifth,
time required for the work in proportion to the
power employed. Sixth, perceptible injury to the
grain, or throwing it over amongst the straw, to be
held as disqualifying points. If this meeting was
to pronounce an opinion on these matters, it would
confer a practical benefit on the Society, and also
intending exhibitors, by allowing the former to have
proper data to supply to the judges for their guid-
ance, and the latter to know exactly what was
wanted and expected from them.

We labour our land, we em-ich it with manure
often brought from the distant Pacific, we sow our
seed, we reap and harvest our grain, and then too
frequently throw a large percentage of it away. I ■
trust the time is not far distant when improved
thrashing machinery will be so common, as that every
farmer in the land will have the satisfaction of
knowing that no portion is lost of what costs so
much.

The Chaimian asked if any gentleman was pre-
pared to offer any remarks on the paper that had been
read.

Mr. Scott, Craiglockhart, stated, that having long
ago been satisfied with the imperfections of the old
Seoth thrashing machine, so ably described by jMr.
Hope, he watched with interest the introduction of
the English machines, and after careful inspection
of the work performed at the English Society's
Show at Carlisle, at our own Show at Glasgow, and
of a machine he saw at the home-farm at Windsor,
and having liad a day's trial on his own farm of one
of Clayton and Shuttleworth's machines, he
formed the opinion that whilst the high speed
open drum and horizontal shakers were greatly

430

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

superior to the Scotch drum aud revolving shakers,
that the Scotch dressing apparatus was fally_ as
efficient as the English ones, while at tlie same time
it was less complicated, aud the working of the
diifereut parts more easily seen, and when anything
might happen to go wrong, much more easily put to
rights; and liaving a tolerably good machine with
fclu-ee sets of fanners, hummeller, and elevators, he
resolved to endeavour to combine these with the
English drum aud shaker, for which purpose he ap-
plied to Messrs. INIollison and M'Vitie, of Earlston,
to make tlie necessary alterations, which they have
done by removing the old drum and shakers, and re-
placing them by a high-speed open dram vnih patent
beaters, and Clayton and Shuttleworth's patent
horizontal shakers. The result has been most satis-
factory, and from the trials he has made with the
different kinds of grain, he can with confidence re-
commend any person who is not inclined to put up
a new machine to make a similar alteration. How-
ever, he thought it required more power to drive his
thrashing machine than it did formerly, aud he had
observed that unless the drum be kept up to its
proper speed, about 1,100 revolutions per minute,
it did not thrash clean.

Sir J. M'Neill : I think it would be satisfactory
if Mr. Hope or j\Ir. Scott could state whether the
machine will do its work with horses. This is a
matter of some moment in the more remote parts of
the country. Does Mr. Scott think that the horse-
power machines could be connected in the manner
suggested by him ?

Mr. Scott stated that he did not think it would
beadvisable to atteraptto work thosehigh-speed drums
by horse-power, but thought either water or steam
was more suitable as the motive power.

Mr. "Fi^'^'iE, Swaustou, said that a farmer in his
neighbourhood had twice an English machine, and
from what he had lieard, the machine did not
answer.

Mr. Hope said he had received a letter from Sir
John S. Eorbes, calling attention to a machine pa-
tented by Mr. Isaac Harkless, suitable for a small
farmer, whereby one horse could do the work.

Mr. Hall Masavell : There is one point of great
importance to which I may refer. It would be of
great moment if any gentleman in the meeting could
throw out suggestions in reference to the conditions
that should attach to the trial of the nnachines in the
show-yard at Aberdeen, such as were intimated by
Mr. Hope. If such suggestions could be made, they
might prove useful for the guidance of the gentle-
men whose duties it will be to try the machines. I
see Mr. Waller, machine maker, present — perhaps
he could give his opinion.

Mr. Waller said the points that Mr. Hope alluded
to in his paper had been freely canvassed in con-
nection with the English Agricultural Society, and
some difficulty had been felt there. The conditions
had been left very much to the judges. He thouglit
it very unfair to the maker that his machine should
be subjected to a trial even by the most honourable
men living, for this reason, that suppose two pieces
of the very same quality of papei* were taken — one
blue and the other white — probably no two people
would agree as to their respective value. It was
merely a question of opinion, and it was much the

same with agricultural machines. Again, in some
cases the judges were all agriculturists, while makers
were excluded. Now, the agriculturist told the
maker what he required, and they tried to succeed
to the best of their ability. In some recent cases
they had certainly failed, and perhaps had done so
with thrashing machines. Clean thrashing depended,
he believed, more on the feeder than on the maker
of the machine, and he thought that with a plain
beater they could thrash as clean as with one of the
improved beaters now in use, provided the drum were
made suitable, and the beater in a proper state. The
drum, as at present in use, was neither more nor less
than the Scoth drum invented a hundred years ago,
running at double the speed. The new power, in-
stead of applying the old-fashioned drum, substituted
an instrument specially adapted to man. Every
animal had its greatest power in the direction of the
spine, and the flail therefore was best suited to man.
The horse worked, as it pulled, in the direction of
its spine. The spine of the machine was rotary,
and had a revolving power, aud therefore the Scotch
machine had a revolving drum and a revolving
shaker. In the English machines they had gone
back again to the horizontal movement with crank
shakers. Now, with these shakers, there was a
great waste of power, and of course an increased ex-
pense. He believed that a shaker crank, with
ordinary work, could not work sixty days without
repair. If the Scotch machines were put in com-
petition vv^ith the English make, he did not think that
the Englisli would have a good chance, and the
arrangements with regard to the awarding of the
prizes would therefore require to be very seriously
considered. He thought it would be better if the
judges were not all agriculturists. In the English
Society the judges were both machine makers and
agriculturists.

Mr. Maxwell said that the same thing v/as done
by the Highland Society.

Mr. Wallek remarked that, in his opinion, it
would also be necessary to come to some agreement
as to the number of separations of the corn in the
machine. He thought tliere ought to be four. This
would require more power and more expense, but
four separations of the grain could be effected as
quickly as a fewer number. It was all one operation.
It would be fair to the competitors to have every-
thing stated.

Mr. jMaxwell hoped that Mr. Waller would send
his views in writing to the committee, who would
consider the subject.

Mr. Maclagan expressed the pleasure he felt in
listening to the interesting history of the thrashing
machine given by Mr. Hope, his graphic description
of the machine itself, and his statement of the
inconvenience, annoyance, and loss to which farmers
are subjected from ill-constructed machines. Having
seen an admirably working machine erected in his
neighbourhood by Clayton and Shuttleworth, and
also the results of an experiment made between it
and an ordinary Scotch one, he determined to test
the efficiency of his own mill by comparing it also
with an English one. He, therefore, engaged the
machine made by Hornsby and Son, which gained
this Society's premium in Glasgow. The experiment
was made last autumn with a stack of wheat, of

TilE FARMER'S MAGAZIIs'E.

431

crop ISoG. Two carts were placed at tlic stack,
and sheaf about was forked from it to the carts,
whicli Avere driven and unloaded at the English and
Scotch machines. The former thrashed at the rate
of 5 qrs. per hour, including stoppages ; and some-
times it was found to be thrashiug at the rate of
7 qrs. ])er hour, when it was fed fast and equally.
The Scotch machine had not all the modern improve-
ments attached to it — the grain having to be put
through the hand fanners once or twice after it had
passed through the machine— which thrashed at the
rate of St^ qrs. per hour. The w^heat experimented
ou yielded at the rate of 36 bushels per imperial
acre. The results of this experiment have already
been published; but as there are probably some
present who have not seen it, and as it agrees so
nearly with the results of Mr. Hope's experiments,
Avith the permission of the meeting, I will give
the details :

'o

qr. St. lb
English uiRcliine 128 3 9
Scotch machiue 28 2 1

5PB j:

lb.

624-

6C-I

St. lb
128 9
123 8

4o _;

tj:'5

3o

J -3

St. 1'..

4 10

5 4

at. lb.
133 5
128 12

It is to be observed that the English machine gave
both more good grain, and a greater weight per
bushel, namely, ]f lb., and the sample was decidedly
superior, both in appearance and in handling, and
contained no broken grain. The results correspond
very nearly with those obtained by Mr. Hope, being
about o^ per cent, in favour of the English machine.
The good grain from both machines was sent
to market, aud sold by an agent on the same day ;
that from the English machine brought 5s. per qr.
more than the grain from the Scotch. Wishing to
know what became of the Avheat that passed through
the Scotch machine, he caused some of the straw
from it to be put through the English machine, and
after a quarter of an hour's working, he obtained
52 lb. of wheat. He also put some of the straw
from the English machine through the Scotch one, and
after five minutes work, obtained IJlb. of wheat —
that is, at the rate of 51 lb. in a quarter of an hour.
Allusion has been made to the proper feeding of the
mill. This is a most essential point ; the feeder
should have a good ear, he should know when he is
feeding properly by the sound of the mill, and the
master, though at a considerable distance from the
offices, if he has a good ear will be able to tell if the
mill is properly fed, simply by the sound which will
be carried to him by the wind. A machine is often
blamed for bad thrashing when the fault is altogether
the feeder's. He was glad to hear Mr. Hope throw
out some suggestions as to the elements of judgment
to be taken into account in awarding the prize.
This is most important ; and there is one point in
particular to whicli he would direct attention, namely,
a fair and full trial of the machines entered for
competition. Earmers will )iot be satisfied with the
short trials in the show-yard, which may be kept up
to amuse mere sight-seer.?, and thus help to swell the
receipts at the gates. To show the importance of
this subject he supposed that the whole of the wheat
crop of 1S56, in Scotland, had been thrashed by

Scotch machines of equal efficiency to those used by
Mr. Hope and him. By the agricultural statistics,
7,270,952 bushels of wheat were ]n-odiiced in 1S5G,
which is equal to 908,869 qrs., aud as 5s. per qr.
more was obtained for the English thrashed than
for the Scotch thrashed, there was a loss of £227,217
to the farmers of Scotland, from crop 1S56, from
using the latter instead of the former. It will be
said that it was not all loss, as the pigs would get
some of it ; true, but there is no profit in giving to
pigs, at present, food that is good for man; and
slovenliness in one operation on the farm is sure to
lead to slovenliness in others. This is no small sum,
and it is no small matter for the Society to denl
with. It has shown its anxiety in the subject by
proposing this subject for discussion, and by offering
apretty large sum for the best thrashing machine,
to be competed for in 1859 ; but whatever the
expense, it must see that there be a fair and full
trial of the machines when brought forward. It is
rich, and is yearly laying past money ; it has now a
large sinking fund, and it can therefore well afford a
good sunr for carrying out an improvement so much
desired as that of the thrashing machine. We must
bear in mind that the usefulness and wealth of a
Society such as this, is not shown by its always
adding to its sinking fund, and by the amount of
capital it has in the bank. Its usefulness and
capital are rather shown in the zeal which it excites
in its members, and in the improvements which are
originated and carried out by its aid ; and the
interest of that capital is something far better and
more lasting than mere money interest ; it is the
results of these improvements contributing to the
prosperity of its members, the comfort of the
community at large, and the permanent wealth of
the country.

Sir John M'Neill : Was the grain you sold at
market, sold to the same person, or to different
parties ?

Mr. Maclagan : The grain was sold in the same
market, but I cannot say whether it was sold to the
same person.

Mr. Maxavell said there was every desire on the
part of the directors to secure as fair a (rial as
possible, and they Avould neither spare time, trouble,
nor money in endeavouring to obtain it. At the
same time, he might allude to this little difficulty.
The English makers, if they had their own way,
would have no trial Avhatever. They said, "We
don't Avant you to judge of the respective merits of
our machines ;" but the directors thought they Avere
bound to take the best means of telling the people
who came to the shoAv, wliatin their opinion was the
best machine. The directors had a duty to perform
to the machine makers on the one hand, and to the
public on the other ; and they would take care that
the trial should be the best that could be procured.

Sir John M'Netll hoped that the Scotch machine
makers Avould not alloAV their English rivals to
go a-head of them.

In ansAver to Mr. Waller,

Mr. Maclagan said, he thought the drum of the
machine used by him Avas what Avas called a peg
drum.

Mr. Sl'TTIE thought tlic machines should be tried
Avith different kinds of grain. A great deal, iu hia

G G

433

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

opinion, depended on the style of feeding, and he
hoped the judges would be very particular in
selecting the feeder. If possible, they should have
the same feeder for the whole of the mills. (Ex-
pressions of dissent.) Mr. Suttie went on to say
that the English machines broke the straw, and that
he had found a Scotch machine with peg drum thrash
oats much cleaner than with the English machine.

A member Avished to know if the peg drum would
answer as well with steam as with horse power ?

Mr. Hope said, the right of patent was sold to
various parties, and machines had been put up, but
they were all taken down again in a few months.
They did not answer when driven by steam. He did
not know what was wrong.

Mr. Waller said the peg drum was an American
invention, and from the nature of its construction
it must break the straw.

Mr. Macla-GAN : In the drum of the machine

which I used the thrashing was performed by means
of rubbing, and not by beating. There are rows of
buttons on the drum, and also on the concave, which
buttons rub against one another on the grain, exactly
as if the grain was held in the hands and rubbed.
The straw came out beautifully unbroken. It was
so good that I thatched my stacks with it ; after
that I used it for thatching my turnip pits, besides
using it for some other purposes.

No other member offering further observations,
Sir John M'Neill brought the discussion to a
close by saying, that it was impossible for any one,
whether connected with agriculture or not, to doubt
of the importance of the subject to the welfare of
the community, or to doubt of the excellent mode in
which it liad been brought before the Society by
Mr. Hope.

A vote of thanks to Sir John terminated the
proceedings.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Monthly Council was held on Wednesday, the 7th
of April : present — Colonel Challoner, Trustee, in the
Chair; Lord Walsingham, Lord Feversham, Hon. W.
G. Cavendish, M.F., Sir Walkin W. Wynn, Bt., M.P.,
Sir Charles Gould Morgan, Et., Sir John V. B. John-
stone, Bt., M.P., Sir Archibald Macdonald, Bt., Mr.
Raytn-ind Barker, Mr. Bramston,M.P., Mr. Biandreth,
Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Druce, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr.
Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. James Howard, Mr.
Humberston (Mayor of Chester), Mr. Jonas,' Mr. Law-
rence, Mr. Milward, Mr. Paget, M.P., Mr. Pain, Colonel
Towneley, Mr. Turner (Barton), Professor Voelcker,
Mr. Vyner, and Mr. Jonas Webb.

The following new members were elected :—

Barra, Thomas, Brompton Hal!, Churchstoke, Salop.

Benins;ton, Thomas, Wallingfeu House, Brough, Yorkshire.

Case, Thomas, Testettou Hall, Fakenham, Norfolk.

Clandge, William, Pitchford Park, Salop.

CoUings, Rev. William, Sark, ChauDel Islands.

Daviea, Richard, Aylstowe Hill, Hereford.

Ellisou, Henry, Stone, Tickhill, Rotherham.

Evans, Edward, Boveney Court, Windsor.

Fiuch, Jacob, 1, Adelaide Place, London Bridge.

Gardner, Francis, Ryburgh, Fakenham, Norfolk.

Garsed, John, The Moorlands, Lantwit-Msjor, Cowbridge,

Glariaorganshire.
Grundy, Edward S., Reddish Hall, Lymni, Warrington.
Henry, Frederick, Lodge Park, Streffan, Scotland.
Horner, James, Lincoln.

Houblon, John Archer, Hallingbury Place, Bishops-SSortford.
jEckson, Robert, Corporation Road, Carlisle.
Johnson, J., Gunnersbury Park Farm, Ealing, Middlesex.
Johnson, J., junr., Haager Hill Farm, Ealing.
Kettle, George Mackenzie, Dallicot House, Bridgenorth.
Lockbart, Wilham, Hall Wood, Sattou, Chester.
Mead, James, Penrjn, Cornwall.

Menaon, James, Brinsworthy, Northmolton, Devonshire.
Naylor, Richard Christopher, Hooton Hall, Chester.
Osbiston, Samuel, junr., Ryburgh, Fakenham, Norfolk.
Price, Joshua, Featheratone, Wolverhampton.
Richards, John, Mathgrafel, Meifod, Montgomeryshire.
Rigg, Rev. Arthur, The College, Chester.
Roscoe, Edward Henry, Newtou House, Chester.
Sill, Rev. John Parkinson, Witheringsell Rectory, Stonham,

Suflfolk.

Stark, Michael John, Duke's Palace Bridge, Norwich.
Stobart, John Henry, Wilton-le-Wear, Darlington.
Strode, George Sidney, Newnham Park, Plymptou, Devon.
Treuch, W'iliiam Stuart, Essex Castle, Carrickmacrosa, Ireland.
Tuley, Joseph, Truewell Hall, Keighley, Yorkshire.
Walker, Rev. T., Clipston Rectory, Northampton.
Walker, John, Newton Bank, Chester.
Weeding, Mrs., 47, Mecklenburgh Square, London.
Welsh, John, Kirkton, Hawick, Scotland.

Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented the monthly report on
the accounts of the Society, from which it appeared that
the current cash-balance in the hands of the bankers
was .^£868.

Horse-Shoefng. — Mr. Thompson, Chairman of the
Journal Committee, reported the completion of a cheap
reprint of the article in the last Journal on Horse-shoe-
ing, by Mr. Miles, of Dixfield, near Exeter, of which
members had the privilege of purchasing copies (at the
office of the Society, 12, Ilanover-square), at the rate of
half-a-crown per dozen.

Editorship of Journal. — Mr. Jonas had leave to
postpone his motion, " on the best course to pursue for
the future editorship of the Journal," till the next
Monthly Council.

Lectures. — Colonel Challoner, at the previous
Monthly Council, having called the attention of the
meeting to the desirableness of having a lecture delivered
before the members once in each month during the
season, Mr. Fisher Hobbs moved, and Mr. Raymond
Barker seconded, the following resolutions, which were
carried unanimously :

1. That there shall be not less than four lectures during the

season.

2. That Professor Voelcker, the Consulting-Chemist of the

Society, be requested to deliver a lecture before the mem-
bers in the Council-roomof the Society, on Wednesday,
April 28th, at half-past 12 o'clock, on " Agricultural
Chemistry in its Relation to the Cultivation of Root
Crops."
?;. That the Journal Coraiaittee he requested to maVe ar-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

433

rangemeut3 with the professors of the Society, for the
eusuiDg lectures of the session ; and to report the same
to the Council at its next monthly lueetin;?.

4. That each lecturer be required to furnish the Secretary,

within 0U8 month from the date of delivery, with a copy
of his lecture prepared for publication.

5. That a short-haud writer be engaged by the Society for

the use of the lecturer, if required by him.

Prof. Voelcker, who was present, cheerfully acceded to
the wishes of the Council, and engaged that the cor-
rected copy of his lecture should be placed in the hands
of the Secretary on the day after its delivery, ready for
immediate publication. He considered that leading
expositions of the agricultural questions of the day were
best adapted for the purpose of lectures intended to be
of a popular character ; while the more matured discus-
sion of results obtained in the laboratory, and their
bearing on the principles and practice of agriculture,
should be reserved for papers in the Journal, for which
it was his intention that one at least should constantly
be prepared and laid before the Journal Committee for
publication in each successive number of the Journal.

Thrashing-Machines. — Colonel Challoner, as
Chairman of the Implement Committee, reported that
Messrs. Garrett and Sons, of Saxmundham, having ia-
quired " for what machines prizes Nos. 6 and 7 (in
the Society's Implement-sheet for the Chester Meeting)
are offered, whether they are to be simple thrashing-
machines, or combined machines having a straw-shaker,
screen, or winnowing-apparatus attached, or one or
more of these additions?" the Implement Committee
had agreed to the following resolution, namely, " That
the prize No. 6, for the best portable thrashing-
machine for 6-horse power, is restricted to a simple
thrashing-machine, having a straw-shaker ; and that
the instructions to the Judges would be in accordance
with such resolution : That the machine for prize No.
7 would have a similar restriction, only v/ould be
worked by steam."

Chester Meeting. — The Hon. W. G. Cavendish,
M.P., Vice-Chairman of the General Chester Com-
mittee, reported the favourable progress of the arrange-
ments for the ensuing Chester Meeting in July. lie
made special reference to the plans under consideration
for the best mode of exhibiting the very large amount
of cheeses expected to compete for the local prizes in
that depaitment.

Steward-Elect of Implejients. — On the motion
of Sir Archibald Macdonald, Bart., seconded by the
Hon. W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Cardwel!, of Hil-
borowe Hail, was unanimously appointed steward-elect
of implements at the Chester Meeting.

Country Meeting of 1859. — Memorials and other
documents received from cities and towns within the
district of the country meeting for next year (comprised
of the counties of Berks, Northampton, Oxford, and
Warwick), were referred to an Inspection Committee,
consisting of the Hon. "W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr,
Raymond Barker, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Fisher
Hobbs, and Mr.Milward, with a request that they would
visit the several localities to which the society had thus
been invited, and report the result of their personal in-

spection to the Council at its next monthly meeting in
May.

Member of Council. — On the motion of Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Mr. Milward, Mr. Huskin-
son, of Epperstone, Nottinghamshire, was unanimously
elected a general member of Council, to supply the va-
cancy occasioned by the transfer of Mr. Thompson to
the class of Trustees.

Labourers' Cottages.— Sir John William Lub-
bock, Bart., favoured the Council with the details of
expenses incurred by him in the construction of a
labourer's cottage in accordance with the plans of Mr.
Isaac, of Bath, published in the Journal of the Society.
This communication was referred to the Journal Com-
mittee, with a request for a special report.

Adjourned to April 14,

A Weekly Council was held on the 14th of April :
present — Lord Berners, President, in the chair, Mr.
Alcock, M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr, Foley, M,P,,
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Rev. L. V. Harcourt, Mr, Thomas
Scott, Mr. Vyner, and Mr. Burch Western.

RI. C. B. von Neergaard addressed a letter from
Denmark, announcing his invention of a drill-plough,
which he desired to have exhibited, and if possible fried,
at the Chester Meeting. Mr. Freer, of Rothley, applied
for a further trial of his grain and seed-planting ma-
chine, exhibited at the Salisbury Meeting.

The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
presented copies of their premium-list of essays and
reports for 1858 and 1859, and of stock, implements,
&c., for their general show at Aberdeen at the end of
August, 1853, and at Edinburgh in 1859. The Essex
Agricultural Association transmitted the rules and schedule
of prizes for their exhibition at Chelmsford, on the 15th
of June next. Mr. Tanner presented a copy of his Prize
Essay oi the Cultivation of Dartmoor ; the editor of the
Dublin Agricultural Review, the first number of that
new periodical ; the Californian Agricultural Society, the
Ofncial Report of their fourth annual fair held at Stock-
ton in the autumn of last year ; the Normandy Associa-
tion a copy of their Annuaire ; the Algiers Society the
4th No. of their proceedings ; the editors of the
Archives do V Agriculture of Lille and the Revue
Agrieole of Valenciennes, copies of their respective
journals ; M. de Glngins d'Sclepens(foreign juror from
the S\viss Government at the Chelmsford Meeting), a
copy of his Report addressed to the Swiss Frfileral
Council, on the Chelmsford Show, and on English Agri-
culture ; the Count do Gourcy, a copy of his agricul-
tural Peregrinations ; and iVI, Rohart, a copy of his
elaborate work on the Economical Manufacture of
Manures,

■The Council, having ordered their acknowledgments
for the favour of these presents, decided, at the sugges*
tion of the President, to recommend to the Monthly
Council that the attention of the Journal Committee
should be called to the foreign works recently presented
to the Society, with the view of having such portions
of them translated and published in the Journal as might

G G 2

484

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

be considered likely tu art'oid [radical information to
the English farmer.

Adjourned to April '21.

A Weekly CouNcrL was held April 21. Mr. Ray-
mond Barker, V.P., in the chair ; the Baron de Fircks,
Mr. Caird, M.P., Mr. Druce, Mr. Foley, M. P., Mr.
Fisher Mobbs, Mr. Majendie, Mr. Thomas Scott, and
Mr. Burch Western.

Nitrate of Soda. — Mr. Caird, M.P., luid before
the Council the following correspondence between him-
self and the Foreign Office on the occurrence of Nitrate
of Soda in South America : —

" Foreign Office, March, 27, 1858.
" Sir, — -With reference to Mr. Haramond's le'.ter to you.of
the 6th of January last, I am directed by the Earl of Malmes-
bury to traaamit to you here.vi'h a copy of a despatch from
Mr. Mori^aii, her Mnjesty's Consul at Bahia, respectiog the
discovery of deposits of nitrate of soda.

" I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

" Ww. Seymour Fitzgerald."
" J. Caird, Eq , M.P."

(Copy.) " Bahia, February 18, 1853.

" My Lord, — I have the honour to arknowledge the receipt
of your LordaUip's despatch No. 1 of January 7 last, instruct-
ing me to report, after a careful inquiry, on the localities in
which nitrate of soda has been found in this pro/ince, its state \
oT purity, the coat of cxtrecting aud refining it. aud the ex- ]
pense of transport to a shipping port. In reply, 1 beg to state
that ever since the mention made in ray commercial report for
the year 1856 of the discovery cf this important manure in j
this province, I have received undoubted information of its
existence in several other localihea, and in consequence lost no
time in reuesving my exertions, with the assistance of a few
friends having connections in the interior, to obtain every
information possible thereon. The infurmation received from
several districts is such as to satisfy ray most sanguine expec-
tations, especially in the north-east of this province, in the
neighbourhood of the river San Francisco, at a place ca'led
' Salitre' — saltpetre (the generic name given to nitrate of soda,
the us3 of which is unknown here). lu the words of a most
distinguished and talented native of the town of Joszeiro, on
the St. Francisco, now one of the deputies of this province to '
the General Astembly of the Empire, the district of ' Salitre'
is only seven leagues distant from the town of Jcazeiro, and
tlirough a valley of si^iteeu to twenty leagues long, one mass
of nitrate of soda is found; in some places on the surface, at
otheis a few feet under; uud outaius sufficient manure for
exportation for years to come. On the opposite side of the
above -aamed river, near the town of ' Pilao-Arcado,' other

deposits exist in equal quantities. Now the projected Bahia
railroad to the town of Joazeiro must pass through the first-
named district ; but those magnificent deposits will only
become available when that railroad reaches the St. Francisco.
In the interest cf the company and of commerce, it is ardently
to he desired that its works should be commenced and prose-
cuted with vigour, as the distance is only 240 miles from this
city. When I shall have received the replies to the queries I
have forwarded to the several localities, I shall make up a
report thereon for your lordship, and transmit at the same
time the samples of nitrate I am equally promised. I have,
&c. (Signed) " J. Morgan."

On the motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the thanks of
the Council were addressed to Mr. Caird for Ihe favour
of this commuication.

The following communications were also received : —
1. From the Society of Arts, requesting co-operation in
obtaining detailed information respecting the supply of
Gutta Perclia, and its employment in the manufacture of
tubing for agricultural purposes. 2. From the Treasurer
of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, requesting
information on the purchase of Ayrshire catlle. 3. A
verbal statement by Baron ds Fircks on manuring the
black soil of the German provinces of Poland by burn-
ing the straw of the flax grown upon it, after the remo-
val of the seeds. 4. From Mr. Wright, of Sigglesthorne
Hall, a paper on the management of a herd of breeding
cattle, with especial reference to the kind of diet, the
treatment and condition best calculated lo ensure
regular fecundity and successful gestation, and on the
causes which operate adversely in particular seasons. 5.
From the Port Philip Farming Society in Australia,
copies of their Transactions and Prize Sheets. These
communications were referred to the Monthly Council
and the Journal Committee.

Mr. Foley, M.P., laid on the tabic a statement of the
great public inconvenience arising from different stand-
ards being employed in different districts for the pur-
chase and sale of agricultural produce.

Adjourned to the 28tii instant; when the Council
would meet at 12, and Professor Voelckcr deliver a lec-
ture before the Members of the Society at half-past 12,
'• On Agricultural Chemistry, in relation to the cultiva-
tion of Hoot Crops," open to all Members of the
Society.

MANUllES, AND T H E 1 11 APPLICATION.
a paper head by mr. mitchell, before the members of the penrith farmers* club.

Dec. 22, 1857.

The subject -nliicli I have been kindly requested
to bring under joiir notice to-day, is one certainly
not altogclhcr of my owli selection. Haditbec;u
so, had i been left entirely to my own choice, it is
more than probable I slioiild have called yout atten-
tion to some topic or other of less importance; less
vital in ils consccjnenecs to our very existence as
practical agriculturists ; not that I think the subject
unsuitable or unfit for discussion, but from the

dread lest it should siilTcr damage in the hands of an
unfit expounder.

The subject, as announced, "Manures, their
adaptation, or proper and seasonable application to
the soil," is one, and perhaps I may be allowed to
say, the most important of all the subjects to which
our attention as agriculturists can possibly be direct-
ed ; because, holding as I do, and that most strongly,
what from the iricrcascd and increasing value or

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

43c

rental of farms, the increased tliougli uot iucreas-
iug rate of labour, and tlie increased value of arti-
iicial manures, that unless proper attention is paid
to the prudent and economical application, as well
as liberal and generous allowance of manures to our
fields and crops, it is in the very nature of things
utterly impossible for the agricultural in.'erest to
keep (I neither mean nor say) a -head but a-breast,
for that is our proper and natural position, with the
commercial and manufacturing interests of this great
country. Yes, sir, the time is gone by, when isola-
tion can benefit any class ; and certainly if anything
were yet needed to dispel remaining class importance
and bigoted imaginary independence, it is the sad, I
had almost said the unparalleled money crisis, or
ordeal through which our own country and other
nations of the earth are at tliis moment passing.
Talk, sir, of independence ! — what can be the use of
such a word, when England, the wealthiest country
in the world, reels and staggers the moment brother
Jonathan lives beyond his means, and thereby be-
comes unable to meet his just obligations? And if it
be so with nations, so is it witli individuals, pro-
fessions, and classes, and so is it with agriculture.
Agriculture can only thrive as such, vdien our mer-
cantile and manufacturing interests are in a healthy
state ; in fact, they are mutual handmaids, or help-
meets for each other. And bearing this in view, I
proceed, without further preface, to grapple with my
allotted subject.

In doing so, I assume our lands are ready for the
reception of manures ; not ready, like the toil-worn
horses, by over- taxation, work, and exhaustion, but
ready from being laid dry and clean.

All of you, I presume, are practically^ if not literally
familiar with the sage saying, " Dry yoxu- lands, clean
your lands, and feed your lands." By-the-bye, sir,
you may remember being present at our last agri-
cultural society's dinner, held in this very town.
Our chairman, on that occasion, Mr. Crackanthorpe,
claimed the authorship of that sagacious saying on
the part of Lord Lonsdale. Had Mr. Crackanthorpe
been conversant with the agricultural writers of
Rome, he would have known that it was Cato, the
famous old Roman, and not my Lord Lonsdale, who
uttered those memorable words, so pregnant now
with the experience of ages, " Dry your land, clean
your land, and feed your land."

Assuming that all whom I now address are disciples
of old Cato, and that all your lands are dry and clean,
I proceed, not theoretically, but practically, to point to
those manures, as also the season, manner, and crops,
to which they should be applied, in order to ensure
successful results. Of course, most of you are aware
of the length of time to which ray observations in
this district of country extend ; and therefore it is,
I only expect, and ask you to pay that attention,
which the facts to be stated, and the circumstances
of the case, may seem to demand at your hands.

To proceed then, and at the very beginning I
meet with difiiculties, these difficulties arising, in
part, if not altogether from the variety and number
of manures now palmed upon the agriculturist, each
claiming for itself to be the very panacea for all the
wants to which our cereal and veo-etable crops are
subject. And the first of these, and perhaps the one
upon which more than upon all the others put to-

gether, there is the greatest diversity of opinion as to
whether it is a manure or not, is the farmer's time-
honoured assistant — lime. Many, and some of them
great, authorities too, only assign lime a place in the
apothecary's or druggist's shop. Now, sir, with all
respect to tiiese eminent authorities, I make bold to
say, tliey have maintained, with fully as much dog-
matism as practical common sense, that lime is sim-
ply a purgative or medicine.

Sir, I know not which may be the general opin-
ion entertained by this Club, touching the ingre-
dients which compose the most useful article in the
manure table or shop of the sagacious farsner of
olden times, nor am I at all anxious to open up what
I fear might only lead to, and end in very unprofita-
ble discussion. But assuming, if there is even one
here who holds that lime is simply a purgative, and
not a manure, even that one will admit, that waving
the discussion (manure or medicine), lime is, at
all events, a very large manure-producer. How,
the question then is, and in what state should lime
be applied ? I presume, we are all at one in
reference to the necessity of its being burnt, cal-
cined, or in a caustic state. The question is,
how long should it lie after removal from the kiln,
and before its application to the land ? And before
we are in a condition satisfactorily to answer this
question, we must ascertain what results are ex-
pected from its application, and to what it is to be
applied. In a general way, we say, if it is to be
applied to old grass land, that is, land never in-
tended to be turned by the tearing plough, or at all
events very remotely, then to all such, but to such
alone, let it be completely fallen, dissolved, cooled :
in fact, all but soured, before it is spread over, and
in a quantity of not less than ten tons, and up to
fourteen per acre. Thi'? quantity, the larger espe-
cially, is a liberal and generous allowance, in fact
almost a complete covering to the land, and tends
mightily to eradicate and waste away the old moss,
which, whether it be from the extreme humidity of
these two counties, Cumberland and Westmoreland,
I know not, but certain is the fact, moss is most
predominent in all our high pastures. And if this
statement is borne out by observation, which I
maintain it is, then certainly no small or inconsi-
derable advantage is gained ; as I doubt not, the
theoretical, as well as practical grazier, must have
noticed the single-pointed grasses that find their
way late in spring, through the dense hide or carpet
of moss with which all our high, and, even in many
cases, our low-lying pastures abound. Such pas-
tures, lying in a state of nature, may be, and gene-
rally are stocked or stinted late in spring, or early
in summer, with cattle. But what is the conse-
quence ? The poor animal is doomed to endless toil.
He must rise early, and labour late to keep alive,
to keep the skin and bones together, and then,
when withdrawn at our ever-memorable Brough-
hill time, the owner or grazier finds the summer
past, and his beast neither bigger nor better, and
that although paying a stint price— hardly an ac-
knowledgment for possession — he has actually been
paying too dear for his whistle. But, on the other
hand, wherever this class of land or pasture has
had a liberal allowance of hme, in the manner de-
scribed, there immediately, without any application

436

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

of seed, we get a carpet of choice white clover, not
only keeping our cattle in good condition, but in
many cases otherwise favourable, with shelter, &c.,
making them fit for the shambles, and besides
keeping such extra numbers, the very droppings of
which soon manure and quicken the pasture. Hav-
ing, I hope, satisfactorily disposed of the liming of
lands intended for perpetual pasturage, or, at all
events, in such a way as to make myself understood,
I proceed briefly to call your attention to the liming
of lands under or intended for cultivation. To all
such I recommend, and recommend strongl}', the
application of lime in the hottest possible state, and
in quantities of from seven to ten tons per imperial
acre. If the land has never been broken up, or has
lain in green for any length of time, then let the ap-
plication be made two or more years before break-
ing up, and considering the somewhat mountainous
country where our lot is cast, the rains of winter
and tempestuous winds of spring, with which we
never fail to be visited, I v/ould recommend the
summer season as the best for having lime properly
burned and applied. Rest assured there is too
little attention paid by all of us in having lime in a
proper state. At this season — I mean summer —
there is scarcely any risk in having one side of the
lime-kiln burnt to a cinder, the other cold and
hard as the quarry from which it v/as excavated.
Neither are the horses, carts, and harness, from
frequent rains during the transit from the kiln to
the field, so liable to be burnt; in short, less wear
and tear every way. Of course, some may object
to this season as being the very one when pasture
may be said to be in the greatest luxuriance ; this
is not difficult to surmount. Either cut a hay crop
and lime immediately afterwards, or if the field be
imsuitable for hay, then withdraw all your cattle
from your other fields, and eat over as close as jios-
sible, and long before the after-math from the bay,
or the springing after the eatage is read)^ to afford
a full bite to the short-horn, the hot lime will have
found its way to the roots of the grass, and be out
of the way for injury to the tongues and teeth of
the animals depasturing thereon. Some may sup-
pose from the drought of the season, generally in
summer, that a long time will elapse ere the lime
falls or flours. No fears need be entertained on
this score ; the dews falling at this season are amjily
sufficient for the purpose: and be it remembered,
there is no need for every piece of the lime to be
completely fallen; twenty-four hours after spread-
ing finishes the slaking. Lime applied in the ex-
treme hot state, so far as my observation extends,
does not kill and destroy old moss or fog, as it is
sometimes termed, so quickly nor so effectually as
when in a colder and soured state ; still it finds its
way quicker to the roots of the grass, and there,
like an ever active agent, tenders or sears the sward,
so that when the day and implement of destruction
(the plough) arrives, the field lifts more like any
tender new lea break, than the tough stubborn un-
manageable soil we are accustomed to see where
lime has not been apphed ; and besides, from the
land harrowing more freely and thoroughly, the
green crop is not only more abundant, but being
equal in depth in the soil, springs at once, and
shows a more uniform sample ; in a word, altoge-

ther freer from greens and after-shots. Another
advantage is gained, I think, by applying lime to
old lea at least two years before breaking up, and
that is, the saving of labour, when fallowmg for
turnips. The lime having lain two years, has the
surface soil, as before stated, to a considerable de-
gree tendered; then on ploughing the stubble an
inch or two deeper than the lea furrow, the lime
will be about central in the middle of the furrow,
at work pulverizing the soil, and rendering it, as
soon as the season for fallowing arrives, almost as
soft and brittle as an ash pit, and saving replough-
ing, harrowing, grubbing, &c., a sum almost equal
in value to half the cost price of the lime.

I must, however, bid adieu to lime, much as I
value it, only, as it was my first love, I cannot do
so without a parting benediction. Lime, then, I
say, wherever practicable on your lea break, and in
the summer season ; yet such is my regard for it
that I say, and say advisedly, rather than allow
your farms to remain unlimed, lime by any means,
any how, and at any season, betwixt Christmas and
Lady Day, and Lady Day and Christmas.

I come now to speak of manure, on which there
never has been any difference of opinion as to its
being rightly and properly named or classified, and
that is, old-fashioned farm-yard muck, and this, I
take the liberty of saying, appears to me to be still
the best of all mixtures. When I say so, let none
suppose I underrate, or am ignorant of the value
of the sanitary offals of our large towns and cities;
these, I know experimentally, from their large ad-
mixture of night soil, &c., are, as fertilizers, all but
invaluable; ])ut then it is only in favoured situa-
tions— situations not subject to an expensive sea
or land carriage — that they are available, and,
therefore it is that I leave this valuable accessary
to the farmer, out of my catalogue, as they are
totally incomatable to a large number of the culti-
vators, situate within the mountain fastnesses of
Cumberland and Westmoreland. To all then I say,
especially, and to the farmers of Great Britain
generally, that the farmer, be he who he may, who
can produce the largest quantity of farm-yard
manure in connection with the best quality, will
very soon be found standing forth as the leading
and most successful (other things being equal)
agriculturist of his day and district. Now, there
are various ways for doing this, that is, for swell-
ing the manure heap, and also for increasing its
value, and, I believe, there is none better, whilst,
at the same time, 1 fear, none more overlooked and
neglected by us all, than the properly securing the
urine of our stalls and byers; this, in place of being
conducted to some convenient receptacle, any one
passing along our highways may have observed,
in nine cases out often, finds its way to the horse
pond or goose dub, rather than the manure manu-
factory. Now, in this, it is self-evident there is
great waste, when buildings are not spouted round,
lor carrying off rain water; and landlords should
be reminded this is expected from them, and being
accomplished, then the occupying tenant must see
that there are proper cesspools, or reservoirs,
formed in some convenient place, into which he
must deposit road-scrapings, chaff, dried peat
moss, &c., at all convenient seasons, and then, into

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

437

and upon them the conduits from the byers and
stables must play. After being thoroughly and
completely saturated, say for a few weeks, then let
the sluice or valve be uplifted (for I would have an
outlet from the lowest level, same as a mill pond),
for allowing the water to escape, and the mixture
to dry; and so soon as removable in a cart, then
away with it, either to the meadow or arable fields.
Here, if anywhere, is the place for the water cart to
be called into requisition. On lifting the sluice of
the cesspool, the waste water might be distributed
by the cart over the meadows or pasture fields. I
am not, however, an advocate for the distributing
cart — not because 1 hghtly value urine as a top-
dressing, but only because of the difficulty attend-
ing it, and the irregularity of its application. I am
aware it is, and has been practised to a consider-
able extent on many farms ; still, on the most of
farms with which 1 am acquainted, it has been
abandoned, for the reasons described. On the
other hand, were it used by being absorbed in the
cesspool, or compost heap, as recommended, there
is scarcely a farm where there are not abundant
materials for the absorption ; only it must be re-
membered, as already stated, that rain water from
the roofs of the houses, and the springs from be-
low, are not to gain admittance to it ; and were this
carefully attended to, I question much if a world of
unavailing deputations might not have been spared
repairing to Her Majesty's government, for the
purpose of urging them to use their influence with
foreign powers to give us artificial manures, guano,
and such like, at a cheaper rate. Another plan for
swelling the manure heap, is by rotting under and
around our animals a large portion of our straw.
I am aware a very extensive practice prevails along
these fell sides, of making all or nearly all the
fodder of the farm pass through the intestines of
the cattle. Of course there cannot be two opinions
that this is the ready way for getting straw short-
ened and rotted, fit for application; but its being
the best plan for getting quality, must not be so
readily conceded. And most assuredly it is the
worst of all for producing quantity. Of those who
hold by the opinion that dung is best when all
or nearly all passes through the intestines of the
animal, I ask, What supported nature? Where
came the beef, bones, and muscle from ? It will be
replied the animal had turnips, oilcake, or grain ;
granted; but if these improve manure with scarcely
any straw or litter, they do it vastly more with it ;
and if none were given the animal fed on nothing
but straw, then there cannot be a doubt that the
animal has abstracted from the straw what sup-
ported nature, and to that extent, at least, reduced
its value as a manure.

Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, it might afford a nice
subject for discussion some day or other, when we
are so much in lack of subjects, whether a ton of
chopped straw, that is, a ton of straw fresh and di-
rect from the chaff cutter, or a ton of straw eaten up
by an animal allowed nothing but water, would be
the most valuable to us as a manure. I might
touch upon another mode for enriching manure,
by the animal being fed on oilcake, &c. ; but this I
consider too expensive for general adoption.

Having pointed out the simplest and most

eflficient ways of increasing the quantity and im-
proving the quality of farm-yard manure, I shall
now, as briefly as possible, direct your attention to
the best seasons for, and mode of its applica-
tion. And, here again, I require to make a digres-
sion, or at least to ask a question. What sort of
soil or class of land is the manure to be applied to ?
Is it land naturally inclined to produce straw in
what (to be understood) I shall call overabundance?
or is it the reverse ? If the latter, that is, land
stinted in the production of straw, then to all such
apply the manure to the lea, immediately before
breaking up for crop. Land of this description, I
have always observed, when any plan or system
could be devised — and I know of none and have
practised none equal to the application of dung to
the lea— for increasing the bulk of straw, always,
and without any exception largely increased the
quantity of grain. On the other hand, if the soil
has a tendency to produce a large bulk of straw —
the land I farm is of this description— then,
upon no account must the manure be applied to
the lea, but to the stubble, at the fall of the year,
before giving the land the winter furrow.

At this season there is not the scorching sun, and
rarely the withering winds we have about turnip-
sowing time, so destructive to ammonia, the most
valuable ingredient in dung ; and besides, it is
generally a period when the day labourer, women
and boys, are in lack of employment ; consequently,
it will be a job for them to spread the manure, and
afford us the satisfaction of conferring a favour,
nay, a blessing, in an act that in reahty costs us
nothing, but rather the reverse, for by it we have a
more equal distribution of hand labour on our farms
over all the year, and thus liberate a large available
force, at a very urgent and pressing season, for
eradicating twitch and other filth, so unprofitable
and so very discreditable to the agriculturists of
the age.

Having given my opinion thus strongly in favour
of autumn or winter as the season for the proper
and economical application of manure, an objection
may be started, or question raised. How are we to
get it then ? This is not difficult to meet, in accord-
ance with a very common practice I have observed
in this neighbourhood, and that is, the custom or
habit of keeping a large portion of farm-yard man-
ure over the year. This practice I certainly, and
out-and-out, condemn ; still, as it is a practice, it is
better to turn it to a good account, by leaking it
available for a start. I have said, I condemn the
system of allowing manure to lie over the year. I
do so on the principle that all vegetable substances
exposed to atmospherical influence, and in a state of
decomposition, become sadly lessened in quantitj--,
and injured in quality, by allowing them to lie over,
and thereby run to waste, or fly off in the air, what
should be absorbed by and in the soil.

When, however, from any unforeseen or unavoid-
able cause dung has to lie over the year, then let it,
if lifted from the trodden court at all, be carted out
into a large heap, and the carts and horses when so
engaged go right on to the top of the heap, so that
it may be carefully pressed and prevented from de-
composition ; in this way dung may be preserved
for a considerable time without much deterioratiQii

■J3S

TIIK FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

or wahte, and then turn it lou^eiy up about three
weeks before applicatiou. My opinion is, thnt tiunjf
is most rich and valuable when it is in a three
fourths rotted state, that is, just before it loses the
strong decaying heat, which it generally acquires
about a fortnight or three weeks after lying loosely
up. Some may say, 10 carts of completely rotted
dung in ti cold peaty state is much more valuable as
a manure, and has more substance in it, than 10
carts in the condition in which I recommend it ; this
is conceded, but that is not the question. Are the
10 cold dormant decomposed equal in value to the
30, or, in many cases, 40, from which they were
reduced ? I trow not. Na5', I am thoroughly per-
suaded, from observation and experience, that
storing dung over the year is most wasteful and
imprudent.

My own system or practice, to have dung at com-
mand for the demands of my farm, and up to the
extent of its ability in yielding or producing it (for,
be it remembered, I am in a locality where none
worth naming can be purchased), is to treasure up
all that can be scraped together, say from the begin-
ning of March to the beginning of June, for a[)pli-
cation to the meadow lands ; then, my cattle — a
considerable portion of them at all events- having
access to a large open shed during the greater part
of summer, which shed is welllittered twice-a-week,
makes a very large quantity of excellent rich m.a-
nure. This is carted into a loose heap, out of the
reach of the treading of the cattle, sometime about
the beginning of harvest, or on wet days during
harvest time, and is fully ready for application im-
mediately after harvest, when 1 commence to plough
my stubble. I have stated my land is not of the
description to admit the application of dung to lea ;
consequently, as soon as dl the available dung is
laid on to the stubble and ploughed in, 1 drop
ploughing stubble until I get more ready. Every
month I clear out my loose cattle courts, mixing it
loosely up with stubble and byre dung ; and this, by
lying a fortnight, then turning over, and allowing
it to lie for another fortnight, is ready for use ;
consequently, a few acres of more stubble are got
turned over, and so on continuously during the
winter months, or until all the stubble is dunged.

I need scarcely remark, that ])lacing the dung
heap near the cesspool, and giving it a complete
and frequent watering therefrom, adds very materi-
ally to the value of the manure. I have heard the
practice objected to, of allowing cattle to get into
courts during summer, as it is robbing the grass
fields of their valuable droppings, and especially
during hot weather, as then they are almost con-
stantly in the courts, only taking a turn-out in
the evenings and mornings, to eat, and imme-
diately retire again under cover ; and even, whilst
parties don't go to the length of objecting, still
they only admit it, when 1 talk of the valuable
dung I make in this way, that I was robbing Peter
to pay Paul. Now I grant I ara doing so in
a measure and to a limited extent ; yet, if I can
persuade Paul that he is as well oti' at a certain
season of the year with 5s. in the pound as at
another with 20s., Peter, I think, will have no
cause to find fault v/ith me when I present him
with Paul's full discharge. Whilst, however, I

advocate the application of (hiDg in autumn and
winter, let it not be imagined I advocate the sowing
of turnips without anything in the stetch below
them ; no, far from this : this is the place and posi-
tion for the artificials, bones, guano, &c., to occupy.
In making up your stetches, make them equally deep
as for dung ; then either sow the artificial, whatever
it be, broadcast or along the stetch ; it is of no
consequence which, as the resplitting of the stetch
sends the manure to the centre and bottom, imme-
diately underneath where the young seedlings are
to be deposited. Of course, from its depth, it is
out of the reach of the young plant for a time, but
only for a very short time, and at a time too when
not required, as the land having been so lately
manured, either on the lea or stubble, is in a fine
rich state by the thorough decomposition of the
manure, and its complete incorporation of the soil ;
this immediately pushes forward the young plant
into the rough leaf, and beyond the ravages of the
fly, and as soon as it catches the rough leaf, its
fangs may be assumed as clutching at the arti-
ficials.

If, however, farsners are averse to change the
system of applying their farm-yard manure to the
roots of the turnip, then there is certainly no na-
tural necessity for tlieir likewise clinging to the
wasteful and slovenly habit I haveobserved followed,
even by those from whom I should have expected
other and better arrangements. The practice I al-
lude to is that of stetching up, as is often the case,
an entire field, then dunging the half or the whole
of it, as the case may be, then spreading, or scaling
it, as it is called, then resplitting the stetch, cover-
ing in the manure, and last of all, and after a day
or two elapse, the turnip seed is sown. Now this
practice or mode of procedure I cannot sufficiently
condemn. In the first place, as is generally the
case, the turnip sowing season is the one when we
have the sun the hottest and most scorching ; and
in the second place, we have often withering spring
winds, each of which are fitted almost to blast the
expectation of the turnip striking altogether. In
fact, I often wonder when I see the stetch seem-
ingly made up for the purpose of v.'itliering any
latent moisture that may be in the soil ; then, again,
when I see the dung first lying perhaps a few days
in the heaj>, then when sufficiently dried, spread
out along the stetch, to lio for a day or two longer,
in order seemingly to perfect its destruction. Then
comes the plough, as soon as both dung and land
are so baked as to be impossible for covering up,
and does its work : after which, and perhaps it may
be a week, the seed is deposited, and then the
slovenly and wasteful practice is ended.

The remedy I propose for this rude, primitive,
and wasteful practice is just the one universally
followed in every well-cultivated district, Vv'here the
dung is applied in the stetches to the turnips.
Whenever a field is ready for stetching up, then at
whatever side of the field you mean to start, let
twelve stetches be made for a beginning. It is al-
ways advisable to start at the side furthest from
home, or from the manure heaj), as by so doing
there are no loaded or empty carts passing and re-
passing each other, and often treading and tramp-
ling the finished off and sown stetches. Twelve

THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE.

339

stetcheb Ijciiii/ tet otl', calculaLc your forces — so
many carls fur manure, so many women or boys
for scaling-, and so many ploughs for stetching in
the manure, and a horse and a man for the seed
drill, if your force will allow of it. As soon as the
cart is filled with manure, let it he dragged out
along the stetches, in quantity sufficient for three
stetches at a time, and an active man will do this
without ever stopping the horse. Tlien let the
spreaders proceed in sets of three, each spreading
their own stetch so many yards lengthwise ; then
another set, and so on, until all are at work, and al-
ways spreading backwards and forwards along their
given quantity of yards, each set keeping by them-
selves. Then let the ploughs start — by the way,
there is no necessity for double mould- board ploughs
if this plan is adopted ; the common one in daily use
does the work much better, with only the small ad-
dition of an extra near-side plate attached to the
plough, with two screw bolts for bringing the stetch
to a narrow point at the top. I have said I prefer
the single to the double mould-board plough ; for
this reason — the double plough works in the soil
something like a wedge, and pushes all the hard,
clotty, stubborn soil immediately underneath, where
the young seeds are to be deposited ; whereas the
single jdough cuts through, and throws up from
the bottom of the furrow the moist and soft soil. so
necessary for the growth of the plant in its earlier
stages. If the field lies upon a hanging bank, then
let all the ploughs, following one another, each
split a stetch over the hill, down bank. When at
the bottom or end of the stetches, let all make
another — a new stetch up the hill, or up-bank, as it
is called — which will always leave the number of
twelve stetches between, and ready for the cart and
spreaders, without any risk of collision or causing
them to interrupt each other. I have frequently
had six ploughs following each other in this man-
ner, always making six stetches the one way, and
covering-in six the other, without any incommod-
ing. A field going forward in this way, with large
forces, has almost the resemblance of intricate
machinery; and yet the very intricacy, every wheel
performing its proper functions, keeps the whole
in perfect harmony and working order. Be it
observed, if this system is adopted, and properly
and energetically carried out — ribbing out and
in as it is termed in Scotland — a great advan-
tage is gained in dry and scorching weather. A
stetch is never lifted from the flat above half-an-
hour until it is dunged, spread, resplit, and the
seed deposited — in fact, all completed — which is a
great advantage in any weather, particularly in a
hot, dry, withering season.

It was remarked by a friend, when I consented
to take up this subject, that I had made several ex-
periments with manures, last season. I did so, and
whilst I regret that the boislerons and ungenial
autumn of that year prevented me testing them
with the certainty of weight, yet the dif!erence was
so manifest to the eye, in favour of blood and bone
manure, over ten other sorts, that I can have no
difficulty in awarding to it the palm of victory.
The kinds used were Peruvian guano, bone dust,

bone meal, dissolved bones, concentrated manure,
blood and bones, and various mixtures or combi-
nations of the above.

One remark, and I have done, for I really con-
fess my paper has extended to a most undue length
— and that is, in reference to the manuring of
meadows. I have already defined the period on an
agricultural farm for making dung for meadow
land— that I have shown to fall upon the spring
months. Let the dung be exceedingly well pre-
pared by repeated and re-repeated turnings and
waterings, and if practicable, from the byres and
stables, and also, if attainable, road scrapings, rich
soil from any land end, or anywhere else, let it be
mixed up with dung, as anything of that sort from
its weight and attraction to the roots of grass,
causes, in an almost incredibly short time, the
growing in of the entire mass, and which early
growing in is so essential for the succeeding crop.

Of course, speaking on this point. I do so with
very considerable diffidence, for I honestly confess
when I entered the sister-county a few short years
ago, on this matter I had all my experience to collect
and learn, and the result of that experience and ob-
servation leads me to point to autumn as the pro-
per and beneficial season for application. Some
practise, and recommend strongly, the application
of dung immediately after cutting their hay crop ;
and I believe, in late and high lying districts, the
arguments they adduce in support of what they
practise, are difficult to overcome; still on the whole,
looking at this county and Westmioreland gene-
rally, I am disposed to point to September or Oc-
tober, as the best season for applying manure to
meadows: then the sun is shorn considerably of
the force of his burning rays, the nights are getting
longer, and in the absence of rain, for which, at
this season, I believe few agriculturists pray, there
are generally very heavy dews, and of course very
considerable growth for speedy growing, in or over,
as it is called. And in addition, by deferring lay-
ing on the manure until this season, a rich and
valuable aftermath has been secured at a season of
very great scarcity. But whatever be the season
embraced for laying on the dung, never, if possible,
let the sun set on a slovenly or unspread hea]),
either on meadow or arable field.

Thus, sir, have I brought at greater length than
I could have wished, my observations on manures,
and their application to the s&il, to a close. In
doing so, I am aware, on several points, I have ven-
tured to find fault with and condemn the esta-
blished custom and present usage of the district;
this I admit should be at all times cautiously med-
dled with, by any one, more especially a compara-
tive stranger; for often do we find, on further,
deeper, and more searching investigation, the why
and the wherefore it is so. Still, whilst admitting
this, as little does it become those who have care-
fully collected experience and observation from the
best-cultivated counties in Great Britain to stereo-
type any system that has nothing but custom and
ancient usage to recommend it. At all events, I
take the libert}^, Mr. Chairman, of saying, with your
permission, that I shall not be the man.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

A TREATISE ON ROAD LEGISLATION AND JIANAGEMENT.

By Richakd Bayldon, Road Sui'veyor.

London : Lonsrman and Co.

Roads are a fundamental provision for the con-
venience and improvement of any country, its traffic
and the internal employments. The public highways
that lead from one city to another, the roads of the
parish, that afford access from hamlet to hamlet,
the cartways of the farm, that give a passage to the
fields, and from one division of land into another,
the walks of the garden, that conduct to the
various parts, have all been contrived for the same
use, and with the same object in view, being
spaces of ground ridden over, and trodden upon for
purposes of public and private utility. Without
these provisions of access, the value of distant
parts cannot be realized, and the mutual benefit is
denied, from which the social happiness of man-
kind derives the largest share of contribution.
Without intercourse, human progress would re-
main stationary, and become a stagnation, having
neither ripple nor movement.

The formation and maintenance of public high-
ways have long been made a national concern, and
have been subjected to legislative enactments. The
cai'tways of the farm belong to the landowner and
the farmer, and each parochial division manages
the roads within its l)oundaries by a tax of money
or work, and by officers for the special purpose.
The great highways are placed under a wholly dif-
ferent jurisdiction. Being used for universal pur-
poses, a tax is levied in the shape of tolls, on every
jiassage over the road, which is applied, under
commissioners and surveyors, to the first provision
and to the future maintenance of the roads. As
in many similar cases of legislative and financial
applications, ignorance and carelessness have pro-
duced debts on the turnpike trusts, and the usual
concomitant of a very inefficient condition of the
roads as a public accommodation. Debt and
inefficiency almost ever accompany each other,
being the producer and the produced in a regular
series of connexion.

For the purpose of removing and preventing
both these evils of debt and inefficiency, we have
now before us a treatise on road legislation and
management, which in our opinion evinces no
ordinary powers of practical discrimination, and
original suggestions on the subject that is treated.
A .•°i-v extensive professional experience forms the
ground work, which, along with a clear discern-
ment and an enlightened judgment, constitutes
the excellence of every progress that is attempted
in any art or mixed science. In no art has it been
more fully displayed than in the present treatise.
The author's views on turnpike debts and payment
of arrears are truly sensible and most highly
honourable; he yields to none in wishing all
debts to be extinguished, but requests time for
the gradual liquidation, and the original rate of
interest to be upheld. The terras proposed are

fair and just, and strictly possible, as has been
proved by trusts under his own care. An atten-
tive perusal and consideration of this section of
the work is most worthy of recommendation.

Twelve model clauses that are proposed to be
introduced into all new turnpike road Acts, suggest
the economical and proportional rates of charge
on vehicles of carriage weight, of which the jus-
tice seems undeniable.

The author recommends the removal of toll-bars
from the streets of towns and from the vicinity, r

thus avoiding the production of " Rebecca" feel-
ings by an accumulation of bars and gates. The
revenue required for the repairs of roads to be
raised by a uniform rate, of a wide area, over the
districts in which the bars are situated. This is a
most sound policy over the present arbitrary di-
visions of townships or parishes.

The evils of lettmg road repairs by contract are
briefly but clearly exhibited, lumping-sum con-
tracts ever producing imperfect executions of work, "^■
although smaller specifications, that can be mea-
sured and minutely inspected, are let out, as work
under contriict, to do a certain quantity at fixed
prices.

Our opinion most fully agrees that materials for
repairs be laid on roads during the dry weather of
summer, and not in winter as is usually done. In
the latter case the materials sink into a soft bed
that yields to the pressure; in dry weather the '
broken stones are placed on a dry bed, and set
or cemented into a position by using a blending
material, which is pressed together by a heavy
roller, being first treated with a watering, if no
showers fall to moisten and damp the mass. A
pretty extensive experience with parish and farm
roads gives a most unqualified assent to this prac-
tice.

The road-sweeping machine is used, and the
saving over hand-labour to be applied in making
dry and clean side-paths for travellers.

There are given in this work several tabular
forms of accounts, most ingeniously contrived for
practical use. The regulations and rules for work-
men on roads, by the day or in contract, are very
just and prudent, and prevent any quarrels or mis-
understandings. A most useful table is given of
the width and depth of road materials, of toll col-
lectors, weekly returns, and district men's labour
account, with an account of tolls received, and
cost of repairs, other exjjcnses, quantity of ma-
terials and depth, scraping expenses, the debts
(increase and decrease), and the net amount. An
explanation is given of the tables, with a notice of
the statute duty due from parishes to turnpike
trusts, in which a rate of money is charged on the
rental.

Mr. Bayldon has displayed in a very full extent

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

441

*he first, the second, and the third requisite of
authorship — a thoroughly practical and judiciously-
enlightened knowledge of the business he engages
to illustrate, with a modest and candid statement
of views and recommendations. He has compiled
a work that is equally useful to the commissioner
of roads, the surveyor, contractor, toll- collector,
and the labourer ; each party will find a valuable
something for their direction. This varied utihty
forms a high recommendation. And he has done
•very great credit to the relationship with the author
of "Rents and Tillages," where sound practice
and enlightened views have carried the work into
seven editions with an unqualified approbation.
The present work is a most worthy companion.

WAREHOUSING OF WHEAT.

Sir, — I lately observed some remarks in your excellent
paper on the warehousing of wheat, which recalled to my
recollection a plan I adopted, many years ago, with a cargo
of 500 qrs. of wheat, which succeeded admirably. I will
first state the reason for adopting the plan. I had seen
numerous instances where wheat was put into granary, sav,
for one or two years, and, at the end of the time, 1 have
found the wheat with a chamber smell, and full of weevils,
and a loss of condition from three to five shillings per qr
The following would be something like the charges and loss
on the old plan :

£ s. d.
2 years rent on 500 qrs, at 4 d. per last .. 85 18 8

Turning and feeing for 2 years 10 0 0

Loss in condition, 3s. per qr 75 0 0

Loss in measure from weevils, &c., price

£2 per qr. — one per cent. 10 0 0

£180 18 8
The loss of condition and the weevils is caused b}' expo-
sure to the damp atmosphere of our uncertain climate
which acts as follows : — The surface of the wheat imbibes
moisture; then comes the warehouseman and gives it a
turn, putting the damp below, and bringing up the dry
grains to undergo the same process; and so a fine dry
parcel is used, until the whole is lowered in condi-
tion, and rendered a very fit receptacle for all the
moths that choose to fly in at the open windows,
to deposit their eggs, &c. I determined to exclude
damp and weevils at the same time by adopting the
following plan : 500 qrs. of wheat was put into my hands
to warehouse, probably for a long period, as the old corn
law was in force. The management was left entirely to
mj' discretion. 50 qrs. of the wheat was dried over a clear
slow fire, and, when cool, carefully mixed with the bulk ;
the 50 qrs. was not dried for being damp, for the whole
cargo was in excellent condition, and weighed G3 lb?, per
bushel, but to enable the bulk to be laid above six feet
thick. The windows were boarded, and carefully matted
to exclude damp air and light. The wheat was then trim-
med above 6 feet thick ; the door of entrance, which opened
into another store, was also matted up, and thus it remained
for more than two years. I had it tried each year by a corn
tryer, through slides in the floor above. When sold and
measured up, I never saw a parcel of warehoused wheat that
had kept so well, free from smell, and weevils ; and, in mea-
suring the bulk, all run freely to bushel. This cargo was ship-
ped from this port to Havre, in France, and Messrs. Lafeette

and Co. were so gratified with the condition of the wheat,

they sent me a case of very superior claret as a present.

The following was the entire cost incurred upon the wheat :

£ s. d.

Drying 50 qrs 1 5 0

Mixing and trimming the whole 1 0 0

The wheat laying thick, and not requiring
turning, occupied less than half the
usual floor, and a store was let by the

year at £20. Two j-ears 40 0 0

Matting windows and labour 0 10 0

Screening over when measured up 10 0

Loss in measure, 12 bush 3 0 0

£46 15 0
It is of the utmost importance to the agricultural in-
terest that a safe system of storing corn should prevail •
Capitalists would not then object to invest money in wheat,
as they now do on account of the expence and loss in con-
dition. Had I wheat now to warehouse, I think I could
improve upon the plan. I shall be happy to reply to any
inquiries that may be made upon this subject.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,

B, S. S.vv.'nEN.
Budlinglon Quay, King-street.

GREEN CROPS FOR MANURE.

I am much gratified to notice tlie increased attention which
is being accorded by farmers generally to this subject. Every
one, in fact, who eximines this subject attentively, must be
speedily convinced of*its utility, especially when turned in as
an enrichraect of exhausted sods. There is obviously no method
by which the agriculturist can economise more, or more rapidlj
increase the feriility of the soil, than by turning in, as a dress-
ing, such crops as derive a portion of their aliment from the
air : no matter how impoverished or sterile the soil, he may,
by a judicious and persistent pursuit of this means of amelio-
ration, easily make it rich . There are many plants well-adapted
to thia purpose, among which are millet, buckwheat, pea?, and
clover, all of which are highly vabaable, operating both tcecha-
nically and chemically, by their decomposition upon the soil,
especially when containing much acid.

But it may not be improper here to remark that in making
choice of crops to be turned in, we should invariably give pre-
ference to such as derive at least a portion of their pabulum
from the air. The vegetables enumerated above are all of this
class, and consequently take much less from the staple of the
soil than those which arc of course less adapted to this use.
Of these, buckwheat and clover are perhaps the most valuable
— the haulm being more vigorous, and at the ssme time much
more succulent, and yielding much more readily to the laws of
chemical affmity when inhumed beneath the soil. There is
also another cause of preference, particularly in the c?.se of
buckwheat, the cri^p nature of its stalk contributing greatly to
the facility of turning it down, especially where the roller is
used to precede the plough. On very poor land buckwheat
may be grown with better success, perhaps, than any other
grain crop, and will produce a more abundant yield both of
haulm and grain. When sown to be turned in, unless the
soil is calcareous to a degree rendering it unnecessary, the
application of quick lime before turtiing in the wheat will be
of great benefit. From two to three casks will ordinarily suf-
fice for an acre ; but if the ameliorating process is designed to
prepare the land for the production of crops belonging to the
order of lime plants, and which require a large amount of this
mineral for their anccessful developmect, treble and even quad

442

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ruple tlic above quautily may he economically applied. It is
not of cascutial cousequence wliethcr the application precciica
the turniog down of the crop, as is accorded suhsecpieutl.v, the
principal object beiig to supply an important co::stitulioijal
deficiency to the iutetests of ihe operator by limiting the acre-
able product of the crop.

Clover is preferred by many to a 1 other crops for tli;s pur-
pose, and, taking all ihluga into consideration, it is, perhaps,
not easy to say whc re preference should rest. The quantity of
soluble matter contained i;! the clover plant, wlien arrived at
the period of inflorescence, is unquestionably Urge — larger,
probably, than in most oiher plants. Its roots, also, when
mature, are large and suculent, an 1 contribute very ma-
terially to the fertilizing effects of the crop when turned
down at raatuiity ; btit it will be seen that where a speedy
amelioration is required the plants do not commonly have
time to attain their maxirauui development, and every one is
aware tbat, in its youthful state, the clover |ilant con aius a far
larger quantity of fluid than of solid matter. Millet, if sown
broadcast, will probably produce a greater quantity of readily
soluble matters than either clover or buokwheat; but whether
its fertilizing action upon the soil is so great is a question that
remains to be decidfd : one thing, hos-.tver, may Le relied on
ascertain — any plant produced by the soil will, if turned in by
the plough, contribute more or less to its enrichment. Tiie
families of the yuccas, and even the comparatively worth'ess
cryptogamous vegetation, which is produced parasitically on
rocks and in boggy swamps, have been ascertained to possess
principles favourable to vegetable development, and when re-
duced by putrefaction, of aiding, very essentiaHy, the pheno-
mena of vegetable 11.''?. Nothing, in short, is worthless, in the
great laboratory of nature ; and it is there, over the crucible
and alembic, that we receive these important lessons which so
materially assist us in the iiumerous and multiform duties of
practical life ; here we discover the adaptation of means to
ends, and become familiarized to the operative priLciples and
laws with which we were before perfectly unacquainted and
scarcely deemed to exist. — Germantown Teleyraph,

LADY-DAY CORN AVERAGES,

Sir, — As at this period of the year it may be interesting
both to your agricultural and general readers to know the
average prices of wheat, barlej', and oats in England and
Wales for the ;)2 weeks ending on the 27th of Marcli,
1858, I beg to annex the weekly averages from the Loudon
Gazelle, and to state the result, which is as follows: —
Wheat, 533. lOd. per imperial qr. ; barley, S.Os. lid. perim-
perial qr. ; oats, 24s. 10|d. per imperial qr.

In the annexed return it will be observed that the high-
est price of wheat was on the 17th of July, 1S57 — viz.,0';j,s.
lOd. per imperial qr. ; and the lowest on "tlie 2')th of Feb-
ruary, 1858 — viz., 44s. Od. per imperial qr.

The fluctuations in the price of wheat since the passing
of the Corn Bill on the 26th of June lo-iG, may be seen in
the following abstract : —

, .•, T Average Highest Lowest , Differ-

In the year ending , r>- " u^ „„ u • I

•^ " I rnce. rnce. rricc. ciice.

Michaelmas

, 18471 71
1848 51

1849
.18.50

1851
. 1852
,1853

18.^4

18,55
,1850
, 1857

3.9 10

45 7 59 5

72 10 8;5 3
71 10 78 2

73 1 83 1
59 2 GG 4

I remain, sir, your obedient servant,

Charlish M. Willich,
Actuary, University Life Assurance Society,
25, Siiffolk-slreet, Pull-mall, S. W., April 5,

102 5

.56 10

52 3

44 1

43 6

44 9

49

6

52

11

46

10

10

0

41

9

10

fi

36

11

7

•;^

36

7

(;

11

35

6

9

;>

37

10

21

7

52

2

31

1

:56

7

21

7

64

4

18

9

53

0

13

4

Weekly Average Price.s of
Oat.s in England and ^VAIK

iN(j Maiicii 27, 185S.

April

Wheat, Barley, and

S FOR h'i \\'eeKP, KMl-

Ma

June

July

Aue

Sept.

Oct.

Nov

Dec.

Feb.

March

From

the Lonb

oil Ga

telle)

Wheat.

1

larU'v.

Qats.

s.

d.

s.

d.

s.

d.

10, 1857

. 54

8.124

47

3.490

23

6.297

17, „ ,

. 53

1 1.034

45

,9.378

24

4.209

24, „ .

53

0.271

44

7.130

23

5.978

3. „

'. 53

2.^94

43

7.751

22

9.074

8, ,

. 54

3.661

43

4.355

23

3.800

15, ;, .

. 55

10.934

43

5.895

23

3.455

2''

. 57

5.3G7

43

6.934

24

9.349

29, ','.

57

9.340

42

8.857

24 11097

5. „

. 57

8.242

41

10.,577

25

3.800

1'^ „ •

. 58

9,332

41

8 344

26

2.977

19, „

. 60

0.794

38

9.678

26

5.348

23

. 60

1.469

38

11.225

26

7.971

3, „ .

. 61

6.004

37

7.360

27

9.148

10, „ .

. 63

5.140

39

0 967

27

3.979

17, „ .

. 63

10 425

37

8.150

27

2.2,59

24, „

. 63

8.028

37

9505

27

9.493

3J, „

. 62

7.113

38

3.447

27

8 699

7, „ .

. 59

8,318

38

5.031

28

7.780

14, „ .

. 58

10.281

39

1.641

28

2.760

21, „

. 59

2.2.55

40

0.043

27

8.831

28, „

. 59

10 023

39

10.737

27

11.516

4, „

, 60

4.881

42

8.239

27

8.491

11, „

. 58

4.365

42

7.444

26

7.679

If, „

. 55

8.870

42

5.774

26

1.713

2^, „ .

. 5f)

9.270

42

3 873

26

5.202

o

. 57

6 ,529

42

11.368

25

6.3.04

■u r, '

. 56

3 726

43

4.817

27

0.229

1", .,

. 55

8.979

43

0 657

25

6.884

23, „ .

. 55

10.801

43

0872

25

6.319

30, „ .

, 55

6.971

43

5.991

25

3.096

G, „ .

. 53

1 1,645

43

1.090

25

0.965

13, '. .

. 52

6 314

42

3.176

26

4.148

20, „

. 51

8.87(>

41

3.487

25

3.447

27, „ .

. 51

3.527

39

10.066

24

l.,5.50

-1, „ .

. 49

8.154

37

7.179

23

10.064

11, „

. 48

3,913

35

9.824

23

0.352

18 „ .

. 49

,5.408

36

5.330

23

3.704

25, „ .

. 49

3.694

37

0.8.94

22

8.789

1, 1858

. 47

5 758

35

11,915

23

2717

8, „ .

. 47

7.882

36

7.,575

22

3.424

. 47

10.765

36

3.985

22

8.0,57

■^2

. 48

8.451

37

0.637

22

1596

29^ V '.

. 48

9.845

37

6.838

22

4.480

5, „ .

. 47

6..940

37

1.166

23

1 926

12, „ .

. 46

9.337

36

8.262

23

0.718

1.9, „ .

. 45

8.896

36

3.917

22

8.089

26, „ .

. 44

6.449

•!,5

9.1.59

22

10.484

5, „ .

. 45

0.375

33

1 1 227

22

4.719

12, ,. .

. 45

6.149

36

7.289

23

4.271

1.9, „ .

. 45

3.390

36

6,920

23

3.968

26, „ .

. 45

6.654

36

.9.51 1

23

4,510

•2

. 45

2.398

37

3 507

23

4.724

52)

2,799

11.861

2,075

9.434

,295
24

4. .579

53

10.150

39

11.028

10.93

SUMMER AND WINTER TREATMENT OF
CALVES.

In your excellent publication of date the 13th instant, "A
Subscriber" complains that he has been losing his ca!ves in a
ten acre held of dry grass, with shelter sheds, '• close to the
north-east side of the cottage-house?, sixteen ia number. "
Your correspondent states that, instead of growing like
" mushrooms," as he expected, the calves in a few weeks com-
menced coughing, and went daily back, and that they appeared
to die of a decline. You suggest to the "Subscriber" that
the north-cast exposure was the cause of the illness, aggra-
vated by the smoke of the IG houses.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

443

Having had for twenty years considerable experieuce io the
rearing of cross-bred calves, and having lately observed that
several of your correspondents have put similar questions on
this subject, I venture to address a few remarks to you.

The disease which your correspondent describes is evidently
bronchitis. It is a most serious one, very common among
calves before winter, most destructive to their condition, and
in most cases fatal. A good many years ago I lost the half
of my lot (40) from this disease, and inconsequence my atten-
tion was dran n to the nature of the complaint, and the means
of preventing it. I called in the aid of a veterinary surgeon
(bred under Professor Dick), but he seemed to be able to
throw little light upon the subject. We, however, tried all
the ordinary cures that are recoramendei in books, and put
setons into the necks of all the calves. I do not think that
the north-east exposure would injure your correspondent's
calves much if they were kept warm and dry through the night,
and at a'l times protected from bad weather ; nor do I think
that the smoke of sixteen cottages ia a ten-acre field would
have any effect. In my own case I became convinced that ex-
posing calves to wet and storm in the months of September
and October was the cause of much bad health, and I have
seldom found any coughing among those that were housed
carefnlly at night at this period of the year, and not packed
too closely, or allowed to lie on wet litter.

A man may put up shelter-sheds, but unless he takes care
that the stock are shut in, he has no certainty that they remain
in through the night and during rain. It is often a very diffi-
cult affair to get young stock into sheds early in the season ;
extra feeding will scarcely tempt them in; but even afterthey
are used to it, they will frequently go into the shed and dance
out again after having consumed their feed of turnips or cake. I
have very often, after labouring, with the aid of several people,
to get young stock into an open house at the darkening, visited
them again at night, and found them lying down under the
rain in the most exposed part of the field. This is easily
accounted for. After eating their food they probably lie down
for a while, and then wander out ; a storm comes on, and
rather than face it they fly from it, and at length find them-
selves at the end of the field farthest from the shed, where
they probably remain till morning. I have known horses
wintered in a field with an open house in it, that almost no
power could get into the house, although some of them were
old brood mires that had been stabled all their lives. I re-
member hearing of a geiitleraau of my acquaintance being
complimented upon his shelter-sheds for young horses, whose
reply was, " Yea, they are very well, but the devils won't go
into them," and this has been exactly my own experience.
Of course, after a long winter, storm and cold and hunger will
force stock into such places ; but early in the season, when
the grass is green, young beasts will not go into open houses,
and this is just the time when young calves lose their condi-
tion. Shelter-sheds to be of any use to young stock at this
season require to be subdivided and protected by a wall or
other fence at least half their length in front, with a hurdle
upon the other half, to be shut at night or in bad weather.
Young stock should never he put so closely together as to
make their bela very damp from urine or the place too warm
for their breath.

It is a difficult thing to carry calves well through the first
half of the winter. From not being housed in time they are
generally allowed to fall off a good deal between August and
November, and they seldom recover fully till spring. The
best way in my opinion to make good calves (next to letting;
them follow their mothers) is not to put them out at all the
first summer, excepting for exercise, but to confine them to

the houses and courts, where there isgeuerally plenty of room
when everything else is at grass. If they get plenty of cut
grass besides their milk (and cake or meal if you please) they
will thrive more rapidly than they would do in the field ex-
posed to sun through the day and rain at night, and will lose
nothing at the fall of the year.

Calves reared in this way never have coughs. Calves that
are off their milk entirely before going out in June, if pro-
tected from the sun through the day (and in sunny weather
they will go into shelter sheds fast enough), often do very well
at grass, and thrive rapidly ; but as far as my experience goes,
those which are drinking milk make bad grazers, and would
be far better with cut grass in the court". Calves are fre-
quently allowed to lose much of their condition whilst learning
to eat turnips ; and condition, once lost with them, is not easily
regained. The common way is to throw the turnips on the
ground with the shaws on, and many weeks frequently pass
before the weakest of the calves break them sufficiently ; and
all this time they are kept in a small space of ground, or shut
into an open shed, and are supposed to be doing well because
they are getting turnips, when in reality they are half-starved
If turnips are cut with a sheep-cutting machine, or, what ia
better, pulped, and given in troughs, stock will eat them gree-
dily in two or three days. The ten-acre field of your corres-
pondent would be very useful as an exercise ground, either in
summer or winter. It is not good for the calves' feet or joints
to be confined always to soft litter, perhaps wet with urine ;
but I would not recommend them to be out in winter longer
than three to four hours a-day, and this dependent on the
state of the weather, and in summer the time of the day should
be regulated by the heat of the sut?. One very important
thing to be attended to is to keep the sheds that the calves
are confined in cool and dry, and of an even temperature. I
believe that almost as much harm is done to young stock by
allowing them to become too warm, as would be done by turn-
ing them out altogether.

These remarks are intended to apply to calves crossed from
the Shorthorned bull. Galloway and Highland calves, being
more hardy, can stand more exposure, and now-a-days the
best of both these breeds are allowed to follow their mothers,
with whom they remain late in the season, and thus become
very strong and hardy. Agricola.

— North British Agriculturist.

ROOK FLIGHTS.— I have frequently been very much
amused by the conduct of a colony of rooks in the fine eiras
of our meadow, a few years ago; for I am sorry to say
that decay has begun among the trees, and, true to their
instincts, the rooks have now nearly deserted their old haunt.
When the rookery mustered about fifty pair of birds, the
music was in full chorus, and, generally, one or two birds
whether from catching a cold or not, I cannot tell, but their
voices would break into falsetto, contrasting very prettily
with the general harmony of thirds, fifths, and octaves
blended together. A very curious custom was followed by
these birds in the latter end of autumn and winter. The rook-
ery was only used as a breeding place, and the roosting trees
were situated about two miles away, where several colonies
would congregate to pass the night. In the morning the whole
of the birds betook themselves to their regular feeding grounds
and a considerable muster passed over the Maidstone
rookery, perhaps two hundred of them. The Maidstone
birds would then separate from the grand flight, and drop
down to the old familiar spot, where they held a very ani-

44i

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

mated discussion upon some subject unknown to me. In
about fifteen or twenty minutes, all would proceed to tbeir
feeding grounds with business regularity. In the aftei--
noon if food had been plentiful) an ercning -visit would
take pace ; but this wss differently conducted, for all sat
solemnly perched, and no cawing, nor any disturbance, was
allowed This was a Quaker meeting ; and after a short time
spent in a quiet orderly manner, a gradual dispersion took
place in twos and threes, and, before dark, they had joined
the metropolis, where would be heard a grand burst of caw-
ing as every detachment arrived. I fully believe that ques-
tions were asked and replies given ; but I doubt if we shall
ever master the rook-tongue. Perhaps a Chinese might
make out some of it, but then the grand difficulty would be
to understand John Chinaman.—- Correspondent of the
Family Friend.

FOOT ROT IN SHEEP.

This disease is, I believe, but little understood by farmers
generally, except those who have been brought up on flock
farms, and have made the nature and diseases of these animals
their special study, and foot-lameness arising from over-driviog^
or wetnesa of pastures, is often mistaken for it. The real foot
rot, which is a terrible complaint if you once get it among your
flock, is easily detected by a peculiar smell srising from the
diseased feet that does not attach itself to the common foot,
lameness, although I have no doubt if neglected, that complaint
will ultimately resolve itself in the foot rot. The stench arising
from the parts affected is so unlike any other that if you once
smell it you will never after mistake it, but can no more be
described than a Yankee hnnter can describe the stink of a
skunk. Foot-lameness frequently causes discharge, but no*
of that fcetid nature that characterises the real disease, and
may generally be cured by simple remedies ; but if you detect
in the discharge an indescribable fcetid smell, depend on it you
have got the foot rot among your sheep, and in that case put
them on your dryest pastures, or if possible imder cover, and
feed aiui fat as fast as you can ; but by no means allow sound
sheep to come u pon the land tainted by the diseased ewes for some
time, or the complaint will arise again among your fresh flock,
and especially upon wet soils, which seem to retain the power
of inoculation much longer than dry ones. It is a difficult
thing to get rid of a diseased flock, except by fattiug ; and it
is a very dangerous experiment to sell them to a feeder if you
have the slightest symptoms of it among them ; but if they
were thoroughly diseased it is equally difficult to fat them well .
and then, after having found that simple remedies do not
check the disease, I should advise the adoption of the following
measures, which I have known successful when all else have
failed. Let your shepherd examine the sheep singly, and, aftej
cleansing the diseased foot thoroughly, drop on the afl'ected
parts one or two drops (not more) of butter of antimony. In
two or three days again examine them, and take a small quan-
tity of blue vitriol, and add it to a pint of white vinegar, vary-
ing the strength of the dilution according to the violence of the
disease, and dress the foot slightly with this mixture. You
will soon see that the sheep improves in appearance, it treads
more soundly, and the eye gets brighter, having a more fresh
appearaace altogether. And then with the following ointment-™
Take of lard and soft soap half-a-pound of each, and simmer
gently over a slack fire ; add 2 oz. of rosin while it is cooling,
and when nearly cool simmer again, adding, while simmering,
a quarter of a pint of green oil ; while it cools, put in a small
bottle of balsam from the chemists, and stir the whole until it

is thoroughly mixed. This plan, although tedious, will cure
your sheep, but do not trust them again or breed from the
ewes; fat them off at once, and get a fresh flock. The oint-
ment is extremely useful to keep by you during the lambing
season, as, after straining, it allays inflammation by applica-
tion to the parts, and in difficult cases facilitates the getting
away of the lamb. A Fakmek.

— Sussex Express.

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

The planting of beet and potatoes must now be
quickly finislied, if any remain undone from last
month. Horse and hand-hoe all drilled crops :
allow not a single weed to be seen.

Turn over the heaps of winter- prepared dung j
and fermentation will readily commence. During
its progress, lay the dung in drills. Reverse the
ridglets, and sow the seeds of Swedish turnips
imreiediately, which will derive much benefit from
the near contact with the fermenting dung. In
the first place sow common swedes, then Laing's
and Matson's Hybrids, and follow with Aberdeen
Yellows. In dry weather, roll the drills imme-
diately : in moist, showery weather, it may not be
required.

Plant cabbages, kohl-rabi, savoys, and winter
broccolis from the seed-beds, on drills three feet
apart, and the sets two feet asunder along the
drills. Apply very moist half-rotted dung in a
large quantity on strong clay loams, and dibble
the plants into the ground during the wettest wea-
ther in which work can be performed, as the plants
require much moisture. Fill up blanks with fresh
plants, in order to procure an even crop. Sow
early turnips for an early crop, as Tankards and
whites; and sow rape, to be consumed on the
ground, as preparatory for wheat.

Pare and burn rough lands, and spread the
ashes, in order to cool their warm condition. Pre-
pare the fallows for green crops, and also clay
fallows for wheat.

Stall-fed cattle will now be disposed of — the fat
animals to the butchers : the leaner will go to the
pasture-fields, to be fattened on grass; but the
milch cows to pasture of permanent grass, adja-
cent and convenient, provided with water and
shelter, and improved by frequent top-dressings
and the sowing of clovers and of strong perennial
grasses. But a rich natural quality will not require
any assistance. The oldest calves may go to the
grass paddock ; and if the grass be scanty, assist-
ance must be given in racks, with clovers and
vetches. A shelter-shed and a supply of fresh
water are indispensable.

The latest lambs will now require much atten-
tion, and must have the best pasture on the farm.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

445

in order to raise an equality with the foremost.
The equal condition of animals, as well as the
breeding, shows the proper management of
animals.

The ewes and lambs that are eating vetches and
rye must have fresh food every two days. Begin
the soiling of horses and cattle in the yards. The
milch cows will need assistance in green food, if
the pasture be scanty. Feed the store pigs with
clovers and vetches ; and afford ample littering to
all animals. As the early soiling green crops are
consumed, plough the land for turnips.

Put mares to the stallion, and get colts ; though
this operation may be more safely performed the
previous autumn.

Finish the sowing of grass-seeds on the barley-
tilths. Sow by machine, and cover with hght
harrowing and a heavy rolling.

Dig hop-plantations, and tie the bine to the
poles. Shut up watered meadows for hay.

Wash sheep by hand in a clear running stream;
and, for preventing the maggot-fly, sprinkle the
animals from head to tail, from a dredging-box,
with a mixture of hellebore-root powder and of
black brimstone — :{:lb. to IvUb,

Weed young quicks. Set thorns in hedges, but
not to expose the roots quite bare to the sun's
rays in dry situations. Rather leave the weeds to
moisten the roots, provided the upward growth be
not checked.

AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE, FAIRS, &c.

BLAIRGOWRIE FORTNIGHTLY MARKET was
well attended, but business wa3(dull. There were 124 cattle
on the ground, the best of which sold at from 6s. i)d. to 8s.
per stone. Milch cows were on demand, and sold readily
at from £6 103.to£12 IO3.

CHESTER FAIR— The supply of milking cows audyoimg
stock was large, but not a fat beast was to be seeu. Tbc
prices for sheep aod barrens were a shade higher. In the
horse fair there were some good animals, but the business was
not brisk.

CORWEN FAIR was very well attended by buyers. A
great number of cattle was exhibited, and there was a better
demand for barrens than for any others, their prices varying
from £9 to £11. Few horses were showu, and those cot being
of the best qualities, but a small business transacted. Store
pigs weie lower than usual; sucklings from eight to ten weeks
old, from Ts. to lOs.

DEVIZES FAIR was very largely supplied, sheep only
being an average number, about 5,000 having been penned.
The sheep, which were mostly tegs, sold at from SOs. to 36s.
each ; and couples at from 42s. to 48s. ; the trade being rather
better than at late fairs. There ^ere a few fat sheep, shorn,
sold at 6d. to 7d. per lb. The supply of heifers and calves
was very large ; trade was dull, and prices 25s. to 30s. a-head
lower, from £15 to £20 being about the range. Beef sold at
from lOs. to 11a. a score. Horses were numerous, and of all
qualities, except the best.

DULOE FAIR. — There was a good supply of well-fed
cattle, v/hich found a ready sale at £3 per cwt. for beef, and
73d. per lb. for mutton. The fair being remarkably brisk
there was a good amount of business done.

EAST GRINSTEAD FAIR.— Business was brisk in horned
stock. Yearlings and twoyeatlings were in demand, and
there was an improvement in prices. Fat stock was not so,
and rather hung iu baud ; sheep were sought after, particu-
larly good Dowtis, but the samples of sheep at the fair were
not of that character. There was a short supply of good cart
colts. Pigs were not so numerous as usual, and prices were
rather lower. On the whole there was a good share of busi-
ness transacted, and trade was brisk.

FENNY STRATFORD PAIR was the largest we have
seen for many years, A great number of cattle, sheep, and
pigs were on sale, most of which changed hands.

GLOUCESTER MONTHLY MARKET was well supplied
with every description of stock. The beef trade ruled heavy,
and the number of sheep penned was fully equal to the de-
mand. Beef, 6d. to 6^d. ; mutton, in the wool, from 7d. to
7jd. ; shorn sheep, 6d, to 6^d, per lb.

LINCOLN FAIR, as far as business is concerned, shows
a decided falling off. Up to Wednesday night less money

had changed hands than had been known for many years.
The attendance of horse dealers this year has been very
large, including all the principal English and continental
buyers. France was largely represented — far more so than
during the Crimean war, and this may be taken as an indi-
cation of the high estimation in which English horses are
held among the French breeders. The business on Monday
was confined to first-class animals, which, however, were by
no means readily to be met with. Second and third-rate
hacknej's and carriage horses were a drug, dealers refusing
to comply with anything like the demands of sellers. 'jl*he
business was throughout the day extremely slow. On
Tuesdaj', owners of second-rate horses still refused to accept
the prices offered by buyers, and the business effected was
limited. On Wednesday there was a very large show of
horses, the unsold ones and the new arrivals, which con-
sisted chiefly of cart and farm horses, making the supply
far more than equal to the demand. As the day progressed,
a little more life in the trade was manifested, and several
good hack horses changed hands at prices ranging from £30
to £50. All but the very best hung heavih--, and prices for
all descriptions must be quoted fully 20 per cent below the
prices of last year. The sheep fair on Thursday was a
very large one : at least 60,000 were penned. The average
quality was decidedly good, far better than could have been
expected, considering the long dry season and the scarcity
of keeping. In the early part of the fair, prices ranging from
£2 to £2 16s. per head were demanded, the high prices of
last year evidently being very prominent in the recollection of
sellers; but prime wether hogs of the same description
which last year commanded prices as high as 70s. per head,
could not be sold at a reduction of 30 per cent. The busi-
ness done, however, was very limited, and nearly half the
pens remained unsold at a late hour. The current prices
for good useful hogs were 40s, to 453. Mr. Howard, of
Dunholme, sold a pen of splendid hogs for 56s, a head.
There was a good show of fat sheep, which sold at a slight
decline on the prices of last market daj', the exti'emeiy hot
weather causing the butchers to purchase with caution. A
few lamb-hogs were in the market, but the high prices
asked were not paid. As a whole, the fair must be pro-
nounced the dullest known for many years past.

SHIPSTON^ON-STOUR FAIR was well supported, but
trade was dull, owing to the great reduction ia the value of
first-rate horses ; prices varied from £25 to £60. There was
also a goj)d supply of sheep and cows ; beef realized 6d.
to 6|d. ; mutton, shore, 5^d. to 6d. Some pens of sheep,
sold by auction by Messrs. Bull and Son, the property of Mr.
Sheldon, of Brailes, realized 693. a-head.

SOMERTON FAIR was not so large as usual, and
prices generally ruled dull. Fat beef from 9s. 6d. to lOs.
6d. per score ; fat sheep, 6d. to 7d. per lb. ; cows and calves,

UG

THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE.

£11 to £15. There was a large quantity of pigs penned,
and lov/er prices than of late had to be siibniitted to, to
effect sales.

TENBURY FAIR wes well supplied with stock. There
was a good attendanre of butchers aud dealers, and rather
better prices were realized than at recent fairs. Beef averaged
fnlly 6d. per lb. Barren cows were dear, and cows and calves
made satisfactory ra'es. There were cot any fat sheep on offer,
but good couples met with purchasers.

TEWKESBURY FAIR was well supported, but the
greater part of the business was transacted through the
hands of the auctioneers. Messrs. Weaver and Moore sold
upwards of 5G0 beasts, and Messrs. P. Thomas and Son
also sold a large supply of stock. Beef sold at from 5d. to
6d. ; mutton in the wool, from 6Jd. to 7d. ; shorn, Ojd.
to 6Jd. per lb.

"TIVERTON GREA.T MARKET.— The brilliant weather
did not appear to operate as an inducement to graziers to send
their cattle to market. The number of bullocks driven was
hardly equal to an average. Owing to the small supply and
the extensive demand, beasts of good quality went otT freely.
The prices obtained were, however, rather below those which
were realized some time since. Fat bullocks were not plen-
tiful, and sold readily at from 9s. 6d. to 103. 6d. per score.
There was a tolerable show of cows aud calves, v/hich fetched
from £12 to £17 a-piece. Barrencrs were worth 7s. per score.
The few working steers exhibited were quoted at £36 per
pair. There were not a great many sheep penned. They were
disposed cf at remunerative rates. Fat wethers 7d., fat ewes
6d. to Sjd. per lb.; store hogs 353. each; butchers' calves 5d.
to 6d. per lb.; rearing calves £1 53. to £2 each.

TOWYN FAIR — The attendance was far more numerous
than was anticipated, as in consequence of the delightful wea-
ther the farmers were busily engaged sowing. The supply of
stock was not large. Twc-year-old steers realized from £7 to
£8 ; cows, in-calf, from £12 to £14. The supply of horses
was very meagre; some entire animals were exhibited, and ap-
peared very strong and useful.

WINSLOVt'' FAIR. — A good supply of beasts, sheep, and
swine, and a numerous attendance of graziers and dealers.
The cow stock was remarkably good, especially the heifers,
some of which made from £18 to £20 each, but the trade was
generally speaking dull ; pigs a slow sale, at moderate prices;
a poor supply of horses.

WALES CATTLE FAIRS have been held at Carmarthen
on the 15th, at Langathen on the 16th, and at Landovery on
the 17th of this month. There was a fair number of store
cattle for sale at each of those places. There was a full
attendance of dealers, and nearly the whole of the stock were
sold at about ten per cent, lower than at the same fairs this time
last year. Cows with calves were rather scarce aud commanded
high prices. Fat cows were in fair supply and demand at fully
late rales. Horses and colts were rather scarce and in fair
demand, but at low prices. Pigs continued in good demand
at no improvement in their value.

WORCESTER FAIR.— There was a large supply of
beef, and many fat oxen were sold by auction. Beef made
about (id. per lb. Sheep were also plentiful. Fat mutton,
out of the wool, brought about 6:fd., in the wool 7jd. to 7id.,
and considerable business was done in this department.
The show of store cattle was limited, and the demand was
tolerably brisk, at improving figures. Store sheep were
more plentiful, and sold well.

CHESTER. —TLere was an abundant supply of checte for
the time of year. Plenty of factors were present, and pur-
chased freely anything that waa good. Prices ranged from
453. to 623. The quantity pitched was nearly 130 tons.
Several lots were taken home, and some remained unsold.

GLASGOW. — There was a large supply of cheese, and a
very heavy market. Eight carts were shown in the bazaar,
aod 19 tons passed the weigh-house scales. To make sales,
lower prices were taken, although we continue former quo-
tations : Prime early made, 403. to 52s. ; inferior and late
made, 449. to 48a.; new skim, 24s. to 258.

HOP MARKET,

BOROUGH, MoND.w, Apiil 26.— Our market maintains
the same steady character as of late, most descriptions being
iu moderate request, at the following quotations.

Mid end East Kents. . . . 703. to OOs., choice 112s.

Weald of Kent Sis. to GOa., " 663.

Sussex 5O3. to 543 , " 6O3.

Y'earlings, &e 21s. to 35s., " SOs.

POTATO MARKETS.

SOUTHWARK, WATERSIDE, Monday, April 26.—
Since our latt report the arrivals have not been heavy, either
coastwise or from foreign ports, but the trade has been in so
kiigiiid a state that there has been no opportunity ofefTecting
sales ; so that our quotations are almost nominal, as follows —

Yorkshire Regents 1403. to IBOs. per ton.

Lincolnshire do HOs. tol603. „

Dunbar do I4O3. tolSOs. „

Do. reds 80?. to — s, „

Perth, Fife, and Forfar Regents 1203. to 1403. „
Ditto ditto reds.... 7O3. to 80s. „

French whites 403. to 80s. „

Belgian do 50s. to 6O3. „

Ditto reds 80s. to OOs „

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.
LONDON, Monday, April 26. — The supplies of home-
grown Potatoes are on the increase. Since Monday last the
imports from abroad have amounted to 300 tons from Antwerp,
210 tons from Rouen, 110 tons from Bruges, 126 tons from
Louvain, 335 tons from Dunkirk, 110 tons from Ghent, and
30 tons from Gronengen. The trade generally is heavy, as
follows :

York Regents I40s. to ISOs. pei ton.

Kent and Essex do 80s, to 160s. „

Scotch 120s. to 160.'. „

Do. Cups.... 903. tolOOs, „

Middlings COs. to 90s. „

Lincolns 1203. to 140s. „

Foreign 60s. to 100s. „

COUNTRY POTATO MARKETS.— Y'ork, April 17.—
Potatoes sell at 13d. to 14d. per peck, and 4s. per bushel.
Leeds, April 20. — A fair show of potatoes, which sold
readily at 15id. per 21 lbs. wholesale, and 16|d. retail. Mal-
TON, April 17. — Potatoes, Is. per peck. Richmond, April
17. — Potatoes, 43. 8d. per bushel. Manchester, April 22.
—Potatoes, 133. to 21s. 6d. per 252 lbs.

PERTH POTATO TRADE.— The potato trade has been
dull this week, and prices have a downward tendency except
for seed sorts. No dealer is willing to risk a venture in the
southern markets at the former rates, owing to the heavy im-
portations from abroad. Retail prices have not experienced
any alteration.— Per^/i Courier.

ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET.

LONDON, Monday, April 26.— Our market is tirm, and
quotations for price are about the same.

Dorset, fine per cwt. 1 1 63. to 118s.

Ditto, middling 100s. to 106s.

Fresh per doz. lbs. 10s. to ISs.

CARMARTHEN, (Saturday last.)— A small quantity of
new Butter has been brought into this market, the quality fat
below the standard ; but after the fine copious rains which
have fallen we shall soon have plenty of grass, end a good sup-
ply of firat-clas? butter. Farmers realized this day for new
Butter Is., and for old Butter lOd. to lO^d. per lb. Cheese
a dragging trade, from 20s. to 223. per cwt.

BELFAST, (Thursday last.)— Butter : Shipping price, 100s.
to 112s. per cwt.; firkins and crocks, lOd. to lid. per lb.
Bacon, 528, to 56s.; Hams, prime 70s. to 768, second quality
60s. to 66s. per cwt. Prime mess Pork, 85s. per brl. ; Pork,
4.3s. to 499. per 1201b8. ; Beef, I20s. to 130s. per tierce;
Irish Lard, iu bladders, 72?. to 769, ; kegs or firkins, 648.
to 66?. per cwt.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

U7

ON THE PRACITCE OF PaHING AND BURNING IN DAUPHINE (FRANCE.)

By F. R. de la. Trkhonnais.

Before I had the pleasure of reading Dr. Voeldicr's ex-
cellent paper upon the suhject of paring and bunii-g, as
practised upon the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire, published
in the last number of the Royal Agricultural Society's
Journal, I had intended to write the following rema^l<a
upon the same subject, from notes taken in September last
at Grenoble, whither my duties as Vice-president of the
Agricultural Section of the Scientific Congress had called
me. I am glad other engagements and more pressing occu-
pations have delayed my writing upon this interesting
topic, because the perusal of Dr. Voelcker's able paper
has enabled me to elucidate several points which I could
not satisfactorily explain ; and, in reciprocity, 1 feel certain
that the result of experiments and observations made at so
great a distance from the Cotswolds, and under such different
circumstances, and, moreover, quite independent of his own,
will prove interesting to that able Professor, and to those
who, like myself, have derived so much pleasure and in-
struction from his valuable contribution to the Society's
Journal.

On my way to Grenoble, through the magnificent and
fertile plain of Graisivaudan, I had remarked upon many
fields a multitude of little mounds, systematically arranged,
and undergoing the process of burning ; for the careful
attention of the men in attendance, in raking fresh soil
over those mounds evincing symptoms of entire combustion,
at once led me to suppose that a slow charring, rather than
incineration, was aimed at. Subsequent inquiries proved
that I was right in my conjectures.

Numerous excursions in the neighbourhood, and frequent
conversations with the farmers, showed me that this prac-
tice of burning was a general system throughout the
country, and regarded by all as a most useful operation —
equivalent, in fact, to a complete application of manure.

There is nothing for which I entertain so great a respect
as those practices based upon the experience of time imme-
morial, and handed down from generation to generation, to
our own time, although perhaps no one was ever concerned
in ascertaining the why and wherefore of such practiced ;
the well-established fact of their efficiency, borne out by the
evidence of daily experience, being a sufficient ground for
their continuance.

This practice was the object of much discussion at the
Congress. It was pooh-poohed by several. For mj'self, I did
not view it at first with any high degree of favour, although
I was ready to admit that it must be attended with some
beneficial results, or else its prevalence would not have be-
come so constant and so general. I resolved, then, to in-
vestigate closely the nature of the operation, to ascertain
the chemical character of the soil, and to determine as
accurately as possible the chemical reaction and other phe-
nomena generated by the process of combustion.

Happily for my inquiries, there were in the Congress
several gentlemen residents of the country, who had be-
stowed upon that subject a great deal of attention •, and,
with their kind help, by which I was saved a great deal of
time and trouble, I have succeeded in satisfactorll}' ex-
plaining the beneficial results of burning, in the peculiarly-
constituted soil of the plam of Graisivaudan.

The practice of paring and burning is evidently one of
great antiquity. In the " The'atre d'Agriculture," written
more than three hundred years ago by the celebrated
Olivier de Serres, we read a very minute description of
that operation as practised in his time ; and the advantages
he enumerates as resultiug from this mode of preparing the
land, especially for green crops, so fully bears out the con-
clusions arrived at by Ur. Voe'.cker and the experience of
the farmers in Dauphine', that 1 am induced to offer to my
reader a condensed translation of Olivier de Serres' de-
scription, which no doubt will be new to the public, as the
bulky work from which I take it is rather rare, and very
little known.

It must be birne in mind that the following passage was
written more than three centuries ago ; and I wish I could
render in adequate modern English the quaint and pic-
turesque old French style of the author :

" Since tilling the land is nothing else but to pulverize
and scarify it, to render it capable of receiving, nourishing,
and bringing the seeds to maturity, it follows that the ope-
ration which effects this result t'nc sooner and the better is
the most praiseworthy. It is baking or burning the clod
or turf vvtiich bears the honour of this husbandry above all
other kinds of tillage, by means of which the land is per-
fectly well prepared; since, being freed from a'l hardness,
root^, and weeds, it is rendered fine, like ashes, and after-
wards fruitful in all kinds of crops. The land, being thus
renovated, will produce nothing spontaneously (having no
seeds left in its bosom), but will gaily grow all that which
you will commit to it. Garden-crops, fruit-trees, vineyards,
delight in soil thus prepared more than in any other.
Meadow-lands are greatly benefited by it, and become
richer than anywhere else. In conclusion, this husbandry,
by its excellence, may be said to be the quintessence of
agriculture, and worthy of admiration ; man having found
by this artifice the means of accomplishing in ten days that
which it takes the sun several years to do, preparing the
land in so short a time and so well, and this by fire, that it
is rendered subtle and obedient to produce anything. That
invention came from the burning of torn-up woods and
plantations, from which the people grew abundance of corn.
For a long time has this mode of cultivation been resorted
to upon cold mountains, which thus derive from fire what
they lack from the sun."

Then follows a minute description of the modus operandi,
which differs very little from that used in Gloucestershire,
and still less from what I have observed in the plain of
Graisivaudan, Olivier de Serres recommends this operation
to be made in May or commencement of June. The turfs
should be first dried, then heaped up over a small faggot,
the grass side downwards. This heap should be about five
feet in diameter at the base, and from four to five feet in
height. They should be arranged at regular intervals and
in straight lines, for the better distribution of the ashes
over the land. The author strongly recommends to avoid a
rapidconibustlon, saying, " Clods and turfs mustbe constantly
heaped up over the mounds from which smoke issues in too
great a volume ;" and so much importance does he seem to
attach to this point, that he says the fires should be

H H

us

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

watched night and day. He further remarks that in
other countries, where this practice was prevalent, and
especially in Piedmont, clods of clay are mixed with the
turf. He argues at some length the policy of having one
or two large heaps, or else a numerous series of small ones ;
and although the large heaps offer some advantages, the
chief of which is the economy of fuel, he prefers the smaller
ones, as being more handy for spreading, and also because a
greater area of surface is burnt by the multiplicity of the
heaps over the land, and especially, he adds, because the
earth is not baked so hard as would be the case with a large
heap, where the earth ia immediate contact with the fire
would be overburnt, and produce no good effect. After
considering all these points, the author goes on :

"As sooa as the fire is extinguished, the earth will cool
of its own accord in a short time, and it will remain in
heap until a fall of rain is anticipated, when it should be
spread evenly over all the surface, except over the spot
where the heaps stood, because there the earth is sufli-
ciently burnt and prepared ; this will appear evident from
the wheat, in its time, being more luxuriant in those places
than elsewhere, as if in those places alone the richest
manure had been applied.

" After this, the field should be ploughed, but very lightly,
at most three inches deep, in order to mix by little and
little the burnt with the raw soil of the bottom. The sub-
sequent ploughings should be deeper ; and if the burning
has been expedited in June, and good showers have
occurred, canaryseed, turnips, &c., either mixed or separate,
.can be sown ; then in the following October rye or wheat
can be sown, three or four years in succession."

Further, the author says : " Not only will such earth,
burnt and thus prepared, enrich the land, but if carted to
other fields, as is done with stable-dung, it will greatly
amend them also. All kinds of fruit trees are rejoiced by
this earth, if some of it is put around their roots ; and it
will also be highly beneficial to artichokes, asparagus, and
other precious garden plants."

Then meeting the objection of those who think this
amendment of the soil is not a lasting one, thinking all the
fertilizing elements are destroyed by the action of the fire,
he says : " As to the fear of short duration, those alone
: who have not tried it have this opinion, doubting a thing
so well authenticate i; for every tillage thus prepared
remains strong and vigorous enough to serve as long as can
be desired, provided the field be treated as to rotation of
crops according to the laws of good husbandrj', and not
according to the ancient oracle, ' Do not draw all the
nutriment from thy field.' All these things weighed and
considered, our husbandman shall prefer this mode to any
other, if the high price of fuel does not hinder him ; and
this is the only excuse he can have. And, as a conclusion,
he will form his opinion of this practice from the report of
those who use it the most, and who say in their patois : —

' Those who do not pare and burn.
When others reap, will only glean.' " *

Such were the ideas about paring and burning three hun-
dred years ago, when a time-hallowed experience was the
only guide of agriculture. Those who have had the good
fortune of reading Dr. Voelcker's able paper upon this sub-
ject will not fail to be struck with the great analogy exist-
ing between his statements and those of Olivier de Serres •
the only difference, a very striking one, showing the im-

* Qui non creme, ou non ferae,
Quan tous autres moissonnou, il glene.

mense stride accomplished by science during this long
interval, is, that Olivier de Serres gives no other reason for
recommending the practice than the experience of ages, cor-
roborated by his own ; whilst to this cogent one. Professor
Voelcker adds the forcible arguments of scientific analysis
and demonstration.

I will now submit to the reader the result of my investi-
gation in Dauphine', where, as I have stated, the practice of
paring and burning exists as a regular and well-established
mode of manuring the land at a small cost.

The beautiful plain of Graisivaudan, so well known for its
picturesque magnificence and its extraordinary fertility, forms
the basin of the river Isere, from the frontiers of Savoie, to
the city of Grenoble, Below Grenoble, following the
course of the river, it takes the name of Moirans, up to the
Rhone, in which the Isere falls. On one side of the valley
is the chain of the Alps ; ou the other, the group of the
Chartreuse mountains. Its soil consists of alluvial deposits
from the disintegration of the calcareous rocks of the neigh-
bouring mountains brought down by the river Isere, subject
to frequent overflowings, and by the torrents from both
sides of the mountain boundaries, which from every ravine
pour into the vallej% along with their turgid waters,
streams of calcareous gravel, loosened from the limestone
cliffs by the action of the atmosphere, and then borne
along by the torrents. Such soil like that described by
Dr. Voelcker in the neighbourhood of Cirencester is then
eminently calcareous, the proportion of carbonate of lime
being generally from 30 to 40 per cent., and sometimes
amounts to 50 and 55 per cent. To this is not confined the
remarkable analogy existing between these soils, both so
greatly benefited by the same operation : the proportion of
nsoluble silicates is nearly the same in both ; and this is
an important feature, as I will presently explain.

The mode of paring and burning in the Graisivaudan Valley
is identically the same as that described by Olivier de Serres :
the turf ia pared, dried, and then formed into small heaps over
a faggot. The number of these heaps would amount to about
350 per English acre. As it is recommended by Olivier de
Serres, the great point of the operation is to produce carboui-
zation, and not incineration, ol the superincumbent vegetable
and earthy matters. But however carefully the oveus are
watched, there ia always a certain degree of incineration, in
the centre of the heap, of those parts which are in'cloae prox-
imity to the fire : the earthy matter becomes bricky, and of a
reddish colour. This, in the experience of the most skilful
burners, is to be avoided.

M. Emile Gueymard, a government chief engineer, who has
paid great attention to this subject, points also to the overburn-
ing of the earthy and vegetable matter as an evil by all means
to be avoided. This eminent chemist very truly says that the
turf and the clods contain humus, and other matters, which,
during the burning process, yield some carbonate of ammonia.
It is, then, very evident that, if the temperature be too high,
all the humus disappears, and the carbonate of ammonia — a
most valuable fertilizing element — is volatized and totally
escapes.

Besides the mechanical advantages of paring and burning,
which everyone will admit, for strong retentive soils, and those
others so ably demonstrated by Dr. Voelcker as i-esulting from
that practice upon the poor clay lands of the Cotswolds, there is
another upon which M. Gueymard lays a great stress, that is the
transformation of insoluble silicates into gelatinous or soluble
silicate immediately available to the plants. The stems of most
herbaceous plants contain from 30 to 50 per cent, of silica,
giving them that rigidity which enables them to withstan

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

449

the blast of high winds. Silica is very abundmt iu most
soils, since they contain a large proportion of earthy silicates.
But silica in such a combination is not soluble, acd cannot be
assimilated by the plants ; for that purpose it must become
gelatinous. Tbis is eftVcted by the contact with carbonic acid
of the aif and the humidity of the soil, but by so slow a pro-
cess, that it often happens ihe plant cannot find a sufficient
quantity for the requirements of its growth.

Earthy silicates, however, when acted upon at a high teru-
perature by alkaline or earthy carbonates, become stluble in
acids, and are then available te the plant. Now, all the soils
which are found from experience to benefit by paring and burn-
ing contain silicates and carbonate of lime ; and thus an ele-
ment of nutrition supplying the plant with what may be com-
pared to the bones of animals, that is, the siliceous coating
of their stems and leaves, which enable thtm to stand erect
aud rigid, is readered immediately available. But a certain
temperature is necessary to produce gelatinous silica. M.
Gueymard says that in all his analyses he found this substance
only in tbe layers of clods and tut f which were in immediate
coiitact with the (ire, that is, in the very nucleus of the mouud ;
the outward layers, which were only charred, did not contain
any. This observation is borne out by the fact, that on the
spot where the fire stood the stems of the wheat or hemp plants,
\i hich are generally cultivated after burning, are invariably
fouud to be stronger and tougher than anywhere else.

Another chemist, M. Lebreton, goes a step furthes-, and pre-
tends that combustion introduces into the soil a certain quan-
tity of aramouiaeal salts, the formation of which cannot be
attributed to the remnant of manures and organic matter left
in the soil.

I will now esamine how ths presence of these ammouiacal
salts, which I have been able to ascertain do really exist in
burnt soil, and iu the distilled water with which some of it had
beeu washed, can be chemically accounted for ; begging the
reader to consider this explanation as a mere surmise, as I am
not aware that actual experiments have beeu made to test its
accuracy.

It is well known that some porous substances have the
remarkable property of produciug the combination of certain
bodies by the simple means of the intimate contact produced by
the simultaneous passage of these bodies through the pores of
that substance. It is thus that alkaline cyanures are nowprepared
without the help of animal matter, and by fixing the nitrogen
of the air. The process consists iu passing through a porous
substance impregnated with an alkaline solution a viia'ture of
steam, air, and oxide of carbon ; this last gas being obtained by
the incomplete combustion of charcoal in a furnace suitably
heated.

Now, in the buriiiiig of land, the circumstances are precisely
the same as iu the above process, viz., an incomplete corabus-
tioa, the gaseous products of which are mixed with air and
watery vapour ; aad the passage of this mixture through a
porous mass containing several energetic bases, such as lime,
potash, magnesia, and cyanures may then be produced, which,
by being subsequently decomposed, must give ammoniacal
results.

But this is not all ; besides the oxide of carbon, the gaseous
mixture contains a great quantity of carbonized hydrogen,
since part of the burning process consists in the distillation of
wood, as well as an incomplete combustion of charcoal. Now,
carbonized hydrogen mixed with air, aud passing through the
porous mass, becomes decomposed ; its hydrogen forms am-
monia by combining with the nitrogen of the air, and its car-
bon forms carbonic acid by combining with the oxygen : hence
the carbonate of ammonia always found iu burnt earth.

With whatever cavils chemists may attack this explana-
tion, it is nevertheless beyond controversy that in the
burnt mounds of the fields, in Dauphine, I have recognized the
presence of ammoniacal salts, the existence of which can but
iu a very small degree be accounted for, from the existence of
organic matler in the soil previous to its being burnt : the only
source from which it can be produced is undoubtedly the
nitrogen of the atmosphere.

Norwood, March 3.

SUPERIOR LINCOLNSHIRE RAMS TO BE
FOUND IN LEICESTERSHIRE.

Sir, — For many years the ram breeders in Leicestershire
have gone into the county of Lincoln to hire or purchase rams ;
and at Peterborough fair you may not only find many ram
breeders from the county of Leicester, but from many other
near and far distant counties, with a view to make a new
breed more profitable, by producing move weight of wool aud
mutton per acre ; as actual merit is profit. Men of weak un-
derstanding are caugiit by mania, ornament, and fashion, not
considering what an anira-.d makes, so much as what it costs
making. It, of course, is bad, to breed animals without profit :
an ornamental animal is one thing, and a profitable one is
another. We have no business to breed any inferior cattle,
sheep, and horses, but the best of its kind, as the best consume
no more food than the worst. In trying to breed animals with
too great a proportion of fat flesh in proportion to the lean,
net only are the stamina and size, but the milk is deteriorated ;
which caused the once Bakewell alias long-horned cattle to
degenerate in size, lean flesh, bone, and milk, being now nearly
shiidows to what they were in Mr. Bakeweli's day. Animals
may be bred until they nearly lose all their milk, which spoils
them for the country dairy-mea and the great milk-men in the
metropolis ; and many of the Bakewell or Leicester sheep
have been bred until they have reduced their size, constitution,
milk, aud lean flesh. Mr. Bryan Ward, at Drayton, on the
Welland, Leiceatershire, many years back, crossed his pure-
bred Leicesters with the best Liucolns he could find, which
increased the wool, size, constitution, and lean flesh. Mr. Ward
lets yearly upwards of 100 ram sheep, which have improved
numerous flocks in many counties. Mr. Sandy, of Holme
Pierrepoiut, has proved, by the great number of prizes he
has taken at the Royal Shows, that he has the best pure-brad
Leicesters in the kingdom. Saml. Arnsby.

Mill Field, Peterborough, April 10, 1858.

MY WINTER GARDEN.— The March breeze is chilly,
but I cau be always warm if I like, in my winter garden. I
turn my horse's head to the red wall of fir stems, and leap over
the furze-grown bank into my cathedral, wherein, if there be
no saints, there are likewise no priestcraft and no idols j but
endless vistas of smooth, red, green- veined shafts holding up
the warm, dark roof, lessening away into endless gloom, paved
with rich brown fir-aeedie — a carpet at which nature has beeu
at v.'ork for forty years. Red shafts, green rcof, and here and
there a pane of blue sky — neither Owen Jones nor Willement
can improve upon that ecclesiastical ornamentatioa ; while for
incensa I have tne fresh healthy turpentine fragriince, farsweeter
to my nostrils thsn t!ie stifling narcotic odour which tills a
Roman-catholic-cathedral. There is not a breath of air within,
but the breeze s ghs over the roof above in a soft whisper. I
shut my eyes, and listen. Surely that is the murmur of the
summer sea upoii the summer sands iu Devon, far away. I
hear the innumerable wavelets spend themselves gently upon
the shore, and die away to rise again. And with the innu-
merable wave-sighs come innumerable memories, and faces
which I shall never see again upon this earth. I will not tell
even you of that, old friend. It has two notes, two keys
rather, that Mo\xd.i\ harp of fir-needles above my head ;
according as the wind is, east or west, the needles dry or wet.
This easterly key of to-day is shriller, more cheerful, warmer
in sound, though the day itself be colder; but grander still, aa
well as softer, is the grand soughing key in which the south-
west wind roars on, rain-laden, over the forest, and calls me
forth— being a minute philosopher — to catch trout in the
nearest chalk-stream. — Charles Kingsley in Frazer's Mag.

H H 2

so

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR
APRIL.

Although the weather has been somewhat favourable for
the time of year, the frequent changes in it have had the
effect of checking the progress of vegetation •, nevertheless,
our accounts from most of the leading agricultural districts,
in reference to the general appearance of the young wheats,
are very favourable. Everywhere thej' are looking strong
and health^', and promise a good return to the farmer. The
sovnng of Lent corn was concluded about the usual period,
and as respects the plants no reasonable complaints can be
made.

The all-engrossing topic of discussioi in agricultural
circles has naturally been the almost continuous decline in
the value of wheat. Some persons contend that that produce
has run down to a point at which speculation is sure to com-
mence, whilst others are of opinion that prices have not
seen their lowest range. The position of the trade, we may
remark, is very different from what it was at this time last
year. Then, the French ports were closed against exports,
and car millers were not subject to direct competition in an
article fullj' equal in quality to their own. This competition
has induced great caution in buying wheat where otherwise
itwould not have existed ; not that oui importations have been
large, but the almost entire absence of orders from this coun-
try has compelled the French millers and the usual shipping
houses to forward to agents in this country, and the orders
have for the most part been to sell immediately on arrival.
So long as this system continues— and it is not confined to
flour only, as similar advices have been received with most
of the wheat imported from Germany and the Lower Baltic
ports — so long shall we have to report dull and, perhaps,
drooping markets, even though the stocks of foreign pro-
duce in warehouse have become much reduced. We must
bear in mind that very large quantities of wheat remain in
the hands of the farmers both in England and throughout
the continent, as well as in the United States. An extensive
speculation, and a determination to warehouse rather than
sell at present prices, might improve the trade to some ex-
tent ; yet, on the other liand, we are fully aware that any
upward movement in value in this country would be followed
by a large outflow from America, where the shipping season
is just commencing. As yet, very little of last j'ear's wheat
has been exported, and the shipments of flour have been
only moderate —those of other articles having fallen off con-
siderablj', as will be seen by the annexed official return
made up to the 13th of April, current year : —

EXPORTS OF BreADSTUFFS FROM THE UnITED StATES TO

Great Britain and Ireland since Sept. 1, 1857.

Flour. Meal. Wheat. Corn,

brls. brls. bush. bush.

1857-58..,. 744,339 li'S 3,415,5%' 2,351,437

1856-57.... 775,188 186 7,011,580 4,102,980

1855-56.... 735,988 5,719 3,755,317 4,337,877

1854-55.... 130,704 5,235 206,.545 4,649,478
To the Continent.

Flour. Wheat. Corn. Rye.

brls. bush. bush. bush.

1857-58.... 182,143 209,751 14,901 —

1856-57.... 379,388 2,716,791 496,913 216,162

1855-56.... 619,964 2,156,734 214,287 1,426,210

1854-55.... 7,646 — 295,645 35,541

From the above figures it must be obvious that a large
quantity of produce is still in stock ia the United States,
unless, indeed, the extent of last year's crop has been greatly
over-estimated. Apparently, therefore, there is no prospect
of any important movement in the value of wheat for some
time.

As regards spring corn we may write differently. Our
own crops are wholly inadequate to meet the demand ; con-
sequently, we shall no doubt use up every quarter of barley,
oats, beans, and peas imported during the season, without
producing any important change in the quotations. Com-
pared with wheat, spring corn is c mmanding good prices.
Man}' of our large growers, rather than sell at present quo-
tations, have determined to hold over their wheats till next
year. Possibly this is sound policy, as we can scarcely an-
ticipate two consecutive years of such enormous general
abundance as last season produced, and we do not see any
reason to look forward to other than a steady increase in
the consumption of the better kinds of food, as the trade
and commerce of the country are unquestionably steadily
recovering from the effects of the late severe panic.

We have continued to import very large quantities of po-
tatoes from the continent. In some measure, they have
made good the deficiency in our own crop and rendered the
trade somewhat heavy ; nevertheless, good and fine samples
have sold at from 160s. to 180s. per ton. The quantity of
sound potatoes now on hand in this country is reduced to a
narrow compass ; but on the continent, especially in France
and Belgium, the supply is large for the time of year.

Throughout the month the wool trade has been in a most
depressed state, and prices of all kinds of wool have given
way nearly, or quite, Id. per lb. The public sales are likely
to go off heavily at further depressed rates, since nearly or
quiie 60,000 bales will be offered during their progress.

Store stock, arising from the heaviness in the demand for
fat beasts and sheep, has ruled heavy and drooping. The
business done has been very trifling.

Throughout Ireland and Scotland there has been no im-
portant movement in the corn trade Wheat has continued
dull and flour has ruled lower, but other articles have mostly
supported former terms. From Scotland steady shipments
of produce have been made to the south, but the exports
from Ireland have shown a great deficiency when compared
with many former corresponding seasons.

REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH.

Notwithstanding that the trade of the country is recover-
ing from the effects of the late panic, that consumption is
rather on the increase, and that the importations from the
continent still continue limited — compared with many pre-
vious corresponding periods of the j'ear — the cattle trade has
been in a very unsatisfactory state during the whole of the
month, and a. severe fall has taken place in the quotations.
Whatever may have been urged to the contrary in some
quarters, it is now clearly apparent that production has
over taken consumption. And who, we may ask, can feel
surprised at this result, which reflects the highest credit
upon our breeders and feeders ? and, further, may we not

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

451

rest satisfied that eveu low prices will not have the eflfect of
lessening the producing powers of the United Kingdom ?
The present value of beasts in our markets— the general
top quotation being only 4s. per 8ibs. — may induce greater
moderation on the part of the breeders as to price ; certainly,
the graziers have lost very large suras of money on nearly
every head of stock sold during the last three or four weeks.
At one period, store animals were selling considerably above
their value ; but the prosperous state of commerce,- and the
enormous consumption, induced graziers to add largely to
their supplies, and the consequence is that a serious loss has
been sustained. In all dealings, it should be borne in
mind that there is a limit to consumption, consequently to
price — the latter, of course, being regulated by the iormer ;
hence, to speculate in stock beyond what may be considered
a fiiir sum — we here refer to the usual transactions only— is
a matter which frequently leads to disappointment and loss.
Had it not been that France has imported largely for some
considerable time— indeed, even now, both beasts and sheep
are drawn from Spain and Holland for immediate consump-
tion—we should have had a much larger influx of stock
from the continent, and, perhaps, even a greater fall in the
quotations. As it is, however, the importations have been
reduced to almost a nominal amount. But when we consider
that the production of live stock in France is increasing
under what may be termed good auspices, and that great
exertions are being made to improve the weight and quality
of the various breeds, by means of importations from this
country, it is by uo means improbable but that, in the course
of a very few years, Fraace will be wholly independent of
any other country for the supply of food : hence, the sur-
plus produce of Holland will again flow in upon us, and
prices may suffer in the general run of years. We must
not affect to despise the production of live stock in Holland,
because in that country a marked change has taken place in
the production, especially of sheep. On the passing of the
tariff, the arrivals of sheep from that country were, with the
exception of their carrying a full average quantity of inter-
nal fat, of an inferior class, and only suited for consumption
in very poor localities. Now, however, the case is different.
The legs of the animals have been shortened by extensive
crossings with English breeds, the tails have been well
cropped, and not a few of them have sold as high as 65s.
each. Thus, whenever France produces an adequate
amount of meat for home consumption— we will not say
that eventually she will be able to export much, though ex-
portatioDS may be looked for, — our breeders and feeders
must be prepared for additional weight :n every head of
stock imported from the continent, and which, as a matter
of course, must have considerable influence upon value. For
some years we imported enormous numbers of both beasts
and sheep ; but they failed, owing to their light weighing
qualities, to have any depressing influence in our markets :
still, it is an open question, and one of no ordinary impor-
tance, whether we shall have a return to what may be
termed high periods for either beasts or sheep.

We have already remarked that live stock has con-
siderably declined in value, and the fall will be better under-
stood, when we state that the best Scots have scarcely pro-
duced more than 4s. 2d., against 53. iu the corresponding
month in 1857, and that the difference in the price of the
best Downs in the wool has been nearly Is. 4d. per 8 lbs-
Lambs, calves, and pigs have fallen to nearly the same ex-
tent, and the increase in the supplies of the latter in nearly
every county in England, including Ireland, is very remark-
able. It will, however, be recollected that in April, last year,

there was considerable excitement in the trade, arising
from the publication of an order in council, prohibit-
ing the importation of stock from some parts of Germany,
owing to the discovery of an extensive murrain, which
happily did not extend itself; nevertheless, other months
might be selected to prove that production has increased'
and the mania for buying at almost any price has subsided
into what may be termed a more reasonable state of things .

Very few complaints have reached us from any quarter
in reference to the health of the stock. Everywhere, about
an average supply of food is on hand ; but the graziers
complain of the shortness of grass in the pastures, and of the
continuous changes in the atmosphere having had the
effect of retarding the progress of the grass-crop. The
lambing season has progressed remarkably well. There
has been a strong and healthy fall, and the number of twins
is generally remarked upon by our correspondents.

The following return shows the imports of foreign stock
into London during the month : —

Beasts 1,063 head.

Sheep 4,082 „

Calves 830 „

PiL^s 23 „

Total 5,998 „

Same time in 1857 4,814 „

„ 1856 1,924 „

1855 4,253 „

1854 4,760 „

1853 14,787 „

1852 5,444 „

The total supplies shown in the Great Metropolitan
Market have been as under : —

Beasts 17,950 head.

Cows 400 „

Sheep and lambs 104,380 ,,

Calves 1,332 „

Pigs 2,097 „

In April, 1857, there were exhibited 18,601 beasts, 460
cows, 92,810 sheep and lambs, 1,240 calves, and 2,025 pigs ;
hence, the principal difference in the supplies during the
past month is an increase of about 12,000 head of sheep.

From Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire
11,700 Scots and shortliorns have come to hand. The re-
ceipts from other parts of England have amounted to 2.260
of various breeds ; from Scotland, 920 Scots ; asid from
Ireland, 910 oxen, &c. This is a large number to be drawn
from Ireland in one month ; but, no doubt, had the manu-
facturing districts been more active, a portion of the supply
would have been sent to Manchester.

Beef has sold at from 2s. lOd. to 4s. 2d. ; mutton, 3s. to
5s. ; lamb, 63. to 7s. ; veal, 4s. to 5s. 4d. ; and pork, 3s. to
4s. 4d. per 8 lbs. to sink the offal.

Comparison of Prices.
April, 1855. April, 1856. April, 1857.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.
Beef, from 3 2 to 5 0 .. 3 2to4 10.. 3 4 to 5 0
Mutton.. 3 2 — 5 0.. 3 6 — 5 8.. 4 6 — 6 2
Lamb.... 5 4 — 7 0.. 6 0 — 7 4.. 5 10 — 7 4
Veal .... 3 8 — 5 0 .. 4 0 — 5 8 .. 3 8 — 5 10
Pork .... 3 4 — 4 4.. 3 6 — 4 8.. 3 8 — 5 0

For the time of year, Newgate and Leadenhall have been
very extensively supplied with both town and country-killed
meat. The general demand has ruled heavy at drooping
prices. Beef, from 2s. 8d. to 33. 8d.; mutton, 3s. to 4s. 2d. ;
lamb, 59. to 6s. 4d. ; veal, 43. to 5s.; pork, 2s. lOd. to 4s.
2d. per 81bs., by the carcase.

452

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

EAST SUFFOLK.

The months of January and February were not so win-
terly as former years, yet attended with light frosts, and
scarcely anj' downfall, which brought the land into beauti-
ful tillage, and some quantity of spring corn was sown.
March set in with piercing north-east winds, severe frost,
and heavy fall of drifting snow, which stayed the progress
of sowing ; this continued till the middle of the month,
from which time, although the weather has been variable,
it has been highly beneficial to spring sowing, and we can
scarcely record when the seed has been put in more ad-
vantageously for a crop. Three weeks since, wheat, from
the weather in March, was looking rusty, and on some light
lands, where the snow was drifted off, the blade was hardly
visible, and fears arose as to its recovery ; the late, and
present fine weather has quite established it in colour, and
indicates up to this time the appearance of an abundant
crop, and we consider it as forward as on average seasons.
The prices of barley, beans, and peas have been on a par
with wheat. There is a great portion of last year's large
crop in the growers' hands, many of whom have concluded,
rather than sell 6.31bs. per bush, reds at 42s. per qr., to
hold over on rick. Barley is quite out, and maltsters leaving
off steeping. Beans and peas — a rarity to see a sample with
us. Grazing has been very unprofitable this season, and
we know of fat bullocks having been selling at lean prices.
—April 22.

SOMERSETSHIRE.

We are now favoured with as fine clear sky as is ever wit-
nessed iu this month, which has told accordingly upon the
growing crops of wheat, the forwardness and luxuriant appear-
ance of which have not been exceeded for several years. It is
generally acknowledged that our prospects depend on a con-
tinuance of dry weather, and no heavy rains for an extra fine
crop, but that even the usual fall of rain will have a contrary
effect, more especially as regards the quality. Should the
forcing heat of the present month be followed by anything
like it in the next, we shall have au early kerning. The land
is certainly better prepared for dry forcing heat than for many
preceding years ; yet if it continue, it will tell on the late-
sowu crops, barley and beans especially. Winter beans are
just coming into bloom, and are very promising. The carlj'-
sown spring beans are nicely up : on shallow soils a dry month
will try them greatlj', and must lessen their produce. The
early-sown barley and oats are very forward. Vetches and
the artificial green crops have grown very fast since the rain?
and we have more water in our brooks and pooh than at any
time during the winter, which will prove of great service.
Our meadows are just ready for turning out, and their favour,
able appearance has tempted buyers to give much higher
prices than last year, for poor-sheep one-year-oif. Devons have
fetched as high as 523. to 54s., couples SOs. to BOs.— piices by
no means justified by the probable value of mutton or
wool. Poor stock has come down, but not by any means in
proportion to fat stock, v/bich are a complete drug, and
must entail loss upon the dealers. We have promise of
fair blossom on the fruit-trees; the apple-trees being
expected to display their floral adornments within a fortnight.
Potatoes, which had been cut down by early frosts, have, within
the last few days, again sprung up above ground, and, if there
be no more frost, will go on rapidly. Some little business was
done last week in wheat at the advance, which has since been
more than lost. Most of the wheat in the farmera' bands can

be kept back ; and where it is held in large quantities this will
be accomplished with but slight risk at present unusually low
prices ; so that it is probable we shall have short supplies before
next harvest : and if foreign supplies also fall off, there is every
probability of wheat being able to more than maintain its
present value. The late fall in Mark Lane has been more
firmly withstood in our market than any previous depreciation-
White wheat, weighing Gllbs. per bushel, is quoted at 5s. 9d.>
621bs. at 5s. 6d.; red, 60 to 611hs. 53., 621bs. Ss. 3d., Gllbs..
Ss. 4^d. to 53. 6d. Beans are in demand, at 43. 9d. to 5a. 3d
Oats are scarce, and sell readily at 2s. 9d. to 3s. 3d, Barley
does not lie on hand, and realizes improved prices. Flour
fetches Sis. to 323. per SSOlbs. Mutton in the wool is sold
for 6^d. to 7d. per lb. ; beef Qs. 6d. to lOs. 6d. per score, but
very little this week worth the latter price. Green bacon 6d,
to 6jd. per lb.; pigs Qs. per 201bs. Little doing now in
cheese, the prices lately having been more stationary, the best
worth 603. per cwt. upwards. No quotable price for wool,
transactions being unreported. — 4th Month 23,

MONTHLY RETURN.

An Account shewing the Quantities of Corn
Grain, Meal, and Flour, imported into the
United Kingdom, and admitted to Home Con-
sumption, IN the month of March, 1358,

Species of Corn, Grain
Meal, and Plour,

Wheat .«..••.•.>,..•

Barley ...»

Oats

ye

Peas

Beans

Maize or Indian Corn

Buck Wheat

Beer or Bigg

Total of Corn and Grain

Wheat Meal and Flour

Barley Meal

Oat Meal

Rye Meal ,

Pea Meal ,

Indian Meal .,

Buck Wheat Meal

Imported 1™?°^*^?
r .-„..: from Britis

irom loreign
Countries

tish
Possessions
outofEurope

qrs. bush.

200741 7 '

65003 6

22G87 3

4887 2

2757 r-,

23G35 7

100S31 1

10 3

qrs. busli
8S0 i

420355 2

892 7

cwts. qr.lb. cwts. qr.lb.

523293 2 21 1292 0 21

439 "o 23 !!

lYi 0 0

0 2 0 .,
172 1 2C

1 1 10, 13 0

Total of Moal and Flour. 52!-0o5 0 24 1203 3 21 530359 0 17

ors. £

201t,22

G5(;03

22687

4887

2770

23635

100831

10

421448 1

cwts. qr.lb.
529590 3 14

439' "o 23
153 0 0

0 2 0
17-2 1 20

3 0 10

QUANTITIES OF CORN IMPORTED

INTO LONDON, LIVERPOOL, HULL, NEWCASTLE,
BRISTOL, GLOUCESTER, PLYMOUTH, LEITH, GLASGOW,
DUNDEE, AND PERTH, IN THE WEEK ENDED APRIL 14.

Quantities Imported.

Amount of Duty.

Corn, Flour, and

Foreign.

Colonial.

Foreign.

Colonial.

Qrs. Bush.

Qrs. Bush.

£ s. d.

£ s. d.

Wheat , .«...., 4,

67246 0

0 5

3495 7 11

0 0 9

Barley .,»,.,^,^.

19920 3

ft.

996 1 0

,,

Oats ,,.i..

23778 7

,,

1181 0 4

Rye c. ..........

1207 6

^^

60 7 11

Peas ..«,,, 3 « o .« c

1263 3

5 0

63 3 5

0 5 0

Beans

5458 5

^^

272 18 9

.,

Indian Corn ....

9081 6

^^

454 8 6

..

Buck Wheat ....

37 5

^ ^

2 1 4

Bere,,8«,«.c5...

..

,.

"

••

127994 3

C 6 1

6525 9 2

0 6 9

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

453

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

Like the previous months of this extraordinary-
year, April has been without the usual character-
istics (shower and sunshine), dry weather having
far preponderated, with, however, a good deal of
cold in the early part of the month, so that the
progress of vegetation, on the whole, has not been
rapid. This, however, is more in favour of a crop
of wheat, as the blooming time is more likely to be
out of the reach of rough weather. The young
plants continue to look well and promising, and
the seed-time for Lent corn has been most favour-
able; but more rain would be serviceable, especially
to the grass, which is backward and short.

The wheat crop in Europe is generally well re-
ported, especially in the South of France, Spain,
and Italy ; but on the coast of Africa and in the
French colonies drought is doing harm to spring
corn, and there were some fears for wheat. The
anticipations that other Italian States would follow
the example of Rome, in a permission to export,
have been only partly realized. Naples, at last,
has come out with an act of grace in favour of
growers there ; the export of wheat being permitted
on payment of one silver ducat per cantar, equal to
about 8s. 6d. per qr., and only reaching to the
15th June, which is nearly tantamount to a pro-
hibition, though a few choice parcels for a limited
use may coms on to France and Britain. We now,
therefore, pretty well know the worst of it ; and
this news coming with fine weather, has not pre-
vented a rise in the market here of Is. per qr.,
which is about the balance of the month's gain,
after several fluctuations.

The idea of last year's fine crop has been bandied
about as though it could be grown and shipped for
nothing, and the contents of every foreign stack-
yard was on board ship, and the labouring fleets all
bound for Britain. But if England has lost heart,
and her imperial ally has caught the infection, it is
not so with Germany, the United States, or Russia.
" They, at least, think they ought to be paid for their
work and produce, and very good pay may be yet
in store, should any accident occur between now
and harvest, which is yet fully four months dis-
tant ; and the short stocks in London, after this
year of plenty and continued imports, show a
consumption going on unprecedented.

Dating the new era for farmers from the last
Bill, it appears the last average price is 12s. 8d.
telow the average of the eleven years preceding ;

and as there is no inducem.ent to increase the rate
of shipments in the present state of prices here, it
seems fair to look forward to receiving only about
1,200,000 qrs. more foreign wheat as the total
arrivals before the maturity of our own crop, which
is below one month's consumption; and should
we advance, our friends abroad, with telegraphic
means of information, instead of forcing off their
stocks, will be more likely to hold for better prices.
As it is, the surplus at disposal is only out of last
year's produce, as the stock of old on hand every-
where was much below an average amount. The
falling off in the weekly deliveries indicates a
general resistance of any further depreciation ; and,
if still more straitened, they would soon settle the
question, for the abundance of money waiting for
speculative opportunities would be then partly
directed to the corn trade.

In the Baltic less than an average quantity of
wheat is likely to be shipped. At Danzig, the top
quotation was about 45s,; at Stettin, 4Is. 6d. ;
Hambro' quotations for red 62lbs. Holstein
were 44s. 6d., 6llbs. white 45s., extra red Marks
and Saale 45s. 6d. In Rotterdam, white Zealand
was worth 45s. ; the best heavy red Rhine bring-
ing 46s. to 47s. per qr. Antwerp advices note
43s. as the value of Louvain red. Paris quotes
about 39s. as the highest price. Nantes, 40s. for
red, and 43s. the best white; first quality flour
being held at 31s. 6d. (only worth 34s,, duty and
expenses paid, in London). Madrid quotes 533. to
60s., and Alicante 52s. 6 d. for Taganrog. The rates
at Odessa were 38s. to 44s. ; at Taganrog and
Berdianski, 37s. to 41s. Prices at Galatz, freight
included, were 3Ss. per qr. New York was high,
the best southern red being about 42s., and best
white 50s. Some reports made the stocks in the
several Lake Ports reach to 700,000 qrs. ; but this
seems an exaggeration, and there were few symp-
toms of giving way.

The first Monday commenced on moderate sup-
plies, both English and foreign, with a very slender
contribution from Kent and Essex, as the morn-
ing's addition ; this being in fine condition, millers
took it off slowly at Is. per qr. advance, and their
attention was also more turned to fine foreign at
full prices. The country markets mostly exceeded
this improvement — Manchester, Leeds, Birming-
ham, and Bristol agreed with it; Hull, Newark,
Boston, and most of the Saturday's reports made

454

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the rise Is. to 2s.; Woodbridge and Leicester
holding for 3s. more. The rise at Liverpool, on
Tuesday, was id. to 2d. per 70lbs., and Lish
customers, on Friday, produced another rise of id.
per 70lbs., and London closed with a better
appearance.

The second Monday was altogether less plentifully
supplied, excepting the morning's supphes from
Kent and Essex, and another 1 s. was then gained,
though paid grudginglj', foreign participating in the
improvement. Hull, Leeds, Boston, Spalding, and
Portsmouth exactly tallied with the London report ;
Wolverhampton, Manchester, Newark, and Glou-
cester made no change ; Birmingham was in favour
of buyers. Newcastle, Leeds, and Bristol, in-
fluenced by a favourable change of weather, were
Is. per qr. lower; and though Liverpool was 2d.
per 701bs. higher on Tuesday, this advance was
barely maintained at the final market, a sudden
summer-like temperature having subdued the up-
ward tone in London.

The third Monday had less foreign wheat than
the two former, with only a moderate quantity of
home-growth, and few samples during the morning
from Kent and Essex. With the forcing weather
came a general change of feeling, which being indi-
cated by the state of the last country markets, a
reduction of fully 2s. per qr. was necessary to clear
oflf the small show, which was not effected till
about the close of the market, some accepting even
still lower terms. Very few country markets fully
responded to this feeling, but among them were
Sheffield and Spalding. Birmingham found a
ready sale at only Is. per qr. less money. Man-
chester, Leeds, and Bristol were nearly as much
lower as London, but at the week's end advices
were less desponding, and the final reports were
little altered from the previous week. London, too,
on Friday, had a firmer tone. Liverpool was lower
at both markets, 2d. per 70lbs. reduction being
noted on Tuesday, with id. to 2d. per 70lbs. fur-
ther on the last report.

The fourth Monday was better supplied, with
the weather fine; but as the arrivals from Kert
and Essex were small, there was some reaction, and
fully Is. per qr. recovered of the previous decline.

The general averages being fully a fortnight be-
hind the business done, do not immediately show
the progress of markets ; but it is remarkable that
the lowest average, of the 19th of April (43s. Id.),
had the sales reported as only 72,171 qrs., and the
last (43s. 2d.) was only 76,791 qrs., making the
fortnight's deliveries 29,572 qrs. less than during
the same period last year, and thisi reduction in
the deliveries has immediately been followed by a
better tone.

The month's supplies into the port of London

have be.'n 17,414 qrs. English, and 23,834 qrs.
foreign; making the weekly average 10,312 qrs.,
against 15,259 qrs. weekly in April, 1857. The
total imports in March into the United Kingdom
were 201,022 qrs. wheat, and 529,590 cwts. flour.

The flour trade, after undergoing some fluctua-
tions, is left little altered. Town qualities have
kept to the price at which they commenced, viz.,
40s. per sack ; Norfolks, beginning at 29s. and
reaching 3 Is., fell back again to 29s. to 30s.; Ame-
rican and French remaining unaltered. The latter,
though there has been a steady moderate influx,
has lost money; the four marks being only worth
34s. per sack here, on 29s. the value at Paris, is fully
Is. per sack against imports ; and at Nantes, the
rates being 31s. 6d., leaves only 3s. 6d. per sack
for duty, shipment, land-carriage, and commission.
The imports into London during the four weeks
were 65,080 sacks country flour, 7,269 sacks foreign
(mostly French), and only 504 brls. from the United
States; leaving the weekly supply about 2,400 sks.
5,200 brls. below March, but about equal to April
last j'^ear.

The barley trade has scarcely varied throughout
the month, excepting small occasional purchases,
the malting trade being over, and therefore the
best parcels have become neglected, and in future
must be used for distillation. Large arrivals have
during the last three weeks come from the Medi-
terranean, but the low rates making these sorts
much cheaper than oats, they go oflf for mixing,
and the better sorts for grinding, while but small
quantities fit for the distiller come to market, the
purchases being made direct. Stocks now seem
working close every where, both in foreign ports,
London, and the countrj', and, as we have before
hinted, all that can come will be wanted, and a
purchase of 5,000 qrs. at Odessa for June delivery
at 21s. cost and freight confirms the opinion. The
deficiency of fine sorts in our own crop has lately
led to the use of the best French both for seed and
malting, and though thin it has vegetated kindly
and answered well, at Nantes the price for such is
25s. per qr. free on board. The imports for four
weeks have been only 7,681 qrs. English into Lon-
don, but of foreign 56,085 qrs., giving a weekly
average of 15,941 qrs., which is below April 1857
by 11,824 qrs., though 6,710 over last March.
The malt trade has been steady throughout the
month, with little or no alteration in the value of
first qualities.

The great deficiency in the supply of oats has
raised their value during the month fully Is. 6d.
per qr., and the probability is that until the Russian
arrivals begin to appear, the market will be tight.
As Ireland is known to have grown less than last
year, and our own crop was below an average.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

455

foreign ports have all been .stirred up by an inquiry
which has reached to New York. At Hambro'
they are quoted '25s. to '278. per qr., with offers of
40^1bs. Swedish at the outports at 23s. 6d. At
Rotterdam Zealand feed are quoted 25s ; at
Nantes 26s. 6d. as well as at Bordeaux. The rise
referred to took place on the first two Mondays,
say about 9d. on each day ; this was checked on
the third Monday by better supplies, though not
above an average, and more confirmed on the last
week, when they again fell oft". The imports into
London during the four weeks were 2,050 qrs.
English; 4,447 qrs. Scotch ; 8,499 qrs. Irish; and
44,082 qrs. foreign : making the weekly average
14,769, which is more than 5,000 qrs. below the
weekly consumption ; so that if it had not been
for granary stores, rates must have greatly in-
creased, but these are fast consuming. In April,
1857, the average supplies were 39,121.

Beans and peas throughout the month have
rather improved in value. The first Monday
brought a rise of Is. on the former, which
has been supported. Boiling peas, after much
neglect by a great deficiency as respects sup-
plies, have sold, though slowly, at fully as much
money ; and those for hog feed, notwithstanding
their high price, being very scarce, have continued
to be placed in retail, notwithstanding the general
use of cheaper substitutes. The consumption of
beans will lessen with the advance of the season ;
but as Egyptian shipments are less free than ex-
pected, there does not seem much probability of
lower rates. The imports of beans during the
four weeks into London were in English qualities
3,158 qrs., in foreign 8,012 qrs., making an average
weekly supply of 2,792 qrs., which is nearly 1,000
over February and March, and is more than double
the supply in April, 1857. Of peas there have
been in the same time only 553 qrs. English, and
374 qrs. foreign, the month's supply not equalling
a week of former times ; but boilers have been
little used, and substitutes have been found for
pig food in abundance, wheat itself being cheaper
than duns and maples.

The supplies of linseed running short in Lon-
don, and exports being fair, prices have improved
fully Is. in the course of the month, notwith-
standing the heaviness of stock. In foreign ports,
too, the prices remain dear, Odessa quoting up to
55s. So that till a new and good crop is gathered
the range of prices seems likely to be high. The
more liberal use of cake has greatly contributed
to this, its nutritive properties to the animals fed,
as well as the quality of the manure they yield,
making a larger demand.

The consumption of the potato crop, notwith-
standing the free imports, and the high rates of the

small remainder fit for use, have stimulated tire
enquiry for maize for Ireland, where it has been
rising, and become quite a necessary, and it is
probable that its comparative dearness may take
off" the lower qualities of wheat, which are rela-
tively cheaper.

The seed trade has been very disappointing
to importers and the trade generally, prices having
given way from their height 20 to 25 per cwt.,
and much foreign as well as English remaining
on hand, the rates paid have become irregular,
some few parcels still going ofl^ for seed this
season ; but the reduction in value has brought
speculation into the tr-ade, and those determined to
get out at any cost may now find buyers, both of
red seed and trefoil, at low rates, say 40s. to 42s.
per cwt., for fair foreign red Seed. Canary has
unexpectedly remained dear, 96s. being quoted even
at Rotterdam, whence it was thought much would
come. Mustardseed, too, after long neglect, has
got irp in white qualities, but brown remain out of
favour. Hempseed has kept its value ; and the
reports of the failure of the crop of tares in the
Baltic have turned out true, and the few parcels
appearing have obtained extravagant prices. Rape-
seed was reported a partial failure and therefore
rising, but later accounts are not so unfavourable ;
and in France it looks well. Carraway and Co-
riander have found a retail sale at former prices.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillings per Quarter.

Wheat, new, Easex and Kent, white 42 to 50 red 40 to4G

Noi-folk, Line, and Yorks., red 39 45

Rarlet, malting 3.^to3i.... Chevalier 38 41

Distilling 32 35.... Grinding 26 30

Malt, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk 58 6G extra 68 —

Kingston, Ware, and town made.. .. 68 66 „ 68

Rrown 54 56 — —

Rye — — 28 30

Oats, English, feed 22 26 Potato 28 36

Scotch, feed 22 27 Potato 26 34

Irish, feed, white 22 25 fine 26 32

Ditto, black 21 24 ,, — 26

Beans, Mazagan 32 35 Ticks 33 34

Harrow 33 36 Pigeon 37 42

Peas, white boilers .. 40 45. .Maple .. 42 45. .Grey 40 43

Flodr, per sack of 2801bs., Town, Households.. 33s., fine 37 40

Country 31 32 Households.. 33 34

Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship 29 30

FOREIGN GRAIN.

Shillings per Quarter.

WnEAT,Dantzic, mixed. .46 — high do. — —extra— 62

Konigsberg ........40 48 „ — — — —

Rostock 43 — fine.... 48 — — _

American, white.... 42 50 red.... 40 47 _ _

Pomera.,Meckbg.,&Uckermrk,red 42 47 — —

Silesian,red .40 45 white 41 46

Danish and Holstein 38 45

Russian, hard,. 40 44 .. French. .40 45 white 44 47

St. Petersburg and Riga , 38 44

Rhine and Belgium — 46

Baelet, grinding 24 29 DistilUng.... 32 34

Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands.. 22 28 Feed 21 26

Danish and Swedish, feed. ..22 26 Stralsund.... 23 26

Russian 21 23

Beans, Friesland and Holstein 34 86

Konigsberg 31 35 Egyptian.... 33 35

Peas, feeding 40 42 fine boilers.. 42 44

Indian Corn, white 34 35 yellow 34 35

Flour, per sack French 32 36 Spanish .... — —

American, per barrel, sour.. ..18 22 sweet 22 24

456

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Weeks:
March 13, 1858 ..
March 20, 1858 ..
March27,1858 ..
April 3, 1858 ..
Api'il 10, 1858 ..
April 17, 1858 .,
Aggreiiate avera

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

Rye.

IX

Wheat.

Barley.

Oats.

s. d.

s. d.

3. d.

45 3

36 G

23 3

45 6

2G 9

23 4

45 2

37 3

23 4

44 3

36 10

23 5

43 1

33 3

21 1

43 2

ao V

24 7

«e

44 5

3G 8

23 8

ar

54 9

46 3

23 II

Beans.

a. d.
31 3 37 11
31 y 37 11

29 11 38 1
31 3 38 4

30 9 38 6
30 4 38 10
SO 10 38 3
38 8 39 8

Peas.
3. d.
il 2
41 0

39 0

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES— 1858-57.

From last Friday's Gaz. s. d.; From G'a.ze^/e of 1857. s. d.

Wheat 76,795qrs.,43 2J Wheat.. .... 84,689 qrs., 53 0

Barley 29,353 .. 36 IBarley .22 428 .. 44 7

Oats 8,637 .. 24 v ) Oats 7,!-73 .. 23 .5

Rye , 542 .. 30 4^ Rye ..,.,... 110 ,. 3G 3

Beans 4,359 .. 38 10 Beans ...... (!,184 .. 40 0

Peas 350 .. 41 sIPeas 769 ., 39 4

FLUCTUATIONS in the AVERAGE PRICE ofV/HEAT.

Pbiob.

Mar.

13.

45s. 6d.

r

453. 3d.

.««»..

■,a

45s. 2d.

..

448. 31.

• .

433, 2d.

433. Id.

April 3.

April 10

April 17.

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.
Clovekseed, red 40s. to 5Cs., extra — s., white 60s. to 70s

Tkefoil = 1 8s. to 223

TAftEa, Winter, new, per bushel 6b. Od. to 78. Od.

MusTARDSEED, per bush., new ITs. to 25s., brown 13s. to I5s.

CottiANDEE, per cvrt 20s. to 2Cs

Canaut, per qr...., 643. to 94s.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s,to — s... crushing 62s. to 64s.

LiHSEED Cakes, per ton ^10 Os. to £10 IDs.

Rapeseed, per qr....,.* 688. to 72s.

Rape Cake, per ton ...£5 lOs. to £6 Os.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &o.

Cloverseed, red 4Cs. to 4Gs., white 60s. t( 60s.

Trefoil 17s. to 21s.

T AH E.s, Si;)ring, per bushel «. 7s. Od. to Ss. Od.

Hempseed, small, per qr Dutch 42s. to 478.

CoRiANDEE,percwt., 17s. to 2fi8.

Carbawat ,, 44s. to 46b.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 59g. to GOs Bombay 593. to 61s.

Linseed Cake, perton .£10 Os.to£10 15s.

Rapeseed, Dutch G6s. to 72s.

Rape Cake, perton £b Os. to £5 10s.

BREAD.

LONDON', Satukdat, April 2t. — No alteration in the prices
of Bread.

Whkateh Bread, per 41bs. Loaf » Gd. to 7d.

HonsBHOLD T>o. ,. 4Jd. 6:1.

HAY MARKETS .

Saturday, April 24.— SMITHFIELD.- Supply good, and
trade dull.

CUMBERLAND.— A full average supply, and a sliiggisli de-
mand.

WHITEOHAPEL, — Both hay and straw moved off slowly, at
our quotations.

AtpcrLoad of36Trusses.

SmITHFIELD. I CUMDBHLAND. WHITBOHiPEL
SOs.to 888. I 538. to 888. 50a. to S8j.

70b. 1003. 1 70a. ]008. 70s. lOOa.

MBADOVF HAY
CLOVER DITTO
STRAW

32n

27«

32 s

32 i

CHICORY.

LONDON, Saturday. April 24.— For nearly all kinds of
Chicory we have to report an improved demand ; and, in some
instances prices have an upward tendency.

ENGLISH, per ton iei2 Oto i:U 0 I ANTWERP jElOlOtoXU 0

HARLINUEN.... 10 h 10 10 DACKTJM 0 0 0 0

BRUGES 10 0 10 15 GUERNSEY 10 10 10 15

HAMBURG 11 0 11 6 | BELGIUM 10 10 11 0

PRICES OE BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &r.

BUTTER, per Gwt.: a.

~ • " Qd ..lCOtolO'2

Kiel.

.102 106

Dorset .......

Carlow .16 104

Waterford 9S 104

Cork, 92 98

Limerick — —

Sligo - -

Fresh, per dozen. .12s. Od.to Us.Od.

CHEESE, per cr,-!.:

Cheehire i

Cheddar :

Double GloucCGter........

HAMS:

York ;

Westmoreland -.- '

Irish ,. ■

BACON : Wiltshire, dried i
Irish, ^reen I

COVENT GARDEN MARKET.

LONDON, Saturday, April 24.— Trade is brisker than it
wai last week. Strawberries are making their appearance in
lari»;r quaiit'lies. Of Pfars, Easter beurre, and Ne Plus
Meuris may still be obtained. Oranges of all kinds are
good and abundant. Ainon-j Vegetables are Asparagus,
Rhubarb, and Seakale. Winter Greens are plentiful. French
salading is excellent; it still consists of Cabbage Lettuce,
Barhe de Capucin, Butavian Endive, and Turnip Radishes.
Cornish Broccoli realizes fiom Id. to Hd. a head. I'rench
Beans fire very plentiful. New Potatoes are making their
appearance. They letch from Ss 6d. to as. per lb.; Peas, from
ils. to -jS per punnet; and green Artichokes, 6s. to 8s. per
dozen. Cucumbers plentiful. Best samples of old Potatoes
have advanced in price. Cut dov.prs chiefly consist of Orchids,
Gardenias, Heliotropes, Poinselti.i pulciierriina. Geraniums,
Violets, Misitionttte, ileaths, Prinaulas, Camellias, Cyclamens,
Tulips, Hyacinths, and Roses.

FRUIT.

B d. s. d. s. d. B. d.

Pineapples, pcrlb. ..
Grapes, new, perlb...
Do., Portugal, per lb
LemoDs,per dozen ..

Do., per 100 ., 5 0 10

Strawberries, per o/.

7 OtolO 0

IS 0 25 0

3 0 5 II

10 2 0

0 6 10

Pears, per doj. ........ 6 OlolO 0

Apples, per half sieve.. 3 0 fi 0

Orani'es, per dcz 0 6 10

Melons 0 0 0 6

Filberts per lOulba 30 0 40 0

Cuba, do 35 0 40 0

VEGETABLES,

s. d. 8. d. fl. d. a. d .

Cuuiifloweraper doz .... 1 6 to 4 0, Tomatoes, per half-sieve 0 Oto 0 0

Broccoli, per bundle 1 0 1 61 Leeka, per bnnch 0 2 0 3

Greens, per doz. bunches 3 0 i Oi Celery, per bundle 1 0 1 9

Seakale, per punnet 1 3 2 6 Shallots, per lb 0 6 0 8

French Benn^, per 100 .. 1 0 2 C, Garlic, per lb 0 6 0 8

Asparag-us, per bundle .. 3 0 7 0 1 Lettuce, cab., per dozen . 16 2 0

Rhubarb, per bundle..., 0 6 ^ '^l Do., Cos, per dozen ..5 0 6 0

Potatoes, per ton 60 0 11)9 0 Endive, per score 2 6 4 0

Do. per bush 2 0 2 9 Radishes, lump, per doz. 0 0 0 0

Do.j.ercwt 4 0 6 0 Horseradish, per bundle. 1 6 4 0

Do. New, perlb 0 f> 2 ol Mushrooms, per pottle. . 1 0 1 6

Carrots, new per bunch.. 0 6 0 Si Parslev, per 12 bunches. 4 0 6 0

Tmnips, per bunch 0 2 0 41 Basil, green, per bunch.. 0 0 0 0

Spinach, per sieve 16 3 Oj Marjoram, per bnnch ... 0 0 0 0

Cucumbers, per dozen ..M 0 IS 0 Savory, per bunch 0 204

Beet, per dozen 10 2 0 1 Mint, green, per bnnch.. 1 0 1 3

SPIRITS.

LONDON, Satuhday, April 2S. — There is a slow inquiry
for Rum, the stock of which is seasonably good, at our quota-
tions. Brandy continues a dull inquiry, but vre have no change
to notice in its value. Grain spirit sells slowly, on former terms .

RUM.

6. d.

Jamaica. 26to290.P. 4 3 to 4 4
32 36 „ 4 6 4 8

^ualHiea}32 36
Superior Iqo -n
Marka S^ *"

4 4

5 3

4 9
6 0

Shipped by
Viny. Proprie*
tors' Company.

H.India,proof per gill. 1 10 to 0 0
Lflewards, do IH 0 0

„ 10 o20O.P. 2 4 3 0

„ 21 29 ,, 3 8 3 10
DemersraSO 34 ,, 3 8 4 2

,, 34 40 ,, 4 2 4 6

BRANDY— COGNAC.
Shipped I Shipped , Shipped
Vintage by by by

Martell. Henneesy. Otard.

B. d. 6. d. a. d. 8. d. a. d. a. d
1854.... iBO 16 015 0 16 000 00,00 0

1855.... 13 4 1461 13 4 14 6100 0000 0

Hhds.Xd. pergallonhiffher. Puncheons scarce.

OtherShippers 6 6 tol2

HOLLANDS, Geneva fine, for duty 3 8 4

Other qualities, to arrive and on the quay , 3 2 4

BRITISH GIN, foreiportation, proof. hhd» 3 10 i

BRITISH SPIRITS.
GIN,proof, cash , 10 0 I

WOOL MARKETS.
ENGLISH WOOL MARKET.
LONDON, Monday, April 26. — 0»ing, in some measure,
to tbc approaching tales of colonial woo], at which nearly
60,000 bales will be brought forward, our market is in a very
depressed state, and it is difficult to sell any kind of home-
growu wool except on lower terms.

Per pack of 2401bs.

Fleeces— Southdown Hogs ....£13 Oto£14 0

Do. Half bred Hogs 13 0 14 0

Do. Kent , 13 0

Do. Southdown Ewesand Wethers 12 0

Do. Leicester do 13 0

Sorts— Clothing, picklock 15 0

Do. Prime and picklock .... 14 0

Do. Choice. 13 10

Do. Super „.. 12 0

Do. Combing — Wether matching ... 15 0

Do. Picklock 13 0

Do. Common.. 12 0

Do. Hog matching 16 0

Do. Picklock matcliing 14 0

Do, Superdo. 12 0

14 0
13 0

13 10
16 0

14 10
14 0

13 0
16 0

14 0
12 10
16 10

15 0
12 10

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

467

BRADFORD WOOL MARKET.— The transactions dur-
ing the week and to-day are trivial. The supply of bright-
haired wool is exceedingly limited : nor are staplers disposed
to increase their stocks until the pending sales by auction are
past. In prices there is but little alteration ; but the tendency
is downward. Noils and short wool are dull of sale, notwith-
standing the very small quantity now producing. Yarns :
There are more inquiries by the export houses, but not more
sales making. Leipzic Easter fair is now on, where large quan-
tities of worsted goods are usually sold by the German manu-
facturers, who draw their supplies of yarn from this market.
A week or two heuce, more business may be looked for from
that quarter. The consumption by the home manufacturers
is steady, but limited. Prices are ruinously low, and spinners
strictly adhere to short time working, besides having much
machinery unemployed. PiECEa : The attendance of mer-
chants is more numerous to-day. There is a fair amount of
business doing in fancy goods suited to the approaching sea-
son, but there is no improvement in Coburgs or Orleans cloths.
In coatings there is more doing. — Second Edition of the Brad-
ford Observer of Thursday last.

LEEDS WOOL MARKET (English and Foreign)
April 23. — Stocks of English wool are very light, as is
generally the case at this season of the year, but they are
amply sufficient for the demand. Many buyers are looking
forward with interest to the approaching public sales at
Halifax and Bradford. The prevailing opinion seems to
be that the prices obtained at the last sales will not be again
secured. The demand for yarns and pieces during the in-
terval would seem to furnish ground for this opinion.
Buyers of foreign wool are also looking forward to the next
sales of colonial, and are not disposed to buy freely till prices
are established. The opinion is that they will be lower,
but some persons expect they will be about the same as
last sales.

LIVERPOOL WOOL MARKET, April 24.

Scotch. — There is more general inquiry for Laid Wool, at
our quotations. White Highland is also more in demand.
The late public sales of Cheviot, to close some old accounts,
has rather depressed the market for the moment, and we have
had little doing by private sale.

s. d. 8. d.

Laid Highland Wool, per 241bs 11 6to 12 0

Wliite Highland do 14 6 16 0

Laid Crossed do.. unwashed .... 13 0 14 0

Do. do. .washed 14 0 15 0

Laid Cheviot do.. unwashed 15 6 16 6

Do. do. .washed... 17 0 20 0

White Cheviot do.. washed.. 28 0 30 0

Foreign. — Notwithstanding the prices were low at the
public sales just closed, and the quantities sold were consider-
able, still the demand since for dsep-grown Wools has been
good, and fully late rates obtained. On the whole the market
looks healthy.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL WOOL MARKET.

Per lb. s. d. s. d.

German, ( 1st and 2nd Elect 3 4 to 4 6

Saxon, 3 Prima 2 4 8 0

and ) Secunda 2 0 2 4

Prussian. (Tertia , 18 110

Colonial : -SvDNBY — Lambs 1 f^ 2 J J

Scoured do 1 4^ 2 8

Unwashed 0 P5 1 fl

Locks and Pieces 0 10 19

Slipe and Skin 14 1 y

Port Philip — Lambs 14 2 1

Scoured do 1 2J 2 3i

Unwashed 0 6 1 '|

Locks and Pieces II 1 7|

Slipe and Skin 0 pi 1 6^

S. Australian— Lambs 14 19

Scoured do 13 2 2

Unwashed 00 0 11

Locks and Pieces w...... 0 7 12

V. D Land— Lambs 1 5J 1 11

Scoured do 15 2 8

Unwashed ] IJ 1 3

Locks and Pieces 10 16

Cape OF Good Hope— Fleeces OH 2 0

Lambs 0 11 1 10

Scoured 0 8 1 10

Unwashed... 0 7^ 13

MANURES.

PRICES CURRENT OF GUANO, &c.
PERUVIAN GUANO,(perton,for 30 ton8)nominal£13 5 0 to jE 0

Do. Do (undei 30tona).... 14 0 0 0

BOLIVIAN GUANO none 0 0 0 0

ARTIFICIAL MANURES, &c.

nitrate Soda|^,g q otojE20 0 0
(per ton)... J

10 0

NitratePotash 1 99 0 0

or Saltpetre S
Sulpht.Ammonia 19 10 0
11 uriate ditto... 27 0 0
Superphoapht, ">

of Lime i

' AUr':.!:} » » »

Gypaum 2 0 0

Coprolite....... 3 10 0

Linoeed-cakeo, per ton —
Thin American,} ^^ j^ g

inbrls.orbags^
Thick do. round (none)

30

0 0
20 0 0
23 0 0
6 0 0

10 0 0

SuIph.on3opper"j £ t.A

f r Roman Vi- (

triol,forWheat j

steeping J

Salt 1

Bones, DuBtjperqr. 1

Do. J-inch 1

Oil Vitriol,!
concentrated, > 0

per lb )

Do. Brown 0

£ n.d.
45 0 0 to 47 0 0

0 1
0 0|

1 1) 0
16 0
16 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

2 10 0

3 15 0
OIL-CAKES.

1 Marseilles .. £9 0 0 to £9 10 0

^jg IQQ I English. l".?? 0 00

0 0 0

Rape-cakes,prton 5 10 0 6 10 0

John Keen, 35, Leadenhall-street,

(Late Odams, Pickford, and Keen.)

WTUiamB& Co. ,21, Mark Lane— Azotic ...£6 10 0

Manufactured by Hod^'son & Simpson, Wakefield, and
Matthews & Co., Driffield.

Ammonia-Phosphate and Nitro-Phosphate per ton £8 0 0

Superphosphate of Lime „ 7 0 0

Agricultural Chemical Works, Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Prentice's Cereal Manure for Corn Crops pertonilS 10 0

Prentice's Turnip Manure ,, 7 0 0

Prentice's Superphosphate of Lime ,, 6 10 0

Lancashire Manure Company, Widne8,near Warrington.

J.Knight & Co.'s Nitrogenized Bone Manures perton£8 15 0

Manure Worits,Grovehiii,Bereriey.
Tigar & Co.'s Celebrated Turnip Manures perton£7 10 0

TALLOW.

LONDON, Monday, April 26.— -About an average time-
of-year amount of business is doing in our market, and prices
generally are well supported. P.Y.C., on the spot, is quoted
at 55s. 6d. ; for the last three months' delivery, 523. 6d, per
cwt. Rough Fat is 83. OJd. per 81bs.

Particulars of Tallow.

1 1854. : 1865. 1858. : 1857. 1853.

Casks. 1 Casks.

Casks

Casks. , Casks.

Stock this day ..

341(2 31700

18593

11918 11691

Price of Y.C...

61s. Od.

5l3. 3d.

47s. Od.

5SS.31., 65s. 9d.

to

to

to

to to

64s. 6d.

548. 6d.

— 3. Od.

— s.Od. — s. Od.

Delivery last weel

731

1820

8197

1971 1241

Do. from 1st June

89741

782-^7

99544

99324 97621

Arrived last week.

10821 958

411

216 441

Do. from 1st Juni

100618' 73927

71595

94263 97599

Price of Town . .

64g. 9d.: 59s. 6d,

50s. Od.

58s. Od. 5§s. Cd.

FLAX, HEMP, COIR, &c.

LONOON, Saturday, April 24.— The demand for Flax siill
rules heavy, but we have no decline to notice in the quotations.
Hemp is held at full currencies, viz., ^30 per ton for Petersburg
clean ; but the inquiry for it is limited. Jute and Coir goods
support previous rates.

HIDE AND SKIN MARKETS.

LONDON, Saturday, April 24.

B. d. a. d
MARKET HIDES :

5Sto641b3 per lb. 0 3 to 0

64to721bB 0 3 0

72to SOlbs 0 3J

80to881bs 0 3J

88 to961bs 0 3f

96 to 1041bs 0 4

104toll21bs 0 0

0. d.

d.

HORSEHIDES.each 8 0 to 9 0

0 [ CALF SKINS, light. 2 0 2 6

u 31 Do. full 5 6 6 0

0 3J I Shearling 0 10 0 0

" ~" " ts & half-breda .. ' " "

3.}

Do

0 44 ! Polled Sheep 0

0 0 I Lambs 2

5 6

BIRMINGHAM, Saturday, April 24.

HIDES.

s. d.

95 lbs. and upwards.. 0

85lbs. to941bs 0

751b3. to84lbs 0 0

65lb».to741bs 0 33

561bs. to 641b8 0 3J

551bB. and under.... 0 0 .. u u

CowB 0 2| .. 0 3

Flawed andirregular 0 2| .. 0 2J

Horaeeach 0 0 .. 0 0

Bulls , 0 0 ..0 3

CALF.

8. d.

0 3i
0 3i

4J 171bs.and upwards..

4J ;21bs. to Ifilbs 0 54 ,

91b8. to lllbs 0 63 ,

Light 0 4.3i ,

Flawedanoirregular 0 4J

WOOLSKINS .... 4 0..

PELTS 0 8..

LAMBS 0 5i..

1 li

458

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

LEADENHALL LEATHER MARKET.

LOXDOX, Satukday, April iil.— AUhoii-ili llie su|)|pIips of
Leather on sal" have been considerably on tlie increase, ihc de-
mand for all 1 inds has ruled steady, at veiy full prices.

CROP HIDES.

HORSE HIDES.

ENGLISI

lbs. lbs

. d.

d

lbs

lbs.

d

d

English 13 to 18

.11 tol4

28

,0 35

14

to

15

Do. without butts 9 14

.11

14

36

40

14

15i

Spanish salted.

s.d

s. d

40

45

14

IS

without butts, > 6 9.

11 0

13 6

46

50

15

Ifi

per hide.

50

55

16

18

Do. do. do. 9 11.

12 0

14 6

65

60

17

lt»

Do. do. do. inferior.

6 (1

8 0

BUT

T

s

Do. dry do. 6 8.

8 0

10 6

Ibc

ENGLISI
lbs.

H.

A

Do. do. do. inferior.

10 U
5 0

12 6
7 0

14

16

17

20

CALF SKINS

21

Av. weight. Unrounded.

Ronr

ded.

lbs. lbs. d. d.

d

d

24

20to28 14 to 17 ..,

16

11 71

29

32

•i-i

26

30 35 14 17 ....

16

2?

33

36

Ui

27

35 40 15 18 ...

16

23

FOREIGN.

40 45 15 18 ...

17

24

H

16

—

45 50 15 18 ...

17

24

16

20

17

20

50 55 15 17 ...

17

23

21

24

17

21

55 60 J5 17 ...

17

22

25

28

18

22

60 70 15 17 ...

16

21

29

32

20

21

70 80 15 16 ....

16

20

S3

36

21

24

80 90 14 16 ....

16

20

36

45

—

90 100 13 16 ...

15

1q

45

50 ...

—

—

100 120 13 15 ...

14

18

OFFAL.

d

<\

KIPS.

nglish ShniitHrr*

n

17
10

lbs. lbs.

i

A

Do.

Cheeks and

Faces

7

Petersburirh .. 4 to 7 ...

17 to 20

Do.

Bellies

8
11
13
10

7H

l^i
15
12

Do. ..7 9 ...

Do. .. 9 10 ...

Do. ..11 13....

E.Ind.drysltd. 6 7 ...

Do. do. 7 9 ...

17
16
16
19
17

20

Do.

Middles ...

18

Foreitjr
Do.

1 Shoulders
Necke

18

22

Do.

Bellies....

21

Do

Middles do
L' HideSbo
do. Be

ild'eVs".

11

in

12
1'?

15
13

18

Dresfiic

Do. thirds

15

D.

7

8

Do. inferior

9

12

EipSh
Do. Be

oulders

5
5

8
6

SUNDRIES. 8.
Hog Skins, best each 14

lies

8.

o2l

DRESSING HIDES

Do. seconds... ,,

8

14

lbs.

lbs

d

d.

.Seal Skins, split, per doi.

58

76

C'limmc

Q 20 to 24

13

to

Ul,

Do. for bindings ,,

36

80

Do.

25

2H

13

ul

Calf Skins, Sumach-

30

35

34

40

13
14

in

30
V5

1"i

Do.

Do. white ,,

35

Saddlci

s 30

35

15

17^

Horse Hides, white, each.

8

13

Do.

......36

50

16

18

Sheep Skins—

d.

d.

Bulls .

12

16

14
17

Bnsils, unstrained, per lb
Do. strained ,,

. 7
7

13^

Shaved

14

16

14

Do.

17

\9

IS

17

Do. facing, per doz. ..
Tan, Sheep, &Lambs,,
White Sheep, per 120 ..

5s.

16s

Do.

20

23

14,

^f,)|

10

16

Do.

24

2H

14

16

50

90

Scotch do 16

24

14

17

Do. Lambs, ,,

40

80

Coach,

per Hide ..

. 255.

to

30s.

Do. Sheep & Lambs,

strained, per doz. ...
Sumach Roans, per doz

14

HORSE BUTTS

Shaved.

16

32

d

d.

d

d.

Do. Skivers, ,,

5

12

Bnfrlish 13

to 4 .

15

to

17

Bark Skivers, ,,

7

12

Bpaniah

12

14 .

15

17

Hide Splits,per lb

9 toUd.

BARK, &c.

LONDON, Saturday, April

£ a. £ a. ,
English, per loadof 45 ■» ,, n.„,- „

owt., del. in London]^" ""'^ »

Coppice , 16 0 18 0

Dutch, per ton 5 0 5 5

Harabro' 4 10 5 5

Antwerp Tree 6 0

Do. Coppice 5 10

Mimosa, Chopped .... 7 10

no. Gronnd 8 0

Do. Long ,,... 5 0

6 10

7 0

Cork Tree, Barbary ... 7 0

Do. Leghorn 6 0

Valonia,bmyrna,p.ton 12 0

Du.Camata 13 0

Do.Morea 9 0

Terra IGambier... 15 0

Japonica JCutch 38 0

DiviDivi 9 0

Myrabolams 7 0

Sumach,Sici1y, p. cwl. 0 13

7 10
7 0

10 0
10 0
05

TIMBER.

LONDON, Satubdiy, April S4.— Our market is wholly de-
\oid of animation ; nevertheless, prices are somewhat firmer
than last week.

Per load — £ t. £ n.
Quebec, red pine .... 3 5 to 4 10

Yel.Pine 3 10 4 0

Quebec Oak, White... 6 0 6 6

,, Birch.... 4 0 4 15

„ Elm 4 10 5 10

DantzicOak 4 0 6 0

MemelFir 3 10 4 6

Swedish 2 10 3 0

Mast3,Qobe. Red Pine 6 0 6 10

Do. Yellow Pine.... 5 0 6 10

Lathwood, Dant/,icfm 8 0 9 10

Do. Memel 10 0 110

Do. Quebec ........ 5 0 6 5

Deals, per C. 12ft.by3by9in.:

Quebec Wh. Spruce. 9 0 11 5

Do. Red Pine.... 11 10 17 5

St.JohnWh. Spruce 11 U 16 0

£ s.

£ e.

Duals, Yel. Pine, perreducedC. :

Canada, Ist quality. 16 0tol6 0

Do. 2nd do. 10 0 11 0

Archangel Yellow.. 16 0 16 0

Memel 13 0 14 0

Gothenburg Yellow. 13 0 14 0

Do. White 11 0 12 0

Gefle Yellow, 14 ft.. 30 0 0 0

Christiania,perC.12ft.by3by9in.:

Yellow 24 0 28 0

White 19 0 24 0

Deck Plank, Dant/ic,

^ per 40 ft. by 3 in.... 10 1 10

Staves, per Standard M . :

Quebec Pipe 76 0 0 0

Do. Puncheon.... 20 0 23 0

Baltic Crown Pipe. 140 0 146 0

OIL

OILS.

"hlrf-cherts'".']^" 18 01OX0

Lucca 6 0 0 0

Qallipoli(252galB) 47 0 0 0

Spanish 43 0 0 46

Linseed (cwt.).... 19 3 0

Rape, Pale 2 2 0 0

Brown I 17 0 1

Cod(tun) 31 0 0 31

Seal, Pale 37 10 0 40

Do.Brown,Yel.&c 26 0 0 37

Sperm 79 0 0 83

Head Matter 85 0 0 86

Southern 38 0 0 38

Cocoa-nutCcwt.) . 1 19 0 2

Palm 1 15 0 2

RESIN.

Yellow (per cwt.) £0 6 0 0

Transparent 0 6 0 0

MARKET.

PITCH.

British (per cwt. )£0 6 6 0 00

Archangel 0 0 0 0 0 0

Stockholm 0 10 0 0 00

TURPENTINE.

Spirits (per cwt.)i:2 0 0
In Puncheons.... 2 1 0
Rough 0 11 0

TAR.

American £0 0 0

Archangel 0 0 0

Stockholm 0 0 0

WHALEBONE.

Greenland, full I ^3gQ o 460 0 0

size (per ton). )
SouthSea 260 0 270 0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0'

0 0

18 «

10 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

0 0

10 n

1 6

0 n

6 6

6 6

0

0 n

0

0 0

0

0 0

0

0 n

»

16 n

0

16 0

AGRICULTURAL MEETINGS IN 1858.

MAY 22.— Royal Agricultural Society of England.— General Meeting, in
Hanover Square, at 12 o'clock.

JUNE 2, 3, AND 4.— Bath and West of England Society.— Meeting at
Cardiff. Entries closed. Secretory, Mr. St. John Manic, Pultney
Street, Bath.

JUNE 8.— Glasgow Agricultural Societv.— Meeting at Gliisgow. Entries
close -May 27. Secretary, Mr. R. M''Cowan, Gordon Street, Glasgow.

JUNE 15.— Essex Agricultural Association. — Meeting at Chelmsford.
Entries close June 1. Secretary, Mr. R. Emson, Slough House,
Halstead.

JUNE 18.— Norfolk Agricultural Association.— Meeting at Norwich-
Entries close May 29. Secretary, Mr. E. C. Bailev, Orford Street,
Norwich.

JULY 7.— Suffolk Agricultural Association. Meeting at Bury St. Ed-
munds. Entries close June 1. Secretary, Mr. R. Bond, Kentwell,
Long Melford.

J DLY 20, 21, 22, AND 23.— Royal Agricultural Society of England.—
Meeting at Chester. Entriesfor Iinpleraents close May 1 ; entries for
Stock June 1. Secretary, Mr. J. Hudson, Hanover Square, London.

JULY 2S.—Ryedale and Pickering Lytli Agricultural Society. — Meeting
at Kirby Moorside. Entries close July 10. Secretary, Mr. J. H.
Phillips, Beadham Grange, Helmsley, Yorkshire.

JULY 28 AND 29. — Lincolnshire Agricultural Society. — Meeting at Gran-
tham. Entries close July 10. Secretary, Mr. J. Hett, Brigg.

AUOUST4 AND 5. —Yorkshire Agricultural Society.— Meeting at North-
allerton. Entries close July 21. Secretary, Mr. J. Hannam, Kirk
Deighton, Wetherby.

AUGUST 10.— Northumberland Agricultural Society.— Meeting at Hex-
ham. Secretary, Mr. W. Johnson, Trench Hall, Gateshead.
AUGUST 12 AND 13.— North- East Agricultural Association of Ireland.
— Meeting nt Belfast. Entries close July 1. Secretary, Mr. G. O.
Bingham, Belfast. .

AUGUST 18, 19, AND 20.— Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of
Ireland. — Meeting at Londonderry. Entries close July 24. Secre-
tary, Captain Croker, Upper Sackville Street, Dublin.

AUGUST . — North Lancashire Agricultural Society. — Meeting at
Ulverston.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2, and 3— The Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland. — Meeting at Aberdeen. Entries close July 16. Secretary,
Mr. J. Hall Maxwell, Albyn Place, Edinburgh. (The Meetings of
this Society are further arranged for Edinburgh, in 1869; Dumfries,
1860; and Perth, 1861.)

SEPTEMBER 10.— Manchester and Liverpool A griculturol Society.—
Meeting at Manchester. Entries close August 30. Secretary, Mr.
T. B. Ryder, Elliott Street, Liverpool.

SEPTEMBER 14 and 1 j.— Sparkenhoe Farmers' Club.— MeetinL' at
Tamworth. Entries close August 14. Secretary, Mr. Argyle, Tam-
worth.

SEPTEMBER 22. —Wayland AgriculturalSociety.- Meetingat Watton.
Secretary, Mr. Woods, Merton, Watton.

SEPTEMBER 22 and 23.— Staffordshire Agricultural Society.— Meeting
at Lichlield. Entries elose September 6. Secretary, Mr. W. Torakin-
son. Newcastle.

OCTOBER .-Bedfordshire Agricultural Society.— Meeting at Biggles-
wade. Secretary, Mr. T. W. Turneley, Bedford.

OCTOBER 19.— Herefordshire Agricultural Society.— Meeting at Here-
ford. Secretary, Mr. Owen Fowler, Hereford.

NOVEMBER (not yet fixed, but most probably the week previous to the
Smithtield Show) Birmingham Cattle and Poultry Show, at Bir-
mingham. Secretary, Mr. J. Morgan, Jun., Bennett's Hill, Bir-
mingham.

DECEMBER 7, 8, 9, AND 10. — Smithfield Club Cattle Show, at the
Baker Street Bazaar, London. Entries close Nov. 1. Secretary, Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly, London.

DECEMBER 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.— Various Meetings of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England, of the Smithtield Club, and of the
Farmers' Club, at their several Offices in London.

*#• On thejirst Monday in every month up to June, and recommencing
in November, there is a Discussion Meeting of the Central Farmers'
Club, at 39, New Bridge-street, Blackfriars, at half-past five o'clock.
On ihe. Jirst Wednesday in every month — excepting January, Septem-
ber, and October — there is a Council Meeting, confined to Members of
Council and Governors of the Royal Agricultural Society, in Han-
over-square, at twelve o'clock ; and on every other Wednesday an open
Meeting for all Members of the Society, at twelve o'clock.
[We shall continue the occasional insertion of this List throughout the

year, and add to it as other .Societies make their arrangements, of which

we shall be obliged by early notice.]— EDITOR M. L. E.

Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London,

Lately Puhlishsd hy Longmaiis & Co., London ; or may he obtained of the
Author, on a remittance of 3s. 6d. worth of postage stamps. 1858.

A TREATISE ON ROAD LEGISLATION AND MAN-
AGEMENT. By EiCHAED Bayldon, Methley, near Wakefield.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

" Mr. Bayltlon is a road surveyor of whom we have before spoken, and what he has
to say on such subjects deserve consideration." — Builder.

" A very able treatise by a gentleman of great acuteness and experience, on a
subject of generalinterest, which we beg, specially, to recommend to trustees and
mortgagees of turnpike roads, as well as to carriers, mine owners, and others." — Staf-
fordshire Sentinel.

''Mr. Bayldon deals sensiblj- and suggestively with a very difficult question. The
author deprecates the system of confiscating, even partially, the turnpike debts, and
concludes by some useful and thoroughly practical remarks on the management of
tolls, and repairing turnpike roads and highways." — Lena Times.

" The treatise is, although condensed, yet comprehensive and practical, embracing
both highways and turnpike roads, and it is difficult to single out any point connected
with the subject that its intelligent author has not clearly set forth and explained." —
Barnsley Times.

" To commissioners and officers of turnpike roads, and to all road surveyors, this
little work must be of the greatest value. At the same time, there is matter in it that
will be of interest to our legislature and the general public. Under the head of repu-
diating turnpike trust debts, Mr. Bayldon offers some very sensible remarks." — Leeds
Mercury.

" The author of this very excellent work has proved himself to be a practical road
surveyor, with a much greater extent of knowledge than is usually evinced by men of
his class. 1 here is no doubt such a treatise was wanted, and Mr. Bayldon's extensive
knowledge and experience as surveyor of the Leeds and Wakefield and other trusts
qualifies him for the task." — Doncaster Gazelle.

" This is a useful practical treatise on an important subject, by a man fully compe-
tent to discuss it. Mr. Bayldon's object is to point out how the debts of turnpike
trusts may be liquidated, and by what simple measures public roads may be kept in
much better repair, and at less expense, than at present. We cordially recommend
it to the perusal of all concerned in the management of highways, and to all who are
unfortunate enough to be owners or trustees of turnpike roads." — Economist.

"This is a concise and practical treatise. Mr. Bayldon points out clearly the
injustice of the course which has been adopted by our legislature in repudiating the
debts of turnpike trusts. He also deals ably witli the much vexed question, as to the
removal of toll bars out of the streets of the Metropolis, and other large towns and
populous districts. The book contains a considerable amount of information concisely
stated and well arranged as to the practical management of roads ; and we recom-
mend it to the notice of commissioners and officers of turnpike roads, surveyors of
highways, overseers of the poor, and all others interested in the matters to which
it relates." — Knight's Official Advertiser.

" This little work of 100 pages, which is just out, we most cordially recommend to
the commissioners and officers of all turnpike roads, as well as to solicitors and sur-
veyors of highways ; and if our legislators in both Houses of Parliament would give a
few hours' attention to the reading of it, we feel confident they would find their labours
well repaid. The suggestions for the payment of turnpike trust debts, the reasons for
removing toll bars from populous localities, and the proposed regulations for
encouraging and enforcing tlie use of flat broad wheels for heavy carriages, are all
thoroughly practical and grounded on long experience, His concluding remarks on
the management of toUs and the repairs of public roads are excellent ; and we are
assured by men of practical experience that if Mr. Bayldon's system was fully carried
out, the mortgage debts could be honestly paid off, and the condition of all our
roads greatly improved, whilst the expense of repairing them would be reduced at

free. It is a well known fact tliat these checks, together with the other branches of
your management, has kept this important line of road in far better order than any
other similar length of road in the neighbourhood ; the public at the same time en-
joying such a freedom of tolls as belongs not to any other of the twenty different
turnpike-trusts around the Borough of Leeds. Thus proving the wisdom of your
system when properly carried out.

Your tolls, as regards weights on different shaped wheels, from being so much
different from the scales adopted on any of the other lines round Leeds, must have
been well considered by you before it was adopted, inasmuch as it has proved, after
15 years' experience, quite satisfactory to all reasonable persons that we have con-
versed with on this important subject. Indeed, the charges are so just and equitable
on different kinds of wheels, (and on destructively-shaped wheels no more than neces-
sary,) that they must tend to preserve the roads, and act beneficially on the funds of
your trust, as well as to all others, whether turnpikes or highways, on which your
improved-shaped wheels pass over.

4. — ^ our suggestions for repairing roads, both turnpike and highway, are excellent,
because so practical ; being in fact the plans which we have carefully observed have
been carried out on the different roads round Leeds placed under your care for nearly
the last 20 years. But we cannot but express our regret that you should have found
it necessary to go into such minute details for the use of surveyors of roads, more
particularly round Leeds, as your system of management has been so fidly exposed
to the public for so long a period on the Leeds and Wakefield road. You describe
nothing in your work but what we have observed you have adopted for a long time,
and therefore there is no theory about it — it is all actual practice. How it is that all
other surveyors in our neighbourhood have not yet followed out > our method to the
full extent we cannot tell. They must have seen the operation, and the reswlt of your
system as regards perfect road-making, and your treatise tells us how it has abohshed
road debts ; but the French have a proverb, which says, that " It takes a great deal to
obstrt-e what may be seeti every day ;" and therefore your system, although seen, it is
quite clear has not been sufficiently otnerved, or else other surveyors around Leeds
would have adopted your plans, and thus given us the benefit of good roads at a
reduced expenditure of repairs.

We have further to remark, that as we have had almost daily, for a number of years
past, several horses drawing our carts and waggons on that part of the Leeds and
Wakefield road between our works and the town of Leeds, and as we have used the
properly-shaped broad wheels ever since they were by you brought into use, we can
speak with confidence as to the benefits to ourselves of your plans, as contrasted with
any other of the numerous roads our teams have to travel over.

You are at liberty to make use of these plain remarks in any way that you may
think will best promote the objects you have in view. Feeling it a duty to comply
with your request, that we should record our opinions of yoiu- labours as well as your
Treatise on Road-Management, we cheerfully bear our testimony to the successful
results of your efforts, so fully detailed in your excellent work, and we most sincerely
co-operate with your views, and feel very glad you are not putting your long and
valuable experience on turnpike roads under a bushel. We think if our legislators, as
well as all road-makers and road-wearers, were to read and study your Treatise, and
adopt your system, we should soon have all our bad roads converted into equally as
good roads as those under your care, and the road-debts gradually abolished; whilst
thousands upon thousands of pounds sterling would be saved annually in the expense
of repairs and horse flesh alone, saying nothing about the increased comfort of all
persons using roads, nor the humanity that our poor horses would receive from their
owners being so checked as regards the weights allowed, by yourplan, toloaden their
carts and waggons. In fact, we feel, if you will only persevere in making known
your system of roadmanagement, that sooner or later a creat change must take place
in the public mind ; the advantages to mortgagees, road-makers, and users, as well
as toll-payers and rate-payers, being so decisive, as to secure adoption as soon as ever
properly seen and felt.

We are, Sir, yours most respectfully,

To Me. R. Bayldon. ROBSON & BUCKTROUT."

: anil m^xm m ^m^^^ tjie Imgkm.

CUFF^S FAUMER^S FRIEND.

One dose of this invaluable medicine will cure the SCOUR or LOOSENESS in Lambs, Calves, Sheep, Colts,
Heifers, Steers, and all Cattle, without leaving costiveness ; and given occasionally to Beasts whilst fattening
will promote a healthy and thriving condition. It will also perfectly cure the FRET, COLIC or GRIPES in
Horses. Price Is. 8d. or 3s. per Bottle.

CUFF^S FOOT-ROT POWDER

Is a cheap and effectual remedy for the FOOT- ROT or HALT, a single Packet of which will cure One Hundred
Sheep, and large Flocks may be soon freed from the Disease by its use. It has been extensively used and
highly approved of for nearly thirty years by large Sheep Breeders tliroughout the Kingdom. P;ice Is.
per Packet.

CUFF^S FLY, SCAR & MANGE OIL

Will very quickly destroy MAGGOTS in Sheep, and LICE or VERMIN in all animals. It will also cure the
MANGE, and SKIN DISEASES in Horses or Cattle, and effectually cleanse a Flock of Sheep from the
SCAB or SHAB. Price Is. 8d. and 3s. per Bottle.

THE BRITISH SHEEP WASH

Is used for Dipping or Dressing Sheop and Lumbs, without boiling, to prevent the Fly striking, and the Scab
or Shab from spreading, and effectually to destroy TICKS, LICE, and VERMIiM in Sheep. Price 28. 9d.,
6s., and 10s. per Jar; or 2s. 6d. per packet.

SHER^WOOD'S ORIG-INAL DRIFFIELD OILS

Are strongly and confideutlv recommended tor preventing GANGRENE or MORTIFICATION after Lambing
or Calving, and for Healing' CUTS, STABS, WOUNDS, BRUISES, STRAINS, SWELLINGS, &c., &c.. As
these Oils are in constant use by some of the most celebrated Breeders in the world, and have maintained a re-
putation about fifty years, it would be superfluous to enlarge upon their value and importance. Pints, 2s. 6d.,
Quarts, 5s .

Prepared by J. H. Cuff, No. 10, Smithfield Market, London, and sold by Druggists and Medicine Vendors
None is Genuine unless signed by J. H. CUFF imoriting.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD— SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.
Just published, the 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is., or sent, post-paid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debility, Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting Spermatorrhoea, and other urethral discharges,
by Microscopic Examination ; to which are added, Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L, CURTIS, Surgeon, 15, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till 3, and 6 to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1,

REVIEWS OP THE AVORK.

" Curtis on Manhood. — Shilling Edition. — 77lh Thousand.— This is a truly valuable work, and should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years' experience as medical referee in the treatment of nervous debility, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably-written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday Times, 23rd March,
1856.

"Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the source of those diseases which produce decline in youth or more frequtntly premature old
age."— Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1856.

Curtis on Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea that can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, 1st Feb., 1851.

" We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Society by ■^^hom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the relation of a parent, preceptor, or a clergyman. — Sun, Evening Paper.

Publislied by the Author; sold also in sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, Paternoster-row ; Hannay, 63,
Oxford-street; Mann, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, 11, Greenside-strcet, Edinburgh; Heywood,
Oldham-street, Manchester; Howell, 6, Ciairch-street, Liverpool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tyne;
Ashley, Post-OfBcp, ^Vewbury; Fekris & Score, Union-stieet, Bristol; Pierson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Braintree; Thew, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester; Lurcock, Maidstone; Cook, Ipswich; Huscroft, Bury St.
Edmunds; Dove, Swiadon ; Jbarey, Bridewell Alley, Norwich; Smith, Cambridge; Slatter, Oxford ;
and by all Booksellers and Chemists ia the United Kingdom.

Under the Patronage of

and Royal Family
the several Sovereigns

Her Majesty "The Queen,"

of Great Britain,

and Courts of Europe,

AND UNIVERSALLY PREFERRED.

Is universally in higli repute for its successful results during the last half century in the GROWTH, RESTORATION, and

IMPROVEMENT of

THE HUMAN HAIR.

It prevents Hair from falling off or turning grey, strengthens weak HAIR, cleanses it from Scurf and Dandriff, »nd makes it

BEAUTIFULLY SOFT, CURLY, and GLOSSY.
In the growth of

the: bsa^b, "whesebrs, awh mirsTACHios

it is unfailing in its stimulative operation. For CHILDREN it is especially recommended as forming tho basis of A
BEAUTIFUL HEAD OF HAIR.

Price 3s. 6d. ; 7s. : Family Bottles, equal to four small, lOs. 6d. ; and double that size, 21s.

SMl^OMTAUfT" CAUTIOir.

To prevent the substitution of Spurious Imilationa for the genuine
article by unprincipled shopkeepers, A. R. & Sons here add a small
copy in outline of their Label (as it appears round the bottle) from the
burin of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Fetch, the eminent engravers,
of London.

ems ?m smi^m,^!E§7§M?im

Another portion bears the Signature of the Proprietors, in
Red Ink—

" A. EOWLAND AND SONS."

iiza- ORIESTTAS. BOTAXiTICAXi P21SPA.RATXON'

FOR IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE COMPLEXION AND SKIN-

It eradicates all REDNESS, TAN, PIMPLES, SPOTS, FRECKLES, and DISCOLORATIONS, and renders

THS S5£I^ SOFT, FAIR, and BXiOOMZZ^JGi.

It obviates all the efiects of Climate on the Skin, whetlier with reference to cold and inclemency, or intense solar heat,
and affords immediate relief in cases of sunburn, stings of insects, or incidental inflammation. Gentlemen after shaving will
appreciate its softening and ameliorating properties. — Price 4s. 6d. and 8s. Gd. per bottle.

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Kalydob are on the Wrapper, and their signatux-e, " A. Rowland & Sows," in

red ink, at foot.

A GOOD SET OF TEETH

Ever insures favourable impressions, while their preservation is of the utmost importance to every individual, both as regards
the general health by the proper mastication of food, and the consequent possession of pure and sweet breath.

Compounded of the choicest and most recherchd ingredients of the ORIENTAL HERBAL, and of inestimable value in

PRESERVING 4ND BEAUTIFYING THE TEETH,

IMPARTING A PEARL-LIKE WHITENESS,

STRENGTHENING THE GUMS,

And in rendering

THE BREATH SWEET AND PURE.

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Odonto are on the Label, and A. Rowland & Sons, 20, Hatton Garden, on the Govwn-
ment Stamp affixed on each box. — Price 2s. 9d. per box.

Sold by A. ROWXAND & SON, 20, Hatton Garden, London, and by Chemists and

Perfumers.

TV-

l^.J^^g

^- jfr

No. 6, Vol. XIII. I W^^f^} 1858. [Thikd Series.

THE

FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

AN»

MONTHLY JOURNAL

OF

THE AGEICULTURAL INTEEEST.

TO THE

FARMERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD, 246, STRAND.

PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.

&00£aSOH AVD TUXVOSD,] [PUKTSBS, 246, SSAUD.

THORLEY^S POOD FOR CATTLE,

AS USED IN HER MAJESTY'S STABLES,
And also on His Royal Highness the Prince Consort's Farm, Windsor.

IMr»OMTAI¥T TO EVEMY MA:Sf

WHO KEEPS A

THE FIRST AND ONLY PRIZE

EVER AWARDED FOR FOOD FOR CATTLE IN A CONDENSED STATE WAS GIVEN BY

the: Cheshire AC}«icuiiTURA.ii soclety iir 185T,
TO JOSEPH THORLEY, ESQ.,

THE INVENTOR AND SOLE PROPRIETOR OF

THORLEY'S FOOD FOR CATTLE !

THIS FOOD is now receiving patronage from all parts of the kingdom, including
His Grace the Duke of Richmond, His Grace the Duke of Athole, the Earl of Wilton, the Earl of
Eldon, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Bessborough, the Earl of Aylesford, the Earl of Lisburne, the Earl
Rosslyn, Viscount Strathallan, Viscount Di.lon, the Right Hon. Lord Willoughby de Brooke, the Right Hon.
Lord Londesborough, Lord Lurgan, Lord Macdonald, Lord Saltoun, Lord Greenock, Lord Hatherton, Lord
A. Russell, Sir John Cathcart, Bart., Sir John Ribton, Bart, Sir Wm. Payne Galway, Bart., Sir
David Cunynghame, Bart., Sir Montague Cholmely, Bart., Sir John Seymour, Bart., Sir Charles Payne,
Bart., Sir Thos. Erskine, the Hon. D. Astley, the Ven. Archdeacon Freer, H. Drummond, Esq., M.P.,
E. Holland, Esq., M.P., Gerrart Sturt, Esq., M.P., General Wyndham, Col. Ames, Col. Cartwright, Colonel
C. Hunter, Lieut.-Col. Candley, Lieut. Williams, Lieut, and Adjutant Holland, and many others too numerous
to mention.

Converts tlie eoisiiiioiie§»t ot ^trs^Mv Into a, superior

iProveinler.

It is requisite you should notice the Inventor's Signature on each package or feed, as inferior sorts are
often substituted.

BINGLEY HALL CATTLE SHOW, BIRMINGHAM,

30th November, 1857.

Class X.— FIRST PRIZE.

JPED OIX THOIH.EY'S EOO]> EOSB CATTI.E.

DEVON STEERS.

See Catalogue, No. 88. — The property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Aylesfgrd.

SECOND PRIZE.

FE® 0:M" THOMIiEY'^ EOO]> EOM CATTI.E.

The property of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort.
The above are a few of the many Prizes obtained through the use of this invaluable Compound, which it

adapted for all kinds of Stock, and. now in use throughout the world.
; Sold in Cases, containing 448 Packages — each Package one feed — at the cost of 56s, per Case ; also in
Casks, containing 448 feeds, with measure included, price 50s. per Cask. Carriage paid to any Railway
Station in the United Kingdom.

None are genuine without the Signature being affixed ^^ ^y .^^r.j

to each Package or Feed. **^ ,«^4gg^^^ t^^€^

inventor and sole proprietor.

Ceiitral Depot. -77, NEWGATE STREET, LONDON.

DEVON ANI) CORNWALL MANURE WORKS,

AND

PATENT STEAM BONE MILLS,
CATTE DOWN, PLYMOUTH.

nHARLESNORRINGTON & CO.'S celebrated

\J SUPERPHOSPHATE OP LIME stands unrivalled in the
Manure Market for all Root Crops. During tlie past season up-
wards of Porty Tons of Mangold Wurtzel, Swedes, and Common
Turnips per Acre have been gro^7n with this Superphosphate,
without other Manure.

C. N. & Co. bind themselves to the valuation of the various
ingredients as given by Professor Way, in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society, vol. xvi., pp. 532—42.

Price £1 10s. per Ton, in Bags, delivered to any Port in the
United Kingdom.

RICHMOND & CHANDLEE'S PRIZE
CHAEF-CUTTING MACHINES.

UNDER LETTERS PATENT,

NO. 57 NEW PATENT CHAFF CUTTING

MACHINE, price £3 ISs., delivered at Manchester or

Liverpool.

PRESENT PRICES. £ s. d.

No. 57 Chaff Machine ., 3 15 0

No. lA Machine 4 10 0

No. 3b Machine 7 0 0

Pulley for power cxirn! 0 9 0

Change Wheels, to vary the length, per pair 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 4b Machine ,, , 10 0 0

Pulley for power, extra. ., 0 9 0

Change Wheels, per pair 0 6 0

K.nives, extra for each 0 4 6

No. 5 Machine c 15 0 0

Pulley for power 0 12 0

Change Wheels 0 6 0

Knives, extra for each 0 7 6

No. 1 Improved Corn. Crusher .., 5 5 0

No. 2 Improved Corn Crusher 6 10 0

Pulley for power 0 9 0

No. 3 Improved Corn Crusher 10 0 0

Pulley for power , 0 12 0

No. 4 Improved Corn Crusher 14 0 0

Pulley for power 0 15 0

Richmond & Chandler's exiensive application of the most ap-
proved Steam Machinery in the manufacture of these Imple-
ments, afford increased ficilities, together with greater mathe-
matical accuracy in every part, obtainable by no other means.

Address,
RICHMOND & CHANDLER, SALEORDJ
Branch Establishment,
S 0 UTH JOHN STREET, LIVERPOOL.

mWO and THREE HORSE POWER

PORTABLE STEAM ENGINES,

WITH VERTICAL CYLINDERS,

For Working Straw Cutters, Turnip Pulpers, Small

Thrashing Machines, Grinding Mills, &c., &c.

They will also answer
the purpose of a Steaming
Apparatus for Steaming
Food for Cattle. . .

Pbice,
Two-Horse Power £65 — ^
Threb-Horse £85 j^ W.

Manufactured by

JAMES HAYWOOD, Jn.

PHCENIX FOUNDRY,

and

ENGINEERING

WORKS, DERBY.

Descriptive Circulars sent
free on application.

ESTABLISHED 1812.
rpURNIP MANURE. — This

valuable
-fl- fertilizer has been used for the last twelve
j^ears with great success by most of the eminent Agri-
culturists throughout England, and stands unrivalled
in the weight and quality of the bulbs which it pro-
duces ; it is besides especially beneficial to the Grain
Crops which follow, while Clover is rarely found to
fail after the first application. Some of the crops
produced by this Manure last year weighed upwards
of Thirty Tons per acre, GRASS, BARLEY, CLO-
VER, and WHEAT MANURES ; aJ§o BONE,
GUANO, and SUPERPHOSPHATE of LIME,
warranted of the best quality. Apply to— -
H. & T. PROCTOR, Cathay, Bristol.

{Birmingham,
Edmonscote, Warwick.
And Saltney, near Chester.

N.B.— A Pamphlet On "MANURES, their PRO-
PERTIES and APPLICATION," forwarded on
receipt of 12 postage stamps.

IMPORTANT TO FLOCK MASTERS,

COOPER'S SHEEP DIPPISTG POWDEE.
(which, has stood the Test of Twelve Seasons)

DESTROYS all the Ticks, stops the Fly,
prevents and cures the Scab, promotes the growth
of Wool, and improves the appearance and condition
of the Flock, For all these purposes this Pova der can-
not be surpassed, and it positively has no equal as A
CURE FOR SCAB, even after all other means have
failed, at any season of the year, and however long the
disease may have existed in the Flock, Finding there
is so little trouble in using this Preparation, which is
instantly Soluble in Cold Water, Flock Masters pa-
tronize it to such an extent, both at Home and Abroad ,
that Powerful Machinery is required for its manufac-
ture. For Testimonials see Handbills,

Prepared at W. COOPER'S Chemical Works,
Gt. Berkhampsted, Herts, and sold (with plain direc-
tions) at Is. 4d. a packet — the average quantity for
dipping twenty sheep.

Agents throughout the civilized World, or may te
had through any Chemist.

THE ROYAL PAUMERS'

3, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

RATES.

HAIL.— Wheaf, Barley, Oats, and other ordinary Crops, without limitation, as to quantity"! g^ Acre,

grown. J

The last Bonus (1856) was upwards of GO per Cent, to Insurers of the four previous years, and in propor-
tion to Insurers for a less period.

The Royal Farmers' is tiic first Office which introduced this additional means of protecting the interest of
the Farmers.

It should be borne in mind that no care whatever can prevent damage by Hail, and that there is no means
of protection other than that now offered.

The losses by Hail Storms within the last few years in districts where parties neglected to insure, have been
very severe ; and many persons were reduced from prosperous circumstances to the painful necessity of avail-
ing themselves of a public subscription — a necessity tliey mi^dit have avoided by the trifling payment of
Sixpence per Acre,

FIRE. — Fire Insurances of every description at moderate rates. Farming Stock without average, 4s. per cent.

LOSSES paid immediately after the amounts have been ascertained.

LIFE. — Life Insurances on moderate terms by Policies payable to tlie Registered Holders.

Further particulars may be had at the Chief Office, or of the Agents.

Additional Agents Wanted. Application to JOHN REDDISH, Secretary and Actuary.

^HSI^l^^Al^ AmTS-€€lltlt#®i:€>:^ :rAIMT,

Specially patronized by the British and other Governments, the Hon. East India Company, the principal Dock Companies, and
other public bodies, &c., is particularly recommended to the Nobility, Gentry, Agriculturists, Jlanufacturers, West India Pro-
prietors, and others, it having been proved by the practical test of more than seventy years to surpass all other paints as an
out-door preservative. It is extensively used for the protection of wooden houses, farm, and other out-buildings, farming im-
plements, conservatories, park paling, gates, iron i-ailings, iron hurdles, copper, lead, brick, stone, old compo, and stucco fronts,
and tiles to represent slating. The superiority of the Anti-Corrosion to every other paint for out-door purposes may be easily
inferred from the simple fact, that its use has been always most strenuously opposed by Colour Manufacturers, Painters, Oil and
Colourmen, and others interested in the sale of common paints. It is also very economical, any labourer being able to lay it on.

White Stoxe ^

Light Do. I

Dkab or Portland Do. .. .. .. .. ,. „,

Bath Do > ^^s.

Light Yellow Do .^per owt.

Dahk Yellow Do |

Light and Dark Oak J

BfiOWN

Light and Dark Le

Colors

30s.

Dark Chocolate "|

Bright and Dark Ked [ 30s.

CoppEE r'percwt.

Black .. .. .. ,. .. .. .. ..)

In^'isible Green 4Gs. per cwt.

Deep Green 5Gs. „

Bright Green .5Gs. ,,

Blde (for Carts and Wagons) 5Gs. „

Light Chocolate . .' '.'. '.. '.'. '.'. "j per cwt.

In casks of 28, 5G, and 112 lbs. each, and upwards.— Oil & Brdshes.— The Original Anti-Corrosion Paint is only to be obtained of

(Successors to the Inventors)
9, GREAT WINCHESTER STREET, OLD BROAD ST. (Near the ROYAL EXCHANGE) LONDON, EC.
who will show 700 most flattering Testimonials received from the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy, who have used the Anti-Corro-
sion for many years at their country seats.

A Copy of the Testimonials will be sent on application.

No Agents.— xlU Orders are particularly requested to bo sent direct.

T7^RAMPT0N'S PILL OF HEALTH. Price Is. Ijd. and 2s. 9d. per box.—This excellent Family

X Pill IS a medicme of long-tried efficacy for purifying the blood, so very essential for the foundalion of good health, and
correcting all Diso'ders of the Stomach and Bowels. Two orlhree doses will convince the afflicted of its salutary eft'ec.ls. The
stomach will speedily regain its strength ; a healthy action of the liver, boweb, and liidneys will rapidly take place, and renewed
health will be the quicl< result of falsing tliis medicine, according to the directions accompanying each box. PERSONS of a FULL
HABIT, who are sulject to headache, giddiness, drowsiness, and singing in the ears, arising from too great flow of blood to the
head, should never be without them, as many dangerous symptoms will te entirely carried off by their timely use. The following
extract of 8 letter from IV! r. Thomas Province, of Winclimore Hill, Middlesex, is another proof of the Invaluable Medicinal Pro-
perties cl FRAMPTON'S PILL OF HEALTH :— " For upwards of nine years I have experienced the efficacy of this excellent
medicine.^ I had long previously been ttHicled with headache and indigestion, but a frier d having induced me to make a trial of
Frampton's Pills, I low inform you that a few doses gave me gre?.t rtlief; and during this long period of time I have taken them
in prelerence to any other medicine ; and I have the happires-s of saying that I never had a better state of heallh, which I attribute
l?„o "™P^°"'^ '''"^' ^ ^'^^ further to add, that this medicine is in general use by niy family, and we know of nothing to equal it."
I'OR FliMALES thti,e pills are truly excellent, removing all obstructions, the distressing headaclie so very prevalent with ilie sex,
depression of 8|.irits, dulncss of sight, nervous afl'ections, blotclies, pimples, and sallowness of the skin, and give a healthv, juvenile
bloom to tlie complexion. To MOTHERS they are confidently recommended as the best medicine tliat can be taken; and for
children of all ages they are unequalled. These Pills unite the recommendation of a mild operation with the most successful
eliect, and lor elderly people, or where an occasional aperient is required, nothing can be better adapted. In consequence of the
great and mcreasing demand, the Proprietor has obtained permission from her Majesty's Commissioners to have the name and
doreoOI J- ■ °"^^ "°"*' 229, Strand, London," impresEed upon the Government stamp ttfixcd lo each box. Sold by all Yen-

NEATLY PSINTED IN POOLSCAP OCTAVO, EACH ^OLUME CONTAINING FROM 130 TO 160 PAGES OF

LETTERPRESS,

'5pl

EICHAEDSOFS RURAL HMDBOOKS

Mm cBMtiiiM; nml mit mkx^tl.

A. Series of Designs for Rural and otlier Dwellings. The Ground Plans, Elevations, and Specifications by
James Sanderson, Borough Engineer's Office, Liverpool.

OR, YOUNG FARMER'S CLASS BOOK.
By Edmund Murphy, A.B.

THEIR NATURAL HISTORY, BREEDING, AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT.

By George Glenny, F.L.S., Author of " Properties of Flowers," &c.

THEIR VARIETIES, BREEDING, AND MANAGEMENT

Edited by M. M. Milburn.

By M. M. Milburn, Author of the "Sheep," Sec. (The Dairy Department revised by T. Horsfall).

Embracing the History, Varieties, Rearing, Feeding, and General Management of Sheep ; with TREATISES on

AUSTRALIAN SHEEP-FARMING, the SPANISH and SAXON MERINOS, &c.

By M. M. Milburn, Author of "The Cow," and of various Agricultural Prize Essays.

TI-fE m.'K'WWl AM1> THE HOmSlY-lia^lS.

JP2:^T^ ©F TUB] B'AKM.

A New Edition. By M. M. Milburn, Author of " The Sheep," &c.

tAi^ii-sjsiAiMACJ-E, s:m:jba]^k:ms:mt, am® iisiii-

C5-AT5#:^.

By James Donald, Civil Engineer, Derby.

S®1¥^® AMU MAMUSBJSS.

With Instructions for their Improvement. By John Donaldson, Government Land Drainage Surveyor.

SHORTLY WILL APPEAR, IST CONTINUATIOIS" OF THE SAME SERIES,

THE IMPLEMENTS OF THE FARM.—

By R. Scott Burn, C.E.
WHEAT : ITS HISTORY AND CULTIVA-

TION.—By S. Copland.

THE POTATO : ITS HISTORY, CUL-
TURE, AND NATIONAL IMPORTANCE.—

By S. Copland.

London : Piper & Co., Paternoster How. Dublin ; J. McGrlashan, Tipper Sackville Street.

And all Booksellers.

THE E-ARMBR'S MAGAZI.^NE.

JUNE, ]858.
C 0 N T E N T S.

Plate I.— PORTRAIT OF J. J. FARQUHARSON, ESQ.
Plate II.— A HEREFORD PRIZE OX.

PAGE

Biographical Sketch of J. J. FARauHARSON, Esq. .... 459

Description of the Second Plate . . . . . . 460

Dressings for the Turnip Crop. — By Cuthbert W, Johnson, Esq., F.R.S. . . 460

Barley ......... 463

WiNFRiTH Farmers' Club. — Advantage of Autumn Cultivation for Root Crops . 466
Distillation from Beet-roots at the Ruddington Distillery . . . 472

The qualities constituting a good Potato ..... 474

London, or Central Farmers' Club. — The Rearing and Diseases of Lambs . 475

Irish Agricultural Statistics ...... 480

Collections of Produce and Animal Food. — The Kensington Museum . . 481

Origin of the Duchess Family ...... 482

Fate of the Statistics Bill ....... 484

Pests of Agriculture ....... 485

Roy-al Dublin Society. — Spring Cattle Show ..... 487

Spare the little Birds ....... 489

Preservation of Grain for Food ...... 491

Premiums for the best samples of Barley ..... 494

On the Royal Agricultural Society and their Proceedings in Council . 495

The New Manure — Clay from the Gas-works ..... 496

The Memorial from the Exhibitors of Steam Cultivators . . . 497

Trials of the Thrashing Machines .,..,. 498
The Veterinary College in relation to Agriculture .... 500

The Soil ......... 502

What becomes of the Bones — their Use and Commercial Value . . 503

Sale of Mr. Cartwright's Herd of Short-horns, at Aynhoe, by Mr. Strafford . 504
Experimental Farms in Australia ...... 505

Rearing and Diseases of Lambs ...... 506

Something of Plants, and How tley live ..... 507

Auxiliary Manures . . . , . , . .511

The Neglect of Agriculture the forerunner of National Decay . . 513

Stockbridge Annual Sheep and Cattle Show ..... 513

Royal Agricultural Society OF England : Proceedings of Council . . 514

Weeds and Weeding ........ 526

Scotch Cottages ........ 529

Central (Stirling) Farmers' Society— Discussion on the various breeds of

Cattle ......... 530

The English Farmer in France ...... 533

Progress of Agriculture in America ...... 536

Practical value and application of Town Sewage .... 53/

To Destroy Wire Worm ....... 538

Calendar of Agriculture ....... 539

Agricultural Reports ....... 539

Review of the Cattle Trade during the past Month . . . 540

Agricultural Intelligence, Fairs, &c. ..... 543

Review of the Corn Trade ....... 546

Corn Averages and Market Currencies .... 548-50

L c7zdcn.^pvilisn£d. ti' IRcg crscti S: 1 luirlji'd, Z4c. Svani.lBSS.

THE

JUNE, 1858.

PLATE I.

PORTRAIT OF J. J. FARQIJHARSON, ES'

ENGRAVED BY J. I!. HUNT, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

PLATE II.
A HEREFORD PRIZE OX.

THE PBOPERTY OF MR. JOHN SHAW, OF HUNSBURY HILL, NORTHAMTON.

J. J, FARQUHARSON, ESQ.

This great Dorsetshire agriculturist and worthy
country gentleman first saw the light on October
9th, 1784. Oxford claimed him in due course, and
he passed his undergraduate days pleasantly enough,
beneath, the sound of "Mighty Tom" of Christ
Church. Tread well was but a lad of six, playing
about among the hedgerows of Stoke Talmage, when
his future master flung aside his Herodotus for his
Somerville, and commenced at two-and-twenty, with
a goodly band of whitecoUars, as huntsman to his
own pack. It was the English country squire at
once taking to the business of his vocation.

Unlike many men, he did not begin with har-
riers, or a three or four-days-a-week pack, but
boldly flung himself at once into the fox-hunting
breach, and hunted, at his own expense, all Dorset-
shire and part of Somersetshire six days a- week from
the very outset, with thirty horses, two kennels, and
ninety couple of hounds. Cranbourne Chase, with
its short oaks and hazel trees, was then, as it is now
(though it was rather short last season), the great
nursery of Dorsetshire foxes ; but its yellow-breasted
martens, to whose memory English historians still

OLD SERIES.]

continue to cling, as the latest relics of the vermin of
feudal times, have all but disappeared, along with
the badgers in "Wychwood Forest.

In addition to his extensive agricultural pursuits,
among which sheep-breeding is not the least, Mr.
Farquharson has always been an enthusiastic breeder
of horses, and his colours were once perpetuallj
seen in front at the county races. The Hobgoblin
strain, which goes through Annette back to Phan-
tom, has been bis choicest blood of late years, and it
has crossed especially well with that of an Elis mare,
who died about two years since, leaving two rare
chesnuts — one of them Will-o'-the-Wisp — as her
legacy to the stud. It is upon The Pony, who is
by Cadiz, and quite as tender as a lover with hounds,
that Treadwell will go down to posterity in Grant's
picture, while his good master selected Botanist to
honour.

It was no small sorrow to the white-collars and
farmers of Dorsetshire that "The Squire" should
have been prevented, by a severe horse-kick, from
hunting with them the last five Aveeks of the season;
and until he "pronounced the words of doom" at
I I [VOL. XLYin.— No. 6.

460

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the farewell festival in February, they clung to the
hope that the parting was not to be. We care not
to dwell on this sad wrench and its causes. There
have been heart-burnings enough, and the division
of the country has indeed been purchased at a bitter
price. Dorsetshire has not, however, failed to show
its gratitude. In 1827 it presented its Squire, at a
cost of eleven hundred and fifty guineas, with a vase
and shield, as a meet acknowledgment of his chivalry;
and thirty years later it celebrated his jubilee, by the
presentation of two candelabra in the ?r;?tf255««fe style.
The pictui-e, to which the greater portion of the
£1800 then collected was devoted, was not finished
till many months after, and then it merely came to
grace the farewell banquet.

From none on this occasion did the cheers come
more heartily, or was the expression of sympathy
more manifest, than with the farmers of the county.
It is, indeed, as a good landlord and excellent coun-
try gentleman that we here give our greeting to Mr.
Earquharson. Although the chase may have been
his first love, he has ever shown an innate and last-
ing inclination for agricultural pursuits. He farms
himself still, we believe, between two and three
thousand acres of land in the best possible style.
The character of his flock has long been famous, and
he ranks as a successful exhibitor at our agricultural
meetings. He is of course a member of the Royal
Agricultural Society, and with such-like support the
cause will ever prosper.

PLATE II.
A HEREFORD PRIZE OX.

THE PROPERTY OF MR, JOHN SHAW, OF HCNSBURY HILL, NORTHAMPTON.

This capital beast was bred by Mr. Richard
Shirley, of Bawcott, Munslow, Shropshire.

At the Leicestershire Agricultural Society's Show,
in December, lS56,hetook the first prize of ISsovs.

At the Rugby and Dunchurch Show, in Novem-
ber, 1857, he took another first prize of 15 sovs,,
open to all England.

At the Birmingham and Midland Counties Show,
December, 1857, he took the first prize of 10 sovs.
as the best of his class, the extra prize of 20 sovs.
as the best of all the Herefords, and the gold
MEDAL as the best ox in the yard. Mr. Shirley
also received a Silver Medal as his breeder.

At the Smithfield Club Show, the week follow-
ing, he took the first prize of 25 sovs., Mr. Shirley

having another Silver Medal. The ox was pur-
chased here by Mr. Gutheridge, of High-street,
Poplar.

This was a magnificent beast, of immense length
and depth, with all the good points of the Here-
ford beautifully developed. He had a wonderfully
fine head, with good back and fore-quarter; was
very heavy, and of excellent quality. Indeed, had
it not been for a little dip in the back, he might
have been passed as perfect. His feeder, Mr,
Shaw, is a new man as an exhibitor, at least of
cattle; his entries at the more important meetings
having so far been confined to the sheep classes.
It is needless to say this Hereford did every credit
both to his judgment and management.

DRESSINGS FOR THE TURNIPCROP.

BY CUTEBEBT W, JOHNSONj ESQ., E.E.S.

The different manures employed for the turnip
crop are of annually increasing interest. Consi-
derable public discussions have recently been held
upon a theme so important to the stock farmer.
When this paper comes before the agriculturist,
turnip sowing will be about to commence in most
portions of our island, and few are the farmers so
happily situated as not to be benefited by the ap-
plication of artificial dressings. At such a season,
then, it will surely be attended with benefit if we

inquire into the comparative merit.'? of some of the
manures which are urged upon the farmer's atten-
tion for the use of his root crops.

In the first place, then, let us refresh our memories
by examining the mineral matters which the turnip
crop requires for its healthy growth ; what the
perfect plant invariably contains ; what it absorbs
from, and gradually exhausts the soil of. This
analysis was, some little time since, made by Way
{Jour. Boy. Ag. Soc. vol. viii., p. 199.) He has

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

461

given the amount of mineral matter contained in
one ton of the entire plants, bulbs and tops, of the
common turnip. It is as follows : —

Silica

0-34

Phosphoric acid

1-77

Sulphuric acid

233

Lime

1-76

Magnesia

0 47

Peroxide of iron

0-07

Potash

6-07

Soda

1-46

Common salt

1-49

The amount of the mineral and organic matters
of the turnip plant varies, however, in different
seasons and climates. This fact has been to some
extent ascertained by Professor Anderson and Mr.
J, B. Lawes. The Professor examined the compo-
sition of turnips grown in the same season from the
same seed, in Argyleshire and in Warwickshire
{Trans. High. Soc, 1856, p. 420); and although
his trials are by no means conclusive in them-
selves, yet they well serve to indicate the import-
ance of continued experiments. They illustrate,
remarks the Professor, one of the great difficulties
with which we have to contend in such inquiries,
for we know nothing precise regarding the climate
of these counties, further than that Argyleshire is
characterized by the abundance of rain during the
summer and autumn months, and by a low sum-
mer temperature; v/hile Warwickshire has as
favourable a climate as any English county. The
turnips analyzed were swedes and yellows, both
grown from the same seed in each locality, and
treated in a precisely similar manner. The follow-
ing were the results per cent. : — •

SWEDES.

Water

Ash

Protein compounds
Other constituents

Warwick.
. 93.39 .

.50 .

.75 .
. 5.36 .

100.00
.12 .
.09 .

Argyle

95.22

.50

.44

3.84

Nitrogen
Phosphates in the ash

100.00
.07
.06

YELLOW.

Water

Ash

Protein compounds

Ocher constituents

. 94.11 .
.70 .

.62 .
4.57 .

. 95.35

.72

.50

3.43

Nitrogen
Phosphates in the ash

100.00
.10 .
.09 .

100.00
.08
.05

Comparing these analyses, adds the Professor,
it is at once seen that the turnips grown in War-
wickshire materially exceed in value those from
Argyleshire. The swedes from Argyleshire con-
tain 2 per cent, more water than the Warwickshire
swedes; 10,000 parts of the Warwickshire swedes
contain 661 parts of solid matters, while the same

quantity of those from Argyle contain only 440.
If we assume the amount of solid matters as the
measure of the nutritive value of the two samples,
then it would follow that two tons of the War-
wickshire swedes must be equal to nearly three
tons of the Argyleshire, and it is probable that this
is not far from the truth.

The trials of Mr. Lawes were carried on in his
usually extensive and elaborate manner, at Rotham-
sted, in Hertfordshire, and were chiefly directed to
the question of the influence of the amount of rain-
fall, and the mean temperature of the turnip sea-
son, upon the produce of the crop. In his trials in
the years 1844 and 1845, he obtained the following
results : —

The mean temperature from June to

end of Oct. — turnip season

No. of days on which rain fell during

this season

Inches of rain falling . . , , . , -.

Produce of bulbs per acre in tons and
cwts. :

Manured with 12 tons of farmyard

dung

Do. with superphosphate of lime

1844.

59.4

67
10.37

10 15

1845.

57.8

74
9.62

714

7 14'12 13

As a general fact, it is evident, concludes Mr.
Lawes, that the amount of the produce of the
turnip is very materially dependent upon the
climatic character of the season, not only as in
itself a resource, but as an essential agent in the
appropriative power of the plant, however liberal
and complete may be the supply of constituents
within the soil.

To promote the growth of the turnip crop by
supplying its mineral and organic substances, two
valuable manures — guano and superphosphate of
lime — have been extensively used, and with very
remarkable success. The employment of these
powerful fertilizers, however, has been found to
require considerable care in their application to the
soil, and moreover that the result of the trial is
materially influenced by different climates and
soils. On the fine loamy barley lands of Surrey
resting upon the chalk, a mixture of these two
manures is commonly used — say, 1 cwt. of guano
and 3 cwt. of superphosphate of lime per acre.
This proportion of the superphosphate employed
has been gradually increasing for the last two or
three seasons. We have found, in fact, that in my
neighbourhood better crops are thus produced,
and moreover that the good effects of the super-
phosphate of lime, applied as a dressing to a root
crop, are commonly very plainly discernible in the
succeeding barley crop, and not unfrequently even
in the third or clover crop. It is a common and a
good practice with my neighbours, in Surrey, to
drill these manures, either by separate coulters

I I 2

4G3

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

6

3

6

1

6

1

5

17

5

19

4

7

5

12

lelow the seed, or else (especially when the turnips
are grown on the ridge) to mix them with a con-
siderable proportion of dry ashes, and spread
them on the soil before the last ploughing.

That a mixture of guano and superphosphate of
lime is a far preferable dressing for turnips, than
either of these valuable fertilizers applied alone,
seems to have been the result of many careful
trials made in other and widely different
localities : take, for instance, two series of trials
lately made in Scotland and in Ireland. In those
in Scotland {Quar. Jour. Ag. 1857, p. 667), in
one trial the whole field was manured with .20 tons
of farm-yard compost per imperial acre, and then
dressed with the following manures, at a cost of
26s. 6d. per acre. The results were, that on equal-
sized ridges —

Dissolved bones and Peruvian

guano gave 6 tons 2 cwt.

Steamed bones and guano. .
Steamed bones and guano. .
Dissolved bones alone ....
Dissolved bones alone . . . «
Steamed bones alone ....

Leone guano alone

Leone and Peruvian guano
In another trial, at Borgue —

Peruvian guano, 5 cwt. per Tons.cwts.

acre, produced of bulbs 20 12 per acre

Bolivian ditto, 5 do 19 15 „

Blood manure, 7i do., do. 18 5 „
Dissolvedbones, 7ido.,do. 17 15 „
In some experiments made by Mr. Templeton, at
Clanboye, in Downshire {Irish Far?n. Gaz.), with
Skirving's purple-top swede, he found that the
turnips from 24 tons of farm-yard manure per acre
produced the greatest weight of bulbs per acre ;
those from 12 tons of manure and 2^ cwt of
Peruvian guano the next greatest weight; those
from 12 tons of manure and 12 bushels of crushed
bones the next best ; those from 5 cwt. of Peru-
vian guano the lowest weight of all.

It has been the practice with many farmers to
mix the Peruvian guano with an equal weight of
common salt : this would seem to be especially a
usefid addition to Peruvian guano, as a dressing for
mangel wurzel, and for its after-effects on the bar-
ley crop.

It is, of course, of the first importance to procure
the best Peruvian guano and superphosphate, and
I would earnestly warn my readers to be very
cautious in the use of any other. Professor
Cameron, in his valuable work on "The Chemistry
of Agriculture," p. 113, has given the analyses of
several varieties of guano known in commerce.
Let us only contrast the average composition of the
Upper Peruvian guano, with^that from the Kooria
Mooria Islands, which last variety I fear is likely
to ])rove of little average value ; —

Kooria

Peruvian.

Mooria.

Water

10.00

18.10

Organic matter

21.68

12.41

Yielding ammonia

(4.50)

(2.05)

Earthy phosphates

51.50

42.67

Carbonate of lime

— .

4.19

Alkaline salts

14.12

4.13

Sand, clav, and other use-

less matter

2.70

18.50

Of the adulterated (and of course always the
dearest) guanoes, and their names and varieties are
legion. Professor Cameron too truly tells us that
the substances with which guano is adulterated are
sand, clay, powdered bricks, marl, chalk, limestone,
salt, &c., one or more of these being added to the
guano, very commonly to the strong-smelling
Ichaboe or damaged Peruvian, the proportion of
course depending not only upon the conscience of
the compounder, but on the presumed gulhbility of
the purchaser. So skilfully are these compounds
prepared, that the most experienced buyers are often
imposed upon, detection in very many cases being
very difficult by any except chemical means.
Several analyses of adulterated Peruvian guano
were during the past month communicated by
Professor Voelcker to the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety, see our present number, page 521.

The same systematic frauds are carried on in the
adulteration of superphosphate of lime. In this
case the matter added is very commonly finely-
ground coprolites and some cheap salt, such as
sulphate of soda or common salt. There is only
one safe way of being secure from these robbers.
Let the farmer deal only with those makers — and
there are more than two or three such — who have
been long-established, and whose characters are
above suspicion. If the intending purchaser is
still in doubt, let him ask the opinion of such men
as Anthony Gibbs and Sons, Professors Way,
Voelcker, Anderson, Wilson, &c. Let the reader
submit to one of these gentlemen a list of makers,
and ask him to put a mark to the names of those
whom the marker knows to be trustworthy, and
then he may purchase with comfort.

There is certainly a very general growing feeling
in favour of superphosphate of lime as a dressing
for turnips. The editor of the Quarterly Journal
of Agriculture, from the result of Scotch experience,
also inclines to this opinion. After observing
(volume for 1858, p. 322) that for some years the
Caledonian farmers have been profitably trusting
to Peruvian guano, he adds, that it has been found,
however, that the white crops on those fields on
which there has been a recent and several applica-
tions of guano are soft in the straw, and do not
yield according to bulk as well as they used to do.
(This softness of straw, however, has in my expe-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

463

rience been readily prevented bj'' the addition to the
guano of at least an equal bulk of common salt.)
In Bavariaj we find from the same authority, the
farmers, after using guano for some years, now find
it necessary to apply it in larger quantities than
formerly, in order to obtain the same results ; and,
from some calculations of the comparative cost of
the production of turnips in Scotland, it resulted
" that the average cost of a ton of turnips from
guano in six distinct experiments, in different parts
of the country, was 3s. '2jd., while the cost of a ton
from superphosphates (made by different manufac-
turers), in four districts, is 23. 2|d., the cost of the
manure in both cases only being calculated ; so
that there is a difference of ll^d. per ton in favour
of superphosphates ; and as the average crop of the
experiments was about 23 tons per acre, we have a
profit of £1 4s. per acre by using superphosphates
instead of guano.

The reason why the soil gets " tired" of certain
crops and fertilizers is well worthy of still more ex-
tended examinations than it has yet received. The

land " tires" we all know of clover. Many farmers
will tell you that their soils are getting more and
more tired of swedes, in spite, too, of all the artifi-
cial dressings which they so generously bestow
upon them. Hence one reason amongst several
why mangel is so increasingly cultivated. Let these
little difficulties inspire us witli fresh ardour for
more careful researches. There is probably some-
thing extracted from the soil by particular plants,
which, although of importance to the growth of the
crop, is yet too minute to have been yet detected.
Certain predatory insects, too (some, perchance,
yet unknown to us, of a very minute yet pernicious
character), follow all crops, gradually extending
themselves to the farmer's loss, and no crop has
been more subject to these than the turnip. In
arriving, however, at such a conclusion, let us not
forget that the cultivation of no crop has been more
extensively aided by science. If the chemist had
done nothing for agriculture than discovering the
use of superphosphate of lime, he would even then
have been well entitled to the cultivator's gratitude.

BARLEY.

In Scotland, there has not been the same atten-
tion bestowed in selecting and propagating new
varieties of barley and here as of wheat and of oats,
nor has the introduction of varieties from other
countries been generally successful. Hence, the
kinds in cultivation are limited in number, and
none of these are comparatively newly propagated
varieties. To explain this apparent indifference on
the part of the growers of barley is impossible.
Perhaps the prevalence of the belief that barley is
not generally so profitable a crop as wheat or oats,
except where the soil and climate are highly suita-
ble, may account in part for the apathy displayed.
Whatever is the cause, the consequence is the cul-
tivation of a restricted number of kinds of barley
and here.

Barley is cultivated mainly for the production of
ales and alcohol ; but a considerable quantity is
manufactured into pot-barley, Ulm-barley, and a
limited portion is ground into meal for bread, and
also for feeding stock. The light and inferior sam-
ples are principally used for feeding horses, being
generally prepared by boiling.

Barley was at one time in more general cultiva-
tion than at present. Up to the beginning of the
present century, it occupied in part the place now
occupied by wheat, being then grown extensively
as a bread corn for the manufacturing of meal,
besides being made into pot-barley, Ulm-barley,
and for furnishing grain from which the extracts
ales and alcohol were obtained. The bread from
barley-meal was baked into scones — " supple
scones" — resembling those made of wheaten flour.
Sometimes mashed potatoes were mixed with the
meal — rarely wheaten fiour. This kind of bread

was mainly confined to the western side of Scotland,
but there oaten cakes formed the staple bread.
Mashlam bread — a mixture of barley and legumes
—was also in partial use over Scotland and the
north of England; but in the south-eastern counties
this was the principal bread of the working classes,
barley being mixed with beans and peas — generally
in the proportion of two bushels of the former to
one of the latter. From this were baked what is
usually known as gray bannocks. These were
usually above one inch in thickness, and were sel-
dom palatable to one unaccustomed to the bread,
except when a httle soda was used to render the
bread lighter. On special occasions, such as
Hansel Monday, and sometimes on the occurrence
of an addition to the hind's family, a portion of
wheat was substituted for the barley, in part or
whole, along with the mixture of beans and peas —
the legumes being generally grown as a mixture
for a field crop. A taste for wheaten bread (white
bread) became general in the family of the hinds
about thirty years ago, but such an innovation was
generally regarded as wasteful extravagance, and
bakers' bread was rather covertly partaken of, un-=
til within the last few years.

The occurrence of low prices for wheat, simul-
taneous with the operation of a free tariff, rapidly
extended the use of wheaten bread ; which is now
taking the place of gray-bannocks — wheat being
substituted for barley in preparing the meal. From
time immemorial, in the districts referred to, the
wages (gains) of the hinds have been paid in
kind — the bread corn being generally eighteen
bushels of barley, and eight bushels of beans and
peas ; the oats, raised from forty-eight to sixty

461.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

bushels about the beginning of the present cen-
tury, being partly manufactured into meal for por-
ridge, and partly sold. From the change in the
habits of the people, it is a question for the em-
ployers and employed to consider whether it would
not be a mutual advantage to both to substitute
wheat in part or in whole for the barley.

With advancing agriculture, the period of sow-
ing barley has become much earlier than formerly.
During the first quarter of the present century, the
sowing of barley seldom commenced before the last
week of April, ending with the first week of June,
Indeed, " here seed time," as it was then called,
was betwixt the Terms — 15th to 26th May. In
the south-eastern counties barley was usually
taken after the turnip crop, especially where the
land was not cleared of the turnips previous to
winter. The period of sowing was usually the end
of April. Barley thus occupied the second place
in the rotation, this being a four, five, or six course.
In the Carse districts whei^e barley occupied the
fourth place in the six-course rotation, the land
received a spring fallowing — three spring furrows,
with the necessary harrowing and rolling to pul-
verize the soil for the reception of the seed. Sow-
ing proceeded during the month of May. With
the extension of thorough draining the land is now
earher seeded over the whole of Scotland, although
in backward districts, the practice of the beginning
of the century is still followed. The general ad-
vance in the period of sowing is fully one month,
in some districts about six weeks. A considerable
breadth of barley is now grown after a cei'eal crop
— wheat or oats. Manure is usually applied.
When barley is taken after wheat, grass seeds —
a mixture of ryegrass and clovers — are sometimes
sown with the barley. By this practice the four-
course rotation is rendered a five-course. Where
barley is taken after the oat crop, portable manures
are apphed — generally Peruvian guano. Growing
two white crops successionally is a partial return
to the general practice of the last century, and is
by many regarded as a breach of the rules of good
husbandry. It must not be assumed from this,
however, that the jjractice is not good husbandry,
especially when the barley is taken after the oat
crop, and is followed by a green crop. The facili-
ties afforded for the maintaining fertility by the
application of portable manures renders the prac-
tice judicious ; especially as, by increasing the
number of crops in the rotation, potatoes, turnips,
and clovers can be grown with more uniform suc-
cess, than where these are repeated at shorter inter-
vals, and where partial failures have frequently
occurred. Local position, soil, and climate are the
principal elements in judging of the practice, which
gives a larger money return, both for the value of
the crops, and their being grown more healthy,
while the fertility of the soil is maintained.

None of the kinds grown in Scotland are what
are classed as winter barleys, although in many
situations several varieties would survive during
winter. An experiment with the Chevalier variety
in East Lothian — sowing it in the month of Octo-
ber— has proved successful, the crop ripening
nearly a month earlier than when sown in spring,
and producing a very fine sample. The ])eriod8

during which barley occupies the ground, vary
with the variety, character of the soil, and season.
The period of sowing now extends from the first
of March to the first week in June — the latter
being very exceptional. Period of reaping extends
from the beginning of August up to the middle or
even end of October. The more early kinds ripen
about ten to fifteen days before the later kinds,
but the sowing of the late varieties is confined to
the months of March and Ajjril, so that the barley
crop is usually reaped in the beginning of harvest.

The aggregate produce of barley has been greatly
increased by the appliances of draining and porta-
ble manures. By the agency of these, barley is
now grown on all kinds of soils where the chmate
is favourable, while on all soils the produce is
much more uniform, and the average quality very
much improved. Phosphatic manures act power-
fully as fertilizers for the growth of barley, but
nitrogenous manures exercise a power which is
most striking. Nitrate of soda applied in small
quantities greatly increases the produce of grain;
but it is by the action of Peruvian guano, furnish-
ing both nitrogen and phosphates, that the produce
of this cereal can be most largely increased. Va-
rious estimates have been made as to the increase
of produce which is due to the action of furrow-
draining, and to the fertilizing agency of portable
manures. The increase from furrow-draining has
been estimated at one quarter per acre, and from
the use of portable manures from four to six
bushels. The increase from the two agencies com-
bined cannot be estimated at less than ten bushels
per acre. The introduction of Chevalier barley
has also increased the aggregate produce. In East
Lothian, for instance, where the three causes are in
operation, the acreable produce is upwards of 40
bushels; and on some farms, the produce of which
we have an opportunity of knowing, from records
carefully kept, and which embrace a considerable
period, the average acreable produce of barley has
increased sixteen bushels per Scotch acre within
the last twenty years.

At one time great attention was bestowed on the
changing of seed, particularly from the coast to the
interior. Ware barley — that is, barley raised on
farms where seaweed was applied, always com-
manded a high price in spring. Barley raised on
Carse soils was also in demand for seed. In up-
land districts, the crop was often injured from
frost, consequently was unsuitable for seed ; but
there appear to have been other influencing causes
which led to this general belief. The desire to
secure a change of seed is no t now general ; indeed,
in some districts, is almost in abeyance. That there
are well- ascertained facts as to the beneficial effects
of a change of seed is undoubted; but where the
condition of the land is maintained, and the crops
properly ripened, the necessity of a change of seed
may be doubted. On one farm in Mid-Lothian,
the same barley has been raised without change
for forty years, and in favourable seasons this
grain has reached the extreme weight of 60 lbs,
per bushel.

Common here or hicjrj is now cultivated chiefly in the
Highlands and Western Islands : also to a limited
extent in upland districts, where the situation or

THE FARMER'S MAGAZliNE.

46C

soil is unsuitable for the growth of common barley.
On light and peaty soils here succeeds better than
barley, being less injured by lodging. It is gene-
rally taken after a potato crop, or on peaty soils
recently reclaimed, following the green crop which
succeeds the oat crops.

The cultivation of here is being gradually more
and more resticted, chiefly from the lower price at
which it sells, compared with barley of equal weight.
At one time here was in much more general cul-
ture; even in the best parishes in the Lolhians,
rents payable in kind, and the stipends of the
clergy, were payable in here. It was usually con-
sidered that land somewhat out of condition for
barley produced a more certain crop of here. From
the terms barley and here being frequently used
synonymously, there is considerable difficulty in
following writers of the last century as to what
was the kind of grain referred to.

The kinds generally grown in Scotland are what
are usually termed " common here" — straw seldom
» over 3 feet in length ; colour, when ripe, a buff yel-

low—ear about 2 inches long — the grains clustering,
iiniform and closely set — the length of awns about
two to three inches, these bristling outwards, and
adhering with consideable force to the grain. The
grains are pointed and taper towards the ends. This
distingushes herefrom common barley. The colour
of the grain is a dingy brown — weight seldom
54 lbs. the bushel ; more frequently from 40 to
51 lbs. f^roduce varies much — from 3 up to 8 qrs.
^ per acre, but is, on certain soils, more uniform in
i yield than commonly barley, and ripens from four

to ten days earlier.

Victoria here is a selected variety, larger and
stiffer in the straw ; the yield is stated also to be
greater. This variety is coming into more general
favour.

Peruvian barley is a bere — colour of grain black or
darkblue—grainslarger than the commonbarley, and
clustering like common here— awns long and dark
' . coloured, adhering to the grain ; length of straw
ranges from 3 to 4 feet. \Vhen sown early, and on •
rich soils, this variety is prolific, nearly equalling
that of Chevalier barley. But there exists a strong
prejudice against it, both by millers and maltsters,
from the colour of the grain. The name Peruvian
indicates that it was imported from Peru; but it is
similar in character to the black winter barley of
the continent, and may be regarded as identical.
Beyond experiments, this variety has never found
a place, and is now all but neglected.

Comm,on Scotch barley has been cultivated from
time immemorial. It seems to be identical with
common English barley. There appear to be
several kinds, some being more prolific than others.
These sub-varieties are probably in part the result
of selection, but more generally of continued culti-
vation on fertile soils. One of the best of these is
Bell's. Other names are in use — Stirlingshire, &c.
The straw of the commonbarley is generally about
31 feet in length, small in the pen, leaf narrow, de-
ficient in strength, and liable to lodge- especially
on soils in high condition, with an excess of car-
bonaceous matter. The grain is two-rowed; the
number of grains in the ear generally under twenty-
eight ; awns extend about 3 inches ; when well

ripened, readily parts with the awns ; the grain is
less pointed than bere; colour a buff" yellow; in
very dry seasons, the colour has a tendency to a
bright golden tinge. Weight of grain from 50 to
56 lbs, the bushel ; average about 53 lbs. Produce
is very unequal, being more influenced by the cha-
racter of the season than any other variety ; aver-
age produce 3.2 qrs.— extreme produce 7 qrs. It
occupies a greater breadth than any of the other
varieties, mainly from its earliness, and also from
its admitting more air to the soil— thus fostering
the growth of grass seeds — these being usually
sown with the barley crop. In the best-farmed
districts, however, common barley, from its softness
of straw— thus being more liable to lodge from wet
during the period of growth, and, from sprouting
much more rapidly when the grain is in the stook
— has generally given place to Chevalier with its
sub-varieties. The weight of straw per acre sel-
dom exceeds a ton and a-half per acre— average
little over one ton.

Chevalier takes the name from the ])ropagator, a
gentleman in the south of England ; introduced
into Scotland about 1835, and rapidly came into
general favour. Experiments undertaken at its
introduction into East Lothian usually gave an
increase of produce over common barley of 0 to
8 bushels per acre, with an increased weight of
grain ])er bushel of from 1 to 2 lbs. On some farms
where the situation is not so favourable for the
growth of barley, it is stated that the yield does
not exceed that of common barley. Chevalier is
generally of a luxuriant growth; straw about 4
feet in length, pen of greater diameter and stout-
ness than the common barley, leaf broader.
Weight of straw sometimes exceeds two tons per
acre— average weight about one and a-half tons ;
readily eaten by stock, particularly by horses. The
ears resemble common barley. Number of grains
generally under thirty; gram rounder and more
plump. Sample otherwise generally superior to
common barley, especially when the grain has
been early sown, and the season favourable.
Period of ripening from eight to ten days behind
common barley, and .therefore generally sown in
March, or latest by the middle of April. Weight
of grain from 53 to 58 lbs. per bushel; GO lbs.
have been grown, but this is very exceptional. In
the best barley districts of Scotland the average
weight, when well dressed, varies from 54 to 571bs.
Produce per acre from three and a-half quarters up
to nine quarter — in one or two cases this latter
quantity has been exceeded. Thei)roduceismore uni-
form than commonbarley, besides being larger. The
variety is not suitable for late and exposed districts,
the ears being liable to break off" during storms in
harvest; when the crop is allowed to become too
ripe, the stalk is bent close to the ear, and the
weight of the ear occasionally breaks the straw.
There also exists a prejudice, especially in Carse
districts, where there is a tendency to a luxuriant
tillering and growth in the straw, that the close-
ness of the crop injures the braird of grass seeds.
In the Lothians, however, it is preferred, on ac-
count of the stiffness of straw, rendering it less
liable to lodge, and thus destroy the grass seeds.
It also withstands a wet harvest better then the

'1G6

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

other varieties ; besides, the straw of the Clievaher
is very superior. A common error on high-farmed
land where grass seeds are sown is the allowing of
too much seed. The quantity should not exceed,
for broadcast, nine pecks per aci'e. Next to com-
mon barley, Chevalier occupies the largest breadth,
and is gradually extending from the best-cultivated
districts into the most backward.

Annat hurley — selected in Perthsire in 1830 by
the late Mr. A. Gorrie. The straw is about the
same length and strength as the Chevalier, with a
tendency to a purple tinge, particularly at the
joints; grain, round and plump, like the Chevalier
— of a bright yellow colour. The weight of bushel,
with produce, similar to those of the Chevalier.
Some growers have found this variety more deli-
cate than the Chevalier, and abandoned its culti-
vation on this account. Annat barley occupies the
third place.

Western i«rZe?/— evidently a variety of the Cheva-
lier, introduced into East-Lothian shortly after the
Chevalier. It is now little cultivated.

Italian barley. — The straw long and of a bright
golden colour ; ears shorter than the Chevalier,
with the grains more compact and pointed out-
wards. This, also a two-rowed variety, yields a
large plump grain of a bright light yellow colour.
It is somewhat later than the Chevalier ; its culti-
vation has not extended, and is now much re-
stricted ; it]is generally known by the term " golden
barley." It does not succeed well in cold wet
seasons.

Silesian barley. — A variety introduced into
Leith from Silesia about 18 years ago; is in partial
cultivation in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh :

straw shorter than the Chevalier, bearing a close
resemblance to common Scotch barley, the weight
per bushel rather exceeding that of common barley ;
grain somewhat long in form ; colour a dark shade
of yellow. It is stated to be prolific, and better
adapted for late districts than the Chevalier. It
has been successfully grown at 800 or 900 feet
above the level of the sea, and yielded 8 qrs. per
acre, of good weight.

Saale barley — Introduced 18 years ago. A
beautiful clear-skinned, small-grained variety ; did
not generally answer expectation; but occasionally
fair crops have been raised.

Lincoln barley. — Introduced about 30 years
ago; was found to produce long straw, with a
fine-formed ear ; period of ripening, about fourteen
days behind common barley ; its cultivation was
dropped mainly from lateness of ripening. The
quality of the grain also appeared to deteriorate
when grown in Scotland.

Norfolk barley. — A variety of English called
white Norfolk was very much grown in some parts
of the Lothians before the introduction of Cheva-
lier; by continued cultivation itlost its distinguish-
ing characteristics, and latterly it did not push the
ear fully out of the shot-blade. It was in request
with the maltsters when first introduced.

Naked barley has been experimented with ; but
from the general dislike to this variety by maltsters,
it is now seldom met with. Two varieties have been
experimented with — one termed Siberian, the
other Nepaul. Both appear to be the same
variety, and stated to be in cultivation in the Hima-
layas, where sometimes two crops are grown in a
season. — North British Agriculturist.

THE ADVANTAGE OF AUTUMN CULTIVATION FOR ROOT CROPS.

VV^INFRITII FARMERS CLUB.

The monthly meeting of the members of this
tlub was held at the Bear Inn, "Wool, on the last
Wednesday in March, the subject being " Autumn
Cleaning of Stubbles."

Mr. Darby, of Lytchett, said he thought the
subject which he had the honour of introducing
to to their notice that evening was of the
very greatest importance. They all knew
very well that good and proper cultivation of the
land ranked the very highest, and always had
ranked the highest, of all agricultural questions.
In fact, the ancient writers told them how high it
was in tljfe estimation of the Romans. When one
of them was asked what was the first principle in
farming, he replied, " Arare" — that is, to plough ;
and when asked what was the second, his answer
was the same, " Arare." Dr. Lyon Playfair, in his
admirable essay on cultivation, in " Morton's En-
cyclop?edia," placed in a like prominent position
the proper working of the land. He states that the
main conditions of cultivation required to be ful-
filled are — first, a thorough pulverization and
drainage of the soil ; second, a progressive chemi-
cal disintegration or liberation of insoluble ingre-

dients ; and third, a renewal, by means of manure,
of those substances which have been removed from
the soil by successive crops. They would ]!erceive
that he placed good manuring last, after good
cultivation. They all knew, however, that it was
necessary for both to go hand in hand; but in a
great variety of soils, especially the richest, good
cultivation ranked higher than good manuring.
Now, the question under consideration was not, as
it would appear at the first glance, confined to the
cultivation of one single crop. They all knew that
it was to the root crop they looked for that primary
cultivation, that foundation of good farming, which
was to follow throughout the rotation. The root
crop was, in other words, the cultivation crop ; and
the success or otherwise of the whole rotation
depended upon whether the root crop was put in well
or ill — whether the work was carried out early, and
clean cultivation proceeded with, so that the crop
might be put in properly, or whether a contrary
course was pursued. Thus it would be seen that it
was the question of cultivation, as a whole, that they
had to consider. Now, they all very well knew
what the old system of preparing for root crops

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

467

had been, in times past. Far too generally the
stubbles were neglected until the wheat sowing was
finished, unless it happened to be very wet ; and
when the land was not fit for the horses to go upon
it, they were sent in to " poach," tread it down,
and plough. Then in the month of February it
was customary to cross-plough, and work the land
as they could in the spring ; and they all knew
that they could not work when they would, at that
season of the year. But after a variety of cross-
ploughing, scarifying, and harrowing, the work
was carried on somehow or other so as to get the
crop in during the month of May, or perhaps not
until June or even July. Mr. Pusey, in the Royal
Agricultural Society's Journal, gave a description
of the old system in much better terms than he
could :

" The usual method has been to let the sheep
range over the grassy stubbles in autumn, and give
the land a winter ploughing towards Christmas.
In dry, spring weather it is again ploughed to
bring the couch uppermost, drag-harrowed with
three or four horses to break the furrows, scarified
with four or five horses to bring up the long roots,
heavy rolled with three or four to squeeze the clods,
light harrowed, light rolled again, light harrowed
again, then all the hands turn out with rakes to
gather this unravelled network, heap it, and burn
it. But if the ground be really foul you have not
done yet. After a few days you see fresh blades
of grass shooting up over the bare ground, and
find the enemy still left behind, so that the plough-
ing, harrowing, roUing, raking, and burning
must begin over again — very likely be repeated a
third time."

Mr. Darby observed he did not mean to say that
a few years since it was as bad as this in every
case ; but still on heavy soils it was a very fair
description of what the old method used to be.
Now, this system had many disadvantages. As
he had said before, if the stubbles were ploughed
» when too wet, they were " poached," and the surface

did not present that presence to atmospheric agency
which they all liked to have throughout the winter,
so that the atmospheric air could get in and dis-
integrate the particles of the soil. Then again,
from the uncertainty of the weather in spring, the
after-culture was hurried in a manner it ought not
to be, and this was a very great disadvantage in
the old method of treating stubbles. From the
same cause the crop was often put in very badly,
and the land not properly cleaned ; then they found
couch grass spring up among the turnips, which
was never got rid of, and the land got fouler and
fouler, until it came to turnips again. The sowing
was likewise often thrown backward, and the crop
endangered altogether. Another great disadvan-
tage was that the weeds were left in the soil
throughout the winter, where they grew, and
robbed the land of that ammonia which ought
to be stored up for the future crops. It was now
an acknowledged axiom that if the land be properly
cultivated, it gets throughout the winter from 2
cwt. to 3 cwt. of ammonia from the atmosphere.
Then another serious disadvantage of the old
method was, that it very often interfered with the
sowing of other crops. He now came to the ques-

tion of expense. It had been proved by all who
had tried the two systems that the old way of
treating the soil was a very expensive one (Hear,
hear). Mr. Pusey, in the article which he had
quoted, gave an estimate of the expense of the
operations under the old system at £2 9s. 6d. per
acre ; but although this was stated to be on
heavy land, he (Mr. Darby) thought it a rather
exaggerated estimate. He tliought few of them
who had tried the old way of treating stubbles
would consider they had ever expended much above
£2 per acre. But that was a great expense to in-
cur in the prepararation of land for turnips ; and he
should suppose that the cost of autumn cleaning
would not be above £1 or £1 5s. per acre at the
outside. Well, these disadvantages had in many
cases led to gradual improvement. Years ago they
were felt so much that many excellent farmers wrote
on the subject, and endeavoured to prove that stub-
bles ought to Jje ploughed as soon aftei harvest as
possible ; but still after ploughing they allowed the
land to remain all the winter just as it was before,
and although it presented a better surface to the at-
mosphere, yet there were the same objections to be
made to the after-culture in spring. He now came
to the new system of autumn cultivation for root
crops. Most of them knew what it was; but still,
in order to make the opening of the subject more
complete, he supposed a short description would be
necessary. The modern system was to go over the
stubbles, where foul, with some cultivator, either
Bentall's or Coleman's, as soon after harvest as
possible : some farmers who were willing to go " the
whole hog " had actually performed this work while
the corn was on the land. They had cut the corn,
put it in " stetches," raked the hand, and commenced
this work of scarifying before the crop was carried.
Few of those present, however, commenced quite so
early as that ; but the argument in favour of the
plan wasj that while the fine weather lasted they
ought to take every fine day they could to perform
this work, and it was stated that when cutting corn
there were generally some horses thrown out of
work which ought to be thus employed. But al-
though it might not be convenient for all of them to
do this, the general practice was that it should be
done as early as possible in September. Of course
the expeuse of this new system depended upon the
foulness of the land, and whether it was of a light
or heavy character. Sometimes merely goiug over
it once would be sufficient, following after with the
harrows, then raking it up, and burning it. Indeed,
some farmers were in the habit of first going with
men to fork out the couch whexe it is not very foul,
and afterwards merely giving the land a little sur-
face scratching ; it all depended upon the state of
the stubbles. But to lay down a rule, of course
the new system meant that all the surface should be
cleaned, and the land worked as early as possible in
the autumn. Mr. John Grey_, in a discussion on
weeds at the Hexham Club, said : —

" He began, as soon as the crop was stored, or as
soon as possible, with skim-ploughing the surface,
harrowing and raking it together, and carting it off,
putting it into the fold -yard to be the nucleus of the
manure heap for next year. He then gave the land
a deep ploughing, harrowed it, and put it into drills

468

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ready for tlie manure : v/hcu the manure was put iu
lie reversed the drills, and so it lay, and nearly one-
half of his turnip laud was now in that condition,
drilled, manured, and exposed to all the changes of
the atmosphere during the winter. It came to be
found iu a mellow condition in the spring, and the
turnips were sown upon this ; whereas, if the land
required to be worked up in a damp state, he could
not make turnips of it at all : and for the few years
he had practised this he had never failed in finding
that the turnips sown upon that portion of the land
came quickest into leaf, and overcame in the shortest
period that great difficulty of rearing a good crop of
turnips — that of coming quickly to the hoe. He
ascribed it to this reason : the land upon the top of
the drill was exceedingly mellow and fine ; the
manure had been undergoing not the fermentation
which it got when thrown into great heaps, where it
dispersed its ammonia into the air, and wasted much
of its best virtues, but it underwent the slow and
quiet process of fermentation throughout the winter,
covered up with soil ; and fhey found in the spring
all the soil contiguous to the manure in a soft and
brown condition, having inhaled much of the virtue
which the manure had given off."
It would be perceived that Mr. Grey not only
cleaned his land, but actually manured it in the
autumn, thus preparing it in every way. After the
land had been cleaned, he (Mr. Darby) thought it
was advisable, from his own little experience, to
allow it to I'emaiu two or three weeks, in order that
the seeds of annuals, such as charlock, should spring
up and vegetate ; and then they ought to give the
land a very deep ploughing. He was aware that
many objected to this deep ploughing, and merely
applied the cleaning system after ; but he did not
think the work was complete on the generality of
soils without deep ploughing. As soon as the land
was rid of all surface-roots and weeds, and after
there had been time for the annuals to spring up,
he gave the land a deep ploughing, and then allowed
it to remain for the atmosphere to act upon it.
Perhaps upon some light soils it was not so desira-
ble to follow the deep ploughing, but even here it
did no harm. In fact, the report of experiments in
deep ploughing, which obtained a gold medal pre-
mium, and appears in the Farmer's Magazine, gave
reasons to show that deep ploughing even on light
land was beneficial ; and the writer stated that in an
experiment which had been made, the turnip crop
showed an excess of 4 tons 13 cwt. 3 qrs. and 21 lbs.
where the land had been trench-ploughed, over where
it had been shallowed-ploughed. He summed up
the whole question with these practical deduc-
tions : —

Pirst : That deep ploughing increases the produce
of both green and grain crops ; and this the reporter
states not only from what these experiments point
to, but from having grown green crops, after trench-
ploughing, on 180 acres, and grain crops on 135
acres of land, with uniform success.

Second : That trench-ploughing tendings to firm
or consolidate light land. This is stated from the
fact, that on walking across the stubble-field the
writer felt the shallow-ploughed land more loose
than the trench-ploughed land ; and this is also sup-
ported by the fact already stated, viz., that the crop

on the shallow-ploughed land had a greater lean- over
than the other, while the quantity of grain was less ;
showing that, however forced, it is impossible on
weak light land to grow very large crops without
deep cultivation, as the mechanical texture of the
surface cannot support beyond a certain quantity.
Mr. Darby continued to observe that in the aggre-
gate of soils they might say there was nothing like
deep cultivation in autumn, if the weather was dry
aud the surface well cleaned. Now they were in a
position to consider the advantages of the new sys-
tem. All the disadvantages of the old system were
done away with by the autumn- cleaning of the stub-
bles ; the soil was exposed to the action of the frosts
during winter, the couch and other weeds were re-
moved, and all that came into the soil was reserved
there as a store for future crops, and the danger of
late cropping was avoided. When the land was
thus ploughed up, it merely required the scarifying
across it in the month of March to kill the annuals
and other weeds that had grown upon the surface,
and it would be fit for the crop to be put in. Then ■'

the injury done to the land by "poaching" and
pulUng it about when it was in an unfit state was
entirely obviated. Another important point was
the fact that the expense was materially lightened
when the system was followed up from year to year ;
the stubbles got so clean that they scarcely wanted
any scarifying after harvest at all. Instead of this,
many farmers in Norfolk were in the habit of send-
ing out their men, and they could actually fork out
the couch grass for Is. per acre. This showed how >

clean the stubbles were likely to become when the 1

system was carried out for any length of time. One
of the primary advantages of following the autumnal
cultivation was, that the land was left in a most
favourable state during the winter for the mechanical
action of the atmosphere, and when they wanted to
go to it in spring they found it in a beautiful " tilth,"
Nature having done for them what they could not
have done half so well themselves. Also, when the
land had been cultivated in this way, it took from <"
the atmosphere a great quantity of manure. It was
quite a new discoveiy that the soil did actually take
manure from the air ; and it was asserted that the
quantity of carbonate of ammonia which fell from
the atmosphere and entered into the soil was equal
to 2 cwt. of guano, when the land was in a fit state
to receive it ; but when it was not, it did not enter
into the soil, or was fed on by the weeds. Some
chemists maintained that it did not come from the
carbonate of ammonia in the atmosphere, but from
the air itself, which had an inexhaustible quantity of
nitrogen iu its composition, being as much as four-
fifths of the whole ; and they said that when the
crude matters in the soil were turned up, and the
air allowed to enter into the interstices, the latter
was actually decomposed, the oxygen flying off and
the nitrogen being preserved ; so that if this be the
case, there was no limit to the quantity of ammonia
that might be drawn from the atmosphere in the
shape of nitrogen, if the proper conditions were car-
ried out. Professor Balfour, in his "Manual of
Botany," says —

" Mielder maintains that the ammonia is not car-
ried down from the atmosphere, but is produced in
the soil by the combination between the nitrogen of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

469

the ail' auJ the liydrogeu of decomposing- matters.
The same thiug takes place as iu tiie natural salt-
petre caverns of Ceylon, with the exception that by
the subsequent action of oxygen, ulmic, humic, geic,
apocrenic, and crenic acids are formed, instead of
nitric acid. These acids consists of carbon, oxygen,
and hydrogen, in different proportions ; and they
form soluble salts with ammonia. By all porous
substances, like the soil, ammonia is produced, pro-
vided they be moist and filled with atmospheric air,
and are exposed to a certain temperature. It is
thus, he states, that moist charcoal and humic be-
come impregnated with ammonia."
Mr. Darby said he had never seen this view very
prominently brought before the public. English
chemists, in giving reasons why the land did take
so very much from the atmosphere, were, he thought,
too ready to fall back upon the old theory, that
there was a little carbonate of ammonia iu the air,
which was washed down by the rain. Eut it ap-
peared to him that the former theory was the cor-
rect one. They all knew that the air was filled v/ith
manure — at least, with nitrogen ; and it had now
been proved by the B.ev. Mr. Smith, who followed
the Lois Weedon system, that land of the character
he farmed might be kept in good condition, and
grow corn crops without the addition of a particle
of manure. During an experience of twelve years
Mr. Smith had fonud his crops progress rather than
retrogress. The system had been tried at other
places, but had not answered so well as on Mr.
Smith's farm ; but it was considered to be satisfac-
torily proved that, if the land was prepared in a cer-
tain manner, it would get a large quantity of ma-
nure from the ammoaia in the atmosphere. Professor
Way had paid great attention to the capability of cer-
tain soils to attract and retain ammonia, and he had
discovered that this varied according to the nature
of the soil. In numerous and varied experiments
Professor Way has shown that, where a comparatively
weak solution of caustic ammonia is passed through
a considerable quantity of soil, it invariably loses
the ammonia, although previous to filtration it exhi-
bited decidedly the peculiar odour of that volatile
alkali. When, however, stronger solutions of am-
monia were filtered through soil, or when the pro-
portion of the latter was greatly diminished, only a
portion of the ammonia was absorbed, and the re-
mainder passed through the soil with the water.
Still more impottant than the facts respecting the
rapid absorption of free alkalies by soils, is the ob-
servation made by the same indefatigable philoso-
pher— that all cultivated soils possess likewise the
power of separating the ammonia from its combina-
tions with various acids. If, for instance, a solution
of sulphate of ammonia of moderate strength is
passed through a filter-bed of soil five to eight
inches deep, it will be found that the ammonia alone
of the sulphate of ammonia is retained, and the sul-
phuric acid with which the volatile alkali is com-
bined will then be found passing through with the
water— generally, though not always, in combination
with lime. 1,000 grains of a light red soil from
Mr. Pusey's estate absorbed 1,570 grains of am-
monia, 1,000 grains from the Dorset Downs
absorbed 3,438 grains, 1,000 grains from the white
plastic clay absorbed 2/847 grains, 1,000 grains of

subsoil clay, red with oxide of iron, absorbed
818 grains. Mr. Darby continued to observe that
they found, from Professor Way's experiments,
that the capabilities of different soils to absorb am-
monia were very differen'fc, and this would account
for the advantages Mr. Smith derived from the Lois
Weedon system, it not having been experienced in
other cases. There was yet another advantage
arising from autumn cultivation. Many, he sup-
posed all of them, were to a certain extent in the
habit of sowing spring feed for sheep, such as rye
or early vetches. When this was done, it would be
very much better to sow the rye or vetches into
barley lands where the stubble had been cleaned than
where they were foul. Then, if the laud was cleaned
in this way, it was not impracticable to have a seed-
bed of plants, such as cabbage or kohl-rabi, or even
rape plants, to plant out in the early part of Sep-
tember, after the land had been surface -rid iu the
manner described. He recollected an instance, when
he was a boy, in Somersetshire, of a farmer, who was
rather more euterprizing than his neighbours, grow-
ing rape plants on one side of a field, and as he cut
the corn he ploughed the land and put the rape
plants in the furrows, and he had a very excellent
crop. It had been observed by Mr. Phippard, at their
annual meeting, that it was the custom iu some
places to sow stubble turnips. Now, if they were to
sow kohl-rabi, or cabbage, or rape plants, it was
not impracticable on a small scale to have a nice bit of
feed for the month of May, where they had had a
good corn crop cut in August. In fact, when they
got in the habit of adopting and carrying out this
system, it would create quite a revolution in agri-
culture, and they might be led to follow the Belgian
plan of raising plants in seed-beds, and planting
them out after the corn had been harvested. There
were many obstacles in the way of its adoption on
a larger scale, as autumn cultivation on extensive
farms required a great deal of horse- strength, and
it was not every one who had the power to carry
it out as he could wish. The fine weather was
very short, and when they thought they were
going to clean and work well, the wet weather
might come on, and they could not do half what
they intended. This had induced some gentlemen
to commence before the corn was carted off the
land ; and it was worth while considering whether
or not it was practicable to do so. But they all
knew very well that in harvest time it was very
busy work, and if they wished to do it they had
to attend to the primary thing first— namely, cut-
ting and harvesting the corn. Probably, however,
before many years there would be a remedy for
this in the steam plough, which was being brought
to such perfection that they might anticipate seeing
it in operation upon most of our large farms before
long, and then there would be no difficulty in
carrying out the system of autumnal cleaning of
the stubbles during the fine weather. However,
the experience of the Norfolk gentlemen, to whom
he had alluded, showed that the main obstacles
had only to be encountered at the commencement
of the system, and that, after a time, it was far
less difficult to do the work (Hear, hear). It had
often been said that agriculture, to become perfect,
must approximate to garden culture; and what

470

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

could tend to raise it to that pitch more than the
adoption of the system which, as soon as the corn
is removed, rids the land of weeds, and prepares it
to be a store-house of the fertilizing principles
obtained through the atmospheric agency for the
use of succeeding crops ? In his opinion nothing
was calculated to produce that desideratum, the
causing of agriculture to approach to garden
culture, more than this system, if deep cultivation
be carried out with it. There was another ques-
tion, which was that of late they had found it quite
essential to pay moie attention than hitherto to the
cultivation of the turnip crops. It was quite cer-
tain that turnips were more difficult to grow than
had been the case, and some Cassandras amongst
them had predicted that the turnip crop would fail
in the same manner as the potatoes had. That
formed an additional reason why they should pay
more attention to their culture, and hasten on the
work in the early part of the autumn ; for all
allowed that when done in dry weather the land
really got into a better state, and that there was
more chance of a good crop being realized than
by the old system (Hear, hear). Then again,
owing to the frequent failures in the turnip crops of
late, the generality of farmers were turning attention
to the mangold crops ; and where this was done,
it was quite necessary autumn cultivation should
be carried out. Mangold required to be put in
much earlier than turnips; and on large farms,
and small ones also, it was difficult, if not im-
possible, to cultivate them without pursuing the
new system. Therefore the aspect of the times
was, as it were, forcing them to adopt autumnal
cultivation for root ci-ops. He was satisfied that
the more this system was carried out, the more cer-
tain would root culture become — they would make
more sure of their crops, and get a larger weight
per acre ; in consequence of that^ a larger number
of sheep and cattle would be kept on the land ; and
it would tend to the almost total eradication of
couch-grass and other weeds. Thus by fostering
clean and good cultivation the system of autumnal
cultivation would tend more than anything else to
accelerate agricultural progress.

Mr. Randall, after complimenting Mr. Darby
on the able manner in which he had introduced
the subject, said he should like to know whether
he considered ploughing-in the stubble was any
advantage to the land. The new system that had
been recommended was to rake the stubble to-
gether and take it off. Now, for his own part he
was of opinion that the stubble was of great
advantage to mix up with the soil. This year he
had been trying a somewhat new system : he had
raftered over the ' stubble, then used a Bentall,
and afterwards ploughed it down. He believed it
would be rotted in the soil;, which would be bene-
fited thereby.

. Mr. Longman thought it would do very well
where the land was clean.

Mr. Saunders quite agreed with Mr. Darby
that autumn cleaning was the foundation of good
farming. In the first place it allowed them to have
a green crop for sheep in the following spring,
whereas otherwise they would have nothing but
fallow to work upon at that season of the year.

Many of them, however, drove out the autumn
cleaning too late ; and he thought there should be
I^aid quite as much attention to this as to harvest-
ing. He certainly had never gone " the whole hog"
and got between the " stetches," neither had he
got so close after them as he ought to have done.
He endeavoured to cut and carry his foulest piece
first, where he thought it required considerable
autumn cleaning, and then go in with oxen directly
afterwards. He had got two of Bentall's because
the season would scarcely allow him to do suffi-
cient work with one. For autumn cleaning the
corn ought to be cut as close as possible, because
where there was so much stubble it was more diffi-
cult to work and get the couch out. He quite
coincided with Mr. Darby that it would not cost
half so much to keep a farm clean as to keep it
foul. He worked the Bentall as soon after harvest
as possible, dressed the land about till the weeds,
&c., v.'ere dead, and then ploughed it down ; and
it did not" require ploughing, but once after-
wards, if the land was in a tolerably clean state.
He did not think it advisable to let it stay about
till the seedh of the annuals came up, as it was in
the fall of the year that they shed their seeds. He
had seldom got very little land but what he put to
green crop at the fall. He had, however, ten or a
dozen acres of fallow last year — which he had not
had for many years before ; and he found he was
out of pocket by that fallow, as the succeeding
crop was much less than where he had grown the
green crop. While mutton was t^^- per lb. it paid
better than wheat at £10 or £1 1 a load ; therefore
he thought they ought to do as much as possi-
ble to cultivate the land in autumn, so as to
grow spring food for the sheep. Where they
had a great quantity of stubble he recommended
that they should make a sort of rick of it, ob-
serving that he was very glad of it for bedding.
He was not for burying any straw, as he could
scarcely get enough to bed his animals ; and he
thought they could make more of it than by burn-
ing it into ashes. He also thought that, if the
land was ploughed deep, it must be after it was
thoroughly cleaned, otherwise they would have the
couch under the plough next time ; neither did he
think they should plough the manure in too deep.
In reference to another point, he observed that he
did not think a man could look into a piece of land
closely enough to take out every bit of couch, for
Is. an acre. It was the small bits that they
wanted to take out, so as to destroy the family;
and he was in the habit of paying half-a-crown per
acre. In conclusion, he made a few remarks on
the advisability of not laying down fallows too
plain, as they gained more benefit from the atmo-
sphere when rough.

Mr. Jackson said, where he had had winter
oats which he intended to bring to vetches, he had
Bentalled between the " hoyles," and cleaned the
land, before he had carted the corn. He thought
it highly important that they should endeavour to
get the plough in the land directly after the crop
was off, if not before : he always endeavoured to
keep two ploughs going during harvest. There
was one advantage attending autumn cultivation
Mr. Darby had forgotten to mention, which was

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

471

that, when tlie couch, or whatever it might be, was
got out in the fall, it did not leave any food for the
grub, wireworm, &c, or at least tended to starve
these innocent creatures out. He agreed wiih Mr.
Randall that, if the stubble were ploughed in, it
was beneficial to the land, provided it was quite
clean ; but he thought they would be paying very
dear for the use of the stubble, if it was ploughed
in full of weeds. Instead of burying it, he usually
adopted the system of carting it into heaps, to
make useful manure.

Mr. Fowler thought it was an open question
whether the land really did take up so much am-
monia from the atmosphere as theoretical men
would make them believe. He recollected some
years ago there was a sort of paper war between
the Rev. Mr. Huxtable and the farmers generally,
about growing wheat at 5s. a bushel, and mutton
at 4d. a pound. (A voice: " No, no — not 4d.")
Mr. Huxtable drew comparisons about the amount
of ammonia that was required to be used in the

^ land to produce a certain quantity of wheat; and

he also said the land naturally produced a certain
quantity of wheat itself, without the use of that
ammonia. Liebig, to contrav^ert that, in his work
on Agricultural Chemistry, said it was quite useless
to apply ammonia to the land, because the air itself
would supply it, without artificial application; and
he illustrated it by asking how forests and woods
were produced without the use of ammonia? Now,
he did not mean to say Liebig was wrong in all

I his theoretical views ; but he appeared to have

forgotten that the air supplied ammonia to the
shrubs and trees by its being taken up by the
leaves ; and these leaves, falling in autumn, sup-
phed ammonia to the land. He thought it was a
question whether theoretical men were not at fault
in stating that the air supplied a certain quantity
of ammonia to the land, or whether, by deep culti-
vation, the air did not rid the soil of certain putrid
fluids, and render it in a better state to take up the

iw manures which were applied to it.

^ Mr. R. Damen was of opinion that, generally

speaking, there was no surplus labour to carry out
the autumn system as it should be; but if they
would make a little sacrifice, by putting on a few
oxen and men for the purpose, it would pay very
well, because, as had been said before, when once
the work was begun, in the course of three or four
years it would be much less ; but it would be ne-
cessary to make some sacrifice at the time of har-
vest. Now, although they could not go on so fast
as Mr. Jackson, and get between the " stetches,"
he felt sure much might be done even in small
ways to begin v.'ith. The oxen on a farm were not
useful in carting corn, and in some cases were not
employed at all dining harvest ; and if they could
be kept on ploughing and scarifying, and doing
what was necessary, with a few hands, he believed
it would be very valuable to the farm,er, and con-
dacive to the most beneficial results.

Mr. Clarke could not fall in with the views
expressed respecting their getting in between the
" stetches," because at that time of the year they
had enough to do to remove them once, instead of
t^vice; but as soon as they were removed, he
thought it very essential to apply Bentall's scari-

fier, the stubbles being cut close. He obtained
one last year; but, unfortunately, it came rather too
late. Still, he had the advantage of one week of
fine weather; and he was only sorry he had not had
it three weeks earlier. If he had, he could have
made the land as clean as any garden- ground. He
put the scarifier right across the ridges, and moved
eveiy bit of it. The drags were put in behind;
and then, after that, he went over it with a light
roller, harrowed it, and got it in such a state that,
if he had thought proper, he could have ploughed
every bit of it in, without raking it into heaps and
burning it. They had all got their ov/n favourite
plan ; but he liked burning, because he did not
relish seeing so much of this couch about. Few
could say they had not any couch on their farm ;
and where the land was not properly drained, he
hardly thought it possible to avoid having some.
With respect to employing oxen during the harvest,
he always found it difficult enough to get men to
perform the harvest-work.

Mr. Jackson hoped they would not think he
intended to advocate going between the stetches
right through the harvest, Whei'e he had done
so was, where he had cut winter oats or rye, and
when not in the thick of the harvest.

The Chairman proposed a vote of thanks to
Mr. Darby for the able manner in which he had
brought forward the subject.

Mr. Saunders briefly seconded the proposition ;
and it was carried with acclamation.

Mr. Darry, in returning thanks, expressed the
gratification afibrded him to find his observations
had been received so favourably ; for, although he
was convinced there were not two opinions in the
minds of good farmers as to the benefit of autumn
cultivation, yet the subject embraced a vast variety
of matters in which there must be difiPerence of
opinion. Some had light land, while others had
heavy land, which would cause a diflference in car-
rying out the details. Some land required to be
" raftered" before the scarifier was put across it;
but in light land it was quite as well to use the
implement before being "raftered." He quite
agreed with Mr. Randall that, where there was no
twitch-grass, no couch, it was quite as well to pro-
ceed to deep ploughing, or to the ploughing they
wanted, as to use a scarifier. The use of that im-
plement was to clean the land ; and if it were clean
already, they could dispense with it. When the
land was comparatively clean, men with forks
would do the work; and Mr. Acland, in his Essay
on the Farming of Somersetshire, stated that Mr.
Hudson, of Castleacre, paid Is. per acre for having
the work done; but on the generality of farms, he
(Mr. Darby) thought 2s. 6d. was the average
price. He was much obliged to Mr. Jackson for
having called his attention to one advantage of
autumn cleaning — the removal of food for the grub
and wireworm during the winter, which he had
omitted to comment upon. With regard to Mr.
Fowler's objection to the ammonia theory, accord-
ing to which the land took nitrogen from the air,
and converted it into ammonia, they must recollect
that this was not all theory— that actually theory
came after practice. It was a fact that our scien-
tific men were not aware that such was the case,

472

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

until the experiments of Mr. Smith, on the Lois-
Weedon system, drew their attention to the cir-
cumstance. It was a generally-received fact that
the soil did take up ammonia from the air; and the
only difference of opinion was as to the quantity.
He was sorry that Mr. Fowler had left the room
before he made these remarks. With respect to
burning the stubble and couch, or taking it away,
he did not dogmatize on that point ; for he was
aware that some were in the habit of burning it,
while others made use of it in different ways ; and
during the last autumn, he himself had taken it
into the yard, leaving it as a bed for the manure,
and also mixing it up with dung, in heaps, to
decay. After again returning thanks for the eulo-
giums that had been passed upon him, Mr. Darby
submitted the following resolution :

" That the more general adoption of autumn
culture for the root-crop is highly desirable ; that,
in comparatively clean stubble, the couch grass
may be forked out with manual labour, and in all
other cases the land should be scarified or surface-
worked as soon after harvest as possible, and the
whole of the refuse either raked off for future use,
burnt, or, if wholly killed, allowed to remain, as
might be deemed desirable ; and that afterwards,
where the land is not sown to a green crop for
feeding off in the succeeding spring, it should in
the generality of cases be deeply ploughed, and
remain in that state during the winter."

This resolution having been carried Vi'ithout a
dissentient, the formal proceedings of the evening
were brought to a closs.

DISTILLATION FROM BEET ROOTS AT THE RUDDINGTON DISTILLERY.

For some time past the subject of distillation of
neutral spirit from beet roots has occupied the at-
tention of many of our most eminent agriculturists.
The invention of the system is of French origin,
and the practice has been and continues to be suc-
cessfully carried on across the channel. At first
its introduction into this "country was strongly
opposed by existing interests, and prejudice con-
tinues strong against it, especially in the minds of
those who enjoy a lucrative monopoly. But a
spirit of progress animates many of our leading
agriculturists, which is not to be resisted, and, after
the most urgent representations, the Government
were induced to relax their prohibitive policy so
far as to permit twelve stills to be established in
the United Kingdom. Among those who have
taken a most lively interest in the matter. Sir T.
Parkyns, of Ruddington, near Nottingham, is
fairly entitled to rank among the foremost. One
of the first to avail himself of the permissive in-
dulgence of the Government, he entered into an
arrangement with Messrs. W. Dray and Co. for a
complete apparatus for the object he had in view,
and being determined to spare no pains or expense
to ensure the complete success of the undertaking,
he engaged the services of M. Crolard, an eminent
French distiller by the new system. This dis-
tillery has now been in operation about a month,
and a few days ago we had the pleasure of in-
specting the premises and witnessing the process,
the details of which the respected and spirited
proprietor explained.

The distillery occupies a favourable position on
the farm on the outskirts of the pleasantly situated
village of Ruddington, and the buildings have a
very neat and compact appearance. They consist
of a rectangular block, comprising the distillery
proper, and the Receiving and Bonded Ware-
houses, the latter being kept under Government
lock-and-key by an officer of excise, who has an
office adjoining. The distillery is about 80 feet in
length by 40 feet in width, and has a spacious and
lofty appearance. Here we have the machinery
for the entire process, from the washing of the

roots to the production of the spirit ; and our ob-
ject is now briefly to describe its appearance. On
entering the distillery by a pair of large sliding
doors at the east end of the building, the first object
which attracts attention is an upright steam engine
of six-horse power, with a cylindrical boiler of
most compact appearance. To the right of the
engine are placed the washing and cutting
machines, both of which are propelled by steam.
The former of these has the appearance of a large
wooden trough, stands about five feet high, and is
some nine feet in length by 2 ft. 6 in. or 3 feet in
breadth. In this trough or cistern is placed a re-
volving washing or brushing apparatus, which
effectually cleanses all dirt from the roots as they
pass through from one end, into which they are
thrown by a boy, to the other, from which they are
delivered by the action of the machine. The roots
vary in size, probably from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7 pounds
each, and if kept constantly at work the machine
will wash about twenty tons per day. The cutting
machine is of small size, and equally simple in
construction with that for washing, and it is also
worked by steam power. As the roots come from
the washer they are thrown into the cutter by a
boy, and from there are reduced into thin slices.
The cutting machine is calculated to keep pace, as
regards quantity of work, with the washer. In fol-
lowing the order of the process of distillation, the
next objects of interest are the fermenting vats.
These are twelve in number, each capable of hold-
ing 200 gallons, and they are arranged round the
opposite end of the building. On the first prepa-
ration of these vats they are filled about two-thirds
full of water, which is heated by steam to some
120 degrees. A quantity of sulphuric acid is
added, and the heat is then allowed to subside to
about 84 degrees, when the sliced roots are put in
to undergo the process of fermentation which is
induced by yeast. While that is going on the
" still-proper" attracts one's attention. To a per-
son perfectly unacquainted with such matters this
seems to be an exceedingly complex affair, and the
process of distillation is certainly most delicate

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

472

and difficult. In the first place there are five iron
cylinders, each being connected with the steam
boiler by a pipe for the purpose of obtaining a
supply of steam, and again by means of another
pipe a passage is formed by which the spirit passes
into the rectifying boiler, a circular iron con-
struction which stands about six feet high, and is
probably from four to five feet in diameter. It is
divided into two equal compartments, connected
by means of brass pipes with stop taps. From
the top of this boiler rises a formidable looking
column, known as the rectifier, throup;h which
three brass pipes pass backwards and forwards
from side to side, rising gradually to the top. From
the upper plates of the apparatus the spirit is ob-
tained at from 60 to 70 degrees over proof — the
best running off at about the thirteenth plate from
the top. The discharge is made through a glass
case, which is kept locked by the excise officer,
and from hence the spirit passes into the receiver.
But to return to the process. We left the sliced

) roots undergoing fermentation in the capacious

vats. When they have been sufficiently acted upon
by the acid, they are taken out by means of nets
fixed on the ends of long poles, and placed in one
or other of the iron cyhnders before alluded to.
Here they are exposed to the action of steam, which
drives the spirit in vapour through the connecting
pipes into the upper compartment of the boiler, in
which it is condensed. It is then allowed to pass
into the lower compartment, in which, by means
of steam, it is again converted into vapour and

' rises up through the plates in the column resting

on the top of the boiler, and being condensed in a
worm tube it is delivered at the safe as above de-
scribed. The water left in the lower part of the
adjoining cylinder is then drawn off, the refuse
roots removed, and the process repeated. Alto-
gether the number of men and boys employed in
the distillery is 28 — 14 in the day and a like num-
ber during the night, as it is absolutely necessary

^ to keep the work constantly going on. M. Leplay,
a Frenchman, is the inventor of the system.

Having described the process we now come to
look at the undertaking in a commercial and agri-
cultural point of view. The establishment of such
a concern in a small place like Ruddington is an
event of the greatest importance, notwithstanding
the number of hands employed being, compara-
tively speaking, small. The erection of the pre-
mises has been going on during the late season of
depressed trade, and many of the poor stocking
weavers of the village have found temporary em-
ployment in connection therewith as labourers,
v/hich has enabled them to avert the hard alterna-
tive of applying for parochial aid. The constant
employment of some twenty-eight hands will also
add materially to the resources of the villagers.
We say constant employment, because, though
the process of distillation will only be carried on
during the winter m.onths, the hands will in summer
take the place on the farm of the extraneous
labourers which at that season every farmer has
always to employ. The effect will be to increase the
settled and permanent population of the parish, and
ensure to that increase a continuance of the labour
necessary for earning a comfortable sustenance.

As a commercial speculation we think the
spirited proprietor of the undertaking has every
reason to be sanguine of the most complete success
crowning his efforts. The spirit produced is, as a
general rule, from 60 to 70 degrees over proof, and
is considered by our townsman, Mr. Parr, chymist,
to be equal to any description already in use for all
pharmaceutical and chemical purposes. We un-
derstand that Mr. Parr is now engaged in con-
ducting a series of experiments with the spirit, the
result of which will be made known as soon as
completed. The cheapness at which the spirit can
be produced will operate as an inducement to con-
sumers to use it as extensively as possible, and
there can be little doubt that so soon as the merits
of the spirit become generally known there will be
aunivei'sal and continually increasing demand. At
present, we are informed that the production of
spirit at this distillery is at the rate of some 12 or
14 gallons from a ton of roots, and M. Crolard,
the manager, speaking from experience, says that
when the works are thoroughly completed and in
good working-order he will be able to produce 20
gallons per ton. Calculating the expenditure on a
hberal scale, and estimating the roots to cost 1 8s.
per ton, the sale of the spirit at 2s. to 2s. 6d. per
gallon, proof, according to quality, will not only
cover cost of production, but leave a small margin
of profit, even supposing the residue of the roots
to be of no value, which, however, is far from being
the case, as we shall have occasion to show. The
quantity of roots used will average from 15 to 18
tons per day, and the season for distillation ex-
tending over about seven months in the year, the
quantity used annually will exceed 3,000 tons, so
that the distillery will form a very important addi-
tion to the demand for the agricultural produce of
the district. The quantity of spirit produced from
the above quantity of roots will not be less, at a
moderate computation, than 50,000 gallons.

But in calculating the prospective profits or
losses of such an undertaking, we must not over-
look the residue of the roots after the sugar has
been extracted and converted into spirit. For the
fattening of cattle this residue is held by some
parties to be as valuable as the roots themselves.
So far as experience goes it would appear to sup-
port even this extreme view ; but at any rate the
value at present put upon this residue is some 12s.
per ton. When used along with barley flour, from
hinder ends, worth about 25s. per quarter, or bean
flour and cut chaff, the cattle feed upon it with
amazing rapidity. The quantity of barley floui-
given is about fibs, per day, valued at S^d. On
Wednesday, the 24th ult., three fine beasts fed in
this way were exhibited in the Nottingham market,
where they attracted much attention, and were
quickly bought up at good prices. We are assured
that cattle fed with this residue are ready for the
market in nearly one-third less time than those
treated in the usual way, which in itself is a very
important consideration to a farmer. At present
Sir Thomas Parkyns has nearly 100 head of cattle
being fed on the residue of distilled roots, so that
in a short time their precise value will be placed
beyond a doubt. One peculiar property of this
residue ought not to be overlooked. While the

474

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

roots themselves lose their nutritive properties by-
being kept over the season, however carefully cared
for, the residue may be kept for two or three years
without losing any of its value. This prevents any
loss being sustained by an agricultural distiller from
fluctuations in the demand for the residue. In
case demand should at any time fail to keep pace
v>'ith the supply, the residue has only to be stored
in pits, when a crust forms on the outside, and the
whole mass becomes, as it were, hermetically

sealed. In this state it will keep a long time with-
out sustaining any sensible decrease of nutritive
value.

We think sufficient has now been said to excite
an interest in the minds of our agricultural readers
in the success of so spirited an undertaking, but
on some future occasion we may revert to the re-
sults which have attended the cultivation and dis-
tillation of beet roots in France,— Nottingham
Guardian.

THE QUALITIES CONSTITUTING A GOOD POTATO.

Many varieties of potatoes, hke new seedling
grapes, are being constantly brought before the
public. No sooner does one variety get advertised
and sold, than another, stated to possess far supe-
rior qualities, pops into the market. All seem
anxious alike for these fine new varieties, even at
the expense of discarding some well-known old
favourite. Just so with the potato : fresh-named,
if not new varieties, are advertised weekly. We
have no knowledge where they came from, or who
was the fortunate raiser of these said varieties ; in
fact, we have no guara,ntee at all as to whether they
are really genuine ; and, should we be so unfor-
tunate as to buy the same variety of potato under
two or three different nam.es, to whom are we to
apply for redress ? Of course we could not apply
to the salesman, for he would tell us that he bought
them for so-and-so ; but who the right raisers of
these varieties are, it would puzzle a conjuror to
find out.

I must admit that it is not the case with new
varieties of grapes ; for we generally have the whole
history given, with the raiser's name and address,
from what variety raised, where and when exhibited,
with its good qualities, &c.

This is precisely \vhat we wish those who adver-
tised new or fresh varieties of potatoes to do. Such
a method would show good faith, and protect us
from buying so many duplicates. At present it
frequently happens when a person has a favourite
variety of potato, and does not know its name, that
he christens it himself, and gives it away to his
friends with this new name attached to it. Again,
if he should tell his friends that he does not know
the name, it is more than likely that they will call
it by the giver's name, such as " Mr. So-and-So's
Kidney."

A miller in this part of the country had some
fine kidney potatoes, of which he did not know the
name : and when he distributed them they were
christened Miller's Kidney j and this variety is a
great favourite round our neighbourhood, but is
no other than the old Midsummer Kidney. So,
the Champion Kidney is identical with the Albion;
yet both have different raisers' names.

There are, also, many varieties now in cultiva-
tion that are known only by their names ; their
origin was never made public. Many new varie-
ties that have found their way into the market are
entirely worthless ; and many old varieties of really
good value have either been discarded for new
ones, or have been entirely lost through bad
management or neglect. It is a well-known fact
that some varieties that are of first-rate quality

when grown in some parts of the country, are
entirely worthless when grown in other parts, and
to this fact we should all pay great attention. For
instance, how very different are some of the pota-
toes grown in Lancashire to what they are in this
neighbourhood ! In the former they boil like a
ball of flouf, in the latter they are like a ball of wax ;
but I think it must be admitted that more potatoes
are condemned through bad cooking than from any
other cause. The more waxy the potato, the more
salt will be required for the water to boil them in.

In raising new varieties the following points are
indispensable, and none but those that have such
merits described below should be submitted for
sale to the public ; for it is far more important to
the public at large to have a first-class potato than
a first-class grape offex-ed to them. Potatoes are
food for millions, while the grape is only a luxury
for the rich.

A good potato should be in size moderate; shape
regular— that is, free from deep eyes, warts, and
crooks ; skin roughish ; when boiled, entireness,
dryness, and firmness ; agreeable taste, earliness,
productiveness, short haulm, freedom from dis-
ease, and long keeping.

A large potato is frequently hollow, and cannot
be conveniently cocked, and is also liable to be
badly boiled. A warty or deep-eyed one suffers <
waste in peeling ; a smooth-skinned one is gene-
rally more waxy than a rough one; a bursting one,
in boiling water, suffers loss ; a firm and dry one
is mealy; an early ripening one is less liable to be
attacked by disease ; and productiveness is requi-
site to make the crops profitable. Short-haulmed
varieties can be planted closer together than long-
haulmed ; freedom from disease is the great point
we wish to acquire, and can certainly only be at-
tained by peculiar methods of cultivation ; lastly, a
good keeping variety that retains its flavour is indis-
pensable, for the sake of affording its supplies up
to the period of Midsummer.

The history of those varieties which are generally
favourites now in cultivation would, I am sure, be
highly appreciated by your readers ; and I trust
that your correspondents that are in possession of
the history of any well-known variety will kindly
communicate it through these valuable columns.
Let us reason together, and see if we cannot come
to some good understanding on this one neglected
point. I promise to lend all the aid in my power,
having grown over one hundred so-called varieties
within the last four years. — Edward Bennett,
Gardener to Sir O. P. Wakeman, Bart., Perdiswell
Hall, Worcester, in " Cottage Gardener."

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

475

T,HE LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB.
THE REARING AND DISEASES OF LAMBS,

The usual monthly meeting of the Club took place on
Monday evening, May 3, at the Club House, Blackfriars.

The subject for discussion, assigned for introduction
to Mr. J. Marshall, of Riseholme, Lincolnshire, was
thus stated on the card : — '' The breeding, rearing, and
management of lambs, as a successful means of pro-
viding against pleuro-pneumonia and consumption.''

The chair was taken by Mr. Owen, of Clapton ; and
among the other gentlemen present were — Messrs.
Owen Wallis, J. Tyler. H. Trethewy, J. A. Williams,
E. Little, C. T. James, J. B. Spearing, J.,T. Davy, J.
Paull, — Paul!, junr., Shaw, J. H. Pocock, J. Russell,
L. A. Coussranker, F. Dyball, R. Cobb, J. Cressingham,
E. Purser, R. Marsh, C. J. Brickwell, G. S. Harrison,
T. Fordham, E. H. Bentall, J. G. King, J. Odams, R.
B. Hammond, S. Skelton, Owen, junr.; C Howard, F.
Withes.

The Chairman in introducing the subject character-
ized the sheep as the best friend the farmer has. He
also spoke to the ability and experience of Mr. Marshall
as especially qualifying him to introduce such a question
to the members of the Club.

Mr. Marshall said ; Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
having been requested by the committee at the annual
meeting of this Club to propose a subject for discussion
at one of our monthly gatherings, I ventured to do so
in the earnest expectation that some member whose ex-
perience and opinion as a flock-master might have
entitled him to greater consideration would have under-
taken the task of explaining the cause, or, perhaps,
- rather of suggesting a successful means of guarding
against pleuro-pneumonia and consumption in the breed-
ing, rearing, and management of lambs. I am inclined
to approach this most vexatious subject with the greatest
diffidence from a knowledge of the many difSculties by
which it is at all times unavoidably surrounded. I know
of nothing more perplexing, or more productive of
anxiety in the mind of a Lincolnshire sheep-breeder,
than the ordinary management of his flock, upon a light
turnip land farm, during the months of July, August,
and September, where it is all arable, or where he has
only a small portion of poor weak grass land intermixed ;
his reliance for its support being placed entirely on the
prospect of a good or bad crop of seeds, as a part and
parcel of his usual four-fir-Kl course of husbandry. I
will suppose a farm of 500 acres, containing one-fifth
of inftrior old grass land, and four-tlfths of arable dry
turnip land, upon which a flock of 400 ewes would, I
presume, be kept. One hundred acres of this would,
according to the ordinary four-field system, be sown
down with seeds, 80 acres for feeding-, with 20 lbs.
per acre of white clover, trefoil, ribgrass, and parsley
seeds ; and a very f-mall portion (say about a peck per
acre) of any kind of common or dwarf ryegrass, in

short with any kind of ryegrass rather than Italian — a
plant I have been compelled, from sheer necessity,
to .discontinue growing to any extent, from the fearful
destruction it year by year occasions to the succeeding
crop of wheat : it is, in fact, on the thin dry soils of
Lincolnshire, positive destruction to it ; therefore as a
grass for the purposes of alternate husbandry it has
been, and I think deservedly so, well nigh altogether
exploded; and unless the lands intended for autumn
sowing can be ploughed some weeks before putting in
the wheat, which should not be deferred beyond the
middle of October, no security for a crop after Italian
ryegrass can be reasonably calculated upon. The re-
maining 20 acres will be sown down with 20 lbs. per
acre of red clover or cow-grass, for mowing and making
into hay for the cart horses, and subsequent eddish for
the lambs afcer they are weaned. Out of a flock of
400 ewes, it mostly happens that from loss in lambing,
and from other causes incidental to a breeding flock, not
more than 350 to 360 return to their pastures with
lambs by their sides; and if 100 of these are fortunate
enough to rear two lambs each, it is as many as may be
reasonably looked for. There will then be 250 single
lambs and 100 pairs to be provided for upon 80 acres
of feeding seeds, and 100 acres of old grass land of
indifferent quality ; 35 acres of the best planted seeds
will be stocked with the 100 pairs at the rate of about
three ewes and six lambs, or in all nine ewes and lambs
per acre. These are allowed half-a-pound to a pound of
the best feeding rapecake, or a mixture of two-thirds
rape and one-third linseed cake per ewe ; or if
preference be given to corn, either a pint of oats,
barley, peas, or beans, with a small addition of cut hay,
clover, or malt-culm, as circumstances and the growth of
the pasture may suggest. The remaining 45 acres of
seeds will, if tolerably well planted, carry four ewes and
single lambs per acre, with or without the foregoing ad-
dition of cake or corn, as seasons and the abundance or
otherwise of keeping may seem to demand. The remaining
70 ewes and lambs will be grazed on 35 acres (at the
rate of 2 per acre) of the old grass land ; 50 acres of
which will also carry (at the rate of 3 per acre) 150 of
the best she-hoggetts, kept back for the purpose of re-
storing the breeding flock to its original number at
Michaelmas. The remaining 15 acres are put into mea-
dow for hay. The whole of the flock are regularly sup-
plied with water, and if they have no pond or running
stream to avail themselves of, they must be provided
with watcr-trouglis set about the fields for that purpose,
and these should never on any account be permitted to
be quite empty. I believe, in hot weather, sheep well
supplied with water require a great deal less food, and
are more comfortable and healthy, than in those locali-
ties where this desirable luxury is beyond their reach.

476

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

The summer-fed sei-ds in each cf the preceding cases
will always be eaten down extremely close ; indeed, in a
dry summer, it would to a casual observer appear as if
they had little or nothing to live upon j yet this appa-
rent scarcity may be relieved by means of the addition
of the artificial food to which I have before alluded, and
which I think may be always profitably employed in all
cases of heavy stocking. In speaking of rapecake, I
allude to cake made from rapeseed only ; and I have
generally found that an addition of linseedcake — say an
equal portion of each — might be profitably used after the
1st of July, as about that time the lambs begin to eat a
little, and it is very important to get them to do so at
the earliest possible period, in order to prepare them for
weaning, which generally takes place between the 20th
and 30th of the same month. It is at this time that the
difficulty commences against which we have so conti-
nually to contend. I will suppose the weaning to be
concluded by the 25th of July, by, as far as it can be
done, removing the ewes from the lambs for a few days,
until the laUer become fairly settled, and return to their
troughs. They are then to be taken from the summer-
fed seeds, and regularly laid out over the whole of the
100 acres of old grass land and clover eddish, which will
be by this time ready to receive them, in something like
the following proportions : — 150 of the weakest and
worst hirnbs upon the clover eddish, and the 300 upon
the old pasture, the whole receiving ;|-lb. of linseedcake
per day, with a few oats, bran, and malt-culm; or, in
short, with any dry artificial food they may incline to
eat best, in addition to a few cabbages, four or five acres
of which should invariably be grown for this especia.
purpose. The early York variety, sown in seed-beds in
August, and transplanted early in October on well-
manured ridges, will be quite ready for eating by the 1st
of August, and is by far the best green fool given them
on grass land, till the 10th of September. They may
then be turned upon the early turnips, which, by good
maupgement, they soon learn to eatj after which, in the
ordinary course of events, no further difficulty or danger
ii to be apprehended. There are cases, however, in
which good management and the greatest assiduity and
attention seem to be altogether of little or no avail. I
have seen large flocks of lambs, apparently healthy and
iall of vigour when taken from the ewes, in three to six
weeks afterwards the most miserable-looking animals
i aaginable ; and in a month later, perhaps, one-fourth
(C them dead, or reduced to a state of wretchedness
which no nursing, however careful, can ever over-
came. The malady to which I am now about to allude,
pnd which for the sake of distinction I will call con-
Eumption (leaving pleuro -pneumonia, which is alto-
t'ither another and a separate disease, entirely out
of the question), is a most insidious, and so far it has
ru>peared to be an incurable disorder. In what manner
or at what precise period it is engendered, is at present
a matter involved in mystery. So long as the lambs are
dependent upon the ewes for their support, they appear
to go on well enough, and look healthy and flourishing ;
hut as soon as they are deprived of that support, and the
Iceeping upon which they are put does not quite agree

with them, they are attacked with this formidable
disease, and die by hundreds. IVIr. Jekyll, of Lincoln,
a person of great eminence as a veterinary surgeon, and
in extCEsive practice, has favQured me with the following
remarks upon this subject : — '• The earliest symptom
which I have observed has been diarrhoea for one, two,
or three days, very soon after which a cough commences,
and in a short time becomes very troublesome. The
lamb partially loses its appetite ; a large quantity of
green frothy mucous is constantly discharged from the
nose ; the cough begins to be very distressing ; low and
debilitating fever sets in, with a complete loss of appe-
tite, great debility and emaciation, under which, and
the irritation of the now all but constant cough, the
lamb sinks and dies. On making a post mortem ex-
amination, the first thing which attracted my attention
was the very pale and wasted condition of the muscular
structures, while a considerable amount of fat remained;
the stomach and intestines were pale, and contained very
little food, with water, mucus, and fcetid gases; the liver
was discoloured, and a little softer than natural; the
heart was pale, but otherwise quite healthy ; the lungs
abijut their natural size, but marked with singular
patches on their surface, while some parts of them
appeared natural and healthy. On cutting into the
lungs while yet warm, a great number of filaria, small
thread-like worms, struggled out of the bronchial tubes,
mostly from those parts of the lungs which were in-
flamed. When I opened the larger bronchial tubes and
the trachea, I found a great number of these intruders
moving about with as much rapidity and ease as the size
of their strange prison-house would allow : their cease-
less vermicular motions appeared exactly calculated to
produce great irritation, fever, incessant cough and con-
tinuous discharge. As a cure I have tried the internal
exhibition of small doses of turpentine with cold gruel,
but without success. I have also made them inhale
chlorine gas ; and the few on which I experimented re-
covered, but it was late in the season, and I think it
likely they would have recovered without this. I in-
tend, however, to make a further trial of this remedy ;
but while a ready means of cure is of importance to us,
the cause and a preventive are of much greater. The his-
tory and stages through which these pests pass, and
how they enter animal bodies, would very much aid us ;
but I fear all this is wrapt in a shroud of mystery so
deep that science must labour long and perseveringly
before she can bring forth the naked facts for the benefit
of man. I have observed this affection in all sorts of
seasons and on every variety of land, and under every
system of management in this large sheep-breeding
district." In closing my remarks on this occasion I
must be permitted to observe, that however inconclusive
and necessarily imperfect in many respects the paper I
have had the pleasure to read to you may be considered,
its distribution into those districts where the subject of
this evening's discussion may be better and more ex-
tensively understood, may lead to an investigation of the
circumstances and causes of this most mysterious
disease, and prove eventually the means of discovering
preventive remedies, if not of curative appliances for it.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

477

Much may be done by carefully watching its rise and
progress during the summer months. Whether the
animalculse supposed to produce the evil be really
viviparous or oviparous is a question which can only be
cleared up and settled by experiments hereafter, to be
conducted by persons skilled in that department of
science, and especially by those possessing a comprehen-
sive knowledge of entomology. Gentlemen, I beg most
sincerely to thank you for the kind and patient attention
with which you have done me the favour to listen to my
long and tedious, though, I hope, not altogether un-
interesting address. My own research has hitherto, I
am bound to confess, proved unsuccessful. May that of
others succeed better. May their labours receive a
brighter reward, and their inquiries be unobstructed by
any of those impediments over which we have no control,
and that have so far baffled the combined efforts of
modern investigation,

Mr. J. W. Paull (Ilmlnster, Somersetshire) said, as a
flockmaster, he felt deeply interested in this subject, hav-
ing suffered very considerably from the malady referred to
by Mr. Marshall, on his farm in the West of England.
Mr. Marshall had told them that he finished weaning his
ewes as late as July. In the West of England they got
the greater part of their lambs not later than January,
and they were all off the dams by April. They were,
therefore, obliged to have recourse, to a considerable
extent, to artificial means of feeding ; they were obliged
to put their lambs on the best food they could command,
for the purpose of supporting them during the cold
backward springs. He had, as he had already intimated,
been most unfortunate as regarded his lambs. They
were seized with a cough, accompanied with a great dis-
charge from the mouth ; and when they were dissected
the pipes of the lungs were found to be fall of small
worms. How the worms got there he had never been
able to find out. The only means of providing against
fg the evil, that he had discovered, was not to allow the
lambs to go upon old pastures. In a backward spring
they were obliged to resort to young grasses and tares.
His own county appeared to be much more forward than
Lincolnshire. The only preventive to the disease, which
he had been able to find out, was to change them on
pastures which had been fed by beasts the previous year.
(Hear, hear). That had sometimes produced a consi-
derable effect. Still he had been a great sufferer from
this malady, and he had come to London almost on
purpose to hear whether Mr. Marshall could suggest
any effectual remedy.

Capt. Davy (South Molton) had suffered very much
from the malady in question, which in his part of the
country was called the scour. He had lost an immense
per-centage of his lambs. They were dropped chiefly
in January and February, and weaned before the end of
May. By the end of June numbers of them were taken
with a scouring, and a discharge from the nose, and
they were soon dead. The best preventive was to
remove the lambs to what was termed in Devonshire
the after-grass, that was, the grass which came after
mowing. He believed one of the causes of this disease
was that many persons breed their animals of too

delicate constitutions, with too small necks and legs of
m.uttons. If our sheep were of more hardy constitutions
they would not suffer so much. As long as lambs lived
on their mother's milk (nature's best food, and most
easily assimilated by young animals) they did very well ;
but when they had to shift for themselves, their delicate
systems were unable to digest their food and absorb its
ingredients. A disordered stomach was the first result ;
disease followed, and ultimately death.

Mr, Paull agreed with Captain Davy that it was the
after-grass, as well as the change of feeding, that they
must look to for relief.

Mr. O. Wallis (Overstone Grange, Northampton-
shire), said in this case they ought to be careful lest they
should confound cause and effect. He believed that the
worms which had been spoken of as generated in the lambs
were the result of previous feeding (Hear, hear). The
case resembled that of the discovery of flukes in the
livers of rotten sheep. He was inclined to attribute the
evil in a great degree to the over-stocking which seemed
to prevail in certain districts. The result of this was
that the sheep had to search so near the soil for their
food that they took up something that was pernicious
to the system ; disease was generated, a parasite was
formed, and that parasite was probably the worm which
had been described by Mr, Marshall in his able paper.
When he first commenced farming he had only an arable
farm ; and having no means of changing the food of his
stock, he used to lose a very large proportion. It was
not at all uncommon for him then to lose a hundred
sheep a year on a farm of 400 acres. Under these cir-
cumstances he felt that he must either relinquish the
breeding of sheep or get some grazing land. He
adopted the latter plan. In feeding his sheep he changed
from seeds to pasture, and back again from pasture to
seeds ; and the consequence was that where he formerly
lost a hundred sheep he now lost about ten. He con-
sidered it essential that there should be a change of
pastures, especially w'vh regard to sheep. He also held
it to be very important not to let sheep graze very closely.
Moreover, sheep should be fed with young bullocks or neat-
stock : they got on much better together than separately
(Hear, hear). He was also of opinion that if two
years' seeds were adopted instead of the four-course
system, farmers would be enabled to keep a larger
amount of stock, and grow a greater quantity of corn
at a less proportionate cost than was incurred at pre-
sent. Where there was not a sufficient mixture of pas-
ture and arable land, if there were two years' seeds to
fall back upon, the malady which appeared to be so pre-
valent would perhaps, to a great extent, be avoided.
At all events, he believed the chief preventive was
change, whatever the change might be.

Mr. Little (Landhill, Chippenham) would say a
few words with regard to the management of lambs by
the flockmasters of Wiltshire. He agreed with Mr.
Wallis and Mr, Paull, that change of food was what must
be chiefly relied upon as a preventive of disease among
sheep. On the sheep-breeding farms of Wiltshire there
was no rich pasturage to be found, Tiiere they knew
nothing of the disease which had been described by Mr.

KK 2

478

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Marshall, aad lie was inclined to the opinioa th.it lliiit
disease was in a great measure generated by the rich p is-
tures of Lincolnshire. In his county the lambs usually
fell in the month of February and March, and after
remaining in a |heltered fold till strong enough to stand
the weather, th?y returned to the field to the Swedes or
turnips ; and after weaning, which took place generally
in May or June, the great point with the Wiltshire
farmer is to have ready as many changes of food as pos-
sible for tlieir lambs ; and some farmers in the county
(those who produced the best lambs) gave them four or
five changes in the day. On the Wiltshire hill farms a
large quantity of sainfoin was sown, and he believed that
was tlie best preventive for what was termed "scour"
or diarrhoei. Whenever they had disease among their
lambs, they naturally turned to sainfoin as the best
remedy. He did not know that he could add anything
furtlier that woald throw any light upon the subject.
He knew nothing of the malady in question, but, in
his opinion, the best remedy would be found in a
change of food, and in the use of sainfoin, where it could
be grown.

Mr. Williams (Baydon, Huagerford) said this
subject was one of the greatest importance to farmers
generally. When cattle or horses were attacked with
disease, the evil might generally bo met by having re-
course to the veterinary surgeon ; but sheep appeared to
be beyond the aid of the veterinary surgeon and of
science, and previous speakers had alluded to the immense
loss which they had themselves sustainad, apparently
without the power of helping themselves, in their flocks.
Coming from the same county as Mr. Little, he could
corroborate what had fallen from him, in reference to
the absence of the disease in question in that part of the
country. In fact, they knew nothing of it from their
own experience; it was a malady which was, happily,
quite foreign to them. At the same time they were
subject to another disease, of a most awful character — a
disease which was almost as ruinous as that which had
been described by a gentleman from the North. He
happened to have travelled to London that day with
their Chairman and with Mr. King, and the latter gen-
tleman told him, if he remembered rightly, that he had
lost forty lambs within a week ; and another gentleman
named Pike, who was also present, said he had lost fifty
in the same space of time.

Mr. King— Within a fortnight.

Mr. Williams— Well, this difference was not very ma-
terial. Now the disease from which their losses occurred
was, as he had already intimated, quite distinct from that
described by Mr. Marshall. It differed from the disease
in Lincolnshire in this respect, that it depended on the
ewe. Hencethey had a remedy; but then the remedy was,
in this, as in many other cases, worse than the disease. The
remedy was to wean the lambs ; but the effect of this
was that, while they saved the lamb from the scour they
injured it in other respects. The question for discussion
as stated on the card referred to pleuro-pneumonia and
consumption. Now in the case of the disease in his dig-
trict there were no symptoms observable over night,
and they sometimes found three or four of their lambs

dead in the morning. If that was consumpuon, it was
certainly very rapid consumption. He had often known
a full-grown s'.ieep to go off in the same way. When
the fhepherd left the fold at night, there was apparently
nothing at all wrong : when he went ia the morning the
sheep was dead. It was a curious fact that in these
cases death appeared generally to take place about four
o'clock in the morning ; and how the disease was to be
accounted for he could not pretend to say, but it was
most important that something should be done, if pos-
sible, to discover a remedy. Their Chairman bad told
him that he had lost as many as seventy fat lambs within
a week. There were three partial remedies to which
he would for a moment allude. The first was that to
which he had already referred, namely, the early weaning
of the lamb, which of course generally had the effect of
spoiling it. He had himself resorted to this remedy ;
and after losi ig ten lambs a night, he had stopped that
species of loss by weaning the remaining lambs at once.
Another remedy was to counteract the disease in the ewe
by feeding the lambs on something that would act
as an antidote ; and he found one of the best things
was to let the lambs feed on a crop of wheat. As in all
probability a great deal of this year's wheat would be
lost through excessive luxuriance-, and as wheat now
fetched so lo^ a price ia the market, this remedy
appeared to him deserving of special attention. Mr.
Little had spoken of the great advantage of feeding on
sainfoin. Now that was almost a specific against disease ;
he had scarcely ever known it fail to arrest this fearful
disease in a flock of sheep.

Mr. Wallis wished to know whether the lambs in
Wiltshire suffered from scour before they died so sud-
denly ?

Mr. Williams said there was not the slightest ap-
proach to scour, although it was called so. The most
pratical farmer, in looking at his flock over night,
would be unable to discover any symptom of disease ;
in the morning the animal was dead, and a little mucus
was found to have escaped. The case was evidently one
of rapid inflammation.

Mr. Wallis had understood Mr. Williams to speak
of sainfoin as a certain remedy for scour.

Mr. Williams said they called it scour, but they
never saw the scour till death ; it always came away
with the life of the animal.

Mr. J. G. King (Beedon, Newbury) said : Having
lost a great number of lambs within the last fortnight,
he had hoped that some gentleman present would have
been able to tell him how he ought to treat his lambs.
One mode of treatment had been suggested which he had
himself adopted, and which certainly had not proved a
preventive. He had allowed a flock of lambs this season
to run over two or three fields of wheat, and the result
was that he had lost more of those lambs than of the
lambs which had been shut in.

The Rev. C. T. James said the subject of the treatment
of lambs was essentially connected with that of the condi-
tion of the ewe. No child could ever be reared well if the
mother from whom it obtained nourishment was at the
time of aff'ording it in bad condition. There was one point

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

479

to which he was particularly anxious to direct attention.
They all knew that this had been a great year for Iambs,
the number of couples being very great. Now his own
experience went to show that where there was a couple
of lambs there was much more disease and liability to
death than where there was a single lamb. He had ob-
served that the teats of ewes which had two lambs got
into sucli a state, thit their appearance resembled that
of smallpox in the human being, and that this was not
the case where there was only one lamb. He thought a
great deal of harm was done by the excessive interference
of many shepherds in the way of manipulation with re-
gard to the ewes. It would in most cases be far better
to leave nature to herself.

The Chairman said he had very little to add to what
they had already heard. Mr. Marshall had given them
a very excellent paper, but the disease to which he re-
ferred must be a very different one from that which pre-
vailed in his own locality. Mr. Wallis spoke of low
feeding as one cause of disease ; now he always considered
sheep highest fed were most subject to be attacked
(Hear, hear). He thought that the state of the blood
had a great deal to do with the matter. As intimated
by Mr. Williams, he had lost a great many lambs from
disease. He lost as many as seventy in one field
in fourteen days. His losses generally occurred at quite
a different period from that mentioned by Mr. Marshall ;
they occurred when the lambs were from six to twelve
weeks old. He quite agreed with Mr. Williams that
the food of the mother was the great source of the dis-
ease and that the only means of avoiding it therefore
was to wean them early. The lambs that died were all
taken off in the same way. He never saw one recover
after being affected. The chief symptoms were a slight
foaming at the mouth and a nodding of the head as if
the animal were feeding. His sheep had not escaped ;
he had something like 200 sheep feeding in yards at that
moment, and he had lost fourteen of the flock since he
put them there. He agreed with Mr, James with
regard to the great loss which was generally sustained
where double couples. He had lost from thirty to
forty lambs that were twins ; and, as regarded his
ewes, while on the one hand he had lost upwards of
thirty ewes that brought two lambs, he had lost only
two ewes that brought a single lamb. In February the
twins came very thick, and the ewes being short of milk
he had recourse to cow's milk to make up the deficiency.
The lambs (being all double couples) continually suck-
ing, and from the sharp and cold east winds, the ewes'
udders became sore, and the lambs had bad mouths, so
much so their lips were three times as thick as they
should be, and the teeth projected in front. He used
alum and treacle, but was obliged to call in veterinary
surgeon who pronounced it small-pox. It certainly had
every appearance of small-pox, the udders being in spots,
all sores and a scab. They were put by themselves in
warm yards, dosed and ointment applied till cured.

Mr, Marshall then replied. There appeared, he
observed, to be the greatest difference between the system
of managing lambs adopted in the West of England and
that adopted in his own part of the country. He did
not at all agree with Mr, Wallis that over-stocking was

the cause of his losses. Last year, when he lost the
greatest quantity of lambs that he ever lost in his life,
his pastures were exceedingly good. As regarded the
changing which was suggested, he took it for granted
that if they had a quantity of sheep that were doing
badly a change must be desirable. In Lincolnshire,
however, they never changed the sheep which were de-
pastured upon seeds. When they were taken out of
the lamb-yard they were put upon a field of seeds, and
were never taken out of it till they were weaned. As
regarded the quality of the grazinglandof North Lincoln-
shire, he must say it was naturally almost as poor
as any on earth. He concurred in what had been said with
respect to the value of sainfoin. lie had himself a field of
sainfoin, and he never saw his sheep do better than they
did on that. Whenever any of them were attacked
with diarrhoea he put them on sainfoin, and they were
cured within a week. It was to be regretted that no
gentleman Lad given them the result of a post mortem
examination of any of the lambs that had died in Berk-
shire or the West of England. Mr. Williams had made
some interesting remarks as to the symptoms of the
disease in his own locality, but he had not said anything
which tended to show what the disease arose from. As
to the diseased udJers, of which Mr. James had spoken,
having himself long suffered from that cause, he could
assure hira that the evil was not confined to ewes that
had pairs of lambs (Hear, hear). He had seen that
malady among his flock as many as fifteen or twenty
times this year, and it prevailed quite as much among
sheep that had only one lamb as among those that had
two lambs. He never observed any difference in that
respect. There was a very good cure for that malady —
an ointment which was sold in a market town of Lin-
colnshire. If that ointment were applied to those parts
of the udder which were cracked, the application was
sure to effect a cure within two or three days.

The Rev. C. T. James : Can you give the name of
that ointment ?

Mr. Marshall named Mr. Cartwright, of Horn-
castle, as the only druggist from which the ointment
could be procured.

Mr. Williams (Baydon) wished to be allowed to
make one observation in reference to what had fallen
from Mr. Marshall about a post mortem examination.
He thought that was a matter which had been too long
neglected ; and he was convinced that if some deadlambs
— say five or six from different farms — were sent to the
Veterinary Professor of the Royal_ Agricultural Society for
examination, he would with great pleasure do what was
required,

Mr. Corbet observed that the Professor had asked
for them over and over again.

Mr. Williams trusted, then, that something would
soon be done in the matter (Hear, hear). All he could
say on the subject was that the disease was an exceed-
ingly rapid one. When the shepherd left the flock in
the evening, the animals appeared quite well ; the next
morning they were dead. On cutting some of them
open, he had found the bowels void of food, and in a high
state of inflammation. All the smaller bowels of the
animal were filled with a nasty-looking fluid, as red as

480

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

blood. He thought they were all greatly to blame for
not having taken proper steps to ascertain the cause of
the disease, as that might have led to the discovery of a
remedy.

Mr. Wallis said, he appeared to have been misun-
derstood both by Mr. Marshall and by the Chairman.
They appeared to have supposed that he advocated
uxuriant pasturage. Now he did nothing of the kind.
What he contended was, that they should not keep so
many sheep per acre on the land, but that they should
Lave a given number of cattle with the sheep, in order
that the two together might keep down the pasturage.
He never saw good management where the pasturage
was rank.

Mr. Trethewy moved a vote of thanks to Mr.
Marshall for bis excellent introduction.

The Rev. C. T. James in seconding the motion said,
he believed the reason why there were not more flock-
masters present, was that it happened that several of the
great sheep fairs were being held at that time.

The motion was then put and carried unanimously.

On the motion of Mr. Little, seconded by Mr.
Marshall, thanks were also voted to the Chairman,
and with this the proceedings terminated.

IRISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS,

We give the following Tables from a return which
has just been presented to both Houses of Parliament,
by the Registrar General for Ireland. There are other
valuable Statistical Tables contained in the series, but
we think those we have selected will be found most in-
structive and interesting : —

Table of the Acreage undek Ckops, the Esti-
mated Average Produce per Statute Acre, and
the Total Produce of Ireland in 1856 and 1857.

Wheat.... .. 1856 .

„ ...... 1857 .

Oats.. , 1856 .

„ 1857 .

Barley 1856 ..

1857 .,

Bere 1856 .

„ 1857 o

Rye ........ 1856 .,

„ 1857 .,

Beans & Peas 1856 .,
1857 .,

Potatoes . .. 1856 ,.
... 1857 ..

Turnips 18156 ..

1857 ..

Mang. Wurz. 1856 .,

1857 ..

Cabbage., .. 1856 .

.... 1857 ..

Flax 1856 .

„ 1857 .

Hay 1856 .

:, 1857 ..

Extent
of
Crop.

Statute
Acres.

529050
559646

2037437
1980934

182796

211288

6554

6026

13337
15348

16034
13586

1101704
1146647 ,

351451

S50047
22071
21449
27968
30011

106311

97721

1302787
1369S92

Averaf^e
Produce

per
Statute
Acre.

Barrels,
20 Btoaes.

.. 5-2 ..
.. 50 .,

Brls., 14 St.

.. 7-3 ..
.. 7-2 ..

Brls., 16 St.

.. 7-5 ..
.. 7 3 ..

'.'. 7-3 '.'.

Brls., 20 St.

.. 5-4 ..
.. 52 ..

Bush., 8 gals.

.. 270 ..
.. 25 9 ..

Brls., 20 St.

.. 31-9 ..
.. 24.5 ..

Tons.

.. 12-9 ..

.. 12'5 ..

.. 130 ..

.. 13-9 ..

.. 11-9 ..

.. 109 ..

Stones, 14 lb.
..28 3 ..

.. 23-7 ..

Tons.

.. 1-9 ..
.. ]-9 .,

Estimated

Total
Produce.

Quarters.

1629963

1662957

9236869

8895347

757536

848783

32773

28553

44520
49252

53945
44046

Brls., 20 St.

35268345
28074751

Tons.

4581172
4360197
287838
298515
332650
327875

St., 141b.

S0U6553
2315980

Tons.

2492732
2566644

Total Extent unuee Crops.

Years. Statute acres

1856 5753547

1857 5859117

The following changes in the extent and produce of
the Crops, between 1856 and 1857, according to the
foregoing Table, were as under —

Wheat
Oats ...
Barley
Bere ...
Rye ...

Increase or De-
crease in the
Extent under

Crops in 1857-

Increase or De-
crease in the
Total Produce
in 1847.

Acres.

30596

281921
201l!

De-

56503
528

Potatoes j 41943

Turnips —

Mangel Wurzel) — \

Cabbage 1 2043;

Hay I 67105

I !

Flax I —

Qrs.

32994

91247

or De-
crease in the
Average Yield per
Acre in ,1857.

In-
crease.

—

4732

—

Tons.

Tons.

—

—

899199

4404

—

220975

6221 10677

—

4775

— ! 73912

—

St.,14Ib.

8590

4316

De-
crease,
avs.

341522
4220

— -9

De-
crease.
Barrels.

■2
•1
•2

•4
•2

Tons.

7-4

10

St., 141b.

I 4-6

The Agricultural Statistics of Scotland for
1857 having been published, the following is a com-
parative statement of the Acreage, in statute measure,
and of the produce, in quarters, of the principal crops
grown in Ireland and Scotland in that year : —

Wheat

Barley

Oats

Bere

Beans and Peas

Turnips

Potatoes

Ireland, 1857.

Scotland, 1857.

Acres. ' Quarters.

5596'i6 1662957

211288 848783

1980934 8895347

6026 28553

13586 j 44046

I Tons.

350047 14360197
1146647 3509344

2231 52i

1983871

938613i

21607i

428734

4766911
139819

Quarters.

769373

820554

4093845

83972

129720

Tons.

6690109
430468

The comparative yield per acre of the principal
Crops in Ireland and Scotland for 1857 was as under —

Produce, per Statute
Acre, by Weight.

Produce,

per Statute

Acre, by

MEA3DRE.

Crots.

Ireland.

Scotland.

Ireland.

Scotland.

Barrels. Barrels.

Bushels.

Bushels.

Wheat (brls. of 20st:)

5'0 1 5-8

23-8

! 276

Barley(brlB. of 16st.)

7-3 75

321

' 331

Data (brls. of 14 st.)

7-2 7-0

359

3i-9

Bere (brls. of 16 st.)

73 60

37-9

31-9

Beans and Peas

Tons. Tons.

25-9

^ 24 2

Turnips (in toEs)

12'5 140

—

—

Potatoes (in tons) ...

306 3 08

—

—

TiiE i^'ARMER-S MAGAZINE.

LSI

COLLECTIONS OF PRODUCE AND ANIMAL FOOD.—THE KENSINGTON MUSEUM.

We have from time to time drawn attention to the
various efforts making to develop tlie industrial pro-
ducts and also the economic uses of plants and
animals. Every step in this direction, proper!;/ carried
out, is calculated to be of eminent benefit in a national
point of view, in diffusing sound practical information,
and in developing that kind of knowledge which tends
greatly to promote the more extended application of
known products, as well as the introduction and experi-
mentalizing on or trial of new ones. In the metropolis
we have already three important collections, all rapidly
increasini;-, and which, even in their present condition,
are highly useful for study and investigation.

The Museum of Economic Botany at Kew, under the
able superintendence of Sir W. Hooker, has already at-
tained to an eminent position for amount and variety.
The new museum building has given greater space for
the display of specimens ; but is already full, and
proves how rapidly any such collections grow, when
once commenced. The distance, however, shuts it out
from ready access for reference by the merchant, the
broker, manufacturer, or cultivator. Moreover, the
strictly scientific classification into botanical groups,
families, and orders, renders it difficult for any but a
well-informed botanist to find out and compare plants
and products of a similar character. Thus, any one
interested specially in gums, fibres, woods, or food-
products has to wander over very many rooms and
examine scrupulously dozens of cases to obtain the in-
formation he is in search of.

Another diversified trade collection has been formed
by the Crystal Palace Company in one of the upper
galleries of the building at Sydenham. But the visit n-s
seem to be totally unaware of it, and its isohstion and
remoteness draw few to the inspection.

The East India Company's new Museum is another
step in the same useful direction. The Directors have
collected from the length and breadth of their vast terri-
tories samples of everything that is commercially use-
ful, whether of merely local use in the East or forming
articles of trade. And certainly, amid the glitter and
gorgeous splendour of Eastern jewellery shown, the
raw products in the galleries form by far the most
important feature for careful study and inspection.

The Royal Agricultural Society of England has
taken no step towards forming any collection of agri-
cultui'al joroduce, indigenous or foreign. In this it is
at least behind the French, American, and other similar
societies. The cultivation, manufacture, and prepa-
ration of the ingredients for our daily bread are among
the most important investigations which can occupy
attention.

The interest which may be given to a scientific
investigation of the most ordinai-y matters of every-

day life is shown by the popular disquisitions into
the " Chemistry of Common Life," by the late Pro-
fessor Johnston. A consideration of this matter hao
doubtless induced Dr. Lyon Playfair to add a food
department to tlie trade gallery of the South Kensing-
ton Museum, which already, under his indefatigable
scientific supervision, has grown to voy respectab'G
proportions, and bids fair, as a whole, to form one of
the most interesting and nationally useful features cf
that branch of tlie Science and Art department. It will
form a model well deserving imitation in the provinces
and in other countries. The arrangement and classi-
fication adopted are, first the collection and display of
the principal articles of animal food as far as these can
be shown ; next the cereals, including all the leading-
varieties grown here or elsewhere, and the products
obtained from them. The collection is particularly
interesting in the samples of maize, millets, rice, and
other grains, not much seen in this country. There
is also a very large and fine collection of leguminous
grains and pulse, including the chief varieties of lentils
and lupins, chick peas, and so on. The root?, tubers,
and bulbs, botanically arranged, follow next in order,
succeeded by the vegetables of which the slalk, leaves, or
top are eaten. We then pass on to the fruits cultivated
in this country or imported, and the fruit products.
Another group is devoted to the esculent flowerless
plants, a division of which too little is known;
such as the mushroom tribe, lichens, and algee, very
many of which serve as portions of food in different
countries. The sugars, starches, gums, and vegetable
extracts, form another very important division, full of
instructive information by means of descriptive labels
and printed particulars, although several of these are
only yet in the course of arrangement. The vegetable
fats and oils, essential or solid, used in coiif. ctionary
and for alimentary purposes, come next, and are fol-
lowed by a fine collection of condiments, spices, and
aromatic flavouring herbs. The substances used for
making warm infusions or beverages follow, and
are illustrated by diagrams of the plants producing
them, by all the commercial varieties, and by chemical
analyses. A curious feature in the collection is the
various narcotics, masticatories, and intoxicating drugs
used in different countries, showing the depraved taste
for stimulants, which, in one form or other, seems
universally to prevail. And, lastly, we have the dif-
ferent fermented liquors — the beers, the brandies, the
wines, and other prepared drinks.

One of the most important features for study in the
food section is the chemical analysis of each particular
article, whether grain, pulse, root, or leaf, used ior
dietetic purposes. Those even who have no general
knowledge of chemistry can here gain a popular and
correct idea of the nutritious and useful parts of food;

482

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

and learn something of the lieat-giving and flesh-
forming components; and tlius coiniirehend why particu-
lar kind of food have been used from time immemorial
by particular nations. The proportions of fat, gum,
sugar, and starch, and of mineral substances and fibre
in each, are here specially shown in their due propor-
tions in a given amount ; and are therefore more easily
understood and impressed on the mind by the eye than
through the mass of per-centa-e figures and symbolical
characters usually given in works on chemistry.
We have been able to give but a bare enumeration of

the nature of the collection. This is as yet in an incom-
plete state, owing to the time required in obtaining
and arranging specimens, and analN zing products, as
well as from the fittings not being yet complete. But
we shall return to the subject when the collection is in a
more advanced state. The ideas, plans, and develop-
ment are highly creditable to Di-. Playfair's comprehen-
sive genius; and while these will prove of great public
importance in diffusing useful information, they will
also add to his ah-eady we'1-cstablished reputation as
an eminent chemist.

ORIGIN OF THE DUCHESS FAMILY.

SiK, — I believe I can supply some facts respecting
the origin of the first cow recorded in the Duchess pedi-
gree, alluded to by your correspondent Dunelmensis,
in his interesting letter cf the 19th, which not being
generally known, may interest your readers. Your
correspondent says : " We are not aware whether the
cow by Mr. J. Brown's red bull was purchased or bred
by him. (I imagine from the context that your cor-
respondent here alludes to Mr. Colling.) Assuming the
former to bo the case, which we believe, she belongs
to the class of cows having pedigrees when he bought
her; though of whom he did so, we are also ignorant."

I have in my possession a catalogue of a sale ofshort-
horns, belonging to Mr. George Vail, of Troy, U. S.,
to which, in addition to the usual particulars, that gen-
tleman enters into details respecting the mode in which
he first acquired the originals which he imported from
England. These were Duke of Wellington, roan bull,
bred by F. Batts, Esq., by Short Tail (2621), dam
Oxford premium cow, &c. ; and Duchcs, white heifer,
also bred by Mr. Bates, got by Duke of Northumberland
(1940), dam Nonsuch the i.'econd, by Belvidere
(1700), &c. He then ap[)enus the following interest-
ing account of the origin of the Duchess family, which,
as will be seen, purports to be given by iVIr. Bates him-
self. Mr. Bates bases the superiority of his shortho'n
cattle upon the merits of what he terms his " Duchess
tribe," and in his communicjition to the publishers of
his premium bull, Duke of Northumberland, he re-
marks, " The whole of this family of shorthorns are
alone in my possession, having purchased my original
cow of this tribe, of the late Charles Colling,
Esq., of Ketton, near Darlington, thirty-five
years ago. They had been in the possession of Mr.
Colling twenty years, who purchased his original
cow of the agent of the late Duke of Northumberland,
and called her Duchess (which is the reason I have
named the bull after that family), as they are justly en-
titled to be held in commemoration for having pos-
sessed a tribe of cattle which Mr. C. Colling repeatedly
assured me was the best he ever had, or ever saw and
that he never was able to improve upon her, althouo-h
put to his best bulls ; and I have undoubted informa-
tion from the best authority for saying that this tribe
of Shorthorns were in the possession of the ancestors of

the present Duke for two centuries ; and that Sir Hugh
Smythson, the grandfather of the present Duke, kept
up the celebrity of this tribe of cattle by paying the
utmost attention to their breeding, and that he used
regularly to weigh his cattle, and the food they ate, so
as to ascertain the improvement they made in propor-
tion to the food they consumed."

Respecting the authenticity of the foregoing, I need
only remark that the name of Mr. Vail, appended to
the entire document from which it is extracted, appears
to be a sufficient guarantee. The date of the handbill
is May 14th, 1849.

The Duchess family would thus appear to have been
bred with care at a period considerably antecedent to
that usua'ly assigned as the origin of the improved
Shorthorns. More is known of its origin than is the
case with most others, even of the most celebrated
originals of the race. We also find that Mr. Colling
expressed a high opinion of this family at a period long
antecedent to that of their being crossed with Belvidere.
Indeed, the very considerable price which Mr. Bates
paid for the Duchess which he bought at Mr. Colling's
sale, affords a strong presumption that she can have
been no ordinary heifer. Of course, in speaking of
events which occurred long before my own recollection,
I am dependent upon the evidence of others. Subject to
this proviso, tlien, I may state that I have it upon the
authority of one who well knew the Duchesses in
early days, that as a family they always possessed the
high quality which characterises them at the present
day. My informant, however, adds that the cross with
Belvidere appeared to impart to them a character of
majesty, strongly exemplified in the Duke of Northum-
berland, which now seems as peculiarly to distinguish
the bulls as refinement does the cows. At all events,
this, like every other important cross to which Mr.
Bates resorted, has been stamped with the approval of
the public, including the remarkable one with the blood
of the Matchem cow. Not only have both bulls and
cows of the Duchess family realized prizes, which taken
one with another may be termed unprecedented, but other
animals have by means of a few crosses of this blood,
in spite of short i^edigrees, been sold for more money
than best blood of other families was apt to command
Thus, at Mr. Tanqueray's sale in 1855, three cows and

THE FARMER^S magazine.

483

a bull of the Oxford family (descendants of the Matchem
cow) realized 1,100 guineas. Yet the pedigree of this
family is not traced further back than Young Wynyard
(2859). Is this preference for Mr. Bates' blood, and
especially that of the Duchess tribe, a mere caprice on
the part of the public, or is it founded on reason ?

As far as I am competent to form an opinion, I cer-
tainly think the Duchess tribe possess in an eminent
decree those qualities which are desirable in improved
cattle. Indeed, when the buyers of the world are con-
gregated together, it will generally be found that their
judgment is right. The question then arises, wherein
the peculiar merit of Mr. Bates' stock consists ? Mr.
Bates required a short-hern to present a union of good
qualities, instead of, like too many breeders, developing
one or two points out of all proportion, while sacri-
ficing others equally valuable. Beginning with the
Duchess heifer, he endeavoured to establish i\ family,
every member of which should as nearly as possible
approach the type of a true short-horn. That they
possessfd both symmetry and early maturity, is attested
by the numerous premiums which they won at the
meetings of the Royal and other agricultural societies.
The Rev. H. Berry mentions the Duchess tribe along
with that of Daisy, as remarkable for their milking
powers. Mr. Bates, however, soon ai'rived at the
conviction that the degree of forcing which is neces-
sary to command success in the show-yard, is highly
prejudicial to a breeding herd ; and he consequently
discontinued the public exhibition of his stock.
It is possible that the fine quality for which
his herd and its descendants are remarkable may be
in part owing to his judicious treatment, in keeping
his stock generously witliout forcing it unduly. Since
his death, and its consequent dispersion, its value has
rather increased than otherwise, as witness the mar-
vellous Tortworth sale, and that of Mr. Tanqueray.
In public competition, too, this blood has been
eminently successful, whether in conjunction with
other blood, like Mr. Ambler's Grand Turk, or un-
alloyed like Lord Feversham's Duke of Oxford.

1 should be sorry if it were to be imagined from
what I have just written, that I am so bigoted an
admirer of the Duchess blood as to be insensible to the
merits of any other. I am sure that all who are ac-
quainted with my writings will bear witness that I have
never hesitated to commend whatever strain of good
blood has been brought under my notice. I hold it,
indeed, to be a besetting weakness of breeders to per-
suade themselves that all b'ood is worthless except that
which they themselves possess. Singularly enough, too,
the more decided success a man has achieved, the
stronger is his temptation to follow this delusion. It
is after he has attained his idea in practice, that the
danger besets him of being so satisfied with what he

has accomplished, as to imagine (hat further exertion
is unnecessary. He is too apt to forget that the very
eagerness with which he has cultivated certain favourite
points, has led him to pay less attention to others no
less essential. It is thus that deficiencies become no
less stereotyped in certain strains of blood than their
merits. However trying, therefore, it may be to tlie
feelings of a breeder to resort to other blood, whoever
wishes to maintain his stock at the highest pitch of
excellence, must from time to time have recourse to a
cross as far removed from his own as is compatible
with purity. There is no difficulty in making a
selection from the numerous families which are de-
scended from the times of Colling and his contempo-
raries. And the letters of Bunclmensis aff'oid much
useful infoimation to those who desire to become ac-
quainted with the annals of those early days.

In another respect your correspondent is doing good
service, viz., in stating the real facts of the case with re-
gard to the origin of the improved shorthorns. It is im-
portant that it should be generally known that long be-
fore the time of the breeders contemporary with Charles
Colling, who have now attained world-wide celebrity,
there was an excellent breed of cattle in existence in
Durham and considerable districts of Yorkshire. It is
important to have the authority of your correspondent
in support of the fact that selection from the materials
around them was the principal foundation on which the
wonderful fabric of the shorthorn race has been reared. 1 1
is satisfactory to know t hat they are not, as has been some-
times affirmed by parties ignorant of those districts, an
artificial product, patched up by the forced union of many
incompatible races. That Mr. Colling did introduce
into part of his stock a cross with the Galloway cow is
well known to every person even moderately versed in
the history of his proceedings. If there had been
any doubt upon the subject, it has long since been
set at rest by the inquiry which the late Lord
Spencer caused to be made among the papers
of that eminent breeder. But although an incident like
this strikes the imagination of persons not practically
versed in breeding, and is admirably suited to the pur-
poses of bookmakers who copy it from each other, ^p
the neglect of more important matters, it is absurd
to attribute to this cross the origin of the improved
shorthorns. iVo one can read an authentic account of
the manner in which Mr. Colling introduced the foreign
blood, without being struck with the judiciously sparing
measure in which he used it. Permanent excellence in
a breed was never yet attained by the crude union of
incompatible qualities. It is only to be looked for from
the judicious selection of individuals characterized by
those properties which we desire to perpetuate.
I am your?, &c..
Holly Bank, April 20. Willoughby Wood.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE FATE OF THE STATISTICS BILL.

We are inclined to believe that Mr, Caird really
meant well with his Agricultural Statistics Bill. It
read, moreover, as a measure framed in all moderation,
and calculated to work easily with those to whom it
was intended to apply. Unfortunately, however, the
proposition came from the wrong quartf r. There was
a Doctor Fell feeling- about its introduction that it was
not very difficult to understand. It is not so very long
since the honourable Member for Dartmouth was in
something like open antagonism with the general body
of agriculturists. As the model Free-trade farmer and
special Commissioner, the Country party may have
thought they had little to thank him for, lie is going
t^; put some more ci'oss questions, and will be trying to
show us up again, no doubt.

The signal defeat of the Statistics Bill must be
in a great degree attributable to this. Of the bill
itself, we repeat, there is very little to complain ;
and on its own merits, we confess, we do not see
why such a plan should encounter more opposition in
England than it has done in Scotland or Ireland.
But it was made a party question. The representatives,
indeed, of the agricultural interest appear to feel far
more acutely in the matter than the agriculturists
themselves. Even the leader of this opposition, Mr.
Packe, is subject to contmual correction when he
touches upon the subject in his own county.
Almost the only practical farmer examined before
the Lords' Committee spoke directly in favour of the
collection of these statistics, while Mr. Bankes Stan-
hope, who represents him in Parliament, is as decidedly
against them. Mr. Ball, again, the member for Cam-
bridgeshire, will not have sucli a system on any terras,
while some of the warmest of liis supporters stand
committed to its advocacy. Still, even the landlords
do not all pull together here. There is, perhaps, no
man in the House who takes a greater interest in the
c^use, or who understands the farmers bettei', than
does Mr. Miles, the member for Somersetshire. We
can all remember how excellent a President he
made of the Royal Agricultural Society, Mr.
Miles voted for Mr. Caird's Bill. " He was as-
tonished that it should have met with so
7nuch opposition. He was in possession of facts
which proved that the agricultural interest did not
offer the slightest objection to making returns, so long
as they did not interfere with produce and stock." Mr.
Caird did not propose to interfere with produce or
stock. Then, Mr. Henley is in favour of what he calls
" pure statistics" — of the acreage, that is—" the only
thing that is really valuable." Mr. Caird asked for
no more. These, be it borne in mind, are two leading
members of the Conservative cause ; both with high
characters in their own homes as good landlords, and
both with a sound and practical knowledge of the
question. They may differ in some minor matters of

detail; but, as far as the oliject and the principle is
cencerned, they go thoroughly with Mr. Caird.

Now, had Mr. Miles or Mr. Henley introduced this
measure, we cannot help thinking it would have met
with a very different fate. Let us remember, and
take example from what has been already accomplished
in this way. What was the great secret of success in
Scotland .' Simply the fact of the point being put to
the farmers by those they knew and could trust in.
It is absurd to suppose the system, if only properly in-
troduced, would not work as well here. When we know
already that on the first time of asking so 'cute a consti-
tuency as the Yorkshiremen, ninety-nine out of a hun-
dred, filled up the returns, it is idle to question the prac-
ticability of such a plan. But unfortunately our own
national Society would not make the effort. That terrible
" Charter" once more stood in the way. Still, any
known man might have done it. We give Mr. Caird
every credit for his intention. His work, in short,
speaks for itself. He must know, however, tiiat his
name is scarcely palatable in a certain quarter ; and
that, perhaps, few in the House would tell less fa-
vourably when taking a lead in rural affairs.

In a somewhat lengthy discussion which ensued on *
the motion for this second reading, there was in reality
very little advanced against the principle. Mr. Packe
seemed to think the farmer is the only man asked for
this kind of information ; whereas there is scarcely a
calling but has to give it. In almost every branch of
trade returns are made. The stocks of sugar, tea, and
other articles, are exactly known ; as well as what is on
shipboard, and what is to be expected. Agents are
sent to America to traverse the cotton producing dis- ^
tricts, and make estimates of the growing ci'op. A
shipowner states the number of his ships, and their
tonnage— what he gave for them, and Vv'hat he may
have borrowed on them. But no government thinks of
these returns singly and separately. It is the gross
amount that is required. Besides, is there any
business in which the individual detail is so easily
known as the farmer's ? Would a landlord or agent
go to the acreage return to know what the tenant
is doing? And, does not the village parliament make
out its own return week by week, and year by
year ? What I have in wheat, you in beans, and he
in barley. '* When," says Sir Corncwall Lewis, " this
question was first brought forward in this House it was
met by several lion, members — as it has been by some
hon. gentlemen who have spoken to-day — with ob-
jections which I cannot help characterizing as par-
taking of the nature of prejudice and clamour ; I
allude to those objections founded upon the alleged in-
quisitorial visitations to which a system of agricultural
statistics would give rise, and the compulsory means of
information to which, under its operation, it would be
necessary to resort. When this question was first

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.;

485

mooted a general impiessiou prevailed amoug the
farmers of the country that it was intended to devise
some new means of taxing, or of enabling tlieir land-
lords to raise their rents. Their fears upon these
points, however, appear to me to be wholly chimerical
and illusory. Nobody can demonstrate how the Govern-
ment would be provided with an additional means of
taxation by obtaining this statistical information ; nor
does it seem to me that the landlords can fairly be
supposed to have that very imperfect knowledge of
their own estates which would render it probable that
the meagre and imsatisfactory returns which we might
hope to obtain in reference to agriculture would place
them in a different position, so far as tlie question of
raising their rents is concerned, from that in which
they now stand. I cannot help thinking, therefore,
that the fears to which I have referred are wholly
unfounded; and my experience tends to convince me
that they are now very much dissipated, and are not
shiired in by the more intelligent members of the agri-
cultural classes."

Again, can any one imagine such a plea against the
collection of statistics as that offered by Mr. Drum-
mond ? — That this was information only useful for the
corn-dealer, and that the farmer should not be en-
couraged to hold back or sell, but be left to dispose of
his produce as his necessities required ! The answer to
so manifest an injustice is self-evident; but it was well
put by Mr. Cardwell : — " He held a higher opinion of
the farmer than his hon. friend, who thought he must
only conduct his business on the hand-to-mouth prin-
ciple, and only go into the market to sell his produce
under the immediate pressure of necessity. Pursue
that train of reflection, and they would see that the
British fai'mer was of all others the most interested in
the collection of agricultural statistics. The persons
with whom he made his bargain usually conducted
their business on a great scale, but the farmer had only
the produce of his own farm to sell, and could have little
or no knowledge to guide him except that which the
Legislature might afford him. If, as they had just
heard, a large purchaser of barley (Mr. Bass) could tell
them that it would be of the greatest interest to him,
in his trade, to have a collection of agricultural statis-

tics ; if, with all his means and intelligence, he would
be glad to have such inlbrmation as he had referred to,
how much more glad would be the farmer who dealt
with him?"

Mr. Du Cane quoted evidence to show how impossi-
ble it was to make anything like an accurate estimate
of the yield — which we entirely agree with ; only the
Bill before the House did not ask for such an estimate I
So good a man as Mr. Ker Seymer had to content him-
self with such mild pleasantry as this (he is speaking
for his tenant ) : — " 1 am busy growing corn ; you ask
me to fill up schedules ; I would rather grow my corn,
if you please." And Mr. Bentinck thought the efTect
of the Bill would be to encourage a vicious spirit of
speculation amongst the farmers. Mr. Henley, while
admitting the principle, made endless objection to the
details of the plan by which this information is to be
obtained. We are by no means ready to pass the ma-
chinery of the proposed Bill as anything like perfec-
tion. Sufficient, however, has already been done, even
in England, to show that many of the obstacles the
right honourable the President of the Board of Trade
would raise are hardly worth consideration. Nothing
is so easy as to anticipate such difficulties ; but they
smack here chiefly of red tape, and " how not to
do it."

A far more important point is, what these returns
would be worth when obtained? Would they justify
the expense of making them, either to the producer,
the people, or the Government ? In answer to this we
have already evidence as to how interesting and useful
they have been in demonstrating the improvement of
Ireland. They were working on to tlie same end in
Scotland. That their collection here would be followed
by any immediate sign or effect we much doubt; but
that they would gradually be developed into a very
serviceable guide and test of our condition we doubt
very little. We believe, moreover, that such informa-
tion might, if only judiciously worked, be had at little
trouble and expense. The farmer himself has in a
great measure outlived his prejudice; while the expe-
rience of his brethren over the Border and across the
Channel will assure him how little there is in reality to
fear.

THE PESTS OF AGRICULTURE.

Of the many subjects possessing a primary interest to
the agriculturist, certainly the depredations committed
upon his crops and produce by insects and vermin are
not the least important ; nor is the consideration of this
matter alone of interest to the farmer. Every indivi-
dual, here or elsewhere, is at times the prey of blood-
thirsty vermin — a safeguard against whose voracious
attacks would be considered a veritable boon both to
individuals and to society at large. Bipeds and qua-
drupeds, animals and vegetables— all have their preda-
tory enemies and parasites, for which, despite the
" catch-' em-alive-o" fly-papers, the insect-destroying

powders, and other alleged specifics, we have as yet no
remedy. Many of the plagues of Egypt are still per-
mitted to annoy our persons and destroy our crops.

Although at home wasps and flies are occasionally
sad tormentors, and the blood-sucking pests of our
lodging-houses and dwellings leave unpleasant reminis-
cences behind, it is only those wlio have seen animal
life in all its profusion in the tropics who know the in-
tense horrors and inconveniences of insect pests. There
swarm mosquitoes, buffalo gnats, small black flics,
horse-flies, minute sand-flies, flights of locusts, chigoes
depositing their nidus in the flesh, the guinea-worm

486

THE FAHMER'S magazine.

tormenting one by getting under the skin. Rest is
banishe;! during the sultryhoiirs, for the human subject;
while cattle, horses, and domestic animals generally are
worried so that they can neither feed nor rest. Flies
get entry into your mouth, into your eyes, into your
nose. You eat flies, drink flies, and breathe flies. Li-
zards, centipedes, cockroaches, and snakes get info the
bsd ; ants eat up the books ; scorpions sting you on the
foot. Everything bites, stings, or bruises ; every se-
cond of your existence you are wounded by some piece
of animal life that is new to you. An insect with eleven
legs is swimming in your teacup; a nondescript with
nine wings is struggling in your beer ; or a caterpillar
with several dozen eyes in his belly is hastening over
the bread. All nature is alive, and seems to be ga-
thering all her entomological hosts to eat you up, as
you are standing out of your coat, waistcoat, and
breeches. Such are the tropics. Even in parts of
North America, a resident tells us — " If you would
sleep on a sweltering night in June, nothing short
of chloroform will render a novice insensible to the
melody of those swamp serenaders, the musquitoes,
or the tactics of their bloodthirsty ally, the black fly,
v/ho noiselessly fastens upon your jugular, while the
musquito is bragging in your face. Two remedies are
at your service, either of which some persons will be
found captious enough to consider worse than the dis-
ease. The first cure is the one applied to hams — smoke
yourself until your eyes are like burned holes in a
blanket, and you have ci'eos )te enough in your mouth
to cure a toothache. The second is to smear all your
assailable parts with Canadian balsam, until, after a
night's tossing in your blanket, you have wool enough
on your face and hands to make you look, as well as
feel, decidedly sheepish."

It is, however, with tlie pests of agriculture that we
are specially interested, and to which we would direct
attention. Here is a subject to which the Royal Agri-
cultural Society might well devote itself, by bringing to
bear on it the more extended practical observations of
the farmers and the investigating skill of scientific men.
Too little has yet been done on a broad scale in this di-
rection. Entomologists have taken up occasionally the
investigation of one or other of the predatory insects;
but there are few collected details, or scientific exainina-
tions. With the exception of Kollar's work on Insects
injurious to Agriculture, and Mr. Curtis's essays (there
is one very excellent one in the lasit volume of the
Journal), we do not know of any special treatise that
enters into detail on this important matter fraught with
such larger interests and high importance. Among the
officers belonging to the Royal Agricultural Society,
we do not find, as in the iVew York and Paris societies,
an entomologist, and yet the agricultural crops of vari-
ous kinds are even of a higher importance than the
live stock. If we have a veterinary professor for the
one, surely the ravages committed by insects on the
other demand the supervision and scientific examina-
tion of an entomologist to point out the habits of the
insects, cliaracteristics, and remedies.

The American Legislature votes i;200 a-year to

promote the investigations of Dr. Asa Fitch, Entomo-
logist of the New York State Agricultural Society. A
most useful collection of insects hurtful to agriculture
has been formed under his supervision, and nmch
useful information obtained and promulgated. M.
Edwards, the administrator and curator of the Collec-
tion of Entomology at Paris, recently sent over to the
New York society a collection of the predatory insects
from Algiers. In parts of Canatta and the United
States great ravages are occasionally committed by
three distinct insects destructive to the wheat crops,
which in name, at least, are often confounded — the
Hessian fly {Cecidoniya destructor), the weevil, Ca-
landra granans), and the wheat midge, or wheat
gnat {Cecidoniya tritici). Almost every local society
abroad is doing something in this direction ; but their
labours want colleciing, to be of general use. The
Agricultural Board of Canada recently devoted £80 in
premiums for the best essays on the origin, nature, habits,
liistory of the progress from time to time, and the causes
of the insects, which ravaged the wheat crops. The South
Australian and other agricultural societies have all
moved in the same direction. To understand in their
true extent the depredations of insects, we must not,
as Mr. Spence observed some years ago, confine our
attention to the hundreds of thousands of pounds
which we annually lose from the attacks of the hop-
fly, turnip-flies, the wire-worm, the weevil, and the
host of insect assailants of our home agricultural and
horticultural produce, but we must cxiend our views
to the colonies and foreign countries. We shall there
find that in Australia and British North America the
potato crops are often, in some quarters, wholly cut off
by the potato bug ; that in the West and East Indies
the cocoanut trees are the prey of a boring insect;
that the cotton crops of India and America are
fiequently eeriously injured by insects of various
tribes, whose history we have yet to learn; that
in Ceylon the cofiee-bug commits sad depreda-
tions on the trees ; that in the Straits settlements the
spice-trees are much subject to the attacks of
certain species of cocci ; while in Africa whole tracts of
country are devastated by swarms of locusts, although
these are greedily seized on, in turn, as food by tlie
natives. It would therefore seem that the vegetable
world has plagues fjr greater than ever Moses inflicted
on the inhabitants of Egypt.

We see, then, that insects are the most numerous,
as well as the most destructive, foes to which the agri-
cultutist is exposed.

As Loudon observed long ago, their species are so
many, and their devastation so varied, that, witimut
some acquaintance with their scientific classification
and a correct knowledge of their haunts and economy,
their operations can neither be understood nor efFec-
tually counteracted.

What we desire to see is some good collection of in-
sects, &c., and their injurious eff'ects shown, which shall
be available for reference both by the scientific man and
by the farmer, gardener, and tropical cultiviitor. At
pi'esent we have nothing of this kind on a respectable

THE FAR.VJER'S MAGAZINE.

887

01' useful scale. The Entomological Society's opera-
tions are extended to all classes of insects, and not spe-
cially directed to those injurious to agriculture. At
Kew Sir W. Hooker has introduced to some small extent
the insects which prey upon trees, &c , and the effects
and diseases are partially shown.

Dr. Lyon Playfah', we believe, contemplates collect-
ing, and exhibiting in the Food Department at the
South Kensington Museum, specimens of the insects
injurious to animal and vegetable products. But
while these are auxiliary steps in the right direction,
we should lilie to see a more concentrated course of
action, and special and continued attention given to
this matter by the Royal Agricultural Society.

Let that body put itself in communication with the

provincial, colonial, and foreign sjcieti' s, and solicit
their aid in replying to (jueries and furnishing speci-
mens; and contributions of a very valuable character
would soon be ama-sed, which, when arranged, com-
pared, and described by a competent entomologist,
would result in large practical benefit, not only to our
O'ivn country, but to the world at large.

We have hitherto stood high in our science and prac-
tice in all departments of agriculture ; let it not, there-
fore, be a reflection on us that other countries are more
enei'getic in this minor, but very important, matter.
No one can fully estimate the heavy periodical losses
inflicted on cultivators, in gardens, fields, and planta-
tions, by the insect pests to which we have alluded.

ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY.

SPRING CATTLE SHOW.

This meeting took place under very favourable auspices on
Tuesday, Wedaesday, Thursday, and Friday,' April 27, 28, aud 29.
It was proaoiinced to be one of the beat exhibitions of stock
ever seen here. The Shorthorns came out very strong, and were
beyond all praise — 13i yearling bulls. We subjoin the list of
prizes, and though, generally speaking, these were well awarded,
they as usual did not properly distinguish between fat and
good store condition. M.T. Douglass' bull and heifer were
perfect animals, but we much doubt if they will ever be
very large. Mr. Barnes' yearling bull was not so fat, but
a beautii'ul even beast, and sold at a very large sum, though
not named by the judges. Many of the best judges pronounced
Mr. Christy's two-year-old bull superior to Master Butterfly :
he will be sold for a large sura. Lord Clariua had a nice
heifer, but only in store condition : Mr. Massy refused 70
guineas again and again for her. Mr. Turner's cow was as
near perfect as anything ever seea. Lord Waterford bought
her and her fellow for a great sum. The beauty of the Short-
horn stock was the common talk. The half-bred class shows
their value as a cross — they are noble animals, of vast size and
weight. The long-woolled sheep were largely represented,
but not of very great merit ; although Mr. Thunder's Leicea-
ters were of fine quality. Mr. Beale Brown's ram lambs were
of large size, constituting a portion of 70 of those, we under-
stand, he has challenged the world with for a thousand pounds.
Mr. King Barman's ram was a very even animal. The pigs
were well represented, aud, as usual, very good.

His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, in a very good practical
speech de'ivered at the evening meeting of the Society, thus
touched on the merits of the show : — "I believe, without flat-
tery, it is a show equal to, if not surpassing, any show of the
sort which has taken place in England or Scotland. As regards
the class of shorthorns, I am informed — and certainly my recol-
lection beirs rae out in all the shows I have ever seen — that in
Ireland this is the largest and best show that has ever taken
place ; and certainly I can confirm it as regards my own expe-
rience even in o'.her countries. On looking at the animals
whi^'h I had the satisfaction of witnessing to-day, I
confess that I never have yet seen anything which
gave mc greater pleasure than the heifer belonging to Mr.
Douglas — I believe as perfect an animal as ever has been
shown ut any agricultural meeting ; and I am sure even an
assemblage of Irishmen may pardon me if, following out

Lord Clancarty's views, I do take a little national pleasure
to myself, that that animal was accorded the first prize.
Mr. Douglas has also carried off so many prizes that I
will not go on with them too long ; but I now come — I will
not say with greater pleasure, but with more satisfaction
to this company— to the Kerries. The Kerry cattle
have long been the greatest possible favourites of mine.
I think thi'y are— if I may use the term— the thorongh-breds
of cattle. To my mind they are the iiiost beautiful cattle I
know. I saw some beautiful specimens of them to-day, and I
believe it is as good an exhibition of this description of cattle
as I have ever seen, and I admired them probably as much as
any of you ; and certainly in that respect no feeUng of
nationality came in my way I also admired with feelings of
partly pleasure aud partly regret, the small stock of Devons,
to which were accorded the prize, belonging to Lord Charle-
raont. I believe if there are any persons present who were
present six years ago — I am afraid six years make a
great dilferenee — they will remember that I gave
great praise to the pigs. It appears that during
these six years the pigs have certainly improved. I
do not think it possible to see a liner show, though I
will not go the length of one of the stewards with respect to
their private excellence, Ihoir domestic qualities, and their
talents (laughter) ; but I admired them excessively. The only
thing that gave me some de:;ree of dissatisfaction was that
there was not so large a show of Ayrshire cattle as I should
have wished to have seen from my own country. What I saw
were good, but I sincerely wish that the inhabitants of my
country would pay more attention to your shows. It gives
rae great pleasure to see the progress that the Royal Dublin
Society has made during the time I have been away."

THE PRIZE LIST.

JUDGES.

Shout-iioens. — Wm. Sanday, Holme Pierre Point ; Mark S.
Stewart, Southwick, Dumfries; Henry Croker, Croom.

Mixed Breeds and Fat Stock. — Samuel Garnett, Robert
W, White, C. G. Grey.

Sheep. — Thomas Twitchell, Wellington, near Bedford; Cap-
tain Ball, Caleb Going.

Swine. — Captain Edward Croker, Captain Aibuthnot, Henry
Thurnall, Koyaton, Herts.

BULLS.
Short-horns calved in 1857.— First prize, 5 aovs., Jamea

488

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Douglas, AlheJstaucford; secoud prize, Charles L. Eilisou, 3
Eovs. ; third prix*, Richard reatherstonehaugh, large silver
wcdal.

Calved in 1836. — First prize, John Christy, 5 sova. ; second
prize, Viscount Monk, 3 80V3,

Calved in 1855. — First prize. Lord Talbot de Malahide, 5
Bovs. ; second prize, George Roe, 2 sovs.

Herefords calved in 1855. — The prize £3, Alien Pollock
(no competition).

Devons calved in 1856.— First prize, £3, to the Earl of
Charlemont (no competition).

Calved in 1855. — Prize of £3 to same.

Best West Highland bull, of any age. Lady Pigot, large
silver medal.

Best Scotch Polled bull. Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Best Ayrshire bull, Wm. Boyle, large silver medal.

Best Alderney bull, Henry M. Barton, large silver
medal.

Best Kerry bull. Sir Edward M'Donnel, large silver
medal.

Best bull of any breed, calved prior to 1855, Ambrose Bole,
large silver medal. Second best, Nathaniel Barton, small
silver medal.

Best of all the prize bulls, James Douglas, the gold medal,
Sseoad best, John Christy, large silver medal.

COWS AND HEIFERS.

Short-horned. — Best heifer, calved in 1857, Thomas Ball,
large silver msdal ; second best, Thomas Baraes, small silver
medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1856, in calf, or producing a live calf
v/ithin twelve months subsequent to the 13th of April, 1858,
James Douglas, large silver medal; second best, James
Douglas, small silver medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1855, giving milk, cr in calf, John J.
Turner, large silver medal ; second best, Wm. Owen, small
silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, in calf, or having had a live calf within
twelvemonths preceding the 13lh of April, 1858, Lady Pigot,
large silver medal ; second best, J. J. Turner, small silver
medal.

Hereford. — Best cow, of any age, in calf, or having had a
live calf within twelve months preceding the 13 th of April,
1358, Allan PoUok, large silver medal.

Devon.— Best heifer, calved in 1857, Earl of Charlemont,
large silver medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1856, in calf or producing a live calf
within twelve months subsequent to the 14th of April, 1858,
Charles Toole, large silver medal.

Best heifer, calved iu 1855, giving milk, or in calf. Earl of
Charlemoat, large silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, iu calf, or having had a live calf within
twelve months preceding the 13th of April, 1858, Earl of
Charlemont, large silver medal.

West Highland.— Best cow, of any age, in calf, or hav-
ing had a live calf within twelve months preceding the 13th of
April, 1858, C.L. Ellison, large silver medal.

Scotch Polled. — Best heifer, calved in 1857, Lord Tal-
bot de Malahide, large silver medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1855, giving milk, or in calf. Lord
Talbot de Malahide, large silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, iu calf, or having had a live calf within
twelve months preceding the 13th of April, 1858, Lord Talbot
de Malahide, large silver medal.

Ayrshire. — Best heifer, calved in 1857, William Boyle,
large silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, in calf or having had a live calf within
twelve months preceding the 13th of April, 1838, Wm. Boyle,
lar(»e silver medal.

Alderney. — Best heifer, calved in 1857, Jas. B. Kennedy,
large silver medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1855, giving milk or in calf, James B.
Kennedy, large silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, in calf, or having had a live calf within
twelve months preceding the 13th of April, 1858, Colonel
Hill, large silver medal.

Kerry. — Best heifer, calved in 1857, Sir E. M'Donnel,
large silver medal.

Best heifer, calved in 1855, giving milk or in calf, Hon. R.
G. Talbot, large silver medal.

Best cow, of any age, in calf, or having ha ] a live calf within

twelve iLOnths preceding the 13th of April, 1858, Sir E.
M'Donnel, large si ver medal.

Beat of all the prize breeding heifers, giving milk or in calf,
James Douglas, the gold medal.

Best of all the prize milch cows, Lady Pigot, the gold
medal.

Best three milch cows, in calf, or having had live calves
within twelve months preceding the 13th of April, 1858, and
bo7ia fide the property of exhibitor, J. J. Turner, the gold
medal.

The Irish Farmer's Gazette Plate, value £155 — James
Douglas, Athelstaneford, Drew, N.B., for his short-horned heifer
Venus de Medicis.

FAT OXEN.

Shorthoened.— Best fat ox, calved prior to 1855, Na-
thaniel Barton, large silper medal.

Hereford.— Best fat ox, calved prior to 1855, Robert
Smith, large silver medal.

Devon. — Best fat ox, calved prior to 1855, Earl of Shan-
non,

Any other Breed. — Best fat ox, calved in 1856, Lord
de Freyne, large silver medal.

West Highland. — Best fat ox, calved prior to 1855,
David Rogerson, large silver medal.

Kerry. — For the best pair of fat oxen, of any breed, that
have been fairly and bona fide worked as plough bullocks up to
May, 1857, Earl of Shannon, large silver medal.

Best of all the prize oxen. Earl of Shannon, honorary cer-
tificate.

FAT COWS OF ANY AGE.

For the best Shorthorned, Nathaniel Barton, large silver
medal.

For the best Devon, Earl of Charlemont, large silver
medal.

For the beat West Highland, John Fetherston, large silver
medal.

For the best Kerry, James L. Napier, large silver medal.

For the best of all the prize fat cows, Nathaniel Barton,
honorary certificate.

FAT HEIFERS.

For the best fat heifer of any breed, Nathaniel Barton, large
silver medal ; for the second best, P. J. Kearney, small silver
medal,

SHEEP.

Leicesters. — For the best one-shear ram, George
Thunder, three sovereigns.

For the best two-shear ram, same, three sovereigns.

For the best three hogget rams, never clipped, George
Thunder, two sovereigns.'

For the best five ewes, with their lambs yeaned in 1858, or
in lamb, Livingstone Thompson, two sovereigns.

For the best five ewe hoggets, never clipped, William Owen,
two sovereigns.

LoNG-woOLLED, uot qualified to compete as Leicesters. —
For the best one-shear ram, Thomas Beale Brown, three
sovereigns.

For the best ram of any other age, Edmund Ruck, three
sovereigns.

For the best three hogget rams, never clipped, Thomas B.
Brown, two sovereigns.

For the best five ewe hoggets, never clipped, Edmund
Ruck, two sovereigns.

Short-woolled. — For the best one-shear ram, Charles
W. Hamilton, two sovereigns.

For the best ram of any other age, Hon. L. H. King Har-
mau, two sovereigns.

For the best three hogget rams, never clipped, Peter
Broughton, two sovereigns.

For the best five ewes, with their Iambs yeaned in 1853, or
in lamb, Charles Wm. Hamilton, two sovereigns.

For the best five ewe hoggets, never clipped, Charles Wm.
Hamilton, two sovereigns.

Cheviots. — For the best one-shear ram. Lord Clermont,
two sovereigns.

For the best two-shear ram. Marquis Conyngham, two
sovereigns.

For the best ram, of any other age. Lord Clermont, two
sovereigns.

For the best three hogget rams, never clipped, Lord Cler-
mont, two sovereigns.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

^89-

For the five best ewes, witli t'neir Iambs yeaced in 1858, cr
in lamb, Msrquis ConyDgham, two sovereiijns.

For the best five ewe hoggets, never clipped, Marquis
Conyugham, t^o sovereigns.

Fat Wedders.— For the best pen of five loag-woUed fat
wedders, not exceeding two shear. Sir Edward M'Donnel,
larje silver medal.

For the best pen of five short- vpool fat wedders, not exceed-
iug two shear, P. Brou^htou, large silver medal.

For the best pen of five cheviot fat wedders, Lord Cler-
mont, large silver medal.

SWINE.

Coloured Breeds.— For the best boar, six months, aud
not e-icceediDg twelve months old. Win. Joyce, 3 aova. ; for the
second best,^ Thos. Rutherford, 2 sovs. ; for the third best.
Lord Charlemont, the honorary certificate.

For the best boar, exceeding twelve and not exceeding
twenty-four months old, E. W. Tomkinson, 5 sovs.

For the best boar, exceediag twenty-four months old,
Arthur D. Chais;ne2u, 5 sovs, ; for the second best, Robert
Collins, M.D., 3 sovs.

For the best breeding sow in-pig, or having had a litter
within six mouths, Captain F. Adey, 3 sovs. ; for the second
best, Mi'jor H. M'Ciintock, 2 sovs.; for the third best, Capel
F. Adey, the honorary certificate.

For the best three breeding pigs of the same litter, under
ten months, A. D. Chaigcieau, 3 sovs. ; for the second best,
Joseph Radcliffe, LL.D., 2 sovs.; for the third best, C. P.
Leslie, M.P., the honorary certificate.

For the best litter of piers, not exceeding five months old,
accompanied by the sow, Robert Collias, M.D., 3 sovs.; for
the second best, J. C. Metge, 2 sovs.

White Breeds. — For the best boar, sis months, and not
exceeding twelve mouths old. Lord Lurgan, 3 sovs. ; for the
second best, Charles L. Ellison, 2 sovs. ; for the third beat,
Hans H. Woods, the honorsry certificate.

For the best boar, exceeding twelve months, and not exceed-
ing twenty-four montha old, John H. Peart, 5 sovs. ; for the

second best, Wni. Boyle, 3 sovs.; for the third beat, George
Mungles, the honorary certificate.

For the best boar, exceeding twenty-four months old. Lord
Lurgan, 5 sovs. ; for the second best, Wm. Boyle, 3 sovs.

For the best breeding sow, in-pig, or having a litter within
six months, J. L. W. Naper, 3 sovs. ; for the second best,
Wm. Boyle, 2 sovs. ; for the third best, Robert W. White,
the honorary certificate.

For the best three breeding piga of the same litter, under
ten months old, Charles L. Ellison, 3 sovs. ; for the second
best, James L. W, Naper, 2 sovs. ; for the third best, Lord
Lurgan, the honorary certificate.

HIGHLY COMMENDED.

Bulls. — J. Richardson, W. Coppinger, Lord Lurgan (2)
W. B, C. Roberts, J. Barcroft, Major H. S. M'Ciintock.

Cows AND Heifers. — Lord Lurgan, J. Barcroft, R.
Campion, Thomas Barber, J. J, Turner, George Roe, Lord
Talbot de Malahide, W, Boyle, Sir E. M'Donnel, R. G.
Campion.

Fat Stock. — Earl of Shannon, David Rogerson, Captain
M'Ciintock Bunbury, M.P., Sir Robert Paul, Bart., R. g.
Fetherstonehaugh.

Sheep. — William Owea, George Thunder.

Swine. — Hans H.Woods,

COMMENDED.

Bulls. — Lord Dufi'erin aod Clandeboye, Richard Chalone;',
Thomas Barnes, John Christy, Thomas Barber, Hon. Thomas
Preston.

Cows AND Heifers. — Lord Clarina, Thomas Barnes,
Viscount Monk, Richard W^elsted.

Fat Stock. — Nathaniel Barton, R. S. Fetherstonhaugh,
Allan PoUok, Earl of Clonmel.

Sheep. — C. P. Leslie, M.P , William Owen, John La
Touche, Ambrose Bole, Richard Byrne, Gustavus W. Lambert,
John W. Brown, Lieutenant Colonel Tottenham, Marquis
Conyngham, Lord Clermont, P. J, Kearney.

SPARE THE LITTLE BIRDS,

The augmented depredatiou of insects to which
the farmers crops are subjected, amounting to
an annual loss in value of millions sterling, and
to the extent of nearly one-fourth in produce,
renders the study of entomology almost a ne-
cessity : for, if without check this evil continues
to increase, the day may come sooner than many
will believe, when the important agricultural
products will be so diminished from this cause
alone, as to produce great dearth and suffering, and
when many of the best aud most valuable fruits will
be a rarity, if their production is not rendered im-
possible. Note, in verification, all the varieties of
the plum, gage, nectarine, and cherry fruit, which,
from the ravages of the different genera of curculio,
or the weevil, are now rare, and seldom come to per-
fection; and even one species of this destructive
insect has lately deposited its eggs in the apple, and
even in the peach. If this is to continue without
effort at prevention or remedy, how soon may it be
hopeless to look for, or even expect again to see, as
in the days of old, the various fruit-trees breaking
down from the burden of their .golden and luscious
fruit!

The evil is not done by the perfect insect — many
insects never feed after their metamorphosis — but by
the boring and deposition of the egg, which soon
hatches, and we have a worm, or the larva, ravenous

in its appetite, and destructive to anything it comes
in contact with. The larva, or worm, does all the
mischief by feeding on the fruit, thus destroying its
organization ; alter which, of course, it soon drops
to the ground, into which the grub or worm goes,
and there hibernates until the ensuing year, when it
revivifies, and comes forth the perfect insect at pre-
cisely the right time and season " to walk in the
footsteps of its predecessors," and cause a greatly
increased injury to whatever it deposites its eggs in
and its larvae feed on. The utility of entomological
study and examination will be of paramount impor-
tance ; for, doubtless, a careful inquiry into the
habits, peculiarities, and destructiveness, of the
various insects that are injurious to the crop, must
lead, in many instances, to the discovery of an
antidote for their ravages, or remedy for the injury
they inflict.

There is evidently a great increase of insects
injurious to agricultural production. What is the
cause of this ? The reason is the greater average
mildness of winters, and the great destruction of
small birds, snakes, toad frogs, water frogs, terra-
pins, and ants, which feed on insects. When the
winter is very severe, the cold destroys myriads in
their hibernating state of inaction, or temporary
death. Again, it destroys the eggs, by bursting
them, and thus making them unproductive. The

490

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

acute observer, by the aid of a microscope of only
ordinary power, can, al'tcr any hard winter, see
quantities of the eggs (generally adherent to small
twigs) of the butterfly, ruptured and unprolific,
from their generating powev being destroyed by
excessive cold.

But man has a greater friend than even these
useful animals. Insects feed on each other; for some
are predatory, and live on others, which are their
natural food. Other7/ise if this were not so, every
vegetable growth on the surface of the earth, fi'om
the multitude of insects, would have long since been
destroyed, and all animated beings must have ceased
to live. If any doubt this, look at the many varieties
of the spider ; see the regularity, mathematical pre-
cision, and beauty of its web, woven with such art
to entrap its destined food. Again the mud-daVjbler,
a species of wasp ; preys on the spider itself,
by storing them away in magazines of clay or mud,
formed with considerable architectural skill, as food
for their larvae to feed on. Thus has infinite Pro-
vidence in mercy and goodness placed checks which,
apparently inoperative, inefficient, and imperceptible,
still with unerring certainty retain within ordinary
bounds the unlimited increase of any one species
that, from their multitude, might becoaie detrimen-
tal or destructive to all created beings.

The most important and useful among birds is the
innocent little wren, intended by nature, from the
number of its young, often twenty or twenty-five in
number, its unceasing industry and perseverance, to
be the general scavenger of the larva of the butter-
fly, on which they and their young feed. TJieir
interminable industry, activity, and the multitude of
the larva they destroy, are exemplified in the follow-
ing experiment : I have attached to my country
home a nest of these little birds, near to which
stands a paper mulberry tree, from which, with watch
in hand, I counted, in twenty-four minutes, fori y-
two of the larvae of the butterfly conveyed to the
nest by this pair of wrens. What, then, must be
the amount destroyed in five weeks — the time ij re-
quires to rear their youug brood — allowing twelve
working hours l,o the day? It is immense, al.uost
beyond calculation in its consequences. Supposing
only one grub in a minute,it will make the destruction
of the larv08 by this single pair amount in five weeks
to 21,600. What, then, must be the number eaten
by a few pairs of this truly useful and melodious
little bird, which always seeks refuge near the habit-
ation of man ? How worse than cruel, then, their
destruction by mischieveous boys or sportsmen, who,
for lack of legitimate game, often wantonly destroy
numbers of this and other species of little birds
equally useful.

Unless coercive means be taken to prevent the
destruction of such animals as feed on insects, the
day is not far distant when failure of the most im-
portant agricultural products will arise from the
depredations of insects ; indeed many fruits and
vegetables are now becoming scarce from this cause
alone; witness the potato and pumpkin, not ex-
ceeded by the sweet potato in flavour and nutriment,
and many other valuable vegetables unnecessary
now to be mentioned.

The next most useful bird, from its great destruc-
tion of insects, is the bull-bat, or, as it is erroneously

called, the M'hippor-will. Their nutriment is gnats
of various species, sonic predatory and others in-
jurious to vegetation ; indeed all in the gnat form is
grist that comes to their mill, even the tormenting
and much dreaded mosquito. Erora the stomach of
one of these birds I took and counted four th msand
seven hundred and two gnats, consisting of nine
difi'etcnt species — all the varieties I have noted.
Besides, I am certain the stomach contained, partly
digested, as many more, which from their partial
dissolution, it was impossible to enumerate. Taking
in view the rapidity of digestion in birds, what
myriads must a few of this species destroy in the
course of the summer !

The swallow comes next in the category. Ob-
serve its complete mechanical adaptation for swift
motion. Has the vaunted power of man ever inven-
ted a projectile more perfect in shape to surmount
the resistance given by the air to all bodies rapidly
moving through it ? Observe how this perfect and
beautiful little animal skims over rivei", lake, or plain,
apparently in sport, but actually destroying multi-
tudes of insects for food, among others the fabled
gallinipper and well known mosquito.

The water-martin is useful by destroying many
species of a larger size than the preceding. Again,
there are the tom-tit and sap-sucker, heretofore con-
sidered to be injurious by the holes they make in
the apple-tree : from the erroneous supposition of
injury to the tree by making tliese incisions, num-
bers have been slaughtered. How fatal a mistake !
Notice when the tree is completely bored all over
the body, and some of the chief limbs, how thrifty it
looks ; how large and sound the apple ; and how
luscious the flavour of the fruit. Observe the trees
which have not been visited by these birds — many
look skin-bound, fruit small and knotty, taste flat
and watery.

"VVliat is the rationale of this ? Simply that each
perforation is made for the extraction of the larvae
of an insect, which, if not removed, would spoil the
size and flavour of the fruit, and eventually destroy
the tree. What a pity, then, to exterminate so use-
ful an animal ! Man often from impulse, without
proper consideration, immolates his best friend.
Contrary to common belief, I consider the famed
locust beneficial to fruit trees, notwithstanding the
great outcry about their destructiveness — a fact
very easily substantiated if germane to the present
matter.

So the more we learn of the intricate minutiae of
creation, the greater our surprise and admiration of
the wonderfully wise system of check and counter-
check established, where we see animals almost im-
perceptible, and apparently the most useless and
contemptible, performing functions which, to the
superficial, would seem incidental and objectless ;
but the deep observer of nature, scanning every-
thing with a i)liilosophic eye, sees and recognizes in
the action of the most insignificant a necessary
link of the chain, without which the beauty and
grandeur of the whole would be marred ; rendering
it a doubtful problem if creation itself could exist
without their agency. — Biary of a Country Doctor.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

491

PRESERVATION OF GRAIN FOR FOOD.

In the number of this magazine for October, 1856,
and in following numbers, we presented a few remarks
on the important subject of drying of grain'inthe bulk.
We now propose to glance at those projects which have
for their aim the preservation of the grain after separa-
tion from the straw. Our remarks in connection with
this subject will be confined chiefly to wheat, that being
the most important of the cereals with relation to the
food of man, as yielding the largest per-centage of flour
in grinding, the loss being only one-fourteenth, while
that of oats approaches nearly to one-half, barley coming
closer to the standard of wheat, giving nearly six -sevenths
of its weight in flour.

That which chiefly influences the preservative power
of wheat is the amount of water or moisture it contains.
Containing from 12, 14, 16, and in some cases 20 per
ceut. of moisture, it is in this condition liable to decom-
position ; audit is only when the per-centage of moisture
is 1 educed to 8 and 10 per cent, that its keeping in good
condition can be secured. In certain parts of the conti-
nent, where this moisture is greatly reduced in wheat by
careful ventilation and drying, it can be kept without
injury for lengthened periods, varying from seven to fifty
years. But not only is the preservative power of wheat
increased by careful drying : it greatly augments the
value of the flour obtained from it for bread -making pur-
poses. " It will yield," says a practical miller, " much
more flour per bushel, and require about half the machi-
nery to manufacture it, than it otherwise does if not
dried. The quality of the flour is improved at least
10 per cent., as by drying the wheat all impurities of a
vegetable nature are entirely removed ; and by extract-
ing its natural moisture, the flour will consume, when
baked, more water than it would before the grain was
dried, which makes the bread much more palatable, it
being more spongy." The higher, then, the per-centage
of moisture in grain, the more difficult is it to keep, and
the less valuable is the flour obtained from it. In a warm
climate — as that of the United States — in summer, the
addition of moisture to grain or flour has a tendency to
diminish the quantity of gluten, and to promote such a
change in the constitution of its parts as to prevent good
baking, or " pannification," as it is termed. An excess
of moisture also favours the production of sporules of
different kinds of mushrooms, these being developed in
the bread which is made from the flour so deteriorated.
Professor Dumas states that the wheat of the year 1841,
remarkable for its warm summer, exhibited in a high
degree this defect. The bread in which these mushrooms
were developed was raised in temperature, and soon pre-
sented a mass of reddish and disgusting matter. By
thoroughly washing the infected grain, and following it
promptly by a desiccation or drying, the number of spo-
rules was much diminished. The development of the
mushrooms in the bread was, in some measure, pre-
vented by reducing the proportion of water, increasing

the quantity of salt, and by increasing the temperature
of the oven in which the bread was baked. Seeing, then,
the chances of loss and deterioration of value which sur-
round the farmer in the storing of his grain, it is ob-
viously a matter of no mean importance to investigate
those plans which have been proposed to preserve it in
a condition fitted to produce the largest amount of good
bread-producing flour.

The preservation of grain for food-purposes obviously
resolves itself into two processes : first, that which
gives the grain those qualities which retard or prevent
decty ; and second, that which tends to preserve or
maintain those qualities. The two processes we there-
fore call the " preparative" and the " preservative."

The main feature of the "preparative" process is the
getting rid of the excess of moisture. This drying, or
desiccation, as it is termed, may be effected in a vast
variety of ways. Perhaps the oldest of all the plans
requiring special arrangements — other than those in-
volved in the most ancient of all modes, spreading the
grain in the sun-heat — is that introduced by Dr. Ste-
phen Hales in 1743, and held in high repute, according
to cotemporary evidence, by the farmers of the time — a
curious instance, by the way, of the odd fate which meets
many inventions and processes, used to-day and obsolete
to-morrow ; and that not from better being introduced
to supersede them, but from the process which they are
designed to aid being quite ignored in succeeding prac-
tice. The method adopted by Dr. Stephen Hales was
blowing or forcing currents of air through the mass of
grain exposed to its influence. A tube perforated with
holes was inserted in the centre of the mass, into which
the air was blown, pouring through the apertures and
permeating the material. The farmers of the day used a
modification of this plan by taking a reed or cane perfo-
rated with numerous holes throughout its length, placing
it in the centre of the grain retained in a sack, and
blowing, by means of a common bellows, quantities of
atmospheric air through it. In the " Gentleman's Ma-
gazine," a statement is given which shows that
the plan was in use in France. A member of the
Academy of Sciences, M. Hamel de Monceau, having
preserved a large heap of corn free from weevils for two
years without turning, by merely blowing air through it.
If we preserve the blowing feature, and substitute hot
air for that having the ordinary atmospheric temperature,
we increase the desiccating or drying properties, and
arrive at a process of recent invention, which assuredly
takes its place as one of the most efficient, if not the
mcst efficient, of all plans for preserving vegetable sub-
stances. We allude to the desiccating process patented
by Messrs, Robert Davison and William Symington, of
London. This plan may be briefly described. A series
of cast-iron pipes are arched over a furnace, through
which, by a powerful fan, a current of air is forced. The
high temperature of the pipes heats the air. The matc-

L L

492

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

rial to be dried is placed in a chamber, into which the
heated air is forced, passing off, after permeating through
the mass, by a ventilation at the top of the chamber.
By simple means, the temperature of the air issuing from
the pipes over the furnace can be regulated to a
great nicety, from a heat capable of melting lead,
to that of the summer's softest gale. The drying
power of the apparatus will be best proved by the state-
ment of a fact or two gathered from the experience of
those who have used it for wood-drying purposes. " A
saw-maker, of well-known reputation in London, sent
to be seasoned a piece of rich beech, of which saw-
handles are made, and which he would vouch for having
been in his possession for twelve years, and during four
years of the twelve, it had been lying on the tie-beams
of a roof immediately over a smith's forge. From its
appea!ance and sound, this wood would have been pro-
nounced thoroughly dry ; yet, after being exposed to a
current of heated air at a temperature of 240 degrees,
for about two days, it lost 11 per cent, of its weight."
A violin, which had been in the possession of a party
for sixteen years, its age previous to its coming into his
possession not being known, lost on being subjected to
the process, in the course of eight hours, as much as
5f per cent, nearly of its weight. These facts we give
as illustrative of the drying powers of currents of heated
air.

There can be no doubt that great benefits would arise
from some simple apparatus by which currents of
heated air could be quickly and economically obtained,
to be applied to the drying of grain, either while in con-
junction with the straw, or after being separated from it.
The chamber for heating the air would be a matter of
easy attainment. In nearly all improved farm-build-
ings, a steam-boiler or steaming apparatus is met with ;
this will provide the heating-medium. A chamber or
steam-chest should then be provided, in which and
through which externally, from end to end, or side to
side, a series of pipes should be inserted. The steam,
being admitted to this chamber, envelopes the peripheries
of these pipes, raising their temperature, and that of
any air which may be contained in or passed through
their interior. Let the openings of all the pipes on one
side of the chamber be covered with a hood or external
casing, which hood should converge to a single pipe of
area nearly equal to the combined area of apertures of
])ipes passing through the chamber. The same should
he done at the other side of the chamber. One of the
hood pipes will be that through which the fanners pro-
ject the air to pass through the pipes ; the other will be
that which will lead the heated air as it passes from the
jjipes to the chamber or receptacle in which the grain
is placed which is to be subjected to the drying process.
In place of steam, air heated in a furnace or by contact
with hot surfaces may be used as the drying medium.
And instead of pipes, a series of flat chambers placed in
i;ig-zag fashion may be constructed above a furnace or
alongside of the steam-engine boiler furnace, and
through which air may be blown by a fan, and passed
at once into the drying chamber. Further, in addition
to the drying of grain detached from the straw by the

method here detailed, it is obvious that the plan is ap-
plicable to the drying or keeping dry of the grain in the
sheaf as stored up in the ordinary stacks ; for it is only
the addition of a tube well perforated with holes running
up the centre of the stack, and through which the
heated air can be forced, that is required to make the
plan available.

But to return to the drying of grain as detached from
the straw : it is clear that the method described, of
forcing currents of heated air through lying masses of
grain, will be most quickly carried out where the bulk
of the mass is reduced to a minimum. The economy
of the process will be in proportion to the rapidity with
which all parts of the mass, and all parts of the individual
grains constituting the mass, can be subjected to the
action of the currents of heated air. This leads us to
the philosophy of the process of drying grain in
masses.

If we direct our attention to the simplest of practised
methods for drying grain by artificial heat, namely, the
kiln, we find that the grain placed en masse on the per-
forated tiles, which form the floor of the chamber, is under
circumstances most disadvantageous to its rapid thorough
and uniform drying. Placed in a thick layer on the
tiles, the moisture evolved from the lower strata has
to ascend through, and pass in contact with the
strata above ; the particles constituting these upper
strata necessarily imbibe the moisture thus coming in
contact with them ; and this before it can be expelled has
to be subjected to a temperature which may be too high
for the lower strata on which it rests. If, therefore, the
heat of the kiln is regulated so as best to dry the
stratum or strata immediately subjected to it, that is
which lie on the perforated plates, it will be too low to
eff'ect as quickly and surely as desirable the upper
strata which are in the receipt of the ascending moisture
of the lower; or on the contrary, if the heat supplied is
of a temperature sufficient to dry the upper strata, it will
be too high for the lower. We may thus find in prac-
tice different strata of grain under widely different cir-
cumstances of drying, thus precluding all chance of
attainment of %iniform drying. True that in practice
this uniformity is attempted to be attained by repeated
shovelling and turning over of the grain as it lies on the
tiles. We say attempted to be attained ; for the inherent
clumsiness of the process precludes all possibility of
perfect adjustment of the so-prepared grain to
the peculiar temperature which secures the right de-
gree of drying. From this slight investigation of the
circumstances under which kiln-drying is performed, we
may deduce as a rule or standard of correct drying the
following : " That every individual grain shall have each
portion of its surface subjected to the drying influence,
and the process so under control that it can be regulated
to give the merest shade of surface drying, up to and
throughallthegradations of scorching andburning." This
standard or rule involves two necessities of operation :
first, that the temperature shall be easily regulated ; and
second, that means shall be provided, by which each
grain shall have its due share of the heating medium.
The reader anxious to have a resume of the plans by which

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

493

these have been proposed to be attained, may consult rai
article entitled " A few Notes on Corn drying, and its
Advantages to the Practical Agriculturist ;" contributed
by us to the Journal of Agriculture, No. 44, new-
series. We shall here confine ourselves to the descrip-
tion of one which vye consider very efficient as a mecha-
nical means of laying all the grain in contact with the
heating surfaces, turning it over and over continuously
during the whole of the period in which it is passing
through the machine. The invention is founded upon
the well-known Archimedean screw, which is frequently
used to convey flour from one part of a mill to another.
If our reader has witnessed the action of this apparatus,
he will have noticed, doubtless, that while the flour is
gradually led or moved along from one end of the trough
to the other, there is no displacement of its particles
from one side of the trough to the other ; that is, the
flour is moved along in one mass, without any disturb-
ance of its material particles. If the reader, however,
will imagine a series of plates or ribs, to be placed be-
tween the threads of the screw, passing from one to
another parallel to the axis, he will easily perceive that
as the screw revolved, and each rib came in contact with
the flour, it would dig into it, pass it from one side of
the trough to the other, and partially lift it up past the
centre. Suppose a series of tubes or pipes to be placed
in a heating chamber, and each containing an Archime-
dean screw revolving slowly, and provided with the ribs
as above described, one tube communicating with the
other by means of shoots or conductors; if the grain to
be dried was passed into the upper tube, as it moved
along the ribs between the threads it would keep con-
tinually lifting it up and dropping it, until it was deli-
vered to the further end of the tube, from which it
would drop through a shoot to a second tube, in which
it would be subjected to another series of liftings and
droppings, till it was delivered to a third tube,
and so through a series of seven tubes. It is obvious
that every portion of each individual grain would be
subjected, not once only, but repeatedly to the ac-
tion of the heated surface of the tubes through which
it passed. In this machine, the invention of Messrs.
Robert Davison and James Scott Horrocks, the two
necessities involved by the standard or rule of dry-
ing already given are met. The regulation of the
temperature, or what amounts to the same thing,
the degree of drying, is attained by adjusting the
number of the tubes through the grain is to pass, and
the rate of revolution of the screws which work in them ;
for the greater the number of the tubes, the more heat-
ing surface there will obviously be ; and the slower the
number of the revolutions of the screws, the less fre-
quently will the grain be lifted up out of contact with
the heated surfaces, and the greater therefore will be the
amount of drying which they will receive. The second
requisite is also met by the means adopted of giving
movement to every individual grain as it passes through
the tubes. This movement, or lifting up, can be modified
in degree, by increasing or decreasing the number of the
ribs placed between the threads of the screws.

Having shown how the first, the " preparative" pro-

cess involved in the " preservation of grain for food
purposes" is effected, we now turn to that by which the
second or " preservative" is carried out ; that is, after
having dried our grain, let us see how we are to keep it
dry.

The most obvious method to insure our grain being
kept dry, after having once made it so, is to store it up in
thoroughly dry and vermin-proof granaries ; but it is
not so obvious that in few cases indeed are granaries,
however well built, capable of giving either the dryness
or freedom from vermin which the necessities of the
case desiderate. To insure these requisites great ex-
pense in construction will be necessary, and it is doubt-
ful whether the most complete constructive arrange-
ments can give the freedom from atmospheric agencies
of a hurtful kind which is requisite. In the preserved
meat tin, in the lead-lined tea-chest of the Chinese, in
the housewife's canister, in which is stored up her
valuable commodities, in the corn-bin of the stable,
moreover, we have an example of what a good wheat-
store should be. True, with our preconceived notions of
granaries, it is difficult to look upon any plan, in which
this principle is carried out, with any other feeling than
that of surprise or ridicule. But a very slight consi-
deration will suffice to show that there is nothing
difficult of attainment in making air-tight canis-
ters to store wheat up in. On this very sub-
ject Mr Bridges Adams — to whose facile pen the
scientific world owes many suggestive hints and useful
plans — some years ago wrote a paper to show the feasi-
bility of storing up grain in the manner we have hinted
at. He says — "There can be no doubt that, if we were
to put dry wheat in a hermetically sealed tinned case, it
might be kept as long as the famed ' mummy wheat' of
Egypt. This will be readily admitted, but the expense
would be queried. Let us examine into this. A canister
is a metallic reservoir ; so is a gasometer, so is an iron
water-tank in a ship, at a railway-station, or elsewhere ;
and a cubic foot of water-tank on a large scale will be
found to cost very much less than a cubic foot of canister
on a small scale. And if a bushel of wheat be more
valuable than a bushel of water, it will clearly pay to put
wheat in large canisters of iron. The wheat canister, in
short, should be a wrought-iron or cast-metal tank of
greater or less size, according to the wants of the owner,
whether for the farmer's crop or for the grain- merchant's
stock. * * The size of the reservoir should be pro-
portioned to the locality, and it should hold a specified
number of quarters, so as to serve as a measure of
quantity, and prevent the expense of meterage. * *
Granaries of this description would not occupy more than
one-third the cubic space of those of the ordinary descrip-
tion, and the cost would be less than one-fifth." Such are
some of the advantages of this method of storing up .
grain, as stated by Mr. Adams. About the same period
at which Mr. Adams promulgated this plan, a patent
was taken out by Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Mereau, in which was claimed a method of storing grain
similar in principle. " The invention," as stated in
the specification, " consists in the use of closed metallic
chambers, serving as tubular granaries or receptacles for

L L 2

494

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the seed, vendered JDijiervious to moist'ire and utmns-
plieric influence by a covering at top, heiuieticaUy closed,
affording thereby the means of frequently ascertaining
the degree of humidity within. The corn or seed, having
an excess of moisture is previously desiccated. These
tubular granaries — which may be laid under-ground, or
partially or wholly above— consist ofa metallic case, pre-
ferably constructed of sheet-iron, covered outside with
a coat of hydraulic or other cement, and, if necessary,
with a coat of preservative varnish. * * The cham-
bers are closed 'ivith an iron lid or plug, with a pad of
leather, caoutchouc, or gutta-percha introduced between
the parts in contact, and by an inner cover adapted to
the neck of the chamber, hermetically sealed." A claim
is made for the adaptation of examining tubes connected
with the lids, and dipping into the interior of the stoie
vessel. Sounding tubes can be inserted into these tubes,
so as to bring up and ascertain the condition of the grain
at any desired depth.

As applicable to this method of storing grain in sepa-
rate vessels, and also to the preservation o! flour in re-
ceptacles, we here notice a method of preventing and re-
tarding decay in accumulated masses of food, which de-
pends, according to the patentee, on very simple princi-
ples, " This invention is based upon the theory that
in vegetable substances which contain only a small
quantity of moisture the process of decay always, or almost
invariably the commences at the centre of the mass,
and from thence extends in all directions. It is well
known to millers and others engaged in the manufacture,
storage, and transportation of flour, meal, and grain, that
in these substances such is the case, the centre being
frequently found soured and heated highly, while those
portions near the outside of the mass are uninjured. It
is also the case in hay or other substances of a similar
nature. In order, therelbre, to retard as much as pos-
sible the process, the nature of this invention consists
in removing the centre of the mass, by placing therein
an open tube or tubes, or by the employment of similar
means, by which the mass is so distributed that, if decay
commences at any point, it must extend to a very great
distance in order to aff"ict any considerable portion of
the mass, and therefore its progress must be very slow.
By thus removing the centre, the mass is also distri-
buted in a body of lef-s than one-half the thickness it
would otherwise be ; and thus it is believed that the ten-
dency to decay is in a ureat degree prevented." The
name of the patentee is Edward Loradoux Bellford ;
the date of the patent May 12, 1854.

The principle, if correct, is of easy adoption in prac-
tice ; it is applicable obviously to corn-bins and corn,
or hay-stacks also. In these latter all the advantages of
the tubes may be obtained, as suggested by the patentee,
by placing a series of poles in the centre, so as to form a
tube or ventiduct. There can be little doubt of the
efficacy of the plan of a central tube, where air, warmed
or otherwise, is forced through it by fanners, as already
suggested.

Should any of the methods above described be consi-
dered too much out of the range of ordinary practice,
and granaries after the methods of our fathers deemed the
best, it will certainly be worthy of all consideration

whether — in view of the oii-alisiJes acKno;\ledged bene-
fits derivable from passing currents of air through masses
of grain — it will not be, to say the least, a common-sense-
like method of proceeding to make some simple arrange-
ments by w'aich currents of air could be brought in con-
tact with grain as it lies on the granary floor. This could,
at comparatively small expense, be effected by making
the floor double, the upper part of perforated plates or
tiles ; or, what would be cheaper, constructing a series of
channels, at greater or less distances, between the line of
joists, with openings tending upwards to the granary,
and into this double floor or through these channels, send-
ing currents of air by artificial or natural means. The air
passing through the aperture would permeate the mass of
superposed grain, and be discharged through the ventila-
tors at the top. In home-stalls or steadings, where sta-
tionary engines and fixed thrashing machines are used, the
granary being in close contiguity with the apartments in
which these apparatus are placed, every facility is fortu-
nately given by which power can be adapted to the
forcing of the currents of air through the channels we
have described.

With the scientific and practical evidence surrounding
us in favour of the value of dried grain for bread-
producing purposes, and of its preservative powers, and
with a wide choice of plans by which this drying or de-
siccation can be easily, economically, and perfectly en-
sured, small excuse can be made for the farmer who
complains of having grain, the deterioration of which in
value and preservative influences arises from an excess of
moisture — the cause, be it here noted, in nine cases out of
ten, of the decay of grain. With the aid which the steam-
engine -an appliance of nearly every well-conducted
farm — gives the agriculturist, a very slight exercise of in-
ventive ingenuity and constructive skill on his part will
enable hira to improvise some simple mechanism by
which he can realize, in some measure, the effect of the
summer's heat with the winds of early spring — a combi-
nation for the preservation of vegetable substances than
which nothing can surpass. R. S. B.

PREMIUMS FOR THE BEST SAMPLES OF
BARLEY. — Last year Messrs. Blizards and Godsall offered a
prize of a silver cup, cf ten guineas' value, to the farmer
who should sell thera the best sample of Barley, not
less than two hundred bushels in quantity. The com-
petition was sharp and close, and the results were so
satisfactory, that the firm immediately adraoced upon
their first attempt, and for the succeeding year
offered two cups, upon the same conditions, one to be competed
for by growcis in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and
Hereford ; and the other by those of Oxford, Wilts, and Berks.
The cups were adjudf;ed on Wednesday last, and about fifty
samples were shown from the first-named counties, and ten
from the other three. The judges, Messrs. Ashby Saunders,
brewer, of Cheltenham ; W. Turk, maltster, Cheltenham ;
and VV. 11. Gillett, corn-merchant, of Swindon, decided
that one prize was due to J. Hall, Esq., cf Ripple, Worces-
tershire ; and the other to W. T. Hay ward. Esq , of Little
Whitteuham, Berks; and they highly commended the barley
shown by Mr. Lane, of Ripple, who won the cup last year.
The various competing samples were ranged on Messrs.
Blizards' stall in the Corn Exchange, and formed a very great
attraction during the hours of business. The event was cele-
brited by a dinner at the Swan Hotel, which was attended by
a great number of the agriculturists and merchants of the
neighbourhood, as well as many from a distance.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

495

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.— PROCEEDINGS IN COUNCIL.

The recent proceedings of the Royal Agricultural
Society have been of more than usual interest. In
addition to the general business of this period — where
shall we go ? and what shall we do ? — there have been
two or three special questions to consider. Amongst
other matters, the Council have proposed to find be-
coming successors to such men as Mr. Pusey and
Professor Way. They have publicly announced that
the Society required a new Editor and a new Chemist.

To only a certain extent have these wants been sup-
plied. The new Editor, in short, is not forthcoming ;
and the Directorship is still to remjin with the Trium-
virate. If these gentlemen can devote the time they
have hitherto given to tlie worl«, we see no reason why
they should not continue to conduct it. The lale pro-
position, indeed, by no means ignored their claims or
abilities. We take it to be no secret that this was but
another reading of the Sibyl's volumes. Instead of the
three editors, the charge was to have been confided
to one of them, with such assistance as he might
require, and at a salary of five hundred a-year. After
the question had been twice adjourned, the General
Council have refused to sanction this recommendation
of their Journal Committee. They have, however,
left three hundred per annum at the disposal of the
same editorial staff. Tested by the position, tastes, and
habits of Mr. Pusey, it may be some time before the
one right man turns up.

The solution of their other difficulty has been appa-
rently more readily arrived at. With high recommenda-
tions and long experience, Professor Voelcker now reigns
in place of Professor Way ; and has already read him-
self into office. It was only, pcrliaps, when hearing
the opening lecture of his successor, that the Society
could have felt the peculiar loss of such a man as Mr.
Way. Asa teacher by word of mouth — stripping science
of its technicalities and pedantry — there are few, in-
deed, equal to him. We never listened to any one more
easy to follow, or that so clearly impressed upon his
audience those points they should remember. Professor
Voelcker, in short, followed close on a well-graced actor,
and the comparison was involuntary. We should be
the last to damp the spirit of the new comer, but it
must be confessed that as a lecturer he has something to
learn. It could scarcely be supposed that he has had
the experience in this way we know him to have en-
joyed in the West of England. As a writer on the
chemistry of the farm Professor Voelcker is clear,
plain, and forcible ; while his brother-chemists all tes-
tify to his great professional attainments. As a speaker,
on the other hand, he is often rambling and illogical.
The first half-hour of his inaugural address on the old
hackney common-places of Science and Practice, was
unquestionably a mistake. One almost tired of waiting
for what he was coming to. While warmly welcoming

their present officer, the Society have given their old
ally but a cold good-bye. We think, though, this
want of expression is more with the Council than the
general body of Members. Profes^^or Way was, and
deservedly, a very popular man with the farmers; and
he will be so still.

There has been plenty of work to do, beyond even the
consideration of these important appointments, and
many the references to the sub or working committees.
The Implement committee has, more particularly, been
called upon. First of all, they have to reply to a me-
morial from the exhibitors of steam cultivators who
ascended the heights at Salisbury. The point of (his
petition, which is being fully canvassed in our columns,
is, that the steam plough should have a little more fair
play at Chester ; and this the Implement committee is
to look to. It i3 really gratifying to see with how
much good feeling the different inventors of steam
ploughs are working on to the one great end. Mr.
Fowler and Mr. Williams are about to unite their
forces ; while Mr. Fowler, in a letter addressed to us
only this week, bears witness to the results arrived at
by Mr. Smith of Woolstone : — " Mr. Smith has kinrlly
consented to show his farm as a practical proof of the
value of steam cultivation ; and I intend to station a
suitable person in the neighbourhood, to wait on those
wishing to see it.'' Or you may have the cfiect of
such a system on the farms of Mr. Mechi, Mr. Hobbs,
or Mr. Killin; and this very week Mr. Williams is to
begin on a forty-acre piece in the occupation of Mr.
Owen, the chairman of the London Farmers' Club. In
good truth, the steam plough is again looking up — one
of the most encouraging proofs of its progress being
the spirit evinced by its several supporters ralher to aid
than to retard e^ch other.

Then, there have been numerous suggestions as to the
trials of the steam-engines — the '' Blue Ribbon" honoul*
of the agricultural year — with already amanifest anxiety
as to " who is to win ?" and every district with its own
favourite. And further, the President has called the at-
tention of the Council to the completion, this year, of the
triennial arrangement for the trial of implements at the
Country Meetings of the Society, and to a consideration
of the propriety of its renewal or continuance for the
future. Acting on this hint, a committee, consijting of
the members of the Implement Committee, and of Mr.
Howard, Mr. Shuttleworth, Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Hus-
kinson, and Mr. Amos, is appointed, with power to con-
fer with a deputation from the body of the implement
mcikers, and to report to the Council at their next
monthly meeting in June. It may be asked who are
responsible for all the good or evil doings of this Im-
plement Committee, and we give, accordingly, the ele-
ments of its construction: — Chairman, Colonel Clial-
loner ; Lord Portman, the Speaker, the Hon. W. G,

496

THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE.

Cavendish, Sir A. MacdouaUl, Sir J. V. Shelley, and
Messrs. Brandreth, Brawdretli Gibbs, Hamond, Hobbs,
Hoskyns, W. Miles, M.P., and H. S. Thompson.

What will the exhibitors have to say in answer to
this invitation ? Has the triennial plan worked well or
not ? We incline to think even better than could have
been expected. The question then is — Shall we conti-
nue it ? — Return to the old system? — Or, have no prizes
and no trials at all ? The answer would seem to be
self-evident; although the small end of the wedge may
have been introduced.

Sorely to the disappointment of Oxford, the Country
Meeting for 1859 is to be held at Warwick— a very
good selection. The Society has no need as yet to run
upim a beaten track. There is plenty of fresh ground
still to be broken up. In addition to its convenience of
situation, Warwick has other attractions to recommend

it. The frequenter of these meetings must in time see
all the best of his own country, quite as a matter of
business. There was the run over from Carlisle to
Windermere ; the drive from Salisbury to Stonelsenge ;
the lions of Oxford and Cambridge. And there will be
Kenilworth, Stratford, and Gay's famous castle, in
pleasant association, but as agreeable variety with sleek
Shorthorns and iron ploughs.

One word more as to these recent proceeding?, and
that one to the. important matter of Finance. A
member who has not paid his subsci'iption must not
expect to receive his copy of the Journal. And how
would a man get on without the Joiirnal ? With such
a threat in terrorera, Mr. Hudson's time for the next
fortnight should bo chiefly given to the signing of post-
office orders.

THE NEW MANURE — CLAY FROM THE GAS-WORKS.

We congratulate the agricultural world on the
improved tone pervading the teachings of its scientific
instructors. Theories are enunciated cautiously, and
modestly guarded with allowdnces and provisoes ; and
research in the laboratory is duly acknowledged as
elucidating rather than dictating practical husbandry.
Take, for instance, some most valuable papers in the
last " Part" of the R. A. S. S. Journal.

The Rev. Mr. Bowditch has discovered a new source
of manure— namely, in the purification of coal-gas by
means of clay, which absorbs the ammonia hitherto
unarrested by the ordinary process. Carbonate and
sulphate of ammonia thus acquired by the aluminous
soil used, are doubtless good fertilizers ; but what will
be the efiect of the sulphocyanide of ammonium and
other metals which it also retains in considerable quan-
tities.' Well; " sulphocyanic acid is found in the
saliva of man and the sheep, and must either be taken
in the food as such, or produced in the body by the
vital processes. Mustardseed, again, is known to
contain the sulpho-cyanide of allyle. Horseradish
and Alliaria officinalis contain the same substance. The
garlic and common onion contain an oil which differs
but little from that oF mustard, &c. With these
examples of analogous compounds in the animal body
and in vegetables, there seemed little risk in applying
sulpho-cyanides in quantity." Again: " Many com-
pounds of cyanogen, produced by the distillation of
coal and retained by the clay, found corresponding
ones in the urea and uric acid of urine and guano ;
the hydrocyanic acid of bitter almonds, peach kernels,
the leaves of the cherry laurel, &c., when distilled, and
other compounds of both kingdoms of Nature, which
it is beside our object to discuss." Now, what we have
to praise is, that instead of directly seizing the con-
clusion that the doubtful substance mu^t be a fertilizer
because it is found in the animal and vegetable
organism, this chemist is content to take these facts
as simply tmrranting the risk of a practical trial, and

tests in the field whether or not the ingredient he
believes to exist in onions will injure or improve them
when applied as a manure. Accordingly he tries the
clay, and greatly augments his crop. "At present,"
he says, " any attempt at producing analyses to
account ior visible effects, and saying thus and thus
these substances act — hence, and not elsewhere or otlier-
wise the fertilizing power is obtained — woitld be, in my
opinion, unpardonable presumption. The analyses
must be explained by the phenomena : the phenomena
must not be tortured to fit the analyses. I have
hitherto withheld the results of much labour on this
ground, and propose to learn from, and not to impose
interpretations upon, Nature. Chemistry is honoured
by becoming Nature's handmaid : it is made con-
temptible when put forward as her guide."

One of the most successful experiments with the
new manure — " clay from the gas-works" — was its
application to turnips. " This was the very ajiplication
which theory would indicate. Here was the most sul-
phurized of all manures being applied to the most highly
sulphurized of our field crops. The question put was,
' Will excess of sulphur in manure promote excess of
growth in turnips?'. .. . The crop was inspected by
many, who all agreed that they had never seen it sur-
passed." Yet this was on a piece of poor soil in a
garden. Of course, the usual explanation is ready
enough : " The ammoniacal salts and other compounds
of nitrogen promoted this luxuriant growth of
turnips — the sulphur played but a subordinate part;"
and chemists, unfortunately, lend their authority to
this opinion, asserting that soils always contain an
abundance of sulphates, and therefore farmers need
not trouble themselves to add sulphur. " But is this
so? May not tho superior action of dissolved bones,
superphosphate, and similar compounds, be due in a
great measure to the sulphuric acid they contain, and
not simply to soluble phosphate which does not exist in
the soil, or insoluble phosphate ' in a fine state of divi-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

497

sioii ?' I confess myself strongly of the opinion," says
Mr. Bowditch, "that the sulphuric acid is a very
potent ag-eut in bringing about the good results which
are so familiar, from compounds in which it is used ;
and when we recollect the raising of a crop of turnips
by watering the drills with dilute sulphuric acid only,
and the other successful experiments collected by
Johnston ("Experimental Agriculture," p. 104-5.), I
cannot help attributing the success with turnips, above
described, as much to the sulphur compounds as to the
compounds of nitrogen. Does not the known efticacy
of woollen rags as a manure point in the same direction ?
I know, of course, how large a proportion of nitrogen
they contain, and how this is usually dwelt upon ; but
is it considered that they contain an amount of sulphur
which is capable of forming 12^ per cent, of their
weight of anhydrous sulphuric acid, and that the hop,
for which they are almost a specific, contains a sulphur-
ized oil nearly, if not altogether, similar to the oils of
mustard, garlic, onions, &c. ?" There is independence
of view in these remarks, a breaking away from the
beaten track of Liebig and Lawes, and the customary
authorities, and an opening up of fresh ground for
thought on the subject of plant-food — that we both
admire and approve. The following shrewd observa-
tion indicates one cause of our long subservience to
nitrogen as the royal manure : " When nitrogen com-
pounds can be ijurchased more cheaply than at present,
other ingredients of manure may perhaps receive
closer attention than they now obtain. The extreme im-
portance, and increasing price of nitrogen, has pushed
it somewhat beyond its true position."

Passing by the proposal of the new manure for grass
lands — in which we are reminded that " all the nitrogen
of wool and hair came originally from the soil, and
most of it from grass;" that "the five millions of
pounds of sulphur on the sheep's backs of this country
were principally derived from grass," and thus the
continuous removal of minerals without i-eturn must

tend to deteriorate the land— we take another instance
of our author's moderation in the presence of startling
and very winning results from his experiments v>'ith the
new manure upon potatoes. "The 'potato-disease'
has an interest for everyone, whether he be a producer
or consumer ; and as an experiment of last year bears
upon the subject, it should be known." Of 3 acres of
Prince Regent potatoes, 2^ acres dressed with the gas-
clay were free from disease, and on the remaining half
acre the principal portion of the crop was affected ; the
disease appearing badly in all the district, namely,
Wakefield. Whereupon we have these observations :
" I was prepared for the better crop which accompanied
the special manure, but its influence over disease was
entirely unexpected. I think also it is unexplained.
J/" the disease be owing to the attack of a fungus, and if
sulphur in some or all of its combinations be a
preventive, and if carbonic acid and arsenic (both of
which exist in small quantity in the clay) prevent its
attack or its growth, we may account for the prevention
in this particular case; but where the whole subject is
so entirely beyond the limits of our present knowledge,
it appears more becoming to hesitate in the expression
of opinion. Wiiat is certain is, that the attack of
disease, and of course the presence of a fungus, could
be traced down the stems below the earth to the tubers,
cohere it stopped xohen these losre in contact icitli the
gas-manure, and to which it extended in all other
cases. But an isolated instance does not prove that we
have here a specific against disease, nor even that the
action of the same agent will be the same on other
soils and under other circumstances. Trials alone can
do this, and trials in sufficient number to warrant an
induction."

A great discovery seems here to be close at hand ;
and yet it is the part of wisdom to restrain the first im-
pulse to hail with rejoicing the apparent new truth, and
wait with patience for the tardy proof or too speedy
disappointment.

THE MEMORIAL FROM THE EXHIBITORS OF STEAM CULTIVATORS.

We proceed with the memorial which IVIr, Collinson
Hall, Mr. John Fowler, junr., Mr. Charles Burrell,
and Mr. John A. Williams have addressed to the
Council of the Royal Agricultural Society :

" We, the undersigned exhibitors of steam-ploughs
at Salisbury, are of opinion that the trial of those
machines at that meeting was of an unsatisfactory cha-
racter, and not such as was calculated to develope their
merits, but rather, by putting them into exceptional
circumstances, to injure them in the eyes of the public,
and was not consistent with the importance of the sub-
ject, or a fair return for the l^rge outlay incurred by
us in exhibiting them there." Here we pause to ex-
press, not our approval of the construction of this sen-
tence, but our hearty assent to its statements. Every-
body who saw the ground will testify tljat the trial was
am^ckery, and that it was a hard case for the inven-

tors, after their immense pains and pecuniary sacrifices^
to be placed before the assembled agricultural world
in a position where 'their powers could not possibly be
displayed.

" As the third offer of the Society's premium has
again brought the subject under our notice, and as we
cannot but thiok that the withdratcal of those schemes
cd j)resent most prominently before the j)ulilic from
competition would be prejudicial to the progress of the
invention, and would greatly detract from tlie interest
of the Society's meeting at Chester, we would respect-
fully request that the Council would consider whether
such terms and conditions of trial could be arranged,
and published previous to the day of entry, as would
enable those intending to exhibit to judge oi the advi-
sahilitij of their incurring the heavy expenses neceS'
?ary to such a competition."

498

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Though the members of these sentences do play a
little at " cross-purposes," still, in spite of the compo-
sition, it is clearly to be understood tliat the exhibitors
are not again anxious to purchase " a pig in a poke;"
and, as we shall see, they have good reason for re-
quiring precise explanation of what awaits them at
Chester.

"As we observe that the judges in their report of the
trial at Salisbury express the opinion, ' that the word-
ing of the premium can never justify a judge in giving
a prize whilst a plough is used,' it is we th'nk es=ential
that it should be clearly stated whether any or all
those plans which we represent are excluded by
the wording of the offer of the premium from com-
petition."

Now, five of the judges understand by the words of
the Society's offer, " an economical substitute for the
plough," a machine that shall " turn-over" the soil in
a diiferent manner to that of the plough, ^'^o modified
form of plough, having share and mouldboard, and
turning over a furrow-slice by a screw-wedge action,
can receive a prize at their hands. They must have a
new variety of tilling implement. But two of the
judges understand the terms to mean, a substitute for
the common or horse plough. That is, a steam ma-
chine which can economically take the place of the
present horse plough, no matter whether effecting pre-
cisely the same or a better tillage operation. They
want either ploughing, or some other process equally
effective, done by steam-power instead of horses. The
thing you " substitute" for another is not necessa-
rily of a different kind; but it may be either of the
same or of a different kind, provided only that it
"stand in place of" or answer the purpose of the
other. It might be argued, indeed, that a "substitute
for a plough" must perform the loorh called j)lough-
ing ; otherwise, it would not take the place of tlio old
implement ; and not being able ta accomplish the same
end, could not bo called a "substitute." But why
quarrel about words ? Mr. Wren Iloskyns says,
" When it is already evident that a ])lougli worked by
steam-power gets rid of some of the evils incidental, on
certain soils, to that worked by horses, it becomes quite
conceivable that retaining substantially the same
form, it might yet come to get rid of those remaining.
The nominal objection could hardly survive the I'eal
one, since the only object of substitution is the complete
removal in the substitute of tlie defects in the original.
This accomplished, substitution is literally as well as
substantially attained, for there is iiothing in the
etymology of the toord to irrohibit similarity of form
in the instrument which shall furnish the whole of
the qualities required . . . . ; while it is equally true

that there is nothing in the nature of the prize which
prohibits a suspension of judgment, while this object
may be in process of accomplishment." Let the
Council state plainly whether they understand their
own offer in this sense — whether they will award the
premium to the steam machine that is found the most
" economical substitute for the plough or the spade,"
no matter whether coulters, shares, and mouldboards be
parts of it or not, so long as it fulfils the object in view.
This is, the tillage of Lmd by steam-power as
effectively and move advantageously than by horses.

" We would also suggest that to insure such a trial
of these machines as the importance of the subject
deserves, a much longer time is necessary than can be
given during the show week by the judges, who have
a great many other duties to attend to; and that
it would be of great importance that the judges of this
department should have their whole time at their
disp:;sal for this subject, as no fair comparison with
horse labour can be instituted except by a lengthened
trial." We hope that this request will be com-
plied with ; and that the steam-cuHivator may
not be left for the cursory inspection of the judges,
after examination and trial of the thrashing machines,
chaff-cutters, and mills. Let us have a trial of
several days' duration, with coal weighed, time taken,
and work measured ; and in a situation favourably
adapted to this young class of invention, rather than
selected and laid out so as to baffle the inventors with
unfiiir and unusual obstacles. Let us not absurdly test
general efficiency by means of a maximum of difficulty.
" The length of time that elapses between the publica-
tion of the judges' report and the adjudication of the
prize also exercises a very prejudicial effect on the
business to be done at the meeting. So much so that,
in our oi)inion, a machine known not to be competing
for the premium stands a better chance of obtaining
orders on its own merits than one upon which a report
is expected in a few months, and for which the public
are likely to wait." There can be no reason why the
judges of the steam cultivators should not give in their
report while on the spot; though it is perhaps too
much to expect the necessarily elaborate reiDorts upon
all the numerous classes of machinery and multitudi-
nous " miscellaneous articles" in the show-yard. Let
the judges of steam cultivators, reapers, thrashing ma-
chines, and stenn- engines at any rate, if not of other
important machines, have time to conduct the neces-
sary experiments, and afterwards compose their separate
reports, bef ire or during the public show-days. And
for this purpose the work should be more divided than
heretofore', rather than more classes forced upon fewer
judges.

THE TRIALS OF THE THRASHING-MACHINES.

Sir,— The inclosed paper was laid before the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eugland, at the meeting
ycstc-r.lay. If you can find room for it, I shall feel obliged. I am, Sir, yours sincerely.

Lon,jSaUo„,Marj&.moi. J.A. ClARKE.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

499

TO THK COUNCIL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETY.

Gentlemkx,— As the judges of thrashing-machines at
Chester are likely to have an unparalleled amount of labour
to perform, if left to investigate, without previona plan or
aqreenient, the many points of excellence and delect in
those complicated pieces of mechanism, and the varied pro-
cesses they perform, I am induced to recommend the
preparation of a table, or schedule of points for observation.
This would be at once a concise form of '' Instructions for the
Judges," saving them much time in discussion as to the
basis of their examination, and a valuable statistical detail
of facts and criticism for the public.

The performances of the machines are ascertained by the
"trials," and the mechanical principles and construction ?iTe
judged of by inspection ; the prizes being awarded to those
machines which, in the opinion of the adjudicators, possess
the largest balance of advantages. Now, to shorten the
duration of trial in work is not dcsiraiile; because, the
longer a machine is engaged in thrashing, the better chance
will there be of discovering its capabilities for shaking,
riddling, and winnowing efficiently. But much of the time
occupied in examining the mechanical merits and workman-
ship may be economized, I believe, by meansof a.sj/s(cm«/!C,
instead of a cursory, inspection of the constructive details.
To sum up the comparative merits of a great number of
machines, from any notes of good or faulty " points" which
may have been jotted down whilst looking at each, must
often be difficult enough. How much simpler to have in
your hand a list of the different conditions or capabilitiea to
be looked for and considered in every machine brought be-
fore you, and just note under each head your opinion of
the relative merit of each machine in that particular
respect !

A table might be drawn up, stating the relative standing
of the various raachinea, as regards mechanical merit and
points which cannot be determined in mere trials, thus :

-^-^

p.

s

^ = i

W

^ a':Z

?a^-

^ ^ s

w c

■— S

Q " i,

o

U5

-^■~ s

? a "^ [

£ '- ■=

5 — y-

=

X^

O

i-

_

_

-

—

-

— '

2nd class Ist class
Ist class 2nd cla'-s
:3rd class Ist cla
1st class 1st class

. 1

a

a

7^

f.

\o

3

C >i

P

a.3

J=

^ii

M

'P

Ist class

ind class

1st class

Ist class

Ist class

Isl class

i2nd class

■2(id class

The data in the second and third rolurans, asrertained by
the dynamometer or testing-machine, would reveal certain ex-
cellencies or defects in the mechmism. For the next four
culumna (or more, as other points may be a Ided), each machine
must be inspected, and iU rank as first, second, third class,
&c., agreed upon by the judges, and noted under each head.
The peculiar value of such atsblewould be.itscontainingthede-
cision of qua) fied meu upon the precise points that purchasers
may be anxious about, and whatever qualities or merits the
judges might finally consider imporlant enough to carry off the
prize. Still purchasers would know which machines excel or fail
in every separate particuhr, and could therefore select the ma-
chine beat suited to their pecnliar district or business,

A tabular statement of performances we have had before ;
but I would suggest that the method of taking certain
numbers to represent " perfect work" in each of the several
operations, staling the degrees of merit of each machine by
proportional numbers, and adding the figures together for
the " total comparative merit," must necessarily give a
fallacious result. Who is to say that when " clean thrash-
ing" is represented by 20, "clean shaking" is to be set
down at 15, "chafings free from corn" at 15, "chaff free
fron corn" 15, " corn unbroken" 12, "straw unbroken" 0."

It is easy to see that by assigning other arbitrary numerals
for the different points, according to the view we may
happen to take of their relative importance, very different
sums-total of "comparative merit" would be obtained fir
the several machines tried. Instead of "unbroken straw"
(for instance) being a point of more than half the merit of
"clean shaking" or " chafings free from corn," in some
localities farmers want their straw broken ; and consider-
able difference of opinion maj' exist as to the relative value
of perfection in knocking-out, shaking, and riddling.

Let the proportional merit of the machines in e;ich
process be stated, without attempting to calculate a coir.-
parative total of excellence or inferiority, the table of ; e--
forraances being somewhat as follows : —

w^.

j

►< ■^

1

i-i

I

^' n

s

o o

I

P -■ C. M '^

o o o

umb

of

eave

rushe

half
-hou

o o o

o o o

. , ^cc 5

O O O w

9w

o o o .""

S. 2

o o o =:

r

o

o

o o o ^
o o o i'^

c

H

r^

»

O O O o

a

O O On

■

=r

ro
Cu

o o 0"=:
o o o.°^

^ zn

a' S

U, re

o o o o

to f^

O O ON

p^

S'o

IS

BB p—

\-i

O CO o

— s

o

w

n P

■^

CU

H

o

S- O

i-a

B ■=•

CO OJ

o

^S

o

^

o
pi

pro

O" =f

1— 1

o " »

?i

o

o

»

1 I-.1 CK

o

= -J a

SI

• i^

IS

-,

^

?sg

I-*

Cfl

00

Oi

o

2 "> »

o

S

(33" =

& ft =■ O

e

m

o

o

o

a

si-

33

3

7^

3_

EC n

3

?o

„...

l-ti

o

cr
O

O

Stai

Sha

alter

'

¥-1

"A

3

0

IP

Vi

5' 2 o

^

Other points may be added, as, the quantity of " white-heads,*'
the due separation of chafings from the long straw, freedom of
the chaff from chafings, &c.

The average time worked by each machine at Carlisle wbs
1.5^ minutes with wheat, and 8^ minutes with barley ; and
seeing that at Salisbury there were forty combiued machiues,
besides simple portable and fixed barnworks, it is hardly to be

500

THE FARMER'S MAGAZLN^E.

expected that mucli more time can be allowed for each trial
at Chester. But whether a quarter cr ha!f-an-hour, I consi-
der that each mncldne should be run for the same space of
time; iuitead of tfarashicg a certain fixed number of sheaves,
so that at Carlisle one machine ran 22 minutes, while another
was only 11 minutes doing the same work. The clearer
choking condition of shaker and riddles is often apparent
only after a certaiti period has elapsed in working ; hence
ler, the time be the same for all the machiaei, and
the sheaves counted to the feeder. The quantity of corn
thrashed, and the efficiency of the finisliintj dressing, should
be ascertained by weighing oflf the several bags as they fili,
\vi;ich may be readily done. Inspection will suffice for deter-
ruining' the amount of corn left uuthraahed in the straw, the
corn carried over the shaker instead of dropping through, the
state of the ttraw, the coudition of the grain as to splitting,
nibbing, c&c. ; but for detecting the presence of corn among
the chafings and chaff, these products ouyM to be put through
a common dressinr/machine or chaff-screen, worked by hand.
1 believe that dressing all, or a certaiii quantity of, the chafings
end chaff separately m this way, would reveal a great, though
unsuspected, waste of corn by most thrashing-machines; and
the precise proportion of this loss would be at once ascertained.

when little or none might be apparent to mere iuspcctiou of
the refuse from tlie riddles and winnower.

Numbers may be employed to denote the comparative de-
grees of efficiency in the several operations performed, pro-
vided they are not taken in the aggregate as ir:dicatiiig the
general effectiveness of the machines.

In the two last columns of the table are given the state of
the shaker and the state of the riddles when the trial is con-
cluded— very iixporfant points ; for in few machines can be
found a shalier or i-iddle incapable of choking vilh straws and
short refuse: though, nevertheless, effective shaking, coldering,
find chaffing throughout a heavy day's work depend entirely
upon the ability of the riddles and shaker to loaiutain their
apertures clear and ope::.

The above suggestions arc offered in no spirit of dictation,
but simply with a desire to facilitate the labour of the judges ;
while at the same time securiag a sci'utiny and record of de-
tails useful to the pubic.

I beg to subscribe myself, gentlemes^,

Yours respectfully,
John Algernon Clarke.

Long Sutton, Lincolnshire,
May 3rd, 1858.

THE VETERINARY COLLEGE IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE.

The alliance, continual communication, or mutual
dependence of one on the other, between Agriculture
and the Veterinary Art, is even now by no mean.? as
close as it should be. It is not, indeed, so very long
since, that the jjassed man from the College devoted
himselfalmost entirely to the better sorts of horseflesh,
while "tlie cow-doctor" still claimed nearly all the
practice on the farm. It would be hard to say who is
to blame here. In the earlier history of the College the
aid of the veterinarian was of course not everywhere
obtainable; and there are yet many districts where he
is scarcely within hail. Farmers had so to put up with
the best advice they could command at home, and the
old village-farrier continued to kill with impunity.
But times have altered with us in more ways than one.
Year after year there are more and more qualified prac-
titioners sent forth, and pari passu the value of our differ-
ent kinds of stock has as ceriainly increased. The
health of a Shorthorn heifer may be quite as important
a matter as that of a four-year-old hunter, and a
Southdown ram as well worth attending to as a half-
bred stallion. The registered Y. S., then, should be
brought to consider the diseases of cattle as one of the
most prominent points of his profession.

We shall most likely be assured that he does do so.
We repeat, however, that the communication between
the farm and the college is not so direct or habitual as
the proper interests of either should make it. The
Royal Agricultural Society has, to be sure, done every-
thing it can to improve on this acquaintance, but with
no very lasting effect. Every now and then Professor
Simonds will give us a lecture, or a peculiar case will
turn up which creates a tempoi-ary impression. Ho-
nestly, even this is, more often than not, a volunteer
offering on the part of science, rather than in answer
to any application from the farmer himself. As we
have had occasion to say before now, the members of
the Society are but too indifferent to the privileges they
command in connection v/ith the Veterinary College.

There has been lately rather a striking example
of this. The London Farmers' Club called a
discussion on the diseases of lambs. Despite the
number of sheep fairs being held about the same time,
some very good men answered the summons. They
came, however, all with the same object — to learn. The
very gentleman who read the opening paper could do
little more than complain of his losses, and lament the
curious chamcter of the disorder. Mr. Marshall's
speech was but the key-note to what followed. The
meeting was palpably at sea as to suggesting a remedy ;
and one looks in vain for any resolution to that effect.
The only preventive Mr. Paull had been able to find
was to change the lambs on pastures fed by beasts
the previous year. This had sometimes produced
effect, but still he had been a great sufferer.
Captain Davy removed his lambs to the after-grass,
but had suffered very much from the maladj'. Mr.
Owen Wallis attributed the evil to over-stocking.
Mr. Little knew nothing of the disease in question. Mr.
Williams said the diseases of sheep appeared beyond
the aid of the veterinary surgeon. Mr. King had been
advised to allow his flock of lambs to run over two or
three fields of wheat, and the result was that he lost
more lambs in this way than when they were shut in.
Mr. James thought that where there was a couple of
lambs there was more disease and mortality than with
a single one. And Mr. Owen, the chairman, fancied
the state of the blood had a great deal to do with the
kind of disorder in his lambs.

Now in the whole of this discussion the opinion of
but one veterinary surgeon was quoted. This was by
Mr. Marshall, who gave a report from Mr. Jekyll of
the post mortem examination of some lambs that had
died of consumption. It is satisfactory to know, as we
do, that the gentleman so called in is of recognised
ability in his profession. He speaks to the thread-like
worms found in the lambs; but unfortunately his
research would seem, so far at least, (o justify Mr

THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE.

501

Williams' opinion that the sheep is beyond the
aid of veterinary art. Mr. Jekyll can only say —
"As a cure I have tried the internal exhibition of
small doses of turpentine with cold gruel, but without
success. I have also made them inhale chlorine gas;
and the few on which I experimented lecovercd, but it
was late in the season, and I think it likely they would
have recovered without this. I intend, however, to
make a further trial of this remedy ; but while a ready
means of cure is of importance to us, the cause and
a preventive are of much greater. The history and
stages through which these pests pass, and how they
enter animal bodies, would very much aid us; but
I fear all this is wrapped in a shroud of mystery so deep
that science must labour long and perseveringly before
she caubringforth thenaked factsfor the benefit of man."
Mr. Marshall himself regretted that no one had given
them the result of a post mortem examination of any of
the lambs that bad died in Berkshire, or the West of
England ; and Mr. Williams, despite his previous de-
claration, thought that if some dead lambs — say five or
six from difi'erent farms— were sent to the Veterinary
Professor of the Royal ^Agricultural Societj' for exami-
nation, he would with great pleasure do what was re-
quired. Mr. Corbet, the Secretary of the Club, paid
that the Professor had asked for such animals over and
over again.

Let us now see what the Veterinary College has to
say for itself. The week following the customary
annual report from tliis Institution was read at the
weekly Council Meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society. It will be found in another part of our paper
of to-day. Parts of it would seem to have
been written almost in direct answer to
what occurred at the Club. As for example ; —
" From circumstances which would appear to be
irremediable, few cattle are admitted as patients at the
college. It is a matter of regret to the Governors that
no measure which has been tried by them in conjunc-
tion with the Society has availed to bring to the Col-
lege Infirmary a sufficient number of oxen, sheep, or
pigs when the subjects of disease. Even the merely
nominal scale of charges which was adopted a few years
since for medical attendance, operations, keep, &c., of
such animals, has failed in efFecting this most desirable
object; and the Governors are at a loss to know what
more can be done to remove the apathy which exists
in the agricultural body with reference to thin im-
portant means of imparting practical information to
the pupils." The Veterinary College has at any rate
little doubt as to who is to blame for that want of inter-
communication of which we complain.

Then, again, another clause in the report is equally
well put, and as directly or more applicable to the wants
of the farmer : " The visits into the country by the
Veterinary Inspector, on the authority of the Council,
have not been very numerous this year, and the Go-
vernors would be glad to see that the ari'angement
which has been made with regard to the inspection of
diseased cattle on the premises of agriculturists was
likewise in more general use, for they believe much good

would result therefrom, not only in arresting the pro-
gress of disease, but in investigating the causes, with a
view to their removal, on which it was found to ciej end."

Would it not have been better that a post mortem
examination of a few of Mr. Marshall's lambs had been
made under the authority of the Veterinary College?
Or, that Mr. Simonds had been called in, to confer
with Mr. Jekyll as to the nature of the disease ? Might
not Mr. King ask the College, quite as appropriately as
the Club, " How he ought to treat his lambs ?" Surely
it is here that Practice should call in the aid of Science,
in place of being simply content with changing to
wheat or after-grass, and still being "a great sufi'erer."
Ought we to rest satisfied, in this age, with discovering
worms in the lungs of our sheep, but "how they got
there we had never been able to find out?" The ques-
tion, however, concerns alike the followers of either
pursuit. A veterinary surgeon, of eminence in his
district, admits that the disease has so far baffled his
researches ; while some of the sufferers speak of it
as beyond the power of his art. Has this
as yet been fairly or fully tested ? The profession, in
any case, should look to it. They report that they have
now sent out more qualified students than in any pre-
vious year. Have these young gentlemen had tlie
opportunity of studying consumption in sheep ? If
not, if Mr. Marshall, or Mr. King, or Mr, Paitll will
not send up their lambs, let the College send for them.
Or, let Mr. Simonds pay either of these gentlemen
a visit. We will answer for his reception. Ifthirebe
" apathy" on the one side, there must be none on the
other.

In some quarters, at any rate, the value and want
of the V(terinary Art in connection with Agricul-
ture is coming to be properly appreciated. At the
late Show of the Dublin Society, one of the best
points in the different addresses delivered is to
be found in the speech of a practical agri-
culturist, Lord Talbot de Malahide : — " He thought
it of the utmost importance that further atten-
tion should be given to veterinary science. He believed
that one of the objects which the Highland Society had
in view was the consideration of that subject; and of all
the societies that he knew, he knew of none that could
take that subject up with greater advantage than the
Royal Dublin Society. But if it were to be done, it
should be done efiectually ; it should not be done by
having a few lectures, but by having a veterinary hos-
pital ; and it would be necessary to teach the science
practically not only to those who were to be professors,
but almost an equally important matter would be to
have an inferior class in attendance, such as they found
for nurses in hospitals, and a regular course of instruc-
tion should be given to those " nurses" over the wel-
fare of the animal creation. He considered this subject
one of national importance, and worthy the attention
of every person who had the welfare of the country at
heart,"

Even here, in England, we may yet echo his Lord-
ship, and impress upon our agriculturists the impor-
tance of paying more attention to Veterinary Science.

502

THE FARMEH'S MAGAZINE.

THE SOIL

The soil is the farmer's capital — to make if, pay
liim good prolltSj his business. His means are in-
vested in land, and from its generous bosom he must
di'aw support for himself and family — house, food
clothing, fuel, books, papers, education for liis
children — all the necessaries of life, without which
man cannot live, and all those luxuries without
which life is hardly worth the having. The Presi-
dent in the White House, our ministers at foreign
courts, the American loungers in Paris or Rome,
the missionary on the burning sands of Africa, the
merchant in his counting-room, and the mechanic at
his bench, all derive sustenance from American soil.
Truly do the Scriptures say, " The profit of the
earth is for all ; the king himself is served by the
field." This fact no political economist can deny,
no so])hisra can conceal. To keep his capital from
depreciatiju, and in such a condition that it may be
able to honour his many and necessary drafts, so as
to be in no danger of a panic, and that no suspen-
sion may become necessary, is the great business of
the farmer. It is, then, of the greatest importance
that we should know the charaeter of the soil which
a kind Providence has provided for our sustenance,
and the best method of securing this desirable
result.

Wc need not tell American farmers that our soil
differs in character, that we have clai/ei/, loamy, and
scmdij soils — nor that these different soils require a
different treatment, and are suited to different crops.
And yet we often think those important matters are
forgotten; for how few, who send us reports of their
crops, of their success, or their failures, give even a
hint as to the nature of the soil iu which the crops
were grown, or the experiments tried 1 Then there
is much need of information as to the best manner
of cropping and manuring the different varieties of
soil. \Ve know of land in this section, that ten or
fifteen years ago was considered so entirely un-
suited to agricultural purposes that it was thought
110 sane man would buy it for farming purposes.
Starvation or retreat was supposed to be the sure
fate of any one bold enough to try the experiment.
These lands are now the most productive and valua-
ble of any in this part of the State. This change
has been bi;ought about by skilful culture and a
wise adaptation of crops to the soil.

Every farmer should possess a general knowledge
of the formation, composition, character, and classi-
fication of soil, and on these points Ave shall en-
deavour to make the whole subject so plain that
it will be understood and remembered by all.

CHAUACTEU AND FOUMATION OF SOILS.

Soils are those portions of the earth's surface
\vhich contain a mixture of mineral, animal, and
vegetable substances in such proportions as to adapt
them to the support of vegetation. We quote from
a valuable article in Morton^ s Encijcloiwdia ;

"On examining the various soils in tliis or any

other country, they will be found to consist generally,
i. Of larger or smaller stones, sand or gravel. 2. Of
a more friable, lighter mass, crumbling to powder
when squeezed between the fingers, and rendering
water muddy. 3. Of vegetable and animal remains
(organic matter.)

" On further examination of the several portions
obtained by means of washings, we find,

"1. That the sand, gravel, and fragments of stones
vary according to the nature of the rocks iVom which
they are derived. Quartz-sand, in one case, will be
observed as the predominating constituent ; in
another, this portion of the soil consists principally
of a calcareous sand ; and, in a third, a simple in-
spection will enable us to recognize fragments of
granite, feldspar, mica, and other minerals.

" 2. In the impalpable powder, the chemist will
readily distinguish principally fine clay, free silica,
free alumina, more or less oxydc of iron, lime, mag-
nesia, potash, soda, traces of oxyde of manganese, and
phosphoric, sulphuric, and carbonic acids, with more
or less organic matter.

"3. The watery solution of the soil, evaporated to
dryness, leaves beliind an inconsiderable residue,
generally coloured brown by organic matters which
may be driven off by heat. In the combustible or
organic portion of this residue, the presence of am-
monia, of humic, ulmic, creuic, and apocrenic acids
(substances known under the more familiar name of
soluble humus), and frequently traces of nitric acid,
will be readily detected. In the incombustible por-
tion, potash, soda, lime magnesia, phosphoric, sul-
phuric, and silicic acid, chlorine, and occasionally
oxyde of iron and manganese, are present."

All cultivated soils present a great similarity in
composition, all containing the above chemical con-
stituents ; and yet, notwithstanding this similarity of
composition, we observe a great diversity in their
character. This is caused by the different propor-
tions in which the constituents are mixed together,
t,he state of combination in which they occur, and
the manner in which the different soils are formed.
All arable soils contain organic matter, varying from
half to twelve per cent. Good garden mould fre-
quently contains from twenty to twenty- four per
cent, of its own weight, and in peaty pogs from
sixty to seventy per cent, is not uncommon. It was
once thought that the richness of a soil was plainly
indicated by the proportion of organic matter it con-
tained ; but careful analyses of seven specimens of
the best wheat soils of Scotland, and yielding about
alike, being made, they were found to range from
three to ten per cent. The poorest peaty bogs, also,
contain the greatest amount of organic matter, while
they are notoriously unproductive.

The organic matter in the soil is due, for the
greater part, to the vegetable remains of former crops.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

503

Th.e pruiiic soils are rich in organic matter derived
from the annual decay of the grass for centuries.
The soil of the forests is enriched by the fallen leaves.

The manner in which soils are formed cannot be
doubted by any one who has observed the appear-
ance of large rocky masses, the bare surface of their
smoother and harder parts, and the growth of mosses
and small plants on the more softened portions. The
soil in valleys surrounded by rocky mountains
shows very evidently that they originated in the
disintegration and decomposition of the solid rocks
in their neighbourhood. One of the principal agen-
cies in effecting a gradual disintegration of solid
rocks is the oxygen of the atmosphere. "Oxygen
possesses a great affinity lor many mineral substances,
and has, consequently, a powerful tendency to
form new compounds. Those compounds, or oxydes,
being always more voluminous, looser, and less com-
pact, are the primary cause of the bursting of many
rocks, particularly of those containing much iron. In
the course of the formation of these oxydes, the com-
pact texture of the rock is broken up, and the whole
mass of the rock gradually crumbles down."

Another and powerful agency in the formation of
soils is the carbonic acid of the atmosphere carried
down by rain. Limestone is easily attacked by rain
water, as the carbonic acid which the water contains

dissolves the carbonate of lime. ■' On feldspar,
granite, and other minerals consisting of silicate of
alumina and an alkaline silicate, carbonic acid and
water exercise a highly important action. Under
their influence these minerals are decomposed into
alkaline silicates, which in their turn give rise to
silica and carbonate of potash or soda, and into
silicate of alumina, or pure clay."

The lower orders of plants and animals take a
veiy active part in the formation of soil from solid
rocks. The seeds of lichens and mosses floating in
the air attach themselves to the surfaces of rocks
which have become partially decomposed by the
action of the air and rain, as before described, and
finding here sufficient food, grow, thus keeping the
surface of the rock moist for a longer time alter rain,
and giving the water a better opportunity to exer-
cise its dissolving powers. Insects feed on the moss ;
and both insects and plants die and decay. A thin
layer of more fertile soil is thus formed, which is
soon taken possession of by a higher order of plants
and animals ; which in their turn die, leaving a better
estate to the succeeding generation.

Mechanical causes, too, operate upon rocks. The
wind, thawing and freezing, and the principle of
gravitation, effect them more or less. — Rural New
Yorker.

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BONES: THEIR USE AND
COMMERCIAL VALUE.

Mr. Green, one of the many engaged in the
business of calcining bones in New York, gives the
following information as to the use and value of
bones. JMr. Jones' boiling calcining establishment
is situated on the Jersey side of the Hudson, sixteen
miles up, nearly opposite Yonkers. To collect the
bones from the chiffonniers he employs in this city
eight men, eight horses, and four carts. A labourer
invariably goes with each driver. The largest col-
lections are made in the Eleventh, Seventeenth,
Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-
first, Wards. They commence their rounds as early
as 7 a. m., and by 1 p. m. the collections are deposit-
ed in the vessel that is to convey them from the
city. The law requires all the carts engaged in this
business to be boxed or covered with canvas. The
price paid for bones varies according to quality.
Thigh bones of bullocks rank first, as they are the
only bones in an ox that are fit for turners' use ;
they are mostly manufactured into handles for tooth
brushes, the natural curve of the bone giving the
desired shape to that indispensable article for the
toilet. They are worth from ten to twelve cents
each. The jaw bones rank next, and are worth 18
dollars a thousand. The " short " bones, as they are
termed, such as leave the family table, are worth
from 40 to .50 cents a basket. To give some idea
of the amount of money paid for bones, when we
consider the number engaged in the business of
bone-boiling, exclusive of the Barren Island business,
we will state that Mr. G. pays for bones in this city
alone an average of 100 dollars a day. The fore
leg and hoof are usually bought by manufacturers of

glue, Peter Cooper being the heaviest purchaser of
tills description of offal; and when they are done
with, they are sold to the bone dealers at two cents
a pound. The hoofs are disposed of at the rate of
40 dollars a ton, and are afterwards made into horn
buttons and Prussian blue. Horse hoofs aud sheep
hoofs and horns are sold at 15 dollars a ton.

On the arrival of the bones at the factory, the
thigh and jaw bones are sawn so as to admit of
the removal of the marrow. They are then thrown
into a vast cauldron, and boiled until all the marrow
and fatty substances attached to them are thoroughly
extracted. The fat is then skimmed off and placed
in coolers, and the bones are deposited in heaps for
assortment. The thigh bones are placed in one
heap for the turners : the jaws and other bones
suitable for buttons are placed in a second pile : the
bones suitable for " bone black" come No. 3, and
the remainder are ground up for phosphates and ma-
nures .

" Bone black " is used by sugar-refiners, and is
worth from 21 to 85 cents a pouud. To judge of
the amount used in this city alone of this article, in
the eleven inmiense sugar refineries in operation
here, it is only necessary to state that " Stuart's "
and the " Grocers' " refineries pay annually in the
neighbourhood! of the city 40,000 dollars a year
each for " bone black."

Of classes Nos. 2 and 3 we were furnished with
no reliable data. No. 2 is used in the manufactuie
of phosphates. No. 3 is made into manure, and
sold at prices ranging from 38 to 55 cents a bushel.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

504

according- to qualiiy, bat generally averaging about
50 cents, delivered at the factory.

Of the amount of soap-fat produced from boue-
boiliup-, we can only say that our informant showed
by his" books that the sale of soap-fat from his fac-
tory from June, 1856^ to June, 1857, amounted to

19,000. dollars Of this amount 11,000 dollars
was paid by one house, and we were assured that
this was but a moiety of the amount the house
annually purchased. — Hunt's American Mrchant's
Magazine.

SALE OF MR. CARTWRIGHT'S HERD OF SHORT-HORNS, AT AYNHOE.

BY MR. STRAFFORD.

On Wednesday, May 5, the entire herd of short-horns, be-
longing to T. R. B. Cattwright, Esq., of Aynhoe, were sold
by auction, without reserve, at the Home Farm, Aynhoe, by
Mr. Strafford, the well-known stock auctioneer, of London.
There were 46 head of very fine cattle, moat of which
vfere purchased by gentlemen from a distance, at very high
prices. This splendid herd has all been collected by Mr.
Cartwright within the last four years, and is no'v broken up,
v.-e understand, preparatory to his disposing of the farm on which
they have been reared. The cattle showed very plainly what
can be done by skill and judgment, coupled with untiring per-
severance and industry ; for, without exaggeration, we can
safely say that Mr. Cartwright in his breeding of shorthorns
has rivalled his compeers, even the oldest and most famous.
It was matter of general remark by the very numerous party
present, that they never saw stock lookv so well— and al-
though cattle have been sinking in price of late, the prices were
larger than at any sale in the kingdom of this year. Some
of those sold are destined for Australia, Mr. Tyrell, agent
for Mrs. Keith Faulkner, of Torquay, buying several for that
purpose. The Prince of Prussia bull was bought for the Royal
Af^ricultural College, at Cirencester. But we were rather
astonished to observe that the breeders of this neighbourhood
allowed so much excellent blood to leave the district ; for it is
but seldom that such an opportunity occurs when they can
obtain really good stock at their own doors. No doubt the
prices obtained were very high ; but it ought always to be con-
sidered that for such good old blood as that of "Venus"
(Lot 12), and " Hero" (Lot 8), an extra price must be paid.
"Usurpation," a first-rate cow, sold for £110 to a gentleman
from Lancashire. The Yearlings generally fetched high prices ;
but " Geuevieve 3rd," " Augusta," and " Juanita" (who might
be considered as the gems of the sale), sold at extraordinary
prices for their age. The bulls, 11 in number, were admirable
animals ; but Lot 1, " Second Duke of Cambridge," although
lie sold for £147, did not realize so much as he deserved, es-
pecially when it ia remembered, aa stated by Mr. Strafford,
in beginning the sale, that his sire, " Grand Duke," was sold
for no less than 1,000 guineas.

As a proof of the wide-spreading taste for shorthorns,
it may be observed that the Essex men, who have hitherto
ratb.er held aloof, were good buyers : another earnest that the
seed which was sown by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1856
has not fallen on a barren soil. A new purchaser also arose
in Mr. Howard of Biddenham, a brother of the celebrated im-
plement maker, at Bedford, who carried off four of the choicest-
bred things, at long prices. One of these was Lady Spencer,
a twelve-year-old, and consequently a rather ragged-looking
cow (whose dam was bought at Mason's sale at Chilton in
1829), bearing in her veins the blood of Monarch, who was
sold for 220 gs. in very low-price times. One of her three
daughters, Lady Spencer 2nd, by the 400-guinea Usurer, and

whose young calf was said to have been sold that morning for
50 gs., also becomes Mr. Howard's at 105 gs. Her daughter.
Lady Spencer 4th, a proof of the high quality of the Usurper
heifers, was, again, the subject of very fierce competition ; but
the Master of the Heythrop Hunt was not to be choked off, and
he got the last nod for 140 gs. Lady Spencer 1st was not
so fortunate, although a very magnificent animal to look at ;
but owing to a general impression that she could be of no use
for breeding, Mr. Cartwright lost 70 gs. on the price which
he gave for her a short time since. Lady Franklin, one of the
best cows iu the sale, did not realize her original price by a
great deal. She was by Captain Shaftoe, a Royal Show pure
bull at Northampton, who was sold twice over for upwards of
300 gs. Junia was much liked, and so was her magnificent
calf Juanita, by Second Duke of Cambridge ; but the colour of
Snowdrop, who was purchased by Lord Southampton, was
not a little against her in the biddings. Genevieve,
by the Second Duke of Cambridge, would not
improbably have followed suit to WhitUebury, but
his lordship cut it rather too fine, and the last grain
had fallen from the glass in favour of the Duke of Marl-
borough's steward, before he renewed his bid. Grand as the
Second Duke of Cambridge's stock were, the Duke himself is
slightly leggy, and has hardly made up into quite the animal
we originally expected ; but still Mr. Phillips showed good
judgraentin taking him at the price into Devon, along with Lady
Spencer the First. His son John O'Gaunt was a very striking
animal, with a rare back and quarters, and very rich hair ; and
Mr. Lawford, of Leightou Buzzard, one of the last competitors
for the old bull, bought him. As at the Tubney and first
Quorn sales of horses, the highest prices were a bracket, in
this case, of 140 guineas, between Lady Spencer 4th and
the Second Duke of Cambridge.

The company present numbered at least between 200
and 300, many of them from distant counties, and the rest
were the most enterprising breeders of cattle and agriculturists
of the neighbourhood. Such an assembly is seldom seen in
this quarter, and shows the great interest now taken in short-
horned cattle. Amongst the noblemen and gentlemen were
— Lord Southampton, Sir Charles Knightley, Bart., H. W.
Dashwood, Esq., W. Willes, Esq., H. L. Gaskell, Esq., Kid-
diugton Hall ; Col. Bowles, J. L. Stratton, Esq., T. E , and
G. Drake, Esqrs., H. Hall, Esq., the Hon. H.Noel Hill, Shrop-
shire ; Mr, Denchfield, agent to Sir Anthony Rothschild,
Bucks; Mr. Mein, agent to the Duke of Marlborough; Mr.
Tyrell, agent to Mrs. Keith Faulkner, Torquay ; Mr. Turvile,
agent to W, Bramston, Esq., M.P., Essex ; Mr. Willoughby
Wood, Holly Bank, the well-known agriculturist; Mr.
Lowndes, Liverpool; Mr. J. C. Adkins, Milcote, Warwick-
shire ; Mr. Topham, Warwickshire ; Mr. Dodwell, Long Cren-
don ; Mr. Bowley, Cirencester ; Mr. S. Bracher, Shaftesbury ;
Mr. W. Smyth, Wadhurst Castle, Sussex ; Mr, Lawford

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

505

Leighton Buzzard ; Mr. Yorke, Thrapston ; Mr. Beale, Rugby ;
Mr. Pijgott, Essex; Mr. Atherton, Liverpool; Mr. J. Robin-
soDj Clifton Pastures, Bucks; Mr. Christy, Essex; Mr. How-
ard, Bedford; Mr. Long land, Northamptonshire; Mr. Phil-
lips, Broombury, Totnes, Devon; Mr. H. Hewers, North-
leach ; Mr. T. Worsey, Chapel House, Speke, Lancashire
Mr. T. Robinson, Castle Aahby, Northamptonshire, &c., &c.

After the company had partaken of a substantial luncheon,
they inspected the crops on the farm, which are now in a very
forward state, the barley sown in December looking better
than any ever seen in this quarter before ; the winter beans
are in flower ; aud the wheat, drilled three pecks to the acre, is
a very promising crop. Mr. Strafford then took his place ou
the stand, aud after reading the conditions of sale, went on to
remark " that he was quite sure he need say nothing to recom-
mend the stock to the notice of the company, for the large
number of breeders aud farmers he saw before him, from all
parts of the country, satisfied him that when a man went the
right way to work, like Mr. Cartwright, his efforts would be
fully appreciated. Mr, Cartwright had done wonders during
the short time he had been a breeder. The stock which he
had to offer on that occasion was remarkably well bred, and
those who were desirous of commenciug the breed of Short-
horns hi\d uow an excellent opportunity of doing so. He be-
lieved that Shorthorns were destined to supersede every other
breed. In conclusion, he begged to ssy that the whole
of the stock would be sold without reserve." The biddings
commenced, aud went on very spiritedly to the end. Lord
Southampton and Mr. Mein, agent to the Duke of Marlborough,
bidding against each other very obstinately at times. We
subjoin the lots and the prices obtained : —

COWS AND HEIFERS.

Lot 1.— Jacinth, roan, caWei in March, 1846 ; got by Pawsley;
bought for £38 Vs., by Mr. W. Hadland, of Clattercote.

Lot 2. — Flash, red and white, called in Sept., 1816; got by
Mowbray ; £25 4s., by Mr. E. Parsons, of Walton Grounds.

Lot 3.— Lady Spencer, roan, calved in Dec, 1846; got by
Shamrock; £68 os., by Mr. Phillips, iJroombury, Totne^-s, Devon.

Lot 4. — Jenny Lind. red, calved March, 1847; got by Duke of
Richmond; £47 5s , by Mr. Robinson, Castle Ashby, Northamp-
tonshire.

Lots. — Joan, red, calved August, 1847; got by Lycurgus;
£43, by Mr. Worsey, Chapel House, Speke, Lancashire.

Lot6. — Garland, red, calved November, 1847; got by Bruns-
wick ; £38 17s., by Mr. Bowley, Siddinglon House, Cirencester.

Lot 7. — Pearl 2nd, roan, calved April, 1848; got by Senaior,
£44 25., by Mr. H. Hewer, Northleaoh.

Lot 8.— Hero, roan, calved Miy, !£48 ; got by Son of the Ba-
rontt; £:;8 7s., by Mr. W. Caless, Bodicote House.

Lot 9,— Day's Eye, roan, calved May, 1849; got by Young
Fourth Duke ; £69 Os., by Mr. Howard, Bedford.

Lot 10.— Lady Spencer 1st, roan, calved June, 1850; got by
Marquis of Rockingham; £42, by Mr. Phillips, Broombury,
Totness, Devon.

Lot II. — Pearl 4th, white, calved October, 1850; got by Bene-
dict; £48 6s., by Mr. Howard, Bedford.

Lot 12. — Venus, red and white, calved June, 1852 t got by
Grand Duke; £10.5, by Mr. H. Hall, Biirton.

Lot 1.3. — Lad-. Franklin, red, calved July, 1852; got by Captain
Shaftoe; £70 7s., by Mr. W. Oaless, Bodicote House.

Lot 14. — Accession, roan, calved June, 1853; got by Filbert;
£31 10s., by Mrs. Keith Faulkner, Torquay.

Lot 15. — Pearl Powder, red and white, calved October, 1853;
got by Buccaneer; £36 153, by Mr. Longland, Northampton-
shire.

Lot 16.— Fashion, roan, calved November, 1853; got by Day-
break ; £52 10s., by Mr. Avery.

Lot 17. — Ladv Spencer 2nd. roan, calved November, 1854; got
by Usurer: £110 5s., by Mr. Howard, Bedford.

Lot 18. — Genevieve 1st, red and white, calved December, 1854 ;
got by Usurper; £55 13s., by Mr. Christy, Essex.

Lot 19. — Jocose, red and white, calved March, 1855; got by
Usurper; £73 10s., by Mrs. Keiih Faulkner, Torquay.

Lot 20. — Junia, red, calved April, 1855; got by Duke of
Glosier; £95 lis , by Mr. J. Robinson, Clifton Pastures, Bucks.

Lot 21 — Usurpation, roan, calved October, 1855; got by
Usurper; £110 5s., by Mr. Atherton, Liverpool.

Lot 22. — Lady Spencer 4th, roan, calved December, 1855 ; got
by Usurper; £147, by Mr. H. Hall, Barton,

Lot 23. — Genevieve Snd, red and white, calved Jan. 21, 18.-6;
pot by Usurper; £75 12s , by Mr. PiETSOtt, Essex.

Lot 24.— Jiit, ro.^n, calved Ivlarch 18, 1856; got by Usurper;
£105, by Mr. H. Hall, Barton.

Lot 25.— Johanna, red, calved June 25, 1853; got by Usurper;
£54, by Mr. J. Robinson, Bucks.

Lot 26.— Adelaide, red and white, calved Oct., 1856; got by
Usurper; £32 lis., by H. L. Gaskc'.!, Esq., of Kiddlngton Hall.

Lot 27.— Violet, red and white, calved Nov., 18.56 ; got by
Usurper; £73 10s , by Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bucks.

Lot 28 Princess Royal, roan, calved Feb., 1857; got by

Usurper; £13 Is., by H. L. Gaskell, Esq., Kiddlngton.

Lot 29. — Jessica, red and white, calved Feb., 1857 ; got by
Usurper ; £59 17s., by Mr. Howard, Bedford.

Lot 30. — Proserpine, loan, calved March, 1857; got by Bril-
liant; £63, by Mr=, Piggott, Essex.

Lot 81.— Snowdrop, white, calved March, 1857; got by Bril-
liant; £58 16s., by Lord Southampton, Whittlebury.

Lot 32. — Genevieve 3rd, red and white, calved July, 1857 ; got
by Second Duke of Cambridge ; £110 5.s., by the Duke of Marl-
borough, Blenheim.

Lot 33.— Augusta, roan, calved Sept., 1857; got by Second
Duke of Cambridge; £S4, by Lord Snuthanaplon.

Lot 34.— Juanita, red and white, calved Sept., 1857 ; got by
Second Duke of Cacnbridge; £85 Is , by Mr. H. Starkey, Soy
Park, Wilts.

Lot 3.5. — DewJrop, roan, calved Miirch, 1858; got by Second
Duke of Cambridge; £34 133,, by Mr. Starkey, Wilts.

BULLS.

Lot 1. — Second Duke of Cambridge, red, calved April, 1854 ;
got by Gra>id Duke; £147, by Mr. Phillips, Totness, Devon.

Lot 2. — Flamer, red aud white, calved August, !866; got by
Usurper; £28 7s., by Sir Anthony Rothschild, Bucks.

Lot 3.— Potentate, red, calved Jan., 1857; got by Usurper ;
£32 lis,, by Mr. Beale, Ruaby.

Lot 4. — Forester, red and white, calved June, 1817; got by
Second Du'ke of Cambridge ; £45 Is., by Mr. H. Clarke.

Lot 5. — Firebrand, red and white, calved June, 1857 ; got by
Second Duke of CarnbridKe; £38 17s., by Mr. Yorke, Thrapston.

Lot 6 —Freebooter, red, calv.?d August, 18o7; got by Second
Duke of Cambridge; £32 lis., by Mr. Painter, Worton.

Lot 7 —John o'Gaunt, red, calved August, 1857; got by Se-
cond Duke of Cambridge; £110 5s., by Mr. Lawford, Leighton
Buzzard.

Lot 8.— Don Juan, red, calved August, 1857 ; got by Seconl
Duke of Cambridge; £85 Is , by Mr. W. Smyth, Wadhur.-t
Castle, Sussex.

Lot 9.— Jester, red and white, calved Sept., 1857; got by Se-
cond Duke of Cambridge ; £49 7s , by Mr. Stephen Brachcr,
Shaftesbury

L':t 10.— Lord Abborp 3rd, red, calved Dec, 1857 ; got by
Second Duke of Cambridge; £i6 I5s., by Mrs. Keith Faulkner.

Lot 11.- Prince of Prussia, red roan, calved Jan., 1858; got
by Second Duke of Cambridge; £37 16s., by Mr. Bowly, Ciren-
cester.

The total realized by the cows and heifers was £.2,290 Is.
giving an average of £65 Ss. 7d. The bulls fetched £641 Is.,
and an average of £58 6s. 5^d. The grfnd total proceeds of
the sa'e was £2,931 2s., which gives an average of £63 143.
7id.

After Mr. Cartwright's sale had been concluded, six short-
horns, bred by P. S. Punnett, Esq., Chart Sutton, were sold
by Mr. Strafford, as follows : —

Lot !. — Young Mary, red and white, calved in 1850; got by
Man of Kent ; £35 14s,, by Mr. Chamberlin, of Adderbury.

Lot 2. — Roan Crummy, rich roan, calved in 1851; got by Man
of Kent; £32 lis., by Mr. Bowley, Cirencester.

Lot 3.— Youn:; Spectator, roan, calved in i852; got by Mur-
ton ; £34 13s., by Mr. Caless, Bodicote.

Lot 4. — Torrington, roan, calved in 1852; get by Man of Kent;
£29 8s., by Mr. Willifer, King's Sutton.

L"t 5. — Young Humpsey, roan, calved in December, 1853 ;
got by Murton ; £.'9 8s., by H. L. Gaskell, Esq., Kiddlngton.

Lot 6. — Locket, white, calved in April, 1855; got by Highland
Laddie ; £26 5s., by Mr. W. Smyth, Sussex.

The total amounted to £187 193.; and the average, £31
6s. 6d.

EXPERIMENTAL FARiMS IN AUSTRALIA.— It is
with great pleasure that we take cognizance of the appoint-
ment of Mr. Skilling to the office of Director of the Experi-
mental Farm, to which a portion of the Government grant in
aid of agriculture has been devoted. We feel convinced that

506

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

this EccorJ to the wishes of our farmintf cominuiill.y v\ill be
gratefully received, as it tends to prove that thosa iii authority
are lea'ly anxious for the success of the scheme propounded.
Mr. Skilling has, for some time, beeu the industrious and
efficient secretary of the Port Philip Farmers' Society, and by
constant contact with our leading agriculturists has become
so thoroughly acquainted with their views, and their pursuits,
that he is singularly qualified for the post he is now called upon
lo 611. Had the original idea of Importing (!) a director from
England been carried out, however good a practical or theore-
tical husbandman he might be, it wo\ild have been years be-
fore he could have proved himself thoroughly a master of the
peculiarities of our soil and climate as to become useful to the
colony at large. In place of teaching, he would have to learn
from the very farm servants who m ght already be acclimated,
and, however anxious to do his duty, must have necessarily
found himself a temporary stumbling-block, instead of assist-
ance, to our already rapid advancement. We are not aware
if the Port Philip Farmers' Society will immediately lose the
services of their able secretary, though we should imagine so ;
but, much as the removal will be regretted by those to whom
he has beeu so faithful a colleague, we are sure that the ex-
tended m'=ans of usefulness thus opened to him will be hailed
with gratification, as a reward due to merit, and also as a
handsome compliment to the society itself. When the ques-
tion of the grant was first mooted, Mr. Skilling penned an
able memorial to Captain Clarke, setting forth the advantages
to be gained by a model farm, and in a full, but concise man-
ner, explained the objects to be desired, and the most feasible
method of carrying them out. The plan of a museum he also
broached, and particularly impressed on the government the
mutual economy and benefit to be acquired by a reformatory
school attached to the institution, an idea which it were well
to embrace. The almost unexpected recognition of his valu-
able advice, and in so highly complimentary a form, will,
we doubt not, be a spur to Mr. Skilliiig's future exertions,
and we shortly hope to see him prove as able in practice as
precept. — BeWs Life in Victoria.

THE REARING AND DISEASES OF
LAMBS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MARK LANE EXPRESS.

Sir, — On reading your report of the discussion on the rear-
ing and diseases of lambs at the Farmers' Club, I find that
several gentleteen have sustained great losses amongst their
lambs, but none have been able to supply a remedy. I have
therefore been induced to send jou the result of my own ex-
perience, in order that others may benefit from it, if they choose
to use the remedy, which is both simple and inexpensive, and
in my own case effectual.

In the beginning of April, 1852, my lambs were affected
much in the same way as the Chairman describes his to have
betn. The first symptoms (where they were observed) were,
a wandering listless gait, with the head down, and the mouth
in motion as if eating ; when, suddenly, they would make a
start, stagger a few steps, then fall down and struggle violently
for a short time, foaming at the mouth and gnashing the teeth
as if in great pain. These paroxysms with some of them lasted
but a short time — death eased their pain ; and, almost inva-
riably, with death came what was termed the scour. In others
it appeared with less violence, and some I had lingered for

days before they died. \\'\\\i these I tried >'.ery remedy I
could think of, or that was sug^eated to me ; and, unfor-
tunately, I had cases enough to try everybody's remedy. But
all were alike unavailing, and the disease was stopped at last
by weaning, and at the same time spoiling those that wese
left. I find, on reference to notes made at the time, that from
the beginning to the 23rd of Aprd (the time of weaning) I had
lost 80 out of 300 lambs. The stomachs of several of the
lambs were examined by Vko veterinary surgeons without any
satisfactory reaiilt. I should state, perhaps, that during these
three weeks of mortality, in hopes of checking the disease, the
flock was moved from old or early sown sweles to jounger
ones that had been piillel up and put in rows across the field,
and the ground ploughed between; so that it was impossible
they should have picked up any weed to occasion the disaster.
Next they were put on young turnip greens, and after that on
ryegrass, until, on the 23rd, they were taken from their mo.
thers and kept on dry food for a few days, weaned, and
spoiled; but the disease] was stayed. From this I felt con-
vinced that the injury was derived from the ewe, and that it
was she who required medicine ; and, having: seen in " Clater a
Cattle Doctor" that two ounces of Glauber's salts, with a
quarter of an ounce of cairaways, mixed with thin gruel, was
a good aperient dcse for a sheep, I resolved to give it a trial,
which I had an opportunity of doing the following year ; and,
as I believe, prevented a repetition of the previous year's loss,
as thq same symptoms, attended with the same fatal result,
had shown in one of the best lambs (which I think is often
the case) : \ipon which I procured a quantity of salts and cai-
raways, and drenched all the ewes in the flock, excepting six
which had not lambed at the time ; and the only Iamb I lost
in a similar way afterwards was from one of these sis ewes.

The way in which I prepare the dose is this : I first boil the
carraways iu order that the extract may be equally adminis-
tered, which it would be more difficult to do with the seeds.
When the carraways are sufficiently boiled, add cold water
enough to make as many half-pints as there are sheep to be
drenched ; then add the salts (two ounces to each half-pint),
which, when dissolved, I give to the cwcs from half-pint
bottles, which a boy or girl will fill as fast as five or six men
will get them emptied by drenching tl.e ewes. •

I am a''ra'd, Sir, that my communication has extended to
loo great a length ; but I have endeavoured to be as concise
as possible, and have only said as much as I thought was ne-
cessary in ordor to be understood, and I must trust to your
advocacy of the agricultural interest to plead my apology.
I remain. Sir, your obedient servant,

Durghckre, May lilh, 1858. Eobert Church.

THE DISE.^SES ,0P LAMBS.

Sir, — I have read the discussion at the Central Farmers'
Club published in your paper this week, and find that some
farmers lia^e lost a number of lambs in a shoit time. Having
had some practice in this matter, and knowing the cause of
death and the cure, I will tell it you for the benefit of my
brother-farmerj. It is caused by a feverish milk from the ewe.
The cure is 1 oz. of salts to each ewe, and good keeping. If a
single death happens after this, another ounce per ewe must be
given. I have proved it. To keep well, without cooling the
blood of the ewe, is certain death to an increased number of
lambs. I am. Sir, your obedient servant,

Woohton, Bletcliley Station, May \llh. W. Smith,

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

507

SOMETHING OF PLANTS, AND HOW THEY LIVE.

Plants feed themselves. They increase in
stature because of nourishment. They receive
what is required, and discharge from their roots
what is not required, to assist their growth. What
are plants made of? If every farmer could an-
swer this question, and then provide the pet plant
with such matter as it requires in the manufacture
of itself, he would disperse a mist in which at
least nine-tenths of our farmers are bewildered.
Burn any dry vegetable matter. What becomes
of it ? You see nothing but ashes. This is not
all of it. The balance has become dissipated in
the atmosphere. That part which is nowhere —
which has escaped in the air, or burned away, is
the organic part — the ashes^ the inorganic portion.
Where did this plant come from ? " Dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The part
become air must have originated in air; while the
ashes have become earth, and originated in the
soil. The organic part is air, the inorganic matter
earth. Remember it. Nothing is lost. There has
been no annihilation — only a change of form.
The organic matter, which ^has burned away, con-
sists of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
Carbon is a solid (charcoal), and the last three
named .are gases. Carbon exists in all plants,
and in combination with these gases constitute
nearly the whole of most plants, ashes bearing but
a small proportion to the whole. Carbon con-
stitutes about half the dry weight of plants. Oxy-
gen supports combustion. It unites with many
substances. It is sometimes called vital air, be-
cause necessary to respiration. Oxygen and car-
bon form carbonic acid, and united with hydrogen
forms water. When united with iron, the iron
becomes rusty. This rust is called oxide of iron.
Oxygen united with nitrogen forms nitric acid.
The two also compose atmospheric air ; and here
witness the wonderful adaptation of the works of
creation to each other ! If the atmosphere was
pure oxygen, every living thing would soon decay
of combustion ; but adding to one part of oxygen
four parts of nitrogen, God has so diluted the
exhilarating gas, as that in its place we have a
delicious life-giving and life-pi'eserving nectar— so
pure and palatable that we never cease to thirst
for it, yet the supply is ample. But there are
other elements in the atmosphere which the lungs
of plants receive, and yet they are called impuri-
ties. We have seen farmers for the want of the
proper knowledge apply certain compositions to
a soil, when, instead of benefiting the plant,
it drove away, and dissipated all that was giving
life to it. We have seen ammonia, one of the impuri-
ties above alluded to, allowed to escape from a
manure heap, because of the want of the proper
application to fix it there. Carbonic acid, water,
and ammonia are all essential to the maturity of
most vegetables. Carbonic acidis the most impor-
tant in its relations to plants, for from this source
alone is their carbon obtained. It consists, as has

been said, of carbon and oxygen. It is remarkable
as being the first gaseous substance recognized
after atmospheric air. Dr. Black, in 1757, called
it fixed air, because he found it fixed in common
limestone and magnesia. Plants, as we have be-
fore said, receive nourishment through their roots,
and by their leaves. Carbon enters in the water by
the roots, and is absorbed from the air by the
leaves. Since carbonic acid is the source of sup-
ply of carbon only, to the plant, the oxygen must
be separated from the carbon, and sent off into the
atmosphere. The gum portions of the plant ex-
hales the oxygen under the influence of sunhght.
Sunlight is essential to the decomposition of car-
bonic acid, and to the rapid growth of plants.
When a plant decays, the carbon in the plant unites
with the oxygen in the air, and becomes carbonic
acid. The same is the result where bodies burn.
In the consumption of food and respiration, you
are manufacturing and throwing off carbonic acid,
which goes to assist again the formations of food
for yourself or your dependants. Carbon then is
certainly in a transition state, and though it con-
stitutes so large a part of all vegetable and animal
matter, yet it is all derived from the small amount
of carbonic acid in the atmosphere ; and but for
this constant change and exhalation of both plants
and animals, the supply would be exhausted. The
fire in your kitchen is constantly supplying the
trees and vegetables near your door with carbonic
acid, which if exposed to the sun decomposes
rapidly, and hence makes a rapid growth. The
tree near your dwelling, though no better than the
one planted at the same time, in the same manner,
and in equally as good soil, in the orchard fifty
yards distant, is far outstripping the orchard tree
in growth — simply because it is fed with more
carbon. Trees are necessary near the house ; and
in large cities, every man who understands the
laws of nature and of health will provide these
absorbents for the extra amount of acid generated.
We frequently find in cities the leaves of plants
rapidly forming, while in the country the twigs
are as bare of foliage as at mid-winter. We should
not be misunderstood. Carbon enters the plant
in the form of carbonic acid. The carbon is re-
tained until the plant decays, but the oxygen is
thrown off to unite with carbon again. Carbon
is fixed in the plant until decay commences. The
blood of animals, which contains carbon, unites
with the air, or the oxygen of the air, as it is in-
haled into the lungs, and forms carbonic acid,
without which process no animal could live. This
carbonic acid is thrown off, and feeds plants, which
in turn feed animals again.

We have said carbon is a sohd, or, in other words,
charcoal is a solid. It is hght and porous, hence
a good absorbent. This is the secret of its value
to the farmer. It absorbs gases that may escape
from plants or decomposing substances. It
separates from water any impurities, decayed ani-

M M

508

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

mal matter, and purifies it. Hence, too, its value
as a filter. It is of great value to the field, whether
mixed with the soil or applied on the surface. It
absorbs largely at common temperatures, and when
heated by the sun, yields up its atmospheric
treasures to assist the growth of plants and vege-
tables. You remember the coal beds on the old
farm " down East," where, no matter what the
season, or its effect upon the balance of the crop,
3'ou were sure to find well-matured corn, a large
growth of plump wheat, heavy oats, or enormous
melons, within the area of the coal bed. Can you
recal a time, a season, when there was not a
marked difference between the ])roducts of the
coal-bed and the rest of the field ? Had you ever
investigated the subject ? You remember to have
planted cucumbers and melons in your garden,
and to have heard some one, noted for his success
in growing these luxuries early and large, say that
charcoal was a capital manure. You may have
tried it with success ; but why were you content
with the result ? Why not seek i"or the reason ?
How many lose the benefit of an extended appli-
cation from the want of a spirit of inquiry ! We
hope the Farmers' Clubs will provoke and develop

INVESTIGATION.

Charcoal absorbs offensive odours. Mix it with
night soil, and it makes it dry and portable. Saved
and applied, this is rendered a most valuable
manure. Charcoal has great preservative qualities.
It will keep meat pure and sweet a long time; and
who has not tried its effects in the preservation of
the potato ? WHio ever saw a watery potato
grow on a coal-bed ? WHio ever saw small ones
grow there ? We never did. Mix it with musty
grain, if you have any, or impure meat, and tell
us of its eflfects. Pack meats and vegetables in it,
and they will not soon decay. It is a most un-
changeable substance; hence posts, charred at the
bottom, do not decay as soon as otherwise when
set in the ground. Liquids passed through it
lose their colouring and bitterer astringent flavour.
Sugar refiners decolourize their brown syrups with
its assistance.

Thus, while we have not strictly departed from
the text, we have given you some facts which may
be of great value to you. We have deviated from
our intended course, but our aim is to make these
articles as plain, practical, and valuable as possi-
ble.

Remember that we have said, the organic
portion of plants consists of carbon, oxygen, hydro-
gen, and nitrogen. Water is composed of hydro-
gen and oxygen. Then water feeds the plant with
these two gases. Burn the plant, and these gases
escape in the form of vapour, which, condensed,
falls to the earth as rain. You may desire to
know something of the character of these gases
abstractly. Oxygen is heavier than the atmosphere ;
it is a colourless gas, has neither taste nor smell ;
inhaled by animals, its effects are exhilarating and
exciting. We have seen it given to individuals for
the purpose of exhibiting its effects upon their
action. In some cases the most extraordinary
movements are made. It is, of course, injurious,
and were we to inhale only oxygen, we would soon
be unable to inhale anything. About one-fifth

of the air, one-thiid of the ocean, and one-half of
the solid earth are oxygen.

We extract the following passage from one of
Johnston's lectures: "But the quantity of this
substance, which is stored up in the solid rocks, is
still more remarkable. Nearly one-half of the
v/eight of the solid rocks, which compose the crust
of our globe, of every solid substance we see around
us — of the houses in which we live, and of the
stones on which we tread ; of the soils which you
daily cultivate, and much more than one-half of
the weight of the bodies of all living animals and
plants — consists of this elementary body, oxygen,
knov/ri to us, as I have already said, only in the
state of a gas. It may not appear surprising that
any one elementary substance should have been
formed by the Creator in such abundance as to
constitute nearly one-half, by weight, of the entire
crust of the globe ; but it must strike you as re-
markable, that this should also be the element on
the j)resence of which all animal life depends, and
as nothing less wonderful, that a su])stance, which
we know only in the state of thin air, should, by
some wonderful mechanism, be bound up and
imprisoned in such vast stores in the solid moun-
tains of the globe, be destined to pervade and re-
fresh all nature in the form of water, and to
beautify and adorn the earth in the solid parts of
animals and plants. But all nature is full of
similar wonders; and every step you advance in the
study of the principles of the art by which you live,
you will not fail to mark the united skill and bounty
of the same great Contriver."

Oxygen supports combustion, and all substances
which burn in the open air burn in it [oxygen)
with far greater brilliancy. We have said that
plants exhale oxygen under the influence of sun-
light, and we suggest a simple experiment
by which this exhalation may be made perceptible.

Let a sprig of mint be placed in a white glass
globe, which is then to be filled quite full of spring
water, and the mouth inverted in a tumbler of
water, it is then to be placed in the direct rays of
the sun, and in a short time bubbles of gas will
be seen collecting in the upper part of the glass,
which is nearly pure oxygen.

Hydrogen is fourteen times lighter than the
atmosphere and sixteen times lighter than oxygen,
being the lightest substance known. It is com-
bustible, but does not support combustion. The
affinity of oxygen and hydrogen is very great, yet
they do not combine spontaneously. Hydrogen is
colourless, and does not support life. Animals die
and plants wither when introduced into it. It is
not necessary to the growth of plants. United
with oxygen, it becomes water or the protoxide of
hydrogen. Water is an essential to the plant, but
Nature has provided an ample supply. It is our
province to regulate and modify this supply. Irri-
gation at the proper time is an immense stimulant,
or, more properly, fertihzer. But our hest soils,
the most durable and rehable, require drainage, and
provision for feeding the plant with only the amount
of water needed, and disposing of the sru'plus.
We need write no "apostrophe to water." It may
be of use and abuse. It is both used and abused.
Let us learn to use it.

THE Fx\RMER'S MAGAZlIs^E.

509

Next in order of the organic portioas of plants
is nitrogen — one of the most important organic
constituents of vegetable matter. It constitutes
about four-fifths of atmospheric air. Animals
cannot live in it alone, yet they cannot be matured
without it. Plants die in it, yet it is necessary
to their growth. Reference has already been
made to its use to dilute the oxygen of the air,
so as to render it palatable and life-giving. Its
existence has been known since 177 2, and it was
recognized as a constituent of the atmosphere in
1775. It does not support combustion, but extin-
guishes all burning bodies immersed in it. it is
not intlammable. It is generally supposed that
plants get no nitrogen from the air. Johnston
says, " Spring and rain waters absorb it, as they
do oxygen, from the atmospheric air, and bear it
in solution to the roots, by vv'hich it is not unlikely
that it may be conveyed directly into the circu-
lation of the plants." But plants are mainly fed
by nitrogen through some of its compounds.
Ammonia is one. It is composed of nitrogen and
hydrogen. Seventeen pounds of ammonia contain
about fourteen pounds of nitrogen and three
pounds of hydrogen. It is important to the growth
of the plant — one of the most important com-
pounds. It is common — every farmer has to do
with it and daily witnesses its effects, is made
aware of its presence by his senses, yet scarcely
heeds its value, and often regards it as a very
noxious vapour which ought not to exist. But it
does exist in the atmosphere everywhere where
animal or vegetable matter is decaying. It is
about three-fifths as heavy as atmospheric air.
Our readers will recognize it as spirits of harts-
horn, and it is sometimes called alkaline air, or
volatile alkali. It is colourless, does not support
combustion, and is inflammable. Here is another
wonder for you, reader — a combination of two
colourless and tasteless gases and without smell,
in the proportion of 14 and 3 produces another
gas that has pungent smell and a very perceptible
taste. And is it not more wonderful, that it should
exist, and enter so largely into all the successes
and reverses of the farmer's operations, become
part of his stock-in-trade, and yet create no in-
quiry into its properties, no curiosity as to its use
or value? It is escaping yonder from that manure
heap, from the liquid steaming excrements of your
cattle. Here again you witness the value of ab-
sorbents to mix with animal manures. Charcoal
or muck absorbs largely and should be largely
used. Water absorbs ammonia over 700 and
nearly 800 times its bulk of it, and is made the
medium to transfer the ammonia of the atmos-
phere to the growing plants. Ammonia is power-
ful in its effect upon the plant. It promotes its
luxuriance and growth. It is mainly and perhaps
wholly taken up by the roots of the plant from the
soil, not being inhaled by the breathing leaf as is
carbonic acid.

Liebig says, " The effect of an artificial supply
of ammonia as a source of nitrogen is to accelerate
the growth and development of plants." And he
attaches great importance to this fact, and argues
that it should be taken into account in gardening
— especially in kitchen gardening, and as much as

possible in agriculture on a large scale, when the
time occupied in the growth of plants is of import-
ance, as it is most certainly in our latitudes. In-
deed it is the most valuable fertilizer contained in
farm -yard manure, and it exists to a greater extent
in the liquid part than in the solid excrement.
And yet farmers — the great majority of them —
provide no means for conveying this important
fertilizer to the plant.

The stable manure may be thrown out under
the eaves of the stable, and into the street, vvith
no absorbing mixture. The eaves of the stable
have no fixtures to convey the water into a cistern
for the use of the stock, but the dripping flood
inundates the manure heap, and leaches away into
the street ditch, to be turned perhaps by a shrewd
neighbour, if one happens to hve lower down a de-
clivity, into his own fields by a furrow or five
minutes' use of the spade, and irrigates his fields,
furnishing his crops with a wealth of nutriment
and stimulant — the gold of ^/owr manure. We
have seen it done. We are not imagining any-
thing. The same principle applied to commerce
would ruin every man who indulged in it. Sup-
pose the merchant should throw gold into the
street, and depend upon the silver or currency
received for nrofits, and to replace and replenish
his stock ; what would be thought of him ?_ Does
a farmer know these facts — know he is losing the
best of his resources for the replenishment of his
farm, and still neglect to take measures to retain
them? Cannot afford to provide against this
waste? If God had not blessed us with a land
unrivalled in fertility, and had not provided in
nature compensation for the consumption of
plants, man, if left alone, would soon impoverish
himself, and the earth would become barren and
unfruitful.

Ammonia does not enter the plant by inhalation
(if we may use the term) through the leaves. It
is a gas, but there are few plants that do not
require it to knock for admittance at the roots,
and in company (solution) with water; and here
again we must urge your attention to the saving
the liquid manure of your stock, so full of nitrogen
for the plant. It has been suggested to leave the
stable floor open, with a muck-bed under it, to
receive the leakage. Another plan is, to have
a close floor, and litter the stable behind the stock
with muck, sawdust, or tanbark-charcoal. And
here we wish to say one word upon the use
of muck as an absorbent. Ignorant once of the
philosophy of composting, we helped a man, then
considered more progressive than his neighbours,
to clean out a swamp of its muck deposit— a purely
vegetable substance. It was thrown around an
orchard at once— at the roots of each tree. It had
its effect, it is true ; the trees grew marvellously.
But, if instead of depositing it thus to "save
handling," it had been hauled to the large shed in
the barn-yard, and then mixed with the stable
manure, which was evaporating, and leaching un-
der the eaves on the south side of the barn, we
would have saved enough by the operation to have
paid the expenses and produced more wonderful
effects still. ^AHiry ? Because that muck was pure
and (almost) unadulterated carbon— the best of

M M 2

510

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

absorbents, and that is xohy we urge composting
with it ; it saves for the use of the plant the am-
monia in the manure mixed with it. Attend then
to this matter, and save the liquid portion of the
manure in your yards and stables.

Deep ploughing has to do with the production
of ammonia. It enables the roots of plants to pe-
netrate and fill the subsoil with vegetable matter,
which, by its decay in the confined atmosphere,
where the access of the oxygen of the air is not
easy, gives rise to the production of ammonia.
When thus formed, it is chemically prepared, and
enters the roots of the bearing plant to assist its
growth. We said, the ammonia of the atmosphere
is absorbed by rain, dews, &c., and returned to the
roots; hence, the necessity of rain and dews— the
latter particularly, where vegetation is rankest and
growing most rapidly, requiring continual supplies
of nitrogen. Who can estimate the value of a
heavy body of snow during four months of the
year succeeding a fruitful season ? Here is matter
for inquiry and reflection, fellow farmer. How
wonderfully accurate is the action of God's great
laws of compensation — of supply and demand !

We have hitherto been talking of the organic
parts of plants — those parts that burn away, of
which nothing visible remains after combustion.
Those parts which remain in the form of ashes
are called the inorganic — are derived by the plant
from the earth, and when the plant is decayed be-
come earth again — were obtained from the soil,
and have become soil again by combustion. The
inorganic parts of plants are in small proportion to
the organic, and yet they are numerically greater.

Let the reader remember that carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, and nitrogen are the four kinds of mat-
ter comprising the greater and organic portions of
plants ; and yet the inorganic portion, though
smaller, consists of nine or ten diflferent parts.
We are now to consider these. We may learn
something new, and digressions will be in order if
we find it for the interest of the reader to extend
our science to its practical application. It involves
the manure question at every point, and here we
may discover, possibly, whether the rich and so-
called exhavstless {.') virgin soil of the prairies, will
need to be prostituted by the apphcation of the foul
stuff called barn-yard manure.

Burn a plant, a mass of weeds, a stack of wheat
or other straw, reader, and hov,' little of it is left!
this you have noticed. How small in proportion
to the bulk consumed, and the bulk of ashes that
remain ! This is the inorganic part ; very seldom
amounts to twelve or fifteen per cent, of the weight
of the vegetable substance burned. If it be straw
you have burned, the weight of the ashes will sel-
dom exceed four or five per cent, of the weight of
the straw consumed. Yet this part of the plant is
as important as any other, comes from the soil
and must exist in the soil, so that the plant may
take up the proportions required in its structure —
in its growth.

Burn a ton of straw, weigh the ashes, and you,
who return nothing to your ' fields in the shape of
manure, estimate the amount of inorganic matter
you take from your farm annually, saying nothing
of the ashes, or inorganic part of the grain the

straw yields. How long can you continue to crop
your land without impoverishing it, by this no-
return process ? We want you to have time to
ponder upon the figures you may make, by calcu-
lating that five per cent, of every ton of wheat-
straw you take from your farm is actually taken
from the soil, and must be supplied in some man-
ner, and if you are not supplying it, you are grow-
ing poorer. Let the figures tell you how fast you
are growing poorer. When you have aroused
yourself from the stupor of insensibility, you will
be in fit mood to search into the character of these
several inorganic parts of plants ; for it is not re-
garded by moderns as "stealing trash" to steal
our purse.

Having sufficiently pondered on the amount of
inorganic matter taken from the soil in every ton
of straw, and which must be replaced or the soil is
constantly impoverished, let us inquire what are
these inorganic parts ? Potash is an alkali — one of
the four alkalies found in the ashes of plants. It
is found in most plants. Fill a barrel with wood
ashes, and leach with water — the ley contains the
potash of the ashes. The pearlash of commerce is
only potash and carbonic acid, a union of the two
produced by the exposure of the former to the air,
and if the quantity of carbonic acid is increased,
saleratus is the result.

Many of our readers, perhaps, have had expe-
rience in the manufacture of pearlash. In early
days, when the heavy forests of the North and
East were being cleared, it was no unusual thing
for the settler to turn a penny by the rustic manu-
facture of this alkali into an article of commerce.
We have not unfrequently found it in the large
open fire-places of the borderers, and secured it for
the good dame's use, by using the "poker" among
the ashes.

Plants, trees, and animals require potash in their
construction. Hence it must be found in the soil,
and supplied if cropping has diminished the
supply.

The importance of this supply in the soil will be
seen when the reader understands that every acre
of wheat absorbs over thirty-two pounds of potash
from the soil, barley over sixty- eight pounds, red
clover over one hundred and forty-four pounds,
and other common crops in diflferent proportions.
How is it to be supplied ? Remember this is only
one of the inorganic parts that you exhaust in this
quantity from each acre of soil grown in wheat,
barley, clover, &c., annually. Is it not a great ex-
hausting process ? Is there no necessity for sup-
plying this food, of ploughing deeper, of manuring
more ? If your soil is wanting lime, ashes may be
substituted. But this supply of inorganic matter
in some form must not be withheld from your
farm. It is a great study to learn how to econo-
mically supply it — of great importance you should
learn. Potash may be used on sandy soils with
good eflfect, and is a valuable application as a
top-dressing for young plants, for insects do not
like it.

Soda is another alkali found in the ashes of
plants, and is not unlike potash in its office in the
construction of the plant. Common salt contains
it; hence the application of this thistle-killer — salt

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

511

— to the soil furnishes soda for the plant, and is
often the best application that can be made ; this,
however, is a disputed question. In passing, we
wish to say that brine is a ^reat vermin antidote,
and if carefully applied to the soil and to the com-
post heap will do quite as much good as harm.
Caustic soda, produced by boiUng the common
carbonate of soda with quicklime, is dangerous to
the vegetable. Common salt and lime mixed
together and used in composting is very valu-
able as a supply of soda, for the plant is thus ob-
tained.

Lime. The reader may perhaps consider him-
self posed in reference to this alkali. But its im-
portance to the plant is oftener under than over-
estimated, and it is often blindly applied, and often
not applied at all when it should be. It sweetens
the soil, decomposes vegetable matter, and as a
sulphate is a good absorbent of the different gases.
But the importance of this inorganic part of the
plant to the agriculturist must be the subject of
another chapter.

Phosphoric acid, altlioiigh combining with any of the
alkahes, is most important when compounded with
lime. It is composed of phosphorus and oxygen.
The white smoke of a match when it is ignited is
phosphoric acid, created by the union of tlie phos-
phorus on the end of the match with the
oxygen of the atmosphere. Its importance will be
understood when we tell you it forms nearly one-
half of the ashes of wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat,
barley, peas, beans, &c., and enters largely in the
perfection of vegetables and animals ; and yet it is
found in limited quantities in most soils, particularly
those where cultivation has not been remunerative —
where the whole system has been to get all possible,
and pay nothing to the soil for its harvests.

This acid does not exist in nature in a free state,
and hence, isolated, does not affect vegetation ; but
as we have said, it unites with the alkalies and forms
phosphates, which ai^e essential to the growtli of the
I plant, without which, perfection in the development
of grains and roots cannot be obtained. It is solid
and colourless, soluble in water, sour, corrodes and
destroys animal and vegetable substances. It is
found in combination in all plants, hence its necessity
to them as an article of food ; and yet it must be
diluted or mixed, hence the double importance of
the different alkalies as fertilizers.

The intelligent, thoughtful reader will not wonder
at the constant diminution of fertility in cultivated —
aye, skinned soils. What debts would some farmers
have to pay, if the earth were to make the demand
to each one, " Pay that thouowest," in the shape of
inorganic matter taken from their farms, and never

returned ! It is estimated that in every hundred
bushels of wheal sold, there are removed permanently
from the soil on which it grew, sixty pounds of
plios]ilioric acid ! and that for each cow kept on a
pasture throughout the summer, there are carried off
in veal, butter, and cheese, not less than fifty pounds
of phosphate of lime, of which perhaps nearly or
quite one-fourth is phosphoric acid.

Warring says well, " This would be one thousand
pounds for twenty cows ; and it shows clearly why
old dairy pastures become so exhausted of this sub-
stance, that they will no longer produce those nutri-
tious gases which are favourable to butter and cheese
making." We may as well quote the next paragraph,
and endorse it, viz. : " That this removal of the
most valuable constituent of the soil has been the
cause of more exhaustion of farms, and more emigra-
tion in search of fertile districts, than any other
single effect of injudicious farming, is a fact which
multiplied instances most clearly prove."

He instances the once world-renowned wheat-
producing Genesee Valley. It is well known that its
fame as a wheat country does not belong to the
present. And yet how many of the Western farmers,
or Eastern either, can tell to-day what phosphoric
acid is, or that such matter exists ? They have as
little idea of it, its importance to the soil, its charac-
ter, aud how it is found, as they have of the size of
brain of the inhabitants of the planet Saturn ; aud
how willing to let their children grow up in the same
sort of ignorance, aud with the same indifference to
what grows, and what causes it to grow ! They want
theui to read, write, and cipher — it was the schooling
they had, and they get along !

0 fellow farmer, insist upon that boy and girl of
yours knowing something of this earth, beside its
shape, diameter, and circumference, and who circum-
navigated it. Require that the teacher should at
least know something of plants this summer; be
capable of teaching your child the beauties, pecu-
liarities, and office of plants and flowers— in short,
insist he must know something of botany. But we
have left the acid, though we may have exhibited
some acidity ; if so, we cannot help it, for we feel
very much like scolding at the indifference manifest
to these important departm.ents of education.

Phosphoric acid is indispensable then; it must
exist in some form in the land. If you want intelli-
gent animals, they must be fed with plants contain-
ing phosphoric acid, for phosphorus is contained in
and is necessary to the health of the brain. We
have said enough perhaps to set you thinking, to
prove the importance of this acid in agriculture. In
combhiation with alkalies we shall have more to say
of it hereafter. —Emery's Journal of Agriculture,

AUXILIARY MANURES

The farmers of this country have become so
much accustomed to the use of guano, superphos-
phate of lime, and other light manures, that they
would find themselves in a difficult position for a
time if they were called upon to do without them.
There is nothing, however, at present to indicate

that they will be brought into such a position.
These manures are oflPered in great abundance.
The stores of Peruvian guano in this country are
double what they were last year ; and great efforts
have been made by importers and manufacturers
to insure abundant supplies of phosphatlc manures.

512

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

But the price of these anxihary manures is now so
high in comparison with the value of farm produce,
that farmers are dubious about applying them as
freely as in bygone seasons.

The question as to the profitable application of
guano at its present price, as a top-dressing for the
cei'eal crops, does not admit of a general answer.
It depends on the condition of the land, and other
circumstances. On rich land the extra manure
may cause the crop to fall down, if the season be
wet J and the quality of the grain may be depre-
ciated without the quantity being increased ; but
in the case of land that is well cleansed and in a
middling state of fertility, we believe that it may
still be applied with a fair chance of profit. Four
additional bushels of wheat or eight of oats may
reasonably be expected from each cwt. of guano.
This quantity of grain, with the fodder, may be
worth from twenty to twenty-five shillings; and as
the top-dressing, including labour, does not cost
more than fifteen shillings, the profit looks re-
spectable on paper. It seems high enough to
cover the climatic uncertainties, which the farmer
is taught by experience not to overlook in his cal-
culations. And the additional quantities of grain
and fodder do not show the entire profit that re-
sults from the use of the guano. In the upland
districts, two cwt. of guano per acre will make the
oat crop eight or ten days earlier, and this may
lead to a better harvested, as well as a better filled
and more productive crop. There is another marked
advantage in the more vigorous growth of ryegrass
and clover among wheat or oats which have been
top-dressed. On heavy land a free-growing clover
plant may soon get beyond the risk of serious
injury by slugs, when a weakly plant would be
destroyed.

There have been loud complaints against the
Peruvian government and their agents, because
they have drawn up the price of guano to the
highest rate at which they can command a sale.
These complaints can be of no avail, and it is
futile to indulge in them. The Peruvian govern-
ment have virtually a monopoly ; and in exacting
the highest price which they can freely obtain,
they are merely doing what ether people would do
in similar circumstances. If the price of grain
continue to have a downward tendency the price
of guano must be lowered also, as the point may
soon be reached at which there can be little chance
of profit to the farmer from using it. But it is
lost labour to assail the monopolists, as some
people do, by advising farmers to abstain from
purchasing guano, as long as they expect to derive
profit from its use.

One good result has followed the high price of
Peruvian guano. A stimulus has been given to
the manufacture of portable manures, and the at-
tention of many intelligent farmers has been di-
rected to experimental investigations as to their
value compared with guano. The manures that
are manufactured for top-dressing the cereal crops
are mainly nitrogenous and phosphatic compounds.
When these elements are awanting — as in the case
of the Economical Manure, analyzed by Dr. Ander-
son—the compound is simply worthless, Mr.
Townsend, Glasgow, Mr, Weir, Ayr, and other

respectable manufacturers, sell by a guaranteed
analysis ; and we think that farmers would act
wisely in giving their corn manures a trial.

A very considerable quantity of superphosphate
of lime was used in Ayrshire last season as a top-
dressing for wheat and oats, and as far as we can
learn the results have been satisfactory. It is right
to remember, however, that the high temperature
of the summer of 1857 was very much in favour of
superphosphate. The experience of a cold, moist
season would be less favourable.

Mr, Richmond made some interesting experi-
ments last year, on the farm of Burnton, near
Dalrymple, for the purpose of testing the value of
superphosphate as a corn manure, when combined
with nitrogenous manures in various proportions.
The manures were carefully weighed and mixed,
and sown each on a single ridge to a certain
number of yards from the end. The crop dressed
with each manure could thus be easily compared
with the crop on the remainder of the same ridge
which got no top-dressing whatever. An equal
money value was applied to each of the lots. The
manures were harrowed in with the seed about the
end of February, In making the experiments,
Mr, Richmond merely intended to examine the
crop carefully during its growth, and to form an
opinion from observation. If experiments are to
be followed to the barn floor, and brought to the
final test of weight and m.easure, they are not
worthy of much reliance imless they have been
made on a pretty large scale, and the work, from
first to last, has been conducted with care and pre-
cision. But to the practised eye of the observant
farmer, a small experiment may be valuable if he
have the opportunity of seeing the crop during its
growth.

Mr. Richmond's experiments seemed to point
unmistakably to the propriety of putting a consi-
derable proportion of phosphate into manures for
wheat. The crops at Burnton, as at Craigie,
refuse to admit to the Rothamsted axiom — "Am-
monia for corn, phosphorus for turnips," It is
plain enough that in Ayrshire both crops are bene-
fited by both manures.

In the experiments at Burnton, equal weights of
sulphate of ammonia and superphosphate gave a
better crop than two parts sulphate and one part
superphosphate, while both lots were decidedly
superior to sulphate alone or superphosphate alone.
Peruvian guano alone gave a good crop ; but equal
weights of guano and superphosphate were about
as good, and two parts guano and one part super-
phosphate were superior to either. Again, equal
weights of muriate of ammonia and superphosphate
were appreciably superior to two parts of muriate
and one part of superphosphate, and both were
very much superior to muriate alone or superphos-
phate alone. The lot dressed with equal weights
of muriate aud superphosphate was the best of the
whole. Equal weights of sulphate and superphos-
phate gave the second best, and two parts guano
and one part superphosphate the third best crop.
When we made our inspection and took notes in
August, these lots, at the termination of the top-
dressing, stood up like the step of a stair above the
wheat that had not been top-dressed. The wha&t

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

513

dressed with superphosphate alone had less straw
than any of the lots which were dressed with
ammoniacal manure, hut it was obviously more
growthy than the |wheat alongside, which got no
top-dressing ; and it was firmer of the straw and
earlier than any of the lots. The experiments
were made on a thin heavy soil, which might have
been thought favourable for ammoniacal manures.
The turnip crop of the previous year was grown on
farm-yard manure and superphosphate of lime.

These experiments show that an equal money
value of sulphate or muriate of ammonia and
superphosphate of lime, gave a better return last
year than Peruvian guano, as top-dressing for
wheat. They also indicate that muriate of ammo-
nia was the cheapest source of ammonia to the
farmer. But it is perfectly possible that similar
experiments may give different results this season,
as the summer may not be so favourable as the
last for superphosphate. Such experiments should
be more frequently made. When observation
during the period of growth is afterwards either
corrected or strengthened by weighing and mea-
suring in the barn, the experiments of course are
more satisfactory ; but a very considerable amount
of labour is required to do this as it ought to be
done. An opportunity, howev^er, of observing the
crop during the season of growth may sometimes
convey useful lessons to the farmer; and a little
attention may enable anyone to make a few simple
experiments for this purpose. — Ayr Advertiser.

THE NEGLECT OF AGRICULTURE THE
FORERUNNER OF NATIONAL DECAY.

Sir, — We read of the neglect of agriculture being the
downfall of the Roman Empire. When Julius Cfesar con-
quered all the then-known world, he made every country, as
he conquered it, pay a tribute ia corn instead of gold and
silver; which soon ruined the Roman farmers, by having their
markets glutted with corn the produce of other couutriea
instead of their owu>

It is plain, corn grown in England ia doubly advantageous,
because it is produced by English labour instead of foreign
labour. The Marh-lane Expj ess is doing wonders by opening
the eyes of the foreigu farir ers, by showing them weekly the
wonderful improvements in our agricultural implements. Of
course common sense says that a vast deal of our agricultural
machinery will find its way into all parts of the globe to cul-
tivate their laud with, which will cause our English markets
to be glutted with foreign corn produced by foreign labour.
It is expedient to give the British farmer a tenant-right
{alias equity or justice between landlord and tenant), or the
foreigners with our English-made implements iu husbandry
upon their maiden lands —the foreigners, who pay light rents
and taxes, iu a few years v/ill bring the English farmers to the
same position as that in which the Roman farmers were. No
country can be greet that is poor in agriculture. Upon
estimating the value of the stock and crops in England, it
will be found that ours is tlie richest country, per acre, on
the face of the earth.

Samuel Arksby,

Mill Field; PelrrhoronQh, April 8,

STOCKB RIDGE ANNUAL SHEEP AND
CATTLE SHOW.

The premiums given this year were nearly double as com-
pared with former years, and, as a natural consequence, the
competition was more keen. The stock exhibited, particularly
of sheep, was of that usual good quality which distinguishes
the flocks and homesteads of Hampshire and Wiltshire. The
principal exhibitors were the Right Hon. the Earl of Ports-
mouth ; Mr. Moore, Littlecott ; Mr. Bennett, Chilmark ; Mr.
Edney, Whitchurch ; Mr. Oldmg, Amesbury, and others. Mr.
Pain, of Houghton, exhibited a pea of teg rams as extra stock,
which was highly commended by the judges; a pen of ram
lambs, eleven weeks old, shown by Mr. Moore, of Littlecott,
were also much admired.

For the best Hampshire Down Ham, a silver cup, value 31. 8s.
—Mr. Buiinett, Chilmark.

For the best, Hampshire Da.vn four-tooth Earn, a silver cup>
value 8^. 33.— The Earl of Portsmoutli.

For the host Hampshiro Down Teg Ram, a silver cup, valiie
£Z. 5s — Mr. French, Longstoek.

For the second best ditto, a prize of IZ.— Jlr. Edney, Whit-
church.

For the best Ram of any kind, breed, or age, the criterion of
merit to bj tlie possession of general qualitiea necessary to form
ihe niost useful and profllable sheep, a prize of 21, — Mr. John
Moore, Littlecott.

For the best Hampshire Down four-tooth Ram, a prize of 2Z. —
Mr. Olding, Amesbury.

For the best Hampshira Down Te? Ram, a silver cup, value
51. 5s — Mr. F, Baily, Candover.

For the seeond best ditto, a prize of 11. — Mr. Olding, Ames-
bury.

For the best Hampshire Down Ewe Teas, bred by the exhi-
bitor, in the proportion of 2 to every 100 Ewes kept and put to
tup in the preceding year, to be kept with the flock up to the day
of exhibition, a silver cup, value 3/. 8s. — Mr. Bennett, Chilmark,

For the best Hampshire Down Swes in milk, in the proportion
of 2 to every ICO Ewes kept and put to tup in the preceding
year, to be kept with the flock up to the day of eih'bition, a
silver cup, value SI. 3s. — Mr. Lywood, Houghton.

For the best Hampshire Down Ram Lambs, in the proportion
of 1 Lamb to every 100 Ewes kept and put to tup in the preced-
ing year, bred by tlie exhibitor, a silver cup, value 8Z. Ss.— The
Earl of Portsmouth.

Ulr. Edney's Ram Lambs in this class highly commended.

For Ihe best Ram of any age, the exhibitor not saving more
than 10 ram lambs, a silver cup (given by Thos. Baring, Esq.),
value 31. 8s. — Mr. Chamberlayne, Up-Somborne.

For the second best ditto, a prize (given by T. Baring, Esq.)
of aZ.~Mr, Ay'.es, Michaelmarsh.

For the ten best Hampshire Down Ewe Tejs, bred by the exhi-
bitor, to have been kept with the flock up to tlie day of exhibi-
tion, the exhibitor not saving; more than ten ram lambs, a silver
cup (given by Mr. John Day), value 5Z. 5s.— Mr. Elderfield,
Houghton.

For the fen best Hampshire Down Ewes, in milk, to b3 keft
with the flock up to the day of exhibition, tlie exhibitor not
saving more than ten ram lambs, a priise of 2/. '2s. — i\lr. French,
Longstoek.

For the best Cow, in milk, a cream jug (given by Mr. John
Day), value 3/. Ss.— Mr. Foster, Kingsomborne.

For the second best ditto, a prize (given by Mr. Day) of 21.—,
Mr. W. Potbecary, Wallop.

For the best Heifer, in milk, not exceeding three years old,
a prize of 2Z. — Mr. Flower, Longstoek.

For the best Bull, a prize of 2/.— Mr. 0. Fielder, Sparsholt.

For the best fat Calf, under 12 weeks old, bred by the exhibi-
tor, a prize of U.— Mr. C. Fielder, Sparsholt.

For the best Boar, a prize ot-2l. — The Earl of Portsmouth.

For the second best ditto, a prize of II. — The Earl of Portsmouth.

For the best Breeding Sow, a prize of 2Z.— The Earl of Ports-
mouth.

For the second best di to, a prize of II. — The Earl of Poris-
mouth.

For the best Cart Stallion, prize of 21.— Mr. Ayles, Michael-
marsh.

For the best Cart Mare, in work, prize of 3'.— The E.irl of Ux-
bi'idge.

For the second best ditto, a prize of IZ.— Mr. French, Long-
stock.

For the best Cart Colt or Filly, foaled since the year 1854, bred
by eshibitor, a prize (given by Tho.s. Baring, Esq.) of 21. S».— •
Mr. T, A.ttwood, StQCkbridge,

514

THE FARMER'S xMAGAZINE.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.

A Weekly Council was held on "Wednesday, the
28th of April : present, Lord Berners, President, in the
chair ; Marquis of Downshire, Lord Feversham, Hon.
A. Leslie Melville, Hon. Colonel A. Nelson Hood, Hon.
William George Cavendish, Sir John V. B. Johnstone,
Bart., M.P., Mr. Dyke Aclaud, Mr. Astbury, Mr. Ray-
mond Barker, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, iVI.P., Dr. John
Bright, Mr. J. S. Budd, Mr. Caldwell, Colonel Chal-
loner, Mr. Corbet, Dr. Daubeny, Mr. Davey, M.P.,
Mr. Druce, Mr. Joseph Druce, Mr. Fison, Mr, Brand-
reth Gibbs, Dr. Gilbert, Rev. L.Vernon Harcourt, Pro-
fessor Henfrey, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Wren Hoskyns,
Mr. Richard Jennings, Mr. Langston, M.P., Mr. Law-
rence, Mr. Thomas Lee, Mr. John Lloyd, Mr. Majendie,
Mr. Milward, Professor Nesbit, Mr. Pain, Mr. David
Pugh, M.P., Mr. Robinson, Mr. Thomas Scott, Mr.
Slaney,M.P., Rev. William Smyth, Mr. W. C. Spooner,
Mr. Banks Stanhope, M.P., Colonel Towneley, Mr.
Vyner, Mr. Burch Western, Mr. Wilshere, and Mr.
Joseph Yorke.

Communications were received from Mr. Duckham,
on the desirableness of the Society's Country Meeting
for 1862 being held at Hereford, and of that county
being represented in the Council on the nomination of
members resident within it ; and from Mr. W. G. Field,
of Notting-hill, on the establishment of a permanent
depot, in the neighbourhood of London, for the exhibi-
tion of live stock and implements.

Lecture.— Dr. Voelcker, consulting chemist to the
Society, then delivered before the members the follow-
ing lecture, " On Agricultural Chemistry, in its Rela-
tion to the Cultivation of Root Crops," Lord Berners,
President, in the Chair :

My Lord, and Gentlemen, — If there ever was a time
when a knowledge of science was more useful to the agri-
culturist than at another, it is the present. If there be
any country in which a knowledge of science is of more
direct use than in another, it is England. There are
various circumstances which conspire to account for this.
If we look to the agriculture of the Continent or of the
Colonies, we shall find that there is little scope left to
those farmers who are possessed of theoretical knowledge
of those sciences that apply more especially to agriculture.
It is different in England. English agriculture, as we all
know, is perhaps the first agriculture of the world. Cer-
tainly, in no country is agriculture in such an advanced
state as in England ; and it is easy to demonstrate, if it
were necessary, that, in countries in which agriculture has
reached a high state of perfection, resources are open to the
cultivators of the soil, which in less favourable conditions
are totally inapplicable. England certainly has the advan-
tage of having the landed property in large estates, for the
most part : it is blessed with intelligent proprietors, and
with large tenant-farmers, who, in the present state of
agriculture, find it impossible to overlook altogether the
resources which are offered to the agriculturist by science.
But it is foreign to my object to dwell upon a comparison

between English and continental agriculture. I allude to
the subject here, in order briefly to remark upon the neces-
sity which I believe exists at the present time of a more
extensive cultivation of the study of sciences on the part of
the rising generation of agriculturists. In no country is
this more desirable than in England. We require better
instruction among every class of men interested in agri-
culture. The landlord may derive great advantage, I am con-
vinced, if he have a knowledge of the rudiments of science, for
it v/ill enable him to distinguish at once between the sugges-
tions of the true man of science, and those which emanate
from mea that are neither practical nor scientific, which are so
much calculated to throw discredit upon all scientific investi-
gations, and thus retard the application of science to agricul-
ture. And t!ie large tenant-fatmsr is brought into more
direct contact with scientific matters, since many improve-
ments, which are only practical on large estates, are based on
chemical principles. All farmers who manage farms of any
extent are compelled to use artificial manures : and here we
find that those who have not a clear appreciation of the cir-
cumatanees which regulate the value of artificial manures, are
entirely at the mercy of men who designedly seek to dispose
of substances that do not deserve the name of manures. This
could not be possible if every teuaut-farmer had a knowledge
of the first principles of chemical science. At the same time
it is quite true that everybody does not stand in the same
need of acquiring a knowledge of chemistry. It would be
ridiculous, I think, to teach the agricidtural labourer agricul-
tural chemistry ; nor would it be desirable that the small
tenant-farmer should occupy his time in acquiring chemical
knowledge. He requires to be emioently a practical man, and
to be satisfied with simple tastes, and he will realize little
benefit if he employ his time in the study of a knowledge
which, in his position of life, will be of comparatively little
practical utility, since he finds no scope for the exercise of
such superior knowledge. But the question is quite different
with the landed proprietor aad the tenant-farmer who man-
ages even a moderately-sized farm. There have at all times
been excellent practical men who do not pretend, aad never
have pretended, to any kao?/ledge of chemistry ; and though
there may be some who speak disparagingly of chemicfd
science even at the present time, yet I believe ths most intel-
ligent farmers hive a sort of intuitive feeling that they might
have spared themselves a great deal of labour in acquiring
that practical knowledge which so eminently distinguishes
them at the present time, if they had possessed those facilities
which are now offered to the rising generation in acquiring a
knowledge of science, more especially chemical science. They
are, therefore, anxious to secure to their sons and those de-
pendent upon them the means of not only acquiriug rapidly
the experience which by a long process they have themselves
accumulated, but to extend that experience ; and I believe
there is no better mode of rapidly acquiring practical expe-
rience and extending our knowledge of practical matters than
a study of the principles on which agriculture is founded,
more especially chemical principles. Science is eminently
calculated to get expsrieucs ; for what is science after all, but
the systematic arrangement of well-authenticated facts ? At
an early stage of almost any practical occupation there is no
scope for the exercise of scientific applications ; the facts are

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

515

limited, an J they caa be eiaily recollected. But whan the
number of facts accumulates to an extraordinary estentj none
but those blessed with an exceedingly good memory can gain
practical inforaiatiou. We want, then, some grand principles
which shall enable us to recollect facts. Neither chemistry
nor any other branch of science ought to be the direct guide
to the agricultuiist. It should never put itself in the position
of telling a practical man what he haa to do ; but it ought to
explain the experience of farmers and facilitate the under-
standing of practical matters to the riaing generation ; for
there would be no progress whatever possible if each genera-
tion had always to learn again the same practical matters, a
knowledge of which their forefathers had gained. Tbey
require to have some grand prin':ip!e, to lay hold at once of
those numerous practical facts, and then they are in a position
to extend previous experience. Ileace, I believe, at the
present time especially, science is eminently calcuUted to be
of great utility to the rising generation. The moat successful
farmers in all ages have always been men in advance of their
times. Our most excellent farmers of the present time hive
been distinguished in their manhood /or something for v/hich
they were ridiculed at one period of their life. When they
had to contend against popular prejudices, chemistry as a
science was altogether unknown. In all probability if che-
mical science had been applied to agriculture aj it has since
been, they would have been " meddling" with it, as the
phrase goes ; but they " meddled " with some new plough or
some new implement for which they were ridiculed, and at
first it would seem properly, because they failed in their
attempts : but thej^ were men of character, perseverance, and
intelligence ; they did not abandon a new process because it
was ridiculed, they did not ca^t aside a new instrument
because it did not at once work well ; they put their shoulders
to the work, applied their intelligence, brought out the new
implement, or, by making use of their previous experience,
introduced a new process, which was gradually accepted, since
it was found to answer in a great mmy instances, and the cir-
cumstances under which it would be useful to the farmer were
clearly recognised. Chemical science in its relation to agri-
culture had to pass through all the different stages which a
new-born babe or child has to pass through during the first
years of existence. We have seen the jjy with which the new
light of chemistry in its relation to agriculture, as it has been
called, ha5 been greeted. Those svho have welcomed it with
the greatest joy have, it cannot be denied, too much petted,
so to say, those scientific men who applied themselves to the
investigation o£ chemical subjects in relation to agriculture :
and it has very soon appeared that, like petted children,
many of the professors of chemical science over-estimated their
own powers, and instead of explaining the experience of
practical men, they set themselves up as guides to the farmers;
in short, they over-estimated the powers of the new science,
and, in consequence, stumblid. It cannot be surprising that
practical men should have laughed, at various times, at the
extravagant expectations which were held out by scientific men
themselves. It was very soon found out that, as yet, chemical
science had nothing but promises to offer. It was then that
chemistry had to pass through many troubles ; it received a
rough handling ; and it is surprising that amidst the petting
on the one hand, and the rough handling on the other, it did
not die a natural death. But it is fortunate that, at all times,
there are intelligent and liberal-minded men who, though
they may regret the extravagances of the young, yet recog-
nise the talent that may be but a spark, but which requires
only to be directed in the proper channel to become mighty
means for practical and social good. It reflects great credit

on that immortal man Mr. Pusey to have foreseen, with all
his practical tact and clear intelligence, the important advan-
tages which chemistry is capable of securing at one time or
the other, and who was fortunate enough to secure the services
of my predecessor in office. The services rendered by Pro-
fessor Way to this Society, and to agricultural society at
large, are too well known to require comment from me on
this occasion. His works will be read and appreciated by
successive generations; they have a permaoeutj value, and
belong to the choicest contributions of your Journal. In
alluding to your Journal, my Lord, excuse my making one
remark, which may, perhaps, appear out of place. I was sur-
prised the other day to hear that the Journal was ia danger of
losing its standing as the first leading agricultural publication
of the day ; that the former volumes were much more prac-
tical than those issued in later years. I was surprised to hear
these remarks, because I have heard remarks in "the opposite
direction from many agriculturists with whom I have con-
versed. There will always be difi'erences of opinion; but it is
worthy of remark that the most talented, riaing young farmers
generally speak very favourably of the contributions to the
later volumes of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal;
whilst observations of an opposite tendency are chiefly made
by men who were of full age, if I may use the expression, when
chemistry, as a science, was altogether unknown. Be this as
it may, it is clear that a different mode of thought and ex-
pression pervades the productions emanating from the younger
agricultural writers, which proves, I think, that the rising
intelligent farmer is no longer satisfied with having simple
direction in practical matters — is not simply satisfied with
being told " You must do this or that," unless he is told at
the same time the reason for this recommendation. And I
believe that it is equally true that frequently no satisfactory
explanation can be given of practical farming matters without
usmg scientific language, however simple it may be. And,
lastly, I would ob3e?ve, with respect to this subject, that
many of the most valuable contributions will remain a dead
letter to those who have not studied the rudiments of science.
In short, a knowledge of the rudiments of science, more espe-
cially of chemistry, ia necessary to all who would successfully
compete wilh the future rising generation ; and if they neglect
the opportunities which are now afforded to them in acquiring
chemical knowledge, and a general knowledge of the prin-
ciples of science, they must be content to forego the enjoj^-
ments and benefits which are peculiar to a highly-civiliaed
country like England, and must be content to try their
hands in clearing an habitable spot in the back-woods of
Canada or North America, or to live, or rather vegetate, in
one of our colonies. Agricultural chemistry in its application
to farming is altogether a new science ; aud hitherto it has
been, like every new knowledge, too vague and too general in
its doctrines as well as in its researches. What is required at
the present time is experiments made for a special purpose
researches carried on in the field as well as in the laboratory.
We have need of the joint labours of practical men and men
of science. There are multitudes of subjects which can only be
properly investigated if the man of science heartily joins with
the practical man, working cheerfully together each in his own
department. Nearer approach between agriculture and science,
in short, is what is required at the present time. A genera^
knowledge of the principles of farming, however useful to the
practical farmer, never will help him to grow a large crop of
turnips : he must have special training in practical matters in
order to be a successful farmer. So it is with chemical know-
ledge. Men may have excellent general chemical knowledge,
but if they have not special chemical knowledge in tela-

516

THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE.

tioa to farming, their labours will be of little direct utility
to the agriculturist. We understand in England better
than in any other country the division of labour, and this
cireumatance is highly favourable to the developaient of agri-
cultural chemistry, for greater opportunities are offered than
in any other couutry to aiea trained ia scientific matters
to apply their scientific knowledge to special purposes. I
might take up any subject to illustrate the intimate connec-
tiou of scientific labours with practical matters ; but I believe
there is uoue better calculated to show more the direct bear-
ing of chemistry upon agriculture than the cultivation of root
crops. In cultivating root crops the farmer is directly thrown
in contact with chemistry, for few farmers at thepreseut time
can prsduce sutEcieat natural manure to satiify their expecta-
tions of growing large crops of roots, and hence they are com-
pelled to employ artificial manures. From the first period
when the seed is put in the ground, or the soil itself is cul-
tivated, to the very last moment when the roots are consumed
on the farm, the farmer meets v/ith many matters ia which a
knowledge of chemistry is extremely useful to him. Take, for
instance, the mechanical cultivation ofthe^soil. He is at once
shown the reason why it is of the utmost importance to work
the land properly, to subdivide it, to cultivate it deep. By
this mechanical means he liberates mineral food far the use of
root crops, which are specially benefited by readily available
mineral food ; for, like all quick-growing pkuts, roots require
their food to be prepared before-hand. Hence, if on stiff lands
you neglect the mechanical preparation of the soil, you have
not a sufficient amount of available food to satisfy the imme-
diate wants of the growing rcot crop. Theu again, in putting
the seed into the ground, the intelligent agricu.turist is ri-
miuiied of various purely chemical matters ; and the question
occurs to hiai, " Can I hasten the germination of my seed by
the application of certain salts, or by soaking it in certain
dilute acids ? or can I use any other chemical preparation to
make the seed germinate, and bring up the young plant more
rapidly ?" But in no time in the cultivatioa of root crops is a
knowledge of chemistry of greater utility than when the far-
mer has to decide what manuring substances he ought to apply
in order to obtain a good crop of maugolds, swedes, or tur-
nips. Perhaps he is told he ought to use super-phosphate, or
guano, or a mixture of the two, or a special turnip manure :
how is he to decide what super-phosphale he is to sehct, if he
does not understand the character of the ingredients that
enter into the eomposiiicn of super-phosphates or guano ? and
how can he understand the chemical composition ^of super-
phosphates if he does uot understand chemical terms ? If
he look at au analysis like that before me, he may glance over
it ; but if he docs not understand what the meauing of the
term " soluble phosphate," for instance, is, he ruus the risk
of selecting an inefficient manure, which he buys simply be-
cause an analysis has been offered him. It never eaters his
mind that a man who has to sell a very inferior article would
have it analyzed, and to issue tl'.e analysis with all the im-
purities which the manure contains ; hence, he is satisfied
with simply seeing the analysis. It is, therefore, of
great utility to understand the chemical terms for the sub-
stances that enter into the composition of those manures
which are most frequently used for agricultural purposes.
But, in the first place, it is of great importance to be able to
select those manures which are best adapted to the cultivation
of roots. Let us take, for example, the tultivation of s^i^edes.
We hear constant discussions as to whether guano is better
than super-phosphate, or v/hether a mixture of guano and
super-phosphate should be used; and these discussions are
never brought t> a succr-ssful issue, simply because we require

to ascertain, first, whether ammoniacal matters can be dis-
pensed with in the cultivation of root crops, or not, and what
the conditions are under which we can dispense with ammonia,
a very expsnsive manuring constituent. The question of the
superiority of guano or super-phosphate mainly hinges upon
this: " Can I dispense v.'ith the expensive ammonia, and yet
grow a good crop of roots ?" Now, I have no hesitation in
saying that there are many instances in which roots may be
grown with great advantage without the direct application of
aramouiacal manures j and tliat in all these instances a great
deal of the most useful constituent of guano is, comparatively
speaking, lost, and that guano is therefore to a great extent
misapplied. Now, before I allude to some experiments which
I made some years ago, and which I hope the Society will
enable me to cirry on for years to come (for it is only by a suc-
cession of experiments that truth is gradually established), I
would simply mention the practical experience of many farmers
who have fouud that a mixture of super-phosphate and guano
hns answered much better than guano alone; and likewise the
fact that inferior guanos, richinphosphates, but, comparatively
speaking, poor in ammonia, have answered better, practically,
then the best Peruvian guano. I might also appeal to the
experience of many farmers who apply nothing else in the
cultivation of their roots but super-phosphates prepared from
bouc-ash alone. Moreover, it ia the tendency of the present time
to produce super-phosphates comparatively poor in nitrogen.
It is not likely that an intelhgent class of men like the artificial
manure makers would shorten the supply of ammonia in arti-
ficial manures if they did uot find that it answered their pur-
pose. If they cou'd satisfy their customers without going to
the expense of using much ammonia in the composition of arti-
ficial manure, they were evidently the gainers. I would not,
however, have you to understand that I think that ammonia
can be dispensed vith even in the cultivation of root crops.
I know that it cannot be. There are many soils on which the
vc-ry cheapest manure that you can possibly use is guano.
There are many soils in which ammoniac&l matters are
beneficial to the root crops; but the instances are far more
numerous in which phosphates are more beneficial. With
a view of throwing some light on the action of ammonia on
root crops, more especially on turnips, I some j-ears ago
instituted some experiments whicli were purposely made
on extremely poor land — very thin and exhausted land.
They were not made with a view of ascertaining how large
a crop of turnips I could obtain by the application of certain
mixed manures, but more especially for the purpose of
ascertaining whether on our soils and the soils in our neigh-
bourhood we could dispense with the use of ammonia or
not, and what manuring constituents were likely to be of
the greatest benefit to the root crops. I used for this pur-
pose several simple salts— like sulphate of ammonia, sulphate
of potash, sulphate of soda, sulphate of lime — besides phos-
phate in a soluble and most available condition, alone, and
mixed with ammonia. That the soil on which the experi-
ment was carried on was extremely poor is shown by the
result embodied in the diagram to which I direct your
attention. The natural produce of the land in one part was
about 3 tons, and in another part 2 tons 11 cwts. 1.0 lbs.
That is the difference between the middle of the field and
the outside ; it is too small to be taken into account. And
allow me to observe that I think that alidifferences in prac-
tical experiments amounting to no more than half a ton
ought to be dismissed altogether as accounted for by natural
variatioirs in the soil, or by accident. You should not
dwell upon these minute differences, and draw nice distinc-
tions as to the action of difit'erent manuring matters. And

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

517

permit me to throw out a hint for all who take an iaterost
in practical experiments, aud that is, to test the natural
capabilities of the soil bj-- making two experiments with
nothing. You will observe that in these experiments sul-
phate of ammonia had no effect upon the root crop at all ;
if anything it diminished the produce. I was not a little
surprised in obtaining this result, expecting as I did that
the ammonia would force on the crop. We are in the habit
of connecting the i-apid starting of the crop with the presence
of ammonia in the soil on the manure : we call ammonia a
forcing element, but certainly in relation to the young
swede it cannot be so called ; it does not force on the
seed, but rather retards the germination. In all these
experiments I find that the least you do aftificially by
using various salts or guano, or even super-phosphates,
the more rapidly the seed germinates ; aud hence it
follows likewise that it is desirable not to put the seed in
direct contact with the artificial manure, and, if possible, to
apply farm-yard manure in the autumn ; at least, this should
be done in heavy land ; the manure then has tima to diffuse
itself throughout the soil, and yon do not get tho;e injurious
effects which are produced when you put the seed into a part
of the soil which is too highly manured, which it necessarily
will be if the manure has not had time to diffuse itself through-
out it. And even with the application of artificial manures I
cannot help thinking that in mauy instances it would be more
useful to apply them wish the broad-cast distributor than
drilling immediately with the seed. At least I have heard
many excellent practical farmers expressing themselves to this
effect. I merely throw this out as a matter of report made to
me, and not as advocating either the one or the other method
of applying artificial manure. Guano more especially retards
germination of turnip seeds, and I have no doubt in my own
mind that it is the large amount of ammonia in guano that
produces this undesirable effect ; but I have not found in my
experiments that super-phosphates hasten the germination of
the seed. When the young plant is up, then readily available
food in the soil is of the greatest utility, and the turnip grows
rapidly. Hence there is some truth in the observation that
auper-phosphate pushes on the turnip crop, bringing ic out of
the reach of the turnip-fly ; but it does not facilitate the rapid
germination of the seed : it has rather a contrary effect. It
has been questioned by high authority whether the effect of
super-phosphate on root crops might not be due as much to the
sulphuric acid as to the phosphoric acid ; but you have here a
direct experiment which proves better than any theoretical
reasons the erroneousness of this view. With super-phosphate
alone, made from purely mineral phosphate, the natural pro-
duce of the land, amouatiog to three tons on the average has
been nearly trebled. In all experiments, in short, where phos-
phate has been used, the crop his very much increased ;
whereas when gypsum has been applied, no benefit has resulted
from the application. I may add that last year I made another
series of experiments in which the same result has been brought
out :

With nothing the produce was . . 6 tons 11 cwt. 2 qrs.

With gypsum S 13 3

Whereas super-phosphate _without

ammonia produced 10 17 0

In all these experiments neither sulphuric acid applied in the
shape of gypsum nor ammonia has done any good. In an
experiment made on another part of the farm last year, I again
found that ammonia was of no utility. Thus sulphate of am-
monia applied to a field which natuially yielded 6 tons 11 cwt.,
produced 5 tons 6 cwt. 211bs. — to some extent diminishing
the produce. It is certain that in these casea ammoniacal

manures, like guano or compound turnip manures, are to a
great extent misapplied, because the farmer loses the imme-
diate effect of the most expensive constituent of the manure.
But I am acquainted v?ith other experiments in which guano
is of very great utility, aad produces a better effect than purely
mineral phosphatic manures. It re-maioa to be seen what the
exact circumstances are, under which we can dispense with
ammoniacal manures, and also under what circumstances we
can dispense with phosphatic manures for the cultivation of
root cropg : for I thiuk that there are instances in which even
superphosphate is misapplied — in which superphosphate and
phosphatic manures as applied to root crops are of litt'e prac-
tical utility. I should be extremely gratified if any instances
of practical failures with superphosphate were reported to me,
and portions of soil reserved for further esamiuation, if such
should be found necessary. The question whether we can dis-
pense with the artificial supply of phosphates is a very impor-
tant one— next in importance to the one upon which I have
just now dwelt — which asvaita its practical solution, and will
no doubt find it when we continue to institute experiments
with a distinct object in view, without refereace to any imme-
diate result made with the view of explaining existing prac-
tices : it is only then that we can arrive at legitimate conclu-
sions. Esperiments are frequently made very much in the
manner in which a student ia chemistry begins his researches
in the laboratory. He tries certain bottles, and puts one fluid
with the other to see the result, and arrives at no practical
conclusion, because, in nine cases out of ten, he obtains, by
mixing four or five bottles together, a black dirty-looking
hquid : so, by jumbling together all sorts of manuring matters,
and trying to obtain from them any really useful practical
results, you do not obtain any from which legitimate conclu-
sions can be drawn. Thus, for instance, we frequently hear
of comparisons between guano aud superphosphate ; but we
are not told what description of guano or of superphosphate
is taken. You will see, by the diagram before me, that the
composition of superphosphate varies greatly. One, for in-
stance, contains only 5 per cent, of soluble phosphate, and 1
per cent, of insoluble ; while in another we have 23 per cent,
of soluble, and 5| per cent, of insoluble. Now, if you make
an experiment with super-phosphate aud guano, and you find
the gu'.no greatly beats the super-phosphate, you are not
entitled to say that phosphatic manures are of no utility in
your particular case— that a mixture of ammonia aud phosphate
is much more valuable on your farm than phosphate alone ; for
if you will look at the composition of guano, you will find that
in reality you apply a much larger quantity of phosphate than
you apply even in a fair average sample of super-phosphate
This diagram, moreover, does not give the amount of phosphoric
aoid which exists in alkaline salts, and which, in good Peruvian
guano, is equal to from 6 to S per cent, of soluble phosphate ;
so that, in reality, guauo is super-phosphate plus ammonia. I
have no hesitation in saying, that in guano, very frequently,
more phosphates are incorporated with the land, than with a
great many samples of super-phosphate as they are found in
the market : for a super-phosphate is considered of good
average quality if it contains from 25 to 30 per cent, of
phosphates, of which about one-half is rendered soluble ; but
in guano there is in reality quite as much, if not more,
phosphate present. Then, again, experiments are frequently
made on land which is in a very highly cultivated state, which
is so full of manure that no amount of additional artificial
fertilizers can produce any effect. I have before me an accouu t
of some experiments which were published some time ago,
in all of which about the same quantity of roots was produced.
There ia a remark, however, which tlirows some lighf, upon

518

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

the experiments : — "The only objection to the field as a trial-
field for manure was its high condition. It was feared
that the lots might be too much alike, and this anticipation
has proved correct. In the experiments as much as 7 cwt. of
Peruvian guano and 14 cwt. of super- phosphate were
employed, and in all instances about the same quantity of
produce was obtained." Then, very naively, the experimenter,
in remarkiog upon these results, says, " It is to be regretted
that one or two lots were not left without any manure
whatever, although we have little doubt that such lots would
have yielded nest to nothing." Well, if they yielded
next to nothing, the land could not be in a highly cultivated
state. It is evident, I think, that the land was in a
state super-saturated with manure, and experiments made on
such land are not calculated to throw much light on the
efficacy of manuring constituents. I have alluded specally to
the question of the efficacy of phosphates atid ammonia, in
illustrating the direct utility of a knowledge of chemistry to
farmers, and I might also have illustrated the same thing by
alluding to the various forms in which manuring substances
ought to he applied to the land in order to produce the maxi-
mum effect. Thus, for instance, I might have alluded to the
question. In what state phosphate ought to be used in agri-
culture ? It is plain that for a quick-growing crop, like the
turnip crop, food ought to be present in a readily-aoluble con-
dition ; but, at the same time, I think we cannot lay down a
general rule that, under all circumstances, phosphates, which
we apply in the shape of artificial manures, should be always
perfectly soluble. I make this remark, not because I think it
is a question with which the theoretical man has much to do,
but it is a question which cau be decided in a purely practical
manner. Supposing the farmer finds that his land is of such a
porous character that bone-dust when used in a finely-divided
state becomes sufficiently available to yield him a good crop of
turnips, then he would be wrong to go to the expense of buying
super-phosphate. What we can use iu a raw, unprepared state
must evidently be cheaper than what has undergone the manu-
facturing process. There are some soils in which the most eco-
nomical way of using phosphatic manures is simply by bone-
dust, to ferment it with the farm-yard manure, and, when the
heap is set up in the field, to put the bone-dust between the
layers, as it is carted. By this mode of fermentation the phos-
phates become sufficiently soluble in the soil to answer all the
practical purposes for which the manure is used. There is no ne-
cessity of using phosphates in any other shape in very light sandy
soils. But, under other circumstances, if the farmer, for instance,
has to deal with heavy land in which the decomposition of phos-
phates proceeds very slowly, it is of the utmost importance to
use phosphate of lime in a soluble form. What I would ad-
vise is the purchase of a supe.-phosphate, in which the farmer
gets just what he cannot reailily make himself, i. e. soluble
phosphate of lime. If he wants insoluble phosphate, let him
use it in the shape of bone-dust. Then he may be sure in what
form he gets it, and does not run the risk of getting an insolu-
ble phosphate in the shape of coprolite powder, in which con-
dition it is of no utility whatever. But, in most instances,
the advantages of applying phosphates in a soluble condition
have been clearly established. The very term " super-phos-
phate" shows the practical use to which chemistry is applied
at the present time. There are, indeed, in the common daily
experience of the farrae-, terms used at the present time which
would greatly astonish our ancestors. Chemistry will more
and more become the common property of the agricultural
community, and the more carefully the principles of this new
science are studied by the rising generation, the greater will
be the practical advantages that will flow from the posseaeion
of such knowledge

On the motion of Lord Feversham, seconded by
Mr. Wren IIoskyns, the thanks of the meeting were
voted to Dr. Voelcker for the able lecture he had then
delivered.

Special Council (after the lecture) : Lord Berners,
President, in the chair.

On the motion of Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, seconded
by the Hon. A. Leslie Melville, the Council decided
that memorials and other documents received from Ox-
ford in reference to the Country Meeting of next year
should be taken into consideration on the 5th of
May next, when memorials and other documents would
also be taken into consideration from Coventry, Read-
ing, and Warwick.

Adjourned to May 5.

A Monthly Council was held on Wednesday, the
5th of May. Present : Lord Berners, President, in the
Chair ; Earl of Powis, Lord Camoys, Lord Feversham,
Lord Walsingham, Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Hon. CqI.
A. Nelson Hood, Hon. William George Cavendish,
M.P. ; Sir John Villiers Shelley, Bart., M.P. ; Sir
Philip Egerton, Bart., M.P. ; Sir Charles Morgan,
Bart.; Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; Sir
Archibald Macdonald, Bart. ; Sir Edward Kerrison,
Bart., M.P. ; Mr. Dyke Acland, Mr. Raymond Barker,
Mr. Barnett, Mr. Hodgson Barrow, M.P., Mr. Bram-
ston, M.P., Mr. Barthropp, Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Cald-
well, Colonel Challoner, Mr. Druce, Mr. Foley, M.P,,
Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Hamond, Mr. Fisher Hobbs,
Mr. Holland, M.P., Mr. Wren Hoskyns, ,Mr. James
Howard, Mr. Hudson (of Castleacre), Mr. Humberston
(Mayor of Chester), Mr. Huskinson, Mr. Jonas, Mr.
Kinder, Mr. Langston, M.P., Mr. Lawes, Mr. Law-
rence, Mr. Miles, M.P,, Mr. Milward, Mr. Pain, Mr.
Shuttleworth, Mr. Slaney, M.P., Mr. Thompson, Mr,
Torr, Mr. Turner (of Boston), Professor Voelcker, Mr,
Burch Western, and Mr. Jonas M'ebb,

His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, of Blenheim
Park, Oxfordshire, waselectedaGovernorof the Society.

The following new^ Members were elected : —
Bradburne, John Hanbury, Pipe-place, Lichfield, Staffs.
Brogden, Jchn, Priory-gate, Sale, Cheshire.
Cawtou, William, Somersail Hall, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Clay, Charles, Walton Grange, Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Corbet, Dryden, Sundorne Castle, Shrewsbury
Crane, Edward, Foston, Montford, Shrewsbury.
Forshaw, Thomas, Latus Hall, Goosnargh, Lancashire.
Game, Robert, Northleach, Gloucestershire
Gaskell, Henry Lomax, Kiddingtou Hall, Woodstock.
Hill, L. Broadbent, Back Hall, Cheater.
Holland, Charles, Keele, Newcastle, Staffordshire.
Howard, Robert, Broughton Hall, Wrexham.
Howell, John, Ewen, Cirencester.
Laing, Samuel, Hordle Manor, Lymiugtou, Hampshire
Logan, John, Maindree House, Newport, Monmouthshire.
Matthews, Henry, Montford, Shrewsbury,
Mein, William, Home Farm, Blenheim, Oxfordshire
Mdlard, James, Rugeley, Staffordshire.
Perry, Samuel, Shipley, Bridgenorth, Shropshire.
Sisson, Robert James, T»lardy, St. Asaph.
Sugden, David, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
Thomas, James, Lidliugton, Ampthill, Bedfordshire
Woods, James, Stowmarket, Suffolk.
Woods, Edmund Freeman, Stowmarket, Suffolk.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

519

Finances.— Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, presented the monthly report on
the accounts of the Society, showing a current cash-
balance of .£^1,298 in the hands of the bankers ; and laid
upon the table, for the information of members, the
usual quarterly statements of income and expenditure,
and of assets and liabilities.

Trial of Implements. — The President having
called the attention of the Council to the completion
this jear of the triennial arrangements for the trial of
Implements at the Country Meetings of the Society,
and to a consideration of the propriety of its renewal
or discontinuance for the future, it was carried, on the
motion of Mr. Fisher Hobbs, seconded by Colonel
Challoner, that a committee, consisting of the Members
of the Implement Committee, and of Mr. Howard, Mr.
Shuttleworth, Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Huskisson, and Mr.
Amos, be appointed, with power to confer with a depu-
tationfromthebody of the Implement Makers, and to re-
port to the Council at their next monthly meetingin June.

Eastern Counties' Railway. — On the motion of
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the President undertook to address
a letter to the Chairman of the Eastern Counties Rail-
way Company, on the subject of the charges, made only
by that company, for live stock sent for exhibition at
the Country Meetings of the Society.

Country Meeting Dinner. — On the motion of
Mr. Torr, seconded by Mr. Thompson, the Council
decided unanimously: "That in future, if any dinner
be held at the Country Meetings under the patronage of
the Society, the entire management shall be vested in
the local committee ; but the Council shall have the
option and power of reserving and taking such a number
of tickets as it shall think fit ; and this Society shall
nominate the Chairman, and supply the list of toasts,
but shall have no other liability connected with it."

Country Meeting of 1859. — The report of the
1 Inspection Committee having been read, and deputations
received from Coventry, Reading, Warwick, and Oxford,
the Council decided that the country meeting should be
held at Warwick, next year, on condition that the
Mayor of that city entered into the usual agreement
with the Secretary of the Society by the next Monthly
Council on the second of June. These depuations con-
sisted of sixty-four members, among whom we remarked
the following : —

His Grace the Duke of Marlborough.

The Lord Bishop of Oxford.

The Rev. James' Clutterbuck, M A.

The High Sheriffs of the counties of Berks., Oxford,

aud Warwick.
Eight Hon. Edward EUice, M.P.
Eight Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P.
The Sheriff of Oxford.
The Mayors and Town-Clerks of Coventry, Oxford,

Reading, and Warwick.
Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P.
Earl of Macclesfield.
Viscount Dillon.
Mr. Palmer, M.P.
Mr. Greaves, M.P.
Earl of Warwick.
Lord Willoughby de Broke.
Lord Guernsey.
Lord Leigh.

Mr. Harcourt, M.P.
Colonel North, M.P.
Mr. Repton, M.P.
Mr. Mark Pbilhps.
Sir T. G. Skipwith, Bart.
Sir Paul Hunter, Bart.
Mr. Pigott, M.P.

Aldermen Moore, Spiers, and Ward.
President, Vice-President, and Secretary of the Oxford
Farmers' Club, and Deputations from the Rugby,
and Dunchurch Association, and the Council of the
Birmingham Cattle Show.
Country-Meeting Queries. — On the motion of
Mr. Raymond Barker, seconded by Mr. Brandreth
Gibbs, a committee was appointed to revise the printed
queries (in use since the year 1841), and adapt them to
the present requirements of the Society, consisting of
Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Hon. W.
G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Barnett, Mr.
Fisher Hobbs, and Mr. Milward.

Editorship of Journal. — Mr. Jonas having
moved the consideration of the best course to pursue for
the future Editorship of the Journal, Mr. Thompson,
Mr. Dyke Acland, and Mr. Wren Hoskyns favoured the
Council by an expression of their willingness to continue
their Joint-Editorship provisionally until some other
arrangement should be made. On the motion of Mr.
Raymond Barker, seconded by Sir John Shelley, Bart.,
M.P., it was carried, that the Joint-Editors be authorized
to expend a sum not exceeding £300 per annum, for
such aid as they might require.

Lectures. — Mr. Thompson reported from the
Journal Committee their recommendation that Pro-
fessor Henfrey should be requested to deliver a Lecture
before the members at the Weekly Council on Wed-
nesday, the 26th of May, at half-past 12 o'clock, on
some subject connected with Vegetable Physiology.
The Mayor of Chester's communication of an offer
from Mr. Moffat to deliver a lecture at the Chester
Meeting, on Atmospheric Influence in connection with
the Potato Disease, was referred to the Journal Com-
mittee.

Distribution of Journal. — On the motion of Mr.
Milward, seconded by Mr. Jonas Webb, the Council
decided that the rule by which no governor or member
in arrear of subscription had a claim to receive the
Journal should be strictly enforced.

Spurious Guano. — Sir John V. B. Johnstone, Bart.,
M.P. , read the following report from the Chemical
Committee : —
Professor Voelcker has submitted analyses of Cotton-cake,
containing a larger proportion of oil and flesh-forming
matter than Linseed-cake ; and also various specimens of
factitious guanos perfectly resembling genuine Peruvian
guaao in colour and smell, containing only from one-
fourth to one-third of genuine Peruvian guauo. He has
also exhibited to the Committee specimens of guano from
Kooria Mooria and the Falkland Islands, as well as from
Ichaboe ; all inferior to the extent of from one-fourth to
one-half of the beat Peruvian guano. At the suggestion
of the Committee Prof. Voelcker has undertaken to pre-
pare a short report on these specimens, to be submitted
to the members of the Society at the nest Weekly Council.
Chester Meeting. — Mr. Fisher Hobbs reported
from the Chester Committee the favourable progress of
the arrangements for the ensuing Country Meeting, to
be held in that city in the third week of July next.

420

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Steam-CultivatoPvS. — Sir Archibald Macdonald,
Bart,, as Senior Steward of Implements for the Chester
Meeting, having represented the importance of an efli-
cient trial of Steam-Cultivators at the Chester Meeting,
the following resolution on the motion of Mr. Thompson,
seconded hy Mr. Miles, M.P., was carried unani-
mously : — " That a committee be appointed consisting
of the Implement Committee, with the addition of Mr.
Caldwell and Mr. Huskinson, to consider the memorial
presented bj four owners of steam ploughs, and to en-
deavour to secure an efficient trial of steam ploughs or
cultivating implements at the Chester Meeting."

Steward of Poultry.— On the motion of Sir

rchibald Macdonald, Bart., seconded by Mr. Fisher

Hobbs, Mr. Ilarcourt Powell, of Drinlsstons Park,

Suffolk, was unanimously appointed Steward of Poultry

for the Chester Meeting.

Vice-President. — On the motion of Mr, Jonas,
seconded by Mr. Torr, his Grace the Duke of Rutland
was unanimously elected one of the Vice-Presidents of
the Society, in the place of the late Lord Braybrooke.

Member of Council. — On the motion of Mr. Torr,
seconded by the Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Mr. Button,
of Gate Burton, Lincolnshire, was elected one of the
General Members of Council, in the place of the late
Mr. Stephen Mills.

GuTTA Percha. — A communication from the So-
ciety of Arts on the supply of Gutta Percha, and its
employment in the manufacture of agricultural tubing,
was referred to the Implement Committee,

Thrashing Machines.— Suggestions for the trial
of thrashing machines were received from Mr. Algernon
Clarke, and also referred to the Implement Committee.
Adjourned to May 12.

A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the
12th of May, present : Lord Berners, President, in the
Chair, Duke of Rutland, Lord Camoys, Lord V/alsing-
ham, Hon. A. Leslie Melville, Hon. Colonel Hood,
Hon. William George Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Brandreth, Mr. Davey, M.P., Mr.
Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. Glegg, Mr. James Howard,
Mr. Fisher Hobbs, Mr. Hutton, Mr. Pinder Simp-
son, Mr. Slaney, M.P., Mr. Tanner, Colonel
Towneley, Mr. Wilson (of Stowlangtoft), and Mr.
George Wood.

Professor Voelcker, the Consulting-Chemist of
the Society, transmitted the following reports of his
recent investigations on the subject of cotton-seed cake
for feeding cattle, and on the fabrication of spurious
guanos, so completely similar in external characters to
the genuine articles as to have deceived the most
experienced dealers, and to have their inferior value
detected only by means of chemical analysis.

I.— COTTON-SEED CAKE.
I have the pleasure of submitting to the inspection of the
membera of the Societjr copies of analyses of two samples
of a new kind of Cotton-seed cake. Both samples, under
the name of decorticated Cotton cakes, were lately offered
for sale at London and Liverpool respectively, An in-
spection of the subjoined analyses will show that this new

kind of cake is .superior in nutritive properties to any
sample of Cotton-cake which I previously examined. It
will be observed that both arc extremely rich in flesh-
forming principles, as well as in oil and fatty matters.
Indeed both specimens of Cotton-cake contained a great
deal more of these v.aluable constituents than the best
Linseed-cake, and ought to be, according to the analyses,
more valuable as a feeding stuff than Linseed-cake. 1
would observe, however, that the analytical results ob-
tained in the examination of feeding stuffs like oilcake
are insufficient in themselves to determine their relative
practical feeding value. Various circumstances, too
numerous to be detailed in this place, affect the practical
value of articles of food. Thus the oil in Cotton-cake
may not be so readily assimilated as the fatty matters in
Linseed-cake, or it may not agree with the constitution
of animals, or the cake may be disliked by beasts and
sheep, or contain something or the other, not usually as-
certained by analysis, which may affect its isractical
utility. Indeed nothing short of actual feeding experi-
ments will suffice to ascertain in a satisfactory manner
the comparative value of this Cotton-cake and Linseed-
cake. But as Cotton-cake, much inferior in composition
to the samples analyzed by me lately, has been used for
feeding purposes with considerable advantage, it is
highly probable that the experience of practical feeders
will prove that decorticated Cotton-cake is an economical
substitute for the much more e-tpensive Linseed-cake.

Composition of two samples of decorticated Cotton-seed

cake. No. I.

Moisture ... , . . . . 8.27

Od and fatters matters 19.19

Mucilage, gura, and sugar 12,25

■'•" Protein compounds (flesh-forming

principles) .' 42.G2

Pure cellular fibre (woody fibre).. 10.22

Inorganic matters (ash) 7.45

' Containing nitrogen

100.00
6.82

No. IL

7.67

14.93

14.47

40.21
11.45
8.27

100.00
6.91

IL— SPURIOUS GUANO.
Notwithstanding the facility of detecting admixtures in
genuine Peruvian Guano by .simple chemical means,
fraudulent adulterations of this most important of all
artificial manures appear to continue unabated in some
quarters. During the last two months, more than ten
samples of factitious and of adulterated guanos were sent
to me for examination, which circumstance induces me
to direct again the attention of the members of the Society
to the subject of adulteration of guano. I have the plea-
sure of presenting for inspection several samples of bad
guanos, and have selected specimens which best illustrate
the peculiar character of the adulterating materials. An
analysis of each specimen is attached to the bottle con-
taining it. A comparison of the composition of these
adulterated manures with that of genuine Peruvian Guano,
of which a specimen is also exhibited, will show how
much money a purchaser loses in buying such bad guanos,
even if sold 21. or il. less than Peruvian guano can be ob-
tained from Messrs. Gibbs and Co. At the same time it
will be evident to any one who examines by the unaided
senses the various specimens on the table, how utterly
impossible it is for any one to distinguish several of the
adulterated guanos from the genuine Peruvian. The fact
is, the guano-mixers have acquired such skill in their ne-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

421

farioiis piactices, that iioiiliei' by the toiicli, smell, nor the
eye, the adulterating materials can be detected. It is now
a common practice to sift off the harder lumps in Peru-
vian guano, to mix the fine dust most intimately with ex-
treme!}^ finely powdered chalk, gypsum, yellow loam, sand,
or whatever the adulterating material may be, and to add
afterwards the lumps of genuine guano, so as to give
adulterated guano the outward characters of the best Pe-
ruvian. The expense to which fraudulent dealers go, in
preparing in a sufficiently fine state the admixtures iu
order to obtain a perfectly uniform powder with the fine
guano-dust, is very great ; but if it be considered that
often guano worth only 41. per ton is sold at the full
price of the best Peruvian, it will easily bo conceived that
a good margin for profit is left, notwithstanding the ex-
pense. The specimen marked No. I. is a guano Vifhich
does not contain, [ believe, a particle of Peruvian guano,
and is altogether a clumsy imitation. It is surprising
that such stuff can find purchasers. This so-called guano
consists entirely ot fine j-ellow loam, sand, gypsum,
chalk, a little salt, and organic matters poor in nitrogen,
since this so-called guano furnishes, on decomposition,
little more than l^ per cent, of ammonia. At the utmost,
this manure is worth only 31. os, per ton.

No. I.— Composition of a sample of guano warranted Peru-
vian, but altogether artificially made up, value only £3 3s.
per ton.

Moisture 7.06

* Organic matter and ammoniacal salts .. .. 14.58

Phosphates of linic and msguesia (bone e?.rib) . . 17.55

Oxides of iroa aud alumina . . . . . . , . 3.82

Sulphate of lime (gypsum) .. .. .. .. 18.49

Carbonate of lime (chalk) .. .. .. .. 10.11

Alkaline salts (common salt chiefly) . . . . . . 6.63

Insoluble silicious matte:: (sand) .. .. .. 21.78

100.00
Aug. Voelcker.

*Containi!ig nitrogen
Equal to ammonia

1,50
1.82

No. II. is a guano, which has all the appearance of an ex-
cellent sample of Peruvian, but which contains in reality
only about one-fourth its weight of genuine Peruvian
guano, and no less than three-fourths its weight of yellow
loam and chalk. Instead of 16 per cent, of ammonia, this
guano contains not quite 7 per cent, of ammonia, and
scarcely is worth £4 43. per ton : —

No. II. Composition of adulterated guano sold at Liverpool

at £12 per ton.

Moisture .. ,. =. .. .. .. 5.35

* Organic matter and ammoniacal salts .. .. 16.20

Phosphates of lime and magnesia .. ., .. 8.48

Oxides of iron and alumina .. .. .. .. 5.90

Catbouate of lime .. .. .. .. .. 15.89

Magnesia . . . , . . . . . . . . .76

Alkaline salts (common salt chiefly) . . . . . . 3.10

Insoluble silicious matter (sand) , . . . . . 44.32

100.000
Aug. Voelcker.

* Containing nitrogen
Equal to ammonia

314
3.82

This guano contains only one-fourth of its weight of Peru-
vian guano and three-foutths of yellow loam and chalk.
The specimens marked No. Ill, and IV, are not quite so bad

as the prccediug oues, but still thej' aie bud eiicu^b, and
contain only about one-third of Peruvian guano, and twc-
thirds of foreign admixtures. In No. III. the chief adul-
terating materials are chalk aud sand ; in No. IV. there is
less chalk aud much gypsum, as well as yellow loam aud fine
coprolite powder. Both guanos are worth about £5 per
ton. The following table exhibits the cornpoaitiou of these
two adulterated guanos, iu contrast with that of genuine
Peruvian guano : —
Composition of a genuine and adulterated Peruvian guano.

Moisture

* Organic matter and salts ot
ammonia

Phosphates of lime and mag-
nesia (boae-earth) ..

Carbonate of lime (chalk) , .

Sulphate of lime (gypsum)..

Carbonate of magnesia

Alkaline salts

Insoluble silicious matter
(sand)

*Coritaining nitrogen . .
Equal to ammonia

Genuine

Pe-
ruvian.

Adulterated

Guano.

No. III.

No. IV,

15.90

9.3S

12.86

53.73

24,21

19.33

22.07
None
None
None
7.17

16.06

30..-0

3,91

3,45

23.12
5.12

15.57
2.63
3.75

1.13

12.69

18.62

100.00
15.74
19.11

100.00
5 63
6.85

100.00
5.09
6.18

Aug. Voelcker.
I have also the pleasure of placing on the table opecimena
of guano from the'Ealkland Islands, Kooria Mooria, inferior
Ichaboe, and African guano. By far the most valuable of
these is the Falkland Island guaao, which, however,
is not near so valuable as the beat Peruvian guano, since it
contains much less ammonia. The Kooria Mooria guano is
rich in phosphates, but, like the sample of inferior Ichaboe
guaao and the African guano submitted to inspection, poor
in ammonia. In comparison with the price of the best Pe-
ruvian guano, inferior guanos from other places are gene-
rally sold also high. In conclusion I beg to observe that in
buying Peruvian guano a farmer requires no other guaran-
tee than a letter in which the dealer engages to supply
" Peruvian guano, best quality." No expensive analysis is
required to test the honesty of the dealer, since a perfectly
trustworthy opinion can be given whether the guano is
genuine or adulterated, and the ground of au examination,
which the members of this Society have the privilege of ob-
taining at the trifling sum of 5s.

Mr. FrsHER Hobbs expressed the great satisfaction
it gave to himself, as it would doubtless also give to
the other members of the Society, to find their Consult-
ing Chemist thus furnishing to the Council, for imme-
diate announcement to the agricultural community, the
practical result of his researches. He was glad to find
that at the small expense of 5s. each member had the
privilege of obtaining a certificate of the true value of
any substance offered to him for purchase as genuine
guano. At Mr. Hobbs's suggestion the thanks of the
Council were ordered to be transmitted to Prof. Voelcker
for the communications he had then made to them,
along with a hope on their part that he would continue,
from time to time, as they occurred, to furnish such re-
sults of investigations carried on in his laboratory as he
might think of immediate practical importance.

433

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

ANNUAL VETERINARY REPORT. j

The following Annual Report was read from the Governors of
the Royal Veterinary College :—

In presenting their annual report to the Council, the Go-
vernoro desire in the first place to express their gratification
that during the past year nothing has occurred to disturb
the harmony which has so long and so advantageously ex-
isted between the Royal Agricultural Society and the Royal
Veterinary College. They see in this continued co-operation
an assurance that the agricultural community fully appre-
ciates the efforts which are made to advance the science of
veterinary medicine in its application to the diseases of cat-
tle, sheep, and pigs, and thus to raise this important branch
of the healing art above the practice of the uneducated
empyric. During the past ye.'ir the Governors have had
under consideration several important questions relating to
the instruction of the pupils, and they early took mesns to
render this as practical as scholastic discipline would permit,
by the appointment of a new demonstrator of acatomy, so
as to relieve the professors from having to occupy so much
of their time in mere expositions of the arrangement of the
structural parts of the animal body. The carrying out of
this plan has been attended with the happiest result, as the
professors have bsen euibled to extsnd their lectures and
demonstrations on the nature and causes of the various dis-
eases affecting domesticated animals. With reference to the
lectures specially devoted to the subject most important to
the interests of the general agriculturist, nothing has oc-
curred to prevent their regular delivery four times a-wcek
throughout the entire session, and they have been attended
by the whole of the pupils of the Colleg'e ; and with what
success, is shown by the fact that the proportionate number
which have passed their examination, and been admitted
members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, has
been greater than iu former years.

Pathological Anatomy. — Throughout the past year
there has been received from the members of the Society
very many valuable specimens of disease, accompanied by
the history of the cases in which they occurred, and these
have been made available for the information of the pupils
by the demonstrations and explanations of the Professor of
Cattle Pathology in addition to his other instructions. The
Governors desire to give encouragement to this means of
making the education of the pupil as practical as possible,
because, from circumstances which would appear to be ir-
remediable, few cattle are admitted as patients at the col-
lege. It is a matter of regret to the Governors that no mea-
sure which has been tried by them in conjunction with the
Society has availed to bring to the College Infirmary a suffi-
cient number of oxen, sheep, or pigs, when the subjects of
disease. Even the merely nominal scale of charges which
was adopted a few years since for medical attendance, opera-
tions, keep, &c., of such animals, has failed in effecting this
most desirable object ; and the Governors are at a loss to
know what more can be done to remove the apathy which
exists in the agricultural body with reference to this im-
portant means of imparting practical information to the
pupils. By thus again directing the attention of the Coun-
cil to the subject, the Governors would hope that some
good may be done.

Pupils. — The number of pupils which have been admitted to
the College is somewhat greater than before, and, as pre-
viously stated, they have been most regular in their
attendance, and will, after receiving instructions for two
sessional years, be eligible for examination by the Court of
Examiners, under the provisions of the charter granted to

the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. It may perhaps
be necessary (o direct the attention of agriculturists to the
fact that very many persons who call themselves veterinary
surgeons and are practising iu various parts of the country
have not received the diploma of the College, nor, indeed,
have attended any lectures on veterinary science ; while
others have entered as pupils, remain only a short time, and
then gone into the country to practise with but an imperfect
knowledge of the principles of the healing art.

Practice of the College. — Although but few cattle have
been admitted as patients, yet some very interesting and
unusual cases have found their way iuto the infirmary ; and
notwithstanding it has not beeu customary to particularize
these, in conscquaiice of thereby unnecessarily increasing the
length of the Annual Report, still the Governors are de-
sirous of adverting to one of almost unique character,
namely, au affection of the base of the brain in a heifer
belonging to Stewart Marjoribauks, Esq. The symptoms
in this case were very remarkable, and afforded matter for
deep reflection on the part of the physiologist as well as the
j-atliologist. The attack was somewhat sudden, so much so
as to leal to the belief that the animal had sustained an in-
jury of the skull, bat this was entirely disproved by the
post mortem examication. The change in the structure of
the brain was found to depend upon a scrofulous diathesis,
and it raised the question as to how much of the disease was
due to hereditary influence. It is matter of importance to
the breeders of cattle that scrofula has of late years been
considerably on the iucrease among what may be otherwise
designated the better breeds of animals.

lNSPECTiONs.-~The visits iuto the country by the Veterinary
Inspector, on the authority of the Council, have not been
very numerous this year, and the Governors would be glad
to see that the arrangement which has been made with re-
gard to the inspection of diseased cattle on the premises of
agriculturists was likewise in more general use ; for they
believe much good would result therefrom, not only ia
arresting the progress of disease, but in investigating the
causes, with a view to their removal, on which it was found
to depecd. At the country meeting of the Society at Salis-
bury the Inspector was in attendance, and the Governors
were much gratified to find by his report that fewer cases of
hereditary defects and diseases were existing among the
animals there brought together than at any former meeting
of t'ne Society. By far the most important investigation of
the year which has bef n made by the inspector is that of the
nature and character of the continental disease of cattle,
known by the name of the steppe murrain, rinderpest, &c.,
and which excited so deep an interest in the minds of the
whole community for fear of its introduction into this coun-
try. It has not only been shown by him that the rumours
of its having extended from the steppes of Southern Russia,
which may be regarded as the home of the pest, to those
countries whence foreign cattle are exported for the supply
of our meat markets, were groundless, but that there is
scarcely a probability of its reaching this country. Besides
this important result of this mission to the continent, the
public are likewise now made familiar with the natural laws
which govern the spread of the malady, as well as with those
preventive measures which continental governments have
found most effectual in meeting its progress. Nor would
the Governors omit to state as a matter of congratulation to
the Society, that the investigations which were made by the
Inspector, in daily watching the affected animals, noting the
symptoms, and subsequently instituting a searching exami-
nation of the lesions found upon death, have enabled him to

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

523

arrive at a far more satisfactory conclusion of the true
pathology of the pest thaa had hitherto been obtained, and
even by those who had for years been prj(ttically acquainted
with it. The Governors were much gratified to find that
not only did the Koyal Agricultural Society unanimously
agree in the selection of their officer for this important duty,
but that the other two National Agricultural Societies of
Scotland and Ireland concurred in the choice which had
been made; and they are also very desirous of stating that
the report which the Inspector has published on the subject
has excited a lively interest throughout the continent, and
is regarded as a valuable addition to veterinary literature by
the new light it has thrown upon the nature of this myste-
rious and destructive cattle pest.
In presenting however their Annual Report, the Govirucrs are
wishful not to extend its dimensions by re'^erence to their
several endeavours to do justice to the object sought to be
obtained by the union of the two institutions, because they
believe that theae are equally as familiar to the Council as
to themselves, and they would therefore merely conclude
by assuring the Council of their full determination to use
all the means at their disposal to elevate veterinary science
in its application to the diseases of all domesticated
animals.
(Signed) on behalf of the Governors of the College.

Richard Beauvoir Berens, V.P.

A Special Council was held on the same day, pre-
sent : Lord Berners, President, in the Chair, Duke of
Rutland, Lord Camoys, Lord Walsingham, Hon. A.
Leslie Melville, Hon. Colonel Hood, Hon. W. G.
Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Brandreth,
Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, Mr. James Howard, Mr. Fisher
Hobbs, Mr. Hutton, Mr. Slaney, M.P., Colonel
Towneley, Mr. Wilson (of Stowlangtoft), and Mr.
George Wood.

Steam Cultivators. —Mr. Thompson, Chairman
of the Special Committee appointed " to consider the
memorial presented by four owners of steam-ploughs,
and to endeavour to secure an efficient trial of steam-
ploughs or cultivating implements at the Chester Meet-
ing," transmitted the following Report, which on the
motion of Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, seconded by Lord
Walsingham, was received and unanimously adopted
by the Council : —

1. That the prize of £500 offered for the best Steam Culti-
vator can neither be withdrawn nor divided for the present
year.

2. That so long as this prize is offered by the Society, all
trials of steam-cultivators must talfe place in competition
for it.

3. That in specification No. 1 in the prize sheet the judges
be instructed to interpret " Steam-cultivator" to mean,
plough or other cultivating implement worked by steam,
provided that all the other couditiona specified be complied
with.

4. That steam-cultivators shall be in the yard not later than
Monday the 12th of July, and the trials commence on
Tuesday the 13th.

5. The stewards of the Implement Department shall be at
liberty, if they think fit, 'to have the performance of each
implement in tiiis class written out and appended to it in
the show-yard.

Adjom*ned to May 19.

A Weekly Council was held on Wednesday, the
19th of May. Present : Lord Berners, President, in the
Chair; Mr, Raymond Barker, Mr. Pickin, Mr. Burch
Western, and Mr. Wilson of Stowlangtoft.

Communications were received : 1. From the Rev. W.
W, Harvey, of Buckland Rectory, Herts., on three
cases of severe personal injuries which had occurred
recently in his own neighbourhood in the cases of per-
sons connected with unguarded agricultural machinery.
2, From the Henderson Fund, soliciting aid on the part
of the Society. 3. From Sir Philip Egerton, Bart.,
M.P., a Parliamentary Report on the operation
of Boydell's Traction Engine. 4. From Mr. Smith,
of Woolston, proposing a trial with his steam-cultivator,
as shown at Chelmsford, " to farm cold clay land, hilly
and uneven, for four years, against any combination of
steam-ploughs that may be shown at Chester, no ma-
nure whatever being employed, the horse-power not to
exceed the ordinary seven-horse engine manufactured
by Ransomes and Sims, and the result to be decided by
the total produce, cost, and condition of the land at the
end of that period of trial." 5. From Mr. Doujlas, an
essay on the potato disease. 6. From the British
Minister in Switzerland, a copy of Dr. Rupener's new
work on the application of veterinary principles to the
management of domesticated animals.

Disease among Sheep. — The President reported
information he had tint day received from Leicester-
shire on the outbreak of a disease on the udders of ewes,
which rendered them hot and sore. The disease was
confined at present to particular flocks, and had not yet
been taken by barren ewes or lamb-hogs. At the Pre-
sident's suggestion, it was desired that animals infected
by this disease should be sent direct to the Royal Vete-
rinary College.

Audit. — The half-yearly audit of accounts was held
on Friday, the 21st of May. Present, Mr. Raymond
Barker, chairman, and Colonel Challoner and Mr.
Wilson, members of the Finance Committee ; and Mr,
George Raymond Barker, Mr. Astbury, and Mr. Joseph
Druce, auditors on the part of the Society. The ac-
counts from the 1st of July to the 31st of December
being examined, audited, and found correct, were cer-
tified accordingly.

Special Council,— A Special Council was held on
the same day, for the purpose of taking into consider-
ation the Report to be made by the Council to the en-
suing General Meeting : present. Colonel Challoner,
Trustee, in the Chair ; Earl of Powis, Mr. Raymond
Barker, Mr. Druce, Mr. Shuttleworth, and Mr. Wil-
son, of Stowlangtoft. The Report was agreed to ac-
cordingly.

General Meeting. — ■ The Anniversary General
Meeting of the Society was held on Saturday, the 22nd
of May, agreeably with the terms of the Charter : pre-
sent. Lord Berners (President), in the chair. Lord Fe-
versham, Mr. Raymond Barker, Mr. Milward, Colonel
Challoner, Mr. Hercy, Mr. Joseph Druce, Mr. Searson,
Hon. W. G. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Burch Western,
Hon. Colonel Hood, Mr. Pickin, Mr. Jonas Webb, Mr.
Corbet, Mr. Shuttleworth, Mr. Davey, M.P., Sir Wm.

N N

524

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Pell, Bart., Mr. Payne, Hon. A. Leslie Melville, and
Mr. Lawrence. The usual preliminaries having been
gone through,

The Secretary (Mr. Hudson) read the Report
of the Council, v?hich was as follows :—

REPORT.
The Society consists at the present time of—
81 Life Governors,
133 Annual Governors,
90 i Life Members,
4010 Annual Membtrs, and
18 Honorary Msraberj,
Making a total of 5146 names ou the list.

The Council have elected Mr. Thompson, of Kirby Hall, a
Trustee of tlie Society, in the place of the late Earl Speucer;
and His Grace the Dake of Rutland a Vice-President, in
that of the late Lord IBraybroske. They have also elected
the Hon. Colonel Hood, Mr. Uumberstoti (Mayor of Chester),
Mr. Huskinson, and Mr. Hiittjn, General Members of the
Council, to supply the vacancies created respectively by the
transfer of Viscount Eversley to the class of Vice-Presideuta,
and Mr. Thompsoa to the class of Truslees, and by the deceasa
of Mr. Simpson and Mr. Stephen Mills.

The funded capital of the Society stands at £9,261 83. lid.
stock in the New Three per Cents.

The Chairman and Vice-Chairmenof the Journal Committee
have announced to the Conned that their respective personal
engagements will not allow them to devote as large a share of
attention as they have hitherto done to the editing of the
Journal ; but they have subsequently acceded to the request of
the Council that they should continue their services until some
permanent arrangement shall have been made. The Council,
in order to diminish the amount of the mechanical details con-
nected with their labours, have placed at their disposal a grant
not to exceed £300 annually, for the purpose of eugaging such
literary aid as they may find requisite for the more convenient
editorship of the Journal.

The excellent paper on horse-shoeing, by Mr. Miles, of Dix-
field, ne^r Exeter, published in the last part of the Journal,
has been reprinted iu a cheap form for extensive distribution,
and already upwards of a thousand copies have been sold.

The Governors of the Eoyal Veterinary College have pre-
sented their annual report of the progress made at that in-
stitution in the application of the veterinary art, and the
diseases of cattle, sheep, and pigs. They state that the number
of pupils qualified to act as practitioners in carrying out the
objects of the Society in this point of view, continues to
increase; but they regret that the members of the Society do
not avail themselves more extensively of their privilege of tend-
ing diseased animals in a live or dead state to the college, and
thus furnish means for a larger amount of practical experience
to the Professor of Cattle Pathology and his pupils.

The Council have appointed Professor Voelcker, of the Royal
Agricultural College at Cirencester, as the consulting-chemist
to the Society ; and he has already delivered before the mem-
bers his inaugural lecture on Agricultural Chemistry in its
Relation to the Cultivation of Root-crops. They have also
made arrangements with Professor Heafrey, of King's College,
for the delivery of a lecture on Vegetable Physiology, on
Wednesday nsxt, the 26th of May. This lecture, as in the case
ol Professor Voelcker's, will be taken down in its full extent by
a short-hand writer, and immediately made public. The
Council hope thit this early publication of the lectures, by at
once placing before the agricultural community any facts of ftn
important practical character, will be found to meet the wishes
cf the members.

The Chester Meeting promises, from its variety and ex-
tent, to be of an interesting character. The Council have
made special arrangements for the trial of steam-culti-
vators, by which their relative merits will be tested during
the whole of the week previous to that of the meeting ; and
they have decided that machinery in motion shall be exhi-
bited on the same plan as last year. The Council have
adopted the recommendation of the Local Committee, that
a dinner should take place in the Music Hall at Chester,
capable of accommodating 500 guests. They have decided
that, for the future, when a dinner is proposed at the Country
Meeting of the Society, the whole arrangements shall be
made and expenses borne by the Local Committee, the
Council reserving to themselves the right of appointing the
Chairman, and of preparing the list of toasts ; and that,
after the present year, the show of poultry as a portion of
the Society's exhibition shall be discontinued.

The Council have appointed a committee to report upon
the propriety of renewing or discontinuing, after the current
3'ear, the triennial arrangement for the trial of implements,
adopted for the Chelmsford, Salisbury, and Chester meetings.

The Council have selected Warwick as the place of the
Country Meeting for the year 1859; and have decided
that after the year 1 860 they will be prepared to hold a
Metropolitan Meeting, should circumstances be found
favourable in the meantime for the adoption of such an
arrangement. By order of the Council,

James Hudson,

Secretarj'.

On the motion of Mr. D avey, M.P., seconded by Mr.
Druce, the Report was unanimously adopted.

Mr. R. Barker rose to nominate the President for
the year ensuing the meeting at Chester. He had, he
said, the honour to propose for the office of President,
at the termination of the current year, his Grace the
Duke of Marlborough — a nobleman who had only very
recently become a member of the Society, but who had
already manifested great interest in its proceedings.
His Grace had only presented himself once in that room ;
and he then appeared as the leader of a deputation
from the county of Oxford, which came there to re-
quest that that county might be selected as the one
in which the Society's show should be held in the
year 1859. All who were present on the occasion
were struck with the amenity of manner, the zeal in
the cause of agriculture, and the aptitude for
business evinced by his Grace in addressing the large audi-
tory which was assembled ; and if the deputation did not
succeed in their object, their disappointment was at all
events attended with this advantage, that it tended to
convince the agricultural community and the public at
large that no amount of influence could deter the mem-
bers of the Council from exercising their judgment im-
partially and deliberately in the decisions which they
came to, on matters of deep interest to the Society
(Hear, hear). For his own part, he must say bethought
the Council had made the best selection ; and if they had
given the preference to a county which was better enti-
tled to it than Oxford, he trusted no unpleasant feelings
had been created by that circumstance. Nothing could
be more courteous or gratifying than the manner in
which his Grace had received the request that he would

I

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

525

allow himself to be nominated for the office of President ;
his Grace having observed that, vyhile he should shrink
from entering into competition with any other candidate
for the post, he would undertake the duties of the office
if it were the wish of the leading members of the Society
that he should do so. He (Mr. Barker) was to have
seen his Grace that morning ; but instead of that he had
received from him a letter, which he held in his hand,
written from the House of Lords on the previous day, in
which he said that he now waived all objections to his
nomination, and would leave the matter in the hands of
the meeting. Under these circumstances, he felt great
pleasure in proposing that the Duke of Marlborough
should be the President of the Society for the year
succeeding the Chester Meeting (cheers).

Lord Feversham felt very great satisfaction in
seconding tlie motion. As a relative of the noble duke
he might perhaps be suspected of some partiality in the
matter, but he was sure the meeting would give him
credit for sincerity when he said that he would not con-
sent to second the nomination were he not convinced
that the Duke of Marlborough was a person who would
discharge the important duties of the presidency with
great credit and advantage to the Society (Hear, hear)-
It was, as they were no doubt all aware, not long since
his Grace succeeded to his title and estates; but he
(Lord Feversham) knew that during the time which had
elapsed since the death of the late Duke he had engaged
largely in agricultural pursuits, and that he was devoted
to the science and practice of agriculture. He had
great satisfaction, therefore, in seconding the nomina-
tion, and he felt the strongest confidence that the Society
would have reason to rejoice in the choice which was, he
hoped, about to be made.

The motion was put, and carried unanimously.

On the motion of Mr. Joseph Druce, seconded by
Mr. Jonas Webb, the Trustees were re-elected.

On the motion of Mr. Milward, seconded by Col.
Nelson Hood, the Vice- Presidents vvere re-elected.

After the votes had been taken in the usual manner,
it was announced that the members of the Council re-
commended for election had been elected accordingly.

Mr. R. Barker, Chairman of the Finance Commit-
tee, then read the following balance-sheet : —

Half-Yearly Accoont from the 1st of July to
THE 31sT OF December, 1857.

Receipts during the Half-Year,

Balance ia the hands of the Bankers, July Ist, £ s. d.
1857 989 8 10

Petty Cash Balance ia the hands of the Secretary,

July l3t, 1857 16 6

Dividends oa Stock 134 18

0
0
0
1
5

Governors' Life Compositions 90

Governors' Annual Subscriptions 70

Members' Life Compositious 168

Members' Annual Subscriptions £06

Journal Receipts 139

Country Meeting Receipts : —

Salisbury 2805 10 4

£4919 10 4

Payments daring the Half-Year.

Permanent Charges

Taxes and Rates

Establishment Charges

Postage and Carriage

Journal Payments

Veterinary Grant

Velerinary Professors' Expenses abroad

Chemical Grant

Country Meeting Payments : —

Salisbury , ...

Sundry Items of Petty Cash

Balance in the hands of the Bankers, Dec. 31st,

1857

Petty Cash Balance in the hands of the Secretary,

Dec. 31st, 1857 ,

£ s. d.
178 12 6

17 2 6
450 1.11

IS 15 10
171 10 2
100 0 0
117 2 6
150 0 0

3366 8 7
3 12 11

331 15 11

14 7 6

£4919 10 i

Thos. Raymond Barker, Chairman, T ■Ei:„„„„a
/-I n /^ [ J^ inance

C. B. Challoner. ^ Committee.

Henky Wilson. J

Examined, audited, and found correct, this 21st of May, 1858,
George I. Raymond Barker, T Auditors on
William Astbury, > the part of

Joseph Druce. J the Society.

On the motion of Mr. Pickin, seconded by Mr. H.
Corbet, thanks were voted to the auditors for their
services in auditing the accounts.

The Chairman said he hoped that special attention
would be paid to the report of the Veterinary Committee.
It was very desirable that the members of that Society
should know that if their animals were seriously affected
by any peculiar disease, they might secure an inquiry
into the matter, by sending specimens to be examined
by gentlemen connected with the Society, in London ;
and further, that in fitting cases the Council would send
a professor to any part of the kingdom, to examine into
the causes of any disease which happened to be preva-
lent in the district. His Lordship then inquired if any
member present had any remarks to make, or any
suggestion to offer, which might be referred to the
Council for their consideration ?

No response having been made to this appeal.

Col. ChallonEr said he was quite sure that the
motion he was about to propose would meet with unani-
mous concurrence. Both those who were and those
who were not members of the Council would agree with
him that Lord Berners was entitled to the best thanks
of the meeting for the efficient manner in which he
had performed the duties of the Chair on that occasion,
and also for the very constant attention which he had
given to the affairs of the Society ever since the time
when he was elected President. (Cheers). There had
been very few Presidents, since the formation of that
Society, who had bestowed more time on the affairs of
the Society than the noble lord who then filled the
chair. His Lordship's presence rendered it impossible
for him to say all that he might otherwise do on that
subject ; but he did feel, as a member of that Society
from its commencement, and as one who had always
taken great interest in its proceedings, that they were
very much indebted to the noble lord for the services
which he had rendered during his tenure of the office of
President. (Hear, hear.) He begged, therefore, to

N N 2

526

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

propose that the thanks of the meeting be given to Lord
Berners. (Cheers).

Mr. Cavendish, M.P., seconded the motion, which
was put by Col. Cballoner, and carried by acclamation.

The Chairman siid, when he was elected Presi-

dent he considered that a very high honour had thereby
been conferred upon him, and he rejoiced that his con-
duct during his Presidency appeared to have given sa-
tisfaction to the members.
The meeting then separated.

WEEDS AND WEEDING.

My last paper chiefly referred to the eradication of
weeds from the fallowing lands. This however is but
a small part of the subject ; and as my aim is to make
these papers practically useful, I do not intend to give
any detailed description of the wctrts of agiiciilture
further than will suffice to bear upon the question as to
the best means t ) insure their extirpation. A simple
enumeration of the names of many of tbrse worst pests
to good cultivation will enable every experienced far-
mer to recognise them. It will however be necessary
to my purpose to give some slight notice of each speci-
men of these weeds, in connection with such suggestions
as may be presented to mc, in passing, relative to their
habits of growth, injurious tendencies, and modes of
destroying them. First,

The Weeds most commonly infesting Corn
Cnors. — They are principally the following (I give
their most common names) : The thistle or saw-wort,
dock, or curb d dock, carlick or ketlock or charlock, red
poppy or canker weed, goldens or corn marigold, corn
bind weed, daisy weed or gowans, darnel or di auk,
cockle, blue-bottle or knap weed, wild carrot, kecks or
hemlock, hariff or cleavers, fat-hen or wild spinage,
willow weed, hog weed or wire grass, sow thistle, wild
oat, field scabious, fox-glove, liemp nettle, fumitory,
rag wort, wild parsnip, and many others. These are
the most injurious weeds as growing up with, and in-
terfering in, the progress of the crop. There are many
others which are denominated under-weeds : they do
not greatly interfere with or impede the growth of the
crop itself, but prevent the spreading of the roofs, and
do great injury in its early stages. They are not so
exhausting to the soil as those of larger growth, but
they prevent that free circulation of air and moisture
to the roots so essential to a healthy plant. They con-
sist chiefly of the following sorts : Corn mint, shep-
herd's or crowneedle, chickwecd or stitchwort, dande-
lion or horse-gowan, colt's-foot or clay weed, toadpipe
or mare's-tail, twitch or squitch, black grass or slender
fox-tail, groundsel or grunsel, earthnut or pignut,
buttercup, ass's mart or biting persicary, persicary or
pa-sion dock, spurge, borage, louse-weed, rest harrow
or wild liquorice, field madder, &c., &c.

The Thistle, or Saw-wort. — These are in great
variety, and common everywhere. It is almost im-
possible to effect their destruction in the early stages of
growth. In corn crops they must be kept down by
hoeing and spudding; but on grass lands it is better (o
permit tliem to attain a size sufficiently strong for the
nippers to draw tliem up, or the spud to cut them be-
low their crown. In some cases it may even be de-

sirable to let them produce seed ; but before it is shed
the whole should be mown and carried off the field.
Many fields have been in dry seasons thus cleared.

The Dock or Curled Dock. — This is a very hardy
and injurious weed, to be found everywhere. Its roots
are extremely tenacious of life, and it sheds a vast pro-
duce of seed, which are so hardy that after becoming
food for birds they arc deposited all over the farm for
future growth. Hoeing and spudding may retard their
progress, but nothing is effectual but drawing them up
and carrying them off the field, or burning — nearly
every particle of root will grow.

Charlock, or Ketlock. — These are great pests,
and ought to be constantly attended to, or the field will
soon become yellow with their flower. The weeding
and drawing must be continuous, none should be left
to ripen their seeds — even where they most abound this
must be prevented. With judgment, patience, and
perseverance they may be got rid of. No soil will
yield two good seed crops- Topping is a very partial
palliative : they come as thick as ever next season. It
is almost a hopeless task to exterminate them from
poor soils, where they so thickly propagate ; but it
must be done before these can be profitably farmed j
they must be resolutely dealt with.

Poppy, Red Poppy, Canker Weed. — Light
soils and lands well pulverized are most subject to
this pest of the field. They abound generally in hot
seasons, with occasional showers — " poppy years."
The rapidity of their growth is surprising, and they
often make their appearance when the crop is in an
advanced st-ige, which makes their extermination dif-
ficult. Hence poppy extirpators are of only partial
service. Hoeing deeply, and very careful hand-weed-
ing, is the best course to pursue in this case.

Goldens, or Corn Marigold. — These infest
many upland soils and inferior clays very injuriously,
and are with great difficulty kept under. Early hoeing
and constant weeding is the chief resource to keep down
a weed of this kind, for its growth might be called suc-
cessional.

Corn bind Weed. — This is of the class called
climbers, and most seriously affects the crop where it is
heavy and laid, actually fastening it close to the
ground. Its roots penetrate the soil very deeply, and
its seed is hardy and yielding. It abounds in clayey
loams, and is one of those weeds whose seeds injure the
samples of corn. It requires more than ordinary at-
tention to expel it from tlie farm. Hedgerows abound
with it. It creeps almost unseen along the surface-
drains and roadways, and the seeds are carried over the

THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE.

627

laud by birds, as in the case of docks, Hand-hociiiy:
and weeding are the chief resorts, followed by continu-
ous raking with long-toothed hand-i'akes.

Daisy Wked, or GowA^'s. — These, like the corn
marigold, infest poor clays greatly, and arc of similar
habits, and require like means to rid the land of it. It
is not so successional in its growth.

Darnel, or Drauk.— This is a kind of brorae
grass, and grows very like oats as to habit ; and as it
can scarcely be distinguished from the corn whilst
growijig, it cannot readily be weeded out. Care should
be taken not to sow it, as it is an annual, and gene-
rally sown with the seed corn.

Cockle. — This is a very pernicious weed, as greatly
infesting corn samples, and detracts from its value.
The seed is numerous, is rough, and almost black; it
can readily be dressed out with proper sieves of seven
wires to the inch. Millers dislike it much, as the seed
breaks fine and discolours the flour. Weeding may do
great service. Never sow it with the seed-corn.

Blue-bottle, or Knap-weed. — A. common weed
on all sandy soils, and hard to eradicate, as are all
those of a similar class. Unwearied attention must be
given to rid them.

Wild Carrot, Hemlock or Kecks, Fat-hen
or Wild Spinage, and Wild Parsnip are all very
obnoxious intruders upon our crop.*, and are of similar
growth and habit. Some of them are more seen in
hedge rows and ditch banks, &c. They grow rapidly,
and occupy large breadths, and are thus very detri-
mental to the crop. Early hoeing and pulling is the
best course with them. The wild spinage is most in-
jurious to the crop, and produces a large quantity of
seeds; this seeding must be prevented.

Hariff, or Cleavers. — This is a highly-injurious
weed. It is a most tenacious climber, dragghig down
the finest crops where it abounds, and its seeds are a
. great drawback upon samples of corn. Early hoeing
is best, and subsequently close hand-weeding, and after-
wards, as for the corn bind weed, the crop should be
raked over and over.

Willow Weed, Hog Weed, Knot Grass or
Wire Grass (in variety), Persicary. — These
are of extremely hardy gi'owth, and produce an
astonishing crop of seed, which grow immediately they
are shed, so as to bring forth innumerable plants.
They will speedily spread themselves and occupy all
the soil, and thus destroy the crop if not quickly looked
after. Deep hoeing and constant weeding will alone
suffice to keep them under. Their seeds are very hardy,
and ought to be dressed out of all seed corn.

Sow Thistle. — This is one of the most provoking
of the weed tribe. It is of such rapid growth when
once it takes a good hold of the soil, that it is continu-
ally making its unlooked-for appearance after weeding
is concluded and the cro]! is pronounced cleanly weeded.
This is a fibrous or creeping-rooted weed, and is best
destroyed in fallowing. It is a great pest to an inferior
crop of beans or peas. The winged scedfly a long distance.
Wild Oats. — This is a woful pest on poor clayey
loams, and a very general weed elsewhere. It grows

rom roots as well as seeds, and, like darnel, it is not
seen till almost too late to weed it out, without great
injury to the crop. On rich loams it grows to a great
height, towering above the general crop in a most un-
sightly manner. Never sow a wild oat ; weed thera
out if possible.

The Field Scabious, the Fox-glove, the
Fumitory, the Hemp-nettle, the Ragwort,
and many similar weeds of the like habit of growth. —
These are all of the class of tall-growing weeds that
impede the progress of the growing crop by taking up
the required space for it. They are not of such inve-
terate hardihood as to defy the hoe or spud, but are
more readily brought under by its destroying cut. The
same constant hoeing and weeding are requisite for all,
and the same careful forethought is needed to prevent
their increase.

We are apt to think farming would be an easy business
if it were not for all the anxiety consequent upon such
comparatively trivial matters. Why it is nothing.
What is common life itself, amongst common people,
but a succession of like trivial things ? Seldom more
than petty successes ; petty troubles, petty trifles every
day attending us. What need for circumspection in all
our conduct ! What necessity for constant weeding.

I now come to those under-weeds which are so inju-
rious to corn crops, i. e. twitch or squich, black grass or
slender-foxtail, butter-cup, corn-mint, shepherd's or
crow-needle, chickweed or stitchwort, dandelion or horse-
gowan, coltsfoot or clayweed, toadpipe or marestail,
groundsel or grunsell, earthnut or pignut, ass's-mart
orbiting persicary, persicary or passion-dock, louse-
weed, rest-hirrow or wild liquorice, field-madder, &c.
&c. Having especial reference to practical usefulness in
these papers, I must necessarily be as concise as possible.

Twitch, or Couch-grass, &c. — This is a highly
injurious weed to a corn crop. It is classed by bota-
nists in the same genus of grass as wheat, but it is totally
diff'erent in the growth of its roots, for they are found to
rua underground in every direction, and it does great
damage to every corn crop where it abounds, by its
roots running into the soil, in and about the roots of
the corn plants, so as to impede their growth exceed-
ingly. There is no help for this case, but in repeated
hoeings, so as to check its growth. The roots will
remain till the next fallow. Great care should invaria-
bly be given to fork it out before seeding.

Black grass, or Slexder Foxtail, commonly
called Natural Grass. — This is very detrimental to the
progress of the corn crop. It has not a strong creeping
root like twitch, but it is almost as difficult to destroy;
besides, it sheds a large crop of hardy seeds, which are
much relished by birds, so that by roots, and by the
difl'usion of its seed, it is largely propagated. Constant
hoeing is the only resort during the growth of the corn ;
and immediately after harvest a good harrowing should
take place, to cause the seeds to vegetate, when the young
plants may be mostly destroyed by ploughing. The
old plants must be eradicated in the next fallow.

Butter-cup Randnculcs. — This is very com-
mon on some soils, and is of very tenacious growth and

628

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

habit ; large fibres are thrown out from the globular
bulbs, and they abstract much virtue from the soil in
supporting this determined intruder. These may be
dug out, but it is an expensive operation where they
greatly abound. Early and continuous boting will pre-
vent injury to the growing crop to any extent ; but a
good fallow can alone destroy them. Care should be
taken that they do not shed their seeds.

Corn-mint, Shepherd's or Crow-needle,
Louse-weed, Toadpipe, and Groundsel, are
very similar in their habit of growth, and require much
hoeing and hand-weeding to eradicate them. The cor7i'
mint has a larger and more hardy root, which will live
for three or four years, and can scarcely be got rid of
except by fallowing. The shepherd' s-needle has a very
unsightly appearance in a corn sample, and detracts
much from its value. The toad-pipe is very wiry,
and a large crop of it is a pretty sure forerunner of
mildew in any succeeding crop, owing to the flint it
extracts from the soil. Groundsel is a quick-growing
plant, and if not speedily overtopped by the corn crop
becomes a great bane, particularly on good loams.
The Louseweed is chiefly seen in the stubbles on
good loams. It comes late into flower, and not being
well weeded out, it gives the wheat-stubble a slovenly
appearance. I have only to repeat that the same pro-
cess of hoeing and hand-weeding can alone mitigate the
evil; but I would recommend the last hand-hoeing to
take place as late as it can possibly be done, without
damage to the crop. Late weeds require protracted
weeding. Groundsell does great damage to young clover.
Chickweed, or Stitchwort. — This weed is often
slightly treated of by our writers, but on fine friable
loams it is a very pernicious weed. We have frequently
seen crops of turnip-seed all but destroyed by it; and
in thin wheat crops it flourishes surprisingly. Its roots
are very minute and wiry, and find their way every-
where. Its seeds, too, propagate very early, and are
extremely hardy, and are diffused over the land thickly
by linnets. The only remark I would make here is,
that, as it is lightly thought of, it is often neglected and
left to propagate freely, often to become one of the worst
banes to the farm.

Dandelion or Horsegowan, Coltsfoot or
Clayweed, Eartiinut or Pignut. — These possess
very similar roots as respects their tenacious hold upon
the soil. The Dandelion and Pignut are less detri-
mental tban the coltsfoot, but they do considerable
damage in impeding the growth of the corn plant. The
Coltsfoot is one of the most obnoxious weeds we have ;
it is the earliest of spring flowers, and almost before
other weeds are seen, its cotton-looking seeds are flying
all over the lands ; besides, it has a perennial root,
nearly as bad as twitch, which finds its way as freely
under ground, and is as hard to destroy. Many ways

are resorted to for its destruction : one is to pick off its
flowers ; but the root-stock or eye is so tenacious of life,
that it soon throws out more. It is a good plan to dig
it out at flowering time ; but only clean fallowing can
destroy it. Pigs are remarkably fond of pignut, and
similar roots, and the tending of such on fallows is often
of great service in making a clean fallow.

Ass's-MART or Biting Persicary, Persicary
OR Passion Dock, Rest-harrow or wild
Spinach. — These are of very similar character in
growth and habit. The Rest-hai'rmv has a perennial
root, tough, strong, and woody, but is not very abundant,
and chiefly in slovenly fields. The Persicaries are a
very vile weed on good soils ; they are so hardy
and prolific, both in seed and plant. On some soils,
and when at full growth, it is with difficulty that the hoe
can be made to cut through the root, and the crop of
seeds is so extraordinarily great, that a few plants would
seed a field. These, and all other plants producing great
abundance of seeds, ought to be had under especial
supervision by every cleanly farmer. They are annuals,
and their little thickly- clustering plants almost escape
notice in early weeding ; but if left uncut they eventually
show themselves in great profusion. It is these, and
such as these, i. e. red poppy, harifFs, cockle, fat-hen,
groundsel, chickweed, and some of like habit and ap-
pearance as young plants, that do so much harm in so
many ways. In the first wheat hoeing most of them
have not made their first shoot above ground, and it is
by this very hoeing or culture that some of them are
caused to vegetate. Farmers are often perplexed and
teased to see these late weeds making such headway in
the crop when it is too late to weed them out ; for,
although these under- weeds do not injure a full crop,
they are very troublesome in a thin or light crop, and
the expense of keeping them down is often very consi-
derable. The most desirable and judicious course for
every farmer to pursue, with reference to the weeds of
his farm, is to give them no rest. At all times and sea-
sons he must keep a sharp look out upon them, and
wherever found make an effort to destroy them. The
" higher" he farms, the more care will he require.
High cultivation on a rich soil will in a remarkably short
time bring many varieties of weeds to perfection, and
grow others so strong and vigorous as almost to defy
the hoe ; or, if he is not on the alert, they grow so fast
as to make their extirpation a very expensive matter of
business. On all open well- manured soils it is a most
difficult thing to pursue cleanly farming : either the
crop must be given up for cleanliness, or there is great
hazard of a foul one, and the farmer has often such per-
plexities to contend with. At all events he must keep
his weeds under, and if my observations on this subject
shall lead to any more strict surveilance of the farm, I
shall be abundantly gratified.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

529

SCOTCH COTTAGES.

The Highland Society of Scotland, which has
done so much for the improvement of husbandrj'-
and the advancement of that country — and it may
be said for the improvement of husbandry gene-
rally— among other worthy undertakings, offered
their medal for designs of labourers' dwelhngs. The
dwellings of the working classes have needed im-
provement there as much as in Ireland, and more
than in England, because, being constructed when
the country was poor and backward, now that it
has become rich and thriving the old type of cot-
tages was kept up, and they had become a sham9
to one of the foremost countries in the world,
Scotch landowners thought little of this ; but as
the country, since the opening of railways, has
been threaded by Southern visitors, the dwellings
have been looked at with another eye, and it has been
felt they are an eyesore to the land. Beyond a cer-
tain height, no field can be made more fruitful, and
year after year must it be kept fruitful by new ma-
nures and by opening up drains ; but houses last
many hundred years when well made, and are a
part of the national stock and wealth well worthy
of care. Many of the houses in England, Flanders,
and France are two or three hundred years old ;
and year after year, as the people grow, a few more
houses are built, and the stock is kept up without
any very heavy call on the labour of the year ; and
in a well-settled commonwealth the houses are
good, strong, and well built. It is strange, never-
theless, to see the diversity of provision under this
head, even in the same country ; for there ^re parts
of England with hovels ; and in some parts, with
stone quarries, there are mud huts; and in others,
where the bricks have to ha made, the houses are
not good.
^ Scotland, it is owned, has been far behind in

lodging her people, both among the Erse in the
Highlands, and among the English and Danes in
the lowlands and on the east shore. Her leaders
are, however, awakened, and a great endeavour is
made to meet the want; and as there is stone
enough, and lime enough, dwellings will now be
got which will last for hundreds of years. As this
endeavour is to be made, it is to be wished it will
be worthy of the times, and that v.'e shall not have
a stock of hovels instead of good houses. The
Highland Society, feeling this, asked for designs,
so that landowners and others wishing to build
might have a groundwork, which could be dealt
with according to means and circumstances. The
medal given by the Society was won by Messrs.
Hickes and Isaac, of Northgate-street, Bath, who
sent in three sets of designs. One of these was
for one chamber and one living-room ; another,
for two rooms above and two below ; and a third,
for three rooms above and two below. As we have
lately spoken of the Irish prize designs, we think
it useful to say something about the Scotch de-
signs, which are meant by Messrs. Hickes and
Isaac to meet the wants of the Scotch landowner
and workman.

Messrs. Hickes and Isaac considered the system
of Scotch husbandry to be such that it would be
unwise to confine the cottages to one type,
and therefore they provided a variety of de-
signs. They bestowed great care on making pro-
vision for ventilation by means of air fines, and
warmth and domestic convenience have likewise
been studied. The privy is placed some short dis-
tance from the house at the back, and is provided
with a freestone riser and a deal seat, the soil
being conveyed by a syphon-pan into a cesspool,
so as to be used for manure. The materials speci-
fied for the buildings are sucb as can be obtained
in the locality for which they were designed. The
elevations are of the simplest character, having
dressed joints and mullions, and no attempt
is made at display of any kind. The roof is
without valleys, and of the simplest construc-
tion.

In the five-room cottage the entrance is by a
porch of 6 feet by 4 feet, the object being to pre-
vent the rush of cold air into the living-rooms,
which is necessarily hurtful in a bleak northern
climate. The porch leads into a living-room 13
feet 6 inches by 12 feet, and from which the stairs
lead to the upper storey. Under the staircase is a
closet. The living-room leads to a scullery 9 feet
6 inches by 11 feet, in which is a pantry. A door
leads from the scullery into the back-yard. In each
room is one window. On the upper floor is a
parents' bed-room 9 feet 6 inches Ijy 12 feet, with
a chimney ; a boys' bed-room 9 feet 6 inches by
11 feet, with a chimney; and a girls' bed-room 9
feet by 7 feet 6 inches, without a chimney. In
each room is a window, and there is a window to
light the staircase.

The four-room cottage is entered by a porch
which leads into the living-room., 12 feet by 12
feet, and in which, as in the other cottage, the floor
is of wood, as well as that of the scullery. On
each side of the fireplace, which is fitted with
Nicholson's grate, is a hot closet and a coal
closet. The v/indow-shutter is made so that it will
form a table when needed. The same can be in-
troduced in the other cottage. A door leads from
the living-room into the scullery, which is 10 feet
3 inches by 8 feet, and has one vvindov/ and one
outer door. In one corner is the staircase, and in
the other a meat-safe, with a coal-closet under-
neath. The meat-safe communicates at the back
with the Vv'indow.

On the upper floor the parents' bed-room is 12
feet by 12, with two windows, and Pearce's fire^
lump grate in the chimney. On each side of this
one hot closet and one common closet. The chilr
dren's bed-room is 10 feet 3 inches by S feet, and
has one window, but no chimney. It should be
mentioned that the flues springing from the lower
rooms are carried through the parents' bed-room.
The staircase is lighted by a half-window in the
middle of the double cottage. A good supply of
windows is a great benefit in a common cottage,

THE FABxMER'S MAGAZINE.

530

and Messrs. Hickes and Isaac have so provided
that there shall be thorough means of ventilation
for the sleeping-rooms of the cottages. What,
however, they cannot unhappily provide for is that
the inmates shall open the windows, for they will
long keep their horror of fresh air. The architect

wants the schoolmaster and the clergyman to help
him, or his labours for the health of the people are
too often in vain. The people must be taught the
use of a good house, and how to take care of it, for
the dwellings of the poor are oftener abused than
used. — Building Nev/s.

CENTRAL (STIRLING) FARMERS' SOCIETY.

DISCUSSION ON THE VARIOUS BREEDS OF CATTLE.

At the recent annual meeting of this society, held
at Stirling, G. B. Home, Esq., of Argaty, in the
chair, the following discussion on the various
breeds of cattle took place. We wish that such
discussions were everywhere the rule, instead of
the absurd plastering speechifying which we too
often meet with.

After the usual loyal toasts.

The Chairman proceeded to introduce the dis-
cussion on the various breeds of cattle. He said —
I am not sure whether the present is the proper
time to introduce this or not, especially when there
is a good deal of hot punch going. However, if
you allow me, I will make the few remarks I have
promised to do. My own opinion is that such a
practice introduced among us after our dinners may
be of great use to the society, and give us in going
home something tothinkof,perhaps more pleasant and
beneficial than toast drinking. I believe we must all
acknowledge that agriculture has now attained the
position of a high science. There are many ways in
which in other professions there is an interchange of
thought; there are mechanics' institutes and other
societies, where scientific men may meet and im-
prove each other by an interchange of opinions ;
while many farmers, when they meet, are generally
contented with bumper after bumper, and paying
fulsome compliments to each other. In all this I
can see very little fun, one way or other; whereas,
if there was a system of discussing agricultural
subjects at such mt etings, a great deal of improve-
ment might be got both by those who joined in the
discussion and those who listened (Hear, hear).
On the present occasion I feel rather nervous in
undertaking to introduce the subject of my remarks
to this meeting; but I hope that the more flourish-
ing our society becomes, and the greater number of
members who join us, the less will such diffidence
or difficulty be felt by future speakers, till we have
an unreserved scientific discussion on all subjects
connected with agriculture. People who know
nothing about it may laugh as they like ; but I
have no hesitation in saying that the science of
agriculture requires, for its proper application and
development, the highest intellect and the best
education that man can receive. To carry out
agriculture to perfection requires a knowledge, aye,
and an intimate knowledge too, of a number of
deep sciences. If a farmer is to know anything
about his cattle, he must have a good understand-
ing of the anatomy and physiology of these animals ;
he must know something about how to cure their
diseases. In the cultivation of grain, the farmer

must possess a knowledge of chemistry— of the
various kinds and properties of manure, and what
manures should be used for a particular kind of
grain. In fact, a farmer must be ever on the
stretch — all his faculties on the alert ; and if he
carry out agriculture properly, it must be by a high
cultivation of intellect, and by an immense amount
of perpetual observation. He has not only to sow
the seed and see it grow, but he must be able to see
what has caused it to ripen perhaps sooner than
before, or what has tended to prevent it coming to
maturity as it ought, or what has caused it to sur-
vive blight. In fact, there are a thousand things
v/hich a farmer has to do, and which, to be done
properly, require a mind of a high order. Indeed,
the highest in the land are only too happy to be
considered good and intelligent agriculturists; and,
however things may have gone in time past, depend
upon it, agriculture will take that high place among
the sciences which it so thoroughly deserves, if it
be carried on in a manner corresponding with the
magnitude of the interests it involves. I have
undertaken to bring before you this evening as a
subject of discussion the breeds and breeding of
cattle. I do this because I have been an anxious
observer upon these subjects for at least 30 years,
and have, during that time, lost no opportunity of
gaining information ; and if there is one subject
upoii which I have a chance of talking agreeably I
think it is this. I shall endeavour to speak in such
a manner as to draw on the present company to say
what their opinions are, and I hope every one will
join in the discussion so far as any idea strikes him,
and give us all the btnefit of that idea. I begin
with the aboriginal breeds. In the parks of Cad-
zow, and at Chillingham, in Northumberland, there
are cattle said to be the original breed of this coun-
try. I confess I have my doubts as to whether the
white breed be the aboriginal one; but I am rather
of opinion that, if we have an original breed at all,
it is our unsurpassed Argyleshire. I do not specify
Argyleshire distinctly as if I referred to a breed
peculiar to that county, but I speak of our well
known black cattle, which, although reared in many
parts of our country, are yet shown to greatest
advantage and perfection in the county I have
named. It cannot fail to be observed that good
specimens of our black cattle possess almost every
point that the breeders of cattle of England and
elsewhere are endeavouring to produce. We all
know their fineness of hide, straightness of legs,
length and breadth of hind quarters, fine develop-
ment of breast and chest, and we know that that

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

531

breed which is most highly esteemed, so far as you
can compare a large beast with a small one, is
almost exactly the same. The quality of their flesh
is considered wholly unsurpassed, there being a
fine degree of marble mixture of fatty matter which
cannot be surpassed. It is well known that the
nobility and gentry of England get up our Scotch
kyloes as their finest beef. They are in a half wild
state, and must be fed fat upon grass, for the High-
land ox takes as long to get accustomed with a
byre as another to be fed fully fat m it. As milk-
ers, they do not excel in quantity ; but the quality
is shown by the manner in which they suckle their
calves. I need not dwell upon this breed, but go
on to a peculiar breed, viz., that reared in Gallo-
way, Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Angus. How
that breed has come to be what it is, forms a diffi-
cult question. '^'\niether they are a species of the
West Highlander somewhat changed, and having
lost their horns, I don't know ; but there is a
peculiarity regarding them. Those in Galloway are
larger and thinner from the heukto the tail, though
not so broad as others ; while those in Aberdeen
are broader over the back. It may be mentioned
that the latter county has at this time the honour
and glory of supplying what in the London market
is called pure Scots, and they carry the highest
price for beef in the London market. In regard to
their milking properties, I have the authority of
Mr. M'Combie, of Tillyfour, that they are excellent
milkers; and he scouted the idea of an Ayrshire
being compared with them in Aberdeenshire. I
may mention that his place is by no means a gar-
den of Eden, being without shelter on the top of a
hill, and yet there are to be seen some of the most
magnificent animals you can conceive. Long may
the Aberdeen folks have the credit of producing the
best Scots for the London market. There is ano-
ther breed, called the Fife breed, which is said to
have been originally a Dutch breed ; but they are
very few in number, and are not increasing. There
L are, perhaps, some present who can say something
more about them than I can. I now come to the
Ayrshire breed, which is one with which we have a
great deal to do. That breed is generally allowed
to be superior to all others for quantity of milk.
The Ayrshire breeders have, for many years, been
driving at that point, namel)'-, good milking qual-
ities, and I regret to say that I fear they have done
so to the neglect of the feeding qualities. A recent
writer, speaking of Ayrshires, says, that one cause
of the pleuro-pneumonia is that they are bred too
fine, and I am of opinion that there is some truth
in this. The same writer also said, that if a breed-
er has a first-rate bull, he was put to his nearest
relations — to his own mother, daughters, or cou-
sins, thus breeding too much in-and-in. What-
ever causes operate to produce the effect, I do not
pretend to say ; but it is an acknowledged fact that
the Ayrshire breed are deficient in beef and grow-
ing qualities. They are, generally speaking, nar-
row in the chest, and cannot have a large develop-
ment of lungs, so that they may be predisposed to
take injury or catch cold. In regard to pleura, it
is a disease the result of a cold which has hung
about the animal for many months without being
observed, till it could no longer escape observation.

and I believe a great deal of it results from cattle
being turned out too early in the spring, and left
out too long in autumn, and being allowed to hang
upon their legs at the gate of a field, doing no good
whatever. If we go to the original of the Ayrshire
breed, it will be difficult to call it a pure breed ; for
Mr. Orr, of Grougar, and Mr. Campbell, of Cess-
nock, brought Holderness cattle to Ayrshire, while
Colonel Dunlop also introduced cows from Guern-
sey and Holland; but of whatever blood it be
composed, there can be no doubt that the breeders
have been successful in producing a highly esteemed
description of cattle. It is quite possible for a
person looking about him in Ayrshire to see the
difference between the breeds. Near Kilmarnock
the cattle are tolerably broad in the hook, having
white muzzles, and a decided dash of the short-
horn. Yellow and white cows denote the Guern-
sey breed, while dark brownish red and tawny
muzzles betoken the Alderney cow. I happened to
be at a meeting at Cumnock some years ago, and
saw there what was reckoned the best bull in Ayr-
shire. Geordie was his name, I think, and he was
the property of Mr. Finlay, of Lyonston. He was
of a beautiful dark colour, with horns turning up.
I said, " You may call that bull an Ayrshire if you
choose ; but if there is not West Highland blood
there, I don't know where there is any." I was
afterwards informed that one-eighth of his blood
was West Highland. I remember a description of
Ayrshire cattle with horns 'turned in towards the
eyes. This was called the Crummie horns; and so
completely was this understood, that a good milk
cow was called a crummie. It has been found that
fashion insists that the horns of Ayrshires are to be
turned up, and screwing has been resorted to for
that purpose. But a little dash of the West High-
land settles that, without any screwing at all. [ThS^
speaker then went on to defend the crossing of
breeds, as it was only by that means that a perfect
animal could be raised, and then went on to speak
of the short-horned breed. He said :] The intro-
duction of short-horns may be of signal benefit to
this country; but I am not far from thinking that
if you keep them according to the present English
rules you will not be greatly benefited by them.
Some of the means at present adopted go to deprive
the animal of its milking powers, and render it
unnatural in its inclination to take on fat; but if
they are made to keep in a good fair growing,
breeding state — 'in fact, in that state of exuberant
health which makes them suitable for breeding —
the country would greatly benefit by their intro-
duction. Unfortunately, the great run has been
upon shape only, to the neglect of milking and
breeding qualities. I may mention, in confirma-
tion of my remarks about the fattening of the short-
horn, that I was at the Newcastle show of the
English Society some years ago, and was going
round the yard with Mr. Booth, of Killerby. He
was reckoned the first breeder of fat stock in York-
shire, and was only equalled by Mr. Bates, whom
he never liked to meet, so close was the competition.
Mr. Booth's cattle were very high fed ; and one
cow he had at that show — Necklace, I think, was
her name — was as magnificent an animal as one
could wish to behold ; but then she had, as it were.

532

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

pillows of fat sewed on to her hind quarters and
along her back. I remarked that the calves of
such an animal must be very valuable. He
answered, " I am sorry to say I have been rather
unfortunate in that respect ; the calf died." After
expressing my regret, I said, " Do you not think
she is rather fat ?" He said that " Perhaps she
was a little." I saw other three cows — Faith,
Hope, and Charity, 1 think he called them — raised
from this same Necklace, and more magnificent
animals no one could wish to see ; but I heard
shortly afterwards that he had given up the whole
thing, and that he did not again appear as an ex-
hibitor. On the other hand, Mr. Bates, instead of
feeding to such an enormous extent, kept his cattle
in first-rate breeding order. He told me he had got
a lot of West Highland heifers, and had put short-
horn bulls to them ; thus producing the most
admirable animals he ever saw, pictures of many of
which he had hung on his walls. Y/e must all, I
am sure, regret the serious loss which has occurred
at Keir, in the loss of the celebrated bull John
O'Groat, I, for one, however, was not altogether
unprepared to hear of such an event. If an animal
is fed up to a state quite unlike healthy nature, as
the rage is at present, what else can be expected .''
The object of what I have attempted to say is, that
we should endeavour to get that which best suits
our purposes by judicious crossing; and I think,
whether for eating, or show, or breeding, the great
point is to keep them in a good growing, healthy
state, and not force them beyond what is good for
themselves and those who are to use them. I have
now come, I think, to the end of my tether ; what
I have said will, I hope, excite healthy discussion,
and be the means of eliciting experience and infor-
jnation which may benefit us all (cheers).

Mr. Stobie, of Ballockneck, passed a compli-
ment on the ability displayed by Mr. Home in his
introduction of this sul)ject. He was not so well
acquainted with the Ayrshire breed as to express a
decided opinion, although he knew a cross between
the Ayrshire and the West' Highland breed was a
great improvement. The Fife breed was a coarse
animal, and such as he would not recommend to
breeders, although he must say a great improve-
rtient in this breed had been made by several par-
ties. The West Highland was, as stated by the
chairman, a most excellent breed, and had all the
good qualities which most other breeds were defi-
cient in. He recommended strongly a cross
between the West Highland cow and the short-
horn bull, but was generally of opinion that cross-
ing could not be too judiciously gone about. They
must begin with two first-class animals, and
endeavour to get prominent in the one what was
deficient in the other, and thought they should try
to carry on a good breed, and not ci'oss too often
or on every point. He took leave to mention that
he exhibited two cross-bred heifers at the recent
show of fat cattle at Glasgow, one of which gained
the first prize, and was out of a small Ayrshire
cow, by a pure short-horn bull ; and he must add,
it was a very fine animal, and admired by everj'one.
He had no hesitation in saying the short-horns and
first crosses were the easiest fattened breed, and in
times like these, when the farmer must get his

goods quickly to market, they wei*e the best. If
they got £12 or £15 for a year-old, and only some
£18 for a tvv-o-year-old, they were not paid for the
year's keep, and it was desirable to have that breed
which was ready at the earlist date to go to market.
He concluded by expressing his thanks to the
Chairman for his remarks.

Mr. M'Nellan was delighted to see this mode
of discussion introduced, and he only hoped that
in future a programme would be drawn up, in order
that all the members who chose might be prepared
to speak if they thought proper. Regarding the
subject of the discussion, he had found the short-
horn the easiest fed, and a cross between the short-
horn and Ayrshire exceedingly useful— in fact, as
easily fed as the short- horns; and while he had
reared this class to 50 stone, he could not rear an
Ayrshire more than 35 stone.

The Chairman said he was very glad to hear a
list of subjects spoken of. It could not have been
done on the present occasion ; but after the success
which had attended the introduction of the method
of discussion they had that night adopted, he was
of opinion that the committee of the society should
draw up a list of subjects, and allow each member
to choose that subject upon which he had most
information, or on which he could bring to bear the
most personal experience and observation. The
speaker then went on to remark upon the milking
qualities of the short-horns being fully equal to the
Ayrshire. All the dairies in London were filled
with short-horns, and the Londoners were pretty
well up to the way of getting most value for their
money. He had known one short-horn cow that
gave 18 Scotch pints (36 quarts imp.) of milk per
day, and the amount of butter he did not recollect,
but it was something immense; while at Keir he
believed there was a short-horn cow which was a
most magnificent milker. All this went to show
that the short-horn breed contains all the good
milking properties, but they had been destroyed by
endeavouring too much to get a monstrous fat
beast. He went on to say that the first cross of an
Ayrshire was good, but the second was easier fed,
and the nearer they approached the short-horns the
easier would they get the fat put on. He believed
that the first or second cross would turn out the
most profitable for feeding and milking. There
was one thing he was going to mention with regard
to milking, namely, that if they took a quantity
of Ayrshire milk, and a much smaller quantity
of short-horn milk, there was every probability
that the butter of the smaller quantity of short-
horn is greater than of the larger quantity of
Ayrshire.

Mr. Kay, of Hillhead, in a humorous speech,
advocated the utility and value of the Ayrshire
breed, but said that a great deal depended upon the
keep and soil. In regard to crossing, he said he
had tried it, and found his best plan was to come
back to the pure breed again. He said there was
no accounting for the differences between the rich-
ness of cows' milk. He himself had an Ayrshire
cow that gave 18 pints of milk per day (36 quarts
imp.), and only three pounds of butter in the week,
while he had had a httle cow whose milk produced
a pound of butter daily.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

533

Mr. Gray, of Bearside, remarked that it was
almost invariably the case that premiums at cattle
shows were carried off by the smallest cows on the
ground ; and if it were possible to grow large Ayr-
shires, why are premiums thrown away on these
small trifling animals ? He related an anecdote of
his going to a friend of his to purchase a bull, and
when coming away he saw an Ayrshire calf which
could scarcely move about. He asked what was
the matter. " Nothing," said his friend ; " only
we must starve the calves the first year to make
them fine, or they would grow up large, coarse
animals." Now, he appealed to them whether this
was according to nature, to starve a calf in its first
year, in order that it might be small and fine, instead
of what nature intended it. A good deal was spo-
ken about cruelty to animals, and when the races
came off, some of their neighbours cried out about
the cruelty of the thing. Here, however, he sub-
mitted, was a much grosser instance of cruelty to
animals — starving them during their infancy.

Mr. Chrystal decidedly objected to the injudi-

cious crossing, and above all things he thought that
the breeds should be kept pure. If such animals
could be got together as the Keir bull and Mr.
Douglas's cows, he thought it would be madness to
prefer crossing. He was of opinion that a short-
horn bull with Angus cows would make an excel-
lent animal ; but if such were done, he would stick
to the first cross, and never cross again.

The Chairman hoped, after the animated dis-
cussion they had had, that at next meeting some
equally interesting subject would be brought up,
and if he might be allowed to suggest, he would say
that cheese-making would be a most excellent sub-
ject. Some of the cheese made in the district was
good, and some nothing to brag of. He did not
see why they should not be able to make cheese
which would command a sale in the Glasgow mar-
ket, as that from Ayrshire does. If such a subject
were determined on, it might be well to have a show
of cheese on the same day, when the various prize
lots could be brought to table, and the system of
making explained (cheers). — Stirhng Journal.

THE ENGLISH FARMER IN FRANCE

Sir, — We compete with all the world in growth of
corn, and are not allowed the same liberty with other
crops. That seems hardly just — hardly free trade.
And when the price of wheat is extraordinarily depressed,
as, unfortunately, it now is, the unfairness of this must
often present itself to the minds of your readers.

Tobacco is perfectly acclimated to the north of France.
The climate is similar to ours ; if there is any difference,
the winds are colder than in England. Here it is
abundantly grown, at a good profit, under the especial
fostering care of the Government ; thus greatly benefit-
ing the farmer, enabling the cigar to be purchased for
a half -penny, and receiving a revenue of more than
our malt-tax.

T had the pleasure of paying a visit to Monsieur
Lecat, at Bondues, about six miles from Lille, who is
the largest and most successful tobacco grower iu this
department ; he has received many medals from French
and foreign societies, and the decoration of the Legion
of Honour, and has also published a work on the culti-
vation of it, consequently I could not possibly have
met with a gentleman more competent to give me the
best information. He has the most extensive farm-yard
and buildings I have seen. I could fancy it was an old-
fashioned English homestead, with large pigeon-house
in the centre, so often seen in England. The land about
it is all the very finest loam, not a stone nor a water-
furrow.

The history of tobacco may be stated in few words : —
Found by Columbus in 1492, introduced into Europe
1560, deprecated by all; in 1624 Pope Urban VIII. ex-
communicated all who used it; 1674 it became more
popular, and a duty was here placed on it, and the cul-
tivation then began. In 1810 a decree was passed by
the French Government, greatly promulgating its
growth ; and from thence, under many alterations of the

laws relating to it, it has progressed to the present time.
The expenses of growing it, per English acre, are as
follows : —

£ s. d.

Ploughing, harrowing, rolling, carting. . 2 16 0

The seed bed 112 0

Manuring ,£'25, but half is supposed to be

left for next four crops ; so it is 12 10 0

Manual labour 10 16 0

Sundries ...... 110 0

Hail-storm insurance 0 18 10

Delivery, &c 0 8 0

^■■30 10 10

No small sum, but the return is often £50. The labour
of it employs all the family of the small farmer, and the
large one has the satisfaction of giving employment to
very many of his poorer neighbours. It has been one
of the principal causes of the total abolition of naked
fallow, and the perfect cleanliness and heavy manuring
of this part of the country.

There are seventeen species, but three only are sown ;
and of these, one (the large-leaved) nearly supersedes the
other two. It is a fine plant, and has been known to
attain the height of 7 feet 6 inches, with many branches
covered with leaves ; the flowers are of a purplish
colour, the pods oblong, containing innumerable seeds.
(Any gentleman wishing for any, if he inserts his
address where to send it in the Mark Lane Exi^ress,
I will give him some with pleasure.) One plant will
produce 300 pods, aad in one pod was counted 2,700
seeds, thus producing an increase of 800,000 for one.
It will keep for years, and, unlike corn, requires no
change of soil. Before you draw your plants from the
seed-bed, select the forwardest for seed : it is ripe in
October, and when cut is best hung up in a dry place,
and not knocked out till wanted.

5U

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

Choose a warm, protected place for the seed-bed ;
dig in autumn ; leave it till February, then manure it
well with rape-cake and pigeon's dung (here they do it
at a cost of 4s. 23. per rod !J, and dig it in very shallow.
Rake it very fine, and invariably between the 10th and
25th of March sow your seed, mixed with sand or
ashes ; cover it with branches to keep off wind and frost,
and if there is no wall, surround it on three sides with
straioed hurdles set up endways. You must also have
a small bed sown ten days later, lo produce plants to fill
up blanks. From the moment of sowing, daily care is
required ; protection from grubs, weeds, sun, wind,
frost, and drought. One-and-a-half rods of bed are
required for every acre planted.

The field for planting must be free from trees ; tobacco
likes not shade. Prepare the ground as well as possible ;
it cannot be too fine : among other good reasons, it
better bears a dry season. Liquid manure and guano
are not allowed to be used by Government, as the whole
cultivation of this plant is regulated by law. Only a
certain number of acres are permitted to be grown in
proportion to the size of the farm. Rape-cake is the
best manure ; it produces the handsomest and best fla-
voured tobacco : an acre requires three tons of it, and
eighteen loads of dung.

Planting begins on the 25th of May, and it should be
proceeded with as quickly as possible, as the later plants
do not ripen so well as the others. To regulate the
spaces they use wire chains, the links of which are 16
inches long, as that is the distance the plants should be
apart, and the rows 20 inches. They arc not allowed to
plant thicker than 19,200 to the acre, nor thinner than
12,800. In dry weather you must not begin to plant
till 2 o'clock ; and if very hot, a small handful of wet
chaff must be put to each plant, to remain for three
days. The next operation is to mould them up. In
about a month the heads are nipped ofl", leaving only
eight leaves — requiring a skilful workman. This seems
to promote suckers, which must be removed three or
four times as they appsar. In the beginning of Septem-
ber the harvest commences. Women strip the plants of
the leaves, laying them in the next row already done,
dividing the smaller ones from the others, as they are
dried separately. A few hours are sufficient to pre-
pare them for stringing into "garlands," and they are
then ready to be carried lo the drying-house. This is
the most important part ; on this greatly depends the
quality and classification oi the leaves. Six " garlands"
are hung on a rod, and these rods are placed on other
rods, which run the whole length of the shed ; here they
are protected from rain or damp, and constantly attended
to, for twenty-five to forty days, according to the weather.
You then choose a fine day to remove it to the granary,
where it must be carefully surrounded with a wall of
straw, to keep out the damp or air as much as possible.

The delivery of the tobacco to the Government factory
at Lille commences at the beginninj; of January and ends
in March ; to effect this, the leaves must be sorted into
four classes, and tied in bundles of fifty leaves each, and
fifty bundles make a truss, tied with osiers. All leaves
which have suffered from rain, hail, or imperfect drying,

are classed as unsaleable. The average weight of five
years' growth, from 1849 to 1853, in the district by Lille,
was 24 cwt. to the acre. M. Lecal considers it by far
the most profitable crop the farmer has. It strikes me
it would be still more so in England.

The Government buys all, and fixes the prices annu-
ally : last year they were 117s., 92s., and 61s. per cwt.
for first, second, and third classes. An ancient convent
of immense size in Lille is applied to the manufacture ;
it employs 350 workmen and 400 women. The French
tobacco is never used alone ; it is mixed with all other
sorts. The process of manufacture is very simple :
Cleaned, sorted, heaped with strong brine and well
heated, cut by a chaff-box, dried, damped and heated
again, and packed. The cigars are the women's work.
It all takes some time, but the snuff is the longest.
After undergoing various processes fur six months, it
remains for a year in immense heaps of forty or fifty
tons each, to acquire a scent, which it has not before. To
be more minute would be uninteresting ; suffice it to
say little or no machinery is required, and had we the
liberty, I am sure the farmers of England would imme-
diately try it, and, I believe, with every chance of suc-
cess. Why not, if it ar.svvers so well here ?

Another favdurite growth is flax. I will send you a
more detailed account of it, as that is open to us, and I
know the prejudice against it. Now all expenses of
farming here are so similar to ours, that their profits are
not a bad test if there is any advantage in adopting their
crops.

I am anxious not to lose a day in forwarding to
you the information I have obtained on the growth of
sorgho, a plant which I believe will, in a very short
time, become one of general cultivation in England,
v/ith great advantage to all stock -keepers, producing
more food per acre than any other summer crop, and
of a more fattening nature than any of our present
produce grasses or soiling plants ; equally good for ^
horses, " cattle" both grazing and store, cows, sheep,
and hosTs; eagerly devoured by all, sheep perhaps liking
it the best; and improving as well the quality as the
quantity of the milk and butter. Cows that have had
half-a-cwt. per day give a quart more milk per day.

So much do I think of it, that I shall leave no means
neglected which may lead to the distribution of the seed,
with instructions for sowing. The outlay of a few pence
for suflicient to try its qualities and capabilities in En-
glish soils is so triiliog, that I should think no one who
reads your journal will neglect to embrace the oppor-
tunity I offer of so easily acquiring a knowledge of this
valuable plant.

I admit we have not had many useful new crops in-
troduced into England during the last twenty years, or
which realized the anticipations caused by the flattering
character given them at the first, such as trifolium and
many others ; but that is no reason for not making in-
expensive trials when we are enabled to do so. One of the
most useful seeds we could desire would be for an inter-
mediate crop between the harvest and following spring. I
do not say such is sorgho, but it may be so. If sown in

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

535

July it produces two cuts; so, surely, if sown ia
August it will produce one.

At all events here its utility is not problematical ; it
is an accomplished fact, but all its uses may not yet
be developed.

It was introduced five or six years ago by Monsieur
de Montigny, the French Ambassador at Shanghai,
who also sent over the " igname" as a substitute for the
potato — (More of this some future time) by sending
new seed to the Agricultural Society of Paris.

In August, 1855, the Committee of Agriculture ap-
pointed a deputation to inquire into its merits. Sep-
tember 4th, they found at the farm of Monsieur de
Daire, at St. Roche les Amiens, a small piece six yards
by seven, which was then six inches high. They
went again on the 22nd of same month, and found
during these 18 days it had advanced to 30 inches.

Oct. 22, 1857, in the Napoleonien Monlteur de la
Somme, was inserted : " Many of our farmers have had
great success this year with the sorgho plant grown for
hay. It has given most extraordinary crops : one piece
produced at each cutting 21,000 kilogrammes on 42
acres and 20 centares. Now this is equal to 60 tons per
English acre, for all the three cuttings — 20 tons per acre
each mowing.''

March 7, 1858, the Mercuriale des Halle, at
Marches, says : " Seven hectares were sown last year by
Monsieur Noiiel, at the farm Isle Commune, St.
Denis en Val-Soiret. The produce of one cutting on
one hectare tvas weighed, and it amounted to 73,000
kilogrammes ; it was consumed by 80 fatting bullocks,
and 10 horses, from .Sept. 2nd to Nov. 10th." This is
30 tons per English acre at one cutting. These ac-
counts may be looked upon as correct ; there are too many
officials here to give information to the authorities, and
too many agricuUurists anxious for the truth in this
sort of statements, to allow me to think for a moment
there is any doubt about them. In fact, I believe the
Minister of Agriculture would cause the editor to be
punished in some way, if he allowed untruthful state-
ments of crops to appear in his paper. It docs seem
most enormous, and yet it is also added : " Had it been
cut at twice, the amount of weight would have been
much more." The land, no doubt, was as rich and as
highly manured as almost any in the world. However,
if we get two-thirds of this, we need not be dissatisfied.

In the South of France it is grown for sugar ; sown
one-fourth the thickness, and allowed only to produce
one stem, which is harvested in October, and contains
fifteen per cent, of sugar — the leaves being given to
cattle. This I do not expect will ever be done
in England, consequently I will confine my observa-
tions to its applicability to hay or cattle soiling.

It may be sown from the 1st of March to July ; the
early-sown producing three mowings, the later two. You
cannot over-manure for it, as the coarseness of it seems

not to affect the love the cattle have for it, nor its fat-
tening qualities. As soon as land is ready, you hoe out
lines two inches deep and a foot apart, and drop the seed
in these lines from three to four inches apart. It is a
very branching plant, and requires room : on a large
scale, of course, it would be drilled. It is covered in
the usual way, and in a couple of weeks is seen just
coming through; in two more it is four inches high.
You will now hoe it when you please : it will only re-
quire once doing, as it so smothers the weeds that they
cannot grow. But being at these intervals, a horse-
hoeing would not be a bad thing, with two horses, each
walking in the furrows four yards apart, and two hoes
following them, and at each end of the work the hoes
being set one row nearer each other. In this way the
plant is never trodden by the horses. I never saw this
done except by the market gardeners near London, but
it is an excellent plan. It seems not to be so rapid in
its growth in its early phases as afterwards : for that
reason it would not be amiss to steep the seed before
sowing. In June it is a yard high, and fit to commence
cutting. Should you prefer making it into hay, now is
the time. It is said to lose two-thirds of its weight, but
here they sadly overmake all their hay and clover. The
latter end of June and July is a time when a crop like
this comes in very conveniently for soiling — the tares are
done, the first crop of clover is all cut, and the after-
grass in the meadows is not yet ready. If not mown
till arrived at full maturity, it attains the height of eight
to nine feet; and, from what I have heard, I believe in
that state, if properly harvested and cut into chaff, all
things would eat it, and thrive on it exceedingly. There
seems little risk of a plant, as no insect will touch it.
When the crop is finished in November, and you plough
it up, the roots are excellent for hogs, boiled like pota-
toes. Thus all is valuable. I believe, although we may
never produce sugar from the full-grown stems, we may
make an excellent white wine, or vinegar, and even mo-
lasses. At all events such things have been made from
it in til is North of France, where I am this 19th day of
May sitting by a good fire, and feeling glad I have it.
Whatever they do here, I am sure we can do ; but until
we know that it will ripen sufficiently perfectly to pro-
duce the required quantity of saccharine matter for these
purposes, it would be useless to fill your paper with aa
account of the different processes. Suffice it to say,
they are so simple that they come within the means and
powers of the smallest farmer; indeed, here it is consi-
dered as great a boon to the little as to the large culti-
vator. During this summer I shall most likely see much
more of the management and uses of this plant, and
shall most certainly forward to you any further infor-
mation I may obtain, and think of interest to my
brother-farmers.

An English Farmer in France.
Lille, May I9th, 1858.

36

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE l^ AMERICA.

If there is one country more tliiin another, to -which
the agriculturists of the United Kingdom have looked
with some feeling of apprehension, it is to the United
States of America. Indeed a prima facie view of the
subject might seem to justify their fears. When we
look at the vast amount of fresh land of the most fertile
quality continually brought under cultivation, coupled
with the increased facilities for bringing the jiroduce of
those lands to market in Europe, there appears good
ground for supposing that increased quantities of cereal
food will annually be exported from thence to Europe, to
the injury of European agriculture; subject as the latter
is to heavy expenses from which the American farmer is
exempt.

A nearer view, however, of the system pursued in
the cultivation of the virgin soils of the United States,
and of the acknowledged consequences of that system,
will shov/ that such apprehensions are groundless ; and
that althougli fresh land, to a large extent, and of great
fertility, is continually being brought under tillage, the
aggregate produce of cereal food, adapted to the Euro-
pean market, does not more than keep i^ace with the
requirements of the growing populations.

We have now before us a work on the agriculture of
the eastern part of the United States;* and although
we are bound to admit that great efforts are put forth
to induce the American farmers to adopt the European
system of agriculture, the quantity of land cultivated
in an efficient manner is infinitesimally small, com-
pared with that which is farmed upon the old and
normal plan adopted by the first settlers. We would
give the Boards of Agriculture of the United States
every credit for the efficiency with which they perform
their part in laying down the true principles on which
the land ought to be cultivated ; but, with all defer-
ence to their local knowledge and experience, we are
convinced that as long as fresh land is cheap and ac-
cessible, so long will the scourging system of cultiva-
tion be pursued by an overwhelming majority of the
farmers, by which so much of the land in the old
States has been reduced to sterility, and the aggregate
acreage produce so much lessened.

It has been said that a sterile soil is usually better
cultivated than a fertile one ; and that the principal
reason why England exhibits features in farming almost
equal to gardening, is that the soil, generally speaking,
is so inferior that it awakens all the energy of the cul-
tivator to raise a remunerating produce. This rule,
however, does not hold good in New England or Mas-
sachusetts. There the soil is certainly inferior in quality
to most of the States ; notwithstanding which, the
scourging system has been at work there to such a

* Fourth Annual Keport of tlie Secretary of tlie Massachu-
setts Board of Agriculture, with the Reports of Committees,
&c., with an Appendix, &c., &c. Boston, U. S. : William
White, printer to the State. 1857.

degree as to extort tlie following statement from a
speaker at the Massachusetts Agricultural Society's
meeting : " One thing is certain, that under the in-
fluence of practical farming, as it is called, the land
of New England has notoriously deteriorated to such
an extent, that it is estimated that at least a thousand
millions of dollars (£200,000,000 sterling) would be
required to repair the effects of a v/asteful and exhaust-
ing system of cultivation."

Again, in the report of the committee on farms of
the Essex (N. E.) Agricultural Society, it is stated that
notwithstanding premiums arc offered of fifty dollars
for the best-managed farms, only two competitors
presented themselves, and one of these afterwards
withdrew. Similar admissions are made by the com-
mittees for otiier societies. But a more striking proof
of the hostility of the farmers generally to improve-
ments, is the fact, that when a comparatively small sum
was required to conduct a farm for experimental
objects by the State, it was refused by the House of
Representatives, although the tax individually would
have been of the most homoeopathic amount.

Now, when we consider that New England is the
foremost State of the Union, in the encouragement of
agriculture by the authorities; and that notwithstand-
ing this, the produce of wheat has decreased in forty
years 50 per cent, per acre, oats 40 per cent., Indian
corn 70 per cent., sheep 70 -pev cent., &c., &c. ; we
may conclude that in the other States the same process
of deterioration is going on ; and that the accession of
new land to the cultivation of cereal crops does not
more than compensate for the falling off of production
on the old land, and the increased consumption conse-
quent on the increase of the population. We know
from universal admission that in the State of Virginia,
the drastic character of the tobacco cultivation, as
conducted there, has reduced that fertile soil to
such hopeless sterility, that a large portion of it is
no longer cultivated, and the State itself is now what is
called " a breeding State " — that is, chiefly devoted to
raising negro slaves for the Southern market ; the most
degrading and ignoble purpose that can be conceived.
It is also admitted that not only in all the old States,
but even in those new ones that have been cultivated
the past twenty years, the same process has produced
the same effect, and after a few years the yield of corn,
wheat, oats, &c., falls off; no manure, generally
speaking, being applied to make good the waste of
materials.

When therefore we hear of prodigious crops in ttie
United States, ready to swamp all the European
markets, we may conclude that it is nothing more
than that boasting for which our transatlantic re-
latives are so much noted. We have heard much of
this gasconade the last few years, but have felt little of

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

537

its force. Since last harvest, for instance, which was to
have been productive of great results, there has been
less wheat and flour shipped from the States than for
three years past. This may have been partly owing to
the panic, which certainly prevented exportation
before the frost set in. Still that ought to have caused
a larger export trade this spring; and yet we hear
that we are not to expect any considerable shipments
of flour during the summer. The fact is, our prices
are either too low, or the flour is wanted at home, the
latter being the most probable solution of the ques-
tion— or the want of money would compel the shipment,
now that the panic has subsided, at whatever price,
were it not that a safer market (and a better) is found
at home.

There is one department of the exhibition at the
Massachusetts cattle slioios that has rather startled,
as well as amused us. We give the account in Mr. Park-
hurst's (secretary to the Plymouth A. S.) own words :

" The most attractive scene of the whole show was
to take place at ten o'clock — the exhibition of
female equestrianism, which did not take place till
eleven o'clock. Twenty-six ladies entered their
names for premiums : but thirteen appeared on the

ground. The cavalcade left the village about eleven
o'clock, and went around the track once, each lady
accompanied by a gentleman, and presented them-
selves before the judges' stand. By order of the judges
they performed a variety of evolutions, riding in pairs,
in quartets, all together, and each lady alone, riding
slow or fast, as best suited her taste or convenience.
After performing an hour or more, they left the ground.
These cquesti'ians performed their parts — so far as we
are capable of judging — well. Many of them laboured
under disadvantages : their horses were not thoroughly
trained to the saddle. There were a few good horses,
but generally they were not flfc for the occasion. The
question comes up, whether this is the proper place for
ladies to exhibit for premiums 1 — whether the fairest
of Nature's Vv-orkmanship should be shown for money,
in connection loith the grossest animals and the
products of the landl I think not."

Is not the Secretary rother hard on his fair friends ?
At any rate here is another hint for us at home. Wo
have long maintained the national advantage of giving
premiums for well-bred horses, but it remained for our
transatlantic friends to culminate the attractions of
such an exhibition.

THE PRACTICAL VALUE AND APPLICATION OF TOWN SEWAGE.

There are certain questions, more or less directly
affecting agriculture, with which the Legislature would
appear to be very loath to deal. There is the lav/ o^
landlord and tenant, for instance, in many ways sus-
ceptible of improvement and adjustment. And when
we jDress for as much, our rulers calmly hear us out,
and answer, " Had not you better settle this amongst
yourselves, and make it all a matter of private agree-
ment? We would really rather not interfere." Then,
again, we wish for some uniform system of selling our
produce. It is quite a puzzle now to know what we
should reasonably ask and have. Here we are cour-
teously met with the rejoinder " that unanimity must
be the herald of uniformity. So long as you
diifer so much amongst yourselves, once more,
we would really rather not interfere." And
for a third point there is the sewage of towns, of such
immense value to the farmer, if he can only be brought
to think so. What will he give for it, or how shall we
give it to him ? The Government is still by no means
over-anxious to interfere. Theirs is yet a Fabian
policy. It may or may not be of value, and the far-
mer cares or does not care about it. The best way will
be to appoint another Commission to inquire into the
matter. And another Commission is appointed ac-
cordingly; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer goes
back to his budget, and the Premier to his several
little troubles at home and abroad ; while we return to
the argument of liberal covenants, sale by weight or
measure, national settlement, repeal of the malt tax,
and so on.

As regards this question of town sewage, it is pretty

generally admitted that the festina lente plan of ap-
proaching it is by far the most discreet. The last
Commission, indeed, which has now been at work
something over twelve months, is in anything but a
hurry. The report it has just issued is in reality little
more than " a feeler," ofi'ering or sanctioning sug-
gestions as to how the sewage may be got rid of, and
how occasionally employed. It is not our purpose
here to follow, or to attempt to follow out a plan, itself
by no means developed. The subject, however, has
gradually become one of some interest to the agricul-
turist. He has, at any rate, heard so much about it.
In fact, whenever it turns up in conversation he expects
almost as a matter of course to be complimented by
some worthy citizen on his indifference and stupidity.
He will be told how after-ages will scarcely credit his
suffering such valuable matter to be wasted. And when,
perhaps, with his patience exhausted, he demands how
he is to use it, or prevent its being wasted 1 the worthy
citizen bates his breath, and but echoes the official
answer, " Let its have another Commission."

It is only a few years since that the assumed value of
sewage for agricultural purposes very nearly led us
into mischief. The wild talk of a few amateurs, and
the wonders of Tiptree hall, Myer mill, and Gumming
park, were not without their effect. There were
schemes, in short, as plentiful as blackberries, whereby
the sewage of towns was to more than pay for its dis-
tribution. Its value to the farmer was infinite, until
one day, in Hanover-square, Professor Way told him
what it really was worth. And this once more put the
cunctando drag on the amiable enthusiasts. We had

538

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

another Commission, with such men as Professor Way
and Mr. Lawes on it. It is their report whicli is now
before us. Since their appointment they have visited
officially localities where sewage is applied
TO land in a liquid porm : — Rugby, Wat-
ford, Edinburgh, Rusholme, Mansfield, and Milan —
Localities where works for the purifica-
tion OF SEWAGE ARE IN OPERATION : — Croydon ,
Leicester, Tottenham, and Cheltenham — And the
FARMS of Loi'd Essex, at Cashiobury ; of Mr. Mcchi,
at Tiptreej of Mi-. Wheble, at Bulmersh Court j of
Mr. Kennedy, at Myer Mill; of Mr. Telfer, at Gum-
ming Park ; of Lord Breadalbane, at Luing ; and of
Mr. Harvey, near Glasgow. The Commissioners very
properly decline any close comparison between the
application of the liquid manure of a farm and the
general use of town sewage for the same purpose. They
do not give any detail of the places they visited ; but
they find that sewage in its liquid state is profitably
applied to grass land in the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh, as well as of Milan. It is gradually going out
of use for arable land ; while the formation of a
solid manure from it, at one time a very popular project,
it is shown, " will not be remunerative.'' The commis-
sioners thus cautiously sum up their experience. After
enumerating various difiiculties, drawbacks, and ex-
penses, that we need not recapitulate here, they so de-
clare themselves : — " The Commission, however, be-
lieve that on the whole there can be no doubt that tlie
sewage of a town, in a liquid state, can be more
profitably disposed of by direct application to land than
by any other means, provided that, relatively to the
population producing it, the area to which it is applied
be small, that its use be limited to grass, that all
natural levels be taken advantage of, and that the
works be characterized by skill and a judicious eco-
nomy J^ This reads careful and honest. With skill,
economy, natural facilities, and good judgment, the
sewage of towns 7«a?/ be of service. Of course the Com-
missioners found endless mistakes and extravagance in
its application so far ; and on many of the sites that had
been spoken to as very models for our adoption. Had
the agriculturists of this country been only half as
ready to act on ill-considered advice as some people
were to give it, we dare scarcely contemplate the serious
loss that would have been the consequence.

And yet there are some of their friends, even now,
that will tell them the same sort of thing. A week or
two since, the Society of Arts had a special meeting
to discuss this Report of the Royal Commissioners, and
for any one who chose to say anything he liked on so
attractive a subject. The Society has already made it-
self rather famous in this way. Neither Mr. Chadwick
nor his opponents were, unfortunately, or fortunately,
present; but an M. P., — Mr. Lawrence Palk — was. The
honourable gentleman came, too, armed with the usual
kind of ammunition. He was from Devonshire, " where
the system of irrigation was by no means new." He
had been to Leicester, and "witnessed Mr. Wickstead's
plan of deodorization" ; and 'Mie held in his hand a
letter from Mr. Campbell, of Rugby." One knows but

too well what this all means, and how the honourable
gentleman must finish, as he did, in thiswise —

" This was a question which was well worthy the at-
tention not only of gentlemen connected with large
towns, but also of those who, like himself, were con-
nected with the agricultural interests of the country.
If they looked to the increasing value of guano, and the
difficulty there was in obtaining it pure, he thought it
was important that science should be brought to bear,
in order to retain for the use of the agricultural dis-
tricts that which was the bane of large towns, but which
was of such extreme value to the farmer."

Another substitute for guano — well worthy of the at-
tention of the agricultural interest — and of such immense
value lo the farmer. iVow, in plain sober English, what
does this really come to ? Just this : that under cer-
tain circumstances, and with very good management
on his own part, the farmer may be able to employ the
sewage of towns to some advantage. Why can we not
be content with saying so much, instead of running
away with superlative expletives, and crying up
plans that have so far proved neither altogether
profitable nor practical? Mr. Lawrence Palk re-
presents an agricultural constituency, ^and if so be
he exjiects his supporters to act up to what he says,
the less he says about this matter the better. It is
STich wild work on the part of those who undertake to
advocate the farmer that does so much mischief. One
would suppose, with the case of Mr. Palk and his
water-meadows before us, that we could not spend too
much of our time and means in arriving at the grand
consummation embodied in the use of town sewage.

The Royal Commission is luckily composed of stouter
stuff. Few men understand the farmer and his wants
better than Professor Way and Mr. Lawes. They unite
in a report that treats the use of sewage for agricultural
purposes as but a matter of secondary consideration.
We have always been inclined so to regard it. Let the
towns get rid of their refuse as best they can, and let
the farmer use it when he can. With certain facilities
at occasional sites it may answer its end ; but let no
plan go out of the way to assume that the use of sewage
is to be attended with "extreme value" one way or the
other.

TO DESTROY WIRE WORM.— Procure a sufficient
quantity of nitrate of soda lo allow 1| cwt. per acre ; have it
well broken on a hard floor, and sifted through a fine sieve, in
order that it may dissolve the quicker, spreading made equal
to the plants. It is advisable to sow it when the ground is
damp ; but it often happens that at this season such is uot
the case, consequently it is advisable to use the hoe after
sowing the nitrate to admit it to the root of the oatsi, and to
sow in the afternoon, taking the chance of a heavy dew. I
consider nitrate of soda the greatest fertilizer ever known,
also tho quickest in its operation. I have seen it, when the
ground has been in a moist state, change the countenance of
the oats in four days. In Cuthbert Johnson's " Encyclo-
pnedia of Agriculture, &c.," in the treatise on the wireworm
lie quotes a statement from a Mr. Tallant, who affirms that
be has frequently freed fields infested with wireworm by
sowing white ma3tarf\— Charles Newman, Court Farm,
Reading.

THEIFARMER'S MAGAZINES

539

CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURE.

Continue during the first part of June to pre-
pare the laud for turnips, wliieli are sown as
speedUy as possible during the last half of the month.
Use farm-yard dung in a warm or soapy condition,
not wholly cooled, but in the latter fermentation.
Open drihs at 26 inches distance ; spread the dung
evenly along the furrows in a quantity that no bare
ground is left ; reverse the drills over the dang.
Sow the turnip seeds on the fresh tilth, and in dry
seasons roll the drills lightly to exclude drought
and retain moisture. In sowing turnips with
auxiliary manures, as bones, guano, ashes or rape-
dust, use Horusby's drop-drill, wliicli sows two
rows at regular intervals of nine inches, the manure
and turnip seed mixed together, which a.ffords a
ready food to the young plant.

Plough pared and burned lands with a light
furrow, aud produce a fine tilth by ample har-
rowing, before sowing the seeds during the
latter part of the month. If the laud be
clayey and stiff, sow on the furrov/ slice, w^ell
harrowed. On loamy soils reduce the land by work-
ings, aud drill it; well mix the soil and the ashes.
Sow rape and cole seed for winter food. Plough
lands from which winter tares have been consumed;
harrow the surface into fineness, and sow the turnip
seeds in rows by means of a machine with
lengthened coulters to make ruts. Sow iu broad-
cast the headlands of the turnip fields; and use
short dung that is easily covered.

Horse aud hand hoe beet-roots, carrots, and pars-
nips— allow not one single weed to be seen.

Potato drills, not rolled after being planted with
sets, may now be harrowed; plough deeply the in-
tervals of the drills with the miniature plough, which
is the best implement yet devised for stiff-bottomed

lauds; keep the hand-hoes and scuffier constantly
going, break all clods, and pulverize the soil very
deeply and freely. Fine earths are essential to all
root crops.

Continue the feeding, in the yards, of cows and
horses, with clovers and vetches; feed amply, provide
abundant litterirg, aud convey the superfluous liquid
to the tank ; but it is best when absorbed by straws
and culms.

Cat all tall weeds from among the grain crops ;
allow not any weeds to perfect the seeds on pastures,
in fences, or on road sides. Many seeds are winged,
and carried by the wind to a distance, and propagate
very rapidly.

Finish the shearing of sheep this month : exaini;ie
the animals closely, as they pass through hands at
this tiaie, in the mouth, the shape, the qaa'.ity of the
wool,and inthegeneral appearance. An inspection of
the animals at this time, and the putting upou tliem
distinctive marks, will very much assist the sorting
of them for the tupping season iiL October.

Put mares to the stallion every fortnight. Wean
lambs by placing them at once beyond hearing the
bleat of the ewes, and give them the best grass on
the farm.

Hay cuti ing"will commence this month. Ted the
grass quickly behind the mowers; put into cocks,
spread them out aud cock it again, aud carry to the
rick. Employ plenty of hands, at least six to each
mower. Turn clovers in the swathe without tedding,
as much shaking loses the leaves, which are the
best part of the plant. Pat the grass into large
cocks, which may stand in the field for a time. When
hay gets damaged by rains, the quality is somewhat
recovered by mixing salt iu the ricks 30 lbs. to a
load.

AGRICULTURAL REPORTS.

GENERAL AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR
MA.Y.

Although the weather has been by no means warm for
the time of year, arising from the numerous changes in it,
vegetation has made considerable progress; and in most
parts of the country it may be considered seasonably for-
ward. In our large grain districts, the young wheats have
continued to wear a healthy appearance ; and very few of
our farmers appear disposed to doubt the return of an
average crop. Of course, as yet, it would be premature to
offer any decided opinion on this important matter ; but
certainly present appeax'ances are very favourable. As re-
gards the spring crops, which for the most part are growing
rapidly, our advices are satisfactory. Very few replough-
ings have been found necessary ; and the loss of plant has
been smaller than for some years past.

A highly interesting report on the subject of the progress
of agriculture in the United States, under the fosteriug
nfluence of Congress, has just come to hand. A bill has

been lately introduced, with every prospect of success, for
granting to the several states 6,340,000 acres of land, for
the purpose of promoting and encouraging agricultural
colleges, and schools for the mechanical arts. There is to
be apportioned to each state a quantity equal to 20,000
acres for each senator and representative in Congress, to
which the states are now respectively entitled. This is un-
doubtedly a wise measure on the part of Congress ; and it
is to be regretted that a similar scheme could not be carried
out in the United Kingdom. Amongst other matters re-
ferred to in the report in question, we are informed that
over 400,000,000 acres had been granted to fifteeu states, for
the establishment of universities, prior to 1854. This may
appear a most startling announcement ; but we are informed
by the Secretary of the Interior that the United States
still possess one thousand million of acres yet undisposed of!
When we consider this enormous quantity of uncultivated
land, and the energy of the paople of America, we can
scarcely anticipate anything short of a rapid increase in the

0 0

540

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

soil's productions. A few years of scientific research, aided
by the discoveries of modern science, will, in our opinion,
double the produce of the American coil.

Although steady importations of loreign wheat and flour
have taken place, there has been rather more firmness in
the demand for wheat; and in some instances fine qualities
have produced a trifle more money. Apparently, however,
present quotations are not safe, because the inland naviga-
tion in the United States is re-opened, and heavy ship-
ments of wheat have been commenced from the Lower
Baltic ports. Everywhere, great abundance exists. In
this country there is, we believe, more wheat on
hand than has been almost ever known at any correspond-
ing period of the year; and in America the supply is,
according to all accounts, enormous. No doubt the surplus
supply of the world will be forwarded to us ; and no doubt
the quantity will be in excess of our wants. Under these
circumstances, speculation is out of the question ; and we
are somev/hat apprehensive that the shipping-houses on the
continent, most of whom have continued to force sales ex
ship for many months past, will determine to sell on arrival,
to the prejudice of the English farmer. The present returns
upon the entire crop of last year, however, are more satis-
factory than might appear at first sight. We must not
forget that the yield has turned out very large ; that the
condition of the wheats is first-rate ; and that a large
portion of the arrivals from the North of Europe is inferior
in quality ; henco, a wide difference exists in prices, and
that difference is certainly in favour of English qualities ;
still prices are low— lower indeed than could be desired;
but, at the same time, the total return in money to the
home growers, taking into account the comparatively high
value of barley and other spring corn, is somewhat in excess
of former periods of great depression in the trade, the result
of overwhelming importations from abroad.

For barley, oats, beans, and peas there has been astead}-,
though not to say active, demand, at fair average quota-
tions. Throughout the continent extensive supplies remain
on hand ; and we have every reason to anticipate unusually
large importations during the remainder of the season.

Good and sound potatoes have now become exceedingly
scarce ; prices have consequently advanced. Inferior
parcels have sold heavily, at drooping currencies. The im-
portations from the continent have nearly ceased.

The wool trade has been in a most inactive state through-
out the month ; and at the colonial sales prices have given
way Id. to 2d. per lb. English wool, however, has become
rather firmer in price than it was at the commencement of
the month. The total importations of foreign and colonial
wool into England during the first four months of the year
were 122,,^)82 bales, against 139,070 bales in the correspond-
ing period last year. This deficiency has since been more
than made good by the arrival of 40,000 bales in the month
just concluded.

In Ireland and Scotland agriculture has made satisfactory
progress ; and the fluctuations in the value of grain have
been trifling. Fat stock has, for the most part, realized
fair quotations ; and the supplies forwarded to England
have been cjuite equal to many former seasons.

iREVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING
THE PAST MONTH,

Notwithstanding that the supplies of live stock on bffer
in the Metropolitaa Market have been only moderate for
the time of year, little or no improvement has taken place in

the general demand, compared with the previous month .
However, prices generally have ruled steady. As regards
the condition of the beasts and sheep brought forward, we
may observe that it has been fully equal to most correspond-
ing periods of the year. The dead weights have, too, fully
come up to previous estimates. These are important mat-
ters in connexion with the production of live stock. In the
first place they prove that grazing has continued to hold its
high position ; and, in the second, that the supply of meat
is increasing. There may be a great difference of opinion
on this latter point ; but no one who has narrowly watched
the progress of agriculture, and who has carefully observed
the various changes which have presented themselves
during the last ten j'ears, will deny that our enormous con-
sumption of animal food is now easily met by the home pro-
ducers. The depressed state of the trade and commerce of
the country ha?, no doubt, caused less activity in the cattle
trade ; but we believe that there is now what may be fairly
termed an abundance of fat stock in nearl3^ every district in
England. High prices daring the past j'car, and the absence
of disease amongst the cattle, have produced a result both
important and gratifying. In many former years, owing to
the scarcity of food about this period, large numbers of
beasts and sheep have been forced for sale in little less than
a half-fat state. Such, however, is not the case at present,
owing to an abundance of hay on most farms, and to the
rapid extension of the root-crop system. But with all
these favourable features, it must be admitted that grazing
has become rather an unprofitable business, arising from
the unusually high prices paid for store animals during
nearly the whole of 1857. The present moderate rates at
which fat stock is selling may, however, serve as a whole-
some check to what may be termed high speculative prices
for store stock, even of a first-class character. If we trace
the course of the cattle trade through a series of years, we
shall find that high prices almost invariably lead to a de-
cline iu the consumption •, iudeed, place the actual neces-
saries of life beyond the reach of the great consuming
classes, this result is in no way surprising : hence, we argue
that moderatel}'' high prices are the safest basis upon which
to conduct both the live and dead trade.

We have again to notice very moderate importations of
foreign stock, notwithstanding that the value of meat in
Franco has had a drooping tendency', and that the drain
upon the resources of Holland for French consumption has
become less excessive. We may remark likewise that the
general condition of the beasts and sheep imported has
fallen off, compared with many previous months. The fu-
ture arrivals of stock from Holland are not likely to increase,
for the all-important reason that the supply in the country
has fallen off, and that our prices show no margin of profit '
on imports.

The following supplies have arrived in the metropolis
during the month : —

Beasts 1,118 head.

Sheep 3,931 „ .

Lambs 185 ,,

Calves 1,461 „

Pigs 13 „

Total 6,708 „

Same time in 1857 7,243 „

„ 1856 3,556 „

„ 1855 7,103 „

„ 1854 ^ 4,708 „

1853 5'13,0O7r„

1852 &! 8,506 i^„

1851 ll9,214J^„

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

541

The total supplies of home and foreign stock exhibited
in the Great Metropolitan Market have been as under : —

Beasts 18,741 head.

Cows 480 „

Sheep and lambs 1 15,88(5 „

Calves 1,671 „

Pigs 2,760 „

Comparison of Supplies.
Sheep and

May. Beasts. Cows. Lambs. Calves. Pigs.

1857.... 18,7-22 450 104,990 1,415 2,530

1856.... 18,995 495 119,640 1,260 2,545

1855.... 19,847 410 113,600 2,470 2,590

1854.... 20,831 576 124,824 2,146 2,435

Last month 12,850 Scots and shorthorns came to hand from
Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire ; 2,500 of va-
rious breeds from other parts of England ; 497 Scots from
Scotland ; and 208 oxen, &c., from Ireland, via Liverpool.

Beef has sold at from 3s. to 4s. 6d. ; mutton, out of the
wool, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 6d. ; lamb, 5s. 8d. to 7s. ; veal, 4s. to
5s. 4d. ; and pork, 3s. 2d. to 4s. 4d. per 8 lbs. to sink the
offal.

Comparison of Prices.
May, 1855. May, 1856. Ma.y, 1857.
s. d. s d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.
Beef, from 3 0 to 4 8 . . 3 0 to 4 10 .. 3 0 to 5 0
Mutton .. 3 2 — 5 0..3 6 — 5 4.. 3 4 — 5 4
Lamb.. ., 5 2 — 6 10.. 5 4 — 6 6.. 5 6 — 7 0
\'eal .... 4 0 — 5 4 .. 3 10 — 5 6 . , 3 8 — 6 0
Pork 3 0 — 4 4.. 3 4 — 4 8,. 3 8 — 5 0

Newgate and Leadenhall have been seasonably well sup-
plied with both town and country-killed meat. From Scot-
land the arrivals have been on a very liberal scale. A
steady business has been transacted and prices have ruled
as follows : — -Beef, from 3s. to 4s. ; mutton, 3s. 2d. to
4s. 4d. ; lamb, 5s. 4d. to 6s. 6d. ; veal, 3s. 8d. to 4s. 6d. ; pork,
3s. to 4s. 4d. per 81bs., by the carcase.

HERTFORDSHIRE (SOUTH.)

We cannot call to mind a season when the country has
looked more beautiful, and the various crops more promising
for a plant than they do this spring. Wheat is particularly
well spoken of. good fields being the rule, and indifferent fields
the exception. The tillage for spring corn has been completed
under most favourable circumstances, the turnip sheep having
^ " poached" the land less during the past winter than for many
previous years; consequently barley and oats, which love a fine
seed-bed, have come up strong and healthy, and generally a
full plant, A few complaints of wire-worm have been pre-
valent in the past week. We suggest to our friends that they
'should poison these pests, as the beat means of checking them.
We do not mean by this that farmers should purchase any of
the thouaand-and-one nostrums they are solicited to buy by
" agents" of every denomination ; but we mean that a consi-
derable portion of the crop of swedes or other turnips should
be eaten where it is grown, that the sheep should have a little
corn or liuseed-cake with clover-chaff in addition, and by this
means check the progress of the wire-worm under the ground,
and force the corn rapidly out of the ground. Winter beans
have borne the easterly winds well, and on clean land promise
for a good crop. Spring beans have set well ; but in many
places are growing on foul land, which can never pay. It
always gives us pleasure to find a farmer forward with
the hoeing of his beans, and many fields are now
being hoed for the second time. We regret to add
that other fields are yet strangers to the hoe, and
probably will receive little attention until the cleaning of
the mangold crop, preparation for turnip-sowing, and other
pressing matters, puzzle the farmer; who, in despair, turns
some tegs into his bean-field to pick out the rank weeds — a
practice we cannot admire or recommend. Mangolds have
been extensively planted, and in various ways; some preferrmg
the ridge-cultivation, others the flat (after deep-ploughing, or
Bubaoiling). On strong soils, complaints are general that the
land works unkindly for mangold-sowing, and our own clod-
crusher is out on a mission to reduce a neighbour's stubble-
soil. We do not care to advise out friend, who is Romewhat

hasty in temper if not in business, and might take it amiss ;
bat we seriously think that if he thoroughly cleaned and
ridged the land in the autumn, intended for mangold, and
simply had to fork out odd roots of twitch, &c., cart on his
manure, and split his ridges in the spring, he would not so
often require our crusher. The store of mangold is large and
very good : indeed we have never known a better season for
winter-food in this part of England, and we were no httle
astonished, when on a visit in the north of Lincolnshire, in
March last, to find a few acres of swedes had been sold by
auctiou, at £14 per acre, at that time— a ha'penny each for
the turnips, as my informant assured me. Breeding and store
cattle are now being turned out to grass, the sharp frosts
having kept stock in the yards for the night a little later than
usual. Store sheep maintain their price, in spite of the fall in
wool and mutton; and at Hemel Hempstead fair, on Thursday
last, sellers preferred taking their sheep home again to sub-
mitting to lower prices. Our stall-fed beef is pretty well
cleared out, and when the demand for lamb abates, we shall
not be surprised at a rise in mutton. Some flue rains during
the last twenty-four hours have been highly beneficial to corn
and grass. Succeeded by warm nights, we may reasonably
anticipate good crops of mowing-grass, the meadow-lands
having beeu well dressed with dung, and eaten down close
during the past winter. Wheat continues a wretched trade,
with no prospect of amendment. Other descriptions of corn
realize a fair price. The splendid weather for farming-
operations with which we have been favoured for the last
twenty months must be a source of thaukfulness to the
English f.'.rmer, and we do not envy the disposition of him
who complains, but think he had better take the first outward-
bound ship, and compare his native clime with far-away lands,
rich in gold and discomfort.— -May 15,

DERBYSHIRE.

We have now come to a most delightful period of the
year. The aspect of the county pleases the eye, even to
"the mountain-top, with its verdant hue. We have plenty
of grass; and stock is generally laid on to graze. Potato-
planting is now the chief employment, and a considerable
breadth is beina: put in. There is plenty of seed found,
and the value of such has receded. That my.sterious thing
called potato-disease, because we suppose there is nothing
else to designate it by, seems to lose its virulence as the
winter leaves us, and now we hear little of it, and see less.
We have had a splendid seed-time, and all kinds of spring
cereal crops have a good appearance. The wheat-plant is
as fine as we can desire, and the quantity of j'ellow blades,
generally termed by the practical man Maying, is much
less than we expected to have seen ■, and as that appearance
or non-appearance is considered to augur well or ill for the
future, we hope that future is fraught with abundance.
Farm- work is very forward; and turnip-drilling has in
some districts already commenced. The demand for what
is generally termed artificial manures continues unabated :
in some instances they realize more money, while most other
things in connection with farming are of less value. We
imagine as a farming community we are going to the ex-
treme in this respect ; we first exhaust the soil by taking
our culmiferous crops, and then as a consequence are obliged
to purchase those nitrogenous — dearest of manures, at too
much haphazard. Would it not be wiser to curtail our
cropping, and reduce our need of such extraneous aid .'
For instance, instead of two white crops between what is
termed the fallow, would it not be better to seed down with
rape after turnips.^ thus having three years for pasture on a
fi\-e-course system, one corn-crop, and one turnip-crop.
We leave this hint with our readers ; but we put it in
practice, and keep up the stamina of the soil. Our spring
markets and fairs for stock have been depressed, and every-
thing has given way in value. Our corn markets have for
depression kept pace with the metropolitan report, and we
have of wheat now a good home-supply on hand. Many
farmers refused to sell, last autumn, because thej' considered
prices were not remunerative. The comparative!}' high
value of grain for several years past had unfitted them as a
body for so sudden a reduction •, and the majority held on
and on, until now their case becomes almost hopeless, and
a good quantity of their corn, wheat especially, has yet to

0 0 2

542

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

be brouglit to market ; hence the prospect of coming prices.
The laijour market is easier, and good skilled hands are
more readily met with: wages for adult labourers from
r2s. to 15s. per week. We trust, with a better supply of
men, agricultural improvements will still further advance,
for if the principle be sound of buying in the cheapest and
selling in the dearest market, then he must be the wisest
man who employs the mo3t men when they are obtainable at
the least rate.— May 12.

ISLE OF ELY.

If we remember correctly, when our last report left us
the weather was severely cold, with sharp frosty nights;
but we believe, ere it appeared in print, the weather had sud-
denly changed, and we had some very fine warm days, and
were willing to hope spring had really come. But we were
sadly disappointed; for May opened upon us with cold nip-
ping winds blowing chief!}'- from the north and north-east,
and the days were nearly all followed by frosty nights. We
also had some cold rains at the beginning of the month, and
it was not until the last few days that milder we;ither set
in. The wind then veered to the S.S.W., and has since
been blowing softlj', and vegetation is rapidly progressing.
We have also had some very fruitful showers, with thun-
der and gleaming sunshine. We cannot speak so favourably
of the appearance of the growing wheat as we did a month
ago. The cold rains which fell early in May have made
some of the cold tenacious clay soils present a yellow and
sickly hue, which is always a bad omen at this season of the
year, and bespeaks a small ear and a lighter yield. Un the
black fen soils the weather has produced an opposite effect,
having made the wheats grow soft ax\A flacjcjy ; and we see
many fields where a good deal is laid already, and looks
yellow and weak in the stem. Many of our Fen farmers
are sending men with hooks and scythes to cut oif some of
the heavy flag, thereby enabling the plant to rise again.
At present these soils look much more like yielding a heavy
crop of straw than a large produce of grain. But it is
always difficult to predict in May what will be the state of
the crop in August, as the changes in a crop of wheat whilst
growing are frequently so sudden and so great that we
never know the result until it is actually attained. The
cold rains and frosty nights have seriously injured the oat
crop, and in the Fens generally it is now looking badly.
The wireworm has committed fearful ravages in some in-
stances, and several fields either have been or must be re-
sown. On the high lands the prospect is better. Beans
generally are strong and look well. Mangel sowing is
nearly completed. The rains and warmer winds
of the last few days are highly favourable. Grass
keeping is improving. Our pastures are now good, but we
hear of complaints in some counties of grass being very
scarce. Store cattle are lower and slow to sell, we conceive
in consequence of the shortnessof keeping in other localities.
Beef is slightly better to sell. Store sheep are dearer;
mutton maintains its value. Pork is still a heavy trade,
and store pigs a little dearer. The wheat trade tiuctuates
slightly, most weeks either a shilling np or down. Sup-
plies are not heavy, and the weather and appearance of the
growing crops will now exert considerable influence upon
prices. — Maj' 18.

SU FF O L K.

Within the past few days we have had a change of wind from
N. and N.E. to S. and S.W., and the consequent increased
temperature combiued with refreshing showers of rain have
greatly improved the appearance of vegetation generally in the
cou-ity. The wheats for the most part look promising, and
it is the opinion of mauy that the crop never preseuted a
better appeatance ; but we observe in some cases a too perpen-
dicular ascent of the stem, and a want of tillering. The cold-
ness of the weather, and especially the frosts each night, have
naturally retarded the growth of the barley, and ou the stiff
clay soils the influence has been particularly remarked ; but
smce the late refreshing showers a burst of luxuriancy has
been the result, and the strength of the stem and thecurhness
of the blade give indication of an abundant yield. Owing to
the wmter's frost so well pulverizing the land prepared for
beans, the plants are stron? and luxuriant. The peas look

equally well. The mangold wurtzel seed has been put in very
satisfactorily, and the plant is generally up, with a dark-green
thrifty appearance. The cultivation of swedes Liis greatly
diminished, owing to the fsuperiorily of the mangold crop.
Some are already sown and up, whilst others are daily being
drilled. Stock farmers have been much pressed for feed, and
the chief reliance has been the mangold wurtzel crop, which
yearly increases its reputation : even many^flocks have lived
mainly on this root ; and where a bite of green food has been
given in addition, the ewes and lambs have thriven well.
Beasts have been put on a shorter allowance of food, or they
are sent early to market, but so unsatisfactory have been the
returns, that the graziers' losses are considerable, and men re-
luctantly submit to such heavy sacrifices. — May 18.

CUMBERLAND.
The weather during the spring months has been as fa-
vourable for cleaning and preparing the land for the recep-
tion of the seed as could well have been desired. It was
sufficiently dry for the operation of pulverizing and cleaning
the land, and yet was supplied with sufficient moisture by
the showers of rain that occasionally ftll to prevent it from
baking with drought or stunting vegetation by want of
moisture. On the afternoon of Friday, the 14th inst., the
east of Cumberland was visited by a good deal of thunder,
heavy showers of rain falling here and there — in some places
mixed with a considerable quantity of hailstones. This was
followed, on the evening and night of Saturday, with a con-
siderable fall of rain, which has continued at intervals up
to the present time ; and to-day and yesterday it has been
blowing— and continues to blow — something like a hurri-
cane. A rather large breadth of potatoes has again been
planted under favourable circumstances, so far as the wea-
ther and state of the land are cimcerued, but the result will
depend upon the after-part of the season being wet or dry.
Mangel wurzel has been extensivelj^ sown this year. The im-
portance of this valuable root is rapidly becoming better
understood and appreciated. The sowing of swede turnips
has been retarded these last few days, in consequence of the
land being too wet from the recent rains to allow of its
being propcrlj' finished up ; the consequence is that much,
fewer turnips have been got in than might otherwise have
been the case. Wheat, as it has done all the winter, is
looking very well— perhaps, too gross and thick upon the
ground, with a too-luxuriant blade, which, should it turn
out a damp summer, may be very prejudicial to the crop.
Oats were got in favourably and are going on well, with
little harm from their old enemy the grub. Barlej', too,
was got in well, and is so far promisiug. Grass lands re-
ceived a considerable check from the severe weather in the
early part of March, with some cold east winds in April ;
but the fields rapidly recovered their green hue, and have
lately been full of grass. Should the present wet weather
continue some time longer, it will give a chance of a good
crop of hay, as, according to the old adage,
" A wet May
Gives plenty of hay."
The grain market, especially wheat, continues much de-
pressed, without any prospect of much improvement. Oats
and barley, though selling at a comparatively better price
than wheat, have been lower during the last two or three
weeks. Beef and mutton are both lower than some time ago.
Penrith fair, held on the 23rd April fur sheep and the 24th
for cattle, being the first important fair in the district, is m
criterion to judge by of the value of cattle. At this fair
cattle and sheep for grazing sold lower than expected, con-
sequently the dealers, at least many of them, would rtalize
a loss instead of a profit, having picked them up in the
country at a price beyond what the market would afford.
Although prices are considerably lower than last year, they
are still high when compared with some former years. As
regards sheep, the decreased price of wool has assisted mate-
riallj'' to reduce their value, and yet wool has often been
known to be sold at a less price than it is likely to be this year.
There is no reason for farmers to despond : the price of agri-
cultural produce isgoing through one of those periodical times
of depression which have regularly occurred in the course
of from eight to ten years. If any have reason to fear, it
will be those who have lately taken their farms at an in-

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

543

creased rent in proportion to the late high price of agricul-
tui'al produce, under an impression that these prices would
be permanent. — May 19,

EDINBURGHSHIRE.

Seldom have we to announce such favourable weather for
field operations during the all-important months of spring.
At short intervals we expei'ienced intense frosts, the ther-
mometer ranging occasionally from 10 to 15 degrees below
the freezing point. Less damage has been done to the
young wheat and seedling grasses than we have seen at a
higher tempei-ature. This is no doubt attributable to the
extensive drainage which has been carried on for many years
past, coupled with the extreme dryness of the soil during
winter and spring. As a fact, only 5.50 inches of rain has
fallen, at a water-gauge kept in the highest district of the
county. Wheat appears of average breadth, and the fields
everywhere look vigorous and well planted. Barley and
oats, along the sea-board and in the finer districts, look
healthy in the extreme ; while in the middle and alpine
districts, they have of late assumed a rather sickly appear-
ance, evidently suffering for want of rain. Beans appear
more extensively sown than formerly, and undergoing the
process of cleaning by horse and manual labour. In the
lower districts potato planting was commenced before the
sowing of spring corn, which is now under horse and hand
cultivation. High as the price of seed has ranged, and the
heav}' loss sustained last year, a full average extent of
ground appears planted. The cultivation of this invaluable
root has become somewhat resembling a "lottery," some
obtaining a handsome prize, while the majority have to put
up with a small show, and many blanks entirely. A few
samples are still pitched in our weekly market, and prices
receding. Sowing of Swedish turnips has been prosecuted
vigorously during the month of May, and doubts
are entertained that the nipping frosts may have injured
those brairded as likely to run to seed, ice being of consi-
derable thickness in the standing pools in May. The wind
Las now veered to the south-west, with frequent showers,
which will have the beneficial effect of pushing forward a
rapid vegetation, affording a full and sweet bite for all kinds
of bestial. The extent of land under turnips is annually
increasing, and from the quantity manured in autumn
abridges greatly the labour when portable manure is only ne-
cessary in spring. Cattle markets are unusually large for
the season, 1,'206 being exhibited on the Edin stance on the
12th instant; finest quality was reduced in price, while se-
condary and inferior could scarcely be turned into money ;
f 256 grazing cattle appeared, and found ready buyers at high

rates : milk cows numbered 139, many of excellent quality
and in good demand : of sheep 4,997 were penned, being
900 more than last week'!; a considerable number werehoggs
for grass •, for both sorts a good demand was experienced at
extreme rates— blackfaced mutton (in the wool) from 8d.
to 8Jd., whitefaced C^d. to 8d. per lo. : pigs numbered 398
— young ones from 7s. to 10s. a head ; grunters from three
to four months old cheap, and difficult to dispose of. Grain
markets are large for the season of the year ; wheat meets a
sluggish sale at reduced rates, barley in limited supply and
meets a dull sale, oats brought freely to market ( 1,464 qrs.)
with a good demand and former rates fully supported. Wool
growers have had the best of it for years past, prices being

unusually high . Since the crisis in November last a decline
of fully 6d. per lb. has been experienced. Seedling grasses
seem well planted; the breadth appears less thanin bygone
years ; the open winter and spring made speculations in hay
anything but remunerative, and the prevalence of depas-
turing young grass with sheep greatly abridges the hay crop.
English portable thrashinsj machines have been busily em-
ployed in cleaning out the barnyards, being found admirably
adapted for leaving the straw in a fitting state for thatch.
This has been long felt as a great desideratum in our Scotch
machines, calling loud for some improvement in this res-
pect. Wheat-growing farmers have suffered severely from
the unfavourable state of the weather during the last har-
vest, and large quantities are unfit for baking, and have to
be disposed "of for distilling and feeding purposes. The
mania for farms still continues, and when advertised the
puzzle is not to get a tenant, but how to select one. The
farmer class are frequently '' outbid" by individuals who
have saved money in other occupations, their professed ob-
ject being country air and residence. Money still appears
to be their object, and after feeling a few years' disappoint-
ment, frequently leave in disgust. Draining operations are
somewhat abridged ; and no wonder, seeing to what extent
it has been carried on for years. Still we have no redundant
population, and willing hands find ready employment at fair
wages. While writing, the protracted drought has at length
been changed into a drenching rain. The streams are much
increased. The change will be gladly appreciated by all —
the agriculturist in fostering vegetation, which has been
lingering ; the manufacturer in adding to his water power ;
the compensation ponds throughout the county being
lower than they have been for a number of years; draw
wells have been dried up, and recourse is had to the " pit-
cher" and "can" for supply at the nearest stream. —
May 20,

WEALD OF KENT.
Since our last report we have experienced .some very sudden
changes in the temperature of the atmosphere, with piercing:
easterly winds, which have tended to slacken the growth of
the wheat plant to a certain extent. On stiff clay soils slackness
of plant is complamed of ; but on good land this is not the
case, and it" ODly needs warm weather to succeed the showers
which we have lately been favoured with : we mij^ht then cal-
culate upon a luxuriant appearacce. The pastures are very
bare, which cannot be wondered at, with such cold weather.
Beans and peas that were sown early are looking well for the
most part. Barley and oats not so well as we could wish,
still, with milder weather, we shall not have much room for
complaint. The price of Lent corn has not varied much siuce
our last, with the exception of oats, which are very scarce in tliis
neighbourhood, and are selling at high prices compared with
other grain. The hop plantation is now receiving considerable
attention ; tying has commenced ; the bine does not look
healthy, and is much infested with flea ; a full crop this year
would prove very injurious, looking at the immense quantity
in the hands of growers, speculators, and factors. Great credit
is due to the members for East Sussex, who have by their
assiduous exertions obtained from the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer the postponement of the duty, which is a very great
relief to a large body of the planters ; had the full payment
been insisted on, immense sacrifice must have been made to
enable them to have met the demands. — May 19th,

AGUICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE, EAIRS, &c.

BOGBAIN MABKET.— A good show of cattle of every
description. There were no fat sheep, but plenty hoggs and
shot lambs. The sheep were not in great demand, especially
the blackfaced. Prices, however, were in advance of those of
last market. Cattle were fully 5 per cent. up. Highland
queys, two-year-olds, were sold at £4 ISs. A Highland bull,
a two-year-old, fetched £10. The market was very brisk.

BUNGAY FAIR was the largest aa to attendance of com-
pany and the show of stock, especially neat stock, which has

been held for many years. Business was dull, owing to the
shortness of feed ; but as the time approached for driving off
the unsold, the demand became much brisker, and a fair amount
of trade was done in fat stock at from 63. 6d. to 7s. per stone.
Fresh stock also was in demand, and sold freely at a slight re-
duction upon the London quotations. Several good horses
were exhibited.

CASTLETON FAIR.— The quantity of stock offered
was small, and the trade very slack. Beef, about Us. per

644

THii i'ARMER'S MAGAZINE.

score; heifers and calves, from .t'lO 10s. to £l'd 10s. each ;
yearlings, £5 each ; two-year-olds, £ii 10s. to £7 10s. each.
A few sheep offered ; but few sales, if any, were made. The
best store pigs at from 253. to 35s. each ; small, from 4s.
6d. to 8s. 6d. each ; sows, with their yonng pigs, £4 to £4
5s. each.

DUNSE HOGG TRYST.— The supply was fully an average
one. The demand was good, and a great many sales were
made. The folio iving were the current prices : Cheviots
from IBs. to 22s. ; rross-bred from 263. to 34s. ; a lot of half-
bred sold at 403. There were a number of stirks in the mar-
ket, which were selling »t from £6 to £10 each.

DUNSMUIR TRYST.— There wasalarge attendance
of farmers, dealers, and others, and there was a considerable
quantity of stock on the ground, which found ready pur-
chasers on good terms. Prices of prime fat were 9s., down
to 8s., according to quality. A very excellent lot of queys,
considered the best in the market, were sold by Mr.
Webster, Witston, to Mr. Welsh, Tillytoghills, at £16
16s., which was considered about 9s. per stone; and several
other lots were sold at the same pi-ice. There was a fair
supply of grazing cattle, which were for the most part dis-
posed of fully above that figure. The other descriptions of
cattle met a read}' sale at reasonable prices; and, on the
■whole, the market was good.

EXETER FAIR. — Tne attendance of agriculturists was
good ; and the number of beasts driven in was rather above
the average. The trade, however, was not brick, and a great
deal remained unsold. Best beef fetched from 9s. to 10s. per
score. Barreners, beat quality, 63. 6d. to 8g. per score ; cows
and calves, £10 to £16. There was a good supply of store
sheep, and prices ranged from SOs. to 083. each.

GLOUCESTER MONTHLY CATTLE MARKET.- An
abundance of beef, mutton, and lamb, and purchasers were
well supplied with every description of stock. Beef ruled
from 6d. to 6^d. ; mutton, 6d. to ejd. ; larpb, 8d. to BJd.
per lb.

HAY FAIR was a full one of stock. Young steers and
fresh barrens were in good dsmand, but owing to the want of
grass in the midland counties the dealers were not willing to
speculate for fresh bullocks. Good cart horses were readily
sold at very remunerative prices ; there were but few good
hacks, and for them prices were lower.

HALTWHISTLE FAIR.— Shorthorn cows, milking or
iu-c»lf, made from £15 to £19 ; stirks, £7 10s. to ^9. Gal-
loway cows, in milk or about dropping a calf, from £12 to £15
— some prime ones a few pounds over the last figure ; heifers,
calved or in calf, from £11 to £13 ; stirks, £5 to £6 lOs. ;
two-year-old bidlocks or heifers, from £7 lOs. to £8 10s.
Irish heifers, £5 to £7. Galloway cows, not in milk, ready
for the grazier, £9 10s. to £11 lOs. There was only a small
show of sheep. Blackfaced hoggs ranged from I63. to 193. ;
Leicester hoggs, from 23s. to 27s.; Cheviot ewes, with lambs
at their feet, from 35s. to S83. a couple. The Leicester hogs
were also good in quality. There were 23 cartloads of pigs, of
average quality, which sold well. Pigs six or seven weeks old,
from lis. to 15s.; seven to nine weeks, ISs. to 193. and 203.

HEREFORD FAIR.— Fat cows sold readily at 7d. per lb.
for all on offer ; fresh barrens and young grazing stock also
commanded a ready sale, but lean steers aud cows with calves,
of which there were a large number in the market, hung on
hand rather heavily, owing to ths lateness of the season and
the high price of keep in eome districts. There was a large
supply of sheep in and out of the wool. Fat wethers, and all
ovine stock fit for the knife, readily realized 7s. per stone in
the wool, with a proport.ionate reduction in others for the ab-
sence of the fleeces. Ewes with lambs ruled about 46s. to
483. per couple ; a few very prime ones fetched over 50s.
Lambs sold singly to the butchers from £1 to £1 83., accord-
ing to age and fatness. Store pigs were numerous, and changed
hands with celerity, at prices fully equal to thoae which have
lately been obtained. There was a large horse fair ; but besides
a limited number of useful hacks, which met a ready demand,
the majority of horses on offer were for heavy draught pur-
poses ; these also sold extremely well, according to age, con-
dition, and quality.

HOLBEACH FAIR.— A large show of horses ; many
r *5'^™ '^e^y middling and inferior, but for anything good
(and there was a fair supply of these), there was a brisk
demand, and rather better prices were obltirod fhrai ''ave

prevailed of late, the attendance of buyers being very
great.

IPSWICH FAIR.— The show of cattle and sheep wes
Ir.rger than seen for years. Owing to the recent flatness in the
Metropolitan Market, trade opened dull aud continued heavy
throughout the day. Fat beasts fetched from Os. 6d. to 7s.
per stone—store beasts from Ss, to Ss. 6d. per stone what they
will weigh when fat. Hoggets from 328. to 48s.; fat lambs,
25s.; stores, IBs. to 22s. ; couple from £2 2s. toi3; stock
lambs from 14s. to 24s. Of cart horses and colts, there was
about an average supply.

KIDDERMINSTER FAIR.— An average supply of
cows and sheep, for which there was but a moderate de-
mand. Only the best stock fetched previous prices, they
generally being at lower rates ; mutton scarcely realizing
6|:d., and beef 6d. per lb. A good show of pigs, which sold
at rather less than of late.

KNIGHTON FAIR was very numerously supplied. Prices
were obtained much superior to those of any neighbouring
fairs. Mutton brought* 6id. to 7d.; beef, 5id. to 6d. Store
animals sold well. Wool fetched Is. to Is. 3d. per lb.

LEDBURY FAIR.— A goodly number of excellent fat
cattle, including some fine oxen. The supply of sheep was
also tolerably good, more especially stores, which did
not sell quite so well as at former fairs. Of store cattle
also the supply was larger than the demand, and upon all
kinds of stock a slight reduction in price had to be made
before sales could be effected. The fair was also tolerably
well supplied with store pigs. The fat stock was nearly all
disposed of. Fat cows, 6d. to 6|d. per lb. ; ditto sheep, 6d.
to 6|d., and a few choice ones a shade dearer ; store sheep,
26s. to 38s. each ; ditto pigs, 20s. to 40s, each.

LINCOLN SHEEP MARKET.— A fair, though by no
means a large show of sheep, and prices were fully Is. to 2b. per
head lower than the high rates realized this day fortnight.

MUIR OF ORD MARKET.— The show of cattle was
above the average of May ; there was also an extensive show of
hoggs. The prices of sheep, that is hoggs and lambs, were
slightly above thoae of last market, and a good many sales
took place, buyers and sellers seeming equally eager to do
business. In cattle there was an advance from the price of
last market, varying from 5 to 10 per cent. ; or, as it was
loosely said on the market, of £1 lOs. on the average
stock. The prices were therefore not very much below those
of May, 1857 — very different from what all but the most san-
guine calculators had looked forward to. The heavy rains
which have lately fallen all over the north have given farmers
assurance of a fair grass crop, and increased the upward ten-
dency in prices commenced at the April market on the Muir.
There were a good many south-country dealers present. The .i|
market was very brisk. There was not much done in the ^"
horse market.

NEWARK FAIR. — A large show of beasts aud sbeep.
The former sold readily at advanced prices. The best stores
for summer grazing made from £12 to £14 each. Milkers
also realized good figures. Sheep were disposed of at liberal
prices, but did not sell quite so well as at the previous market.
Hogs 42s. to 45s. each. The horse fair was large, but it con-
tained many animals of an inferior order. The better sort of
Borses, of which there was a tolerable sprinkling, were very
soon disposed of.

NEWTON STEWART MONTHLY CATTLE MAR-
KET.— Sales were very brisk, and the cattle of each class
(stirks and two-year-olds) brought good prices. Whether
from the prospect of a plentiful supply of grass, or other
causes, the prices obtained were fully beyond what had been
anticipated, and if this one be taken as an earnest of our fu-
ture markets during the season, our farmers and graziers will
certainly be well remunerated.

STRATFORD-ON-AVON FAIR. — The number of fat
cattle was small ; the supply of stores was good ; stirks, &c.,
making from £4 to £10 each; cows with their calves were
plentiful, and met with a ready sale from £14 to £22 together ;
barrens brought from ^10 to £18 ; calves, weaners, from SOs.
to SOs. ; sucklers, from 25s. to 35s. each. There was a brisk
demand for sheep, of which there were penned about 3,000,
besides lambs of first-rate quality, and there were several fine
lots of sheep shown in the wool. They brought high prices.
Beef, 5d. to 6d. per lb. ; mutton, 5-id. to 7^d. ; veal, 6|d. to
7i'I ; lamb, 7|d. to 8-|d, ; pork, 6id. ; fat bacon pig^ S,?. 6d.

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

545

to 93. per score. There were very few horses shown, though
much inquired after. Decent animals brought his^h prices.

STURMINSTER FAIR.— A good supply of the various
desoriptions of stock, heifers and calves meetisig with a brisk
and ready sale, but the prices for fat stock were on the decline,
and busiuess in this way moved very slowly. The trade in
barreuers was very dull.

TEWKESBURY FAIR wais but thinly attended, and there
was a short supply of stock. The sale of beef was flat, at from
5d. to 6d. ; mutton met with a better sale at from 5^d. to 7d.
per lb.

TOLLER DOAVN FAIR.—The attendance was not so
large as usual, in consequence of the rough weather. The
supply of sheep also was not very extensive, but there was a
good demand, and they sold well. Very high prices were asked
for horned ewes, and horned lambs fetched from 223. to 26s.
per head. A large show of cow stock, but of a rather inferior
description. Among the horses were some very promising ani-
mals, both cart and hack.

WELLS FAIR was well attended by dealers and buyers.
The show of cattle was not very large, and consisted chiefly of
heifer stock. There was a good number of sheep penned,
many of them shorn. Of pigs, also, there was a good show.
Trade was pretty brisk.
WISBECH FAIR, — A large supply of horses and good
k aaimals, not a few of which realized good prices. A great
many bullocks were also brought to town, and for which
large sums were given. The sheep were about the average
price.

WOODBRIDGE FAIR.— A very large attendance, and a
good supply of stock. Good heifers and calves were in de-
mand, and those offered sold readily at high prices. Barreners
were also inquired after, and met a ready market.

WOOLER FAIR.— Bred hoggs brought from 36a. to 43s.,
half-breds from 273. to 36s., and Cheviots from 22s. to 263.
Ewes, of which there were a good many small lots, were
bringing readily, for ewes with single lambs, 503., and with
double lambs 60s., some few of the latter as high as 673.
' There was a small show of grazing cattle, but what there was
brought good prices, considerably higher than they have been
at the sales iu the neighbourhood. Good two-year-olds were
bringing from £10 to £13. The number of cows was larger
than usual, but being priacipally old cow.s, there was a dull
sale amongst them, except for two and three-year-old queys,
calved and to calve, whica were quickly bought up at from
£10 to £14.

IRISH FAIRS. — MuLTiFARNHAM. — Prime beef was scarce,
and the best was quoted from 56s. to 58s. per cwt. Store
cattle were plentiful, and numbers were in first rate condition,
k but purchasers seemed particularly cautious in buying, so that
sellers were obliged to submit to a reduction in prices. Three-
year-old heifers brought from £10 to £13 lOs. each ; two-
year-olds, £8 to £10 lOa., and yearlings from £2 ISs. to £4
10s. Good dairy cows were iu active demand at full prices.
Pigs were also brisk, and good Bacon sorts brought from
40s. to 44s. per cwt. Stores in good demand, at fair
prices. Ballibay was abundantly supplied with cattle
of all kinds, except fat cattle ; buying was exceed-
' ingly brisk, and prices, except for young .stock, which were
rather dearer than usual, were equal to those ob-
tained this month at neighbouring fairs. The demand for pigs
■was dull, both bacon and pork being sensibly lower. — Cavan :
A great many cattle were left unsold, and prices were ou the
decline. For sheep the demand was very brisk, and all sold.
Pork was cheaper than at late markets. — Bailibborough :
All descriptions of cattle were plentiful, except beef. Few, if
any animals, remained unsold, and everything maintained cur-
rent prices. — Hillsborough was pretty well supplied with
stock, excepting that beef was rather scarce. Strippers plen
tiful, and prices looking down. Springers in good demand at
lOZ. to 181. each. The prices of store cattle were tending
downwards. Two-year-old heifers sold at prices ranging from
71. to \Ql. lOs,; yearlings from 31. to 71. 10s. Pigs were very
plentiful, and prices somewhat higher than during the past
month. The supply of horses was smaller than usual at this
fair j good animals were in demand at from 2QI. to 40Z. each.

CARMARTHEN BUTIER MARKET, (Saturday last.)
—A better supply of good fresh grass Butter brought to our
mark?t this day, and our faimers freely obtained 983, per cwt.

for fair average quality. This drop in the market will give
rise to an active demand, aud we doubt any further marked
reduction iu value for the present.

CHIPPENHAM.— Good cheese had a ready sale. Old
broad doubles, 58s. to 63s. ; new, 563. to 59s. ; prime Ched-
dar, 60s. to 683.; thin, S83. to 503.; skim, 18s. to 283. per
cwt.

GLASGOW. — There were seven carts shown in the bazaar,
and 13 tons passed through the weigh-house scales. Sales
were slow, and lower prices taken. Prime early-made, 483. to
523. ; late-made and inferior, 42s. to 45a. ; new skim, 233. to
243. per cwt.

GLOUCESTER.~The quantity of cheese pitched was
small, and the quality generally inferior. The prices obtained
were : Skims 253. to 28a., second 403. to 463. No best qua-
lity on offer.

YEOVIL.— Best cheese 563. to 703., household SOs. to 38s.
per cwt. A good business was done.

ENGLISH BUTTER MARKET.
LONDON, Monday, May 21.— Since our laat report we
have had a considerable fall in the price of all sorts of
Butter, which now leaves the market pretty steady

Dorset, fine , « 102s. to 104s. per cwfc.

Ditto, middling .... 903. to 96s. „
Fresh 93. to 133. per dozen.

PRICES OF BUTTER, CHEESE, HAMS, &c.

BUTTER, per cwt. : b. a.

Friesland 96tol00

Kiel ..102 106

Dorset 100 10-1

Carlow — —

Waterford — —

Cork, 92 9S

Limerick — —

Sligo - -

FRESu,per doien..lOfl. Od.to 123.0d.

CHEESE, per cwt.: o.

Cheshire 61

Cheddar 72

Double Gloaccster... ... .. 56

HAMS:

York 78

Westmoreland 78

Irish 76

BACON : Wiltshire, dried 70
Irish, green 61

POTATO MARKETS.

SOUTHWARK, WATERSIDE, Monday, May 24.—
Since our last report our supplies from foreign potts have been
light, but coastwise rather more liberal. Tbere is a considera-
ble advance to note in prices of some descriptions, as the trade
has been more active, at the following quotations :

Yorkshire Regents 140s. to 190s. per ton.

Lincolnshire do. , 140s. to 160s. „

Dunbarreds SOs. to 903. „

Perth, Fife, and Forfar Regents 120s. to 140s. „

Ditto ditto reds 80s. to 90s. „

French whites 40s. to 110s. ,,

Belgian do 403. to 703. „

Ditto reds 80s. to 120s „

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.

LONDON, Monday, May 24.— The arrivals of home-
grown potatoes continue on a full average scale for the time of
year. Since Monday last the imports have been confined to
150 tons from Dunkirk and 150 sacks from Antwerp. Good
and fine qualities — the show of which is limited — are in fair
request at full prices, but other kinds are very dull at barely
late rates.

York Regents 1403. to ISOs. per ton.

Kent and Essex do SOs, to I6O3.

Scotch 1203. to 160?.

Do. Cups , 70s. to 903.

Middlings 50s. to 903.

Lincolns 1203. to I40s.

Foreign 50s. to 90s.

COUNTRY POTATO MARKETS.— York, May 15.—
Potatoes sell at Is. per peck, and os. 9d. to 4s. per bushel.
Leeds, May 18. — A short supply of potatoes, which sold at
15d. to 16d. per 21 lbs. wholesale, and 16d. to 17d, retail.
Malton, May 15. — Potatoes, Is. per peck. Thirsk, May
17. — Potatoes, 6d. to 12d. per stone. Richmond, May 15.
— Potatoes, 4s. 8d. per bushel. Sheffield, May 18. — Po-
tatoes sell at lOs. to I83. per load of 18 stones Manches-
ter, May 20. — Potatoes, lis. to 19s. 6d.

PERTH POTATO TRADE.— The export of potatoes to
the southern markets has been going on to a small extent, but
prices still remain the same as last week. Best sorts average
from 228. to 233. per boll, and inferior from 15s. to 16s. per
ditto.

546

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

REVIEW OE THE CORN TRADE

DURING THE PAST MONTH.

The first half of the past month was cold and un-
genial, vegetation being kept in check, and a yellow
hue was spread over much of the young wheat and
barley; but warm showers and fresh breezes from
the west, with a good deal of sun, have materially
changed the face of things for the better, the only
fear now entertained arising from the too luxuriant
appearance of the forward wheat on highly culti-
vated land. An abundance of straw and grass is
now pretty certain; but without dry, sunny wea-
ther, an equal yield of wheat with last year cannot
be expected. Durham and Northumberland ap-
pear exceptions to the generally strong appearance
of the wheat plant, from the long prevalence
of drought and cold. As respects prices, the
month has shown little change ; the utmost fluc-
tuations have not exceeded Is, per qr., and the
balance of the four weeks is a slight gain.

The state of the London and general averages
shows a remarkable agreement, and the steadiness
of prices throughout the entire country. To place
the former on a par with the latter as respects time,
they must be put one week back; and by so doing,
we have this result : Tlie general averages com-
mence at 44s. 9d., and the London included therein
were 47s. 8d. ; the general close at 44s. lid., and
London at 47s, lid.; making an advance of only
2d. per qr, in the general averages, and 3d. per qr,
in the London — London commencing at 2s. lid.
over the general rate, and closing at 3s. over it.
This small dift'erence accounts for the slender sup-
plies which have come to the London market, which
is, however, well provided with foreign wheat and
country flour. Future prices must greatly depend
on the weather ; but as the rates are much below
the average of the last ten years, and the quality
above it, we think farmers need not force off their
stocks, as a good quantity of fine old wheat must
be required for mixing, and foreign markets have
lately been improving. The course of the deliveries
for four weeks shows that less English wheat has
lately been selling than during the same period last
year. Last year's sales for a month were 439,893
qrs., this year they were only 402,861 qrs,— defi-
ciency this season 37,032 qrs. Now as the impor-
tations, including flour, this year, for four months,
have greatly exceeded the first four months last year
—viz., to the extent of 607,8 18 qrs,, or about 35,700
weekly— and yet stocks of foreign in all shipping
ports are small, it follows that the low prices, with

an increased population, have produced a con-
sumption not calculated on ; and this is likely to
continue.

The prospects of a good crop abroad are
not so promising as recently. Algeria has im-
proved by a timely fall of rain, but last year's
abundance is not looked for. Spain, in some
places, has been suffering from drought ; and in
Asia Minor this has been excessive, and quite en-
dangered the crops. Piedmont, on the contrary,
has had too much wet ; and in other parts of Italy
it has not been genial. France still looks v/ell, and *
in the South the wheat is coming into ear. In
Northern Europe there are fair appearances, and
American reports are generally favourable. The
continental markets have been firm, or slightly
dearer. France is decidedly so, the Paris flour
market having recently advanced about 2s, per
sack English, from the low stocks in millers'
hands; and wheat has risen Is, 6d, per qr. The 1
best flour was worth 31s. 9d, per sack, and wheat
42s. 6d. per qr. At Bordeaux, the price was 41s.
9d. In Belgium the range was from 43s, 9d. to
4 5s. 9d. for top quality. At Amsterdam, prices
were 40s. 6d. to 52s. 6d. At Rotterdam fine heavy
red was worth 44s, At Hambro', quotations
were 40s. 6d, to 42s. 9d. ; Stettin, 43s. 9d ;
Danzic, where large sales have been making, 4Js.
to 48s. for high mixed ; Berhn, 42s. 3d. per qr. *'♦
Navigation being resumed at Petersburg, prices for
soft wheat have opened at about 40s. Qd, per qr.
At Odessa, the new supplies are dropping in plen-
tifully ; the quality is well spoken of, but rates have
been firm, in consequence of the clearance of pre-
vious stocks. Polish wheat was held at about 38s.
3d,, Ghirka 39s. 3d. per qr. The trade at Galatz
is beginning with moderate quotations, 28s. only
being demanded. Sales from Varna have been
made at 32s. Prices at Trieste, which had received
Spanish orders, were 43s. 2d. Genoa had risen
2s. per qr., and literally nothing has resulted from
the Neapolitan permission to export at a high duty.
The different markets in Spain, from north to south,
are firm, though lately all were expecting lower
rates. At Alicante, Taganrog wheat was worth 53s.
4d. ; at Seville, 55s. per qr. With the canals open.
New York is getting supplies, and flour has some-
what yielded ; so that a moderate export has en-
sued. The wheat market looked heavy, but no
quantity yet pressed on holders; the last quotations

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

547

were about 48s, per qr. for the best Southern, and
42s. 6d. for Kentucky white. There is doubtless
a good store in the lake ports, and the weather will
influence holders there in their shipments ; but
with a return to monetary ease, and continuance of
low rates, there seems no probability that exports
will be very free.

The first Monday's wheat market in London
commenced on the back of moderate supplies,
both English and foreign. Kent and Essex, in the
course of the morning, sent up quite an average
show of samples. Factors commenced by asking
higher terms, and in some instances Is. per qr. im-
provement was realized, but eventually sales were
made at former prices. The good attendance from
the country was disappointing, holders of foreign
not being able to sell at an advance, and only a
small quantity was sold. The country markets
throughout the week scarcely made any change in
the quotations. Liverpool, on Tuesday, was unal-
tered, and Friday's rates there were hardly equal
to the previous day.

The second Monday had better supplies, espe-
cially of foreign, a good deal of wheat being im-
ported by millers direct. This circumstance was
unfavourable to prices, notwithstanding a very
small supply during the morning from Essex, and
only a moderate one from Kent. For some time
factors endeavoured to obtain the previous rates ;
but as the day wore, it was found necessary to
concede fully Is. per qr. generally; and there were
offers at the Kentish stands at Is, to 2s. per qr.
less money, without an'entire clearance. The busi-
ness in foreign was very limited, at unaltered rates.
Manchester, Hull, Boston, and Bristol markets
were all rather against sellers, Newark, Spalding,
Louth, and Gloucester, and several other places
reporting Is, per qr. decline; but Birmingham,
being scantily supplied, was in favour of sellers,
and several of the Saturday's markets were Is. per
qr. up. Liverpool, on Tuesday, was without change ;
but Friday was decidedly easier, both for wheat
and flour.

The third Monday was less liberally supplied,
the foreign not reaching to 6,000 qrs. Kent and
Essex also sent up but a scanty show of samples,
and factors therefore required some advance in
their offers ; this, though generally reported, was
realized in very few instances, and for picked sam-
ples alone, the general runs not being placed at
anything over the terms of the previous week.
Newcastle, Hull, and the early Yorkshire
markets noted no change in prices, the tone
being firm. Newark, Spalding, Lynn, and Market
Rasen were Is. higher. Birmingham, Gloucester,
and Bristol did not raise quotations. Liverpool,
on Tuesday, had a good attendance, a large reduc-

tion being thought probable, from the liberal
foreign supphes ; the only fall, however, was Id.
per 70lbs. for wheat, and 6d. per sack on flour.
On Friday, prices there were scarcely so good.

The fourth Monday was moderately supplied,
the arrivals from Kent and Essex being limited.
Early in the morning, fine parcels went off" at full
prices, but in the market subsequently the former
rates were diflicult to obtain, offers of 1 s. per qr.
less being refused by factors. The foreign trade
was slow and unaltered. London remained unal-
tered to the week's close; Liverpool and several
country markets quoted rather lower rates, but
generally there was little difference throughout the
country.

The imports into London during the first four
weeks were 20,154 qrs. English and 48,763 qrs.
foreign, against 28,600 qrs. English and 20,067
qrs. foreign in May, 1857. The imports into the
United Kingdom for April were 383,149 qrs.
wheat and 364,769 cwt. flour, against 196,278 qrs.
wheat and 189,172 cwt. flour during the same
month last year.

Flour during the first four Mondays in May has
scarcely changed, town-made top quality remaining
at the price with which the month commenced,
viz., 40s. per sack. Norfolks have varied at from
30s. to 31s, per sack. The comparatively high
range of prices at new York has so limited impor-
tations thence, that really fine qualities of this de-
scription have become scarce, and for this reason
have rather risen in value ; but French samples
have been sufficiently plentiful for the dull state of
trade, and have mostly left a loss to the importers,
good qualities having brought only 32s. to 33s. per
sack. The imports during the four weeks have
been — in country sorts 68,402 sacks, in American
3,553 brls., with 9,287 sacks foreign, principally
from France, against 71,448 sacks English and
3,761 brls, 110 sacks foreign in the same period
last year.

The barley trade during the month has little
varied, prices of the best sorts having declined with
the season for malting, with very little left over fit
for this purpose, so that maltsters will be entirely
dependent on the growing crop for future business.
The large importations from the Mediterranean
have kept these descriptions at rates much below
oats, with which they have been freely mixed ; and
as the stocks of Enghsh seem nearly exhausted, a
good demand must yet be experienced — equal, we
think, to any imports. So, with the prospect of
beginning quite bare of this grain, good malting
sorts seem again likely to be high priced. The
best foreign, fit for distillation, is now worth about
30s. per qr. ; while there are parcels of light grind-
ing, say 48lbs. per bush., to be had at 22s. The

5i8

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

imports during the four weeks into London were
2,349 qrs. English, and 66,145 qrs. foreign, against
1,121 qrs, English, 51,415 qrs. foreign in May last
year.

The only difference in malt during the four
weeks has consisted in a reduction of Is. to 2s. per
qr. on secondary and inferior qualities, the best
Ware still slowly selling at 69s.

Oats, notwithstanding their relative dearness and
large foreign supplies, have given way but little in
price, in consequence of short arrivals for five
months previously; the granary stores produced
by the gluts of last autumn and winter being very
much reducedj and bad they not fed the market,
a very high range of prices must have been ob-
tained, notwithstanding the low value of wheat.
The first Monday, though only 19,465 qrs.
foreign were up, was better supplied than since 7th
Dec. ; prices, therefore, though they had previously
advanced, were fully maintained. The second
Monday gave a total of about 61,000 qrs.j prices
receded 6d. to Is. per qr. ; but dealers had so long
been waiting to buy, that nearly the whole was
cleared at this reduction, and the market has
since been well furnished, the fourth market being
rather against sellers ; and at the week's end there
was a further decline of 6d. per qr., in consequence
of further large arrivals.

Ireland, in all parts of it, has been rapidly rising ;
and as we have frequently noted a less growth in
that country, it seems improbable that this grain
can be cheap this side of harvest, for the Russian
supplies coming late will be an almost exclusive
dependence. The imports into London dur-
ing the four weeks have been 1,403 qrs. English,
3,380 qrs. Scotch, 16,435 qrs. Irish, and 139,623
qrs. from abroad, total 160,841 qrs., against
1,598 qrs. English, 761 qrs. Scotch, 9,740 qrs.
Irish, 55,328 qrs. foreign in May last year.

Beans have been steady in value, a decline of Is.
on the first Monday being the only change that
has occurred during the four weeks. Arrivals
from Egypt have proved less than expected, and
do not now threaten to be large. The imports
have been in four weeks 1,963 qrs. English, 8,792
qrs, foreign, against 4,062 qrs. English, 936 qrs.
foreign in the previous May.

"With the exception of a liberal arrival of white
peas from the Baltic on the second Monday, this
pulse has become quite scarce, nearly the whole
English growth appearing to be worked up ; but
the high rates that have been paying for duns and
maples has caused a liberal use of cheaper substi-
tutes, especially in low barley, so that their absence
has been little felt. Boilers, too, being past their
season, have not rallied in price, and the month
in this respect has been without change. The im-

ports of English into London were only 153 qrs.,
the foreign 3,575 qrs., against 407 qrs. English,
1,147 qrs. foreign in May, 1857.

In linseed there has again been a rise, to the
extent of 5s. per qr. on the month's course, incon-
sequence of the large export demand. This ad-
vance has contributed to increase the value of cake,
which was previously declining in consequence of
the rapid growth of the meadows and all vegetation.

The seed trade has been generally quiet, the low
rates at which red cloverseed was forced off by
factors and some holders having brought on a
moderate speculation. American red has become
worth 44s. to 45s. per cwt., and other kinds in
proportion; white and trefoil have not attracted
attention. Tares remaining scarce have sold in
retail, at extravagant rates ; and canary seed, from
the same cause, has risen to five guineas per qr.
Rapeseed, being badly spoken of abroad, has also
risen; but it is thought the reports of injury have
been exaggerated. White mustardseed remains
dear, and brown quite neglected. Carraway, cori-
anner, andhempseed much as last quoted, and only
in retail demand.

CURRENCY PER IMPERIAL MEASURE.

Shillings per Quarter.

Wheat, new, Esses and Kent , white 42 to 5 1 ..... . red 40 to 46

Norfolk, Line. and Yorks., red.... = c. 39 45

Barley, malting — to—.... Chevalier — —

Distilling 32 34,... Grinding ..... 24 28

MALT.Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk .57 65 fins 67 69

Kingston, Ware, and town made.. .. 57 65 „ 67 69

Brown. 53 55 — ~-

Rte ■... — — 28 SO

Oats, English, feed 21 26 Potato 27 34

Scotch, feed 22 26...... Potato 26 33

Irish, feed, white 22 24 fine 25 32

Ditto, black 21 21 ,, — 25

Beans, Mazagan ,4 «...,. 33 3o Ticks ...... 34 35

Harrow ......34 37 Pigeon....... 38 43

Peas, white boilers .. 40 45. .Maple .. 42 45.. Grey 40 43

Flour, per sackof2801bs., Town, Households. .33s., fine 36 40

Country 30 32 Households.. 32 S5

Norfolk and Suffolk, ex-ship 29 SO

FOREIGN GRAIN.

Wheat, Dantzic, mixed. .46

Konigsberg 40

Rostock .43

American, white ... .42

— high do. —

48 „ —

— fine.,.. 48

50 red . . , . 40

Shilling's per

— estra

Quarter.
— 62

47
Pomera., Meckbg.,& Uckcrmrk, red 42 47

Silesian, red ............ 40 45 white.

Danish and Holstein .....<.

Russian, hard.. 40 44 .. French. .40 45 white

St. Petersburg and Riga ,

Rhine and Belgium .>......

Baelet, grinding 22 27 Distilling....

Oats, Dutch, brew, and Polands.. 22 27 Feed

Danish and Swedish, feed . ..22 25 Stralsund...,
Russian

Beans, Friesland and Holstein

Konigsberg 34 37 Egyptian....

Peas, feeding 40 42 fine boilers..

Indian Coen, white...... «. 34 35 yellow......

Flour, per sack ..French 32 36 Spanish ....

American.per barrel, sour.... 18 22 sweet.......

46
45
47
44
46
30
26
26
23
36
35
44
35

COMPARATIVE AVERAGES— 1858-57.

From last Friday's Oaz. s. d.

Wheat 111,226 qrs. ,44 11

Barley 10,899 .. 35 0

Oats........ 9,362 .. 25 8

Rye 21 .. 35 7

Beans 4,618 .. 40 9

Peas 447 .. 42 1

From <ya2ei(/e of 1857. s. d.

Wheat 116,811 qrs. ,57 5

Barley 9,108 .. 43 C,

Oats 9,457 .. 24 9

Rye 48 .. 41 6

Beans...... 6,143 .. 42 6

Peas 5G2 .. 40 10

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE,

549

IMPERIAL AVERAGES.

Foe the iast Six Wheat, i Barley.

"Weeks: | s. d. a. d.

April 10, 1858 ....1 43 1 36 3

April 17, 1858 ...J 43 2 36 7

April 24, 185S ...J, 44 9 36 5

May 1, 1858 ....I 41 5 3G 1

May S, 1858 ....i 44 2 35 5

May 15, 1858 ....1 44 11 35 0

Aggregate average! 44 1 i6 0

Sametimelastyear 54 7 44 0

OatB.
8. d.
24 1

25 0
23 7

Rye. 1 Beans,

s. d. 8. d.

30 9 38 0

30 4 38 10

33 3 39 9

28 1 40 3

30 10 40 9
35 7 40 9

31 6 39 10
38 0 40 7

Peas,
d.
41 1
41 5

41 6

42 4
42 2
42 1
41 9
39 G

FLUCTUATIONS intheAVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT

Pktcb.

April 10.

April 17

April 24.

May 1.

Mays.

May 15.

44s. lid.

^^m^-r^

443. 9d,

• • r

•"~""ii

,^

, ,

44s. 5d.

• > 1

.. *■

-*.~=. ^

.,

44s. 2d.

.. «>

»»,«=. c^. J

433. 2d.

^J.Ll

_„„„j

439. Id,

..

..

..

PRICES OF SEEDS.

BRITISH SEEDS.
Cloverseed, red — s. to — s., extra — s., white - s. to - s.

Trefoil — s. to — s.

Tabes, Winter, new, per bushel ...... 6g. Od. to 79. Od.

MusTAEDSEED, per bush., new 17s. to 25s., brown 13s. to 15s.

CoKiANDES, per cwt 20s. to 26s.

Canabt, per qr 86s. to 105s.

Linseed, per qr., sowing — s. to — s.. .crushing 673. to 69s.

Linseed Cakes, per ton £9 9s. to JIG lOs.

Rapeseed, per qr....... TOs. to 74s.

Rape Cake, per ton .....£5 10B.to£6 Os.

FOREIGN SEEDS, &c.

Clovekseed, red 40s. to 46s., white 50s. U GOs.

Trefoil ^..,. 17s. to ISs.

Tares, Spring, per bushel , 7s. Od. to Ss. Od.

Hempseed, small, per qr Dutch 42s. to 47s.

Coriander, per cwt . » , 1 7s. to 2fis.

Carrawat ,, 44s.to46s.

Linseed, per qr., Baltic 60s. to 653 Bombay 61s. to 65s.

Linseed Cake, perton £8 109.to£10 15s.

Rapebeed, Dutch ,.o 68s. to 74s.

Rape Cake, perton £6 Os.to £5 10b.

HOP MARKET.

BOROUGH, Monday, May 24.— The trade during the past
week has contiaued steady, and the market on the whole is
very firm. Fine yearlings and good 1835's are in deniand, aud
fully maintain previous rates. Our currency is as follows : —

Mid aud East Keuta VOs. to 903., choice 1] 2s.

Weald of Kent 543. to 6O3., " 66s.

Sussex 503. to 54s., " 60s.

Yearlings, &c 21s. to 35a., " 503.

WORCESTER. (Saturday last.)— The reports of the grow-
ing crop are still unfavourable ; the flea continues its ravage?,
aud the nights are too cold for the biue to grow out of their
reach. The planters hold back their samples for higher rates,
which the metchants are unable to give, causing a very quiet
market.

MAIDSTONE, May 20.— Very little improvement has
takeu place in our hop grounds, and the College ground,
although hij;hly cultivated, is very backward. We are, gene-
rally speaking, short of bine, and full of flea, close to the bottom
of the plant. — Sussex Express.

CHICORY.

LONDON, Satusdat. May 22.— Although the supplies of
Chicory are by no means extensive, tlio demand for tliat article
has lallen off, and prices are with difficulty supported.

E."JGLISH, per ton£ 0 0 to £ 0 0 I ANTWERP £10 10 to iTll 0

HARLINGEN 10 0 ID 10 DACKUM 0 0 0 0

BRUGES 10 10 11 0 GTTERNSEY .... 0 0 0 0

HAMBURG 0 0 0 0 I BELGIU.'\r 0 0 0 0

MARKETS.

- A full average supply,

HAY

Saturday, May 22.— SMITHFIELD
and a sluggish trade.

CUMBERLAND.— Both hay and straw met a dull inquiry, at
our quotations

WHITEOHAPEL,— Supply good, and trade generally dull.
AtperLottd of36Tru88cs.

1 SMITHFIELD. | CUMBERIANB . WHITSOHiPKL

SOs.to 80s. .Ma. to 8O3. 50a. to SOo.

708. 100s. 703. 100s. 703. 100a.

245. 285. 258. 28). 24i. 28s.

COVENT GARDEN MARKET.

LONDON, Saturday, May 22.— Trade continues brisk, and
the supply good. Some Cherries have been imported from France,
but th«y are not very good. Strawberries are more abundant
thun they were last weel<. Some good Oranges have been im-
ported from Barbary. Of Pears, Easter Beune and Ne Plus
Meuris may still be obtained. Barcelona Nuts fetch 20s. per
bushel; new Brazils, Is. 6d. do. ; Spanish, 14s. do.; Almonds,
24s. ; Walnuts, kilndried, SOs. do. Among Vegetables are
Asparagus, Riiubarb, and Seakale. Winter Greens are plen-
tiful. French salading is excellent; it still consists of Cabbage
Lettuce, Barbe de Capucin, Batavian Endive, and Turnip
Radishes. Cornisix Broccoli realizes from Id. to Sd. a head.
French Beans are very plentiful. New Potatoes are largely sup-
plied. Peas fetch 4s. per quart shelled; and green Artichokes
from 4s. to 6s. per dozen. Cucumbers plemiful. Best samples
of old Potatoes have advanced in price. Cut flowers chitfiy
consist of Orchids, Gardenias, Heliotropes, Poinsettia pulchtr-
rima, Geraniums, Violets, Mignonette, Heaths, Primulas, Ca-
mellias, Cyclamens, Tulips, Hyacinths, and Roses.

FRUIT,
d.

Pineapples, perlb. .... 8 0tol2 0

Grapes, new, perlb 8 0

Nectarines, per dozen .

Peaches, p
Strawberri

30 0
1 0
30 0

Cauliflowers per do
Broccoli, per bund:
Greens, per doz. bunches 2 0
Seakale, per punnet .,., 1 3
French Beans, per 100 .. 1 0
Asparaj;:u3, per bundle ., 3 0
Rhubarb, per bundle.

Pears, per doz 6 OtolO

Apples, per half sieve.. 3 0 fi

Oranges, per dez 0 6 1

Melons 0 0 0

Filberts per lOulbs 0 0 0

Cobs, do 85 0 40

VEGETABLES.

B. d. s. d. s. d. s. I

1 6 to 2 (i Tomatoes, per half-sieve 0 Oto 0

" " 1 6i Leeks, per bunch ....... 0 2 0

4 01 Ceia-y, per bundle 1 0 1

2 6; Shallots, per lb 0 6 0

2 6, Garlic, per lb 0 6 0

6 Oi Lettuce, cab., per dozen . 10 1
Do., Cos, per sco

Potatoes, per ton 60 0 109 0 Endive, per dozen 2 6 3 0

Do. per bush 2

Do.).ercwt 4

Do. New, per lb 0

Carrots, new per bunch.. 0
Turnips, per bunch .... 0

Spinach, per sieve 1 6 2

Cucumbers, per dozen ..10 0 15
Beet, per dozen 10 2

9 Radishes, turnp, per doz. 0

0 0 Horseradish, per bundle. 1 ft

2 0! Mushrooms, per pottle.. ] 0

0 81 Parsley, per 12 bunches. 3 0

0 4 Basil, g^reen, per bunch.. 0 0

0 I Marjoram, per bunch ... 0 0

0' Savory, per bunch 0 2

0i Mint, green, per bunch.. 0 2

4 0

TIMBER,

LONDON, SATuaiiAT, May 22.— The transactions in Timber
have rather increased during- the week. Prices generally rule
about stationary.

Per load— £ a. £ a .
Quebec,rediiin8 .... . 3 5 to 4 10

Yel.Pjne 3 10 4 0

Quebec Oak, White... 6 0 6 6

,, Birch 4 0 4 15

„ Elm 4 10 5 10

DantzicOak 4 0 6 0

MemelFir 3 10 4 5

Swedish 2 10 3 0

Masts, Ciubc.RedPiue 6 0 6 10

Do. Yellow Pine.... 5 0 6 10

Lathwood, Dantzicfm 8 0 9 10

Do. Meroel 10 0 110

Do. Quebec ........ 5 0 5 5

Deals, per C. 12ft. byS by!) in. :

Quebec Wh. Spruce. 9 0 11 5

Do. Red Pine U 10 17 5

St. JohnWh. Spruce U 11 16 0

£ s. £

Deals, Yel. Pine,perreduced C. :

Canada, 1st quality. 15 Oto 16

Do. 2nd do. 10 0 11

Archang-el Yellovr.. 16 0 16

Memel 13 0 14

Gothenburg Yellow. 13 0 14

Do. White 11 0 12

Gefle Yellow, 14 ft.. 30 0 0
Chrisciania.perC. 12fl.by 3 by Sin.

Yellow 24 0 28

White 19 0 24

eck Plank, Dant/.ic,
per 40 ft. by 3 in.... 10 11
Staves, per Standard M. :

Quebec Pipe 75 0 0

Do. Puncheon.... 20 0 23
Baltic Crown Pipe. 140 0 145

FLAX, HEMP, COIR, &c.

LONDON, Saturday, Msy 22.- The Flax mirket continues
in a most inactive state, yet we have no change to notice in
prices. There has been scarcely any inquiry for Hemp, and to
force sales, lower rates must be submitted to. In Jute and Coir
goods very Utile has been ijassing.

BARK, &c.

£ B. £ B.

English,perloadof 15 "> ,- c\^^^1 n
cwt.,del.inLondoni^« "'"^'^ »

Coppice 16 0 18 0

Dutch, per ton 5 0 5 5

Hambro' 4 10 5 5

AntwerpTree 5 0 6 10

Do. Coppice; ........ 5 10 7 0

Mimosa, Chopped ..,, 7 10 8 5

Do. Ground S 0 10 0

Do. Lonft- 8 0 6 10

£ s. £ s.

Cork Tree, Barbary ... 7 0 7 10

Do. Leghorn 6 0 7 0

Valonia,Smyrno,p.ton 11 0 14 Q

Do.Camata 13 0 14 Q

Do.Morea 9 0 11 0

Terra IGambier... 15 0 0 0

.Taponica JCutch 36 0 38 0

DiviDivi 9 0 10 0

MyrabolamB 7 0 10 0

Sumach.Sicily, p. cwt. 0 13 0)5

HIDE AND SKIN MARKETS.

LONDON, Saturday, May 22.

B. d, 8. d
MARKETiHIDES :

B6to641b8 per lb. 0 3 to 0 3i

64to721bB 0 3J " "

72to801bs.; 0 3J

80to881bs 0 3J

88 to961b3 ,,... 0 4

86 to 1041bs 0 ii

104toll21bs 0 0

3|
0 3S
0 4
0 4J

s. d. s. d.
HORSE HIDES,each 8 0 to 0 0
CALF SKINS, light. 2 0 3 6

Do. full 5 0 5 6

Shearling 0 11 0 0

Half-bred Sheep 0 0 0 0

Do

Polled Sheep 0 0

Lambs , 2 0

5 0 6 0

0 0

550

THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE.

LEADENHALL LEATHER MARKET.

LON^DOX, Satuedat, May 22. — We continue to be mode-
rately supplied with almost all kinds of fr> sh goods, and tlie de-
mand generally is active, at fully last week's quotations.

CROP HIDES.

ENGLISH

lbs. lbs
28 to 35

d. d.

13 to U
13 Hi

1"'4 15

BUTTS,

ENGLISH.

3fi 45 .... —
41i 50 .... —

OFFAL. d

nglish Shoulders 13

Do. Cheeks and Faces 7

Do. Bellies 7

Do. Middles U

Foreig-n Shoulders 13

Do. Necli
Do. Belli
Do. Middles do 11

Dreasinu Hide Shoulders. 10
D. do. Bellies... 7

Kip Shoulders 5

Do. Bellies fi

DEESSING HIDES.
lbs. lbs. d.

Cnmmon 20 to 24

Do 25 28

D

^h n

Do.

.35 40

Suddlers 30 35

Do 36 50 .

Bulls ,

Shaved 14 16

Do 17

d.

12Jto H
ISi 1-t
12i 14
13 15
H 17

Do.
Do.

.20 23
.24 23

Scotch do 16

Coach, per Hide 25b. toSOs.

HORSE BUTTS. Shaved.

d. d. d. d.

English 11 to 12 ..14 to 16

Spanish 101 11 --ii 16

HORSE HIDES.

lbs. lbs. d. d.

English 13 to 18.. 11 tol4

Do. without butts 9 14. .12

Spanish salted,

without butts, !

per hide. ]

Do. do. do.
Do. do. do. inferio
Do. dry do. 6
Do. do. do. 9 1
Do. do. do. inferio

s.d. s. d
9. .11 0 13 6

11, .12 0 14 6

rior.. 6 0 8 0

8.. 8 0 10 6

11. .10 0 12 6

7 0

CALF SKINS,
ght. Unrounded .Hounded.

Av.w.

lbs. lb

20to28 14 to 16

30 35 14 17

.15

13
18
50 55 15 17

40 45.
45 50.

60 70 14

70 80 14

80 90 14

100.
120.

Peter6l)urg:h

.13 16 .
.13 15 .
KIPS.

lbs. lbs.
.. 4 to 7 .
..7 9 .
..9 10 ,

14 19
14 18

d. d.

17 to 20

17 19

E.Ind.drysltd. 6

Do. seconds 14

Do. thirds 12

Do. inferior 8

SUNDRIES. S.
Hog Skins, best ..each 14 to 21

Do.

onds

■doi

Seal Skins, split, p.

Do. for bindings „
Calf Skins, Sumach-
tanned ,,

Do. white ,,

Horse Hides, white, each..
Sheep Skins-
Basils, unstrained, per lb.
Do. strained ,, 7 n

Do. facing:, perdoz. ... 53. 16s.
Tan, Sheep, &Lamb3,, 10 16
White Sheep, per 120 ... 50 90

131

Lambs

40

Do. Sheep & Lamb

strained, per doz. .... 5 14

Sumach Koans, per doi. 16 30

Do. Skivers, ,, 5 12

Bark Skivers, „ 7 12

HideSpUt8,perlb Stolid.

WOOL MARKETS,
ENGLISH WOOL MARKET.
LONDON, May 24. — There is a slight improvement in the
demiud for fine English wools, at fully last week's quotations,
although several parcels are announced for public sale in Lon-
don after the close of the colonial series. In prices, no quotable
change has taken place. Low qualities of wool are a dull
inquiry ; nevertheless, holders generally are firm, and prices
are well supported.

Per pack of 2401b9.

Fleeces— Southdown Hogs £13 Oto£H 0

Do. Half bred Hogs 12 10 13 0

Do. Kent 12 0 13 0

Do. Southdown Ewesand Wethers 11 0 12 0

Do. Leicester do 13 0 13 10

Sorts— Clothing, picklock 15 0 16 0

Do. Prime and picklock 14 0 14 10

Do. Choice , 13 10 14 0

Da. Super ».. 12 0 13 0

Do. Combing— Wether matching ... 14 10 15 10

Do. Picklock 13 0 14 0

Do. Common 12 0 12 10

Do. Hog matching 16 0 16 10

Do. Picklock mat; hing 14 0 15 0

Do. Superdo 12 0 1^ 10

LEEDS (English and Foreign) WOOL MAEKTE,
May 21. — A fair demand, to supply immediate wants, for
most kinds of English and combing wools, and prices are firm
at late quotations. For colonial clothing wool the demand is
not brisk, and the manufacturers in the district generally com-
plain of the duluess of trade.

YORK WOOL MARKET, May 20.— To-day, the second
market for the new clip of this year (the late rainy weather
being unpropitious for sheep-shearing) we had but a small
supply of wo)l, say about 10 or 15 sheets of new clip, and the
same of old, with about half-a-dozen buyers. Several lots re-
main unsold, and the prices of those sold may be fairly quoted
at from lOd. to lid., and 12J. per lb., as per qua'ity. One
lot, in splendid condition, realized a price over those
quotations, but the e.xact figure was not stated. — YorlcsMre
Gazette.

LIVERPOOL WOOL MARKET, May 22.

Scotch. — There is scarcely an average demand for Laid
Highland Wool yet, aud prices are somewhat irregular. White
Highland is only in limited demand. There has been little
doing in either Cheviot or crossed this week.

s. d. 8. d.

Laid Highland Wool, per 241bs 10 Otoll 0

White Highland do 13 0 14 ^

Laid Crossed do.. unwashed .... 12 6 13 0

Do. do. .washed 13 0 14 0

Laid Cheviot do. .unwashed 14 6 16 0

Do. do. .washed........ 17 6 18 6

White Cheviot do., washed, 24 0 26 0

Foreign. — The improved feeling evinced in the daily pro-
gress of the public sales in London, imparts confidence in the
trade generally, and we have more doing by private contract
at steady prices.

BRESLAU, May 20.— Since our last report business has
been still flatter, and prices pursuing their downward tendency.
Yet neither a further decrease nor the near approach of the
ne-,v clipping could attract a greater number of purchasers.
Manufacturers were persisting in their reserve, and speculators
directing their attention to fresh wools. Transactions did not
surpass the amount of 2,500 cwts., consisting chiefly of
Russian wools, ordinarily washed and scoured, as well as of
fine Silesian one-shear, skins in bundles, and slipes. The fol-
lowing prices have been obtained : — For Russian wools, ordi-
narily washed, at from 52 to 62 thalers ; ditto, scoured, 80 to
80 thalers ; fine Silesian fleeces, 87 to 91 thalers ; fine locks,
62 to 65 thalers ; Silesian slipes, 58 to 65 thalers per cwt.
Thecliief purchasers were the Zollverein combers and clothiers,
as well as home commissioners, who were acting for French
and English account. More vivacity has been exhibited in
transactions on the sheep's backs, and more than 3,000 cwts.
of all descriptions have been in this manner contracted, at a
reduction of 10 to 15 per cent, compared with last year's June
fair quotations. — Gunsburg, Wool-broker.

MANURES.

PRICES CURRENT OF GUANO, &c.

PERUVIAN GUANO, (perton, for 30 tons)nominaU13 6 0 to £ 0 0 0

Do. Do (under SOtons) 14 0 0 0 0 0

BOLIVIAN GUANO none 0 0 0 0 0 0

ARTIFICIAL MANURES, &o.

Nitrate Sodaj jg „ gj^^^O 0 0

(per ton)... J

NitratePotash ) 29 0 0 30 0 0

or Saltpetre J

Sulpht.Ammonia 19 10 0 20 0 0

Muriate ditto... 27 0 0 28 0 0

Gypsum 2 0 0

Coprolite 3 10 0

Sulph.ofCopper-j £s.d. £ «. d.
(T Roman Vi- f.- n n ^ ... ««
triol,forWheatf " 0 0 to 47 0 0
steeping .J

Salt 1 0 0

Bones, Dust,perqr. 1 5 0

Do.J-inch 140

Oil Vitriol,"

I 10 0
1 6 0
1 5 0

icentrated,

per lb

Do. Brown

0 0 1
0 0 0|

0 0
0 0

Linseed-cakefl, per ton —

Thin American, ■) „„ ,, n f)n 1(10

inbrls.orbags/ ■*-" ^•' " *^" ^" ^

Thick do. round (none) 0 00

10 0 0

2 10 0

3 15

OIL-CAKES.

Marseilles £9 0 Ota £9 10 0

English 10 0 0 0 0 0

Rape-cakes,prton 6 10 0 6 10 0

END OF VOLUME XLVIII.

Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London, W.C,

FOR THE ENSUING GRASS HARVEST.

THE SALISBUEY FIRST-PEIZE

OF THE

JL A

AND COMMENDED BY THE

siJi€l Ag'FietiltitFJftl §®©iety

MESSRS. NOURSE MASON & Co., of Boston, Worcester, and Groton, Massachusetts,

beg to announce the arrival in this country of their European Agent, with a limited number of these celeb-
rated Mowing Machines, which are now ready for delivery. The superintendent of their mower factory accom-
panies them, to put them in order, and ensure their good performance of woik. Messrs. N. M. & Co. request
that such persons as sent orders to the agent having charge of the machine last season, which could not be ex-
ecuted) should make application to the undersigned as early as possible, to ensure the delivery of machines in
season for the grass harvest. To the following brief extracts from the Report of the Judges of the Royal Ag-
ricultural Society, the Times, and the Mark Lane JExpress, we beg to call the attention of agriculturists: —

Jonrnal of tlie E,oyal Agricultural Society— 1857.

"Clayton's American Eagle Machine performed its work very satisfactorily; catting low and clean, without
at all distressing the horses by its required pace or draught; both were moderate, altliougli it took a large av-
erage breadth We were gratified in coming to decided adjudication at once. We awarded the first prize

of £15 to the Eagle machine, and £5 to Messrs. Dray and Co.'s (Catchcome) machine."

From the "Times"— Jnly 23rd, 1857-

"The greatest novelty in this department, and one of the most meritorious and valuable pieces of machinery
in the whole show, is the Eagle Reaper and Mower. In this m;ichinc we see just the simplicity of parts and
consequent lightness, the small liability to derangement in working, and yet tlie greatest facility of accommo-
dation to uneven surfaces of ground and irregular and tangled cropping which recommends it as emphatically
a tool for the farmer."

¥rom tlie "Mark Lane Express and AgriciiltnrpJ Journal"— Ang. 10, 1857.

"The 'Eagle' American reaper, invented by Mr. Caryl of Ohio, is the best we ever saw for mowing grass crops.
.,.. . It is small, compact, and lighter than any good machine ever seen before, in proportion to the amount
of work done, that is, having a five feet cut The draught is directly upon the axle of the main carriage-
wheel, leavinji the frame carrying the cutters fiee to conform to any unevencss of surface; and this frame is
balanced, so that the driver can instantly raise the knives over an obstacle by depressing the back witli his foot,
yet the cutters may be oniy an inch above the ground. Instead of having spurvi'heels, pinions, and cranks to
work the cutters, the main cast-iron travelling-wheel (of 3 feet 7 inches diameier and 11 inches broad) has a
zis-zaij; curved slot through its periphery, the angles of which act as cams to give a vibratory motion to a roller
connected with a cutter-bir. The knives are acute, not serrated, and slide above fixed sharp fingers, having
thus a clipijin'v or shearing action; they are kept close and free from cloaging by a spring pressure-bar, and
each individual knite may be unscrewed off and renewed at pleasure. The length of the vibration is only 2
inches, and the motion comparatively slow. When used as a mower, there is not a cug-vvheel in the machine,
and only 27 b(dts."

Mnchines are now on exhibition at tlie works of Messrs. Ransomes and Sims, Ipswich; Richard Garrett and
Sons, Leiston Works, Saxmundham ; and in London. The price is £35, including reaping platform and fix-
tures complete. For circulars, and any other information, address,

in care of Ransomes
Richard Garrett

and Sims, Ipswich ; 31,
Sons, Saxmundham,

-street. Strand, London;
10, Mark Lane,

ROBERT AND JOHN R!EEYES,

BRATTON, WESTBUHY, WILTS,

BEG to call attention
to their useful Imple-
meut,

REEVES'S

DRY MANURE

DISTRIBUTOR,

which is equal to any for top
drilling with all l<inds of man-
ure, and is superior to all o'hers
for putting in Soot.
PRICE £10.

Three Phizes were award-
ed to it last year — at the Bath
and West of England Society,
JV'ewton ; at the fioyal Agri-
cultural Society of England,
Salisbury ; at the Yorkshire
Society, at Yorl5.

" The Dry Manure Distri-
butors furnished one of the
most interesting trials of the
wliole meeting. Wlio ever has
witnessed the effect of hand-
sowing guano on a dry windy

March day will not refuse the epithet humane, as ue!l as e. onoinicul, to ihese inventions. Chambers, Holmes, and Reeves, at
descending scale of20 gs., .£14, and £h>, arc the names and the corresponding prices that offer themselves; thit of Mr. Reeves
the lowest sum, being introduced first to the Society at this meeiing. Tlie machinery of the two dearer ores is most initeniaus,
almost inevitably exact in their steady delivery of the manure, whether damp or powdery. But i\lr. Reeves' lower-priced im
ment is a positive boon to the labourer as well as the S&.rmev."— Report on Trial of ImplemerUs at Salisbury Meriting, by C.

'cHANDLER^S PATENT LIQUID MANURE DRILL,

-A-f'er the test of Ten years, is still acknowledged to be the most simple and efficient.
K. & J. REEVES have made arrangements with Mr. CHAMBERS to Manufacture his PATENT LIQUID DROP COULTER so
hat those who prefer the bunching system can now have the most complete Drill that has been yet ottered to the public. '

REEVES^ PATENT ECONOMICAL DRILLS,

For Drilling all kinds of Artificial Manure wjtii Roots or Grain, in their pure state, without the expensive system of mixin" them
with a large qua.aity of ashes. They will Drill from 2 to '^0 Bushels per Acre, and will be found very useful when water' is too
scarce to use the Liquid Drill, and also on light do.vn land. Prices from £8 to .£14. They gained Two Prizes and a Silver
Medal last year (being iheir first year).

REEVES^ PATENT HAND DRILL,

For Gardeners, Market Gardeners, and small Occupiers, will Drill or Bunch Onions, Parsnips, Carrots, Peas, Beans, Wheat or anv
other Oram ; will drop Mangel Seed in Bunches at different disianc.s, and mil be found very useful for persons accustomed to thin
seeding, as they will drop 2 or 3 corns C nly) in Bunches at 6 inches apart.

Price List and particulars sent post free on applicalion.

BRATTON IRON WORKS, March a7. 1858.

the
I, at
and
pie-

W.

RANKINGS

NEW PATENT CORN SCREEN AND SMUT MACHINE

MANUFACTURED SOLELY BY ^-^^Ji.^-% ^

R. & J. RANKIN, UNION FOUNDRY, LIVERPOOL.

TV HE very great improvenients made in this new P ^TENl' SMUT MACHINE comprise an arrangre-

i ment by which (in addition to treeing and purifying the W'.e^t from all Smut, however badly it may be affected^ all Sand
frt', ;^, . r^'i ""'"'J T ''"'••'^'"^'l in one operation. The Machme lias a Double Action upon ufe W^eal and comblLs atl "ife

^^r.^rs^fi^tzfi^teS^z:;-o?'^i^^d i^:':.^;-'^''^"'^ "^ ^^^^^-^^^ ^ri^.'^o..... The i^uowi^s^^n^

Mussrs. R fc J. Rankin, Liverpool. ipnt>vi ai nr-n •.., .

la?ri:t\l?:ron?;:r:r T.'; t^l"" *- r'r. '•^^S^'^^P--' «-ut Machine has given us'etr?Scrn^r/'fo^so'?ar

(Signed) Wetherill, Powbli, & Co.

obidtm s^e'rvant"^ ^' ^"^ "™^ '° '''"'^"' ''" ''"'°""' °^ '' ''"'* "' ^°°^ l"''''"^^ ^l'^" <=^"«^ "P"" ' ''"^ ^ «™' Gentlemen, your
' (Signed) A. Reynolds (late Reynolds & Son).

RANKINGS NEW PATENT BONE MILLS.

Thl^A'! ^Jh^^, f ^ adapted for the use of Farmers and Manufacturers, and are made in all sizes.

IlZnl The vTm ,rn'"'"?T",* """" ^^°^V" "'^'"'"''^ "''^' '-^"'"^ «'"«'^ "^^« P°^^«^ *" drive them, whilst they work far more
^fo^ir^ma'drto^^iura;!^ fh^ ^kS

Manufacturers will find this Mill co be much more durable, to Grind quicker, and to a greater degree of fineness than any other

Horse Gear is of a very superior character. I shall be happy to show the' Mill when working, or answer^any enqu^i^s. '
Messrs. R. & J. Rankin, Liverpool. (Signed) Thomas H. Mobtbit.

Apply to R. & J. RANKIN, Solb Makers, Union rouNDRY. Liykrpooi,.

B.

HAY-MAKING MACHINES, HORSE HAKES, &c., &c.

SAMUELSON'S IMPROVED DOUBLE-ACTION HAY-MAKING MACHINES possess

' I the following advantages : —

NON-LIABILITY TO CHOKE.

INSTANTANEOUS REVERSING ACTION FOR TED-
DING, and for REGULATING HEIGHT of FLYERS

Price £13 133

DURABILITY OF WEARING PARTS.
EXCEEDING LIGHT DRAUGHT/

HORSE RAKES.

MARYCHURCH'S PATENT SELF-ACTING HORSE RAKE, which was awarded the First Prize and a Gold Medal at the
Paris Exhibition.

Price, 7 J feet extreme width £8 8 0 | Price, 8J feet extreme width £9 0 0

B. SAMUELSON'S HORSE RAKES.

Price, 7J feet extreme width £7 10 0 | Price, 81 feet extreme width*. £8 0 0

HAND DRAG RAKES •--- 12s. each.

The above prices include (with few exceptions) the Carriage to any Railway Station in England, Dublin, Cork, &c.

Also,
CLOD CRUSHERS, FIELD ROLLERS.

CARTWRIGHTS' PATENT CHAIN HARROWS, LIGHT AND HEAVY SEED HARROWS.
MANURE PUMPS, DISTRIBUTORS.

HUCKV ALE'S PATENT TURNIP SINGLER AND HOE, HORSE HOES, 3 and 5 Tyne.
LAWN MOWING MACHINES, &c., &c.

Illustrated Catalogues descriptive of the above, and Mr. Samuelson's other Implements, will be forwarded post free on
application to

B. SAMUELSON, BRITANNIA WORKS, BANBURY, OXON.

COLEMAN'S PATENT PRIZE CULTIYATOR.

FOR Spring work this Implement is most effec-
tual and economical, thoroughly breaking up and pulveriz-
ing the surface without turning it over, and at one-third the cost
of ploughing.

Its strength, convenience of management, and ease of draught
are unrivalled.

The Public are respectfully reminded that besides a large num-
ber of FIRST PRIZES given by the Royal and otlier principal
Societies in the Kingdom, the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land, at their Triennial Compilition, at Chelmsfo'd, awarded
Coleman's Cultivator TWO FIRST PRIZES, as the best Culti-
vator, and the ONLY FIRST PRIZE FOR PARING.

MANUrACTUBED BY

COLEMAN & SONS, Chelmsford,

Of whom Prices and Testimonials may be obtained post free.

Also,

COLEMAN'S PATENT PRIZE EXPANDING

HARROWS,

AND

COLEMAN'S IMPROVED HANSON'S PATENT
PRIZE POTATO DIGGER,

Of which Implement COLEMAN & SONS are Sole Manufactur-
ing Agents for England and Wales.

HOLMES AND SONS'
IMPEOYED PRIZE MANURE DISTRIBUiTOR

WILL Distribute, in a most perfect manner, either broadcast or in rows, from Two to Twenty
Bushels per acre of any description of Artificial Manure, whether in a moist or dry condition.
For the above Machines Messrs. HOLMES & SONS have received the following awards : —

AT SALISBURY, 1857 The Prize ~

'i'^'7^,-,,,.>^^==^:^^^==:w-~-'''''''-^A-'^^m^^. AT SWAFFHAM, 1857 The Pkize

,--, X r-^^S^^^«W^ ^'^ NEWTON ABBOTT, 1857 The Prize i

i^^tT^^^^^^^^^mt'W/M ^^ NORWICH, 1856 The Prize

lr^//-^-L-_/ ,^ifS / /'i MMMi/^l AT CARLISLE, 1855 the Judges Commended

'/* il~A:A~i :'^-fM|M2f AT NORWICH, 1854 The Prize

r^*6=:=a----'r-^irL,^iJl|/»v^ ATBATH, 1854 ; The Prize

L».^s-^==^ f^^^^^™»»yr//™\v# j^rj, GLOUCESTER. . . .the Judges Highly Commended

, AT TAUNTON The Prize

AT THE GREAT EXHIBITION, London. .No Competition
-^aae AT EXETER The Prize

For Prices and Particulars see Illustrated Catalogues, which will be sent free by post on application to

HOLMES AND SONS,
PROSPECT PLACE WORKS, NORWICH,

; BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY—MEETING AT

CARDIFF.
THE EOYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND'S

FIRST PMZE PORTABLE STEAM THRASHING ENGINE.

THE last trials of the ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY of ENGLAND,
conducted under the most searchiiiK investigation of the Judges anl Consuliing-Engineer of the
Society, aided by the most perfect teiring ajiparatus that mechanical skill has yet produced, where the
fuel for trial was weighed and watched by the Judges with extreme carefulness, and where prior to com-
mercing the strict testing of consumption of fuel per horse-power, all portions of unconsumed fuel left
from preliminary operations were taken back into the custody of the Judges, and placed beyond the
possible reach of any party under trial, induce the successful competitors to ask, whether any Engine with
Iwrizontal cylinder, when in its very best condition, and under the same strict investigation, has been
able to effect the same amount of duty as has been eflected by TUXPOKD & SONS' Portable Engine
with vertical cylinder?

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND, at their latest award of Piizes, decreed
the merit of the FIRST PRIZE to TUXFORD & SONS' PORTABLE STEAM THRASHING ENGINE,
the Judges at the same time declaring, in addition to its other excellencies,
that the Straw Shaker and BARLEY-HORNiNa Appaeatus op

TCXFORD AND SONS' PATENT COMBINED THRASHING MACHINE WCre

PERFECT in their operations. — [Vide the Journal of S. A. Society, Vol.
xvi., page 614.)

The superiority of TUXFORD & SONS'

PATENT PORTABLE IRON-HOUSED STEAM THRASHING

ENGINES,
with vxirirjht Cylinders and Improved Boilers, for continuance of power
and economy in fuel, over Engines with horizontal Cylinders, is well known
in all parts of England wherever they have been brought into competition
with other Engines (the proportion of parts and arrangement of the Carlisle ii^sff
Prize Engine Boiler is strictly adhered to when a Tubular Boiler is selected r-<i^^^«^i^Ji;
fW preference to a Combined Boiler); and their ^'^^liV/in^

PATENT COMBINED THRASHING. SHAKING, AND ^4))i

DRESSING MACHINES, __

for simplicity of construction, the amount of work performed, and perfec- ~.^^
tion in the Thrashing, Shaking, and Dressing operations, have the well-
merited reputation of standing at the head of their class.
Illustrated Catalogues, with Prices, forwarded free on application to the Manufacturers,

TUXEORD AND SO

ENGINEERS, BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIHE.

ml #rii|ier0 in

CUFF^S FARMERY'S FRIEND.

One dose of this invaluable medicine will cure the SCOUR or LOOSENESS in Lambs, Calves, Sheep, Colts,
Heifers, Steers, and all Cattle, without leaving costiveness ; and (liven occasionally to Beasts whilst fattening
will promote a healthy and thriving condition. It will also perfectly cure the FRET, COLIC or GRIPES in
Horses. Price Is. 8d, or 3s. per Bottle.

?5<

Is a cheap and cfftctual remedy for the l-'OOT-ROT or HALT, a single Packet of which will cure One Hundred
Sheep, and larjj^e Flocks may be soon freed from the Disease by its use. It has been extensively used and
liigldy approved of for nearly thirty years by large Sheep Breeders throughout the Kingdom. Price Is.
per Packet.

CUFF^S FEY, SCAR & MANGE OIL

Will very quickly destroy MAGGOTS in Sheep, and LICE or VERMIN in all aniranls. It will also cure the
MANGE, and SKIN DISEASES in Horses or Cattle, and effectually cleanse a Flock of Sheep from the
SCAB or SHAD. Price Is. 8d. and 3s. per Bottle.

THE ERITISH SHEEP W^ASH

Is used for Dipping or Dressing: Sliecp and Liimbs, without boiling, to prevent the Fly striking, and the Scab
or Shab from spreading, and efl'ectually to destroy TICKS, LICE, and VERMIN in Sheep. Price 28, 9d.,
5s., and 10s. per Jar; or 2s. 6d. per packet.

SHERWOOD'S ORIGINAL DRIFFIELD OILS

Are strongly and oonfidentlv recommended for preventing GANGRENE or MORTIFICATION after Lambing
or Calving, and for Healing" CUTS, STABS, WOUNDS, BRUISES, STRAINS, SWELLINGS, &c., &c,. As
these Oils are in constant use by some of the most celebrated Breeders in the world, and have maintained a. re-
putation about fifty years, it would be superfluous to enlarge upon their value and importance. Pints, 2s. 6d.,
Quarts, 58.

Prepared by J* H. CuffF, No. 10, Smithfield Market, London, and sold by Drnggists And Medicine VeadoM
i^ennii Genuine, unlvss signed hy «/. H. GUFF in writing i

IMPORTANT TO FIOCEMASTERS.

THOMAS BIGG,

AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMIST,
BY APPOINTMENT, TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, K. G., «&C.

LEICESTER HOUSE, GREAT DOVER-STREET, BOROUGH, LONDON,

Beg9 to call the attention of Farmers and Graziers to his valuable
SHEEP-and LAMB DIPPING COMPOSITION, which requires
no Boiling, and may be used with Warm or Cold Water, for
effectually destroying the Tick Lice, and all other insects
injurious to the Flock, preventing the alarming attacks of
Fly and Shab, and cleansing and purifying tlie Skin, thereby
greatly improving the Wool, both in quantity and quality, and
highly contributing to the general health of the animal.

Prepared only by Thomas Bigg, Chemist, &c., at his Manufac-
tory as above, and sold as follows, altliough any other quantity
may be had, if required : —

4 lb. for 2U sheep, price, jar included £0

6 1b.

30

8 lb.

40

JO lb.

50

20 1b.

100

80 1b.

150

40 lb.

200

60 1b.

250

60 lb.

300

80 1b.

400

100 lb.

500

(cask and measure
included)

0 10

0 15

1 0
1 3
1 7

1 17

2 5

0

Should any Flockmaster prefer boiling the Composition, it will
be equally effective.

He would also especially call attention to his SPECIFIC, or
LOTION, for the SCAB, or SHAB, which will be found a certain
remedy for eradicating that loathsome and ruinous disorder in
Sheep, and which may be safely used in all climates, and at all
seasons of the year, and to all descriptions of sheep, even ewes
in lamb. Price 5s. per gallon — sufficient on an average for
thirty Sheep (according to the virulence of the disease); also in
wine quart bottles, Is. 3d. each.

IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL.

"Scoulton, near Hingham, Norfolk, April 16th, 1855.
'Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 4th inst, which would
have been replied to before this had I been at home, I have
much pleasure in bearing testimony to the efficacy of your in-

valuable'Specific for the cure of Scab in Sheep.' The 600 Sheep
were all dressed in August last with 84 gallons of the 'Non-
Poisonous Specific,' that was so highly recommended at the
Lincoln Show, and by their own dresser, the best attention
being paid 10 the flock by my shepherd afier dressing according
to instructions left; but notwithstanding the Scab continued
getting worse. In December I informed the 'Agent for the
above Specific,' that the flock was not cured, and that it required
their immediate attention. The Agent informed me they hould
be at once seen to, but did not do so until Jive weeks afterwards,
and ill the mean time the Scab spread over the whole flock, that
I never saw such a disgraceful sight in my life; and when the
Dresser was sent over to inspect the Flock, he decided on not
dressing tliera again, as one- third of the Sheep had lost half
their wool. I then agreed with an experienced dresser in Norfolk
to dress the flock, and when he saw the sheep he declined doing
them, as they were so very bad, and the time of lambing so
near. Being determined to have the Scab cured if possible, I
wrote to you for a supply of your Specific, which I received the
following day ; and although the weather was most severe ia
February during the dressing, your Specific proved itself an in-
valuable remedy, for in three weeks the Sheep were quite cured;
and I am happy to say the young lambs are doing remarkably-
well at present. In conclusion, I believe it to be the safest aud
beet remeJy now in use.

" I remain, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

" For JOHN TINGEY, Esq.,

" To Mr. Thomas Bigg." " R. RENNY.

In addition to the foregoing, he has very materially improved,
as well as considerably reduced the price of his Dipping Ap-
paratus ; and he would venture to suggest that no Flockmasters
ought now to be without one. Price in London.

New and Improved Dipping Apparatus, on Wheels £14 0 0
Ditto ditto with Iron-bar Drainer 6 0 0

Ditto ditto 4 0 0

Ditto, plain, with Wooden Drainer 8 0 0

N.B. — Catalogues, containing List of Patrons, Testimonials.
&c., to be had of all agents, or sent Jlrect per post free.

CURTIS ON MANHOOD— SHILLING EDITION.

A MEDICAL ESSAY ON NERVOUS AND GENERATIVE DISEASES.
Just published, the 77th Thousand, with numerous plates, in a sealed envelope, price Is., or sent, post-paid

by the Author, for Fourteen stamps,

MANHOOD : The CAUSE and CURE of PREMATURE DECLINE, with
Plain Directions for Perfect Restoration to Health and Vigour; being a Medical Review of the various
Forms and modern treatment of Nervous Debility, Impotency, Loss of Mental and Physical Capacity,
whether resulting from Youthful Abuse, the Follies of Maturity, the Effects of Climate or Infection ;
with Observations on a new and successful mode of detecting Spermatorrhoea, and other urethral discharges,
by Microscopic Examination ; to which are added. Curious and Interesting Cases, with the Author's Recipe
of a Preventive Lotion.

By J. L. CURTIS, Surgeon, 15, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, London.
At home for consultation daily, from 10 till 3, and 6 to 8. Sundays, from 10 to 1,

REVIEWS OF THE WORK.

" Curtis on Manhood.— Shilling Edition.— 77lh Thousand.— This is a truly valuable work, aud should
be in the hands of young and old. The professional reputation of the author, combined with his twenty
years* experience as medical referee in the treatment of nervous debility, &c., fully accounts for the immense
circulation which this popular and ably-written medical treatise has obtained." — Sunday Times, 23rd March,
1856.

" Curtis on Manhood. — The author has conferred a great boon by publishing this little work, in which
is described the souice of those diseases which produce decline in youth or more frequently premature old
age." — Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1856.

Curtis on Manhood. — The book under review is one calculated to warn and instruct the erring without
imparting one idea that can vitiate the mind not already tutored by the vices of which its treats." — Naval
and Military Gazette, Ist Feb., 1851.

" We feel no hesitation in saying that there is no member of Society by whom the book will not be found
useful — whether such person hold the relation of a parent, preceptor, or a clergyman. — Sun, Evening Paper.

Published by the Author; sold also in sealed envelopes, by Gilbert, 49, l^aternoster-row ; Hannat, 63,
Oxford-street; Mann, 39, Cornhill, London; Robinson, 11, Greenside-strcet, Edinburgh; Hbtwood,
Oldham- street, Manchester; Howell, 6, Church-street, Liverpool; France, 8, Side, Newcastle-on-Tyne;
Ashley, Post-Officp, Newbury; Ferris & Score, Union-street, Bristol; Pierson, Shrewsbury; Jult,
Bralntree; Thew, Lynn ; Peat, Chichester; Lurcock, Maidstone; Cook, Ipswich; Huscroft, Bury St.
Edmunds; Dove, Swindon ; Jearet, Bridewell Alley, Norwich; Smith, Cambridge ; Slatter, Oxford ;
and by all Booksellers and Chemists in the United Kingdom.

Under the Patronage of

and Boyal Family
the several Sovereigns

Her Majesty "The Queen,"

of Great Britain,

and Courts of Europe,

AND UNIVERSALLY PEEFERRED.

Is unirersally in high repute for its successful results during the last half century in the GROWTH, RESTORATION, and

IMPROVEMENT of

THE HUMAN HAIR.

It prevents Hair from falling oflf or turning grey, strengthens weak HAIR, cleanses it from Scurf and Dandriff, and makes it

BEAUTIFULLY SOFT, CURLY, and GLOSSY.
In the growth of

THS BSARD, "IXrHISKEBS, AlfD AXVSTACHSOS

it is unfailing in its stimulative operation. For CHILDREN it is especially recommended as forming the basis of A
BEAUTIFUL HEAD OF HAIR,

Price 3s. 6d. ; 73.: Family Bottles, equal to four small, 10s. 6d. ; and double that size, 21s.

To prevent the substitution of Spurious Jmiiations for the genu w^
article by unprincipled shopkeepers, A. R. & Sons here add a small
°opy in outline of their Label (as it appears round the bottle) from the
burin of Messrs. Peekins, Bacon & Fetch, the eminent engravers,
of London.

Another portion bears the Signature of the Proprietors, in
Red Ink—

" A. EOWLAND AND SONS."

I. M, ^ *iL m ^ Jl J17 V Jl^J

AN OS.ZENTA.tM BOTASTZCAIi P3£SFi3uSA.TIO^

FOR IMPROVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE COMPLEXION AND SKIl.

It eradicates all REDNESS, TAN, PIMPLES, SPOTS, FRECKLES, and DISCOLORATIONS, and renders

TH£ SSXia- SOFT, FAIB, and BSiOOMZM-G^

It obviates all the efFeets of Climate on the Skin, whether with reference to cold and inclemency, or intense solar he
and affords immediate relief in cases of sunburn, stings of insects, or incidental inflammation. Gentlemen after shaving vi
appreciate its softening and ameliorating properties. — Price 4s. 6d. and 8s. 6d. per bottle. i

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Kaltdob are on the Wrapper, and their signatm-e, " A. Rowland & Sons," in

red ink, at foot.

A GOOD SET OF TEETH

Ever insures favourable impressions, while their preservation is of the utmost importance to every individual, both as r*-
the general health by the proper mastication of food, and the consequent possession of pure and sweet breath.

Compounded of the choicest and most recherchd ingredients of the ORIENTAL HERBAL, and of inestimable valu'

PRESERVING AND BEAUTIFYING THE TEETH,

IMPARTING A PEARL-LIKE WHITENESS,

STRENaTHENING THE GUMS,

And in rendering

THE BREATH SWEET AND PURE.

CAUTION. — The words Rowlands' Odonto ai'e on the Label, and A. Rowl&nd & Sons, 20, Hatton Garden, on the Go>
ment Stamp affixed on each bos.— Price 2s. 9d. per box.

Sold by A. EOWLAND & SOITS, 20, Hatton Garden, London, and by Chemists and

Perfumers.

••* BSWA.RB OF S9V&ZOVS XmiTATIOZJTS I !

. # it 1 if 1 m M % w -1 m m m m n m m % m -% -% * i ^» *

^ - '■ - - *-" -■■• ' -^ ''"-<i<> ""■■ i*; '^'' ^

■ ,' ■ ^ M m. 4 .^

:* ■".^- ^"-rm "^

J,J i^}- .T^j^ !^. ,#■ "V

- -t * m ;1 -I? , € f:. :n I-;

■ ^;.:: ":«""# '"^ ^^-'^ "t 't 'f ^:
^ I '^■^ € € € -'€-.€ '€.€.

* '■?- >

I i "I '4 .1 ^ **

"1: >3fi -W %

■i ^i '* ^rf "

f 'i '.i 't 't I f ■'$ € "f -i 't "i"* "t "■§ 'f

't '4 '1 ''§ % ■# "J "J ■< 'f "'^'i '1 '1 '^i *f ■■

a-. I' % :^. ^ ifc.
, ^^^ "'^ ""t ■■'I ^# 'f

^ ^ ' & ' ^'> M

'f % 4.